Music Machines event 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.”

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

We’re very privileged to have part of Steve Graham’s amazing drum machine and synth collection on display at the Music Machines event in November. Steve is a serious collector and will be at the event to have a chat about his collection and also about a book he’s working on which goes through the “history of the drum machine”.

Steve sent me through some of the gear which he’ll be bringing along on the day, there’s some amazing machines on the list and it’ll be well worth coming along to check this gear out. Here’s the list:

• Linn LM-1
• Linn Drum
• Linn 9000
• AHB Inpulse One Octopad
• MPC Electronics MPC-2 Octopad (another rare british drum trigger system)
• MPC The Kit drum trigger
• Roland CR-78
• Roland CR-68
• Roland TR-66
• Roland TR-55
• Roland TR-33
• LEL DR-9 Russian drum unit
• Vermona DRM-1 East German drum unit
• Bohm Digital Drum German drum unit (German answer to the Linndrum)
• Watford Electronics drum unit (from UK)
• RSD SD140 drum machine (French)
• RSF DDR30 drum machine (French)
• Selmer HR-30 preset rhythm unit
• Various Korg Minipops units/Keio units
• Various Multivox preset rhythm units
• Acetone FR-1 preset rhythm unit (first ever transistorized unit)
• Acetone R-1 (first ever Acetone product – drum trigger but no presets- very rare)
• Korg PSS-50 super section
• Korg PSS-60 super section
• MXR 185 drum machine
• Sequential Tom ?
• Sequential DrumTraks
• E-mu Drumulator
• E-mu SP-12
• Emulator Mark 1
• Emulator Mark ii
• Roland Juno HS -60 (rare version of the Juno 106)
• Sequential Max
• Yamaha SS-30 string synth
• Yamaha SK-20 string synth

As the kit list comes together nicely for the event I’ve been getting asked the question “what is a classic synth”? Now Music Machines isn’t just about “vintage” or “classic” synths as we’ll also have quite a few synths which certainly don’t fit in to the “vintage” tag and some which are just plain new!

To me “vintage” brings on thoughts of age, how old is it, is a 90’s synth vintage yet? “Classic” looks more at it’s impact on the world of synths OR the music created with these machines. Coming from Manchester and never really having too much money when I was getting in to creating music there are a few synths which I would consider classic which many hardcore synth geeks may not.

The Waldorf Pulse and the Novation Bass station and Drum station were both amazing value synths which were accessible to far more music makers than some of the more expensive synths in the 90’s and some would say had more impact on the sounds of techno and house. Now these synths may not have had the best sounds or construction but I’d say they sit well in the “classic” box.

What do you think are some of the classics and why? Arturia, Clavia, Kurzweil??

It’s been a few weeks since my last update on the event so here’s a little more information on what coming up in November.

The event has now been moved to the main room at Galatos which is really exciting and should provide more options for the kit we can show and the type of performances we can put together for you.

I’ve been working on adding to the kit list and should be able to announce a very large addition from one of NZ’s top drum machine collectors.

We’re adding a whole collection of new synths to the event as well as the vintage gear and we’re very excited to be demoing the Elektron Machinedrum on the day. These are usually only available direct from the manufacturer and I’m really looking forward to having a play.

I’ll also be announcing the artists who will be part of The Analog Allstars who will be putting together a special one off “all analog” performance for the event. This should be something special and is being put together by Kerry Adams from The Proof.

Over the next few months i’ll be keeping you all updated with the list of synths and drum machines which will be on show at the event in November. This list is just the first selection of kit which you’ll be able to get your hands on or see demo’d at the event. The concept behind the event is to have all the kit fully functioning on the day so you guys can get an idea of how these machines work and what they sound like. I’ll be adding more synths and drum machines as I get them confirmed for the event so make sure you check back to get the latest news. I’ll also be posting demo video’s from all the synths on to our flash new Music MachinesNZ YouTube channel.

Kit list 1.

Roland TR808
Roland TR909
Roland TB303
Roland JX3P
Roland JX8P
Roland Juno 106
Roland JP8080
Moog Minimoog Model D
Emu SP1200
Yamaha TX81Z ( DX7 module )
Yamaha DX7
Korg Polysix
Korg MS10
Korg x911
TOM drum machine
Drumtraks drum machine
Pro 1 mono synth
Prophet 10
Prophet 5 rev 2
Prophet 5 rev 3
Remote prophet
PPG Wave 2.3
Clavia Nord Lead 2
Waldorf Blofeld
DSi Mopho
Roland SH101
Roland CR8000 (Analog solutions mods)
Waldorf Pulse