Mellotron and Moog synthesizer |
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cstack3
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Thank you, my friend! I first laid hands upon an actual Mellotron about 1975, at a music store in Champaign, Illinois USA where Gary Strater (late bassist of Starcastle) used to work. I put headphones on, and it was true love! Nasty, mechanical, temperamental beasts, but so are grand pianos, and church pipe organs etc. No one has discussed Patrick Moraz' contributions to keyboards yet. When I saw the Yes "Relayer" show (16 November, 1974), I was quite stunned by the sounds coming out of the PA during songs like "Sound Chaser"....my instinctual reference was to lead guitar, but Steve was calmly playing rhythm. I then focused upon Moraz, who was working on his Mini-Moog synths with BOTH hands, manipulating the oscillators and filters very aggressively!! In an ancient interview in "Keyboard" magazine, I recall that Moraz said "I've invented a new way of playing the synthesizer. I'm much more aggressive with how I use the oscillators...." (paraphrasing from 40 years ago!). Moraz was also frustrated with the mechanical limitations of the Mellotron, and so he was an early adapter of a very unique instrument called the "Orchestron." Instead of tapes, this used spinning optical discs that contained the sound samples, and was played with laser beams. It was reputed to be much more stable than the Mellotron, but I don't know how many were ever made/sold....I myself only saw one, in a music store near Chicago. Sadly, I didn't get to play it! "Moraz brought more to Sound Chaser than just the opening. The strings sound different than those used previously on Yes records, as Moraz had a vast array of keyboards in his arsenal. He was one of the early adopters of the Orchestron, a somewhat obscure synth made by Vako. The instrument was not unlike the Mellotron in principle but used optical disks instead of tapes as the source of sounds. While typically a single keyboard instrument, Patrick Moraz had a three manual custom model created for him. He used it to a good measure on Relayer, and you can hear it right after Steve Howe’s solo, around the 3:30 mark on Sound Chaser. Moraz’s jazz fusion influences show well on his Mini Moog solo towards the end of the piece at the 7:45 mark. It reminds me more of Chick Corea or Jan Hammer than a Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson solo, adding to the Fusion-influenced adventure that Yes took with the Relayer album." |
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verslibre
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For my money, nobody beats Jan Hammer on the MiniMoog when it comes to expressive soloing. His pitch bends should be registered as lethal weapons! (I also love Jan's near-ubiquitous Rhodes playing in the '70s).
Exhibit A: "No Fear" from Like Children (Goodman isn't on this piece, this is all Jan, soloing over an Oberheim sequencer). Exhibit B: "Power" from Stanley Clarke (Jan's solo is at the 2:00 mark). Exhibit C: "Eris" from The Joy of Flying (this track is played entirely by the late Tony Williams and Jan, no other personnel). And then we have this cool upload, which features a bunch of different solos by Jan from his Mahavishnu days! (And I didn't even get to his work with John Abercrombie, David Earle Johnson, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola, etc.) |
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Easy Money
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A couple other mid 70s favorites included the Univox Organizer, a Hammond B3 imitation, later picked up by the Crumar company, and the Univox Mini Korg, a poor man's Mini Moog that had some unique sounds all its own. I still have a lot of those 70s keyboards. |
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Icarium
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verslibre
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That was the ARP Odyssey, a smaller version of the 2600 earmarked for the touring keyboardist. |
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Easy Money
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^ I have one of those (Odyssey), its not my favorite.
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cstack3
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Thank you, that is an excellent contribution! As the 70s progressed, various "string synthesizers" came onto the market. These were not comparable to the rich sampled sounds of the Mellotron, but they were easy to transport and play onstage, and they were a feature of many bands. Interestingly, disco bands seemed to embrace that sound enthusiastically! The ARP String Ensemble seemed to be the flagship product, but I know there were knockoffs. Eventually, some fairly sophisticated little synths came out at toyshop prices, spurred on by Casio. These had impressive settings such as pipe organ, piano etc. I own a tiny Casio sampling synth with mini-keys that I quite love....it is polyphonic, so I can sample my own voice, or guitar chords, screaming cats, anything I want, and THEN play the thing through any form of amplification I want from the output jack! Much fun through a 100 watt amplifier!! Have fun with your toys! This is the Casio that I own: Edited by cstack3 - September 09 2020 at 00:53 |
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SteveG
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A short mellotron tale. One of my first jobs as a recording engineer (assistant engineer) was to create a tape loop of two string notes of the mellotron in order to make the notes last longer than the 8 second limit of the mellotron playback. I was told that it was to be used for some Three Dog Night song! Never heard it on the radio so I guess it wasn't a hit. LOL!
