@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Yeah, nice people. You should note that PPG was founded by Wolfgang Palm, the designer, and Wolfgang Duren, the businessman. When they decided to go their own separate ways, it was Wolfgang Duren that set up Waldorf. Wolfgang Palm set up Palm Production.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Also, I may be wrong here, (it's so long ago I may have misremembered), but the PRK did have audio outs, and was more than just a controller. You could create sounds on the Wave/Waveterm and save the patches/samples, and PPG would burn a PROM that could be fitted into the PRK as a permanent preset. I got to know PPG through Kajagoogoo, as they were the only band ever to have an endorsement with the company.
I loved the throbbing basslines the PPG Wave supplied for Missing Persons in the early 80's. Spring Session M album is a great example of this beautiful synth.
The P.P.G. was used by Tangerine Dream both live and in the studio. The album Exit has the P.P.G. all over the album. Thomas Dolby's P.P.G. was actually used to run Tangerine Dream's lights in the late 70's
You're knocking these retrospectives out of the park. This all seems overpriced and antiquated now but the 1980s were a fantastic period for innovation and laying the groundwork for what we have now.
The Eurogliders are from my home town and in the 80s, it was mecca for 'pub rock' i.e., heavy guitar, heavy bass, heavy drums and a macho image... barely a synth in sight so as a keyboard player, that left me pretty cold ... I was completely blown away when the Eurogliders came along and what's more, the keyboard player Amanda Vincent was playing a PPG!!! It was as if she had come from outer space... I didn't even know PPGs existed in Australia... I would wait to see the video to "Heaven Must be There' just to watch her play that synth 8-)
Very interesting documentary. As some have noted, PPG wavetables are still in many of Waldorf's products, including the Microwave, Blofeld and Quantum. Waldoff also sells a very accurate PPG VST emulation. One minor error--you say that a Waveterm has 8" "Winchester" drives. But these are clearly 8" floppy disks. A "Winchester" was an early hard drive (typically 5 to 20 Mb) and non-removable. They were quite expensive too.
@@chrisfraser-smith5799 I(ve never heard Winchester used ezcept for Hard drives. Wikipedia agrees: "The IBM 3340 was developed in San Jose under the leadership of Ken Haughton. Early on the design was focused on two removable 30 megabyte modules. Because of this 30/30 configuration, the code name Winchester was selected after the famous Winchester .30-30 rifle;[41] subsequently the capacities were increased, but the code name stuck. One significant aspect of this product, and the reason that disk drives in general became known as "Winchester technology", was that this head design was very low cost and did not require the heads to be unloaded from the media. Winchester technology allowed the head to land and take off from the disk media as the disk spun up and down. This resulted in very significant savings and a large reduction of complexity of the head and arm actuating mechanism. This head design rapidly became a standard design within the disk drive manufacturing community. Up into the early 1990s the term Winchester or Winnie was used for hard disk drives in general long after the introduction of the 3340, but is no longer in common use in most parts of the world."
@@geoffk777 There is clearly a lot more to ‘Winchester’, than I have ever been aware of. I’m mearly stating that in the late 70s in the UK, the large floppy drives were referred to as ‘Winchester Drives’. From what you have said, this now seems very wrong. But it IS what they were called back then. I was 11 in 1978 and my school had a Research Computer ( 4 or 5 U rack unit ) that had 2 ‘Winchester Drives’ underneath the main box. That is what we were told they were. It sounds to me a bit like when Moog briefly became another word for Synthesiser, or (in the UK at least,) Hoover became another word for vacuum cleaner.
I wish it were true that they sold an accurate VST, if it were i wouldn't need to own an actual 2044 XD (only one, but hey). The wavetables are fine but the filter is just nothing like it. I have a 12bit Mutable Braids clone - it's wavetable into a NOS SSM2044 is a lot closer. Plaits/Braids/Behringer Brains/Arturia Microfreak/Minifreak into SSI2144 would be closer too, readily available new and quite affordable if you have a +-12V supply. Really should get myself a few of the 2144 lol, theyre about $3 a chip. Mini/Microfreak alone can sound closer to a Wave 2 than any of the Waldorf clones, but you get the CEM sound of the 2 rather than that glorious SSM warmth of the 2.2/3.
It is hard to decribe that straight directness you’ve got playing an 360A. I owned one mid80s. Won‘t forget it. But, at least, the Instrument had been sold behause of its limitations.. - some bonus-funfacts: I had a quite rare Sequencer 350, too, but the internal connectivity ppg vs ppg had been stuck as a somewhat work in progress (which was never finished). Even Palm himself claimed the sequencer‘s strange embedded Interface-plug a undocumented dead end. But he was kind enough to put copies of seven rough schematic drawings in my hands. His „that‘s all I have to offer“ didn‘t much help, but yeah, I met the maestro in person! And he really took care and brought personal notes to music fair ffm to satisfy a nerdy musician. Amazing customer relation:)
That is a great story Kai - thanks for sharing your thoughts on the 360A and 350 sequencer. Such a great experience to have owned these instruments and met Wolfgang during this time.
