David Bowie - Ashes to ashes

YouTube via marychild.

The question as to what synths were used for the end of Bowie's Ashes to Ashes came up on this VSE thread. The below was uncovered. I'm curious if this is actually in reference to the main line that runs through the song. Note Steve Strange of Visage (who also included Midge Ure and Billy Currie of Ultravox fame) is the left most extra of four when they first appear.

via Marching Pig on the VSE thread:
"Wiki has this to say:
'Perhaps Bowie's most sophisticated sonic work to date, its choir-like textures were created by Chuck Hammer with four multi-tracked guitar synthesizers, each playing opposing chord inversions; this was underpinned by Bowie's dead-pan, chanted background voices.'

Though, I've also read that they recorded it, and made 4 copies on tape; 2 were played "right side up", one backwards, and 2 were played with the "wrong/bottom side" up, again, with one of these backwards. Though, just thinking about that makes me think it's just plain wrong.


the page on Chuck Hammer, it says this:
"In March 1980, Hammer recorded guitar-synth tracks for David Bowie on the album Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), including multiple textures across "Ashes to Ashes", 'Teenage Wildlife' and 'Up the Hill Backwards", all of which marked the earliest use of guitar-synth in Bowie's catalogue. The actual instruments utilized on these tracks included a Roland GR-500 with an Eventide Harmonizer. Textural tracks such as those on 'Ashes to Ashes' exhibited a multi-layered, approach, to recording and composing with the guitar.'"

AudioWeevil07 Prototype Demo

YouTube via BugBrand.

"Here's the 1st demo of the new AudioWeevil. This demo is just using the internal speaker, so the sounds are quite gnarly! Also, the soon-to-be-released version will have a few more features in there (mainly adding to the modulation LFO).

The demo begins with no-input Weevil-ing & touchyness and then moves on to plugging a Hohner Pianet through the box for filtering and noisy ringmod action.

Visit www.bugbrand.co.uk for further details of the AudioWeevil - there's diagrams and such-stuff..."

Korg Kaoss Pad KP3

flickr by fischek (click for more synth shots).

click for full size shot

Amp in case

YouTube via larsby.
"Ruby amp in a attaché case. whoot whoot!" KORG MicroKorg.

After A Dream - theremin

YouTube via ooo6.
"Aprés Un Rêve (After A Dream) by Gabriel Fauré. Enjoy. Randy George, theremin The piano was played by tadasuke from Vocalise piano tracks, Masami Takeuchi and Mandarin Electron Co., Ltd. If you don't know what a theremin is please look it up on Wikipedia. It is fascinating to say the least. I'll be here, cooking up some more music soon: www.myspace.com/etherandaether"

Arse Elektronika 2007

Not work safe. Moaning Lisa MAX/MSP controller. All your knob jokes realized.
"Donald Bell, CNET's Senior Editor for MP3 players and digital audio, reports from the Arse Elektronika conference held at Kink.com's Porn Palace in San Francisco, CA. He interviews Matt Ganucheau about his Moaning Lisa project, and also talks with Kyle Machulis about an iPod-ready vbratr." YouTube via chachijones.

Pro_one_03

YouTube via practicalsampling. Follow up to this post.
"This is the third part in a tutorial on creating sampled instruments using the Sequential Circuits Pro-One."

Access Virus Ti Polar

images via this auction

Ensoniq Fizmo

images via this auction
"The FIZMO is prone to having the regulator and power supply fail. The regulator on this FIZMO has been professionally replaced and upgraded by Muzik Elektronix. Included in the auction is a US Robotics power supply which is superior to the original."

KORG DW8000

images via this auction
"The Korg DW8000 is the bigger brother to the DW6000.... It was released a year or so before the M1. Have analog synthesis sections... with very nice filters... this DW8000 model doubles the waveforms of the DW6000 to give you 16, doubled at 2 per voice to give 8 note poly of 2 osc' voices........ but..... Like the 106, you can do a Unison mode to stack the 16 oscillators !... The 8000 also has excellent Korg analog filters... they go to self-resonance for squeel-appeal. The 8000 even has an onboard arpeggiator which can clock to midi, and is velocity & aftertouch sensitive.... Other features include Midi In, Out and Thru; cassette interface; stereo outs; foot switch control for patch changing, portamento and sustain; 64 memories; aftertouch keyboard; arpeggiator and ... yup !!....a built-in digital delay unit."
Note the KORG Voice Editor Software.