"Torden over Herning" - on Roland SH-2000 and CASIO SA-1

This melody was something I made back in 1997 when I lived in Hammerum - a village placed a couple of miles west of Herning near the big sculpture I showed in the "la isla bonita" video (except that the sculpture wasn't build in 1997).
The story behind this weird piece of music was that I had just finished repairing an old Grundig TK125 de luxe tape recorder that I had bought at a jumble sale. At the moment I switched it on to test it a thunderstorm broke out and I thought it could be fun to try and record the sound of it. I placed a microphone in the open window and recorded ten minutes of violent summer thunder on tape.
Later I used the best parts of it to make this melody. Some of it is played directly from the tape. Other parts I stored in the Yamaha VSS-30 sampler and played using the keys.

To illustrate the melody I took a walk in the autumn rain in the area where I lived. The places are:

1:43 - the house where the melody was made.
1:53 - Knudmoseværket, the regions power plant
1:57 - the art museum
2:38 - the university and educational area
2:43 - the shopping centre
3:22 - Utzon House

I play the melody on Roland SH-2000 synthesizer and CASIO SA-1 toy keyboard. The bass is played on CASIO SA-3 toy keyboard through a Boss OC-2 octaver, the rhytm is played on Roland CR-1000 drum machine, and the (a bit too loud) strings are played on a Kawai MS-20.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• thunder
• lightning
• storm
• yamaha
• VSS-30
• kawai
• MS-20
• CASIO
• SA-1
• SA-3
• Boss
• oc-2
• octaver
• Roland
• SH-2000
• CR-1000
• Grundig
• TK125
• de
• luxe
• tape
• recorder
• open
• reel
• Herning
• PVC
• rainsuit
• autumn
• walking
• rain
• rainwear

[sauermusicDE]

Can you tell us something about the settings on the SH-2000 in this track?

[organfairy]

@sauermusicDE - The SH-2000 is a preset synthesizer with limited editing features. So what I did was that I used the preset "PLANET" and activated "FILTER MANUAL" to edit it. Then I set CUT OFF FREQ to 0 and RESONANCE to 8½ - just before the point where the filter starts to oscillate. This will just make the sound dark and nazall. But then I set MODULATION to 8 and MODULATION RATE to ½ and activate "REPEAT". This will give a nice sweep every time a key is pressed.

[Penguindog55]

That was good, the casio sa1 is a real collecters item today, people who bought one from new should think themselves lucky, especially considering the fact that it's one of the first sa models and the kawai ms keyboards are rare, your so lucky to have one.

[organfairy]

@Penguindog55 - That probably depends on where in the world you live. In Denmark Kawai MS-20 keyboards are quite common - but only the MS-20. I have never seen any other Kawai MS keyboards here.

[cdytcktt]

You're the man Flemming. Yet another sweet little jam. Keep the great videos coming.

[organfairy]

@bobamu - So I have noticed. Maybe it's because more people have these toy keyboards so they are easier to relate to.

[bobamu]

yeah man do it, you've got all these high quality keyboards and organs and people want to see the €5 casios :D

[organfairy]

Well, the title is "Thunder over Herning" so a little wetness could be expected. That's why I wear the PVC suit :-)

I have thought about making more videos with toy instruments as they seem to be somewhat popular. I have planned to make a melody called "It could happen to you" by the Belgian band Telex on my pile of Casios.

[bobamu]

Very Nice, and quite wet :)

I love the way you use the toy keyboards as part of the production like they aren't toys too

[danielpaq]

I like the music you get out of your video Fleming the effects of rain on the recorder seems to really have a storm in my house. Roland synthesizers makes the melody has a good effect