Albums Done Entirely On One Synth

[hippypants]

Here's the Mort Garson album, Plantasia, still pretty listenable.



I was putting together a list of my fave synth albums. So far I came up with there: Bear in mind these are not done with just one synth, but many.

Klaus Schulze--Timewind
Tangerine Dream--Zeit
Steve Roach--Structures of Silence
Steve Roach & Robert Rich--Soma
Tim Hecker--Ravendeath, An Imaginary Country
Eno--Music for Airports
Richard Burmer--Bhakti Point
Aphex Twins--Select Ambient Works 85-92
Michael Hoenig--Departure From the Northern Wasteland
Wendy Carlos--Sonic Seasonings
Kevin Braheny--The Way Home
Constance Demby --Novus Magnificat
Stereolab--Dots & Loops
Autechre--maybe Sign, not sure, they released so many, I don't have half of them
Suzanne Ciani--not sure, maybe, Velocity of Love

I tried not to put too many albums on here by the same artist/bands. I'm still adding to it. What would you add?

[battema]

It half counts, but the synth half of Richard Pinhas's Chronolyse is all a Modular Moog.

There are several early Conrad Schnitlzer albums and recordings that were just a single synth (Con '72 for sure, maybe Silber?).

I think Michael Stearns's Planetary Unfolding was just the Serge modular, but I don't know if it was multitracked or not.

Did anyone mention Zappa's Jazz from Hell or Civilization Phase III?

[battema]

Thanks for the reminder. I believe I searched for a cheap copy some while ago, but this time I found one. Nice stuff from some prominent prog-keyboarders like Dave Stewart, Geoff Downes and Eddie Jobson.

Some of the tunes haven't aged as well for me, but a few are actually still pretty good. I never fail to get a huge grin for Stewart's Lethargy Shuffle, and the Keith Emerson tune isn't half bad either.

I actually got it for the Edgar Froese piece, but I think that one isn't terribly memorable...that was kind of during his low point creatively speaking.

[Progbear]

There's also this from the one and only Rick Wakeman. The whole album isn't like this, alas, but this opening track is just Mini-Moog and drums!

[MudShark22]

Does chiptune count? There's a couple albums that are done using 8-bit Nintendo/Famicom hardware.

I would count it

[interbellum]

Some of the tunes haven't aged as well for me, but a few are actually still pretty good. I never fail to get a huge grin for Stewart's Lethargy Shuffle, and the Keith Emerson tune isn't half bad either.

I actually got it for the Edgar Froese piece, but I think that one isn't terribly memorable...that was kind of during his low point creatively speaking.

I guess the bad aging is especially caused by the use of the drum-program-function of the Korg 01/W.

Dave Stewart's synth-version of his old National Health-tune is indeed very funny. I like Video Star, the "piano"-version of Buggles' Video Killed The Radio Star; could be a fine introduction. Eddie Jobson's piece Sketch For Orchestra #4 surprised me for its classical approach; I would have thought he would go the same way as his synclavier-album.
Well, all in all a nice disk to have in my collection.

[battema]

I guess the bad aging is especially caused by the use of the drum-program-function of the Korg 01/W.

Dave Stewart's synth-version of his old National Health-tune is indeed very funny. I like Video Star, the "piano"-version of Buggles' Video Killed The Radio Star; could be a fine introduction. Eddie Jobson's piece Sketch For Orchestra #4 surprised me for its classical approach; I would have thought he would go the same way as his synclavier-album.
Well, all in all a nice disk to have in my collection.

Yeah, at the time I wondered if Jobson's piece might ultimately be a "demo" for something intended for the UK Legacy album.

Oh yeah, I'm very happy to have it too, warts and all

[pb2015]

Dave Stewart's synth-version of his old National Health-tune is indeed very funny.

I didn't know until now that he did a synth version of Lethargy Shuffle, interesting. I guess it was around the same time as the new Collapso from NH Complete that I think I have only ever listened to once.

[zeprogmeister]

Thanks for the reminder. I believe I searched for a cheap copy some while ago, but this time I found one. Nice stuff from some prominent prog-keyboarders like Dave Stewart, Geoff Downes and Eddie Jobson.

LOL, I still have this. My wife used to have an 01W, so we got this when it came out.

[zeprogmeister]

I think (? - somebody correct me if I'm wrong) the Oberheim 4-voice synth was just four expansion modules & a keyboard. The Oberheim 8 was eight modules.

Edit: I was close. It was their original 2-Voice and 4-Voice synths.
https://www.vintagesynth.com/oberheim/two-voice
https://www.vintagesynth.com/oberheim/four-voice
https://www.vintagesynth.com/oberheim/eight-voice

Correct. A SEM was basically a mono synth without a keyboard, and the 2, 4, and 8 voice were multiples of them. The 4 and 8 voice also had an optional programmer module that could store some (but not all) of the parameters of all the SEMs to sort of give it some presets, or else you'd have to adjust each SEM indvidually to change sounds.

[hippypants]

I don't know if this is considered just one synth, but pretty interesting from Datach'i.

[Progbear]

Didn't I hear that Anthony Phillips' Slow Dance was done all on one synth?

[battema]

You could well be right on Slow Dance

[dropforge]

Didn't I hear that Anthony Phillips' Slow Dance was done all on one synth?

On Slow Dance, Phillips used the Jupiter-8 & 808, Emax, and CZ-5000.