Motorcycles. Zombie Movies. Music. Guy Stuff.

I was thumbing through the October issue of Keyboard magazine and found a review of the Yamaha Motif X8. When I first started making electronic music back in the 90s I bought an Ensoniq SQ-1 and then an EPS-16 Plus. I had to. There was no other way to make electronic music back in those days. I needed a digital synth, and a sampler. The other options, at the time, were workstations like the Korg M1 and the Yamaha SY-77. I had a very early version of Cubase that I used to sequence, but I also sequenced using the onboard sequencer of my hardware synths because I didn’t want to take my computer with me when I played live. It was either that, or put tracks on a DAT tape (which I also did).

But the worst part was: I paid out the ass for those pieces of hardware. The cheapest thing I had was Cubase! I know I paid $1,300 for the SQ-1, and I can’t recall how much I paid for the sampler–but it was a LOT. I even upgraded my system with a Yamaha SY-85 and a Emu ESI-4000 (I actually still have both of these).

But that was years ago. Today, I have a complete studio on my laptop. I could add up all of my soft synths, Ableton Live, Pro-Tools, and my interface and microphone and it wouldn’t even come close to how much I spent in 1990 for two pieces of hardware.

So now I see this Yamaha Motif for $3k, and I have to ask: Why? Why would I drop that kind of money on one piece of gear? For $3k I could get a new, maxed-out Apple G5 iMac, then load it up with all the software I’d ever need (effects, plug-ins, analog synth replicas). Why on Earth would I give Yamaha $3k of my money? You have a giant piece of gear you have to lug around, and if you ever have issues with it you have to take it into the shop for repair (or it may just up and die like my SQ-1). With my computer, I just reload the software onto another machine. And I keep backups of all my songs and digital audio on an external hard drive. Plus I can record guitar and vocals into my laptop, and put everything together for mixing and mastering (can’t do that with a synth).

To be honest, I thought the hardware synth thing would be gone by now. I thought Yamaha and company would put out piano controllers and things like that, but I figured they’d stop production of synths and focus on software. As far as I know, only Korg has delved into that with the Legacy series (which is a memory hog and a dud in my book).

I just wonder. I wonder who is buying the hard gear? I haven’t even set foot in a music store in over a year. I buy everything at musiciansfriend.com or audiomidi.com. I always hated the annoying salespeople at Guitar Center and Brook Mays. They were pushy, and usually stuck-up musicians themselves.

Well, obviously someone is buying these things. I just don’t know why someone would. My SY-85 makes a good doorstop.

Ordered my copy of Reason 5 today. I can’t wait! I’ve been using Reason since version 2.5. I actually did an entire project using nothing but Reason–but that was a bit too much of one sound. I’ve learned to mix in as many different brands as possible since then. LOL!

But, this version of Reason seems to be chocked full of some good upgrades. There’s KONG, and Dr. Octo Rex. I do a lot of electronic/IDM stuff and I don’t use generic snare and hi-hat sounds. I like to mash up my own types of samples. With the new Reason, I’ll be able to sample right into KONG’s drum editor, and then tweak to my heart’s content.

Next two things on my list: Absynth 5 and Pro Tools 8. I’m way behind on upgrading my Pro Tools. I had to go and buy a Leopard disc for my Mac, and then it sat on my desk for a year and a half. Didn’t see the point in getting PT 8 if my machine couldn’t run it. So, the upgrade will finally happen (now that I’ve backed everything up on a 1TB drive), and I can load the new Pro Tools.

Absynth 5 is just icing on the cake. Absynth 4 is amazing! I love that freakin’ synth. It is, by far, the most used weapon in my arsenal. You start off with three patches (oscillators) and you plop in filters and effects and BLAM you have a new sound. Lots of different waveforms to choose from too. Plus, Absynth has the neat little envelop vectors that you can grab and move (like on Arturia’s Prophet V).

So many electronic toys, so little money.

I realized today that I need more posts about music. I have so many interests, it’s hard to squeeze them all in here. Well one of my favorite albums was given to me by a friend, and I went completely crazy over it. It’s Darondo’s Let My People Go. A Bay Area musician, Darondo recorded in the 70s and then, for some reason, quit. I have no idea why. Apparently there’s only this one album out there, and it’s incredible. I’m all over the place in my music taste, but this album makes me crazy. I could listen to it over, and over, and over (sometimes I do).

