On 21-5-2011 “MEET THE KNOBBERS” has been the first synth meeting in Tuscany, Italy.

The meeting has been conceived as the first of a serie of musical events regarding synths and the application of electronic music in different enviroments, from interactions between art and music to live performances.
The location was the ” SOUNDY Musical Center ” , a recording studio with live hall and various live rooms, settled near Siena, in the beautiful country hills of the Chianti shire.
The meeting was a “One day only” event, with an afternoon in “total addiction” tweaking feast and a night of electronic music live.

The afternoon was spent with two “live rooms” full of machines and “knobbers” who played them but with a lot of curious people too!
Knobbers came from nord and south of Italy, everyone with his “toy”, as special guest Enrico Cosimi , the famous italian synth guru.
One room was dedicated to vintage stuff and DIY Modulars and synths, the other was based on Eurorack modular systems and pedals effects.
The afternoon led to interewsting electronic jam sessions with acoustic and electric instruments too such as guitars and bass.

The after dinner live sets was focused on various type of electronic music played by different artists, ambient electronica with GATTOBUS and his group, glitch/IDM with MICROSWITCH , electro with YES EXPRESS and deep house with ANDREA PEDRA.

MEET THE KNOBBERS are :

Andrea Pedrazzoli (producer, dj, live performer as Andrea Pedra/Whitesushi)

Francesco Poggianti (producer, live performer as Microswitch/Xtal/Notchsider)

a little list of the “knobbers” who made this meeting such a succesful event:

• Maurizio Falconi with his DIY analog modular synth and lots of DIY material
• Ludus Pinski with his awesome  Formant DIY modular
• Niccolò “Cardinen” Caldini with his Cardinen DIY modular synth
• Daniele Borri with his glitch mutant sound generator
• Noctivaga with his eurorack “trolley travel”
• Hatefish with his eurorack modular
• Giacomo Frati  & Paolo Zemauno with their custom pedalboards
• Gianni Proietti with his Minimoog model D

and last but not least Mimmo Nocera for his kindness and friendship, helping us to make this event come true giving the availability of the Soundy.

Here are some close up shots of my Roland TR 909 Rhythm Composer …

3/4 left side shot kick and snare and the TR 909 logo…

..now the right side  with rimshot, handclap hi-hats and cymbals…

…the awesome 16 step buttom rig with C64-like buttons…

…close up shot of percussions and hi-hats section..

…pattern selection and programming buttons…

…the start and stop buttons…

…Rhythm Composer…

When it came out in the late 70s the Moog Prodigy was the moog attempt to fight the “japanese invasion”, so it was a stripped down version of the minimoog at a competitive price.
It was really popular indeed and was a big american “budget-Mini”  till Sequential Circuits made the Pro One.

The structure is quite simple: a 2 syncable VCOs with the classic 24dB moog ladder filter, two ASD/R and a simple lfo.
The two vcos are similar but they have different waveforms and different “feet”  settings.
VCO1 has the 32′ and offers Pulse, Saw and Tri waveforms.
VCO2 has the 4′ and TRi, Square and Saw.
The second vco has a detune knob and can be synced to vco1 creating many complex waves (a feature unavailable on the Minimoog).
Using the Pitch Wheel with the sync on , the wheel “move” only the VCO2 creating big alterations in the waveform content.
Than there is a mixer/vca part , the Filter with cutoff, (env)Amount, and Emphasis (resonance) and the two envelope ADS/ASR.
The LFO is quite simple and offers square and tri waves with a rate control that can go from 0.3Hz to 30 Hz, not the faster or slowest lfo, but really useful.

The most interesting part of this synth is the behaviour of the filter that is indeed the strengh of all moog synths, a really organic, warm and brilliant sounding!
It sounds always balanced, the resonance can get quite acid and never get thin.
The vcos are really capable, rich and armonic over all the audio spectrum, and the sync is a top notch feature in a simple synth because the vcos interact very well creating complex waveforms that sound always usable.
The behaviour of the envelopes is really interesting, they are snappy and fast, but they move in a really organic and “natural” way.
Even the 3 stage concept is not limitating at all.

