The democratisation of music creation

Whilst reading an interview with the group Blancmange (circa 1984) one statement by Stephen Luscombe struck me as being highly prophetic.

The article in question comes from an early music technology magazine and centres on the groups use of the then revolutionary UMI 2B sequencer. The UMI was a MIDI interface that allowed a BBC ‘B’ computer to act as a 16-track sequencer. This does not sound exciting now, but back in 1984, the only alternative was to use systems such as the Fairlight CMI or the NED Synclavier. When you consider the BBC ‘B’ cost around £399 and a Fairlight £25,000, you can see why the UMI caused such a stir. Vince Clarke owned a Fairlight back in 1984 but quickly saw sense and switched to the UMI and Casio CZ-101 synthesizers; he never looked back.

“It’s an interesting concept, and a very levelling one, to think that over the next few years both amateurs, would be pop stars, and actual recording artists might be using exactly the same type of set ups to create music, and that the days of wistfully wondering whether the only difference between yourself and your idols is a massive recording budget are numbered.”

As well as being one of the longest sentences I have ever read, this quote is a very accurate summary of exactly what would happen over the next ten years. Yet this statement is more problematic for me than it might seem at first glance. I did indeed spend a great deal of time listening back to my compositions in the late 80’s thinking: “If only I had a Fairlight CMI I could be the next Jarre”. The problem was obviously the equipment I used and if I had the money, I could be a recoding artist.

However, in the same article Stephen Luscombe hits the nail on the head when he says, “It’s the democratisation of music really, which is good. But even with computers it’s still the same thing of ‘shit in, shit out’. At the end of the day it’s what you put in to the thing that counts.”

The incredible democratisation of music technology which has occurred over the last 20 years is taken for granted by new comers but is still a thing of wonder to those of us who remember dreaming of DX7’s and Fairlights. Yet the flip side of cheap professional quality recording equipment is the realisation that you can’t accomplish the same results as your idols. When music technology was prohibitively expensive, we could still convince ourselves that our talent was only restricted by the fact that we had no money. Now I know differently.

Yet on reflection I’d still rather have my bedroom filled with DX7’s, D50’s, microphones and a super computer and produce crap music than to simply dream of something that I might never experience. You never know I might still write that number 1 album.

The Triton: Part 2

If you were unlucky enough to read of my recent purchase of a Korg Triton rack, you will know that the instrument and I did not ‘hit it off’. However, after a couple of weeks tinkering and some expensive ROM expansion the Triton is beginning to make itself quite useful. 

I purchased the ‘Pianos/Classic Keyboards’ and ‘Dance Extreme’ ROM boards soon after the machine arrived and I must say they are quite good. I would even go as far as saying they are more varied and useful than their Roland SRX or JV counterparts. Once the board is installed in the machine, you need to load the parameters for the 128 associated programs into the Triton’s memory from a floppy disk. Once I located the data, it loaded quite quickly and painlessly. Thankfully, the machine does hold this data in memory and there is no need to load it each time you boot the machine up (I wrongly thought it was necessary to load the data every time you turned the machine on). 

The programs themselves are proving to be quite useful with a good selection of drum kits in addition to the usual collection of electric pianos and basses. Having mentioned electric piano patches, can anyone tell me why ROMpler synthesizer manufacturers insist on including literally hundreds of preset electric piano patches? I rarely use a Wurlitzer, Rhodes or DX piano sounds so why would I need hundreds of each. I cannot think of anyone else who would either. 

In summary, the Triton is now becoming quite useful and will be staying for the near future. However, I cannot recommend it to anyone. When it comes to ROMpler synthesizers; the more recent the better.

The death and resurrection of a JP-8080

Many years ago, a very wise man taught me one of the basic facts of life. He taught me this so that I did not have to find it out for myself. This is because you really do not want to mix liquids and mains voltage electricity. Until today, I had avoided creating this deadly mixture of elements quite successfully. The fact that I did mix these two elements today is made even more upsetting when you consider that it happened in my studio.