This is such a great video. I have always loved PPG products and the sound those machines produced. Information such as this should be curated for posterity. The fact that people are starting to think of this as such a long time ago kind of drives it home that it has been such a long time ago. Another 40 years and many of the subtle details may be confused or lost forever. That would be a shame. The amount of information that we generate everyday as humans is astounding. Most of it could stand to be flushed, but some things should be preserved.
I still remember as a young lad going down to London with a buddy to visit the UK dealer. We were avid synth fanatics with of course no money whatsoever. There was a demo room still being constructed and decorated all in white paint I recall. And resplendent in the middle was the 2.3 and waveterm. They had the good grace to provide a short demonstration and we went away suitably impressed.
What happens if you pour Scotch Single Malt into a French electronic music performer? -- You will get "Whisky in a Jar(re)". It's "jar", not "jah-ray" (there's no accent on the "e").
Thanks for that. The Rush P/G sound stood out so well I spent most of the ‘00s thinking I should pick up a 2.3 just for the nostalgia. Would have been a good investment with hindsight.
Excellent and well composed video Johnny. Another user was Patrick O'Hearn ex Missing Persons he used the PPG extensively on his Private Music releases like Ancient Dreams and Between Two Worlds. Both prime examples how wonderfully lush and diverse the palette of sound these synths where capable of.
So many great synths that came from the wavetable invention. My first synth was a 2'nd hand Korg DW-8000 wich is way underrated. Honestly, for the same era imo one of the best hybrid synths ever made. I did get a DX-7 but the DW-8000 was the one that stole my heart. The PPG may have been a crude and cumbersome synth, but what came after their demise still proves their tech was awsome.
I loved the PPG wave I was the engineer in a small studio where we had a PPG waveterm B and a wave2.3 one day I decided to read the whole manual it was typewriter written and photocopied. Later on we got a PPG HDU fun kit but before it’s time. I still use the PPG to this day as I have a virtual PPG in my little home studio
I love this documentary. We (kinda) take such technology for granted today, but back then this was revolutionary! Wavetables make me think of a cosmic organ with scintillating; pure overtones that are difficult to conjure in FM synthesis, and nigh impossible in old-school subtractive (and I'm not talking about aliasing).
Palm literally fathered wavetable synthesis in a product. Still today one of the few(5-6) basic synthesis techniques. Too bad such geniuses are often bad with growing their business. With a little more biz push, he would have given the DX7 and later D50 a run for their money. The PPG Wave is still a thing today. The massive Waldorf Quantum is a direct descendant. Awesome documentary!
I don't think that PPG could have scaled up business at that time to survive. Price wize the PPG was at a total other level. At the time I had a Juno 6 at the time and bought a dx7 when it came out. At 5000 DM still maybe a fifth of the price of the PPG ( 9kusd). That gap couldn't be closed and the ppg was not mainstream enough either
I nearly got one back in the mid 90's for £400. It put me off, he said it was very unreliable and took tins of service spray on the connects for it to run, so I didn't bother. They still look sexy even now. Gary Numan used them too ;) I will get a VST now
Outstanding. So nice to hear the back story on this seemingly mysterious synth. The virtual instrument version I tried years ago was awesome. Even in virtual form, it stood out as unique and very useful.
Note - There is an error in the at 0:48. The PPG 1002 has an analogue VCO, where the later 1020 synth incorporated the DCO. My apologies for the confusion here.
@@learnmusic488 Yes thanks! A few other pointed that error out - my bad as I should have proof read better - I'm a huge Rush fan an totally know this...lol
I worked in the 80s Manchester recording studios and used most of the ppg's it was my fav at the time when wanting something new. JPs were getting boring and moog so it was nice to have this different option. at the time I used fairlight and synclavier and ppg was up there with the big boys. today I have a waldorf modular that gives me that sound and have all of wolgangs apps. if you don't have them , get them. worth every penny. Big up wolfgang and thanks to Johnny Morgan for a great video and a lovely memory recall
Rush started using the PPG Wave because Alex Lifeson felt like the analog synths Geddy was using circa Signals were taking up too much space in the mix. I think the word Geddy used at the time was "transparent" to describe the sound of the Wave.
The Wave 2 has always been my dream machine... I think the Ambika comes pretty close to it, while being affordable. BTW, Jean Michel Jarre's last name is pronunced "jar", like in cookie jar.
I first saw one of these in 1996 when a older musician was selling a version 2.3 it for $300 and our bass player at the time bought it. Synths were not in style for alternative rock bands in the 90s and no one thught they would ever be cool again because of the stigma of the 80s. But we used it for pads on our 16 track tascam reel to reel albums. We had a running joke that every note sounded like the background music from miami vice and airwolf. It finally died in 1998 after being dropped while cleaning our rehearsal space. It was sold for parts to a synth dealer in Cincinnati Ohio for $200 plus a Fostex G24S 24 track 1 inch (which I still have)! We never really knew much about it since it was the pre internet years but now that I know, we had a gem! Ironically I have the PPG wave plugins now and use them all the time in Logic, and I own all of Wolfgang's iPad Wavetable synths which are just insanely powerful!! Cheers!
