tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34785471630726264032024-03-05T14:26:24.472-05:00Box of TexturesThoughts on music, synthesizers, recording and other things.Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-72476912468628207552015-05-12T22:08:00.000-04:002015-05-12T22:08:29.442-04:00Suit & Tie Guy - live at the Peoria Riverfront Museum<div class="p1">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1BzwrS79Fw9VzKz_iM9r_qoVBmyoO6a4fgJcoA8ravrUxl0OhVvC6kWQztQAk2Q6UAhOA81VU0pEmHAdR68nuRL5UMtfpPdWSRqQAFrZd9XYG8pk1hYgx4orFyuX-YEHrmTbTrfp3lphk/s1600/a2885238992_16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1BzwrS79Fw9VzKz_iM9r_qoVBmyoO6a4fgJcoA8ravrUxl0OhVvC6kWQztQAk2Q6UAhOA81VU0pEmHAdR68nuRL5UMtfpPdWSRqQAFrZd9XYG8pk1hYgx4orFyuX-YEHrmTbTrfp3lphk/s400/a2885238992_16.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Club sounds, conversations; could be real, could be recorded. Hard to say, actually. Music almost in the background, but as the bass drones start to take over my attention the club seems to fade away and we slowly take off, almost as if it’s the soundtrack to an otherwise silent airship journey. Not sure what I was expecting, perhaps bleeps and bloops, sequencers run amok. Hadn’t expected this slow rise above the landscape though.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Even the simple single-note lines seem to be full of texture. Thick with reverb, moving in, out, around us, pulling us onward. For some reason I expected robots, what I got was deep humanity. And then those organ tones come in, hypnotic in their warbling timbre and surprising just on the fact of their existence. And hey, perhaps some percussive bleeps and bloops along with the organ. Finally! Everything here is synthetic, but also wholly organic. Slow, gracious, calm, beauteous. Robots with human hands, human hands wrangling robots. Pure single held note. Then, surprisingly modulated, beyond expectation. Then key change sneaking up on us, and we’re into Part 2.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
The beat takes over, feels like it’s speeding up, although that might only be because our head’s now nodding along to the rhythm. Vaguely plinky-plunky Japanese somehow, but now a different organ grounds us. Not church style, not jazz style, but there almost as pure texture. Incredibly refreshing because you’re just so jazzed it’s not synth strings the way it always is. (Note to self: Organ!) It’s hypnotizing, in its peacefulness, still propelled by that great beat. Keep having to remind myself it’s live, and the further in I get the more I wish I’d been there. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
And of course, just as you’re comfortable, key change. Baseline has me hooked. Head again bopping along. Changes coming fast and furious, yet somehow slowly and calmly at the same time. It’s evolution, somehow musically expressed. Wait a second, when did those drums come in? All of a sudden they’re there, except it happened somehow slowly, over time. Yeah, I’m hooked. Dagnabbit, major change happened again! But this time it’s that I only just noticed the drums have disappeared. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
And then the thickest of thin buzzy textures take us into Part 3, where we find ourselves in the land of slow and peaceful texture. Eyes closed, soaking it in, knowing we’ll get there, to some other place, almost without noticing the change.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Yup, just as I predicted. Somehow, indeed unnoticed, we’re in the middle of treated pianos, and it somehow wasn’t even a surprise now that we’re here.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Yes, now Part 4. Distinctly different from Part 3, but a transition so smooth you might not have noticed. That quiet stick tip tattoo finding its mates, over time becoming another propulsive rhythm, moving us along. And yet we’re still also deep in the slow reverb, now joined by staccato synth lines, echoed clean, forming a backbone for yet another kind of utterly organic organ, filling the space with still more texture. The rhythm is infectious, it’s got me going. Just right. Drums, sequencers, reverb, echo, organ. It’s all there.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I started listening and writing in daylight, now it’s full dark, the only light coming from my screen as I type. But if I close my eyes I can see the lights flow by on the sequencer, see the (synthetic) Leslie spinning, see all the heads bobbing along with mine. Man, if only I’d known. Would’ve been great to see this done live instead of just listening in headphones in iTunes. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
And even as we slowly go from joyful head bopping into full on creep-out chaos right there at the end I just had to almost laugh along with it all. Fantastic. Was sorry it was over, but also relieved I could finally let go of the breath I’d been holding the whole time. Hadn’t even noticed I’d been on the edge of my seat, was completely immersed.</div>
<br />
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<a href="http://suitandtieguy.bandcamp.com/album/peoria-riverfront-museum-may-2015" target="_blank">Suit & Tie Guy - live at the Peoria Riverfront Museum</a><br />
<br />
Album cover photograph by Caleb Condit<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-81112511245773598002014-12-30T20:13:00.000-05:002014-12-30T20:15:10.078-05:00Mala Kunia, new from Tangerine Dream<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAJ9ZxzHzyIBeQUmBda5F4vRNvUCHOy3VepdU-L_-qDmN69iJtgxwAkPKn4YKECXCu8IK3o-Yu7XZhSSkbNwg-5_Ndv3s9Wbw0-A2sZRZaJUroZHVghyphenhyphencd24fu2HrCxj4kPHkz7W_eCwGo/s1600/00313adc.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAJ9ZxzHzyIBeQUmBda5F4vRNvUCHOy3VepdU-L_-qDmN69iJtgxwAkPKn4YKECXCu8IK3o-Yu7XZhSSkbNwg-5_Ndv3s9Wbw0-A2sZRZaJUroZHVghyphenhyphencd24fu2HrCxj4kPHkz7W_eCwGo/s1600/00313adc.jpeg" height="400" width="395" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Mala Kunia, new from Tangerine Dream. I had many reactions when I first played this album, all of them good, some of them astounded. Mostly though I felt like I was home after a long time away. Now nobody get offended, but to me *this* is Tangerine Dream. Pulsing rhythms, interwoven melodies, pounding drums, soaring guitar, sequencers aplenty, with the bands signature textures underneath it all laying the foundation.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Except it’s new, too. Bit crushers on the drums à la Nine Inch Nails, some sequences that feel like they could be straight out of Synergy, twiddly little, well, sounds, everywhere, as if there were a host of forest creatures infesting the studio. Reminiscent of Robert Rich, of course. And I’m sure Tangerine Dream were influences on all of these, but it’s good to be surprised by all these little things on a Tangerine Dream album. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
But it’s classic Tangerine Dream as well. Synth leads filled with more sonic texture than you could believe, and those shimmering pads everywhere, the solid concrete framework it all hangs on, the burbling sequencers that drive things forward. It’s classic Tangerine Dream. Analog synth leads solid as granite, digital synth leads shimmering like the northern lights, even some funky bass lines at times. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
New personnel; don’t know anything about them yet. Perhaps that’s a bit of the reason for their less pop song sound nowadays. Or maybe I just haven’t been paying attention recently. And it’s not like I’ve ignored them for the past 20 years. I do have 43 of their albums in iTunes after all. It’s just that there’s something about this album that’s captured me, maybe something I was missing that I didn’t realize wasn’t there any more. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
It’s there now though.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
One thing to note is that according to Edgar Froese this is the beginning of the final chapter for his band’s almost 50 year run. Mala Kunia is apparently to be the first in a series of albums called “The Quantum Years,” culminating in the 2017 anniversary of the band’s founding. Also, in the spring of 2015 there’s going to be a “fuller” release of this album as this one is only the overture to the full version. You’ll still get your money’s worth this time out though as Mala Kunia is almost an hour long.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So stay tuned, it looks like the next three years (or maybe more properly their last three years) could be interesting ones for Tangerine Dream.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://www.ssl-id.de/edgarfroese.de/shop/products.php?p=864064" target="_blank">Mala Kunia order page</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-66883009735917682892014-06-07T20:41:00.000-04:002014-06-07T20:41:20.058-04:00Larry Fast cuts some wax tracks. No, really.<div class="p1">
Today was the annual <a href="http://www.alt-mode.com/ahne/2014/" target="_blank">Analog Heaven Northeast</a> gathering but this year I had to pass it up because it also happened to be <a href="http://www.nps.gov/edis/parknews/edison-day-2014.htm" target="_blank">Edison Day</a> at the Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, New Jersey. Normally these two events aren’t in any way connected but this year’s Edison Day wax cylinder recording demonstration featured none other than Larry Fast. It was simply too good an opportunity to pass up.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwSU-AXZ2KgDjcgLZXn7-Ol8t7dMEbLu8cwlrtAthUc19SjZ28iHJklEikq3Cg_SKxTrCP8l2obY3yMZRgcqAPCkfyphnalnYQxVenOt4ubCGg5-T8BwnZ9bIJNQ8pxtm_lXdkhGd42bKj/s1600/P1020245.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwSU-AXZ2KgDjcgLZXn7-Ol8t7dMEbLu8cwlrtAthUc19SjZ28iHJklEikq3Cg_SKxTrCP8l2obY3yMZRgcqAPCkfyphnalnYQxVenOt4ubCGg5-T8BwnZ9bIJNQ8pxtm_lXdkhGd42bKj/s1600/P1020245.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
The demonstration was in a sense much more interesting then I expected, which doesn’t quite sound right but bear with me. It wasn’t “just” Fast playing his Kurzweil K2000VP, but it also wasn’t just a demonstration of Edison’s wax cylinder technology either. Although either one would have been quite satisfyingly enough, and that was certainly what I was expecting. What was much more interesting about the demo was that it was an experiment in using old technology in new ways, and I was not expecting that at all. The first part of the demonstration was Fast played Phobos and Deimos Go to Mars. Live, I might add. They recorded it on a wax cylinder and then played it back. Typical museum-style demonstration of wax cylinders. I could have left happy with just that because hey, it was Larry Fast, but they took it so much further.<span class="s1"></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiWyCFNKytGz2I9LAg2tGym69ju3Yzscm-Bc39xIPqoa9fTghLHu2W4oWCBepYOXoYnquJNJ1ZOydVa-xI4MkSrQJXxY-dQVZkwyvMNtUY3hdaD2HQEADLGIsR5fmQByGZ55y9FAZ80YvS/s1600/P1020249.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiWyCFNKytGz2I9LAg2tGym69ju3Yzscm-Bc39xIPqoa9fTghLHu2W4oWCBepYOXoYnquJNJ1ZOydVa-xI4MkSrQJXxY-dQVZkwyvMNtUY3hdaD2HQEADLGIsR5fmQByGZ55y9FAZ80YvS/s1600/P1020249.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Note that it wasn’t just Fast up there. There was also a Park Ranger, in full uniform. Unfortunately I didn’t catch his name but he turned out to be incredibly knowledgeable about the Edison wax cylinder system, was an entertaining and informative educator/lecturer, and was also basically working as the sound engineer for the recording session. He explained the whole process as well as giving us a bit of history. It seems that when they first set up a factory to make these cylinders what they’d do was have a performer come in for the day and play or sing their piece over and over. They’d record it each time onto maybe a dozen or so machines. They’d then repeat this process all day long until they had enough cylinders recorded. Also, this was a completely acoustic process. Just like today’s demonstration, each recorder had a large horn that picked up the sound and transferred it to the wax. The “problem” with this was that each horn heard a slightly different version as they were all in different places in the room. It was this “problem” that led the park into several years of research to try and find a matched set of cylinders from the same take. If that search is eventually successful it might be possible using modern recording technology to reconstruct a stereo recording, something unimagined back in the day.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMXJb7cSGUBh2xNFDt6c6qQS0CfX1tobGOuedT56zv9exG_APhPS6PHArDM_nBaW5SZI-x7q4CXX5sVublmJtmeqriJ8AJ0b55-NBPGBVhqibU-uiKyw1J4kQaG3FUFcF5_Am8S2Jb5SX/s1600/P1020251.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMXJb7cSGUBh2xNFDt6c6qQS0CfX1tobGOuedT56zv9exG_APhPS6PHArDM_nBaW5SZI-x7q4CXX5sVublmJtmeqriJ8AJ0b55-NBPGBVhqibU-uiKyw1J4kQaG3FUFcF5_Am8S2Jb5SX/s1600/P1020251.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a><span class="s1">And that’s what I mean about today’s session being more than just a simple demonstration. It was actually a proof-of-concept experiment in using wax cylinder technology to make stereo recordings. What Fast and the Park Ranger did was to record a Synergy piece with the left channel on one cylinder and the right on another. (They actually used four cylinders because you only get about two or three minutes per cylinder, so they had to use more than one per track.) So in a few weeks once they’ve had time to combine the tracks and synchronize the left and right channels we may have a new Synergy recording to enjoy, albeit in full “wax fidelity.”</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0HWKBRcsURGIXseLe6SsGKynm-OZJ80BfzUgRwfPiT3lBbTJsp9Ky9H6Wyh4-YOtTOq99BlG-KGjTPMU30mBOoKbnm-SS8HbmoG_BR7LJSgdzUCkE1fckXbVvE_ze-Rk1PBy35eckehCW/s1600/P1020252.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0HWKBRcsURGIXseLe6SsGKynm-OZJ80BfzUgRwfPiT3lBbTJsp9Ky9H6Wyh4-YOtTOq99BlG-KGjTPMU30mBOoKbnm-SS8HbmoG_BR7LJSgdzUCkE1fckXbVvE_ze-Rk1PBy35eckehCW/s1600/P1020252.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a><span class="s1">Today’s Edison Day demonstration was more than “just” a simple demo that you typically might get to see in a museum, it was actually part of a research project in 100+-year-old recording technology.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
