Close to the Edge - Opening Ostinato - Instrument?

[Sundown]

Hey all,

 

I'm pretty familiar with Rick's rig from the early/mid-70's, but I can't identify what instrument he used for the opening ostinato to "Close to the Edge".

 

Someone posted an isolated version of his tracks, so you can hear it pretty clearly at the start of this video:

 

[video:youtube]3H3DuHLdm0M

 

For live performances he has used a Hammond (e.g. Yessongs and An Evening of Yes Music Plus), but the studio track is definitely not a Hammond. If it's a Moog, he's using a very, very short release, but I don't think it's a Moog either.

 

My hunch is that it's a harpsichord with some sort of muted strings, but I could be totally wrong.

 

Does anybody know definitively what it is?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Todd

[AnotherScott]

Considering his rig, I'd say a minimoog. It's definitely a synth, and I think that's the only one he was using. You can tell it's a monophonic synth patch by listening to the envelopes... if he doesn't lift his finger high enough between notes, a new note picks up the envelope of the previous note. There's a lot of that right at the start, like between 2 and 4 seconds in. A minimoog could certainly make a sound like that. (Not a harpsichord, though!)

[GRollins]

I'll second the Minimoog vote. Definitely not a harpsichord.

 

Honestly, given the keyboards he had available at the time, there won't be a lot of options. Work it backwards:

Not a piano

Not a Hammond

Not a Mellotron (although someone will probably argue that he recorded something himself)

Etc.

The Minimoog ends up being the only viable candidate, totally aside from the synth-i-ness of the sound.

 

Where are all these marvelous isolated tracks coming from?

 

Grey

[Sundown]

Where are all these marvelous isolated tracks coming from?

 

Boy, good question... I can't think of any DSP that would be capable of doing the isolation. Someone must have access to the original multi-tracks.

 

Todd

[Sundown]

I'll second the Minimoog vote. Definitely not a harpsichord.

 

My thought on the harpsichord was the attack, and the fact that he used one for other parts of the track (and "Siberian Khatru").

 

But I hear what Scott is saying... Some of the attacks sound like a mono-synth, and a Mini would be Rick's go-to axe at that time.

[EricBarker]

Definitely not an acoustic harpsichord, the body of the note is UNMISTAKABLY a filtered sawtooth. But the attack has WAY more harmonics than a sawtooth alone. So it's probably two oscillators, but then you'd need two parallel envelopes to make the attack oscillator die completely, and a mini can't do that. You could do it with a semi-modular synth like an ARP2600, modular Moog or Buchla.

 

It couldn't be an organ, electronic piano (CP-30, etc), acoustic instrument either because it's clearly monophonic: each successive note abruptly cuts off the last. That isn't just precise legato playing (the great thing is it's not even that precise, you can hear some slop and wrong notes, but who cares!), that's a monophonic oscillator. Sometimes the attack is triggered, sometimes it's not, as if the attack sound has a mono trigger too, so it only triggers when no other keys are down (like the percussion stage on a B3).

 

So yeah, I'm gonna go with a 2600, Modular Moog, Buchla, or other modular synth laying around in the studio.

[AnotherScott]

To me, it sounds do-able on a Minimoog. More than one oscillator, yes, but no extra envelopes needed.

[EricBarker]

To me, it sounds do-able on a Minimoog. More than one oscillator, yes, but no extra envelopes needed.

 

Not sure how that would work. The body of the note sounds like a single oscillator (sawtooth) to my ears. If you only had one envelope, a second oscillator would still be around through the body of the note. I could hear that attack sound being a resonant sawtooth, noise generator, or thin pulse wave, but then we'd hear that generator sustain through the rest of the note.

[AnotherScott]

Maybe I'm missing some subtlety, but I don't hear anything tricky about it. I think I got pretty close pretty quickly...

 

[video:youtube]

[analogman1]

MiniMoog definitely...

[ksoper]

MiniMoog definitely...

 

Without question.

[stoken6]

Presumably one envelope (fast attack, fast-ish decay, medium sustain) modulating filter and amplitude simultaneously?

 

Cheers, Mike.

[AnotherScott]

Presumably one envelope (fast attack, fast-ish decay, medium sustain) modulating filter and amplitude simultaneously?

Minimoog has one envelope for filter and one for VCA, you can't use the same envelope for both. Of course, you could set the two envelopes the same way if you want to, more or less. (In my quick go at it above, I didn't.)

[Music Bird]

Definitely a Minimoog with a 2-oscillator setting.

[Sundown]

Thanks everyone. I would have never guessed a Minimoog.

 

And thanks to Scott for posting the clip and demonstration.