inner nerd » Equipment

Equipment: Speak & Spell

beaker — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 02:21:50 +0000

Jack Burton once advised: “You never know when you may need to call upon the vocal synthesis wizardry of the Speak & Spell.” Disappointingly limited vocabulary aside, here is a web emulator for use on those occasions where nothing else will quite do the trick.

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Real Genius: Giorgio Moroder – From Here to Eternity (1977)

beaker — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:18:40 +0000

Moroder is the undisputed progenitor of Italo. The uncanny resemblance to SNL’s Father Guido Sarducci notwithstanding, Moroder is a synth god. More machine than man, Moroder is to Italy as Kraftwerk is to Germany.

Although Moroder made some Taleggio over the years, From Here to Eternity is an early Italo masterpiece. First published as an LP in 1977 on US-based Casablanca Records, near mint copies of this album are still widely available for about $20. Synthspotters love this video…

SCHEMATIC: Some Moroder TV appearances, a Casablanca Records promo video, more details…

Moroder’s discography is longer than the Dead Sea Scrolls. Among other massive hits, Moroder was behind Donna Summer’s 1977 smash, I Feel Love.

He also did the theme song for the crazy-ass movie Midnight Express in 1978. Below is a classic German TV show (check out those mics!) introducing Moroder and his oscar-winning track, The Chase, which is 13 minutes of mind-warping synthesizer amazingness. In this all-too-brief clip, Moroder goes from laying it down in German to working a Minimoog in an ultra-rare LIVE performance.

Here is the original 8-minute 45RPM version of the track. I can’t seem to find the 12″ version, so will upload mine.

Here is the Casablanca Records promo where Moroder demonstrates his vocoder skills.

Moroder produced everyone and everything in the 1980s. Beyond rescoring the 1920s Fritz Lang film Metropolis, he was responsible for Top Gun (along with German protégé Harold Faltermeyer), Blondie’s Call Me, Irene Cara’s What a Feelin’ LP which included Romance ’83 (and Flashdance), The Neverending Story and so forth.

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Equipment: Syntheridoo

beaker — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:54:43 +0000

This is far, far out, man.

Kyle Evans’ digeridoo-synthesizer hybrid could single-handedly create sound effects for every sci-fi vehicle and spaceship ever imagined.

SCHEMATIC: A straight up demo video…

This video via Make via MatrixSynth

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Robot Rock du Jour: Medio Mutante – Corre Corre (2008)

beaker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:54:26 +0000

There aren’t too many young, contemporary bands that could fool me into thinking their work was good enough to be recorded 30 years ago. Medio Mutante (translation Average Mutant) is one of them. This naughty triad of vintage audio and video synthesizer maestros is putting out really thick analogue music. BTW, they’re using a Fairlight CVI video synth for the visuals. Nerd Approved!

SCHEMATIC: Cover art, release info, more vids and where to buy…

Medio Mutante’s first release, Inestable, is a 6-track EP published on Cititrax, a Minimal Wave sublabel. They only pressed 600 copes on 160-gram vinyl, which makes it a pretty good buy at $16.00 + s&h.

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Documentary: Robert Moog (2004)

beaker — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:24:19 +0000

“I think it would be egotistical of me to say, ‘I thought of it.’ What happened is, I opened my mind up and the idea came through…and into my head.”

- Robert Moog (which, btw, is pronounced “Mohg”)

This documentary is available for puchase on for $9.99.

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Vintage Vocoders Youtube Playlist is Live!!

beaker — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:18:07 +0000

Warm up the robot! Any one of these vintage machines presented in our youtube playlist will transform you (or a loved one) into a Cylon. To start it off, let Giorgio Moroder magically transport you to the wonderful world of vocoders in this Casablanca Records promo video…

SCHEMATIC: Want more? Check out the entire playlist…

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