"No synthesizers were used on this record"

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What bands have actually put this in their liner notes?

All I can think of is Rage against the Machine on their debut.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Queen
Magnetic Fields

― o. nate (onate), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

So that's the machine they were raging against!

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Kitchens of Distinction. Only they said "keyboards" I think.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

A LOT of bands have done this. and right now, none come to mind.

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Replace "synthesizers" with "drum sticks" and we can add Guster.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Boston - "no synthesizers or orchestral instruements were used....etc"

― Hurlothrumbo (hurlothrumbo), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"No drugs were used on this record"

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"This record has not been tested on animals."

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Iggy Pop's "Zombie Birdhouse"

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

kraftwerk.

― stirmonster, Monday, 15 November 2004 22:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I remember seeing it on a Boston record when I was at Gemco and thinking, "how odd."

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:10 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, seeing this quote on a record would strongly discourage me from buying it.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Roger Powell may have had something to the opposite effect on his all-synth LP Cosmic Fire. I remember it having liner notes like "the piano here is an ARP, the strings here all all synths," etc.

― nickn (nickn), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

kraftwerk.

oh yeah, and jean-michel jarre.

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Tesla had something like that in their liner notes on their records.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Boston - "no synthesizers or orchestral instruements were used....etc"

Horns don't count as orchestral instruments? Are they symphony instruments instead? In that case, were they making string sounds through some bizarre method not including strings or synths, and wanted people to know it?

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not sure how I feel about Matthew Herbert documenting his sample sources (like on Goodbye Swingtime). It's kind of dorky and after all the editing you can't really tell the source anyway, but it's less boring than most liner notes and makes me say, "hey, that's a good idea."

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

"No computers were used during the writing, recording, mixing or mastering of this record." - White Stripes, Elephant

It's somewhat unclear how they converted the music into 1's and 0's for the CD version that I'm reasonably sure they released, but, whatever.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:30 (twenty-one years ago)

I want to make an album that says "No musicians or real instruments were harmed in the making of this record".

― Tantrum The Cat (Tantrum The Cat), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

There's a really charming "no sequencers or drum machines were used, etc." on Shriekback's "Big Night Music." I'll try to dig it up because it really is quite lovely.

― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"No cheating occurred during the making of this record"

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

FC Cuz, I think White Stripes used a difference engine for the CD version.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"No musicians were used on this record."

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"No electric toothbrushes were used in cleaning these teeth."

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:38 (twenty-one years ago)

"no toasters were raged against while utilising this machine"

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I toast my bread on a stick over an open flame. You get a more authentic toasting that way. It's about the skill of the toaster, not flipping a switch so some machine can lay down regimented little grill-lines on your bread.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:48 (twenty-one years ago)

haha

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"no computer keyboard or internet connection was used in this post."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

"no recording devices were used in the making of this recording"

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"no words or letters were used in this sentence."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

"no dying of the light was raged against while not thinking twice, alright?"

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:52 (twenty-one years ago)

THIS RECORD IS MEANT TO BE LISTENED TO ON VINYL

http://www.sdco-op.com/galaxygloo/MONTGOMERY/SPIDERLAND/MONTGOMERY_IN_SPIDERLAND.gif

― Ian John50n (orion), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:53 (twenty-one years ago)

"no dylan was thomased while this robert was zimmermanned (sooner or later)"

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:56 (twenty-one years ago)

"no british people were used on this record."

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002U8W.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:57 (twenty-one years ago)

"no tape or recording devices, digital or analog, were used in this recording whatsoever"

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 15 November 2004 22:58 (twenty-one years ago)

i always thought that "no sytnths" stance by Rage Against the Machine was hypocritical considering the considerable technology that goes into the the types of effects pedals that Tom Morello uses.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"no joe was meeked in hearing while compressing a new world calling"

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:04 (twenty-one years ago)

its absurd. and who really gives a shit. Rage against the machine just come across as wankers or guitar obsessed teenagers who should get alife.
and i've always found Mathew Herberts stance annoying... and self important. - 1. he just seems to be ripping off DOGMA 95 manifeto concepts (Lars Von Trier etc..)
2. most electronic musicians already have half these concepts in mind already. hence the only peopel how are "wowed" by it are stupid critiques who mistakenly believe its unique and punters who don't know any better.

― Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm pretty sure it was on one of The Damned's albums (Machine Gun Etiquette?).

