TXT:: So I have been busy helping John with more of the REDD.47™ stuff. I'm almost an employee now. This past week we've met and spent countless hours discussing various strategies on approaching his marketing. Basically i've been trying to learn as much as possible about the history of the recordings made at Abbey Road Studios through the original equipment. John schooled me on some interesting facts about the history of tape recording. I've also done a bit of research about Electric & Musical Industries, Ltd. (EMI) and it's Record Engineering Development Department (the "redd" acronym) and Abbey Road studios - but the best information seemed to be anecdotal from John. I enjoy learning about this stuff since this is the history of music technology, and everything we do on the computers today is the culmination of what these engineers developed over the course of the last century. I've also discovered some of the reasons why certain Beatles recordings sound the way they do... part is due to the REDD 47 electronics, but also the REDD51 mixing desk. I wish i could post up all of the information I've learned this past week, but... I'm now bound by a non-disclosure handshake. anyhoo...enough rambling.

So we finally worked out the copy for John's Revolution Recording Equipment website, and finally have the initial pages up online. I'm going to help him work on the documentation and packaging as well (with the help of my cousin Tamiko, of course). It's a long ass URL, so it's going to be changed to some a lot shorter.

After about a month of burning in the redd47™, it's starting to sound really sweet. It's like buying a new car and working in the engine for the first 1,000 miles, or a new cast iron pan and carefully seasoning it. Rest assured, that i'm going to be tracking samples through it for a few up coming refills :-)

ReFill:: The second Circuit Bent refill went online this past week. A last minute change occurred while I was testing out this new mic-pre, and I got the itch to see what the Speak & Spell sounds like tracked through it. Along with a tweaked set of alphabet samples, a second straight set of voice samples was added to the whopping 50meg refill. I tried a couple of different mics on the Speak & Spell internal speaker, and ended up using the set recorded through the C-12VR and the REDD.47. Everything seems to sound great through this combo. I also added a stuttering alphabet patch where random loop points tweak out the normal vocal samples. There are several example RNS files included in the Refill that demonstrate some ways of using these patches.

TXT:: My cousins ("the Kids"), who helped with the Power Tools for Reason CD-ROM, have been keeping me quite busy lately. They landed a fairly big commission with a local company, and I've been helping them with the contract = translating Ameriglish to Legalese.

The "Kids" came by after their meeting and we headed off to see the annual Hollister Independence Day Biker Rally. We caught it on the first night, so there weren't that many bikes in town yet. Even as the event was starting a lot of beautiful machinery lined the streets downtown. I still love the look of the VROD, but the old bikes are really cool. Some pictures of the Rally!

TXT:: I can't really say that much has been going on. I've been juggling a variety of different projects this week. The main one is still helping John out with more REDD 47™ stuff. I've been doing comparisons against some other preamps like the Neve 1095s (1081 preamp circuitry). It's tough when you start comparing great pre's against each other since each one has particular quality that stands out. The real differences emerge when I started messing with different mics. Basically, cheap mics sound better through the REDD.47, while the better mics sound good regardless of the pre-amp. With the exception of the mackie 1202-VLZ Pro, it couldn't compare to the REDD, the Neve or V72.

I'm also planning to clear out some old gear to make space for something new. The biggest space hog is my old neotek series II console. As much as I hate to do it, I think I'm going to part the sucker out. It's probably the easiest way to deal with it since I'm getting tired of vacuous offers. I built a little power supply/test station to check out the modules and do some minor repairs before I sell them.

I've been going through all those old junk boxes (everyone has a bunch of these) and discovering tons of hidden treasures that I had long forgotten about. I even found a stockpile of unused gear that I completely forgot about... sheesh it's terrible. Software has made me forget about this hardware.

ReFill:: I'm putting the finishing touches on the second Circuit Bent refill which contains a variety of samples from the Speak&Spell/Speak&Math units. This set will be straight samples organized into NN-XT/NN-19 patches. Hopefully I'll finish it up tonight and get it posted sometime this week.

In a period that seemed so heavily political, it's refreshing to see the politics pause. Oh there are a few exceptions like California Senator Feinstein who made some comments in poor taste.

Farewell President Reagan.

I've been somewhat busy this week playing the role of photographer /product tester for my friend John Hinson of Revolution Recording Equipment. I'm one of the first to procure his new microphone preamp, the REDD47™. I've been putting my photography skills back to work by doing product images for John's site. I've been taking some fun artistic gear photos just as a hobby, but now it seems to be turning into a fun side job.

