Procession - dropped with the ARP Quadra?

alright guys, longtime lurker here.

Watching the live youtube glasto footage you can see Gillian playing an ARP Quadra, and the main synth line has that classic sound. later on (on one of the dvds) there is a version of it with a really thin sounding synth, definately not the same sound.

Do you think Procession was dropped when they stopped using the Quadra? Legend has it they were a bit temperamental. The sound was from the string synth section so potentially they could have used a Solina or an Odyssey (having had one or other of them during Joy Divison Closer, accounts vary)

Procession is one of my fave tracks, great sound, great lyrics. And I'd get myself (more) in debt to by a Quadra.

(btw string synths are more related to organs than synthesizers, its a divide down mechanism rather than VCOs, multiple copies of the same sound merged via chorus into the same mix. unlimited polyphony. interesting article on the ARP sound: http://www.marksmart.net/sounddesign/arpstrings/arpstrings.html and an article on the creator of the string synth: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb07/articles/freemanstring.htm )

themightyspang wrote:

Do you think Procession was dropped when they stopped using the Quadra?

Probably, but their songs were getting more sophisticated as they were getting more gear. They could have played Procession with new gear... there's a few different videos of Thieves Like Us where Gillian is using a different synths in each video:

a Voyetra:

a Prophet:

a Sequential Circuits Prophet:

They were getting better gear all the time. But with new gear, their music was getting more sophisticated, and although I like Procession, that synth line you are talking about is really two chords (octaves), playing down up, down up. Procession was probably dropped because they were writing songs with more changes.

Aha, interesting, forgot about TLU (one of my least fave tunes). In that third video around 0:47 Gillian turns around and uses the Arp Quadra for the lead line. Again, using the string synth function.

The in the other two she's using the Voyetra. Close, but its just a polysynth doing a string type sound and not as interesting a sound as the Quadra. String synths are a one trick pony, but they do that trick incredibly well (though the quadra isnt just a string synth, its 4 synth engines in one box)

Listening to the single its obviously the Quadra.

would suggest then that live version on the DVD with the very thin normal sounding synth (um... cant find it at the moment. they were under the laser IIRC. Its driving me nuts now, i'm sure the footage was on dvd) was probably down to either not bringing it or a tech failure.

Maybe they dropped it to make room for new material. Procession soldiered on for almost 5 years, retired in December 1985. At that time Brotherhood material, their 4th lp, was appearing. By 1987 it was greatest hits until a new lp needed pimping.

In Retro Bernard did not remember the song or the live performance of it for the boxset. Maybe he hated it. Hannet had him do 42 takes for the vocals. Shame, one of my all time faves as well.