"A 3-cabinet authentic, period correct all RA Moog modules system that dates from 1968.
This instrument forms a part of the RL Music Vintage Synthesizer Collection. We have managed to keep some of the very best examples of Vintage Synthesizers that have come through our business over the last 22 years which we kept for our pleasure and interest. Whilst having a privileged position as a specialist dealer in this genre of equipment, we managed to hang on to particular instruments that were interesting and inspiring. The RA Moog Modular IIIC is one of 40 instruments we have, but is the oldest and most historically important.
""Here’s a little slice of my 2022 live streaming concert at EMEAPP, just outside Philly! My synth rig that night? A modest setup of only 13 vintage, historically iconic synthesizers, pianos, and organs. No big deal. This clip, though, highlights just two of the heavyweights: Keith Emerson’s colossal Moog Modular synth (dubbed 'The World’s Most Dangerous Synth,' because why not?)—the same beast he hauled around with Emerson, Lake & Palmer for 30+ years—and the massive Yamaha GX-1, which is basically an organ on steroids with a touch of Yamaha CS-80 DNA. If you’re ready for more sonic madness, the full concert is up on YouTube. Check it out and marvel at how I avoided toppling over under all that synth weight!"
Update: moving this post up once as new videos have been added. Bookmark this post for updates.
Use the player controls to skip around.
Playlist:
1.SynthfestUK 24: Knobula - Synth Modules and Toy Pianos
At SynthfestUK 2024, we met up again with Jason, who gaves us the updates in the world of Knobula. On display was the new 'dark mode' Poly Cinematic module, for more monochrome rigs ;-]
2. SynthFestUK 24: PWM - More Mantis News
At the show we made a beeline for the PWM stand, where Paul gave us the latest Mantis news.
And yes, it's out there in the world now!
3. SynthfestUK 24: Roland Unveils the Juno-D Series with Zen-Core Sound
We caught up with Andrew and Ludwig who showed us around the new updated Juno-D series: Juno-D6, D7, and D8. They have the same keyboard action as the Fantom-O series and a new colour screen, making it easier for performers to navigate on stage. And they can be powered by a USB-C mobile battery, perfect for buskers ;-)
Running Roland's Zen-Core sound engine, they also incorporates features like a 64-step sequencer and a phrase pad for live sample triggering.
Prices range approximately from £949 to £1199.
"These are just sound examples, but I am not a keyboardist, so please don't expect any Rick Wakeman/Keith Emerson keyboard wizardry. The intention is just to illustrate the kind of tones that can be created with the basic MiniMod voice in Minimoog configuration (Glide, 3 VCO's, Ladder Filter, etc), along with some overdrive/distortion from driving the audio levels hard.
Generally, input levels significantly beyond 12 O'clock (50%) on the Ladder Filter or Discrete Cascaded VCA should start to apply more overdrive to the audio from the VCO's or other Eurorack level signals. This will noticeably change the character of the sound at extreme settings.
The GAIN SWITCH module is also used a couple of times here, as it conveniently activates the high-gain mode featured on both the Transistor Ladder Filter & Discrete Cascaded VCA modules, which is otherwise set by jumpers on the rear of the modules. Using the Gain Switch just means you don't need to pop the module out to enable/disable the feature.
Audio-rate modulation of VCO3 from VCO1 is added at a couple of points... just because it sounds good, not necessarily because it was commonly used in famous lead sounds.
Rick Wakeman has famously used the Minimoog throughout his career, whereas Keith Emerson is equally associated with the Moog modular system that preceded it. Since the AJH Synth MiniMod system is directly based on the early, more desirable R.A.Moog version of the Minimoog, whilst also being fully modular, this makes it an excellent choice for recreating the sounds of those original, iconic instruments, and going way beyond it in the world of Eurorack.
This one was spotted and sent my way via John L Rice who had the following to say about it:
"It’s a video from a guy who does reviews of beer. The one he reviewed happens to be called “Mellotron” but the image art on the can seems to be a caricature of Keith Emerson’s Moog modular from the mid 70‘s?! 😄 It really cool art and I wouldn’t mind having a t-shirt or poster of that! I looked around and the beer only seems available in South Carolina?"
Sign me up for a T as well.
See the Synth Beer label below for additional posts featuring synths and beer.
Francis Ford Coppola is into synths? Both the Moog Modular and Steiner EVI were used in the soundtrack for Apocalypse Now. See here for a couple of mentioning the story.
SWITCHED ON - BOB MOOG AND THE SYNTHESIZER REVOLUTION PRE-ORDER
BY ALBERT GLINSKY
PUBLISHED BY OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
FOREWORD BY FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
The Moog synthesizer "bent the course of music forever" Rolling Stone declared.
