Witchsphere: Hawkwind cover (Korg EA1 ER1 EM1 Electribe + KP3 + Kaossilator)

YouTube Uploaded by witchsphere on Mar 6, 2011

"Electro cover of a Hawkwind classic. Korg EA1, Korg EM1, Korg ER1 Electribe, KP3 & Kaossilator. File under Hawkwind covers.
Hardware only. Vocals & samples overdubbed afterwards. Synths just as they are.. no overdubs.. quite some noise from just the 3 Electribes eh?
The EA1 provides the main synth sounds, the ER1 the space sweeps & bleeps, and the EM1 the drum and bass.
The Korg Kaossilator is used for deep ambient tones you can just about make out filling the mid-range.

Hawkwind's 'You Shouldn't Do That' written by Nick Turner / Dave Brock and originally recorded by Hawkwind. This cover version is recorded by Witchsphere.
Video: Witchsphere and Public Domain sources.
This published content copyright Witchsphere 2011.
All rights reserved.

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Original EMS AKS SYNTHI for Auction

via this auction
"100% operational EMS Synthi AKS synthesizer, a true vintage original from the early 1970s. It was bought about 5 years ago from a couple who had stored it in a closet for around 30 years. Literally like finding a low-mileage T-Bird in a little old lady from Pasadena's garage! Everything works: no scratchy pots (except for a slightly scratchy reverb level knob) and no iffy sequencer problems. Just plug it in, make a patch and you're ready to travel the spaceways. Comes with an instruction book, all the original patch pins, connector cable for the keyboard, and of course the power cord. This synthesizer has so much history, I almost feel foolish trying to explain it. Created in England by Peter Zinovieff, Tristram Cary and David Cockrell, this unit (of which only about 750 were ever made), or its counter top brother, the VCS3, has been featured on albums by Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Brian Eno, Alvin Curran, Thomas Lehn, White Noise, Tim Blake, King Crimson, and Jean Michel Jarre. The list goes on and on. This has been described by many as being LSD in a box. It's really all that and more. As mentioned, I have had zero issues with it in the entire time I've owned it, but because of its age I'm selling it as is. The photos don't do it justice, it's a beautiful machine that I think you'll be proud to own as I have for these past 5 years."

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Del Dettmar - Out There Somewhere - EMS VCS3

YouTube via JephraimToe | July 29, 2010

"From Synthesis (1980). Improvised live, with no overdubs, at the Soft Rock Cafe, Vancouver.

Del Dettmar - guitar, EMS VCS3 with pitch to voltage converter
Gerald Toon - additional synthesizer

Del Dettmar was formally the Hawkwind sound engineer, providing additional synth and effects to the Space Ritual soundscape. He emigrated to Canada in july 1974."

Trevor Pinch's Vintage DIY Modular Synth

via Inverse Room, via Muff's:
"You guys will dig this.
Some of you probably know Trevor Pinch from his book Analog Days [Amazon hardcover & paperback, preview on Google books], about the history of the Moog synthesizer. Trevor's a friend of mine--we both teach at Cornell U.--and he recently restored his moribund DIY modular that he built in the seventies. Last night he and our friend James Spitznagel (together they are Electric Golem) played a show here in Ithaca, with Trevor on his synth and Jim using a Mopho, Evolver, Orb, Nintendo DS and various iPhone apps.

Oh BTW sorry these are not better photos. I should have brought a DSLR for this but I had a digital rangefinder camera with me that is not so hot at high ISO. Full set is here (for now): http://inverseroom.creotia.com/golem/"

I contacted Trevor Pinch and he had the following to share:

"Hey Matrix:
I built that synth in London in 1973. I used it til 1975/6 in a collective band/scene in London and then in Manchester - we also had a VCS3 and various gizmos from EMS as one of our band knew Tristram Cary, one of the founders of EMS. By the way anyone interested in EMS should check out the half hour documentary Matt Bates made for Australian TV - 'What the Future Sounded Like'. I was a talking head for that movie. It's got tons of info in it and great clips of Hawkwind, music of early Floyd etc [below].

