Tony Banks' Old Synth

Following on from our look at Genesis SP-12 sounds, here's a look at Tony Banks' Roland JD-800 that he used live throughout the 1990s.

In this video, we have a listen to the tour patches stored on the instrument and get a little glimpse into how Genesis did things in front of stadiums full of adoring fans.

Huge thank you to Andrew Ward for the loan of this historic instrument.

0:00 Intro
0:27 Patch 1: Invisible Touch
2:51 Patch 2: Home by the sea Pt 1
4:11 Patch 3: Home by the sea Pt 2
5:33 Patch 4: Domino
6:48 Patch 5: In the cage Pt 1
7:42 Patch 6: In the cage Pt 2
8:24 Patch 7: Mama
9:46 Patch 8: Follow you, follow me
10:31 Patch 9: Watcher of the skies
11:37 Quick Fire: Carpet Crawlers, Abacab, MB
13:04 Outro

[lascheque]

As a huge Genesis fan, I am visibly touched by this video.

[pasi]

I mean it would be cool enough to just have the instrument itself. But the patches still being on it, is simply insane ❤

[chriswinter]

Original In the Cage keyboard was the RMI Piano with his phaser pedal “built in” to the face of it. He later used the Quadra from ‘78-‘84 to reproduce the chords AND the lead synth. Organ sound on Abacab originally was the Prophet 10, not an actual organ. Quadra was the lead synth.

[projectz]

its so interesting hearing how he'd mimick the sound of the old synths he's play in the 70s with the latest 90s technology.

[thecke]

Amazing how big of a sound you can get from just layering multiple slightly different saw waves.

[chriswareham]

I wonder if Tony Banks created those patches himself, or whether he used that strange creature of the 80s and 90s, a professional programmer. They were generally session musicians who had found they had a knack for creating the synth patches and samples that a major artist or producer wanted, and often specialised in a particular instrument while it was in vogue. The Emulator II, Prophet 2000, Fairlight, D-50 and DX-7 were notable instruments that a good programmer could demand high payment for programming.

[marcoscuervo]

The man who got me into synths and keyboards, mr tony banks

[zombieman]

Considering the JD-800 semi-notorious "red glue" problem it is great to see one in working order, then to hear the isolated sounds Tony used live is a special treat. In interviews Tony used to say he wasn't precious about sounds, for example instead of Mellotron he'd just get something that conjured up the spirit of the sounds. In his words the early Genesis was piano, organ and Mellotron because there wasn't a lot else. In the 80s he was more than happy to dump the Mellotrons which in another interview he said when touring they were basically "rebuilding" it every night. Another example the Turn It On Again tour the bulk of the sounds were from Korg Oasys and he said for early tracks all you needed was a couple of sawtooth waves and it was close enough...

[Aquatarkus]

One of my favorite synth Youtubers covering an instrument used by my favorite musician wooo.
Originally, I believe the In The Cage organ sound was an RMI piano flavored with MXR Phase 100 and maybe a bit of Boss CE-1 as Tony liked to use around that time to replace the Leslie speaker. The solo was originally played with the Fuzz Guitar 1 patch on the pro soloist. Tony Banks used that preset a ton during Selling England by The Pound all through And Then There Were Three. To me it's instantly recognizable and unique to the Pro Soloist

[mallery]

MB sound is Musical Box. He played a distorted lead sound, an electric piano I think a Hohner Pianet through a distortion or fuzz pedal. Check out around 6:40 of the original tune.

[phi]

Great material as always.

I do think that “MB” patch could be used for the Musical Box, because back in the day Tony would play his electric piano (first the Hohner Pianet N, later the RMI 368X) through a fuzzbox during the second heavy bit, where he’d perform a faux-guitar solo. That came from the time when the band didn’t have Hackett and Tony had to play all the guitar solos on his fuzzy Pianet.

[duncanparsons]

That short Mama sound will have been used for the fast semi-quavers that drive the tune along.

In the studio Tony programmed a drum machine to trigger the note ons and just held the chords. For live he played them which had the benefit of adding in little accents which helped glue it all together on stage

[mariakelsey-palmer]

What an absolute thrill. Fascinating to consider the evolution of Tony’s sonic choices over the years.

[simbaking]

The legendary JD 800...Still go crazy over this amazing Roland 90s synth.

[MaybeAnnatar]

The last couple videos have felt like seeing proper music history preserved for us. Really great videos!

[ThomasKobrick]

This Genesis series was so unbelievably enjoyabe for me. I saw them on tour in the 90s so he most likely using that very synth. Thank you for sharing these and keep up the great work!

[kendanger]

Genesis used to open for 332 The Rumba of the Beast back in the day. Nice to see they were nearly as successful as we were.

[PreferToBeAnonymous]

You should also have the “I Can’t Dance” percussion on there too… I can’t remember exactly how to access it but the patch is called “internal drums”. Thanks so much for sharing this awesome piece of Genesis history!!!

[rael]

It's so great to finally hear the Invisible Touch patch isolated. It's one of the few Genesis songs where Tony is mostly buried under the guitars in the mix. I'm pretty certain he layered the Invisible Touch patch on the JD-800 with an electric piano sound to get what he used live.

[bandiras]

JD800 is such a beautiful beast! Please make more content with this magnificent synth!