Editing Raymond Scott (section)

==Electronics and research==
Scott, who attended [[Brooklyn Technical High School]], was an [[electronic music]] pioneer and adventurous sound engineer. During the 1930s and 1940s, many of his band's recording sessions found the bandleader in the control room, monitoring and adjusting the acoustics, often by revolutionary means. As Gert-Jan Blom and Jeff Winner wrote, "Scott sought to master all aspects of sound capture and manipulation. His special interest in the technical aspects of recording, combined with the state-of-the-art facilities at his disposal, provided him with enormous hands-on experience as an engineer."<ref>Blom & Winner, p. 108</ref>

In 1946, he established Manhattan Research Incorporated. As well as designing electronic audio devices for personal use, over the years Scott sold and supported a number of related projects,<ref name=rhea>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.raymondscott.net/rhea-article-1981/|title=Electronic Perspectives - Raymond Scott's Clavivox & Electronium|first=Tom|last=Rhea|magazine=Keyboard Magazine|date=February 1981|accessdate=November 16, 2023}}</ref> including components such as [[ring modulator]]s, wave, tone, and envelope shapers, modulators, and filters. Of interest were the "keyboard theremin", "chromatic electronic drum generators", and "circle generators".<ref name="Manhattan">{{cite AV media notes |title= Manhattan Research Inc. |others= Raymond Scott |year= 2000 |first= Irwin |last= Chusid |page= 25 |type= CD book |publisher= Basta Audio/Visuals |location= Holland}}</ref> Scott described Manhattan Research as "More than a think factory—a dream center where the excitement of tomorrow is made available today."<ref>Chusid, p. 3</ref> [[Bob Moog]], developer of the [[Moog Synthesizer]], met Scott in the 1950s, designed circuits for him in the 1960s, and considered him an important influence.

Relying on several instruments of his own invention, such as the [[Clavivox]] and [[Electronium]], Scott recorded futuristic electronic compositions for use in television and radio commercials and records of electronic music. A series of three albums designed to lull infants to sleep, his work ''[[Soothing Sounds for Baby]]'' was released in 1964 with the [[Gesell Institute|Gesell Institute of Child Development]]. The public showed little interest in it.<ref>Chusid, p. 22</ref> But Manhattan Research provided ear-catching sonic textures for commercials.

Scott developed some of the first devices capable of producing a series of electronic tones automatically in sequence. He credited himself as the inventor of the polyphonic [[Music sequencer|sequencer]]. His [[Electromechanics|electromechanical]] devices, some with motors moving photocells past lights, bore little resemblance to the all-electronic sequencers of the late Sixties. He began working on a machine he said could compose by artificial intelligence. The Electronium, as Scott called it, with its array of knobs, buttons, and patch panels is considered the first self-composing synthesizer.<ref name="laweek">{{cite web |last=Roberts |first=Randal |title=Are You Not Devo? You Are Mutato |work=LA Weekly |date=2007-12-05 |url=http://www.laweekly.com/music/music/are-you-not-devo-you-are-mutato/17826/?page=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113051547/http://www.laweekly.com/music/music/are-you-not-devo-you-are-mutato/17826/?page=1 |archive-date=2008-01-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Some of Raymond Scott's projects were less complex but still ambitious. During the 1950s and 1960s, he developed and patented electronic telephone ringers, alarms, chimes, and sirens, [[vending machines]], and [[ashtray]]s with accompanying electronic music scores, an electronic musical baby rattle, and an adult toy that produced varying sounds depending on how two people touched each another.<ref name="winner104105">{{cite AV media notes |title= Manhattan Research Inc. |others= Raymond Scott |year= 2000 |last= Winner, Jeff |pages= 104–105 |type= CD book |publisher= Basta Audio/Visuals |location= Holland }}</ref> He believed these devices would "electronically update the many sounds around us – the functional sounds."<ref name="winner104105"/>

While these devices foreshadowed the future of electronic music, they were not commercially successful. As Mark Brend wrote at [[Reverb.com]]: 
<blockquote>Hindsight reveals Scott as more ideas-man than business-man. Glossy brochures advertised a dizzying array of his inventions: electronic doorbells, [[Multitrack recording|multitrack tape recorders]], rhythm machines, sequencers, and instruments such as the Clavivox, a kind of keyboard theremin. But these rarely sold. It's possible that didn't bother Scott too much, as through the '50s he was still earning well from the first phase of his career and had a new income stream composing electronic jingles—for [[Sprite (drink)|Sprite]], [[Nescafé]], and Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, among others.<ref>[https://reverb.com/news/was-raymond-scotts-electronium-the-first-daw Brend, Mark, "Is This Old Synth Workstation the World's First DAW?," Reverb.com, November 15, 2022]</ref></blockquote>

Scott and Dorothy Collins divorced in 1964, and in 1967 he married Mitzi Curtis (1918–2012). During the second half of the 1960s, he became isolated and secretive about his inventions; he gave few interviews, made no public presentations, and released no records. In 1966–67, Scott (under the screen credit "Ramond Scott") composed and recorded electronic music soundtracks for experimental films by [[Muppets]] creator [[Jim Henson]].

During his big band period, Scott endured tense relationships with musicians he employed. But when his career became immersed in electronic gadgetry, he preferred the company of technicians, such as Bob Moog, [[Herb Deutsch]], [[Thomas Rhea]], and Alan Entenmann. Scott welcomed curious visitors to his lab, among them French electronic music pioneer [[Jean-Jacques Perrey]] in March 1960.