Songs Utilizing Synthesizer

GaryAlan

Well-Known Member
Richard Carpenter stated: "the very few times that I chose to use a synthesizer, I have regretted it. Every last time." (Huffington Post, 40th Anniversary Interview).

How many (which) Carpenters' songs used Synthesizer ?
There is only one song where I would regret its use: Want You Back In My Life Again,
although that is due primarily to the song choice itself, not the use of synthesizer.

I noticed Calling Occupants utilizes synthesizer, as does Those Good Old Dreams.
And, in those songs, I believe the use of synthesizer is fine.

So, where do the fans stand on this issue:
Carpenters' songs utilizing synthesizer ?
 
'Happy' uses it probably the most of all their songs. I don't have a problem with it - it was used pretty sparingly on tracks (unlike the dreaded oboe).

Why it was felt necessary to make the tiny change to 'Those Good Old Dreams' to edit out the brief use of synth is completely beyond me. It's hardly like that was the biggest issue with the mixing/production on the tracks on Made in America!
 
I love and prefer the original LP mix of Those Good Old Dreams with the extended synth:

On the original MADE IN AMERICA LP, at around the 3:36 mark into “Those Good Old Dreams”, you’ll hear a high-pitch sustained “whine” from a synthesizer (after the final “…and it’s all because of you.”), leading to four more short descending notes on the synth as the track goes into its final instrumental mode to fade-out. [Source: Carpenters Complete Recording Resource]

It's one of the reasons I got the '84 UK YESTERDAY ONCE MORE compilation on CD.

I also love the rising synthesizer sound at the end of Happy.
 
I’m sure he utilised synths on the track There’s A Kind Of Hush as well.

How about his first solo album, does he regret that was drenched in synths as well :laugh:

I also love the rising synthesizer sound at the end of Happy.

I hate that. It goes far, far too high.
 
By the way, the original credits for
Those Good Old Dreams,
listed on the inner sleeve of the 1981 Made In America LP,
make NO mention of a synthesizer.
 


Buried away just after the guitar solo at 2:50 you can hear four seconds of what sounds like synth. Never had a problem with the synth on Carpenters recordings. Daryl Dragon did a great job with the synthesizer programming on the track (Want You) Back In My Life Again.
 
Synthesizer ad from ‘74:

carpenters-synthesizer.jpg
 
When he used the synth as an instrument in it's own right (if that's not a contradiction in terms) I liked the result. . .ala Happy and Back in my Life. In fact I wish he'd gone further on the latter track and pushed the synths right up in the mix.

But when he uses it for drums, strings, piano etc. . .not a fan. It's a shame he didn't start regretting his use of them before he made TIME - it would've made that album much better.
 
I read or heard somewhere that Richard regretted using synthesiser so much LIVE. I think he might have said it on the Japanese promo interview for the first DVD / video release for 'Live at the Budokan'. That, and the 'Live in Japan' album, does have a lot of usage of synth. And because it was recorded in 1974, it really dates the recordings and makes them not as...austere as Carpenters' studio recordings. A lot of the synth on most artists' 1980s hits now sounds like cheap, $100 Casio keyboard. I actually think that the synth that Richard used live sounds marginally better than a lot of what you hear in 1980s recordings. The synth on the 'Live in Japan' concerts doesn't bother me because it's part of an accurate record of Carpenters' live sound at the time, and it's not TOO overbearing. But it does sound just a bit tacky and tinny. I think this might have been one thing that Richard was thinking of.

Btw, 'Touch Me When We're Dancing' has synth on it, too.

Didn't Daryl Dragon, of Captain and Tennille, programme synth on a couple of Carpenters tracks?
 
^^I had forgotten Richard Carpenter's "arp synthesizer" on the
Live In Japan Album. Nice that you brought that up !
I always loved that sound on the 1974 Live In Japan album.
(It---synthesizer--seems to be absent Live At The Palladium).

As for utilization on Touch Me When We're Dancing,
it is not credited as such on the Made In America LP.

Want You Back In My Life Again
credits Daryl Dragon and Ian Underwood for
Synthesizer Programming.
 
Richard Carpenter stated: "the very few times that I chose to use a synthesizer, I have regretted it. Every last time." (Huffington Post, 40th Anniversary Interview).

Synthesizer doesn't need to be considered a bad word.
In order to be with the times, a little use of this industry standard doesn't hurt.
It shows The Carpenters weren't shy to update their sound--if it'd fit.

Depending on my mood, the synth line on "Happy" doesn't bother me. It does go up too high, imo.
It sounds like "hmmm we don't know what else to do here so just let it slide up another octave." Lol

I don't mind it on the Hush album. It's buried and only used to fill it out like on "You" it's barely noticeable there.

Synthesizers, along with Space aliens and UFOs, were becoming really hot in the late 70s.
Occupants wouldn't be the same without that or the fuzz guitar.
It's a great way to sell the story Karen's telling us.

I think on WYBIMLA there's no other way to capture that bubble gum sound they were going for by 1981.
Replace it with brass???
Honestly, for TGODs the original synth line appears randomly and doesn't work.
If it were utilized elsewhere in the song it may have stayed, but it was used so sparingly... it might as well be deleted.

I'm sure if Richard's "Time" is any indication we would have heard a lot more synth use in the 80s by The Carpenters.
It's kind of odd how his productions with Dusty and Dionne, Akiko, Scott and Veronique... sound very 80s!
But, Voice of the Heart and Lovelines he gave the timeless treatment.

Can you imagine something like "Kiss me the way you did last night" with the drum machine he was using on Veronique's album?

The 80s music scene is practically synonymous with synthesizers. Lol
Any big selling act at the time was using them to a point.

Michael Jackson fans have these same arguments. "Why did MJ use so many synthesizers on his Bad album?!"
It dates it, but again I don't think that's a terrible thing.
Audiences can't imagine it another way; after an artist says what the finished version is.
 
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A lot of the synth on most artists' 1980s hits now sounds like cheap, $100 Casio keyboard. I actually think that the synth that Richard used live sounds marginally better than a lot of what you hear in 1980s recordings.
You must be thinking of the iconic Yamaha DX7, which could be heard on practically every 1980s hit. This was the first widely available synth to use digital FM modulation (what's still used in those $100 Casios). The synths that Richard used were analog. What makes 80s recordings sound so dated now, is that everyone was using the same 32 preset sounds - although the DX7 was capable of producing an almost infinite number of sounds (it had 96 oscillators), you practically needed a PhD in physics to program the darn thing! :laugh:

 
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