A few <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sethelgart/sets/72157645053624372/show" target="_blank">more photos on Flickr.</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com1Thomas Edison National Historical Park, 211 Main Street, West Orange, NJ 07052, USA40.7839654 -74.23394969999998240.5909379 -74.556673199999977 40.9769929 -73.911226199999987tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-90243213300100750902014-04-26T17:14:00.002-04:002014-04-26T17:14:58.673-04:00The “New” Emerson Moog Modular System<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/johngrabowski/13984721166" title="Moogfest 2014 Keith Emerson by John Grabowski, on Flickr"><img alt="Moogfest 2014 Keith Emerson" height="500" src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2939/13984721166_9e30aaa8be.jpg" width="356" /></a><br />
<br />
<div class="p1">
In some astounding news, well, at least for synth geeks, Moog has announced they’re making <a href="http://www.moogmusic.com/news/moog-music-announces-new-emerson-moog-modular-system" target="_blank">a new modular synthesizer</a>. In a sense it’s not new as they’re apparently built-by-hand recreations of Keith Emerson’s giant custom modular system, for which he is justifiably famous. There are so many things which are just so unbelievably cool about Moog’s announcement though that when I first heard I was reduced to fits of giggles at their sheer audacity. The best part of all of this, aside from the fact that they’re doing it in the first place, is that they first announced they were making modulars again on April Fool’s Day. Now <i>that </i>was sheer marketing genius, and they “got” us all. Everyone’s been asking for years when Moog would make a modular, since after all that was how the company originally became known. So for them to announce on their web site on April Fool’s Day that they were making a modular, which was so obviously untrue since it was April Fool’s, was both hilarious and bittersweet. But to have it actually be <i>true, </i>well, they just totally punked us all! An actually true announcement that nobody on the planet would believe; I can’t imagine a better April Fool’s prank than that.</div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Seriously, I’ll try to stop gushing. I promise.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Perhaps a little (vastly abbreviated) history is in order. Moog (the person, not the company) originally made theremin kits. Without actually looking things up to get the dates right, and also greatly over-simplifying it all, when Bob Moog was in high school he had a home business making the early electronic instruments, I think since the 1950s. In the ’60s, as an engineer, he had the idea of controlling sound circuits using external voltages rather than by turning knobs, and from that one simple idea modern electronic music was born. So instead of altering the pitch, volume, or tone of a sound by hand, you could use voltages from somewhere else to control those parameters. Working with several musicians, Moog developed the various electronic synthesizer modules we take for granted today. Over a number of years the modules were “perfected,” and you could buy them in any combination you cared to. You’d give them your list of modules and they’d build them into some wooden cases for you. Except when I say “you could buy them” that’s totally not true because it was rather frightfully expensive. So Moog took his module ideas and built them into a smaller, hard-wired instrument. It wasn’t the big Moog patchable modular, but rather a small Moog non-modular. A Minimoog, if you will. And the rest is history, and electronic music took over the world. (Again, please excuse the <strike>somewhat large</strike> rather monstrous oversimplifications.)</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">So in the beginning, there was the giant Moog modular, and that’s how I and the rest of the world first heard of synthesizers. Not only did they sound weird (and cool) but they looked weird (and cool) as well. In a time when the electric guitar was still a new-ish thing, who would have thought a bookcase full of weird scientist electronics could be a musical instrument? But oh, it was. On record it was Wendy Carlos and Switched On Bach that showed us how, but in concert it was Keith Emerson using his giant modular synth for live rock ’n’ roll night after night that turned the world onto synthesizers. Rick Wakeman toured with perhaps half a dozen Minimoogs, which in itself was an amazing thing at the time, but it was Emerson’s giant modular that was perhaps what people thought of when they imagined a synthesizer. The Beatles had one, and the Monkees had one, but neither used them in public. Tangerine Dream famously toured with many modulars for many years but their music wasn’t something you heard on the radio so it was far less well known to the public (although it’s in perhaps dozens of movies, many of which you’ve seen). In popular culture, though, it was Emerson’s Moog modular you always thought of. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">And now Moog has announced they’re going to be making them again. Not many, and not cheap, and by hand rather than on an assembly line. They’re going to be more or less an exact recreation of Emerson’s. Exact same parts, exact same assembly, exact same designs. Not a modern version of what he had, but pretty much exactly what he has. The only bad thing is they specifically state that Emerson’s rocket launchers will not be included. Total bummer. But then again, to be fair, no pyrotechnics modules were included from the factory in the original Moogs either. Definitely an aftermarket add-on.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span>Photo of Keith Emerson at Moogfest 2014 by John Grabowski, from <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/johngrabowski/" target="_blank">his Flickr stream</a></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-58278449304976613432014-03-09T20:34:00.001-04:002014-03-09T20:35:50.905-04:00Moog exhibit at Rough Trade NYC in Brooklyn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDdjogSpO5tam1mf8LPT5aQKQx2GKBbVOU6_csZqxFicTcWbE8vbCSigJ5kkHoyusLxD04FEcv3EiW4YPlu_Ply82ofkd-z8WOyCfUI0XyJUH165WfcvU2NoOAN4-HQkZGDiw6BjLoVvtj/s1600/P1020237.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Triple Moog racks" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDdjogSpO5tam1mf8LPT5aQKQx2GKBbVOU6_csZqxFicTcWbE8vbCSigJ5kkHoyusLxD04FEcv3EiW4YPlu_Ply82ofkd-z8WOyCfUI0XyJUH165WfcvU2NoOAN4-HQkZGDiw6BjLoVvtj/s1600/P1020237.JPG" height="400" title="" width="300" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Went to the Moog exhibit this afternoon at Rough Trade NYC in Brooklyn. It was small but completely amazing. The exhibit was upstairs in a small room above the main entrance. They had five stations, each one with a huge rack of synths. Also, downstairs in the Main Drag Music area was another smaller space that was more store-like and more focused on the various Moogerfoogers. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Honestly it’s a bit hard to decide what my favorite part was. It’s hard to deny the appeal of the triple rack “modular” wall filled with Voyagers and Moogerfoogers, but for me it really had to have been the polyphonic Phatty tower that was the highlight. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">There were maybe 10 Slim Phattys in the tower, all slaved to a single Little Phatty that controlled them. Now, I have a Little Phatty Tribute Edition, and have played Moogs since I got my first one in 1980. So I went up to it and just naturally started playing. It was totally cool that when you turned a knob on the controller the entire tower’s knob lights changed with it. But the weird thing was that I almost didn’t even think of playing more than the single note at once. I’ve been playing Moogs for so long and they’ve only been one note at a time, so I had to actually mentally make myself play more than one. But once I did that, well, I almost don’t even know how to describe it. It was sheer Moog synthesizer power under my hands, playing huge chords making monster sounds. Almost at a loss for words to describe how it felt. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm2ojiY-YZNac0Z_kaYWKr07tCyp_wHd1tN8JCeybuNEWG6ij9RqB7ns9PQlfYBiiHqqitrFKoNatqprBj4YzURRFyeatiLyI2znM7nUJrKynC3EQR07A66SuyhUe8T2I0Y-LGPm4YAJxz/s1600/P1020239.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Moog Phatty tower" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm2ojiY-YZNac0Z_kaYWKr07tCyp_wHd1tN8JCeybuNEWG6ij9RqB7ns9PQlfYBiiHqqitrFKoNatqprBj4YzURRFyeatiLyI2znM7nUJrKynC3EQR07A66SuyhUe8T2I0Y-LGPm4YAJxz/s1600/P1020239.JPG" height="400" title="" width="300" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Once I tore myself away from the PolyPhatty tower there were a number of other stations in the room. One was a drum station with a six-Voyager tower of its own. Another was a guitar station with six Moogerfoogers and 20 Minifoogers. Yes, 20. If that’s not enough effects power for any guitarist, well, I just can’t help you. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">And because I had to get home in plenty of time for the first Cosmos episode I didn’t even have a chance to mess with the other stations. And that’s not even mentioning the theremin, or the downstairs section. So I think I’ll actually go back next weekend seeing as how it’s there for the whole month. I’ll get there when they open and set aside more time so I’ll be able to really work with the equipment, take some closeups, take a quick movie of the Slim Phatty’s lights moving in synchrony, and take enough photos to make a panorama. I actually tried an iPhone one but the walls weren’t far enough away to make it work, so I’m hoping my regular camera and some software will work better.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">So, if you’re in the New York City area, I highly recommend a visit to Rough Trade NYC for this Moog exhibit. It’s small, but it’s totally packed with Moog synth technology. Heck, it’s worth going for the Moog pocket protector alone!</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDNmIx1UjJRafAoqq6PlYZPL_2nYSBfwicVASbsdi7Um_8K8quL7bhfVbTdszcoIh0Qnbgr0-vnXeRyy4rJuVaz67e19BdcwsUkr9Kz9D9U2NyPOO1QnZA7DGnqp7Ugs6D0qkCZrBbbkK/s1600/P1020240.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="My Moog pocket protector!" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDNmIx1UjJRafAoqq6PlYZPL_2nYSBfwicVASbsdi7Um_8K8quL7bhfVbTdszcoIh0Qnbgr0-vnXeRyy4rJuVaz67e19BdcwsUkr9Kz9D9U2NyPOO1QnZA7DGnqp7Ugs6D0qkCZrBbbkK/s1600/P1020240.JPG" height="300" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sethelgart/sets/72157642117729295/show/with/13045391273/" target="_blank">Slideshow</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<u><a href="http://www.roughtradenyc.com/" target="_blank">Rough Trade NYC</a></u></div>
<div class="p1">
<u><a href="http://www.maindragmusic.com/blog/moog-makes-a-den-of-synths-at-rough-trade-brooklyn/" target="_blank">Main Drag Music</a></u></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><a href="http://www.moogmusic.com/" target="_blank">Moog Music</a></span><br />
<br /></div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-91306869587772777942013-09-08T11:14:00.001-04:002013-09-08T11:14:57.446-04:00Arthur C. Clarke and The Colors Of Infinity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3s2MWKzIzsqTpAVKXaaupJ621GTIpLmDq6LcHEU_BYZJ8wEiYJs9wgPpJt1hzqHZnMMdDpQpRwuKTl2RF4tkqs40KTcxYpvbv76llYV0SwJjJ2N2Ve2lTlv3SKMHyiHpMX20ZTovAdqYI/s1600/arthurcclarke_l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Arthur C. Clarke" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3s2MWKzIzsqTpAVKXaaupJ621GTIpLmDq6LcHEU_BYZJ8wEiYJs9wgPpJt1hzqHZnMMdDpQpRwuKTl2RF4tkqs40KTcxYpvbv76llYV0SwJjJ2N2Ve2lTlv3SKMHyiHpMX20ZTovAdqYI/s400/arthurcclarke_l.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Just had my mind blown by Arthur C. Clarke. Yet again. Somewhere, through a chain of Twitter retweets, I came across a link to a 1995 TV program he did called <i>Fractals: The Colors Of Infinity. </i>In just under an hour it seems I had pretty much all my favorite things—Clarke, science/math, technology<span class="s1">—</span>all accompanied by a soundtrack from David Gilmour. Not sure how I could ask for anything more in a single TV show.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So this post doesn’t have much to do with synthesizers per se, although the soundtrack <i>is </i>excellent. And I’m certainly no mathematician or scientist either. It’s just that Clarke’s books, 2001 in particular, have been a huge influence on me. The movie came out when I was 8 or 9 years old, in 1968 or ’69, and I remember my sister taking me to see it at the Ziegfield Theater in New York. We sat in the front row so we could lie on the floor under the screen at the appropriate moments. It’s possible that it may not have been when it first came out as the Ziegfield used to bring it back seemingly every year for quite a while, but I was definitely a little kid. Old enough to think it was really weird to lie down in the front of a theater but young enough to still go ahead and do it.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
