Mellotronists

Hello there Don!

This is a very good question. According to the manual (yeah I finally did
read it, in an idle moment) the MIDI out is fully polyphonic with velocity
and aftertouch, so there is definitely some keyscan-uP-serialization stuff
going on. The question is - does the info get serialized then deserialized?
(creating "SerDes pipelining latency" as we call it here in my
Ethernet/POS-based distraction that I call employment)

Of all designers out there, I would think that Uncle Bob would be sensitive
to this. Based on the musical philosophy statements he's made in the past,
he comes off as somebody who is primarily concerned with getting musical
thought into sound waves. I remember once he said that he was a little bit
sorry that he picked the organ keyboard for his modulars in the first place.
Not to mention his first and enduring love, the Theremin... did his
philosophy endure into the Voyager as well? How can I test this? Ask him?
Wait, I'm a scientist at heart, empiricism! I'll play something on the
Voyager, then I'll play the same thing on a MIDI keyboard controlling the
Voyager.

I think it's pretty responsive. I've been spending more time in the music
room than usual (for me) playing the Voyager along with some MIDI files (me
replacing the muted synth solos) and have noticed that timing is important.
Gosh, what a concept, right? So I would play the same thing over and over,
annoying the whole household, trying to change the feel of the music by
leading or dragging the lead lines. Sometimes it's droll, sometimes I get
that headrush feeling of musical orgasm. Now if I can only call it up on
demand :) Yeah, time and practice... uh oh, don't forget the kids. Yeah,
blame the kids again. Anyway, am I getting my chops back? or am I simply
unconsciously leading the MIDI-tainted notes like the mostly hairless ape
that I am?

oops coffee's starting to kick in, hope somebody out there is getting a
chuckle out of this ;-P

<back on topic, quick!>

And this is why I prefer Mellotrons to my Pinder CDROM samples on the 760
from an old XK. Ya tap the key, ya get the pop and the drag and the rolling
rumble under yer finger and the strangulation and then the "wheep" once in a
while. Brain to sound! These are not so much machines as sculptures! High
art!

i'm on my third cup now.

Best Regards,

- Gene

-----Original Message-----
From: Don Tillman [mailto:don@...]
Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 7:25 PM
To: gene@...
Cc: mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] stuff (long)


   > From: Gene Stopp <gene@...>
   > Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2003 14:49:03 -0800
   > 
   > Ow ow twist my arm! First day back at work, things pretty slow out
there
   > (yeah I work in tech support), here goes.... this is a copy of an email
that
   > I sent to a friend when I first got it, before I upgraded the software:

Hi Gene!  Thanks for the review.  It's completely fascinating.

My big question is; does the keyboard control the VCOs directly or is
there a keyboard-to-midi-and-midi-to-cv process in the way (with its
attendant midi timing weirdness that sucks the lifeblood out of any
wailing performance)?  Maybe Uncle Bob found a nonintrusive way to add
midi.

  -- Don