and Jones, who were substantially expanding the hardware and software team. Musicians such as New York City-based multi-instrumentalist Kashif were involved in the creative development of Synclavier. It became one of the most advanced electronic synthesis and recording tools of the day. Early adopters included: John McLaughlin Pat Metheny Michael Jackson, particularly on his 1982 album Thriller. Denny Jaeger and Michel Rubini, the first to use the Synclavier to score a major motion picture (The Hunger, with David Bowie, released through MGM in April, 1983) and to score the first network TV series (The Powers of Matthew Starr, from Paramount Television, released September, 1982). Laurie Anderson, whose 1984 album "Mister Heartbreak" includes visual depictions of Synclavier sound waves in the liner notes Frank Zappa, who composed his 1986 Grammy-winning album Jazz from Hell on the instrument. He continued to use it on his studio albums until his death in 1993, culminating in the posthumous release of his magnum opus Civilization, Phaze III (by Zappa's estimation, 70% of this two-hour work is exclusively Synclavier.) Producer Mike Thorne, who used the Synclavier to shape the sound of the 80s producing bands such as Siouxsie and The Banshees, Soft Cell, Marc Almond, and Bronski Beat Record label founder Daniel Miller (Mute Records). It found use on most Depeche Mode albums in which band member Alan Wilder was involved. Sting Genesis The Cars Herbie Hancock Sean Callery Eddie Jobson The system was nearly as famous for where it was not used, as it was for the list of premier studios in which it was: the extremely sophisticated synthesizer enjoyed the distinction of being banned from many famous concert halls, out of fear that it would make the musicians themselves obsolete. A notable exception being the massive, 55 minute Dialogue for Synclavier and Orchestra by American Composer Frank Proto, commissioned and performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in 1986. Bringing together the full forces of a contemporary orchestra with a fully decked out Synclavier in a live performance, it displayed what can be achieved, combining both seemingly incompatible disciplines, by a composer with intimate knowledge of not only the available orchestral and electronic forces, but with the compositional skills to take advantage of both, without resorting to gimmicky devices frequently found in attempts to wed the two. The mature Synclavier was a modular, component-based system that included facilities for FM-based synthesis, digital sampling, hard-disk recording,