RYDEEN アナログ演奏

YouTube via aniwarata | January 08, 2011 |
Arp Odyssey and Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 Also see Behind the Mask
"ゾウのダンスw
ニコニコ
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm13253266"

Behind the Mask YMO cover

YouTube via aniwarata | July 11, 2010 |

"REV2は結構音痴だがそれがいい！！w
ニコニコ
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm11355687"

Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 on eBay

YMO Covers on the KORG MS20 and Electribe EMX

BEHIND THE MASK play on KORG MS-20 & electribe emx

YouTube via atoooy — December 05, 2009 —

"Very small midi keybord is casio GZ-5 that connect korg radias for vocorder sound"

テクノポリス play on KORG MS-20 & electribe emx


"atoooy — September 19, 2009 — with vocoder sound "TO KI O !" by KORG RADIAS"

ライディーン play on KORG MS-20 & electribe emx [Rydeen]

"atoooy — September 08, 2009 —

KORG MS-20 is monophonic analog synthesizer released in 1978. electribe emx is music production workstation with analog modeling (MMT) synthesis engine. I should practice performing more."

You'll find more videos on atoooy's YouTube channel here.

Behind the Mask on Monomachine

YouTube via QuadraPolyphonic.

Click here for all posts mentioning YMO.

"Playing YMO's Behind the Mask with Monomachine and Electribe ER-1. Audio recorded by Logic using Presonus Fire Studio Tube interface."

BEHIND THE MASK ～ TECHNOPOLIS ～ RYDEEN (YMO copy)

YouTube via KM65536.

"2009/07/24. Prophet-5、VP-330、etc."

YMO posts

Behind The Mask - 8Bitone & SV-5 -

YouTube via humanmaestro

"This tune is 'Behind The Mask' by Yellow Magic Orchestra.
So I performed on 8Bitone and Vocoder SV-5 that is iPhone/iPod touch musical apps by Yudo.

8Bitone is retro 8-bit sound monophonic Synthesizer and 4 track Sequencer.
SV-5 is authentic Vocoder and polyphonic Synthesizer like a Roland VP-330."
8Bitone on iTunes:

Eric Clapton and Phil Collins - Behind the Mask

YouTube via MeanAuntie

OK, I'm stretching it with this one, but this is truly bizarre. YMO's Behind the Mask with Eric Clapton and others. For reference see these posts. Spot the synths.
"Prince's Trust circa '87 - Clapton, Collins, Midge Ure, various others... Behind the Mask"

Update via tim in the comments:
"Clapton's cover came about because of Greg Philliganes being his keyboardist at the time. He did a version on his 1984 album Pulse, with uncredited backing vocals and added lyrics by Michael Jackson. And I think Jackson had considered doing it on Thriller after Quincy Jones pointed out the original to him."

And some fascinating info from the AH list:
"I don't think anyone's spoken up about lyricist or how that song got to Clapton;-)

Okay. First off Yellow Magic Orchestra was meant to be a more or less one-off concept project in Japan (1978) it was meant to be as if Martin Denny's music was played by Kraftwerk. In other words taking the West's notion of inauthentic but cool "Oriental" music and give it the edge of modern technology (the impression Westerners had of Japan).

A&M Records liked what they heard, moderately remixed it to their tastes and YMO were ready to tour and promote the album. They did a lot of promotion in LA, then swung by NYC, London and Paris. The year was 1979. Back in Japan they were doing well though not chart topping. They eventually did gain real chart success in Japan. Their success was more moderate in the US though their use of video games and electronic beats was influential. They took 1982 off for Sakamoto to work on "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and then reformed in 1983 with the understanding that they'd disband at the end of the year. They really did want to go their own ways but it was a great marketing tool to really make them iconic in Japan. They reformed 10 years later for a one-off album and concert.

They started to work together again on and off in the 2000s. They have a show next weekend in London. Definitely a one off thing. I guess they were asked nicely by Massive Attack to do a show. They aren't promoting anything new or doing more shows. I sort of wish I could go.

As for gear, it's ironic that they played maybe 90% American synths. Early on - lots of Moog Modular. Later on lots of Prophet. Always: Arp Odyssey. They do sound very different in 1983 versus 1978.

