Have white synths jumped the shark?

It's long been established by relevant authorities that white synths are cooler than black synths. However, there's always someone who wants to take it too far and spoil it for everyone. In this case, it's Madonna's keyboard player Marcus Brown, a Roland endorsee who shows off his customised Fantom, SH-201, V-synth and V-Synth XT (in the aquarium) while keeping slightly quieter about his Nord Lead 3. They were all painted white by the legendary Forat, (more about him here) who is the proud-looking guy in the picture above. There's an interesting thread about the whole thing at Harmony Central, which concludes that: a) Marcus is a nice guy, despite his experimental facial hair. b) Clavia were mean for not sending Forat the logo artwork for the Nord c)The tricky things about playing keyboards for Madonna are getting the patch changes right, not being knocked off your podium by backing singers, and the arpeggios in 'Lucky Star'.

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

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# posted by

Buttercup : 12:00 am

I imagine it not actually that hard to play. I assume, like Madonna during her last world tour, that the keyboardist simply mimes to a backing track.

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:15 am

i could of swore that Latka from Taxi died with Andy Kaufmann...

# posted by

Anonymous : 1:27 am

It's the suit that really puts the Harley over the shark. Very few people on earth can get away with a pure white suit, and I think it's safe to say that Mr Brown isn't one of them.

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:32 am

What a Roland product line commercial! And now Forat breaks out of the MPC scene and all the pop bands will want their keyboards decorated by Forat and only Forat. Only they know how to do it right, of course. ;)

Even though they do good service on Linn and Akai gear, I sort of loose respect for them for taking advantage of this silly trend (and perpetuating it). But whatever, everybody has to put food on the table, I guess.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:45 pm

as far as I know, only Leisure Suit Larry can pull off a white suit... and only in the Land of the Lounge Lizards

# posted by

Awakened Yeti : 4:59 pm

this opulent display is making me feel a lot better about my scuffs and scratch free gear obsession (i'm now at my third electribe SX simply because the others had scuffs and scratches).

i know the bottom line should be that the gear is in working order and can be used to make music, but ask yourself this question: what if yours were the last (insert favorite piece of kit here) on earth, or what if it were a stradivarius?

i may have to call upon forat's service at some point... kudos!

# posted by

Anonymous : 12:31 am

"what if it were a stradivarius?"
I most definately wouldn't let forat paint it. heh

# posted by

Anonymous : 8:15 am