Eric Clapton and Phil Collins - Behind the Mask

YouTube via MeanAuntie

OK, I'm stretching it with this one, but this is truly bizarre. YMO's Behind the Mask with Eric Clapton and others. For reference see these posts. Spot the synths.
"Prince's Trust circa '87 - Clapton, Collins, Midge Ure, various others... Behind the Mask"

Update via tim in the comments:
"Clapton's cover came about because of Greg Philliganes being his keyboardist at the time. He did a version on his 1984 album Pulse, with uncredited backing vocals and added lyrics by Michael Jackson. And I think Jackson had considered doing it on Thriller after Quincy Jones pointed out the original to him."

And some fascinating info from the AH list:
"I don't think anyone's spoken up about lyricist or how that song got to Clapton;-)

Okay. First off Yellow Magic Orchestra was meant to be a more or less one-off concept project in Japan (1978) it was meant to be as if Martin Denny's music was played by Kraftwerk. In other words taking the West's notion of inauthentic but cool "Oriental" music and give it the edge of modern technology (the impression Westerners had of Japan).

A&M Records liked what they heard, moderately remixed it to their tastes and YMO were ready to tour and promote the album. They did a lot of promotion in LA, then swung by NYC, London and Paris. The year was 1979. Back in Japan they were doing well though not chart topping. They eventually did gain real chart success in Japan. Their success was more moderate in the US though their use of video games and electronic beats was influential. They took 1982 off for Sakamoto to work on "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and then reformed in 1983 with the understanding that they'd disband at the end of the year. They really did want to go their own ways but it was a great marketing tool to really make them iconic in Japan. They reformed 10 years later for a one-off album and concert.

They started to work together again on and off in the 2000s. They have a show next weekend in London. Definitely a one off thing. I guess they were asked nicely by Massive Attack to do a show. They aren't promoting anything new or doing more shows. I sort of wish I could go.

As for gear, it's ironic that they played maybe 90% American synths. Early on - lots of Moog Modular. Later on lots of Prophet. Always: Arp Odyssey. They do sound very different in 1983 versus 1978.

Okay now for the weird part of the Clapton story -- Michael Jackson took an interest in high tech music in the early 80s. He was trying to get Kraftwerk to work with him but nothing came of it. What did happen was YMO's song "Behind the Mask" originally only had "chorus" vocals so he wrote new lead lyrics and kept the chorus. I assume he wrote the song for himself to sing, but he had lots of (all original) material then so it was offered to Clapton. It did quite well in terms of Clapton's career. Sakamoto, who wrote the melody (Chris Mosdel did the chorus lyrics) liked the new lyrics and the then prestige of Michael Jackson' additions. There is a mid 80s EP of Sakamoto's solo band doing it. He was trying to do a more contemporary R&B sound back then (not intended to be ironic). YMO's label commissioned Human League to do a remix version in the early 90s, instead (apparently) they did a cover version.

nick
http://technopop.info"

EMS Founder Peter Zinovieff Has Passed Away

Update: Image of Peter Zinovieff (previously in via Brian Kehew).

"Circa 1975: A photo from the Frankfurt Music Fair

Peter Zinovieff in the EMS synthesizer booth.

They are featuring the rare SYNTHI P model, just announced on the left side and stand. Underneath the board listing EMS musical artists is a SYNTHI HI-FLI effects unit is barely seen. Another unusual/prototype model is next to the Hi-Fli."


Peter Zinovieff and Electronic Music Studios video upload by JeffreyPlaide


Peter Zinovieff: Synth Pioneer video upload by Sound On Sound magazine Jul 21, 2016


Peter Zinovieff talks about modern musical interfaces video upload by Expressive E Jan 6, 2016


Peter Zinovieff feature uploaded by Erica Synths on Nov 23, 2020. This was the latest video to feature Peter Zinovieff that I am aware of.


Peter Zinovieff interview 2015 video upload by 香港電子音樂社 Hong Kong Electronic Music Society Jun 30, 2015


Dr Peter Zinovieff intro & performance excerpt - Deliaphonic 2017 video upload by Deliaphonic Aug 29, 2018

And a few perspectives from others:

Bright Sparks Behind The Scenes - The Brits video by GForce Software published Feb 16, 2021

Cosmic Tape Music Club Podcast hosted by The Galaxy Electric - E1 Peter Zinovieff

video by The Galaxy Electric published Jan 27, 2021

Peter Zinovieff Electronic Calendar

video by Mark Jenkins published Dec 9, 2019 - Electronic Calendar available through this post.

You can find a history of posts mentioning Peter Zinovieff here.

via The Guardian

"Peter Zinovieff, a hugely influential figure in British music whose early synthesisers helped to change the sound of pop, has died aged 88. He had suffered a fall at home earlier this month.

