Analog synths on Audius
Audius is the biggest decentralised, owned by the community, streaming platform, based on the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. Audius allows artists to connect directly with fans. Here & Now artist David Baron collects vintage synthesisers and previously ran a studio in Manhattan with Lenny Kravitz and Henry Hirsch. The trio ran Hotel Edison recording studio from 2001 to 2008.
Here is an Audius playlist of David Baron’s hybrid electronic classical music featuring Reworks of his Cycles long player
David Baron - Reworks
"The idea was to create a analog synthesizer remix of the original song. The main elements that survived the remix were Simi’s vocals and real strings.
The Sputnik and softer arpeggiator sounds were all done on my 1970’s vintage ARP 2500. It is one of the rarest modular synthesizers around. There are only twenty-five working systems left in the world. It is a six foot long synth that uses matrix switching instead of the Moog style patch cords. The ARP 2500 has appeared on Logan’s Run Soundtrack, Who’s Next, Elton John’s Rocket Man, and on almost all of the drone music of Eliane Radigue.
Arp stands for Alan Robert Pearlman - although several of the instruments are branded Tonus (he was a big fan of exercise). Arp was the main competitor of Moog.
The resonant counter melodies were done on my 1967-era Moog 3p using the sequencer to modulate the filter. This is a classic analog synth patch with a bit of that laboratory sound. I used two oscillators that tend to drift creating an imperfect chorusing.
The bass was also layered between Roland System 700 and Moog modular. This is the combination that made up the bass patch for Giorgio Moroder/Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”.
The busy arpeggiator that comes in towards the back end (panned far right) was done on an Arp 2600 - a very popular suitcase synth made in the early 1970s. I used it because it has built in spring reverb. The filter has a very particular sound - almost distorted. The sounds of R2D2 were made on an Arp 2600. It is pre-patched so you can work quickly without using patch-cords. If you do use patch cords - it breaks the normals and you can use it like any modular.
The big poly-synth chords were done using a Korg PS3200. I played two passes with different sounds and panned them left and right. The Korg PS3200 is a fully polyphonic synthesizer made in the late seventies - when polysynths were both very rare and voice-limited. . It has a very unique sound - a bit brash. Korg hand-wired two-hundred of these beasts.
The EMS Synthi provided some transitional effects. The most famous British synthesizer - somehow related to the BBC Radiophonic workshop and Dr Who. A very unstable synthesizer. It’s almost like having a unpredictable band member that is both brilliant and a liability. It was used extensively on the opening to the original version of Where We Are - but takes more of a back seat role on this analog synthesizer version.
Lastly, the synth strings were layers between samples and an original Arp Omni 2. The Arp is a string ensemble made in the early 1970s that sounds really glassy and bright. Used on tons of records and tv shows (Charlie’s Angels!).
The drums were mostly samples of the Linn 9000s layered with the Linn LM1. The Linn LM1 was the first commercially successful programmable drum machine. I wanted to have a 1980s sounding beat with 70s era synthesizers.
The end chorus vocals were layered with a Moog vocoder. It was just to thicken up Simi’s vocals and give it a bit of a machine choir.
The reverberation is also analog based. I used a EMT 240 Gold Foil Plate. it is a German reverb that uses a tank with a suspended piece of foil with transducers on one side and pickups on the other. It has less bass than the full size EMT plates but has a really interesting and rich sound. The Sputnik sound (Arp 2500) is mostly dry on the left and EMT plate on the right. You can clearly hear the watery sound of the plate. Digital reverbs are great but never quite as gritty or dense.
Sometimes technology of the past sounds more futuristic than the technology of the present."
Below is a mix David Baron made for the Synth Hero show on NTS radio in London (to promote Reworks) featuring Air, Tortoise, Spoon, Sophie Hunger and some of David’s productions from Bat For Lashes and Lettie
