A Guide To The Best Synths In History With Hiatus Kaiyote's Simon Mavin

As part of the eclectic and wondrous Melbourne Jazz festival line up, the crew at Wondercore Island are presenting an evening of avant-garde improvisation at The Curtin over June 3rd and 4th.

Titled ‘The Cave’ the evenings promise to be fascinating explorations of improvisation, through various musical forms across two stages. As well as music there will also be other forms of improv including spoken work, zine creation and visual installations in the upstairs theatre, for all the info pop by melbournejazz.com.

Simon Mavin is a synth player who performs as a part of Swooping Duck who are playing The Cave for Melb Jazz Fest. He’s also in The Putbacks and Hiatus Kaiyote. To celebrate The Cave and even bigger than that to celebrate the highly overlooked world of synths Mavin has put together a tidy little guide to his favourite synths, gear heads take note.

Roland Paraphonic RS-505

This guy is a bass/synth/string machine! Beast of a synth that can blend all its elements together, very unique and flexible!

It’s one of my favourites ’cause it sits in mixes really well and I always seem to be able to find great new sounds even though it’s quite limited in the modulation area.

Roland Sh-2000

This is a mid ’70s monosynth that was the second commercial synth roland released. It is a very underated lead synth!

It has aftertouch and a great sounding filter. It has a very organic sound and I can always turn to it for some inspiration. Funny cat preset is one to check out. Great bottom end too!

Yamaha CS5

I’m a big fan of the CS series, this is my other favourite lead synths. Very simple to use and has a fantastic filter that is at first quite subtle, but once you get used to it, its very good at making organic sounding tones.

Yamaha CS70M

This polysynth is ridiculous. It was apart of Yamaha’s first line to incorporate a analog/digital hybrid. Its stereo spread makes pads sound super lush!

The onboard sequencer is a great attribute to help with tweaking the exact sound your after, this is probably my favourite synthesiser I own.

Korg YC-10

This vocoder is incredibly unique, I’ve never heard one like it, more like a synth choir! It sits behind vocals really well and puts body into your tracks without overpowering them. Hard to use though!