Synths, Sequencers, MIDI & FX.

[tony_grego]

Originally Posted by TripleM

Uhh.. So do we have enough interest in collaborating on a musical theme(s) for Vintage Erotica.com??? Or did I miss that project already??

Ummhh!... What's your proposal? ... Any concrete style?

And (the most important) how much we would be talking about?

Salut !

[TripleM]

Originally Posted by tony_grego

Ummhh!... What's your proposal? ... Any concrete style?

And (the most important) how much we would be talking about?

Salut !

I figured something befitting the overall theme of the site. Maybe some funky 70s style porn music. Or some cool space rock, Pink Floyd or Tangerine Dream stylee. Doesn't have to be one theme either. Could be several different ones. Short theme pieces like a minute or two long. Or longer pieces for a fun project.

-Collabo via email sound files. One person adds a foundation, sends it to another to add something, who then sends it to someone else, etc.

-Or members could all submit or contribute their own completed and copyrighted works.

[penfold007]

Can't play a note but just wanted to say I'm a huge fan of the sound of the big old modulars like the IIIC and of the Mellotron. Not that I have hundreds of albums of synth music or anything

There's little to beat it IMO, except perhaps Delia and her tape loops.

[NIN]

You're talking about Delia Derbyshire of course the doyen of the Radiophonic Workshop
Good Recommendation penfold007 ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delia_Derbyshire
http://www.last.fm/music/Delia+Derbyshire/+wiki

The Guardian once described Delia Derbyshire as “The unsung heroine of British electronic music,” seemingly implying that there are other heroines of British electronic music that are more widely… sung. I suppose there is Daphne Oram but the English never use less than three adjectives when one will suffice, so let’s just say that Delia Derbyshire is an unsung heroine of music. That she happens to have worked primarily in electronic music is secondary and that she was British shouldn't be held against her. She was a wizard and pioneer who, instead of guarding her magical abililties, eagerly shared her techniques and discoveries, but was stifled by the BBC’s draconian demands that their artists work and die in anonymity.
Delia was born in Coventry on May 5th, 1937. As a girl, she learned piano and violin and attended Barr's Hill School. She later attended college at Girton in Cambridge. After initially pursuing studies in math, she switched courses to music before graduation. After graduation, she began to look for work in the music field, quickly butting up against the deeply entrenched sexism of the field. In fact, in 1959, upon applying for a job at Decca, she was flatly told that their policy was to not hire women to work in the studios. The United Nations proved more diplomatic than the folks at Decca, and she worked there for a short while. Then she returned to England and found employment at the London-based music publisher, Boosey & Hawkes. She didn’t stay long.
In 1960, she was hired as a trainee studio manager at the BBC, working with the Radiophonic Workshop, then just a few years old. It was an organization charged with producing experimental incidental music and sound effects for the BBC Third Programme’s radio plays in cases where the normal orchestral score was deemed inappropriate. Her predecessors had included Harry Desmond Briscoe and Daphne Oram, two noted pioneers of electronic music and musique concrète.
Derbyshire came on board following Oram’s departure, as part of a group of young artists that also included Brian Hodgson and John Baker. Many of her initial pieces were collaborations with artist/playwright Barry Bermange. One such piece was 1964’s The Dreams, a sound collage of people describing their dreams with Derbyshire's electronic sounds.

Gradually, the Radiophonic Workshop began producing more music and sound effects for television than radio. One year earlier, in 1963, Derbyshire performed her mostly widely-heard work when given the score for Ron Grainer’s theme to a new science-fiction series, Doctor Who. Incorporating filters, tape loops and valve oscillators, she fashioned one of the most memorable pieces of electronic music ever, and one that's especially dear to Whovians. Grainer was so impressed he sought to give Derbyshire co-author credit but the BBC prevented it. Although officially uncredited, the popularity of the theme resulted in her employers giving her many other assignments and she ultimately produced over 200 pieces including noteworthy scores for Great Zoos of the World and Cyprian Queen. The BBC was, however, by no means entirely supportive of her work, rejecting many of her compositions, claiming they were too bizarre, “too lascivious for 11 year olds” and “too sophisticated for the BBC2 audience.”

