I can't believe this even exists! Someone in 1979 did a documentary about the making of a pinball machine- no scratch that-about the making of the SOUNDS of a pinball machine? We are so lucky this was even captured on film. What a wonderful little treasure.

For everyone watching in 2023 - she’s performing in Portland in May and my friend is opening the show, please give her her flowers while she’s still here!!

I ADORE the way the narrator talks about the tech. “48 THOUSAND bytes!” “In the future, women with sound chips in their earrings will listen to Beethoven’s Symphony.” Absolute gold

📌Her natural speaking voice is more mesmerizing than the added sound effects.❤️

She writes basic code like she’s playing a keyboard. Love it

I wasn't familiar with her. Did a quick google ... it was cool to see she had a great career, including 5 grammy nominations. Still kicking at 76.

As others have already stated: This will be a treasure for all time as the rarity of subject matter and quality of presentation are certainly on a level all their own. And her haircut is amazing.

I played that game as a kid. Those dark arcade halls were caverns of mystery and marvel no kid today can comprehend. It didn't matter where you were - a funfair, a gas station, a beach resort - those machines would reach out to you like sentinels to a strange world with promises of fearful adventure. It would raise the little hairs on your back and widen your youthful pupils. When I heard the lady's voice I didn't know whether to fall in love or run for my life.

😂 4:36- That other girl looking at her like... "I'll have what she's having"

She's got an absolutely gorgeous voice.

"She catches the indefinable, and turns it into music." With on-point, fantastic red nails. Yes sis

I had her Meditations For Dreams, Relaxation, and Sleep album in my massage room for about two years. One day I changed it out for something else and a handful of people complained and asked for it back.

Wait... synthesizers, music, 80's computers, pinball, vocoder, Susanne Ciani? This is paradise!

I could listen to Suzanne's soothing voice forever. ♥ 🎶

I feel so much of pride and achievement just by watching these retro videos of developers in 70s & 80s. They are the pioneers of the current consoles our generation takes for granted.

her voice is heavenly

7:08 "in the future women with sound chips in their ear rings will listen to bethoven's symphonies" Wild how they can predict ear buds man.

Suzanne Ciani is up there with Delia Derbyshire. Their influence is going strong today even with people that have never heard of them. Just think how many companies are creating pedals and synths to recreate the sounds of early video games.

Thus woman's not only a genius, she has the most soothing voice I've ever heard!!]

As a woman in the audio industry, this is inspiring!

What a dope voice. Hope she recorded tons of sci-fi lines.

1:48 I like watching artists groove on something that they just made - watching people enjoy making art is a huge part of what fuels KZfaq today.

Such a pioneer, and even now the sounds still sound so futuristic and cool, she was way ahead of her time.

3:26. This is the first time I’ve ever heard HER voice. So soothing and pleasant!

Xenon is still one of the best of the best. The gameplay, the artwork, the sound, it all comes together in an almost magical way. Truly a thing of beauty.

Wow, Suzanne has a really soothing voice.

This is unrelated but she has the most soothing voice I've ever heard

Seeing what it was like to produce electronic music back then is always a trip. Now it's so straightforward with DAWs and VSTs.

The most sensual pinball game of all time 😂. Seriously though - what a fantastic understanding of sound design and how much it effects the way the player perceives and responds to the gameplay. Must have been a blast recording it all.

Wow. She has a so soft, calm voice...I could listen to her for hours.

I’ve met Suzanne: still making music and very active with concerts. Friendly and inquisitive too.

Her voice is the true music here

So cool to see her programme music by command on an 80s computer wearing screaming red nails. Epic!

Lady laid the groundwork for all modern gaming sounds. Everything you hear is a version of a version of a version of her sounds. The OG. The Pinball Queen.

The narrator makes the whole thing feel so ancient lol, but in a good, cute kind of way. The video start to finish just puts a smile on my face. She seems like a very passionate person.

I can only imagine how creative she is in the digital world now

5:00 she def wanted people to feel like they were fcking the game, but didnt want to say it lol

I’ve ever only known her for the piano pieces she contributed to a New Age piano collection on vinyl which l still own….this is a real pleasure l never looked into her synth body of work she is so tech savvy that early music computer tech is difficult to produce music with and what an presence and voice she has.

As an electrical engineer and musician….this is music to my ears.

