Purity, integrity and synthesizers

Unbridled passion drives Paula Maddox as she finds her sound through synth creations. Captivated by the perplexing synth sounds of the 1980s and driven to recreate the beloved melodies of her favourite songs, Paula Maddox has had a fruitful career in music tech. As a synth afficionado turned designer, Paula has been at the helm of many groundbreaking synth creations, and has also founded her own synthesizer company, Dove Audio. We spoke with Paula to learn more about her career as a trans woman in music tech, and how she infuses purity, integrity and love into her work.

Like many of us, Paula's teens were a key moment that sparked her love for music. Music became a passion for me when I was around 13 or 14, back in the 80s, says Paula. By this time, I was already interested in electronics. I had built some kits and done some television repairs, back when you still could repair them. But a friend played Tangram' by Tangerine Dream for me one day and I was transfixed. The sounds I was hearing were unlike anything I had heard before. Sure, Id hear pop music of the early 80s and synth bands like Depeche Mode, but this was something different. There was an edge', a purity' if you like, to the sound. I soon discovered that a major part of the sound' that I liked was the PPG Wave synthesizers. I quickly found other bands that used them and that was it - I was hooked on that sound'. Something that went beyond regular sawtooths and squarewaves, something rich, intense, and dynamic.

After becoming transfixed by the synth sounds of the early 80s, Paula soon fell into the world of tech and began making synthesizers of her own, looking to recreate that enticing sound that sparked her musical journey. In the late 80s, I lost myself to the computer industry, all the while I was still tinkering with electronic circuits, explains Paula. In the early 2000s, I had some time off work following some emergency surgery and I built a modular synthesizer based on various bits I had found online and in various forums. I adapted them and shaped them to try and find that sound, the first was a VCO with digital waveforms that I christened the PPG VCO'. I had finally found that sound I loved.

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