As a result of the BBC’s restrictions, Derbyshire began to work outside their confines in 1965. Her initial collaborations included working with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Roberto Gerhard (on Anger of Achilles) and Ianni Christou. In 1966, her music was combined with light shows at a festival at Bagnor’s Watermill Theater, perhaps the earliest electronic show even in England. She also recorded a demo, “Moogies Bloogies” with the under-appreciated Anthony Newley, although it was never released. Derbyshire, Hodgson and Peter Zinovieff formed Unit Delta Plus, later exhibiting their music at Zinovieff's Putney townhouse. One such exhibition, The Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, (at The Roadhouse in Chalk Farm) included the only public performance of The Beatles' "Carnival of Light.” Derbyshire also provided music for Yoko Ono's "Wrapping Event," in which Ono tied herself to the lion statues (which she’d wrapped in white cloth) on Trafalgar Square.

Unit Delta Plus proved short-lived and broke up after a performance at the Royal College of Art in 1967. Derbyshire next worked with Guy Woolfenden, contributing to the score for Peter Hall's production of Macbeth and, in 1968, his film, Work is a Four Letter Word. Derbyshire again worked with Hodgson in setting up the Kaleidophon studio in Camden Town with fellow electronic musician, David Vorhaus. Along with Vorhaus and Hodgson she formed White Noise and released, through Island, An Electric Storm. When Hodgson and Derbyshire left, White Noise became a solo venture for Vorhaus. Meanwhile, Derbyshire and Hodgson (using the pseudonyms “Li De la Russe,” and “Nikki St. George,” respectively) provided music for The Tomorrow People and Timeslip over at the BBC’s rivals, ITV. If you're like me, you loved The Tomorrow People and it's great theme. On the other hand, if you're like my stepbrother, David, you claimed the sight of a melting, alien Adolf Hitler was the stuff of nightmares and were a big wuss.
In 1973, Hodgson left the BBC and created Electophon with John Lewis. They were later joined by Derbyshire and recorded several albums, as well as the soundtrack to The Legend of Hell House. In 1974, she composed the music for Anthony Roland's award-winning film of Pamela Boone's photography, Circle of Light and the Dutch short, Een van die Dagen. Derbyshire’s complete discography has yet to be fully compiled, but her credits also include the music for the Brighton Festival, the City of London Festival, the RSC Stratford, Greenwich Theatre, Hampstead Theatre and an ICI-sponsored fashion show.

By the early ‘70s, frustrated with music and battling alcoholism and depression, Derbyshire retired from composition and instead found work in art galleries, bookstores, museums and as a radio operator. After many years, she re-entered the music world in 2001, working with Spaceman 3’s Sonic Boom on MESMA (Multisensory Electronic Sounds Music & Art), an organization aimed at advancing electronic music. At the time she said, "Working with people like Sonic Boom on pure electronic music has re-invigorated me. He is from a later generation but has always had an affinity with the music of the ‘60s. One of our first points of contact -- the visionary work of Peter Zinovieff, has touched us both, and has been an inspiration. Now without the constraints of doing 'applied music', my mind can fly free and pick-up where I left off."

Unfortunately, not long after enthusiastically returning to music, Delia Derbyshire died on July 3rd, 2001, in Northampton. Her private collection was bequeathed to Mark Ayres who, in collaboration with Manchester University, is working on fully digitizing her entire catalog of work. As of now, it appears here and there, on Doctor Who, Vol. 1: The Early Years, Doctor Who, Vol. 2: New Beginnings and BBC Radiophonic Music. In 2002, a play about her, Blue Veils and Golden Sands, aired on Radio 4. Two years later, at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre, another play about her, Standing Wave -- Delia Derbyshire in the '60s, proved that this unsung heroine still has her fans, and may someday soon find adequate recognition for her pioneering work.

From Eric Brightwells Bl0g$p0t

& a great documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, made by Victor Lewis-Smith,

The Alchemists Of Sound:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

[slowdiver]

Oh now this thread makes me sad in so many ways. I shall explain.

For my 21st birthday, my parents very kindly gave me £500 in cash. Their original plan had been to get me a car and have it outside the house on the day, with a big ribbon around it, but this never came to pass, so they gave me the cash instead. Instead of a motor, I hopped on the bus, travelled 30 odd miles and returned home with this:


The Kawai K1. A marvellous synth with a great range of different presets and also very easy to program your own.

Over time, I acquired more gadgets, to the stage where I had three synths (the Ki, a Yamaha DX27 and a casio CZ1000 I think it was), a roland drum machine, yamaha sequencer (can't remember which one, but it was the size and shape of a video cassette and had over 200 voices inbuilt), a tascam portastudio, zoom fx unit and a 12 track mixing desk.

