There's a great BBC documentary on the synthesizer and it's role in the rise of electronic music (in Britain particularly) in the 70s/80s called Synth Britannia, worth a watch if you like this sort of thing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK1P93r9xes
Also on Netflix is a documentary film called I Dream of Wires about modular synthesizers, which I'm yet to get round to watching but is supposed to be very good.
Really must have a play on my synthesizers again, they've been gathering dust while I've been focussing on other things but a good synth really is a joy to play with.
Synth Brittania starts with the excitement from musicians listening to "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer. (They say something along the lines of "Wow! It made me feel that I could music too. To play punk you needed to know three chords, but to play a synth you only needed to know one chord.")
There's another BBC documentary about Funk music, which predated the synth movement:
Funk has a very distinctive beat, with an emphasis on the downbeat (one), and the use of many different instruments in percussive ways. That documentary ends with the rise of disco, which had a four-to-the-floor style beat, and was more generically palatable to a broader whitew audience. The song "I Feel Love" is played towards the end of the Funk documentary, as music heralding to imminent decline of funk's popularity.
I saw "I Dream of Wires" on netflix. I enjoyed it, and grew up in those days so have a fondness for the sounds.
But there was one thing I didn't quite get, which it didn't explain, just glossed over, is why people got so obsessed with synths. It assumed you already know why. I've always tinkered with things, but don't get it. Perhaps because I never had access to one. Commodore 64, yes, soldering iron, yes, modular synth, no.
I learned to solder when I was in grade 8. At first, it seemed kind of stupid and I really didn't have all that much to solder. But then I became an adult and developed a problem with synthesizers. I bought a broken Juno 106 on eBay, got it shipped, opened it up (because hey, it was already broken) and was excited to find that all I needed was a soldering iron. A few minutes later and holy bass...
Years later, I moved into a smaller place and had to part ways with most of my synths. Sadly, my 106 was a casualty (since a Juno 106 is basically an eviction notice with a keyboard attached), but I sold it to a wicked musician who made some amazing sounds with it.
I still miss that instrument. I hate spelling fat with a 'ph', but the Juno 106 can only be described as phat...
I myself drive a Korg Triton which I paid equiv $90 for because it was broken. Turned out to be a shorted cap in the power supply that took 10 mins with a multimeter to find.
Giorgio Moroder (mentioned in the article) reflects on the synthesizer's rise in the song Giorgio by Moroder, from the latest Daft Punk album (Random Access Memories):
> I wanted to do an album with the sound of the '50s, the sound of the '60s, of the '70s and then have a sound of the future. And I said, "Wait a second...I know the synthesizer – why don't I use the synthesizer which is the sound of the future?" And I didn't have any idea what to do, but I knew I needed a click so we put a click on the 24 track which then was synched to the Moog Modular. I knew that it could be a sound of the future but I didn't realise how much the impact would be
Punks didn't exactly reject synths and certainly not on grounds of 'authenticity'. Suicide were a notable punk band who used them, while Magazine and Joy Division were big synth users and barely post punk. The reason they weren't emblematic with the first wave of punk was entirely down to cost - they were seen as a millionaire's instrument and therefore tasteless and decadent. Once Roland started mass producing, synths became far more popular with post punk bands and spawned an entire movement, from Cabaret Voltaire to Depeche Mode.
> Because they relied on audio samples rather than sounds that were designed from scratch, the Kurzweils were known as additive synthesizers.
This is absolutely incorrect- this describes a wavetable synthesizer, which is what the early Kurzweil's were. An additive synthesizer works by adding individual sine waves together of various amplitudes and frequencies.
The first Kurzweil was indeed additive, not sample-based - with hardware designed by Hal Chamberlin, who was famous for the Musical Applications of Microprocessors book.
The other famous additive synth was the DKI Synergy. It was a preset-only version of the ludicrously expensive Crumar GDS ($27,500), although if hung a Keypro micro off it you could create your own sounds without the GDS.
The Kawaii additive synths came a lot later.
The most recent additive outing is Camel's Alchemy, which does additive and other synthesis types. It which was bought by Apple and bundled with Logic Pro 10.2. NI's Razor is also additive, although the programming model is strange.
Additive can sound amazing but it's incredibly tweaky and time-consuming to program, so most people still prefer subtractive/analog.
There was an additive synth, but it wasn't Kurzweil and there was only one model I knew of and saw advertised only once. With 128 sine waves to set, it could do everything but required everything to do something.
