So the death of Whitney Houston got me thinking.....

[Ranbat]

...about how the 80s made tons of people run out and buy a keyboard so they could be the next Pop or New Wave sensation. Which makes me want to know if Casio was the Harmony/Silvertone of keyboards. If so, who were the Gibson and Fender?

[Mr. Foxen]

Moog, Korg.

[Submarine]

The Yamaha DX7 synth was definitely the big keyboard of the 80's. (Yuck).

[bbottom]

Wait she died?

The Yamaha DX7 synth was definitely the big keyboard of the 80's. (Yuck).

Yea I was going to say Yamaha as well

[lordfinesse]

Yeah the DX7 for sure. A few other big ones:

Oberheim (the OB8 is the sound of 80s era Van Halen and Rush)
Fairlight (the Rolls Royce of synths in the 80s.. think Tears for Fears and Peter Gabriel)

The Oberheims and Fairlights still go for relatively big money (>$1K). DX7's sell for $200-300 any day on Craigslist.

Also worth mentioning..
Roland (Juno 106)
Sequential Circuits (Prophet 5)
Ensoniq Mirage
Linndrum (think drum sounds on Prince's 1999 or Sheila E's The Glamourous Life)

[inductorguitars]

Ensoniq Mirage

The original 5 1/4" floppy sampler/keyboard. Think Skinny Puppy's low-fi samples.

Wasn't there a DX-5 that was big too?

[lordfinesse]

Mirages are cheap nowadays too. I see them on Craigslist sometimes for $100-$150. Not sure about DX5s.

[mortlock]

[jibberish]

the dx7 came out in like 80-82. i have one of the originals before they added a few things.

there was also the emu and ensonique sampling keyboards which were a new concept around then.

oberheim was thee shit. i lusted for one of those and a prophet 5. and when kurzweil was first coming out with their hi-end sample modules...oooh lala..

the moog was 1970 era, as well as the prophet5 and ARP synths

there were some mean korg and roland synths out in the 80's like the juno etc. (cant remember the hot korg's name)

[NoSleepTilSleep]

there were some mean korg and roland synths out in the 80's like the juno etc. (cant remember the hot korg's name)

Poly-Six (and the mono-poly), those early 80's synths were shanghai'd by bands like Duran Duran, but they're still capable of some non-shit tones (I'm thinking John Carpenter soundtrack stuff)

[EddieMullet]

Sequential Circuits had a synth called the Six Trak, which was kind of like a lower end Prophet 5, it came out in 1984 or around there, you could MIDI it up with the Drumtraks drum machine and control it all with your Commodore 64.

The thing sounded great, but was hard as hell to program, and the six track onboard sequencer only stored about 800 notes (hence the name Six Trak because of the built in sequencer) it had a really good arpeggiator and the Drumtraks machine had the Linn drum sound down pat.

The MIDI failed often and it was a bitch to keep in tune though.

I know all this because I still have one, all I need is a new working MIDI interface for the Commodore 64 (it plugged into the cartridge slot) and I can go back to my full 80's glory.

I also have one of those Moogs they made to sell in Radio Shack under the Realistic brand, it was called the Concertmate MG-1 and is similar to the Moog Rogue and has no MIDI capability.  These came out around 1984 or so.

[Ranbat]

Glad I started this. I have no knowledge of keyboards and there has been some interesting info posted. Thanks to all who have. 

[jibberish]

nice little 1min oberheim ob12 demo...  all kinds of stuff going on:)

ya korg rules

just go through the list of synths mentioned and check out demos. my alltime favorite is the prophet -5

and i have to link this. this is flat awesome 3 dudes/6synths. man do they rip out a medley and a half

[Ranbat]

^ That vid is going on the FB wall! This thread has gotten me interested enough to do more research. I'll definitely take you suggestion and look up some demos of the other units mentioned. Good stuff!

[RAGER]

We had a Korg DS 8, Korg DW 8000, and a Korg M 1 in a band I was in in the 80's

[MikeyT]

   To be fair, Whitney apparently played piano (but not on stage).

[Demon Lung]

didn't he die like 8 years ago. I think you could find a better comparison

[bbottom]

and i have to link this. this is flat awesome 3 dudes/6synths. man do they rip out a medley and a half

That is freaking awesome

[jibberish]

i have a DX-7 demo on myspace. i used cool patches  the 5th song called soaring, basically psych i suppose. 3 DX-7 tracks onto a yamaha 4-track cassette....i <3 yamaha i guess lol

http://www.myspace.com/33220744

the DX-7 gets the bad rap because it was such the identifiable sound like the electric piano(think doogie howser theme etc) and most of the patches belong in a lounge act.  however, there is a sick level of programmability in there and you can get that thing going nuts

the DX-5 was a baby DX-7 and there was a bigger one, i think too

the DX was huge as it was the first additive digital synth. but it was different. it does things like bell sounds amazingly well, but the more sound effect stuff it sucks ass. like forget trying to make a sax sound or blowing wind, eagle cry etc, but it dominates like at sine wave instrument sounds etc

[jibberish]

i really like these guys. they are called envelope generator. i also really like the bits of text explaining what they are doing.

[Ranbat]

I've checked some more of their stuff out since you posted that first vid. Found them on FB too and I'm digging them. They may be total crap in that world, but I like what I hear. It kind of fits my newly rekindled interest in electronic/trance.