From Benjamin A Ward Sent Sat, Feb 13th 1999, 14:13
From Benjamin A Ward Sent Sat, Feb 13th 1999, 14:13
> >> Have alot of studio pictures from Vagelis showing ALOT >> > of synths (many modulars there!) > >modules yes! modulars no!! > Nick - did he actually program synths himself, do you know, or was that done by his assistants? I would have thought he'd like to concentrate on playing. I think Vangelis is the classic case of a musician using what tools he needs to get the job done, reagrdless of the analogue/digital debate. >The nearest he gets is semi modulars like 2600 which he didn't use much >or the PS-3300. He also used a lot of the Roland System 100 sequencer >"module" (seen in many 70s photos) and someone mentioned he used the >sequencer off the 700, but they might have been mixed up with the 105 >(did I remeber the model right) > 104 as a matter of fact. 101:base synth, 102:expander synth, 103:mixer 104:sequencer. There was no 105/6/7 or 8, and the series resumed at 109, with the speakers. Peter Forrest thinks that the missing items were originally planned for the System 100, but were abandoned and the entire project was re-engineered into the System 100M (and to a degree, the System 700). >> Imagine having >> 3x3300 synths together for a 9 oscillator, *full* polyphony polysynth! (err, >> imagine winning the lottery!) > The 3300 actually has 36 VCO's, 12 for each 3100 section, which then divided-down to produce notes across the effective VCO range. As if this wasn't enough, it has no less than 144 VCFs and 144 VCAs, one for every note on the keyboard (times three; basically 'one synth per note'). It doesn't have the Ensemble circuit like the 3100 and 3200 though. The 3100 sound has been described as a bit thin-sounding; I disagree, and it sounds very animated when you play a nice moody diminished chord with PWM, 3 different LFO's doing their thing on VCF cutoff frequency, amplitude mod, and the intensity of the resonators, etc. etc. IMO, it doesn't suffer particularly from being divide-down, although I don't know anyone whose ever heard 144 VCO's all at once, so I don't have anything to compare it to! >I guess Coldcut won the lottery :) Note: Coldcut own three PS-3300's... >As for Ben W's "Antarctica" spotting >I always thought that the plucked "Antarctica" sound was his real koto >with plenty of Lex 224, unless Ben is talking about a sound deeper in >the mix. I'm thinking of the melody line. Pretty sure Ben must be >talking about some other sound I can't remember without spinning it. > >nick The koto sound is indeed what I had in mind, but I defer to you over that one. He's a pretty talented multi-instrumentalist as well as keyboardist, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was a real koto on tap. That koto sound is very PS however. I'm think that the reason he was donated a 3300 by Korg (and is therefore associated with it) is that I'm sure Korg (rightly) regarded the PS line as the nirvana/peak of synthesis in 1977, and they wanted top-notch endorsement from the best synth artists. Hence Keith Emerson's (and JM Jarre's?) freebie 3300's. I think that if I was given a Korg PS-3300, I wouldn't find it difficult to be nice about it, either! :-) Vangelis was also favoured by Yamaha, of course, with the CS-80. He managed to get through nine of the things during the time of their production. Tom Carpenter wrote: >I know a guy that owns THREE PS3300s! He has a warehouse style studio and >they take up all one wall. It's a real shame as the guy is not really up on >analogue synths, and when I last say them there was maybe 2 patch leads and >1 audio lead coming out. Maybe it's Coldcut, with those 3 3300's?? If not, we now know of where nearly 20% of all PS-3300's are! Here's a shot of my PS-3100, taken just now (it actually really is a genuine patch BTW). Muchacho Leados, signor! http://www.compuphonic.com/ben/PS/3100.html The 3200 pics are still here: http://www.compuphonic.com/ben/PS/3200.html Ta, Ben