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Easy Money
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Bernie Worrell of Funkadelic got a lot of mileage out of the string synthesizer, not just for orchestrations, but also just playing it like others would play a piano or organ. Edited by Easy Money - September 09 2020 at 06:27 |
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verslibre
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Two friends back in high school owned Casio keyboards.
One guy had the SK-1, which really is a toy, though it does create loops on the fly. Fun to goof off with. The other friend, who I met much later, had the CZ-101, a legit entry-level synth. This machine sounded pretty cool, if similar to Yamaha's DX series, and it had some good bass sounds. Also a good synth if you were into electronic new age stuff. VintageSynth's breakdown:
Edited by verslibre - September 09 2020 at 09:41 |
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verslibre
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What is it about it that you don't like? Or is it that you have many better synths?
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Easy Money
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Its kind of unstable as well. Now lets compare it to two from the 70s that I like. The Korg MS 20 has a very logical layout and it has powerful sounds. Its also a very stable synth. Another favorite is the Univox Mini Korg, a very limited synth, but it has some of the very best solo sounds I've ever used, and it is extremely stable. The only 70s Moog i have is the little Radio Shack one, and it is also surprisingly stable and nice sounding. The Odyssey has always been a disappointment to me, it just seems weak in every area, but that may just be my fault at not getting the best out of it. Edited by Easy Money - September 09 2020 at 11:08 |
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verslibre
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It may have more bulk, but I've always had the impression that the 2600 > Odyssey. The Korg MS-20 is cool. Do you remember a short-lived band called Yeti, and their excellent album Things to Come? Their late keyboardist Doug Ferguson used the MS-20. |
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SteveG
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Let me know when you guys get up to the Prophet 5. It's the only real synth I've owned so it's a sentimental favorite. (Aside from some cheap Casios. 😬)
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Easy Money
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I just listened to them on youtube. Great band and a good match for the MS 20. Korg products always have a big massive bass sound. |
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verslibre
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I'd love to have one... |
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Frenetic Zetetic
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I could listen to those sweet tones all day.
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"I am so prog, I listen to concept albums on shuffle." -KMac2021 |
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cstack3
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Ahhh...the lovely Prophet 5!! Many bands in Chicago had those onstage back in the day, they had a lovely, rich sound!! It was my favorite synth for many years and still might be!
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Rednight
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I like what the Mellotron did for Spring.
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"It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno
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Davesax1965
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Got a soft spot for the Korg MS series. I had an original MS-10 back in the early 80's, and I've got the reissue MS-20 Mini.
A friend of mine overhauls analogue synths, he's just working on an original MS-20 at the moment. The Korg uses a different set of input voltages, compared to the 1V/Oct standard on most synths, so it was always going to be a dead end. I've built several variations of the Korg's filter: there's not a lot to them from an electronics viewpoint, ditto the Polivoks, Minimoog etc. Here's my MS, add on wood sides. Incidentally, the bass is not as full as mythology would have it. I'd actually have an Odyssey, but the prices are frankly ludicrous for the Korg one, and it was always a synth you "nearly liked" back in the early 80's. Walked past tons of them in music shops then. Incidentally, if my memory serves, I did see a second hand (at least) Melotron in a music/junk shop in Manchester in the early 80's. No one wanted it, given the reputation they had for reliability and problems in changing the tapes. I think I'd still walk past one now, even at 80's junk shop prices. Edited by Davesax1965 - September 13 2020 at 02:30 |
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