The Official Sequential/Oberheim Forum
OTHER DISCUSSIONS => General Synthesis => Off Topic => Topic started by: Sacred Synthesis on January 16, 2016, 04:49:37 PM
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I thought it would be interesting and amusing if we all described our individual beginnings in synthesis and music - our first instruments, musical influences, eductaion, experience, and all else. Pictures, stories, and even old embarrassing recordings are welcome. This is not for bragging purposes, but more for fun and to liven up the forum a bit.
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Although my real musical beginnings were on organ (I learned at home on my mother's Conn Rhapsody), my first synthesizer was the Univox MiniKorg (below). My father bought it for me for $200 in East Hartford, Connecticut when I was about fifteen years old. When I got home and plugged it into my stereo, I thought I was the master of the universe. I was ecstatic. It sounded like a Moog Modular to my young ears. If you like bubble sounds, the MiniKorg is the ultimate! Since I liked to put the speakers in my bedroom windows, the neighbors began mentioning to my parents that they were hearing immense bubble sounds at all hours. "Is everything alright?"
My next synthesizer was a Korg MS-20. It was an important step up into programming from the MiniKorg, and I loved having the little patch bay for experimentation. If I remember correctly, by clever patching you can compensate for the absence of some parameters. Next, I had an Octave CAT (below). This instrument was one of my favorites. It was duophonic and had a fabulous thick, rich, heavy analog sound that was a huge improvement over the rather thin MS-20 tone. This sort of classic analog tone left a lasting impression on me, and I find myself searching for it again today. The CAT had impressive modulation and was far more complex than it appeared. With all the re-issues of vintage instruments these days, I often wish the CAT would reappear. From there I turned to ARP - the Axxe, Pro Soloist, Odyssey (all three models), Little Brother, and later, a Minimoog Model D, Moog Taurus Pedals, Elka Rhapsody 490, and Roland Juno 60. I also played Wurlitzer and Rhodes electric pianos.
My favorite bands were the Electric Light Orchestra, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes, and especially, Genesis. Tony Banks influenced my musical beginnings more than any other contemporary musician. I learned to appreciate the many uses of the diminished seventh chord from him. I was also able to perfectly imitate his distinctive Hammond sound on my Crumar Organizer with an MXR Chorus and Phase Shifter. That, combined with the sounds of the Pro Soloist, put me in Genesis paradise.
For a few years, I tutored synthesizer programming. After placing my advertisement in a music store and a newspaper, I would get phone calls from people saying, "I have such and such a synthesizer, and I can't get a sound out of it. Can you help me?" So, I'd visit their house once a week for several months, teaching them the simple physics of sound and how to understand the basics of synthesis.
After playing in bands for about seven years and composing quite a few elaborate progressive rock type pieces, I sold all my instruments (Okay, I threw the Crumar down a stairs after breaking up with a girl friend!) and went to music school for less than two years as an organ/composition major. While there, I took one class in electronic music, using a semi-modular ElectroComp 101 (below). The teacher - a classy middle-aged women from England - eventually decided to abandon electronic music because, in using reverbs and delays, she felt she was tampering with time. I never quite understood her. Surely, recording should have struck her the same way.
Finally, I turned exclusively to church music. On my own, I worked hard practicing organ for hours every night and studying music theory, especially counterpoint and harmony, with the help of an old Hohner Clavinet. I composed lots of preludes and fugues, and absorbed the influences especially of J. S. Bach and Girolamo Frescobaldi. The latter introduced me to a type of voice leading and chromatic movement that I now use constantly in my improvisations. I was a small-time working church organist/choir director for about twenty years. Then, about seven years ago, after being away from synthesis for many years, I bought a Prophet '08 out of a need for a home practice instrument. And you guys know the rest.
Although I took perhaps eight years of organ lessons, one year of harpsichord, and briefly attended music school, I'm primarily self-taught. In other words, I made very little progress under the guidance of others (probably because I'm slow), but excelled when working alone. I'm by no means a trained classical musician. As a performer, I'm only mediocre. My strength is in composition.
All of my synthesizers have been the parameter-ridden hands-on analog type - excellent for learning the fundamentals of synthesis. After getting a couple of DSI Evolvers, I seriously considered heading in a more digital direction. That short period has passed, and I'm now committed to a primarily analog direction.
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Great idea for a topic!
Like Sacred Synthesis, I started on an electronic organ, an old Hammond. But not one of the cool Hammonds, one of the thoroughly uncool Hammonds. My parents didn't want to invest in an acoustic piano until they were sure I was going to stick with lessons. I stuck with it, and when I was about 11, my parents bought a Sohmer spinet. This was 1982, and that piano is still with me, and it still sounds great. If it seems like I don't care about things like keyboard length and polyphony in synths, that piano is the reason.
I did not, in fact, have much interest in synths throughout the 80s. My first electronic instrument was a Casio MT-68, one of those dinky home keyboards. I more or less missed the end of the analog era. My first year of college, I took an electronic music course. The school's music department had an M1, a TX802, an Alesis HR-16, and a PC running Cakewalk. For the time, it was quite a setup, and it ignited a passion.
So as a broke college student, my first proper synth was a Yamaha DX100. I later added a TX81Z and a Roland MSQ-100 sequencer (look that one up). As one might expect, I found a pure 4-operator FM setup pretty sterile-sounding, and I turned to analog in around 1990 with an Akai Professional AX-73. I picked the AX-73 over a Juno 106 because of the extra octave and velocity-sensitivity. The tradeoff was that the Akai's programming interface was menu-based; being used to a DX100's interface, it seemed like a good deal.
