TIS Weekly (#101): Back To The Beginning — Fender, Roland & Moog
[May 14th, 2017]
Haha, ‘Fender, Roland & Moog’. It almost sounds like I’m naming musicians from an 80’s punk rock band. They are actually companies that brought forth some of the greatest innovations in the music industry: the Stratocaster electric guitar, the Roland 303 synthesizer and the Moog synthesizer. End we’ll end with AKAI’s MPC. Gear up groupies, we’re taking a stroll down memory lane!
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Guitar Hero
Fender (Musical Instruments Corporation) didn’t invent the electric guitar. No, but they were the first to mass-produce them. Guitars such as the Statocaster owe their huge popularity to the solid wooden body and are revered for their build quality and tonal excellence. In this mini doc Hank Marvin & Bruce Welch (The Shadows) talk about bringing the guitar to the UK public in the 60's.
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The first commercial synthesizer
“I was never worried that synthesizers would replace musicians. First of all, you have to be a musician in order to make music with a synthesizer.” — Robert Moog
The invention of the transistor enabled engineer Moog to build electronic music systems that were considerably smaller, cheaper and far more reliable. And it became very popular halfway the 60's.
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TB-303
Roland’s TB-303 Bass Line synthesizer dates back to 1981. It was intended to help guitarists with bass accompaniment while practicing alone. However, it was largely written off as a failure due to its unrealistic sounds and difficult interface. Nobody at the time could have guessed that the instrument would play an important role in the development a new music genre: house.
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MPC
Great to see technology at the heart of some major music genres! This also applies to the Music Production Center (MPC), an electronic musical instrument by AKAI / Linn Electronics, which was at the base of hip hop. MC Jason Moore will take us through the MPC transformation of how it’s been used by rockers, rappers and classically trained musicians.
Add your own videos and maybe they will feature in the next TIS Weekly. Questions? Remarks? Ideas? hello@tis.tv is the address! From TIS with love, Simone de Bruin.
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