OFF: Lothar & Early Synth Stuff

[Craig Shipley]

Christian sez...


>At 09:41 05.12.97 +0000, ya wrote:
>
>>Nope, worse, it was a full size Hammond.
>
>I thought the Moog was heavier since it was a complex
>set of magnetic strips with different sounds recorded
>that were read every time a key was struck and thus was
>the first "real" analogue synth, and the Hammond "merely"
>and electric organ.

Christian, Christian, Christian, you poor benighted fellow, you.

What you are describing is a MELLOTRON!!! Y'know, the string intro on
"Assult and Battery / Golden Void" from WARRIOR?? The 'Tron was never a
synth (although there were some synth sample tapes, IIRC),  but an early
sampler, if you will. They were heavy (the figure 400 lbs. stick in my head)
but Emersons' modular Moog was heavier by at least 100, maybe 300 lbs (I
seem to remember that the Moog weighed either 500 or 700 lbs. (and a helluva
lot bigger. A 'Tron 400 looks like a Hammond console organ, so you is
forgiven for getting the two kornfoozed). Important points here, Emerson
never played a 'Tron, to the best of my knowledge, and he never took one on
stage if he did. He did all of his stage antics with a Hammond B-3 (he
"stabbed' the keyboard with a knife to hold the keys down, his "ripping out
of the guts" was to manipulate the reverb by hand, etc. He wasn't really
destroying the instrument).
>
>>Poor girl was brain damaged.
>
>Well, she had to be to go and see ELP in the first place!!!!!!!!!!!
>
Bite me!! :-) So watch you are callin' brain damaged, 'cuz you are probably
hanging out with a bunch of us that  are!!! (waitaminute, that didn't come
out the way I wanted it to!!! :-S  (How do you do a confused emoticon?)).

ELP was the first band that I heard that used synthesizers and TARKUS still
stands as one of my all-time favorites (than 'n BRAIN SALAD SURGERY). They
did kinda tank after that, but lotsa bands did in the late '70's...
>>--
>>Jon Browne
>
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Craig Shipley                        craigs at siemens-pyramid.com
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