After that, a summer job earned me a Kawai K1, and from there I went through a variety of synths with varying degrees of productivity. Aside from the AX-73, analogs included an ARP Axxe, Realistic MG-1 (built by Moog for Radio Shack), Korg Poly-800, Korg PolySix, DSI Mopho Keyboard, DSI Mopho "brick," and Minitaur.
In the mid-aughts, I briefly played in a rock band, for which I played a DX7. The DX7 is a superb rock-n-roll keyboard, and if I ever join another band, I will endeavor to pick up another. A DX7 was, in fact, my final digital keyboard before I went entirely analog, probably forever.
My favorite digital keyboard I've ever owned (not including the Evolver)? That's easy: Kurzweil K2000.
In my years of gear churn, is there something I regret giving up? That's easy, too: The Axxe. I sold the Axxe to buy a Wavestation, but I never fell in love with the Wavestation.
I noticed a pattern, over the decades, in my purchases. I alternate between two modes: desiring simplicity in sound design (at which times I'm interested in traditional composition) and complexity and flexibility (at which times I'm interested in experimental composition). With each toggle, I would have a mass shift in gear to accommodate the oncoming mode. Now that I understand the pattern, I have an instrument for each mode, and I feel a sense of stability.
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Cool idea! And thank you for the insights, Tim and chysn!
I started relatively late with my music education and only because I was betting with a friend (whoever makes it through the school year starts learning an instrument). By that time, I was 13 and I started to learn how to play on cheesy home organs at a so-called organ school close to where I lived. At home I only had a Yamaha keyboard (PSR-500 or something like that) and then a Casio for a couple of years. Since there were also pianos at the above mentioned school, I eventually switched over to that after a short while. 13 is of course a bad age for playing études exclusively, as one starts to rebel around that age and the kind of music that is associated with training is certainly not the most compelling in terms of self-expression. Instinctively, I always knew that I wanted to learn for my own needs instead of becoming an interpret in the first place. So beyond the lessons, I started to play around with harmonies - either from scratch or in response to something I had just listened to and wanted to figure out. Funnily, in my case Tony Banks of Genesis played a role too due to his rather unusual chord progressions. (You can also hear me playing the solo of "In The Cage" in the Pro 2 video I shot for Sacred Synthesis.) So by the time we were being taught about modulations in the music lessons at school I already knew that stuff; I only had to add the official terms to what I somehow figured out by doing.
After three years and a few summer jobs later, I finally got money together for my very first synth, a Korg Wavestation EX (neither did I know back then that Dave was involved, nor who he was). That was fun. It was supposed to be either this one or the Roland JD-800. In the end, I preferred the Korg sound, which I actually do until today. I wasn't even bothered by the fact that it was so menu driven, since the display appeared so large in comparison to most other synths around that time. And that's basically how I got into synthesis. Once I got a Kawai Q-80EX MIDI sequencer, I was finally able to record my first tracks. What helped significantly was that the Wavestation was 16 times multitimbral. I also got a Korg DF1 MIDI Data Filer in order to save my sound libraries to 3.5" discs instead of buying an endless amount of RAM cards. The next synth I got was a used DX7, which I always liked and still do like for its sound, but found incredibly obnoxious to program, which is why I ended up selling it again after only a few years. I also owned a Rhodes Mk II electric piano as well as a Wurlitzer A-200 in between. My first real stage piano in today's sense of the word was a Korg SG ProX though, which got later replaced by a Kawai MP8 II. By the time I got the Rhodes, I was already exploring different genres. I moved from what you would call Prog to Jazz and Fusion and then into the electronic driven music of the 90s.
After a break in taking lessons, I also returned to classical piano lessons. My teacher wanted to prep me to study music. The requirement for that is that you have to play at least two instruments. So I started to learn playing the electric bass in addition to the piano. The problem is that it's not really fun to sit down at home and play the bass on your own. In fact, I only got to appreciate playing bass years later, when I used to help out in a friend's punk band (which was probably the right framework for my playing abilities anyway). To cut a long story short: I eventually decided not to apply at a conservatory, since it became conscious to me that I'd find interpreting other people's compositions to be rather boring in the long run. And what would have been the most realistic outcome? Ending up as a frustrated music teacher? Thankfully my bass teacher also gave me a reality check, which basically ended up in the question, "Would you really like to do what I'm doing?" So I realized that my interest in learning about music was mostly selfishly motivated - I wanted to learn stuff in order to be able to use it for myself. That was always paired with a fascination for sound, which is such an important ingredient in popular music of course (I'm thinking of production techniques, not particular timbres that you can also have in an orchestra). Nevertheless, I ended up getting a BA in musicology.
After a period in which I was rather focusing on my technical abilities and improvisational skills, I eventually became interested in writing songs in the traditional sense. (Keep in mind that there is no song tradition in Germany just like in the Anglo-American culture, so I treated that genre rather like a music ethnologist and an exercise in form.) I became very unsatisfied with what I achieved on keyboards, and synths became less and less of an interest at that point. One day, I figured that I simply knew too much on the piano, which would only make things unnecessarily complicated. So I decided to unlearn everything by picking up an instrument that I couldn't play, which ended up being the guitar. I was never interested in it before, because teens only picked it up for promiscuous reasons connected to rock music or rather its perception. When you pick up the keyboard instead, that's almost the antithesis. So I ended up abandoning keys for a while and worked on songs that were based on my limited guitar skills. In that period, the only keyboard sounds I would use were organs and pianos.
