I’m pretty sure had Alex been alive in the 60’s he would have been Senior Sound Director for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, smoked a pipe and worn a bowtie. Keep on being awesome, Mr Ball, your videos are the finest of their class.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Sign me up.

@videocurcuits

Жыл бұрын

He has a more second era Radiophonic Workshop vibe the first crew were way weirder

@adrianarencibia2716

8 ай бұрын

​@AlexBallMusic hi I love your videos there so great. I'm a big fan but can you please add more instruments in your videos that are not synthesizers please I want to see more instruments plus I believe it could be better sense younger generations would learn about something from back then.

@DSPsWifesBf

3 ай бұрын

@@adrianarencibia2716you’re on thin ice, bub. Coming in here and asking for LESS synth? You know what kinda beating we gave guys like you in the service?

How on earth you manage to take a flawed instrument that sank a company, and turn out a bunch of tunes with it that are all commercially viable as pop songs, is really quite astonishing! You really have far too much talent, Mr. Ball!! 🙂 Great video as always!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks. The unwanted stuff is sometimes ahead of its time or overlooked. There's fantastic sounds in the Avatar.

High school jazz band, ca. 1982. We had an Odyssey MkIII and I saw photos of the Avatar. It inspired my first build as "Silent Knight Productions" of a bass guitar interface to control an Arp MSL. Perfect project for a high school electronics nerd, a zener diode "gate" to trigger the envelope, and a home-brew freq-2-volt converter for CV in. Impressive as hell to the backline when we played "Chameleon", not so impressive to our director. Damn, that was over 40 years ago! Plenty of gear out there now doing a better job of it. Thanks for this great demo, by the way! Ah, the memories...

Cheers Alex. Sometimes being a pioneer means dying in the sand with arrows in your chest, and this looks to be the story here.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

A good analogy.

@i-never-look-at-replies-lol

2 жыл бұрын

Sometimes you gotta charge into battle headfirst to get the rest to follow

I wandered into a guitar shop in 1977 and wasted a half hour of the salesman's time looking over this thing. Really wanted one, but he was so pissed off when I said that the oscillator was all but useless; but that hex fuzz had a sound that's stayed with me all these many years since. Thanks for showing it to us again! And by the way; I just cannot figure out why the hex fuzz effects on my Roland VG-99 don't come anywhere near this great sound. Something missing that I simply cannot figure out...

As entertaining as always, Alex is a great presenter

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers Steve. :)

It's obvious a ton of love and work went into this, absolutely first rate Sir.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

It did! Three years of struggle trying to find out how to get all the parts and fix it. We're finally there.

The Avatar, driven by an ARP sequencer, is the sound of EBM legends Deutsche Americanische Freundschaft. Nice to hear what it sounds like as a guitar synth, as I've only ever heard it used as a kind of module version of the Odyssey.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

The same combo is on Escape from New York! Thanks for the tip off, I didn't know about DAF. The guitar synth is a whole other side of it that really hasn't been showcased a anywhere before. I was determined to get it repaired and find out what it does.

@friesiamans1966

2 жыл бұрын

well, i didn´t know that - i bought me a second hand arp axxe in the very early 80s and although the plastic keys were really bad and clumsy, i always liked the powerful filters and the sound of it in general (cool bass for instance) - when DAF came out, i liked them a lot and even saw them live (as a duo) and wondered how they managed to get their typical synth sound, which reminded me of my good old axxe - now i just read this here and had to smile, when i read, they actually used an arp synth, haha... btw.: a while ago i bought me a retro arp 2600 plug-in by arturia - it´s a digital synth, ok, but it does have the typical arp flavour... :-) second btw.: the arp axxe had an audio-in plug and we always put a cheapy, cheesy "tiger" organ into that, so we could play that synth polyphonically, hmmm, almost - i only put in a guitar once, just before that synth broke down completely, and i never used that feature for my voice - that idea came too late....... thank you for the information, i´m still smiling... :-) love and greetings from germany

@piynubbunyip

2 жыл бұрын

Wasn't it an arp and an SQ10? If you are correct it would make some sense as the SQ10 is a brutal sequencer to play live as the tuning is so fiddly and changing melodies would kill!