All in all this is a great vintage synth that is always quite cheap compared to the always rising prices of  Minimoogs, and though it may seem quite basicv/simple, getting in depth with it  can lead to a very wide range of sounds,  some even  typical “Prodigy trademarks” , not only mini emulations…

Compared to the new analogs (moogs and moog clones)  the prodigy has a particular fashion that set this synth aside from the new generation, and it’s all about the sound!
While the Prodigy has a raw but harmonic sound that’s always present and creamy, today’s synths are more “bright” but not brilliant, the sound is cleaner and more defined, when you turn the cut off down they are smooth and quite flat/static , while the prodigy always seems to oscillate wildly under its wood and metal case…

My prodigy has two interesting MODS.

• FILTER FM : the vco2 can modulate the filter frequency creating wild sounds, from vocal-like textures to noise or drones.
• CV-GATE MOD : a standard cv-gate interface instead of the moog s-trig.
  I chose to have this mod because my model (an early BX336) did not have any control socket.

I’ll provide photos of the mods in a future post , stay tuned!

Chemical Brothers Liveset Rig1

Chemical Brothers Livest rig:

• Doepfer MAQ 16/3
• Clavia Nordmodular keyboard
• Roland Jupiter6
• Roland Octapad
• Octave Cat
• Roland SH101
• 2 x Akai MPC3000
• Korg MS10
• Korg Mono/Poly
• Akai S6000
• Futuretro 777
• Dave Smith Instruments PolyEvolver Keyboard

Chemical Brothers Liveset rig (2)

Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel with his Clavia Nordlead

Underworld

UNDERWORLD :

• Yamaha DX7
• Clavia Nordlead2
• Access Virus B
• Waldorf  MicroWave XT (yellow!!!)
• Akai MPC 2000
• Akai S3000 i
• Roland TR909
• Korg Electribe ER-1

Bill Leeb (Skinny Puppy & Frontline Assembly)

BILL LEEB (Skinny Puppy) :

• Clavia Nordlead
• Arp 2600
• Arp Odyssey MK1
• Moog Micromoog

Here are some other studio shots from the electronic music producers crowd…

Booka shade

BOOKA SHADE :

• Sequential Circuits Pro One
• Yamaha DX7
• Moog Source
• Clavia Nordlead
• Arp Avatar

Nitin Sawhney

NITIN SAWHNEY :

• Yamaha AN1x
• Yamaha CS6x
• Quasimidi Sirius
• Akai MPC4000

Stuart Price (Les rhythm digitales)

STUART PRICE :

• Arp 2600
• Korg MS20
• Korg SQ10
• Roland TR909
• Access Virus TI

Here are some famous electronic producers studio shots…

I listed the synths I identified.

Alan Wilder (Recoil)

RECOIL :

• Akai S3000xl
• Emu E4
• Novation Supernova
• MidiMoog
• 2x Oberheim SEM modules
• EMS VCS3

Apparat

APPARAT:

• Korg MONO/POLY
• Clavia Nordlead
• Crumar Stratus
• Clavia Nordmodular G2
• Syntechno TeeBee

Kid 606

KID606 :

• Clavia Nordmodular
• Clavia Micromodular
• Clavia Nordlead2
• Clavia Nordlrack3
• Sequential Circuits PRO ONE
• Yamaha DX200
• Roland MC-202
• Roland TR-606
• Korg MS20
• Access Virus KB
• Yamaha CS15

Jamiroquay

JAMIROQUAY :

• Elka Synthex
• Roland System100m (3 cabinets)
• Moog Source
• Fender Rhodes

Eno

ENO : just a kaosspad on the right, but this is just an angle of the studio…

Orbital

ORBITAL :

• 2x Alesis Andromeda
• Roland Jupiter 6
• Roland SH101
• Roland TB303
• Macbeth M5
• Elektron Machinedrum

Ritchie Hawtin (Plastikman)

PLASTIKMAN :

• Akai S3200
• 2 x Doepfer MAQ 16/3
• Serge modular
• EMS Synthi A
• Roland TB303
• Roland TR808 (on the oscilloscope)
• Roland Juno106
  This shot was taken at the end of the ’90s…

Rude 66

RUDE66 :

• Korg MONO/POLY
• Roland SH101
• Roland SH09
• Roland TR909
• Roland TR606
• Roland TR808
• Roland CR8000
• Sequential Circuits Drumtrak
• Syntechno TeeBee
• Emu Esi32
• Waldorf Pulse
• Kawai XD5
• Clavia Micromodular

Matmos

MATMOS :

• ARP 2600
• Roland SH101
• 2 x Emu E4