Back in the day, my friends and I would travel downtown to a huge arcade to play dozens of pinball machines we didn't have in our university game room. Xenon was one of them, with its wonderful artwork, music, sound and speech. Considering some of the speech was pretty sultry, I would naturally assume some dude had designed and directed it. It's great to see this, and to learn the whole sound and music architecture was Ms. Ciani's invention, and that she had pitched it to Bally and created it herself. Nowadays, Xenon is one of my favorite pinball machines to play in sim form in Pinball Arcade on Steam. I've probably logged hundreds of hours on it in the last few months, and now I know who created the music and who's voice is featured. Ms. Suzanne Ciani is a legit genius!!

"... We'll be wearing chips in our earrings listening to Beethoven..." narrator just predicted earpods 40 years early

There's so much I want to say about this. She's insanely creative and a real unsung hero

Holy Shit I can't believe I stumbled across this. I grew up with this pinball machine. My 10-year-old bad-ass self had one hell of a kink for that sexy female robotic voice. It became one of my favorite pin-ball machines to play and I believe it's one of my first multi-ball pin ball game that I ever played, which added to the wow factor, but it was that sexy ass female robotic voice had me coming back again and again to spend all my allowance money.

I was a pinball champion in the early 80's. Always best to play with headphones on when allowed. The sound's purpose is to increase your anxiety and take you out of zen. The sound is trying to kill you and attract more customers and their quarters. Concentrate on the ball. Keep your mind still. Fall into the zone.

Xenon was and is an absolute masterpiece. While Bally did make some ho-hum pinball machines throughout the years, they showed that they could make some absolutely spectacular ones as well. Xenon is a shining example of what Bally could do when they really wanted to make a great game.

Maaad props to this woman… 👏👏👏 saved in the favorites for sure 👌

How amazing is it to look back on this stuff. Look how badass this chick was or is. Man, KZfaq is cool!

She and many others, like the pixel artists from 8bit games, arcades, etc; the unsung heroes of our childhoods

Suzanne was involved in the creation of one of my favorite records of all time, Star Wars and Other Galactic Funk by Meco Monardo. I played that record over and over when I was a kid, and was lucky enough to find it on CD as an adult. I still listen to it from time to time. It never fails to raise my spirits and get me motivated. Thanks, Suzanne. You helped make my life more fun!

She has an amazing voice

From a Game Developer's perspective, I think her intuition to watch people play on similar games to then capture something of their emotions is such a great approach. I salute it and I'm in love with that soundtrack.

What an artist. And apparently she had a concert in my home town in October and I never knew. Wonder if she'll ever be in this part of the world again.

“Someday women with sound chips in their earrings will listen to Beethoven symphonies” madlad just predicted AirPods.

This is the "Boomer" genius for which the entire gaming industry owes it's existence. Her idea to reflect the players emotion back to them in a digital sound is what activates that pleasure center in the brain of the game player, greatly enhancing the experience, and the ability to get people to give money to play a game.

That was excellent. Computers, synths and pinball. Sounds like heaven. :)

I was heavily into Pinball Machines when I was a kid in the late 60's and early 70's. Anyone that knows anything about them knows the sound/music loop they played when no one was playing them is what drew people in to actually play them. I could walk into any store, restaurant or truck stop and I could hear these things that drew me in to see what they were.

Suzanne is such a visionary, her work is awe inspiring

She’s got great skill and a great voice too!

I grew up listening to Suzanne Ciani's music (Neverland, Velocity of Love, Pianissimo), and I had no idea she did this, but it makes sense. What a gem!

Absolutely amazing, this is what art is all about, finding ways to express yourself and create new unique experiences for others to enjoy. So inspiring.

It's crazy how a decent chunk of musicians struggle to sing and play an instrument simultaneously but in this video Suzanne not only types as a function but seemingly does so while coming up with parameters on the fly, all while barely losing any of her concentration devoted to talking about what she's doing.

'in the future women with soundchips in their earrings will listen to beethoven's symphony.' ...or music that was heavily inspired by the sounds that Suzanne created right here.

My friend has this pinball machine! Super cool to see the process how it part of it was created

What a great woman with such pleasant voice, big pinball fan here ❤🙌

This is the most ASMR documentary ever

she has the most pleasant voice.

It is insane, the amount of work they had to do, to make little jingles and sound FX for a game. I remember recording to 4-track tape recorders, which was super high-tech compared to what is going on here. Now you can write an album on an ipad. I don’t know why this video exists, but I love it.

I love everything about this video! The sounds are so good and Suzanne is magnetic. What creativity and engineering genius

Playing pinball machines at the arcade back in the 80's was truly blast as a kid, the designs, the colors, the sounds, the artwork and just everything about was just mindblowing and amazing. This was pure joy to watch. What a job!

