The origin of the farty synth ?

[Andrew G. Doe]

Brian has been lauded, and rightly so, for his innovative use of what can only be described as 'farty synth' on 15 BO and BBLY... but did he get the idea from Carl's "Long Promised Road" ? It's a synth. And it farts. 

[Wirestone]

Or perhaps they both had a copy of Switched-On Bach?

[Mahalo]

Dude, I am SO HAPPY to read what you wrote... this goes hand in hand with the BW88 thread.  Brian and synth's were made for each other. Yes Brian mastered the 1960's, but his creative soul was ready for new instrumentation that realized itself in B's lifetime with the amazing synthensizer.... He made it fart because he farted (regardless if he heard it esewhere, he made it his own)....

[Iron Horse-Apples]

One of the most important records of '77 was Donna Summers "I Feel Love", which, and I could be wrong here, was one of the first pop songs to be fully synthesized, and spawned modern day dance music. It appears that the "Love You" album, heavily synth laden, was released a month before this important single. Could it be that Brian inadvertently invented dance music? If so, then I'm off...........

[Andrew G. Doe]

If so, then I must have a very sharp word with him.   

I think Giorgio Moroerder had been working towards that for a while, actually,.

[Mahalo]

Brian was waaaayyy ahead of all that... but he didn't hear dance repetitive music, he heard rock n' roll. The synth was like a new form of oil paint to him. The sounds in his brain were able to make a bit more immediate sense with the experimental synth, as opposed to the same old 1960's sound.... that is why LY and BW88 kick so much ass... BW88's production aside, it's synth's still rock, and would fart a whole lot more if not left up to all the cooks in the kitchen....

[Mike's Beard]

Child of Winter was 1974 and the synths are farting away in the background on that.

[Mahalo]

Child of Winter was 1974 and the synths are farting away in the background on that.

Hell yeah they are!!!  


What a Great Song...it has everything... structure, meaning, relevance, voice reality (meaning appropriate timbre) and pure Christmas soul....  with the Farting Synthy to boot.. now we're talking. Let's go on with why this topic really matters in the grand scheme of things... why we need more ROCK on this tour and less CROCK...

[Alan Smith]

Brian has been lauded, and rightly so, for his innovative use of what can only be described as 'farty synth' on 15 BO and BBLY... but did he get the idea from Carl's "Long Promised Road" ? It's a synth. And it farts. 

Brilliant theory - can we build on it and add the synth work Carl did on Mt Vernon to the mix?

[Val]

Speaking of Farty Synths - here is the Beach Boys Britain band of the same name and featuring your very own AGD and Rob Dean. The band is headed up by Sean Macreavy and band members include the lovely Synthesiser Patel and Mr Bass Farty Synth himself: the wonderful Jimmy Hughes....and yes, that's me, sporting AGD's infamous black hat.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Z7rK2RUz4&feature=related

[UK_Surf]

Synth bass was a long-established technique that had been in the BBs rep since the early 70s. In fact, there's a Smile connection - the bass part in Brian's part of the 71 SU is done on a Moog (a 15 series modular, I think, but others will correct me I'm sure).

Loads of bands were doing this to 'fatten up' the bass. The only difference between that and the 'farty synth' sound is the position of the attack in the adsr (volume envelope - tends to be slower for swelling, subtle bass tones and faster for more aggressive bass sounds) and the cut-off for the filter (lower for mellower tones, higher for more aggressive). The mid/late 70s also saw the popularisation of sequencing, which is used so prominently by Moroder. Again, this was not new, as electronic musicians had versions of sequences (including tape loops etc.) since the late 60s. It was new for pop to a certain extent. But of course, Pink Floyd was doing that by the early 70s, so depending on whether one considers that 'pop' in any way...

But yeah, the BBs were definitely right up to speed on electronic keyboards. The idea for custom mellotron tapes for the drips on CCW (which never actually materialised, I remember Mr. Desper reporting, despite field recordings taking place) was pretty hip. They also used combo organs (Bruce used a Farfisa compact) for touring quite early on, there was that wacky Baldwin, and Mike used the Tannerin (a pitch-ribbon controlled oscillator giving theremin-like tones) live for GV.

[UK_Surf]

...oh, the drips on CCW on SF were eventually done on a synth - again, probably the 15-series Moog. It's done by pushing the filter into self-oscillation, and controlling its frequency with the adsr envelope to get that 'blooping' sound.   

