Iconik

Rick Wakeman surrounded by a glorious assembly of vintage keys from the cover of his 1973 album "Six Wives of Henry VIII"

It’s probably not much of a secret to those who know me that I love vintage synthesizers. I used to gaze in awe at images of stars like Rick Wakeman and Vangelis  surrounded by tier upon tier of glorious synthesizers. I picked up brochures of the wondrous objects of desire and even managed to work out what each knob did by relating the sounds I heard to the descriptions in the brochures. 

I’ve personally been involved in creating synth based music since I finally got my hands on one the mid 1970′s. At the time synths were mainly analogue and subtractive, but they opened up a kaleidescope of new sonic posibilities, and there was a constant quest to create bigger and better sounds. They were exciting, groundbreaking times which spawned a new type of creativity that reach a peak in the 80′s new wave/synth pop era.

These days synthesizers are so readily available  that it’s hard to see what all of the fuss was about. There are computer programs and even apps for phones that replicate the the abilities of the vintage synths. Synthetic sounds are such an integral part of modern music that they accepted to the point of invisibility – but they’re in almost everything in the pop charts from at least the last two decades.

Vintage synths are exciting and have a raw power capable of shattering speakers and cutting right through from the back of the mix. I love them and that’s why I’ve created my own website where you can find a whole heap of rare and vintage synthesizersfor sale – you can find them starting here:

Slexa –  Rare and Vintage Synthesizers