Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Talk about solid-state and DMD pinball machines
Post Reply
User avatar
Chris Silver
MAACA Mega Contributor
Posts: 3076
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:41 pm
Location: Hawkesbury, Nowhere Ontario
Has liked: 72 times
Been liked: 79 times

Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by Chris Silver »

Suzanne Ciani was not only the voice behind Xenon, but also produced the sound effects (only the weird few die hard pinballologists would know such a fact). She was also an awesome musician - on the mellow side. I could totally chill to this tune she wrote back in 1982 called The Fifth Wave - Water Lullaby. I've had her playlist playing in the background while I threw this thread together. Its peaceful.





Here is a link to her website with a lot of fantastic information and an ancient interview she had with Bill Baverstock from an old TV show I can't remember the name of but hosted by Peter Ustinov. Towards the end they mention big dreams regarding the future of microchips. You have to watch this. She has also provided some Xenon sound effect downloads for Mac and PC:


http://sevwave.com/early_ciani/ciani_xenon.html


I couldn't begin to rifle off the awards she has earned over her career and all the little sound effects that you have heard without even knowing. Wikipedia has a great write up of her life accomplishments:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Ciani

This is just a quick hats off to Suzanne for all her contibutions to our lives and a bow of respect towards women's accomplishments.
Attachments
Xenon.jpg
Xenon.jpg (48.33 KiB) Viewed 1695 times
Last edited by Chris Silver on Mon Mar 30, 2015 6:14 pm, edited 5 times in total.
Pins: Spirit, Centaur II, Af-Tor, Avatar, Embryon, Timeline, Baby Pac Man, SkyJump, Night Moves, Split Second
Gone: Space Station, Top Score, Flash Gordon, Solar Fire, Haunted House, Fire (x2), Vector, Bally Playboy, Tropic Isle, Beat the Clock, Blue-Chip, Disco, Punk!, Lightning, Time Fantasy, 8 Ball Deluxe LE, Double Dragon, Stellar Wars, Alien Poker, Panthera, Elektra, Blackout, Black Hole, Black Knight, Silverball Mania
WTB: Medieval Madness, Rush
Its better to have played and lost than never to have played at all.

User avatar
Chris Silver
MAACA Mega Contributor
Posts: 3076
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:41 pm
Location: Hawkesbury, Nowhere Ontario
Has liked: 72 times
Been liked: 79 times

Re: Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by Chris Silver »

.
Attachments
1.png
1.png (54.89 KiB) Viewed 1694 times
2.jpg
2.jpg (11.92 KiB) Viewed 1694 times
3.jpg
3.jpg (5.2 KiB) Viewed 1694 times
4.jpg
4.jpg (12.84 KiB) Viewed 1694 times
Pins: Spirit, Centaur II, Af-Tor, Avatar, Embryon, Timeline, Baby Pac Man, SkyJump, Night Moves, Split Second
Gone: Space Station, Top Score, Flash Gordon, Solar Fire, Haunted House, Fire (x2), Vector, Bally Playboy, Tropic Isle, Beat the Clock, Blue-Chip, Disco, Punk!, Lightning, Time Fantasy, 8 Ball Deluxe LE, Double Dragon, Stellar Wars, Alien Poker, Panthera, Elektra, Blackout, Black Hole, Black Knight, Silverball Mania
WTB: Medieval Madness, Rush
Its better to have played and lost than never to have played at all.

User avatar
Steph
MAACA Mega Contributor
Posts: 3024
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 12:50 pm
Location: Ottawa, Ontario
Has liked: 1 time
Been liked: 49 times

Re: Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by Steph »

I had seen that video before.
Pretty cool...


I love the part where they say
"... a sound chip, only the size of a domino, holds 48 THOUSAND bits or information "

... ah, those were the days !

;-)

Steph
2084 : Last Hope for Humanity

User avatar
Chris Silver
MAACA Mega Contributor
Posts: 3076
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:41 pm
Location: Hawkesbury, Nowhere Ontario
Has liked: 72 times
Been liked: 79 times

Re: Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by Chris Silver »

If you're old like me, check out these sound effects and step back in time:

http://sevwave.com/themes.html
Pins: Spirit, Centaur II, Af-Tor, Avatar, Embryon, Timeline, Baby Pac Man, SkyJump, Night Moves, Split Second
Gone: Space Station, Top Score, Flash Gordon, Solar Fire, Haunted House, Fire (x2), Vector, Bally Playboy, Tropic Isle, Beat the Clock, Blue-Chip, Disco, Punk!, Lightning, Time Fantasy, 8 Ball Deluxe LE, Double Dragon, Stellar Wars, Alien Poker, Panthera, Elektra, Blackout, Black Hole, Black Knight, Silverball Mania
WTB: Medieval Madness, Rush
Its better to have played and lost than never to have played at all.