But the point about Clarke is that his books and his vision of the future shaped me. No one else in my family was into technology and science the way I was, and his books pointed me that way at a very young age. And the movie version of 2001 was so mind-blowing, at that age, that I couldn’t <i>help </i>but have it be a major influence. It had space ships and science and psychedelia all woven together, along with a huge dose of mystery as well as an incredible score chock full of classical music. That movie was such an influence on my young personality, and that it came at more or less the same time as the moon landings, helpfully “narrated” by Clarke and Cronkite of course, certainly didn’t hurt. Spaceships floating serenely by as if it were just a regular thing, investigating objects near Jupiter not made by humans, all accompanied by two pieces of the creepiest-to-a-nine-year-old music of all time—Atmosphères and Requiem by György Ligeti. 2001 was such a huge influence on me in many ways, and those two pieces of music are possibly where I first got my love of pure texture. They were terrifying, yet also exhilarating.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
And just about at the same time, the Moog synthesizer was unleashed upon an unsuspecting public. My fate was sealed.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So in a way I grew up with Arthur C. Clarke, and with math and science, and also with David Gilmour’s music too I suppose. And they all come together in this fractals program from the ’90s. Well worth an hour if you’re so inclined.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Fractals: The Colors Of Infinity</div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk6QU94xAb8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk6QU94xAb8</a></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Requiem</div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wawSCvuGj4o">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wawSCvuGj4o</a></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Atmospheres</div>
<div class="p1">
</div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI0P1NnUFxc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI0P1NnUFxc</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Photograph: ©Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis</div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-23024974800953771382013-09-05T21:42:00.000-04:002013-09-05T21:43:59.337-04:00Hesitation Marks - Nine Inch Nails<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5VqgjiT4vSwl_huI8fHOaqq_3GhUFznOi1iOV-eiPdhl3y565gyef2jUhQrvH64d-DL7LEx4-9HzgZD8-Tkn2JkndVzHOsmmK42Ca_foaeCTwQbpMGiRRgup_QUKZ4mpCfME76AjYkOG/s1600/1374079560digital-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5VqgjiT4vSwl_huI8fHOaqq_3GhUFznOi1iOV-eiPdhl3y565gyef2jUhQrvH64d-DL7LEx4-9HzgZD8-Tkn2JkndVzHOsmmK42Ca_foaeCTwQbpMGiRRgup_QUKZ4mpCfME76AjYkOG/s400/1374079560digital-cover.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
Great album. Not quite what I expected in some ways though. Not at all in a bad way, it’s just that having seen the live streams of various recent performances I was expecting a much rowdier album in a way. I guess I was expecting Nine Inch Nails, and what I got was some kind of cross between the Cure, How To Destroy Angels, Tangerine Dream, and NIN. Which I have to say from my perspective is totally cool.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So first thing I have to say is that when I heard Adrian Belew was part of the new Nine Inch Nails I was totally blown away. Couldn’t have imagined a better combination. Then some months later that was that and it was as if it had never happened. I was a little bummed in fact. So I was pleasantly surprised to see that he’s actually all over the album, and that made me pretty happy. Perhaps not front and center like it was King Crimson, but he’s definitely there. Nice.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Secondly, you can hear a huge bit of How To Destroy Angels. Far less wall of guitars, at least on the recording, and far more wall of synthesizers. Again, from my perspective, totally cool. It’s less hard rock and good bit more interesting. There’s a lot of texture here, a lot of arpeggiator and sequencer, not near as much bit-mangled guitar. In some ways there’s a lot more here, and a lot more room to breathe, more room for the music.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
And yet it’s still Nine Inch Nails. Still the same power, the same raw emotion, the same edge. And live, with the same huge crazy energy. So as a huge How To Destroy Angels fan and a huge Nine Inch Nails fan and a huge Trent Reznor soundtrack fan I have to say that <a href="http://store.nin.com/index.php?cPath=7" target="_blank">Hesitation Marks</a> is a darn good blend of all of those. And hey, it’s even got a little saxophone. Can’t ask for more than that.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I’m seeing them live in a month or so with 20,000 or so of my closest friends at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, my first time there. Can’t wait.</div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-52904895612689502922013-07-20T10:57:00.003-04:002013-07-20T10:57:29.582-04:00Blueneck - Epilogue<div class="p1">
Blueneck. Not a new band, but one I'd not heard of before. And thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/ProgMagazineUK" target="_blank">@ClassicRockProg</a>, who mentioned in a tweet that the band is giving away their most recent album, <a href="http://blueneckuk.bandcamp.com/album/epilogue" target="_blank">Epilogue</a>, for free (but not for much longer) I've now become a fan. So much so that I've gone back and paid for my free album.<span id="goog_1966872728"></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSpi9kjSyXpLkzDSOovVwtmHPmN0FcsWKmiJcxlLAEhVa5LKBWmkbOVwF5iut4th0Xv8KVb_Jay9wGZoJK_PyWGVxl7PnasplhpIT5bCGpRTBYaGb4T4Hb5PiFHcH0Qbk6k8r1lLGpTGVr/s1600/a2703346621_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Blueneck album cover" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSpi9kjSyXpLkzDSOovVwtmHPmN0FcsWKmiJcxlLAEhVa5LKBWmkbOVwF5iut4th0Xv8KVb_Jay9wGZoJK_PyWGVxl7PnasplhpIT5bCGpRTBYaGb4T4Hb5PiFHcH0Qbk6k8r1lLGpTGVr/s1600/a2703346621_2.jpg" title="" /></a>Epilogue: short and sweet, eight songs, half an hour long. But each and every song is filled with atmosphere. I always describe what I do as textures, full of synthesizers creating rhythm and, well, texture, through careful building, blending, and layering. What Blueneck does on Epilogue though is atmosphere. Starting from the simple piano line of the opening track, Apogee, what they do is <i>create </i>atmosphere rather than building texture. It starts simple, and it stays simple, but somehow by the end you're swept away in lush beauty that you never noticed until you find yourself in the middle of it. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So Epilogue is nothing at all like what I do, but at the same time it's exactly what I do. It's as if we've taken two completely different paths yet ended up at the same place, or at least very similar places. Epilogue feels like something I might have written and recorded, except after Brian Eno got his hands on it in the studio. Quiet yet loud, slow yet fast, rock and roll yet symphonic. I've had it three days, and played it over and over.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
No idea what they're other albums are like, but give me a little time and I'll find out as you can stream them all freely on <a href="http://blueneckuk.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">their bandcamp page</a>. And they're also touring if you're in Europe. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I guess I'll keep this short and sweet as I pretty much know nothing about the band. They do have a <a href="http://www.blueneck.com/" target="_blank">web site</a> with a brief bio, but somewhat amusingly it's only a single paragraph in which they call themselves post-rock and leave it at that.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So, Blueneck. Their album Epilogue is a free download but only until July 21 maybe. Highly recommended. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.blueneck.com/" target="_blank">http://www.blueneck.com/</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://blueneckuk.bandcamp.com/album/epilogue" target="_blank">http://blueneckuk.bandcamp.com/album/epilogue</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://twitter.com/BlueneckUK" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/BlueneckUK</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/BlueneckUK" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/BlueneckUK</a></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-77066904985685214912012-11-20T22:10:00.001-05:002012-11-20T22:10:48.693-05:00Roger Dean - Dragon's Dream iOS game
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_6fsb1OHkBpkDFEBqrVKF1CAzsHycA0TB6XtDdnh2VQOfaUxtm4RKSlsoh62_X74355xDmjIivEaaICA4r-GHPXnddldUuG94XpJcm1pu69VA8E2ytguiEzErSfYIAk7kfk1M4XgzxytJ/s1600/2012-11-20+20.02.00.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_6fsb1OHkBpkDFEBqrVKF1CAzsHycA0TB6XtDdnh2VQOfaUxtm4RKSlsoh62_X74355xDmjIivEaaICA4r-GHPXnddldUuG94XpJcm1pu69VA8E2ytguiEzErSfYIAk7kfk1M4XgzxytJ/s400/2012-11-20+20.02.00.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Got home from work today, went online, and thanks to <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/11/20/3667126/roger-dean-dragons-dream-app-game" target="_blank">The Verge</a> of all places found out there was an iPhone/iPad game out from <a href="http://www.rogerdean.com/" target="_blank">Roger Dean</a>. Who knew?! For all you youngsters out there Roger Dean made many famous album covers back in the ’70s and ’80s, most notably for Yes (not to mention designing their logo). His incredible technique with the airbrush let him create wondrous paintings for dozens of prog albums from that era. </div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.jon.hinchliffe.name/graphics/rd%20yesclassiclogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Yes logo" border="0" height="292" src="http://www.jon.hinchliffe.name/graphics/rd%20yesclassiclogo.jpg" title="Yes logo" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I’ve worn many of his designs on t-shirts over the years, and I’ve always wanted to build a <a href="http://www.rogerdean.com/home-for-life/" target="_blank">Roger Dean house</a> (with badgers in the basement) and have Roger Dean furniture in my (regular) house. I could write a whole article on his paintings and how they influenced my musical direction, but this is about his iOS game.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
The app basically has three parts. There’s the art of course, there’s music, and there’s the actual game. In a way the art elements need no explanation. It’s all Roger Dean paintings. The music surprised me a bit to be honest. I was expecting boring game music, but it’s actually somewhat interesting. I haven’t played the game for hours on end, but the pieces I’ve heard so far have been pretty good, sort of “prog lite” in a way. Not elevator music at all, but a synth-heavy and not overly simple bit of game music. Definitely background to the game, but good in its own right. And the game? It’s fun. I’m not a gamer with lightning-fast twitch reflexes, so I guess I’m what’s known as a casual gamer. Dragon's Dream is easy to play and it’s fun. You’re basically flying a dragon around avoiding obstacles and picking up objects. Not a revolutionary concept, but a good solid side scroller. </div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.psychedelicrecords.com/images/classic-rock-albums/Yes__Close-To-The-Edge-04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://www.psychedelicrecords.com/images/classic-rock-albums/Yes__Close-To-The-Edge-04.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
As you play you get rewarded by unlocking images you can use as backgrounds on your device, which is cool as they're Roger Dean paintings. So far I’ve gotten two of the seven without too much effort. I’m hoping the others are equally reachable as so far I’ve not gotten a score better than an E. I’m hoping that stands for “excellent” but I have a funny feeling that it’s really only the tiniest bit better than an F. Told you I wasn’t a gamer. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I’m not sure <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dragons-dream/id560115046?mt=8" target="_blank">Dragon’s Dream</a> will set the gaming world on fire, but it’s only US$5. If you’re a Roger Dean fan, as I am, it’s pretty much worth it though.</div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-88373414437478353132012-11-10T19:56:00.000-05:002012-11-10T19:56:49.010-05:00Glass Hammer - Perilous - The Review<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEbudqVgKPW0FobFDp3KX8IEKl9_nRIH4qvKqSk98xjnTkILsAp1ZCCbjOzLyeiMdQg8bWZyMykOdyUvnNLJO_GgIllVYKmRSzJe6nAKk-aFxzpWP24mj6l8YqBenq8MMI1FbryM42E55/s1600/GlassHammerPerilous2012borders_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGEbudqVgKPW0FobFDp3KX8IEKl9_nRIH4qvKqSk98xjnTkILsAp1ZCCbjOzLyeiMdQg8bWZyMykOdyUvnNLJO_GgIllVYKmRSzJe6nAKk-aFxzpWP24mj6l8YqBenq8MMI1FbryM42E55/s400/GlassHammerPerilous2012borders_001.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Wow. Just played the new Glass Hammer album for the first time. Loud. In headphones. It’s called Perilous. Classic prog rock at its finest. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Lofty mellotrons, growling organs, and classic Moogs, righteous guitars, bass that won’t quit, drums propelling things forward, vocals floating high above it all, harmonies aplenty. And you know, maybe a flute or recorder or something as well now and then, just for the heck of it.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
This album is everything I love about Glass Hammer. Great music, well written and well played, brand new and yet completely familiar even though it’s my first listen. I guess all I really need to say is that they speak my language. Or maybe what’s closer to the truth is they speak the language I already hear.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