[Andrew G. Doe]

The idea for custom mellotron tapes for the drips on CCW (which never actually materialised, I remember Mr. Desper reporting, despite field recordings taking place) was pretty hip.

Once more, beg to differ but according to SWD when I interviewed him back in 1985, the tapes were prepared and installed in a Chamberlain during the Smile era. Brian played it for maybe ten minutes, said it was nice, and promptly forgot about it.

[SMiLE Brian]

Brian should play farty synth at the reunion.

[Wrightfan]

Speaking of Farty Synths - here is the Beach Boys Britain band of the same name and featuring your very own AGD and Rob Dean. The band is headed up by Sean Macreavy and band members include the lovely Synthesiser Patel and Mr Bass Farty Synth himself: the wonderful Jimmy Hughes....and yes, that's me, sporting AGD's infamous black hat.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Z7rK2RUz4&feature=related

Woah! AGD has a killer singing voice!

[Rob Dean]

Speaking of Farty Synths - here is the Beach Boys Britain band of the same name and featuring your very own AGD and Rob Dean. The band is headed up by Sean Macreavy and band members include the lovely Synthesiser Patel and Mr Bass Farty Synth himself: the wonderful Jimmy Hughes....and yes, that's me, sporting AGD's infamous black hat.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Z7rK2RUz4&feature=related

Woah! AGD has a killer singing voice!

And here is some more , as always listen to on headphones in the dark 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Ljuo5-iWw&feature=related

[Rob Dean]

Speaking of Farty Synths - here is the Beach Boys Britain band of the same name and featuring your very own AGD and Rob Dean. The band is headed up by Sean Macreavy and band members include the lovely Synthesiser Patel and Mr Bass Farty Synth himself: the wonderful Jimmy Hughes....and yes, that's me, sporting AGD's infamous black hat.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Z7rK2RUz4&feature=related

Woah! AGD has a killer singing voice!

And here is some more , as always listen to on headphones in the dark 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Ljuo5-iWw&feature=related

Good Time / Honkin' / Ding Dang

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Ljuo5-iWw&feature=related

[Mr. Cohen]

I was going to compliment The Farty Synths, but then they called "Ding Dang" the worst BB song ever as they proceeded to butcher Brian's piano part.

HOW DARE THEY

[Rob Dean]

I was going to compliment The Farty Synths, but then they called "Ding Dang" the worst BB song ever as they proceeded to butcher Brian's piano part.

HOW DARE THEY

Blame that on Sean Mac 

[Mike's Beard]

Andrew does a killer 'gruff' Brian.

[Jon Stebbins]

I think it was a Wilson thing. Listen to POB, most of it recorded before Love You...it has synths all over it, including really nasty deep speaker rattling distorted bass synth. Also stuff like River Song and Holy Man, going back to 74/75 features major synth.

[UK_Surf]

The idea for custom mellotron tapes for the drips on CCW (which never actually materialised, I remember Mr. Desper reporting, despite field recordings taking place) was pretty hip.

Once more, beg to differ but according to SWD when I interviewed him back in 1985, the tapes were prepared and installed in a Chamberlain during the Smile era. Brian played it for maybe ten minutes, said it was nice, and promptly forgot about it.

Right - I do remember that cropping up on the ol' Smile Shop board at some point. My bad.

[Craig Boyd]

I'm gutted I didn't know about the Love You thing in East Kilbride, I would've loved to be there. Andrew does indeed have a great voice, Rob's take on Dennis is amazing too!

[Andrew G. Doe]

Speaking of Farty Synths - here is the Beach Boys Britain band of the same name and featuring your very own AGD and Rob Dean. The band is headed up by Sean Macreavy and band members include the lovely Synthesiser Patel and Mr Bass Farty Synth himself: the wonderful Jimmy Hughes....and yes, that's me, sporting AGD's infamous black hat.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Z7rK2RUz4&feature=related

Woah! AGD has a killer singing voice!

Yup - been known to drop a fully-grown bull elephant at 100 paces.  

[Val]

I was going to compliment The Farty Synths, but then they called "Ding Dang" the worst BB song ever as they proceeded to butcher Brian's piano part.

HOW DARE THEY

Oh, that was such fun to err..."sing" and  getting our "ooo"s,  "dings" and "dangs" all in the right places was an achievement in itself !  I am so glad you like it, Dada!