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams It was the era, synths had fallen so far out of fashion especially with rock music. We thought synths in bands were dead. No one in a million years would have seen them have a comeback. We also bought a Roland Jx3p with the external controller at a pawn shop in Asheville North Carolina for $175 plus $25 for the controller. It took us 6 months of asking every person we knew what to the right cable just to use the PG controller. We were just dumb kids in a band. Everyone back then thought keyboards would become more like workstations and samplers. So 4, 6. or even 8 voice analog synths seemed underpowered compared to the Yamaha or Roland workstations of the 90s with 128 voice polyphony. But as soon as I saw the first few software synth plugins start to be used I knew synths would be coming back in a big way. But my 16 year old teenage self would have told you synths would be dead forever. LOL BOY WAS I WRONG back then HAHA !! Cheers!
@@joesalyers I know - was such a crazy era. I love looking the used prices in the back old 80's Keyboard magazine. It's crazy. I remember all I wanted in 1985 was a DX7, then eventually a D-50 and M1 - I couldn't have cared about the $500 used Jupiter-8 until I really started to build out a studio in the 90s. Then I bought every old analogue synth I could find.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Just imagine picking up a fully working Jupiter 8 for $500 dollars today? You can't find one for $5,000 let alone $500! If we only knew back then what we know today!! I would have bought every old synth I could get my hands on and then waited!!
Great documentary as always! :) I got to try a PPG 2.2 when I visited Synth Palace in Montreal and it sounded totally alien to anything before. Yea, I have a Microwave XT and some other wavetable synths, but the PPG has enormous weight, presence and emotion in the sound in a way that's different from the others. It definitely sounded "vintage" wavetable, that's the only way I can put it. The analog filters certainly helped warm it up too. Recorded a couple demos and felt like I was in a planetarium and outer space. They are quite rare these days so thanks to you and EB for showcasing it and paying homage. Cheers!
Thanks Synth4Ever! Yes it was great to get some hands on time with the Wave 2.2 - you nailed it - has a vintage sound like nothing else. E.B. described it as wavetables meet the Prophet 5 rev. 2. That nails it.
I bought a Waldorf M 4 weeks ago - and it's absolutely fantastic. It's a combination of the PPG wave 2.2/2.3, Microwave 1+2 and the Microwave XT with analogue filters and envelopes, and sounds every bit as good as it's forbears.
This must be their inspiration: It's like the digitally stored wavetables used in Allen organs starting in 1971 before that term was invented. Then in 1974 their portable instrument division, RMI, started producing them for the working musician, called the Keyboard Computer. They also sold hundreds of digital waveforms that could be selected and added by the user, stored on paper punch cards, which also included the usual analog synthesizer waveforms.
Great documentary - really effective use of a wide range of historic footage, plus ads from Keyboard Magazine. One of the magazine's reviewers, Dominic Milano wrote the English manual for the PPG2.2 - they gave him a free PPG for his pains :)
One reason I like collecting synthesizers is because I like the interface. That's the thing that sucks now about old synthesizers as you just can't go collect them anymore. Always like the way this interface looked and the cs80.
Great mini docco. Loved the PPG sound. I had wave2 for a short while. Curious why there's so little about Tangerine Dream in the story. They used the PPG prolifically. Edgar Froese's album Stuntman could have been a PPG demo disc!🙂
For me it was TD’s album Exit that really showed what the PPG could do. Frose tweaked one of the factory patches for Kiew Mission, and even to this day it’s still a completely unique sound. I managed to get kinda close to the sound using a Studiologic Sledge 2 which uses the PPG/Waldorf wavetables, but it’s still a way off the rich textures of the original PPGs.
Thanks very much for this video. I purchased eyelesss dreams by Wolfgang Duran when first released and it’s still a stunning album now. Always been interested in the background of this company.
Another great video. You released this video JUST before the Groove Synthesis 3rdWave wavetable (and more) synth was announced. I'm sure you would have touched on this wonderful keyboard had you know.
Although I love the PPG's it must be said that Yamaha already produced its E-series Electone organs in the mid 70ties. The top of the line models, like the EX1 , EX2 and E70 already used lookup tables to generate waveform data. The E70 was introduced in 1977, the same year the article was released. Which puts an end to many a myth about the Japanese only copying stuff.
yes i remember the glossy ads for these in the music press , i would say it was ground breaking in its design etc ,but in the end a commercial failure too niche , i wonder has anyone upgraded theirs with the Gotek drives , i did with my Yamaha QX 1 :} and i dont even have to initialise the disks its all ready to go :} Great video on Palm Productions Germany :}
It’s been said that Richard Cottle played PPG models with the Alan Parsons Project. My favorite confirmed demonstration of these models is the 1985 album titled *Bach-Handel 300,* performed for the Deutschr Gramsphon label by Gratziano Mandozzi. Mandozzi is photographed on the back of the sleeve, surrounded by POG models.
Wolfgang Palm is a true Genius. It's a shame that all of his developments on IOS have disappeared when he sold his company. I always wanted a PPG wave, I have a microwave since a few years and now the Waldorf Iridium, but nothing comes close to the raw power of the Wave
Cool Video 🙂As an owner of a PPG 360 i must say that the 360 is the warmest sounding PPG, 8bit sounds so beautiful. I dont miss a Filter in the 360. Btw Wavetable dont need like FM Synthesis any filter. Best from Hamburg 😊 🌞🛸🚀
Super interesting! I just bought the Waldorf PPG 3.x for $19.99. It was on sale - a good deal. I’ve played synths and keys most of my life but never knew about the PPG until I tried a remake of Looking For Clues, Robert Palmer and saw the classic blue synth in a video. BTW - Also Canadian….
