Favorite synth solos!!

[LWG]

Hello,

"Most songs by George Duke, especially around the late 70's, why is it no one mentions Dukey when he has to be one of the biggest minimoog players ever?"

mee 3d,

there is a pretty decent interview with George in the May/June 1977 archived copy of Synapse magazine at the following link.
Dr. Moog is the featured cover story in that issue.

http://www.cyndustries.com/synapse/intro.cfm


regards,


LWG

[sir_dss]

Probably a EMS







sir_dss wrote:
Brian Eno/Roxy Music --- Remake/Remodel


Is that a Moog?........

.... Or an EMS VCS3/AKS

[gd]

Everytime I think of Moog I am right back in 1973 and "Welcome Back My Friends".. in quad. I can still see Emo on stage with the mighty Moog, I love Wakeman as well seeing Yes in the early '70s, some 30 years later they still envoke and embody the glory of Moog for me.

[sundaeclubber]

Sundae

I got a mail from Lee a year or so back telling me he was getting a mello - Lee's an awesome bass player first and foremost - nicest guy you'd ever want to meet to boot!
_________________

I thought I recognised the name from the Tron-list!
Yeah, his posts suggest he's a nice bloke...

On a completely different musical tack from the solos previously listed, some of the Vienna-era Ultravox stuff featured some nifty Moog-work...

SCx

[vorlon42]

Favorite synth solos, regardles of instrument, in no particular order. Some of these, when I hear them, I whip out my air keyboard and "play" them.

Mark Kelly (Marillion): Garden Party, She Chameleon, Incubus, Fugazi
Dennis DeYoung (Styx): Fooling Yourself, Sing For The Day, I'm OK, Crystal Ball, opening to Mother Dear, The Message
James Young (Styx): Come Sail Away (done on an ARP Odyssey while DDY is creating the soundscape)
Heart: Magic Man
Keith Emerson (ELP): From The Beginning, Trilogy, Karn Evil 9 1st & 3rd Imp., Lucky Man
Gary Wright: Are You Weepin'
Stevie Wonder: Livin' For The City, Superstition (classic Hohner clavinet sound)
Steve Winwood: While You See A Chance
Steve Walsh and/or Kerry Livgren (Kansas): ...i'm drawing a blank on synth solos; most of their solors were on organ or piano.
Rick Wakeman (Yes): Awaken (on a church organ in Vevey, Switzerland)
Geoff Downes (Asia): End of Cutting It Fine (showing off the Fairlight CMI's capabilities)
Unknown Keyboardist with Al Jarreau: Spain

There will be more I'll think of after I submit this post.

Updated 9/14/04 23:08 EDT
Tom Schuman (Spyro Gyra): Mead
Head East: (There's) Never Been Any Reason

[ingenius]

Ok..here is my all time favourite..check it out
Elton Johns early 70s Album " Goodbye yellow brick road"
first track" funeral for a freind"....thesew beautiful sounds are credited on the sleeve notes to a pair of ARP synths...probably 2600s. i am yet to hear any re-creation of these patches..progs..sounds etc
regards
KJM

[Rob Smith]

EDDIE JOBSON OF UK UNBELIEVABLE MINI SOLOS AND THE USE OF THE YAMAHA CS 80 PROBABLY ONE OFF THE BEST POLY SYNTHS EVER. STEVE MOLITZ OF PARTICLE PEOPLE SAW HIM AT MOOG FEST AND HE KICKED BUT WITH HIS MOOG SOURCE AND WAS RIGHT UP THERE WITH EMO AND WAKEMAN. BUT THE GUY WHO REALLY KNOWS HOW TO USE A MOOG IS A GUY FROM THE PINK FLOYD TRIBUTE BAND THE MACHINE. NEIL ALEXANDER!!!HE USED MY VOYAGER LAST WEEK AT THE CHANCE THEATER AND THE PEOPLE HAV'NT BEEN THE SAME SINCE.SEE THEM FOR YOURSELVES

[Argyle]

I think Winwood used a Multimoog on those Arc of a Diver album solos.