Recently the major names have reissued the Arp Odyssey and MS20 (by Korg), roland's recreations of select juno/jupiters, and the Moog mother. Very exciting time to be a knobby/CV synth hobbyist. Before this, there were a select few inexpensive knobby synths that people sought out if they couldn't budget for bigger Moogs: Radias/MS2000, jp8000 and 8080, maybe an SH 201, etc.
If you want a full modular synth to play with, with a built-in tracker and an outstanding UI, I suggest trying Sunvox[1]. It is free (as in beer) for a huge number of platforms.
Brings back happy memories. I built a few of the modules of the Elektor Formant synthesizer in the early 80s. I got as far as building a VCO and VCF but ran out of money then.
[+] [-] tommyd|10 years ago|reply
Also on Netflix is a documentary film called I Dream of Wires about modular synthesizers, which I'm yet to get round to watching but is supposed to be very good.
Really must have a play on my synthesizers again, they've been gathering dust while I've been focussing on other things but a good synth really is a joy to play with.
[+] [-] bravura|10 years ago|reply
Synth Brittania starts with the excitement from musicians listening to "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer. (They say something along the lines of "Wow! It made me feel that I could music too. To play punk you needed to know three chords, but to play a synth you only needed to know one chord.")
There's another BBC documentary about Funk music, which predated the synth movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_dXS8UMrxE
Funk has a very distinctive beat, with an emphasis on the downbeat (one), and the use of many different instruments in percussive ways. That documentary ends with the rise of disco, which had a four-to-the-floor style beat, and was more generically palatable to a broader whitew audience. The song "I Feel Love" is played towards the end of the Funk documentary, as music heralding to imminent decline of funk's popularity.
[+] [-] mixmastamyk|10 years ago|reply
But there was one thing I didn't quite get, which it didn't explain, just glossed over, is why people got so obsessed with synths. It assumed you already know why. I've always tinkered with things, but don't get it. Perhaps because I never had access to one. Commodore 64, yes, soldering iron, yes, modular synth, no.
[+] [-] hluska|10 years ago|reply
Years later, I moved into a smaller place and had to part ways with most of my synths. Sadly, my 106 was a casualty (since a Juno 106 is basically an eviction notice with a keyboard attached), but I sold it to a wicked musician who made some amazing sounds with it.
I still miss that instrument. I hate spelling fat with a 'ph', but the Juno 106 can only be described as phat...
[+] [-] buffoon|10 years ago|reply
Not everyone's type of music but this track is basically a Juno 106 pad, strings and lead demo and my angry driving music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsLYwR9Jp-Y
I myself drive a Korg Triton which I paid equiv $90 for because it was broken. Turned out to be a shorted cap in the power supply that took 10 mins with a multimeter to find.
[+] [-] w1ntermute|10 years ago|reply
> I wanted to do an album with the sound of the '50s, the sound of the '60s, of the '70s and then have a sound of the future. And I said, "Wait a second...I know the synthesizer – why don't I use the synthesizer which is the sound of the future?" And I didn't have any idea what to do, but I knew I needed a click so we put a click on the 24 track which then was synched to the Moog Modular. I knew that it could be a sound of the future but I didn't realise how much the impact would be
http://genius.com/Daft-punk-giorgio-by-moroder-lyrics/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhl-Cs1-sG4
[+] [-] dreamfactory2|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hugh4|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ssalazar|10 years ago|reply
This is absolutely incorrect- this describes a wavetable synthesizer, which is what the early Kurzweil's were. An additive synthesizer works by adding individual sine waves together of various amplitudes and frequencies.
[+] [-] TheOtherHobbes|10 years ago|reply
The other famous additive synth was the DKI Synergy. It was a preset-only version of the ludicrously expensive Crumar GDS ($27,500), although if hung a Keypro micro off it you could create your own sounds without the GDS.
The Kawaii additive synths came a lot later.
The most recent additive outing is Camel's Alchemy, which does additive and other synthesis types. It which was bought by Apple and bundled with Logic Pro 10.2. NI's Razor is also additive, although the programming model is strange.
Additive can sound amazing but it's incredibly tweaky and time-consuming to program, so most people still prefer subtractive/analog.
[+] [-] ctdonath|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gtani|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] byron_fast|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pdkl95|10 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/
[+] [-] dharma1|10 years ago|reply
For a nice "plug-in" like DAW integration of hardware synths, check out http://ctrlr.org/
[+] [-] jakobloekke|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vitd|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kyberias|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 2sk21|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] urlwolf|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fredfoobar42|10 years ago|reply