At the Jefferson County Computer Club, Philip Tubb met many other students who shared an interest in computers. He also shared a strong interest in electronics with John Ridges, a Wheat Ridge High School student. John designed and built one of the first computer-controlled music synthesizers, a polyphonic unit with 6 voices (each with an 8 octave range and 8 volume levels). It could be controlled by a remotely located computer when connected between a teletype (or similar device) and its modem. The ASCII serial data flowing on that connection was used to issue commands to the synthesizer. John also wrote programs in BASIC which allowed music to be entered in text format, saved on the computer's hard drive, and played back using the device. The synthesizer got the nickname "Mesmerelda" due