MOTM

Hi there, all.

I've just been taking a look at Dave's site after his last email and
ran across his (very 
impressive) gear list.  I used to have a similar amount of stuff in
my studio, but about a 
year ago, I started stripping back to a much more basic set-up.  Now
I have just four 
synths left: a big MOTM, a Prophet T8, a Prophet VS and a Juno 6
(which I've only kept 'cos 
it was my first ever synth and I'm sentimental).

The reason was that I found that the gear was getting in the way of
me actually writing 
music - I'd play with synths instead of writing tunes.  I get way
more done these days...

Anyone else had a similar experience?

Harry

p.s. For the synth-spotters amongst us, in the last year I've sold
off two Oberheim 
Xpanders, a PPG Wave 2.3, a Kawai K5000s, a Korg MS2000R and a
MemoryMoog Plus.   
The only one I occasionally miss is the Moog, and I had some of those
for a LONG time 
and did good stuff with them.   (That might just be praise for the
MOTM, though - it's 
become my first choice synth for just about everything but pads).

p.p.s. I will admit to still wanting a CS-80 :-)

Yes, and I'm starting to shrink that gear list.  I seem to spend more time 
getting midi to work with all the different synths, than actually playing 
them.  I'd like to cut the number in half of what I now have (not MOTM and 
other modular though).

~dave~

http://www.hylander.com
http://www.hylander.us

At 09:51 PM 12/20/2004, cormallen wrote:

>The reason was that I found that the gear was getting in the way of
>me actually writing
>music - I'd play with synths instead of writing tunes.  I get way
>more done these days...
>
>Anyone else had a similar experience?

My experience is not quite the same.  I still have a huge amount of 
gear, but I'm trying to compact my setup.  I've built some special 
racks and keyboard stands in an effort to get everything closer 
together.  I've sold some of my keyboard synths and replaced those 
with rack mount types.  

I do keep my MOTM somewhat separate from everything else.  I'm 
reconfiguring that too.  Switching to several smaller cabinets 
instead of one huge monster and trying to come up with some sort of 
curved configuration.

The idea is to get everything within relatively easy reach.  
(Although I do have a long reach in part because I prefer to play 
standing up.)  

I'm also trying to set up a number of easily accessible default 
sounds.  In the past I have spent too much time trying to find the 
sound I want when I should be writing.  Now I'm trying to write 
first and refine the sound later.

In the last couple of years I sold my MemoryMoog, my Prophet 10 and 
my CS-80, as well as my Z1, my Trinity, my Kawai K5000, my D50, my 
DX5 and my Kurzweil K2000.  I'm still debating whether to sell my 
Emulator 4K.

I still have my Andromeda, my BX3, my Moog Voyager, my Karma, my 
KX88 controller, my Kurzweil K2500 and PC88, as well as lots of rack 
gear.  

I have also added a second set of monitors and keyboard and mouse to 
my ProTools rig so I can now use ProTools within my keyboard setup 
as well as in the Control Room.  I was getting quite tired of having 
to run from one room to another, or relying on a poor intern to 
punch the buttons for me.

Having started out playing in the days of lugging around big 
Hammonds, Leslies, Rhodes, Clavinet and Mellotrons as well as 2 
Minimoogs and 2 Arp 2600s, I'm quite comfortable with a large setup, 
as long as I can reach everything.

I recall seeing Asia years ago.  Their keyboardist had something 
like 50 keyboards (this was pre-midi) and looked quite silly running 
about. (Hopefully he's not a member of this group!)

To me its not so much about simplicity as its about comfort.

> >The reason was that I found that the gear was getting in the way of me
actually writing
> >music - I'd play with synths instead of writing tunes.  I get way more
done these days...
> >Anyone else had a similar experience?

hello all,
same here - post MOTM, i've sold all my other synths (and my sherman
filterbank), now i'm much happier and work much faster
thanks to the beauty of hard disk recording, if im in mid flow, i'll flesh
out ideas with a simple monosynth voice, and re-record them later with
something fantastically complex - sometimes i'll even remember to tune the
oscillators first.
i find composing much easier, and for me the main joy is that i can throw
(what i suppose are) dadaist elements into the mix by having filters
controlled by solar panels, and using some of ken stone's excellent
sequencing modules, i've recently been using fruit batteries to create
sequences (shameless plug - Dr Universalis "The Phobos EP" out on iTunes
Music Store any day now).
my only problem, is that i collect delay units like they're going out of
fashion (oh hang on...) my latest purchase, a second powertran, so now i
have two...

cheers
paul

> Anyone else had a similar experience?

In the very night before moving to my new house, I've cursed for not having
sold
half of my stuff on ebay before moving.

