Man & Machine

[Rare Bird]

I'm sorry to say Analogue Modular synth's are one of my illnesses.

My dream would be to own a full ARP '2500'complete with wings & dual keyboards.They are worth the earth nowadays.The beauty with the ARP modular over the Moog was the lack of Patch cords, the '2500' uses Sliders for patching, cross talk problems maybe but what the hell...No way on this earth can a digital synth create sounds like one of these.I used to own a semi complete one of these but never worked.

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(Ignore the shit Roland Drum Machine playin)..Pure Analogue power..

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Synth you saw on Close Encounters Movie built into the white module..The guy playing it (White Shit Black Tie) was Philip Dodds who was the chief Engineer dude at Sonus at the time.

[DSJR]

Wish I'd become a comptetent keyboard player..

Andre, there were huge problems with some of those huge old analogue synths. The power supplies used to sag and pitch tuning could be a HUGE problem. They were also unreliable on tour and Tangerine Dream had a major failure on the mid seventies Australian tour, where a power transformer has crashed though adjacent circuit boards, making the big Moog unusable for a short while..

I think that digital technology has moved on a long way now, the current synths sounding very "analoguey" if recorded and mixed properly (I love some of the recent Klaus Schulze recordings). Also, Mark Shreeve of Redshift has shown how well his restored Moog Modular III translates to digital recording IMO.

I haven't tinkered for ages, but I downloaded the Arturia virtual demo synths and did some fun sequences with them (the sequences in "marinaTegenDer's" Ruby-CON for example....)

[Rare Bird]

Hi Dave
I'd rather put up with the problems than not own one, Digital Synthesis is pants..New digital gear may be better than it used to be, but you don't have the hands on creativity of the pioneering monsters that will rule the earth forever..

[Rare Bird]

If i was gonna buy one now i'd be very tempted with the Synthesizers.com moduals, they are totally stable clones of the Moogs.

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http://www.synthesizers.com/

[DSJR]

Not sure how I can post links to YouTube, but "Morbius" has some great vids on there, made with a modern huge analogue modular synth. I particularly love "Siliconsequences" and "Next Life progression." :peace:


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[Rare Bird]

classic use of Moog '960 sequencing, what made Chris Franke famous..TD 'Pheadra' is a good album to show this..

[DSJR]

There's a very interesting story on how Phaedra's first few moments came to be - an out of tune "burble" being slowed down in both pitch and tempo to get in tune with the Mellotron. An album that changed my life forever.

I have to say though that this guy above can play the sequencer on the fly, as Mark Shreeve can. Chris Franke in the early days needed the help of judicious tape editing I thought. Hopefully, the significant input by Peter Baumann to these albums won't go amiss.....

I can listen to this stuff all day and on the middle one was plotting the Mellotron choirs and strings to gently add on top... Oh dear :lol:

[Rare Bird]

The thing with both Chris Franke & Klaus Schulze is that they were originally drummers not Synth Pioneers..Klause was drummer with Tangerine Dream & Ash Ra Tempel...Chris Franke with Agitation that later became Agitation Free..

[DSJR]

Does T.O.N.T.O. come into your remit Andre? Man, that was/is HUGE :lol:

[Rare Bird]

:scratch:

[DSJR]

http://www.tontosexpandingheadband.com/






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[Rare Bird]

Did you know ARP made a '2600' with brail especially for Stevie Wonder :lolsign:

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[Rare Bird]

Does T.O.N.T.O. come into your remit Andre? Man, that was/is HUGE :lol:

Sorry Dave not heard of this but it seems it's nothing but a massive system made from Moog modules..I'd like to know exactly what modules & how many were used.

[DSJR]

Look it up... It started life as a standard Moog Series III, but the tuning drift problems and supply sagging (known weaknesses) were addressed with Moog *like* replacement modules. I think you'll also find an ARP or two in the cabinets as well... The recordings made as Tonto's Expanding Headband were awsome for the period, and not a vocoder at all I understand.

[Rare Bird]

Ok this is my next year project..build a massive modular system with the Moog clone modules from Synth.com..In a nice big Solid Oak cabinet or three

[DSJR]

Good luck. I look forward to seeing and hearing the results :)

[Floyddroid]

I had an ARP Odyssey back in the day and i loved it. I also had the opportunity to borrow a 2600 which i thought was an incredible machine at the time. Not the best build quality though.
Wish I'd become a comptetent keyboard player..

Andre, there were huge problems with some of those huge old analogue synths. The power supplies used to sag and pitch tuning could be a HUGE problem. They were also unreliable on tour and Tangerine Dream had a major failure on the mid seventies Australian tour, where a power transformer has crashed though adjacent circuit boards, making the big Moog unusable for a short while..

I think that digital technology has moved on a long way now, the current synths sounding very "analoguey" if recorded and mixed properly (I love some of the recent Klaus Schulze recordings). Also, Mark Shreeve of Redshift has shown how well his restored Moog Modular III translates to digital recording IMO.

I haven't tinkered for ages, but I downloaded the Arturia virtual demo synths and did some fun sequences with them (the sequences in "marinaTegenDer's" Ruby-CON for example....)

[HackneyRF]

A timely ressurection of an old thread Steve.

I recently saw Stars of the Lid at The Barbican in September using a Moog Modular 55 to fill out their sound, and man did it fill it out, it sounded breathtaking. It was part of Blast First Records founder Paul Smith's collaboration with Moog to put on concerts using vintage Moog gear, one of which included the late great Keith Emerson. Here is a link to that event and some blurb.

https://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=19496



"Since forming in 1993, Stars of the Lid (one of the most apropos names in all of music) have scratched out quite a niche for themselves as one of the most influential drone/ambient music projects on Earth. This fall, SOTL’s Adam Wiltzie and Brian McBride will be hitting the road to debut some new compositions, and some old classics with long time visual collaborator and projectionist Luke Savisky, and German lighting designer MFO. On stage this tour will be featuring a new band. Two new members, Robert Donne from Kranky label mates Labradford, and Adam’s long time studio collaborator Francesco Donadello. Plus Brussels residents and A Winged Victory for the Sullen’s string ensemble, the Echo Collective and a vintage Moog 55 Modular Synthesizer. SOTL was selected by independent event producer & Blast First Records founder, Paul Smith who formed a new partnership with Moog Music Inc to put on a series of concerts with some vintage Moog instruments, in the spirit of the Moog Concordance that was put on in 2015 at the Barbican in London with the late Keith Emerson, celebrating over 50 years since Dr Robert Moog introduced the world to the Moog modular synthesiser".

P.S. Keep up the good work with the Progcasts!

[Yomanze]

Now that the thread is back, I think that a lot of analogue synth preference is down to the unpredictable nature giving rise to new sounds and the character. Software synths don't really compete. However, looking at my setup I have an Akai sampler, a Nord Rack (original one) doing 'virtual analogue' with a huge amount of character running off a DSP, a Yamaha TX81Z FM synth, which I program off-board with knobs, but the patches have been used countless times on many hits, and an Atari ST on MIDI sequencing duties. No analogue in sight aside from FM, which is of course very different to traditional subtractive synthesis. Sounds great, loads of character and ridiculously tight MIDI timing from the Atari, and groove from Notator SL. ;)

[Haselsh1]

Yep, I used to use an Atari STFM running Cubase and the timing was just so bloody precise. I had a whole host of modules none of which were analogue though my favourite was an EMU Mo-Phatt. At that time I also had a Korg Z-1 the like of which I shall never own again.