I´m a keyboardist/arranger, sometimes composer, only, as a pro since I finished studying graphics designs in the 70th and I worked as a musical director several times in the past. But I was interested in tech stuff too and since I got my very 1st keyboard in my life, a Vox organ, in the age of 16. A Fender Rhodes mk I, a Clavinet D6 and a Arp String machine came next as also all FX stomp boxes you can think of. And we modified all ... :-)
With synths, I started relatively late w/ a modular FORMANT, a early PPG 1002, a analog monophonic but w/ "digital" oscillators (Wolfgang Palm lived and lives in my hometown, so PPG was located here too in the pioneer times) and then I got the Minimoog in 1980, then the Prophet5 and so on. Synth programmers were rare in the early days, so I became a specialist at that time and I learned a lot about functionality of synths, synthesis itself and w/ a growing rig, I learned all about midi, wireing, the 1st computers, applications. With a friend, a sevice tech who studied microprocessor technology, my interest also turned to modifications of synths and any keyboard gear, FX ...
I was interested on what´s in my machines ever and how it works, what it can do theoretically and what not. I never buyed gear because of "who of the big cats plays what". And of course, the sound made the decision all the time, but I never trusted factory sounds from that time where synths came up w/ presets. Factory presets are just a showcase of a product and shows it´s best side, never disadvantages. So the rule was,- delete the presets and programm 1st !
But there were more synth interested guys in town and so I also got my hands on other synths I didn´t own myself, used ´em in studios or during jam sessions because they were there.
Sometimes it became neccessary to fix occuring issues on the fly, not all gigging in the past was accompanied by (experienced) crew guys, you know, and if, most of the crewguys were able to stack Marshall amps and cabs, setting up wedges, sidefills and the PA, but rarely they had knowledge w/ the new and innovative electronics. Keyboards are the nightmare for them up to now ! :-)
So I teached my crewguys midi and how synths work, how they react to bad current and so on and it was ever a big plus I had spare parts somewhere in my rig and could tell ´em to what these belong and where to find inside the machine, how to remove and how to replace.
There were also a lot of bugs in the 1st midi instruments regarding midi standard and the machines were very sensitive on bad current, weak grounding as also trial and error pushbutton combinations leading into any imaginable situations on stage, loss of all presets during show p.ex.. I had the case a Prophet5 lost all it´s patches because the crew switched on the light-rig 15min before a show and I had to reprogram my patches manually resulting in the audience had to wait at the entrance. Annoying !
It was the 1st show of a long tour and I forgot to record the patches on a cassette after the rehearsals ended and I also didn´t expect such a desaster because it never happened before, in fact, I didn´t believe it´s possible.
Loss of patches was quite common w/ Prophets, Oberheim OB-8 (which also lost data written by the OS in the RAM then) and especially the PPG Wave 2.x ), this caused by spikes p.ex., but we learned that by experience, no one knowed this until it happened several times. It needed weeks to find out a PPG 2.x runs weird if the current runs under 208Volts because of it´s crappy power regulators, a misdesign.
So, all is/was learning by doing and it was also good to dig into basicly reading schematics and circuit diagrams. You cannot count on others all the time and never expect to have quality service techs on a tour unless you tour w/ Santana or Pink Floyd.
The Chroma,- I never had one, so I´m not sure if it generates envelopes by software but I think it isn´t. But I was not talking about CEMs in the Chroma,- it only belongs to the polyphonic analoges for me.
No,- I have no "backup" job since I started to work professional in the music biz.
This circumstance might be a disadvantage nowadays and after all the dramatic changes in the industry,- but this is what I also couldn´t expect ´cause my job worked very well for over 25 years, which is a lot.
I´m pretty sure, for a keyboardist, especially he´s performing live, it´s neccesary to have some technical knowledge and I´m also pretty sure, this knowledge as also the ability to program synths, building my own rig and racks as also cable runs and to create the layout of these runs (audio and midi) without the result of a "spaghetti" design saved me a lot of money, nervous breakdowns and came up w/ well payed jobs for years.
Very often, 2nd keyboardists in a band were happy if I could help ´em if they were lost in their gear. Hired musicians are good players anyway, they all can play,- but most have not too much tech knowledge and they don´t read the manuals at all ... :-)
JoMox,- don´t know. I was never interested in these machines because I don´t like to have desktop models flying around.
I count on keyboard instruments and/or 19" racked stuff.
I don´t trust anything which is lightweight and small and/ or has whacky connections like notebooks and related audio/midi interfaces, mini-phones jacks, FiWi, USB, PCI(express) cardbus and so on. That´s all for the home.
It´s enough to have 5-pin DIN connections for MIDI ! Whacky enough IMO ...
And I don´t trust the crew anymore, they ever find a way to blow your gear !
:-)
Karl schrieb:
Hi PeWe,
OK, I should have said entirely analog signal chain. BTW my
schematics show the Chroma, as not using any CEM envelope generators
but rather generating these functions in software. (being a natural
evolution from the multiplexed architecture of a hybrid Analog/
Digital synth).
Thanks for the link. It is a good read, but I am pretty careful about
where my money goes. I have been a little sloppy lately because I
finally have my house paid for. The V-Synth was defiantly an
impulse buy.
You sound too well versed in electronics to be only a musician. Whats
your backup job? Also, what do you think of the JoMox stuff?
Karl