Memorymoogs Make
The BEST Explosions

from: popeye-x
12/19/01-10:22:11 AM-63.162.8.173

Of all the explosion sounds I've ever heard, nothing comes close to my 1983 Memorymoog [ser. #4???]. WAY BETTER than a real explosion. The real thing happens too fast. Ever notice how explosions on film look really bitchen in slow motion?

In the summer of 1985, I wound up on the local San Antonio news, Channel 12, KSAT. I was playing the Memorymoog with a live band in front of the Alamo, I saw a BIG news camera coming towards me, obviously already taping me, so I switched to massive explosion mode, and started making huge, PA shaking bomb blasts, acting like it was blowing ME up, too. The reporter, Paul Venema, even made up a COMPLETE LIE of a news story to go with the video. My neighbors told me they saw on TV where I had disrupted the grand jury at the courthouse! That place was crawling with cops, nobody ever said jack shit to us about volume. I'm just saying, the Memorymoog explosions have to power to propel one to the forefront of local yokel notoriety. Its the Daisy Cutter Of Synthesizers.

The Memorymoog is a 6-voice analog synth, with 3 oscillators and on each voice, but don't forget the Noise Knob! Of course, its in mono UNISON mode, which means, it only plays one note at a time using all 6 voices, each with its own separate filter, the entire synthesizer, ALL on that one note simultaneously. Yes, its 6 times louder than the other synth sounds that play 6 different keys at once. This is just one key. The filters make it possible to "tune" the bulge in the explosion, so the "balls" in the bottom of the noise are made 10 or 20 times bigger than the top end. Also, a slow, gliding pitch LFO is modulating the filters [the treble and bass-ness] with a square wave, that's usually speeding up or slowing down gradually, depending what key you hit. It gives an amazing simulation of rolling thunder when it echoes over a distance of many miles. The ADSR is set for ultra long decay, it goes on seemingly forever, with the volume fading out, rumbling in the distance. Also the filter ADSR attack is set so the explosions have a slight "ka-whump" at the beginning, instead of just "blam". Every key makes a different explosion, the sound is always evolving, it seems endless, because it never repeats.

I guess by writing this, I've pretty much talked myself into starting a Memorymoog explosion sample library for my personal use. I've got at least 15 commercial CD's with explosions that I've acquired over the years, and none of those sorry pieces of shit can even come close to
vintage Moog analog BALLS.

In the pic, the Memorymoog is the keyboard on the top. I would also like to thank my wonderful friends, Mr. Phil Moran, AKA, Okie D, for helping me acquire such a lovely piece of musical weaponry, and Mr. Will Alexander, AKA Dr. Beaker, for teaching me all about synthesizer stuff like oscillators, filters, LFO's, ADSR's, and mono unison mode, back in 1973, not to mention sampling and midi, back in 1983, plus all kinds of music related audio science along the way... you know... technical shit like "XLR", "EQ", "analog", "digital", "db's", etc. etc. etc.

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