Moog puts up the fight against the Vuvuzela
For those not familiar with the Vuvuzela, it’s a plastic horn that has become the signature sound of this year’s World Cup in South Africa.
Via Wikipedia: “Vuvuzelas have also been blamed for drowning the sound and atmosphere of football games.[8][9] Commentators have described the sound as “annoying” and “satanic”[10] and compared it with “a stampede of noisy elephants”,[11] “a deafening swarm of locusts”,[12] “a goat on the way to slaughter”,[13] and “a giant hive full of very angry bees”.[14]
The sound level of the instrument has been measured at 127 decibels[15][4] contributing to football matches with dangerously high sound pressure levels for unprotected ears.[16] A new model, however, announced on 14 June 2010, has a modified mouthpiece which is claimed to reduce the volume by 20 dB.[15]”
Moog-Tastic
This is a illustrated version of the Moog-Tastic podcast – an interview with synthesist Dana Countryman about his first solo release – a switched on Moog music album, Moog-Tastic.
Countryman is keeping the Mooged-out happy synthpop sound of pioneers like Jean Jacques Perrey alive.
Part One of the “Moog-Tastic!” video Podcast.
Mark Griswold of Oglio Records interviews musician Dana Countryman about his first Solo Moog release.
More info at http://www.danacountryman.com
Can a monkey play the Little Phatty
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9OsXRrUpus
Found this great interview with the Gorillaz, currently replacing U2 on stage:
Cartoon sensations Gorillaz returned this year with their third album, Plastic Beach. The album focuses on the cartoon band’s retreat to an island made of washed-up detritus floating in the furthest place from land in the middle of the South Pacific. It enabled Damon Albarn and cartoonist Jamie Hewlett to continue the story of the characters Murdoc Niccals, 2D, Russel Hobbs and Noodle, while subtly commenting on the culture of celebrity and waste in society.
Co-ordinating an album starring a cast of cartoon characters and a host of celebrity guests is no mean feat, but to tour the album Albarn and Hewlett had to put together a live band capable of recreating all the sounds on the record. Key to this was Jesse Hackett on synth and sampling duties, using a Moog Little Phatty and a sampling keyboard.
Jesse met Damon while recording his second album with band Elmore Judd, on Honest Jon’s Records, a label co-owned by Albarn. “I was invited to meet Damon and subsequently got involved with some projects with him,” he recalls. “I went to Mali with him in 2006 as part of the Africa Exprez project and then the following year I went to the Congo, Kanchasa, then Nigeria to celebrate Fela Kuti on what would have been his birthday. We also played at the New Afrika shrine in Lagos and I’m lucky to have been involved for a number of years as a result of my musical friendship with Damon.
“More recently I was passing through the studio when they were working on demos for the new Gorillaz stuff. I did a little bit of playing here and there – he had about 80 songs on the go – and he asked me to be part of the live core band.”
Touring with the Gorillaz has meant putting Jesse’s other band on hold, but it’s also given him an opportunity to flex his chops in front of many of the biggest crowds he’s ever played to. “I’ve been doing that for the last three months, rehearsing and playing. We played the Coachella festival, two dates at the Roundhouse in London and we’ve got more coming up over the year.”
Jesse’s live rig is pretty simple: he combines synthesised sounds from the Moog Little Phatty with sampled sounds. “We’ve taken all the sounds from Damon’s studio, from all his analogue synths and sampled them onto a massive sampler keyboard. I use the Moog for quite a lot of bass sounds.” An example of this is on the track Empire Ants that Jesse describes as “a wicked acid-y rare-groove kinda tune with a great acid bass line.” Interestingly, for the bass sound on this track Jesse found himself using one of the Little Phatty’s presets.
As well as its great sounds, Jesse has been impressed with the Moog’s reliability on tour. “My other keyboard has been a bit of a pain,” he says. “At Coachella it froze – just one song in to the set, and starting acting weird. It was pretty terrifying, I was up there about to do the biggest gig of my life, in front of 100,000 people, with Jay-Z and Beyoncé in the front row and the keyboard went all glitchy. Luckily, we managed to work out what was going on pretty quickly and I managed to pull the gig off by the skin of my teeth. But the Moog Phatty has been completely reliable – I haven’t had any problems with it at all. You just turn it on and get great sounds, it’s very easy to use and manipulate, and the oscillators and filters are straightforward. The sound always cuts really well in the mix, the bass-lines always stand out and you can get really nice lead patterns.”
