Favorite Non-Moog synth solos

[GuitarGeek]

OK, so what your favorite synth solos that were played on makes and models that didn't come from Trumansburg?

Tony Banks: The Cinema Show, Colony Of The Slipperman, ...In That Quiet Earth, and Dodo/The Lurker...various ARP models I think were used for those
Del Dettmar: Electronic No. 1 and the Space Ritual Vol. II version of Time We Left...EMS Synthi A or VCS-3
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Sirius (not so much a solo, but there's lots of cool synth work)...the big EMS Synthi 100 at the WDR Electronic Music studio
Morton Subotnick: Silver Apples Of The Moon and The Wild Bull, early Buchla
Tangerine Dream: every damn track from Phaedra up through Tangram...various ARP, Moog, EMS, Oberheim, and PPG gear, plus custom built stuff
Klaus Schulze: his entire output from Blackdance up through the first live album, including the first five La Vie Electronique entries (still haven't gotten anything after Vol. 5)...EMS Synthi VCS-3 and/or Synthi A, ARP Odyssey and 2600, Mini-Moog, "the big Moog", and later in the 70's he had a Polymoog and I believe also a CS-80.
Pete Townshend: Sister Disco (ok, not really a solo, but that repeating motif before each chorus is still one of my favorites), the synths on Doctor Jimmy are pretty cool too. I think both of those are the ARP 2500.
Freddie Mercury: Ming's Theme, The Ring, and Football Fight, probably the Oberheim OB-X
Steve Porcaro: Rosanna (I think that's Porcaro, as I recall he's miming the solo in the video)...CS-80

[trurl]

Good list! I'd add Edgar Winter on Frankenstein (ARP), Tommy Mars all over Sheik Yerbooty (Emu), Roger Powell on most Utopia stuff post-Ra (Powell Probe) and... I'll find more

[A. Scherze]

Emerson - Fanfare, Pirates, Peter Gunn
Jobson - anytime he touches the CS-80 with UK or on "A";
Jobson - "Theme of Secrets"
Wendy Carlos - Tron soundtrack

[Soc Prof]

Genesis--Dodo/Luker (Three Sides Live version). ARP Quadra?
Rousseau--Breakfast at Tiffany's (Retreat). I believe it's a Roland Jupiter 4.

[GuitarGeek]

Another great example of non-Moog synth work is the score to the Doctor Who serial The Sea Devils, which was done entirely on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop's Synthi 100.

Another couple good solos occur on the Thompson Twins songs Doctor Doctor and If You Were Here. They were probably played on either an Oberheim OB-Xa, a Prophet 5 or a Pro One (according to the cover story on the band in Keyboard magazine in 1984, those three synths were used for nearly everything on the Quick Step And Side Kick and Into The Gap albums).

Oh yeah, and then there's Bob Ostertag's Serge work on Anthony Braxton's Creative Music (Koln 1978) album. Ostertag also did some neat stuff on the John Zorn albums Hockey and Pool, but he doesn't "solo" so much on either of those two.

[ThomasKDye]

Patrick Moraz, "Sound Chaser." I think that wasn't a Moog.

EDIT: And checking the "moog solo" thread, I see that it WAS A Moog solo, so ignore me.

So… Rick Wakeman, "Teakbois" coda, and no, I'm not kidding.

[Zeuhlmate]

For artistic reasons I dont see it make much sense to differ between moog and other synth brands, unless you are the repairshop. They all have keys and a tonebending wheel. But off course if one is after one typical specific moog sound...

Jan Hammer used a merged moog and oberheim, and Roger Powell did something similar.

Brian Eno on Quiet Sun used a vcs3 (synth), great ugly sound !

The keyboardsolo on Magma - Kohntarkosz (studio version) is just insane, but I'm not quite sure what it is. If its Bikialo who does it, then it could be a yamaha organ with a fuzz, if its Graillier then its probably a rhodes with a fuzzpedal. No synth, but it sounds awesomly ugly synth'ish!

Zawinul uglifies his synthsound on many liverecordings with Syndicate, and I just love it.

[PeterG]

OK, so what your favorite synth solos that were played on makes and models that didn't come from Trumansburg?

Judas Priest! That is a depth of knowledge that is WAAAAY beyond my knowledge and interest in music.

[trurl]

Dodo/Lurker was a Quadra- through a fuzzbox! As was ABACAB. (The organ on ABACAB was a Prophet.)

[rcarlberg]

Beach Boys & Lothar and the Hand People, theremins

[markwoll]

That is like asking what's my favorite beautiful sunset.

[A. Scherze]

[zeprogmeister]

[QUOTE=Zeuhlmate;250001
!

The keyboardsolo on Magma - Kohntarkosz (studio version) is just insane, but I'm not quite sure what it is. If its Bikialo who does it, then it could be a yamaha organ with a fuzz, if its Graillier then its probably a rhodes with a fuzzpedal. No synth, but it sounds awesomly ugly synth'ish!
.[/QUOTE]

Yep I believe it's the organ

[zeprogmeister]

Enjoy Joie Hinton's knob-dwiddling type solos, usually done on the Roland SH-5.

[Sputnik]

Gianpaolo Tofani's guitar triggered VCS3 solo on Area's Arbeit Macht Frei. This solo never fails to get my blood pumping.

