Music Manic
active member
Joined: 20/12/02
Posts: 1890
Loc: London UK
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70s 80s sythesis
#79909 - 27/01/05 06:54 PM
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What kind of synthesis was used in 70s 80s dance(Disco)sounds?Was it mainly FM
synthesis.
Thinking along lines of bands like Gap band,Luther Vandross Whispers
etc.
Thanks
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Matt Downing
Joined: 20/01/03
Posts: 1539
Loc: London
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Re: 70s 80s sythesis
[Re: Music Manic]
#79914 - 27/01/05 07:07 PM
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I don't know what the classic Disco synths are - probably Arps and Moogs or something
which are subtractive analogue machines. FM didn't take off in a big way until the Yamaha
DX7, which was introduced in 1983 and was digital.
Then everybody threw out
all their analogue stuff to play with all the new digital synths and samplers, and they
had to pay a lot to buy it back 10 years later.
Matt
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Music Manic
active member
Joined: 20/12/02
Posts: 1890
Loc: London UK
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Re: 70s 80s sythesis
[Re: Matt Downing]
#79942 - 27/01/05 07:52 PM
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Thanks Matt,
I know there are many other types of synthesis granular L.A. etc but is
there specific types used for different music?
Thanks
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Andreas Bygdell
Joined: 15/11/04
Posts: 800
Loc: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: 70s 80s sythesis
[Re: Music Manic]
#79968 - 27/01/05 08:41 PM
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Some synths have definitely made their mark in different genres and eras - The Moog, of
course, during the late 60's and 70's. The DX7 with all it's wonderful clinky-clanky
e-pianos during the 80's. The Nordlead in the late 90's etc.
To agree with the
previous poster - the disco-sounds you wonder about are probably Moogs, Arps and other
fairly basic subtractive synthesizers. "I feel love" is mostly a Moog Modular, for
example.
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Matt Downing
Joined: 20/01/03
Posts: 1539
Loc: London
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Re: 70s 80s sythesis
[Re: Music Manic]
#80055 - 27/01/05 11:45 PM
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Quote Music Manic:
Thanks
Matt,
I know there are many other types of synthesis granular L.A. etc but is there
specific types used for different music?
Thanks
Nowadays there might be different synths favoured by different genres,
but in the 70s and even the 80s, there weren't so many synths to choose from and there
were even fewer pracical methods of synthesis. Before the advent of digital synths,
pretty much all synthesis was subtractive, i.e. you start with one (or a few) oscillators,
then you use filters and envelopes to subtract from the pure tone of the oscillators.
Ring modulation was also used a bit in the old days.
FM could actually be done
with analogue signals, but really came into its own with digital and Yamaha's DX synths.
The beauty of FM was you could get very complex sounds from simple inputs with little
computing power.
The other big change with digital was 'wave table' synthesis,
samplers and 'ROMplers' - all of which are variations on a theme, using samples instead of
basic wave shapes before applying good old subtractive filters and envelopes. This method
pretty much dominated the 90s.
The late 90s saw clever stuff like virtual
acoustic and virtual analogue - which use CPU power to calculate what an acoustic thing or
an analogue circuit would do.
AFAIK most hardware synth workstations like the
Motif, Triton, and Roland stuff still rely on the 'ROMpler' method of having a bunch of
samples and applying various filters and effects in a chain.
Good additive
synthesis, capable of creating complex sounds, requires loads of computing power, so AFAIK
you're only getting it in software form at the mo.
Oh - there's loads more to
go into - and I only know a bit of it, but it's all pretty well documented these days.
E.g. follow Andreas's tip and look up Giorgio Moroder - there's an SOS article here http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar98/articles/giorgio.html?
Try looking up the names of the bands you're interested in on Google, along with the
word 'synth' and you're bound to find stuff. Always check the SOS articles, too, 'cos
they've done pieces on loads of artists.
Cheers,
Matt
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