Tom Ludvigson live synth demo at Music Machines 09
Here’s the next video from the Music Machines event featuring a live synth demo from Tom Ludvigson. It was really exciting to have Tom come along and run through a live performance with some of kit.
Kit list:
EML 500
Korg Polysix
Sequential Circuits Pro-One
Sequential Circuits Drumtraks
Phillips D1875 12 band FM . MW . LW . SW receiver*
Roland SDE 3000 digital delay with ‘hold’ footswitch
“The core of the performance is making the music machines work together as a system where all parts contribute to the same groove. This requires that all the machines are synchronised to the same beat – easy with contemporary MIDI technology, but harder to do in the days before MIDI.”
Music Machines – come check out the venue and kit
Over the next few weeks i’ll be posting video’s and photo’s from Music Machines 09 and I thought we’d start with a little introduction from myself with a walkround the room just to give you an idea of what the event was all about on the day. This is the first time we’ve put the event on and it was great to achieve our goal of practically filling the venue with kit which people could come along and play with.
Music Machines 09 – a huge thanks to everyone who came along
I’ve been taking a short break after the amazing Music Machines event and just wanted to thank everyone who came along to help out and check out all the great kit we had on display. Over the next few weeks i’ll be posting photo’s and video from the event plus some information on whats next for Music Machines.
I think the day was a huge success and I’ve decided that we’ll be making this an annual event. This first event was really a chance to see if we could actually put something like this together and achieve some of goals we set for the day. For me Music Machines was about:
- bringing together NZ’s largest collection of classic music machines
- celebrating electronic music in NZ
- building connections between music makers in NZ
I’ve already started working on improving the event for next year and will be working with Kerry Adams from The Proof to put together a short doco on the event which we can use to approach potential sponsors. If you have any suggestions on how we could improve on the event and build for next year then please let me know by leaving a comment.
Gear, gear and more gear for Music Machines
Only 2 days to go until we open the doors for the Music Machines event and we have a few more additions to the lineup.
Alan Brown from the Grand Central Band is going to be bringing along some of his kit to demo on the day including:
- Korg Trident
- Hohner Clavinet D6
- Wurlitzer 200A Electric Piano
- Rhodes MkII Stage Piano
Now I’m sure that some of you might say that some of these machines aren’t synths, well that’s true but they are machines and I’m a huge fan of the Rhodes, Clav and Wurli sounds.
Hugo from Goldbaby is also bringing along a few of his toys including a Oberheim DMX with a prommer which he’ll be demoing on the day, plus an MFB-522 analog drum machine, Casio SK-1 and a Moog-MG-1. Make sure you head over to the Goldbaby website to check out the amazing sample packs of classic drum machines recorded on to 2 inch tape and vinyl!
Both the Rockshop and Music Planet are bringing along a few new synths too including:
- Moog Little Phatty
- Roland SH201
- Akai MPC5000
- Korg Microsampler
- Korg MicroKorg
- Korg Radius
- Nord Wave
And finally we’ve also added to the list, thanks to David Chechelashvili and Andy Morton, some great Waldorf kit and a few sneaky classics including:
- Waldorf Micro Q
- Waldorf MicroWave I (Mean Green Machine one of 99 ever made)
- Waldorf Pulse Plus
- Waldorf Rack Attack drum synthesizer
- Waldorf Blofeld
- Akai MPC3000
- Moog Source
- Akai MPC60
Synthesizer demonstration performance by Tom Ludvigson
Tom Ludvigson has put together a great flyer for his performance at the Music Machines event so I just wanted to share it with you. It gives a detailed run through of his kit and what he’ll be doing on the day.
Kit list:
EML 500
Korg Polysix
Sequential Circuits Pro-One
Sequential Circuits Drumtraks
Phillips D1875 12 band FM . MW . LW . SW receiver*
Roland SDE 3000 digital delay with ‘hold’ footswitch
The core of the performance is making the music machines work together as a system where all parts contribute to the same groove. This requires that all the machines are synchronised to the same beat – easy with contemporary MIDI technology, but harder to do in the days before MIDI.