I owned a 2.3 & Waveterm B. It was technologically mind-blowing, especially the sampling side of things with the large screen on the Waveterm. Only Roland samplers offered similar. Everyone else thought a 2-line display was good enough. Ultimately I sold them, simply because I didn’t like the overall sound. It just didn’t do it anymore. Ironically these days the Waldorf Q appears to be a very interesting machine. It’s certain more creative than any of the temperamental geriatric synths of yesteryear. Jupiter 6 anyone ?
This is great! Thank you. Did you ever do a video on the Korg Polysix? I have an old one. Sadly though it needs some serious repair work. That will probably happen this summer. Right now I'm happy with the Polysix in my Kronos but I do miss the real thing.
It took a few years for Ensoniq to bring in the transwaves, evolving waves. But you have to remember how affordable Ensoniq stuff was. People thought the EMU Emulator was an affordable sampler and the Mirage was much cheaper than that!
It's good to have this history out there, thanks for making this..! You might have had a proof reader take a look.. (the "e" at the end of "Jarre" is silent, "Winchester" drive is a hard drive, not a floppy, etc, "Timbre" is pronounced "Tahm-ber" - you sound Canadian, you should know that!) )
Great video, I gained a lot of interesting knowledge from this and a few other of your videos. I'm currently in the middle of my University dissertation which is based on synth sound design techniques used between 1985 and 1995, would it be possible to ask you a few questions? It would be great to hear back from you! Regards, Kris
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams thank you so much! I am quite busy at the moment but I will try and send you an email during this week, thanks again I really appreciate it
Great video. I get weepy about this period of sound. and time in music. PPG's are very special and the people behind them were not suits and ties and bean counters.
Cool stuff. I briefly worked for PPG and knew Palm and Duren.
The Wave is unique and distinctive, but a bugger to program.
That is amazing you worked there - what an experience it was I imagine.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Yeah, nice people. You should note that PPG was founded by Wolfgang Palm, the designer, and Wolfgang Duren, the businessman. When they decided to go their own separate ways, it was Wolfgang Duren that set up Waldorf.
Wolfgang Palm set up Palm Production.
@@TryptychUK That is great info - I was wondering about that relationship with Waldorf. Much appreciated!
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Also, I may be wrong here, (it's so long ago I may have misremembered), but the PRK did have audio outs, and was more than just a controller. You could create sounds on the Wave/Waveterm and save the patches/samples, and PPG would burn a PROM that could be fitted into the PRK as a permanent preset.
I got to know PPG through Kajagoogoo, as they were the only band ever to have an endorsement with the company.
@@TryptychUK There was a PRK FD version that followed shortly after the original PRK - possibly it had audio outs? I'll try to get more confirmation
I loved the throbbing basslines the PPG Wave supplied for Missing Persons in the early 80's. Spring Session M album is a great example of this beautiful synth.
The P.P.G. was used by Tangerine Dream both live and in the studio. The album Exit has the P.P.G. all over the album. Thomas Dolby's P.P.G. was actually used to run Tangerine Dream's lights in the late 70's
Yes, specially in Kiew Mission (which much better performed LIVE, album version too stiff like the P.P.G.)
You're knocking these retrospectives out of the park. This all seems overpriced and antiquated now but the 1980s were a fantastic period for innovation and laying the groundwork for what we have now.
Thanks SCL.
The Eurogliders are from my home town and in the 80s, it was mecca for 'pub rock' i.e., heavy guitar, heavy bass, heavy drums and a macho image... barely a synth in sight so as a keyboard player, that left me pretty cold ... I was completely blown away when the Eurogliders came along and what's more, the keyboard player Amanda Vincent was playing a PPG!!! It was as if she had come from outer space... I didn't even know PPGs existed in Australia... I would wait to see the video to "Heaven Must be There' just to watch her play that synth 8-)
Very interesting documentary. As some have noted, PPG wavetables are still in many of Waldorf's products, including the Microwave, Blofeld and Quantum. Waldoff also sells a very accurate PPG VST emulation.
One minor error--you say that a Waveterm has 8" "Winchester" drives. But these are clearly 8" floppy disks. A "Winchester" was an early hard drive (typically 5 to 20 Mb) and non-removable. They were quite expensive too.
In the UK at least, early floppy drives ( mid 80s) were known as Winchester drives. So to me at least, he used the right terminology.
@@chrisfraser-smith5799 I(ve never heard Winchester used ezcept for Hard drives. Wikipedia agrees:
"The IBM 3340 was developed in San Jose under the leadership of Ken Haughton. Early on the design was focused on two removable 30 megabyte modules. Because of this 30/30 configuration, the code name Winchester was selected after the famous Winchester .30-30 rifle;[41] subsequently the capacities were increased, but the code name stuck.
