Production notes – Precisionsound Analog Performer SFX User Manual
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© Copyright Precisionsound 2014
Production Notes
By Phil Thornton
Equipment list
Moog Source synthesiser
Korg MS-20 synthesiser
Korg MS-50 synthesiser
Korg SQ-10 analog sequencer
Korg Monotron delay
Korg WS1 synthesiser
Equipment set up
Many of the performances in this library were created by
making creative use of the unique tactile control offered by the weighted, free-spinning data entry
wheel on the Moog Source synthesiser.
For example, when the data entry wheel is used to control the playback speed of the on-board
sequencer in tandem with the modulation wheel, many organic-sounding results are possible! This
type of performance has been a favourite ‘source’ (pun intended) of inspiration since I first
discovered the possibilities back in 1981 when I purchased the Moog Source.
The technique was also used to good effect in Analog Performer SFX as a control voltage for driving
the Korg system – for instance, as an analog sequencer speed control, filter control, and so on.
I recently had the Moog serviced and tuned. There were many non-standard options available as a
result. One notable decision was to allow the spread of Oscillator 2 to be slightly narrower than
Oscillator 1; the result is a very nice variation in the way the Oscillators ‘beat’ against each other
across the keyboard. This is different from a ‘perfectly’ tuned keyboard where the beating effect
would be consistent on all notes.
Another tuning tweak that the engineer made on my behalf was a non-standard interval on the pitch
wheel, allowing the instrument to be tuned down a full octave from standard.
Modular patching
The MS-20's dual filters were controlled from a large variety of sources on this project – the SQ-10
analog sequencer, Moog real time sequencer and performance, voltage controlled Low Frequency
Oscillator (with control input from envelope generators, sequencers, other LFOs, and so on). And of
course I used all the usual performance controls too – keyboard, foot pedals, mod wheel, control
panel knobs, and so on.