@chriswareham

2 жыл бұрын

@@piynubbunyip I think they used the ARP sequencer, which has a pitch quantise function. They also had a Korg MS20 and the MS50 expander. The MS20 was pretty much a standard piece of equipment in the Neue Deutsche Welle bands of the time, while the MS50 looks very similar to the SQ10 sequencer. They often had a female friend of the band who pretended to operate the Korgs when they played live, but in reality used a backing tape with Robert Gőrl playing drums live.

@piynubbunyip

2 жыл бұрын

@@chriswareham Much more logical in reality. Reminds me of listening to polygon window and hearing the sequenced tom tuning and presuming Richard had cv on his TR-808 but in reality it was just an R-8

First off, kudos: "Right Back Round" is just chock full of energy and FUN! Not to mention, great lyrics! Second, everything I hear from the "hex" stuff and the envelope follower are total ear candy for me. Those sounds would have been enough of a product on their own, IMO. Anyway, thanks for the great Friday vibes, Alex!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you Rob! Yes, the guitar sounds are really cool and the synth sounds are really cool. Just not when they're combined. Almost two separate products in one box.

@hkb1979

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah it’s a great song. My favorite Alex song since the songs from his 80s chord voicing videos

Hex Fuzz for the win! Sounds amazing and the musical examples are brilliant as always.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Philip. Yep, digging that stereo Hex fuzz!

A bit ambitious for it's time perhaps.... still cool! Taking this opportunity to say RIP Vangelis. His work influenced my synth journey from the late 70s onwards - hugely inspirational with the awesome world building he created with electronic sound :) blew my young mind when everything was orchestra and wah wah guitar pedals!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Attempted several years too early, yes. A range of Hex effects without the synth would probably have been the way to go, but that's easy to say with hindsight. Vangelis - indeed. One of a kind.

Love that opening composition. Reminds me of the early 80’s movies I so love. 🥰🎸🎹👍 Your channel is KZread at its best. Amazingly informative, highly creative, and thoroughly entertaining.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Christopher. It certainly has the sound of a period in time! All part of the fun!

As always great to watch! And the best thing, a synth demo with real music, not just the ususal bleepy bloopy arpegiator stuff! Awesome!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks. I try to keep my bleeping under control. 😉

Musicality, Knowledge, History, Creativity, Problem-Solving. All in this one video. 👍Hat Off🎩 to You, Sir Alex!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks very much!

I love the song at 7:53. It sounds like something from a random japanese electronic album released in 1983 that just got popular through youtube. Stellar video per usual Alex

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

I live in 1983, so it may well make it onto a random Japanese electronic album.

@zappa0088

Жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic Is that an original? it really is fantastic.

I owned one back in 1978-1979. It came with a great book which was an introduction to synthesis called "Learning Music with Synthesizers" by Alan Pearlman. The knobs on each slider were always cracking in half and breaking off. I'm surprised to see the knobs are in one piece on yours. I sold mine to buy a Roland GR500 system along with GS500 guitar controller. They each had their own kind of charm.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Ah cool, I know that book! What did you think of the Avatar at the time? Did you use it much before moving it on?

@louisvanzandt

2 жыл бұрын

​@@AlexBallMusic I loved the Hex Fuzz and used that a lot. But the synth just couldn't track properly. That why I sold it for the Roland GR500. Which again couldn't track properly. Eventually I gave up on the idea of guitar synths and ended buying a Korg MS-20 & SQ-10 Sequencer and a Roland 808. At time I really didn't think much of the MS-20 or even the Roland 808 I owned. I kick myself all the time when I see how much all those old synths and effects I once owned sell for these days! There are only 2 synth I wish I still owned, Roland Jupiter 4 (sold) and the Roland MC-202 (someone stole from me). I contacted ARP about those plastic knobs that were constantly breaking and they sent me a whole bag filled with them. I must of had 200 or 300 of those knobs back in the day! You really brought me back in time with this video. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! Here's a link to the book I mentioned. You can even download it as a pdf file. This book taught me Synthesis! "Learning Music with Synthesizers" by Alan Pearlman thesnowfields.com/manuals/LearnMusicWithSynths1974.pdf

@myautobiographyafanfic1413

2 жыл бұрын

@@louisvanzandt This is the most safe-for-work story I've ever heard about someone being sent a bag of knobs.

