DIRE DAYS

Gold Over Love. Isn't it nice when the rich and famous remember their past with fond affection. The boss of a Deptford rehearsal studio recently had a phone call from Dire Straits management. Seems the boys used to practice there when they were penniless and prostrait (strait, geddit).

What they REALLY wanted to do was come back to their favourite haunt, relive those days and make a film. Could they hire the studio for eight hours and get a camera team in?

A reasonable request. Of course. Be great to have them back. Eight hours worth of studio time, that's £25. "What," comes the bellow at the other end of the phone, "we're not paying. We'll go somewhere else."

Eventually a compromise was reached.

A tenner, which is probably considerably less than Dire Straits earned in the time it took to place the call.

On the day it was the French film company Houba/Houba who played the gent (homme?) and coughed up the full wack.

SYCOLOGY

One Two's Stallions of Style dragged themselves down to the Simple Complex t'other day. (Budgerigars of booze, more like – Ed.) It's the latest venture from Syco Systems, already renowned for having more computer keyboards than Vince Clarke can count on a RAM pack.

Their luxurious offices in (80 per cent of) Paddington's Conduit Place were where the Fairlight and Emulator originally gained ground in this country.

Now they've divided themselves into three levels, green for the service centre, red for computers and the new blue floor for the major keyboard manufacturers, plus the best drum machines.

The pick of each maker's products are brought together in separate display areas divided by white Venetian blinds. There are headphone or low level speaker monitors, and where the synths can be MIDI linked, it's already done for you.

Not only can you directly compare one manufacturer's keyboard with another, you can spend time selecting the right model without having your ears syringed by "Smoke On The Water".

Simmons were demonstrating the new SDS7 and 8 kits on the night we went down there. But there were promises of a Disk and Chip bar... a sort of department store for the digital drum machine. Instead of working your way round two or three drum machines, judging their sound, all the available chips are linked to one computer and one sound system so you can tap your way through all the rival options without moving from one spot.

If this sounds like a plug... it is. If you're spending a grand or maybe much more on a synth, a touch of civilisation and some quiet enthusiasm is not a bad atmosphere in which to consider the right way of parting with your mazuma.

PROPHET MARGIN

Pressure of space (it's a crowded universe) forced out this interview with Sequential Circuits' designer John Bowen last month. He makes it this time.

What's happening this year?

"We've seen prices drop, mostly because of the influx of Japanese products, so we're moving into the low end market. We're still not satisfied with what we've heard from the digital end, and great sampling sounds are still in the range of 8,000 dollars, so we've been pursuing analogue.

"With our Six-trak, we've pushed the analogue chip about as far as it can go. We're working on one more way of compressing extra circuits into a single chip, and that'll be the limit. One of the nice things I like about analogue is that unlike digital, it adds imperfections. Humans are certainly unpredictable – that leads to my personal desire to have an analogue synth."

What do keyboard players want?

"Digital sampling seems to be the way everyone wants to go. For years people always asked the same four questions when they saw a new synth – let me hear the brass, the strings, the piano and the organ. But with a preset, digitally stored sound, you can't alter anything. Several companies like PPG have worked with sampled sounds plus analogue filtering, and the Emulator has that now. That's something I'm very interested in and I think it's a good way to go.

"All the keyboards coming out at the moment have some form of velocity sensitivity. I think in a year, if you don't have a dynamic, keyboard, that'll be it. Touch sensitivity is really what you've always wanted. The Yamaha CS80 was nice, but it weighed 210lbs and had four programs.

"I think on the T8 we have more touch sensitivity controls than most people use, but I'd still like more. I would like, on the T8, to be able to play with the Poly Mod section to control its amount from the velocity of the keyboard... I'm sure that would give you some more FM type sounds, almost Yamaha from an analogue synth."

How do your sound ideas begin?

"Programming starts from upstairs in the brain. The piano sound on the T8, I knew it was going to be impossible to get all the harmonics, but the secret to the metallic sound of a string being struck is to have a non related harmonics structure in the upper end. So I just selected a wide interval and started playing around. It was only about five hours worth of searching... I've read some books!!"

And what do the public do with them?

"It's true that most people never change the factory settings on their Prophets, it's higher than 80 per cent, and I'm very surprised by that. It could be they're afraid to play around, but that's how you learn. I also think no one ever reads the owners' manuals... you get a new instrument, you're excited about it, you want to plug it in straight away, that's okay. I think people in England are more aware of the theories of sound and are more curious about how things work. In the United States they're lazier – just give it to me!"

What's the consuming passion?

"We're getting heavily involved with computer interfacing, and one of the things we're starting with the Six-trak is the idea of selling software as well as hardware. We have about ten software packages from outside developers for the IBM, right now, and we're going to select one or two of them to sell. But most of the computer people don't know any synthesiser companies, and I think it's my job to make sure that musicians get what they want from a computer."

Where will Sequential Circuits be in ten years time?

"I'll be too old, I have no idea. No, I think it will certainly be an all digital world, by then, and you should be able to produce a digital filter that can simulate an analogue sound. You might have an old analogue machine around to sample from, but then you'll do the final touching up on a digital synth."