Vangelis at work with an incredible set up.

[griffin avid]

Not sure if this has already made the rounds. Great thing to see....
------------------------------------


1) All these white boxes are a custom MIDI system made by YES Audio under the orders of Vangelis and especially for his playing needs. The big terminal white boxes write on the back side "YES AUDIO, CUSTOM DESIGN FOR VANGELIS". This custom setup is connected to various synths, mainly racks. Also he uses 17 foot pedals, 16 volume and one sustain pedal as you see in the video. All this system help him to play live without the need of overdubs and sequencers. In fact, Vangelis compose/arrange/play and record at the same time! Its a unique technique and he is using it at least the last 25 years, this MIDI system is already in use since early/middle 90s.

2) Its obvious that this guy is genius. I can't think any other keyboardist in any genre that he can play like Vangelis. What Vangelis can arrange, play and record in 5 minutes, the rest of keyboardists need few hours or more to do the same thing with all these DAWs and record methods they use. What Vangelis plays the most of the times, the result is a ready to release music work without the need of overdubs or post production. The whole system is connected to few RADAR hard recording systems, whatever he plays is always recorded. He uses Mackie consoles to connect his synths from his main setup and in his studio the main final console is a Euphonix System 5-B. You can see it in the video infront him.

[Mooger5]

Yeah I´ve seen it before. It´s all very spontaneous, spectacular, impressive, and looks like he has finally got the dream setup he had pursued for years. But after a while I think it starts to sound a bit samey. It´s always western orchestral sounds, clarinets and tubas . Wish Vangelis released more albums like Spiral or even Beaubourg. Ironically, that Rosetta melody has nested in my brain and won´t leave.

[ppg_wavecomputer]

It is a bit reactionary to use modern instruments to reproduce snapshots of a sound that is 200 years old, or even older, no?

Or have I missed something?

Stephen

[Solyaris]

Impressive even though I'm not as into the orchestral sample player Vangelis. I was going to post the topless live Vangelis video from the 70s but I can't find it. That one is impressive too, but of course from the time when he was playing a zillion keyboards and synths simultaneously. The man's a genius regardless!

[Mooger5]

It is a bit reactionary to use modern instruments to reproduce snapshots of a sound that is 200 years old, or even older, no?

Or have I missed something?

Stephen

You have been missing some contemporary music where classical instruments are trying to sound electronic

Creatively it´s much more efficient this way: otherwise a classically trained composer, having to write music traditionally and conducting a real orchestra would have lost spontaneity in the process, I think.

[ppg_wavecomputer]

Impressive even though I'm not as into the orchestral sample player Vangelis. I was going to post the topless live Vangelis video from the 70s but I can't find it. That one is impressive too, but of course from the time when he was playing a zillion keyboards and synths simultaneously. The man's a genius regardless!

This one?



Even though this is tons of kitsch, I still find it a lot more original and creative -- and a lot less cheap-sounding.

Stephen

[philip]

I respect Vangelis,but 70% of his early works are so cheesy))

[pflosi]

1) All these white boxes are a custom MIDI system made by YES Audio under the orders of Vangelis and especially for his playing needs. The big terminal white boxes write on the back side "YES AUDIO, CUSTOM DESIGN FOR VANGELIS". This custom setup is connected to various synths, mainly racks. Also he uses 17 foot pedals, 16 volume and one sustain pedal as you see in the video. All this system help him to play live without the need of overdubs and sequencers. In fact, Vangelis compose/arrange/play and record at the same time! Its a unique technique and he is using it at least the last 25 years, this MIDI system is already in use since early/middle 90s.

AFAIK, that custom midi setup was made by Alyseum.

[Solyaris]

Impressive even though I'm not as into the orchestral sample player Vangelis. I was going to post the topless live Vangelis video from the 70s but I can't find it. That one is impressive too, but of course from the time when he was playing a zillion keyboards and synths simultaneously. The man's a genius regardless!

This one?



Even though this is tons of kitsch, I still find it a lot more original and creative -- and a lot less cheap-sounding.

Stephen

That's the one! Definitely got a kitschy quality to it.

[Bitexion]

He uses that setup on the Odyssey opera concert DVD, I always wondered what all those white boxes with different numbers and symbols were for. I guessed at something midi.

You know, when you've already BEEN there, and done all that crazy analogue stuff with a dozen awesome mono and polysynths linked together via timecodes and CV, you really don't want to repeat that 30 years later still.

You move on as technology moves on. He doesn't give a rat's a*s what retroheads want him to sound like now.
Like Geddy Lee from Rush, sampled all his vintage synth sounds into a Roland XV5080 and had a few stacked in a rack on stage MIDI'ed to a good MIDI keyboard on the Rush In Rio concert from some years back. I'm sure he uses even more modern stuff now. Saves you from lugging around a ton of gear from venue to venue.

[madtheory]

AFAIK, that custom midi setup was made by Alyseum.

Yes that guy did the Zyklus as well- that is why Vangelis hired him. I might be wrong, but he was also involved in the OB Cyclone?

[meatballfulton]

Are we arguing whether the music would be better if he used non-emulative sounds?

Making it possible to play full orchestral scores in real time is an incredible achievement, whether you like the results or not.

Vangelis has always liked classical music and he has stated he cannot read music. If that's true he certainly has figured out a workable solution. Guys like Bach, Mozart and Beethoven would have killed for a setup like that.

[Mooger5]

Beethoven would find it useless.

Seriously, good points there.

[madtheory]

There's no real argument here- some folks are confusing vague ideas about art with not liking Vnagelis' music. The guy has a huge range of output, and he is unarguably a genius. Get over it.

And I think yes, Bach Mozart and Beethoven would have loved this setup. Well maybe not Beethoven. He was more into walking than playing the keyboard

It is a bit reactionary to use modern instruments to reproduce snapshots of a sound that is 200 years old, or even older, no?

Or have I missed something?

Stephen

Ya you have- the definition of reactionary. What meaning are you trying to convey?

[pflosi]

AFAIK, that custom midi setup was made by Alyseum.

Yes that guy did the Zyklus as well- that is why Vangelis hired him. I might be wrong, but he was also involved in the OB Cyclone?

I was a bit confused about all this as well myself, but basically it was Bill Marshall who did the Zyklus MPS1 (amazing machine, it's my main midi sequencer) and the one-off Direct Box for Vangelis. The midi controller here was apparently designed by Vangelis himself and executed by Alyseum (HW) and Philippe Cailleau (SW) - who don't have anything to do with Zyklus, AFAIK. It's basically a complex midi routing system (I'm guessing the hieroglyphs he's using are symbols for different timbres).

Check here (and please excuse my confusion in that thread): https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewt ... 17#1402817

Cheers