synthetic

Love that album and song. One of my desert island pics. You can't think of this band as the same band that recorded Fragile, because it's not. It was Trevor Rabin and Trevor Horn in a studio for a few months. Alan and Chris were there for basic tracks then left. Jon came in when the album was already finished, and Tony was the touring keyboardist (with Casey Young under the stage playing other parts.) I remember the official video for Owner being not much better. I remember them all facing each other on top of a building, then Jon turns into an eagle or something? Music videos were crazy weird in the early '80s. I miss it.

Toto XIV makes me so frustrated when I listen to it, because these great songs are so badly mixed and distorted. The drums were recorded by Tschad Blake at Capitol I believe. Then it was mixed by the producer using plug-in presets in Logic. Listen to how bad the drums are distorted in Unknown Soldier, though the whole album is a mess. Sad that likely their last studio album was mangled this badly.

I had the same first impression, but it keeps getting better and the demos have won me over. I love the oscillator mangling you can do before sound hits the filters, and I've always wanted something that could get PPG/VS tones. The filter demos I've heard aren't blowing me away but don't sound bad either. (This thing with analog filters and an extra octave would have been killer but also double the price.) This is going to be the first new (not vintage) synth I've bought in over 20 years.

I haven't taken the plunge yet on any of my Macs. I don't see a benefit and lots of downsides. All of the old, expensive 32-bit apps I use a few times a year (like Sibelius) will go away, and there's no benefit. A lot of people are having issues with all of the new security, so unless the developer has done a lot of work it's difficult to install apps or plug-ins.

I worked at Alesis when we showed wooden mockups of the BRC controller and Monitor One at NAMM. Wooden mockup of a speaker!

That sounds really good to me. I'd like to save a patch without thinking, "74... was that any good? I can't remember. Oh well, bye bye."

They promised MPE, I assume MIDI PolyAT is easy after that. PolyAT never really took off, but MPE sure has. Although I'm struggling to think of a time I used it on a song, even after buying and refurbishing a MIDIboard just for that feature.

Jeff, you probably thought of this already, but you can fine-tune the volume if you're going through a pedal. I use a Fulltone OCD going into my Blues Junior and the level pot on that is much more useful than the touchy Master Volume. Sounds great, too, especially when you get rid of the Sovtek tubes. There are some other Blues Junior mods, which may apply to the Blues Deluxe as well. I didn't notice anything about a master volume tweak, though. I've done these mods and still don't like the sound of the BJ distortion as much as my OCD. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/machrone/bluesjunior.htm

This design has a third preamp tube, for the EQ circuit I believe. Would I use an RFT there as well? http://www.cohrs.ca/staged/ForumGallery/trinity/Trinity18_sIII_Schematic_v1.9.gif

Wow, thanks for doubling my tube budget. I always use good materials throughout, so I have to go for these. I'll probably start with the Sovtec tubes out of my Blues Junior during construction -- just in case I screw up I don't want to fubar a $75 tube. The amp is one of the designs from 18watt.com, who continue to tweak the Bluesbreaker design. The one I'm building is the TMB sIII, which replaces the tremolo with a three-band EQ section and voices that channel more like a plexi amp. I'm using parts and transformers from Trinity amps: http://www.cohrs.ca/staged/Product_Parts.htm Cabinet will be my Blues Junior until I can build a 2x12 cabinet with Tone Tubby greenbacks, or perhaps I'll just buy the Crate V30 cabinet. I'll keep you updated if you're interested. Thanks again for your help, -jl

After you mentioned that the tube rectifier version of the 18W Marshall was better than the solid state, I decided to order an 18W Marshall kit and build my own head. Now I'm ready to start picking out tubes. What I'm after is a brown Marshall plexi tone I can get at low, apartment-building volumes. Reading through your tube primer, I'm still not real sure about the difference between a 12AX7-C and ECC83-S for the preamp side. On the power amp, I'm thinking about the EL84-Y. I might even get a set with a low GT rating so I can get power amp distortion at lower volumes. The 6CA4 rectifier is the last tube in the chain. Does this sound right to you? Thanks for your help, -jl

Hi Myles, any experience with the Marshall 2061X? It's their handwired 20W "baby plexi" reissue with a solid-state recifier and EL84s. Seems like a good solution for plexi sound at less-than-overwhelming volumes, unless you can suggest an amp that fits the bill better. I didn't care for the THD Flexi for some reason, and a 50W reissue seems like WAY overkill for apartment living. Thanks for your suggestions.