Tom uses two ‘old-school’ techniques to achieve this:
- Analog synchronization – using individual drum machine audio outputs to trigger the arpeggiator features built into the Polysix and the Pro-One synths, and
- Delay synchronisation – using a signal delay set to the same delay duration as one bar of music (in this case 130 BPM /beats per minute means one bar lasts for 1846 ms /milliseconds)
Stages in the performance:
1. EML played
2. EML + D1875 radio ‘sampling’ into SDE
3. Polysix played
4. SDE footswitch used to catch a ‘loop’ 1846 ms duration
5. Polysix with Chord Memory + Arpeggiator on ‘hold’
6. Drumtraks started (> chord starts changing on Polysix)
7. Some drum sounds (rim shot, hi-hats) mixed into the mix
8. Pro-One played
9. Pro-One arpeggiator activated > bass line
10. Polysix changed to 16ths pattern (new Drumtraks pattern)
11. SDE changed to 346 ms
12. Gradual build in intensity > 4-on-the-floor dance groove
13. Breakdown – drums out of the mix
14. 2nd buildup to dance groove
15. outro – gradual removal of instruments from the mix
Tom has worked with synthesizers since he bought his EML 500 in the late seventies. Since then he has contributed synthesizer parts to recordings by many New Zealand artists, such as Paul Ubana Jones, Rick Bryant’s Jive Bombers, Low Profile/Elephunk, Snap/Sidewalk City, Alloy, Big Sideways, Trip to the Moon, Nexus, Dub Asylum and the Inner City Jazz Workshop and others. Tom also regularly produces music for New Zealand television documentaries. He currently teaches Music Technology at MAINZ /the Music and Audio Institute of New Zealand.
Sequential Circuits at Music Machines
It’s really exciting to have David Abernethy coming along to Music Machines this Saturday with some of his collection of Sequential Circuits kit. I asked David what he’ll be bringing and demo’ing on the day…
“As you know, I specialise in Sequential Circuits gear. No synth event would be complete without the Prophet 5. In my opinion, the Prophet 5 is the second most significant synth in synthesizer history (the Minimoog is number 1 of course).
The four synths in my exhibit are from this classic Prophet 5 era. I figured it would make a more interesting exhibit if I used my two Sequential drum machines to play the sequencers in the Pro 1 and Prophet 10. This is something I’ve been experimenting with my own music. The two drum machines are a few years advanced from the Prophet 5 era and they have MIDI. They also have trigger and clock facilities to synchronise with older technology.
The sound conjures up that early eighties electro-pop. So I thought seeing as the event was open to the general public, perhaps they’d appreciate a nostalgia trip and get to see how these old songs were made and how hairy it was to play live. So I’ve prepared some tunes from that era. I’ll be playing the songs in patterns and switching on the fly – that makes it more fun. I’ve also selected a couple of other more recent songs that have used digital gear and tried to replicate that on my set-up. The results are interesting. And if anyone wants to try setting up a new drum pattern and sequence, that wouldn’t be a problem.
And there’s also the Remote Prophet, which is a pre-MIDI controller. A Stratocaster, it ain’t.”
David will be at the event all afternoon so come along and check out his kit is full sync’d action.
Music Machines on National Radio
It was a pleasure to head along to have a chat to Trevor Reekie on National Radio last week and the show is now available on the Radio NZ website. Trevor did a nice little interview with me talking about my interest in electronic music and the inspiration behind the Music Machines event. He also interviewed Tom Ludvigson and recorded Tom going a great live set with some of his prized synths. Tom will be bringing some of his kit to the event on Saturday and taking us through a live demo, really looking forward to seeing a true synth player in action.
Win 2 x single passes to Music Machines November 21st
Music Machines is this Saturday at Galatos starting at 12 midday and this is your last chance to win a single pass to the event. I’m giving away 2 single passes, all you have to do is post your fav synth/drum/machine video to the Music Machines Facebook page. The best 2 get the passes, it can be your fav’ track, live performance or synth geek out, lets see em all.
Tim William MPC Free-Jam at Music Machines
It’s really exciting to have Tim William performing his “MPC Free-Jam” session at Music Machines in 2 weeks time. Tim runs his rig through an MPC 2500 and improvises the whole session using the MPC as the core midi sequencer.
Here’s Tim’s kt list for the session:
MPC2500
Fender Rhodes
Korg MS2000
KP3 FX pad
Juno 106
One of the key reasons for putting Music Machines together is to give you a chance to see people get creative with these machines and Tim’s “on the fly” approach to creating music pushes the MPC to it’s limits and really shows just how important a machines interface is to it’s creative potential. You can check out a little video of a session Tim did out at Piha in Jan 09 and make sure you check along to check him out at Music Machines, only 2 weeks to go.
Nathan Haines at Music Machines
I’m pleased to let you know that Nathan Haines will be coming along to Music Machines on Nov 21st to have a chat about his love of synths, his music and his studio setup. He’ll also be bringing along his Roland Jupiter 8 and his ARP Odyssey (white face model) to demo through his Roland RE-501 space echo. Nathan’s also working on a new album at the moment and will be previewing one of the new tracks from the album written entirely on the Jupiter 8.
