Favorite synth solos!!

[Nouveau]

Phil Collins

Now I must eat your children's souls.

It's really too bad; the rest of your list was fantastic.
Of course, as I have mentioned before, I would add a few by Rush (not complex, but very ....necessarily... ...rush.) and of course anything that Jordan Rudess has ever played. Heck, any of the Dream Theater keyboardists easily deserve to be mentioned here somewhere, even Derek Sherinan.

By the way, I suppose I should apologize. I'm just one of those people who LOVES Peter Gabriel and PG era Genesis and thinks that Phil should have just shut up and played the drums. He was pretty good at that... back when he devoted some time to doing it. That reminds me: Tony Banks stuff from The Lamb kind of falls into the same category as Rush "keyboard solos". Very necessary progressive tasty-cheese, and definitely worth including in this thread.

[Mike Braithwaite]

For all you Styx Grand Illusion era lovers like me, here's some photo's from the 1977 Grand Illusion tour:

He used the SEM 4 Voice on the record but then went with the 8 Voice on tour and also used the 8 on Pieces of Eight (hey that sounded nifty), lol. Here's a pic of the 4 Voice on the Hammond B3 and the other 4 on the other side.




For those that wondered what synth James Young played live, it's supposedly the OB-1. Here's a pic of it (at least I think that's an OB-1, maybe not. That's what Dennis said in an interview. To recreate the organ on "I'm OK", they layered three synths together....James played the Taurus I pedals, JY played an OB-1 for the mids, and DDY played a String Ensemble for the high end. I guess it sounded pretty convincing.



With a white grand piano, organ, all those amps and synths.......4 GMC trucks to hall it around!!

[LWG]

Hello,

Nice pics. The White Elephant pictured has always been among my favorite of the vintage synths.


Regards,


LWG

[Qwave]

2. Various synth solos by the band "Lake"
(Amazon.com: B000005NN6, etc)

I remember my brother used to have an LP by them more then 25 years ago. But I do remember "On the Run" and "Timebomb" were real cool tunes. The band came from Hamburg/Germany and used some of the very early pre wavetable PPG gear.

I really wonder, who you found them. They not known to all of my germany friends. And I nearly forgot their name of the years. But not the catchy hook line of "Timebomb". But I can't remember the solos anymore.

Here is their german homepage: http://www.lake-music.de

[gd]

I remember Lake, had one of their albums. I bought it without really looking at it thinking it was a solo album by Greg Lake amd was leasantly surprised with some of their songs.

[Kevin Lightner]

Ok, here's some actual audio

From Yes' Tales from Topographic Oceans, the Minimoog solo from "The Revealing Science of God."

Minimoog model D
Double tracked
Low note priority trilling
Osc and white noise modulation

http://www.synthfool.com/yes.mp3

[Kevin Lightner]

Here's some more audio:

The band "Lake"

Minimoog D (likely the newer vco board)

http://www.synthfool.com/lake1.mp3



I have a lot more mini solos here and will put more up as time allows.[/url]

[Qwave]

Hello Kevin,

what is the name of this Lake song minimoog solo?

And why do you think its an newer VCO board?

[Moog Beam]

Hello,
My favorite synth solo (so far) is from YES "Tales From Topographic Oceans", the song is "The Revealing Science Of God". You really have to listen to he structure of the whole song and then hear the intro to the solo from a soft Moog turning into a psychedelic Moog.
Most of my other favs are from older YES albums as well.

[Kevin Lightner]

Hi Till,

I can't be 100% certain it's the newer oscs, but I've listened to it and Mini's in general, very closely. The oscillators are tracking *very* closely over the whole keyboard. While possible, especially if the Moog was the older style board, but overall a newer Moog, the newer board has a certain phasing when the oscs are tuned that close.
A slight bit more cancellation.

So.. it's an educated guess.
All I *do* know is that the guy can play.

[MC]

The synth in the James Young pic is an ARP Odyssey. Lack of left hand mod control panel gives it away.

Chuck Panozzo played the Taurus pedals.

I remember a Styx video that showed Tommy Shaw playing a two voice - don't remember which song though.

[Mike Braithwaite]

I know they used to use one, but this photo didn't look like the synth had enough depth like Odyssey does. I guess maybe it could be a grand illusion (pun intended), but it looks more like a typical long rectangled synth. And the OB-1 is too small anyways for it to be that. They did use an OB-1 live starting in 78 on the PO8 tour.

OK, do you think it's the second generation Odyssey?

They also had a pair of Arp 2600's during the Crystal Ball and earlier era Styx. I believe DDY even used a Moog 55 on an early record, and he complained massively about how long it took just to get one sound. LOL.

[Man on the Moog]

Here are some of my faves. I'll try to stick only to moog solos:

Wurm live from Yesssongs by Rick Wakeman/Yes. (Tony Kaye did not play a moog solo on the studio version.) Also on Yessongs is some great moog work on the excerpts from Six Wives.

Jan Hammer/Jeff Beck - Led Boots from Wired. (still gives me chills every time I hear it). Also Darkness from the live album has some great Moog playing

Aquatarkus - by Keith Emerson/ELP. I love those crazily tuned oscillators

Wish you were here by Rick Wright/Pink Floyd. Its already mentioned but boy, is that some gorgeous playing.

Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys - so tasty...


I agree, I wish we could post audio clips..

[marto]

Hi all folks,

I did recenlty a tribute/compilation of synth solos in a mix. An hommage to George Duke, Rick Wakeman, Lyle Mays, Tom Coster,… very inspiring people who influenced me so deeply with their jazzy ideas.
I think this is a good place to share the mix:
http://carlosmartorell.net/mixtapes/smorgasbord.html

Salut!

[GregAE]

Hi all folks,

I did recenlty a tribute/compilation of synth solos in a mix. An hommage to George Duke, Rick Wakeman, Lyle Mays, Tom Coster,… very inspiring people who influenced me so deeply with their jazzy ideas.
I think this is a good place to share the mix:
http://carlosmartorell.net/mixtapes/smorgasbord.html

Salut!

What an impressive compilation of synth solos! An absolute delight to listen to! Awesome effort, Marto!

You've got quite a few of my personal favs in "Sugar & Cheese"!