I am surprised the early voice acting industry didn't snap her up, although I guess there was hardly anything around in '80

1:26 "Because, to add excitement to the game, the background sound should speed up as you play the game." She single handedly understood the basics of good game design better than a thousand executives at EA.

Her voice is so soothing. I could fall asleep listening to her read the phone book.

I only encountered Xenon once or twice in my pinball-inflected youth, but I remember this feeling of awe at how it all came together. There was something "clean" and shimmery about it. It was kind of sexy but not in a smutty way at all, not super-overt. "Sensual" is a good word for it. Now I see why: it was an artistic labor of love, and its sonic design was crafted by the legendary Suzanne Ciani. I love documentaries like this, and like "Classic Albums". It's an absolute joy to watch true artists and to appreciate the level of care they invest in their creative processes.

If it had been a thing back then, this girl should have had her own ASMR channel.

her voice is indeed captivating

LEGENDARY talent! She was always the woman of my dreams...talent, beauty, vision, skills, you name it. Just amazing! I love seeing this!

"The idea of using short grunts and groans... I wanted it to talk back to the people playing. You know when the ball goes through the tube? It's a kind of emotional let go." Yes... yes I hear you.

She has an incredible voice! I could listen to her read random words

Amazing. Master class in music and musical sound design by a legend. Love it.

My all time favorite pin ball, especially the "Try Tube shot" was fantastic

LOL I love that line at the end where he says, "Women of the future will be wearing sound chips in their earrings, listening to Beethoven." -------Damn, he nailed it: it's called a wireless earbud, and they are indeed super popular.

Some days KZfaq rocks! What a gem of a find! THX!

WOW! My kind of video. Thanks for uploading-- I'm happy to know that a) The subject matter exists and b) that someone made a film about it.

Never heard of her, never played a pinball but she’s got it all! It’s a work of art.

I'd love to listen to Suzanne work on that vintage computer for hours! Triggers my tingles 1:18

Oh yeah - I also did a few for Atari, some of them reappeared in my "Story of my youth" 4 album release. I was a assembler coder, and synth freak back in the day .. memories

Thanks for posting this! Loved playing the Xenon pinball table back in the early 80s - Suzanne’s lovely voice and the great pinball action kept me popping in more quarter’s day after day! Love this machine!

I've loved her music ever since 1990 when I discovered "Pianissimo" and 1991 with "Hotel Luna". How fun to find this video! You just have to appreciate the comparatively primitive level of technology she was using to do this. The sequencing and composing tools have since evolved to the nth degree...

I've actually played this pinball machine at a local arcade with unlimited play. It's probably my favorite one in the whole hall next to The Addams Family pinball machine that will have the flappers do the infamous double snap from the song.

I love talented women.❤ God Bless them all

considering that back in those days everything was limited as F and now a days we get spoiled almost every mouth by new VST , DAWS and game engines. its mind blowing that they created so much iconic stuff yet we cant in 2023 let this sink in yet our tech its so resource heave and picky as hell.

I knew of Suzanne Ciani's work, and I played Xenon...but I never put the two together. It makes total sense now.

"chips in their earrings" well, airpods can certainly look like earrings, lol

Wow, pinbot was my first ever and favourite virtual pinball game on the NES. Fuelled a love of virtual pinball for the rest of my life.

To anyone interested in Suzanne Ciani and her extraordinary career check out her Documentary: A Life In Waves. It's very well documented. It'll leave you inspired and fascinated with how much Suzanne Ciani paved the way for synthesizers and music. Highly recommend! :)

she's a soundtrack wizard

I can't tell you how many times I've actually watched this. Me and a group of friends traveled 7 hours to go to the worlds largest arcade in new Hampshire. Little did I know that even though I had set out to play arcade games of the past, that I would fall in love with pinball. I remember my friend saying...tait...tait...you gotta check this out. The machine is moaning at me! I was like...no way...and then I met Xenon. It didn't take long and I fell in love with her. Not more than 6 months from our trip I tracked down my first pinball and taking a few of the friends I had been on with that trip we went to pick her up. It changed my life forever. The thought of living with out pinball seems desolate and worthless now. If I ever meet Mz Ciani I will thank her.

"earings with soundchips" was a really close guess for the ways we would consume music in the future

Nerds and drugs, thankful as heck for it. That aside what incredible vision and knowledge of your toolset.

"Women with sound chips in their earrings will be able to listen to Beethoven." He wasn't too far off!