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.