David's Music Page
Music, I have a problem with it. I like it too much. I even have myself believing I can make my own. Yessir, a couple of $1000 dropped at pawn shops for gear and I have a regular studio in my house, complete with blacklights for "inspiration". It's all for fun. It's all for me...I am not a professional. I appease and maintain control over the beast in me with melodic, psychedelic and at times, window-breaking musique elektronique with totally amateur technique.
HERE IS SOME OF MY STUFF:
- the heart of my operation. Literally a "workstation". This keyboard has it all...16 track sequencer with 100,000 note capability. Over 600 voices: wave-form & GM (gen. midi), and then there are the normal factory presets and of course, the ones I have made. This keyboard is absolutely fantastic. There is very little you cannot do with it. Has 3.5" floppy disk drive which makes communicating with other owners of this keyboard a snap. Click here to go to my webgpage on this great keyboard.
Synthesizer Mania: My Keyboard World
- my little baby. Great hybrid analog/digital synth - super string (viola) sounds, great bass and "noises". How can such super sound come from this little synth? Also is cool as a master controller for the tone generator in my W5. Link above zaps you to J. Sexton's Juno 1 website.
- "The Great One" - my big ole FM synth. What sound!!! ELP stuff!!! Tue, this baby requires patience in order to program a custom patch...she's deep, but you can really get some cool stuff to come out of it...the portamento control and delay effect is super. I wish there were more interest and support for it on the net. I have been able to build some great patches for it and I love my ELP trumpet with portamento that I have built, why, the W5 cannot compete with it for classic synth lead...this sucker screams! :-) Up until I got my Yamaha, I could not imagine being without this Korg and I guess I still can't. The Yamaha does not have portamento...can you believe it??? The Korg has two modes of portamento and is completely programmable. When I layer two patches and then midi-patch into my little Roland Juno, the resulting soundscape says to me: "Ves! Vu can vule der vorld!!!! If you are a DS-8 owner, here are some patches I have for it. Give me timbre, or give me death! By the way...the header link above will zoom you to David Copley's website on the synth. Thanks, David, for helping me out with the owner's manual situation!!!
-A true vintage analog synth. Mine dates back to 1973 and is what is known as the "White Panel" model and is a definite collector's item. This little baby is totally manual with around 40 slider pots and switches - NO BUTTONS!
You can hear the pure electronic sound coming from this unit's two oscillators. The controllers are so complete that there is hardly any sound you can't get out from it. Knowing how to get the sound is the challenge. I can get ELP-like synth leads with beautiful portamento that surpasses that of my Korg. My only peave is that I have to bring in the delay effect from an external source (my Boss ME-6) to really bring the synth to the potential it deserves. If you are an analog synth afficiando...then check out
Hyperral's ARP site. Go analog and you will find synth-truth!
Fostex X28-H 4-track recorder
- small but efficient. See my write-up below entitled "Elementary Multi-Tracking". If you love making music and you haven't gotten into multi-tracking, then you have practically missed the boat. Most people are now recording digitally...therefore...it is ME who is behind the times!!!
Fender Stratocaster
w/ Floyd Rose Trem. and lockdowns at the neck bridge (gotta have that lockdown!). Put me some extra-lights on and with my Boss effects rack, I can touch nearly anything, even if just for a second or two. Why did you have to be a Korean Strat, my little love???
Takamine ("take my money") F340
acoustic guitar I bought "used" in 1979 - everybody's always asking me to sell it to them! I have dug out the fret-board with my terrible D chord techniques when I was in college. The thing still sounds good in spite of the abuse I have given it.
Peavey Stereo Chorus 400
- (2) 12" Scorpions and man, I love that chorus effect with my Strat. 360 watts output....a super-cool stereo amp.