The intro track sounds like a mix of ABBA and early Gary Numan. So essentially mid to late 1970s. Great work!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

ABBy Numan?

@jeshkam

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic Yeah lol but honestly it sounds like an intro to some late 70s snooker or darts TV coverage. Sideburns, cigaretes, guys in their early 30s looking like 50 year olds and so on...😂😁

I was actually daydreaming this morning about having a hex guitar setup and suddenly this fantastic video appears. Hexaphonic guitar processing seems like such an underutilised territory in music. The riff at 4:33 is so cool. The song at the end was a banger as well!

@casanovafunkenstein5090

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, I feel like it could be great for 8 string players who tune really low. If they were running the lowest strings through a hex setup you could easily improve the definition on those strings and stop them mushing up a high gain sound with too many overtones that would otherwise clash with the middle register like happens with regular guitar distortion.

That Hex Fuzz is nuts. I'd absolutely buy a modern module just for that and use it on my tracks.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

It would be ace to have a modern Hex pickup into a compact analogue Hex fuzz box with stereo outs and string panning.

@casanovafunkenstein5090

2 жыл бұрын

In theory you could get a Roland GK unit and pickup with the associated cables, harvest a suitable plug and wire it to a set of six basic fuzz circuits (possibly harvested from those tiny Mooer or Donner pedals) running in parallel. If you want to go down the digital emulation route you'd need an audio interface with six inputs and a custom cable but it's possible

Wonderful music! The Arp Avatar is not on my wish list, but I really appreciate videos that cover all of these old cool pieces of gear. Excellent job as always.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers. Yes, a niche item these days!

I’ve waited ever since the internet was invented for this video. Thank you! It was perfect. That song was AMAZING! I have an Avatar as well, though it is missing the pickup. I have modified mine for the tone being so it can use a standard 1/4” input. I’m missing out on the stereo text fuzz though. I bought a hex pickup to install on a guitar but I let that project pile up on the back burner. This video was the inspiration I needed!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Another Avatar warrior! I salute you. Yes, worth getting the Hex stuff going. I hope you manage to find the time and that it cooperates. I've actually got a breakout box coming for mine made by Series Circuits that is 6 jack inputs to 6-pin Din so that I can run any six signals through it!

@rodgre

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic I had initially planned to make my own breakout box as well, but not with the inputs like you're talking about. That sounds very cool! My plan was just to have a guitar with a hex pickup (I found an unusual source for them, cheap, btw), going to a breakout box that will simultaneously split the signal to a mixer circuit to pan each string to stereo outputs, send them to direct outputs and to send the 6 signals to the Avatar as well. I might try to see about making a box like this, which will take an input from my old Roland guitars (G-505 and G-707), but finding a connector would be impossible, without having to scavenge one off a US-2 that I have, but never use.

Brilliant demo and tunes, mate. Something of a gold-standard.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@matrixmirage2699

2 жыл бұрын

Where can we get your music?

Wow that Hex fuzz sounds so good. Brilliant video Alex, I’m a big ARP fan so it’s great to see this instrument being used fully. That song at the end was pop perfection as well 👌🏻

I'm in love with the clean fuzz! It's how I always wanted the fuzz to sound but it never did. Until now. That's so beautiful 😍

Very interesting! This is the first time I've seen the Avatar used as I guess the designers intended. I even owned an Avatar and used it for years as a module Odyssey.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Yep, nobody uses it from guitar! It's half of what it does so it's a shame not to use it.

I don’t know why but “pidgin on a unicycle” almost made me spit out my coffee. Great video as always!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

🐦🚲

Your arrangement is absolutely amazing and hearing the guitar tone through the Arp Avatar was super unique

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Worth the wait! It's taken three years to find all the parts and someone who can fix it.

As a kid, I learned so much about electronics from the repair manual and schematics for this device.

