Who says synths can't be heavy ?

[thealien666]

I'm talking about their sounds, not their weight.
Although some vintage ones can be quite massive in size and weight too...

Here's my latest little 2 minute jam with two venerable vintage classics : Korg Mono/Poly (with Xmod turned on) and the mighty Minimoog D for bass and lead.

For the heavy rock lovers out there. Analog synths aren't just for bleeps and farts and noises ya know ?

https://soundcloud.com/thealien666/heavy-korg-mp4

NOTE: no effect other than reverb was used. The sounds are the synths themselves. Only 4 tracks (MP4, Moog bass, Moog lead, drums).

To continue on the subject of this thread, what would be your favorite analog synth to play this kind of music, and have you ever played in a rock band with a synth, if so which one ?

[Portamental]

Nice job Alain, this one is much to my liking. It's not that my palette of sounds resembles a sledgehammer, actually it's quite varied.

Funny that you pick today to get on the heavier side, the same day I choose to power up some vintage units and fill their caps with overdue electrons. A couple of MG-1's can seriously shake up a few walls as good as a D. Landlord just left : Yes Sir, I am done, I'll be quiet now (mumbling to myself : till tomorrow!!).

Wanna hear some heavy keyboard and synth based music ? Get a hold of Happy the Man's first self-titled album (circa 1977) on which a bunch of knee bitten nymphs are guaranteed to knock your socks off in limbo.

Sorry not to be able to entertain you with a number of decades of heavy synth rock performances, I started my self-taught music education at the tender age of 53, but the way I see it, the best is yet to come

[stiiiiiiive]

Aah I cannot wait to listen to that Alain!

I played in a vintage rock band with a Nord Electro and a Little Phatty for one year. First I had a VA but I was just starting my analogue sins so I replaced it (for this band only: the said VA is a Clavia G2, which is really wonderful). The synth was used for anything else than pianos, organs and Mellotrons, i.e. glockenspiel-like sounds, oragan-like lead sounds (yeah... I dunno... haha) and a fat bass patch doubling the real bass
The band split two years ago and they met again one year later, but I'm not part of it anymore. Find them over there.

I played in a another rock band, in a more... NINesque vein: a bit of electro, big distorsions. The line up was a drummer with some tracks in MainStage, the bassist with a control keyboard (he sang to) and I was playing an hybrid instrument: my beloved G2 and a guitar routed into a SansAmp TriAC, back into the G2 for delays and reverb duties. So, it was VA too as the simple synth patch I used as well as the guitar were processed through the ampsim. All in all, it allowed me to play guitarish sounds with two different "interfaces". Good experience.

And now, I play in a rock-electro band: left hand is a bassist, playing on a Little Phatty, right hand takes care harmonic duties with the G2. A drummahcine plays along and my guitarist mate an I sing. I would say it sounds more rock than electronic, but I let you decide
DNOT, over there!

[Wesley]

I played with a rock band in the eighties. Used my Memorymoog and an Ensoniq Mirage. I ran them through a Crown DC300 and a Peavey International 115 with an 18" Black Widow. It was heavy in both sound and weight. Everyone loved that Memorymoog sound.

[_DemonDan_]

For the heavy rock lovers out there.
Analog synths aren't just for bleeps and farts and noises ya know?

"Black Sheep" by Jan Hammer (1978, sadly, out of print) made incredible use of that kind of lead sound.

The album cover proudly boasts that no guitars were used on this album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9vG0EKx9JM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n58nn2nDXrE

[_DemonDan_]

What's would be your favorite analog synth to play this kind of music?

Having spent a lot of quality time with the SUB 37, I can confidently say that it will rock out hard.

[stiiiiiiive]

For the heavy rock lovers out there. Analog synths aren't just for bleeps and farts and noises ya know ?

Heavy indeed, Alain!!

[benreigle]

Heavy sub phatty, bass and drums. http://www.ghostsmoker.bandcamp.com

[megavoice]

I'm talking about their sounds, not their weight.

Ha, ha, if there's someone out there who claims this, he's gonna be invited, I'll gonna take him with me on the shooting range with my Mini, Chroma, Memory and will do an A/B with my S&W Classic Hunter .44 Mag.
Guess now what will hit the first place of those.....
Heavy sounds I like MOST......not sounding heavy enough, I'd get rid of.........

[thealien666]

I didn't mean the loudness of the sound, but the "musical heaviness" of the sounds (with an "s"), or I should have rather said, the heaviness of the patches (or programmed sounds) of music synthesizers.

Anyway, come on, you know what I mean....

[megavoice]

I didn't mean the loudness of the sound, but the "musical heaviness" of the sounds (with an "s"), or I should have rather said, the heaviness of the patches (or programmed sounds) of music synthesizers.

Anyway, come on, you know what I mean....

SO DO I, my mate, and additionally "fatness", "majestic", "huge",...... and everything else in this direction. But I think despite you'll reduce "only" to the term "musical heaviness" ????
Nontheless, as a singer I'm taking extremely care of this subject as I suffered from HORRIBLE situations in the past especially when live gigging.
I also had long discussiuns as for the Memorymoog with my tech about this subject.......as he claims the MM is the most dangerous instrument (keyboard) of the world........and sometimes unusable in the whole mix.....

[megavoice]

Well, what I've written up to now referred mostly to your title, but I've taken more time and listened to your take.
To my impression and my own taste its too brutal, but its fine nontheless....
I'm making more difference between heavyness and "brutality". When I'M thinkink of HEAVY synth music it must more derive from the timbre, arrangement a.s.o., but NOT from distortion.
Again, up to my taste the distorted heaviness should come from the guitar, and the melodics mostly from the synths. But when your're playing in a band withpout guitar player, what you've suggested might be really the (or one of) right way to come to a fine result.

Just to accomplish the answers to your question I've been playing almost exclusively coverrrock in bands since the early '70ies, and the heavyness of the keyboards came mostly from the organs, but as we covered in later years more and more SAGA songs, heavy synth sounds played more and more a major role. But as you probably know the heaviness of the SAGA synths aren`t kind of like you probably talk about.
So at the end I've also to tell, as my musicians were almost exclusivly piano players and in many cases ran very short of money they coudn't afford synths like the Memorymoog.
In most cases they used YAMAHA synths and came very, very close to the original sounds. So this is my only experience with "heavy" synth-sounds, although I wanna say that the sounds of the ancient SAGA sounds are far more less heavy than those of the later ones.

I also feel fine when I see that you adress guitar players as I`m also playing guitar with distorted and partially heavy guitar sounds, but guitar players have a very different thinking of heavy and distorted sounds, so I'm thinking that you won't reach them with your idea.
A guitar player who doesn't deal at all with synths will never understand you ever.........
But in general you're exemple you've given above is VERY impressioning.........

[mrfett]

i'd only seen this thread on my phone before so i didn't listen. finally got a chance to hear it, very cool man thanks for sharing

[Dogfish]

An improvisation using my Sub Phatty. Kind of disturbing...

https://soundcloud.com/donald-hover/03- ... ittle-lift