Improbable musics

This instrument belonged to Peter Freeman, and it meant a lot to him. He had this since the late '80s, touring the UK and Ireland with it, playing with Pierce Turner. Later, he would get rid of all his keyboards focusing on his bass, and keeping only the OSCar and his Synclavier. About 8 years back, it stopped working entirely, and ended up in pretty bad shape.

Before he died in March 2021, I promised I would restore it - go all-out - and keep it forever, play it and love it. And so I did.

Love you forever, Peter ❤️

(many thanks to Bob Grieb for the help and support in getting this done)

OSC OSCar #0395 awakens - Pink Floyd, "On The Run"

Testing my recently repaired PPG Wave 2.3

Custom patch programming by Peter Freeman

PPG Wave classic sound

First attempt at using a Soma Laboratory Lyra-8 Organismic Synthesizer.

Lyra-8 Solo

I'm repairing and testing an old Lexicon LXP-5. It the washiest, analog-est effects box I know, even if it's not actually analog.

This track is just an ad-libbed piece played on an Ensoniq SQ-80 (Curtis-based VCFs), with aftertouch modulating the filter cutoff. The whole thing is recorded live thru the LXP-5 and direct into Audacity via a cheapo Behringer mixer. Voila!

Exabite

Just me playing around with a Kerry Optima low whistle, in D. I'm just playing it through a Lexicon LXP-5 with some ridiculous, cavernous reverb effect. The tune itself is the first verse to Davy Spillane's "Callow Lake", played badly and without much ornamentation. Recorded in two takes, just for fun :)

(photo: glacier near Sandvatn, Suðurland, Iceland)

Callow Lake, 1st verse

I've just repaired a Sequential Circuits Six-Trak the same time as I finally got my DAW setup done. I was absolutely taken with the simplicity of this tone, once I'd the factory patches loaded, so threw this together. Patch 31 with a small amount of reverb only.

Adharc = "horn", in the Irish language.

Sequential Circuits Six-Trak awakens: Adharc

I've just finished restoring a vintage 1978 Korg VC-10 Vocoder, and it sounds glorious. This is just me counting in Irish, whilst putting the machine through its paces. I'm surprised how melodic it came out - lol 😂

The microphone I used is a homemade dynamic mike, built out of parts for around $3, so it ain't super.

Korg VC-10 first awakens: Counting in Irish

I just hit record, is all. This DK Synergy is up for restoration and repair and while I was testing it, was just overwhelmed by the playability and the expressiveness of this simple preset sound. I just hit record, is all.

This is basically dry, stacked voices, with a hint of external reverb.

Synergy 1409 awakens: Solo piano improv

"Barróga Geala" - literally "Bright Waves" in the Irish language, though it refers to the undulation of the sea and not waveforms!

The Synergy has a reputation for vast, complex digital soundscapes, but this doesn't come across from the really pedestrian presets that it ships with. This is preset #20. Anyways, folks are like "mess with the timbre setting" and I'm wondering, well - just how much can one simple knob do to the characteristics of a single sound? I mean, c'mon!

Answer: a lot! 😮 Just tweaking one setting and adding some aperiodic vibrato - another Synergy thing - and this is what came out. It's immense!

This track was just ad-libbed from scratch. I hit "record" is all. You can hear it note-stealing, even though I'm just playing 4 or 5 notes at most.

Barróga Geala

This is just a demo of a very sick, broken PPG Wave 2.3. It's running with four of eight voices only (faulty DACs) and the wavetables in memory are a total mess. Sad!

PPG Wave 2.3 #1299 awakens: Smashed wavetable, dead voices

This track was recorded in 1992 in Steve Collins' front room, on a 4-track Tascam and is entirely ad-libbed from start to finish. Effects were provided by one simple Lexicon LXP-5. Genuine tape hiss provided by Maxell ;)

Personnel:
• Steven Collins (Yamaha CS-15, Korg MS-20)
• Alison Cassidy (Roland Juno 6, Roland Jupiter 8)
• David Swaine (I can't recall, but he's in there)

Session 5

Session 5, Track 6

Ensoniq SQ-80. Just noodling through some PPG-like patches

SQ-80 PPG-like sounds

I've just rebuilt the studio here, and have only two instruments hooked up; a DK Synergy (lead) and an Ensoniq SQ-80 (strings). Just hit record, as usual, and this is one take - mistakes an' all. You might recognize this as an early-80s Tangerine Dream soundtrack excerpt, and you'd be right.

The Keep (Mid Theme)- excerpt

Dorchadas - Darkness.

Dedicated to Bob Grieb, who repaired my PPG Wave boards, this is just a single patch I threw together in a minute here. I think it perfectly showcases that typical mournful vocal sounds that they are so famous for,

Dorchadas

Just a patch I created to illustrate the glitchy, 8-bit nature of the PPG Wave 2.3

Glitchy PPG Wave

Oberheim OB-Xa #822302 first awakens after many decades of being dormant.

This machine, if the stories are to be believed, once belonged to Mike Score, of A Flock of Seagulls. It came to us in extremely bad condition, with just about everything wrong. A couple of hours of hard work, and it's back making sounds again. 

So much more to do yet, though.

Oberheim OB-Xa #822302 first awakens

I've been recording electronic music on-and-off now for some thirty years. When I sit down to make music, I usually end up getting lost in making sound instead :) 

A lot of what I have here is made while testing instruments I've repaired.

Synthetic Dreamscapes

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