Analog Synthesizers: Understanding, Performing, Buying- from the legacy of Moog to software synthesis

337 Pages·2007·6.22 MB·English

by  Mark Jenkins

Analog Synthesizers
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Analog Synthesizers
Understanding, performing,
buying: from the legacy of Moog
to software synthesis
Mark Jenkins
AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD
PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO
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First edition 2007
Copyright © 2007,Mark Jenkins.Published by Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
About the author ix
Introduction– what’s so great about analog? xi
Chapter 1 What is analog? 1
Sound 1
Frequency 2
Loudness 3
Wave shape 4
Harmonics and overtones 6
Noise 7
Phase 8
Synthesizer components 9
Circuit design 13
Sound design 14
Chapter 2 Aspects of analog sound 16
Voltage-controlled oscillator 17
Voltage-controlled filter 21
Envelope generator 22
Voltage-controlled amplifier 23
Low-frequency oscillator 24
White noise source 25
Sample-and-hold 26
Wave shaper 27
Ring modulator 27
Subharmonic oscillator 28
Resonator 29
Frequency shifter 29
Morphing filter 30
Vocoder 31
Sequencer 33
Keyboard 36
MIDI interface 41
Assorted modules 41
Chapter 3 The birth of analog, the manufacturers
and the artists 46
Moog 48
ARP 60
EMS 63
Oberheim 69
v
Contents
Sequential 72
Yamaha 76
Korg 81
Roland 87
Chapter 4 The growth of analog 97
Italy 97
France 103
The Netherlands 103
Japan 104
United Kingdom 110
Germany 115
USA 119
Chapter 5 Using and programming analog 128
Classical and avant-garde programmers 128
Jazz programmers 136
Pop and TV music programmers 139
Rock programmers 145
Pure synthesizer programmers 153
Techno-pop programmers 163
Programming for orchestral imitation 171
Programming rock,pop and electric sounds 177
Programming abstract sounds 181
Ten great analog sounds 190
Chapter 6 The analog revival 194
Chapter 7 Using and programming virtual analog
hardware and software 230
Virtual analog programming 231
Virtual oscillators 232
Virtual filters 234
Virtual LFOs 236
Virtual envelopes 236
Virtual controllers 237
Alternative applications 239
Analog software 241
Appendix A Classic instruments – specifications
and values 255
Appendix B Modern analog and virtual analog
hardware instruments 267
Appendix C Purchasing guide for analog instruments 274
Appendix D Bibliography 288
Appendix E Discography 291
Appendix F Contacts 300
Appendix G Audio CD tracks 302
Index 309
vi
Acknowledgements
Mark Jenkins would like to express many thanks to:
Alquimia, Matt Russell; Catharine Steers and David Bowers at Focal
Press; my hosts at the Electro-Music festivals in the USA, Howard
Moscowitz and Greg Waltzer;all the interviewees,particularly Bob Moog,
Jean-Michel Jarre,Mike Oldfield,Tony Banks,Nick Rhodes,Jeff Wayne and
Irmin Schmidt;all the contributors to the Music for the 3rd Millennium
CDs, including Keith Emerson, Isao Tomita, Rick Wakeman, David
Vorhaus/White Noise, Patrick Moraz, Larry Fast, Karl Bartos, Richard
Pinhas,Steve Baltes and Harald Grosskopf,Martyn Ware and Vince Clarke,
Johannes Schmoelling, Michael Rother and Dieter Moebius, Michael
Stearns,Geoff Downes,Paul Haslinger,and Dave Greenslade.
Dedicated to those who have gone to meet the great synthesist in the
sky – Dr Robert A.Moog,Peter Bardens,Tim Souster,Neil Ardley,Michael
Karoli,Ruediger Lorenz,Michael Garrison,Richard Burmer.
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About the author
Born in Wales in 1960 and influenced by the early albums of Mike
Oldfield and Tangerine Dream, Mark Jenkins independently developed
the tape loop recording system also used by Terry Riley and Brian Eno,
and started to record in 1978 using an electronic organ and modified fre-
quency generators from his school physics department. His first analog
instruments were a kit-built synthesizer and sequencer from ETI and
Practical Electronicsmagazines.
Gaining an Honours Degree in English Literature, Philosophy,
Psychology and History of Science at the University of Leicester,he used
the University’s music and video studios to create a series of synthesizer
and video graphic concerts. Becoming Music Editor of Electronics and
Music Maker magazine, he reviewed and used all the major instrument
releases of the time,including the first commercially available MIDI syn-
thesizer the Sequential Prophet 600, and met many of the electronic
music scene’s most influential artists. From 1983 he was a committee
member and later organizer of the UK Electronica ‘Future Age Music’
festivals.
As Technical Editor of Electronic Soundmaker magazine, he used
PPG,Prophet and other keyboards for recordings and for concerts at the
Festival of Mind, Body and Spirit at London Olympia. Becoming
Technical Editor of the weekly national music paper Melody Maker
in 1985, he launched AMP Music, which remains the UK’s longest-
established label for synthesizer,experimental and progressive music.
Releases for various artists on the label were accompanied by con-
certs at the London Planetarium and elsewhere, and Mark continued to
write for music,video and computing magazines,including International
Musician,Music Technology,Studio Sound,Music Week,Future Music,
Sound On Sound,Keyboard Player,Keyboard(USA),Virtual Instruments
(USA),iCreateand Music Mart.
Composing steadily for computer games, film and theatre produc-
tions, books and virtual reality systems, he performed around the UK
and at the Theatre National in Brazil in 1992, starting a schedule of one
CD release per year. Mark’s first CD,Space Dreams,was chosen for sale
by the London Science Museum,becoming one of the UK’s most popu-
lar synthesizer releases ever,while reviews of later albums compared his
music favorably to that of Jean-Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, Mike Oldfield
and Tangerine Dream.
On the AMP Music label,Mark released two albums plus his remix of a
CD single for Keith Emerson of Emerson,Lake and Palmer,completing an
almost clean sweep of the original innovators of European synthesizer and
progressive music with other releases,including albums from White Noise,
Tangerine Dream,Daevid Allen of Gong and Richard Pinhas of Heldon.
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