All things anal-dog (analogue)...

Number 1 - the Doepfer Analogue Subtractive Modular Synthesiser...

At the present time the Doepfer Modular, a Moog Liberation and the Roland MKS-80, "Super Jupiter", are the the only true analogue synthesisers in our armoury. Most of the rest are either "virtual analogues" or instruments utilising other forms of sound creation.

Over many years we have owned and thereby becoming familiar with a wide variety of true analogues notably the Sequential Circuits Pro 1 and Prophets 5 and 10; the MiniMoog, ARP 2600, the digital/analogue hybrid synths from Elka and Roland called respectively the Synthex and the JX10P, and lately the MemoryMoog and Moog Liberation. Although these synthesisers are incredibly versatile we decided that for a totally unrestricted creative pallette we needed another modular, analogue, subtractive synthesiser along the lines of our old ARP 2600. Indeed the Pro 1 (not a modular but an analogue subtractive none the less) and ultimately the ARP 2600, had set our minds wandering firmly down that route. The ARP proved very unreliable, being more than a quarter of a century old, so we hunted down a manufacturer of true analogue gear, one Ken Macbeth, up in Edinburgh. We purchased one of his excellent M3X analogues but we were still not satisfied with the results we were getting, especially with the awful MIDI interface this instrument had built in. Back to the drawing board.

And then someone suggested Doepfer. The Doepfer range of units provide all the neccesary building blocks to create a potentially awesome analogue modular and with most of the units costing less than the price of a three course lunch they are extremely cost effective. For a little under a thousand pounds we were able to build up a modular with a much better spec than an ARP 2600, or even a 2500 for that matter - all new, and best of all, at a dramatically reduced cost. The only gripe we have with the whole affair is the fact that the Doepfer stuff just doesn't hack it visually. I mean this... think of the big, custom Moog modular Keith Emerson used to have on stage or the ARP 2500 of Jean Michel. Think even of the humble ARP 2600's that can still occasionally be spotted here and there. These instruments were BIG with a capital B. They were also invariably black (not ARP 2500's) and tres chunky. Best of all they had lots of red lights that flashed hypnotically on the stage in the dark... oh those Tangerine Dream gigs  at the HardRock byOld Trafford cricket ground! Sadly, the Doepfer looks tiny by comparison and is an indecently sanitised silver colour.

Oh well, can't have everything I suppose...

So what can a Doepfer offer that our late, lamented (and tres sick) ARP 2600 couldn't? I have already mentioned the relative cost and the amount of features crammed onboard. Lets compare. The secondhand and ailing 2600 cost us £1900 a couple of years ago and had three oscillators, a noise source, a sample and hold, 2 Envelope generators, a VCA, a VCF, an LFO, a mixer and a pan circuit. There was also a spring line reverb tacked on the end. The keyboard was duo-phonic (two notes at once) and absolutely knackered. No MIDI by the way.

And the Doepfer? Well... 3 VCO's, 2 VCA's 4 LFO's, a noise source,  2 sample and holds, 2 Envelope generators, slew controller, Theremin controller, fixed voltage source, voltiage controlled pan, mixer.... probably some more bricks I can't remember! Are you beginning to get where I'm coming from here...?

So lets have a butchers at the thingy...

Now just examine all the spaghetti... what's that all about?

Modular analogues are just what their name suggests - a shed load of modules of your choice thrown into a custom case, 19" rack, cardboard box, bin bag, whatever - interconnected by cables in the specific configuration you happen to think will create the sound you thought you heard last night as next door's cat rodgered your hamster just as you passed out under the table in a drunken stupor after ten pints of Abbott Ale and a large spliff.. Actually there is rather more to a Doepfer system than even that as the company manufactures all the "standard" modules any self respecting synthesist has come to expect and also some real esoterica into the bargain. Units that spring readily to mind are the fully modular vocoder (just think of the fun you can have patching low control outputs to high modulator inputs and vice versa...), the Mixtur Trautonium units (what...????) and even the Barber's Pole (Shepard) generator. Bet you think I'm winding you up dontcha? Nope. They all exist and they all do really weird and wacky things to help mangle your music! Apparently Krautrock supremos Kraftwerk have had an awful lot of creative input into these modules and Herr Elektonikfunk, Dieter Doepfer is only too keen to indulge them as they use all his kit - quite an advertisment when you think about it!

But you may well be asking what's the Jarre angle on all of this..? Well, I already mentioned his love of ARP 2600's and ARP 2500's and Moogs etc. And the Doepey is already a higher spec in terms of modules (and potential capabilities thereof) than the aforementioned. But Jarre has also been a long time lover of those quintessentially quirky English synths, the AK and VCS3 by EMS. He used, and indeed still uses these aged beasts for a plethora of burbles and squirts and squishes, never more so than on his Oxygene albums. The Doepfer is eminently suitable to create such sounds for us from scratch. It is eminently unsuitable to doing it live on stage however as these synths require re-patching and a whole host of tweaks to change from sound to sound. But never fear, that's where our sampler comes in as we can create the relavent squelchy noises, sample them and play them back live, all at the push of a button. Best of both worlds really!

So anyways... we've got one and we are only just getting to know how to use it...

Number 2 - the MiniMoog Analogue Subtractive Synthesiser...

Just about everyone has heard of the MiniMoog and so many recordings feature the distinctive sound of this true analogue classic I wouldn't know where to start listing them! Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman would never have got where they did without a Mini; nor would many bands of the seventies and early eighties. Come to think of it the Mini is still incredibly popular - that fact reflects in the resale price on the rare occasions when one does appear for sale - and it is still featured on many, many modern recordings. Jean Michel Jarre has a Mini that can play chords... well, it must do - I saw you Jean Michel... offering up a shot to your close up camera in Athens, hand firmly down on C minor.... anyways... I digress. We spotted one for sale beyond Hadrian's Wall. A trip to Glasgow on a sunny Sunday clinched the deal and we returned to the wilds of Darwen (you should walk down the A666 on a Friday night at chucking out time, it's pretty wild then) well chuffed!

