Last Saturday was really quite remarkable – and not for the royal reason you’re probably guessing.
While many were glued to the TV watching the Coronation of Charles III, others chose to head to the Ventnor Exchange for a considerable gathering of like-minded fans to take part in The History of The Synthesiser gathering.
Vintage Synths
In the Blue room towards the back on the Exchange, away from public gaze, an incredible collection of vintage synthesisers from the late 1960s through to ‘80s had been assembled – and those attending took the opportunity to look at, play, twiddle and tweak with and reminisce about the collected kit – and boy was it popular.
Click on images to see larger versions
The event was the brainchild of James Thorpe of Ventnor’s Red Squirrel Studios (formerly The Bees’ studio) who is a bit of an expert in the area, who, along with Mark Mills (who has been savvy enough to collect a wide range of synths over the years), kitted out the whole place with all sorts of musical wizardry.
So much kit
Everywhere you looked in the room it was chocka with interesting synth equipment – some vintage originals, others reissued classics – which included the likes of Juno 60, DX7; Vocoda; Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 and Pro One and Moogs.
For those who didn’t know what they were looking at James had provided write-ups with a potted history about each synth, as well as a selection of tracks and albums that you would have heard them on – they were quite a revelation.
Hands on
Of course, most, if not all of these now-old synths can be emulated in software these days, but nothing, those in the know tell us, is like the quality of sound you get from the actual original kit. There’s the touch of them too – and it was clear all of those that were there to play on the kit loved every second of being able to wind the synth’s controls, delighted at the sounds they produced.
Listening to the bleeps, bloops and varied synth sounds randomly appearing brought joy – even being within earshot of the room (random brief sample below).
Deep knowledge
Chatting to Mark for quite a while, it was clear his knowledge was not only long-standing – he’d been using them since the late 1980s – but it went way beyond the surface. He knew his bits of kit inside out and top to bottom, understanding each and every detail about them – and remained as enthused about them now, as I suspect he did back when he first got them. It was fascinating.
Another one to come?
Those who attended will probably be telling their friends how great it was, but what happens if you were one of those who didn’t get a chance to attend? Well, there’s always a chance that they’ll put another one on – let’s hope so.
If they don’t – that’d be understood. Those who lent their synthesisers to the event were immensely generous – trusting that their carefully collected, and rightly much-treasured darlings were treated well by each member of the public they were put in front of to tinker around with.
If they do – don’t miss out. It was deeply great – so much so, the next day I found myself waking up with one overriding thought – “I want to be in the synthesiser room!” We can but hope.
360 photo
Click into the photo and move around to get a 360 degree view of the room
