Title link takes you to an interview with Roger Odonnell on the classic Cure ablum, Disintigration. Image via Roger Odonnell's website. Speaking of, I need to pick up his latest album which was apparently entirely done with a Minimoog Voyager. Talk about a Voyager showcase.
A few excerpts from the intreview:
"his concern for sounds that are appropriate, rather than trendy, reflects in O'Donnell's stage setup. One of his two onstage keyboards is a vintage Roland JX-8P. "It wasn't really my choice to play the Roland," O'Donnell admits. 'But it has a lot of sounds from the old albums, so it made sense to use them, rather then to go through a lot of new stuff. We used it on the album as well. And now I'm quite happy with it. The high string patch is especially nice.'
Other venerable units lend an eerie timelessness to the textures on Disintegration. 'The characteristic sound of the album is the orchestral string sample I got from Doctor Sounds in New York for my [Sequential] Prophet 2000,' O'Donnell reports. 'But we often mixed it with a classic instrument from the Cure's old days--a Solina String Ensemble, which is still in the Cure cave. Robert actually likes to try to get it into every song. I sampled that into the 2000 for our tour.'"
"Some of the distinctive keyboard sounds on Disintegration also made it into the final mix with only minimal adjustment. For instance, Simon Gallup used the Universe Of Sounds organ sample on his demo for 'Lovesong'; it worked so well that O'Donnell kept it in the arrangement. And the massive textured synth on the opening cut,'Plainsong,' was originally created by Smith on his demo. 'We worked together on that, but it's mainly Robert,' O'Donnell acknowledges. 'I played the guide keyboard, with Boris [Williams, drummer] in the studio, because it's difficult to play to a click. For the guide keyboard part, I played a solo violin line. Then I added the bass keyboard line, which was a very heavy MIDIed texture with about four sounds, including a Minimoog, which I was determined to get onto the album somewhere, a very deep cello, and lots of Solina. Robert held down one chord all the way through--a kind of block C thing that he's fond of, with all five fingers very close together. It always works, which constantly amazes me. There's also a single high C held down all the way through, which we brought in and out of the mix.'"
I absolutely love the intro to Plainsong. Pure synth magic.
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