Alex Ball

A look at the Oberheim Synthesizer Expander Module (1974) and Two Voice (1975), which were Oberheim's first two synthesizer products respectively.

A look at the E-mu Systems Emulator II from 1984, famously used by a certain Mr Bueller.

As discussed in the video, this unit was used by many famous artists, producers and engineers in the late 90s and early 00s across a broad range of styles. The Mutator is a stereo pair of analogue, resonant low pass filters (SSM 2045s) and voltage controlled amplifiers that are contoured by envelope followers and/or LFOs. In a nutshell, that allows for all sorts of stereo filtering, sweeping and tremolo FX on an open-ended number of audio sources. There is further functionality such as additional attack and release times, external inputs for creating alternate envelopes, external CV ins, LFO linking/inverting, MIDI control and MIDI LFO reset etc. Most (but not all) of this was used at some point in the video.

A look at the new SH-4d synthesizer from Roland. The SH-4d is a multi-timbral synthesizer with four parts, plus drums. At the time of uploading, there are 11 different synthesis engines onboard, as well as a multi-track sequencer, arpeggiator, MIDI and USB audio. The unit also includes lots of FX, a deep mod matrix and "D-Motion" which allows configurable modulation that is controlled by physically tilting the unit in different directions.

Huge thank you to Andrew "The Quadra" Ward for the loan!

Following on from my video with the original Syntrx, I thought it would be fun to do another imaginary score with its successor, Syntrx II.

A look at the 3rd Wave from Groove Synthesis.

A look at Roland's System 100 from 1975, their first foray in (semi) modular synthesis.

Following on from my Roland System 100 feature video, here's a full cover of the Human League's first single, "Being Boiled" from 1978. Breakdown: I was very fortunate to receive a copy of the original beat patch from Martyn Ware via Robbie Puricelli. Martyn had passed on that it might need to tweaking and experimentation, which wasn't surprising given the nature of analogue gear. The patch sheet gave me the pitched noise part and the snare and I found I needed to add a bit of EQ from my mixer to dial those in too. I also had had to adjust the settings in tiny increments for quite a while until it sounded very close. Strangely, I had to use the white noise on my 100 to get it to sound like the original recording as the pink noise that they actually used sounded too dull on mine. Maybe it's the age of the unit now!

A look at the Black Corporation ISE-NIN which is an 8-voice analogue synthesizer based on the Roland Jupiter-8 from 1981.

A look at the first drum synthesizer made by Pearl, the Syncussion SY-1 from 1979.

Finally! A look at a Moog modular synthesizer! Despite Moog being the most famous synth brand ever, it's historically been difficult for me to get hold of Moogs for numerous reasons, so when I found out that there was a Model 10 reissue lurking in the UK, I begged GAK Music Emporium to let me borrow it.

A quick look at the Korg Digital Voice Processor (DVP-1) from 1986, which was used by Air on numerous productions, including "Kelly Watch the Stars" from Moon Safari. The DVP was originally designed to give programmable voice effects at an affordable price, but you can run any audio signal you like through it. There's four main engines or "modes": Vocoder (as the name suggests, a digital vocoder) Harmonize (add five intervals to an audio signal, also has chord memory) Int Wave (internal digital waves that can be played via midi) Pitch Shift (digital pitch shifting) There's a built-in chorus effect, unison and poly modes and patch memory.

A look at the unique MXR M-129 Pitch Transposer from 1979.

The story of the giant Korg MS-20 including photos and information never seen before!

A look at the outrageous and jaw-dropping Colossus from Analogue Solutions.

Roland's first ever synth was the SH-1000 and they've added around 20 to that line since then, including the SH-4d that came out just a few months ago. I've played most of them and one always stood out as my favourite having borrowed one some years ago. Unfortunately they're very rare and hard to find, but after a lucky encounter I managed to finally get one.

In 1983, effects giants MXR made a drum machine.

Last year I shot some bonus footage of the Jupiter-X and Juno-X whilst they were both in the studio to answer two questions I kept getting about them: 1) What's the difference between the Juno-X and Jupiter-X? 2) Can they make their own sounds that aren't recreations of old sounds?

Veteran blue movie composer Geert Van Schlänger returns to give us his valued insight into the majestic wah-wah pedal.

This was a very special opportunity indeed, and I really hope you enjoy it. In a nutshell, I got hold of an E-mu SP-12 from the 80s and then discovered that a friend, Andrew Ward, has some of Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford's original floppy discs for it that are part of his Genesis equipment collection. Chris Poacher leant us a floppy drive and I fired up the discs, possibly for the first time in over 30 years. In this video, we find out what I discovered!

Following on from our look at Genesis SP-12 sounds, here's a look at Tony Banks' Roland JD-800 that he used live throughout the 1990s. In this video, we have a listen to the tour patches stored on the instrument and get a little glimpse into how Genesis did things in front of stadiums full of adoring fans.

Back by popular demand, another filmscore breakown. This time we look at Wendy Carlos' 1982 score to Tron.

I thought it would be fun to look at one of my favourite uses of the ARP Sequencer, which is in Paul McCartney's "Temporary Secretary" released in 1980. I also thought it would be interesting to see what the song would sound like if everything was done on synths, rather than guitars, bass and drums.

A look at a specific drum setup used by Depeche Mode and Daniel Miller on their album, Speak and Spell, from 1981.

This is the least known of the trio (Odyssey, Axxe, Solus) because it was only made for a few months before ARP went out of business.

A look at the classic Oberheim OB-X synthesizer from 1979. Huge thanks to Steven R Sellick for the kind loan!