Looker

I just watched the above named Michael Crichton film from 1981. Its pretty cheesy but as expected from the title it looks amazing, with beautiful 80's set design and a ton of early computer generated stuff. The music is by Barry Devorzon and is completely sequenced-synth based, but it doesn't seem to have been released as an OST, and is therefore not online either. Below are some clips, as well as the 1982 showreel of the company who did the CGI stuff

Korgy and Best

Why do I always have to think of a pun-based post title? The answer is 'I don't' so sorry about that one. Today I got a Korg Polyphonic Ensemble PE1000 and it's really brilliant. Its a mid 70's polysynth and I believe their first. And as is quite common they got everything right at their first attempt. Everything else they have made has been a little less pure and simple! Its got a great range of sounds and is very unique and characterful. This one came with its original pedals, one for sustain, one for 'glide' [pitch bend] and a big rocker-type pedal for controlling the filter cutoff, or as these early Korgs called them 'Travelers', which make a really beautiful sound. The sound on the video is pure PE1000. Its always a good sign when you don't need to put any effects on a synth to make it sound interesting

Electronic Music Review, 1967

Here are some scans from the above publication. I got them from the Moog Archives site. They were put together it seems by Moog themselves: "Electronic Music Review was published quarterly by the Independent Electronic Music Center, Inc., out of the R.A.Moog plant in Trumansburg, New York. The intent of the magazine was to provide a source of information on all aspects of electronic music. Contributors included some of the leading composers, educators, writers, and engineers in the field... Bode, Stockhausen, Berio, LeCaine, Carlos, Mumma, Davies, Cary, Dolby, and Moog.
Issue number 2 and 3 was the "International Electronic Music Catalog", compiled by Hugh Davies, simultaneously published in early 1968 as a hard-cover book by MIT Press (as pictured here)"


I would love to find an original set of these!

Vintage Cars

I drove to the studio today in the Saab 900 [from 1983] and a little boy of about ten years old pointed at the car and kind of laughed. It occurred to me that that would be the equivalent of me seeing an early 1950's car when I was ten drive past and thinking how funny it looked. Here are some more funny cars, which happen to have synth music soundtracks on. They are all designed by the amazing Bertone

DP Control

I think its time I upgraded to Digital Performer 7.2

Graphs

Look at these graphs from my favorite book 'the a-z of analog synths' by Peter Forrest [I have more than one favorite book, ok?]. They show values as defined by him of each synth ever made, ever. It struck me that I definitely started buying keyboards at the right time - every graph in the book has a very pronounced nadir around 1989. THOSE WERE THE DAYS! [Trust me - every graph in the book looks like this....]

Start Me Off

My Hand Hurts

I just spent hours creating 'labels' for all my posts. Now I've got RSI. Scroll down and look on the right for them

Cycling '10

studio journey from zack dagoba on Vimeo.

[UPDATE: I wanted to put this on vimeo as well as youtube to see which player I prefer]

I found a cool new way of getting to the studio today by cycling through beautiful Epping Forest to the nearest overground railway station at Chingford and getting the East London line to Liverpool Street. It takes about an hour

The music is something I made on the Korg PS3100, layering up sustained chords. Here it is in front of the Moog

Early Seventies Synths

I'm doing a bit of research into pre-1975 synthesisers for a project. These are all on the bay today:

ARP Pro Soloist, preset monosynth from 1972, up for £450, uk

EML Electrocomp 101, semi-modular system from 1972, up for £2K-ish, uk / usa

EML 400 / 401 dual vco synth and sequencer, 1972? £1600 greece

EML Electrocomp 500 monosynth, 1973, currently $1200, us

Korg 700s preset monosynth from 1974, £525, us

Korg 900ps preset monosynth, 1975, £500, poland

Roland SH3, their first non-preset monoynth, from 1974, £1000, germany

Roland SH1000 preset mono from 1973, they go for around £200

Roland System 100, part of a semi-modular system, 1975, around £1000

Yamaha SY1 preset monosynth, 1974, around £200-300

I got all the dates from Peter Forrest' A-Z of Analog Synthesisers