Today had been a day of much frustration trying to get my Triton Rack to install the programs for the ROM expansions chips I acquired from eBay (more on this at a later date!). I then had to create patch scripts for Cubase and the whole situation was driving me to distraction. Typing is not as much fun as ‘playing with my organ’.

Thus when it was time to take a welcome break I naturally reached out to take the cup of coffee (precariously balanced on the edge of the desk) with me. What happened next is the stuff of nightmares and it really did happen in slow motion. I stood transfixed as the warm coffee fell from the cup and into the internal workings of my much beloved Roland JP-8080 synthesizer below it. The liquid did not so much land on the synth but a kind of envelopment took place. As the LCD screen began to blink, I recognised the signs of an imminent death. Oh dear God……

Stupidly I then dived for the machine, unplugging it and throwing it onto the floor in one swift and ill-calculated motion. Tipping the synth sent a large amount of still warm coffee pouring from its ventilation grill and through the sliders on the front panel. Having assumed the worst, I finished cleaning up and began to investigate the cost of a new JP-8080. Gulp.

Having waited an hour I plucked up the courage to plug the synth into the mains and watched with horror as the LCD turned blank (but at least I was not electrocuted). Some time later, my 2 year old niece pressed the ‘preview’ button accidentally and the synth began to emit some decidedly unhealthy noises (she loved it of course). It was at this moment that I realised I had also damaged one or two of the controller knobs by throwing the unit onto the floor. As a last attempt at breathing some life into the machine, I stuffed it into the airing cupboard and hoped it might dry out and miraculously work again.

Do you know what? Do you know what? She breathes again! Ok so some of the buttons are a bit sticky due to java residue and the volume knob is a little ‘wobbly’ but it emits the sounds it is supposed to! A miracle.

So I can confirm that the JP-8080 is built like a tank and can survive envelopment by a cup of coffee. However, I do still believe that liquids and mains voltage electricity should not be mixed. I also believe that liquids should NEVER be taken into a room packed with expensive electrical equipment; let that be a lesson to us all.

Disappointed by a legend

In the last week, I made a new addition to my studio. I placed an ill-calculated bid on a Korg Triton Rack module/sampler expecting to be outbid and accidentally won the auction. As I already own several ‘ROMpler” type instruments I was keen to find out how the equally loathed and revered Triton stood up to its Roland and Yamaha counterparts. It is an expensive way of finding out I will grant you, but find out I did.

As I unpacked the box, I could not help but notice the Triton had a floppy drive. My experiences with Akai samplers and their floppy drives led me to feel a deep sense foreboding. Having wired up the Triton I let it play through its nasty demo tracks and perused the thick instruction manuals. There were some nice sounds but nothing my Fantom or even my JV-1080 could not conjure up.

On delving into the various menu’s and editing pages, I became increasingly disorientated and bemused by the Triton (even with manual to hand). Whilst I do not consider myself as a dedicated enthusiast of any one particular manufacturer, it became obvious that the Triton was neither as easy to set up or as flexible as similar Roland products I own. This is in part due to the fact that the Triton was produced in 2000 and my workhorse Fantom X has only just been superseded. Similarly, the Triton is a damn sight better than my old Yamaha SY85. Yet the Triton is still convoluted and restrictive with no discernable sonic advantage. When I realised that the Triton will not even store settings for its “Multi” mode in non-volatile memory I gave up tinkering.

So the Triton is about as popular as a ginger step child in this studio. Its only hope of redemption are the expansion boards which I am awaiting. A brief scan of the instruction manual suggests I may have to load the program data for the sounds on the boards from a floppy each time I boot up (surely this can't be true?). Roland expansion boards are simple 'plug in and play' affairs which require little or no tinkering, naively I expected every manufacturer to be able to make ROM expansions this easy to use.

This experience has taught me to treasure the flexibility and ease of use of my Fantom X8 and confirmed my long held belief that Korg haven't produced a decent synth since the M1. The long awaited Korg expansion boards will decide the Tritons fate next week.

