Analogue Sequencers

[Gene & Debby Stopp]

> From: J.D. McEachin <jdm at synthcom.com>
> Subject: Analogue Sequencers
> Date: Friday, August 22, 1997 1:47 PM
> 
> Why is it that analogue sequencers, clocked in straight 1/8th or 1/16th
> notes, tend to make modulars sound like a DX7 with a sample/hold LFO
> patch?  Why do analogue sequencer owners seem to never figure out how to
> modulate the clocking for variations in rhythm?  Is there something about
> building your own modular that drains all the funk out of your body?  Why
> is it that analogue sequencer owners seem to be incapable of playing in
> any scale, well-tempered, microtonal, or otherwise?  Why haven't I heard
> anyone come close to what Tangerine Dream was doing with analogue
> sequencers 20 years ago, I mean, not even in the same league with TD 
> (Atomheart probably comes closest)???  Inquiring minds want to know!
> 

Coincidentally I happened across a quote yesterday that is hauntingly
appropriate to your musings:

"They all ask "well, but what do you think about Donna Summer, using the
sequencer on that one number?" It frustrates me, in a way. It took us maybe
five years to perfect the beginnings of possibilites of the use of
sequencers in combination with other sounds and devices. Somebody comes
along, giving it what is to me, at least, a very simplistic treatment of
the device, and suddenly everyone takes notice, only because it happens to
be the decoration around a pop melody.... But how often will the sequencer
be used below its potential now? We certainly didn't get any formal
recognition for it. And how many had used it before us? It had only been
used in a very academic setting for the most part. Walter Carlos and a few
others.... it's just all very frustrating to me."

- Edgar Frose of Tangerine Dream, Synapse magazine Mar/Apr 1978

< ...if you ever wonder when you're ever gonna get around to reading all
those old magazines again, just do what I did and stick a big bookshelf in
the bathroom :) ...>

- Gene