CROSSWORD SOLVER PUZZLE:
[ SYNTH YOU ASKED …]
PROGRAM: [Crossword Solver]
PROGRAM: [Java]
PRINTOUT PUZZLE: [ SYNTH YOU ASKED …]
PROGRAM: [Adobe Acrobat]
ACROSS LITE PUZZLE: [ SYNTH YOU ASKED …]
PROGRAM: [Across Lite]
Further proof that inspiration for a theme for a puzzle can strike at any time. I was on the couch with Liz the other night. Liz was watching “Dancing With the Stars” and I was doing some puzzle stuff. Anyway, Cobra Starship was a guest on the show and Liz pointed out the one member playing the keytar. We had a quick exchange about how equally dorky/impossibly cool those dumb/amazing instruments are. And for Liz, that was the end of the conversation.
Not me. I continued this keytar conversation in an IM with Francis Heaney, which quickly turned to philosophical waxing about vintage analog synthesizers. Oh, the dork flag flew, that’s for sure. I will spare you the details, but man. Any time you have a conversation about how to set up oscillators on certain synthesizers to attain the “Bernie Worrell sound,” or you go searching on eBay for “Liberation” after you see the above band photo because you just have to have a analog synth keytar, you know you’ve gone off the cliff into extreme nerd-dom.
Anyway, in that conversation, Francis threw out some hideous synth puns, even offering a few that appeared in this final puzzle. I joined in, and there you have it. A puzzle is born. That’s how watching crap TV can lead to a crossword.
Speaking of music-themed puzzles, my latest Onion puzzle is up here: [PDF] [Across Lite]
Share the puzzles. New one on Monday.
This was one great piece of Kraftwerk, eh? Get it?
Took me Kurzweil to finish, but, Juno, the theme words weren’t much of a problem. Young’uns today may not get the love. Casio had to be there be to see things in a Fairlight.
I love me some classic synths, but I’m not a very good player so I usually stick to the MIDI ones so I can sequence what I want to do. I still want a Juno 106 but I haven’;t convinced myself I need it enough to really get one.
Could the following have happened? BEQ needed RAKEUP but wasn’t sure if the term was common usage. So he googled “define rake up” and found “bring to light; ‘He raked up the misdeeds of his predecessor'”.
That’s what I did anyway.
Maybe “Gather, like leaves” would have made it too easy?
Never heard of KORG, so I lost a good 30 seconds on that crossing.
six finger satellite!
As a (totally non-rocking) keyboardist I have to give 88 thumbs up to this puzzle, even though I’ve never heard of ARP. And am disappointed that Kurzweil didn’t make it in…
I’ve never played a keytar, but have thought about getting one. I envy my guitarist’s wireless setup and his ability to not be tethered on stage.
Okay, you think the Keytar is dorkey/cool? I can TOTALLY out-dorky-cool you on that one. The Manetron iPad app. What is it, you ask? It is, I kid you not, a perfectly reproduced (sampled, not emulated or sythesized) MELLOTRON. Yup. What the heck is a Mellotron? Do you really have to ask? I know Brendan doesn’t (surely not). Just recall to mind the opening “flutes” on Strawberry Fields Forever, or the ones on Court of the Crimson King, or virtually every song recorded by the Moody Blues in their psychedelic heyday. Incredible old mechanical (not analog, mechanical!) precursor of the synthesizer, with tape loops playing actual recordings of the orchestral instruments. Things cost thousands, now you can download one for a couple bucks. Do it today!