The album’s an hour long, and all I could think when it ended was, “darn, it’s over.”</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
In some ways I feel lost when I try to write about them, try to describe them. They have that great prog rock sound. Yes, Gentle Giant, Utopia, all the classic prog bands from the ’70s and ’80s. But they also rock, and their music is informed by the 21st century as well. It’s the music I’d play and write if I played and wrote that way, if I hadn’t taken that turn towards Tangerine Dream and Synergy all those years ago. I suppose if I’d gotten the organ before I’d gotten my Minimoog things might have turned out differently, but I learned to play keyboards on the Moog rather than the Hammond. Suffered for it ever since! (Which I always say with a grin.)</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
13 songs, all tied together, maybe better described as 13 movements in one continuous piece of music. No bathroom breaks, so plan ahead. I guess if I had to describe it all I’d have to say simply that it’s heroic from start to finish. Just the way a great prog album ought to be. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
They’re threatening to tour this album. I sure hope they do. I’ll be there.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
</div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0096N6BI2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0096N6BI2&linkCode=as2&tag=boxoftex-20">Glass Hammer - Perilous (Amazon link)</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=boxoftex-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0096N6BI2" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>
<div class="p1">
Or the band's own <a href="http://www.glasshammer.com/pages/features/Perilous.html" target="_blank">Perilous</a> page.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-64540622765796796762012-09-10T07:49:00.001-04:002012-09-10T07:49:15.474-04:00Glass Hammer - Perilous<br />
<div class="p1">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2cOWGOLz-VM" width="420"></iframe></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.glasshammer.com/" target="_blank">Glass Hammer</a>—good ol’ American prog at its finest. They’ve been making albums for well nigh forever, but for some reason I only heard of them maybe 5 years ago, although I have to say I wish I'd found them earlier. If you don’t know them, they’re kind of a large bit of Yes with a healthy dose of Gentle Giant thrown in as well, not to mention their own selves in there too. Which to me is cool, because good new prog is not so easy to find these days, although perhaps we’re seeing somewhat of a resurgence lately. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I always like Glass Hammer, and sometimes I totally love them. Some knock them as a ’70s Yes clone, and in some ways that has some validity. On the other hand though, with careful listening they shine through as their own thing. In a way Glass Hammer is what Yes might have been if they kept at the prog thing and didn’t take their detour into pop. I’m not saying this as well as I’d like to. I guess what I’m trying to say is that with one quick listen you might dismiss them as a Yes band, but if you did that you’d be doing yourself a disservice.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
But may I make all that I just said a tad murkier by saying my favorite Glass Hammer song is their cover of South Side of the Sky? (If this were an email to a friend I’d have just put in a little smilie there.)</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
But to clarify, all kidding aside, if I didn’t know it was originally by "some other band" I would have been blown away their version of the song. But because I loved the song already, well that made it even better. Simply put, it’s better than the Yes version. It’s dark. It’s eerie. It’s both very quiet and it also totally rocks, while at the same time being somewhat on the funky side. The vocals are superb. The instrumentation is excellent. It’s different, but it’s the same song nonetheless, and in addition they could sure teach Yes a few things about dynamics and keeping the listener in glorious suspense. I guess in a nutshell all of that somewhat describes Glass Hammer. I could go on and on here. But I guess I’ll just say I’m a fan and leave it at that.<br />
<br />
And it's not just that one song of course. They have tons of albums available, each one unique and interesting in its own right. It's always a treat to get a new one.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Which brings me to today. (Or maybe really to next month, but let’s ignore that for now.) They have a new album coming out next month, but they’ve just today released the video trailer/teaser/whatever above. The new album is called Perilous, and they’re calling it one song in 13 parts. If the trailer’s anything to go by it’s going to be an excellent album. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
In some ways I'm bummed that I can only talk about the band when I wish this could actually be an album review, but I guess I’ll have to wait a month just like everyone else. In the meantime I’ll just go throw on a few of their other albums and be quite happy, while at the same time hoping the murmurs I'm hearing about them doing an actual tour become reality.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Glass Hammer. They’re modern prog. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
You’re welcome.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MVdgcYC_SAQ" width="420"></iframe></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.glasshammer.com/">http://www.glasshammer.com/</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-31123277727818639692012-06-07T20:38:00.002-04:002012-06-07T20:38:55.924-04:00Peter Gabriel - San Jacinto<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOOC6R4Lsb8mO8Pg9-ftFP7CxQN4_2SV5fVj31NEKwJkP61ujy_1MzYFc4hNqx_WqE8e28ns-GTQvbPtLvIgQdntGZGIBM4h8_k8ExvnI0-eu_s4Lr4PeHxRg1Mj7yNo-JhwddHDfgOZQZ/s1600/San+Jacinto.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOOC6R4Lsb8mO8Pg9-ftFP7CxQN4_2SV5fVj31NEKwJkP61ujy_1MzYFc4hNqx_WqE8e28ns-GTQvbPtLvIgQdntGZGIBM4h8_k8ExvnI0-eu_s4Lr4PeHxRg1Mj7yNo-JhwddHDfgOZQZ/s400/San+Jacinto.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
This is about Peter Gabriel, and specifically about San Jacinto, but I have a brief story that might show what I mean more than just telling you would. When I was just barely 20 years old I saw <a href="http://www.thejerrysite.com/shows/show/1457" target="_blank">the Jerry Garcia Band do a show at Stony Brook University</a>. It was the winter of 1980, two weeks after my birthday. It was so long ago that I don’t really remember all that many details, but I totally remember the show. Things I don’t remember? Well, how I got to the show is one them. I suppose I took the Long Island Railroad out to the University. No recollection. Cold northeastern middle-of-February winter, with blowing icy winds? Probably, but not at all sure. I remember being cozy and warm inside the gym, but how did I manage to get those fourth row seats? No idea. I remember being there with my friend Larry from high school, who I haven’t seen in decades now. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
It was over 30 years ago, but I remember it as if it happened last Monday. We were up close, center section, on the aisle, right in front of where Jerry would play. But right across the aisle there was this exceedingly nervous guy. I love the Grateful Dead, but the guy across from me was practically in ecstasy. At the seats, at the atmosphere, at the anticipation of seeing Garcia play. But, almost like a mantra, all he could say to us, the people he came with, anyone who would listen, was that he hoped Jerry would play Sugaree. We had gotten there early, and he must have said a hundred times that he hoped Jerry would play Sugaree. Over and over, again and again, Sugaree. Must’ve been an hour, easy. By that time we *all* hoped he would play Sugaree. Because that was what the guy across the aisle came for, lived for, and probably even heard in his head all the time. It seemed like that one song drove him through his life, and I don’t at all mean that in any kind of bad way. For whatever reason, that song gave him meaning, filled him up, made him happy. And then the lights dimmed, and the crowd roared, and the band came out. And there was Jerry Garcia, right there in front of us, checking the tuning on his guitar one final time. And when he started to play the first few notes of that first song of the night, the guy across the aisle just closed his eyes, tilted his head back, and looked heavenward with a blissful smile on his face. And my friend and I looked at each other, and pronounced it good with a high five. Sugaree. First song.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
And that’s me, going to see Peter Gabriel. I’m always waiting for San Jacinto. Goose bumps, every single time. I can’t even explain it. For whatever reason, that song just fills me up, gives me peace. Every time. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So today Gabriel posted a newly restored version of San Jacinto, from the Us tour in 1993. Almost 20 years ago, but I can still see him crossing the river on his raft, breathing in front of the giant shadow screen, singing with arms raised high. Goose bumps. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So yeah, this post isn’t quite about synthesizers the way most of them usually are. But the driving, pulsing Fairlight sequencers that start things off always get me. And it’s not about textured soundscapes that might shape a song, although Tony Levin’s haunting Chapmann Stick does indeed shake the arena (as it should). And it’s not about ethereal guitar tones complementing both the bass and the sequences as they lumber along, although watching David Rhodes stand motionless in the shadows while Gabriel sings his heart out seems to fit the song perfectly. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
It’s all of these things, all of them together. For me, San Jacinto is my Sugaree. Goose bumps every time. </div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I’m seeing him at Jones Beach in September. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I hope he plays my song.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1IxE6z1tjo">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1IxE6z1tjo</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-65088255005744609172012-06-03T15:57:00.000-04:002012-06-03T15:59:18.026-04:00Timorianne<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ainHJDMsYtioAgXkxAG2v2aBLBChZZ1Mz_4XCIrOqrah_tcAVlYRGDC1qpgabbZtUQxkRNLOp5iwU7R_CF-Ywt92ZEFf1mx6QVaXkJEl4Obk3r0vcAG69LD48OxIGCYVk4t_2DL5AvOi/s1600/Takla+Makan+-+Timorianne+-+cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Takla Makan - Timorianne" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9ainHJDMsYtioAgXkxAG2v2aBLBChZZ1Mz_4XCIrOqrah_tcAVlYRGDC1qpgabbZtUQxkRNLOp5iwU7R_CF-Ywt92ZEFf1mx6QVaXkJEl4Obk3r0vcAG69LD48OxIGCYVk4t_2DL5AvOi/s400/Takla+Makan+-+Timorianne+-+cover.png" title="" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
Listened to <a href="http://takla-makan.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank">Timorianne</a> for the first time today, the new album from <a href="http://www.oakleysound.com/music.htm" target="_blank">Takla Makan</a> (who in “real life” is Tony Allgood of <a href="http://www.oakleysound.com/" target="_blank">Oakley Sound Systems</a>, purveyors of fine analog synth modules). Totally loved it. And in some ways I can’t really say why. I mean, it’s not like music I end up making, and you could also say it’s been done before, and that there’s nothing really groundbreaking or new about it. And yes, that’s all sort of true. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
But.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I guess the best way to say it is that there’s something about it, something that fires me up, catches my thoughts, and I guess that it just hits all the right spots. It’s simply good, and exactly what I like hearing. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
One could say it’s just like Tangerine Dream from days gone by. And yes, that’s somewhat fair. On the other hand, you could instead say it’s modern modular music, the sequencer music of today. So the tools are similar, but it’s just so good that it’s almost not even worth making the comparison. It’s as if Tangerine Dream abandoned this sort of thing long ago, and the Takla Makan records picked it up years later and continued the thought. And all I can really say about it is that it makes me very happy. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Burbling sequencers, rich textures, shimmering pads, pounding drum machines, synth bass lines, even a 303ish phrase here and there, not to mention the occasional heavenly choir. It’s an exquisite blend of all those elements, done just right, totally replayable any number of times. Perfect for that long drive into the mountains late at night. Or for giving your morning subway ride into the office just the right amount of floating surrealism if you have a good set of headphones. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Highly recommended. Synthesizer music at its finest.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://takla-makan.bandcamp.com/">http://takla-makan.bandcamp.com/</a><br />
<br />
<br /></div>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-46750221434057968542012-01-05T23:36:00.000-05:002012-01-05T23:36:07.264-05:00Richard Lainhart, 1953 - 2011<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BJChDp2-puMdKWCKFv40YawHbXH1PuWGUapUkUNCbrCjsXa5ZM0dtVM7w3DpulwznnunmeQd7NGsX59QZm1uvewGJkF8VDVtadBBvF_FcnB1MCWliDrqE84zRFySu6mTwGe8b1iFVXxZ/s1600/wall-640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3BJChDp2-puMdKWCKFv40YawHbXH1PuWGUapUkUNCbrCjsXa5ZM0dtVM7w3DpulwznnunmeQd7NGsX59QZm1uvewGJkF8VDVtadBBvF_FcnB1MCWliDrqE84zRFySu6mTwGe8b1iFVXxZ/s400/wall-640.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