Very interesting video/demo! I didn't know much about the Avatar, let alone its guitar side. Thanks for taking the time to show it to us! Then end song "Right Back Round" is pretty darn good, with a Rush/Yes flavour from the eighties. Pure delight. Thanks Alex!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Alain, I thought it would be a fun one to cover as nobody has ever done it! Understandable given the fact that the guitar peripherals are often lost. Song - thank you. Been a fan of Alex Lifeson for a long time, but can't play like him.

superb as always Alex!!!! thank you

Fantastic demo Alex. This is the first time I have ever heard an ARP Avatar played with a guitar like it was originally intended. I borrowed one from a friend, but it was never used with a guitar. The Avatar was treated like an ARP Odyssey expander to partner an ARP Axxe using the CV and Gate. It sounded great for Jean Michel Jarre style sequencing when controlled by a Roland TB303 Bassline used as a sequencer.

Great work as always! It is amazing to hear the progress on your vocal performance :)

I bought one of these back in the day! It was my first real synth. I brought home a brand new Avatar and a Roland Space Echo. It was like being in heaven.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

I'll have to run mine through a tape echo. Sounds dreamy.

Great job! I still have the ARP Avatar in-store advertisement with the flexidisk. It made my teenage mind VERY excited about where things were going. Then...

Love the episode and the "Right Back Round" song! Great vid, as always

Another cracking video and performance. Nice one Alex.

Anyone ever wants to hear this in another context, the Avatar is all over Genesis' album And Then There Were Three.

That thing sounds absolutely amazing… Probably the best demo songs of any video too!

those panned 3 low 3 high spread outputs sound mad! Great video as always mate.

Very cool demo mate, cheers for this!

Definitely love the hexfuzz. Does have a very Jeff Lynne quality to it!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

So satisfyingly 70s!

Another most fun and insightful clip 🤗. What a charmingly awkward piece of gear. You definitely gave it a chance to shine its little light out into the world. Well done! 😊 I'm in love with the feature song, and if I may add, the vintage photos (of what I assume was their initial presentation/demonstration of the Avatar) during the climax were so beautifully placed that I had a little tear in my eye.

I've read about the Avatar so many times over the years, and I can't believe I finally get to hear it in such a great way. This is a truly excellent demo, and I really appreciate you taking the time to do this!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Yes, I was equally fascinated as to what it actually sounded like with guitar. So glad to be able to find out.

Fantastic video. You're making great stuff with every instrument you lay your hands on, you're an absolute legend! I absolutely loved the intro tune - feels like a reminder of the sound of better times.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you Henning! These old synths certainly sound like a different time.

Great video! Exceptional song at the end, one of the most complete with full lyrics!😁👍

One of the original inspirations for the passion and perils of guitar synth. Thanks for another great review and rediscovery :)

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

The passion and the perils indeed!

Another Alex Ball gem! Great stuff, mate! ❤

Fun and informative video, Alex. And some really adept chord changes in Right Back Round. Great performances too! Cheers.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers! Funnily enough I had to adapt and change chords to work with the Hex fuzz. It was a two way writing process between me and Mr Avatar. 😀

Alex you are the most musically creative genius man on the internet! Loved watching this! :)

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you sir.

Wow, there is so much I didn't know about the Avatar! Thank you for going so deep and showing all of the functions it was originally intended for. Top work as always Mr. Ball!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, the Avatar has this whole other side and nobody was going there, so I decided I had to. Glad it worked out, despite the long journey to get it working.

Another fantastic video- thank you!

Alex you are so entertaining, informative and talented. I look forward to each new vid, and learning something new.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for tuning in!

Absolutely fantastic! Thank you very much for sharing.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers!

Alex this is incredible!

Absolutely cracking, good work Alex.

Heard all of the outro song, it has an amazing production quality of recording, arranging and composing, man you´re very talented!! The ARP sounds amazing on this video also.

love the track man awesome work

You are just so damn good at this Alex! Truly! ❤

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

Oof, that hex fuzz demonstration had some serious Ratatat vibes going on: thank you for giving this quirky piece of gear a definitive video!

Always great content, love the final track. :)

As always 💯🔥 - looking forward to the next streaming/bandcamp release.

