Analog Girl

Throughout my musical career, I’ve tried many different brands of synthesizers and have loved some and un-loved others. Moog, Elka, ARP, Yamaha, Roland, Prophet, Kurzweil and Oberheim were just a few of the keyboards I have worked with but somehow I have always gravitated back to Korg.  What initially attracted me to their synths, over and above the bold, fat Korg sounds, unique sonic character and solid construction of their units, was the graded hammer action weighted keys technology used on certain of their models.  This real hammer mechanism makes the keys feel heavier in the bass and lighter on the treble end of the keyboard, similar to that of an acoustic piano.  Pianists really appreciate this feature as the quick response and feel of the keys emulate that of a piano and the key sensitivity can also be adjusted to suit the player.  

ARP Odyssey - Photo by VàVà Vol © 2012

When I began to perform live in the late 70s, I played in the traditional guitar/bass/drum format groups.  I only had one keyboard and that was the Farfisa Fast Five organ.  It served its purpose up to a certain point but I eventually sold it to upgrade to the hot new Sequential Circuits Pro-One mono synth and the Korg VC10 Vocoder.  My musical direction was changing at that time and I began to experiment with electronic music. There was an extreme learning curve with both new instruments but I managed to craft the sounds I was looking for by referring to the user manuals and by trial, error and experimentation.  It proved to be an excellent training ground on how to program analog synths and enabled me to move forward to the more sophisticated poly synths that were being developed in the early 80s.  



VC-10 Vocoder





My absolute hands-down favorite synth is the 48-note semi-modular two piece poly analog synth the PS-3300, which I acquired from a fellow musician in the 1980s.  This synth is essentially three Korg PS-3100s in one.  Each note on the keyboard has its own filter, envelope and share of a divide-down oscillator, making it a fully 48 note poly synth.  At that time, it was one of the world’s first true polyphonic analog synths and Korg only manufactured 50 of these amazing units between 1977 and 1981.  Weighing in at 80 lbs., this synth is not an easy ensemble to move around a studio, let alone gig with. 

PS-3300 photo montage with skulls - Photo by Sophie/Bunker Montreal © 1991

Sans owner’s manual or instructions, I applied my analog smarts to this beast and realizing the huge task at hand, began experimenting with the 48 VCOs, VCFs and VCAs and complicated patch panel which allowed the default connections to be overridden by plugging in various patch cords.  It took me a very long time to figure it out but with perseverance and patience (both of which I have a plenty of), I was able to get it.  Here are some of my earliest compositions using the PS-3300.

Here are a few of my earliest works using the PS-3300.

Improvisation in E Minor
Les Mannequins
Some Symphonie
Allegretto to my Heart


I went on to collect various other analog synths which are considered vintage and rare in this 21st century.  Today, I work with the Korg Triton LE Pro-X Music Workstation and am very happy with its functionalities but still keep my mono and poly analogs around just in case I need to find that “special dirty sound”.

Korg Triton LE Pro-X Music Workstation - Photo by VàVà Vol © 2012