Over on EM411.com, minisystem wrote a post asking "Is this the world's coolest looking synth?" about Modcan's 'B Series' modular synths (above) from Toronto. He's got a point, but the truth is white synths always look cool:
Access Virus TI Polar Even has white LEDs.
Buchla 200e Buchla synths were always white, to distinguish them from black Moogs.
Arp Odyssey The first batch of Odysseys were white, and supposedly had a better filter than later black ones.
Fairlight CMI All that stuff about sampling distracted people from the crucial element of the Fairlight's success: It was white.
Akai MPC60 Again, people remember that Roger Linn's amazing machine made modern hip-hop possible. But they only bought it because it was white.
Casio VL-Tone All the toy Casio keyboards that followed it were black, but the original VL-Tone was white. That's why they're still cool today.
Farfisa Professional Not a synth, and not strictly white, but this is What Sly Stone Was Playing
EMS Synthi All those English EMS synths were white. Perhaps it helped the spazz-noises to flow out of them?
Oberheim Four Voice Oberheims started out white. When Prince was using a 4-Voice to make 'Purple Rain', they were white. When Eddie Van Halen was using an OB-Xa to make 'Jump', they'd turned black. I think that tells us something important.
*With apologies to Might Magazine and Donnell Alexander
WHITE VS BLACK CONTINUES: FREAKISH ALBINO SYNTHS
: 6:27 pm
