4 ARP sequencers controlling over a dozen analog synths

[Bill Wolfer]

I had too much time on my hands when I was working at Guitar Center in LA back in 1979, and hooked everything we had in the keyboard room together. Just the other day, I ran across the cassette I had of it. Sloppy playing, out of tune synths, but fun to listen to. It's on my blog here:

http://billwolfer.blogspot.com/2007/11/ ... -1979.html

[matrix]

That was absolutely awesome. I put a post up here as well:
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2007/11 ... -1979.html

[Z]

That was cool! I would love to see what a GC looked like in 1979 with ARPs, Moogs & Obies instead of "workstation of the month."

Z

[Micke]

Wow...that sounded really cool, Bill!

Micke

[Bill Wolfer]

That was cool! I would love to see what a GC looked like in 1979 with ARPs, Moogs & Obies instead of "workstation of the month."

Z

It was the old Guitar Center on Sunset that was across the street from where the one is today. At times, we had so many toys it was absurd. An Oberheim 8-voice was one of my favorites to play with when there weren't any customers. For awhile we had a Roland modular 700, that was fun. We took a Moog Polymoog out to Sly Stone's house one day for him to check it out. That was really fun, as I was a big fan of Sly. They were great times, although I hated the gig!

Now that I think about it, there is probably an obie SEM-1 or two on that track as well. Anything that had control inputs got put into service. The manager was pissed off that we were opening so many boxes--we would actually put things on the floor in multiples just to satisfy our craziness maxing out the live sequencer setup. He was particularly pissed that he had four ARP 1601 sequencers on the floor that could only be sold as demos. We didn't care.

[synapsecollapse]

bill, that is really cool!

thanks for sharing!

[dracena]

Oh yeah!!
Nice jam, i like it a lot. Some parts remind me of Roger Powell's Cosmic Furnace...

[WDW]

Ultra-cool, Bill. Glad that you shared it.

Neat story on your blog too.

WD

[Bill Wolfer]

Thanks for the kind words. I cringe at the sound quality and some of the playing, but it's an interesting artifact.

As this is the vintage synth forum, I thought I’d try to give you guys some more technical details that I didn’t put on the blog, so as to not bore non-synth freaks. But it’s been over 25 years, so I don’t remember everything.

The ARP 1601 was a mindblowing sequencer. I’m thinking seriously about getting Arturia’s 2600 just so I can play with it again. Of course, I’ve always lusted after a 2600, but jesus, the last one on eBay went for over ten grand! Not going to be buying the real thing anytime soon.

If you listen to the bass line, you might notice that it has accents. It doesn’t sound like an analog sequencer that is so machine-like, because of ARP’s gate assign buss. The bass sound was set up with the envelopes having enough sustain that they didn’t need to be triggered every note. Thus, I used the gate assign for accents, and this helps the syncopation.

The same gate assign was used to assign different rhythms to the various voices in that you would make gates 1, 5, 9, 13 go out to the synth making the kick drum sound. The gate assign was a series of 16 three way switches, with each of the three positions being able to be patched to different synths.

Obviously, all four sequencers were synced. The bass line uses all 16 positions, and is an eighth note pattern. This in turn is transposed by another sequencer every two plays to go down a minor second. Thus, the sequence alternates between C and B flat every two bars.

The “chords” are really just two note harmonies being sent out either to different oscillators on a 2600, or to an Oberhiem 2 voice, I really don’t remember.

The melody was played in realtime on an Oberheim OB-1 and another synth I don’t recall. The second synth that doubles the meoldy (the out of tune one) was played with my left hand while I continued the soft brass sound that introduces the melody on the OB-1. Because the OB-1 was programmable, it was no sweat to change the patch to a hard sync patch for the solo.

All in all, it was probably about 20 grand (1979 dollars) worth of gear to make the noise. I had a lot of fun messing with this stuff, and for the two months or so that the manager allowed us to do this, I actually looked forward to going to work!

[Villi]

Hah! I loved it! Nice round bassline

[gfriden]

Damn! Damn, that was...

Welcome to the forum Bill, we are very happy to have you with us! Loved the music, loved the stories. Now I really need to go and get me an ARP sequencer! Thanks by the way for giving us the details on how you used the 1601, it's by far the most comprehensive practical account of how to use one I've read so far.

[hugsnballoons]

yeah! greatstuff,

[CTB]

Bill, that was quite cool. Fun stuff!

[shaft9000]

I drove the whole store nuts with this for weeks, and the manager was pissed at me because I was being a mad scientist and not selling. I hated it when one of the synths I was using got sold, because it messed everything up.

i would lose a finger to have been you.

that's a perfect example of what were missing in instruments made these days, outside of Moog and a few other small builders.
you, sir, have experienced something i can only dream of....

that tape sounds so good it's not even funny. the bassline is perfectly rubbery and warm, and the OB-1 sounds sweet
if that's sloppy playing call me Messy Marvin

[rjd2]

bill, this is awesome. thanks for sharing, this is really great. FWIW, your 79 chops are better than my 2007 chops! really awesome.