What got you into synths?

[druzz]

what got me into synths ?

i used to be a guitar player . i used to listen to acoustic jazz and instrumenta music l and hate vocals and syntesizers . then i had tendonitis for playing too much guitar and had to stop . did nothing for a year at the time then started back making music with my PC and FL studio .i realised making melodies and bass lines was better using synths than pitch shifting a sample . so i started to look everywere for vsts and tried millions of them . then since i was an instrumentist from the begining i had to eventually get a physical ''instrument''. so it started . that wasnt too long. now
i'm obsessed with synths and synthesis.
i always loved to experiments and reasearch and my experience as musician and doing some sound engeneering were good foundations to jump into synthesis.

[zukskywalker]

Poverty.

No way I could afford a B3, a Rhodes, or a Clav, Wurly or any of that "pro" stuff. Had synthesizers come out with other than a piano keyboard interface and had not been able to emulate the "real" keyboards I may have never touched one. Yes, narrow minded but thats what poverty does. And, to add insult to my quest one of the first synthesizers I touched was a full blown Synclavier in full studio configuration. Poverty sucked!
But then came synths for the masses(all praise to the microprocessor/DX7), and as I crawled out of the poor man hole I went berserk.
As far as real "synthetic" work though I'll have to give credit to Bernie Worrell(Funkadelic) and Walter(now Wendy) Carlos for early inspiration.
I'm a sixties child.

[silikon]

It all began in the mid 70's when I was an impressionable little ankle-biter -- my mom had a couple copies of Walter Carlos' stuff; Listening to him go straight to town on classical pieces with a moog modular, I was instantly hooked. The h**l with my piano lessons. Heh.

It later progressed, as I started to get older, some of the more influential stuff in the 80's -- Gary Numan, Devo, Kraftwerk. Lets just say I wasn't a popular kid in school. It was around the late 80's that Industrial started making it's way to my ear canals, and, If I recall correctly, Ministry started out with more dancey productions, and I dug 'em, then came Skinny Puppy... GAWD I was hooked.

By the 90's I was looking back into days past that I missed as a child. Still to this day a huge influence is Klaus Schulze. JMJ. Keith f**k Emerson. I'm fairly certain that is really his middle name.

In awe at the huge racks of modules with cables everywhere. And more pointedly the noises and soundscapes they could coax out of what anyone else might view as "bizarre mad-scientist looking s**t" on stage with them.

KMFDM came on scene. Skinny Puppy is no longer, but out of the ashes came Download, and a single album that rocked my world. "the eyes of stanley pain" I still have that album in heavy rotation. cEvin Key is amazingly talented, IMHO.

Prodigy -- Amazing. Not a huge fan of the early stuff that sounded like they did it all on a Alpha Juno, but I think the turning point was when "music for a jilted generation" came out. Ever since, In complete awe at how He melds many genre into something that's completely fresh.

Nine Inch Nails / Trent Reznor -- I've seen the amount of kit that guy plays with on a constant basis. I can't recall the name of the track right now, and I can't be bothered to go look it up -- but it begins with what "sounds like" him playing a bunch of glass bottles in his bathtub. I still don't know if that was foley work, sampled sounds, or synth sounds, but that and the beat that comes in shorty after that, deserves to be cranked until ears are bleeding miles away.

I'll be into electronic music and the devices that allow creation of said music until I cease to exist.

[ninja6485]

i was forced at gunpoint.

[Sir Nose]

Pink Floyd when I got into music.
Early childhood memories of 80s radio pop growing up (ages 4-14) and maybe that babysitter that would crank HH Rockit when it would come on MTV (damn those animatronics freaked out my young mind).

[dugernaut]

1969'ish - Morton Subotnik's Silver Apples of the Moon, but what really clinched it was Switched on Bach. My life, as I knew it, was over. Downward spiral into synth repairs, modifications and wierd sound thingies.

[Reginator]

Prince - "Dirty Mind" album. Eventually I purchased a Casio CT-310 then a CZ-101.

[druzz]

i was forced at gunpoint.

that'S how Art Blakey started playing drums ,

[sequentialsoftshock]

i was forced at gunpoint.

Sorry about that, man. I needed money for the bus and I needed to get rid of that shitty MC 505 FAST.

[tallowwaters]

My guitar couldn't sound like the Super Metroid soundtrack.

[rharris07]

My guitar couldn't sound like the Super Metroid soundtrack.

oooooh f**k yeah. i miss those games. i remember turning on the original 8bit metroid just to listen to the music at times. what a weird kid i must have been.

[jmammo]

I started getting into noise music around '07. Just started with pieces of junk, contact mics and a regular mic I would yell s**t into and run that through distortion and delay. I then found this forum, which rekindeled my love for playing the piano and I thought 'Well piano isn't much good in the music I'm making so why not take my prior piano skills and use them to play synths." Three years later and 7k later I am happier then I have been in a long time. My music still sucks but I love making it and that's all that counts.

[nuketifromorbit]

Being born in the first world and having an expendable income.

[Sir Nose]

Thank goodness for the 3rd world and those with no income, everything is a percussion instrument, some things are just better at it.

I remember fondly my 14 year old musical mind being enlightened by a group of 8 to 12 year old city kids busting out incredible rhythms on found pieces of gear (shopping cart, soup can, human chest, shaker, random piece of wood, and best was the 5 gallon bucket while he lifted the bottom up and down with his toe). It was out on the Mall in DC in front of the big red Smithsonian.

[nuketifromorbit]

Thank goodness for the 3rd world and those with no income, everything is a percussion instrument, some things are just better at it.

I remember fondly my 14 year old musical mind being enlightened by a group of 8 to 12 year old city kids busting out incredible rhythms on found pieces of gear (shopping cart, soup can, human chest, shaker, random piece of wood, and best was the 5 gallon bucket while he lifted the bottom up and down with his toe). It was out on the Mall in DC in front of the big red Smithsonian.

Ha very true. I have to say synths have been a delightful money sink. Its a far better use of my money than buying c**p like video game consoles that rapidly depreciate in value.