My most influential synth solo picks:

Saga - "Ice Nice"
ELP - "Lucky Man"
Rush - "The Trees", but ony the live cut from Exit Stage Left
Styx - "Fooling Yourself" and "Come Sail Away" (portamento!)
Yes - somewhere on Tales of Topographic Oceans is a real hair raiser
Jan Hammer & James Young - all over the City Slicker album
Head East - "Never Been Any Reason"
Michael Jackson - I think there's a synth solo on one of his pre-Thriller records that really cooks, can't remeber which one.

[LWG]

Argyle,

The Michael Jackson track you may be referring to with the solo is "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" from the Off The Wall album.
Although there is no credit for the solo on the track, the synth bass was
likely played by Louis Johnson. Having seen him live with his brother George, he played bass lines on a Moog Prodigy when not playing electric bass.
Also, Quincy Jones has been a source of info for the logistics and personnel
on his collaborations with Jackson. He pointed out that the bassline for the title track to the Thriller album was done on two Minimoog Model D s connected together with both having the same settings, except one having a
faster envelope and a darker tone color.


regards,


LWG

[Beluhan]

Listen to Chick Corea on Romatic Warrior Record(Band Name: Return to Forever) Title: Duell of the jester and the tyrant.
This is the hottest solo on an old mini i can find. Everything on this record is unbelieveable.
A real virtuoso.9

[Argyle]

Argyle,

The Michael Jackson track you may be referring to with the solo is "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" from the Off The Wall album....


regards,


LWG

Yup, I think that's the one. Too bad Michael wound up on the wrong side of the looking glass since then.

[ikazlar]

Favorite solos?

1. Tangerine Dream: Invisible Limits (From Stratosfear, must be on something Moog (amazing slashinq quality, the signal must be fed into a phaser))

2. Jean Michel Jarre: Magnetic Fields II (From Concerts In China, I don't have a clue about the synth that he used but it's a very melodic solo)

3. Eloy: Illuminations (From Colors, this is on Minimoog and it is simply great, very fancy with lovely use of portmanento and lfos...yumm)

4. Klaus Schulze: Totem (From Picture Music, this is either Minimoog or Odyssey and it's towards the end of the track. I just wished it was lengthier!)

5. Pink Floyd: Welcome To The Machine (From Wish You Were Here, this is a VCS3 with amazing separation of left / right channels and lovely lfo usage. Superb.)

A lot of people mentioned ELP for solos and although the solos are highly technical I don't find them very melodic.

Yannis

[thewaag]

This one has been mentioned before, but Keith Emerson's "Lucky Man" solo changed my life. When I first heard that sound, I had to find out what that instrument was. I think that I have heard that Emerson was not all that proud of that solo at the time.

Another interesting synth solo is from an obscure album by Manfred Mann--"Peter and the Wolf". There is a howling synth solo in the first 5 minutes of the record.

Not really a solo, but I always liked the synth use in an album named "Sparticus" by Triumpherat. There is an obscure one for you.

Wakeman's solo synth work was amazing--the synth with synphony combination in "Journey to the Center of the Earth...his Henry VIII album had some great stuff...his "King Arthur" album had some very nice stuff, with a wailing solo on the Merlin track.

They just don't make stuff like that any more...

[hieronymous]

Short but sweet: "Lonesome Electric Turkey" from Frank Zappa's Fillmore East: June 1971, Minimoog solo by Don Preston. He does some stuff on there that I haven't heard other people do, like have the pitch warble at a really slow rate and what sounds like flipping the octave switch with one hand while playing real fast with the other...

I think the Rick Wakeman solo from Tales from Topographic Oceans mentioned earlier occurs in "The Revealing Science of God," the first track on the album. Another great synth solo (not necessarily Moog?) from Yes is by Patrick Moraz on "Sound Chaser" from Relayer. Oh yeah, can't forget Rick Wakeman's warble near the end of "Starship Troopers" on the live version from YesSongs!

[Joog]

Not really a solo, but more of the octave switching/playing simultaneously seems to occur at the beginning of Machine Messiah by Yes.