My synth was kinda in storage before being shipped to the States in 1990. It was smashed up badly in the move and I only started work on it again a few months ago when Park Doing here in Ithaca persuaded me to get it going to jam with Johnny Dowd, Richie Stearns, Brian Wilson, and others for a 'Requiem for Analog TV' show we did at Cornell. Since then I've played out with it a couple of times with Park's band, the Atomic Forces, and once with The Electric Golem with Jim Spitznagel.

The schematics come from the hobby magazine Wireless World August 1973. Tim Orr did the design (he was the same guy who designed the EMS Vocoder). I built it 1973. The Voltage Control filter is online [link]

VCO 1 has square, triangle, sine , and variable mark space (I think in the US they call it duty cycle - adjusting the width of the top of a square wave). It turns out the variable mark space is one of the most musically useful controls I know.

It has three frequency ranges from very low to way up there! There are two VCO inputs with 1 K pots to control the voltage in.

VCO 2 has square, triangle, sine, ramp, and pulse outputs. There are two VCO inputs with 1 K pots ditto.

VCO 3 is a six-step sequencer with an incredible frequency range, with each step selectable and tunable. This is the awesome guts of the beast. There are two VCO inputs with one K pots. You feed the sequencer output as an input into the VCO1 and VCO2 and away you go.

There are also the following modules:
2 voltage control amplifiers
2 exponential converters
A keyboard module for operating a resistor chain monophonic keyboard - I abandoned the keyboard as I could never get it in tune and it sounded better out of tune!
I voltage control filter - band pass or low pass output - band pass only is working
I mixer with three channels and two virtual earth mixers for summing and reversal with three channels each,
White noise source and blue and red noise (variable) outputs
Spring reverb.
Envelope shaper. Not yet working
Two preamps. Buggered.
2 very low frequency outputs. Not yet working.
Sample and hold - Never worked!
Joy stick control and circuits with two pots providing variable X and Y voltages.
The joystick is home built by using three pots (design based on the first one that David Cockerell made for VCS3) my killer control for live performance (think Brian Eno and the way he used the joystick on the VCS3 (Putney)). The joystick was beat up terribly in the move and was the hardest single thing to get working and nicely balanced. Read the story of how the pitch and mod wheel were designed for the minimoog in Analog Days! Having a controller that feels right when you play is for me half the battle.

There is an onboard power supply for 240 volts in and 15v plus and minus and 5 volts plus out. Useless in US! So got new power supply built.

The modules are mainly built on plug in breadboards made by a UK company called Electrokit. So when I blow out transistors - happens all the time - I can unplug for easy access. Also I like to leave it open so shaking the instrument shakes the modules and affects the sound and of course the reverb. Opening the black box is my aesthetic.

Housed in hand machined painted aluminium case (wise choice in hindsight as it is sturdy, light and didn't rust!)

Patch bay is banana plugs, wires and sockets (what we used to call banana plugs or Wonder plugs in the UK). US banana plugs are too big - anyone know where I can get the UK banana plugs from as I need more?

If anyone is interested in my early experiences in playing the synth, they are written up in a chapter in a book by Sherry Turkle, Evocative Objects - the reflection is online at a awesome exhibition, "Remix, Rewind and Replay" at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art which I was on a panel for. http://www.rewindremixreplay.org/pdfs/pinch.pdf

By the way, that essay was written before I got the synth working again. In that essay I said the synth had no name. When I unearthed the old schematics to start soldering work I found I did give it a name, "Stray Capacitance". That's what the synth was like - full of capacitance.

The synth truly has a unique sound : the sonic energy is simply amazing. It can cut through like a chain saw on magic mushrooms - everything sort of feeds back on everything else in various unpredictable ways. Its like a live bucking beast to control. Park Doing says I shouldn't call it a synth and I agree. It's more a sometimes controllable sound and noise maker. John Robert Lennon (aka Inverse Room) on seeing and hearing it in action the other day - said how come it just doesn't explode. It's a miracle that it works at all! Its industrial sound is awesome in a punk band and when playing alongside someone with more varied and sweeter sounds (like Jim Spitznagel can produce) it can cut through and complement and attract attention. With the spring reverb it sends you into space. In the early days we also used to use huge tape loops as well.
That's it!

Trevor"

I'd like to give a huge thanks to Trevor Pinch for taking the time out to share this with us and of course Inverse Room for sending this our way.


