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(Folks That Live On The Hill, by Jerome Kern)

I had the wonderful opportunity to work with some really talented and funny guys while at IRCAM. One outcome of this was some jamming and recording in a small jazz group with Juan Jose Burred, Gilles Degottex and Pierre Lanchantin. Here is our recording of Yèkèrmo Sèw, a piece written by the Ethiopian composer Mulatu Astatqé.

mp3: 

yekermo_sew.mp3

Continuing in my series of keyboard repair blogs, I recently bailed an old Roland PC-200 keyboard out of storage. This old guy is just a 4 octave MIDI controller (no sound generator), but it fit the bill for having a reasonably sized polyphonic keyboard for a NYC apartment. Unfortunately it had long ago developed a problem with an F# key no longer working.

While there are newer controllers with many more buttons and polyphonic aftertouch, it seemed such a waste to replace it just because one key didn't work. After a little net research, a problem with many keyboards is that the carbon contact pads glued onto the rubber deteriorates. Replacements for these are available, but this was not a solution to the problem in this case.

Some time back, I acquired a Micromoog analog, monophonic synth. These little beasts are a single oscillator synth, but include a sub-oscillator, 24dB/Oct filter, good modulation, ribbon pitch bend and CV interfacing. The clincher was one appeared cheap on Ebay advertised as requiring "Tender Loving Care": the wooden base needed replacing, but that it did work.

I already have a Multimoog, which is a two oscillator, pressure sensitive keyboard version of the Micromoog, and the thought of operating the two in unison was too great an opportunity. The Multimoog needs work on the power supply and obtaining a Micromoog helps diagnose the Multimoog's power supply behaviour. Expect a blog about the Multimoog in the future.

A Minuet in E major recorded as a double tracked duet by the Baroque composer Adam Falckenhagen.

mp3: 

Minuet.mp3

I had the wonderful opportunity to jam with Martha Sparks, an excellent alto saxophonist from Melbourne at my apartment in NYC, early 2001. This is an improvisation between Martha and me on sax and oud (Arabic lute) respectively.

mp3: 

Sax Oud Duo.mp3

A multitrack recording of GR-300 guitar synthesizer & fretless bass.

mp3: 

OpenEyes.mp3

I recently finished modifying my main axe, a Roland G-202 guitar synth controller, installing a set of RMC bridge piezoelectric pickups in addition to the original GK-1 hexaphonic pickup electronics. This allows simultaneously controlling both an Axon-100MKII (digital, MIDI) and a Roland GR-300 (analogue) guitar synthesisers. This was to avoid resorting to trying to build a 24-pin splitter and BC-13 (which runs the GK-1 pickups at +/-7V rather than the original +/-15V.