I bought the Nonesuch Guide To Electronic music long time ago. An interesting 2-LP with a short, 3 minute, composition and the rest various sonds from VCOs, VCFs, VCAs and ring modulators, sweeps backwards and forwards ...
I am VERY MUCH into progressive music and very often synthesizers make up some backbone, sometimes less, sometimes more. And I think it is the mix of traditional instruments and electronics instruments that makes the music interesting.
However I have several discs with more or less synthesizer-only music, like the Japanese group Ars Nova, not to mention the best of best British synth groups ever - O.M.D. (didn't hear any protests - strange ...), Russian Little Tragedy and Ukrainian Sunchild. The feeling I have is that good electronic music has to be played in another fashion to be interesting.
I am VERY MUCH into progressive music and very often synthesizers make up some backbone, sometimes less, sometimes more. And I think it is the mix of traditional instruments and electronics instruments that makes the music interesting.
However I have several discs with more or less synthesizer-only music, like the Japanese group Ars Nova, not to mention the best of best British synth groups ever - O.M.D. (didn't hear any protests - strange ...), Russian Little Tragedy and Ukrainian Sunchild. The feeling I have is that good electronic music has to be played in another fashion to be interesting.
I grew up hearing OMD and saw them with my mother who was a big fan, back when I must be been...11 years at most.
I also like some electronica, but the genre itself is now so diverse and wide ranging that description means little.
I have a small sampling addiction, and I'm waiting a little bit of me time (minus the kids) so I can pinch my 2 year old sons drums and sample various hits, one shots. I'm a member on a forum or two with open source sample archives etc and have a few mates who quite involved in current (breaking) breakbeat style music (which seems to have a minor resurgence at the moment)
YouTube
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I played guitar from age 7 on. I was part of a surf music garage band in the mid 60's. It was the opening band at a Monkees concert that convinced me that I would never be a rock guitar star. The opening band was the Jimi Hendrix Experience....That show convinced me to find a dead Echoplex and make it live. Jimi had 3 that were visible, and maybe more.
In a similar fashion I had heard Lucky Man on the radio, so I went to an ELP concert held at a crummy amusement park called Pirates World. I was in the cable car ride which passed over the front edge of the stage. As I neared the stage the ride stopped, and I was about 30 feet from Keith Emerson as he wailed on a Hammond Organ with a pair of knives! The large Moog system was visible and used for some of the Pictures at an Exhibition stuff, but the Hammond and Mini Moog got the most action. This would lead me to begin construction of a monster synthesizer that somewhat resembled that large Moog system.
During and after high school I did some work in a recording studio where I learned the art of making tape loops and other studio FX with a reel of tape and a razor blade.
An Echoplex is a magnetic tape version of the looper pedal that is now common, as a Mellotron is a tape version of a sampler. Both appeared in the 60's, and digital versions are still being made.
I had an old vacuum tube Echoplex that worked. My attempts at using tape loops on those old Japanese 3 inch reel tape recorders from the 60's for a Melotron effect were less than perfect due to the non constant tape speed, but that didn't stop me. Pitch bend, yeah rectify and filter the output of a Lionel train transformer and run the tape machine's motor on that, play a distorted chord on the guitar, loop it and "play" some Moody Blues style Legend of a Mind bends on the train transformer.....I had two reel to reel tape recorders and I wish that some of my "bedroom session" tapes had survived. I still wonder what those recordings would sound like today. I'm sure that they sound far better in my memory than they really were.
One of the things I remember from the ELP show was the sounds created by running a metal object against the large reverb spring unit in a Hammond reverb cabinet. He had that fed into the Moog for further processing. I had one of those large reverb tanks, and created all sorts of horror movie sounds with that and a magnetic tape pitch shifter. I recently acquired a reverb tank like the one I had in the 60's. It will be added to my synth system as it gets built.
Today, sampling is too easy with a DAW. Much of my sampling today has been from "natural sounds" including the cat, and all sorts of common objects being whacked or ripped apart. I do have my daughter's drum set from the 1990's stashed away. I will get it out and set it up once I make a place for it.
Want a sample player for little money? Get one of these. Check out the demo video including the mini Melotron.
WAV Trigger – robertsonics
I just ordered the parts for a few copies of the 1970's Moog ladder filter. I have some ideas for warping it into something else.....
Switched on Bach was an early synth classic. A few others that I remember were all the Larry Fast Synergy albums, and anything by Isao Tomita. I had several others, but most of my record albums were stolen in the 70's.
In a similar fashion I had heard Lucky Man on the radio, so I went to an ELP concert held at a crummy amusement park called Pirates World. I was in the cable car ride which passed over the front edge of the stage. As I neared the stage the ride stopped, and I was about 30 feet from Keith Emerson as he wailed on a Hammond Organ with a pair of knives! The large Moog system was visible and used for some of the Pictures at an Exhibition stuff, but the Hammond and Mini Moog got the most action. This would lead me to begin construction of a monster synthesizer that somewhat resembled that large Moog system.
During and after high school I did some work in a recording studio where I learned the art of making tape loops and other studio FX with a reel of tape and a razor blade.