Amazing Work as always Alex! . super cool song at the end!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

AMAZING VIDEO and music. Well done, mate!

@AlexBallMusic

7 ай бұрын

Cheers!

Fantastic as always Alex! Thanks for work mate

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Hey David! Thanks very much.

Amazing Alex, Thanks!

Wow, you nailed it again. Great story and the music at 10 mins in and the finale are sublime ❤️

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Lee and thanks to your widgets too.

Hex Fuzz sounds like harmonies on a Queen record. It's great.

@MrHermanRinger

7 ай бұрын

My thoughts exactly. I wondered if Brian ever got to try one at the time, and what he would have thought if not.

Great video! I liked the Minneapolis Funk thing you had going with the sequencer. The Hex Fuzz is awesome, too. Thanks for posting!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Comes alive with the sequencer, too laggy to funk without it!

Another FANTASTIC video, not only showcasing the Avatar, but your always awesome musicianship! 😎🤘🏻🍻

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers!

Loving all the jams in this video 🤘 This machine gives me such Roxy Music/David Bowie Heroes vibes. A shame it was a failure for Arp, but they managed to get the pitch tracking more accurate than what I can manage with the MS20 external input, so there's that going for it lol.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Such a 70s sound, yeah. ...and yes, the tracking is an impressive attempt given the era, but falls someway short of being usable.

Let the world be filled with Psychedelic Resonance. Mr. Ball you rock! So nice to see one of these again…

I feel the strongest purpose of any "instrument" is to be the thing that it was designed to be... I never realised it until about 1 year ago, but with all the synthesiser I've owned over the years, I've been yearning for the sound of a Rhodes piano & while many synthesisers do an admirable job at creating a facsimile, they're not a Rhodes piano... I understand why companies/people recreate popular instruments, or modify one instrument to be like another, but I feel that every instrument wants to be (for the most part) itself... * No instruments were anthropomorphised in the writing of this comment.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

It's a good point. One thing I forgot to mention is that a string doesn't vibrate consistently - it bends sharp on attack and then gradually shifts back as it slows. When an oscillator tries to track that it sounds all wobbly, like it needs servicing. An keyboard (analogue or digital) gives it a solid fixed voltage. Another reason why the two don't gel so well. But the Hex stuff and envelope follower are really great. It's kind of two separate products in one box.

@GizzyDillespee

2 жыл бұрын

I feel the opposite way about instruments having a sound vs synths... people used to use a metal or glass slide to turn their guitar into a synth. You were trying to make your synths sound like a Rhodes, and I was using the Rhodes sound on my digital piano as a "synth oscillator", with fx to make it sound completely different. I don't think the Rhodes sound is any kind of natural archetype. Culturally, it is, definitely - if the synth can make a good Rhodes sound, then they'd better include it as an early preset. I just imagined, though, from the viewpoint that for every instrument there's a sound that is its purest expression... then a physical modeling synth would be like an abomination, a Frankenstein monster of an instrument. Yet I keep running into stories about people who kept the same patch on their synth forever. One was a famous Buchla user😂! I suppose they found the sound their synth was meant to make. I still like relic-ing my "normal" instrument sounds. Oh well. Horses for courses. The initial pitch wobble from strings of the electric guitar reminds me of the EaganMatrix's "round initial" feature. It works as advertised on the playing surface (it rounds your first touch to the nearest scale tone, and then you can bend pitch from there), but I don't know whether there's a way to integrate that feature with a guitar as input device, either via MIDI or CV. In 2022, there must already be a perfect guitar/synth interface, no?😮😂

@knives_on_static

2 жыл бұрын

@@GizzyDillespee the unique sound of the Rhodes is the strange single coil magnetic pickup picking up the sound of piano strings ( which is believe are a different gauge than a standard piano string ) going through a fender style tone capacitor. No active electronics or preamps involved. A synthesizer can come somewhat close to it, but those passive magnetic pickups picking up the piano strings is a very unique sound. Synthesizers can't really replicate the harmonic distortion of them. A synth can probably get about 95% there

@grahamhanks906

2 жыл бұрын

​@@knives_on_static Not quite but close, there were no strings in the Rhodes, it used metal tines which were a bit like tuning forks, these would be hit by the hammers and the vibration would be converted into an electronic signal by the pickups. it was the tines that gave the Rhodes it almost bell-like sound.

