12.28.10
Posted in What's New at 8:13 pm by Administrator
..a while back,my 27″ iMac refused to boot up..no screen,no chime,no clicking or whirring. So a quick check on line using my Droid revealed that it was a simple “unplug and power down” for 30 seconds..mystery solved…
Until it happened again..and never came back.
A trip to the Mac store..and it fires right up,of course.
I take it home..and nothing.
Back to the Mac store..this time..nothing..so they kindly order the parts (note:Apple Care,a must) and I leave it for what is predicted to be 5-7 business days (or as I call it in my business,an eternity). Client calls that night,desperate to have current project finished ASAP…so the next morning,back to the Mac store to brig it home,hope it fires up,LEAVE IT ON..and pray.
The big guy boots up and all is good for 5 days without a rest (for the iMac)…then back to the Apple Store where they repair the thing (over $ 1,000/no charge to me..OVERNIGHT!
A week later,the iMac has expired….
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12.08.10
Posted in What's New at 6:27 pm by Administrator
…as John Lennon said, “Life’s what happens when you’re busy making plans”.
Since Virb has gone the “paid site” route, I’ve discovered that you can upload music on this blog directly..with pretty good fidelity.
Definitely beats the “My Space Lo Fi” sound.
..so it’s under “Pages”..”Music”….new songs coming soon.
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07.20.10
Posted in What's New at 3:49 pm by Administrator
“I ‘ll bring the house down…I feel possessed when you come round..”
Neil Finn opened the show with “I Feel Possessed”, the lead off tune from their second album and it pretty much summed up the band’s performance last night at the Bowery Ballroom in NY, a near perfect set that balanced old songs with new, spontaneity with precision arrangements. The humor and stage presence that the band is known for was in full effect, Neil teasing fellow band mates Nick and Mark. New drummer Matt Sherrod played with joy and abandon and locked into the band in a way that made the whole group sound much bigger than the sum of their parts.
The set leaned on many of the perennial favorites but also delved deeply into the band’s second album “The Temple Of Low Men”. The song “When You Come” became rousing anthem and “Mansion In The Slums” was given a semi-acoustic treatment.
There were plenty of opportunities for the band to stretch out and Neil and Mark switched effortlessly between guitar and keyboard. Neil had a small keyboard on a stand that was rigged to a vocoder and he used it for musical (and sometimes comical) effects.
Mark perfectly complemented Neil’s voice with his harmony singing and even took the lead vocal on the George Jones/Tammy Wynette number “We’re Not The Jet Set”. He played quite a bit of lap steel during the night which gave the music an ethereal (as opposed to country) vibe.
The evening turned out to be a family affair of sorts, with Neil’s son Liam lending his vocals and acoustic guitar to “Time On Earth’s” songs “English Trees” and “Say That Again”. Neil’s wife Sharon also took to the stage to sing backing vocals for one of the songs from the just released “Intriguer” CD.
“Woodface” was well represented, as well as “Together Alone”..in fact, the only CD that wasn’t covered (except for “Don’t Dream It’s Over”) was the first one. But it didn’t matter to the audience last night..they were true fans, not nostalgia buffs looking to hear “just the hits”.
There was much joking around on stage,with Neil changing up the lyrics of “Chocolate Cake” to comment on Lindsay Lohan’s current state and even poking fun at his own songwriting by singing the verse of Neil Young’s “Down By The River” over the opening chords to “Weather With You” (the chord sequence is in fact identical).
The only disappointment for me was that they didn’t do some of the songs that I had seen listed on one of their fairly current on line set lists such as “Whispers and Moans” and the David Bowie song “Moonage Daydream” (check the C.H. website for a live video of the song)…but this was definitely offset by the inclusion surprises such as “Hole In The River”….and an overall amazing set that ran for over two hours.
The sound and lighting were all first rate and the opening act “Lawrence Arabia” is well worth seeing..engaging and fun.
CROWDED HOUSE SETLIST
I Feel Possessed
Saturday Sun
Fall at Your Feet
Don’t Stop Now
Either Side of the World
Twice if You’re Lucky
Private Universe
Black and White Boy
Say That Again
English Trees
Hole in the River
Don’t Dream it’s Over
Isolation
Archer’s Arrow
Mansion in the Slums
Love is All That Remains
Four Seasons in One Day
(We’re Not) The Jet Set
When You Come
Distant Sun
It’s Only Natural
ENCORE
In My Command
Weather With You
Chocolate Cake
Elephants
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06.04.10
Posted in Instruments at 11:00 pm by Administrator
This was IT..the real deal……
Roger Linn started it with the Linn Drum and brought the concept to fruition with this beast.
I was in the middle of trying to rescue the production of “When The Radio Is On” for Paul Shaffer, a song that my partner Kevin and I had written for him. We didn’t get to produce it but everybody hated what the “big time producer” had done so it was up to us to reprogram the entire backing track,keeping only the vocals and raps (which included Will Smith,Carole King, Ellie Greenwich,Dion,Johnny Maestro,and more) When we got the 24 track 2″ tapes, the sequencers that we were using wouldn’t lock up correctly so we headed to Sam Ash in White Plains and rented the MPC-60. This machine was so intuitive that it was locking and we were rocking within an hour….we had to have one.
We did the entire backing track with this, the MKS-80,ESQ and EPS….the only thing they kept was a little sax part.
