en-us http://www.intensedebate.com/users/618739 Comments by Gordon http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/01/17/colonial-spa-ep/#IDComment52428770 Good point. It's the old 'easy come, easy go' thing: one tends to value or appreciate things to the extent that one has invested in them, be it in terms of time, effort, money, learning, overcoming obstacles or whatever. Why else do rare records etc. go for inflated prices? Because they're difficult to get hold of and so to do so is an achievement. I suppose the counter argument is that this only holds if people know that there's something to hunt down in the first place. Personally, I think this marketing-led culture we're living is a great deal worse than it might otherwise be. Says I, typing a message on the internet which is pretty much free to use due to... advertising ;-p Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:45:56 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/01/17/colonial-spa-ep/#IDComment52428770 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/01/02/moldover-live-at-lovetechsf/#IDComment50117918 I got his super-duper theremin CD months ago and... still haven't played it! Sat, 2 Jan 2010 22:20:31 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/01/02/moldover-live-at-lovetechsf/#IDComment50117918 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/30/roger-odonnell-demonstrate-songwriting-with-his-moog-logic/#IDComment49808999 I'm curious that he records the Moog as live audio into Logic, rather than first using MIDI so notes can be quantized or otherwise shifted around. I guess you could use Melodyne to quantise the audio now... Anyway, interesting to see how someone else goes about this as this is precisely what I plan to do tomorrow - playing with Moog + Logic... What strikes me about the Voyager is that the sound it makes in real time is an essential component of the melodic line* because it's also a timbral line, so I get what he's trying to do... *universally true but perhaps even more so with such a synth Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:14:26 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/30/roger-odonnell-demonstrate-songwriting-with-his-moog-logic/#IDComment49808999 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/27/vangelis-blade-runner-blues-live/#IDComment49338872 Yeay! The return of Mik300z. The only person who does Vangelis 'covers' that I enjoy as much as the originals. Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:04:07 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/27/vangelis-blade-runner-blues-live/#IDComment49338872 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/26/get-a-free-symphonic-orchestra-sample-library/#IDComment49336752 Some have commented on the wav files and that this suite doesn't do anything much with those sources that one can't set up on another sample player. However, I am not at the stage of setting up my own cross-fades, key-switches, stacks and so on and so the fact that this is all done in a ready-to-play style suits me just fine. As a free download, it's an excellent addition to my plug-ins. The orchestral sounds aren't huge in variety but have a nice sonority, to the extent that I loaded up a couple and just played and was content. Quality some way upscale of my EXS orchestral patches and more towards Vienna Instruments. Excellent!! Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:47:39 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/26/get-a-free-symphonic-orchestra-sample-library/#IDComment49336752 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/25/merry-christmas/#IDComment49054716 How appropriate to get a TI snow on a white christmas ;p I have one and they're awesome! In fact, I'm going to switch it on right now to hear that smooth, rich sound =D My own Christmas is what I plan on doing upstairs over the next few days. Musically, that is. In a corner of the room, I've set up a Moog Voyager next to a Schlagzwerg semi-modular drum machine and a Mono Evolver. Monophonic analogue noise-fest!! And, just in case harmonised oscillators don't give me enough grunge-Mantovani, I dug out an old Ensoniq SQ80 for some polyphonic aftertouch lusciousness... Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:48:22 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/25/merry-christmas/#IDComment49054716 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/25/merry-christmas-from-little-boots/#IDComment49054358 awww... bless 'er. She's the real deal there :) Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:43:30 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/25/merry-christmas-from-little-boots/#IDComment49054358 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/15/little-boots-is-cool-again-builds-a-diy-laser-harp/#IDComment47872500 Well, to give credit where it's due, at least she didn't get where she is merely by being a cute blonde. Although, true, she is a cute blonde... But what I find so irritating, or depressing, is that she genuinely has talent and skill and dedication and musicality and then I see her slowly but surely transformed into a plasticky, gimmicky, shove-'er-down-yer-throat, product. I can see money in it, but not much dignity. Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:07:19 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/15/little-boots-is-cool-again-builds-a-diy-laser-harp/#IDComment47872500 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/15/little-boots-is-cool-again-builds-a-diy-laser-harp/#IDComment47461575 I guess the thing about marketing is that one knows when one is *not* being targeted. Which is fine if the figures stack up but for those outside the target market the opposite occurs: *alienation*. It's a bit like being forced to watch children's television. Not this video, just the whole concept. I like music. I like to listen to it. I like other musicians. I'd just prefer it if the money men left their gallumphing great muddy boots outside and leave Little Boots and us, to music for music's sake. Not that I intend joining the website to watch the rest of this piece but, even though it superficially resembles a nice, geeky, radiophonic-workshop-on-holiday operation, I have such a lingering cynicism about the whole Little Boots showboat that I'd see it as some sort of shallow gimmick. Which it probably isn't. In fact, I'll bet it isn't. But that's what marketing campaigns and hype and celebrity do: they distort stuff. Ruin stuff. Spoil reality. Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:00:21 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/15/little-boots-is-cool-again-builds-a-diy-laser-harp/#IDComment47461575 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/16/the-dead-guys-won’t-write-more-symphonies/#IDComment47460037 I disagree. Or, sure, the millions seem excessive, but to label humanity's past as 'dead' culture is to be tremendously short-sighted. Human beings are, apparently, unique in being able to learn, consciously, from our collective past other than by evolution alone. The whole point of high art is that it still has plenty to say. It endures. OK, so perhaps Wagner isn't so prescient about right here, right now, right this minute as, say, Beyonce but... perhaps he is. And anyone with an inkling of the Hollywood system knows, bums-on-seats isn't a mark of relevance, depth or quality, but the result of the investment of ever greater sums of money wisely spent advertising. Economic arguments and artistic ones don't mix. Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:46:08 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/16/the-dead-guys-won’t-write-more-symphonies/#IDComment47460037 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/01/free-update-for-arturia-arp-2600v/#IDComment45576818 Hmm... mine downloaded in seconds, although I did fiddle around like an idiot working out the download links and activation codes etc. etc. - simplicity itself once I figured just to click on the link ;p Anyway, thanks for posting this. I'd never registered before and had no idea updates - free updates! - were available for this and my CS80V. Wed, 2 Dec 2009 18:26:13 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/12/01/free-update-for-arturia-arp-2600v/#IDComment45576818 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/24/prodyon-enchoir-vocal-harmonizer-demo/#IDComment44694050 What a charmingly polite gentleman! I'm gonna check it out. Whilst watching the demo, I was thinking it's rather marvellous how new tech. allows software developers - like musicians - to now bypass the bigger companies in entrepeneurial independence. Which leaves way too much power to the infrastructure - google, ISPs etc. - but, on the whole, another good thing about modern life :) Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:41:27 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/24/prodyon-enchoir-vocal-harmonizer-demo/#IDComment44694050 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/18/kinetic-laboratories-intros-mot-box-synthesizer/#IDComment44097612 Everyone loves a good relationship ;p Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:30:47 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/18/kinetic-laboratories-intros-mot-box-synthesizer/#IDComment44097612 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/09/pet-peeve-of-the-week-sample-libraries-with-porn-movie-names/#IDComment42614942 I'm rather enjoying thinking about it. All these variations... Mon, 9 Nov 2009 22:37:06 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/09/pet-peeve-of-the-week-sample-libraries-with-porn-movie-names/#IDComment42614942 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/06/gleetchplug-berna-review/#IDComment42589273 Of particular interest to me - without even having learned to operate it yet - Berna clarifies my understanding of my existing DAW (Logic Studio). 