It’s a rare thing indeed these days to see someone actually play a piece live on a synthesizer (other than in rock and electronica). Here is a live performance of a Bach Invention showing off some of the presets of the Roland SH-1000 synthesizer. The playing is a tad awkward (and its a little weird hearing the left hand come from the right speaker, and vice-versa), but it’s energetic and fun!
From BTPRO’s YouTube page:
The Joy of the Preset-Synthesizer. First battle is Roland SH-1000 vs SH-2000!I like Preset-Synthesizer. An engineer made sound with analog technology at the time without the sampling technology. It was often that I heard a sound different from the displayed name in them. I often thought “Is this the sound of the piano?”. But I can imagine a desperate face of the engineers who are going to make a genuine sound with an analog circuit. It is very exciting/humorous for me. Roland SH-1000 is Japanese first synthesizer and SH-2000 is Preset-synthesizer for organist.
The next Clara Rockmore? Thomas Grillo: The Swan, Theremin
Thomas Grillo has the makings of becoming the next Clara Rockmore. The Theremin is a notoriously difficult instrument to learn. Not only do you play the instrument without even touching it, but they are so sensitive that you need extraordinary hand control and listening skills to nail the pitch of each note you are playing. Clara Rockmore used to play with a speaker directly behind her head, so as to be able to hear the sound the instant it was generated, and would not allow people to come with 5-10 feet of her, lest their presence interfere with the instrument.
Thomas Grillo has also developed considerable skill with the instrument. Here he is performing “The Swan” by Camille Saint-Saëns.
In a nutshell, here’s how the Theremin works (from WikiPedia):
The theremin is unique among musical instruments in that it is played without physical contact. The musician stands in front of the instrument and moves his or her hands in the proximity of two metal antennas. The distance from one antenna determines frequency (pitch), and the distance from the other controls amplitude (volume). Most frequently, the right hand controls the pitch and the left controls the volume, although some performers reverse this arrangement. Some low-cost theremins use a conventional, knob operated volume control and have only the pitch antenna.The theremin uses the heterodyne principle to generate an audio signal. The instrument’s pitch circuitry includes two radio frequency oscillators. One oscillator operates at a fixed frequency. The frequency of the other oscillator is controlled by the performer’s distance from the pitch control antenna. The performer’s hand acts as the grounded plate (the performer’s body being the connection to ground) of a variable capacitor in an L-C (inductance-capacitance) circuit. The difference between the frequencies of the two oscillators at each moment allows the creation of a difference tone in the audio frequency range, resulting in audio signals that are amplified and sent to a loudspeaker.
To control volume, the performer’s other hand acts as the grounded plate of another variable capacitor. In this case, the capacitor detunes another oscillator, which affects the amplifier circuit. The distance between the performer’s hand and the volume control antenna determines the capacitor’s value, which regulates the theremin’s volume.[9]
Modern circuit designs often simplify this circuit and avoid the complexity of two heterodyne oscillators by having a single pitch oscillator, akin to the original theremin’s volume circuit. This approach is usually less stable and cannot generate the low frequencies that a heterodyne oscillator can. Better designs (e.g. Moog, Theremax) may use two pairs of heterodyne oscillators, for both pitch and volume.
Today, Theremins are widely available, and are fairly reasonably priced.
Beethoven and more on a SID Chip
I can’t get enough of the YM2151 chip (from a Commodore 64) music. This is a pretty good example of the YM2151 power to create great sounds. Here’s a bit of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony on a YM2151 chip.
From the YouTube page:
A Yamaha YM2151 FM Synthesiser IC playing the Second Movement of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony. The CPU of the synth is a MOS 6510 CPU from a Commodore 64. The music was played over a MIDI interface. If you notice any synchronization glitches with the different instruments it’s because they weren’t recorded at the same time, but separately and mixed later.
Here’s some more SID music (and sound effects) for you:
Modular Synthesis Humanoid Animation
Ran across this, thought you’d enjoy it:
Text from their YouTube page:
Just like modular synthesizers, people connect with each other in order to achieve diverse objectives. In Voltage, robots, half-human and half-synthesizer, powered by a huge amount of energy, connect to each other in an electric and chaotic trance.Directed by:
Filippe Lyra e William PaivaProduced by:
Barros Melo Animation StudioDirector of photography:
Filippe Lyra e William PaivaAnimation:
Filippe Lyra
William Paiva
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
Leo D.
Tony FariasDesign:
Filippe Lyra
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
William Paiva
Natalia FrancaIllustration:
Filippe Lyra
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
William Paiva
Natalia FrancaEditor(s):
William Paiva
Leo D.
Filippe LyraSound:
William Paiva e Leo DMusic:
William Paiva e Leo DExecutive Producer:
Izabella Barros Melo
Bach lives (through a vocoder) – Et Misericordi
Et Misericordia from Bach’s Magnificat is one of the first pieces of music I truly fell in love with (after Siegfried, of course). I first heard it when I was about 10 (1981), and over the years have sought out outstanding recordings of this magnificent (!) piece.
Since I now run a synthesizer blog, and just acquired Prosoniq’s Orange Vocoder, I decided to perform this piece myself. The following is version 1.0 of Et Misericordia recorded in Logic with MiniMoog Vs, FM8s, Massives, ES2s and the Orange Vocoder.
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I’m still fine-tuning the vocal qualities of the vocoder (it can take quite a bit of tweaking to get it to sound good), and will post the updates when they become available.
What’s a Vocoder?
