Hello everyone, I just bought another month of Uploaded.net premium service and received a 2-day premium coupon that I would like to share with this very helpful and generous community!

Rather than do a simple lottery for this, I would like pose 2 synth-music-related trivia questions. The first person who answers all of both accurately will get the 2-day coupon code via PM from me. I would like to request that you simply don't just resort to googling these but of course there is no way i can stop people from doing that... so it will have to just be on the honor system. However, with that in mind, at least 1 of the question should be at least relatively difficult to google... so we will see.

Both questions have to do with the amazing synth maestro, Vince Clarke (currently of Erasure, previously with Yaz, Depeche Mode and various side projects). Vince is well known as a pioneer in field of synthesis. I've always loved all of his music, especially with Erasure but only recently did I become aware of what he actually had to do with the early synths and crude first computers to achieve the sounds on early album such as Wonderland, The Circus, The Innocents, etc. What many electronic musicians can accomplish today in mere minutes via advanced computers, DAWs, soft-synths, plugin effect, etc, used to be a tremendously painstaking process. Seeing some videos of what Vince had to do in these early days even increased my already overwhelming appreciation for his immense talent! So, without further ado, here are the questions:

#1 - On an early Erasure album (within first 5 official releases), 2 synthesizers are mentioned by name. Name the following:

a- Album title
b- Track title
c- Name of both synths mentioned

#2 - The classic synth-pop ballad Only You by Yaz has been prominently featured on at least 3 recent TV shows in the US. 2 are current, 1 was on air within the past 5 years.

a- name these 3 shows

First person to post all correct answers wins the coupon.

 

well im a huge erasure/yazoo/DM/ Vince Clark fan.

unless it was spoken word i can't seem to recall a song within the first 5 albums that mention hardware
its not on I say I say I say because that was the 6th album i believe.

#2. Ned is absolutely correct!!!

crazy something i don't know about Erasure.. im curious now guess its time to revisit the first 5 although if i win ill give it away as well

 

99% off topic:

I never had one of those coupons but now I see that I've been delaying to download a lot of stuff (big in size, multi part).

Is there a way to get coupons? Some sort of trial service that provides them?

 

Yes, Ned was indeed correct on #2 he deleted his post though and sent me a PM with his answers instead as to not give anything away, which I actually agree is a good idea.

However, he did not get part 1 completely correct, so this is still an open contest.

For anyone else who would prefer to respond with answers via PM, please feel free to do so. I will then award the coupon to the earliest time stamp (either on this thread or PM) with the complete correct answers.

Furthermore, let's also say that guesses are limited to 1 per person per day.

Kind of glad that part #1 is proving to be a bit difficult ;-) but it absolutely is valid... just happens to be probably my all-time favorite Erasure track so I have every word memorized ;-)

 

Kouros, Uploaded gives bonus coupons to those who pay for at least 1 month of their premium service. That's how I got this 2-day coupon... for 1 month of premium paid.

 

So.. there's no such thing as a free "2 hour trial", right? The only way is getting a coupon from someone who paid them.

 

Kouros, yes as far as I know that is correct.

Back to the topic at hand... so, nobody got the correct answers and unfortunately, I got busy with work and the coupon recently expired. But for those who are interested, here are the answers:

a- Album title - Two Ring Circus (1987)
b- Track title - Oh L'Amour (Live)
c- Name of both synths mentioned - Oberheim Xpander & DX (meaning Yamaha DX7)

During the "band" introduction part of the song beginning at 2:12, Andy Bell's first mention at 2:20 is the Oberheim Xpander. At about 2:34 he mentions the DX. Finally, Andy introduces Vince Clarke, who in turn introduces Andy. I always found it interesting that they introduce the instruments before the actual people, but it kind of makes sense in a way, given Erasure's reliance on and expertise with synths. While I am a strong supporter of the amazing technology advances in music that enable all of this to essentially now be done on computers, I have to admit it was somewhat disappointing to see Vince only behind a laptop at their recent concerts. Would be nicer to me to see a couple of nice synths in front of him (maybe even a DX7 for kicks), even if he isn't doing that much active playing lol.

a- name these 3 shows - Fringe, The Americans, & Once Upon A Time

For those not familiar with The Americans, it is a Russian-Spies-in-America show (and a great one at that) set in the 80's USA. In the episode, they make specific mention of Yaz's Upstairs at Eric's and the song gets quite a bit of play time... great stuff for fans of this music!