Entertainment For Lively Minds
Vintage synth porn
Posted by stimpy on 13 December 2009 - 6:15pm.
Apologies for those who aren't into the wonders of old studio kit but I'm sure there's more than just me that's interested in this.
The only EMS Synthi 100 in private hands is being auctioned off this week at Vemia. For those who aren't up with the arcana of British synthesizer manufacture; it's the (very) big brother of the VCS3 that everyone remembers Brian Eno playing with Roxy Music :-)
It'll go for well over £10k so is waaaay out of my league but it doesn't stop me lusting after it!
More pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/matrixsynth/sets/72157622974821168/
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Re Synth Porn
Looking at those pics, can we do any knob jokes?
Tomorrow's World
The past few days I have been enjoying old episodes of TW on the excellent BBC Archive site. Here they introduce a new device called a synthesiser...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/tomorrowsworld/8011.shtml?all=2&id=8011
(clip might not work outside UK)
Vintage synth porn?
Things were a lot hairier back then
You could have hours of fun with that.
Are all the knobs really essential? Is it polyphonic?
With all those knobs, it won't be long
before you can knock off stuff like THIS:
Can we all club together?
How many people are on this blog? A tenner each, say?
Where would we keep it?
Who's a dab-hand with a soldering-iron so we can maintain it? How do we organise visiting rights? Who's in charge of the kitty.. my tenner's here and ready!
Well, y'know... I have the space...
and the soldering iron...
And an oscilloscope...
And lots of similar kit to keep it company...
Including a VCS3 so I know how to operate it. :-)
Two days to go and I've been outbid :-(
It's now at £6050. Sigh...
Synth porn?
Look around you
The mighty Synthesizer Patel will probably buy it.
It went for £21,105
(sigh)
mini moog
If I were to treat myself to something totally self indulgent and pure fun, I would buy myself a Mini Moog - the Strat or Les Paul of the synth world, surely? You got one, Stimps?
Yeah, I have a Minimoog and, as you say,
it's reputation precedes it. Around the mid/late 70s the default configuration for a small monophonic synthesizer was that of the Minimoog (2 Oscillators, Low Frequency Oscillator, Voltage Controlled Filter, Voltage Controlled Amplifier, Envelope Generator) and the Minimoog packaged all that up in a convenient package that appealed to organists/keyboardists looking for a synth.
There were, of course, other synths in that same market space - the ARP Odessey, Korg MS-20, Sequential Circuits Pro-One, Yamaha CS-5, Roland SH-101 all had their good points. Compared to some of these, the Minimoog was pretty limited but, compared to a Hammond or a Clavinet, it was a whole new world; hence it's success. If I could only keep ONE vintage synth, I suspect it wouldn't be the Minimoog; more likely to be the Pro-One or MS-20.
The Pro-One is a lovely instrument, very much a scaled-down Prophet 5 - one of the best polysynths ever made - and, whilst following the basic Minimoog architecture; it had a useful little on-board sequencer and arpeggiator.
If you wanted the most flexible, most 'serious' monosynth from that era then perhaps an MS-20 is better. It has a pluggable patch-bay that usually only features on big modular synths.
The beauty of the Korg was the availability of the matching SQ-10 sequencer and MS-50 expansion module - remember this was pre-MIDI when there was no real compatibility between boxes.
With a couple of MS-20s, an MS-50 and an SQ-10 you can do THIS:
If you want to have a play with a Minimoog for free, then try downloading the demo of the Arturia Minimoog softsynth. It's very close to the real thing and can be operated from your computer or via any midi USB keyboard.
http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/minimoogv/intro.html
(sorry for the long, rambling post :-))
thanks
Fascinating stuff, and that demo is remarkable. I've often thought that the 'black and white keys' part of a synth is the least interesting part, and this clip sort of shows it. He hardly uses the keyboard at all.
Sadly, that's not my Korg rig...
I only have the MS-10 and MS-20. The sequencer and expansion unit are as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth.
I do have a couple of synths with no keyboards; the VC3 being the most well known.
and the teeny Japanese Gakken Mook SX-150 being the smallest
Stimpy..
I want to come round your house for a play with all the toys.
I'm there!
I was thinking exactly the same thing!
Heh... who knows...
when the studio rebuild is finished, I might arrange an open day for the Massive ;-)
We're still waiting
Is it finished yet? Try and make it a weekend, would you?
The Prophet 5
This clip seems to fit the synth porn theme. A perfect demonstration of the instrument by Francis Monkman
Demo
That Arturia demo is great! Unfortunately my PC in my music room is ancient - it runs windows 98 - so lots of modern software won't work on it and I'm not going to replace it till I have to - 10 years and going strong! Maybe I could run it on my laptop or something.
that picture
from norwegian blue would make a great album cover for the next donald fagen release
I'm hoping..
Stimpy will have her there at the housewarming..
But wearing more clothes otherwise she'll catch her death.
I must be geting old when I start thinking of such things.
Steve Miller's synth
I love the album "Fly like an Eagle" and I always wondered what model synth he used. On the album cover the synth he used is listed as a "Roland" (no model) but this great little clip (if you like SM/FLAE that is) shows actually it is an ARP Odessey, though the recording track also shows it as "Roland". Hmmm. But the photo is clearly a white face ARP Odessey which makes it a Mark 1. Plugged into his Echoplex no less. Perhaps I am in obsessive mode today.
Obsessive?
Not around here, Twang. Interesting. Always interesting to me. I love these vintage synth threads.
Just mentioned on the OMD album thread
this month's Viz (199) has vintage synth porn too : "The Victorian Jean Michel Jarre Story". Gloriously random and pointless and very funny.
Does it mention..
"Set up a big light show and let off some fireworks whilst they play a CD of your Greatest Hits and you make out that you're playing the odd bit of it on a few striplights and a mobile DJ's laser"
Yes, Fraser, I'm accusing JMJ of miming in concert. On a public board. And I'll be happy to defend it in court.
Laser harp my arse.
Although a couple of years ago he did play his first album live
on the original analogue instruments. Allegedly no computers, no tapes, everything programmed live and tellingly, no fireworks, lasers or distracting lightshow.
It took four people to play it all though...
There's some LOVELY kit in there...
I always thought it was a shame he didn't get to do his orbital
duet:
---Wikipedia