Added: 5 years ago
From: mode101wpb
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  • Vince always inspired me 2 push sounds 2 nu shoes? Synth Pilot + Roccit sounds = Styles Lee.

  • you have some great stuff here

  • very interesting video thanks

  • can you imagine if he did a modern day version of this. even though he has all that gear in his maine studio, he'd be able to do this on a laptop :P

  • I allways have problems sequencing drums. I find it almost tedious to get them sound good and tight. And this guy only needs about 2 minutes to make a nice decsent song.

    But what the heck...It´s Vince Clarke.....

  • The "King of Synth" Vince Clarke !

  • @audiotrax2000, who cares? He knows what he's doing and it sounds good, that's why i listened to it.

  • very tight studio for the 80's ! I love the 707 lying in the foreground !

  • Truly a badass technician and musician...Vince Clarke was always at the forefront of every new wave of music technology. This man is definitely a genius...

  • I am sorry to post twice, but...

    I often recognise synth sounds from individual groups in certain periods, and often never from other groups. Is this because groups wish to use their own sound and not be accused of copying? If 2 people buy identical synths will they produce the same sounds? Or can you manipulate a synth to produce unique sound? Can an artist "own" the rights to a sound, like a lyric - ie if my record ends up with the same bleeping sound as your's can you sue me for plagiarism?

  • @simonzon Nope...can't be sued for that...but far worse is being branded unoriginal or boring for using the same sounds as someone else.

    Sounds like you might want to pick up some older vintage synth and have some fun messing around with sound creating...

  • @simonzon

    There's a ton of duplicated sounds. I hear that one sound all the time...I think they call it a piano? How unoriginal to play the piano when millions have played that similar sound so many times :) [I hope you see my point]

  • Very interesting. As a non-musician I would like to ask the following:

    Will he still use this old equipment today? I have seen pictures of Clarke's studio full of contemporary equipment, but as these machines obviously did a perfectly good job, would it be common practise to continue to incorporate them? For instance, I am a poet and although I generally write in modern free verse, I still make use of the old, traditional styles of verse from time to time.

  • BBC Micro B and the software was UMI-4M. Still have an article on it somewhere in an old Music Technology edition...

  • Casio was the afordable choise for us whith an ST512.

  • what computer (and/or sequencer) are that thing?

  • "master cable"? huh? oh, KEYboard. jesus, dude, speak english!

  • I remember my old casio keytar. Better sounds come out of a birthday card, believe me!

  • vince is a legend

  • My first synth was a CZ1000 - you could hear aliasing artifacts at high frequencies through headphones.

  • vince is a total legend xx

  • depeche mode , yazoo , erasure , thx to vince ! ( spent nights to program & sequenzing my casio cz 5000 , it had an 8 track sequenzer ,combined with a roland 08 synthesizer , real futuristic , lol!)

  • The 'numeric/digital' period of Vince Clark., not the best....

  • @gododinou yeah but doesnt this sound good for it being over a quarter of a century old?vince is just a pure genius.dm, yaz, erasure.ummm. duh.

  • because they're all c*nts

  • I didn't even know the BBC Micro had sequencing software, impressive..

  • Vince Clark is a god. that is all.

  • fucking genius

  • Rockschool! This show was great. Why cant there be a show on tv like this now?

  • Dope!

  • Vince makes it look easy!

  • Gawwwwd...rock school ! LOL

  • wow, sequencing with a commodore, brilliance

  • @Redliner500 Its a BBC Micro, I used to use one myself back in the day with the Hybrid music system which was way ahead of its time.

  • flippin awesome! i like the music he's making i'd jam that even now!!!! gotta love vince, he's pure brilliance.

  • flippin awesome!

  • today's hip-hop producers are doing EXACTLY what Vince Clarke is doing with their MPC's. this is simple sequencing...

  • @descry1 You mean it took them 25+ years to catch on to something so "simple"?

