Early uses of synths in pop music

This came up among my YouTube suggestions:  interesting!  Many things I hadn't known (or noticed) before.



--GG

Accidental breakthrough

Last night I was messing around with my vocoder synth, which included working out a part for one of the three songs I'm in the middle of.

I'm pleased to say that I somehow managed to work out the correct notes for both riffs, as I heard them in my head, on my very first attempt. For those of you with good ears (and/or perfect pitch) this probably doesn't mean anything -- but I'm disadvantaged in that area -- so I was, of course, immensely pleased that I hit upon the riffs without any effort.

Also, this will be the first time I've actually used the pitch-bend wheel in a song (rather than just messing around): when I was singing the part into the vocoder, the last two words seemed too choppy; it turned out I needed to slur them together -- so I play the second-to-last note with the pitch-bend all the way up (i.e. a whole step), then release it while holding down the same key, which slurs the pitch down to the correct final note.

I have some other tasks I'm supposed to be working on for the next few weeks --  so no additional recording until late Sept.

However, I have 90 minutes of down-time each Saturday, sitting in the rumpus room of the kids' piano teacher -- so I've been bringing my laptop and "good" headphones and tidying *.wav files that I'd recorded with my cell phone, to use in a techno-ish song I'm working on (the same one I'm using the vocoder in):  the working title is "SGFZASS".

--GG

Two desirable synths

I'm a regular reader of the Sound on Sound recording technology magazine.  I used to read Recording magazine -- but SoS now suits my needs better because it includes live sound as well as recorded sound, and in addition to "recording" gear it also reviews synths and the occasional guitar effects pedal.

In the January 2015 issue, they review the Dave Smith Instruments' "Pro 2" synthesizer.  Sounds promising.  In the "Alternatives" sidebar (p. 106), the reviewer suggests the Moog Sub 37 as being "probably the closest competition".  "The Sub 37 is more imediate and has bucketfuls of that classic Moog sound, while the Pro 2 is much more fleixbile and can be intergreated into an analogue sutdio in ways that the Moog can't.  [...]  I recommend that you win the lottery and buy both."

Will do.


Here's an example of each.

Dave Smith Instruments - Pro 2  (mostly 1:53, 2:33...)


Polyphonic:  can play actual chords.


Moog Sub 37 (esp. 0:24, 0:41,

Paraphonic:  can play two notes at once if you tweak some things; otherwise, just one note at a time.


And possibly one of these:  a Moog Taurus 3 (bass pedal synth).






Or, a Taurus 2:  the sounds aren't as desirable as the Taurus 1 or Taurus 3 -- but at least the "keyboard" has a broader range.




--GG

Arturia Micro Brute synth

Ooh!  I want one.




But first I'd have to massively tidy up the far end of the house, to make some room.  :)


--GG

Something better

Last night I meant to compose and post (remedially) a long-ish blog entry during the half hour before I meant to go to bed.  Instead, I dug out a synthesizer that I hadn't played for a long time, and played for an hour (whoops!).

Tonight I meant to post that blog entry -- but I noodled around with the synth again.  And that's fine.

My blogging has largely fallen by the wayside -- a casualty to real, actual life.  And that's fine, too.

Maybe this weekend I'll kind of catch up on it.  Or maybe not.

:)


--GG

Nice synths

A few photos of the band Chromeo's studio -- with all their lovely synths!!!


--GG

Keyboard basses

**Any** of these would be neat-o to have...

(You'll need to use decent speakers: my built-in laptop speakers don't extend to low enough frequencies -- can barely hear some of these!!!)


Hohner Basset:




Fender Rhodes bass:





Have wanted one of these since about 1997...




Likewise this one -- probably stumbled across it on eBay around 1997 or 1998.




Good stuff. I'm not an actual keyboard player -- although I can do some simple four-finger riffs, as needed. But I do like synth sounds: I was raised during New Wave. ;)


--GG

Simple synth boy

Yesterday I went for a walk on my lunch break, and visited again that downtown music store. Looked at all their synths (about twelve?). I respect them all -- but the only one I could honestly see myself using is the one I played last week.

The rest of them look too complex and fiddly for me. Lots of flexibility and options, sure: but I'm happy with simply having 128 presets (as long as they're >>good<< presets -- which the Micro Korg XL indeed has).

Which indicates that I'm not a hard-core knob fiddler, some some synth players are.


--GG

Nice synth

I haven't done very well on my "music a day" progamme as of late -- whereby during my lunch break I would go for a short walk to the nearby park, play the tin whistle or harmonica for a bit, and then walk back. Was rainy for a few days, or I've not brought my lunch and had to stand in line to buy something, or my foot has been sore.

Today, however, t0day I walked over to the only music instrument store that's downtown (not including a teeny little "world music percussion" shop). Wandered around the electric guitars, amps, drum kits, pianos, recording gear, and synths -- just absorbing the latent music.

Had a play-about with one of the teeny little synths: a Korg Microkorg XL. Has two eight-position selector knobs with which to choose the sound, plus a "Bank A/Bank B" toggle switch -- so 8x8x2 = 128 sounds. Good stuff! Also a pitch mod wheel.

Even though the exchange rate is better than a one-to-one ratio between the U.S. and Aussie dollar (i.e., tilted in AU's favor), that synth costs about AU$900, versus US$500 through an American mail-order place.

It also has a vocoder. The mic wasn't attached, though, so I didn't use the vocoder aspect.

Totally going on my "To Buy (Eventually)" list!!!


--GG