One significant aspect of this product, and the reason that disk drives in general became known as "Winchester technology", was that this head design was very low cost and did not require the heads to be unloaded from the media. Winchester technology allowed the head to land and take off from the disk media as the disk spun up and down. This resulted in very significant savings and a large reduction of complexity of the head and arm actuating mechanism. This head design rapidly became a standard design within the disk drive manufacturing community.
Up into the early 1990s the term Winchester or Winnie was used for hard disk drives in general long after the introduction of the 3340, but is no longer in common use in most parts of the world."
@@geoffk777 There is clearly a lot more to ‘Winchester’, than I have ever been aware of. I’m mearly stating that in the late 70s in the UK, the large floppy drives were referred to as ‘Winchester Drives’. From what you have said, this now seems very wrong. But it IS what they were called back then. I was 11 in 1978 and my school had a Research Computer ( 4 or 5 U rack unit ) that had 2 ‘Winchester Drives’ underneath the main box. That is what we were told they were.
It sounds to me a bit like when Moog briefly became another word for Synthesiser, or (in the UK at least,) Hoover became another word for vacuum cleaner.
I used to load files on a VAX mainframe - that's what we called them here in Canada as well.
I wish it were true that they sold an accurate VST, if it were i wouldn't need to own an actual 2044 XD (only one, but hey). The wavetables are fine but the filter is just nothing like it.
I have a 12bit Mutable Braids clone - it's wavetable into a NOS SSM2044 is a lot closer.
Plaits/Braids/Behringer Brains/Arturia Microfreak/Minifreak into SSI2144 would be closer too, readily available new and quite affordable if you have a +-12V supply. Really should get myself a few of the 2144 lol, theyre about $3 a chip.
Mini/Microfreak alone can sound closer to a Wave 2 than any of the Waldorf clones, but you get the CEM sound of the 2 rather than that glorious SSM warmth of the 2.2/3.
It is hard to decribe that straight directness you’ve got playing an 360A. I owned one mid80s. Won‘t forget it. But, at least, the Instrument had been sold behause of its limitations.. - some bonus-funfacts: I had a quite rare Sequencer 350, too, but the internal connectivity ppg vs ppg had been stuck as a somewhat work in progress (which was never finished). Even Palm himself claimed the sequencer‘s strange embedded Interface-plug a undocumented dead end. But he was kind enough to put copies of seven rough schematic drawings in my hands. His „that‘s all I have to offer“ didn‘t much help, but yeah, I met the maestro in person!
And he really took care and brought personal notes to music fair ffm to satisfy a nerdy musician. Amazing customer relation:)
That is a great story Kai - thanks for sharing your thoughts on the 360A and 350 sequencer. Such a great experience to have owned these instruments and met Wolfgang during this time.
This is such a great video. I have always loved PPG products and the sound those machines produced. Information such as this should be curated for posterity. The fact that people are starting to think of this as such a long time ago kind of drives it home that it has been such a long time ago. Another 40 years and many of the subtle details may be confused or lost forever. That would be a shame. The amount of information that we generate everyday as humans is astounding. Most of it could stand to be flushed, but some things should be preserved.
Get the Waldorf M its a modern PPG even has a 2144 VCF with same sound as 2044.
I still remember as a young lad going down to London with a buddy to visit the UK dealer. We were avid synth fanatics with of course no money whatsoever. There was a demo room still being constructed and decorated all in white paint I recall. And resplendent in the middle was the 2.3 and waveterm. They had the good grace to provide a short demonstration and we went away suitably impressed.
Great story! Do you know what shop that was?
What happens if you pour Scotch Single Malt into a French electronic music performer? -- You will get "Whisky in a Jar(re)".
It's "jar", not "jah-ray" (there's no accent on the "e").
Great video. The sounds on the PPG are some of my favorite.
A fantastic documentary on ppg. Thank you so much for the internal look at the CEM and SSM usage.
Also great seeing Rush and The Fixx in this. Thanks!
Thanks for that. The Rush P/G sound stood out so well I spent most of the ‘00s thinking I should pick up a 2.3 just for the nostalgia. Would have been a good investment with hindsight.
Thanks for this Johnny, this was awesome!!
You're Welcome - I love making these shorts
Excellent and well composed video Johnny. Another user was Patrick O'Hearn ex Missing Persons he used the PPG extensively on his Private Music releases like Ancient Dreams and Between Two Worlds. Both prime examples how wonderfully lush and diverse the palette of sound these synths where capable of.
So many great synths that came from the wavetable invention. My first synth was a 2'nd hand Korg DW-8000 wich is way underrated. Honestly, for the same era imo one of the best hybrid synths ever made. I did get a DX-7 but the DW-8000 was the one that stole my heart. The PPG may have been a crude and cumbersome synth, but what came after their demise still proves their tech was awsome.
I loved the PPG wave I was the engineer in a small studio where we had a PPG waveterm B and a wave2.3 one day I decided to read the whole manual it was typewriter written and photocopied. Later on we got a PPG HDU fun kit but before it’s time. I still use the PPG to this day as I have a virtual PPG in my little home studio
I remember the manual referring to "poti's" (potentiometers) instead of "knobs".
Very strange.