An Echoplex is a magnetic tape version of the looper pedal that is now common, as a Mellotron is a tape version of a sampler. Both appeared in the 60's, and digital versions are still being made.
I had an old vacuum tube Echoplex that worked. My attempts at using tape loops on those old Japanese 3 inch reel tape recorders from the 60's for a Melotron effect were less than perfect due to the non constant tape speed, but that didn't stop me. Pitch bend, yeah rectify and filter the output of a Lionel train transformer and run the tape machine's motor on that, play a distorted chord on the guitar, loop it and "play" some Moody Blues style Legend of a Mind bends on the train transformer.....I had two reel to reel tape recorders and I wish that some of my "bedroom session" tapes had survived. I still wonder what those recordings would sound like today. I'm sure that they sound far better in my memory than they really were.
One of the things I remember from the ELP show was the sounds created by running a metal object against the large reverb spring unit in a Hammond reverb cabinet. He had that fed into the Moog for further processing. I had one of those large reverb tanks, and created all sorts of horror movie sounds with that and a magnetic tape pitch shifter. I recently acquired a reverb tank like the one I had in the 60's. It will be added to my synth system as it gets built.
Today, sampling is too easy with a DAW. Much of my sampling today has been from "natural sounds" including the cat, and all sorts of common objects being whacked or ripped apart. I do have my daughter's drum set from the 1990's stashed away. I will get it out and set it up once I make a place for it.
Want a sample player for little money? Get one of these. Check out the demo video including the mini Melotron.
WAV Trigger – robertsonics
I just ordered the parts for a few copies of the 1970's Moog ladder filter. I have some ideas for warping it into something else.....
Switched on Bach was an early synth classic. A few others that I remember were all the Larry Fast Synergy albums, and anything by Isao Tomita. I had several others, but most of my record albums were stolen in the 70's.
Tube lab,
I have to say I have been turned on to the whole synth on a budget DIY thing.
In the past I've had Korg ER1 drum sequence, and I still own a Roland MC 303 groove box. Which if I'm honest is very dated and awful to program, but nice as a synth with a midi keyboard attached.
Primarily use DAWs, though I started on tape cassette 4 tracks.
I've looked at some of the Teenage Engineering stuff so far, and considered making some kind of glissade or tube oscillator to drive a thermin or the like.
Another thing on the to do list!
I have to say I have been turned on to the whole synth on a budget DIY thing.
In the past I've had Korg ER1 drum sequence, and I still own a Roland MC 303 groove box. Which if I'm honest is very dated and awful to program, but nice as a synth with a midi keyboard attached.
Primarily use DAWs, though I started on tape cassette 4 tracks.
I've looked at some of the Teenage Engineering stuff so far, and considered making some kind of glissade or tube oscillator to drive a thermin or the like.
Another thing on the to do list!
I have a 505. Haven't used it in years.
My daughter played in a band during her high school years and taught music for a few years during college. I still have her drums and Roland JV-1000 keyboard. The Roland was one of the early arranger keyboards that could do almost everything, but like a lot of that early stuff required some skill and patience to program. It needs repair now, it has the dreaded Roland glue disease.
If you can deal with the small keys an Arturia Keystep makes a decent little keyboard, but the sequencer / arpeggiator in it is good. I have one feeding my DIY synth and a Behringer Model D at the same time. It's a decent mini synth setup for about $300 new when bought on sale with an Ebay coupon stacked on top.
My end game is to design / build a vacuum tube synth. Something like the Knifonium without the price tag. I have a vacuum tube ladder filter in the breadboard stage, but I'm not happy with it yet.
For most of us in the UK who were children during the '70s our first awareness of electronic music would be the Doctor Who theme?
Messing with softsynths and a sequencer is a hobby for me. Not necesairly to make music to publish, it's more for the fun of messing arround and creating sounds and so that i do it. But sometimes something of me gets released on small scale. I'm mainly into experimental electronic dub or dub based music (wich is certainly not everybody's cup of tea).
And synths can be used to make great music. Artists like Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, New Order, Front 242, Aphex Twin, Future Sound of London, Daft Punk, ... are as high rated by me as top artists who use traditional instruments. It's not the instrument that counts, it's what you do with it.
And synths can be used to make great music. Artists like Karl-Heinz Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, New Order, Front 242, Aphex Twin, Future Sound of London, Daft Punk, ... are as high rated by me as top artists who use traditional instruments. It's not the instrument that counts, it's what you do with it.
Definitely even beyond the 70s (I was born in '78) and the evolution of the theme over the years was relatively slow and deliberate, at least until recently. The Tom Baker, Peter Davidson, McCoy days are most memorable for me.
At least as influential in MY childhood was the War of the Worlds LP. Plenty of synth in that too!
skoll! man you put an earworm out in the internet.
as response for no rational reason i would suggest this: Highlight tribe - Stellar Rain
I followed the link and listened for awhile. I am deeply impressed by this music, and bought the album 'Trilogie De La Morte' off eBay just a few minutes ago. I have been looking for this kind of music for a very long time, music eternally on the verge of falling apart, held together by microtonal beats in the oscillator tunings. Really lovely.