I've been doing comparisons of this pre against some of my other preamps like the ever popular vintage Telefunken V72. First off I have to say that this unit sounds quite different in a good way. The V72 gives you a full round sound, but the REDD.47™ has a very open high end with an airy quality that one would not expect from a Valve preamp. This is a very unique amp and sounds really good. It makes me wish i had a Telefunken ELA M-251 or U-47 to test through it, but the crazy part is that an SM57 or SM58 sounds really impressive through it!

I lost touch with John for many years, and it's nice to be back in touch. We had small reunion earlier this week, and it seemed like old times. We sat around catching up on our lives, but the bulk of the conversation turned to gear and technology. Years ago when we had a studio together, John said that I should focus on the computer and synthesizer aspects of music technology...and as fate would have it, here I am! John was definitely a big influence, and i learned a lot about audio electronics from him.

TXT:: Farewell Mr. Ray Charles. Your presence, music, and wonderfully joyful smile will be missed. 1930-2004 CNN Obituary

TXT:: I spent the last couple of days up in SF again. Tortoise was in town for two performances at Bimbo's 365 Club. I went to both shows, but the second seemed better since the guys had a day to rest and relax. It was a little strange since I normally hang out with my friend Casey when they come to town. I miss not seeing him, but it was still nice to see everyone and meet the new crew. Johnny H. was saying that he was having problems with the fast food, so the first night a group of us went out for a nice dinner before the show.

I was really exhausted at the end of the show. It was one of those days when I was running on caffiene and nicotine, and for some reason i decided to drive out to an afterparty in Oakland. Shea Ako is doing the visual magic for the tour, so we rode out together to catch up on things. We finally found the warehouse, and the party was pretty cool, but I was beat so I bailed before I passed out.

I didn't sleep enough and felt exhausted the next day. I met up with the guys the next day and did some of the touristy stuff. We went around SOMA, the Haight, Japantown... the usual stuff. While Shea, Doug, Johnny H., and Jeff wandered around the haight, I managed to sneak in a nice powernap in the car.

The first night I ran around shooting photos, but the second night, I had the chance to relax and enjoy the show. As usual, I'm always impressed at their live gigs. They simply fantastic musicians. There was a slight change on this tour. Armed with Laptops, Tortoise is using Reason during their live performances. They are playing LA tonight and tomorrow night. Then San Diego, somewhere in Arizona, and Texas, and the Midwest. Then they're off to Europe! Definitely try to catch this tour!

TXT:: I managed to venture out to a SF Bay Area hip hop show last night. My friends at Paraphan Records had a record release party at Kimo's in SF. It was nice turn out with four live acts lined up who have tracks featured on the debut compliation release, Electric Halo. Pictured is the group, Mr. Lexicon who put on an impressive performance. I'm not really into hip-hop, but some of the production on the CD is really creative. I'm rather fascinated by the way the producers use samples, and to see the DJs do things live is even more impressive.

Reason Studies:: Last Monday I dropped by to check out Gus Lanzas' Advanced Reason class held at Robotspeak in SF. There were only a handful of people who attended so the class was pretty mellow. Gus also offers classes in Ableton Live, Logic, Pro Tools, as well as beginner Reason courses. Having been around the business for quite some time, he really knows his stuff. Anyone in the SF area interested in learning more about Reason or other music software might find his courses useful. Check out the course schedule on the Robotspeak website

TXT:: Had another one of those dire emergency days today. Around noontime, I heard the fire alarms ring out, and I went out to see what the excitement was all about, and saw a smoke bellowing from our property down the hill. A grass fire ignited along the freeway and the flames were working their way towards our redwood trees along the property. The local fire department and the CDF (California Department of Forestry) were already working on one side of the fire, while a few people helped me out with some water hoses to protect the tree line. Fortunately the grass was still green, and the weather wasn't too warm, so the fire didn't spread too quickly, and the fire didn't damage anything.

Power Tools for Reason:: The book is now available from Propellerhead Software's webstore. Those who purchase a copy of Reason directly from the company shop will have the option of getting a copy of the book for free as well. However, if you're completely new to Reason, I highly recommend choosing Reason 2.5 Ignite, and for those who prefer having a desk reference and want to know more about using ReWire, Reason 2.5 Power is probably a better choice. Power Tools for Reason will still be there once you've learned the basics.

