CS-80 sound emulation

[brok landers]

I would need to choose from this lot...three? Impossible!

Albedo
Spiral
China
Antarctica
1492
Friends of Mr Cairo
Blade Runner
L'Apocalypse D'es Animaux

My top 8. For me the above make the essential Vangelis listening. I like more albums like Opéra Sauvage, Heaven & Hell, Direct, Voices, etc, but the above eight have it *all* for me.




Albedo 0.39...these sounds this is for anyone who does not like the 'bombastic' tracks. Pure ambient bliss with a sombre mood:

[video was here]

Anyone who doesn't know Vangelis' music and thinks he's all about Chariots of Fire and Korg M1 pseudo-orchestral fireworks, check out music from L'Apocalypse D'es Animaux and Opéra sauvage:

[videos were here]

fixed that for you...
yes, that's pretty much it, these are really favourite though i'd like to add some.

older:
soil festivities, mask, opera sauvage, ignacio, bounty, bitter moon and missing (afaik only bootleg, though some tracks were released on themes...
some stuff with jon was also very good, like private collection, etc.
btw, the track chariots of fire, the last, very long track on the soundtrack (not titels, the first one on the album, wich is always confused with chariots of fire) is probably still one of my favourite tracks ever... i just adore how he represents all the themes of the soundtrack within one track, still keeping it a new, idividual track...

newer:
voices (though not all tracks), oceanic (also here not every track) and el greco (thisone's really different from all he did, though after some time listening to it, it really clicked with me), bladerunner trilogy 25 anniversary, especially the second cd with unreleased material like launch approval, up and running, longing and unvieled twinkling space etc is really great.

what can i say, it's really hard for me to pick favourites from him, he did lots of great stuff...

[brok landers]

Yeah, there so much to choose from...
I'd also add Beaubourg as it really shows another side to his music. A 'must' listen for anyone into avant-garde.

[video was here]

indeed. at first listenings i thought he was crazy, and he already said, that this was just a fun experiment, based on the wish by yamaha to demonstrate the cs80, which he wasn't fond of, so he did it that way, and of course yamaha did not like it, but his label chief thought it would be nice to also have this "avanguard" side covered for the public, to manifest his "artist" reputation...
anyway, it's unbelievable how dynamic and versatile he works with just the AM sliders... so artificial, yet organic, it actually is really interresting to listen to, if you're into electronic music making... one unit, a few notes, and one might think it's thousands of synths... well, i did, when i was very young and did not have a real clue on synths...

In fact Vangelis' discography is unique in the electronic music world, or even in any music genre. It spans so many styles and genres. I don't think there is anyone in the electronic music genre who's produced such a wide (and wild) catalogue of music. Perhaps he hasn't produced a Techno number yet. It would be interesting to hear his take on the 'Kraftwerk' style.

he actually did a kind of "techno" song, and trust me, you don't really want to hear it... one of the very rare pieces from him that are downright ridiculous... you're actually embarrassed while listening to it... it was on the alexander soundtrack as a bonus track here in germany... a truely horrible thing...

I can only echo Brok's sentiment that we won't see his entire output while he is alive. He's on record saying that he only release what the labels agree upon, whereas he's got enough material for many releases in a single year.

I'd love to see some new releases from the 1970/80s, stuff that the labels didn't release. I bet there must be tons of reel-to-reel material stashed somewhere.

yes, he repeats that like a mandala that the releases we see from him don't even cover 5% of what he has done in his studios over the time... being asked why he doesn't release these works he just said "maybe the people don't want it... i don't want to impose"... so it's likeley that as soon as he died, we'll see a lot of stuff being released posthumous... not that i would wish him that... and, knowing myself how stupid the a&r's on this world mostly are, how "off" from the key to music, he was, even despite his hughe success, always sitting on the fence with the companies... according to him the whole music industry is just a necessary pita for a musician, and i quite agree with him, soley based on my own longterm experience with the record industry...

hahaa, you don't know vangelis semi-naked? from my feeling he was semi-naked for a long period of life actually... and no, it's not really a pleasure to see it from an aesthetic pov, but i'm used to it already.

