Details:"More cheese than ever before
In episode 3 of the Top 20 Greatest Synths (chart positions 12-14), Vangelis demos the CS80, TV magician David Nixon describes the Mellotron as a ‘musical computer’ and there’s a gloriously cheesy Juno106S TV ad from Japan! Plus more unhinged surrealism from Presenter Marc Norris and contributions from Dave Spiers (Gmedia Music), Richard Termini (Cyndi Lauper Band) and Andy Davies (Stackridge, Korgis, Tears For Fears).
'Things really hot up as we get into the higher positions on the chart' says the show’s producer Simon Power, “and the best is yet to come!” Episode 4 features the youngest synth on the chart and will be posted at Sonicstate in a fortnights time."
Title link takes you there. You can find previous episodes here.
Another episode in this completely bullshit series.
ReplyDeleteTo think that these are the top synths, you'd have to be smoking some serious rasta. Do yourself a favor and make your own list.
What a load of horseshit this eppisode was. The Mellotron isnt even a synth, its an electromechnical instrument. And the Roland Juno is the first programmable polyphonic synth? I believe that honor goes to the Prophet 5. There's also the small matter of the Andromeda being a "chartgazer". What crap.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think the EML SynKey beat both the Juno and the P5 as the first programmable synth... if you count punch cards as a programming mechanism. (Hmm... will need to see where this falls in the timeline vs. the RMI Keyboard Computer...)
ReplyDeleteand what about the GX1 and its cartridges with small leds ?
ReplyDeletejp4 and oberheim sem had memories too (and i won t mention "memories" that were on CS60/80)
by the way, i keep thinking that it s completely useless to make such contest, about which synth is the best, the important is not the instrument but what you are doing with it
Personally, I'm a bit surprised that the CS80 didn't rank higher than #14. As someone who uses one daily, I still find myself surprised at the playability of the instrument, which I consider one of the few real _keyboards_ (what with its weighting, poly aftertouch, and highly user-variable keyboard programmability) in synth-dom. And no, the Juno certainly isn't the first programmable polysynth...others are very correct on this point. That honor should go to the Prophet-5 or the Oberheim SEM polys, depending on your definition of 'programmability'. Disappointing.
ReplyDeleteThey've not even mentioned the Banjosonic 2000. )-:
ReplyDeleteOr the Bahn Sage...
ReplyDelete