A while later, I got my first MacBook Pro and became a late starter in computer recording. It was also the time when my eclecticism fell into one place and I finally was able to make use of various styles and interests in single pieces (also due to playing in completely different bands). What made this a lucky coincidence was of course the sheer abundance of possibilities that had developed ever since I abandoned synths, namely in the form of plug-ins. I became an avid Native Instruments user and tried out everything, although most of the times I was only tweaking presets to be honest. At around that time I remember seeing the cover of a keyboard magazine that featured Dave and the Prophet ’08 on it. I was just laughing to myself, thinking, “who needs that overpriced stuff anymore, when you can have it all as a plug-in?” Needless to say, I didn't even bother reading the article. Fast forward to 2011 I got back into hardware with baby steps: I got a Monotron, with which I even did a whole performance in conjunction with a looper and an effects unit, then a Monotribe, then a MiniBrute, and so on. I realized that the hands on experience did indeed make a huge difference and for the first time in years I was starting to make sounds from scratch again instead of getting lost in the sheer abundance of possibilities I tend to face with plug-ins. And then I eventually got a Prophet ’08 – oh the irony. That's how my story with DSI started and why I finally joined the old forum. From there I added other instruments, and sold former ones, the old game. As of now, I can't wait to fulfill one of my teenage dreams by getting a Prophet-6, which will make me feel like things came full circle somehow. Oh, and by the way, I still own my Korg Wavestation EX, but it's currently back in Germany. As it was my first one, it'll never go.
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I've never seen the EML before. Thanks for sharing the pic.
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Oh, and I edited my contribution a bit.
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The ElectroComp 101 was much like an ARP 2600 - a partly modular/partly hardwired four-oscillator instrument. It was excellent for complex experimental sound. It never made it as a popular instrument, but I think it was used more in university music departments.
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The ElectroComp 101 was much like an ARP 2600 - a partly modular/partly hardwired four-oscillator instrument. It was excellent for complex experimental sound.
Very cool. Do you still have any recordings that feature it?
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No. It wasn't mine. It belonged to the teacher at the conservatory. But I sure would like to have one, or something comparable to it, like a 2600.
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I'm a bit of a seeker I guess.
My first real contact with synthesizers was through music. My dad had tapes with Jean-Michel Jarre and Kitaro, and I remember being almost mesmerized by the sounds. I also got introduced to a certain Vangelis track at an early age (Soil Festivities Movement 1). I think these musicians and their music had a big impact on me, but I still didn't know much about synthesizers at that point. My dad also opened my eyes to the music of Mike Oldfield, whom I'm also a big fan of (not his newer stuff so much though).
Sound and music is very emotionally tied for me. I've got no formal training in anything related to music and thus when I produce something (usually promotion material for either my own sounds or some software synthesizer, etc) I often work on finding a mood. I don't think that music needs to be complex (i.e. in terms of structure, many chords, etc) to be interesting, for me expression/feeling is what's most important. One doesn't have to exclude the other though.
When I was in my teens I got in contact with tracking software for my Amiga A500. It was extremely basic (or you could even say primal) by today's standards but somehow I clicked with it. I continued working with trackers, eventually got a PC and initially continued with tracker software (Fast Tracker II). Around 1996/1997 I started to discover software synthesizers, I guess this was also around the same time that home computers had the power to run a couple of voices in real time. It was around this time that I started to learn the concepts of subtractive synthesis, but completely on trial and error. I'm a very analytical person which is great when I have to learn new things on my own.
(http://www.resolutionaudio.nl/Gfx/AxsScreenTopLarge.gif)
AXS (I think it was called Analogic back then) was a DOS based real-time soft synth that I used to educate myself.
I got my first hardware synth/keyboard around 1999/2000, the Yamaha CS1x. It was actually OK to tweak on, even though it was a rompler. I eventually sold it on to a friend though.
I mostly dabbled around for the next couple of years and it wasn't until I discovered propellerhead Reason in 2004 (then at version 2.5) that I finally found a home. Reason has been my main platform ever since. I just clicked with the rack paradigm and routing of audio and CV cables on the back. I think Reason really helped my creativity because it was a closed environment, just like real hardware you had to make do with the tools at your disposal, and this really triggered me to search for alternative solutions to problems. Over the years with Reason I also started reading up on various hardware synths and meticulously learning about their capabilities and limitations. In an almost obsessive manner I studied what kind of filter a specific synth had etc.
I've purchased and sold various hardware through the years. I think that I like the idea of hardware more than actually using it, probably because I'm so accustomed to working ITB.
Some of the hardware that I have owned is:
Access Virus Snow, Akai Miniak, DSI Evolver Desktop, DSI Poly Evolver Keyboard, DSI Tetra, Moog Sub Phatty, Realistic MG-1, Studio Electronics Boomstar (5089+SE80), Waldorf Blofeld, Waldorf Pulse, Yamaha FS1R. I also spent an considerable amount of money on a modular system (that I've also sold now).
Yet I'm still considering getting some sort of hardware, and I like to keep up with what's happening in the hardware world.
I do miss the Tetra at times. :)
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When I was in my teens I got in contact with tracking software for my Amiga A500. It was extremely basic (or you could even say primal) by today's standards but somehow I clicked with it.
Ah, the Amiga! I used Deluxe Music 2.0 for Amiga for a couple years. I had no MIDI interface for my Amiga, so it was basically just for printing music.
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When I was in my teens I got in contact with tracking software for my Amiga A500. It was extremely basic (or you could even say primal) by today's standards but somehow I clicked with it.
Ah, the Amiga! I used Deluxe Music 2.0 for Amiga for a couple years. I had no MIDI interface for my Amiga, so it was basically just for printing music.