Great mini on the PPG. Really enjoyed that
I love this documentary. We (kinda) take such technology for granted today, but back then this was revolutionary! Wavetables make me think of a cosmic organ with scintillating; pure overtones that are difficult to conjure in FM synthesis, and nigh impossible in old-school subtractive (and I'm not talking about aliasing).
Thanks for this video. I love hearing the history and specs of these iconic beasts and the way you present it. Keep ‘em coming!
Palm literally fathered wavetable synthesis in a product. Still today one of the few(5-6) basic synthesis techniques. Too bad such geniuses are often bad with growing their business. With a little more biz push, he would have given the DX7 and later D50 a run for their money. The PPG Wave is still a thing today. The massive Waldorf Quantum is a direct descendant. Awesome documentary!
And now Groove Synthesis's "Wave 3"
Waldorf M
I don't think that PPG could have scaled up business at that time to survive. Price wize the PPG was at a total other level. At the time I had a Juno 6 at the time and bought a dx7 when it came out. At 5000 DM still maybe a fifth of the price of the PPG ( 9kusd). That gap couldn't be closed and the ppg was not mainstream enough either
@@isc4915waldorf M is a 21st century PPG Wave even has the same type of VCF the 2144.
The filter doesn't sound like the PPG. It also has very strong resonances and loses lows extremely quickly@@videosuperhighway7655
I nearly got one back in the mid 90's for £400. It put me off, he said it was very unreliable and took tins of service spray on the connects for it to run, so I didn't bother.
They still look sexy even now. Gary Numan used them too ;)
I will get a VST now
Outstanding. So nice to hear the back story on this seemingly mysterious synth. The virtual instrument version I tried years ago was awesome. Even in virtual form, it stood out as unique and very useful.
Note - There is an error in the at 0:48. The PPG 1002 has an analogue VCO, where the later 1020 synth incorporated the DCO. My apologies for the confusion here.
Cool and while we’re at it, Rush-Grace Under Pressure came out in the spring of 1984..Not 1982.
(Sorry to be ‘that guy’)
Great video thanks
@@learnmusic488 Yes thanks! A few other pointed that error out - my bad as I should have proof read better - I'm a huge Rush fan an totally know this...lol
I worked in the 80s Manchester recording studios and used most of the ppg's it was my fav at the time when wanting something new. JPs were getting boring and moog so it was nice to have this different option. at the time I used fairlight and synclavier and ppg was up there with the big boys. today I have a waldorf modular that gives me that sound and have all of wolgangs apps. if you don't have them , get them. worth every penny. Big up wolfgang and thanks to Johnny Morgan for a great video and a lovely memory recall
Rush started using the PPG Wave because Alex Lifeson felt like the analog synths Geddy was using circa Signals were taking up too much space in the mix. I think the word Geddy used at the time was "transparent" to describe the sound of the Wave.
The Wave 2 has always been my dream machine... I think the Ambika comes pretty close to it, while being affordable.
BTW, Jean Michel Jarre's last name is pronunced "jar", like in cookie jar.
A few great albums to hear tons of PPG textures: Tangerine Dream's Exit and Poland and Edgar Froese's solo albums Stuntman and Pinnacles. 👍
So exciting history story, thank you! And now the world's got the Waldorf M, which can sound both as his father and grand-father.
Great video of one of the classic 80’s keyboard plus a great soundtrack.
I first saw one of these in 1996 when a older musician was selling a version 2.3 it for $300 and our bass player at the time bought it. Synths were not in style for alternative rock bands in the 90s and no one thught they would ever be cool again because of the stigma of the 80s. But we used it for pads on our 16 track tascam reel to reel albums. We had a running joke that every note sounded like the background music from miami vice and airwolf. It finally died in 1998 after being dropped while cleaning our rehearsal space. It was sold for parts to a synth dealer in Cincinnati Ohio for $200 plus a Fostex G24S 24 track 1 inch (which I still have)! We never really knew much about it since it was the pre internet years but now that I know, we had a gem! Ironically I have the PPG wave plugins now and use them all the time in Logic, and I own all of Wolfgang's iPad Wavetable synths which are just insanely powerful!! Cheers!
Thanks for that story about the 3.2! I always find it amazing to hear about the prices of gear exchanges back then,
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams It was the era, synths had fallen so far out of fashion especially with rock music. We thought synths in bands were dead. No one in a million years would have seen them have a comeback. We also bought a Roland Jx3p with the external controller at a pawn shop in Asheville North Carolina for $175 plus $25 for the controller. It took us 6 months of asking every person we knew what to the right cable just to use the PG controller. We were just dumb kids in a band. Everyone back then thought keyboards would become more like workstations and samplers. So 4, 6. or even 8 voice analog synths seemed underpowered compared to the Yamaha or Roland workstations of the 90s with 128 voice polyphony. But as soon as I saw the first few software synth plugins start to be used I knew synths would be coming back in a big way. But my 16 year old teenage self would have told you synths would be dead forever. LOL BOY WAS I WRONG back then HAHA !! Cheers!