B12 return

In 1992 the fledgling record label “Warp” began releasing a series of albums titled the “Artificial Intelligence” series. Described as “electronic listening music”, this succession of releases was the perfect antidote to the post-rave chart fodder that came to represent electronic music in the early nineties. 

 

As a lover of innovative electronic music, I devoured each release with great zeal. Whilst the albums by Speedy J, Black Dog and Autechre were not wholly to my liking, those by Polygon Window (Richard James/Aphex Twin) and B12 most certainly were. In fact, I still regard “Surfing on Sine Waves” and “Electro-Soma” as two of the greatest albums in the genre. Despite my love for “Surfing on Sine Waves”, the majority of Richard James’s other work is not to my taste. Yet in the case of B12 it seemed there were no other releases to like or dislike. I spent a great deal of time in the 1990’s looking out for another B12 record that never appeared. Before the advent of the internet, it was difficult to monitor low-key artists who used multiple pseudonyms. For a long time I had no idea B12 even used the names Redcell, Musicology etc. Therefore, it is no surprise that I completely missed B12’s second album “Time Tourist” in 1996. I recently acquired “Time Tourist” and whilst it is not quite on a par with its predecessor, it is still a very good record. The song “Epilion” ranks as one of my favourite B12 tracks. B12 are not exactly prolific though. 

 

Following a 12-year break, they decided to release their third album “Last Days of Silence” in May this year followed by the “Last Days of Silence Remixes” album. These two releases see B12 moving from the Detroit tinged techno and ambience of “Electro-Soma” to pounding IDM. Both albums are once again very good with “Magnetic Fields” and “32 Line Up” being stand out tracks. Not content with these two albums B12 are set to release the entire catalogue of their own label on seven double CD sets. For lovers of IDM and aficionados of electronic music this is very exciting news. Now if you will excuse me I wish to travel to another dimension via “Soundtrack to Space” once again.

I lost something....and gained some monitors

Today I lost 2 and a hlaf hours of my life to visual and aural torture.

I could have spent this time watching paint dry, staring at the wall or hammering rusty nails into my penis; all of witch are favourable to watching the film "Southland Tales". I don't care if you like it, as I will never be swayed. It's dire.

However, in order to salvage some enjoyment in my remaining free time, I decided to try out my new studio monitors. I have always known that you simply can't record your own music usng conventional loudspeakers. Subsiquently, I have used some very cheap "Mini Monitors" for many years. But recently I noticed that the tweater cones had been punched in (probably during a traumatic house move), thus I plumped for some new Tannoy Reveal 6 monitors.

Having purchased 'budget', but never the less, 'proper' studio monitors I thought I had better put them through their paces. Obviously I bought these monitors because they look very cool but how do they sound?

The first thing I notice about these cabinets is that they produce a lot of bass. Yet it is not the bass a conventional Hi-Fi speaker might generate. These monitors seem to emit a heart thumping and clear bass tone that might be too much for some. With these monitors also being so much larger than my old Gale Mini Monitors they also provide better stereo definition and slightly higher volumes. There is definitely more punch from these new monitors. All in all I'm very pleased with them.

The only draw back is their size. These new monitors make me realise just how powerful the Gale monitors are when you consider their size. Still I had a good time listening to some of my favourite tracks and managed to forget about "Southland Tales".

Beat Dis - RX-7

As part of my near constant eighties nostalgia trip, I developed GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome for
those of you non-synth geeks out there) for a Yamaha RX-7 drum machine. 

My first encounter of this machine was through my first keyboard a Yamaha PSS-680. The PSS-680 featured some low quality PCM samples taken from the RX-7. Listen to the album “Below the Waste” by The Art of Noise and you’ll hear these nasty sounds popping up all over the place. The real RX7 and its distinctive snare featured most prominently on the Bomb the Bass’s hit “Beat Dis” from 1988.  

I spent many months chasing these things on eBay only to baulk at high prices or dodgy sellers. I eventually acquired an RX-11 for £5: good, but not what I was after. Having given up on the real thing, I decided to perform one last search for samples on the internet. Wouldn’t you know it I found the full set of RX-7 samples available for free download. Having loaded them into my Fantom X8, I now have a virtual RX-7 and RX-11 at my finder tips. The internet really is great you know. Does anyone want to buy a RX-11 drum machine?

