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Vangelis has died

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Re: Vangelis has died

#151

Post by alfiedotwtf »

MrGando wrote: post #148
jancsika wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imo, Vangelis brought the synthesizer from an experimental novelty to an instrument for composition. The two sounds I associate with him are the long brassy triangle with a steep envelope that we know from both Blade Runner and the accompaniment to the piano in the Chariots of Fire theme, and his effective use of chimes. One of the most memorable parts of the Blade Runner soundtrack is the brass synth that casually…

The brass you hear in Vangelis is probably an Oberheim OB-Xa, incredible brass sounds. The band toto made those sounds extremely popular here in the states too. Google who the Porcaro brothers were (well one is still alive and kicking :) )

on that ICYMI, there's one month to go before Oberheim starts shipping the OB-X8 (which contains the OB-X, OB-Xa, and OB-8 switchable filter and envelope responses)!

... but AFAIK the Blade Runner theme was famously done on a CS-80

Re: Vangelis has died

#152

Post by multi_tude »

MrGando wrote: post #148
jancsika wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imo, Vangelis brought the synthesizer from an experimental novelty to an instrument for composition. The two sounds I associate with him are the long brassy triangle with a steep envelope that we know from both Blade Runner and the accompaniment to the piano in the Chariots of Fire theme, and his effective use of chimes. One of the most memorable parts of the Blade Runner soundtrack is the brass synth that casually…

The brass you hear in Vangelis is probably an Oberheim OB-Xa, incredible brass sounds. The band toto made those sounds extremely popular here in the states too. Google who the Porcaro brothers were (well one is still alive and kicking :) )

I believe Vangelis' brass sounds were played on a Yamaha CS80, although the OB-Xa is capable of similar sounds.

Re: Vangelis has died

#154

Post by pjbk »

greggsy wrote: post #142
motohagiography wrote: post #32

Imo, Vangelis brought the synthesizer from an experimental novelty to an instrument for composition. The two sounds I associate with him are the long brassy triangle with a steep envelope that we know from both Blade Runner and the accompaniment to the piano in the Chariots of Fire theme, and his effective use of chimes. I have tickets for Olafur Arnalds next week, and there is a younger generation of composers like…

It’s hard to leave any discussion around the development of synth as an instrument without mentioning Tangerine Dream and Popol Vuh, but they were arguably more related to the prog-rock scene than as composers. Incidentally, a former member of TH, Klaus Schultz also died last month. TG didn’t land any major soundtracks (like Jarre or Vangelis), but they were nonetheless highly influential , if only due to their proli…

Ugh. Risky Business, Thief, The Keep, Firestarter, Sorcerer, Legend, Near Dark, Miracle Mile... Perhaps not as major as Chariots of Fire, but nonetheless.

Re: Vangelis has died

#155

Post by pjbk »

MrGando wrote: post #148
jancsika wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imo, Vangelis brought the synthesizer from an experimental novelty to an instrument for composition. The two sounds I associate with him are the long brassy triangle with a steep envelope that we know from both Blade Runner and the accompaniment to the piano in the Chariots of Fire theme, and his effective use of chimes. One of the most memorable parts of the Blade Runner soundtrack is the brass synth that casually…

The brass you hear in Vangelis is probably an Oberheim OB-Xa, incredible brass sounds. The band toto made those sounds extremely popular here in the states too. Google who the Porcaro brothers were (well one is still alive and kicking :) )

CS80 indeed. There is an almost identical patch for the Arturia CS-80v if interested:

https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2017/10/19/free-arturia-c...

Re: Vangelis has died

#156

Post by petre »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #45

RIP a true master of synthesis, up there as an equal to Isao Tomita and Ralf Hutter. So many memorable and now foundational techniques: The gated saw string "chug" (Chariots of Tire) Glissando space echo dives (Blade Runner) Incredible synthetic guitar solos that inspired Jan Hammer Analogue strings from the CS80 that melt like Mantovani. Will be so sorely missed. I'm gonna play out all my collection in a huge Vangel…

I'm very sad, having litened to his music a lot during my childhood. At least JMJ is still alive.

Re: Vangelis has died

#157

Post by MrVandemar »

WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #116
jug wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I thought it was written for the film until now! How embarrassing… Not only for the song suiting, but the title too. As it’s a bleak post-ecological society.

There is a story about how Ridley Scott wanted to use this specific piece and a couple more by Vangelis in Blade Runner, and Vangelis told him: why reuse my old pieces, I can make a new score for this film specifically. And so he did, in some short timeframe.

I think Scott did this to Jerry Goldsmith for ALIEN as well, except Jerry wasn't happy about reusing music.

Re: Vangelis has died

#158

Post by mhh__ »

moron4hire wrote: post #77
mhh__ wrote: post #2

That's a shame. His work on blade runner just has this timeless magic to it. The sequel ends on his motif (tears in rain) for a reason too. I also forgot to mention that chariots of fire is truly great too. Some parts of his music haven't aged too well, but the stuff that hasn't is sorely missed in today's film scores. Even if Zimmer is brilliant he's not a poet.

Seriously, I can always tell a Hans Zimmer score without even having preknowledge that a film had hired him. Big, orchestral, boring score that repeats the same motifs he's been using for the last 50 years? Dude has one act.

No one does it like him though, or rather his team.

I thought his work on no time to die was pretty boring, but the work he did with Pfister on 2049 and on Dune are almost genre defining, I feel.

His ability to integrate the score into the sound design of the movie is something I don't think anyone can do. Maybe no one else has the budget for it.

I think Dune is probably his best work, it's the perfect blend of atmosphere, evocations of a strange new world, but also thematic and structural rigour that has let down previous adaptations.

I definitely get tired of him sometimes, but equally I never feel like I need more deliberate choices from his work. When I listened to Giacchino's mostly fairly good score to The Batman, I felt myself thinking "This motif's entropy is too low", I very very rarely feel that in Zimmer's more modern work.

That being said I think Zimmer gets more credit than he deserves because I think more than many other names he is the director of the music. There's genius in sitting back, too, but I doubt he composed all the trills and melodies in the dune soundtrack.

Re: Vangelis has died

#159

Post by riffraff »

zoomablemind wrote: post #75

My memory holds that magical feeling, when in the mindnight darkness and quietness of home, suddenly heard a gentle stream of silver bells and a beautiful, maybe melancholic, melody from a tiny radio speaker... with no announcement of the author or name of the song. It was then just used as a last song of the day. Took me a veeery long time and other side of the globe to hear it again, again by chance, but with attri…

Wow, I never knew this was vangelis, thanks for sharing.

Re: Vangelis has died

#160

Post by TheFragenTaken »

moron4hire wrote: post #77
mhh__ wrote: post #2

That's a shame. His work on blade runner just has this timeless magic to it. The sequel ends on his motif (tears in rain) for a reason too. I also forgot to mention that chariots of fire is truly great too. Some parts of his music haven't aged too well, but the stuff that hasn't is sorely missed in today's film scores. Even if Zimmer is brilliant he's not a poet.

Seriously, I can always tell a Hans Zimmer score without even having preknowledge that a film had hired him. Big, orchestral, boring score that repeats the same motifs he's been using for the last 50 years? Dude has one act.

What a boring, nonsense take.
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