experience with spring reverbs and
onboard speakers, which were also
good for evaluating and road-proof-
ing mixes. Then there was that rapid-fire
sample-and-hold circuit to make
things sound like an evil computer. I
think I spent my first year on the ARP
trying to recreate every sound that
Jerry Goldsmith used when he scored
‘Logan’s Run.’”
Bhatia’s love for vintage gear
isn’t just about sounds and the
tactile experience; it’s about the
process. “It’s how I learned to orches-
trate in a synth classical style. I was
a late learner to formal theory so
the Minimoog and ARP taught me
orchestration, my four-track recorder
taught me harmony, and my first se-
quencer taught me form.”
He advises emerging electronic
composers to start with something
tactile and vintage. “Learn the process
of music. Make noise. Make mistakes.
Make really great music. Make really
awful music. Learn from that, then
go into the computer and browse
through all those plug-in folders.”
Going forward, Bhatia has be-
come partial to Arturia products:
“Their collection has faithfully repro-
duced the Minimoog and the ARP
2600 to the point that it becomes my
go-to for fast deadline projects. It’s a
real love/hate thing for me because
I love a room full of old synths and
spending days and days on patch
creation, but for TV and film, there’s
no time, so, currently, my main rig is
[gasps] virtual synths only.”
Obviously, there’s plenty more where
that came from. We could talk about
the Prophet 5, Roland Jupiter 8, and
more recent but now-vintage offer-
ings. There’s plenty out there, from the
wild to the weird – the Melodica, the
Skellotron, the cat piano (look it up) –
to tiny pianos, NuMotion’s curved key-
board, and Roli’s exciting offerings.
There’s no shortage of tools to
talk about in vintage synth land, but
hopefully your experimentation with
these sounds – original or recreations
– leads somewhere exciting.
Kevin Young is a Toronto-based
musician and freelance writer.
C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N • 57