  • @BoogieWithStew 25 years? sequencing's been a part of hip-hop from the day 1. the introduction of the sp12 in the 80's as a sampler/sequencer/drum machine made this technology widely available to the average mainstream consumer.

    whether or not the music sounds good to you is your opinion and matter of taste (and an opinion i don't to debate as you are entitled to it), but there's no reason to discredit the use of technology within the genre.

  • is that one of those early usb coffee heaters?

  • Now I open Live and start making stuff like that in a couple of minutes, that's the kind of shit I love about tech....

  • He's using an Acorn BBC computer, can this guy get more British? I love it!

  • casio as a master keyboard xD

  • @Synthdude13 The legendary casio cz 1000

  • I know ;-) but my comment was from a year ago so I forgot I posted it xD

  • Vince clarke is a genius. Nightbird was his best work EVER!!!

  • This is the boot camp of recording synthesizers. To firmly appreciate modern technology of Logic Pro & ProTools, you have to know where it all began.  Right here in videos like this. Today's "producers" don't know just how easy they've got it.

  • I thought he only used presets....

  • This is the original masterclass!! Reminds me of all the CM specials, except there's no Vengeance samples or Logic DAW in sight. Great stuff!

  • i was born in the 80's when all this was out shame i only lived the last 3 years of the 80's. That casio keyboard sounds great similar sounds in the Nintendo NES.

  • Only way is Essex

  • Eraysier?

  • Check out that BBC Computer

  • thanks for this lesson...although it might be "old school", the same principles for composing with the computer, are still used today 2010.

  • It's still all about volume, pitch, and duration. :)

  • cool story.

    Yazoo and Erasure were great in 80s. :) Love both groups.

    And Depeche Mode without Vince is as Yello without Carlos Peron.

  • Vince Clarke was in Depeche Mode which makes him cool...

  • 2 fingers for play keys?

    I prefer DJANGO REINHARDT!!!

  • No need for berklee college of music Vince has taught everyone how it's done. Man's a genius!

  • I think I saw a dinosaur inside that Synclavier. Briefly. And to think this was the hi-tech stuff these days. Amazing but a pain to create even a simple loop.

  • amazing

  • El tipo sabe; más la cago al largarse de Depeche Mode :(

  • @MrJhonnyjulian No la cagó, simplemente se largó de Depeche Mode para eso, para seguir experimentando por su cuenta.

  • @Lgw1984 aunque monetariamente no le haya ido tan bien digo ,no :)

  • @MrJhonnyjulian No creo que tenga un trabajo a tiempo parcial habiendo vendido con Erasure más de 25 millones de discos. Encima se ahorró lo que tuvo que aguantar Alan Wilder en los 90 y al ser el compositor principal del grupo puedo hacer lo que más le gustaba

  • @Lgw1984 pues si pero Alan es Alan y en pinta se lo lleva incluso hasta a Dave Gahan; dime creo que Vince y Alan son contemporáneos (1959)?

  • @MrJhonnyjulian Yo también pienso que Alan Wilder era el talento de DM, pero sin Vince Clarke Depeche Mode habría sido una banda de rock británica más.

    Cada miembro de Depeche Mode ha tenido un papel muy distinto:

    Martin Gore es la composición pura, no era un genio musical pero compone cosas pegadizas.

    Vince Clarke era el experto en tecnologías

    Alan Wilder sabía como debían sonar las cosas que componía Martin.

    Las composiciones propias de Alan Wilder son demasiado complejas para mi gusto.

  • @Lgw1984 y Fletcher mmm bien gracias, el hombre ha sido como el papa de los pollitos siempre muy seriesito y sin escándalos

  • @MrJhonnyjulian ¿Sin escándalos? El tío es depresivo clínico

  • @Lgw1984 Eso si con las gafitas tiene la pinta de unos de esos asesinos seriales , si te pones a pensar :O

  • He has the notes written over the keys... WTF?

  • Famed for using the Casio CZ 101 during the early days of Erasure.

  • I think Vince Clark is trying to demonstrate 'just that' po531don......indeed, it is great to see the #old machines' in operation....the past remains with the future....there's no escaping that....

  • My goodness... how much work to create a single pattern on that computer :) Today, this is soooooo easier... We're freakin' lucky, I must say.

