midnigt Star instrumentation

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by Ged Leitch

I googled for ages but to no avail...

Anyone know at all of the synths or Drum machines used by "Midnight Star" 80's funk band??

My "Guess" is DX7 for some basslines and possibly LM1 for drums, sounds like some OBX was used too, but I'm really just speculating.

Prophet 5 along with Oberheim DX; you can recognize the sounds plus they're shown in the videos. Could've easily been OBX or OB-8 since the character can be similar but it's Prophet here. DX-7 started to creep in to music around 83-86, is on their albums and was often part of but not the primary sound. Midas Touch. Operator, Freakazoid are mainly Prophet and Oberheim drums, and for the electro stuff, a vocoder.
YouTube - Midnight Star "Operator"

YouTube - Midnight Star - No Parking On The Dancefloor (Live)

[Ged Leitch]

Originally Posted by analogbass

Prophet 5 along with Oberheim DX; you can recognize the sounds plus they're shown in the videos. Could've easily been OBX or OB-8 since the character can be similar but it's Prophet here. DX-7 started to creep in to music around 83-86, is on their albums and was often part of but not the primary sound. Midas Touch. Operator, Freakazoid are mainly Prophet and Oberheim drums, and for the electro stuff, a vocoder.
YouTube - Midnight Star "Operator"

YouTube - Midnight Star - No Parking On The Dancefloor (Live)

Hey Analog, thanks for that!!

I always thought the fantastic Bass synth in "operator" was a moog, cause its so fat
do you think it was a Prophet 5 for the Bass?

[analogbass]

Originally Posted by Ged Leitch

Hey Analog, thanks for that!!

I always thought the fantastic Bass synth in "operator" was a moog, cause its so fat
do you think it was a Prophet 5 for the Bass?

All Prophet; same with Midas Touch and any of those other tracks. It along with the Oberheims was considered second only to a Mini for bass and sounded quite similar when properly programmed. There is a difference on some patches but on others it's fairly close if not quite the same.

Most of the groups then used Prophet which was the standard, some Oberheim; there weren't that many options just a few plus they all sounded great. Most of the Solar label that Midnight was on was Prophet-Dynasty, Lakeside, Whispers, etc. One Way same thing. Lucky Star Madonna Prophet. Jam and Lewis, SOS all OB-8.

Mini - The System, Fatback, Rene and Angela, Borderline and Everybody bass, Madonna with Prophet leads and pads.

[Ged Leitch]

Originally Posted by analogbass

All Prophet; same with Midas Touch and any of those other tracks. It along with the Oberheims was considered second only to a Mini for bass and sounded quite similar when properly programmed. There is a difference on some patches but on others it's fairly close if not quite the same.

Most of the groups then used Prophet which was the standard, some Oberheim; there weren't that many options just a few plus they all sounded great. Most of the Solar label that Midnight was on was Prophet-Dynasty, Lakeside, Whispers, etc. One Way same thing. Lucky Star Madonna Prophet. Jam and Lewis, SOS all OB-8.

Mini - The System, Fatback, Rene and Angela, Borderline and Everybody bass, Madonna with Prophet leads and pads.

Just spent last night dialling in some really good fat bass tones in NI's Soft Pro53,
and was really surprised that i could get a fatter bass out of it than most of my other culprits.I guess i never really spent enough time with it for bass.

Thanks for the heads up Analog, you have helped me sort out alot of sounds in my new track, sounds much more better for it!, cheers!!

p.s you know your funk!!

[nrvana8775]

Solid thread

[djmike303]

midnight used a prophet 5, an obxa and a dx ob but i prefer the drumtracks sci

[djmike303]

midnight star used a arp omni 2 to control the vocoder roland svc350 !!! more infos at

ANALOG SYNTH MUSEUM

[djmike303]

midnight star didnt use a dx oberheim, they used a sequentail circuits drumtrak , in freak a zoid and later , listen freak a zoid and you will listen alll the drumtrack sound, like the clp and the cow ball that dx didnt have!!!!

[djmike303]

midnight star used a sci drumtrak for drum not an Lm1

[djmike303]

listen freak a zoid and you will notice that!!!

[groundbass]

there us so much great 'machine funk' in records like Midas Touch - sometimes I dont buy this 'Detroit 3 groud zero' bull - futuristic brothers and sisters were making synths groove way before then - and get no props - until today people listen back and realise that compared to most hipster 'retro irony', even your average 80's pop band funked hard than hard....

[Ged]

Operator is 100% DMX - no argument.

[Ged]

Weird, I just answered my own thread haha!!