Keyboard rig updates, writer's workshop items - comments more than welcome!

A couple interesting updates - one for the gear geek, another for the songwriter/composer with associative questions for your response:

Keyboard Geek Time

I've got a couple more keyboard upgrades to do, but that will essentially finish the writing/recording and live rig. Wish list items marked with (WL), items available for sale (S)
- Yamaha MOX6 workstation
- Roland VR-09 V-Combo (WL)
- Roland VP-550 Vocal Ensemble
- Roland Gaia SH-01 virtual analog synth
- Novation X-Station 49 Synthesizer
- Moog Little Phatty Stage I (WL)
- Roland VK-8m Organ Module (S)

 

I also have the following available as rack units for live & recording:

- Korg Triton rack

- Yamaha TX812 (8 DX7s in a box)

- laptop computer with the following:

  - Arturia Laboratory with many vintage synths/patches as VSTs

  - IK Multimedia SampleTank, Sonik Synth, etc...

 

Now, question time for all you keyboard dudes - I have three synths essentially doing the same role. I would like to keep two which brings up the question for you to answer (in your comments below).

Which two of the Gaia, X-Station or Little Phatty would you keep?
Anyone interested in the VK module, or in the one synth that I remove from the rig - contact me thru the email address in the blog and we can talk.

Now, for the writers out there

As a matter of writing process, I tend to be inspired by the tone and timbre of a sound coming from an instrument in order to write most of my material. It's very rare for me to sit down with only a melody and lyric being the output and leave the arrangements to the negotiation/recording phase - in fact lyrics almost always come after and to an extent independent of the music. Now, I've started looking into "writing prompts" as a way of changing things up, but it's a hard go for me...

I'd like to hear how you all sit down and get going on new material. There is no right or wrong way to do anything, but approaching anything from a new angle promises to at least enlighten and instruct. I'd be very happy to read all the ways everyone gets their creative boulders moving in a positive direction.

Next post I'll discuss guitars and some modifications I've done to Craigslist junkers to turn them into jewels of tone :) Cheers!

New PledgeMusic Project ready for sponsorship

Hi All,

Rob's CD Remasters Project

As mentioned before, I've been working on plans to redo and release past CDs/material in preparation for writing and recording new material. I've since decided to take the past works & utilize crowdsourcing to fund the manufacture portion of the process - pressing those pesky CDs are a pain in the ass & can cost some significant $$$ before they can be made available for anyone to purchase (and thus recoup investment). With the decline of the music industry and artists now needing to be responsible for their own inventory (namely - I buy the CDs from the pressing plant and then sell/ship them myself), I need to find a way to make this happen.

This is how the crowdsourcing thing works. You (the crowd) pledge some amount of money towards the project, and I then go off and work on the stuff and at the end, you get the package that you pledged money towards. Capice?

So in the spirit of this, I thought I'd make it worthwhile for you all - a box set of music covering off the time period from 1986 thru today.

1. "Onion & other rarities" - this is the entire 2000 release "Onion" which included several early versions of instrumentals and full songs released in very limited quantities. Also includes songs from one of my first recorded efforts - "Babble & Rhetoric" (my band with Marc Koenen & Juris Vinters), and some commercial & jazz rock instrumentals that to date were released only on compilation projects. All songs will be completely redone with 2013 technology and instrumentation/vocals - this is also the opportunity I have to make them relevant to a modern audience as well since the stuff from 1986 was recorded on a Tascam 4 track cassette portastudio (thx to Trevor Sadler for the millionth time!) I'll be enlisting my friends John Hernandez and possibly original drummer Juris Vinters to put together drum tracks, and as always I'll be trying to enlist my great friend Paul Harrington on keyboards for these new recordings. This specific item in the box set will be exclusively available only in this package - no plans exist to release as a stand alone product.
2. "The Sound of Thoughts" - this 2005 release will be completely remixed & remastered, with new vocal & instrumental performances on many songs including the 19 minute magnum opus “Lady in a Cage”. New CD packaging will include liner notes highlighting revisions to the original - musicians past and present who participate will be fully credited for their efforts.
3.  “a fine line between…” release will enjoy the same kind of end to end remix/remaster treatment as “The Sound of Thoughts” – Rob & Paul (keyboardist) are revisioning the final product, which in some cases will bring added clarity & expose details of the arrangements that are at times buried by the denseness of the original mix. Again, vocal & instrumental performances will be updated in some cases, improving the final CD and refreshing it in the eyes of the world.

As with all crowdsourcing efforts, the target is a modest value ($2000) with the promise of 10 cents of every dollar pledged above the target going to The Fender Music Foundation - which provides funding to schools all across America to help keep their music education programs on the right track. This charity has helped countless children learn about instruments and the arts, and they work with other charities to make the most out of all of their funding. 100% of the money sent into the organization goes right back into music education.

The money that is over and above the target goes into funding the remaining quantities of both box set and individual release zero carbon footprint CD Digipaks. After we achieve a 1000 count of CD inventory for each of the box, "Sound of Thoughts" and "a fine line" - remaining money will go into production funding for the new project - expected for early to mid 2014 release.

Please go to the project site and take a peek at the package offerings. Some really cool stuff exists - including t-shirts and posters imprinted with Ed Unitsky's wonderfully stunning artwork signed by the band (and I will be asking Ed to sign his work for the tees and posters as well).