But now that the studio slowly comes together again, it's a different thing
...

JH.

Ah, but you built most of your studio yourself - you can't sell stuff
like that!

Harry

> In the very night before moving to my new house, I've cursed for
not having
> sold
> half of my stuff on ebay before moving.
> 
> But now that the studio slowly comes together again, it's a
different thing

Hi all-

I just dusted off my trumpet and have begun some experimenting w/ using 
my Oakley envelope follower + MOTM filters and EGs to shape the tone. 
Bleh. OK but not really innovative. Haven't built my 
hylander+davidson+stooge miniwave yet which might be giving me more 
interesting results.

Anyway, short of plugging in an Orville (don't have) or building an MSP 
patch (next on the list) have any list members experimented w/ trumpet 
(or any other non-reed based wind instrument--trombone et al) and 
modular ? Trumpet doesn't anywhere near the overtone series that a reed 
instrument has BUT it does have really quick control of the volume and, 
as far as monophonic instruments go, a tendency to build wonderful 
melodic elements w/o even trying.

  Yes, I was a marching band geek. Sulphur Louisiana. Standing at 
attention while the fire ants screamed "attack!".

ad


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> Ah, but you built most of your studio yourself - you can't sell stuff
> like that!

Yes and no.
The problem is that there is no "going price" for one-off built stuff, and
that the *really* good offers for a certain instrument always come at a
time when you think that specific piece would be indispensable and
absolutely not for sale.
But actually, _everything_ stops to be "indispensable" after some time;
at the latest when a new project has taken that specific place.
I guess the real problems start with shipping these items. How could one
possibly insure something homebuilt against shipping damage, for instance.

Guess I'm thinking too much aloud (;->)

JH.

I think you misunderstand me; I didn't mean to imply that you couldn't find a buyer for 
your creations, or that a price would be hard to neogitate.  What I meant was that if I had 
built your stuff, I would be far too personally attached to it to be able to sell.  

Harry

> > Ah, but you built most of your studio yourself - you can't sell stuff
> > like that!
> 
> Yes and no.
> The problem is that there is no "going price" for one-off built stuff, and
> that the *really* good offers for a certain instrument always come at a
> time when you think that specific piece would be indispensable and
> absolutely not for sale.
> But actually, _everything_ stops to be "indispensable" after some time;
> at the latest when a new project has taken that specific place.
> I guess the real problems start with shipping these items. How could one
> possibly insure something homebuilt against shipping damage, for instance.
> 
> Guess I'm thinking too much aloud (;->)
> 
> JH.

Aaron and list,

I'm a trumpet player too. But alas I'm just starting on my MOTM. I
would be very interested in staying in touch on this. I just bought
a Morrison Digital Trumpet (MDT). Right now I'm using the Yamaha
VL70m as a sound source. It's not great IMO. Anyone with pointers
as to how to get started designing sounds for breath controllers
would be greatly appreciated by me, too. Specifically, any
recommendations as to which modules I should include in my MOTM
rig?

-Greg

-----Original Message-----
From: Aaron Day [mailto:aaron@...]
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 5:09 PM
To: MOTM List
Subject: [motm] any MOTM trumpet players out there?



Hi all-

I just dusted off my trumpet and have begun some experimenting w/ using 
my Oakley envelope follower + MOTM filters and EGs to shape the tone. 
Bleh. OK but not really innovative. Haven't built my 
hylander+davidson+stooge miniwave yet which might be giving me more 
interesting results.

Anyway, short of plugging in an Orville (don't have) or building an MSP 
patch (next on the list) have any list members experimented w/ trumpet 
(or any other non-reed based wind instrument--trombone et al) and 
modular ? Trumpet doesn't anywhere near the overtone series that a reed 
instrument has BUT it does have really quick control of the volume and, 
as far as monophonic instruments go, a tendency to build wonderful 
melodic elements w/o even trying.

  Yes, I was a marching band geek. Sulphur Louisiana. Standing at 
attention while the fire ants screamed "attack!".

ad


_____________________
Receive-Transmit
Marienburgerstr. 33
VH EG rechts
10405 Berlin
Germany
_____________________
Mobile +49 179.750.1854
Office +49 030.255.627.94
Fax +49 030.255.627.96




 
Yahoo! Groups Links

Heh.. I played trumpet back in the 70s. Was in a drum & bugle corps and
also in the Golden Eagle Marching Band, a well respected high school field
show band.  ("yeah right" you're thinking :) hey, we did win a few
national competitions!)  It's a fair bet I've lost my chops, but I still
have my Olds!  Never thought to try and integrate it with my
modular...hmm.. A pitch-to-voltage converter would be interesting.