Peavey Bandit 65
- great little screamer & easy to carry around
Yamaha RX15 drum machine
- it sucks, but it uses true sampled drum sounds and I guess it'll work. Besides, it was given to me, so I shouldn't complain. My W5's wave -sampled drums kits makes the dust start collected on it. However, I often jam with some friends and it's convenient to carry around.
BOSS ME-6 effects unit
- with this, I can conquer the world (if I wanted to), great delay, distortion, compression and flange (but, alas...no tremelo!!!!). Also has equalizer, noise filter & reverb. Holds 25 user-defined patches at a time. 5 stomp bars for accessing them on-the-fly. My most treasured "gizmo". I just looked at the ME-8 and it has tremelo! Now I don't treasure the ME-6 so much - being an "equipment junkie" is a terrible thing...there should be treatment/therapy centers for this disease...it's not my fault! Surely, there is someone I can sue over this!
Dunlop Original CryBaby
- just a little goes a long way. Wah??? Wah!!!
Click on the picture above to check out my webpage on my space-rock album!
Check out these links:
ELEMENTARY MULTI-TRACKING
Homemade rock, I love to hear it. I really like listening to a song where I know that an amateur has done the entire compilation of an original song. I've got a couple of friends and we each have "music studios" that take us from our real world into the world of the "rock 'n roll wannabees". We write the song, produce it, perform it, engineer the recording session and finally: mix it down. The only problem is that nobody is interested in hearing the finished product! Bwaaaaaahaaaa!!!! I impatiently listen to what my friends create, and with flashy eyes and teeth showing, I hand them a cassette and say "Well that was great! But, here's something I did the other day!"
Multi-tracking...What is it? How do you do it?
Well, let me warn you, to be a multi-tracker, you will enter the world of the music equipment junkie. It's a terrible disease to have. If you're not careful, you will be penniless and your spouse will hate you (but at least you'll own tons of music junk!). I try to keep noisey guitars and synths from irritating my family at least. The experienced multi-tracking person rehearses and performs sans amplifier through the 4-tracker's mixer directly into headphones. This keeps disturbances to a minimum and keeps your family from hating your song before you've finished it (although they will probably hate it afterwards anyhow!).
HOW TO: In order to multi-track, you need a multi-track recorder. Now a cassette recorder is a two-track unit and usually has no "mixing" ability. What you need is a true multi-track unit with at least 4 tracks. There are 8-trackers (not to be confused with the old 8-track tape players/recorders from the '70's), 16-trackers, 24-trackers and 32-trackers and so on. What this means is that you have that many "tracks" on the tape to record something on each "pass" over the tape-head. Did you know that a cassette is actually a 4 track tape? Yep, you flip it over to hear other songs don't you? Each song is stereo (left and right), right? There...you have it! Four individual tracks on that tape! However the standard cassette deck utilizes only 2 tracks at the same time and you cannot record and monitor different tracks simulataneously - and that, my friend, is the magic of multi-tracking: simultaneously monitoring a previously recorded track as you record another track along side of it.
The Basic 4-Track Recorder
The basic 4-track recorder uses an ordinary cassette and utilizes all 4 tracks of the cassette at the same time! Therefore, basic multi-tracking is a 4-track recorder & some blank cassettes, a microphone or other line-level music device, your voice (optional) and you are set to go! You can record and then monitor each track separately and you build your song track-by-track. I repeat: each track can be totally independent, you can monitor your completed track(s) while you record onto a remaining clean track. Hello????. Did you understand that?
EXAMPLE: First you could sing "Rose of Alabama" in track 1. Now rewind! Set track 1 to "monitor" and track 2 to "record". Now, recite a speech from Lenin in track 2 while simultaneously listening to your Rose of Alabamasong on track 1. Once you are finished with Lenin's speech, rewind and prepare for track 3. Now bang on cake pan with a wooden spoon in track 3 while monitoring tracks 1 & 2. Remember, beat the pan with the wooden spoon in the same tempo as track 1's "Rose of Alabama" ...but wait...hit the pan especially hard when you hear some moving phrase from your Lenin recital from track 2! Now, rewind! Finally, belt out a guitar solo - full of sustain and distortion on track 4. End it all with: "Yeehaaa!" on track 1.. "Viva la revolucion!!!" and gunshots on track 2. Sounds of breaking glass as you simultaneously stomp the cake pan in track 3. In track 4, fad your last lick into sharp feedback and then crunch it all to a halt (grabbing your guitar by the neck and slamming it to the floor is optional). Hey, you're almost done!
