Best NW Keyboardist

[cementkite]

I'd have to go with Greg Hawkes of The Cars. He can make great sound effects as well as play in the background.

I'd put Nick Rhodes of DD second. Very good as well.

[Dave]

This may be a bit naive, but do any NW bands/songs feature a "moog sound"?

[Frau_Blucher]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Dave[/i]
<br>This may be a bit naive, but do any NW bands/songs feature a "moog sound"?
[/quote]
Some obscure ditties by Gary Numan called "Cars" and "Are Friends Electric" made heavy use of the Moog. [:D]

[vco]

"Cars" was mostly Polymoog.

http://www.synthmuseum.com/moog/moopoly01.html

[vco]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Dave[/i]
<br>This may be a bit naive, but do any NW bands/songs feature a "moog sound"?
[/quote]

Moogs were used by some NW acts, but the heyday of Moog was in the 70's. They've recently re-emerged amongst the indie set as part of the 70's kitsch as some people want them just b/c they're "Moogs." That being said, they were and are quality instruments, for the most part.

Some major synths used by a lot of NW acts were:

Roland Jupiter-8 and Jupiter-4 (both were all over DD's "Rio")
http://www.synthmuseum.com/roland/roljup801.html & http://www.synthmuseum.com/roland/roljup401.html

Roland Juno-60 and Juno 106
http://www.synthmuseum.com/roland/rolju10601.html
http://www.sonicstate.com/synth/_inc/pi ... synthid=39

Sequential Circuits Prophet 5: http://www.synthmuseum.com/sequ/seqpro501.html

Oberheim OB8, OBX, and OBX-a: http://www.synthmuseum.com/oberheim/obeob801.html
http://www.synthmuseum.com/oberheim/obeobxa01.html
http://www.synthmuseum.com/oberheim/obeobx01.html

Yamaha DX7 (used by everyone @ the time)
http://www.synthmuseum.com/yamaha/yamdx701.html

Arp Odyssey (Ultravox), 2600 (Depeche), Solina & Omni string machines
http://www.synthmuseum.com/arp/arpodyssey01.html
http://www.synthmuseum.com/arp/arp260001.html
http://www.synthmuseum.com/arp/arpomni201.html

Korg Polysix & MiniKorg 700s
http://www.synthmuseum.com/korg/korpolysix01.html

PPG Wave 2.2 and 2.3 (The Fixx, Art of Noise, Tears for Fears, Depeche)
http://www.synthmuseum.com/ppg/ppgwave01.html

Samplers were also used by many NW acts.
The most famous/infamous of all: The Fairlight CMI. Fave weapon of Trevor Horn, Pet Shop Boys, Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran), Art of Noise
http://ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/images.htm

E-mu Systems Emulator (Ferris Buehler played his sampled coughs on it. Fave weapon of OMD (back in the day), Depeche, ABC, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Genesis
http://www.i2.i-2000.com/~jeffrey/EMU.htm
http://www.emulatorarchive.com/Samplers ... rview.html

[WolverineSyr]

I think disco, primarily Euro Disco, used the Moog much more than other popular genres of music.
Check out almost all of Donna Summer's pre-1980 music, Giorgio Moroder, Patrick Hernandez - Born to Be Alive,Boris Midney, Sylvester - particularly You Make Me Feel Mighty Real, Martin Circus, and the list goes on & on...

[MARV]

[quote][i]Originally posted by vco[/i]
<br>Alan Wilder (incredible sound programming & was the best technical player of anyone in Depeche Mode--they should beg him to come back)[/quote]

Unfortunately, that'll NEVER happen. Martin Gore's got a major stick up his ass with his egotistical bullshit. He figures he writes the songs, fuck it if Alan stays in the studio 5 times as much as anyone else making it all happen. Alan's major gripe was never getting the recognition or pay equal to the labor he put in to the work. And I can't say I blame him. But you're right - he was the most accomplished musician to ever play on a Depeche Mode record and his technicial/production prowess cannot be overstated. The large, grand, seductive sounds of Music For the Masses, Violator, Songs of Faith & Devotion (in my opinion, DM's glory years) were all Alan. His departure from the band was a terrible moment in music history. Just think what their sound could have been today had he stayed.

But on to Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys: WHOA. That guy can program and PLAY like nobody's business. His is a melodic, mature, sleek, sexy, flowing, genius (and on and on) form of musical bliss. The same could be said for his production talent. Truly, the Pet Shop Boys are the Bauhaus School of Design of the music world.

I'm surprised no one's ranting and raving about Vince Clark [?]

[red x red]

Mark Mothersbaugh or Jerry Casale of Devo came up with some amazing sounds, and always seemed to be on the cutting edge.

[enzfan]

I really enjoyed Dave Diamond's keyboard/synth talents in Berlin.

[MARV]

Book of Love had a nice keyboard sound.