With its marketing slogan 'think of a sound – now make it', his company Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was one of the first to bring synthesisers out of studios and to the public. With products such as the portable VCS3 and Synthi A, EMS customers – including David Bowie, Kraftwerk, the Who, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd – were often taught to use the instruments by Zinovieff.

In 1967 he collaborated with Paul McCartney on Carnival of Light, a performance of a 14-minute avant garde composition created between Beatles sessions for Penny Lane that has never been released.

He was also a respected composer of his own work, including early experiments with AI composition and sampling – he claimed to have invented the latter technique." You can read the full post here.

via Wikipedia:

"Peter Zinovieff (26 January 1933 – 23 June 2021) was a British engineer and composer, whose EMS company made the VCS3 synthesizer in the late 1960s. The synthesizer was used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd[3] and White Noise, and Krautrock groups[4] as well as more pop-oriented artists, including Todd Rundgren and David Bowie. In later life he worked primarily as a composer of electronic music.

Zinovieff was born on 26 January 1933;[5] his parents, Leo Zinovieff and Sofka, née Princess Sophia Dolgorouky, were both Russian aristocrats, who met in London after their families had emigrated to escape the Russian Revolution and soon divorced.[6] During World War II he and his brother Ian lived with their grandparents in Guildford and then with their father in Sussex. He attended Guildford Royal Grammar School, Gordonstoun School and Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in geology.[7][8]

Zinovieff's work followed research at Bell Labs by Max Mathews and Jean-Claude Risset, and an MIT thesis (1963) by David Alan Luce.[9] In 1966–67, Zinovieff, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson ran Unit Delta Plus, an organisation to create and promote electronic music. It was based in the studio Zinovieff had built, in a shed at his house in Putney. (The house is near the Thames, and the studio was later partially destroyed by a flood).[10][11] EMS grew out of MUSYS, which was a performance controller operating as an analogue-digital hybrid.[12] It was a synthesiser system which Zinovieff developed with the help of David Cockerell and Peter Grogono, and used two DEC PDP-8 minicomputers and a piano keyboard.[13] Unit Delta Plus ran a concert of electronic music at the Watermill Theatre in 1966, with a light show. In early 1967 they performed in concerts at The Roundhouse, at which the Carnival of Light was also played; they split up later in 1967.[11] Paul McCartney had visited the studio, but Zinovieff had little interest in popular music.[14]

In 1968, part of the studio was recreated at Connaught Hall, for a performance of pieces by Justin Connolly and David Lumsdaine.[15] At the IFIP congress that year, the composition ZASP by Zinovieff with Alan Sutcliffe took second prize in a contest, behind a piece by Iannis Xenakis.[16]

In 1969, Zinovieff sought financing through an ad in The Times but received only one response, £50 on the mistaken premise it was the price of a synthesiser. Instead he formed EMS with Cockerell and Tristram Cary.[17] At the end of the 1960s, EMS Ltd. was one of four companies offering commercial synthesizers, the others being ARP, Buchla, and Moog.[18] In the 1970s Zinovieff became interested in the video synthesizer developed by Robert Monkhouse, and EMS produced it as the Spectron.[19]

Jon Lord of Deep Purple described Zinovieff as "a mad professor type": "I was ushered into his workshop and he was in there talking to a computer, trying to get it to answer back".[20] Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, in their history of the synthesizer revolution, see him rather as aristocratically averse to "trade".[21]

Zinovieff wrote the libretto for Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus,[22] and also the words for Nenia: The Death of Orpheus (1970).[23] The section Tristan's Folly in Tristan (1975) by Hans Werner Henze included a tape by Zinovieff."

Update:

Peter Zinovieff: A Tribute by CatSynth TV

video upload by CatSynth TV

"We look back at the life and work of Peter Zinovieff, who passed away last week at the age of 88. His work at Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was a major influence on musicians of the 1970s and beyond. At EMS, he co-created the well-known and coveted VCS3 and Synthi series. But he was also a composer in his own right, working on pioneering electronic music in the 1960s and returning to active composition in the 2010s with several collaborations with artists in other media and exploring massive sound spatialization.

Additional background music provided via the Arturia Synthi V as a tribute."

You can find additional posts featuring Peter Zinovieff here.

KORG volca Bass - Behind the Mask

Published on Mar 9, 2014 Masami Hashimoto·62 videos

"Use, KORG volca Bass.
volca Bass 1台だけで Behind the Mask を演れないものか試みる。"

And the original followed by one more cover:



Behind the Mask YMO cover

Uploaded on Jul 11, 2010 aniwarata·107 videos - previously posted here.