YouTube via inverseroom — April 25, 2010 —

"Inverse Room interviews Trevor Pinch, author of "Analog Days" and other books about the history of technology, who demonstrates the DIY modular synth he built in the 1970's.

The thing I find really cool about this design is the step sequencer that can be run at high enough speeds to create, in effect, a new oscillator with primitive custom waveforms. And of course there's the total lack of sides to the case--gotta love that, too!"

GENESIS P-ORRIDGE's Ensoniq EPS 16?

via Craigslist New York

"This keyboard is in perfect working order. It comes with 50plus unique discs. This keyboard has been played by GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE live with HAWKWIND, PIGFACE, PSYCHIC TV and THEE MAJESTY. It has been used in the studio on countless recordings involving Genesis P-Orridge. Lady Jaye also played it live several times before switching to percussion driven samplers. The library of discs that come with it include sounds recorded and sample by Genesis P-Orridge and Psychic TV that will be recognized by the purchaser as classic signature PTV3 samples. This is a rare opportunity. It comes in a robust flight case that has survived rock and roll tours and airline baggage handlers since 1993! Not only do you get an amazing sampler, sequencer and keyboard but you get sounds and noises that nobody else will ever have. The keyboard itself is signed by Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and still has PTV stickers from touring on it for ease of identification. The manual is available online for downloading. This keyboard is quite literally a piece of Alternative Rock and Roll history!" via Romsay

Hawkwind BBC4 Documentary 1-9 9 videos Hawkwind BBC4 Documentary 1-9

YouTube via HawklordPXR5
http://www.hawkwind.com/
via wikipedia:
"Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes.

Formed in 1969 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Dave Brock, Hawkwind have gone through many incarnations and styles of music. Critic Jim Green[1] describes their trademark sound as characterised by "that gargantuan and impenetrable pre-metal/hardcore drone, those great riffs, that inexorable drive to destinations unknown". Dozens of musicians have worked with the group; notable fantasy and science fiction writer Michael Moorcock was an occasional collaborator....

In 1981 Baker and Hale left after their insistence that Bainbridge should be sacked was declined,[15] and Brock and Bainbridge elected to handle synthesizers and sequencers themselves with drummer Griffin from the Hawklords rejoining. Three albums, which again saw Michael Moorcock contributing lyrics and vocals, were recorded for RCA/Active: Sonic Attack, the electronic Church of Hawkwind and Choose Your Masques. This band headlined the 1981 Glastonbury Festival and made an appearance at the 1982 Donington Monsters of Rock Festival, as well as continuing to play the summer solstice at Stonehenge Free Festival."

Cybotron - Colossus (1977)

YouTube via shazzatpm. spot the synths

"Cybotron, not to be confused with the American group, was an electronic/experimental music band from Australia formed in 1975 by Steve Maxwell Von Braund and Geoff Green. The band was formed after the release of Braund's 1975 album, 'Monster Planet' which Green contributed to; along with Gil Matthews (Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs), Henry Vyhnal and Jim Keays (The Masters Apprentices).

Cybotron released a self-titled album in 1976 containing mainly synthesizers and saxophone. Stylistically, Cybotron were similar to their contemporaries; innovative bands such as Ash Ra Tempel, Hawkwind and Tangerine Dream. They were creating minimalist, repetitive electronica at the same time that Kraftwerk released Autobahn. Today their music is still played around the world and is positively received, albeit not commercially recognised.

For any inquiries regarding Cybotron, please leave a comment, contact Geoff at jeeves247@aapt.net.au or visit the official MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/cybotronaustralia"

EMS Synths and POP Music

YouTube via telesynth. Note there are some Not Safe for Work clips in this one.
"EMS synthesizers used by Hawkwind, Pink Floyd and Roxy Music. From the documentary 'What the Future Sounded Like'."
Prior posts featuring "What the Future Sounded Like" here.

Tristram Cary - UK Electronic Composer "Dr. Who"

YouTube via molotov324. via rustyanalog. What the Future Sounded Like. I haven't watched this through yet but a clip in episode three was not work safe - not sure of there are more.
"Tristram Cary - Pioneering UK Electronic Composer Electronic Music Studios avant-garde Peter Zinovieff Dr Who VCS3 Brian Eno Hawkwind Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon Emperor Machine Roxy Music BBC Radiophonic Workshop Tangerine Dream Hawkwind Tim Blake Jean Michel Jarre Kraftwerk David Cockerell"

Hawkwind's Jupiter-8 Up for Auction

"Dave Brock's Roland Jupiter 8 Keyboard Used on stage throughout the 80s and 90s Used on numerous studio and live albums"

Check out the rainbow sides.