Bob Moog, the man who did that bending, was a lovable geek with Einstein hair and pocket protectors. He walked into history in 1964 when his homemade contraption unexpectedly became a sensation---suddenly everyone wanted a Moog. The Beatles, The Doors, The Byrds, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, Yes, Stevie Wonder, and many more discovered his synthesizer, and it came to be featured in seminal film scores including A Clockwork Orange and Apocalypse Now . The Moog's game-changing sounds saturated 60's counterculture and burst into the disco party scene in the 70's to set off the electronic dance music movement. Bob had single-handedly founded the synth industry and become a star in the process.
"As mentioned in past videos, EMEAPP feels a deep responsibility to share our historically significant collection of rare, unusual and artist-used musical equipment with the world. As a part of this, we have opened up our doors to several tribute groups that are dedicated to recreating the music of great acts accurately and with the utmost respect to the source material. We are heavily involved in preserving the legacy of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and we do get behind those who share a similar mindset. The Long Island based group Manticore for example is one of the primary acts that is dedicated to paying tribute to the music of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and they have become a part of the EMEAPP fold. Here is the group (Rob Shepard on Keyboards, John Cristando on Drums and Ron Ponella on Bass) performing their high-energy rendition of “Hoedown” from ELP’s third studio album “Trilogy” (celebrating it’s 50th anniversary on July 6, 2022). The rig for this shoot prominently features Keith Emerson’s legendary Moog Modular Synthesizer and heavily modded Hammond/Goff C3 with dual Leslie 122 cabinets, as well as Greg Lake’s legendary stage used Persian carpet!
You can find us at www.emeapp.org where we invite you to join us as a member."
"'Let's do it...'
- This week we welcome Steve Porcaro, of Toto, of film and TV scoring, co-author of "Human Nature" for Michael Jackson, session musician - and much more.
We talk about the world and work of session musicians, Jeff Porcaro growing up and in the studio, the Rosanna solo, making the Toto albums in the studio, our tributes to the GREAT Keith Emerson, film and TV scoring, James Newton Howard, Roger Linn, Greg Ladanyi, Tommy Mars...
The Roland Microcomposer and early sequencers and synths, the venerable Yamaha CS80, DS1 and 2, the DX7, Polyfusion modular synthesizers, "The Blip" (Steve's creation of complex attack sounds) based upon Frank Zappa and his synthesizer horn sound, and much more!
*** See the rack of gear I set upon Steve's old keyboard stand at 58:17. Brownie points for all the weird stuff you can identify in the photo - drop a comment if you spot something!"
Rather Have the Story: Matt Fink = Dr Fink of Prince and the Revolution
"This week we have the iconic musician, the longtime keyboard player for Prince and the Revolution, Matt Fink aka Dr. Fink.
We explore some of the lesser-known parts of Dr. Matt's life: Cool unknown bands from Minneapolis, the long evolution of the Dr. Fink character, vintage keyboards of the '70s, albums with meat on the cover, tribute bands, AC/DC, The Revolution reunited, When Doves Cry video, K-TEL Records, A Clockwork Orange, and (of course) working with Prince.
Stay tuned, more coming each week. We've got a lot of great guests coming, both known and unknown. Like and Subscribe, if you will - and we'll see you next time!
Thanks to Andra Fink, Max Fink, Liesl Bradner in the Peanut Gallery.
Closing Music: "1999" by Dr. Fink, "Old Boston" by Sir George Martin
"The one, the only (almost, we discuss this) ROGER MANNING.
Incredibly talented and positive soul, RJMJ joins us for a great chat about music stuff. Great stories of digging for the then-unwanted "old keyboards" and what one does with them...
Join us for Part 1 (of likely 647 more episodes where RJMJ will return).
You will hear about vocal harmonies, classic arranging, French music, Beck, Jellyfish, and not much else - because we have a lot more to come when he returns later (like Lickerish Quartet, Imperial Drag, The Moog Cookbook, Load, Malibu, TV Eyes, Roger Joseph Manning Jr, Morrissey, Blink 192... and on and on.)
The Was Not Was song we discuss was finally released nearly 15 years later, on their Boo! album. That track is "From the Head to the Heart" - hear it here in finished form. String quartet, Orchestron Cello, Mellotron flutes!
https://youtu.be/FnnU2Cx3w9s"
Synthesizer Museum: Musician creates home for iconic instrument video upload by FOX 29 Philadelphia
"A former musician has created a home for the synthesizer -an instrument with a sound that defined 80's pop music.
Philadelphia news, weather, traffic and sports from FOX 29, serving Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Watch breaking news live or see the latest videos from programs like Good Day Philadelphia."