Red Martian

One of the people I met at this year's PNW meeting was Stephen Jones. You might recognize the name from this post on the custom wood case for the Sequential Circuts Pro One. You can find more info on the case and other custom work on Synthwood. I actually need to put a couple of posts on the custom T8 and Multi-traks there.

For this post, however, I want to focus on Stephen's band Red Martian. If you like Severed Heads, you will like Red Martian. I asked Stephen what his music was like and what bands influenced him. Not only is he influenced by Severed Heads, but one of their tracks was actually remixed by them. Pretty cool. BTW, you know my policy on only posting music if it showcases a given synth. Well the track "Behind the Mask" features a Prophet 5. Details:

"On behind the mask casey recorded his drums with live bass and keyboard. I then went back and tapped out a gate track along with his human tempo and used that to trigger the backing sequence. All of the synthesizer sounds were done on the Prophet 5. I got the mono lead sounds by killing voices and playing it it unison. "no moogs here". The vocals were done with a SVC-350 vocoder along with the Prophet 5."

Check out their MySpace page to get to the track directly and check out their main site for more. This is good stuff.

Sounds of Synth - Ceremony // #hardwarejams // Sequential PRO 3

video upload by Sounds of Synth

"Hey hey hey!!

Its a Hardware Jam Challenge. Read on for the challenge and story so far!!


The story so far:
Your car is stuck in the woods with a flat tyre, you've gone to a pub for help. There are 3 guys there: an Enthusiastic guy; an Angry guy and a Sleepy guy.
You decide to get them all to come and help as not to offend any of them. You buy everyone a drink and then you all leave the pub. As you head out of the door, the bartender calls out with a worried look on his face, "Be careful, it's the Queen's Jubilee".
You shrug - how bad can it be - a few flags and bunting?
Eventually the four of you arrive back at the car. To your surprise it is covered with wildflowers and woven twig decorations. Weird. You hear a branch snap behind you - you turn to look at the others - Sleepy Guy has disappeared.
You double back to try to find him - maybe he lay down for a nap somewhere? Suddenly, you hear a terrifying scream. You spin round to see Enthusiastic Guy being dragged through the trees by something, screaming and thrashing as he disappears into the undergrowth.
You and Angry Guy exchange a horrified look. WTF is going on? Angry guy reaches into his jacket and pulls out a massive knife.
"Let's go," he mutters, striding in the direction that Enthusiastic was taken.
Heart pounding you hesitate for a moment, then follow him.
The woods are dark and quiet, all you hear are your footsteps crunching through the undergrowth.
You keep your eyes on Angry Guy, the last thing you want is to be alone in this forest.
As you struggle to keep up with Angry Guy, he suddenly plunges out of view, through the ground. You stop abruptly, at the edge of a massive hole. You can just make out Angry Guy at the bottom of the pit. He's not moving. The moon emerges from behind the clouds and to your horror, you see the Angry Man is impaled on a series of spikes that protrude from his stomach, his legs, his neck.
Instinct takes over and you run, trying to remember which direction the pub was. You see lights up ahead and head towards them as fast as you can.
You emerge from the woods - but it's not the pub. You enter a clearing, filled with hooded figures, holding flaming torches. You see Sleepy Guy and Enthusiastic Guy, stripped naked and tied to posts with binds of thorns. At their feet are bundles of twigs and kindling.
You are frozen with fear.
Two more hooded figures drag the body of Angry Man into the clearing and lash him to another post, stacking firewood at the base.
A tall figure, wearing a mask of a skull steps forward.
"Greetings." he speaks in a menacing voice.
"You have come to join us as we celebrate the Forest Queen's Eternal Jubilee. Play a song that will honour her or you will join your friends in a more dreadful sacrifice to her."
You realise, everything counts on this jam - as it may well be your last...


PEACE ALL"

Hardware Jams Weekend Challenge: Forest Queen Jam

video upload by SynthAddict

"Teenage Engineering OP-Z
Car hood jam - view from Mulholland Drive

--------
Story for jam by Seb:

