The Studio
You’ve learned a a little about our set-up and heard a heap a of what it can offer. Now, for the insatiably curious and technologically disposed, this section doubles as a detailed guided tour of the studio’s artfully appointed apparatus and an ongoing series of long winded rambles, analysing and celebrating what makes the engineer’s ears tingle.
Hoards of facts – hopefully useful – for the harmless hobbyist, passionately conveyed by an author who relies on them as much as any partner in crime. There are clips too, lots of them, fresh as each day passes. Masses of MIDI, assortments of audio, stacks of synthesisers and reams of opinions you might not share…all part the sweet sonic science.
A Polyphonic Penalty.
Originally Part of the Integra Expose, Works Better By Itself… In 2014, use of the term “Hardware Industry” in any context was akin to declaring oneself John Smith of 10 Smith Road, Smithfield, married to a Mrs Smith and working for “Smith & Co Insurance and Loans”, in other […]
Roland Integra 7
Ultimate XV Tribute? Luxurious Rompler with Lamentable Limitiations? Flawed Masterpiece? You Decide! The latest, heaviest and arguably, most abundantly adorned, sonically pure and stunningly versatile case of oscillating liqueurs in my collection. Again I must lament over the absence of an analogue artisan amidst such billowing swarms of samples, […]
Yamaha MU-2000EX
A Tonally Turbocharged Multi-Timberal Giant Another Ebay acquisition, this time from a Japanease dealer in all manner of shapeable synthetics, the Mu-2000 is physically the squattest, most button laden box of assorted vibrations in my possession. It also boasts the distinction of being the studio’s only non Roland rompler, sitting […]
MIDI THRU Blues
An Infernal Little tool Indispensable to its Master A software tool is enclosed to manage messages between the SD-90’s twin terminals and following an entire afternoon of making a puzzle out of a crises, I sought peace in documenting a slew of anomalies, lest the prospects of committing them […]
Edirol SD-90
A Rare and Wrongfully Overlooked Harmonic Hybrid Speaking as an emphatic champion of all non-digital memorabilia, or in the religious sense an “ardent analogue apologist”, it is with a tinge of guilt that I admit to an arsenal absent of a sole bona-fide binary free music box. Moreover, my […]
Let’s Just Listen
Tasty Morsels of MIDI Memorabilia Time for the intoxicating mists of memory lane to muster a demonstration. As the 20th century’s final decade began to blossom , so too did the breadth and beauty of a game genre that, since the turn of the millennium, literately entered a state […]
Roland Fantom XR
What! No More XVs? This Had Better Be Something… The Fantom XR was a rack mountable reincarnation of Roland’s Fantom X6, X7 and X8 keyboards, only lacking its bigger brothers built-in sequencers, which took the form of software on the host computer at the user’s discretion. A weighty wavetable […]
General Midi
So Many “Standards”. Here’s Three Worth Knowing. General Midi This was a set of statutory requirements established in 1991 to allow MIDI data to be interchangeable between certified devices. The standard deemed that, amongst other things, compatible synthesisers must sing with up to 24 concurrent voices across 16 channels […]