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Date December 7 2004
Type Interview
Source KoRg magazine
Title Will Gregory of Goldfrapp
Country UK
Journalist/Photographer Oz Owen
Pix     
Text All of us like to have a wealth of classic sounds at our disposal, but let?s face it, classic synths really aren?t that easy to come by these days. And when you do find one that stays in tune long enough to lay down a middle eight or two the price can be rather prohibitive, to say the least. So praise be for the digital revolution that?s putting classic sounds of yesteryear into your computer. And although they may be relative newcomers to the world of soft synths, Korg have stunned many people with The Legacy Collection, a trio of soft synths that faithfully recreate some of the best loved synths the world has ever known: the MS20, the Polysix and the Wavestation.

But just why do musicians the world over love spending their time in the company of these great synths? We put that question to none other than Will Gregory, who has owned practically every classic synth at one time or another. You?ll probably know him as one half of pop sensation Goldfrapp. We recently caught up with the man himself in his Bath studio?

Korg magazine: So, Will, you?ve been using the Legacy Collection and the MS20 controller for a while now? what are your impressions?

?The controller looks remarkably like an MS20, although smaller, of course. The MS20 is a classic machine because of the filters. Those filters are totally unique. They have a hi-pass and a lo-pass, so it?s like a band pass, but much more flexible because you can separately alter the resonance and the frequency of both filters. In this way you can have them feeding back simultaneously with both resonances screaming out, which will actually produce chords. For me, that was the one thing Korg had to look at and get right with the emulation, because that?s where the heart of the MS20 is ? in the filters.

KM: So in terms of the filter do you think they?ve actually succeeded?

I think they have, it sounds remarkable. I don?t think there are many computer-modelled systems that will scream back at you and self-resonate, and this does that. They?ve really let this machine rip! The only thing is, although I don?t want to diss it because it?s a great piece of kit, it doesn?t go quite as mental at the bottom when you put it into full self-oscillation and whizz it down to the sub. But other than that it?s cool. When you wind the filter round you get that lovely stepping up the harmonic series sound, which is particular to the MS. Every synth has its own way of doing that, and the MS20 is no exception, and they have got that right.

KM: So more versatile than the original MS, then?

That?s it! Many?s the time that I?ve tried to get the MS20-type filter sound on a chord, which meant shoving a polysynth into the external output. The fact that the MS in the Legacy is polyphonic is what for me makes it really worthwhile. It means you can make that filter sound with polyphonic material. And it?s touch sensitive as well.

KM: How do you like the Polysix?

It sounds good. I used to have one, so it makes a lot of sense to me. The original Polysix had a problem with the internal memory battery ? often they?d leak and eat into the motherboard, and you?d have to throw it away. I guess a real hardware Polysix is probably becoming more and more rare these days, so if anyone?s got one then they really should get in there and change the battery before it leaks!

I?d love to get a Polysix again, but the one on the Legacy sounds good. The thing about the Polysix was that it had this onboard chorus/ensemble switch, and that was the thing that made it happening. For example, you can make a pretty convincing Hammond with that nice wobbly chorus effect, and when you combine that with a sharp attack you get a staccato percussion effect, a bit like a B3. I made a lot of very cheesy organ sounds with my Polysix! The one in the Legacy collection seems to be able to do the same.

It?s also good for fat bass sounds, again because of that wobbly chorus, and it?s quite good for sizzling, toppy, stringy sounds. There?s a particular pulse-tone quality that?s unique to the Polysix, and the software emulation seems to have got that.

KM: And the Wavestation?

I used to have an original Wavestation too, and I imagine that the emulation in the Legacy is totally the same because it was a digital machine in the first place. Wavestations are great for nice, wide sounds, so I usually use one width. Some of those string patches, for example, are very stereo ? they surround you. It?s always been difficult to program and to be honest I never bothered. I reckon that most people I know who had Wavestations had about seven presets that they liked and they?d just use them? which is a bit lazy, really, isn?t it?

KM: Sounds like you?re happy to get the Wavestation back into your sonic armoury?

Well, I have still got a Wavestation, but it?s in our touring set-up, as it?s great for the live show. So it?s good to have it back. I might try programming it a bit more this time!

KM: And Legacy as a whole package?

Overall I think Korg have done a good job. And having the versatility to put the Wavestation?s width through the MS20 filter, through the Polysix chorus, could be quite excellent. And for £400 it?s a great buy. I haven?t even really mentioned the hardware interface for the MS20, which is really important for me. For example, those MS20 filters that you want to be able to simultaneously manipulate. You want to be able to simultaneously manipulate. There?s no way on earth that you could do that with a mouse.

And that?s currently the limitation with the whole soft synth idea ? it all comes down to the interface. In theory digital should be able to reproduce anything that analog can do. I?m not at all purist about that. What I am purist about, though, is the idea that you want a knob to tweak. You want to be able to grab something with your hands and change the sound. With a mouse you can?t do that, it?s not as intuitive. I think what we all want is knobs! And of course not only can you apply those knobs to the MS20, but also to the Polysix and the Wavestation, although it takes a bit of getting your head around!

All in all when it comes to synths half of it is about the sounds, and the other half of it is about the interface, so it?s well done to Korg there!

FUTURE LEGACY

KM: So what would Will Gregory like to see in a Legacy Collection part 2?

I like the MonoPoly. It?s got a great effects section, which is very powerful. For me it was like the upper limit of what you could do with mono synths. It doesn?t really know whether it?s monophonic or polyphonic which makes it a really interesting hybrid.

And also the 700S, an early Korg synth, which has got mental modulation ? three ring modulators and a chorus that?s so wide that it sounds like the note is going out of tune by a semitone, which I like. It?s an extreme machine ? you can get off the dial very fast. And it?s a very under-rated synth.

INTERFACING

Now that we have largely attained the sounds of analog in the digital domain, many musicians are beginning to feel that it?s time to work on more interesting and complex interfaces for controlling those sounds. And Will Gregory is no different:

?When synths are produced, they have to be interesting, variable and exciting to play with, but also easy to operate. Because if you made something that was as difficult to play as, say, a violin, which probably takes about 20 years to learn how to play very well, then no one?s going to buy it. So they have to make this stuff easy to use.

?But the problem is that if it?s easy to use then it?s like giving someone a toy violin. All you would have to do is hold down a few notes and waggle your arms and the thing would play. And I think that?s a little bit true of computers as well. If you were to design an interesting interface for a computer it might take someone a couple of years to learn how to use it. But I hope it is a challenge that someone will eventually take on and maybe it will lead to the birth of a radically new digital instrument that could stand alongside acoustic instruments in terms of expressive power.?

 
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