The story so far...
Your car is stuck in the woods with a flat tyre, you've gone to a pub for help. There are 3 guys there: an Enthusiastic guy; an Angry guy and a Sleepy guy.
You decide to get them all to come and help as not to offend any of them. You buy everyone a drink and then you all leave the pub. As you head out of the door, the bartender calls out with a worried look on his face, "Be careful, it's the Queen's Jubilee".
You shrug - how bad can it be - a few flags and bunting?
Eventually the four of you arrive back at the car. To your surprise it is covered with wildflowers and woven twig decorations. Weird. You hear a branch snap behind you - you turn to look at the others - Sleepy Guy has disappeared.
You double back to try to find him - maybe he lay down for a nap somewhere? Suddenly, you hear a terrifying scream. You spin round to see Enthusiastic Guy being dragged through the trees by something, screaming and thrashing as he disappears into the undergrowth.
You and Angry Guy exchange a horrified look. WTF is going on? Angry guy reaches into his jacket and pulls out a massive knife.
"Let's go," he mutters, striding in the direction that Enthusiastic was taken.
Heart pounding you hesitate for a moment, then follow him.
The woods are dark and quiet, all you hear are your footsteps crunching through the undergrowth.
You keep your eyes on Angry Guy, the last thing you want is to be alone in this forest.
As you struggle to keep up with Angry Guy, he suddenly plunges out of view, through the ground. You stop abruptly, at the edge of a massive hole. You can just make out Angry Guy at the bottom of the pit. He's not moving. The moon emerges from behind the clouds and to your horror, you see the Angry Man is impaled on a series of spikes that protrude from his stomach, his legs, his neck.
Instinct takes over and you run, trying to remember which direction the pub was. You see lights up ahead and head towards them as fast as you can.
You emerge from the woods - but it's not the pub. You enter a clearing, filled with hooded figures, holding flaming torches. You see Sleepy Guy and Enthusiastic Guy, stripped naked and tied to posts with binds of thorns. At their feet are bundles of twigs and kindling.
You are frozen with fear.
Two more hooded figures drag the body of Angry Man into the clearing and lash him to another post, stacking firewood at the base.
A tall figure, wearing a mask of a skull steps forward.
'Greetings.' he speaks in a menacing voice.
'You have come to join us as we celebrate the Forest Queen's Eternal Jubilee. Play a song that will honour her or you will join your friends in a more dreadful sacrifice to her.'
You realise, everything counts on this jam - as it may well be your last..."

STEREOPING Hardware Controller / Editor Prototype for Waldorf (TM) Microwave 1

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"hardware controller/editor for the Waldorf (TM) Microwave 1. It's a protoype of a test series. This is not DIY-crap, the pcb sits rocketsave screwed onto 6 metalbolts. Case and the PCB are professionally manufactured (2-layer, silkscreen, both sided solder stop mask), high quality Alps-pots with metal collar.

What this device does: plug it in between keyboard/sequencers Midi-Out and the Microwaves Midi-In, put a standard 9V DC PSU in the powerjack and dial the Microwaves parameters in realtime. The device converts your pot dials into the appropriate sysex-commands and offers a very efficient way of patch editing. Incoming midi data from keyboard or sequencer are merged with the commands of the controller, you can dial while you play on a keyboard or fire the Microwave with notes from your sequencer. Volume and Cutoff are always available, the other 14 x 3 = 42 (!) parameters are selected by the 3 lighted, quality push buttons in the upper left corner. Press red button -> controller sends the red parameters, press green button ... well ...

Please consider: this is a protoype! The frontpanel consists of ordinary but yet high quality inkjet print, glued on the metalcase and coated multiple times with clear coat. I used this technique on multiple divices which i worked with for years without problems of bleaching or detaching panels. On cutting out the holes i made a little scratch in the front, as you see in the last pic. The Number '1' and '2' for the INstrument Number in Multi mode are a bit behind the big knobs. I can change them to the smaller ones if you like. The PCB is sitting some millimeters to far inside of the case, using unconventionally thick midijacks might be problematic, normal Midijacks work perfect.

Some of the features:

- durable and cute black steelcase, protection diode against wrong polation of the PSU

- Midicontroller-Number to Sysex-Translator: besides each pot you see a small number. It corresponds to the midicontroller number you can use to edit this parameter on your Microwave. E.g. simply send midicontroller 11 into the device to change the cuttoff frequency.

- Multi edit mode: realtime dialing of the midicontrollers 1,2,3 & 7 on the first 4 midi channels. Using a corresponding sound-/multimode-patch you will get a modulation monster.

- Bypass-mode to let all mididata pass through the device without filtering (useful e.g. for dumping soundbanks)

- Letter-Mode: Dial a patchname on the microwave using the 16 pots

- Firmware update via Sysex-Dump

The controller will be delivered without power supply, but every ordinary 9V DC(!) guitar effects wallwart with center pin grounded will do. You also get a detailed manual with 32 pages in english or german. Sold from a private person. I am sure you want to keep the thing once you tried it. I therefore offer 14 days money back, although you will have to pay shipping if you want to send it back. You will also get 3 months of warranty if technical issues will arise. Shipping only to european countries. Pleaso do not bid if you do not live in europe."