Writers block and the bass drum boom

Whilst trying to write some new tracks today I hit a brick wall. Complete block. Nothing was working, every four or eight bar loop I created sounded terrible. In the face of this difficulty, I decided to revert to methods used many years ago with my former band mate: steal something from The KLF. I plumped to start my chord pilfering from “The White Room” album. Listening to the track “Last Train to Transcentral” brought memories flooding back: sweaty nightclubs, day-glow t-shirts and whistles abound. Those were the days.

 Then THAT bass drum sounded. 

Possibly the greatest bass drum ever committed to tape blew the cones on my monitors inside out and made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.  “The White Room” came out when I was about 17 and still at school. One of our favourite hobbies at the time was trying to destroy the schools stereo and recording system with THAT bass drum. I still have not worked out quite how they recorded this kick. Listen to the track from about 3min 30sec during the drop out with the string riff, then 10 seconds later it comes. Whilst it distorts slightly on any sound system its power is truly immense. One kick drum makes this CD a worthy purchase.  Thus, my attempts to overcome writers block descended into adding as much reverb to 909 kick drums coupled with explosion noises as my monitors would take. I spend ages trying to recreate THAT kick. I still have no idea how they did it. It’s a truly amazing album and a truly astounding kick drum. I haven’t created a new track yet but I do have about 20 reverb drenched kick drum samples. Hey ho.

Soulwax: "Nite Versions" - A Classic

Whilst compiling my list of favourite albums for my last.FM page I wrote a paragraph about the album “Nite Versions” by Soulwax. In this text, I muse that there are not too many remix albums that have a film or documentary made about them. When you also consider that this album spawned a 120-date tour that visited Europe, South America, Japan, Australia and the USA, you have to wonder what is going on. 

The phenomenon of the ‘remix album’ was born in 1979 with Sly and the Family Stone’s album “10 Years Too Soon”. This album took many of Sly Stone’s hits from the 1960’s and presented them in a contemporary disco style. Next came electronic music pioneers such as Soft Cell who released remixed versions of tracks from their 1982 album “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” as “Non-Stop Ecstatic Dancing”. Hot on their heels were The Human League with “Love and Dancing”, a remix album of their hit record “Dare”. The concept of a remix album was firmly established by the success of “Disco” by Pet Shop Boys in 1986. 

Since the 1980’s, remix albums have flourished with many artists and continue to sell steadily. Groups such as Nine Inch Nails have released a subsequent remix disc with all but a few of their studio albums. Soulwax are clearly paying homage to the format’s eighties history with the title of their album as Duran Duran often used the title “Nite Version” for their dance remixes. The parent album from which the tracks for “Nite Verions” are taken is 2004’s “Any Minute Now”. 

On paper, the album looks great. Soulwax members include brothers David and Stephen Dewaele of “Too Many DJ’s” fame along with drummer Steve Slingeneyer and bassist Stefaan Van Leuven. With production maestro Mark “Flood” Ellis and mixing genius Alan Moulder at the controls what could go wrong? Well quite a lot actually. 

The album sounds messy and disjointed and to a lover of electronic music, its sound veers too close to a type of ‘indie grunge’ for my taste. However, the failings of the original album serve to amplify the glory of its remixed counterpart. I initially discovered “Nite Version” as I heard the tracks “Another Excuse” and “Compute” on the Xbox 360 game “Test Drive Unlimited”. When I eventually acquired the CD I thought it was pretty good. The original “Any Minute Now” album, which I bought simultaneously, soon began collecting dust, but I was drawn back to “Nite Version” again and again. Initially, I loved three or four of the tracks, but I soon stopped skipping “E Talking” and “Slowdance” et al and began to appreciate the album in its entirety. Within time, this appreciating became love and then the love became obsession. There was only one CD in my car last summer.

Level 42 live. Never to be missed.

