Cake's "The Distance" came out in 1996, and it featured a "G-Funk west-coast whistle synth" sound straight out of Dr Dre's "Nuthin But A G Thang", which had exploded four years earlier. But that synth sound that inspired Dre originated 20 years earlier, from the funk sounds of Parliament/Funkadelic and The Ohio Players. The keyboardists from those bands (including the brilliant Bernie Worrell) developed the sliding, whistling sound on the new (1970) Minimoog Model D, which for the first time made Bob Moog's modular synth sounds accessible to a wider range of musicians in a portable, affordable package.

Fast forward 50 years: as part of recording my edutainment cover of "The Distance", I need to replicate that classic whistle-synth sound, and so I endeavor to learn the basics of the Minimoog using a cheap Arturia midi controller and a software Minimoog emulator. I'm not a keyboardist or at all knowledgeable about synths, but fortunately, I have Youtube to fall back on. If, like me, you also are also new to synth stuff, you may learn a few things. If you're looking for a more knowledgeable and comprehensive guide to the Minimoog, including settings for Dre, Parliament, and Pink Floyd, check out this tutorial from Reverb: [ Ссылка ]

Bernie Worrell photo credits:
Image by Manfred Werner [ Ссылка ]
Image by Mika Väisänen [ Ссылка ]

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