  • i rember those pc'c when i was about 5 but then back in 1994 they were near to an end but this is where music synths all started and now look at it today great. Well done vince.

  • Vince IS a Synth god!!! ;-)

    The man IS a LIVING LEGEND. Xx

  • Comment removed

  • This is sequencing NOT synthesizer programming. Why do people always get the most basic things wrong on You Tube?

  • @audiotrax2000 Or, you are programming the sequenser to play what you want using master keyboard instead of feeding in parameters into synth/sequenser....

  • @audiotrax2000 What is it then? If you critisize u must have an answer

  • pure talent !!.......should never leave DM

    All members of DM are geniuses !!

  • Is that a BBC! lol!

  • Vince Clark Vs Alan Wilder = Ultimate Showdown

  • Wow a BBC B contolling all that :)

  • What is the sequencer?

    The only green on black display associated with a sequencer that I know of is the Fairlight.

  • I believe it's the UMI computer program which is basically a 16 channel MIDI recorder.

  • Catchy, if almost simple. But there's great creativity in the simplicity here.

  • Vince Clarke is a god amongst man

  • @wasteyelo1 yes, he is

  • What synth does he use for basslines? Great sound.

  • @maccagrabme He used the Sequential Circuits Pro One extensively for bass etc. The Keyboard used in this video is the Casio CZ1000. I think he was also a fan of the Casio

  • This is incredible.. I just couldn't do this at home in the early 80's due to the lack of availability of software/hardware to the average joe..

    This gear must have cost a fair amount of money

  • I remember watching this in the 80s. I had it recorded on VHS and watched it over and over.

  • bloody amazing! he is pure legend

  • its a CASIO cz 1000 THe master key

  • x depeche mode! great....love this guy

  • Do you have some form of time transporter?

    No LCD monitors in 1985, sport.

  • Did he turn that tune into a full length song? The guy is a genius to mix that up in 2 minutes.

  • Todays Hip-Hop so-called Producers are not even close to what this Guy is doin'..

  • oh really? watch?v=jzA7UjkkWf8

  • @Zhorellski i wouldn't call them "producers"

  • @Zhorellski Not true. Some hip hop producers are very talented. Not all though...

  • @Zhorellski great and very true comment

  • @Zhorellski I am very glad people like you pont these things out! What you just sayed is so sad and at the same time so true...lol

  • @Zhorellski TRULY

  • @Zhorellski actually they are lol, u can do that sequencing 100 times better on FL studio, u can do 16 quantasizing, and screw this guy he sucks, lex luger clowns on him.

  • @ClassicCult  shame on you...

  • I notice a lot of people are going on about how Depeche turned out to be so great without Vince, yet I personally believe Yazoo sounded better than anything Depeche ever did. I think he made the right move to break away and work with Allison. Depeche is great, no doubt about that, but Yazoo was so much more expressive. Depeche was dark. Yazoo was dark too yet much more expressive and the songs had more variety. This is all my opinion though, I understand many will disagree.

  • what kind of software he was using?

  • It's a BBC B microcomputer, with a software/hardware add-on called a UMI-2B.

  • WHY ARE YOU GLAD VINCE LEFT???/.......DM made it anyway .....with top song writing and top music by martin and alan.... but dont forget vince went on to write some excellent material with Yazoo, The Assembly and then Erasure......

  • LCD monitors aren't that popular in 80s.

  • He's got his CASIO hooked up to the WOPR. Professor Falken is going to help him out with some tic tac toe and hella 80's beatz!

    I predict we'll reach DEFCON 5 in no time!

  • See? I'm not the only one who wears white shorts after Labour Day in the studio!

  • can you get your frammistats to co-ongulate with your  nimini pimini converters?

  • Hey Vince..thanks for showing us!

    I love your music.

  • Cool. A sequencer like the Yamaha QX-3, there is the echo back function which allows you to hear synths that have no sound engine or other devices that you are sequencing to be heard.

    Cool computer he used.

  • nearly sure it's a bbc micro running umi software

  • wow that's some OG quantizing!

