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This is mainly out of curiousity, but can anyone enlighten me on the types of synths Richard Barbieri used in Japan?

lastgoldstar wrote:This is mainly out of curiousity, but can anyone enlighten me on the types of synths Richard Barbieri used in Japan?

In the early days Richard used a Roland System 700 modular synth, a Micromoog and also a Fender Rhodes piano (I know, not really a synth). In some of the old promo videos it looks like he had an Arp Omni string synth (not sure about this as I could only see the side panel of the unit)

Later he added a Prophet V and Oberheim OB-X (with grey face plate). In the Oil On Canvas video he appears to have upgraded to the blue faced OB-Xa (or perhaps it's an OB-8?)

After Japan he also used a Roland D-50 and Prophet VS... this was in the mid 80's and into the 90's.

John Trevethan wrote:

lastgoldstar wrote:This is mainly out of curiousity, but can anyone enlighten me on the types of synths Richard Barbieri used in Japan?

In the early days Richard used a Roland System 700 modular synth, a Micromoog and also a Fender Rhodes piano (I know, not really a synth). In some of the old promo videos it looks like he had an Arp Omni string synth (not sure about this as I could only see the side panel of the unit)

Later he added a Prophet V and Oberheim OB-X (with grey face plate). In the Oil On Canvas video he appears to have upgraded to the blue faced OB-Xa (or perhaps it's an OB-8?)

After Japan he also used a Roland D-50 and Prophet VS... this was in the mid 80's and into the 90's.

Thank you very much for the information! I was fairly sure that he used a Prophet V, but that's really all I knew.

what about the prophet 5?

i heard richard say that the pro 5 virtual synths(eg. pro 53 ) are better than the actual pro 5 he used back in the japan days.

has anyone here tried both and what do they think?

nine polaroids wrote:what about the prophet 5?

i heard richard say that the pro 5 virtual synths(eg. pro 53 ) are better than the actual pro 5 he used back in the japan days.

has anyone here tried both and what do they think?

I recently read an article where Nick Rhodes was talking about synths past and present. Unfortunately I don't have the original article but his general consensus was that he favors the older equipment over the newer.

nine polaroids wrote:what about the prophet 5?

i heard richard say that the pro 5 virtual synths(eg. pro 53 ) are better than the actual pro 5 he used back in the japan days.

has anyone here tried both and what do they think?

I've heard both the original Prophet V and the Plug-in, but not side by side so I can't make a very accurate comparison.

Just from memory it seems that the Plug-In is quite close to the original sound. You can even load in the original sound dumps from a real Prophet V and get your old sounds back (if you owned the real keyboard). Also, the plug-in has a built in delay which is a nice addition and you have tons more memory locations to save sounds to in the plug-in.

One other thing regarding the original Prophet, there is a definite difference in sound between the older non-midi version and the newer versions with midi. This is due to different oscillator and filter chips being used in the non-midi model. Unfortunately the oldest version of the Phophet V can't be updated with midi - but the sound was vastly superior to the later models. Much warmer and fatter, although it didn't stay in tune as well (which is something that you never need to worry about with the plug-in).

I would imagine that Richard Barbieri and Japan were using the earliest Prophet version when it first became available.

thanks for the info.

nine polaroids wrote:what about the prophet 5?

i heard richard say that the pro 5 virtual synths(eg. pro 53 ) are better than the actual pro 5 he used back in the japan days.

has anyone here tried both and what do they think?

Well I have both. I can say that the real thing is fatter and richer for one.
But the real thing ... well at least for my unit I had was driving me crazy...due to the Osc going out of tune. Not easy getting them repaired or tune....so I sold it. Though I still kept the Pro One as that my first synth I bought with my life savings.

The VI's are good actually it's rather close to the real thing. And you don't have to carry it a round like the real P5...just pop into the laptop and go.

So...My frank opinion the VI is better for what it is....... though I still miss the wooden panel....lol

I bought the P5 on the back of hearing Japan and Gary Numan - rubbish at keyboards, but could play a mean bass - still have the P5, i know it was used by RS on the OGWT, i know that, because when he returned it was returned two days later saying the ocsilator did not work - bugger me how would i know????

Come on - you were not playing the keyboard for real anyway!!!!

I guess the real reason why I and Mr Sakamoto have not stayed friends no more!!!

i still watch videos of OGWT - my parents were alive then, so i could get anything - i bought DS's keyboard - still have it, and it it still has the Burning Bridges tapes.