Synth Circle

For a while now I have hade this idea that their should be synth circles. They would be much like drum circles except we would play vintage anaol synths.

Well, last might I called a friend of mine to see what he would be up to today and, Lo and Behold, he was having some friends over to make noises with a gaggle of analog synths.

This morning I loaded up The Beast (my Yamaha CS-50) and headed over there.

In addition to The Beast we had an Octave Cat, some Moogs (including a Voyager), a Realistic, and a few others. There were 7 or 8 of them in all. Some of the names I recognized while others were alien to me.

It was me, Jay, Brandon, his wife Jen and Hal from south of here. We had all of them going at once and it was incredible. At times the sound was incomprehensable and at others it was less so.

Hal also has an Etherwave but he didn't bring it this time. Nest time we will play Dueling Theremins.

Dang! I would LOVE to participate in something like this... but it looks like I live in the wrong neighborhood.

Would love to host such a circle, but no room in my current apartment... maybe in the next life.

DAMN YOU. I WANT TO GO. I WANT TO PLAY THIS GAME.

DAMN YOU ALSO FOR HAVING A CS-50

I WANT ONE SO MUCH

B***********************************STARD

Easy now everybody.

Alexander, once you lug one to a few gigs (upstairs) you may change your mind about wanting one.

BTW, just an update.. I have posted a few times about how the tuning on one of CS-50's voice cards is erratic at times. Lately it has been performing just fine.

Also, I have noticed the unmistakable sound of a penny rattling around inside the case. I wonder if that could have lodged in just the right place to mess with the tuning a bit.

I need to open it up and take a look around. Who knows what else I will find in there.

Back to the synth circle thing. I believe there was some talk yesterday about doing some of these in live settings accompanied by some video footage. Perhaps we could organize something, get a government grant, and take the show on the road!

If any of you ever find yourselves in the North Florida region and want to join in please drop me a line.

We tried to keep the thing all analog but we made some exceptions for some digital delays because not all of us have the bucks to throw down for a Moogerfooger.

Hey, I've been playing one of these (http://www.vintagesynth.com/yamaha/sk50d.jpg) in bands for the past year - I can manage!

Wow... what a workout to lug that around!

I would say "if you ever have a synth circle in Boston, let me know", but the truth is I'd just ruin it with off-key noises.

I got to play with my Moog/Realistic analog synth for the first time yesterday. It sounds glorious. It's still at "the shop" (aka my friend the tech's house): we opened it up to remove the black foam that usually turns into an oily black goop in that model, and it hasn't been fully reassembled yet. Next time I visit I think I get to take it home. Fortunately the foam was only just starting to degrade in mine, so it was removed without too much effort. It took longer to take the thing apart to get to it than to remove the foam.

Now I just have to learn to play it...

Tom, there was very little of anything actually
"in key" yesterday but the sounds were great!

Diggy Dog, I thank you for introducing me to the concept of the

Drum Circle... and the

Synth Circle... which leads to the idea of a

Theremin Circle. <-- And that's going on the agenda for Hands Off.

:-)

[i]Wow... what a workout to lug that around![/i]

Even more so when your full stage setup includes one of those, a Korg MS20, Korg MS2000, Novation Xiosynth and pretty soon a stage piano. Looks amazing though. Gentle Giant core.