Nope. I can say with a 100% certainty that I don't know him naked (where were you going with that Brok?!) but I did see a few pics of him in a similar state of undress...

That video is such a juxtaposition of images: a wild looking bearded half-naked muso who looks like he's just about to support Deep Purple ( or ELP) playing a hybrid baroque concerto on an electric organ surrounded by vintage synthesisers...only in the 1970s!

well, there's quite some photos/videos from the late 60's and 70's where he is just sitting "semi-naked" in his studio working... well, i myself can remember how hot it was in my studio, when all the gear was on and running since hours, and i, even though i had quite some gear, never had as much stuff as he did... but yeah, that's when i took off my shirt, too, back then...

[brok landers]

here's a demonstration how easy it actually is to replicate this sawbased cs80 fanfare sound of vangelis.... the whole pice i did on a thread where one challanged us to imitate the intro of bladerunner, with focus on the typical cs80 fanfare... took me half an hour and - is done _entirely_ with hypersonic. and i mean entirely. just for those who moan that hypersonic doesn't sound good (which indeed it doesn't), but if you know what you do, it actually can... :

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2633218/bigton ... %20001.mp3

[fmr]

here's a demonstration how easy it actually is to replicate this sawbased cs80 fanfare sound of vangelis.... the whole pice i did on a thread where one challanged us to imitate the intro of bladerunner, with focus on the typical cs80 fanfare... took me half an hour and - is done _entirely_ with hypersonic. and i mean entirely. just for those who moan that hypersonic doesn't sound good (which indeed it doesn't), but if you know what you do, it actually can... :

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2633218/bigton ... %20001.mp3

Nice You indeed got into the spirit. And you are absolutely right. Anythong can sound good. It's up to us. If we have enough knowledge and craftmanship...

[himalaya]

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/2633218/bigton ... %20001.mp3

Gorgeous stuff...this clip and that Blade Runner scene...forever etched in my mind.

[ZenPunkHippy]

I had no idea Vangelis had released so many albums Thanks for the input, I'll be checking some of these out for sure.

Peace,
Andy.

[brok landers]

I had no idea Vangelis had released so many albums Thanks for the input, I'll be checking some of these out for sure.

Peace,
Andy.

what we've been stating here is still just a fraction of what vangelis did....

[Cuauhtli]

No one likes Oceanic? I love Islands of the Orient and Fields of Coral. Anyway my top three would be:
Blade Runner (anniversary edition with the extra stuff)
Everything else except Mythodea
Mythodea was a huge disappointment.

I have about 20 or so of his albums (though some are compilations). Basically, everything I could find of his in the US. Does anyone know where one could find/buy his older stuff (in the US)?

[HunterKiller]

What the hell, no one mentioned his first official album? EARTH!!! You guys suck!
This is what you call a song:

[Alex Cremers]

On Earth Vangelis does some marvelous ethnic soloing with the Hohner Clavinet.

Beaubourg is Vangelis mostly improvising (which he claims that's how Blade Runner is made).

Listen to Short Stories (made during his creative Polydor peak) and discover how Vangelis is a knack at making adventurous song arrangements. Not only that, it's from a time when the man used true synths, drums and percussion ... beautifully recorded at Nemo Studios.

And remember:

1) China
2) China
3) China

[brok landers]

No one likes Oceanic? I love Islands of the Orient and Fields of Coral. Anyway my top three would be:
Blade Runner (anniversary edition with the extra stuff)
Everything else except Mythodea
Mythodea was a huge disappointment.

