So what inspired you to get into synths in the first place?

ned-ryarson · Post by **ned-ryarson** » Mon May 21, 2007 3:26 pm

chemical bros, SFA, doves, air.............

Post by **Zonkout** » Mon May 21, 2007 3:32 pm

The Rentals Friends of P

Automatic Gainsay · Post by **Automatic Gainsay** » Mon May 21, 2007 3:35 pm

Hearing Steve Miller's "Fly Like an Eagle" on the radio in 1976 or so.

divineaudio · Post by **divineaudio** » Mon May 21, 2007 3:45 pm

synapsecollapse wrote:skinny puppy and depeche mode

(wtf is that combo?)

a proper one!

+1 on both accounts.

Soundwave · Post by **Soundwave** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:06 pm

C64

> Jarre :glasses1:> 90’s dance/techno/ambient + psychoactive substances :hippy2: :happy10: :laughing5: :tongue3: !

ewblank · Post by **ewblank** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:16 pm

Big Gnome wrote:
theglyph wrote:Pink Floyd, Rush and many others!
Same here. And Genesis; and Marillion.

These were my original inspirations back in the day - especially Rush (being a fellow hoser, of course).

But after a 15 year hiatus from playing music, dusting off the old Juno-6, bringing it to a jam, and having everyone there (myself included) drooling over the rich sound of it got me back in to synths big time.

ew

ryryoftokyo · Post by **ryryoftokyo** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:17 pm

Lady K of The Faux...she was also the reason I love synths you can strap on like a guitar.

It's too bad she was taken from us so young.

Seriously, if you want some amazing synth work, look no further than Ms. Malone.

Analogue Crazy · Post by **Analogue Crazy** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:21 pm

2 words - Human League

garyblanchard · Post by **garyblanchard** » Mon May 21, 2007 4:37 pm

I came home from a folkie gig with my acoustic guitar one Saturday night and tuned in Saturday Night Live to relax. The musical guest was Laurie Anderson and my life was never the same. I bought a Yamaha PSR-11 keyboard and began to write and eventually recorded my Original Soundtrack album using that keyboard. (Shameless plug: That album is now available on CD at my website.

) I have seen her in concert three times and recently attended a lecture she gave at UMass-Amherst. I later got into Philip Glass, Peter Gabriel, and a lot of soundtrack stuff, but Laurie Anderson was my entree to the synth.

Post by **30h5** » Mon May 21, 2007 5:35 pm

I got into synths for several reasons. One of them being a developing taste for electronic music in high school, some of the first stuff I heard that I liked were the more commercially successful acts at the time (FSOL, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim), from that I sought out more unique stuff than the mainstream media had to offer and I found Aphex Twin. I would listen to aphex and fsol constantly in the evening and enjoyed it a great deal. Interestingly enough at about the same time I was introduced to Frankie Bones by a friend and thought it was just really basic garbage without much programming talent and at the time I didn't like the concept of continual DJ mixes (I would later go on to like Frankie Bones and mixes a great deal). A friend of mine lent me his MC-303 for a while and I had a bunch of fun with that even though I didn't have a manual or knew how to program it. I also remember a very disctint moment being quite baked parked in my car outside a mcdonalds waiting for my friends to get out of work and just marvelling at the song "Next to nothing" by Fatboy Slim and just knowing I was going to persue electronic music. More time goes on and I have to give the MC back to my friend and I went on a trip to NYC in I think 1999 and I bought a demo model JX-305, my first synth.

I think another reason that I got into synths and electronic music was that I found them so much more interesting than rock and otherwise guitar based music. I felt one could do way more sonically with a synth than a guitar and I failed to see why some of my peers were so in love with the conventional music of the time. Everyone seemed to be really pleased with the emergence of the heavier bands that were popular at the time (Korn, Limp Bizkit, Coal Chamber, Fear Factory) and though I enjoyed some of their songs I was going down a different route in my musical tastes and have never really looked back.

rickrhino · Post by **rickrhino** » Mon May 21, 2007 5:53 pm

80's WAX TRAX Records Chicago/USA (front 242,front line assembly,KMFDM,My Life with the thrill kill cult,Pailhead,Ministry)

btw NIN always sounded like a lite version of 80's Wax Trax stuff
2nd gen Ministry was always better than pop NIN

and also because i'm a Gen Xer...............RAAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

Post by **Zonkout** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:02 pm

garyblanchard wrote:I came home from a folkie gig with my acoustic guitar one Saturday night and tuned in Saturday Night Live to relax. The musical guest was Laurie Anderson and my life was never the same. I bought a Yamaha PSR-11 keyboard and began to write and eventually recorded my Original Soundtrack album using that keyboard. (Shameless plug: That album is now available on CD at my website. :oops: ) I have seen her in concert three times and recently attended a lecture she gave at UMass-Amherst. I later got into Philip Glass, Peter Gabriel, and a lot of soundtrack stuff, but Laurie Anderson was my entree to the synth.

Original Soundtrack is a great album!

Shanesaw · Post by **Shanesaw** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:15 pm

ewblank wrote:
Big Gnome wrote:
theglyph wrote:Pink Floyd, Rush and many others!
Same here. And Genesis; and Marillion.
These were my original inspirations back in the day - especially Rush (being a fellow hoser, of course).

But after a 15 year hiatus from playing music, dusting off the old Juno-6, bringing it to a jam, and having everyone there (myself included) drooling over the rich sound of it got me back in to synths big time.

ew

Yeah! Rush and Pink Floyd were a couple of big inspirations for me too. Just yesterday I was playing "Subdivisions" which is probably the first song I ever learned....well, besides "Jump".

garyblanchard · Post by **garyblanchard** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:25 pm

Zonkout wrote: Original Soundtrack is a great album!

Gee, and I didn't even have to pay him to say it.

Thanks again for getting the album transferred to CD. I literally had not heard the album for about 15 years. It is odd to listen to it 20 years later and find I still am happy and proud of what I'd done.

supermel74 · Post by **supermel74** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:30 pm

Sitting around playing with a cheap mini Yamaha keyboard and being like, "damn, I wish I could do more with this thing"