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Wendy Carlos —November 14, 1939 in Pawtucket, Rhode IslandWendy Carlos is an American composer and electronic musician. Carlos was one of the first famous performers of electronic music using synthesizers.

table was perhaps the first album to attempt the use of synthesizers as an alternative to an orchestra. Having assisted Robert Moog in the development of his first commercially available synthesizers, Carlos helped pioneer the technology, which was significantly more difficult to use than it is today. Multitrack recording techniques played a critical role in the time-consuming process of creating this album. On its release, became the best-selling classical album of all time, and the first to go platinum. A sequel of additional synthesized baroque music, followed in 1969. (Its title is a play on Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier".) While it sold well, it did not achieve the near-legendary status that is more recommended since it contains a wider variety of synthesizer sound. These first albums were a crucial source of inspiration for Japanese composer Isao Tomita, who later recorded and released his own interpretations of numerous classical works performed with synthesizers.

1972's pushed the envelope further. This was packaged as a double album, with one side dedicated to each of the four seasons, and each side consisting of one long track. It blended recorded sounds with synthesized sounds, without melodies, to create an ambient effect. Not as popular as some other albums, it was however very influential on other artists who went on to create the ambient genre. Also in 1972, music by Carlos was released on the soundtrack for the film for Disney. This score incorporated orchestra, chorus, organ, and both analog and digital synthesizers. Some of her end title music was replaced with a song by the rock group, Journey, and the music that originally was composed for the lightcycle scene was dropped. 1984's switched to digital synthesizers, instead of the analog synthesizers that were the trademark of her earlier albums. Some of the rejected material from the saw Wendy Carlos experimenting with just intonation, using an alternate tuning system she invented for the album. The system uses two keyboards, one on which the notes are played. The other keyboard is used to set the "root note", and retune all of the notes on the keyboard to just intonation intervals. There are a total of 144 possible notes per octave, from 12 notes in a chromatic scale times 12 different tunings.

1987's is a lecture by Carlos, with audio examples (many from her own recordings), expounding on topics she feels to be of importance. Some of the material is a good introduction to synthesis, and some (i.e., a discussion of hocketingWendy Carlos is most useful to experienced musicians.

In the early 2000s, most of her catalogue was remastered. In 2005, the two-volume set was released, featuring previously out-of-print material (The Shining score), the unreleased soundtrack to

Carlos' musical education began when she started playing the piano at the age of six. Her formal education included Brown University where she studied music and physics, and Columbia University where she earned an MA in music. At Columbia, Carlos was a student of Vladimir Ussachevsky, a pioneer in electronic music. After graduation, she met Robert Moog and began designing the prototype of the Moog synthesizer. Around 1966, Carlos met Rachel Elkind with whom she began a lifelong professional relationship. Carlos has lived in New York since 1962.

Her first six recordings were released under the name Walter Carlos, although, being a transsexual woman, she had already changed her name from Walter to Wendy. In 1972, Carlos underwent gender reassignment therapy. The last release to be credited to Walter Carlos was (1979). Carlos's first public appearance after her gender transition was in an interview in the May 1979 issue of magazine, a decision she would come to regret as it brought unwelcome publicity to her personal life. On her official site, her transition is discussed in an essay stating that she values her privacy on the subject [1].

(Albums released during years 1968-1975 were originally released under name "Walter Carlos". Re-issues and later albums have been released under name "Wendy Carlos")