CLICK FOR MORE »

An Interview with Denis Cazajeux of OTO Machines

Denis Cazajeux is the man behind OTO Machines. His first product was the OTO Biscuit, a bit crushing effects unit with a multi-mode analog filter, waveshaper, delay, pitch shifter, step filter, vibrato, envelope filter, "tube" clipper, and 2 octaves down rectification. He later released DER OTO, a free monosynth with 16 step sequencer upgrade to the Biscuit. The following is my interview with Denis. You'll find some insight into what influences this unique maker of electronic gear along with his work with Olivier Gillet of Mutable Instruments (Shruthi-1). uCApps MIDIBox gets a mention as well. You'll find a pic of Denis' workplace below. The interview:

1) How did the world of synths start for you?

"When I was 15 (in 1986), I started to listen to every electronic music I could find in my country (near the french Alps, in the south east of France): Kraftwerk, Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, Space, Wendy Carlos, Laurie Spiegel, White Noise, Klaus Schulze, etc. At that time, everybody was using a Yamaha DX7 but I was more interested in the Oberheim Matrix 6, Jupiter 8 or Memorymoog, even if I did not have enough money to buy any of these synths. It was a good time for vintage analog synth lovers, they were outdated and cost almost nothing! So I bought a Minimoog, ARP Odyssey, and Korg MS-10. I really love hybrid synths, like the Roland JX series, the Korg Poly-800, Oberheim Matrix-6 or the early 8/12-bits samplers (Ensoniq, E-mu). The sound is generated by a digital counter chip (called a DCO) or a DAC, and then passed through an analog filter.

In 2002, I wanted to build my first little synth and I tried the MIDIBOX SID, based on the MOS 6581 chip, which is also a hybrid synth built in a chip. It was fun but the sound was too '80's video games' (for good reasons!) for me, and the SID chip had a permanent hiss on its output. By the way, Ucapps (home of Midibox) is a very fascinating website for DIYers. I particularly love their FM synth based on the Yamaha OPL3 chip. If you mix this chip with an analog filter, you'll end up with a warm sounding and powerful synth. When I designed the first Biscuit prototype in 2006, I played with the assembly code to generate sounds through the 8-bit DA converters. It was a very simple synth: only 2 waveforms (square and sawtooth) with digital VCA, and the Biscuit filter controlled by an ADS envelope generator. The sound was surprisingly good, halfway between a SID chip and an analog monosynth. The sample frequency was 30 kHz and because waveforms were not band-limited, I got a lot of aliasing with notes above C3. So I raised the sampling frequency up to 156 kHz to solve this aliasing problem, but then I did not have enough processing power to finish the synth with all the required features (LFO, pitch modulations,...). I gave up and I went back to work on the Biscuit. But I kept in mind that the Biscuit could be a synth one day."

2. Regarding the synthesis work that you initially worked on for the Biscuit, is this what's going into the Der OTO update? How did you manage to work around the processing power?

"I didn't keep anything from the initial work on the Biscuit prototype. My first synth needed a 156 kHz sampling frequency in order to play waveforms without aliasing (I think the SID 6581 also used a very high frequency to solve this aliasing problem). With a standard 40 kHz sampling rate, the sound was good on bass notes, but too dirty for the medium notes and nearly unusable for the high notes. 40 kHz was the upper sampling limit for Biscuit. Biscuit uses a simple 8-Bit PIC microcontroller, clocked at 10 Mhz. This processor has many things to do each second: scanning and computing switches & pots, digitizing audio, receiving and sending MIDI, lighting the LEDs, doing some signal processing (bit manipulation, waveshaper, pitch shifter,...), sending information to the 8-bit DACs, digital pots and analog filter, etc…. So, for the synth upgrade, I had no other choice than to use band-limited waveforms, with interpolation and octave crossfading between wavetables. It was quite complex for me, I'm a self taught guy and I don't have the knowledge to do that kind of stuff. Then I remembered that 2 years ago, I was in touch with Olivier Gillet, creator of the Shruthi-1 monosynth (http://mutable-instruments.net/). I listened to the Shruthi demos and found that the sound was very impressive for a simple 8-bit monosynth. It was, like Biscuit, 8-bit processing, conversion to analog and an analog filter. Olivier helped me to include band-limited waveforms (Saw and Square) with octave crossfading, FM synthesis and pitch modulation into Biscuit's hardware. He's a brilliant guy, and has a strong knowledge of synthesis and microcontroller programming. It's funny anyway because in the end I added the first raw waveforms to the band-limited ones, to give the choice between a full spectrum playability and a bassy and dirty sound. Dirtiness is useful sometimes!"