</div>
<div class="p1">
Richard Lainhart died a week or so ago.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I didn’t really know him personally, but we did correspond a number of times. I wish I could have called him a friend, but it was more of a modern age electronic acquaintance rather than a true friendship. He used a photo I took at one of his shows (above) as a publicity shot, which made me pretty happy. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
In some ways I just have no idea what to write. I met him, I saw him play, his music is amazing (although nothing at all like I would play). He had a long a varied career, doing all sort of things that were surprising to me once I read about them.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I guess what I’m trying to say is that although I didn’t really know him, he somehow touched my life, and that I’ll miss him now that he’s gone. Not just his wild musical journeys with “non-traditional” synths played using “non-traditional” interfaces that he somehow managed to combine together into coherent and compelling musical pieces, but also things like his his famous bird cam, for instance.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
When I saw him play live he had an incredible psychedelic background projected on the wall behind him. It was beautiful, mesmerizing, amazing. At the time I was very much interested in video projection, and searched for weeks for the clip he used. It was frustrating to not be able to find it, so finally I asked him where he got it. His answer? A very casual, “oh, I programmed that myself in After Effects.” </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Zing! Blew me away again.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
That was Richard. I wish I’d gotten the chance to know him better.</div>
<br />
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://vimeo.com/34593269" target="_blank">I Dream of Wires interview</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.otownmedia.com/" target="_blank">Richard's web site</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/rlainhart" target="_blank">And his YouTube page</a></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-23868951445504885042011-12-26T21:41:00.001-05:002011-12-29T20:37:51.686-05:00Solaris First Impressions<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3VYY1e8a4BlPjnQYSesw-jlP2aDFYJIQhZ5NDZK7JOKcA4REM6cl2V2Ubc5qCyLnNfLtxZALF2J-OAZgn2m2XNr1DuRktyLmm12TsMKlQKo8ZwMWiA2PlAdMHArtV3OZcaXupz7qDxmQV/s1600/Solaris+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3VYY1e8a4BlPjnQYSesw-jlP2aDFYJIQhZ5NDZK7JOKcA4REM6cl2V2Ubc5qCyLnNfLtxZALF2J-OAZgn2m2XNr1DuRktyLmm12TsMKlQKo8ZwMWiA2PlAdMHArtV3OZcaXupz7qDxmQV/s400/Solaris+crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Smooth as butter. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I feel like I could end post this right there, but I suppose I ought to explain myself just a little bit more. Today I really sat down with my Solaris for the first time, for maybe an hour or so. I made just one patch, and not having read the manual at all didn’t go all that deep into it. But man, that one patch was it. Nothing fancy, just a Minimoog/Memorymoog hollow, echoey, phasing, two-pulse-wave sort of sound. And yeah, it wasn’t fancy, but it was completely awesome. And there were things I wanted to do with it that I just don’t yet know how to accomplish, things like deep modulation routings, but it doesn’t matter. Just an hour with the Solaris was enough to show me that this is one monster synthesizer.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
This is not a review that will cover every feature. You can get a feature list on <a href="http://www.johnbowen.com/solaris-overview.html" target="_blank">the Solaris web site</a>. No, this is about how it feels. And how it feels is smooth as butter.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
The knobs feel like they’re oil-filled, in a sense. They resist turning in an oh-so-gentle way. Easy to turn, easy to control. Just right. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Six displays. All your basic information is right there in front of you, easy to take in at a glance. But if you need to go deeper it’s easy to get there. It’s like the synth offers no resistance. It’s easy, effortless. Every place I looked there was a control I’ve always wished my other synths had. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Piles of oscillators, each one with many different kinds of waves. I could have Oscillator 1 be a Minimoog pulse wave and dial in Oscillator 2 to be a wavetable. Phenomenal power for just one knob. And it’s not just that the Solaris is powerful, it’s that it’s easy too. I could fiddle with the oscillator display all I liked, but the filter display was still on and telling me what it was doing. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
My Waldorf Q has many different oscillator and filter models, but it feels totally different because it has just the one display. It’s a great synth, but it’s always reminding you that it’s a virtual analog, mostly because at one moment the display is an oscillator and the next it’s a filter. And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. But the Solaris feels like a “luxury synth” in comparison. It doesn’t feel virtual at all. There’s no switching functions in and out all the time because it has just one shared display. I have an Oberheim Xpander too, and while the Xpander also has the multiple screens the Solaris goes and takes it to the extreme. I can honestly see selling the Xpander now. It’s real analog, but it just doesn’t compare. It doesn’t have the horsepower, the flexibility. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
I must have said “it’s easy” about six times. But that’s my first impression of the Solaris. There’s no resistance, it’s not in my way, I don’t have to scratch my head while I’m trying to find something. It’s like a software synthesizer brought to life, except it’s way better than dealing with a mouse and a computer screen. You’ve got knobs and screens and joysticks and ribbons and wheels, all things you just don’t have with a computer synth. But you’ve also got the power of the computer right there under your hands as well. It’s the best of both worlds. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
When I first read about the Solaris it sounded like exactly what I’d always been looking for in a synthesizer. And after an hour or two, I can say that’s totally true. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
This is the real deal.</div>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-58215036763678333842011-10-31T19:47:00.000-04:002011-10-31T19:47:16.424-04:00In War Times<div class="p1">
<b><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><i>In Which a Science Fiction Author Writing About Jazz Completely and Unexpectedly Illuminates Why I Play Synthesizers</i></span></b></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
If I was 10 years older I’d probably be a sax player instead of a synthesist.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
But I didn’t know that until I started reading Kathleen Ann Goonan’s book <span class="s1"><i></i></span><i><span class="s2">In War Times. </span><span class="s1"></span></i>Goonan writes amazing novels. They’re thick, heavy, and deep. In the best of ways, of course. And they’re filled with music, with jazz. Now I like jazz, but would not call myself an aficionado. Keith Jarrett, Branford Marsalis, Etta James, even, all favorites of mine along with many others. I’m much more of a rocker, though. But if I’d been born in 1940 or ’50 instead of 1960 maybe I would have turned out much like her characters. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
The beauty of Goonan<span style="background-color: transparent;">’s</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> writing is how I feel almost immediately immersed, even though I’ve never been to those 52nd Street jazz clubs, or to the ones in Harlem. And when I was the impressionable age her characters were when they were listening to their first jazz platters, for me there was Switched on Bach, Yes, ELP, Genesis, Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, Larry Fast, and later, in high school, Tangerine Dream. It was all over after that. I am to this day haunted by the textures of the movie version of A Clockwork Orange. So compelling, so beautiful, and making the movie all that much more intense.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
As a preteen, though, my world was filled with the textures of the then new synthesizer. Just like the people in Goonan’s novel discovering the magic of jazz, in my slightly different time I was awakened to the birth of the synthesizer. I remember the disgust and outrage about these new “so-called instruments.” They were unnatural, synthetic, offensive, which was a common complaint. They would cost orchestras their jobs was another. But to me, it was eye-opening. The world of my father humming Greensleeves while conducting invisible musicians on the radio was what I was brought up with, followed by the ’60s with the “hippy” music, thanks to my sister and her DJ boyfriend. But then the synthesizer happened, and that was it for me. And like Goonan’s characters, I was taken in, swept up, and swirled away into a new world. That magical box of textures, sounds previously undreamt of, the joining of music and technology, just as in her book, that happened to me, too. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
If I was just a little older, I might have picked up a saxophone. But it was the Moog that got me instead. But Goonan’s book got me as well, grabbing me in its headlong rush into jazz and physics and world conflict. From the first page it had me, and who knows where it’s going to take me as I’m only 21% in (thanks, Kindle, for stealing page numbers out from under us!). And I admit that sometimes at the end of her books I’m left wondering what I just witnessed, but in some ways that’s half the fun. I’m always left with a “wow,” regardless. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
This is not a review of <span class="s1"><i></i></span><i><span class="s2">In War Times, </span><span class="s1"></span></i>nor is it even that much about the book at all. What this is about is the sense of discovery, the exhilaration, the newness of something that had never been heard before. For Goonan, maybe, jazz. For me, the synthesizer. No, what this is about is her unbelievably accurate description of me, as a kid, hearing the synthesizer for the very first time, with its magical textures that uprooted my world. Even though I’m not actually in her novel of course, yeah, she was writing about me. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So I’m writing this to say, “thanks” to Ms. Goonan. She somehow managed to finally put into words exactly how I felt, and why I chose the synthesizer to fill my life. Why I <i>had to. </i>Even though the novel was jazz and the ’40s, it was also about me in the ’60s.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Yup. She nailed it.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055DL9HU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=boxoftex-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=B0055DL9HU" target="_blank">In War Times</a> By <a href="http://www.goonan.com/" target="_blank">Kathleen Ann Goonan</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=boxoftex-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B0055DL9HU&camp=217145&creative=399373" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></div>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-84225956985478276562011-10-22T21:13:00.000-04:002011-10-23T23:44:24.280-04:00Animoog for iPad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxK8OcGkUyQGQkEY8QN9rbLBA0fkvglmres98fvkyd7fJyZPcdDAmX_rSLdMa7sU82IlGmehqZW7H-gukSbT_rGbsv7JNCJUx6iMRYVd5djO_uTS5H-S9tfap8J8bf5iHSozoKMpqdRlDo/s1600/animoog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxK8OcGkUyQGQkEY8QN9rbLBA0fkvglmres98fvkyd7fJyZPcdDAmX_rSLdMa7sU82IlGmehqZW7H-gukSbT_rGbsv7JNCJUx6iMRYVd5djO_uTS5H-S9tfap8J8bf5iHSozoKMpqdRlDo/s400/animoog.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<br />
So today was the first day I really sat down with Moog’s new <a href="http://moogmusic.com/content/animoog" target="_blank">Animoog app for the iPad</a>. Not for any good reason, but I stayed up after midnight on the night of the announcement to see what it was about, and when I saw that it was only $1 (temporarily) it was basically a no-brainer. And for a few days after that I picked out presets and played with the knobs a bit and thought it was pretty cool. I even downloaded the manual. (Which I have now read. Twice.) And while there’s been a bit of controversy over their “First Professional Synth Designed for the iPad” tagline, I have to say that after spending some quality time with it I’m pretty much blown away.<br />
<br />
At first I thought it would be a cool toy, but after using it for most of the afternoon today I’ve come to think of it as a “real” synthesizer and not just an iPad app. First off, it doesn’t just have a few waveforms. Instead it has 56 different “waves,” plus one silent one. They’re not static waves either but rather actually synthesized tones. It’s almost like they’ve taken an analog synthesizer and a wavetable synthesizer and made a mashup on the iPad. <br />
<br />
