KLANG - Oberheim Eight Voice
Release Trip Day #8
"Nimmermehr"
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Nebelmensch being one of the more complex pieces to record, I skeched out some notes to play from. Find the hendwritten sheet music here for your curiousity or to play your own version.
Nimmermehr – sketch.pdf
NOTES
Nebelmensch
The final track of the album is the second precomposed piece and with this more elaborate composition, I wanted to show my personal highlights of the broad range of tones and emotions the Eight Voice is capable of: ultra-wide, spacious organic pads, massive basses, soft fairy-tale speckles, almost orchestral strings and captivating lead sounds.
These lead sounds were especially important for me to show. Owning a humble single SEM module for years, I came to love the noble sound of this synthesizer, which when used as a lead voice, has a quite different, but not a bit less singing quality than the famous top dog in that realm, the Minimoog.
So I embetted a long improvised solo part into the piece, evolving through different key signatures and dynamics, to give this voice the space to shine.
When it finally came to record that solo with the Eight Voice, I was presented with quite a challange: Unlike other synthesizers, it has literally no performance controllers, like pitch and mod wheels, which are quite essential for the organic playing style I intended for that solo.
So I had to learn on the fly to use the clumsy master tuning knob, which ranges a whole octave, if I recall correctly, for the bendings and subtle ornaments, and reach over to another knob for vibrato, somewhat burried in the programmer controls. And, completely unexpected, when in monophonic mode, the keyboard of the Eight Voice will only play the next note when you let go of the previous one. A very unusual behaviour, making it quite hard to play fast legato runs evenly.
But again there is some pleasure in accepting and overcoming the challenges. Watch the actual performance of that solo in today’s video.
The ending of Nebelmensch was the last spontaneous idea the Eight Voice inspired me to. I didn’t plan this ending in my demo, but the Oberheim just begged for it:
To have more realtime control over the expression of the synth, I brought my Moog MP-201 CV pedal, which allows me to open and close all the filters with my foot while playing. I used it all the time, recording the parts and improvisations.
After finishing recording Nebelmensch, I wanted to know how it would sound if I cranked up the resonance in all the filters and use this pedal to create a filter sweep, much slower than the envelopes would allow.
And uhh that sounded so great, that I had to use it as an ending for Nebelmensch and to wrap the whole album up. I could listen all day long to the fascinating resonances between those voices, the dance of the overtones coming back and forth, building harmonies in between them, dying away, building up again…
I tried several times to make the slowest possible and still even movement with my foot in a kind of nerve-wrecking tension while at the same time listening to the sound in fascination.
After three minutes, I could finally dare to breathe again! 😉
If you’re curious how that composition sounded with OB-E and how it developed into the final piece with the real Eight Voice, here you can listen to the original demo:
Souvenirs
Thank you very much for joining me on this release trip. I appreciate your time and interest and hope you had a great time. If you did, please spread the word about the album and share your experience on social media, if you like.
Below you find the souvenirs shop of our little trip. I would love to send you a signed edition of the album to commemorate our experience inside this bubble.
KLANG | Oberheim Eight Voice - CD
- CD in digipack
- 12-page booklet
- Signed CDs only available for preorders or inside this trip
- Cover art by Marius Leicht
- 7 Tracks of Oberheim love
Art Edition Box Set
- Limited to 50 pieces
- Signed and numbered
- Box screenprinted by Marius Leicht
- Music Cassette with bonus tracks not released anywhere else
- Handdrawn Cassette-Cover art by Marius Leicht - each is a unique piece of art
- Signed CD in digipack
- 12-page booklet
- 4 analog darkroom prints on barite paper
T-Shirt - Oberheim Eight Voice
- Show up as a synth-connoisseur with this unique Oberheim Eight Voice design
- NOT the typical cheapo band-shirt, but high quality, durable and nice fit
- Organic Cotton
- Fair Trade
- Hand printed by Marius Leicht
Please select your size at checkout (click the little “i” button next to the preselected product)!
The shirts are a little larger in fit.
Bag - Oberheim Eight Voice
- Show up as a synth-connoisseur with this unique Oberheim Eight Voice design
- Organic Cotton
- Hand printed by Marius Leicht
5 thoughts on “EVS #8 – Nimmermehr”
Thank you for this extraordinary sound journey of the synthesizer Eight Voice Oberheim, very inspiring,
just masterful !
And your beautiful very interesting stories of how you interpret, embody this relationship between you and the synthesizer !
Congratulations to you and I am very happy to have shared these moments with you, I wish you the best. Good luck.
A big thanks to you Marius for leading us through this journey together. And what an ending it has! Another astonishing and moving piece of music. Cant imagine a better ending to it!
Grateful for all your stories behind the scenes, it has been a pleasure to be involved in this with you and looking forward to your next one!
Cheers and a big thanks to you🙏🏻
Marius, thank you for another great release trip.
I’ve watched a lot of videos about the Oberheim SEM and their various configurations, but seeing someone that loves synths like you do make an album on one gave me greater appreciation for the Eight Voice and the idiosyncrasies of finicky analog synths.
I’m not a believer in using finicky synths just for the sake of finicky, but instead using them for the sake of why finicky is good, and you demonstrated that very well in this series.
Your comments about a choir where everyone has a different vibrato rate and pitch is what I mean. The same is true about an orchestra of string instruments (because of pitch variation and vibrato rates plus other playing style differences). The combination of even a few violins makes a sound that surpasses the single instrument because of all the ways they are imperfect. Everyone knows this, but seeing it demonstrated (by listening to a good orchestra, which I have done a lot of lately, or watching you use the Eight Voice on this album) helps make the point even stronger.
Congrats on the album. I look forward to hearing the other synth you recorded at GForce software. Thanks!
Wonderful! Thank you for taking us on a trip!
Thank you once again, Marius, for letting me in on your musical journey. Your music is fantastic and getting onboard and experience you mastering this beast of a synth, arguably the best sounding synth ever, just deepend my appreciation for your music. Of course I have ordered the CD, but also downloaded your hq files that you have been sharing. They will be played on a very loud volume, many, many times.
Good luck with everything and may your music sell a lot and give you multible prices for it’s artistic values.