A screenshot of Jonny performing Thin Thing at Primavera Sound on June 10, 2022. His laptop’s rack setup can be seen just behind him.
For The Smile’s shows at London’s Magazine in late-January, Jonny brought the same rack setup that he’d used for Radiohead’s 2017 and 2018 tours. For those shows, the rack setup only contained gear for Jonny’s laptop (for more info, check Jonny’s “computers” page), with no sound modules or effects.
For The Smile’s summer 2022 tour, Jonny still has all the old rack units, but they’ve been moved lower on the rack to make space for a shelf. That shelf holds a single Moog Mother-32 semi-modular analog mono-synth. We really have to apologize to whoever anonymously pointed this out already (the comment about “choral” sounds really threw us off). In the Primavera Thing Thing video, we can definitely see a MIDI cable connected to the Mother-32’s MIDI input. There’s also a 3.5mm patch cable connected to a jack in the middle of the third row of the synth’s patchbay. That jack is likely either the “VCO SAW” output or the “LFO TRI” output, either of which would suggest that the Mother-32 is used in conjunction with another synthesizer. He’s likely also using the Mother-32′s main audio output, which is at the back of the unit.
On an increasing number of The Smile’s songs, Jonny uses a MIDI pedalboard to control an Oberheim SEM-PRO analog mono-synth, allowing him to play the synth with his feet while his hands are occupied with guitar or bass guitar (more info here). On this tour, he has a pair of SEM-PRO modules in a custom stand to the left of his rack setup (see the last photo in this set), with one serving as a backup. Like the Mother-32, the Oberhaim SEM-PRO is semi-modular, with a bunch of CV inputs and outputs. If Jonny is using the Mother-32’s Triangle LFO output, then he’s probably modulating the SEM-PRO with it. If he’s instead using the Mother-32’s Saw VCO output, then he’s probably passing it through the SEM-PRO’s filter to give the SEM a richer sound. Perhaps the Mother-32 is tuned an octave away from the SEM for a sub-oscillator tone.
A screenshot from The Smile’s performance of The Opposite at Amsterdam’s Paradiso on May 27, 2022 (karindgr). At the Magazine performances of The Opposite, Jonny was content to turn his Boss overdrive on and off sporatically for a chaotic sound. But for the latest tour, he’s also started playing notes on his Studiologic MP-117 MIDI pedalboard during the second verse. Here he can be seen stomping on both at once.