[Frayo]

[quote][i]Originally posted by vco[/i]
<br>[quote][i]Originally posted by Dave[/i]
<br>This may be a bit naive, but do any NW bands/songs feature a "moog sound"?
[/quote]

Moogs were used by some NW acts, but the heyday of Moog was in the 70's. They've recently re-emerged amongst the indie set as part of the 70's kitsch as some people want them just b/c they're "Moogs." That being said, they were and are quality instruments, for the most part.

Some major synths used by a lot of NW acts were:

Roland Jupiter-8 and Jupiter-4 (both were all over DD's "Rio")
http://www.synthmuseum.com/roland/roljup801.html & http://www.synthmuseum.com/roland/roljup401.html

Roland Juno-60 and Juno 106
http://www.synthmuseum.com/roland/rolju10601.html
http://www.sonicstate.com/synth/_inc/pi ... synthid=39

Sequential Circuits Prophet 5: http://www.synthmuseum.com/sequ/seqpro501.html

Oberheim OB8, OBX, and OBX-a: http://www.synthmuseum.com/oberheim/obeob801.html
http://www.synthmuseum.com/oberheim/obeobxa01.html
http://www.synthmuseum.com/oberheim/obeobx01.html

Yamaha DX7 (used by everyone @ the time)
http://www.synthmuseum.com/yamaha/yamdx701.html

Arp Odyssey (Ultravox), 2600 (Depeche), Solina & Omni string machines
http://www.synthmuseum.com/arp/arpodyssey01.html
http://www.synthmuseum.com/arp/arp260001.html
http://www.synthmuseum.com/arp/arpomni201.html

Korg Polysix & MiniKorg 700s
http://www.synthmuseum.com/korg/korpolysix01.html

PPG Wave 2.2 and 2.3 (The Fixx, Art of Noise, Tears for Fears, Depeche)
http://www.synthmuseum.com/ppg/ppgwave01.html

Samplers were also used by many NW acts.
The most famous/infamous of all: The Fairlight CMI. Fave weapon of Trevor Horn, Pet Shop Boys, Nick Rhodes (Duran Duran), Art of Noise
http://ghservices.com/gregh/fairligh/images.htm

E-mu Systems Emulator (Ferris Buehler played his sampled coughs on it. Fave weapon of OMD (back in the day), Depeche, ABC, Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Genesis
http://www.i2.i-2000.com/~jeffrey/EMU.htm
http://www.emulatorarchive.com/Samplers ... rview.html



[/quote]

Alrighty!

Thank you vco for freaking rocking my world.
I am such a synthesizer whore. I live for my old school synths..and 95% of everything I listen to has synthesizers in it.

Roland Jupiters and Roland Juno boards were awesome...used on nearly EVERY Eurodance/italo record EVER.

The PPG Wave 2.2 and Oberheim matrix 12 were used by Re-Flex.
Listen for all those puncy Oberheim noises on their unreleased Humanication....easy to spot.

Oberheim Matrix 12 was also used a lot by Depeche Mode...who pretty much used everything from a Roland System 100...to a DX-7.

I own a DX-7. And I love all its FM-ness. Pretty shiny, grindy, and overall very sexy.

Man, I can pipoint a DX-7 out so easily...and even tell you which preset on which card can get you the sound the quickest (most of them have to be modified slightly).

A cool moog solo sound is on Fleetwood Mac - Little Lies.
The 80s were mostly digital era synths though. Japanese synths no less.
I talked to a sound producer for a number of obscure 80s japanese anime soundtracks...
and he said it was neat- cause they'd get all this stuff in sealed in plastic and they'd have to unwrap the synths before setting them up in the studio. I love synthesizers.

Howard Jones uses a wide variety of synths...quite possibly some Moogs.

SC also released a Prophet VS-
And that was a vector synthesizer...with a digital synthesis engine and a RANDOM PATCH GENERATOR (how could you get any cooler than that?)
I want one so freaking bad. The Fixx used it...as well as some other people. It was kinda a hit...but not enough to cover its production cost- SC still went under.

I freaking live for the synthesizer.

[2Nu]

I have to second on HoJo.
His immense talent speaks for itself since he was and still is a solo performing writer, singer and keyboardist. (with the possible exception of his early sidekick <a href="http://www.howardjones.com/text/faqtext.html#Where%20is%20Jed" target="blank">Jed</a>)
<IMG SRC="http://aquabluemusic.users.btopenworld.com/prodigy/howard.jpg">
<IMG SRC="http://www.howardjones.com/images/live/slc04/slc%20(3).JPG">

[MARV]

Wow, VCO and Frayo - I'm pretty damned impressed with your knowledge of the synth. Good for you [|)]

[Dave]

Yes, great info. When I think of the Moog "sound", I think disco & a lot of classics remakes.

BTW, love the old pic of HoJo, but where is that hand coming from!?!?

[MARV]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Dave[/i]
<br>Yes, great info. When I think of the Moog "sound", I think disco & a lot of classics remakes.

BTW, love the old pic of HoJo, but where is that hand coming from!?!?[/quote]

And where is it going [:D]