While trying to see if anything new was out from Darondo, I stumbled up on Lack of Afro in the “Listeners who bought this, also bought…” section of the iTunes store. Wow! Holy shit! I immediately downloaded Press On. Great stuff. The track “Pure Filth” in incredible. The drums have this nice tube distortion thing going on that make them sound like they were recorded in the bathroom.

So why not add video to this post, you ask? Fine, I’ll do the grunt work for ya’.

Pretty wild stuff.

This jingle writer is suing Zep for “Dazed and Confused” royalties. Since I had a Led Zeppelin post a few weeks ago, figured I’d add this.

Finally got around to watching the “rockumentary” It Might Get Loud, after hearing about it for so long. Have I mentioned that Netflix on my PS3 is the most amazing thing since penicillin?

Anyway, let me say that the “cast” is a tad ridiculous. Uniting Jimmy Page, Jack White and Dave Evans (The Edge) is like making a documentary on the piano and casting Thelonious Monk, Lady Gaga and Vince Clark. Sing along: One of these things is not like the other….

Jack White. Jack White came off as being pompus, although I do enjoy a lot of his music. His schtick of staying dressed in that ridiculous getup seemed tiresome. For some reason the guy who has sold the least amount of records, came off as being cocky. There’s a line (it’s in the trailer) where he comments on what he thinks will happen when the three of them get together, and he says “probably a fist fight”. Oh, grow up, kid. It was a ridiculous line, and a goofy attempt at trying to be a “tough rocker”.

The Edge. The Edge just didn’t belong. I liked U2 prior to Zooropa and I think they made some important songs in the 80s, but I’m sorry Dave Evans is not a guitarist. He’s a musician. He’s an entertainer. But he’s no more of a guitarist than (to use my previous analogy) Vince Clark is a pianist. I felt really bad for him too. There’s a scene where he’s showing the guys the riff to “I Will Follow”. Really? “I Will Follow”? It made me think of the scene in “Amadeus” when Salieri plays his piece for Mozart, and Mozart sits down and plays it from hearing it only once—then improves upon it. Plus, you can see that The Edge is nervous. He knows who Jimmy Page is. I had to think he was wanting to be anywhere else than in that room at that moment.

Jimmy Page. Jimmy Page was the one guy in there who could have been a complete asshole and gotten away with it. I mean, with the exception of Jeff Beck and a handful of others (still living), who has more skins on the wall? Instead, he was courteous, funny and kind. He actually listened when the other two guys talked, and he didn’t butt in or look away with disdain. It made me respect him even more.

All in all, it was a good flick. If you like guitars and hearing stories about where ideas come from, I’d say check it out. The Edge’s story is actually very interesting, but he’s very monotone so it’s easy to drift off.

I would have loved to have seen a different group of guys (and maybe they’ll make a sequel). I would have loved to have seen Prince instead of Jack White. I think Prince’s skill and his knowledge of funk and blues would have been really great. I’d love to see him and Jimmy bounce licks back and forth. But, I sincerely doubt the Purple One would be in a documentary.

I’m sure there are tons of other guys people would like to see. The list could go on and on. But IMO, Jimmy was the only one who truly belonged.

My music tastes are all over the spectrum. I can listen to blues, jazz, opera, metal, and even dance music. One of my favorite electronic bands is Underworld. They are one of the few modern bands I find entertaining. Unfortunately the poster on YouTube didn’t edit this video very well, and it abruptly ends.

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I released a my third Gentoo album titled “The City Came to Me in a Dream” last year. This album is a little more sorrowful than “The Dragon”. It was written during a very dark time of my life when things weren’t going so well with my job situation, and I was moving on. Like the other two Gentoo albums, it was theme-based. The theme was travel and, more importantly, escape.

There are a couple of “happy” songs on the album as things began to ease up in my life. To be honest, these are my least favorite tracks. I’m one of those artists who thrives on sadness. The more depressed I am, the better art I make. I once spent an entire summer painting voraciously in my bathroom. I created about 20 different paintings, all because I was severely depressed. This is the same year that produced my first album “Hyoshi” and a couple of ComfortLevel7 EPs.

I’m not saying that I want to be depressed, but I’m usually happy with what comes out of me during those episodes.

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