I have about 20 or so of his albums (though some are compilations). Basically, everything I could find of his in the US. Does anyone know where one could find/buy his older stuff (in the US)?

i mentioned oceanic. and i love bon voyage, also how he holds the end chord into sirens whispering, even bringing it up again before the new track starts... i also love sirens whispering, especially from the point on when he fades out the drums towards 5:50... this is a typical genious show-off on how he is able to create athmospheres one could listen to for hours...

mythodea - well, not too fond of the album really, but the track itself is gorgeous. when i listen to that track i manifest a scene in my brain where cleopatra meets caesar somewhere in egypt, and she shows up pulled by a vehicle 30 meters high, pulled by 300 slaves... a very monteroust track with a lot of power.

to me the most hughe dissapointment was actually the ost of alexander, exept of one track - easter path (where actually the duduk player is to be credited to the most part), the way the duduk is played is unbelievable and shows the true beauty of that instrument... i never heard a duduk being played _that_ emotional and dramatic, using the full dynamic and every aspect to that instrument. a pure work of art...

[brok landers]

What the hell, no one mentioned his first official album? EARTH!!! You guys suck!
This is what you call a song:
[here was the video]

i like earth, exept the psychedelic rock/pop attempts in it, which i think was way better worked out in see you later...

[fmr]

to me the most hughe dissapointment was actually the ost of alexander, exept of one track - easter path (where actually the duduk player is to be credited to the most part), the way the duduk is played is unbelievable and shows the true beauty of that instrument... i never heard a duduk being played _that_ emotional and dramatic, using the full dynamic and every aspect to that instrument. a pure work of art...

I'm with you on this. And the disappointed, to me, is even bigger, because:
Alexander is the hero of my childhood (he still is my hero, to a point).
He's one of the biggest greek personalities that ever lived, with a status of semi-god (in spite of having actually existed, and all his achievements being real, not legends like Ulisses, Heracles, Aquiles, etc.)
Vangelis is also a greek.
I was expecting so much from his soundtrack that, when I listened to it, I though to myslef: "What the f*** is this?"
This, after having composed things like Chariots of Fire, Antactica, Blade Runner and 1492 (at least this one was about a portuguese )

[brok landers]

to me the most hughe dissapointment was actually the ost of alexander, exept of one track - easter path (where actually the duduk player is to be credited to the most part), the way the duduk is played is unbelievable and shows the true beauty of that instrument... i never heard a duduk being played _that_ emotional and dramatic, using the full dynamic and every aspect to that instrument. a pure work of art...

I'm with you on this. And the disappointed, to me, is even bigger, because:
Alexander is the hero of my childhood (he still is my hero, to a point).
He's one of the biggest greek personalities that ever lived, with a status of semi-god (in spite of having actually existed, and all his achievements being real, not legends like Ulisses, Heracles, Aquiles, etc.)
Vangelis is also a greek.
I was expecting so much from his soundtrack that, when I listened to it, I though to myslef: "What the f*** is this?"
This, after having composed things like Chariots of Fire, Antactica, Blade Runner and 1492 (at least this one was about a portuguese )

i totally hear you. especially knowing that he showed he actually is able to portrait a person/scene/happening perfectly. heck, i even love el greco, where he shows he can adapt in a totally different way... i only could imagine, that oliver stone or the filmcompany urged him to do a kind of commercial orchestral soundtrack that fits to the typical hollywood cliche, rather than supporting him by letting him do what he _really_ would love to do... thing is, for the typical hollywood orchestral approach there's others that can do that way better than vangelis. if i would have vangelis to do the soundtrack on my film, i would soley get him to do what _he_ is best in - the stuff he actually is known for his genious. i would actually encourage him to pull out some of his analog stuff, nameley the vp330 for the string/choir pads and the cs80/60 for the dynamic stuff he's so unbelievable good in...
alexander was a big dissapointment soley for the fact you can hear he used loops for stuff he did way better a thousand times on real drums...

however, that one track easter path made me forget all that... it's a piece of art that was worth to buy the whole album...

[Integratron]

What a fascinating and brilliant thread! Excellent!