'Traditionally' the concept model for the DAW is that of the recording studio, which is populated with instruments, processors, a mixing desk and a recorder. The problem with this conceptual model - for me - is that it leaves me feeling rather exhausted, as if I had to do the jobs of several different specialists simultaneously and in real time. This corresponds to a feeling of pressure, even panic. I'm also troubled by the aesthetic notion of the DAW as a sort of 'fake' version of a 'real' studio; a problem many others have with the concept of the synthesizer plug-in. However, seeing into the detail of Berna, I notice that the early electronic studio was, in a sense, an early synthesizer. What this allows me to do is to imagine less of 'now I'm a composer' then 'now I'm a musician' then 'now I'm an engineer' and 'now I'm a producer' and more of 'now I'm a musician, and this DAW is my instrument'. Thus, my plug-ins aren't so much independent instruments - like a violin or a piano or a keyboard synthesizer - so much as components within an instrument; as strings and soundbox and bridge are to a violin. In this sense, signal processors don't happen after the event of performing. Instead, they are an integral part of the sonic performance. As is the balance of volumes and the stereo picture. The workflow diagram isn't a one-way street but rather a spatial matrix. The sense of performance time isn't a single episode but a recursive effort much like a sculptor gradually hones away at a lump of marble or a painter gradually layers-up the composition and colour-field. In its relative simplicity and intention, the early electronic music studio allows me to think of the variables in the province of the individual and in the space of patient experiment. This is a fundamentally different approach to that of the acoustic or electric group performance 'caught on tape'. In this, the single artist gradually shapes the layers and correspondences of an electronic data-field or, perhaps I should say, data-garden... Mon, 9 Nov 2009 18:31:28 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/06/gleetchplug-berna-review/#IDComment42589273 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/07/michael-hoenig-in-1987/#IDComment42492477 No... back then I used my big brother's Atari 1040ST. Actually, I think the Mac was persuaded from parental funds as a dissertation-writing necessity. I booted it up after, say, a 12 year break a couple of years ago and, apart from the clock being wonky, it was absolutely fine and I printed out some old short stories. Even then, they were different to PCs in that there was a nice smiley face as it switched on...awww ;) Sun, 8 Nov 2009 21:47:52 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/07/michael-hoenig-in-1987/#IDComment42492477 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/07/ray-kurzweil-futurist/#IDComment42427185 Does that mean that by next year everyone will be famous for fifteen nano-seconds? I'd love to get this guy in a room with the Dalai Lama ;) In other words, I guess I want a second hour - before the whole issue goes out of fashion - of someone persuading me that this is a good thing. Anyway, I better shut up before my computer tells me to stop blaspheming and get back with the programme ;p This video should be shown in schools, though, because it raises a vast number of ethical and philosophical questions that the everyday reactions of either revulsion or excitement don't negotiate: it compels one to advance an understanding of what it is to be human. Let's start by watching BladeRunner again ;D Sun, 8 Nov 2009 08:22:49 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/07/ray-kurzweil-futurist/#IDComment42427185 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/07/michael-hoenig-in-1987/#IDComment42426405 I, too, own a Mac Classic! =p Sun, 8 Nov 2009 08:09:40 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/07/michael-hoenig-in-1987/#IDComment42426405 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/06/gleetchplug-berna-review/#IDComment42356492 Until payday I'll explore the demo version (stops after 4 minutes) and was reading the manual on the train earlier as it's not the kind of programme I can simply play around with without knowing the operational basics. But I totally love the idea of it. And the manual itself warms me to the whole enterprise, with its friendly but scholarly tone. In fact, it's in an elite group of manuals that are a pleasure to read in their own rights. Bravo!! =D Sat, 7 Nov 2009 17:51:06 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/06/gleetchplug-berna-review/#IDComment42356492 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/06/yamaha-announces-entry-level-tenori-on-orange/#IDComment42254716 Kaossilator + Kaoss = £129 x 2 + £100 for the other two things = £358 = $600? Fri, 6 Nov 2009 19:46:25 +0000 http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2009/11/06/yamaha-announces-entry-level-tenori-on-orange/#IDComment42254716