Post by Scifishocks on Nov 21, 2007 0:22:49 GMT 1
Something for synth fans... and maybe someone out there can help.
Over on Jeffs official site, a member asked me about the Thunderchild synth specially developed by JWM and used on the album.
I asked Jeff Wayne for a potted history of this famous synth and he said this:
''It was designed by a young 18-year electronics boffin named Nick Groome who worked at JWM Electronics for several years. He was quite a whizz and the Thunder Child came about when I kept on about wanting a certain type of synth that could do certain things, especially big fat bass end sounds!
We got very close with Arbiter to distribute the Thunder Child as they were impressed, and from memory somewhere around 6-10 prototypes were made, displayed and tried out. We have one here in our archives, and if there are any others that have survived, I'd be keen to know about them!
When the TC was created, it has to be remembered that it was the heyday of the mono synth, with oscillators forever going out of tune, even the big 'name' synths struggled in that department, and the TC was no different. I did play it on a few tracks on TWOTW, but none actually survived as Yamaha's CS80, the first poly synth, came out about half-way through TWOTW production, and we replaced many of the original sounds with Yamaha's ground-breaking keyboard, including the famous ribbon controller and finished most of the remaining sounds with it, although the Arp Odyssey, the mini Moog (great for bass sounds) and my Fairlight contributed a bit.
So, the TC became a rare beast, and never made it onto the music scene. Ironically the few musicians, including myself, that played it were most impressed because of those big fat sounds. Nick's efforts with other work for our little experimental electronics company were never really recognized -because none of our products made it to market. Had they, the TC and a couple of other little gems he designed would have surprised many people.
Jeff Wayne''
So Jeff has one of the Thunderchild synths still in his archives... but where are the other prototypes that Jeff mentions?
I did a bit of googling and came up with this mysterious link...
matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2006/01/jwm-electronics-thunderchild-sz3540.html
Here's the pic for the lazy (this isn't Jeff's one!)...
At least one other still survives then... but where I don't know.
I don't play (although I've often considered learning)... but I'd still like to have one (not that I could afford it!)!
If anyone out there knows of any other existing prototypes, please let me know and I'll let Jeff know.
Over on Jeffs official site, a member asked me about the Thunderchild synth specially developed by JWM and used on the album.
I asked Jeff Wayne for a potted history of this famous synth and he said this:
''It was designed by a young 18-year electronics boffin named Nick Groome who worked at JWM Electronics for several years. He was quite a whizz and the Thunder Child came about when I kept on about wanting a certain type of synth that could do certain things, especially big fat bass end sounds!
We got very close with Arbiter to distribute the Thunder Child as they were impressed, and from memory somewhere around 6-10 prototypes were made, displayed and tried out. We have one here in our archives, and if there are any others that have survived, I'd be keen to know about them!
When the TC was created, it has to be remembered that it was the heyday of the mono synth, with oscillators forever going out of tune, even the big 'name' synths struggled in that department, and the TC was no different. I did play it on a few tracks on TWOTW, but none actually survived as Yamaha's CS80, the first poly synth, came out about half-way through TWOTW production, and we replaced many of the original sounds with Yamaha's ground-breaking keyboard, including the famous ribbon controller and finished most of the remaining sounds with it, although the Arp Odyssey, the mini Moog (great for bass sounds) and my Fairlight contributed a bit.
So, the TC became a rare beast, and never made it onto the music scene. Ironically the few musicians, including myself, that played it were most impressed because of those big fat sounds. Nick's efforts with other work for our little experimental electronics company were never really recognized -because none of our products made it to market. Had they, the TC and a couple of other little gems he designed would have surprised many people.
Jeff Wayne''
So Jeff has one of the Thunderchild synths still in his archives... but where are the other prototypes that Jeff mentions?
I did a bit of googling and came up with this mysterious link...
matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2006/01/jwm-electronics-thunderchild-sz3540.html
Here's the pic for the lazy (this isn't Jeff's one!)...
At least one other still survives then... but where I don't know.
I don't play (although I've often considered learning)... but I'd still like to have one (not that I could afford it!)!
If anyone out there knows of any other existing prototypes, please let me know and I'll let Jeff know.
