Tron

The soundtrack for Tron was written by pioneer electronic musician Wendy Carlos, who is best known for her album Switched-On Bach and for the soundtracks to many films, including A Clockwork Orange and The Shining. The music, which was the first collaboration between Carlos and her partner Annemarie Franklin,featured a mix of an analog Moog synthesizer and Crumar's GDS digital synthesizer (complex additive and phase modulation synthesis), along with non-electronic pieces performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra (hired at the insistence of Disney, which was concerned that Carlos might not be able to complete her score on time). Two additional musical tracks were provided by the band Journey after British band Supertramp pulled out of the project. Shortly after Tron's theatrical release, Carlos said in an interview that she was not happy with the use of the orchestra, saying that her music, with its variable time signatures, was too difficult to perform in the time they were allotted. She would end up replacing portions of the orchestral performances with GDS performances. The soundtrack album was released on record and tape by CBS Records in 1982. It was re-released on CD in January 2002 by Walt Disney Records. with three additional tracks. Some of the film's music can also be heard in its companion arcade game. For years, the soundtrack was unavailable on CD, originally due to a dispute between Carlos and CBS Records. Carlos later discovered that the original master tapes had deteriorated to the point where attempting to play them could destroy both the tapes and the playback machine. Carlos used a technique called tape baking (in which the tapes were literally baked in an oven to harden the glue holding the magnetic tape together) to repair the tapes so she could transfer them to digital masters.