Yeah I forgot to mention that. I didn't get an actual keyboard until I got that CS1x. Both Pro Tracker (Amiga) and Fast Tracker II (PC) had support for using your computer keyboard for inputting notes. Of course there was nothing like velocity or any other kind of expression. :)
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My first synth was a Roland Juno-106, although I had lusted after a friend's Roland Jupiter-6 for some time. I then cut my teeth on CV/gate with a Roland MC-202 MicroComposer and a matching grey SH-101, along with the requisite late-70s used synths (Moog Prodigy, Arp Omni 2 which I still have - interesting story), before I eventually ended up with an original Yamaha DX7 (shortly after they started shipping, also still have) to go with the Juno for live work (1985-86). I missed out on too many opportunities to buy a used OB-1 or Pro-One monosynth, as I didn't get it back then, and I'm kicking myself for it....
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Great topic that I have followed with interest since it was started. I have decided to postpone my own entry but can say that I have been deeply and madly in love with synthesizers almost all of my life.
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I have decided to postpone my own entry
Shut up and do your entry!
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I have been deeply and madly in love with synthesizers almost all of my life.
We'll accept that for now as the abridged version. ;D
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Shut up and do your entry!
General note: I would really appreciate if the voicing could be reconfigured to a more polite version. Thanks in advance!
;)
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Shut up and do your entry!
General note: I would really appreciate if the voicing could be reconfigured to a more polite version. Thanks in advance!
;)
Pretty please, with sugar on top, do your damn entry!
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I guess my story is a bit different than most of you as I am not a keyboard player.
I started playing guitar at about 12 which is my main instrument.
My first "synth" was a Casio PG380 guitar which I got in 1987 and cost a staggering (for me at the time) £1400. luckily at that time my partner was on good wages and leant she me the money to get it. I spent quite a while paying her back.
I wanted one as I had seem Midge Ure playing one and though it would be a neat way to get some synth sounds so we could kick the keyboard player (who was a pain in the arse) out of the band I was in at the time, of course this didn't quite work out.
It was a nightmare to play live with, requiring the utmost attention to detail to getting the tracking right and it weighed a tonne. Total nightmare.
I then ended up buying a roland GR300 and then a GR700, both of which were also nightmares. So I gave up on this synthesis stuff.
As time went on life got in the way of things and as I used to travel a lot for work so I stopped playing guitar totally until around 12 years ago when I started playing guitar again.
Soon after that I got back to the idea of synths and I got my first proper synth, a Nord Modular G2 which I coupled with an AXON AX100 guitar to midi converter and then the bug bit.
I now have crap loads of synth gear that still doesn't mesh well with being a guitar player, I still try to learn to play the keyboard but it just doesn't seem right too me, so I am currently also struggling with the Fishman Tripleplay guitar to midi system and a Linnstrument to control stuff.
In general I prefer complexity over tone, I always had this feeling which as a guitar player is very strange as they all seem to obsess about getting a particular tone, a particular guitar from a particular year with a particular amp from a particular year, etc. All well and good but only for a narrow subset of sound.
One of the most interesting things I own is a Symbolic Sound Pacarana running Kyma, A mind numbingly complex digital system that can produce the most sublime sounds. Other favourites are the Nord G1 and G2, Reaktor, MAX/MSP, VSynth-XT, Korg Kronos and P12. All complex synthesis dreams.
So really I like to make noises, I am not a classically trained musician, I'm a guitar player who thinks all guitar players are luddites and I like beer.
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So really I like make noises, I am not a classically trained musician, I'm a guitar player who thinks all guitar players are luddites and I like beer.
;D
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I now have crap loads of synth gear that still doesn't mesh well with being a guitar player
http://www.keithmcmillen.com/labs/stringport-2/
http://www.keithmcmillen.com/labs/strongarm/
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Thanks for the links.
I have the original string port, which cost a fortune and never worked properly. The audio driver they provided was coded by an idiot, absolute rubbish and then they just stopped supporting it and never got it working correctly, so no chance I would buy the second one!
I also have a Moog Guitar with the added 13 pin circuitry for midi converters. It's a more advanced version of that strong-arm thing. Each pickup can vibrate the strings and you can alter the balance between then which effects the harmonics, it also has a Moog ladder filter built in.
(http://www.simoncampbell.com/assets/images/MOOG-Guitar-Model-E1-Simon-Campbell.jpg)
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An example of what the Moog Guitar sounds like, first part of clip if me effecting the filter with the pedal, the second half after the annoying click is the harmonic balance being effected.
Well there would be a MP3 apart from the fact I just get the following while trying to post an attachment:
Request Time-out
Server timeout waiting for the HTTP request from the client.
Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Anyone else having problems?
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I have the original string port, which cost a fortune and never worked properly. The audio driver they provided was coded by an idiot, absolute rubbish and then they just stopped supporting it and never got it working correctly, so no chance I would buy the second one!
Understandable! This behavior is unfortunately something we see from time to time from smaller manufacturers with limited software development resources and a strong drive to move forward. The only way KMI could rescue the situation would be to offer the new product for a very symbolic fee to users of the original StringPort product. And yeah I have seen some of the comments from existing StringPort customers on the KMI forum.
The Moog Guitar is absolutely awesome. Look forward to hear some of your demos! Have you considered setting up a soundcloud or youtube account to display your demos?
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My interest in electronic sounds really started as a kid with a Radio Shack 101-in-1 kit. If you remember, those kits were those rectangular boxes that contained the springs, electronic parts and wires that you could make radios and other circuits with. They were marketed for kids. Anyway, I spent many hours trying to change the electronic bird sounds into more sustained drones and controlled notes values.
