I have been noticeing a lot more people buying and useing vintage gear. Okay I know the recent trend towards going back to vintage gear (synthesizers, electric pianos & organs) starting in the early 90's. But what is it about the older gear the people ar scrambleing to buy and sometimes paying top dollar for? Is it the sound? I know I have heard some rather good sounding digital recreations of vintage synths, yet I own two old ARP synths, and just bought a Minimoog (still waiting for it to arrive). Or are some people just trying to reclaim there past? Either way most people in general would proably rather own a Minimoog, instead of a Korg Triton. What do you think?

Hello.............I too notice that trend. Maybe it's just the voices? I have a RolandED SC8850 that has loads of sounds. There must be over 100 vintage "electric piano" sounds that take me back to specific songs of the 70s or 80s. The same with the synth type saw and square wave patches. Some older songs really do these older sounds justice. Just my opinion.............charley

For me it's the hatred of program windows , and lack of real time controls .

There is no doubt that the trend does exist.

My theory is that it's nothing but musical snobbery. People will talk about rich analogue sounds and such like, but in truth I'm very sceptical about the whole thing.

In the guitar world we have a similar thing with everyone wanting Les Pauls or Fender Strats- oh, and (sure enough) the older the better.

I actually fell prey to the trend and a few years ago I spent my entire student loan on the most expensive Les Paul in the entire city!

Sure, it looked nice and it sounded great, but then one day I visited an old friend of mine who owned another guitar that was *less than* one twelth of the price. And guess what? His cheapo guitar sounded better! (by a mile). It was fuller. It was warmer sounding. The sound was more rich and it had more sustain.

Sure enough, I eventually sold my Les Paul for a synth and I haven't looked back since.

My theory about the whole thing is that basically everyone wants to be like their favourite musical legends. They see guys like Jimi Hendrix on TV playing a Strat, or Jimmy Page playing a Les Paul and they think, "If I get a hold of that instrument then I can be like him".

Same with synths.

In the case of the Minimoog for example we have people like Kraftwerk, Jan Hammer, Vince Clarke, Gary Numan, Depeche Mode, Blondie, Rush, Keith Emerson and Herbie Hancock ALL as previous users.

I know it sounds totally childish, but I believe it boils down to people saying to themselves "I want to be like that" and THAT is why they buy them.

I suppose there is one other equally shallow factor that I've not mentioned yet and that is looks. If you see someone on stage with an old synth with wooden blocks on the side, it gives viewers a false impression of authenticity.


When someone buys an old synth, they probably expect a typical listener or audience member to have the following kind of thought process:

"Wow! What an amazingly unconforming guy! He uses an old synth! He is above commercialisation! He's too smart to fall for all the adverts for *new* gear. What a rebel! And WOW!!! If that's what he's playing now, he must've been playing the synth since he was knee height to a grasshopper! Woooooooooow! He must really know his stuff! Ooooooooh! He must really be a music expert! Oooooooooooh! ...etc"

And, of course, people who pay a fortune for old musical gear will often try to justify it by saying "Aaaaaah, but it SOUNDS better".

This is ridiculous- ESPECIALLY when we're dealing with the world of synths!

Within the last two years, technology has marched on at such a breakneck pace that we can now use sample packs or virtual instruments (and indeed modern hard synths!) to replicate pretty much any vintage synth sound that we want. We're talking perfect digital recreation here!

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth, and as usual I've blabbered on for too long.

Equalizer

Well, there's one "synth" that still has a strong following after 60 years and that's the Hammond organ. There are some pretty good facsimiles like the Korg XB3 (which I lust after) but there's something about a B3 which you just can't capture with modern technology. And people are still lugging their Hammonds and Leslies about in spit of the size and weight.

Bryan

well as long as there are people to spend the money and willing to buy old synthesizers. I have a felling the vintage gear will be around for a long time. The analog synths that I own, I never spent over $400.00. Even the Minimoog that I bought recently only cost $350.00 which included shipping. They way I see it is this. If you keep searching for what you want at a price you want chances are you will not find it. But if you stop looking, then usually will find what you want at the price you want. I didn't buy my vintage gear becuse somone famous owned on. I bought them becuse this was something I wanted to have personally. Although I have fallen prey to techno lust. It's not the equipment that makes the music sound good, it's the person who plays it. Uh! Bryan that's BX3 not XB3.

I'm wondering how many buy them for user Ctrl. boards, because they believe the keys feel better? I know a couple who have done just this. One said he also wanted a 76 key board!
Nobby

[This message has been edited by Nobby (edited 02-21-2003).]

In my opinion, there's a little bit of truth to all of the above. But, when the vintage synth market really took off in the late 80's and early 90's, the current synths at the time were pretty lame. Most of the synths in the studio at the college I go to are from this period, and I hate them all. For my projects, I usually used the samplers and softsynths. In another thread recently, the issue of synths from this dark age in electronic music not having resonant filters came up, and Nigel told us how at the time you simply couldn't make a digital resonant filter, and an analog one would be too expensive. Given the alternatives during this time, I could see why the popularity of vintage synths exploded.

In another studio on campus, we have an all analog room with all kinds of stuff, like a Korg MS20 and that quirky thing with the joystick and battleship-style pegs. I didn't really get into those, but the one synth with the sound that I absolutely adored was an old Arp 2500, a big as box full of various moduals. That is the only analog synth I'd actually splurge for if I had the money.

I have a question for Paul.

It's a very simple question and please note that I'm not putting any words into your mouth or twisting your arm into saying anything. The question is this...

Why did you buy your Minimoog?

Actually that is a very valid question and one I am happy to answer. Actually there are several reasons why. Frist was the price i paid for it $350.00 well below what most are being sold for today. Espically on Ebay. Second was I had played with one before, it belonged to a teacher of mine, when I was takeing a course in electronic music in High School. Also I have always been fascinated with synthesziers simmlar to the Moog espically the old modular moogs, like the one Wendy Carlos used for recording Switched on Bach. Plus I have wanted to own a modular moog synth, but figured this would be cheaper to own. Thrid, the simplicity of the Minimoog intriquied me quite a bit. Just a few knobs and switches some basic waveforms, no presets, no memories no cursed menues to weed through. Plus the number of digital synths that I have gone through that never seem to satisfy my needs. Of course a lot of digital synthesizers are complicated. I mean 10,000 sounds in a Korg Triton I mean really how many people use even half of them? (okay I may be exagerateing about 10,000 sounds, just trying to make a point).

As I stated eralier it is the simplicity of the Minimoog that really got me hooked to wanting too own one. That's the same reason I own an ARP AXXE and OMNI simple synths. How many of today's newere and more current gear are as simple and basic to use as the Minimoog. You show me one good digital synthesziers that is simple and easy to use like the Minimoog and I will buy it.

By the way you can get a lot of different sounds out of a Moog synth even if it had only one osscialtor. Look what Wendy Carlos and Tomita did with Moog Modular synths.

Hope this answers your question Equlaizer?