That’s not to say it won’t do simple basslines and leads, but it excels when you start getting freaky.Īrturia has also chosen to give it the option of polyphony (the original was monophonic), which works surprisingly well. His approach to music should give a hint of the kind of sounds to expect from Synthi V: experimental, innovative and leftfield. If we had to pick an artist most closely associated with the Synthi, Brian Eno would probably top the shortlist. Since then it’s found its niche in experimental rock and psychedelic music and when bands want an endearing lo-fi keyboard sound. It’s best known as that woozy, warbling flute intro to the Beatles’ Strawberry Fields, or the keyboard backing ’60s hits like David Bowie’s Space Oddity and Procol Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale. Vaguely similar to a modern sampler but using a strip of magnetic tape for each key instead of digital storage, the Mellotron allowed rough approximations of things, like string sounds, brass and choirs, to be played back polyphonically, years before the first samplers hit the market. First released in 1963, the Mellotron remains a unique keyboard instrument.

Arturia v collection 5