Meanwhile, growing up as kid, drums were my instrument. Took lessons on that all thru college and stayed with it, playing in bands as a pastime up till recently. I liked all sorts of music and still do. But I think I always had a fondness for the "spacy" parts you'd hear in various songs...whether it be the intro to some Billy Cobham fusion song or a classical piece done by Tomita, or a movie track, or whatever. I always knew it was synthesizer making such sounds, but never really knew much about them other than my visual exposure as a young teen to Michael Iceberg doing his live synth show at Disney World. I guess I always thought synthesizers to be out of my realm- not being a keyboardist myself. Then one day, about 8 years ago, I walked into my local Guitar Center to buy a set of new Hi Hat cymbals and spotted this used Novation K station for like $100 laying on the floor. I snatched it up, being cheap as it was and went home without the HH cymbals. I didn't mind not having the cymbals though. I was blown away by this "box" and how there was something like this that could make all those 'spacy sounds". I was very excited that now I could make such sounds on my own Wow! Exciting stuff!
Well, since then I started reading and learning and adding to the instrument collection wherever possible. This hobby has outgrown all others for me, and I do love the synthesizers very much. I only on rare occasions still pick up my drum sticks- and usually only when I need to make the choice whether or not to turn on my drum machine- I find the sticks a much easier option for me :)
I'll eventually tack on to this post my instrument progression over the last several years and the mistakes and good fortunes I've had with the various purchases along the way.
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I started teaching myself music in 1976. I bought a cheap violin and a bridge pickup and played it through an old mono Yamaha synth. I wanted to play music that was different to everything else that I heard but only had a small budget. I was saving up to get an instrument built (a fretted viol with a self designed 3D pickup) but I was ripped off by the maker who never finished it. As a late starter I was short on instrumental technique, but my unique approach to music theory meant that I always sounded different and so I got to play with people who were much more instrumentally skilled than I was because I interested them.
I dabbled with a many different instruments but by 1981 my initial work in music theory was finished and I needed to concentrate on keyboards where the notes are all in a row and any chord is possible. After a couple of years playing a polyphonic Casio (still fed through the mono synth) I had enough technique and money to buy a Yamaha DX7 which I chose after I read the instruction manual and realised that I could build almost any sound that I could imagine.
Thirty Years later after a lot of fun My DX7 and its replacement DX7 both died and I looked carefully at what else was out there. Nothing seemed to fit my requirements until Dave released the Prophet 12. It was the promise of FM that attracted me, but Exponential FM was not much use to me, so instead I wrote over 100 original quadraphonic voices to create a new palette of spacial sounds. Now we have Linear FM and I am some way towards my next 100 voices.
I returned to my unique study of music theory 15 years ago, concentrating on rhythm and polyrhythms, so I have also been programming the Layer A and B arpeggiators to make cross rhythms. I don’t have a wide experience of different equipment, but I think I have taken both the DX7 and P12 to places nobody else has.
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Thirty Years later after a lot of fun My DX7 and its replacement DX7 both died and I looked carefully at what else was out there. Nothing seemed to fit my requirements until Dave released the Prophet 12. It was the promise of FM that attracted me, but Exponential FM was not much use to me, so instead I wrote over 100 original quadraphonic voices to create a new palette of spacial sounds. Now we have Linear FM and I am some way towards my next 100 voices.
I returned to my unique study of music theory 15 years ago, concentrating on rhythm and polyrhythms, so I have also been programming the Layer A and B arpeggiators to make cross rhythms. I don’t have a wide experience of different equipment, but I think I have taken both the DX7 and P12 to places nobody else has.
That's very cool, Chaparral. Do you happen to have uploaded a few recordings of your sounds?
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My start was buying a Moog Sonic Six at a yard sale for $5. Could not figure it out. I tried to make it sound like a piano. Later tried to make loops that might sound like a Suzanne Vega record 99 Fahrenheit. I think it needed some serious servicing, but I had no clue how to make it work.
Later loaned it to someone. They never gave it back and I didn't care cause I liked Nirvanna and Perl Jam and guitar ruled.
Only later did I realize what happened. I'm cool with it. :-)
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Just a reminder, folks, that this thread exists. I was hoping for many more entries, seeing as we're slowly approaching 700 members.
Firstly, I am a guitarist by trade.
My first hands on experience with a synth was in 1985. My Dare band mate Darren Wharton (Thin Lizzy) had an OB-8 that he was using but also in the studio were an old string machine (maybe a Logan) and a Mini Korg 700. I always wanted to play keyboards so I used to sometimes take the Logan and the Korg 700 home for the weekend. I had no idea what I was doing on that Korg at the time but loved playing about with it through an Ibanez DM1100 digital delay.
I just used to transfer what I knew on guitar and work out the chords on the Logan too.
Later on as the band got more gear like the DX7 and once we got a record deal, JX8P, JX10 etc, the OB-8 was often left gathering dust so I used to have the odd weekend with that and a DX drum machine. I loved that OB-8 although it was a little too complex for me at the time. No manual and no internet then to download one haha. Great fun though and the pad sounds were amazing. I realised at this time that I loved writing on keyboards as well as guitar as it opened new areas for me that I would never stumble across on guitar.
I left the band (Dare) after a couple of albums and joined Asia then Ultravox. Later on I also got to work with Don Airey for a year in my old band Ten. I have been so lucky to have worked with Darren Wharton, Geoff Downes, Billy Currie and Don. Great players and great sounds. :-)
About this time, I bought a Roland JV50EX just for writing. I hated that there was no way of editing anything beyond filter and amp envelope. Over the years I added a few modules (Roland MVS-1, Korg NS5R, Roland MKS 70, EMU Morpheus, Akai S3000XL, Juno 6, etc). Apart from the Juno, these synths all relied on a mouse and editor (if you could find one).
Next came a Yamaha EX5. Loved that synth but again, all programming was a nightmare with tons of menu's. An Emu E4K, E-Synth and E4XT Ultra followed.
