Redux Here There and Everywhere

This blog has been neglected for a long time. It will probably be neglected again at a future time. This is probably as good a place as any to start my "Captain's Log."

Captains Log:

It feels like things are starting over in many ways today. I will talk here about what is going on with me, I feel like I have some music to make, but waiting for the right mood to start working on it in earnest. There are things to do around the complex today, and I have chores that must be accomplished. But my ideas are flowing and I feel a good atmosphere for creating.

IMS is in a position now to operate as our vessel of research and development for Albert One products that have been in the works for about 25 years, but this is a good time to chisel the corners off this ball. There's not a strong desire here to put anything else on the web for people to chat to. Let them play with the grok and shiny toys out there. Have fun. We'll be working to go further.

I really want a Behringer Pro 1 synthesizer, but don't really need it. It has pulse width modulation and is kind of a poor man's Prophet synth but I've got some pretty good plug-in software. I'm learning to appreciate outboard equipment in the music making but have never been able to afford some of them. I inherited some equipment but most of my gear is from the 1990's except for my computers. I guess that is a broad statement. I do have some more recent gear. I don't need anything but a good idea to act on and I've got several songs that were started, and I tend to move from one project to another. 

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The Behringer rocks!

 Okay, well this is actually a picture of the Akai Professional MINIAK virtual MiniMoog that I play the Model D with. It has a good keyboard, and they sound good together. I have just begun to explore. Of course it is tempting to put a Moog on every song but I resist the temptation most of the time.

Someone gave me a Moog Prodigy many years ago because it had some broken keys, and they thought it was broken internally. I replaced the keyboard and it has been a lot of fun to play. The Prodigy is a simple 2-Oscillator synth and it definitely sounds like a Moog but the Behringer isn't a bonafide Moog either and having that 3rd Oscillator is great. It also has overdrive which is brilliant. It gives the synth some meat. If you follow my music you'll be hearing more of it later.

Behringer Model D evaluation

 We’re testing a MiniMoog boutique synth that just sits on the end of my Launchkey midi controller. It sounds righteous. Much better build quality than my Moog Prodigy. 

However, I'm starting to understand the great value of the Moog Prodigy. It has some hidden features, and some design choices that lend to the great oscillators and filters. It's a great companion to the Model D, and my prodigy has the CV jacks on the back so can take advantage of the MIDI to cv converter in the Behringer instrument. All around great value to me and my style of music if you can call it music.

I call it music, and I'm looking forward to a great day's novel writing ahead.

Distributed Digital Audio Recording

This is the first distributed music recording setup I’ve seen. The computer on the left (Dell XPS 13), with the 3 screens is the “tape deck” and the “conductor of the music.” The computer on the right (mac mini) converts my keyboard on the far left into MIDI signals and plays them on the mac, so they can be recorded on the “tape deck.”  I can do things like playing a track using Sam’s rack of spam with no plugging or unplugging of wires. That’s the take away from it I guess. My mixer converts the audio from the mac and rack into digital streams that I am recording on the “tape deck.” In some ways, this is very similar in function to the Fairlight computers that Kate Bush and Thomas Dolby used in the 1980’s to record their successful record albums. They used computers that cost $100,000 in 1980. My computers are far more advanced, because they are from the 21st century, and my system is modular, so that there are almost limitless possibilities for me to use as my “sound pallet” to paint my primordial “folk art” portraits of what my mind hears as music. I can literally transfer my feelings as a “song” that is more or less exactly the way I want it to be witnessed by any person who is willing to view my paintings as it were.There will be grapes and cheese plates with much rejoicing.

Synth voices and the knobs and buttons that make them go. 

 The great synth programmer, Zaa Phaphalene once said, "Do not ask why me? Rather, ask yourself, "Why not me?" And so we did. We both learned to program the great machines from their consoles, tedious and grueling to finish. But now, we've got the Hypersynth Miniak patch editor to finally get something nice out of that Akai Professional virtual analog that is not getting any younger. 

And neither am I. I like having the controls working on their amazing machine. Having a way to access this thing takes if from a nearly wasted eBay grab to a fantastic resource writhing and raring to go. It's like something I could imagine, but the Miniak is such a rare bird, and not many were produced I'm guessing. But I found this one guy in the world who can make an editor/librarian for it that actually works. It's a little squirely in some respects, but well worth the effort. So with a long day of novel writing ahead, let's go to the studio.