  • what's the song? :)

    thats cool

  • My Word, I never knew that olde BBC Computer (and not a Fairlight) could be used as a sequencer!! Last time I used one was back in 1985, to play a round of Frogger, haha, top stuff!

  • wow, that sounds so complicated. thank god for Reason 4 and Logic 9

  • it is not so different from recording with Logic if you are a "one man band", only things that changed are the gui of the software and stuff like vst/au-plugins and softsynths

  • It's not,. I used to work with two MC500 Roland linked to a A880 midi patch bay sending to various synths. It's basically the same process, it's just hardware vs software. One of the problems you get when you use cpus all the time is that you get the same sound. Old synths have character, that's why so many pros continue to use them.

  • MTV's Sifl & Olly must have ripped this tune off for their song "prostitute laundry." check video K8Hn11aPZyM seriously.

  • that looks so much easier than on a modern computer nowadays !

    Only too bad that he couldn't hear the sounds realtime. It's hard to make a spontaneous groove that way.

  • CLARKE RULES

  • Oj teraz jest to o wiele bardziej proste.

    Technika idzie naprzód, co będzie za 10 lat !!!

  • Wow so old school... I can only imagine how much that stuff would cost in the 80's

  • The thing is alot of these synths where cheap stuff that werent so impressive when it first came. But today some machines that where flops back then like the TB303 is very highly priced. The thing is for a bass imitating machine the 303 is not very good, but who doesn't know that sound today?

    But I guess Moog and Oberheims stuff where expensive in the start back then, but not all. But today if anything is analoge it's expensive as hell or at least if you want it to have some voices.

  • That computer comes probably from a CMI Fairlight ($30000). Add $30000 for the other things... Very expensive...

  • @Appleye

    and how much it cost nowdays:):)

  • @Appleye how much does it cost now?

  • I get you - thats brilliant thanks so much!

  • This is brilliant news, thanks so much for your help. I have a MIDI-to-USB cable which worked fine. Only problem was with echoing - for some reason when I input a note on the keyboard, it echo's it, playing it twice. I'll get there in the end! Thanks again for your help

  • Hi, the reason you are getting an echo with midi is you still have the local keyboard switched on in the global settings. What happens is you will hear the keyboard play the sound and then the midi sent back to the keyboard plays it again. Switch local off when using it with the computer.. ;)

  • Fantastic! Thanks :P

  • Forgot to mention just in case,

    You need to have the synth hooked up to MIDI cables that go into the computer through some sort of interface. It sounds like you already have that.

    Computer IN connects to MicroKorg MIDI OUT

    Computer OUT connects to MicroKorg MIDI IN

    (that confused me when I first learned it)

    And then set your interface to be used in your DAW MIDI preferences.

  • Hey there! Can someone help me with MIDI...

    I understand that it's a 'language', and it only sends signals, but what I don't understand is that when he was playing there, he was playing notes through the keyboard. Yet when they came though on his Computer, he could quantize them to the time frame... How is this possible if MIDI is only data and not audio?

    Thanks! :)

  • The sequencer program running on the BBC B computer is the one that came with a 3rd party device - UMI 2B if i recall does the timing/quantization work. You are correct in saying that MIDI sends note & patch information amongst other things , but NOT timing information.

    The sequencer sends the MIDI signals to both play the notes & change the patch of the sound being played.

    When quantizing, the sequencer program "moves" the note on/off timing data so it is dead-on ...just how Vince likes it!

  • Ahh I see. But if you say MIDI only sends on/off data, how does also send that Patch information from the keyboard?

  • When you first press a key on a keyboard, a MIDI message is sent that essentially says "some note (for example C#), at some volume (called 'velocity')"

    When you let go of the key, it sends a message that says (some note, turn off). Those are the only two messages that travel down the MIDI cable in the process of playing a note. No information is being sent AT ALL while a note is being held.

  • The computer records these messages and keeps track of when they happened. It can play them back exactly as they came in, or the sequence information can be edited before it is played back (fixing timing, deleting notes, transposing, changing the lengths of notes, etc).

