Epic synth parts, Part 2

Another post from our new student blogger, raging synth nerd Bubba Ayoub. Check out Epic Synth Parts, Pt. 1 here


For contrast, these songs do not feature Moog synths.

The synth solo in “Love Will Keep Us Together” (“jk lol srry guyz” -Captain and Tennille, 2014) uses an ARP Odyssey (other parts of this song may be Minimoog; they used a Mini when they played it live, but on the record it just sounds like a bass to me): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aU57V6VBW0

Icona Pop’s “I Love It” features an absolutely massive FM’d synth sound that is not at all a Moog sound: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxxajLWwzqY

Moog’s biggest competitor in the 70’s was ARP, whose flagship 2600 synth’s finest hour (in this humble dork’s opinion), was Edgar Winter’s stone cold classic, “Frankenstein”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8f-Qb-bwlU

Alan Parsons engineered for Pink Floyd and eventually started making music on his own. The title track to the Alan Parsons Project’s second album, I, Robot, features an EMS Synthi AKS sequence as the backbone of the track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td56XAHxLpw

Speaking of Pink Floyd. “On the Run” is essentially an EMS Synthi AKS demo track with some sound effects and a hi-hat part. The Floyd owned many, many Synthis and used them to great effect alongside a Minimoog, though there’s no Mini on this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VouHPeO4Gls

I could play you songs with great synth parts (Moogs and otherwise) until your ears fell off from the inevitable moment when I decided to jam way too hard and turned it up to facemelting, feel-the-vibrations-in-your-face volume, but I think I’ll stop there.

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BMF student guestblogger Christian “Bubba” Ayoub (seen here with the “Abominatron,” the first Bob Moog prototype modular) is a former member of the Maker Corps of the Henry Ford Museum, where he designed teaching plans meant to bring innovation into the classroom using the collections of The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. He has presented ideas at Maker Faire Detroit and the May Tinker Hack Invent Saturday at the Henry Ford Museum, made artbots with the public at the June Tinker Hack Invent Saturday, and taught workshops to teachers looking to bring Making to their classrooms.

He began playing synthesizers at age 10 because of a love for progressive rock bands like Yes and ELP, and voraciously seeks new and interesting music to listen to. His Juggable Offense project is an ever-shifting mass of psychedelic space rock centered around modular synthesis, Moog equipment, and sonic exploration.

Bubba is currently seeking a dual degree in electrical engineering and software engineering (with hopes of a life spent designing and building synthesizers) at the University of Detroit Mercy. Follow him on Twitter at @JuggableOffense, and check him out on SoundCloud.