i BINNS Dy IOUSLY UNHE ‘ARD MATERIAL: 4 FREE i SID ees | 132 m2A PIONEER OF THE ELECTRIC KEYBOARD, RICK TAKES US ON A GUIDED TOUR OF HIS FAVOURITE MOOGS, SYNTHS AND GIZMOS, AND RECALLS THE NIGHT RIO’S TRAM. SYSTEM HAD TO SHUT DOWN SO THEIR NATIONAL GRID COULD POWER AYES CONCERT. . WORDS, BILL BRUCE ‘carly inthe morning Torre rain ishammering down ouiide, ind soine workmen have turned pat his font dor, ot ofthe blue. Im expecting Ric. Wakeman o bein fll grumpy man the complete opposite, ith entnstasn largely in anticipation of the release of thé new reinterpretation of fare) To The Cente Of The Fath. Where there Fant, now there's often awry a stony indulged whe ame stage" explains. "You couldnt go. out and play this sor of seuff bladdered" aVa 0 Wa wet dé 7 oy, OTL ae eet“$246 “hecommits to it whole-heartedly, and BRP is applies tile of eectone ab eae (CES) kesboa isjmenthe'seer played AS wo shel pees. From pipe organs toW gotkeyshe'shad ago nit we cuckles, "because no mater what it scltzers, from Stylophones to Mellotron, is fy, is allinstraments ate diferent. Theyall ave a unique islityseven clectronic instruments. ve gota mate ‘whollives near here, anidhe's got forty pianos, and stil avert tried them all:And yet ifyou blindfolded me could sill you'which of ray MitiMoogs is which A, the MiniMog. Possibly no other insrument Rick Wakeman as the worlds it playsone firs affordable, monophonic (meanin note ata time) keyboard. Ricks unique lationship _wih the Moog s inextricably ted to his friendship with the synth’sereator, the late Dr Bob Moog. t's ‘eling that Rick pronounces the ame ofthe machine asitshould be~ Moag, sounds lke rogue —and not as ‘might ook, Hehas owned more MiniMoogsthan any other keyboard, atone stage using twelve of ther in the studio and on tour, What sic that has made this particular instrument so timeless? fallin love,” says, wistfully, recalling the first time he played one. "Is the closest electronic instrument to the piano. When you play @key on piano, you getthe sensation oft working of a hammer hitting ake, the mechanics at work. Now Tknow thi sounds strange, because i's an electronic instrument and there arent any working such, but when you playa Moog you cant help but {eel this similar connection, You elit producing this magnificent sound” These days he mainains a relatively modest collection of about nine, I couldnt imagine having a keyboard Hg without one,”hesays. "Tt sill sounds sigue, there's noth today that even comes close. ‘There is something about the filers, the sweeps and the oscillators that means never sounds the same-way twice. That's why you can’ sample the Jnecause you can hit a key thirty times and ach ine youl et something slighty diferent ‘While smth aficionados applaud Bob Moos engineering process, many overtook his deep lowe of isc, something Rick acknowledges. "Bob adored ‘musicians, al he loved making instruments that msicians adored, The first time me im, in 1971 ‘while was touring the US with Yes, heinvited me up this factory in Buffalo, thought Fd go up, say hello and that would be that. Instead he quizzed me forages about what [waned ou of the MiaiMoog asking how he could snake t beter. [sad to him, Wal, they dotend to pick up RF radi incr big stadiums i was worse, cos these places have ike rence] Ifyou were playing ‘thousand aerials on the rf, So you'd be doing ‘gig and suddenly you'd get minicabs and air trafic ‘control coming through the PA. Bob ssid OK and ‘that was it. Nothing moge was said, “Then in 1972, Yes were playing in Toronto and Bab turned up atthe gig said, Hey Bob, niceto see you and he replied, Tve solved the problena"Then the went up om stage and starting taking my Moogs spartan fixing them right here. Tis just before the gig'ssbout to start, and he's tinkering withthem when we goon, Sowe start playing, and e's sil fixing the ger, and he's so wrapped up in ithe gst notice 22,000 peopleall thinking "Who's that bloke with the curly hairon stage with Yes? Then he Finishes, look up, suddenly realises what's hoppening and says to me; "Well, suppose better get ff now Ic ber fit was Jon (Anderson) or me, Ricklaughs, “but one ofus announced, 'Ladis and ‘gentlemen, Dr Bob Moog, nd the crowd gave ima standing ovation, His current MiniMoog collection ismorea matter ‘of practicality. "You have to understand that these are ‘quite dlicate machines, and they don't travel well Ihave a couple that never leave the studio because ‘theyre too fragile. take a couple out on the oad with couple of spares and ac any given ime another to will bein for repair So there’ around robin process going om with them ll the Gime Having ‘a good ones worth its weight in gold hon preset ythesisers ist 5 appearedin the late 70 onwards, 2 Rick had an ually nique way fearing how wo programme them: he would wipe the fa sounds and try t programme theam agai from sratch, “Oh yeah,” he admits,“ sill do that. Whenever we geta new keyboard in wipeal the sounds off that and start again, Light keep the od preset, ut l always edit them and (aon) Srocess lectrnic artist Laurie Anderson once remarked shat yathessrs were hike ars, each with their own }OURNEY ai " “BobM voy Wid eas stilllixing the year, nol noticing 22,000 peoplethinking Who's thatbloke onstaye with dese” = as a? ae int chartered Rick gre Teint alocoftrth in that, but sadly is gt less tructhesedays [remember the 0s, when the Prophet Skeyboard appeared everyone freaked out j because it hod eight presets. ight! Lean, tis was stoishing! Now fora couple of hundred quid you can buy something that's gt afew hasan presets Helets outa sigh.“Oh, get ot of people sending mestuffo lite, and ofcourse’ very keyboard ‘orientated and try to sen toas rach oitas Lean, Bottoo often fm siting dere with my headin my ands, inking Crikey, there's the Kory Prophee preset... Ob, ther’ preset 2. And there's Roland Fantom preset 1. And oni goes. Fantastic sounds, them, Theresa music shop in synths thar had came in for eps bbuteveryonesusing London that an ‘orexchange snd 99 percent ofthe sil contained the factory sounds. They never even been touched He cites his approach to recreating sounds forthe new version of urn as te way things ought tbe might start with a decent preset Clavinet sound or Rhodes piano sound, but would always change tout ‘ofall ecogniton. The technology should exist o do ‘what you want ido, artistically. What isnt there to doiscome up with the artsicbit for you: jes he ascribe this lack of imagination tothe rise ‘of hard-tofathom synths like the Yamaha DX7 in the 1980s, which eschewed clear ows of knobs and sliders fr oblique posh buttons and diss? ‘No hesays ily, “because the DX-7 and, ater, the Korg MI were revolutionary machines. It was | tore that the 8s were horible period when most bands were only using bout two or three percent of. what these machines wer capable of It was find hadpince the Os, Some ofthe would be worth a mint ———_