I used to sequence all the instruments together, mix them via the desk and use the zoom for fx where needed (the desk had its own fx in/throughput) then record the music direct onto two tracks of the tascam's four possible tracks, leaving me two spare tracks to record vocals and bounce down onto. What this meant in practical terms was that I would effectively record the entire instrumentation in stereo ready mixed onto two tracks of the tape.

It was marvellous My greatest claim to shame was using the setup to record a demo of a song that a friend and I wrote and submitted to Eurovision. Nothing came of it, but at least we had a go.

Then I met my girlfriend. We moved in together (she was already in debt from a previous failed relationship). After a time together, during which time we had successfully cleared off her debts, WE managed to get into financial troubles (I wish I'd seen a pattern forming there already, but hindsight is 20/20). Long story short, all my gear went to raise money to bail us out. Of course it all went for considerably less than I paid for it, or even than what it was worth. This is always the case whem you have to raise money quickly.

----

A few years passed by and we were financially stable again and also was left a nice sum of money in a will. Gradually I started to rebuild my musical collection, based around:

The Roland XP-50 workstation. This beastie had a 16 track sequencer inbuilt, hundreds of voices that were expandable by adding additional voice cards to the machine, and a 3 1/2" floppy drive built in for storage. I also acquired a couple of modules (including a Kawai K1m module), new zoom fx unit and another tascam four track.

And then a couple of years ago, we got into financial problems again. The xp-50 and tascam both went to bail us out again.

Last year, my wife and I separated after 17 years together and this year she has petitioned for divorce. I doubt I will ever get any more musical gear, but one can live in hope.

(Sorry to cast a bit of a cloud on a thread that I'm actually really interested in, but I figured if I was going to chip in, it would be best to give the whole story)

[pilau]

Originally Posted by slowdiver

I doubt I will ever get any more musical gear, but one can live in hope.

There is much hope still slowdiver

[DrFishnets]

I have been a big fan of Synthesizers, MIDI and sampling since I was a kid. The first proper synth I got was a Roland Juno 106 which I got for my xmas. Throughout the years I have been buying synths ranging from a Casio VZ1, Yamaha DX7, Roland D50 to the latest synths like the Korg MicroKorg, Akai Miniak and Waldorf Blofeld. I own over 20 hardware synthesizers and I am still buying new ones.

I use my Apple iMac with my synths to compose music but I do miss the old days of my Amiga A500 MIDIed to my synths.

Doc

[Bovon]

Here's a link to Roland's new Juno Gi synth (part 1, part 2's close by). It's personal preference of course, but this has about everything you'll need to get yerself heard on the WWW. 8-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ5Vj6uJ7AQ

Great thread BTW.

[Manny Fagnett]

I can't play a single note but have always loved synth music (Started with Tangerine dream and stuff like that but my life changed when I first heard 'Travelogue' by the Human League and never looked back) My cousin and I always dreamt of a Roland Jupiter 8 and possibly a Fairlight (HA!) instead we got Casio VL Tones ('Da Da Da' by Trio, anyone?) and a few Yamaha mini home keyboards. Currently making squealy sounds on my Nintendo DS lite using the Korg DS 10. It's bostin! Still can't play it though.

[NIN]

Always had bits of kit about my room, mostly stuff i've salvaged from second-hand shops these days, but back in the mid 80's I was nutty for my synths.
First time i had a loan of a friends set of keys, it blew me away, it had flip swithes on it, a bit like a chuch organ with settings like 'Wet'&'Frog' no idea what it was? Another mate got hold of a Korg in a swap deal.. that had patch leads to configure different sounds. I think you could put a guitar through the oscilators Mad noises.. that was me hooked. I didn't get into it through the music, but the tech.

My first purchase was a pre-owned Roland Juno6, @ 425 quid, payed over 8 weeks from Hesseys' in Liverpool. Lovely synth, really well made - I'd love another (or maybe the JunoGi mentioned earlier by Bovon )

Just a few months later, Yamaha released their 'X' series, such odd machines compared to the standard subtractive sythesis lurking in the basement of Hesseys was the promise of a new type of machine, and as a customer(& a bona fide mug), i got an invite to a demo @ the 'Holiday Inn', (Oooh, now you're impressed eh!)