User avatar
HPR Pinball
MAACA OG
Posts: 7936
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 4:53 pm
Location: St-Rose, Laval
Has liked: 15 times
Been liked: 114 times

Re: Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by HPR Pinball »

Back in that time, digitalizing only one word cost about 1000$

In that era, pinballs and vids were the most sophisticated pieces of technology available to the public.
The video game i want to play is always the one i don't have :FP:
Les arcades, j'suis tombé d'dans quand j'tait pti !! :-)

User avatar
cait001
MAACA Mega Contributor
Posts: 4900
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2012 3:42 pm
Location: Centretown, Ottawa, ON
Has liked: 481 times
Been liked: 225 times

Re: Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by cait001 »

Her pianissimo albums are great, too.
backglasses wanted: Star-Jet, Fairy, Star Trek (1971 Gottlieb)
marquees wanted: Roller Aces, Quiz Dragon, Strider, Varkon, Dark Planet, R-Type (w/ship), Quantum, Ninja (Sega)
blog -- collection -- want list -- Pinball Women Ottawa -- Ottawa Pinball Map -- ratings

User avatar
SquidVicious
MAACA Mega Contributor
Posts: 2076
Joined: Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:13 am
Location: Victoria BC
Has liked: 10 times
Been liked: 1 time

Re: Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by SquidVicious »

Two years ago at EXPO they highlighted XENON and had the whole development team in for a seminar ... Suzanne was definitely the focal point of the discussion and gave some great background to the processes she used to create the sound on the machine. Very cool seminar.
SM GOT TZ CV TOTAN AFMLE Congo Meteor 2021

User avatar
Chris Silver
MAACA Mega Contributor
Posts: 3076
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 8:41 pm
Location: Hawkesbury, Nowhere Ontario
Has liked: 72 times
Been liked: 79 times

Re: Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by Chris Silver »

Suzanne is still going strong. Check out the documentary on the link provided.

http://www.factmag.com/2016/09/17/suzan ... h-sunergy/
Pins: Spirit, Centaur II, Af-Tor, Avatar, Embryon, Timeline, Baby Pac Man, SkyJump, Night Moves, Split Second
Gone: Space Station, Top Score, Flash Gordon, Solar Fire, Haunted House, Fire (x2), Vector, Bally Playboy, Tropic Isle, Beat the Clock, Blue-Chip, Disco, Punk!, Lightning, Time Fantasy, 8 Ball Deluxe LE, Double Dragon, Stellar Wars, Alien Poker, Panthera, Elektra, Blackout, Black Hole, Black Knight, Silverball Mania
WTB: Medieval Madness, Rush
Its better to have played and lost than never to have played at all.

User avatar
cait001
MAACA Mega Contributor
Posts: 4900
Joined: Tue Oct 09, 2012 3:42 pm
Location: Centretown, Ottawa, ON
Has liked: 481 times
Been liked: 225 times

Re: Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by cait001 »

R.I.P. Don Buchla
backglasses wanted: Star-Jet, Fairy, Star Trek (1971 Gottlieb)
marquees wanted: Roller Aces, Quiz Dragon, Strider, Varkon, Dark Planet, R-Type (w/ship), Quantum, Ninja (Sega)
blog -- collection -- want list -- Pinball Women Ottawa -- Ottawa Pinball Map -- ratings

User avatar
tinyrodent
MAACA Mega Contributor
Posts: 1822
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2010 11:23 am
Location: West of Ottawa
Has liked: 89 times
Been liked: 12 times

Re: Suzanne Ciani - Women of Pinball

Post by tinyrodent »

There's another recent documentary I didn't see mentioned in this thread A Life in Waves. Some archival material, some new, pretty good.
Playing: Stern Stars, Stranger Things
http://www.pinballowners.com/tinyrodent

Post Reply