The long awaited IPTV series The Top 20 Greatest Synths will be going live here at Sonic on Wednesday February 14, 2007. Each of the 8 episodes broadcasted once a fortnight, will be around 10 minutes long and feature 3 chart positions with full length episodes for the number 2 and number 1 slots later in the series. The entire programme will then be posted in the Spring as one contiguous show. Each episode has footage, facts and features about the greatest electronic instruments ever produced as well as interviews with the people who made ‘em and the people who played ‘em. It’s basically a big fat excuse to rant about all-things-synth in a show that aims to be witty, passionate, respectful and shamelessly nostalgic about electronic music, circuit boards, the 1980’s, resistors, wood finishes, keyboards with knobs on and everything in between. Click on the YouTube link above to watch the second preview clip featuring the Korg M1, the VCS3 and the Arp Solina. Top 3 Votes update Here at Sonic Towers we’ve been stunned by the response to the Top 3 Synths poll with votes clocking up like the score counter on a pinball machine! The diversity of the votes is awesome. An entire cross section of synths from modulars to romplers to workstations. Some votes caused whoops of delight (Synthi AKS, Dave Smith’s Evolver, Buchla 100), others got respect (ARP 2600, Yamaha GX1, Oberheim OB8) and some made us giggle (The Velociraptor? Didn’t I see one of those on Jurassic Park?), but all were included and put forward for the Top 20 shortlist to be revealed soon. Some Voting stats So, how did the votes go? Well, to give you some idea, here’s 10 synths that got lots of votes:
CS80, Access Virus, DX7, M1, Mini Moog, Korg MS20, Roland JV10-80, Juno 60, Oddysey, Nord Lead. And here’s 10 that got votes but didn’t make it to the chart:
Korg Triton, EnsoniqSQ80, Novation Super Nova, PPG Wave, Future Retro 777, Sequential Pro-one, Roland V-Synth, Kurzweil K2600, Yamaha SY77, Moog Voyager. Here’s some we’d love to include but can’t:
Hammond B3 (it’s an organ) Rhodes Mk1 (it’s a piano) Theremin (it’s a Theremin) BemmolyBoog (because we don’t know what it is!) Here’s a list of 20 voters that came closest to voting for the Top 3 as it will appear on the chart:
axist, juhok87, gordonrapheal, digit62, brillumi, devetron, msims, ifovco, rodmps, jhanks, bigd1174, cleomenes, levarts, strvs, doug, cmcmasters, alexkay73, chazgarrett, willingandre and mydump. Maybe if you all get together in Sonic’s Gas Station you can work out the actual Top 3 synths…Let’s offer a Sonic State T-shirt (woopee-freakin’-doo!) to the first person that does guess the actual Top 3 and submits it before the end of the month! Also a big UP to voteforgo who put the Microkorg at number 2 adding the comment "crappy, but every young band has one now!"
Thanks to Massimo who voted 9 times for the Yamaha CS80 (naughty naughty. only one vote each, now!)
Thanks to kungfugirlsclub for having a dam' fine email handle that covered a number of different fantasies here at the office.
and finally to one voter who's number 1 was Underpass by John Foxx. er...Wrong poll I'm afraid, but nice choice...Nice choice! If you voted for your Top 3 and ticked the box, you will get an automatic email telling you when episode one of the Top 20 Greatest Synths has been posted. Otherwise, keep it locked to the Sonic State news page, RSS feed and the members Newsletter for more information.

• http://www.sonicstate.com/top20 Simon Power
  Producer: The Top 20 Greatest Synths
  
  
  

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