ricons là gì

Got an original 80s Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer. So had a quick bit of fun.

These things were a serious bit of kit in the 80s and are heard all over the hits of that era.

Drums: Linn 9000 samples
Synths: All from Yamaha DX7
Guitar: Ibanez Jem, Fender Blues Junior II, SM57, Chorus FX
Vocals: Recorded with a C414

Sequenced in Cubase
FX: Cubase reverb, delay, chorus, Waves Vinyl, U-he Satin, Waves compressors and EQ

Song written and recorded by me.

This was an interesting one. I’d never heard of the Akai VX600 until a couple of weeks ago, so I came into it with absolutely no preconceptions.

When I saw it, I assumed it was a sampler. It’s actually a synth and surprisingly, given it only has 37-keys, it’s a six-voice poly synth. Perhaps most unexpected is the fact that it’s analogue.

So with the surprises out of the way, I fired it up and discovered you have to run a computer controlled calibration and let it warm up. It’s actually quite reminiscent of the Oberheim Xpander in terms of workflow and quirks.

You have two oscillators per voice with various combinable waveshapes, three envelopes, two filters, two LFOs per voice. It’s velocity sensitive and has aftertouch and midi. It’s also multitimbral and you can load different sounds for each voice (as you can on the Xpander).

There’s even a multi-pin connection to get all the voices separately and a whole setup dedicated for use with a wind controller. It’s quite an oddball!

I actually wrote three pieces of music on it before I found a direction that had some cohesion. I started with a warped magical thing, then did something dystopian and finally landed with the track heard in the video. I hope you like it and that it gives off the character of the synth.

Instruments:
Akai VX600 (1988)
Roland JX-3P + PG200 (1983)
Boss CE-2 and DM-2 pedals
Roland TR-77 (1972)
I sampled and made custom rhythms as it’s a preset machine
Fairlight CMI II drum samples
Abbey Road 80s Drummer
Fairlight Vocal Samples layered with my voice through a Voice Spectra Vocoder
String section – Spitfire Audio and LA Scoring Strings
End vocals recorded with an AKG C414s

Social:
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80s nostalgia.

Drums: Roland TR-707
Bass, arps & pads: Roland Juno-6 (synced to the TR-707)
Leads & FX: Yamaha DX7
Guitars: Ibanez JEM 7DBK, Earthquaker Devices "Organizer" pedal, Fender Blues Junior II, mic'd with an SM57
Vsts: Korg delta patch for sub-bass, Kontakt Abbey Road 80s drums for extra layer in the final chorus only

FX: U-he Satin, Waves EQs and compressors, Past to future Lexicon reverb impulses. TR-707 was printed to different channels for processing. Toms have gated reverb, clap and tambourine have a long tail reverb and delay, hi-hats, cow bell and snare have light reverb and the kick is totally dry.

Download a free mp3 of this track: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3o7nralix20...

Composition & recording © Alex Ball 2017

Finally got to have some time with the one Jupiter I've not played properly; the Jupiter-6 from 1983.

For starters, it's a big bulky instrument that matches the Jupiter-8 in terms of scale, but then there are quite a lot of differences.

Its sound is rawer and colder than the hi-fi Jupiter-8, most likely to do with it having different circuits and also digital LFOs and envelopes (combined with an otherwise analogue signal path).

It also has combinable wave shapes on both of the oscillators (rather than them being switchable as on the Jupiter-8) and various keyboard modes with some quite narly detune.

The verdict: I like it.

Sounds used:
Roland Jupiter-6 (1983)
Roland SH-101 (1982)
Yamaha DX7 (1983)
Oberheim DX (1983)
Sequential Drumtraks (1984)
Roland TR-606 (1981)
Roland TR-808 (1980)
Ibanez JEM 7DBK (2001) / Fender Blues Junior II mic'd with an SM57 / Boss CE-2 (1979)
Vocals recorded with an AKG C414s

Sequencer: Cubase
Plugins: Waves, IK Multimedia, Past to future, Steinberg, Goodhertz

Social:
https://www.instagram.com/alexballmusic/
https://www.facebook.com/AlexBallMusic/

This is a synth I've been wanting to demo for a long time and it didn't disappoint.

The Korg Mono/Poly was released in 1981 and is the somewhat quirky sibling of the Polysix.

It's essentially a 4 oscillator monosynth with different waves, footings and volumes available on each oscillator. There's two independent LFOs, two envelopes, cross mod, oscillator sync, a 4-pole low pass filter that can self oscillate, pwm, detune, portamento, an arpeggiator, CV/trigger in and out and a couple of assignable wheels.

However...things then get very interesting in the "key assign mode" as this is where the "Mono" and "Poly" parts of the Mono/Poly are found. You can play monophonically with just one oscillator triggered or you can select 'unison' and have all four oscillators triggered simultaneously. Combined with whatever waves and footings you've selected on each oscillator this can get interesting.

In Poly mode you can have one oscillator per note with up to four-note polyphony OR select 'unison' and the oscillator count automatically changes dependent upon how many notes you're playing so that all four oscillators always sound.

The arpeggiator can behave in Mono or Poly modes too, which I utilised in my track.

With one vca usig a shared envelope, there isn't individual note articulation when playing polyphonically, so this is a paraphonic setup (tips hat to Marc D). There is a note damp switch to help (a little) with that.