As for using breath controllers with modulars.. Elhardt should probably
have something to say about this.  He pretty much has it nailed down.
He's even shared a patch with us.  I remember it having quite a few
connections!

As for module selections.. depends on if you intend to generate the sounds
from scratch or just modify a miked horn.  You'll probably need a trigger
delay to get the right sound (the initial "blatt" effect).  There's no
official MOTM module for that.  But there are some on the list that have
built their own.  Check the archives.  You also will need a generous
helping of MOTM-800 ADSRs for controlling amp, filter and vco bend
separately.  Maybe a MOTM-440 for the filter (or two).

George

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Greg James" <gjames@...>
To: "Aaron Day" <aaron@...>; "MOTM List"
<motm@yahoogroups.com>

Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 9:50 AM
Subject: RE: [motm] any MOTM trumpet players out there?


>
> Aaron and list,
>
> I'm a trumpet player too. But alas I'm just starting on my MOTM. I
> would be very interested in staying in touch on this. I just bought
> a Morrison Digital Trumpet (MDT). Right now I'm using the Yamaha
> VL70m as a sound source. It's not great IMO. Anyone with pointers
> as to how to get started designing sounds for breath controllers
> would be greatly appreciated by me, too. Specifically, any
> recommendations as to which modules I should include in my MOTM
> rig?
>
> -Greg
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Aaron Day [mailto:aaron@...]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 5:09 PM
> To: MOTM List
> Subject: [motm] any MOTM trumpet players out there?
>
>
>
> Hi all-
>
> I just dusted off my trumpet and have begun some experimenting w/ using
> my Oakley envelope follower + MOTM filters and EGs to shape the tone.
> Bleh. OK but not really innovative. Haven't built my
> hylander+davidson+stooge miniwave yet which might be giving me more
> interesting results.
>
> Anyway, short of plugging in an Orville (don't have) or building an MSP
> patch (next on the list) have any list members experimented w/ trumpet
> (or any other non-reed based wind instrument--trombone et al) and
> modular ? Trumpet doesn't anywhere near the overtone series that a reed
> instrument has BUT it does have really quick control of the volume and,
> as far as monophonic instruments go, a tendency to build wonderful
> melodic elements w/o even trying.
>
>   Yes, I was a marching band geek. Sulphur Louisiana. Standing at
> attention while the fire ants screamed "attack!".
>
> ad
>
>
> _____________________
> Receive-Transmit
> Marienburgerstr. 33
> VH EG rechts
> 10405 Berlin
> Germany
> _____________________
> Mobile +49 179.750.1854
> Office +49 030.255.627.94
> Fax +49 030.255.627.96

-----Original Message-----

I saw my name mentioned in this thread so I'll respond.

>>Anyone with pointers as to how to get started designing sounds for breath controllers would be greatly appreciated by me, too. Specifically, any recommendations as to which modules I should include in my MOTM rig?<<

I was using a Yamaha BC-3 breath controller going through the VL70m which would insert breath control info into the midi stream from my keyboard.  Then that would go into a Kenton midi to cv converter where I could get the breath control as a voltage.  It sound control loudness and brightness of the sound if not other things as well.  This is where I needed an MOTM lag processor module to smooth out the digital midi voltage stepping, otherwise it sounds awful.

Since then I bought a second MOTM pedal interface so I could install Larry Hendry's breath control add on.  I've put in the jack and bought all the parts, but haven't done it yet since he appears to be using voltages that aren't what the BC-3 specs say it wants.  I need to modify it first.  However, since that takes the use of Midi out of the chain and it's all analog, the lag processor shouldn't be needed unless you want to smooth out your human inflections.

If you're also looking for tips on synthesizing a brass sound for use with breath control, one problem I needed to try to solve was destinguishing the attack of the sound so I could synthesize a better brass attack.  I needed some kind of differentiator module.  Just my preliminary test seemed to show that you can use a module that has an AC coupled input such as a mixer module.  A fast blow into the breath controller with part of its split output sent through an AC coupled input can give you a voltage bump with which you can use to add the initial brass gurgle type sound.  The faster you blow the higher that voltage spike and the more of that brass gurgle type sound you can get.  I was able to accurately simulate the attack of a brass instrument using a short burst of variable rate FM on the attack.  Most of that experimentation was done on the Nord Modular though, but I do have one MP3 online where I spliced a synthesized french horn several places inbetween a real french horn to see how convincing my attacks matched up.  Even I have a hard time telling fake from real.  Sound file is here (224K in size):

http://home.att.net/~elhardt3/Horn_Real_Fake_Interleaved_FFT.mp3

There's no high frequencing audio in the file as I chopped it off with an FFT filter so the horns would sound similar since I hadn't worked on bright french horn sounds yet.

-Elhardt