After a JV1080 and fully loaded 2080 I bought a Roland Integra 7. I started to miss the old sounds though. I bought a DX7 to cover a few old sounds we used to use then upgraded that to SY99. The problem again was no hands on editing.
During all this time, I also blew thousands on VST and AU virtual instruments. Got stung on so many of these when companies would suddenly stop supporting them and after a few OS grades for Logic or Cubase, they would not be compatible anymore. Money down the drain.
Then, analog came back in fashion. DSI brought out the Pro 08. My mate Chris bought one. Loved it when I heard it. It had a proper hands on interface and I wanted one. Since I bought mine, I never stopped playing and programming it. Next came a Moog Minitaur, Moog Sub 37 and a Nord Electro 4 now replaced by an Electro 5.
I am still on the lookout for an OB-8. I was bidding on one the other week on eBay but there was some shill bidding going on when I looked through the bid history. When I called the guy out, he pulled the auction :-)
Like lots of people here, I don't want the headache of having to service and keep on top of an old synth but until someone brings a proper 8 voice Obie to the table, it's my only option.
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Have you thought about getting the OB6, we all know guitar players only need 6 notes ;)
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Have you thought about getting the OB6, we all know guitar players only need 6 notes ;)
Haha. Absolutely certain :-) I do love the sounds of the OB6 though. Not heard a bad clip yet. Just don't like the keyboard length or 6 note poly. Will wait until someone gets it right. No 4 octave keyboards and no compromised voice count.
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See, even a guitarist agrees! Five octaves is the ideal.
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See, even a guitarist agrees! Five octaves is the ideal.
No, ideal - in the truest sense of the word - would be something like this:
(http://www.davesmithinstruments.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Prophet-T8.jpg?ed6b29)
;D
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Five octaves is the ideal in that it is both portable and complete. Only piano-type music requires the above keyboard length. The standard organ length suffices for nearly all synthesizer music. In fact, many synthesizer patches - such as the classic Oberheim PWM - couldn't even be used over that wide of a range. Five octaves is just perfect.
There, take that!
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Five octaves is the ideal in that it is portable and yet complete. Only piano-type music requires the above keyboard length. The standard organ length suffices for nearly all synthesizer music. Take that!
Sigh. Don't always take me too serious.
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But if you really want to see my ideal keyboard arrangement....
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… and ideal knob sizes.
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Yes, the knobs can be grabbed in an instant, such as when you have only that long to add a rank or two while playing. And notice the thumb presets under the keyboard, for making dramatic changes in registration without even lifting your hand from the keyboard. There is much wisdom in the design of a pipe organ - obviously due to centuries of collected experience. I only wish some of it could be incorporated into the synthesizer. It seems that at least Roland has tried.
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It has been done on a lot of preset synths in the 1970s actually. Early Roland synths come to my mind as well, such as the Jupiter 4 and the Promars.
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Once again, Roland. But weren't those factory presets, rather than user programs?
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Yes, I think so.
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I was thinking of candidates like these:
(http://www.vintagesynth.com/moog/satellite.jpg)
(http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/minikorg700.jpg)
(http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/images/new_e_roland_jp4.jpg)
With regard to the Promars I was wrong. It has the colorful switches above the keyboard.
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Oh sure, all those old preset instruments. Some of them were designed to sit on top of an organ. Hence, the occasional music stand. Still, it's better than nothing.
In the name of resourcefulness, I think that long ridge just under the keyboard would be a good area to exploit. You could fit a long row of presets there, and save quite a bit of top panel space to be used for other parameters. You can fairly quickly develop a technique for pressing these buttons with your thumb right along with your playing.
Of course, DSI has gotten in the habit of putting a nice strip of wood there, which looks sharp. But it could be used for program buttons.
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John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream, Jay Chattaway, Vangelis, Goblin, Rick Wakeman, Wendy Carlos, John Harrison and other soundtrack composers really influenced me. While I started on piano and guitar I've always been fascinated by those sounds and noises created on soundtracks for Escape From New York, Maniac, Creepshow, and The Park Is Mine. Hearing the ratcheting sequences of Tangerine Dream on Michael Mann's Theif, the insane melodies and sequencing on Rick Wakeman's score for the 80s slasher The Burning or Carpenter's acoustic piano and Moog synths warring with each other on The Fog while a step sequenced white noise generator crackles away in the background...man.. it just did it for me and it still does. I recently got into synths and purchased a Roland FA-08, Moog Sub 37 and recently a Prophet 6 to recreate those classic soundtrack sounds and create some of my own.
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I guess it needs to be said that this thread is about each person's personal musical formation, where as the thread entitled "What Lead You to DSI Synths, and Where Did You Come From?" is concerned about equipment. Let's try to keep both threads on track.
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John Carpenter, Tangerine Dream, Jay Chattaway, Vangelis, Goblin, Rick Wakeman, Wendy Carlos, John Harrison and other soundtrack composers really influenced me. While I started on piano and guitar I've always been fascinated by those sounds and noises created on soundtracks for Escape From New York, Maniac, Creepshow, and The Park Is Mine. Hearing the ratcheting sequences of Tangerine Dream on Michael Mann's Theif, the insane melodies and sequencing on Rick Wakeman's score for the 80s slasher The Burning or Carpenter's acoustic piano and Moog synths warring with each other on The Fog while a step sequenced white noise generator crackles away in the background...man.. it just did it for me and it still does. I recently got into synths and purchased a Roland FA-08, Moog Sub 37 and recently a Prophet 6 to recreate those classic soundtrack sounds and create some of my own.
It's interesting I guess that the old films you mentioned (amongst others) are probably the only access that the "younger < 20" generation has to these sort of sounds. just the mention of the soundtracks brings a shiver to my spine.