Once the Gorillaz tour finishes, Jesse hopes to spend more time with the Little Phatty. “I’m working on a new album with Elmore Judd for Honest Jon’s, and I’m also working on an album for Giles Peterson,” he tells us, “an album of African music. I just got back from Nairobi and I’m doing an album for Giles’s Brownswood label, which is a mix of Kenyan traditional Nyatiti music. It’s traditional music from the Loa tribe – rootsy folk music – but with some musicians from the UK as well. I brought all the recordings back and soon we’re going to start putting our own touches to it, putting more electronic elements into it. It’ll be amazing to try and bring the Phatty into that.”
Look out for Jesse on the upcoming Gorillaz UK tour starting in Birmingham on 10 September 2010 and taking in Newcastle and Manchester before finishing at London’s O2 Arena.
I guess these are even worse nerds
The love of Prophet 08, Moog and the Tenori-On
FM music has started some video posts where selected people shares their love for different synths
Morgan Page gives FM the lowdown on why he loves the Prophet ’08 so much.
Morgan Page takes you through why he loves the Moog Voyager.
Kieran Hebden talks about his love of the Yamaha Tenori-On and how it was used in his new album
Exclusive interview with Swedish synth-maestro Eddie Bengtsson
Page is currently celebrating 30 years as performing artsist on the Swedish synthpop stage and are currently planning summer gigs after the release of their first new album in 10 years. Stereoklang got an one on one interview with the synth pioneer Eddie Bengtsson, who’s electronic music really kick started the Swedish synth-pop scene in the 80’s, active in Page, Sista Mannen På Jorden (Last man on earth) and This Fish Needs a Bike. Page really became the Swedish answer to Yazoo/Erasure, OMD, and Depeche Mode, and made ground for popular acts like Elegant Machinery, S.P.O.C.K and many others. In this interview we have invaded Eddie’s home studio to take a closer look at the synthesizers and music production gear he uses and what it really takes to make a great synth-pop song.
Neatly mounted in a corner of a 10sq/m room, sharing the space with Star Trek memorabilia and a huge vinyl record collection, several of the classic hardware synthesizers are hooked up and ready to bleep. Although Eddie tells me he have had to sell of several synthesizers from a logistical point of view I enjoy finding vintage gear like the Moog Rouge, a Korg DW 6000 and the personal favorite of Eddie’s the Yamaha CS15 (used on every album), coupled with recently acquired gems like the Moog Little Phatty, the Moog Voyager and then some modern virtual analogs like microKORG and Yamaha CX1x.
What is used use for what
The CX1 is used as the mother keyboard and the DW 6000 mainly for strings. ”Sound 11 is a personal favorite” Eddie says☺. You can for example find it also on all S.P.O.C.K songs. If Eddie on the other hand only were to take one synthesizer with him to a deserted island it would be the CS15. In fact Eddie tells me that due to the flexible routing and filters; he’s able clone the bass sounds of all other synthesizers with it, if you treat it nicely. Perhaps the only drawback is the useless noise generator, which is too weak, although a weakness that many synthesizers has as he puts it.
Neatly tucked under racks of synthesizers a well hidden Roland S760 sampler can be found. Curious about the fact that this particular device hasn’t been replaced by software versions already, Eddie admits that years of collecting disketts has made him somewhat lazy, somewhere among all those hundreds of disketts there is always that one with the right sound. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that device will be left out from future productions in favor of software alternatives.
The lazy side of Eddie shines through on several occasions during the interview and for the last two records other people have contributed in replacing sounds with updated versions. However, the new Page album actually came as a turning point for him and a lot of hard work has gotten into it, resulting in more focus on sound search and music production then before.