ReFill:: The first of two Circuit Bent refills is finished. I'm not sure if many will find this set of noise loops useful, but there are some unique sounds created with circuit bent speak & spell, and speak & math devices. This project has been in the works for about five months, and I'm finally getting it off my drive. Created with

Reason Studies:: On Monday May 24, There will be an intensive one night class on Reason offered by Gus Lanzas. The Class is limited in number and held at Robotspeak in San Francisco. Included with the tuition of $85, students get a copy of Power Tools for Reason 2.5 This is an advanced course for experienced Reason users. I'm going to try to be there...I'm sure I can learn a thing or two from Gus :-)

TXT:: Last Tuesday, I went over to 111 Minna St. Gallery in SF to check out Techture's Laptop Performance with Reason. I dropped by a month ago to check things out, but I had to leave early and missed the show. The extended happy hour lounge performances occur every 2nd Tuesday, so I promised to drop by this month to check out the show. I brought my camera this time as well.

TXT:: The week of hell is over... (another one of those weeks). It started off with my 12 year old cat passing on. He was in bad shape and ended up passing away in the night. It's funny because I go to a lot of human funerals and do not grieve much, but I really mourned the loss of this cat. Anyhoo... it get's worse.

My normal responsibilities usually don't require much work unless something really bad becomes a borderline disaster. So, last Sunday, the sewer station malfunctioned, and the tank was on the verge of overflow. It turns out one of the pump motors burned out because short circuit in the sensor wiring caused it to run while the tank was empty. The tank itself is about 30 feet deep in the ground and the pumps sit on the bottom. So... being that this is a hazardous job, I'm the only one "qualified" (stupid enough) to go down into the hole. We had a pump specialist come out to deal with the wiring and plumbing, but the shitty job was mine. It took a few days for the replacement to come in, so I spent a quite a bit of time down there. To make matters worse it was abnormally hot in the mid 90's (about 35°).

I've been so busy with the CM magazine stuff that i've totally blown off getting my car smog-checked for the renewal registration. I finally decide to get it done, and even before the inspection, the mechanic says it's going to fail. Apparently the "Check Engine" lamp came which automatically sends an emissions failure to the computer. So I had to take the car in to get worked on.

On top of everything else, i had to finish up the second CM article for a Beginners Tutorial on Reason that goes through the entire process of making a (simple) drum 'n bass track using only Reason. Writing for beginners is tough, because you have to assume the reader knows absolutely nothing about music, computers, or Reason. My deadline was last Friday, and I managed to get the images, documents, and reason song files uploaded for transfer on Thursday night. I'm not sure of the publication date, but it's probably going to be out in the next few months. Special thanks to Loopmasters for letting me use some of their cool ReCycle loops for the track! The track itself is nothing special, but the Malström bass patch i came up with is pretty cool.

Peff-CM_Tutorial_Demo.mp3 (4.4Mb)

Gilbert, the pump guy, wants me to school him on using his PC to convert his vinyl collection to CD. He's a DJ, and one of those guys who's really particular about sound quality. While he was playing a CD in his 600 Watt Truck stereo, he was complaining about mp3 encoding artifacts that he charmingly referred to as "background noise". I told him that he would be a pain in the ass client because he probably wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than master quality audio from the original tapes. So we might actually trade services... Who knew that doing computer music could be used for bartering services!?

So the week of hell is over, and now i can get back to a normal leisurely routine by finishing up a review and some refills....

Power Tools for Reason reviews having been coming out recently. I'm still shocked that XLR8R decided to review it. The review says "like the Dungeon Master's guide to Propellerheads' popular studio software." I know they're getting into doing gear reviews, but it's an honor that they selected my book. I know how hard it can be to even get a record reviewed in that mag! Future Music pummeled the book though. The main complaint is honest enough, FM stated that it's not catered for nubies and "the assumption that Reason users will all want to know about merging and splitting CV signals and the like is perhaps misguided...power users go for it and for the rest of us, it makes a dry albeit very thorough read." Good thing FM is difficult to find in the US because i'm using a phrase from the review with a deceptively positive spin :-)

PowerToolsforReason.pdf

TXT:: I just finished up an article for Computer Music mag for the CM Interactive reader questions on Reason. This is one of two projects Ronan has requested from me, which should be appearing in the coming months. He sprung this one on me last week while I was in the middle of writing another article on Reason for beginners. This second article should be interesting as it attempts to explain how to create a simple drum 'n bass track from start to finish. The organization is similar to Producing Music with Reason, however it's condensed down to about 6 pages. We'll see how this one goes. I've got another week to polish it up.

ReFill:: The Etherwave Theremin refill is now online. It contains a combination of the old plain samples, and a new set of produced samples processed with a variety of effects and (hardware based) pattern controlled filtering, distortion, and ring modulation.