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Moinmoin,
I'll throw my few cents in, as the (hi)stories of other people interested me, so maybe mine does for other people.
Born in '58, I was a little bit awake when the Beatles and Stones got airplay in Germany. Radio and even TV seemed to have a lot of time and even were wishing to experiment. You could see some bands with real hits as well as some strange cats like the Monks. And every piece of music was played until its end, no fade out of "Whole lotta Love" when the interesting things start to happen!
Glorious times...
I got the chance to learn cello age 11 and took it. Unfortunately my teachers were very ambitious as players and went to bigger cities in order to make their own carreer. After three years with three teachers I gave up in order to concentrate on swimmig and modern pentathlon. There also must have been something like school, but that seemed somewhat en passant.
Being 16, I saw - again in German TV - a band playing unbelieveble stuff, the first Mahavishnu Orchestra. This changed things. Forever. I wanted exactly that. Fortunately late 70s offered the chance to have pubs and clubs, where this kind of music was played. You could find me there.
I fell in love with the Rhodes-sound, went working at the buildings during several school holidays until I could afford one. I did not have any musical preparation for playing it and unfortunately the musicians I listened to were (and are) of f***ing high musicality and virtuosity. So I switched between euphoria and frustration for a long time.
Nevertheless I managed to play in a band heavily influenced by 70s Jazz-Rock, our first gig was November 17th, 1976 and a big success in our small town.
I tried to compensate for my technical imperfection (<- caution: heavy understatement!) with practicing, practicing, and practicing, and finally reached a state I could live with. Hearing and playing this kind of music with "strange" harmonies and "odd" time signatures lead me to theory, what made me able to talk to and learn from professional musicians.
After school and what we in Germany used to call "Zivildienst" (army was a must for boys then; this was the alternative, doing social work after Your conscience was testesd by people working for the ministry of defence...) I went to study electrical engineering, but never stopped to make music. I always was interested in technical stuff, it still helps me a lot to know what e.g. resonance means not only in music, but in general.
The single aspects of synthesizing a sound from several building blocks have physical backgrounds forming musical results. This at least has always been my approach and maybe separates me from many other keyboard, even synthesizer palyers. I never was satisfied with playing the keys only or with factory sounds: "knobs" were of the same or even more importance for me. It helped to have a simple, monophonic synthesizer, in my case the Transcendent 2000, designed by Tim Orr of EMS fame. It was available as kit, so I could afford it, even built it myself and of course modified it later.
Playing Rhodes and my trusted Transcendent 2000 in a band with a very bad bass player, listening to Bands like Brand X and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters (Percy Jones and Paul Jackson are still my favourite bassists on fretless/fretted electric bass), I started an existence as a good, often gigging amateur / sometimes payed for bass player, that still lasts. Keyboards were there for theory and occasional playing, just for myself, not in public. I took double bass lessons for three years, which still helps me a lot, although I only once played it in public.
Getting older, my self-confidence (as musician as well as human being) grew and enabled me to open my ears and mind for nearly any kind of music. Although not skilled even as a listener for classical music, I tried it and do like especially Bach and Mahler (OK, both not "Wiener Klassik", but baroque resp. late romatics, but You know, what I mean). Although playing it for 30+ years, I started electric bass lessons 3 years ago and will continue to do so. I recently started to play Capuzzi's and some of Dragonetti's concerts on electric bass (with and without frets).
My return to keyboards is described in the thread entitled "What Lead You to DSI Synths, and Where Did You Come From?". Today I am happy to play organ, piano, and synthesizer with good pros: visit http://www.final-virus.de/. Unfortunately no new stuff there, but close to come. We play more than we are online ;) Peter BTW is my bass teacher.
As stated in the other thread I am not that interested in fast keyboard playing but in sounds and athmosphere. Of course I do provide harmonic background in general and at special occasions (bass shines so much with carefully selected pads behind it), but I really like the approach of Bugge Wesseltoft's new concept of jazz: "walking onstage with nothing else but an electric groove". My solos use to be sound and rhythm more than fast lines.
My profession is still that of an engineer, I am quite successful and happy with it, but playing with pros starts drawing me to another direction. Exciting times ahead...
Martin (obbviously a lucky guy, thanks to life in general an music in special)
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Martin, Welcome! Glad to have you aboard!
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Just a reminder, folks, that this thread exists. I was hoping for many more entries, seeing as we're slowly approaching 700 members.
Firstly, I am a guitarist by trade.
My first hands on experience with a synth was in 1985. My Dare band mate Darren Wharton (Thin Lizzy) had an OB-8 that he was using but also in the studio were an old string machine (maybe a Logan) and a Mini Korg 700. I always wanted to play keyboards so I used to sometimes take the Logan and the Korg 700 home for the weekend. I had no idea what I was doing on that Korg at the time but loved playing about with it through an Ibanez DM1100 digital delay.
I just used to transfer what I knew on guitar and work out the chords on the Logan too.
Later on as the band got more gear like the DX7 and once we got a record deal, JX8P, JX10 etc, the OB-8 was often left gathering dust so I used to have the odd weekend with that and a DX drum machine. I loved that OB-8 although it was a little too complex for me at the time. No manual and no internet then to download one haha. Great fun though and the pad sounds were amazing. I realised at this time that I loved writing on keyboards as well as guitar as it opened new areas for me that I would never stumble across on guitar.
I left the band (Dare) after a couple of albums and joined Asia then Ultravox. Later on I also got to work with Don Airey for a year in my old band Ten. I have been so lucky to have worked with Darren Wharton, Geoff Downes, Billy Currie and Don. Great players and great sounds. :-)
About this time, I bought a Roland JV50EX just for writing. I hated that there was no way of editing anything beyond filter and amp envelope. Over the years I added a few modules (Roland MVS-1, Korg NS5R, Roland MKS 70, EMU Morpheus, Akai S3000XL, Juno 6, etc). Apart from the Juno, these synths all relied on a mouse and editor (if you could find one).