The Yamaha CX5m Music Computer boasted 8 note poly from an in built DX9 module (the SFG01), MIDI (out only) & a full 32Kb memory all software loaded in by tape &/or ROM cartridge & you needed Yamahas own keyboard to play it (at least until the SFG-05 update). It was a bit of a dog.. But i was so convinced, i put my Juno down as part exchange and when they took delivery.. i was on the list to be getting one of the first several from Japan.
It did what it was expected to , but it was unforgiving. The sequencer was step input, it was a nightmare to get it to sound human (with a lot of fine timing editing,somehow i did..guess i was more patient then) but i needed some good analogue sounds & drums..

That's when these little gems came out of Japan...

Casio CZ-101 & the Roland TR505, great little units, The CZ is still a legend (I still have & use mine) & the TR505 had PCM sampled drum sounds and a breeze to program thanks to its sixteen pads doubling as step rhythm inputs, nicer sounding & much easier than the Yamaha alternate the RX series.

I was mixing them all through a Realistic(Tandy) 8track mixer, I even made a separate outputs interface for the drum machine & started getting into FX pedals, experimenting with Flangers, Phasers, Reverbs & Distortion pedals which were designed for guitars. Things were getting complex, a new third party bit of software that allowed 'real time recording', but it was all machine code if you wanted to edit it.

As i was doing most of the sequencing, patch editing, & what had now turned into 'production'... Why be in a band? Just the fact i had no intention of fronting anything. Done some D.J.ing .. much happier behind the decks than on the mike even threw in some sound effects to some sets, a great laugh when you play a fight breaking out into a room or breaking glass!

Anyway, that's around the time when she turned my life up-side over. We knew each other since school, I was head over heels devoted & i thought a nice holiday & engagement was the right thing to do.

Everything was sold to fund it!

Possibly not the worst thing i could have done, but to cut a short tragedy into a long boring post, I end up with no GF or tech .. nor did i go on holiday.

1989/90 - New tech, new beginnings

..first thing i did was buy an Amiga A500, (mostly for flight sims & games) Found another CZ-101 & a Yamaha FB-01 module (DX-9 in a rack), then I had most of my original sounds back + the ability to sequence & sample (& 8 bit samples have their own gritty quality, just ask the Art Of Noise.)

So the process of rebuilding begins, a mate gave me his Jen SX1000 , it had gone wonky,
but a bit of love, use (& a little solder) brought it back to life (& he said i can keep it.)
Another mate let me use his guitar for a while too & to my great surprise, found I can play!
I'm convinced this was down to a new fangled gadget.. The Zoom 9002 Multi effects...

..about the size of a Walkman this little gem produced sounds that would have astonished any studio just a few years before. I spent some sleepless nights messing with this when it was lent to me.. I was reluctant to give it back!

So I needed FX & the solution was a rack the Zoom 1204. Good didgi multi FX unit with MIDI & I've fitted my own custom foot pedal control too.

Next up was a surprise in my mums' catalogue, they were selling Fender guitars, not just the usual Squier & Yamahas (although they are good too ), but i fell for a cream strat & could only barely afford to buy from the catalogue.... But it had to be done.. Never regretted it!

Then came the ordinance for my new weapon, Zoom 510 Driver & 509 Modulator The 510 is a dedicated Drive/Distortion & the 509 is multi FX & few other tricks.

I added the first full size keyboard i could get with Velocity, the Casio CTK-601
Casio stuff is pretty good sounding, although i think it was pilau said the smaller units do give a little hum from the power supplies, but when MIDI'd up to a module or 2, sound great! and found some second hand bargains too which i've added to the kit..
Zoom RT234 drum machine, Yamaha P50 Vintage Piano & Keys, Roland U-220, Zoom MRS-4 Digital Multi Track, Alesis 16 track mixer, Yamaha RY8 (I still use as a second or third drum unit & it has a basic Guitar-MIDI converter inbuilt ) Tascam Porta 03 (still my preferred recording unit) Oh and a Zoom 707 MkII guitar multi FX.. sure there is stuff i've left out, coupled with all the power supplies, leads & shit you need to juice & link the little buggers.., there must be almost 50 quids worth there now! You'd think i'd be able to afford a decent camera.., but no ., so there are a load of poor pix of the current set-up from my sad phone.

Oh, jeez! .. how did she get in there?