Moving on to the next rack of synthesizers Eddie tells me that the microKORG is actually a very capable machine used primarily for strings and pads. The Rouge on the other hand is the real stage machine and a trade mark for Page in live sets. It’s compact and easy to bring, cool looking and splendid for single oscillator sounds. (Indecently the Rouge uses the same circuitry as the Taurus II Bass Pedals). (Listen to this song, all sounds by the Rouge by Hannes Rasmus. http://www.vintagesynth.com/audio/moogtheroguedemo.mp3 ) Other old gems like the Roland SH02 and Moog Prodigy have been replaced with new bass and sequencer gear; the Moog Little Phatty, as you can easily spot on the new Page album.
Why all the Moogs?
Easy answer would be that everyone is talking about them, prestigious and expensive stuff that is. And although proud to have them, some drawbacks can be found also here; the sound is a bit chilly and there is no noise generator to be found at all, as with the Prophet 8, it takes forever to heat up and sometimes the oscillators are not really in sync. The Voyager is really a beast and lit up it looks really impressive. Currently it’s mainly used to discover cool sounds in the studio it might end up on the stage some day. “But why on earth did they implement this totally useless performance pad on it, when turning the knobs is the way to do it and it is not even multi-touch, which might have given it some extra advantages”. I asked what’s next and Eddie kind of suggests that a DSI Mopho might end up on the rack within short.
Where do you start making a song?
“Never, or very seldom, I have an idea or the song in my head. When I feel like making new songs I always start off with a bass, then adding drums, melody and finally the vocals. I really need to get the beat going first.” >>>>>
Read the rest of the article here >>
A Moog in every class
This video, via The Bob Moog Foundation, captures The Beastie Boys at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Minimoogseum.
The eight foot high showcase serves as the first permanent installation of Bob Moog’s archives, including one of his Grammy awards and relics from the early development of Moog synthesizers. The “MiniMoogseum” can be thought of as a small scale version of the future “Moogseum”, coming soon to the Asheville area.
The Beastie Boys join a growing group of celebrity musicians, including Stevie Wonder, Keith Emerson, and Billy Corgan who have all voiced their support of the Foundation’s mission to teach science to children using musical instruments. In the video the band expresses that they are …proud and happy to be here at the beginning of this beautiful thing…..the Moogseum.
They continue by saying “There should be a Moog synthesizer in every classroom.”
via moogfoundation:
Making the MiniMoogseum a Reality: Volunteers and SponsorsThe MiniMoogseum was designed and built by a team of volunteers and sponsors—the foundation playfully refers to them as Rockstars–including Gene Felice, Domus Aurea Woodworking Design, Steve Dunnington and Mike Pieo.
Materials for the project were donated by Cormark International, Speedy Graphics, Moog Music, Asheville Hardware and Henco Reprographics. This project is the first step in an iterative process for the Foundation. The full-sized Moogseum, scheduled to open in four years, will feature interactive and experiential exhibits that inspire the next generation of Bob Moog like innovators, as well as an intimate performance area, where musicians from around the world can participate in the Foundation’s programming.
Special thanks to Meg, Rhino & Jon Leidel for capturing this even on both video and photo!
Happy Birthday Bob
The Moog Taurus III bass synthesizer wishes Bob Moog, who was born on May 23rd, 1934, a happy birthday.
Future tech music
This is a pretty nice piece of recap on the progression of next gen musical instruments.
The intersection of music and technology is a wild, fascinating frontier. Ever since the first computer-synthesized sounds were created, people have struggled and succeeded — to varying degrees — to reshape how we think about musical instruments.
Today, thanks to innovators such as Ray Kurzweil and Robert Moog, we have a wider range of digital music machines than the inventors of keyboard instruments could have ever dreamed.
But innovation didn’t stop there. Drum machines, music-making software and even mobile phones now compose melodies, thanks in a large part to the men in this video. One of the creations included in these demos is the LinnStrument
Check out this showcase of futuristic instruments and the philosophies of those who make them, and let us know what you think about the future of musical instruments in the comments.
Weekend synth fun
Need I say more
Which one would you favor, and I don’t mean the guys in the pic
DATAMASKIN
