Alastair summarises up the the set up like this “It uses three Analogue Solutions Oberkorn 3 and a Synthesizers.com Q960. There are also several sequential switches in use as well as the Moon Modular M563 Trigger Sequencer driving the Analogue Solutions drum modules.”
But other than the shear technical brilliance, it sounds really beautiful and haunting and sounds suit the mood of the music very well, well done Alastair !.
It’s been a slow week with not a lot happening and I’m struggling over sounds for a new piece I’m working on and then comes along Alastair and just stuns us all this amazing piece by Satie and what is more amazing is that the synth is playing itself, no computer, no midi control just hardware step sequencers, gate and triggers.
God knows how long he spent setting up all the sequencers, gates and triggers but result is really really good and just goes to show what can be done with a lot of skill, patience and time. It also shows that modular systems are still amazing synths and not relics of a bygone era, you couldn’t do this on any other synth without the aid of a computer.
Its got a great feel to it, you’d would swear blind that a computer was behind it all but watch all the sequence lights and listen and you can see the parts playing along. Its very impressive and the sounds he used has already given me ideas for what I struggling with at the moment.
Anyway this is what Alastair says about the piece.
“This is another of Satie’s beautiful melodies done using just analog sequencers. It uses the Synthesizers.com Q119 and Q960 and the Analogue Solutions Oberkorn 3 as well as the MoonModular M563 trigger sequencer. It also uses MoonModulars M564 and Club of the Knobs C962B sequential switches. The M564 is used to switch the gate busses and the COTK is used to play the three rows of the Oberkorn and then 16 steps of the Q119. The M563 is used to control the timing of the bass and chords. Trying to synchronise the three step sequencers, two sequential switches and the trigger sequencer with the rows shifting at different rates proved to be very challenging. The only effect used apart from the Modcan digital delay is some reverb.”
I think even Iaso Tomita would be impressed by this, it certainly blows the rest of us away. What next from Alastair?, I don’t know but I think that it will be pretty amazing.
We would like to welcome Alastair Symon to the current artist list here at Classitronic.net.
Alastair has been doing something really rather unusual and also very difficult, instead of taking the easy route (like me)and using a computer sequencer to play music though his modular system, he uses hardware step sequencers which interact with each other to build up and play classical pieces, so in essence the synthesizer is playing it’s self !, I seen this with basic sequences but not the same level that Alastair has taken it to.
This is no mean feat to achieve and takes a lot of time and patience to setup and get right, below is a rendition Erik Satie – Gymnopedie No 1.
He says that he will be able to make more complex works with the addition of a new Oberkorn 3 sequencer from Analogue Solutions.
This is both a novel and interesting method and to my knowledge that no one else uses and we look forward to hearing from you Alastair, Well done !