Title link takes you to the auction with more images and info.
Images mirrored here.

Del Dettmar (with Gerald Toon)-Synthesis,tape,1980,UK

"Great classic electronic tape released through Energy tapes in 1980 ,by ex Hawkwind/Melodic Energy Commission keyboardist.A must for all space /electronic music lovers!Sorry no pic sleeve scans.Would appreciate it if someone could upload the cover!"

Title link takes you to the post with a link to a download for the cassette. Anyone know what synth/s were used for the tape/album?

via josh. Josh is guessing it could be the EMS Synthi A

What the Future Sounded Like

Via Ross: "Adelaide Australia will show a world premier short film about the
history of the mighty EMS VCS3 in March 2007."

Title link takes you there.

Synopsis:
"Post-war Britain was a period of intense scientific and industrial experimentation where art participated in, and reflected, wider social change. Out of this context came Electronic Music Studios (EMS), a radical group of avant-garde electronic musicians who composed a futuristic soundscape for the New Britain. Comprising of pioneering electronic musicians Tristram Cary (famed for his work on Dr Who) and Peter Zinovieff, EMS was one of the world's most advanced computer-music facilities. Its great legacy is the VCS3, Britain’s first synthesizer and rival of the American Moog. The VCS3 was a uniquely British invention, which changed the sounds of popular musicians including Brian Eno, Hawkwind and Pink Floyd. Almost thirty years on, the VCS3 is still used by electronic artists like Aphex Twin and Chicken Lips. Local filmmakers Matthew Bate and Claire Harris uncover a lost chapter in music history, emphasising a group of composers who used technology to re-think the boundaries of music and sound.

Matthew Bate, Claire Harris and Tristram Cary are Guests of the Festival"

Hawkind's Putney?

via this Craigslist post:

"The original portable synthesizer introduced in 1969. A solid Aformosia cabinet housed the following modules interconnected by means of a matrix patchboard that uses resistor pins. Comparable to a Moog System 1P or 12, Arp 2600, EML 101, Roland 100.



Module complement:
3 x Voltage Controlled Oscillators.
Noise Generator.
2 x Input Amplifiers.
Ring Modulator.
Voltage Controlled Low Pass Filter.
Trapezoid Envelope Generator.
Voltage Controlled Reverberation.
Meter.
2 x Stereo Output Amplifiers.
Joystick.

This is a pre- Prestopatch unit. It is an earlier model that has had the power supply upgraded. It is autographed by Dave Brock of Hawkwind. VCO3 works,veneer, needs adjusting (if you want, I like this flaw). This is one of the most musical sounding VCS3 I have ever seen. Many sound like lab gear. The same is true with Minimoogs. That's why Alien Planetscapes and Hawkwind used this synth and kept it in the family.

It has a DIN pin input for an external keyboard or you can run a guitar, keyboard or mic through it. right now we are just moving the joystick around and getting great Doctor Who sounds. This style unit was also used by Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, and The Who ('Don't Get Fooled Again').

Those things next to the pin matrix is an oscilloscope output, which on later ones is derived from one of the other ports. This machine is very rare. It is a Mk 1 and the pins are original handmade probably by Zinovieff."

For the archives, this one is listed at $5300.

Update: This is the same one from this post. Looks like the price went down. Consensus then was that this was not actually owned by Hawkind, but rather only signed by Dave B. Via ps in the comments.

Hawkind EMS Putney

If you have $6250 to spare, this one can be yours. : ) Title link takes you there. Shots saved here for posterity.

"This is a pre- Prestopatch unit. It is an earlier model that has had the power supply upgraded. It is autographed by Dave Brock of Hawkwind. VCO3 works,veneer, needs adjusting (if you want, I like this flaw). This is one of the most musical sounding VCS3 I have ever seen. Many sound like lab gear. The same is true with Minimoogs. That's why Alien Planetscapes and Hawkwind used this synth and kept it in the family."