Top 20 Greatest Synths (Episode Two)

"Slick", "gripping", "excellent" and "awesome" were just a few of the words used by viewers to describe the first episode of Sonic's Top 20 Greatest Synths (the rest we can’t print!).
With a growing number of sites running the series after just one episode the response so far has been brilliant.

So here we go with the second instalment. All 8 episodes are neatly bundled into 10 minute chunks so you can watch 'em in the time it takes to drink a coffee or roll a dooby or whatever the hell it is that folks do when they're watching stuff on the interweb. Episode 2 features chart positions 17 to 15.

Some of the voters who voted for at least one of the synths in this episode include... Forlat, Palle, Paulcourville, sdumor, puricelli, divall7, eddy, leoleox, orbithesun, jonashton, djillogick, jup2600, basharspam, pewo, gravel330, loufashioni, whatever, winstanley_glenn, ifovco, hirezolution, murasaki, cmcmaster, wcondesso and many many more.

Episode 3 will be posted in 2 weeks time and has the only non-synth synth on the chart as well as yet another Roland. It's the Top 20 Greatest Synths of all time ... EVER!

Each of the 8 episodes broadcasted once a fortnight, will be around 10 minutes long and feature 3 chart positions with full length episodes for the number 2 and number 1 slots later in the series. The entire programme will then be posted in the Spring as one contiguous show. There’s also talk of a DVD and some TV interest, too. (we’ll keep you posted on that)

<15. Roland Jupiter 8
The second and by no means the last Roland on the countdown is the Jupiter 8. Alot of folks may have given the JP8 a higher chart position, which illustrates just how fierce the competition for places on the Top 20 Greatest Synths has been.
Anyways, The JP8 arpeggiator became the sound that was synonymous with the early 80's, pebble-dashing HI NRG dance tracks, library compositions and hits by Thomas Dolby, Simple Minds, OMD, Jan Hammer and of course Duran Duran.
Chart topping Synth prefect Howard Jones sings the praises of everybodies favourite non-MIDIed, 8 voice, polyphonic, easy-to-programme, be-slidered, dream synth of the early 1980's.

<16. E-MU Proteus 1
I know. Rack mounted modules just ain't that sexy. And as for the Proteus? Surely it's just a butt-ugly passion killer? Well, if you were trying to get some pop chart action in the early 90's, this 32 voice, 16 part multitimbral 1U rack mount gave you beer goggles and a hard on every time you went to use one of it's 16 bit ROM samples.
Pianos, strings, guitars, horns, organs, drums all at your fingertips as well as 6 individual polyphonic outputs... Well hell-o, Proteus!

<17. Clavia Nord Lead
The Nord Lead is redder than most synths. Infact the redness of the entire Nord range cannot be understated. Nord synths are extremely, infact terminally RED. But let this redness not detract in the slightest from their importance and place in the history of modern synthesis. This polyphonic, multitimbral range with its Virtual Sound Modelling, analogue simulation and knob-rich control panel has spawned a deluge of imitators since it’s mid 90’s launch when it started its lineage that lives on today through the Nord Stage 88 and 79 and Clavia’s virtual software. Synth collector and journalist Steve Huthwaite shows off his impressive synth collection and talks about all things Clavia. Oh, and we included some nice shots of Sweden to add some atmosphere to the piece!

The Chartgrazers in this episode are Dave Smith's Evolver range and Moog’s Memorymoog.

Chart Positions So Far

<18. VCS3 (The Putney)>
It’s Unique. It’s Singular. It’s Iconic. It’s at number 18. This cute little monosynth housed in its distinctive wooden casing has a huge cult following and the significance of the Electronic Music Studios range in synthesizer history is undeniable.. Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory and Portishead’s Ade Utley enthuse wildly over this strange box of tricks that’s as British as John Cleese eating Fish’n’chips with HP Sauce. By the way, yes, we know that there are also photos of Synthi A’s and AKS’s in this piece…please don’t email us. (But thanks for caring!)

<19. Roland SH101>
The first of many Roland’s on the chart is the SH101 in at 19. The grooviest little Japanese monosynth made the most of it’s single oscillator, but it’s step sequencing just fell short of the mid 80’s MIDI revolution. It was adopted by the ACID fraternity, guest appearing on a raft of early Techno & Rave outings as a soundalike TB303.

<20.The Solina
Kicking off the Top 20 at number 20 it’s the ARP Solina. Produced by Dutch Organ manufacteurer Eminent as a bolt on for their organ range and later snapped up and improved by ARP, the Solina is as much a part of the 1970’s as Skylab, tank tops, Richard Nixon and Starski & Hutch. Its sounds include horn and trumpet but the string was the thing with its pads and washes appearing on countless anthems during the golden era of disco, jazz-funk and beyond. Hear the full story from The Cure’s Roger O’Donnell and Future Music’s Jack Waterson.

• Roger O’Donnell
• Goldfrapp’s official site
• Portishead
• composer Elliot Simons
• GMedia Music
• More about the SH101
• The VCS3 and EMS range
• Vintage Synths Explorer
• Simon Power’s own site
• Matrixsynth
• More Vintage Synths from RLMusic