As I recall there was a genuine concern in the late '70's / early '80's that synths were going to make a lot of musicians redundant, hence the "Musicians Union Say: Keep Music Live" stickers that were apparently mandatory on all battered flight cases at the time.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:06 (twenty-one years ago)

there's just as much of a concern today, if not more, as any broadway pit musician will tell you.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it was on Strawberries or the Black Album, because I remember thinking it was weird as there are clearly electronic keyboards on the album. I'll have to go home and check.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:12 (twenty-one years ago)

on a pitcheblende cd I have they say "no moogs were used on this record"

― artdamages (artdamages), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha. Yeah, I do think it's ridiculous in this day and age. The one time I sort of wished for the disclaimer though - the Pfork review Youngblood Brass Band's last record, which trashed it except for the tune where "the Youngblood horns do a striking IDM impersonation with the help of some electronic effects" (yes, I just looked it up). I wanted to be like "no dude, it's just one guy and a tuba!"

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:16 (twenty-one years ago)

The Fucking Champs debut says "No chorus pedals were used on this record"... I larfed.

― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:32 (twenty-one years ago)

lift to experience's album said "ladies and gentlemen we are using one guitar"

― cutty (mcutt), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Are there horns on Boston records?

It sort of makes sense in the case of Boston and RATM in that the guitarists want you to know that those sounds are coming from their guitar playing (with whatever pedals they've chosen or designed) rather than from a synth - it's just a case of the guitarist wanting credit for what he's doing. Whether this credit is important is another question.

I can understand why people did this in the 80s in the sense that there was a certain cliche sort of synth sound that had become ubiquitous. It was just a way of marking yourself out as different.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 15 November 2004 23:49 (twenty-one years ago)

RATM actually said "no turntables or synthesizers"

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Ugh. Liner notes like these make me want to arrange an album using exclusively Casio presets and loops that come bundled with Fruityloops. And record it on GarageBand.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I like TISM's; "All machines used in the making of this album were plugged in by TISM" or something.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:57 (twenty-one years ago)

The worst is all the gear wank about lathes and microphones in those early Shellac 7"s.

― Ian John50n (orion), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 00:59 (twenty-one years ago)

No Fat Chicks

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

The Fucking Champs debut says "No chorus pedals were used on this record"... I larfed.
-- gygax! (gygax0...), November 15th, 2004.

god bless those smarmy bastards. i love their liner notes...a totally pitch perfect parody of all that gear worship.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Ugh. Liner notes like these make me want to arrange an album using exclusively Casio presets and loops that come bundled with Fruityloops. And record it on GarageBand.
-- joseph cotten (josephcotte...), November 16th, 2004 7:22 PM. (joseph cotten) (later)

http://www.dmusic.com/

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:11 (twenty-one years ago)

ABORYM EXPERIAMENTS ALIEN EXTREME BLACK INDUSTRIAL EXCLUSIVELY!!

(sorry, i couldn't resist. i like that one.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't see this thread til now; just posted this on the other one:

Tesla always bragged on their album covers about how "no machines were used." Which was really weird, because the albums all had names like *Mechanical Resonance* and *The Great Radio Controversey,* plus, the band was named Tesla for Christ's sake!

― chuck, Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:13 (twenty-one years ago)

The full Aborym text from their Fire Walk With Me album:

Warning! This album contains theta waves inside! The brainwave synchronizer can produce theta waves that, when listened to with stereo headphones, will put the listener into any desired state of depression, meditation and sometimes sinister coloured visions, visions of death, solitude, sorrow, grey paranoia.

Because of the nature of this function, it only works on stereo waveform data, and to be effective, it must be listened to with stereo headphones. The brainwave function spatially locates the audio left and right, in a circular pattern over time. In order to spacially encode the signal, either the left or right channel is delayed so that the sounds will appear at each ear at different times, tricking the brain into thinking they are coming from either side. When this is done at frequencies of 3hz and above, the brain will start synchronizing at the same frequency, increasing its output of theta frequencies.

(got all that? most long-winded way to say Turn This Fucker Up!! that i've ever seen.)

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Fire Walk With US, that should have been.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

kitchesn of distinction said 'keyboards played by no one' because they had been accused of using keyboards to get all the pretty sounds on their earlier records.

― keith m (keithmcl), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"For the curious: There is no guitar on this album" - Jan Hammer, The First Seven Days

"With the exception of the listed musicians, every instrument on this album is played or synthesized by Herbie. Included is every brass part, string part, lead guitar, steel drum, etc. On 'Textures', Herbie plays everything." - Herbie Hancock, Mr. Hands

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 01:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Melvins use guitars and drums cuz they want the best."