Thanks Bill, do you ever listen to Steve Reich? I love his work - check out 'Piano Phase' I have listened to it hundreds of times and never tire of it. Or his masterpiece 'Music For 18 Musicians' - the ECM recording is best.
ToS
It was Tomita's 'Snowflakes Are Dancing' that really did it for me. We must be around the same age, as my very first concert was to see ELP. My ears rang for days ......
There is a very good soft synth that you and a few others might like to have for yourselves called the iVCS3. It is a brilliant virtual copy of the VCS3 right down to the smallest operational detail, put out by ApeSoft, and available from the iTunes apps store for iPad. There are a lot of 3rd party patches out there to start tweaking from. This is a synth that has the highest imaginable sound quality for just a very small amount of money. A real instabuy.
ToS
Happy to help. Yes I have a bit of Reich. Music for 18 musicians I have on nonesuch, but always like ECM recordings and have to avoid their website for fear for my wallet.
Piano phase I have because my wife got into minimal piano music a couple of years ago so we have the 28 CD set that Jeroen van veen has done Jeroen van Veen, CD. But still much to explore.
I note people have mentioned Delia Derbyshire we should not forget Daphne Oram who setup the BBC radiophonic workshop. An album of her work, oramics has recently been re-relased* and here is some interesting stuff about the Oramics machine she developed for drawing sound with in the 60s. Student builds Daphne Oram’s unfinished ‘Mini-Oramics’ | Goldsmiths, University of London
*CD1 can be heard here YouTube
Piano phase I have because my wife got into minimal piano music a couple of years ago so we have the 28 CD set that Jeroen van veen has done Jeroen van Veen, CD. But still much to explore.
I note people have mentioned Delia Derbyshire we should not forget Daphne Oram who setup the BBC radiophonic workshop. An album of her work, oramics has recently been re-relased* and here is some interesting stuff about the Oramics machine she developed for drawing sound with in the 60s. Student builds Daphne Oram’s unfinished ‘Mini-Oramics’ | Goldsmiths, University of London
*CD1 can be heard here YouTube
I'm currently 66, but I started going to concerts quite early in life. One of the guys in our garage band had an older brother with a car. I think the Kingsmen of Louie Louie fame might have been my first concert to feature a big name band. It was probably 1964 and I would have been 12 years old.
The first biggie was the Hendrix show (maybe 1967). My mother liked the Monkees show on TV (pure garbage) and did NOT like what came out of my stereo. She offered to pay the $3 or $4 ticket cost if I went to the Monkees show.....I refused. The band mate's older brother told us that the opener was an excellent up and coming guitar player, and he was going, so I took mom's offer and went with him. I was about 15 years old. Jimi was a good guitar player, but an excellent showman....none of us could believe what we saw. OK the Who smashed instruments, but Jimi lit his guitar on fire, then played it while it burned. Its common to see someone playing live with their own loops today, but Jimi did it in 1967! We left when the Monkeees appeared.
I saw ELP twice. The first time it was the outdoor show, and not terribly loud......number two was the Brain Salad Surgery tour, and it was in a closed concrete hockey stadium. LOUD didn't describe it. Right up there with Pink Floyd and Metallica kind of loud.
I was also at the infamous Doors concert in Miami where Jim Morrison allegedly did dirty things on stage. He was most definitely extremely drunk, couldn't sing his own songs, and shirtless as was most of the crowd. The venue was an old sea plane hangar with a tin roof and no air conditioning. Hot and humid didn't describe it properly. One side opened into Biscayne Bay for airplanes and we had a way to get in free if you didn't mind getting wet and dirty. You had to swim under the hangar door. The bottom had rusted off.
Did he do the deed? The only thing I remember was some rather suggestive mouth on microphone stuff, but that's about when we decided to go out the way we came in....by water.
We had seen Steppenwolf via the back door earlier and it was OK for free, but also extremely hot. That place was demolished shortly thereafter.
After graduating high school in 1970 I started construction on my monster synth. It was built into and on top of an old Hammond transistor organ that I had. It had some analog circuitry, and I was building a digital synth engine when my world came unglued. I had collected nearly 1000 RTL logic chips from scrap circuit boards obtained by dumpster diving the Coulter Diagnostics plant. I had made a tone generator bank that used about 400 of those chips, all hand wired on perf board.
The relationship between myself and my father had degraded to physical violence, and I left home with what I could stuff into my car. I ripped the tone generator boards out of my synth and took them. From what one of my brothers would tell me two years later my father took a golf club to the synth before trashing it.....lots of tubes, speakers and other goodies were also destroyed.
Now over 45 years later I still have those boards. at least 3 of them were working, but haven't seen power since 1973. What are the odds that some 1960's vintage Motorola and Fairchild logic chips still work. i will fire those boards up some day. Picture of boards enclosed
Attachments
Very cool album cover featuring the EMS Synthi A:
See post #43.
The iVCS3 app is the ApeSoft virtual emulation of the EMS Synthi A
See post #56