3. How much overlap is there with the Shruthi-1?

"Not much. The 2 synths are very different in many points: user interface, number of parameters available, audio path... Der OTO uses 8-bit DAC and Shruthi use a 1-bit 10 MHz PWM. Der OTO got the special 12db/Octave filter that gives Biscuit its particular sound. Shruthi has a 24dB/Oct filter with several choices, Der OTO has a digital VCA instead of its analog counterpart in the Shruthi,... I think that these 2 synths are complementary. Some of our users have both."


4. What made you decide to offer the synth upgrade for the Bicuit for free?

"We wanted to be kind with our customers! It's an anti-capitalist way of doing business, and we love that. Der OTO users can buy the 'Der Mask' overlay, that helps us to fund the development of Der OTO."

5. What is your take on the current world of synthesis and how do you see Der OTO in that world? What inspires you?

"I dream of a simple-low cost-good sounding-polyphonic analog or hybrid synthesizer, that I didn't see yet! OTO is not really in the world of synthesis yet, and Der OTO is maybe just a start, who knows... I think synthesis is like cooking, you need several ingredients to make a good meal. Nowadays, you create loops with a computer, you treat them with analog processors, mix them with an old synth, and then you edit everything in your computer using plugins. It's fusion cuisine, it's very powerful and exciting. I think that 'Der OTO' is a new ingredient for your music. It's not a digital synth, it's not an analog synth, it's between these 2 worlds. When I listen to 'Der OTO', I think it's really musical, wild and its defects are touching!"

6. Anything else you'd like to share with the readers of MATRIXSYNTH?

"I'm just an electronic luthier, I'm waiting to listen what Biscuit users will do with that upgrade!"

7. Speaking of an electronic luthier, Bob Moog always stated he built tools for musicians and wasn't a musician himself. I remember reading he claimed to be first and foremost an engineer. Where do you see yourself? Do you get time to play with your creations and other synths for that matter? When you do, what is a typical session like? Some explore sound and create music in the process, and some pursue music directly.

"It's a very interesting question. I'm not sure if it's possible to be a good engineer and a good musician at the same time. Making (good) music, or designing new musical products takes a lot of time and energy. It's a passion which occupies most of your thoughts. It's the same thing in the world of classical music: the luthiers are not musicians and vice versa. Very few musicians have built their electronic instruments (Raymond Scott, Oskar Sala,...), but their creations were unique and mainly designed for their own use. I used to make music but unfortunately I don't have enough time for that. By the way, I'm not a very good musician! So I see myself more as an engineer, even if I don't have any diplomas in electronics."

I'd like to end this with a big thank you to Denis Cazajeux of OTO Machines for taking the time out for this interview, and for making the Biscuit. I own one and I can wholeheartedly say it is a fantastic machine.

【Machine & Performance】Behind the Mask's symbolic Synth Sound with novation mininova

video upload by nicolai maruhama

"This is the demo of mininova.

This time is about the synths sound of Behind the Mask.
I like the LIVE at THEATRE LE PALACE in 1979 of YMO.
It was sensational live for me was at 14 YO.
Akiko Yano's intro sound of OB SEM 8Voice, R. Sakamoto's polymoog and VP-330 sound, still everything have been shining.
At that time, SYNTHESIZER was so expensive but nowadays, even cheap one can sounds gorgeous!! But on the other hands, it's difficult to recreate the Analogue sound. So, I tried recreate the vintage sound with mininova because of this machine has a lot of special function on Oscillators and Filters.

Please Enjoy thanks!
nicolai maruhama"

Sequentix P3

Click here for shots via this auction. These shots are about as good as it gets. Be sure to see them full size. There is also a nice shot of the x0xb0x in the set.

"Here's another one of those items where if you have come across the auction, you probably know what it is. Well, just in case you don't, this is one of the exceedingly rare Sequentix P3 hardware MIDI sequencers. According to Colin Fraser, the amazing man behind the Sequentix P3, there are only, at most, 247 of these sequencers in the world, with that number assuming that every single one sold as a kit was actually assembled. The real number of completed, functional P3 sequencers is probably far lower than this. It's very, very rare that one shows up on eBay, especially one as well-cared for and unused as this. This may be one of the nicest P3s left.

To quote from Sequentix's About P3 page:

The P3 Sequencer is an 8 track, hardware MIDI sequencer, with a user interface comprised of knobs, keys and LEDs. A sixteen character by two line PLED display provides confirmation of pattern data and access to advanced features and configuration options.

P3 allows real-time control of track mutes and simple pattern or pattern chain selection across multiple tracks, plus analogue-style editing of patterns. Each of its 384 patterns has independent values for note, velocity, tie, gate, length, gate delay, and a combination of up to four MIDI controllers, extra notes, or 'auxiliary events', per step.

P3's unique auxiliary events allow the creation of dynamically self-modifying patterns. They can grab values from other tracks, randomise steps, alter track and global settings, and much more. There are three modulation 'accumulators' per track, that can be used as LFOs, perform arpeggiation effects or enable complex pattern progressions.