― DJ Mencap0))), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 10:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Sundar OTM, and I think that was Brian May's motivation as well.

Jason Forrest/Donna Summer has put "no real instruments were used in the creation of this album" on pretty musch all of his releases. And he samples Boston and Queen.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 10:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I always wish bands like Autechre would have one of these disclaimers so I knew whether those beautiful string arrangements on "Arch Carrier" were samples or synths. I'm hoping it's synths.

― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

In the liner notes to Frank Zappa's We're Only In It For The Money (or maybe Uncle Meat, if my memory's gotten even worse), he writes something like "None of the sounds were created electronically; but are rather the result of electronically altering the sounds of NORMAL instruments." Not that he was OPPOSED to using synths, mind you: He was just always anal about listing technical details.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 22:31 (twenty-one years ago)

NORMAL instruments

― miccio (miccio), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 22:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"No computers were used during the writing, recording, mixing or mastering of this record." - White Stripes, Elephant
It's somewhat unclear how they converted the music into 1's and 0's for the CD version that I'm reasonably sure they released, but, whatever.

-- fact checking cuz (factcheckingcu...), November 15th, 2004.

Writing, recording, mixing or mastering don't have anything to do with the 'putting music on a CD' stage, they all come before.

They used analog to digital converters (in a computer, sound desk or whatever) to put it on CD.

― mei (mei), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 13:59 (twenty-one years ago)

They used analog to digital converters (in a computer, sound desk or whatever) to put it on CD.

this is admittingly splitting hairs, but wouldn't that normally be considered part of the mastering process? (and isn't that why, back in the day when they found it necessary to put this info on cd's, a record could be AAD or ADD or DDD, but never AAA?)

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sure an engineer or producer somewhere down the line humored poor Jack White.

― LSTD (answer) (sexyDancer), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 15:48 (twenty-one years ago)

"This album was recorded in the nude" - Gaye Bikers On Acid

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 17 November 2004 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)

The Shoes had "no keyboards" on at least one LP's liner notes.

― mike a, Wednesday, 17 November 2004 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

On Mira's website, they say that no synths were used...but they have two guitarists, so they don't need them!

kitchens of distinction said 'keyboards played by no one' because they had been accused of using keyboards to get all the pretty sounds on their earlier records.

Exactly...it's very understandable why they wrote that...Julian Swales played guitar that sounds like two guitars meshed with a keyboard. Probably the only time they ever used a keyboard was to produce the reggae piano sound on "Anvil Dub".

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Monday, 22 November 2004 00:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Whenever I see something like "No synthesizers were used on this record" in the liner notes, I relegate that album to my "never play this again because it was made by self-important dickheads" pile.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 22 November 2004 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

But self-important dickheads make good music too!

― danh (danh), Monday, 22 November 2004 04:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Worth mentioning is Tom Recchion's "Chaotica," which states:

"All tracks are live improvisations recorded originally without the use of overdubs or edits. Instrumentation: Pre-recorded stereo tape loops, records, cassettes and keyboards (no samplers)."

An analog purist, I guess.

― nono, Monday, 22 November 2004 05:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Nautical Almanac, Rooting for the Microbes

“No electricity was used in the making of this record” (or words to that effect)

― Raymond Cummings (Raymond Cummings), Monday, 22 November 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I want to make an album that says "No musicians or real instruments were harmed in the making of this record".

Too late!!!!!

From ASM's ASMTracker album in 1999 (Entirely software generated!!!!) :

"NO REAL INSTRUMENTS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS RECORD"!!!!!

― Old Fart!!! (oldfart_sd), Monday, 22 November 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

The Bad Plus have a "No overdubs or edits were used on this record EXCEPT in this song and this other bit in that other song blah blah" message on Give, which is sort of ironic considering that they're the ultimate anti-rockist jazz trio.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 22 November 2004 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

funniest post of the day from NEMO up there. hilarious.

all of this just reminds me of tom petty anyway.

― piscesboy, Monday, 22 November 2004 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Perhaps they adopted a hands-off attitude to the CD mastering - here's our tape (compiled entirely in the analog domain), now dub it to hard disk without changing anything please. I presume they meant the processing part of mastering (multi-band compression, notch filtering, etc) wasn't done on a DAW with software but with huge clunking bits of outboard gear rescued from a skip. If the point of entry for the computer was merely sequencing the A/D'd tracks and sticking in inter-track gaps then I guess you could just about get away with the "no computers" claim.

What was the Human League LP which claimed "no sequencers were used on this record"?

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Tuesday, 23 November 2004 10:47 (twenty-one years ago)

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