MOTM

I just got back from the Robert Rich show in Philadelphia. It's 
almost 2 a.m., after driving back to NYC in the pouring rain. The 
show was in many ways incredible, and in some ways not quite what I 
expected. If you have the chance, go see him live. It's definitely 
worth it.

The music was awesome, and there was a lot of it. He first did about 
80 minutes, accompanied by video, then a break, then another whole 
segment, maybe not quite as long, accompanied by lasers. The show was 
in a church, very old, with wood beams and ceilings, shadows of trees 
waving on stained glass windows in the rain. It was almost a bit of 
culture shock to have this slew of  modern electronics in this fairly 
medieval setting, but the wood and the lasers seemed to get along 
just fine.

The music was excellent, but there wasn't nearly as much synth 
playing as I expected. There were plenty of synthesizers playing, but 
not very many being actually played by human hands. Most of what he 
played was slide guitar (absolutely incredible, and as a bonus I no 
longer have to figure out how he gets some of those great sounds out 
of a synthesizer) and an assortment of flutes and recorders. I don't 
really know why, but I was somehow expecting him to play everything 
live. Some of the highlights of the show for me was when he went at 
it with his MOTM modular to make all those great Bestiary sounds. Why 
I expected him to play unaccompanied, though, is somewhat of a 
mystery to me.

As for technical points of interest, there were many. His setup 
included the MOTM modular, Wavestation, DX7, and an Ensoniq ASR-10, 
plus an array of other devices including mixers, high-end stomp boxes 
and two laptops. One laptop was a PowerBook running what I think was 
Logic, but which could certainly have been something else. The other 
laptop seemed to be responsible for much of the rhythm, but beyond 
that I couldn't say much else as the screen wasn't facing the 
audience.

He also had literally a pile of flutes/recorders, probably 10 or 12 
of them. In fact, some of them looked suspiciously like PVC pipe with 
finger holes drilled and with the type of flexible 
rubber/plastic/vinyl end caps you sometimes see on large tubes that 
hold architectural drawings. I'm not saying 100% that that's what 
they were, but some of them sure looked like it. Not that that's bad 
or anything, I just thought it interesting, and would like either 
confirmation from someone, or to have someone tell me I'm nuts and 
they were exotic flutes from Thailand that date back to some dynasty 
or other from 800 years ago and are worth millions. Doesn't matter to 
me which way it is, but now I'm a bit curious. In some ways I kind of 
like the idea of home-made PVC recorders and flutes. I can imagine 
him experimenting with all sorts of diameters, lengths, thicknesses 
and hole positions, making flutes that perfectly match any given 
song's tuning and intonation. Or I could simply be making the whole 
thing up.

Other interesting technique things include wedging keys down on the 
Wavestation and DX7 (I didn't notice it on the Ensoniq, but that 
doesn't mean he didn't do it there also). I've been known to use 
electrical tape to hold down keys with an Oberheim or two, and Keith 
Emerson's been known to wedge keys down with knives. While Rich's 
method is not really as flashy as Emerson's and not quite as messy as 
mine, it certainly worked well and was interesting to watch. I may 
never be mentioned in the same paragraph as Robert Rich and Keith 
Emerson again, but hey, sometimes great artist think alike! <g>

Anyway, now it's almost 3 a.m. and I can see this easily starting to 
slide downhill. Executive summary: if you can, go see Robert Rich 
somewhere on his tour.


            Seth

This Saturday, Robert Rich, next Saturday, AHNE. That's 600 miles of 
synthesizers in one week.