Vintage Keys With Aron Magner

Warm vintage keyboards of a certain analog ilk decorate the wallpaper of our memories, filling us with a nostalgic glow often sought but seldom captured. Analog jazz keyboards, in particular, have stoked the fires of sample-based genres, from hip hop to house to hasn’t-been-named-yet. We enlisted Aron Magner and his keys to take us to that memory place. Magner is a jazz keyboardist, a founding member of Disco Biscuits, and the creator of the often-destination-based music festival Camp Bisco. More importantly, Magner’s got something right with his fingers. He showed us what’s what in the classic pop, disco, and jazz styles with some of our favorite vintage keys and some surprises, including his go-to synth: the Access Virus TI2. He also laid down melodies, bass lines, and chords on a Moog Model D, a Prophet T8, a Wurlitzer 200A, a Clavinet D6, a Juno 60, electric piano and Korg Poly 61. The drums came from the rare Gibson Maestro and Acetone FR1 drum machines. We recorded Magner’s performance through Neve 1081 and 1073 preamps and outboard effects.