The last time I saw the Level 42 perform was during their ‘Greatest Hits’ tour of 2002. The only disappointment of this tour was that founding member and keyboard virtuoso Mike Lindup was absent. His return in 2006 meant that I simply had to see them during their 2008 UK tour.

On the 15th of October the band were playing the newly refurbished Sheffield City Hall. My only visit to this venue had been in 2000 and it was a distinctly underwhelming experience. However, the new oval hall is much improved. It was a pity that the stewards would not allow either dancing or photographs. Luckily, the majority of the audience broke with these conventions with encouragement from the band.

The concert itself was brilliant. Seeing Level 42 perform live is an essential part of following the band, as their musicianship is simply stunning. I will never tire of seeing Mark King’s inimitable bass playing. You watch his right thumb for an hour and a half solid. Seriously.

However this would be something of a waste as the energetic Gary Husband (drums) and genius of Mike Lindup (keyboards) are equally mesmerising. Rather than rattle through their ‘Greatest Hits’ the band chose to acknowledge that they represent more than their 80’s chart success and presented some of their best album tracks, extended instrumentals and tracks chosen by fans via their website. Some of those less familiar with these ‘obscure’ selections could be seen sitting down and ruminating over the extended instrumentals ‘Man’ and ‘The Pursuit of Accidents’ only to be brought to their feet to sing ‘Running In The Family’. Yet everyone seemed to enjoy and appreciate what they heard whether it be chart hit or not. When experts like Level 42 perform music, an audience will respond to the pure skill and dedication on show regardless of their familiarity with the material.

At the end of the show the band did not simply walk off but spent some time at the front of the stage shaking hands and chatting with their dedicated fans. A nice touch sincerely meant. I know it was sincere because I was lucky enough to meet Mark King and his brother Nathan (guitars) outside the venue afterwards.

One of the greatest live bands in the world. Even if you are not overly familiar with their work you should never pass up the opportunity of seeing them in the flesh. It’s a wonderful, life affirming experience.

LsstFM listening map

As an avid user of LastFM and its 'scrobbling' software I am always interested in statistics related to my listening habits. Recently I have been investigating various scripts and BBCode utilities that can be used to display a range of statistics in your LastFM profile.

Of all the utilities to be found on the web, I was drawn most strongly to the work of Anthony Liekens. Anthony’s website offers the opportunity to create an interactive map showing links between the artists and genre’s you listen to. Once you enter your username the website retrieves your information and begins to create a map on screen. The map shifts in response to the data by moving unrelated tags apart and creating a cluster of related genre’s and artists.

I have to say that the majority of the items on my personal map were not a great surprise: 80’s, electronic, and synth-pop are very prominent tags which link strongly to the majority of the music I listen to. The map also shows a large number of artists in the EMB/Industrial/Future Pop genre with a scattering of ‘new wave’ artists thrown in for good measure. I was pleased to note the eclectic nature of my musical taste was represented with the ‘classical’ tag in evidence. This isolated cluster linked to music by Beethoven, Wendy Carlos and Philip Glass et al.

However, what did catch my eye was the revolting tag of ‘indie’. You see ‘indie’ music is something of an anathema to me. I hate both he tag and the music. Just mention the word ‘indie’ and it brings me out in a cold sweat. Note that the rock area of my map is fairly isolated and being shoved off to the corner by the sheer volume of ‘synth-pop’ and ‘emb’ bands.

It seems I am not as prejudiced as I think. Both Coldplay and the Longpigs were represented along with artists tagged with ‘prog-rock’ and ‘brit pop’. For a dedicated enthusiast of electronic music I felt as if I had let myself down slightly.

Yet on closer examination, the majority of the bands included are in my library because they use synthesizers as part of their sound. Yes is one example of a group I began to listen to as the minimoog performances of Mr Rick Wakeman are something wonderful to behold. Coldplay used tunes written by Kraftwerk and utilise many electronic instruments. In his solo work Ian Brown has created some fantastic music utilising a mixture of synthesizers and conventional rock instruments.

I have no excuse for the Rolling Stones. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.