    When the computer plays back, it sends MIDI messages (note on, note off, etc) at specific times (just as if it were a musician reading sheet music). These messages are interpreted by whatever MIDI instrument he has hooked up.

  • The actual audio is created by whatever synthesizer is recieving the MIDI messages from the computer as it plays back the sequence.

    Remember, the synthesizer recieves a message that only says something like 'play C# at full volume'. The synth will play a C# on whatever sound it is set up to play. It holds that note until it recieves another message to stop.

    Other messages can be sent over MIDI like pitch bend, patch changes, or 'controller data' (to control a filter, etc).

    Hope this helps!

  • GreyThing - You're a life saver, thanks so much for your trouble. I feel stupid for being confused, I just found the whole data/audio contrast strange.

    Final question (I promise!) can modern DAW's like Logic send this MIDI data to synths? I have a MicroKorg and, after hooking it up via MIDI, it will only 'send' data, not receive it.

  • Yes,

    You will have to create a channel that is designated as a midi instrument. In Logic 8, called an 'external midi track'. If you make a new track from the 'Arrange' window, it gives you that option. Software instrument tracks can also be used.

    Then, in the track information on the left of the Arrange window, set 'port' to your midi interface and 'channel' to 1 (or whatever you microkorg is set to receive)

    Garage Band can do it if you download a plug in called midiO - 1.2 (google it)

  • The midi sends and returns from the Keyboard.

    The midi is just re-triggering what he played on the keyboard...for example he would still have to record that to make it into audio.

  • Vince Clarke is a musical and synth genius, truly gifted, i mean, NEW LIFE! what better track, other than Situation

  • the man is a legend.

  • Look at the Pc it's ancient

  • The PC, i believe it was a BBC Micro, was quite long for sale at EBay Germany for about 500 or more Euros. It was the original one of the two Micros he had, including the original Sequencing Software.

  • *Sequencer* programming, perhaps.

  • that is a prehistoric version of Fuity Loops Studio!

  • are you an idiot or something?

    obviously its an old Midi Sequencer.

  • Sorry O_o!

  • hehe its cool.

  • I'm agree!

  • AburameFixFox: You are an idiot. You have no idea about electronic music and think that with a Apple and Cubase you are a genius.

    Electronic music is a hardware sequencer and a rack modules sintetizers.

    You are the kind of "musicians" that the only can make is "copy paste". VINCE FOREVER! NOBEL PRICE FOR VINCE!!!

  • Take it easy bro!

    my totally respect to Vince.

    I never thought that my commentary could provoke bad impressions! anyway, sorry if I make you feel ofended.

  • we are "susceptible". ;)

  • yeah mister yazoo, depeche mode and lucky bastard as he say from is akai collection sample lol i love the way he use a very cheap computer to controle the analogue stuff it's priceless, a lot of guy use amiga to in the 80's like art of noise or suzumu hirasawa.

  • man where do i get that copy of reason?! or is it cubase!? those VST's he's got are amazing! that is some serious production skills!!!!!!!!!!! ;)

  • Ay Máma,es Vince "el genio".

  • In the days when you had to know DOS in order for your computer to perform basic tasks.

  • Each drum is a note on the keyboard, mmm-kay? j/k

    I love Vince's work

  • this is fking braindance! :D

  • This was done with the Casio cz1000 as his "master" synth to input via midi.How far things have come since then.However some of the best music is done by this method and still remain "Classics 80`s".

    A great video!

  • "best" music! phhhhhhh get a grip! give me an example!?

  • Well,most of the 80`s and most probably into the 90`s too.Before the fairlight,there was only really clunky,huge analog machines that took a Phd from Oxford to try to program.What i was saying was how easy it is to program stuff today with grooveboxes and vst "ready to go" beats versus the time consuming step input of the 80`s :D

  • those shorts are fresh

  • Seems easy!. but try! ... what an old pc!

  • It's a bbc B . a great machine for the job

  • That was cool to watch... I wondered how all of those synthpop bands from the '80s made their music. Question, though: does anyone know the song Vince is recording?