SynthAxe: Difference between revisions
From Allan Holdsworth Information Center
| Line 507: | Line 507: | ||
Allan: The way I got into it was an accident. When I would work with keyboard players who had Oberheims, every time they got on that I’d look over and go, "Geez. that’s a nice sound." So the name Oberheim was in the back of my mind somewhere. And then, when I started playing the '''SynthAxe''', the guy recommended the Oberheim because it has the most sophisticated MIDI control, and you can get to anything. Essentially, it’s an old-fashioned synthesizer with patch chords: you can take any oscillator, you can patch it to anything. On the Matrix 12, there’s eight low frequency oscillators so you don’t need processing. it’s just an unbelievable instrument, you can assign anything to anything else. Most of the synthesizers now went the other way, they have a little plastic window in there, and there’s two buttons on the front, and with the combination of movements, these two buttons do everything. It’s a nightmare. With the Oberheim, if you want something you go to the knob for that function-you turn it and you’re do ne. | Allan: The way I got into it was an accident. When I would work with keyboard players who had Oberheims, every time they got on that I’d look over and go, "Geez. that’s a nice sound." So the name Oberheim was in the back of my mind somewhere. And then, when I started playing the '''SynthAxe''', the guy recommended the Oberheim because it has the most sophisticated MIDI control, and you can get to anything. Essentially, it’s an old-fashioned synthesizer with patch chords: you can take any oscillator, you can patch it to anything. On the Matrix 12, there’s eight low frequency oscillators so you don’t need processing. it’s just an unbelievable instrument, you can assign anything to anything else. Most of the synthesizers now went the other way, they have a little plastic window in there, and there’s two buttons on the front, and with the combination of movements, these two buttons do everything. It’s a nightmare. With the Oberheim, if you want something you go to the knob for that function-you turn it and you’re do ne. | ||
==[[The Reluctant Guitarist (Jazz Journal 1992)]]== | |||
In recent years, Holdsworth has found an outlet for his horn-playing ambition in the '''SynthAxe''', a guitar-like synthesiser controller with a tube into which the player blows to add expression. | |||
‘The '''SynthAxe''' is close to what I want, cause it’s a combination of blowing and picking, so it’s like a horn and guitar. You don’t have to blow so hard though, it’s an open blowing, like blowing a balloon up; there’s no embouchure.’ | |||
There has been a certain resistance among followers of Holdsworth’s guitar playing to his use of the '''SynthAxe''', but Holdsworth feels they are missing the point. | |||
‘That tends to prove that lot of guitar players are not listening to the notes. They’re listening to something else. It’s the music that counts. Perhaps they can’t relate to the sound of it, but it’s being done just like it would on the guitar.’ | |||
==[[Axe Maniax (TGM 1993)]]== | ==[[Axe Maniax (TGM 1993)]]== | ||