But it goes further than that. They’ve done things with Animoog that you really couldn’t have done on an analog synth because the whole playing surface of it is touch sensitive, and the “keyboard” responds to multi-touch. It’s almost like they’ve taken a synthesizer keyboard and a <a href="http://www.hakenaudio.com/Continuum/" target="_blank">Haken Continuum</a> and formed them into a 2D synth controller that responds to poly-pressure. It’s actually strange that such a unique and interesting keyboard came out of Moog, but apparently Bob Moog made an actual physical keyboard like this for someone decades ago, and the Animoog keyboard is modeled after that. And the glass playing surface is perfect for it. You can play individual notes, and you can slide your fingers left to right to slide between notes. You can also slide up and down on a note to change the timbre of the tone as well. There’s a pitch correction control as well. Set all the way up makes each note discrete, set all the way down makes it slide evenly from note to note as if you were playing slide guitar. You can also set up the keyboard to play in a scale, either one of the preprogrammed ones or one of your own making.<br />
<br />
In addition there are all the “standard” synthesizer elements such as a multi-mode filter, delay module, envelope generators (three of them), etc. Beyond that, there are things like four fully routable modulation paths. But what’s totally cool is that it’s four-voice polyphonic. When they said “professional synth” in their marketing copy I took it with a grain of salt, but after spending some time exploring the synth I have to say that it’s true. I might not have used their “first” bit, but the thing is an incredibly expressive instrument, and I can’t wait to finally hook up my iPad to a MIDI keyboard (although honestly I think I’m going to miss the on-screen keyboard because it’s just so good).<br />
<br />
But in some ways all this, while nice, is not even the interesting part. What they’ve done is to add on an X/Y pad like they have on the Minimoog Voyager. The pad is divided into 8 vertical and 16 horizontal zones. The true power of the Animoog is that you can assign a different sound to each of the 8 vertical zones if you want to. You can then change timbres by moving your finger around the X/Y pad. Moving up and down changes between the 8 basic timbres you’ve chosen, and moving side to side changes some parameters of that zone’s sound. It’s hard to explain but simple to do. There’s <a href="http://www.bobborries.com/Tutorials/AnimoogTutorial.html" target="_blank">a great animated image</a> showing exactly what’s going on with the X-Y pad, and in this case a couple of images will save me a few hundred words at least. <br />
<br />
But it goes beyond even this. The TRUE true power of the Animoog synth is that you can animate the X/Y pad in several ways. Notes you play on the keyboard are not static, but rather they move around the X/Y pad, and in doing so the timbre constantly changes as the note crosses the boundaries between zones in the 8 x 16 grid. But wait, there’s more. It’s not just that the notes move, it’s that you can draw a path that the moving notes will follow. It’s a simple idea, but that’s what makes this synth generate its unique sounds. While it’s certainly possible to make a static sound that just sits, there are so many elements of motion you can impart to your patches that it’s just hard to express in written words what this thing can do. <br />
<br />
Oh, and did I mention the sound-on-sound recording module that has layering and overdubbing? Almost forgot.<br />
<br />
So all marketing hyperbole aside, Animoog is an incredibly powerful synthesizer. And while I’m totally looking forward to getting an iPad/MIDI interface soon, 10 minutes with Animoog has made me wish I had a Continuum. And if someone out there decides to make a physical 2D flat surface keyboard I’d definitely consider plunking down some dollars just so I could use the Animoog synth to its full potential.<br />
<br />
This is by no means a complete review of every feature the synth has to offer. It has a 9 page manual, but even though that doesn’t sound like much the Animoog has a tremendous amount of depth to it. I’ll try to record a few examples of what it can do over the next few days and post them here. And just to balance out my bubbling praise, there are a few rough edges. Like when “turning knobs” I’ve sometimes managed to hit the change module buttons in the middle of adjusting something. That’s probably my fault, but I’ve managed to do it a bunch of times. Many Mac software synths give you a choice between rotary or linear control of the knobs and I guess I’d prefer rotary. And I have to say that the way you save your patches is completely unintuitive and that’s being polite. It’s also barely mentioned in the manual. It’s not a huge deal as once you figure it out the first time (hold the Save button for an indeterminately long time and you’ll be OK) it’s easy enough to do. Another thing I’d like to see is sound banks. There’s only one, and while that’s fine I’d rather have the built-in bank separated from my own patches. And oh yeah, if you’re going to play live with this, make sure you turn off notifications unless you want to hear all those Words With Friends notification sounds while you’re playing. These are all pretty minor niggles, though. In case you couldn’t tell, I think this thing’s amazing.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://itunes.com/apps/animoog" target="_blank">Animoog for iPad</a>, from Moog. The real price will be $30 in a month, but for now it’s only $1 (as is their Filtratron app as well). If I didn’t already have an iPad, this app would make me go out and buy one. It’s that good. This is the Moog polysynth I’ve been waiting for.<br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: #FF0000;">Update </span></b>—
here’s an Animoog tune I just did:<br />
<br />
<iframe width="400" height="100" style="position: relative; display: block; width: 400px; height: 100px;" src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/track=1589841466/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/transparent=true/" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"><a href="http://music.boxoftextures.com/track/waiting-for-your-return">Waiting For Your Return by Seth Elgart</a></iframe><br />
<br />Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-60244120535204138012011-08-22T20:30:00.000-04:002011-08-22T20:30:12.271-04:00Music Creation On The iPadSo I’ve had my iPad for maybe five months now, and it’s been a little bit eye-opening. I bought an iPad 1 from someone who had to rush out on Day 1 and get an iPad 2. I got a pretty good deal because I got a much better model than I would have as well as a lot of accessories, and he got a pretty good deal because I financed a large portion of his new one. Win-win. <br />
<br />
It’s amusing to still even today read articles about how it’s nothing new and why should anyone bother getting one, but for me it’s been a game changer. I almost never use my laptop at home anymore for my “normal” computing activities, and in fact since I got the iPad my laptop’s not left the house. I go out of town maybe two weekends a month and a year ago could not have imagined not taking a computer with me for a weekend. Now my backpack’s 8 pounds lighter and I hardly have to worry about batteries for the whole weekend.<br />
<br />
But this was supposed to be about music. Almost forgot.<br />
<br />
My first thoughts were that the iPad would be a cool toy. I loves me some gadgets, personally, so I was really looking forward to playing with one. In fact, I had actually bought a few music apps before I even had one, thinking that if I had a reason to get an iPad beforehand I could more easily justify it. And I’ve gotten all sorts of cool music toy apps, and some more “serious” apps as well, and have had great fun with them. But there were two things that made me change my thinking about the “pro-ness” of the iPad. One was the <a href="http://www.ikmultimedia.com/irigmidi" target="_blank">iRig MIDI interface</a> (still with the slightest whiff of vaporware about it) and the other was the <a href="http://www.beepstreet.com/horizon" target="_blank">Sunrizer synth app</a>. <br />
<br />
The iRig MIDI device, from IK Multimedia, is a large-matchbook sized device that lets you connect your iPad to your MIDI gear with full MIDI in/out connections. It also lets you connect power to your iPad at the same time, something that other devices I’m aware of don’t do at the moment. For me that’s pretty much a requirement. The last thing I’d want is to have my iPad run out of juice while waiting for the drummer to finish setting up. I said before that it’s a little vaporish because they’re only on pre-order at the moment.<br />
<br />
But what really changed my mind about making music on the iPad is the Sunrizer app from BeepStreet. I was really bummed a few weeks ago because I powered up my Access Virus Indigo 2 and the backlight was dead, but one listen to the Sunrizer made me forget all about the Virus. OK, slight exaggeration, but still. The thing sounds amazing. I’ve played with other synth apps on the iPad/iPhone and the Sunrizer just blows them away for sheer sonic goodness. Will it replace my Indigo 2? No. But it comes darn close, and I’m hoping a future version 2 will bridge the gap between them. And besides, you can’t throw your Indigo 2 in a backpack, even if it *is* a small synth. And while the Virus definitely is more flexible and more full-featured, the Sunrizer can certainly give it a run for its money. It just sounds that good. <br />
<br />
So I’ve had the iPad for a while now, but all of a sudden I can see myself using it live as a synth module. All I need is two more of them and I can go totally portable, and I’m only half joking about that. Think about it for a moment. When the iPad 3 comes out you’ll probably be able to pick up an iPad 1 for under $100 if you get a low end model.<br />
<br />
I’ll write a more in-depth post about the Sunrizer synth soon as I truly want to cover it well and do it justice, but until then let me leave off by saying I find I just can’t seem to stop playing it lately.Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-5583584056421453982010-04-22T14:10:00.001-04:002010-04-22T14:12:42.129-04:00The Piano<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibkp7KNQeEfGNvZBPzt2F_s_1hiVt5nnSHeVw3_wztTnc8IB3NM4dI-CzCl-perdbiKfa4oV59V_VbsvvHTuuL7o6qCH-IIeOm6HCKYDTzBQ_Cl0KMK1j5NAWZuhkRrJtI370KZYpd8AOw/s1600/piano.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibkp7KNQeEfGNvZBPzt2F_s_1hiVt5nnSHeVw3_wztTnc8IB3NM4dI-CzCl-perdbiKfa4oV59V_VbsvvHTuuL7o6qCH-IIeOm6HCKYDTzBQ_Cl0KMK1j5NAWZuhkRrJtI370KZYpd8AOw/s400/piano.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">This is my piano. Technically, I have six of them, but this is the only “real” one. It’s in my family’s house in upstate New York, where I spent my summers until I was 16. Unfortunately, the piano wasn’t there until after that, and in fact there wasn’t even a “real” house up there until I was 10 or so. (Hmmm. Too many quotes already, and I’m only up to the fourth sentence.) Anyway, I have three piano modules, a digital piano, a spinet, and this baby grand. It’s in decent shape, could use a good tuning/overhaul, but it still sounds pretty good if you don’t head too far out to the ends of the keyboard. </div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">I’m not really a piano player, unfortunately not having been tormented with lessons from an early age. I wanted them, though, probably one of the few kids who did. I remember being very young and discovering open fifths, open fourths, augmented and diminished chords. Each discovery was eye-opening, felt like I had been the first to find some new thing. I remembering feeling the world open up to me after accidentally finding sus4 chords, just playing them in the empty apartment before my parents came home, letting them ring into silence, listening to the shifting overtones. It was magical. </div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">All of this happened on the spinet in my New York City apartment. It’s from the 1940s and in pretty bad shape, long past the time it should have been put out to pasture. That’s why I got the digital piano, in fact, to replace it. Not the same, but I suppose it’s better to be in tune and not broken. But when I manage to get up to the too-far-away house upstate, I always look forward to trotting out my far-too-rusty piano skills. This past weekend felt more rusty and awkward than usual, but sometimes I can just sit down and play and it’s magical. And I still like to play a sus4 and let it ring into silence. </div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 19.0px;"><br />
