Disappointment in hardware synths

[Forgotten]

a band never uses computers (and if they do they are booed of the stage).

Umm...

[MeneerJansen]

a band never uses computers (and if they do they are booed of the stage).

Umm...

Ha ha good one. But you call that a band?

[vurt]

a band never uses computers (and if they do they are booed of the stage).

Umm...

Ha ha good one. But you call that a band?

i know, not "sexy" enough to be a band.

[Forgotten]

a band never uses computers (and if they do they are booed of the stage).

Umm...

Ha ha good one. But you call that a band?

Wel dictionaries do...

a group of persons, animals, or things

especially : a group of musicians organized for ensemble playing

[imrae]

Ha ha good one. But you call that a band?

They put out an 8-disc live album. It won a Grammy.

[whyterabbyt]

Ha ha good one. But you call that a band?

They put out an 8-disc live album. It won a Grammy.

Shush, dont be silly. Only bands who dont use laptops count as bands.

[vurt]

Ha ha good one. But you call that a band?

They put out an 8-disc live album. It won a Grammy.

still not sexy.

there was a krautrock documentary a few years back, where one of the other two, discussed that the split occurred because ralf and florien would not call them musicians, they where employed as "music workers".

so, at least half of them didnt see kraftwerk as a band

[noiseboyuk]

Go listen to Switched-On Bach, or better yet, any of Isao Tomita's works from 1974-1982 and you'll hear what "a toy" can do. That is... with skill, understanding of synthesis and sound design, and practice, and a little effort (it's not even that much effort).

To me, presets are like putting training wheels on a tricycle.

Yeeeeeuuuummmm....

You've accidentally stumbled upon the secret of synthpop. In the 60s and 70s, only a select few had synths. They were phenomenally expensive, and very hard to program. The Prophet 5 first appeared in 1978, and ushered in a new wave of synths where you could save and recall patches. Not insignificantly, synth pop exploded soon afterwards.

Tomita, Carlos, Jarre et al are rightly hailed as pioneers and geniuses. But its pretty easy to see why presets made the whole scene explode - you couldn't realistically take a Moog Modular on tour, even a minimoog was a pain to change patches between songs.

Fun video with Eric Persing talking about the early days of synths and programming, and - this could be relevant here - explaining what Asshole Mode was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VwfLO0Hfts

If creating patches from scratch every time gets your motor running then good for you. Everyone else gratefully moved on somwhere around 1980, until a recent and mildly inexplicable craze for the good ol' days.

The perculiar drive for faux authenticity takes many forms.

[thecontrolcentre]

a band never uses computers (and if they do they are booed of the stage).

Nonsense. I've used Ataris and PCs on stage for almost 30 years. Never been booed off once ... ymmv

[BassMasterK]

The lack of patch saving/recall is why bands used to tour with a boatload of synths and keys. There often was a "common" keys sound that would be used on several songs and then a bunch of synths that were already set up specifically for, often, just a song or two. Here is a pic of one of Richard Wright's live setups for Floyd. When you have stuff this tightly packed it is easy to see where something like the VCS 3 with its peg style patch panel would be much more elegant than a synth with traditional patch cables draped all around.

Huge contrast to the following synth pop explosion in the early 80's where the keys player often just had one unit on stage.

[deastman]

I keep coming back to this topic but find myself at a loss for words. KVR, where we’ll argue about anything. Like analog synths being mere toys. Kraftwerk not being a band. The rise of synthpop being thanks to presets rather than affordable synths.

[vurt]

I keep coming back to this topic but find myself at a loss for words. KVR, where we’ll argue about anything. Like analog synths being mere toys. Kraftwerk not being a band. The rise of synthpop being thanks to presets rather than affordable synths.

i think you'll find the rise of synth pop was due to hair spray. (strange that hair metal was around the same time...).

[thecontrolcentre]

I keep coming back to this topic but find myself at a loss for words. KVR, where we’ll argue about anything. Like analog synths being mere toys. Kraftwerk not being a band. The rise of synthpop being thanks to presets rather than affordable synths.

i think you'll find the rise of synth pop was due to hair spray. (strange that hair metal was around the same time...).

I thought it was parachute pants & leg warmers

[vurt]

mmmm legwarmers


sorry, memories...

[Forgotten]

I keep coming back to this topic but find myself at a loss for words. KVR, where we’ll argue about anything. Like analog synths being mere toys. Kraftwerk not being a band. The rise of synthpop being thanks to presets rather than affordable synths.

i think you'll find the rise of synth pop was due to hair spray. (strange that hair metal was around the same time...).

I thought it was parachute pants & leg warmers

Don’t forget make up applied with a paint roller. That has to be at least partly responsible.