Tom Williams

About a year ago I upgraded my gigging controller (88 keys, used as a second keyboard on a Kurz PC4-7) to one that included aftertouch and some buttons. To my regret, I found that the buttons could only be configured to send patch changes. I had hoped for some continuous controller tricks. Another slight problem is that the PC4-7 does not seem to be as versatile a remote-controlled sound module as the PC3 that preceded it. In both cases, I simply adapt, work within the new limits, and keep going....

If the new room has a longer natural reverb decay than you used in the recording, you just have to tolerate it. They're not going to let you hang blankets in the cathedral. Sort of like, if the diapasons on my PC-4 sound like a bunch of frickin' flutes, Um, I mean if the principal stop on the organ in church #2 doesn't match the diapasons from church #1, I just have to live with the registration difference. Fortunately -- and this is probably the real point of this posting -- the listeners almost certainly don't mind a bit.

I offered to quit my first band (1970s) if they didn't move either me or the crash cymbal. They caved, and here I am, now 64 years old, and I seem to have only lost the top octave of my hearing, 12KHz and up. Perhaps the crash is like a cuss word -- its dramatic effect diminishes the more you use it. Interestingly, crashes have a much slower decay than any drums, on the order of 1,000ms or longer. Shorter envelopes qualify as either "splash" or even "trash." I also run sound, and really really hate it when drummers play so loud I have to cut them completely from the PA and mix the band around them.

There were two. Ensoniq EPS (original 13-bit): Suddenly I had polyphonic aftertouch, and polyphonic portamento. I could sample, and manipulate the heck out of the samples -- including creating my own wave tables. By definition I could have 61-way splits. On top of all that, I could now do one-man concerts with a sequenced backup band. Kurzweil K2600S: Pianos like I had never before encountered, including some wonderful bread-and-butter EPs. A ribbon controller that would make Emerson jealous. Deep, deep programming. Strings, brasses, and even double reeds which, played solo, could bring a tear to your eye. A clonewheel engine to boot. I've had three PC series Kurz's since then, but it was the 2600 that made me an addict.

The Music industry acknowledged her importance from the very beginning, referring to her as "Icon Tina Turner."

(1) Aww -- I was having so much fun at your expense! (2) I wish you would talk to the guitarists around here. They are all addicted to their amps, and refuse to go direct. Cheers!

Don't limit it to the major pentatonic. When I last practiced with my new band (on hiatus since I fell off the balcony), they said "Let's learn Sledge Hammer in 'the original key'," Eb Minor. Uh, okay. Not my favorite key. Then while jamming on it (my first attempt ever) they said "Wow, you really nailed the shakuhachi (sp?) solo in the middle." I explained to them that the solo played itself. Start on an arbitrary black key. Wipe up to an Ab, then down an octave and a half to Eb. Instant Solo! Now I wonder if that's how it was composed.

I have used VOMs and continuity checkers, and might still do so in a pinch, but a plug-and-read cable tester will pay for itself in time and effort after about two repairs. I have a low-cost Pyle Pro tester, but it doesn't have the intermittent check available in the EBTech (and other Pyle) model. If you're jonesing for a tester, go for that feature. It will save you from a lot of erroneous diagnoses.

Building a computer in a tower from scratch is relatively easy -- you can change power supplies, disks, communications interfaces, blinky lights, ... the sky's the limit. But then, the tower is often 10 cm wide and 60 cm tall, so it has a lot of latitude. The difficulty with a DYI laptop is that the components are almost all customized to fit together in a space barely one centimeter thick. RAM and Disk (or now SSD) often are replaceable, but usually the motherboard will be a one-off design, integrating CPU, cooling system, and I/O controllers. Speakers, in order to get some low frequency (200 Hz if you're lucky) resonance, are designed within the context of remaining airspace in the keyboard frame. Batteries are almost always unique to that model. You're doing well if a compatible external charger can be found on Amazon. So, other than upgrading RAM and Disk, the answer is almost always No.

Huh. I pity you poor guitarists, having to tote those unnecessarily bulky amps. We Modern Musicians have effects in our instruments, allowing them to go directly into the PA. <Pthuff> primitive onstage speaker boxes....

Yeah, and two thirds of those are "Williams Digital."

If memory serves, the Farfisa Professional Piano -- early 1970s -- had a selector for synth (organ) action and weighted (or at least resisted) action. Scouring the Interwebs for mention of it, the only thing I found was this picture: What I remember correlates pretty well with this little thingy on the right side:

I used to make summer pilgrimages there, from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. The great Len Halleck ran the keyboard department, and he never, ever discouraged even a long haired ne'er-do-well like myself from trying out -- and learning about -- any keyboard that was in the room. Good to know they're still kickin' there.

I have a prediction for the future (I suppose that's the best kind). Over the next few hundred years, the electromechanical Hammond organ will obtain the same multi-century mystique as the Stradivarius violin, with the Leslie 122 permanently associated with it. I can imagine the physicists doing their doctorates on the interaction between Hammond 's lost tonewheel oil recipe and the Leslie's vanished varnish formula.

I bought a nice Moog theremin used at a nice price a few years ago. Like every other keyboardist on Earth, I was sure my musical instincts would allow me to pick it up as easily as I picked up trombone. It was a fun three weeks. Now it just sits. I tell myself "I'm gonna make that thing work musically one of these days, dammit." Of course, I tell myself the same thing about the trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn, two trombones, and Holton double horn that are stored in the closet by my music room. I've hardly touched any of them in decades. Were I a smarter man, I could probably get 'em all lubed up and working, sell them, pay off my PC4-7, and have enough left over for one of those new generation synths that are soooo expressive.

I've got a couple of Kurzweils with the BillW single Leslie program that I can record, if that's desired. Presumably you could plug anything into the inputs of a PC4 and run it through that Leslie.

4-6 millimeters, usually.

My solution was to bring a 6x4 foot rubber bottomed building entry mat, which is under both me and my keyboard stack(s). Pedals are affixed to a flat plastic panel, and the panel has coarse sandpaper on its underside -- it goes nowhere relative to the rug, and the rug goes nowhere relative to me.

Did anyone mention "Primer", a cult classic in 2004? It was surprisingly well done on a tiny budget -- $7,000 US.

I believe the first season had the astronauts in the caveman era, where the cave-persons all spoke in pidgin English. In the second half of the season they inverted it, and the astronauts came home and brought the proto-Geico folks with them, still speaking pidgin English of course.

This one came to me right after taking a pain pill. A church organist goes into a bar. "I'd like a large bourdon, please."

Mr. Smith also used his thumb. https://youtu.be/885cqjqQU4A?t=656 https://youtu.be/gobKu4UlxSA?t=555

For what it's worth, I bought a pair of used Alto TX12's (their low end maybe now discontinued) 5 or 6 years ago. I have used them to fill a moderate storefront interior, but otherwise not pushed them much beyond 50%. They still work perfectly.

I've been a Tim Hunkin fan since the 90s, watching the Secret Life of machines.

Tough enough for us Uncle Tom's.