Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

Hello, & cheers everyone. This is my first post in your humble community. I hope it is in the right section. I did a search and found that a few other forum members also have some items used by KMFDM, so, I'm guessing a few of you might be interested.

This, to me, is the definition of obtaining a 'holy grail' and it is, in my opinion, one of the most iconic instruments in electronic or industrial history. It is Sascha's personal grey SH-101 owned for 31 years and used on every single KMFDM record since 1984. It truly is a dream-come-true to be the new caretaker of this epic piece that is personally dedicated to me. It also came with the original mod grip and psu.

What is KMFDM? And who is that Sasha?lol

Does it sound different?

Iconic (or just plain dirty) to me would be:



Congrats on this collector's piece anyway.

Stephen

That's cool! Nice that he made the inscription and certificate!

philip wrote:What is KMFDM? And who is that Sasha?lol

funny I was thinking the very same thing

philip wrote:What is KMFDM? And who is that Sasha?lol

I'm starting to feel old .

nuketifromorbit wrote:

philip wrote:What is KMFDM? And who is that Sasha?lol

I'm starting to feel old .

i wouldnt worry about that feeling- they havent made anything worth listening to in a very loooooooooooooooong time

phesago wrote:

nuketifromorbit wrote:

philip wrote:What is KMFDM? And who is that Sasha?lol

I'm starting to feel old .

i wouldnt worry about that feeling- they havent made anything worth listening to in a very loooooooooooooooong time

I ignored them forever, then during the last year something just clicked and I started to love them. That being said I'll parrot the statement that symbols was their last good album. I think they still release a couple decent tracks now and then and I'm contemplating going to see them live, since this might well be their last tour.

lol! Spam with certificate !

Yekuku wrote:lol! Spam with certificate !

Spam for a band I've been obsessed with since I was 13? What?

I am a bit surprised to see this synthesizer in such a good condition.

(Quote: Sascha Konietzko interviewed in Keyboard Magazine august 1995 by R. Doerschuk):

"Most of the synth sounds come from older gear, which tends to wind up piled in what Konietzko calls "the junk corner" in his Chicago loft. "I treat the equipment kind of bad", he says. "Sometimes I have to dig something up and I'll find all these little springs or pieces of a broken key. It's not that I smash anything deliberately; it just sort of breaks.

Although he used plenty of analog stuff on Nihil, including Sequential Prophet-10, Drumtraks and Pro-One, as well as a Casio CZ-101, Konietzko actually owns only one synthesizer. "I've got a Roland JD-800 because it has one of the best varieties of sound you can find, and the overview is really nice. The knobs make it simple to use."

Anyway, congratulations on your new SH-101!

Ha! Thank you! Yeah it's funny, besides the JD-800, the constants are the Sequential Circuit Pro-One, Korg Monopoly, & the SH-101.

Ironically, if you type in "KMFDM SH-101" into Google, the very first result is the SH-101 entry on this very website listing Sascha as a notable user.

Here are some more quotes:

"CC: Discuss some of the gear that was used in the making of Attak.
SK: Let's see, Pro Tools with Pro Controls was the centerpiece for all the recording and sound design. Interestingly very few synthesizers were used on Attak besides some analogue stuff like a Pro One and an SH 101.

"What equipment does KMFDM use?
"Basically everything we can get our hands on. We prefer AKAI S 3000 samplers to EMAX II, we love Sequential Circuit Pro-One, Doepfer MS 404, Clavia Nord-Lead, Quasimidi Rave-O-Lution, Korg Monopoly, Roland TR 808 & 909, TB 303, SH 101 & JD 800."

"The new album was assembled by both tracking to Logic and through computer-based sound sculpting and editing where countless fragments and odd elements were refined, processed, tweaked and pieced together. The band’s endless list of hardware and software synths, stomp boxes and outboard gear provided much of the Pro Tools fodder—some of their favorites included Propellerheads Rebirth 2.0, Jomox Air-Base, Akai S3000XL, Roland SH-101, Art MP-1 and the Manley Variable-MU."

"3. What instruments and equipment do use?
We use all kind of instruments. Old synthesizers like the Korg MS20, MS50 and Poly-6, the Moog Prodigy, Roland SH-101 but also modern machines like the Akai S-6000 sampler, Access Virus, Yamaha AN1x, Access SuperNova, Virtual Instruments for our Cubase program and so on...beside all these electronic devices we of course play guitars and basses and drums. We have our own studio in Hamburg, so we need to have a lot of equipment."

Another quote, this time from 1994:

While KMFDM chooses to use a fairly modest set-up of equipment, the group has always had access to the latest electronic gear.

"We actually were probably one of the first bands to use MIDI instruments and samplers, that, at the time, did not even have any storage, it was more like a delay with a freeze action," explains Sascha. "Pitch changes were done by control voltage keyboards, such as the SH101."


Here's a quote from Capt'n K about the synth, directly from the eBay auction: "KMFDM's trusty SH-101, used on every album since 1984 - now.." & there are also pictures of it sitting in his studio on KMFDM.com.

Also, if you check out: http://www.discogs.com/KMFDM-Xtort/release/1121426
You will see that it has the different synths listed for each individual song, including 2 that list the SH-101.

There's probably a ton more quotes from the last 30 years of interviews, but that is just what I saw in 5 minutes on the first 2 pages of search results.

Congrats! I haven't really been caught up on what the band have been doing in the past few years, but that's a truly cool piece of Industrial music history you have there. I remember seeing them live several years ago and getting to talk with Sascha outside the venue when he was having a smoke. My friend was also a fan, so three of us all shared some smokes and got to talk all nerdy about music gear and whatnot. It was actually going to be Sascha's 43 birthday that evening at midnight and he was telling us how old he started to feel. Then I told him how my favorite song was "Disgust" off of "Don't Blow Your Top" and he started feeling all embarrassed about that album and telling us how cheesy he think it is now, haha.

The album Nihil is why I got in to playing synthesizers. I always loved industrial, but there was something about that album that just made me think "THAT. I want to do that."

Sascha? As in Airdrawndagger?