Now this instrument had a very interesting colour scheme and finish to it's woodwork. Most Minis sport a classy pale olive-come-antique pine  with some of the late ones in a sort of dark oak paint finish instead. Ours had a late seventies "badtriponacidlumpyoilpaintandcandlewax" post-Woodstockesque psychedelic finish, applied presumably by a spaced out Pothead Pixie who wanted to make the finish match the vibes coming out of the machine mannnnnn. In addition to the weird and wonderful colour scheme the Space Cadet had enthusiastically applied he had decided to tidy up the job by gouging the many paint splatters off the keys This left a series of nasty marks for us to polish out with fine emery paper and "Duraglit" metal polish. Although it took time the keys now are back to the state that the late and sadly missed Bob Moog intended.

We couldn't bare to see this lovely instrument in such a sad state so the instant we got home we dissasembled the keyboard and mod wheel assemblies from the chassis and commenced stripping the woodwork prior to re-finishing it as close as possible to original. A brief foray into the back of the electronics chassis revealed further horrors, boards flapping in the wind with no security screws, what looked like CocaCola or coffee liberally splashed around, and a fuse holder which worked with the aid of gravity and little else. A short sojourn at Tony Allgood's Oakley Sound workshop up near Penrith and it came back to us in a 99.9% kosher state...

Here are a few photographs of the restoration work we did... 

Sadly we found that the Mini was unsuitable for the band for two simple reasons... it does rather tend to be a one trick pony in the sense that it always sounds like a Mini no matter how much you tweak it - it really is that distinctive. And the second problem lies with the tweaking side of things - it's got no memories for patch settings. So on the basis that we've little enough room in the house for extra kit  we don't use much, let alone on stage, we very reluctantly sold the Mini and it was last known to be gracing a studio set up owned by a lodger at the vicarage of York Minster - in nomini par tris Bob Moog...

Next...

Number 3 - the MemoryMoog polyphonic analogue synthesiser...

So look at it like this... you're on stage, you've just finished a number and you turn your back to the audience, get your headphones out and tweak away merrily at your Mini perfecting that swooshy, slightly over driven sound you perfected last month ready for the solo on your next song. You turn back to the audience and they've all b*ggered off down the chippy because they got fed up waiting. To that end we decided it might be a good idea to get something with a memory for patches. The obvious answer seemed to be one of the new Moog Voyagers but let's face it.... in excess of two grand for something that is monophonic and at the end of the day is still 1970's technology albeit with some digital processing and some RAM store??? No... a decent virtual analogue can be bought for less than a third of the price of the most basic Voyager and my initial impressions of that instrument were not helped by the fact that Rick Wakeman's Voyager died the moment he waalked on stage on the Oldham leg of his recent tour... that's quite a bad advert for a new synth when you think about it.

So it was always going to be a MemoryMoog because in mono mode you've got six Mini's in one case and that has to sound very, very sweet indeed. And of course you can also drop back into poly mode and suddenly you've got lush, polyphonic Moog timbres into the bargain. Only problem is... it does rather tend to cut through a mix and demand your attention.

There's another snag too... Mems are renowned for being somewhat less than 100% reliable... well, probably less than 50% if one is to be honest. Ours wouldn't always tune all 6 voices and moving it was to invite all manner of oddities next time time you switched on. The cure is a visit to Rudi Linhard in Germany but to be honest that doesn't come cheap. Although Rudi brings the Mem bang up to date it will cost almost as much for the work as the  purchase price for a cheaper example of the instrument in the first place.

So... sadly it had to go! I'm sure it's in good hands now though as the new owner  in Holland apparently has several others so clearly he knows his Mems!

Here's a piccy for you to gaze at with desire...

And for hernia creation...

Number 4 - the Moog Liberation Analogue Subtractive Synthesiser...

Now this one's an oddball for sure! Imagine a two oscillator monophonic Moog designed synth which is somewhere twixt the Rogue and the Radio Shack badged Concertmate, which uses a large, over the shoulder, strap-on (ooh er missus!!! ) keyboard? Well now you're barking up the right tree. The trouble is, despite it's over the shoulder, devil-may-care appearance the Liberation is not actually a remote controller like say an AX1... it actually has the full monophonic synthesiser gubbins built into a chunky, black guitar shaped body and consequently it weighs a ton!!! In addition to the two oscillator mono synth the Lib also has a basic divide down (organ technology) polyphonic section on board. But that's just plain naff and about as much use sonicly as a chocolate fireguard. What this huge beast does have however, apart from it's awesome stage persona and it's unparalleled ability to create musicians with bad backs, is great control of expression with a really effective after touch facility on the keyboard, pitch bend on the neck and sundry other switches and dials, all within reach of your left hand, with which you can mangle the sound in a suitably expressive fashion. The only bit of this synth that isn't strung around your shoulders inducing a creditable impression of Quasimodo, hunched back, short legs and all, is the power supply... this natty black unit with prominent Moog decal sits in a 19" rack mount and is connected to the synth by a meaty cable some 25 meters or so long especially designed to trip you up and propel you into the front row of the audience.

Apparently Jean Michel Jarre used one on the Concerts in China tour back in the early eighties. Poseur's keyboard... Jarre... no, that doesn't sound likely does it?

So... here it is. Note the Fender Precision Bass and yellow biplane in the background, most important to the overall ambience. We first used ours in public on July 3rd. 2004 for the lead line on Aero Theme and from the feedback we have since received apparently people were knocked out by it's hard, cutting sound...