Vintage Keyboards and Synthesizers
Rise of the Synthesizer: How an Electronics Whiz Kid Gave the 1980s Its Signature Sound
By Ben Marks — In the summer of 1970, after popping into a pub for a pint, rock keyboardist Keith Emerson sat down at his enormous Moog modular synthesizer in London’s legendary Advision recording studio and noodled a few improvised notes. His goal was to add some electronic punch to the end of a mostly acoustic-guitar number called “Lucky Man,” written by his singer-guitarist bandmate, Greg Lake. As his fingers ran up and down the synthesizer’s keyboard, Emerson played along to the bass, drums, vocals,...
The Otherworldly Sounds of the Clavioline, From Musical Saw to Wailing Cat
By Ben Marks — The insides of our heads are a tangle of hooks. They get this way when a pattern in a piece of music sends a hook down our ear canal and into our temporal lobe, where it may remain lodged for anywhere from 20 minutes to 24 hours. Having a song "stuck in one’s head," as this condition is called, is generally not painful, although tunes like “It’s a Small World” and “Call Me Maybe” have been shown to be harmful to one’s mental health. "John Lennon’s co-composer may have been an...
Dr. Blankenstein, the Mad Scientist of Analog Synthesizers and Atari Punks
By Ben Marks — "Circuitry is technology. Without circuitry there are no computers. But I got into circuitry to get away from computers. It's truly weird.” That’s circuit bender and music-effects-guru Drew Blanke, aka Dr. Blankenstein, on his love of the tiny devices that enable or inhibit the flow of electricity through a machine. For him, electricity is not a means to an end, the passive power that allows you to watch every episode of “Adventure Time” or code on your laptop until dawn. No, for Blanke,...