@@joesalyers I know - was such a crazy era. I love looking the used prices in the back old 80's Keyboard magazine. It's crazy. I remember all I wanted in 1985 was a DX7, then eventually a D-50 and M1 - I couldn't have cared about the $500 used Jupiter-8 until I really started to build out a studio in the 90s. Then I bought every old analogue synth I could find.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Just imagine picking up a fully working Jupiter 8 for $500 dollars today? You can't find one for $5,000 let alone $500! If we only knew back then what we know today!! I would have bought every old synth I could get my hands on and then waited!!
Easily, one of my very favorite types of synthesis. It's just unique. It's awesome.
Fantastic as always Johnny!
Well done, thanks...
Great documentary as always! :) I got to try a PPG 2.2 when I visited Synth Palace in Montreal and it sounded totally alien to anything before. Yea, I have a Microwave XT and some other wavetable synths, but the PPG has enormous weight, presence and emotion in the sound in a way that's different from the others. It definitely sounded "vintage" wavetable, that's the only way I can put it. The analog filters certainly helped warm it up too. Recorded a couple demos and felt like I was in a planetarium and outer space.
They are quite rare these days so thanks to you and EB for showcasing it and paying homage. Cheers!
Thanks Synth4Ever! Yes it was great to get some hands on time with the Wave 2.2 - you nailed it - has a vintage sound like nothing else. E.B. described it as wavetables meet the Prophet 5 rev. 2. That nails it.
2:57 was an ad from a synthbook i was reading yesterday ;-)
Excellent video!
the PPG to me is the most Fat sounding Synth to ever have existed. the Sounds this Synth produces are just out of this World!
Thank you, Johnny--and Wolfgang!
Wonderful composition and history lesson Johnny.
Thanks bro, lovely work. She was a beauty, for sure. Kudos.
So many memories- thank you!
Fantastic video. Thanks for putting it together. Really hope to see more like this one 👍
Glad you enjoyed it!
I bought a Waldorf M 4 weeks ago - and it's absolutely fantastic.
It's a combination of the PPG wave 2.2/2.3, Microwave 1+2 and the Microwave XT with analogue filters and envelopes, and sounds every bit as good as it's forbears.
I heard it's amazing as well!
fantastic, Johnny, as always
What a surprise! I am the second person on the right in the group photo.... Memories. Thanks for the vid
2:52 Improved by adding Curtis filters and girl leaning suggestively on the synth!😅😂🤣
This must be their inspiration: It's like the digitally stored wavetables used in Allen organs starting in 1971 before that term was invented. Then in 1974 their portable instrument division, RMI, started producing them for the working musician, called the Keyboard Computer. They also sold hundreds of digital waveforms that could be selected and added by the user, stored on paper punch cards, which also included the usual analog synthesizer waveforms.
Very interesting thanks for sharing.
thank you for this top tier content my man
Excellent video with good explanations and video archives I haven't seen before.
Thank you for you good work!
Many thanks!
Great documentary - really effective use of a wide range of historic footage, plus ads from Keyboard Magazine. One of the magazine's reviewers, Dominic Milano wrote the English manual for the PPG2.2 - they gave him a free PPG for his pains :)
Brillinat video ❤
One of my favorite sounding synths.
Great video. First heard about PPG through Wolfgang Palm's iPad apps!
Great video. Thanks for this.
One reason I like collecting synthesizers is because I like the interface. That's the thing that sucks now about old synthesizers as you just can't go collect them anymore. Always like the way this interface looked and the cs80.
Great mini docco. Loved the PPG sound. I had wave2 for a short while. Curious why there's so little about Tangerine Dream in the story. They used the PPG prolifically. Edgar Froese's album Stuntman could have been a PPG demo disc!🙂
Absolutely! For me it all began with the live album Logos, opening with fresh metal-like and wide soundscapes, a true revolution in electronic music.
I saw TD live in the mid-eighties, and one of the most amazing patches I have heard was from the PPG they had on stage.
For me it was TD’s album Exit that really showed what the PPG could do. Frose tweaked one of the factory patches for Kiew Mission, and even to this day it’s still a completely unique sound. I managed to get kinda close to the sound using a Studiologic Sledge 2 which uses the PPG/Waldorf wavetables, but it’s still a way off the rich textures of the original PPGs.
Thanks very much for this video. I purchased eyelesss dreams by Wolfgang Duran when first released and it’s still a stunning album now. Always been interested in the background of this company.
I always loved that PPG Wave bell sound on Heaven by Eurogliders.
Rush used the PPG on the Power Windows album too and a bit on the Hold your Fire
Another great video. You released this video JUST before the Groove Synthesis 3rdWave wavetable (and more) synth was announced. I'm sure you would have touched on this wonderful keyboard had you know.
Although I love the PPG's it must be said that Yamaha already produced its E-series Electone organs in the mid 70ties. The top of the line models, like the EX1 , EX2 and E70 already used lookup tables to generate waveform data. The E70 was introduced in 1977, the same year the article was released. Which puts an end to many a myth about the Japanese only copying stuff.
I always associate this synth with the Fixx. Such a great sound
Nice vid. Thanks for making it.
Glad you liked it!
Superb. Thank you.