Bill

[Troopers For Sound]

I see we're truly in synth nerd territory now...so I'm in

ALL of Billy Currie's great ARP Odyssey synth breaks/solos with Ultravox.

Dave Sinclair's solo on Caravan's The Dog, The Dog He's at it Again, which I think was the Davoli Synth, the same synth used by Cluster.

Whatever piece of awesomeness Boards of Canada used throughout their early records...some think it was a Yamaha CS70, but they've never said. This kind of thing:

[GuitarGeek]

Beach Boys & Lothar and the Hand People, theremins

If you're talking about Good Vibrations, that's not a theremin, it's an instrument built by a musician named Paul Tanner, known as the Electro-Theremin or Tannerin. Despite the evocation of our favorite Russian instrument inventor/KGB operative, the operation of the Electro-Theremin is nothing like the instrument bearing Leon Theremin's name.

[WytchCrypt]

Tony Banks - Arp Pro Soloist - In the Cage, Cinema Show, Colony of Slippermen
Mark Kelly - ??? - Just for the Record
Eno - VCS3??? - Remake-Remodel (his synthy blip-bleep solo)
Geddy - Oberheim - Tom Sawyer (not really a "solo", more like a riff)

[trurl]

OK, I've got one- the synth break in the middle of Silly Boys by Klaatu. I actually emailed Dee Long to ask what it was and he didn't remember but he thought probably a Mini-Korg 700S (which I have!!!) Speaking of which, Greg Hawkes on Bye Bye love.

[trurl]

Geddy - Oberheim - Tom Sawyer (not really a "solo", more like a riff)

Only the note at the beginning. The melodic part in the middle is MiniMoog.

[GuitarGeek]

For artistic reasons I dont see it make much sense to differ between moog and other synth brands, unless you are the repairshop.

Yes, but the other thread specified Moog solos, as if to imply the OP only wanted to discuss that particular make. Or perhaps to perpetuate the myth that "Moog" and "synthesizer" are synonymous, which they aren't. Hence this thread.

Oh, and I wouldn't say the difference only matters in a repair shop. Obviously, it matters to musicians, as demonstrated by the variety of modules that emulate this or that aspect of a given vintage synth available in the current modular market. I've forgotten how many different filters Doepfer makes, some of which emulate the old Oberheim SEM and Xpander filters, they've got one based on the VCS-3/Synthi A filter (there's at least four other companies making EMS inspired filters), another based on the EDP Wasp, and so on. Likewise, Synthesis Technologies makes filters based on the Moog transistor ladder, the Rev 2 Prophet 5 filter, and both the CS-80 and the GX-1. And there's at least a couple companies that make filters based on the latter era ARP filters (as heard on the black and orange 2600 and Odyssey).

And you can't sell something if nobody's buying, so obviously the musicians who are buying modular synths are hearing something from one make/model to another that makes them choose one over the other, or perhaps several different ones (I mean, it's a modular synth, isn't the whole point that you don't have to be limited just one filter, or just two envelope generators, or just two or three oscillators, or you can mix this company's modules with that company's, etc?).

[GuitarGeek]

Tony Banks - Arp Pro Soloist - In the Cage, Cinema Show, Colony of Slippermen

Are we sure it's the Pro-Soloist on Colony Of The Slipperman? I thought it was established that it was an instrument with two oscillators, which the Pro-Soloist isn't.

Mark Kelly - ??? - Just for the Record

That's probably a Mini-Moog, though I think I read he also had a Pro One, so it could be that too. Of course, it could also be the Jupiter-8, or the PPG 2.3. He also had a DX-7 in his rig at the time, but I suspect it's not that, otherwise we would know.

Geddy - Oberheim - Tom Sawyer (not really a "solo", more like a riff)

If you're talking about the bit he plays in the middle, which is then emulated by Alex on guitar, that's the Mini-Moog. Watch the Exit...Stage Left video. I think it's been said the big filter sweeps, like at the very beginning of the song, was done with a newly acquired Oberheim OB-X.

[GuitarGeek]

OK, I've got one- the synth break in the middle of Silly Boys by Klaatu. I actually emailed Dee Long to ask what it was and he didn't remember but he thought probably a Mini-Korg 700S (which I have!!!) Speaking of which, Greg Hawkes on Bye Bye love.

I believe I read that all the synth work on the first one or two Cars albums was done on the Mini-Korg.

For what it's worth, I recall reading the synth riff on Let's Go was a Prophet-5, but when the Jupiter 8 came out, they had a factory patch that mimicked that sound, which was identified as "Carsynth".

[WytchCrypt]

Are we sure it's the Pro-Soloist on Colony Of The Slipperman? I thought it was established that it was an instrument with two oscillators, which the Pro-Soloist isn't.

Thanks for the clarifications. Re: Slippermen synth...I have a 1978 interview with Banks and he mentions replacing the Arp Pro Soloist on live shows with an Arp 2600 because he felt he'd done all he could with the 1 oscillator Pro Soloist. If the Slippermen studio version solo sounds like it's a 2 oscillator synth, perhaps he used the 2600 in the studio but the Pro Soloist live?

[trurl]

If the Slippermen studio version solo sounds like it's a 2 oscillator synth, perhaps he used the 2600 in the studio but the Pro Soloist live?

Actually, I think it really is the ProSoloist. I think he doubletracked it in the studio and used a chorus live. Not sure though. Later on he was able to use the Quadra to get that effect.