Next came a Yamaha EX5. Loved that synth but again, all programming was a nightmare with tons of menu's. An Emu E4K, E-Synth and E4XT Ultra followed.
After a JV1080 and fully loaded 2080 I bought a Roland Integra 7. I started to miss the old sounds though. I bought a DX7 to cover a few old sounds we used to use then upgraded that to SY99. The problem again was no hands on editing.
During all this time, I also blew thousands on VST and AU virtual instruments. Got stung on so many of these when companies would suddenly stop supporting them and after a few OS grades for Logic or Cubase, they would not be compatible anymore. Money down the drain.
Then, analog came back in fashion. DSI brought out the Pro 08. My mate Chris bought one. Loved it when I heard it. It had a proper hands on interface and I wanted one. Since I bought mine, I never stopped playing and programming it. Next came a Moog Minitaur, Moog Sub 37 and a Nord Electro 4 now replaced by an Electro 5.
I am still on the lookout for an OB-8. I was bidding on one the other week on eBay but there was some shill bidding going on when I looked through the bid history. When I called the guy out, he pulled the auction :-)
Like lots of people here, I don't want the headache of having to service and keep on top of an old synth but until someone brings a proper 8 voice Obie to the table, it's my only option.
I have not done an entry yet and may not for awhile, as I am new here, but just wanted to say I am a huge Lizzy fan. I saw Phil and the boys wipe the the stage with so many headliners in Memphis back in the day it' s not funny.
Really cool to see you here!
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I have not done an entry yet and may not for awhile, as I am new here, but just wanted to say I am a huge Lizzy fan. I saw Phil and the boys wipe the the stage with so many headliners in Memphis back in the day it' s not funny.
Really cool to see you here!
Thank you :-) look forward to seeing your posts. I actually finally bought my Oberheim OB8 and it is everything I was hoping it would be. So easy to dial in nice sounds. It's lovely.
All the best.
Vinny.
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Hi,
I'm one of the long time readers and I do really enjoy reading here! This forum has so much more quality of discussion and information than all the others I know. I just didn't dare to chime in yet ... but now I'll give it a go 8)
Here's my story:
I started with classical piano lessons at the age of 8. Soon I made myself familiar with different types of modern music possible on the piano and with playing from lead sheets.
I never got to see or play anything close to a synthesizer till much later, but as a child I played every entertainer keyboard that I found at places of friends or family. It was natural for me to try every single sound and master every single function these keyboards had. I guess this was the first step on my way to synthesis.
Fortunately my parents sent me to an academic high school with musical focus where I improved my piano playing and ensemble skills (big band, choir and backing many soloists on the piano).
The instruments I played where pianos, grand pianos and electric pianos (often including rompler sounds).
For approx. four years I attended church organ lessons. Then I realized it was not for me because I'm just a piano guy.
I also taught myself guitar and enjoyed it (especially distorted electric guitar ;D) as a counterpart to the piano.
Through a friend I got into recording and mixing, so after school I went to study a combination of music and audio engineering/production at a university in Berlin.
I was totally into funk music (especially raw/deep funk) so I bought a hammond clone soon. Creating the sound with the drawbars was a major step into the synthesis direction.
A few years later two friends I knew from a musical project and me started a pop band. There was no bass player so I played it with my left hand. And that's were the synthesizer comes in (finally!) - I bought a used Roland SH-201 not knowing anything about other synths. But it was cheap and it had knobs and sliders. :)
Subtractive synthesis was very easy to understand but it took some time to get ideas and inspiration for synth sounds, because I didn't listen to much synth music before.
The sound of the SH-201 was not really enjoyable and I was really intrigued by the concept of the vocoder, so I bought a Korg R3 as my second synth. Only then I started to designing many patches (some on the front panel, some with the software editor).
Some musical projects I was part of had already finished songs with synth presets from e.g. logic. So I reprogrammed all sounds on my R3 by ear. This was a very efficient way of refining my programming skills. Also, my ears are well trained from studying which helps a lot designing synths sounds.
Soon I joined the 'gas movement' and got the DSI Tetra, Bass Station 2, Prophet08, Slim Phatty, Blofeld etc.
Meanwhile I got the feeling that my gas is (partially) cured and I'm exploring my classical piano roots again.
The pop band I mentioned earlier is now my most important activity. We have developed our very own style of music through the years which is a very lucky thing. I'll link the homepage to my profile/signature for anyone interested.
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Moinmoin Synthmaniac,
You wrote backing many soloists on the piano
Interesting: I'll send you a Message (in German ;-)
Martin
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Just for kicks, I thought I'd post some very old recordings. I may be making a fool out of myself, but so be it. The first selection is the very first piece of music I ever composed, multi-tracked in a proper recording studio in Wethersfield, Connecticut, complete with timpani and gong. The brass arpeggio part is played on an Octave CAT synthesizer, and the organ is set to my Tony Banks sound. The second piece is one of those little ditties you make for your girlfriend on her birthday. They always work. ;)
Pardon the awful audio quality. The little chipmunks kept slipping on the reels.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJi9eYSH1PA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttXIuRf4tpM
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Sacred Synthesis,
The bass on the first one sounds really nice. Is that the organ doing that? The piece reminds me of old ELP.
I thought the second one was catchy.
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Thanks, Soundquest. The bass for the first piece was played on the organ keyboard. It's the sort of sound you often find on the lowest octave of a combo organ. The synthesized bass at the end was played on the CAT, which has a fabulous raw analog tone.