Here's a little electronica tune I put together. I'm pleased with it, I don't think it sounds as '80s as my usual stuff. I was trying for a Paul Oakenfold sound, if I may be so bold. Pluckyness For the gear junkies out there, the main arpeggio figure is Super Jupiter, the "digital" stuff is Atmosphere, and the rest is Andromeda.

Here is a demo I wrote for AFP, a television show I want to score. Jesse Negron is working on the second season of American Fighter Pilot, a reality show about a Navy fighter pilot training school. His original demo used Nine Inch Nails, the first season sounded like Hans Zimmer/Media Ventures, and now he's leaning towards Evanescence for a music score. I tried to cover all of these styles in this demo. One of the highlights was arranging a choral piece for my wife Anna to sing. We recorded it in our living room one part at a time. She told me that the part I wrote is nearly unsingable. I'm used to writing for synthesizers, which never have to breathe. She wrote the lyrics by borrowing latin phrases from Bach masses (thank you Google). I also recorded myself playing guitar for the first time -- I think the guitar parts add a lot of energy to the piece. Try to picture banking fighter jets and planes launching off of aircraft carriers during the guitar sections. For the studio geeks out there, 90% of the orchestral and drum sounds are coming from GigaStudio 3, using libraries from Sonic Implants, Larry Seyer, Project SAM and Westgate Studios. The synth parts are mostly Alesis Andromeda, except for Super Jupiter on bass and Spectrasonics Atmosphere on voice pads. Loops are mostly Spectrasonics Stylus, and guitar was recorded direct using Nomad Factory's Rock Amp Legends plug-in. Oh yeah, I think I got the gig. Wait, did I just commit to writing 10+ hours of music? AFP Demo (5.7MB)

Yoozer -- I like this tune. I just wish it went somewhere. Great mood, it just needs some structure or change. But killer drums and not at all techno.

Raiders fans.

I was playing with my new TX802 a few months ago and happened to be on that tubular bell preset when my wife starting asking what I wanted for dinner. We were listing all of the fast food in the area and when she mentioned Taco Bell, I hit the key. It completely blew her mind.

"Shadows in the Rain". I learned that note-by-note, based on the transcrption in Keyboard. I still have the issue.

Chich Corea Electrik Band springs to mind. Also the big stack in Don Henley's "Sunset Grill". And Jan Hammer's Miami Vice soundtracks.

Myles, I'm trying to decide between a GT Soul-o Single and a THD Univalve. The question is, can you get a Marshall "plexi" type sound on the Single with EL34s installed? How drastic is the change with new power tubes? I would like a versatile, quiet amp that covers Fender and Marshall sounds. Thanks for your help, -jl

Yes, it comes with Sound Bridge software that allows you to transfer samples to a PCMCIA card, up to 16MB. It has some good sounds and some bad sounds, like any synth. It's still the best piano sound I've heard in a synth, which counts for a lot. I think the organs are good, too. The electric pianos are better on their expansion card, "Vintage Keys". You should also check out the "Classical" and/or "Vintage Synths" cards if you're interested in those sounds. I'm not a fan of the bass or drum sounds. It's all relative, though, you should go listen to one. Or at least listen to some of the QCard MP3s on the Alesis site. You're right that it's a great controller keyboard. It really feels great. I would buy another QS8 if mine died. -jl

OK, here's my first post to "Let's Hear It". Unfortunately, it's a bit off-topic. Since I haven't been recording much music lately, I haven't had much to post. But now I have something very cool to share. I spent the day spotting sound effects with Tony Scott (Top Gun, Spy Game, etc.) and Jesse Negron for a new CBS series called American Fighter Pilot. I've cut in around 1/2 of the effects so far and it's sounding really big. I recorded a lot of the jets myself in 4-channel surround on a Navy base in Lamoore, CA. My company, RocketWerks is doing the sound effects editing and foley recording. The series premieres on Friday, March 29th at 8pm on CBS. It's a very cool reality program which follows three students through the Air Force F-15 fighter training program. Sorry it's not synth related (aside from a few Andromeda rumbles), but I'm really excited about it. I hope you'll check it out. Thanks, -jl