KLANG - Oberheim Eight Voice
Release Trip Day #1
KLANG
LISTEN
Today’s song is NOT from the actual Oberheim Eight Voice album. But you can have a secret listen to one of my first attempts at the KLANG series. Many years ago, when I got my Oberheim SEM, I recorded it multiple times to tape – voice by voice – to create a wannabe Eight vocie. This is a track from the first session, digitalized from the actual Yamaha MT50 cassette tape recording.
NOTES
KLANG
What is this all about!?
First of all, welcome to this illustrious circle of music lovers, gearheads, nerds and curious souls! I’m glad you’re here!
I don’t want to just throw a bunch of “content” at you. Instead, I would love to make this trip a living social experience. So please make use of the comments section at the bottom of each page. Feel free to introduce yourself and/or share your stories and experiences. Or even just say hi and let me know if you like what you find here.
So, let’s start this off with my story of KLANG:
Back in 2015, when I had just bought another analog dream synth (Roland Juno 60, at half the price it’s going for nowadays), I had a look at my growing setup of vintage keyboards and felt the urge to share my fascination for these instruments with the world.
I was already creating music with them for years in countless concerts and recordings. Doing so, I always felt a two-fold, almost paradox relation to them. On the one hand, I often have a particular sound in my head when composing or producing. Growing up with the music of Pink Floyd, Genesis, Deep Purple, Yes, Peter Gabriel and the likes certainly shaped a sonic taste for sounds that very particular instruments can create. And owning and using some or more of these instruments was kind of a means to an end in the quest to creating those types of sounds when needed.
But more often than not, it also showed up as an end in itself. These instruments are so inspiring and seem to carry their own kind of soul.
So, in addition to bring them to their best use on albums and on stage, subordinating to the bigger picture of a musical idea, I wanted to create a place to put them right into the spotlight, for the sake of their own essence.
That’s when I started the Klangteppich series (German for soundscape, also a bit of a pun, as Teppich also means carpet and I did the first videos sitting on my living room carpet with a selected synth) on my YouTube channel.
That was so much fun that I wanted to go even deeper into it. Why not go crazy on the “One-Synth-Challenge” idea and create whole albums using just one single synth for each and find ways to carve out the essence of its sound and how its presence resonates with me?
The idea of KLANG (German for sound) was born. I wanted to capture the essence of each synth I feel drawn to by utilizing a two-fold path: composing pieces dedicated to the particular instrument on the one hand, to show off its sound and features and quirks. And freely improvising without any guidelines or prepared ideas on the other hand, to create space for the resonance to unfold between the intentions of the synth’s creator, me as a player, inspired by the presence of the instrument and you as a listener, merging it all with your own experiences and emotions.
Oberheim Eight Voice
Of course, I used this idea as an excuse to buy another synth… The Oberheim SEM should become my first subject for the series. Released in 1974, this is a relatively small monophonic synthesizer module with very simple functions, but an incredibly noble sound.
It was later used as the building block for some of the first polyphonic synthesizers, the Oberheim Two-, Four- and Eight-Voice-Synthesizers which stacked multiple SEM modules.
These incredibly expensive and unobtainable pieces of synthesizer history were the subject of many sonic dreams of mine.
But having a single SEM, I could recreate that huge polyphonic sound by recording one voice at a time and stacking the tracks on top of each other.
To make matters a little more complicated, I decided to try and record these one-synth albums all analog. As I didn’t have a working tape machine at the time, I dusted off my father’s old Yamaha MT50 4-Track cassette recorder for my first experiments.
Unfortunately, while it definitely had its charm, the actual recording quality was quite underwhelming. And the combined workflow of recording complex arrangements with just one monophonic synth and being limited to only four tracks rendered the plan quite impracticable and I shelved the project for the time being.
The real thing
Fast forward a few years, GForce Software released OB-E, a faithful recreation of the Oberheim Eight Voice Synthesizer as a virtual instrument for the computer.
They asked me to try it out and with the Eight Voice being one of the synths of my dreams, I was quick to agree.
I made a video, comparing the software to my real Oberheim SEM, using the multitrack technique described earlier.
In this context I composed the piece Nachtblau, which later ended up as a piano piece on my debut solo album Weltmaschine, where I played it on Nils Frahm’s Zwicki Piano (“My Friend the Forest”).
Quickly after I uploaded the video, I got contacted by Dave Spiers of GForce Software, who is a leading expert in all things vintage synthesizers. He was impressed with what I did and invited me to their secret studio in England to record with the real Oberheim Eight Voice Synthesizer.
This dream-come-true opportunity resparked the inspirational flame for my one-synth album project. What could be a better start for a series of synth spotlight albums than the Oberheim Eight Voice?
If you haven’t already, watch the video of my first encounter with the real thing. It shows what is so special about it, as well as the struggles and hurdles to overcome when working with it in a tight time frame.
I can’t wait to show you the first song of the album tomorrow.
8 thoughts on “EVS #1 – Klang”
What a machine!
And what a beautiful opportunity 🙂
Honestly, I love the experimental track that you have put on this page to listen to.
Perfect in it’s imperfection.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you very much! There is a limited edition of the album available including an actual cassette which holds all these early experiments as a bonus on side B. 😉
I love this “warts and all” recording – as has been said already, it’s perfect in its imperfection.
What a great phasing in this little Piece of Music and the fat Sounding of the analog Tape.
If i understanding right than there is a opportunity, to get this as a Software Model of GeForce? What will be Great.
Wish all the best for the next Chapter…can’t wait for it
Best Regards from Hamburg/ Germany
Thank you! Yes, there is a software model. And maybe there will be a little surprise by GForce Software tomorrow… 😉
Thank you for sharing your exciting story about music and analog synthesizers !
I am myself passionate about vintage synthesizers that have marked a whole generation of artists.
Fortunately, nowadays, we can get a glimpse through the companies that reproduce synthesizers in software
As GForce Software, which in addition reproduce with passion it is a dream synthesizer a real pleasure !
I’m looking forward to the next title bravo to you and I wish you all the best !
Thanks for sharing that interesting unreleased track, Marius, it’s full of real character and movement. I first came across your music on Youtube, with one of the videos with your Odyssey, and have been a fan ever since. It’s a great idea you have here with your ‘release trip’, and I’m looking forward to the next chapter (as well as getting my CD down here in Australia).
Thank you so much marius for sharing this with us. Im gratefull that you put all the effort in explaining the background of these so special instruments and ofcourse your great craftsmanship in taiming it! Great sound and good to be in this journey with you all!
Cheers bart