Scott, I still have the not-quite-finished modular synth I started as a kid back in the mid-late '70s. made from Aries modules. I made it to 6 or 7 modules + keyboard before the company ceased operations. :/ I need to clean it up and sell it - people are paying utterly silly money for that stuff these days.
Coincidentally, just last week I discovered a (very) small stash of CEM & SSM ICs while cleaning out a closet.
Those modular synths using patch cords must have been a nightmare. I wanted this Maplin synth which had a patch bay that used shorting pins instead The Maplin 5600S Analog Synthesizer – Synthtopia YouTube
The Aries modular system had the capacity to create normalled connections via the backplane connectors (the front-panel jacks had NC contacts) which simplified things somewhat.
I actually used it a few times in a live setting. Used to run sound for my buddies' band, so I set it up out at the mixing console. Used it for stuff like the intro to REO Speedwagon's "Riding The Storm Out," the break in Edgar Winter's "Free Ride," important stuff like that.
Silly but fun, and it got a rise from the punters in the clubs back in '76 or so.
That song was an instant classic.
Not to be pedantic, but Keith actually used not a Minimoog but his legendary huge modular Moog to record "Lucky Man." I bring it up because that synthesizer has quite an impressive story of its own.
My favorite chapter is how it languished for many years during the '80s, when interest in prog rock was at a low ebb. There are rumors that it even spent several years in a storage unit in Buffalo, NY, a place known for brutal winter weather!
Anyway, when the band reformed after many years to record their Black Moon album, the big synth was returned to service after hundreds of hours of work, and was used on the '92/93 tour. (I got to see & hear it then - a wonderful show.)
Back to the music. Here's a track from Black Moon that is not only a great song, but to me has always heralded the triumphant return of the Big Moog. The solo at the end is very evocative of the one in 'Lucky Man" from so many years earlier. And to think they were both performed on the same instrument, after having been to hell and back, is just pretty cool to me.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer: "Farewell to Arms"
Rock !
Revelation of Noise-Rolling Stones REVELATION OF NOISE-Rolling Stones (original mix) by Revelation Of Noise | Free Listening on SoundCloud
I would love to know more, as according to all the "experts" I've talked to, including Dave Stewart of Hatfield and the North, it was a Minimoog. Also this story would seem to suggest it was a smaller synth - The genesis behind the Moog of the late Greg Lake’s ‘Lucky Man’
Jim the Oldbie;5175821 Anyway said:
There are 2 clues in the song itself. First, the solo in "Lucky Man" spans 4-1/2 octaves. The Minimoog's keyboard is only 3-1/2 (the modular's is 5). Also, the portamento, or glide effect on the solo has a distinctive exponential characteristic - you can hear the notes swoop rapidly up & down, then settle gradually into the new pitch. This was the way the modular keyboard worked. The Mini on the other hand used a linear glide circuit that produced a noticeably different effect. (I'm trying to think of a song that demonstrates the Mini glide, but I'm drawing a blank. I'll post a link if I remember one.)
Now I remember - here's a long Minimoog glide, at the very end of this prog-rock classic:
Kansas: "Journey from Mariabronn"
Kansas: "Journey from Mariabronn"
I know there are long synth-glides in the music of PFM, so I had to look one up but found this instead. Ian Anderson and Premiata Forneria Marcone - COOL!
PFM & Ian Andersson - Bouree
PFM & Ian Andersson - Bouree