8 Tracks: To Make You Fall In Love With Synthesizers By Sjamsoedin

Music

Amsterdam producer Sjam Sjamsoedin has been releasing music under various aliases for over 15 years, but his new work Orion is the first EP under his own name. As can be heard very clearly on the EP – which moves between gorgeous electronica and old-school house – Sjam is something of a modular synth enthusiast, and we'll let him explain his 8 Tracks selections in his own words:

"Being a synthesizer enthusiast I often go on YouTube to school myself about the timbres of different synths, and to figure out whether a certain synth is something I would want to buy. Fellow nerds often record demo tracks with their gear.

These songs were never meant to be released commercially, just to showcase the synths' possibilities. They were however often put together with great effort and musicality.

I’ve selected these demos because they either sound great, or I think they’re just very entertaining."

Orion is out now on La Freund Recordings, and you can purchase it here.

LISTEN

Roland Mks30

The classic way of doing a synthdemo: ALL the sounds are made on one machine. Even the bassdrum, snare and hihat. I love the industrial 80’s soundtrack vibe to this one. Also, nice chord progressions. MKS30 is an underrated machine in my opinion.

Roland Mks30

The classic way of doing a synthdemo: ALL the sounds are made on one machine. Even the bassdrum, snare and hihat. I love the industrial 80’s soundtrack vibe to this one. Also, nice chord progressions. MKS30 is an underrated machine in my opinion.
Bode Vocoder

I think it’s great how vocoders can add something human to a track, but not quite. While I was looking for an analog vocoder to buy I stumbled upon this funny and amazing demo. Too bad it had already been sold.
Korg Ms10

One of my favourite monophonic synths was released in 1978. It’s semi-modular, which means you can use it with patchcables, to create more complicated sounds or connect it to other synths, but also without them. I like how the demo develops from a single bassline into chiptune arpeggio catchiness.
Tb303 / Tr707 / Re201

Japanese Techno Girl showing off some classic gear. Acid wouldn’t exist without the TB303 (but I guess everybody knows that by now). The TR707 drummachine has been a staple in disco, house and exotica and the RE201 is still the most iconic tape delay (echo effect). Japanese Techno Girl may not be the best electronic musician ever, she sure is among the most intriguing.
Makenoise 0-Coast

Makenoise are mostly known for their modules for modular synthesizers. This is a demo of their standalone 0-coast, it starts out with some trippy minimal techno and ends with some blissful ambient.
Roland Mc303

I didn’t want to include demos In which people talk, but this one is just to good. The machine itself was a huge breakthrough in the late 90’s. It was part of a development in musicgear where professional studiotools became a bit more toy-like (and affordable). A lot of my friends had one back in the day. Not so amazing as the guy in the video makes you think. That said, you could still bang a cool track out of this today. Trippy and geeky promo video.
Korg Ex-8000

An upbeat synthwave demo showcasing the versatility of this polyphonic synth. Sometimes the big chords get a little trancey. The video, in all it’s simplicity, just showing the not so sexy piece of equipment from different angles, has a really relaxing effect too.
Sjamsoedin - Orion

This is not a synthdemo as such but the titletrack of my latest EP definitely showcases some of my favourite synths. The arpeggio’s come from my modular system, using a Music Thing Turing Machine and Tiptop oscillators among other things. Chords are done on a Korg Polysix and bass on a Studio Electronics SE1X. The video is made by Rogier van der Zwaag. Please check his work here: www.rogiervanderzwaag.com/