Musée de la musique, Paris
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
1M ago
I was lucky enough to visit the Musée de la musique in Paris recently and of course lapped up the electronic music instrument collection. In addition, they have five floors of wonderful instruments from the earliest spinnets and harpischords to early woodwind, brass and world instruments of every type. Anyone who’s interested in music would get something from a visit! An Épinette - from 1522 - very early harpishcord style instrument. The decoration on these early instruments (of which the museum has several, is breathtaking). As we know, the look of our hardware lends an ineffable quality to ..read more
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Book Launch report - 23rd Nov 2023
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
3M ago
My book launch took place on 23rd November, to celebrate the launch of my two new zines - ‘Vintage Synths’ and ‘Drum Machines & Samplers’. Check Velocity Press for online ordering details - or your local book / record shop! DJ Tom F DJ Tom F kicked the evening off with a selection of cool electronic synth vibes covering synth based tracks from 90s classics of Underworld and Hardfloor to … modern stuff I didn’t recognise, but liked a great deal! Oli Freke - Synth Talk Then I gave a great talk* covering the entire history of synthesizers, samplers and drum machines, with over 70 audio samp ..read more
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Another week, another radio interview!
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
5M ago
Was delighted to join Ruichi of Love Will Save The Day Radio to chat synth as she spun some splendid electronic music on her Signal show (which is the whole point of synths, innit ..read more
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Review: Matthew Herbert (Barbican, London, Sat 14th October 2023)
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
5M ago
Review: Matthew Herbert at the Barbican, Sat 14th Oct.  This concert divided opinion with my gig going companions! One or two parties hated it and thought it was pretentious, lacked depth and was poorly executed. Which is quite harsh, but they were actually quite angry about it!  I got more from it - I certainly thought the dramatic climax of the piece where a re-animated horse emerged from the maelstrom of noise and light accompanied by a possessed and/or demonic dancer was genuinely thrilling. Put me in mind of Stravinski’s Rite of Sprint (in a very good way!) I do agree with ..read more
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Synth Evolution on BBC National Radio!
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
6M ago
A quick humble brag from me to say that I was on BBC 5Live Drive Time last week, as part of their ‘Synthpop September’ celebrations (Synthtember?). I was asked to give a brief history of the synth o Click the image below to listen! It’s a very brief interview of only a couple of minutes, but was great to be asked - I do know a thing or two about the synth, after all! And yes, it was a classic case of I needed to be somewhere that night, so it was done from the back of a cab en route. So very glamorous! (Except I made us late for our destination as we had to pull over for the duration of the in ..read more
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Champion Oscillator T-shirt Comp - you decide!
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
1y ago
One lucky entrant will win one of the latest range of t-shirts to be created in Synth Evolution’s latest collaboration with 1of100 T-shirts! But first we have to decide which designs we’re going to make! Introducing the Champion of Oscillators t-shirt competition! After last year's World Cup of Synth which named the Roland TB-303 the greatest synth of all time comes weare1of100 T-shirts latest collaboration with Synth Evolution: Champion Oscillators Competition. This time we take a deep dive into the beating heart of any synthesizer - the oscillator. What is a synth but a sound-generating tool ..read more
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Rich Aucoin's Record Breaking Synth Record
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
1y ago
i was contacted recently by Rich Aucoin about his new project to break the world record for the most synths on any record to date - which will be well over 100 and could be approaching 500 if I’ve understood things correctly! I’m happy to be involved too - contributing a synth line or two when required. Not only has Rich got the privilege of my synth work, he’s also using some small, tiny synthesizer known at TONTO…don’t know if anyone’s heard of that? ;-) Anyway - check out the below for more details and to pre-order: Rich Aucoin’s announces New Quadruple Album, 1st Season of Synthetic&n ..read more
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Vangelis RIP
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
2y ago
It’s impossible to try and cover this incredible musician’s life and works in one inconsequential blog in one random corner of the internet, but as an electronic musician, synth obsessive and electronic music fan, I can’t let the passing of this uniquely gifted individual go unmentioned. For me - Vangelis was one of my main portals into both the joys of electronic music and of music itself. His albums were on constant repeat in my formative years (along with Jarre and Kraftwerk), and his ability to create warmth, emotion and depth from (mainly) electronic instruments inspired me to follow in t ..read more
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Up From The Sea EP (Oli Freke)
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
2y ago
I have an EP coming out soon - will be available on the usual Beatport, iTunes type places. Ahead of that, here’s a continuous mix of it for you to enjoy right now: 1. Up From The Sea 2. AnnaMorphic 3. Pitch Loop Acid 4. Friday (Practice) This was all done in the box on Ableton 11; I tend to use samples of a SH-101 waveform in Live’s sampler and have fun from there! Not much actual vintage synth action to be honest in these tracks, anyway. Oh, and 909 samples of course - this is techno after all! And some tasty horn blasts and samba samples on the first track too, to keep things interesting ..read more
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SynthTrax - all the tracks featuring the synths
Synth Evolution Blog
by Oli Freke
2y ago
So, I’ve kicked off a new project; one which can never be completed and is crazy to even contemplate - a database logging all verfied examples of specific synths in famous tracks (or not so famous). Here it is: synthtrax.net There will be a page for each synth, with a brief description of that synth, and then a list of notable artists who’ve used it on particuarly notable songs - eg, everyone knows that Herbie Hancock used the ARP Odyssey on his classic track ‘Chameleon’ - so that’s at the top of the page under ‘Archetypal use’ of the synth. Then there’s embedded YouTube vids linking to the ex ..read more
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