Update: I put this up earlier yesterday but decided to move this up so no one misses it. Note this is NOT the popular PPG Wave 2.2 or 2.3, but the super rare Wave 2 that preceded the 2.2 and 2.3. This is a very rare and special synth. This is our chance to see and hear it.via Boele Gerkes (Something Completely Different):
"After Wolfgang Palm had released the WaveComputer 360s series PPG came out with the PPG 2.0. An 8 voice, 1 oscillator digital wavetable synthesizer with analog filters (CEM 3320) and analog VCAs (CEM 3330 dual VCA). It's the forerunner of the better known PPG 2.2 and 2.3, but to my opinion these are quite different sounding PPGs, probably mostly because of the different filters used (SSM 2044) and different VCAs (CEM3360).
I know and own(ed) all the Waldorf wavetable synths too and have done lots of music with those (WAVE, Microwave 1, Microwave XT, the Q) but those are incomparable with the PPG series.
The PPG 2.0 sounds very intimate and to me it's the perfect mixture of digital and analog components in a synthesizer. I fell in deep love with it. And more famous band and people did too: Depeche Mode, Tangerine Dream, Robert Schröder, Gary Numan and others.
Yes, it's digital, yes it aliasing as hell, but ohhhhh..... everything gets polished again by those lovely filters...
All examples are PPG 2.0 only (plus reverb and delay). It's quite clear where some leads from Tangerine Dreams albums of the eighties come from...
Also the demo-tune is PPG 2.0 only. Not really a good song, but it shows a few sounds the synth is capable of. Since there is no midi on the PPG (yet...), everything is played by hand, so excuses for some timing glitches.
The PPG 2.0 on which all this is done, is on loan from a friend of mine. But I just bought one myself. Should arrive next week."
samples:
ppg-1.mp3
ppg-2.mp3
ppg-3.mp3
ppg-4.mp3
ppg-5.mp3
ppg-6.mp3
ppg-7.mp3
ppg-8.mp3
ppg-9.mp3
ppg-10.mp3
Song:
one complete "song"
Hot diggity! I love that number-pad for some reason. Very nice!
ReplyDeleteLovely synth, I recommend listening to Exit and Pinnacles from Tangerine Dream/Edgar Fröse. Brilliant :-)
ReplyDeleteAnne Dudley got a lot of mileage with that one in all the Trevor Horn projects as well.
ReplyDeleteFun Fact: The PPG number pad is stolen from the alarm system of Magnum P.I.'s Ferrari.
ReplyDeleteI love the PPG, it has such a lonesome sound. I gotta go drool somewhere.
ReplyDeleteGary numan never used the wave 2, he owned a 2.3 with waveterm B. The rarest ppg was owned by thomas dolby who bought a prototype sequencer to drive lightrigs with but contained wavetables to
ReplyDeletemodulate the patterns.
This unit can be heard all over 'the golden age of wireless 'album. he also
used it to sequence his simmonds Sds V.
jvangent@web.de
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