Interview of Stephen Lipson

[ichigatsujohn]

heh heh... this is awesome - I love the voice samples.

[beowulven]

What's a "real" instrument? Vibrating air is vibrating air...

[tall32guy]

I've wondered what Stephen looked like since I saw his name on Annie Lennox's solo albums. :)

[Polysixchick]

I prefer the FAIRLIGHT CMI to the NED Synclavier and the FAIRLIGHT looks nicer!

[jackTHEEtab]

They both have a distinct sound. I prefer the NED myself (even though I will never be able to afford one-even used these days) it was the quintessential digital synth IMHO. So many great soundtracks were scored on these.

[SirMattMann]

Fookin lovely ...Got me into sampling..then it all went mad...VSts?

[maruzha]

Stephen is Genius!

[SingAlongDiDong]

i knew steven lipson....it's so funny now because i didnt know he was a famous producer back then....i was around 6 and my mum was him and his ex-wifes' cleaner and i used to go sometimes to help out...they were always so nice to me giving me free things all the time!!!! ahh i loved it :D

[w8geek]

Great stuff, and so wonderfully dated.  What up with the birds at 5:50?

[basslabs]

He looks so coked up....

[gizmo4eva]

There are so many models of Synclavier that I think too many even informed technical people get their facts wrong. For example, the old Synclavier 2 is completely different to the Synclavier 9600, the latter still holding it's own now. Most people assume rather erroneously that the Synclavier used on Thriller and Like a Virgin is the same model as the one used by Frank Zappa on his final albums.

[tomstickland]

One other thing - Steve Lipson seems to have a demonic stare in this interview.

[4evernate28]

Yeah, I can tell he doesn't like to blink that much.

[tomstickland]

This is brilliant. It was all hi-tech in those days; now it looks like a spoof. Having said that, Horn and Lipson did amazing things with Frankie Goes to Hollywood and ABC.

[pandaplodder]

Claudia also featured in a (BBC)Tomorrows World Programme whilst with Propaganda at the same studios (I'm sure that was presented by Howard Stapleford as well?) showing how P-Machinery was made, that obviously would have been a few years earlier

[GrahamMercer]

I have the CD Single of Snobbery & Decay and in fact this video clip from when it originally aired. For me, this is one of the most catchiest songs of the 80's, sincere thanks for uploading this clip Michthoo!

[subby33]

100,000 dollar piece of equipment and this song sounds like crap

[littlenige]

It's all about the 'sound' - any Lipson Trevor Horn production is distinguishable by it's attention to the sound - almost more so than the song itself. Just listen to the early Dollar stuff, ABC's Lexicon of Love, Yes' 90125, Frankie, Grace Jones' Slave to the Rhythm etc. They all SOUND fantastic.

[dillikins]

Wrong. 250,000 dollar piece of equipment and this song sounds brilliant.

[1zenguitarguy]

Also looking at the video it seems like he is on a VT640, pre- macintosh, a total unrel;iable piece of crap computer. The interview is so misleading because the things he does are so overly simplistic and easy, not really what the machine was a bout, and he points to features and capabilities that were notoriuosly unreliable, to be honest I had to laugh watching it.

[1zenguitarguy]

I owned 4 of them, and a Buchla, and aFairlight and a studer, and Protools etc... and can say for a fact that nothing compares to the creative possibilities that the synclavier had, yes things have more options and bells and whistles, but synclavier integrated it all before anyone else, it was also the biggest pain in the ass ever!!! 1 meg of RAM cost $1000.00.

[glennwinstanley]

I remember this episode. Can you show the music with animals part, and 'serious' electronic music section?

[canvoodoo]

my god so thats were the decline of good music started. pmsl i got more power in a decent soundcard these days than that syclavier.

[zenmachinefilms]

"more power in a decent soundcard".

This comment shows just how little you know about the Synclavier, and why composers such as Mark Snow, Gary Chang, and Eddie Jobson still use it to this day.

[blynx666]

Yes, the synthesis cababilites of this machine are astounding, but wouldn't that be a matter of replicating the software for today's computers? I heard about a software for Apple Mac in the nineties.....

Both the NED Synclavier and the Fairlight CMI are surround by so many myths, but in the end it all comes down to what you can make with then. I can make those things he made on the video with a Cheap Casio, but nobody talks about why they're so special...

[gizmo4eva]

Add to that list Alan Howarth. Other names that stuck to the Synclavier into the last ten years (and may still use it now) include David Foster, Alan Silvestri, Paul Hardcastle, Harold Faltermeyer, Trevor Horn and Stevie Wonder.

[Paardekut]

Another album done entirely on a Synclav is "Provision" by Scritti Politti. On the album before that "Cupid & Psyche" they used a Fairlight-II, which added alot more dirt and feel to the tracks. The Synclavs sounded too good. You can tell that musically not much time has been spent on this track by Lipson. It all sounds too manufactured. That's because the Synclav made it so easy to quickly manufacture music. Synths and sampling went all down hill from there. Bring back the 8-bit grunge.

[blaharns]

The Synclavier is basically a PC with sound cards and a keyboard, so today´s most andvanced PC´s can do a lot more than the Synclavier for a fraction of the cost.

[buchla300]

Written by someone who has never used a synclavier clearly..

[blaharns]

Sorry, but I have worked as an assistant engineer on several of Benny Andersson´s recordings, and he owns several 1990s type of Synclaviers.

[toresbe]

The Synclavier was an amazing feat of engineering, back then.

[calyx93]

Sure, a new PC might be able to DO more, but not with the same detail and quality of sound or with the same build specs. Go back to smoking your hash, man.

Show me an application, for a PC, (and I'm saying application NOT the something like the Kyma system) that can perform the additive resynthesis and timbre window functions - you can't.

[hemlock68]

The sound that trevor and steve made 20 yrs ago does still holds up today in quality but new tech' like Ableton and Apples Logic make it easy to produce high quality multi-trax in one package,even at home.The power is always in the producers hands,even today,look at timbaland,xeomania,dallas austin etc these producers do all the work/creativity and the "stars" reap the fame.ZTT shafted alot of bands like claudias with poor contracts that made no money for them.

[pauleyh]

absolutely true but you have to run a mac OS. my synclkavier is totally original

[backindauk]

Mac is just a terminal for Synclavier. It has nothing to do with the creation of sound.

[biboland75010]

Très intéressant de découvrir cette vidéo 20 ans après. A l'époque, nous n'avions pas accès à autant d'infos sur nos groupes favorits. La magie était peut-être plus grande. Claudia Brucken, Act, et Propaganda demeurent pour moi des génies qui ont marqué leur temps.

[LaHenche]

Stephen Lipson: Contemporary of Trevor Horn. Producer for ZTT records back in the 80s. Most notably: Propaganda's "A Secret Wish" a classic pre-electronic record.

[supercrazyoi]

Propagandas "A secret wish" was all electronic. What would "pre" electronic be then?

[Pacalo]

Excellent video! Snobbery & Decay is one of the best songs of all time, this video is highly interesting!!

[therezabizarre]

the synclavier!!!