Synthesizer documentaries to watch online

[pinksoir]

I had a quick search to see if there was a resource for this. After watching the Bob Moog documentary today I got a hankering for some more nice documentaries to watch online.

So anyone have any youtube links?

To get it started here's the BM one I watched today:

[Walter Ego]

Synth Britannia. This is a good one. Interviews w/ Vince Clarke, Gary Numan, members of Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, OMD, The Human League, etc.

[Re-Member]

Sonic State had a video series called "Top 20 Greatest Synths" which was fun to watch. Not quite a documentary, but still entertaining. There was another web series similar to theirs, but can't seem to remember the name. I know Nick Rhodes was in it talking about the Fairlight and how ridiculous it was to use.

EDIT: I remember it now! It was called "The Shape of Things That Hum"

[Yekuku]

The Vintage Synth - Volume 3: Korg
Rare, Japanese-language video from the 1990's.
Two other videos were produced in this series:
The Vintage Synth - Volume 1: Moog
The Vintage Synth - Volume 2: Roland

[_seph]

I enjoyed this one. a BBC doc from 1979, split into four parts



and for something a bit different yet related,

[Ned Bouhalassa]

Nothing to add but a thank you for this thread!

[Kenneth]

seconded. this is a fantastic thread, looking forward to watching all of these and seeing what others have to share!

[perfectdefect]

I watched some good documentaries on Amazon Prime this week: 'Fuzz: The sound that changed the world' not quite a synth documentary but all about Fuzz pedals, so of peripheral interest, and 'Brian Eno 1971 - 1977: The man who fell to earth' -again, not about synths, but lots of synth in effect. The Sound City documentary had its moments too.

'What the future sounded like' on Youtube is pretty good and about Synths.

[pinksoir]

Cool. Thanks for all the suggestions so far. I watched Synth Britannia on BBC4 when it was shown last year. Pretty good documentary. There's something a bit grim to me about that era (80's) in British pop music. Hard to put my finger on just what though!

Re-Member mentioned The Shape of Things That Hum, so here's that:

[pinksoir]

Pump Up The Volume - the history of House music. Not really so much about synths per se, as much as about the emerging culture from Detroit and Chicago etc. Great documentary.

[perfectdefect]

'What the future sounded like' link

[Ned Bouhalassa]

I'd love to see something about the beginnings of ambient music, Richard James, Autechre, FSOL and the like.

That said, I was going to request any documentary on the mid-80s to the mid-90s. Then I realized I was there! I played, borrowed, worked in studios with all the different gear I would want to hear about next (early samplers like Akai and Mirage, Prophets and DX-7s, Wavestations and JD-800s, affordable 8-tracks and SMPTE...good times!)

[_seph]

I'd love to see something about the beginnings of ambient music, Richard James, Autechre, FSOL and the like.

That said, I was going to request any documentary on the mid-80s to the mid-90s. Then I realized I was there! I played, borrowed, worked in studios with all the different gear I would want to hear about next (early samplers like Akai and Mirage, Prophets and DX-7s, Wavestations and JD-800s, affordable 8-tracks and SMPTE...good times!)

actually, a doc about the rise of the home studio and self distribution would be very cool. focusing on Tascam and the introduction of affordable gear on to the impact that ADAT had and perhaps finishing with its evolution to modern tech such as how anyone with an iPhone now has the power to easily record and share their music globally.

other synth/electronic related docs~

[Em Pe Ge]

that BBC documentary is blocked in the US, sucks... i wanted to watch it.

[piRoN]

Here's a higher-quality official Vimeo version of What the Future Sounded Like. Still only standard-def, because we never had an HD master of this one, but higher quality than the ABC TV rip.