"Less than a year after Keith got his Moog Modular, Bob extensively modified his 901 series oscillators and oscillator controllers. He made them much more stable, solid and reliable tuning wise. There are drawings of schematics of his modifications, which are dated February 1971. I have built a 901A oscillator controller and also a 901B oscillator from these drawings and here is the first time I fired them up and got them to work. Initially they didn't work because I discovered that the FET transistor - which I had bought over a year ago and was still in it's 'anti-static' bag - was actually dead..! It probably originated from China...? I can't remember. Anyways, after installing a generic (the wrong) FET from my stock it all started making noises. Of course, being the wrong component it now won't calibrate according to the instructions but I did manage to tweak the calibration controls by ear to get it to play on one of the octave settings. When I manage to source a good FET of the correct type I'm sure it will all behave as intended - or at least I hope so...!"
"Today we pay respect to a spirit who touched so many lives and hearts.
'Keith Emerson was more than his music. He was more than massive modular synthesizers, knives in organs, incomparable keyboard technique, savant-level musicianship, and spinning pianos. Keith Emerson was a fearless, revolutionary visionary who used technology and the transcendental language of music to demonstrate for all of us that surmounting monumental challenges could reap rewards of cosmic proportion.' - Michelle Moog-Koussa
"Keith Emerson would have been proud to see keyboardist Rachel Flowers tear up his song TARKUS on his own stage gear! Check out Rachel taking Keith's custom Moog synthesizer for a ride along with his custom Goff Professional Hammond C3 organ. This performance is from a live event at the Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project (EMEAPP"
"Put on your finest headphones as we explore the new Moog Matriarch. Today we'll focus on experimenting with the built in stereo delay and modulation modules. This demo uses no external effects and no special patching, just using the Matriarch's default internal wiring. We ended up with some interesting spacy effects, and sounds ranging from the delicate to shredding with some reminiscence of Emerson's modular."
300 Series Modules
The core of this system is five modules from the Aries 300 Series. There is one VCO module, one VCF module, one EG module, one VCA module, and one Clock/Noise/S&H generator. Yes, this is basic; here are the module names:
AR-317 VCO
AR-312 EG
AR-314 VCF
AR-316 VCA
AR-318 SH/Clock/Noise Generator
But of course, that's only the core. This system is bookended with some interesting devices. To say that it is "modified" would really be an understatement. It has been lovingly built by a lifelong musician.
The great thing about this system is that it was used by a professional musician as part of his home studio and performance rig for decades. It's often the case with these vintage units that they have aged poorly due to being left for decades in a closet or basement or whatever. But this was used consistently over its lifetime, up to the time of its builder's death. It has been played, as pieces like this need to be.
As you can see, the VCO module has been modified to include a further fine-tuned frequency control, right in the middle of the four knobs.
The Sound
There are an enormous number of modular and semi-modular systems available for musicians right now; the possibilities are almost endless. However, this has an edge that many modern synths don't have: the sound. These modules together sound much more like an ARP 2600 or vintage Moog modular than anything currently on the market. In fact, the sound of the filter is somewhere between Moog modular and early ARP filter. This probably isn't a coincidence, since Aries was a DIY synth-kit company founded by a former member of ARP in Massachusetts.
"The SW905 Reverberation Unit utilizes a dual spring type acoustic delay line to produce a succession of decaying echoes of an audio signal. A single panel control determines the ratio between the amounts of reverberated and non-reverberated signals that appear at the output jack. In addition the SW905 offers two modes of operation:
Regular mode
the relative amount of the echo signal and direct signal can be continuously changed from 100% direct signal to 100% echo signal.
„Emerson“ modification
the output signal is continuously mixed with the direct signal and the knob on the faceplate controls the level of the mix. The direct signal is passed through unaffected.
Both modes of operation can be selected on the board of the module.
MUSICAL APPLICATION
When a dynamically varying signal is applied to the input of the SW905, the output will consist of a series of closely spaced echoes, the subjective effect of which is similar to that of reverberation of sound. When a static signal is applied to the input of the SW905, the output will also be static. The SW905 will perform in this application like a formant filter, strongly coloring the timbre of any signal with appreciable harmonic content."
Update: for those curious why there isn't a switch for the two modes on the front pannel, I asked SYNTH-WERK and they replied with the following: "As you know we reproduce the Moog modules 100% like the original and therefore it is our policy not to add additional functionality on the front panel. We have a lot of customers using SYNTH-WERK modules to complete an existing Moog System and this requires 100% Moog from the outside and the inside.
And…You are right the Emerson Moog had a modified 905 including an additional Input…But…We are always discussing what is the right approach.
The next level of SYNTH-WERK will be an answer to the question „what would have happened if the Modular 900 series would still be alive with Robert Moog?“ How would actual modules look like…And we have already a couple of answers."