Happy Birthday Chris

On Saturday I took a few moment to wish Chirs Lowe a happy birthday via the Pet Shop Boys website using my 'pethead' username 'Alter ego'.

Imagine my suprise when I received a personal message in reply.

I don't know if I'm more amazed that Chris read them or that he replied to me.

A Pet Shop Boys forum aser said: "I saw that message from Alter Ego. Wondered if it was actually Neil, or at least someone close to Chris." Afraid not. I'm just another nobody!

Someone else said: "bettin alter ego feels like a pillock!". no not really!

The worst remastered CD ever.....

Now from my last post you will note my disappointment at the quality of reissued or remastered CD’s issued by my favourite bands. With the arrival of the first of the New Order ‘collectors editions’ I have found a new low in quality. 

Having placed my bonus disc into my rather expensive Marantz CD player I immediately removed it and checked it for dust and dirt. I ripped the CD into my computer at a high bit rate and assumed the pops and crackles were due to a poor rip. I tried every CD player I had and the result was the same. To make matters worse, the original album sounds little different to the original CD I own. Before I wrapped the faulty CD up to return to sender, I decided to check the last bastion of specialist knowledge: the official website forum. 

Here you will find many heated debates raging around the subject. I could not help but raise a smile as member after member threw their hat in the ring with lost tempers and childish antics abound. It reminded me of when my favourite group the Pet Shop Boys reissued their back catalogue. The rants we fans entered into were ferocious enough to be commented upon by Neil Tennant in a radio documentary, much to our equal delight and shame. But at least the Pet Shop Boys reissues were consistent and sourced from the master recordings. The New Order collectors editions are poorly mastered, include poor vinyl transfers and even feature the same track on more than one of the bonus CD’s! They are a shambles from start to finish and I have since cancelled my orders for the remaining four albums. I cannot condemn them highly enough. Avoid at any price.

Sell me it again Sam

Having recently purchased the ‘remastered’ versions of Blancmange’s three albums and with New Order’s ‘collectors’ editions in the post, I have begun to consider why I’m buying music I already own. 

In recent years, I have purchased numerous ‘remastered’ CD’s including the entire back catalogue of Depeche Mode, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys and Yello, along with various reissued versions of albums by Front 242, Level 42, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Gary Numan. These are the CD’s that immediately come to mind, I am sure if I thought further there would be many more. The amount of money I have spent is quite staggering and yet I already own much of the music I am buying; I am being sold the same thing twice. So why am I a sucker for reissued albums and singles? 

Well firstly, there is the lure of previously unreleased material or remixes that are otherwise difficult to acquire. Secondly, these CD’s boast that they offer considerably enhanced audio quality. We are also enticed by new or improved artwork, which provides a feeling of luxury or elitism. 

Yet the reality is not always the experience we are promised. On purchasing a new ‘remastered’ CD, I often find myself immediately jumping to the bonus tracks. Often it becomes apparent why this ‘unreleased’ material was not made available originally: its crap. I have even come across CD’s where the master tape is obviously missing and thus a recording has been made from a vinyl source. Hardly the high fidelity experience you are enticed with. 

Similarly, 99% of reissued CD’s seem to have been created by people unfamiliar with the artists work or just plain incompetent. Often you will find that tracks have substituted for their ‘single mix’ or an uncredited alternate version with absolutely no explanation. Remixes are often labelled incorrectly, glaring omissions are made or the running order has been altered. Not one of the reissued CD’s I have purchased have been immune from one, or more of these mistakes. So record companies take note: if you want people to buy even more of the music they already own, get someone competent to compile it.

Rock? You can keep it

I recently visited the house of a friend and I could not help but look at her CD collection. I was amazed that there seemed to be only about 20 CD’s. I find it very difficult to understand how someone of similar age to me could have only accumulated 20 albums they feel are worth purchasing. You see to me, music is important, very important. That is not to say I like all music, in the words of Chris Lowe, “I don’t like much, but what I do like, I love passionately.”

