Analog sequencer
Encyclopedia
Analog sequencers were early generation of electronic music sequencer
Music sequencer
The music sequencer is a device or computer software to record, edit, play back the music, by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically :...

s. Their peculiarities and limitations left a lasting stylistic imprint on Berlin School
Berlin School of electronic music
The Berlin School of electronic music, or just Berlin School, was a development of electronic music in the 1970s, shaped by Berlin-based artists like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Ashra....

 electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

, and hence, indirectly, in many later rhythmic synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...

-driven music genres such as techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...

, trance music
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...

, 1980s synth pop, house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...

, ...

At its most basic, an analog sequencer is nothing but a bank of potentiometers and a "clock" that steps through these potentiometers one at a time and then cycles back to the beginning. The output of the sequencer is fed (as a control voltage and gate pulse) to a synthesizer. By "tuning" the potentiometers, a short repetitive rhythmic motif or riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....

 can be set up.

The most commonly used analog sequencer was the Moog 960, which was a module of the Moog modular synthesizer
Moog modular synthesizer
Moog modular synthesizer refers to any of a number of monophonic analog modular synthesizers designed by the late electronic instrument pioneer Dr. Robert Moog and manufactured by R.A Moog Co...

. It basically consisted of three parallel banks of eight potentiometers: the three banks could either steer three different VCO
Voltage-controlled oscillator
A voltage-controlled oscillator or VCO is an electronic oscillator designed to be controlled in oscillation frequency by a voltage input. The frequency of oscillation is varied by the applied DC voltage, while modulating signals may also be fed into the VCO to cause frequency modulation or phase...

s to allow three-note chords in the sequence, or (for example) one row could steer pitch while the second row is patched through to the filter cutoff or VCA
VCA
VCA may refer to:* Vehicle Certification Agency* Video Content Analysis* voltage-controlled amplifier also called a variable-gain amplifier* Virtual Clustering Agent, a load-balancing protocol...

 volume, and a third steers filter cutoff for a white noise generator (thus creating an extremely primitive electronic drum track).

Under each of the eight steps, a switch offered three options: play this step, skip this step, or loop back to the beginning. In order to avoid the monotony of endlessly repeated sequences, pioneering e-musicians like Chris Franke of Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...

 and Michael Hoenig
Michael Hoenig
Michael Hoenig is a German composer who has composed music for several movies and games, in addition to two solo albums...

 would manipulate these switches in real time during performance, adding and dropping notes and beats from a sequence. Also, the "pitch" row can be patched to two or more oscillators tuned to intervals, and the oscillators mixed in and out one at a time.

Good examples of all these techniques can be heard on the Phaedra
Phaedra (album)
-Personnel:* Edgar Froese – producer, Mellotron, guitar, bass, VCS 3 synthesizer, organ* Christopher Franke – Moog synthesizer, VCS 3 synthesizer* Peter Baumann – Organ, electric piano, VCS 3 synthesizer, flute-Chart performance:-References:*...

, Rubycon
Rubycon (album)
Rubycon is an album released in 1975 by German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. It is widely regarded as one of their best albums. Rubycon further develops the Berlin School sequencer-based sound they ushered in with the title track from Phaedra.Although not quite matching the sales figures...

, Ricochet, and Encore
Encore (Tangerine Dream album)
TD performed Cherokee Lane and Monolight, or some variants thereof, at every concert in 1977. The released version of Monolight has been identified as being recorded in Washington, D.C. on 4 April. The spoken introduction of the album also comes from here. A fantape of this complete concert was...

 albums of Tangerine Dream, as well as on Departure from the Northern Wasteland by Michael Hoenig
Michael Hoenig
Michael Hoenig is a German composer who has composed music for several movies and games, in addition to two solo albums...

.

By synchronizing two sequencers, and manipulating them individually, swirling polyrhythmic phasing
Phasing
In the compositional technique phasing, the same part is played on two musical instruments, in steady but not identical tempo...

 patterns (as introduced in minimalist music
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....

 by Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

) can be set up. The title track of the abovementioned Michael Hoenig album is an excellent example.

An additional module (Moog 962) allowed "daisy-chaining" the three rows to form one longer 24-step sequence. In addition, a switch on the 960 itself allowed the third (bottom) row to be used for note lengths.

The output voltage of the sequencer can be added to the output voltage of a keyboard controller, and the latter used to transpose
Transposition (music)
In music transposition refers to the process, or operation, of moving a collection of notes up or down in pitch by a constant interval.For example, one might transpose an entire piece of music into another key...

 the sequence on the fly. Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze
Klaus Schulze is a German electronic music composer and musician. He also used the alias Richard Wahnfried. He was briefly a member of the electronic bands Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before launching a solo career consisting of more than 60 albums released across five decades.-1970s:In...

 was particularly fond of this technique, which lays the musical foundation for tracks like "Bayreuth Return" from Timewind
Timewind
Timewind is the fifth album by Klaus Schulze. It was originally released in 1975, and in 2006 was the twenty-second Schulze album reissued by Revisited Records...

, "Floating" from Moondawn
Moondawn
Moondawn is the sixth album by Klaus Schulze. It was originally released in 1976, and in 2005 was the thirteenth Schulze album reissued by Revisited Records. In 1995, Manikin Records released "The Original Master" edition of Moondawn, containing a different bonus track from the one included on the...

, and indeed pretty much any rhythmic piece from Klaus Schulze's "analog" years. Vangelis
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis...

 and Jean-Michel Jarre likewise availed themselves of this technique.

Except in a temperature-controlled environment after warmup, pitch stability could be problematic. On the famous opening of Phaedra
Phaedra (album)
-Personnel:* Edgar Froese – producer, Mellotron, guitar, bass, VCS 3 synthesizer, organ* Christopher Franke – Moog synthesizer, VCS 3 synthesizer* Peter Baumann – Organ, electric piano, VCS 3 synthesizer, flute-Chart performance:-References:*...

, the sequencer had drifted out of tune, and one can clearly hear Chris Franke retuning the sequence by ear in real time.

Analog sequencers were eventually made obsolete by digital sequencers.

Various analog sequencers

External links

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