I also have a Korg VCF FK-1 Synthe module in the studio at the moment which is a filter and envelope follower from the 700 series synths that Korg made into a stand-alone unit with a wah-style foot pedal in 1975. I ran my guitar takes through it which isn't captured on camera as it's happening on the floor by my feet.

Gear used:
Korg Mono/Poly (1981)
Ibanez Jem 7DBK (2002)
Korg VCF FK-1 (1975)
Fender Blues Junior II mic'd with SM57
Oberheim DXa (1984)
Sequential Circuits Drumtraks (1984)
Vocal "dahs" recorded with a C414s

Mixed by Jakob Ole at Sonic Peak Studios.
Instagram.com/sonicpeak
Facebook.com/SonicPeak

Social:
Instagram.com/alexballmusic
Facebook.com/alexballmusic

Over a 12-month period from August 2018 to July 2019, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to record with a large array of classic synthesizers and drum machines. The music I'd written with these instruments was combined with performance videos and documentaries that live on my YouTube channel.

In the Spring of 2019, I was approached by Danish mix engineer JSN of Sonic Peak Studios who offered to remix one of these tracks. This then lead to further remixes and conversations about putting together an album.

The reworking of these recordings brought these previously scattered and ad hoc ideas together into one collection for the first time. For that reason, I named it "Coalescent Apparatus".

Huge thanks to JSN at Sonic Peak Studio, Curve Pusher Studios, Ian Livingstone, Marcos Algeria and several people who know who they are.

Purchase and stream:
Bandcamp:
https://alexball.bandcamp.com/album/c...

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/1nOtUc...

Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/au/album/coal...

iTunes:
https://music.apple.com/au/album/coal...

Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coalescent-A...

Napster:
https://co.napster.com/artist/alex-ba...

Instagram.com/alexballmusic
Facebook.com/alexballmusic
Facebook.com/SonicPeak/
Instagram.com/sonicpeak/

The Roland Juno-106 is probably one of the most famous polyphonic synthesizers from the 80s but it had a couple of lesser known variations; the HS-60 and the 106S, both of which had built-in speakers, but were otherwise identical.

The 106S was apparently sold in Japan with the HS-60 sold to the rest of the world, but if you know anymore let me know!

The story of this track was that it was something I'd written last year for demoing the 106 for my "Land of the Rising Sound" documentary. On the day of recording there was so many synths and drum machines to setup and record that we ran out of time and the intended 106 and Super-JX demos had to be dropped. On the plus side, Ra @ MadFAME and synth4ever did some great demos instead, which you can enjoy in the film.

Anyway, I've now got to record the demo that never was and extend it out into a longer thing. Hope you enjoy it!

Sounds:
Roland Juno-106S (1984)
Roland SH-101 (1982)
Roland TR-707 (1984)
Oberheim DX (1982)
Yamaha DX7 (1983) Not filmed, but playing the odd FM chime if you listen out
Ibanez Jem 7DBK (2002)
Fender Blues Junior II mic'd with SM57
Boss CE-2 Chorus
Vocals recorded with an AKG C414S
Also some Fairlight drum fills that you'll probably recognise from "Owner of a Lonely Heart"

Torvill and Dean were not made by Roland.

Social:
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Facebook.com/alexballmusic

I’ve been leant a Roland System 500 for a video and so the first thing I wanted to try with it was a side-by-side with the System 100m (1978) and SH-5 (1976) as these are two of the heritage synths that inspired it.

The third synth it’s based on is the System 700, but I’m sure you can forgive me for not getting that one in there too!

All-in-all I think the System 500 is excellent, has the Roland family sound and stands up well against the classics that inspired it. Trying to be as impartial as possible, there are a couple of comments I had about it that could be improved which I also mention, but I genuinely think it’s a great sounding and accessible modular synth.

Let me know what you think about it.

Social:
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A demo that a number of people have been asking me to do for about six months, so I'm hoping it does the instrument justice.

The DSi Prophet REV2 (2017) is the successor to the Prophet 08 (2007) that was itself the comeback Prophet synth after Sequential had closed their doors thirty years prior.

Its heritage is legendary with the Prophet~5, Prophet~10, Prophet T8 and Prophet VS being a few of its relatives. It's also in good company with modern siblings such as the Prophet 12, Prophet~6 and Prophet X/XL.

Whilst it can do decent "classic" analogue sounds, retro patches would underplay all the modern things the REV2 can do. The 3 envelopes / 4 LFOs and comprehensive mod matrix combined with modern connectivity and synchronization make it a very convenient workhorse and I imagine players and engineers would have dreamed of functionality like it when the original Prophets were in their heyday.

You can stack patches, but the voice count halves when you do that. As mine is the 8-voice version that leaves me with 4-voices in that respect, but I worked around it. There's a kit to upgrade to 16-voice which is on my (long) list of things to do.

I used a combination of my own patches, some tweaked factory presets, some live playing, some midi and some tempo-synced grooves from the poly and gated sequencers. I used some onboard FX but also recorded some parts dry and added FX in my DAW.

Instruments used:
Prophet REV2 (all synth sounds)
Abbey Road Modern Drums (Drums)
Some miscellaneous drum samples

Some of the pictures of the other Prophets were taken by others back when we did "The History of the Prophet Synthesizer" last year. If you haven't seen that one: https://youtu.be/Ruh0B5QKBMs

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