I have never related to the conventional rock band set up. The notion of music created entirely with drums, guitar and bass seems something of an anathema to me. If you use the same instruments, you end up sounding the same as everyone else. I have absolutely no love for bland conventional ‘rock’ music. It is the world of electronic music where I find the only music I have truly loved.

I have no idea why this is. Maybe it is because I reached my teenage years during the 1980’s when electronic music was the new fashion. Maybe it was a reaction to the world of opera and classical music my father worked in. I am sure that a large part of my musical taste was formed by a hatred of musical and artistic convention and trends. I took great pride recently when a friend sent me a message via my Facebook page to say she had only heard of one artist on my list of most played songs gleaned from my mp3 player. I enjoy the fact that hardly anyone knows groups I like such as VNV Nation, Front 242, Front line Assembly, Apoptygma Berzerk, And One or No-Man. The less people know about these groups, the richer those of us who uncover them feel.

The only draw back to enjoying music by less famous artists is actually finding it. Try walking into HMV and asking for a Wolfsheim album. “We can order it, but it’ll take a month to arrive”. At the end of the month, they tell you they cannot get it after all. Happily, this also adds to the experience for me. Finally acquiring an obscure and rare CD is fulfilling in both the music it provides but also knowing you are amongst a select few who own it.

Therefore, you can say music taste is ‘sad’ until you are blue in the face, but I could not care less. You see I believe the music we like is the soundtrack to our lives. The music we like is determined by what happens in our lives. I have a friend who quite likes Elvis. It is not because he appreciates his voice particularly but because his Dad always played Elvis in the car when he was a child. This music became part of his life and thus he shares an affinity with it. Certain songs can not only remind us of a time in our lives but also bring back the feelings and emotions we felt at the time. Therefore, when you insult my music taste, you insult the life I have experienced and not necessarily me as a person. I thus find it had to fathom how someone in their 30’s has only 20 or so CD’s, but then not all of us want to be reminded of what has happened during our lives.

I have since discovered this research into the link between musical taste and personality. Interesting stuff.

Pet Shop Synthesis

2021 Revision 

Pet Shop Synthesis is by far my most popular blog post and still seems to be providing people with enjoyment 13 years after I wrote it. However, a lot has changed since 2008, and whilst the majority of the text remains valid, there are a few inaccuracies and quirks of formatting that left the article looking a bit tired. Thus, I have revised the text and tried to bring it a bit more up to date. It's still not perfect, but I will endeavour to iterate and tweak it to keep improving.

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My obsession with the Fairlight

For me it all began in 1988. The Fairlight CMI music computer became something of an obsession. Ironically 1988 saw the demise of the company and the end of one of the most influential pieces of music technology. But the 1980’s were about only one instrument for me and its effect lingers to this day. 

The Pet Shop Boys album ‘Actually’ was one of my favourites in the 1980’s. As with many records around this time, ‘Actually’ included a credit to the ‘Fairlight programmer’. Much of the music I listened too seemed to use the Fairlight and as a budding electronic musician I had to know more about it.

In the days before the internet the only source of information on such obscure topics as music synthesizers were books. I first saw a picture of the Fairlight CMIIx in a biography of my musical hero Jean-Michel Jarre [see right]. Jarre sits poised with his light pen ready to edit waveforms with his modular Moog 55 behind him. Forget the pink jump suit.

Gradually I began to recognise the distinctive sound of the Fairlight everywhere. I also learned just how expensive it was and realised such a thing would only ever be a dream for me. I wanted one very badly for many years.

Yet as music and technology moved on in the early 90’s, the Fairlight was discarded. To be honest I moved on too as the new dance scene took over with its Akai S1000 beats and Korg M1 piano riffs. 

In my nostalgic middle age, I find myself listening to the songs of my youth and the yearning for the Fairlight CMI is rekindled. Recently I acquired many of the original CMIIx samples to use in my software sampler and was amazed at how terrible they are. The poor quality of the 8-bit samples gave me an even deeper admiration for the artists who used this synthesizer to make such polished and beautiful music from such a low quality source. I have no doubt that as this blog continues the Fairlight will crop up many times.