Paul promised me lifetime seats to Letterman but when I called him later (and after the song had tanked) for tickets, he told me that he couldn’t help me, as he “had no pull with the Letterman show”…I guess he really is “Mr. Show Biz”.
Anyway…I used the MPC-60 to death and was even a beta tester for the MPC-60 II (thanks to my buddy Andy Marvel) and got to speak with Roger himself as he sent updates…he is the nicest guy and a freaking genius in my book.
I upgraded as far as the MPC-3000..it had an HD interface, was 16 bit (instead of 12) and a bunch of other great features..but I eventually had to give it up for a Mac based sequencer, starting with MOTU’s Performer (nice but iffy on the timing) and moving over to Logic.
(side note: I did the entire “Jason’s Lyric” soundtrack’s midi-music sequencing using the MPC-60 slaved to a VHS machine that had audio on one channel and SMPTE on the other..talk about old school…)
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06.02.10
Posted in Instruments at 1:56 pm by Administrator
..that about sums up my next purchase.
On the fat side was the Roland “Super Jupiter” (MKS-80) analog rack synth (with programmer).
This synth had an amazing sound but ironically,many of the presets were attempts to emulate “real” instruments like horns and strings. It was a killer for bass and actually fun to program,unlike the Yamaha “FM” synths that were out,like the DX-7.
The DX-7 WAS good at emulating real instruments..it did an amazing electric bass and rhodes piano,with a metallic crispness and attack that could not be matched by the analog Rolands.
I didn’t really want another full keyboard so I opted for the small rack version of “FM”..the “TX 81Z”.
This scaled down,single rack space synth was almost impossible to program but had some great presets..the “Lately Bass” one was used to death on many productions of this time period.
The last synth that I put in my rack at this time was Roland’s attempt to move ahead with their analog line by employing DCOs
(Digitally Controlled Oscillators) instead of the VCOs (Voltage Controlled Oscillators) of the previous generations of synths. These DCOs were supposed to give more stability to the waveforms and tunings and add some extra crispness..they were definitely feeling the heat from Yamaha. I got this with the programmer as well..this was yet another fantastic sounding synth from Roland.
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Posted in Instruments at 1:30 pm by Administrator
So it was the early to mid 1980′s…synth fever was everywhere. I started to notice that NY studio control rooms were starting to resemble the keyboard section of Manny’s Music on 48th Street.
All of the major players (Moog,Oberheim,Sequential) were expanding their lines,making them smaller (Pro 1) and bigger (Prophet 10). There were contenders for “Top Drum Machine/Sequencer”..models by Alesis,EMU and Linn/Akai…and the last one standing is Roger Linn’s venerable MPC line (more on this later). The great thing was that it was possible to try out all of this cool stuff at the studios before actually buying any of it.
And of course,there was Roland……
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Posted in What's New at 1:19 pm by Administrator
…since the last post….I was waiting to try to get some link to sounds for the Logic EXS but am having some technical difficulties.
So the “Instrument” saga continues…
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03.19.10
Posted in Instruments at 6:52 pm by Administrator
I put these two together because they are both products on Ensoniq, an American company that flourished in the ’80′s but didn’t survive.
The Mirage was the first affordable sampler..8 bit with a cryptic 2 Digit interface that belied the complexity of what lay beneath the hood. It took 3.5 ” floppy discs and came with a pretty impressive (for its time) library.
We used this for horns,strings,orchestral hits,drums,vocal samples..anything. It made great use of release velocity, a sadly underused feature before and since in other synths.
The ESQ-1 came a year later in 1986…it was multi-timbral,had 120 sounds(!) and a built in,really usable sequencer. My partner Kevin and I each had one and we got a lot of mileage out of them.
He constructed the whole intro and basic part of “When The Radio Is On” for Paul Shaffer with it.
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03.17.10
Posted in What's New at 8:30 pm by Administrator
It’s nice to get things in the mail…those guys from the band Bracia in Poland (and their manager Marcin) just sent Keith Brown and me some copies of their new CD. We co-wrote two of the songs with them:
11. Zapamiętaj
12. Jeszcze raz
although I’m not really sure what the new lyrics mean….
Great band..and super nice guys..we had a blast working with them.
Hopefully, they’ll make it stateside sometime soon.
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Posted in Instruments at 8:23 pm by Administrator
This was the secret weapon…..slightly larger than a Melodica with a power supply that weighed as much as the keyboard, this little beat rocked the high and low end. It was great for bells and chimey stuff but it really earned its stripes on the bottom end..it was a bass machine. Of course,you’d never know it from the presets.. the usual suspects of “demo” sounds that made you think..”oh,yeah, Casio..the digital watch makers..”. But with a little time programming,you could get really deep and amazingly percussive bass sounds (wicked fast pitch envelopes). The keys on the keyboard were only sightly larger than Chicklet gum so you had to use a MIDI connection to play it. Response time through MIDI was laser quick and it was a pretty roadworthy piece, considering that it was probably 100% plastic. I think that there were 16 user memory slots and you could save your own sounds via SYSEX (computer).
I’m not sure if the CZ-101 qualify as “vintage” (yet)..but I’m sure that it’s only a matter of time before eBay bidding goes through the roof.
I later “traded up” for the CZ1…same voice architecture but with full sized keys,velocity,more memory…but the “fun factor” was missing.
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