I still have my analog filter microwave 1 which has all PPG wave forms and then some.
lovely thanks !
awesome
I thoroughly enjoy docs like these...you deserve way more subs...keep them coming! ❤️
Much appreciated!
yes i remember the glossy ads for these in the music press , i would say it was ground breaking in its design etc ,but in the end a commercial failure too niche , i wonder has anyone upgraded theirs with the Gotek drives , i did with my Yamaha QX 1 :} and i dont even have to initialise the disks its all ready to go :} Great video on Palm Productions Germany :}
Great synth
It’s been said that Richard Cottle played PPG models with the Alan Parsons Project. My favorite confirmed demonstration of these models is the 1985 album titled *Bach-Handel 300,* performed for the Deutschr Gramsphon label by Gratziano Mandozzi. Mandozzi is photographed on the back of the sleeve, surrounded by POG models.
Thanks for that contribution Shread - I'll definitely check it out. APP was mind-blowing at times.
Cheers, Johnny.
Perfect. Subscribed. 👍
Yet another brillliant sounding innovative synth steamrolled by the DX7 in the 80s. Damn you, Yamaha.
Up there for me with the Jupiter 8 as the most iconic sounding machines made
Wolfgang Palm is a true Genius. It's a shame that all of his developments on IOS have disappeared when he sold his company. I always wanted a PPG wave, I have a microwave since a few years and now the Waldorf Iridium, but nothing comes close to the raw power of the Wave
Just a brief correction: Rush´s Grace Under Pressure album is from 1984. Anyway, great video! I´ve just learnt a lot about PPG synthesizers.
9:12 Geddy’s Lee of Rush, Middle Town Dreams
Cool Video 🙂As an owner of a PPG 360 i must say that the 360 is the warmest sounding PPG, 8bit sounds so beautiful. I dont miss a Filter in the 360. Btw Wavetable dont need like FM Synthesis any filter. Best from Hamburg 😊 🌞🛸🚀
Very nice!
Thank you! Cheers!
Great video! (Rush's Grace Under Pressure album was released in 1984 not 1982).
I know - I've had so many people mention that. It was a total blunder as I'm a massive Rush fan!
Somehow manages to be crunchy and warm at the same time
Super interesting! I just bought the Waldorf PPG 3.x for $19.99. It was on sale - a good deal. I’ve played synths and keys most of my life but never knew about the PPG until I tried a remake of Looking For Clues, Robert Palmer and saw the classic blue synth in a video. BTW - Also Canadian….
Hey Jeffy - The 3.x is great - I own it as well. Go Canada!
I owned a 2.3 & Waveterm B. It was technologically mind-blowing, especially the sampling side of things with the large screen on the Waveterm. Only Roland samplers offered similar. Everyone else thought a 2-line display was good enough. Ultimately I sold them, simply because I didn’t like the overall sound. It just didn’t do it anymore. Ironically these days the Waldorf Q appears to be a very interesting machine. It’s certain more creative than any of the temperamental geriatric synths of yesteryear. Jupiter 6 anyone ?
Great video. I enjoyed this. :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks Espen - I'm a huge fan so that means a lot!
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Cheers!
This is great! Thank you. Did you ever do a video on the Korg Polysix? I have an old one. Sadly though it needs some serious repair work. That will probably happen this summer. Right now I'm happy with the Polysix in my Kronos but I do miss the real thing.
I might do the PolySix next! I used to own one, but I think I'll buy one shortly
To me, the PPG, and the Prophet VS were the best of that type of sound, even though the Ensoniq was the the best bang for the buck of that sound type.
It took a few years for Ensoniq to bring in the transwaves, evolving waves. But you have to remember how affordable Ensoniq stuff was. People thought the EMU Emulator was an affordable sampler and the Mirage was much cheaper than that!
Hmm, Curtis chips…no wonder why I like it so much.
3:00 if a partner/prospective partner ever looks at you like that because you are enjoying your hobbies/work, seriously RUN!
It's good to have this history out there, thanks for making this..!
You might have had a proof reader take a look.. (the "e" at the end of "Jarre" is silent, "Winchester" drive is a hard drive, not a floppy, etc, "Timbre" is pronounced "Tahm-ber" - you sound Canadian, you should know that!) )
I know! next time for sure I will get it proofed.
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams Nice work, though, thanks for posting..!
Thumbs up for Rush content 😍
Always!
Wish all my PPG apps would work on the newer iOS.
7:52 PPG and Prophet T-8.
I nearly got one for £400 but the guy selling said the cards would fail so much, but would be worth it these days
At minute 3:24 : it seems like the sound/melody in the Silent Hill 2 game
💙
Great video, I gained a lot of interesting knowledge from this and a few other of your videos. I'm currently in the middle of my University dissertation which is based on synth sound design techniques used between 1985 and 1995, would it be possible to ask you a few questions? It would be great to hear back from you!
Regards,
Kris
Absolutely Kris - feel free to send me an email johnnymorgan808@me.com
@@johnnymorgansynthdreams thank you so much! I am quite busy at the moment but I will try and send you an email during this week, thanks again I really appreciate it
Your historical videos are great ! Thanks ! (By the way, in french it’s not Jean-Michel Jarr « ey », it’s prononced « Jar » ;). )
My bad - I know a few people have mentioned.
Great video. I get weepy about this period of sound. and time in music. PPG's are very special and the people behind them were not suits and ties and bean counters.
Well said!