An Illustrated Guide to Prog Rock Instruments (new

Two new additions:

cstack3 wrote: Good catch!  I saw Tony play this during the song "Red" at the King Crimson show in Chicago, you can see it at the back of the stage, behind the center drum.  He played it with a bow and it was so resonant that it shook the rafters!

^ I know of Crumar / Univox keyboards but I only knew some models such as the T1/ 2 / 3 or the two-manual Haven 61, but I didn't know about the Organizer, neither that Korg built the Mini-Korg for Univox. I checked them out now and they seem really nice instruments  Indeed the Organizer seems to be the starter of a family which morphed into the Traveler and the Haven 61 was also somehow related to them. The Mini-Korg had some odd controls I see. Congratulations for owning these vintage stuff!

^ in reply to both above posts.

It was nice you included the Orchestron, a mostly forgotten keyboard. As a kid, I used to go to a massive music store in Dallas TX in the late 70s. It had all the keyboards listed here, and you could play them: Mellotrons, Arp 2600, mini-Moogs, mini-Korgs, B-3s, Organizers, etc, and the Orchestron.

The Orchestron used sounds stored on floppy vinyl discs similar to free records that would come in teen magazines. Their sound was a little vague and fuzzy, but not terrible. This store also had some kind of expensive RMI or EMI super piano with about 4 or 5 foot pedals. You just knew there was no way something like that could hold up over the years, way too fragile and complicated. A friend of mine worked on one of those for Isaac Hayes, his Mellotron also.

Re Korg MS 20 - this was Korgs underrated answer to the mini-Moog and the Arp Odyssey. Shunned by the fusion/rock crowd, the MS 20 is not as pretty as the other two, but the industrial crowd went for its massive noisy sounds. I own a MS 20 and an Odyssey, and I would take the MS 20 any day of the week, its far more reliable, versatile and creative.

^ besides the ones mentioned,
Crumar string synth
Radio Shack Moog
Korg PS 3100 (its huge)
the first Juno
the first sampling Casio
Wurlitzer and Rhodes electric pianos
Farfisa organ
Ensoniq EPS
Korg Prophecy
Korg X50
Korg Trident
Yamaha digital piano
Dozens of portable keyboards, including many early models.
There are others I have owned but sold off, including the super rare Gleeman Pentaphonic.
I also collect old effects, especially echos including two vintage echoplexes and more.

^ ^ indeed, congratulations!  

I just found out that there was something called a calliope, which is some sort of miniature pipe organ associated with carnivals and such. It kind of caught my imagination. Did any Prog artists make use of one of these? Would you happen to know whether they were polyphonic? It sounds like the timbre at the end of Please Don't Touch. I always presumed a synth was used, but I don't know. Were there any calliope samples circulated for the mellotron?

The Dark Elf wrote: HackettFan wrote: I just found out that there was something called a calliope, which is some sort of miniature pipe organ associated with carnivals and such. It kind of caught my imagination. Did any Prog artists make use of one of these? Would you happen to know whether they were polyphonic? It sounds like the timbre at the end of Please Don't Touch. I always presumed a synth was used, but I don't know. Were there any calliope samples circulated for the mellotron?   A calliope (or steam organ) features heavily in The Beatles' "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" (it was taped, not played directly). "In the Court of the Crimson King" has one in it I recall reading.   P.S. David Palmer of Jethro Tull used a "portative" organ (small, portable pipe organ) on albums like Songs from the Wood and Heavy Horses. It has the sound of a calliope (listen to the song "Velvet Green").

Fascinating. I'm gonna give each a listen. Thanks.

From everything I've read, there is a calliope during the end of "In the Court of the Crimson King". Listening to it here, I am sure that it is present and not a synth or midi sound (being in 1969 and all):

HackettFan wrote: Gerinski wrote: ^ I don't know about real calliopes used in rock, but 'calliope' is also the name of a popular preset in synths (actually it is one of the lead synth presets in the standard General Midi sound bank). I didn't know that, although I kind of figured so. The Dark Elf wrote: From everything I've read, there is a calliope during the end of "In the Court of the Crimson King". Listening to it here, I am sure that it is present and not a synth or midi sound (being in 1969 and all) Knowing Crimson, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was a real calliope, but, although it certainly wasn't a synth, do we know for sure it wasn't a mellotron with calliope sampled recordings?