Furthermore, you can assign front panel knobs to modify or mask these events in real-time, allowing you to create interactive patterns that change predictably as you adjust the knobs - varying in complexity, controlling levels of randomness, even 'morphing' from one pattern to another.

A Force-to-scale option provides preset and user-defined scales to keep everything in key (but defeat-able per pattern step if required), and a configurable 'change mode' allows patterns with different lengths and/or time-bases to free-run, or be synced to a global bar.

What's even better about this P3 is that it comes fitted with Sequentix's just-released (and essentially sold out) add-on for the P3, the P3 MemX Memory Expansion Board. Normally under the v4 firmware there are 24 bars of pattern storage for each of the 16 banks (384 bars total). With the MemX board installed there are 224 bars for each bank, bringing the total to 3584 bars! This is more than nine times the storage of most other Sequentix P3s. The P3 MemX was only available directly from Colin, but because because this P3 comes with the MemX installed, you don't have to worry about finding one, opening up the P3, and installing it yourself. It's already done! I will also include the memory chip which was removed in order to install the MemX, for... well... just in case you can find a use for it."

via Steve.

Synthesizers.com Prototype Q167 LFO++ Module Auction to Benefit The Bob Moog Foundation

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Synthesizers.com is auctioning a prototype of its Q167 LFO++ module to benefit the Bob Moog Foundation. The one-of-a-kind module, built and signed by Roger Arrick, is fully functional, though differs slightly from the production units.

The Q167 LFO++ is a pure analog module offering a unique combination of features including a precision LFO, which operates into the audio range and tracks a 1v/octave keyboard or sequencer. A unique wave shaping section creates clean sine waves, anti-sine waves, curved sawtooth, gates and more.

The built-in envelope generator provides control of the LFO's speed and/or amplitude over time with control over the sustain TIME to produce sections of waveforms, bursts of gates, delayed vibrato, and more.

The special configuration of the LFO++ makes it easy to control vibrato, tremolo and filter modulation with a wheel controller, keyboard pressure or a sequencer. It’s great for controlling beat-count on individual sequencer steps and will accurately track a keyboard and can be used as a stand-alone analog synth voice.

The prototype being auctioned varies slightly from the production model. The front panel is a printed label and the circuit board is raw without a solder mask.The PCB is hand-soldered and some of the components are mounted in sockets.It is usable in any Moog-Unit format modular synthesizer with a Synthesizers.com power system.

Face plate measurements are 8.75" x 2.125" x 2.25" deep behind the panel. Requires: +15v,-15v,+5v.

Roger Arrick, founder of Synthesizers.com, explains, “I have been designing modular synthesizers for the past 20 years, and have been deeply inspired by Bob Moog’s pioneering work. It is an honor for me to give back by supporting the Bob Moog Foundation’s educational and historic preservation work through this auction. I usually keep all of my prototypes, so this is a rare offering.” For additional specs and a datasheet, see the Synthesizers.com website."

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松武秀樹＆MMO on Stage1 @ Synth Festa Osaka 2013

Published on Nov 30, 2013 nicolai maruhama·94 videos

"We had a special stage on Synth Festa Osaka 2013.　（２３rd Nov. Dee Hall）
Our synth Master Hideki Matsutake joined this event and moog IIIc was operated.
Worth to see!

1. Behind the Mask / YMO
2. Technopolis / YMO

Applied JASRAC

nicolai maruhama

* The priest in the middle of the song Technopolis : Gotoh Showgen."

松武秀樹＆MMO on Stage2 @ Synth Festa Osaka 2013

Published on Dec 3, 2013 nicolai maruhama·95 videos

1.Tong Poo / YMO
2. Rydeen

---

Hideki Matsutake on Moog modular. Via Wikipedia:

"Hideki Matsutake (born August 12, 1951 in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese composer, arranger, and computer programmer. He is known for his pioneering work in electronic music and particularly music programming, as the assistant of Isao Tomita during the early 1970s and as the "fourth member" of the band Yellow Magic Orchestra during the late 1970s to early 1980s.[1]

Through his participation in the session recording of Ryuichi Sakamoto's 1978 album Thousand Knives, he joined the recordings of Yellow Magic Orchestra during 1978-1982 as their sound programmer, to become known as "the fourth member" of the group. In 1981, he formed a unit of his own under the name Logic System, which released its latest album in 2008. He also continued to take part in solo activities by YMO members such as Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi beyond the group's breakup in 1983. He was also a member of the video game music group Akihabara Electric Circus in 1988[2] and composed music for the 1996 video game Guardian Heroes.[3] Today, Matsutake is also Chairman of Japan Synthesizer Programmers Association (JSPA)..."