</div><div style="font: 16.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">It’s been months since I’ve added to this blog. Things have happened, other things have not happened, I’ve let it slide. But I’m starting it up again, even after all this time. I’ve missed it. Writing this feels like wearing an old, comfortable shirt. It’s time to start it up again. </div>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-37082635882026469822009-09-12T19:13:00.008-04:002009-09-12T19:31:45.331-04:00Chimera Synthesis bC16 handheld modular synthesizerIn May of last year I bought a <a href="http://www.chimerasynthesis.com/#/bc16-patchable-synth/4529526548" target="_blank">Chimera Synthesis bC16</a> synthesizer, and it finally arrived just the other day. The bC16 is a fully patchable synthesizer, nothing’s prewired for you. It’s not quite a modular because you can’t change the modules or move them around, but for all intents and purposes it may be the worlds smallest modular synth. It has sorta two VCOs, sorta two LFOs, a VCF, ADSR envelope generator, VCA, ring modulator, MIDI interface and an arpeggiator.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOj2p0EGGEXZ0VDZNKCapb3nCUWATm_czF0i3QRIf7_DFqUtJb8ywIVZITgm_eNRfrjM9PWGv5DE0FBSYQMFC2jz9pFeiOR3Q_F_kyYbzZxF5Ar3SBdXcd1mphwbTKEWqotHUgxCtS_10o/s1600-h/IMG_0948.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOj2p0EGGEXZ0VDZNKCapb3nCUWATm_czF0i3QRIf7_DFqUtJb8ywIVZITgm_eNRfrjM9PWGv5DE0FBSYQMFC2jz9pFeiOR3Q_F_kyYbzZxF5Ar3SBdXcd1mphwbTKEWqotHUgxCtS_10o/s400/IMG_0948.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380724305448306482" /></a><br />I say “sorta” because there aren’t really two fully accessible VCOs. Rather, there are two linked VCOs with one set of knobs and patch points. There’s a Difference knob (and control voltage input) to let you spread the two oscillators apart. They’re both really in there but you don’t exactly have individual access to them, and there’s just the one output jack. This isn’t a problem, it’s just something I felt I ought to point out. The LFOs are similar. There are two of them but knobs for only one. You’ve two less knobs for the LFO when compared to the VCO, and the VCO’s FM input jack is changed to a Ring Mod input for the LFOs.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj59oKH5VtMYHOntiNqrAGJoxOFmWOuLiVJ0yb1IXuKWcXlR98JyzejK8bdKOdcf8pZf8JCvRI5VELQSUIwtao82UXGVTlzlFvb3eGYF6qtMd8b1_J3DU1HLIkddx1J2lgNqWUtrkwtO_d6/s1600-h/bC16+toplayout.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 387px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj59oKH5VtMYHOntiNqrAGJoxOFmWOuLiVJ0yb1IXuKWcXlR98JyzejK8bdKOdcf8pZf8JCvRI5VELQSUIwtao82UXGVTlzlFvb3eGYF6qtMd8b1_J3DU1HLIkddx1J2lgNqWUtrkwtO_d6/s400/bC16+toplayout.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380724299275944706" /></a><br />The bC16 ships with 10 micro-sized banana-style patch cables. That will probably be more than enough for most purposes. It also comes with a patchable signal inverter so you can take a standard envelope, for example, and invert it before sending it to, say, the filter.<br /><br />The envelope is loopable as well. If you set the sustain knob to 0 the envelope will repeatedly retrigger itself. You can get nice long drones that way. If you move the sustain knob up just a touch it functions in the normal one-shot way.<br /><br />There’s still a million things I haven’t yet figured out. The manual is, shall we say, somewhat lacking still. For example, the VCO page simply says “work in progress” and nothing more. At least there is a manual, though. From what I can see in the forums there wasn’t one at all for quite some time. It’s freely downloadable from their web site, though, if you want to take a look at it.<br /><br />The bC16 is not exactly your “normal” synthesizer (whatever that means!). For one, it uses the 0.586 volts per octave standard, according to the manual. I’m not 100% sure that that’s really a standard that I’ve ever heard of, but just because I’ve not heard of it doesn’t mean it isn’t one. Another oddity is the patch cables and jacks. The bC16 uses 2mm banana jacks, which are really small. There’s nothing wrong with that but it might make it difficult to find pre-made cables from sources other than Chimera. I’m not saying that’s a problem, but it’s something to keep in mind.<br /><br />I’ve only had the bC16 for a day, but I have to say I’m pretty darn impressed. The build quality is amazing. The thing feels totally solid, and all the knobs and jacks are firm yet smooth. It’s a modular synthesizer that you can hold in the palm of your hand. It’s incredible flexible, sounds good and can make all sorts of noises. I may even hook it up to a MIDI keyboard one day and try to play some actual notes with it.<div><br /></div><div>The piece below isn't really a tune but it's not really a demo either. About five minutes long, it's nothing but the bC16 recorded live into Ableton Live. No sequencers, arpeggiators, or overdubs.</div><div><br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="400" height="100"><param name="movie" value="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/track=3258977629/size=venti/bgcol=080808/linkcol=4285BB/"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"><param name="allowNetworking" value="always"><param name="bgcolor" value="#080808"><embed src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/track=3258977629/size=venti/bgcol=080808/linkcol=4285BB/" width="400" height="100" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality="high" allowscriptaccess="never" allownetworking="always" bgcolor="#080808"></embed><noembed></noembed></object><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Photo credit: bC16 front panel layout graphic was downloaded from the Chimera Synthesis web site as a PDF and formatted to fit this page.</div>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-21139225005434349592009-08-29T12:47:00.008-04:002009-09-01T14:54:38.637-04:00OhmSound FM softsynthJust came across a new synthesizer today (or maybe more accurately, it came across me).<br /><br />I have a Livid Instruments Ohm controller, designed specifically for VJing, but it's basically a MIDI controller that can be used for anything you'd like to use it for. You can use it quite easily with Ableton Live as it's USB plug-and-play. Mine is a beautiful wood and metal version, and it's just fun to touch let alone to use.<div><br /><div><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 285px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIBQUHitXw_EDSP3DjBOKOuioXZD-S9Sgg29ALjJ1tDkNW2oF8KCtLiPGHzeOy3FtREeHc8Ab3UVgb90CoL_QcfpixbiGTOXgEmtsHhrqzimzDn1wE3BseNPWmRoRGBsfzR7ukqPyUE2p9/s400/Ohm.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375431098436507394" /></div><div><br /><div>Livid recently updated the design of the Ohm and came out with the <a href="http://www.lividinstruments.com/hardware_ohm64.php" target="_blank">Ohm64</a>. It's basically similar to mine except that it has a 64 button matrix rather than my 36 button version. What's new here is that I just got an email from Livid which aside from other software update announcements had an oh-by-the-way-here's-our-new-FM-soft-synth section. I've been putting off sending in my Ohm to take advantage of the <a href="http://www.lividindustry.com/culture/?p=525" target="_blank">Ohm Recycling Program</a>, but now I almost have to do it just to have a go at the new synth.<br /><br />It's called simply OhmSound, and it's a two operator FM synth. Two operators doesn't sound like a lot, but it's not limited to the "traditional" sine waves, you can change the waves to any number of waveshapes, complete with graphical LFO and envelope control of the operator levels as well. Tied to the Ohm64 controller, which lets you use knobs, buttons and sliders to control all the synth parameters, you end up with an easy to use and fun to play with synthesizer.<br /><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPbEhBiNcsFaL7_jLG754jUHIKNpzSHcBNpXkm7hIDvWEHMQ2xicY6GEfNWxj7PZbt4ml9AihiSx8Q79cJYlOH1hGOD6fD2TTQIxGMmZ_o3Mo4p5q4C3yubWS8wuSgeZU_9K5eJmPK4gcR/s1600-h/OhmSound.jpg"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPbEhBiNcsFaL7_jLG754jUHIKNpzSHcBNpXkm7hIDvWEHMQ2xicY6GEfNWxj7PZbt4ml9AihiSx8Q79cJYlOH1hGOD6fD2TTQIxGMmZ_o3Mo4p5q4C3yubWS8wuSgeZU_9K5eJmPK4gcR/s400/OhmSound.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375431475953372930" style="cursor: pointer; width: 306px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div><br />It's still in very early development apparently, and, Oh Yeah, they're also <a href="http://vimeo.com/6107235" target="_blank">working on a sequencer</a> as well!<br /><br />This is totally cool, as Livid basically created a <a href="http://www.lividinstruments.com/software_union.php" target="_blank">VJ controller</a> but have now expanded its capabilities via software to turn it into something completely different from the original concept. I can't wait to see what else they come up with.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">Update: </span>Lived just posted <a href="http://www.lividindustry.com/culture/?p=534" target="_blank">three videos</a> on the use of OhmSound.</div></div></div>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-51004760088576361642009-08-27T10:20:00.004-04:002009-08-28T01:12:10.764-04:00Nine Inch Nails - Wave Goodbye<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfwcxlUetasZImEZ20mcA9Edcw9Heei9fYOzZxGEt9ypwplQnHlFdMz5e9arq25TjMp-1ShOAWURk-YlwvSzIUZ-pA5RGyp0QHuXgK81RK88BUqGrF0RhowtrrbtmrW8FA__lGqYLluK7d/s1600-h/nin.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfwcxlUetasZImEZ20mcA9Edcw9Heei9fYOzZxGEt9ypwplQnHlFdMz5e9arq25TjMp-1ShOAWURk-YlwvSzIUZ-pA5RGyp0QHuXgK81RK88BUqGrF0RhowtrrbtmrW8FA__lGqYLluK7d/s400/nin.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374648611503659714" /></a><br />Saw <a href="http://www.nin.com/" target="_blank">Nine Inch Nails</a> last night, maybe their last ever New York show. They’re not my usual sort of topic here, but you have to love a rowdy “industrial” band that uses an <a href="http://www.ear-group.net/nin2.html" target="_blank">incredibly cool modular synthesizer</a>, has keyboards played live by all four band members and releases synth-heavy albums. Supposedly, they’re going to stop touring but still record new albums.<br /><br />It was a great show, though. They played for almost two and a half hours, rocking hard the whole time although they did slow down for some tender moments as well. There were a few synth interludes, many of them sequences and rhythms to provide backgrounds for the rowdy guitars. It’s great to see a modular synth used live, and they actually tweak knobs and change sounds from time to time. It’s not just thrown in, they actually make good use of it, which is refreshing in a hard rocking band.<br /><br />There are other bands I like who use synths for a bit flavoring. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYb2aS9CgQ" target="_blank">Dishwalla</a> comes to mind right away, though they’re much more mainstream than NIN. Also <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajVLfxD58Is" target="_blank">Stabbing Westward</a>, another industrial band from some years ago, had some great synth textures behind them. There are plenty of others out there as well, but those two are particular favorites of mine.<br /><br />I probably shouldn’t write these at 2:00 am after getting home from a concert, but I just couldn’t help myself. I have more concerts coming up in the near future as well. There’s Todd Rundgren doing the <a href="http://www.awatslive.com/" target="_blank">A Wizard/A True Star</a> album in its entirety, with <a href="http://rogerpowell.com/Home.html" target="_blank">Roger Powell</a> and <a href="http://www.greghawkesmusic.com/" target="_blank">Greg Hawkes</a> on synths. That’s in a week and a half. A couple of weeks after that is <a href="http://360.u2.com/" target="_blank">U2</a>, although probably not so synth-heavy. I’ll most likely have things to say about both of those shows.<br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><b>Update: </b></span>I just posted some <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sethelgart/sets/72157622164824154/" target="_blank">photos from the show</a> on FlickrSeth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-2421718448328561932009-08-01T01:35:00.005-04:002009-08-01T01:47:50.268-04:00Morton Subotnick live at the Issue Project Room<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLernCOPVWXRgl34YWqmgcXKCekj3ITg2mOAaihF33uWENPO3MBAUgilHFhmbmZ_Xjz_H5VzFRi58goMgZAqc-FYGDh8K87lazDoycxJtI7NME3H1TSK-79IIfq8xxI2z9GcR8ZrZUPLkW/s1600-h/subotnick.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLernCOPVWXRgl34YWqmgcXKCekj3ITg2mOAaihF33uWENPO3MBAUgilHFhmbmZ_Xjz_H5VzFRi58goMgZAqc-FYGDh8K87lazDoycxJtI7NME3H1TSK-79IIfq8xxI2z9GcR8ZrZUPLkW/s400/subotnick.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364866845018619426" /></a><br />I didn’t quite know what to expect as I made my way to Brooklyn to see <a href="http://www.mortonsubotnick.com/" target="_blank">Morton Subotnick</a> play live. When I got there, sitting outside the room before they let us in, you could hear all sorts of bleeps and bloops coming through the closed door. Piles of synthesizers? The legendary <a href="http://www.buchla.com/" target="_blank">Buchla</a>? No way to tell from my side of the door. When we were let in, though, there was a small table with a Mac laptop and a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001J8LJWK?ie=UTF8&tag=boxoftex-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001J8LJWK" target="_blank">Korg nanoKONTROL</a> on it and not much else. Not what I expected, but then again since I didn’t know what to expect it seemed to fit. <br /><br />The space was very interesting. PA speakers in four corners, seats in the center. It was small, too, maybe 50 seats if even that many. Hanging from the ceiling were <a href="http://issueprojectroom.org/2009/07/13/ny1-interviews-floating-points-curators-suzanne-fiol-and-stephan-moore/" target="_blank">15 speaker pods</a>, which I think had a separate computer controlling the sound going to them. We were surrounded. <br /><br />Subotnick was introduced, and then still standing started to explain what he was going to play, what his near-term plans were, and several incredibly funny stories of things that happened in his career. He was very personable and very friendly, seemed quite at ease. My favorite quote, from when he was describing the record company exchanging his four-track reel-to-reel for a new, modern eight track version: “If heaven is anything like an eight-track tape recorder it’s a pretty good place.”