Wow amazing, cheers Alex.

Fascinating piece of equipment! Thank you for this overview.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Probably even more fascinating to an evil scientist, yeah. 😀

Excellent demo. I quite want one!

Totally cool, Alex! Super awesome tune!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Cheers Rik!

Months later I’m still coming back to listen to that last demo song…

@AlexBallMusic

Жыл бұрын

Cheers!

Very cool story, 40 years of synths never saw one before. Thanks.

Great musicianship, Alex.

What you do is very beautiful and timeless !! !! Many thanks for for sharing !! !!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you Chris!

Probably the best guitar synthesizer I've ever heard.

Grwar video. Love the song at the end - a cool Be-Bop Deluxe vibe.

Cool cool cool... But can we just take second to appreciate the sick jam at 7:54 🤤

that was quite a friday treat

F@@king stunning Alex. Very enjoyable and again your skill over rides the inadequacy of the tech

1st time I've heard someone demonstrate and clearly explain this instrument. Thank you Alex. 👍

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

It's been a mission of mine to do this. It was partly to satisfy my own curiosity!

That was the most complete and honest video about the Avatar I have ever seen! Back in the days I did not have the budget to buy a questionable novelty, which also required modding my guitar for a hex pickup. So instead I bought the Korg Pitch to CV converter, which even had more issues than the Avatar. A pitch follower is not accurate and stable, in the end it was an affordable failure, haha!

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! Yes, I was determined to get to the bottom of this one. I've used the Korg X-911 and it was quite weird, yeah! But it was small and inexpensive as you say! The Avatar was really expensive, which also helped kill it.

And a BIG "thank you Mr Ball" for your efforts and wonderful productions. Also for the numerous responses to posts that you do. Its pretty special when "Alex Ball" responds to you. Imho.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for stopping by Michael.

@SpikesStudio3

2 жыл бұрын

Lol

Excellent ! Bravo.

Great songs and presentation AB

Fantastic video, Alex

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks Pete!

Sounds amazing. Wish my guitar skills were good enough to use it how you do. Great demo and narration Alex

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!

Dude... beautiful❤️

I don’t know why but this reminded me a bit of a Roland guitar synth controller I used to see a guy play live with in the late 80’s. Bizarre sounds but fun. I’d love to see you play one. Also, RIP Vangelis :( Great vid as always.

@AlexBallMusic

2 жыл бұрын

The GR-500 had some similar ideas and then the GR-300 just straight up have Hex fuzz! Which one did you have? RIP Vangelis indeed!

@Pablo668

2 жыл бұрын

@@AlexBallMusic I didn’t have one sorry, but I knew a guy who did. We used to refer to it as a ‘box full of dragons’. It might have been the 300.

Incredible video, thank you 😊

Arghh! I gave away an Arp Axxe years back. Nice to see an Avatar with you bringing out it's potential.

What an incredible sounding machine. I can't believe I hadn't heard of this before. Too bad about the problems it has, because it's sooooo rad sounding.

@makipri

2 жыл бұрын

A remake with a modern pitch-to-cv would be rad!

I played with one when they first came out on the market, I was blown away! Love the hex fuzz sound.

I have a strat-style guitar Casio put out in the mid '80s with a hex pickup and midi output. It has the same variable lag problem, but it can still be useful live for sounds with slow attacks like strings and pads. In a recording situation it doesn't matter so much because the midi data can always be quantized or nudged around if needed. The thing I find strangest with it is that while it can make the guitar have the tone of practically any instrument, it doesn't sound 100% convincing a lot of the time because the performance is still limited by what chord voicings can actually be pulled off on a guitar. I can connect it to best piano patch ever made, but a lot of the time the result wouldn't sound like a part a pianist would actually play. On the other hand, if you're looking for a different way to approach voicing a part, especially for more abstract synth patches, then it's definitely something cool to experiment with

Wow! Brilliant!