MOTM

I'm back form AHMW2003.  This year was the largest gathering ever for this
group.  I had a great time despite the fact that my beloved Jupiter 6
arrived DOA.  The gear list available for playing with this year was very
extensive.  I think Fred Becker was very meticulous about making a gear
list.  I will work on getting some photos up after I get all these cables
shipped (cable shipping starts tomorrow).

I met a lot of new people and spent more time seeing other people's gear
this year.  There was a nice Wired system there for the first time. I
enjoyed getting the tour of that stuff. Grant makes a nice product.  Many of
us were speculating on the future of Wired which seems a bit tentative at
this time. Mike brought the Roland System 700 back this year (he said for
the last time).  That system in heavily normalled in the main cabinet and
took some time for me to digest.  It is also big and heavy which may be why
it won't be coming back. :)  The System 700 sequencer is VERY cool.  I spent
some time playing with it trying to increase my understanding of analog
sequencers in general.  This 3x12, 1x36 beast seems to have most of the
features one might want in a sequencer.  I would certainly be interested in
hearing from others who know this sequencer to tell me where they think it
is lacking.

Three MiniMoog Voyagers made the trip and I think as many original
MiniMoogs.  The Voyager has a very nice sound.  I liked the 3 axis pad
controller a lot.  However, it had one serious flaw in my opinion.  While
the control could be routed to other points, the 3 axis controls were fixed
to frequency cut off, frequency cutoff spread (between the two filters) and
resonance.  When using the pad for other controls, I think there should be
some kind of defeat for that.

Tony Clark brought his Modcan Stuff, his DIY surface mount component
modular, and the 2U rack space Monowave.  He had the only banana jacks at
the show this year. The Monowave has wavetable oscillators and everything
else is analog.  It seems like a nice rack mount bass style synth. The
operating interface is a bit cryptic.  Cary Roberts brought Dave Smith's
Evolver.  That's a cool little box for a decent price.  Fred Becker brought
his Oberheim 4 voice.  It is currently in need of repair, but looks like it
just came from the dealer's showroom.  Fred is the original owner.  I know
he is looking forward to getting that fixed.

A 3 row Blacet system made a brief appearance.  Of course, many of use know
and love some of those cool modules.

Several people took the time to play with my mostly MOTM system.  I got a
lot of positive comments about the beauty of the cabinets and the usefulness
of the magic bus (although it is yet unfinished).  The MOTM modules
performed flawlessly as always.  I found people having a little trouble with
my Blacet Time Machines.  This module works great until you try to overdrive
it.  So, I may add a signal level indicator of some nature or tweak the
clipping light to help with setting input levels.  I still love the sounds
that come from that beast.

MOTMers present were, Todd Faulkner, Fred Becker and myself who made the
trek together from my house leaving at 8AM.  Cary Roberts flew in from the
bay area of California.  Relatively new MOTM list member Roger Rossen came
over from the Chicago area.  He was the first to take delivery on his
cables.  I enjoyed hearing his chops on Mike Calarouso's porta-B and Leslie.
Where did he learn to play all that great ELP stuff?

Harry and Dana Bissell made the trip again.  As always, their performance
was enjoyable.  Harry has once again tweaked his live gigging rig.  Harry
plays the drums, guitar, guitar synth, and bass while Dana handles the
Theremin controlled synth duties. Most notable changes to Harry's set up
this year included two new pads for drums.  While many of us simply tap our
feet while playing our instrument, Harry turns his foot tapping into drums
while he plays guitar.  His bass synth is triggered from the guitar at the
same time.  And a 4 channel transmitter (like the kind you might find on a
garage door opener) is now attached to Harry's guitar with the receiver in
his rack.  He uses it for effect control and switching. so, he doe not have
to reach over to the rack while playing.  He is indeed the mad scientist of
the DIY community.

We all had a great time getting caught up and looking over the huge
collection of gear.  The Chicago area was the most well represented by
attendees.  I am certain there were at least 20 present this year.  Next
year we need to go back to name tags and maybe consider making this a 2 day
event.

Larry Hendry