Now "mix" the result down into a standard cassette deck being careful to use stereo panning, reverb and sound levels properly. This is accomplished with RCA cables connecting the multi-tracker's 2 channel output (line out) to the standard cassette deck's 2 channel input (line in).Now as you sit back in your easy chair, playback your "baby". Roll your eyes and look heavenward and exclaim loudly. "I've created...a....a...MONSTER!!!". Now, do 1 of 2 things:
(1) Run the resulting demo tape over to your nearest talent agency and you are on your way to stardom.
(2) Have a friend or your mate hear the playback and look carefully for their reaction...after you get that reaction, you will realize the truth and put the tape with your collection of other "musical creations" that will never be heard again by anyone but you...and some of those even you will not dare ever to playback again!!! I have created some master-pieces, but no one understands them like me (sobbing) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Buying One
Multi-track recorders, such as those made by Fostex, Yamaha, etc, are found in music stores. Used ones can be found in pawn shops or the "music" classifieds of your local newspaper. Want one now? I recommend Daddy's Used Music Gear. A new 4-tracker will cost from $650 to way on up there. A used one can be gotten for about $300. You will need more than just the multi-track recorder, though. You will need microphones to sing through, patch cords, and of course, musical instruments and "effects" gizmos. If you are your own band, like me, then you have to have all the instruments to go with your songs...but at least you get to be the boss! Finally, you will have to have an ability to create songs, whether you steal them from the radio or write your own, it's your choice.
Tips
Here are some tips once you get going!
Record at recommended levels. - the worst thing you can do to your song (besides not know what you are doing!) is to record at inadequate levels. Always make that needle or LED bar peak!
Try not to overdo it - sometimes it's not what you do, it's what you don't do.
Use your availabe tracks efficiently - I always find this the hard part. I need more than four tracks!!!!!!!! I could "ping-pong" them, I suppose. I will not go into it except only to say that ping-ponging means you record two or more things, each on a separate track, then you mix them down together onto an empty remaining track. Now you can re-use the original 2 tracks to continue building the song. You have to be a good to do this right (you know what a photocopy looks like each time you reproduce a reproduction? Resolution goes out the window!).
Use virgin tapes - with high resolution (type II).
Mixing Down
Finally, it's time for the mix-down. Get a standard cassette deck and now "download" or "master" the separate tracks onto a regular cassette tape for playback in your car or home stereo (or to give to friends and enemies). During mixdown, you control volume, pan (stereo channel) and equalization - that is, IF you bought a decent multi-tracker. Well, that's it! If you wanna know more about multi-track recorders and technique, check out Fostex's website.
I'd love to hear anybody's stuff (did I say that?)...good luck multi-tracking, my fellow music equipment junkies!
By the way, here are some additional links concerning the synths I own. Feel free to "holler" at me about this kinda stuff...I would also like to hear efforts by other amateurs.
Jonas' Alpha Juno Homepage
J Sexton's Page - with picture of the analog synth!
David's (Korg) DS-8 page
Sound File - this is me in action, making home-made music with my Strat, my Roland synth, drum machine and bass pedal into my Fostex 4-tracker. It's a 30 second wav file of me doing Hawkwind's song "LSD" from their album, Electric Tepee.
If you own a Yamaha W5 or W7, click here to check out something I did on mine...it's spacey and kinda "far-out".
Home- Go to my start-page.
Email me. If you wanna...