Roland Barkey
A wonderful journey back to the future to the beginnings of digital electronic music. Bits and bytes produce deeply relaxed ambient.
Favorite track: Webs and Whispers.
Download includes an exclusive 9-page PDF booklet!
The ambient music on this album was created on the Digital Keyboards Synergy II+, with additional reverberation and delay effects provided by Lexicon units of the same vintage
The Synergy is a digital synthesiser manufactured between 1982 and 1985. It was based on a high-speed additive oscillator system developed at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey the previous decade, which was used by Digital Keyboards Inc, a US-based division of the Italian synth maker Crumar, to create a highly sophisticated digital synthesiser known as the Crumar General Development System (GDS). The GDS sold for about $30,000 (equivalent to $100,000 now), competing directly with other digital systems such as the Fairlight CMI and NED Synclavier. However, the original Synergy, released in 1982, was essentially a preset-only version of the GDS, lacking any programmability of the voices themselves, which had to be loaded into the synthesiser via a cartridge. It was priced at $5,300 ($20,000)
A 1984 version of the Synergy, known as the Synergy II+, featured MIDI implementation (the universal protocol that allowed electronic musical instruments to ‘talk’ to each other) which had been introduced between manufacturers in 1983. However, perhaps more importantly, the Synergy II+ added support for a Kaypro II portable computer system running Synergy voicing software which opened up the possibility to edit the sounds of the Synergy as well as provide patch and sequence data storage to disk. In fact, as stated in the Synergy II+ user manual, this upgrade elevated the machine to become a full-blown General Development System, with every aspect of the sound synthesis engine becoming editable on the host computer. This is the system used on the “Dawn” album, which hopefully you are listening to now
Even though the Synergy was now a fully-fledged synthesis system of the highest order, the company could not compete with the fast-moving digital instrument scene, and after a few more years of production, DKI and the Synergy went out of production, making way for the introduction of cheaper mass-produced synthesisers such as the Yamaha DX7
Sounds on the Synergy are generated by Direct Digital Synthesis, using a combination of additive techniques and/or frequency modulation (FM), with 32 digitally controlled oscillators (DCOs) available at any given time. For example, each note could be made up of 8 freely-tuneable harmonics (either sine or modified triangle wave) with independent pitch and amplitude envelopes per harmonic. Alternatively, a patch could consist of up to 4 FM partials, or any combination of additive and FM waves, up to the maximum DCO count of 32. Polyphony varies, depending on the selected DCO algorithm. Typically, the Synergy is an eight-voice polyphonic instrument with four oscillators being used per voice. However, some patches may use two oscillators per voice, allowing up to 16-voice polyphony, etc. It is also up to 4 part multitimbral, meaning that four completely different sounds can play at the same time using either keyboard splits or the built-in sequencer
The internal four-track sequencer was used to make the compositions on this album. It can record in real-time, allowing for overdubbing, and has the ability to play on top of a recorded sequence. The tempo can be adjusted, and there is also a basic quantise function. Up to 1,860 notes can be memorised in total, and the 4 channels can be looped at different lengths, allowing for interesting polyrhythms to be set up. One other feature is that other functions can be sequenced with it, such as program changes, modulation settings and even transpose commands. So, even though it is quite a basic sequencer in some respects, it does allow the composer to experiment with some very unique features
The 74-note keyboard has velocity sensitivity which is implemented via two touch sensitivity parameters per DCO. The brightness or timbre of a sound is thus controlled by varying the depth of the FM parameters or the volume of individual harmonics and the interaction of these functions by using the keyboard velocity. There are also a variety of random functions that can add highly nuanced detail to each keystroke. The Synergy has very flexible envelopes, with up to 16 stages per DCO for both amplitude and frequency, with multiple breakpoints which are also loopable. It is an extremely open-ended system, perhaps the most flexible of any synthesiser ever created. The amount of detail that is available to the programmer is truly mind-boggling, and I can only scratch the surface of what is possible in this brief summary of its functions. I am so honoured to have one of the very few working Synergy / GDS systems that remain in service
In addition to the pure digital sounds of the D K Synergy, I decided to add two very special effects units to the recordings presented here. These Lexicon units were introduced around the same time as the Synergy II+, and feature the same no-compromise approach to digital sound production, which in the early 1980s was a very new territory for manufacturers and musicians to explore. To my ears, these abecedarian digital devices have a purity and warmth to them that is particularly suited to simple ambient pieces of music such as those presented on “Dawn”. In some ways, it was the dawning of a new era for electronic music in general, and one which I happily reexplore on this album
credits
released April 30, 2023
Part of the FORMS SERIES of albums which are made with one synthesis system
This album was created on the Digital Keyboards Synergy II+, Lexicon Model 200 and Primetime FX units
Written, recorded and designed by Benge
at Memetune studios, England
(c)+(p) 2023 all rights reserved
published by Memesongs
supported by 9 fans who also own “Forms 15 - Dawn”
I love this album because it’s part of my musical past, a past that is slowly being erased both deliberately and by accident, through theft and omission, ambivalence and envy aabstrkt
supported by 6 fans who also own “Forms 15 - Dawn”
Gorgeous and, dare I say spiritually moving, ethereal work with the legend John Foxx. Suitable for a sleep soundtrack, but not in any way dull. Eve McGivern
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supported by 5 fans who also own “Forms 15 - Dawn”
A genius of modern music and a true innovator. He was always deserving of more attention than he got. New and beautiful worlds were unlocked by this dream catcher. John Fenton
