“Boure”
As a kid, I learned to play folk guitar during the early sixties, and I’d experimented with a number of “open tunings”. Though I knew a couple of standard tunings used for bottleneck blues and such, I didn’t take much notice until I started listening to Joni Mitchell.
So I thought, “What if you could do the same thing on keyboard?”
Continue reading Harmonic Expansionism
Here’s an incarnation of a graphic interface for creating and controlling probability-based ambient audio soundscapes.
WHAT IS THIS?
This is a set of 8 rack units. Each one contains a preset bank with a handful of sounds. You can trigger them as a “single shot”, by pressing the play button. A sound will loop indefinitely when the “Loop” mode button is selected.
RANDOM TRIGGERS
On the left hand side of each unit is a “random trigger generator”. Clicking the button marked RND engages the random trigger for that channel. The frequency knob controls the “rate” at which new random numbers are generated. That is, every time the LED goes on or off, a random number between 0-100 is generated.
If the random number is less than the value of “Amount” then the sound will play. The “Prob” knob adjusts the “amount of probability” or the threshold below which the random number will trigger the sound.
It’s best to test each sound by just playing it once with the play button. Some sounds are quite long. These long sounds are best triggered with either a very slow rate of chance or with a low probability of occurring.
MASTER: NEW, LOAD & SAVE
I’ve added the ability to save configurations for the full rack of eight units. You could tweak an existing patch and click “Save” and it will be updated. Tweak an existing patch but type in a new name is equivalent to “Save As”.
ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? – Nickelodeon
composer, music videoCHRIS CROSS – Showtime / ITV
composer, theme music, incidental cuesWORKING GIRL – 20th Century Fox
incidental cues, synth programmingWHO’S THAT GIRL? – Miramax
songwriting, sound track album
SIMPLY MAD ABOUT THE MOUSE – Disney
composer, producer, title music, sound track albumWNYE LOGO SERIES – WNYE TV
composerNOVA “TORNADO” – PBS
incidental cues, synth programmingTHE GOONIES – Amblin Entertainment
songwriting, producer, sound track albumJACK’S BACK – New Line Cinema
sound effects, synth programming, incidental cuesTHE GUN IN BETTY LOU’S HANDBAG – TriStar
composer, producer, incidental cuesTHE NIGHT WE NEVER MET – Miramax
composer, incidental cuesTHE LAKE – High End UK
composer
While searching through some storage boxes the other day, I came across an assortment of badges and, passes and photos.
There were also several photos taken at various gigs in Japan. This one taken during a Teramasu Hino concert, live at the Tokyo Dome – or “The Egg” as it’s sometimes called. Here’s me and Steve Ferone (Clapton’s drummer) trying to decipher the mysterious ‘half time show’. Go figure…
(left) At a sound check in Yokohama, Japan while touring with Riuichi Sakamoto – 1986. Yamaha had sponsored this tour, and we were awash in fresh gear. Shown here is Riuichi’s one of a kind (at the time) custom made “midi” 9ft concert grand. I also remember scoring two Akai S900 samplers on this trip – several months before they were released in the US.
I came across an assortment of backstage passes the other day. The one I’m most proud of is my artist/performer backstage pass from Live Aid (1985) where I played on stage with Hall & Oates, Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin of the Temptations, Mick Jagger and Tina Turner.
The line up for Mick’s set was essentially the Hall & Oates rhythm section including T Bone Wolk on bass, G E Smith on guitar, Micky Currie on drums and myself on keyboards. Here’s a picture of me at sound check (second from left) – JFK Stadium 1985.
We’d rehearsed for a week in New York and had worked up several tunes with Mick and couple with Tina Turner who was scheduled to join him for a duet towards the end of the set.
I remember it was a million degrees that day in Philadelphia. There was a huge backstage area which had been used as a sort of carnival midway where each act, record label, TV crew, broadcast outlet and every other conceivable entity had set up base camp. They were arranged in rows and aisles and the whole affair took on the appearance of a makeshift tent city. There seemed to be an endless supply of tv and recording trucks, band trailors and hospitality tents belonging to various record labels, MTV, VH1, CNN, ET etc. Quite the circus. We weren’t scheduled to go on till 4pm that afternoon, so everyone was pretty toasted from the heat and stress by the time we went on. Anyway, pretty amazing. In the end, the show was viewed by 1.5 billion people! Supposedly 80% of the worlds tv sets were tuned to Live Aid that day.
