What was the first synthesizer you ever brought?
The first synth I ever brought was the Kawai 100F.
What other synths have you got now?
Casio VL-1, Roland JP4, Roland Vocoder Plus VP330, Sequential Circuits Pro-One, Kobol RSF, Fairlight CMI
What other equipment do you own?
Roland Doctor Rhythm Drum Machine, Roland TR808 Drum Machine, Linn Drum Computer, 4 Simmonds Drum Modules, Roland MC4 Micro Composer
What is your favourite synth and why?
My favourite synth is the Fairlight, because I don’t have to tune it!
What synth / drum machine do you recommend for the first time buyer?
What synth / drum machine do you recommend for the first time buyer?
A ‘good value of money’ synth is the Wasp. It has two oscillators, touch sensitive keyboard and will produce a variety of interesting sounds and effects. It can also be used with the Spider analogue sequencer.
An inexpensive drum machine is the Roland Doctor Rhythm. It has a reasonable basic sound, is programmable and will store a number of fairy complex drum patterns. Both the Wasp and the Dr Rhythm run off mains or battery.
What other synths / drum machines do you recommend?
I personally favour the Pro-One. It is a monophonic synth with two oscillators and noise generator. It has built in forty note sequencer and a versatile arpeggiator. It contains ‘square wave’, ‘saw tooth’ and ‘ramp wave’ forms which when used with the filter section produce a clean, powerful sound. A more expensive synth is the PPG Wave 2.2 costing around £3500. It has hundreds of wave forms to choose from, very sophisticated control parameters, a splitable keyboard and a vast, up-to-date able memory bank. The sound is also crystal clear and it can even produce simulated vocal effects.
For some of the percussion effects on ‘Upstairs at Eric’s’, I used the Roland TR808 drum machine. It is completely programmable and contains sixteen different sounds, each with individual outputs. One of the best drum machines available is the Linn Drum Computer. Each sound is actually a real drum sound digitally encoded into the Linn computer memory. It will hold the drum patterns for forty-nine songs and all this information can be stored on the cassette for future reference. It is probably the best sounding drum machine that I have ever heard.
How do you approach writing a new song?
I normally work out a basic melody on my guitar. Then I work out the various parts (ie bass and lead) on my synthesizers. I then program the Roland Micro Composer to play the different parts. The MC4 is capable of controlling the ‘gate’, ‘CV’ (control voltage) ie pitch and step times, of four independent synths and can be synced with a drum machine. All the information can be stored onto a cassette and tape for future reference in the recording studio.
Casio offer an inexpensive range of keyboard instruments which contain a variety of reasonable pre-set sounds.
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