From Wikipedia:
A vocoder (pronounced /ˈvoʊkoʊdər/, a combination of the words voice and encoder) is an analysis / synthesis system, mostly used for speech in which the input is passed through a multiband filter, each filter is passed through an envelope follower, the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated, and the decoder applies these (amplitude) control signals to corresponding filters in the (re)synthesizer.
In English, that simply means ‘a singing synthesizer’. Great fun!
Head over to Software & Hardware Vocoders at KVR Audio
Welcome to the Classical Synthesizer Listening Room!
I’ve opened up the listening room for you all. This is a page I will post all (or most) of the best of my classical synthesizer recordings. At the time of this posting, there are 12 pieces, listed below:
Classical/Romantic/Impressionistic
Fetes from Nocturnes by Dubussy
Mars, the Bringer of War from The Planets by Holst
Holst/deCosta – Mercury, the Winged Messenger from The Planets
Holst – Neptune, the Mystic from The Planets
Eine Kleine Nachtmusique Mvt. 4 by Mozart
Organ Music transcribed for Synthesizers
Marcel Dupré – Prelude No. 3
Prelude, Choral et Fugue by Franck
Baroque/Renaissance
Claude la Coucou by Daquin
Noel-X by Daquin
Misc. (TV Themes, Experiments, etc.)
Danny Elfman – Beetle Juice Main Titles
Keeping Up Appearances Theme Music
Fawlty Towers Theme Music
I will post an update whenever I add a new piece.
Feel free to
SEND ME A REQUEST
(by adding a comment to this post)
for a piece you’ve always wanted to hear performed on synthesizers. I will do my best to accommodate.
VISIT THE LISTENING ROOM
Essential Classical Synthesizer Music CD Guide
For those of you looking to start a collection of classical synthesizer music, or simply want to fill the gaps in your existing one, I have put together a list of essential CDs- ones that no collection should be without. Artists include Wendy Carlos, Isao Tomita, Clara Rockmore, Amin Bhatia, Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer, Otto Luening and more.
The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie
Back in 1989 I had a 4am radio show at the local college station, and besides playing artists like Amin Bhatia, Wendy Carlos and Frank Zappa (and any-bloody-thing-else I wanted at that hour), one of the LPs I ran across in the WMPG archives was “The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie”. It’s the sort of album you might get if you put a group of stoned chamber musicians in the same room as Herbie Hancock with La Salle climbing the walls a la Monty Python.
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Notes Relating to the Title: “The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie” (Music Mystically Inspired)
Satie was convinced that he was a spirit working under the direct guidance of some medieval cleric whose fanatical piety he had inherited from beyond the grave.
This producer is convinced that he is also a spirit working under the direct guidance of Erik Satie, whose eccentricities and mysticisms have guided him throughout the making of this LP.
Further Proof:
A.) The arranger felt the actual presence of Satie in the room with him while he was scoring. (Erik’s spirit would hover around the room and, at times, reach over his shoulder and guide his pencil along the score page, shouting directions in his ear “B flat not B natural, you dummy!”) His worst moment was when he added bars to Satie’s barless music… (the arranger in this case cannot recall having scored any of the pieces in the LP.)
B.) The presence and guidance of Satie’s spirit was never more felt than in the programming and playing of the Moog synthesizer. All the wave forms, modulation mixes, oscillations and permutations have never been duplicated since, and the Moog player, who was entirely unfamiliar with the instrument at the time, has no recollection of having done the album whatsoever!!!!!!!
Beware of the Blog has got MP3s to download in case you haven’t got your own copy of the out-of-print LP from eBay like I (and BotB’s owner) did.
Listen to The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie @ Beware of the Blog
And here I am with my very own copy of the above LP. Gotta love vinyl!
Music Production Using Logic Pro 8
I’m always on the lookout for good tutorials. A lot of folks get set up with software like Logic Pro or Cakewalk Sonar and twiddle around a bit, and even a moderately talented person can come up with some great sounds. But, to really get to know your instrument well (that’s really what a DAW like Logic Pro is, an instrument), you need to either read the manuals (Logic Pro comes with over a thousand pages worth of manual!) or use video tutorials.
Nothing beats a well done video tutorial in my book. When you can actually watch a person using the software, see where they click, watch the song unfold in front of you, and follow along, that’s where you really learn something.
Sonic Academy has a great series on making music with Logic Pro 8:
Music Production Using Logic Pro 8
The modules, listed below, are very reasonably priced at US$6.55 (£3.99), or you can get the whole set for US$57.42 (£34.99).
Module 1: Creating a Drum Beat—make a dance drum beat using Logic’s Ultra Beat
Module 2: Creating a Bassline—construct a bassline using the ES2 Synthesizer
Module 3: Creating a Synth Lead Line—produce a synth lead line using the ES2 Synthesizer
Module 4: Creating Synth Sweeps—create filtered synth sweeps with the ES2 Synthesizer
Module 5: Time-Stretching & Stabs—how to time-stretch drum loops and & cutting up vocal samples
Module 6: Mixing—mixing track levels and using effects
Module 7: Arranging—arranging techniques used to assemble your loops into a full tune
Module 8: Automation—using Automation to make a more dynamic arrangement
Module 9: The Final Mix—final mixing, fills, effects and rendering
Link: Building the Free Software Studio
Now that I’ve gone and shown you how to spend almost $15,000 on a single synthesizer, how about I go in the other direction and give you a link to KVR, where they show you how to build a free software-based studio. Remember, free means the software, not the PC you already have, or will buy.:)
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