<br /><br />Then he sat down to play. <br /><br />I don’t know. I was maybe expecting cacophony, maybe expecting “difficult” music. What I got was simply amazing. He started slowly, triggering sounds and bits of music, going back and forth between the nanoKONTROL and the Mac’s keyboard. He spent quite some time putting together complex rhythms and melodies, slowly building up steam, taking us along with him. It was fascinating, but more importantly it was good music. I guess I was expecting synthesized weirdness, but what he gave us was instead masterly. It was almost like an explosion of sound in reverse. It was the musical equivalent of an explosion on video played backwards. At first, all the parts are scattered and random, but over time they start to accelerate towards each other and then faster and faster they all coalesce into a recognizable whole. It was exhilarating, completely unexpected, amazing. And that was only his first piece, a bit of Silver Apples of the Moon. <br /><br />His second piece was similar, but very different. He explained how he had Don Buchla build him an early envelope follower (if not the very first one). Subotnick would then sing into it, storing his voice on tape to use later to modify sounds from the Buchla. The second piece used this technique, and parts of it sounded eerily like heavenly choirs singing square waves. He also used the vocal-formed envelopes to start some long, evolving rhythmic patterns and the joint was rocking. He even took his hands off the keyboards a few times, sat back and raised his eyebrows when the rhythms turned into something interesting. Then he’d smile and reach for a knob on the nano and completely mangle it into something just as amazing but totally new, almost looking like an evil professor with a gleam in his eye as he did it. When the piece was done he got a tremendous ovation, and then it was over. It was fabulous. <br /><br />It was <a href="http://robertrich.com/site/disco.php?album_id=5" target="_blank">bug music</a>, it was slamming rhythms, it was synthesizers being thrown around among the 19 speakers above the audience. It was ethereal beauty, it was entertainment, it was mesmerizing. I saw in places where <a href="http://www.tangerinedream-music.com/" target="_blank">Tangerine Dream</a> came from, where <a href="http://robertrich.com/" target="_blank">Robert Rich</a> came from, and even where <a href="http://www.moldover.com/" target="_blank">Moldover</a> came from. And if they had been there at the end of the show, they would have eagerly joined in with the standing ovation. <br /><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=boxoftex-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001J8LJWK" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-31397215336176479822009-07-26T13:49:00.009-04:002009-07-26T14:09:06.825-04:00Midnight Rain on Pavement GlistensNew tune, in a bit of a different style. Not a different style of music, just made in a way I haven’t done in a while. <br /><br />I have a lot of synthesizers nowadays, but in olden times when I only had a Minimoog and a Casio CZ-101 I had to stretch myself and my equipment when trying to make complex tracks. The CZ-101 was four-note polyphonic, but there was a mode you could put it in which would let you split each note out onto its own separate MIDI channel, basically giving you four individual monosynths. At first glance this may seem like a major bummer, removing any possibility of chords. However, what I usually did back in the day was to have a bass sound on one channel, some sort of “paddish” sound on two more with maybe a lead sound on the last channel. And, because I had to record each pad note one at a time I ended up playing things I maybe never would have if I had better equipment and more instruments. Necessity ended up mothering my invention. <br /><br />Which brings me around to what I’ve been doing lately, which is going back to my roots, so to speak, and recording a few tunes mostly with monosynths. In this day and age of spectacularly powerful computerized synthesizers, sometimes it just feels good to lay your hands on a Minimoog and start turning knobs. Lay down a track, then lay down another one on top of it in harmony. Then lay down another one on top of that to maybe provide some contrast to that harmony. Lather, rinse, repeat and maybe end up with a new song full of textures made only (well, mostly) with monosynths. <br /><br />Somehow it feels very comfortable. Waaaaaaay back in 1979 or ’80 my recording studio consisted of my Minimoog, a Space Echo and my Radio Shack answering machine, back when answering machines were new and somewhat expensive technology (and people didn't like to leave messages because it was weird and strange). I still have some of those tapes somewhere in fact. It was a great day when I got a Yamaha QX7, though, as I could record multiple tracks (two of them at a time, I think) and then bounce them down. Then I got my first Mac and a copy of Performer. Not Digital Performer, mind you. The sheer luxury of “unlimited” MIDI tracks was overpowering. We’ve certainly come a long way to get to Ableton Live and mixing and matching eight-bar clips to compose our tunes.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHOtmu-qpWxVC26KKQYk_gZQQFrLESrhwn5lZZeCzzPAWxj8F29su3zIAH-cyf6uG0zQPxw4fJ4of8Me3i6XwuN3vyWiO5fnIqYVrSOF1mQ2aHTNHEgomttwAWTItW3aBD0whPjYW7-g5/s1600-h/midnightrain.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHOtmu-qpWxVC26KKQYk_gZQQFrLESrhwn5lZZeCzzPAWxj8F29su3zIAH-cyf6uG0zQPxw4fJ4of8Me3i6XwuN3vyWiO5fnIqYVrSOF1mQ2aHTNHEgomttwAWTItW3aBD0whPjYW7-g5/s400/midnightrain.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362830038115279154" /></a><br />Which brings me around (finally!) to the new tune. Eight mono tracks, each one building on the next, with the lone exception of a pad track where I played fifths. I might still add a crowd of robot voices (or maybe human ones, or both) over the beginning build up and ending slow down, but I'm not 100% sure of that. It was great fun, composing one line at at a time, and I definitely ended up with things I would not have gotten if I had played them on a polysynth. If I had used a modular it would have come out differently. Same if I had used a Monomachine, or a Prophet ’08. They’re just such different mindsets, and it’s good to have a supply of different kinds of tools at hand. Heck, I even sat down at a grand piano a couple of weeks ago. It’s still me making the music, but the tools you use definitely have an effect on the music you produce. <br /><br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="400" height="100" ><param name="movie" value="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/track=1540304227/size=venti/bgcol=050505/linkcol=4285BB/"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"><param name="allowNetworking" value="always"><param name="bgcolor" value="#050505"><embed src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/track=1540304227/size=venti/bgcol=050505/linkcol=4285BB/" width="400" height="100" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality=high allowScriptAccess=never allowNetworking=always bgcolor=#050505 ></embed><noembed><a href="http://music.boxoftextures.com/track/midnight-rain-on-pavement-glistens">Midnight Rain on Pavement Glistens by Seth Elgart</a></noembed></object>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3478547163072626403.post-58841896932407166372009-06-19T13:55:00.009-04:002009-06-19T14:31:55.324-04:00SynplantFlying Through The Forest. Seven tracks in Ableton Live, all made using <a href="http://www.soniccharge.com/synplant" target="_blank">Synplant</a>. I saw it on <a href="http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Matrixsynth</a> maybe a couple of weeks ago and was intrigued. I downloaded the demo, and then purchased it more or less right away. Basically, there’s no knobs or buttons. To design your sounds you instead “grow” them. It’s a little bit hard to describe, but once you try it it just makes sense. There’s a seed in the center, and 12 branches, one for each note. What you do is grab hold of a branch and drag the tip in towards the seed in the center or out towards the edge of the circular window, thereby changing the sound. Remember, though, that there are the 12 branches, so you’re only really changing the sound of the note you’re working on. You can make all 12 notes completely different, just a little bit different, or, by cloning the branch, all the same. You can even automate a note/sound rotation, which ends up making each note play a different sound each time you play it. You can go crazy if you want to, or you can use it as a subtle effect to make your sounds move and change over time.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxLdRWBCvAHjQezkFclKQq3Bi637bNVAwWK43EGuDM8dQRdkTftmP0Jru8Mx2h8xUj2EDId6D0Z3ibOkHZwITYbwO3limisyXRiyvnfuKj46g-37jUVG__C88n3VFw76tbD_T83Hh-SmoZ/s1600-h/interface.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 294px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxLdRWBCvAHjQezkFclKQq3Bi637bNVAwWK43EGuDM8dQRdkTftmP0Jru8Mx2h8xUj2EDId6D0Z3ibOkHZwITYbwO3limisyXRiyvnfuKj46g-37jUVG__C88n3VFw76tbD_T83Hh-SmoZ/s400/interface.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349099444668329634" /></a><br /><br />It’s very easy to get completely chaotic “sound effects” but you’re also able to get all sorts of “normal” synth patches, too. Also, it’s fast and very easy. I usually start with a random seed, drag the branches around until I have a bunch of sounds that interest me and then save the “plant” as a template of sorts. I can then go back and clone a branch and refine it until I have something I like. If you sit down and play with it for an hour or so, you can get a whole family of new patches. It feels completely organic somehow, more like making scrambled eggs than working with a synthesizer control panel. It’s also totally intuitive once you get used to the idea, not in the way that you would “know” what turning a knob on a synth would do, but more like the way you, well, scramble eggs. You don’t have to think about it, you can just do it. <br /><br />And that’s what I did this morning. Actually, I started last night, with a completely different synthesizer. I just got the <a href="http://www.waldorfmusic.de/en/products/waldorf-edition" target="_blank">Waldorf Edition</a>, mostly so I could finally have my PPG Wave. It’s amazing, great fun, and sounds, well, incredible. So I made a burbling texture, threw in some <a href="http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/GForceMTronPro.html" target="_blank">(G-Force) Mellotron</a> and some <a href="http://www.arturia.com/evolution/en/products/minimoogv/intro.html" target="_blank">(Arturia) Minimoog</a>, and sprinkled over the top I put in some extra burbles from Synplant and recorded a tune. However, this morning I went back to my Synplant sound and worked on it for a little while. I ended up with a whole folder full of good sounds, taking special care to make “useful” types of patches. I then fired up <a href="http://www.ableton.com/" target="_blank">Live</a> and went to work. It all just sort of easily flowed together. I then decided I needed a new sound, not quite a lead synth sound, but more like something to add one more bit of texture. I went back to Synplant and was able to quickly make a new patch which fit in quite well. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsosEElFzlDFgFXjA4XpVVa458R_stQf7H_wF39fCrqhc3D6s12hnsnCT1b3y1fk1Tx3KH283ig9eFcQMjdwrNO2jKHYWqFZa5NmOzuAsJ6-frkDSMJ1A4MpXwn5dlqTWhLMWLFzNHRw5M/s1600-h/dna.png"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 294px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsosEElFzlDFgFXjA4XpVVa458R_stQf7H_wF39fCrqhc3D6s12hnsnCT1b3y1fk1Tx3KH283ig9eFcQMjdwrNO2jKHYWqFZa5NmOzuAsJ6-frkDSMJ1A4MpXwn5dlqTWhLMWLFzNHRw5M/s400/dna.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5349099449810992370" /></a><br /><br />It’s all so, well, organic. The sounds are simply grown, and they’re lively and in motion and never static. It’s like the thing’s alive. However, don’t be under the impression that you have no control over the sounds you make. If you need to, there’s a “DNA” button you can click to get to all the parameters. In fact, you don’t have to grow your sounds at all if you don’t want to, you can tweak sliders to your heart’s content. I generally use both techniques, however. I grow my sound, then often go in and manually mess with the synth engine, usually just refining but occasionally radically altering the sound. I’ve only had it a week or so but already I’m getting familiar with the controls, but even if you’re brand new to the synth there’s a totally helpful Help button. When you click it you get a good explanation of what the control does. There’s also a good manual that comes with the program as well, so it’s relatively easy to learn the ins and outs. I ended up buying it long before the three week evaluation period was up. <br /><br />Synplant. It’s totally worth a try. <br /><br />Synplant tune (seven tracks of nothing but Synplant)<br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="400" height="100" ><param name="movie" value="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/track=3754379007/size=venti/bgcol=000000/linkcol=4285BB/"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"><param name="allowNetworking" value="always"><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"><embed src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/track=3754379007/size=venti/bgcol=000000/linkcol=4285BB/" width="400" height="100" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality=high allowScriptAccess=never allowNetworking=always bgcolor=#000000 ></embed><noembed><a href="http://music.boxoftextures.com/track/floating-through-the-forest">Floating Through The Forest by Seth Elgart</a></noembed></object><br /><br />Waldorf PPG Wave 2.V tune (with Synplant track)<br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" width="400" height="100" ><param name="movie" value="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/track=3584082386/size=venti/bgcol=000000/linkcol=4285BB/"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never"><param name="allowNetworking" value="always"><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000"><embed src="http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer.swf/track=3584082386/size=venti/bgcol=000000/linkcol=4285BB/" width="400" height="100" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" quality=high allowScriptAccess=never allowNetworking=always bgcolor=#000000 ></embed><noembed><a href="http://music.boxoftextures.com/track/the-dawn-star">The Dawn Star by Seth Elgart</a></noembed></object>Seth Elgarthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06654508987883145664noreply@blogger.com1