jerrythek

HammondDave has... he wrote this on a Facebook group where that picture was posted the otherday: David Martin Jacques It was a Kustom transistor organ. They sounded like crapola. Austin Bach David Martin Jacques Did you ever play one? David Martin Jacques Austin Bach yes. It sounded very thin and dull

Wow, the keyboards are actually forward in the mix! I've always loved this band... knew them from their primal/formative years as the Rock Ensemble at the University of Miami. Does anyone know what the paper on Mark's backside read? I could see Steve's "We'll do anything"...

I missed the last April show, the first time in over 40 years I didn’t attend. I grew up (professionally) in the industry and many of my dearest friends are part of that “tribe”. I’m going this year - the first time I’m not doing any demo work for anyone to help defray the costs. So I’ll be sharing a hotel room with a couple of friends (roll-away or a couch) and will try to keep costs down. The show has become a terrible place (IMHO) to really evaluate gear, whether it’s the noise, bad headphones, or waiting in line to try a keyboard while the person in front of you occupies the position while glued to their phone. I’ll be masked for sure, as I was in 2022, and hope to emerge unscathed. If you’re looking for me, a good place to check in will be the Bob Moog Foundation booth. I am so over the crowds and the noise, but not the friends that I only get to see in person there. Let’s see how this one plays out. Jerry

Wise words.

Happy Holidays to everyone - I hope 2024 brings us all happiness and…music!

I completely agree - thanks for the reminder. I have a lot of Biggs in my music collection: been listening to him since I was in high school. I got to see him in recital back in the early-mid-70s. Yes, by this time you could hear a few mistakes/flubbed notes, but it was still a cherished experience. I saw Virgil Fox at Radio City Music Hall in NYC doing his flamboyant bring-Bach-to-the-rock crowd thing. Anthony Newman was on the same bill (a keyboard extravaganza), but he was on harpsichord doing some Brandenburg Concerto stuff. All legends!

Here?

That makes sense that it started from those resources/knowledge, but I'd have to study to better understand. My sense is that it went beyond what could be recreated using just a 2600. But I'm no expert on those synths. Now you've got me thinking...

Oh, there's still some cool instruments that haven't been emulated yet. Arp/Rhodes Chroma immediately comes to mind. But I agree that the list is shortening, for sure.

I certainly hear some delay effect on the Rhodes (or Rhodes patch, whatever he is using). Do you have a source that confirms he used a harmonizer on that track? I'm not arguing, just curious...

Right. This article is a good read: https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/understanding-chorus-flangers-and-phasers-in-audio-production.html#:~:text=Simply put%2C delay time is,without using delays at all.

Wow, thanks for this - I never knew of this outtake. I too love the distorted edge of Chick's Rhodes as recorded on this album. But... No way that it's a MKII. The album was recorded in 1972, and the MKII came out in 1979.

One of my all-time favorite Jan Hammer albums.

And yes, I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek, spurred on by Mike's post above. But I used to demonstrate this for Casio... w did shows at CES, NAMM and later Musik Messe with two players (Ed Alstrom and myself, and two vocalists), doing tribute show to Gershwin, Stevie Wonder and The Beatles. And I had one at home for a number of years.

I wouldn’t even judge his playing… he said it was quite sloppy, he was just trying to get a reference to compare tones.

To my ears he went a little too far with the “crunch” and “sizzle”, but it’s still very good. I like his enthusiasm. Did you notice the major thirds in Stevie’s track? I (and most everyone on the planet) plays a Ebm7 chord… Stevie is slipping in some Eb7 there. Quite a surprise. He also did a really good tutorial on how to play Superstition a few years back. Another testimonial to how good that Vulf Compressor plug-in is.

And we deleted their post. Carry on…

Thanks for noticing! I worked a lot on improving the Wurly with Jonathan Leonard - I think we got it into much better shape. And I also worked on the CP-70. Both were fun projects.

Wow, you have a good memory. As the US product manager at the time I was flabbergasted and upset at the company’s actions at that NAMM Show. For those that don’t know, the company reprinted a German magazine spec test from a prototype FZ that show audio performance below 16-bit capability, casting doubt on the product’s claim of being true 16-bit. But there was no Internet for that action from the company to become very well known. One has to put it in perspective: Sequential was teetering on the brink of failure by then, and chose an unfortunate way to fight for survival. On a personal level I was crushed that a hero of mine was attacking my company. But our product came out, was obviously better than those tests showed, and we chose to just move on. I became good friends with Dave later on, and we never spoke of it. No doubt there are plenty of other such stories from the pre-Internet era. But with all the benefits that todays social media and easily accessible information offers, we also have the easy-to-post suspect information, downright misinformation, and just differing opinions. I’ll still vote for the benefits we have… but I do get frustrated at the sometimes rancor that ensues.

My first keyboard was actually a Gibson G-102 - the dual manual organ... But I don't have any pictures of that. Had it from 1969 - 1971.

Me too. Great company to work for/with.

Right you are. But their controls are located a bit more to the right, it's been a while since I've played one, does it follow the natural curve of the arm as well?

Somewhat related: back in 1994 at Ensoniq we considered the physics of the body/hands and decided to angle the Pitch and Mod wheels. I always thought it was a good idea for longer keyboards. It didn't really catch on, though.

Considering he didn't write the tune: Paul Desmond did.

Not as impressive as some of yours, but here goes: 1976: B3, 73 Stage Rhodes MKI, and Elka String Ensemble. 1979: Minimoog and Prophet 5 atop Suitcase 73 Rhodes MKI. Edit: I can't find any pictures when I added a clavinet to this setup... 1981: Same Mini/Prophet/Rhodes, with a Casio CT-1000P run through a Multivox Full Rotor for a pseudo organ role.