Behind The Mask - 8Bitone & SV-5 -

YouTube via humanmaestro

"This tune is 'Behind The Mask' by Yellow Magic Orchestra.
So I performed on 8Bitone and Vocoder SV-5 that is iPhone/iPod touch musical apps by Yudo.

8Bitone is retro 8-bit sound monophonic Synthesizer and 4 track Sequencer.
SV-5 is authentic Vocoder and polyphonic Synthesizer like a Roland VP-330."
8Bitone on iTunes:

BEHIND THE MASK YMOコピー

Uploaded on Sep 11, 2009 YMO**

YMO - Behind The Mask (Live 1979)

"以前UPしましたが、再UPしました！"

Behind the Mask on Monomachine

YouTube via QuadraPolyphonic.

Click here for all posts mentioning YMO.

"Playing YMO's Behind the Mask with Monomachine and Electribe ER-1. Audio recorded by Logic using Presonus Fire Studio Tube interface."

YMO Behind the mask cover AtomoSynth x Dante-droid

Published on Dec 21, 2015 atomolab

"Hello, it is a cover of YMO Behind the mask, using 3 AtomoSynth KOE synth voice modules and 4 AtomoSynth TOTEM percussion modules."

Update: Some additional info via this upload on YouTube:

"Published on Dec 21, 2015
Atomosynth Analog Synthesizer System.
Programmed by Dante Gonzales.
Music by: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Lyrics by: Chris Mosdell
El Paraíso del Silicio Lima -Perú 2015
Koe analog synthesizer x 3
Totem Analog Drum Synthesizer x 4
Electroharmonix Vocoder
Trigger/CV Interface: Arturia BeatStep Pro

Hi Hats and Polyphonic Chords: Roland JV-880
Phaser Strings: ARP Omni 2 + Pearl Phaser"

YMO Prophet 5 rev3.3 Synthesizer Tributes by Superfunk Synths

YMO Behind the Mask Prophet 5 rev3.3 Synthesizer Tribute

Published on Oct 10, 2016 Superfunk Synths

"YMO Behind the Mask Prophet 5 rev3.3 Synthesizer Tribute

All parts palyed with a Prophet 5, Drum Dmx"

YMO Ryden with Prophet 5 rev3 3 Synthesizer Tribute

Published on Oct 9, 2016

"YMO Ryden with Prophet 5 rev3.3 Synthesizer Tribute

played on Sequential CIrcuits Prophet 5 and Oberheim DMX drum machine."

YMO's BTM w/ Prophet '08

"My band did a cover of YMO's Behind The Mask and I used a Prophet-5 and Multitrak on the recording. This evening I replaced the six Prophet-5 tracks entirely with the Prophet-08. The only remaining synth track that is not a Prophet'08 is the background arpeggiated sequence.

http://redmartian.com/BTM-Prophet08.mp3

And if you're curious, here is the version with the Prophet-5 which was actually mixed by Tom Ellard:

http://redmartian.com/btm.m4a

I think the P'08 does a pretty good job. What I'm doing now, and for the next 2 weeks, is only play it. Then I'll turn on a Prophet-5 and see how I react. :)"

You can see YMO's version here.

Umlaut by Parallax - a pants-packing powerhouse of keyboard synthy plop plop!

YouTube Uploaded by hamsterdunce on Sep 1, 2011

CustomSynth white Roland JX-3P, JD-800 and more synth spotting. That is the man behind The Packrat and more.
"Buy the album on umop.com/parallax.htm

I'll bet you were wondering why I haven't made any synth videos in a while! I was just wondering the same thing myself! My checkered wristband is currently missing (don't worry, I'll find it... or just tattoo the freaking thing on my wrist once and for all), so I found a delightful mask instead. It makes me release my inner wharrgarbl. So there you have it... UMLAUT from my CD "Visit the Entropics" which is available on an old-fashioned CD & also on iTunes. Please support my music and I'll try to make more insipid videos for your drooling, gibbering pleasure."

ROLAND SYSTEM-100M

Published on Apr 14, 2014 Caa Tur·3 videos

Some YMO's Behind the Mask in there. Anyone know were this was at?

"It is an analog modular synthesizer Roland was released in 1978.
It is sold individually VCO, VCF, VCA, etc. in the Synthesizer is said to Moduler Type
It is possible to configure System freely by combining the Module.
These are also called patch synthesizer.

It is also referred to as a small chest of drawers in Japan.


ローランドのシステム700より小さいモジュラーシンセです。
小タンスとも呼ばれています。"

Googlish: "It is a system less than 700 modular synth Roland.
It is also referred to as a small chest."