TXT:: So, I went to the Squarepusher show last night at the Avalon Ballroom in SF. I was somewhat hesitant about going after hearing mixed opinions about live squarepusher performances, but I'm really glad I did. I arrived a bit way too early and ran into Rich and Carson, who helped with the sample production on the Power Tools for Reason 2.5 CD-Rom.

Squarepusher is indeed a fantastic bassist, and I especially enjoyed the musical interludes where he would just play without the tweaky beats like on "An Arched Pathway" off Ultravisitor. It was a pleasure to watch him perform, running his bass through filters and ring modulators. I couldn't see what he was using, but they sounded vaguely familiar. The sound system has a beautifully tight bass response, and wasn't too boomy in the boxy room. I was surprised to hear a live version of "Dimotane Co", off Feed Me Wierd Things. People who've seen him perform before said the added laser light show 'enhanced' the experience ;-)

The best part of the show was being introduced to the opening act, Kenny Muhammad, the Human Orchestra System. Kenny is a human beat box extraordinaire - his talent is simply unbeleivable! It's one thing to do hip-hop beats, or even mid tempo breakbeat stuff, but Kenny was cutting up some amazing 150+bpm drum 'n bass beats! He was doing some crazy s#!t that people spend hours trying to program, all in real time with no delays or effects tricks. Even if you're a lukewarm Squarepusher fan, I highly recommend going to the show to check out Kenny.

TXT:: I dropped by 111 Minna Gallery to meet up with Blake, a.k.a. Techture, a fellow Reason user who puts on a live show and DJ sets every 2nd Tuesday. Coincidentally, I ran into an old internet aquaintance, Ben who is a close friend of Emmet, the man who hosts this website. Yes, the world is getting smaller. Unfortunately I couldn't stick around for the show since I had to get home and finsh up my taxes.

I picked up the Logic Pro upgrade, and I finally tried out the EVP88, that everyone seems to rave about. EVP is pretty cool, but more impressive is space designer! I don't have much time this week to play with it, but I know i'm going to be tweaking around with custom impulse response templates in Space Designer :-)

TXT:: I've been commissioned to work on a new project, so my current projects will probably held back for another month. I'll probably take a break and relax by finishing up the ReFills. I'm working on another beginners guide to Reason. I'll post up more details when they come available.

I received an email today from a fellow reason user who discovered that my track "Noesis" was plagiarized. I guess this is one of the pitfalls of having RPS files floating about on the internet. The email pointed me to an artist page hosted on IC-Musicmedia.com and sure enough, "Noesis" was posted with a different title. The person didn't even try to remix it or alter the original. I sent an email to the technical support, and within an hour the file was deleted. The efficiency of the admins at IC-Musicmedia is quite impressive!

TXT:: I've been Reading Analog Days by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco (Harvard University Press). It's a fascinating book about the history and development and cultural impact of the Analog Synthesizers of Buchla and Moog. The interviews and anecdotes are informative and quite funny; I especially enjoyed the story of Bob Moog trying to find the resonance frequency of an elevator on the way to his thesis presentation. Don Buchla's participation in the SF Bay Area counterculture (about the time I was a fetus) was really enlightening. There's a funny photo as well from the 60s with some kind of Taco Bell endorsement of Moog Synthesizers. I would highly recommend it to any analog collector or enthusiast interested about the subject.

Anyhoo the book inspired me to finally get around to making the necessary repairs to my Buchla 200 powersupply. I thought maybe it was a leaky cap, but it turned out to be a bad solder joint on the transformer. I guess there was a bit of smoke <ahem> particulate mixed in with the flux :-)' This is a relief because i thought I was going to have to replace all the caps--Finding origianl parts is a bit difficult, and using replacements might require changes to the circuitry. The next big project is tearing apart a the 208 and restore some of the sliders that are a bit sticky....

ReFill:: I've put the Live session 02 ReFill online which contains Sax, Rhodes and upright Bass phrase samples. The server has been drawing a lot of bandwidth the past few months, so I'm temporarily taking the Rhodes ReFill offline. Both of these ReFills are on the CD-Rom that comes with Power Tools for Reason, so if you have the book, then you already have the ReFills. The CD-Rom image is already floating around on the usenet, so if you really want it, you can probably find it on a newsgroup.

I'm putting the final touches on the Theremin ReFill, and there's a MP4 audio demo that a threw together on my Music Page. The demo is comprised of ReCycle Loops and Samples arranged using Reason. It's one of those strange experimental pieces. There's also a MP3 Stream.