Okay now for the weird part of the Clapton story -- Michael Jackson took an interest in high tech music in the early 80s. He was trying to get Kraftwerk to work with him but nothing came of it. What did happen was YMO's song "Behind the Mask" originally only had "chorus" vocals so he wrote new lead lyrics and kept the chorus. I assume he wrote the song for himself to sing, but he had lots of (all original) material then so it was offered to Clapton. It did quite well in terms of Clapton's career. Sakamoto, who wrote the melody (Chris Mosdel did the chorus lyrics) liked the new lyrics and the then prestige of Michael Jackson' additions. There is a mid 80s EP of Sakamoto's solo band doing it. He was trying to do a more contemporary R&B sound back then (not intended to be ironic). YMO's label commissioned Human League to do a remix version in the early 90s, instead (apparently) they did a cover version.

nick
http://technopop.info"

YMO's BTM w/ Prophet '08

"My band did a cover of YMO's Behind The Mask and I used a Prophet-5 and Multitrak on the recording. This evening I replaced the six Prophet-5 tracks entirely with the Prophet-08. The only remaining synth track that is not a Prophet'08 is the background arpeggiated sequence.

http://redmartian.com/BTM-Prophet08.mp3

And if you're curious, here is the version with the Prophet-5 which was actually mixed by Tom Ellard:

http://redmartian.com/btm.m4a

I think the P'08 does a pretty good job. What I'm doing now, and for the next 2 weeks, is only play it. Then I'll turn on a Prophet-5 and see how I react. :)"

You can see YMO's version here.

Sequentix P3

Click here for shots via this auction. These shots are about as good as it gets. Be sure to see them full size. There is also a nice shot of the x0xb0x in the set.

"Here's another one of those items where if you have come across the auction, you probably know what it is. Well, just in case you don't, this is one of the exceedingly rare Sequentix P3 hardware MIDI sequencers. According to Colin Fraser, the amazing man behind the Sequentix P3, there are only, at most, 247 of these sequencers in the world, with that number assuming that every single one sold as a kit was actually assembled. The real number of completed, functional P3 sequencers is probably far lower than this. It's very, very rare that one shows up on eBay, especially one as well-cared for and unused as this. This may be one of the nicest P3s left.

To quote from Sequentix's About P3 page:

The P3 Sequencer is an 8 track, hardware MIDI sequencer, with a user interface comprised of knobs, keys and LEDs. A sixteen character by two line PLED display provides confirmation of pattern data and access to advanced features and configuration options.

P3 allows real-time control of track mutes and simple pattern or pattern chain selection across multiple tracks, plus analogue-style editing of patterns. Each of its 384 patterns has independent values for note, velocity, tie, gate, length, gate delay, and a combination of up to four MIDI controllers, extra notes, or 'auxiliary events', per step.

P3's unique auxiliary events allow the creation of dynamically self-modifying patterns. They can grab values from other tracks, randomise steps, alter track and global settings, and much more. There are three modulation 'accumulators' per track, that can be used as LFOs, perform arpeggiation effects or enable complex pattern progressions.

Furthermore, you can assign front panel knobs to modify or mask these events in real-time, allowing you to create interactive patterns that change predictably as you adjust the knobs - varying in complexity, controlling levels of randomness, even 'morphing' from one pattern to another.

A Force-to-scale option provides preset and user-defined scales to keep everything in key (but defeat-able per pattern step if required), and a configurable 'change mode' allows patterns with different lengths and/or time-bases to free-run, or be synced to a global bar.

What's even better about this P3 is that it comes fitted with Sequentix's just-released (and essentially sold out) add-on for the P3, the P3 MemX Memory Expansion Board. Normally under the v4 firmware there are 24 bars of pattern storage for each of the 16 banks (384 bars total). With the MemX board installed there are 224 bars for each bank, bringing the total to 3584 bars! This is more than nine times the storage of most other Sequentix P3s. The P3 MemX was only available directly from Colin, but because because this P3 comes with the MemX installed, you don't have to worry about finding one, opening up the P3, and installing it yourself. It's already done! I will also include the memory chip which was removed in order to install the MemX, for... well... just in case you can find a use for it."

via Steve.

YMO Live

YMO - Behind The Mask (Live 1979)
Re-Uploaded on Sep 11, 2009 YMO**

CLICK FOR MORE »

Red Martian

One of the people I met at this year's PNW meeting was Stephen Jones. You might recognize the name from this post on the custom wood case for the Sequential Circuts Pro One. You can find more info on the case and other custom work on Synthwood. I actually need to put a couple of posts on the custom T8 and Multi-traks there.

For this post, however, I want to focus on Stephen's band Red Martian. If you like Severed Heads, you will like Red Martian. I asked Stephen what his music was like and what bands influenced him. Not only is he influenced by Severed Heads, but one of their tracks was actually remixed by them. Pretty cool. BTW, you know my policy on only posting music if it showcases a given synth. Well the track "Behind the Mask" features a Prophet 5. Details:

"On behind the mask casey recorded his drums with live bass and keyboard. I then went back and tapped out a gate track along with his human tempo and used that to trigger the backing sequence. All of the synthesizer sounds were done on the Prophet 5. I got the mono lead sounds by killing voices and playing it it unison. "no moogs here". The vocals were done with a SVC-350 vocoder along with the Prophet 5."

Check out their MySpace page to get to the track directly and check out their main site for more. This is good stuff.