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.

Get the low-down on the SH-1000 at Vintage Synth Explorer:

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 Paiva

Produced by:
Barros Melo Animation Studio

Director of photography:
Filippe Lyra e William Paiva

Animation:
Filippe Lyra
William Paiva
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
Leo D.
Tony Farias

Design:
Filippe Lyra
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
William Paiva
Natalia Franca

Illustration:
Filippe Lyra
Marcio Vieira
Felipe Soares
William Paiva
Natalia Franca

Editor(s):
William Paiva
Leo D.
Filippe Lyra

Sound:
William Paiva e Leo D

Music:
William Paiva e Leo D

Executive Producer:
Izabella Barros Melo

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

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.

Check it out at Amazon.com.

I recently found this great article about Modular Synth Epics at The Stretta Procedure blog. It talks about the rise and fall of the Modular-driven landmark synthesizer CDs of the late 60’s and early 70s, most notably,The Well-Tempered Synthesizer (1969), Switched-On Bach II (1974), By Request (1975) and Switched-On Brandenburgs (1979), Sonic Seasonings, Clockwork Orange Soundtrack, Beauty in the Beast and others.

Excerpt:
The introduction of patch storage and presets caused a schism. What inevitably happened with pre-built sounds was people stopped programming and simply played the instrument. There is nothing inherently wrong or bad about this, it was a much needed technological step forward. However, the idea of building a sound as needed for a composition decayed to relative insignificance. The sound was chosen first, and the music followed. Analog modulars themselves drifted into obscurity with the introduction of MIDI and digital synthesizers like the DX7. Not only were modulars finicky and time-consuming to use, the sound itself was old-fashioned and out of date. Thus followed a dozen years of inactivity – a modular synth dark ages.

Read the full article…

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.:)

Click to View the Tutorial

Don’t know what MIDI and synthesis is all about? Don’t know the difference between an oscillator and a filter, a ring modulator and a flanger? Then check out this very handy tutorial from Harmony Central.

Harmony Central’s Tutorial on MIDI and Music Synthesis

Easy to read and understand, with illustrations, this is a great place to get the background technical info you need to build your illustrious electronic music career on.

I’ve just joined Classitronic, A SoundCloud group for classical synthesizer music. You’ll notice to the right a SoundCloud drop-box. This is where you, dear reader, can send me your own synthesizer recordings.

Here is my first two postings to the group, a recording of Debussy’s Fetes, from Nocturnes, and Mars from The Planets:

To join the group, head on over to Classitronic at SoundCloud.