Prodigal Jon has a good post about musicians and artist and the importance that God places on them.

FYI, I'm not done with synthesizer/MIDI stuff. It's just been pretty busy lately... and I've been trying to get some sort of "hands on" way to demonstrate modular synths.

A Clarifiaction: Dreams and Debt

In a previous post I encouraged young rockers to go for it, and pointed out some common pitfalls. Since posting it, I've had some conversations and experiences that warranted a follow-up post.

GO FOR WHAT??

My own heart is to see musicians make a good try for it.... but I really mean whatever dream that God has put on your heart — whether that's chasing music, or business ventures, or inventions, or a Ph.D., or whatever. You have a window of opportunity between the ages of 17 and 23 that you will never, ever have again. It's apropos to use this time to do some serious dream chasing. However, music is unique in that if you don't chase it seriously during this phase of your life... you probably won't be able to ever pursue music as a serious vocation again (only as a hobby). Usually you can seriously go after the other stuff even after you become respectable.

So, whatever your dream is (even if people think it's silly), if you're young: go for it!

DEBT

If you have a car payment, a house payment, and an HDTV payment — that forces you to be respectable and hold down a regular job. This means no touring and infrequent practicing. Whatever you do, avoid all debts like it's a sin. It bogs you down. The Bible says that "The rich rules over the poor / And the borrower is slave to the lender." Don't be a slave.

Really, the more general theme is: avoid entanglements. Things that tie you down. Things that prevent you from moving freely toward your goal.

My baby's gone

When I first heard the overdrive on this amp, I thought, "It's like the finger of God." The thunder rolled, and rolled, and rolled. Nice and creamy overdrive. At the time it belonged to a friend of mine, Erick, who's now the guitar player for Hey Hollywood. I loved this amp... especially when he played it. It's a Crate Vintage Club 50 (VC-5310, for those keeping score).

Around 1999 or 2000 I started playing the electric guitar again (thanks Chris W.). Around that time I started to have a vision about putting together the rock band that became se7en. To make the endeavor work, I needed a real amp. With tubes. Around that time, Erick graduated high school and enrolled in a Master's Commission program, which is an intense 1-year discipleship thing. During that time, he was nice enough to let me borrow (and eventually buy) his amp. I used the amp to get some sounds that were close to the modern rock sound that I wanted (but it's more of a blues/classic rock amp). It wasn't until later that I understood what sort of tone I was going for. It was still fun to turn it up, though. And I made lot's of use of the effect loop insert to put my wah, chorus, and delay after the overdrive.

Se7en lasted about 2 or 3 years. We all learned a lot and enjoyed making music together. We even played at The Door once. We broke up as friends after coming to the conclusion that we wouldn't ever be able to achieve our goals.

It wasn't until 2006 that the amp saw real action again when I joined the band at New Hope. As it happens though, it's 50W glory fell pray to the stage loudness wars. ("Turn that thing down!") After a month or two, I borrowed Steve's Line 6 POD on a full time basis (going direct to the PA — without an amp). Then I bought my own POD. The amp spent a lot of time in the closet.

While posting it on craigslist, I started looking in to the specs. The amp was originally a 3x10, but had been modified to a 2x10 with Eminence speakers. (For you non-guitar players, that means that the amp had 3 speakers that measure 10" in diameter. Someone converted the amp to have 2 speakers that measure 12" in diameter. The larger speakers give you more bass and tone, and Eminence are top-of-the-line speakers.) They did such a good job in the conversion, I never really knew.

Well, I watched my baby leave tonight. My first real rock'n'roll tube amp. I sold it to the guy that owns the tattoo parlor in Wylie. A really nice guy who slings some tasty blues licks. It's sad to see her go, and it brings back lots of memories. At least she's going to a good home.

*sniff*

Youth is Wasted on the Young

"Youth is wasted on the young."
— George Bernard Shaw

"When I was young I knew everything
She a punk who rarely ever took advice
Now I'm guilt striken
Sobbing with my head on the floor"
— Vander Ark ("The Freshmen"/The Verve Pipe)

"Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now."
— Bob Dylan ("My Back Pages")

When you're young, the world is wide open to you. You're unencumbered, strong, and free. You can go whatever direction that you want. The problem is that you're also not very wise. Wisdom often comes after years of making the wrong choices. So, the old guys sit back... wishing we could get a second take. Also, you're often encumbered by what you think you should be doing (going to college, getting a job, etc.). This stuff usually smothers your dreams of making it as a band.

If you really want to make it as a band, give it a real try. Here's a few things I've seen over the years:

• Don't get married (yet). Marriages kill this dream faster than anything. There is one exception: If she (or he) is involved with the band. If she really digs being your manager or booking agent or bass player or just being around the band on tour — then it can still work. But if she doesn't want to tour with you, it just won't work.
• Don't have kids (yet). Kids don't belong on tour with a young rock band trying to make it. They need to be at home. There's no way to make it work if you have small kids.
  
• Don't be too responsible (yet). Holding down a full time job (and doing the band on the side) usually doesn't work. Business, manufacturing, retail: they don't care about you. And they're not going to be flexible and let you have the summer off to go on tour. They also want you to work 50-70 hour work weeks. But you need to be able to quit the job, go on tour, and then go find another job.
• Ask. Do research. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Talk to lots of people. Get lots of advice and feedback. On the road. Off the road. Make lots of contacts in the business. How do other bands do it? How long did it take them to "make it?"
  
• Believe in what you're doing. Believe that you can do it. After that, it comes down to luck.
• Stick together/Get outside encouragement. The music business is tough. What's also tough is being in a business partnership (aka "the band"). The most imporant thing is that the guys in the band remain friends. Also find someone who can speak into your lives and give you encouragement when your down.
• Vision. Know what you are about. Why are you doing this. Are you a clone of something old... or are you something new? What are you trying to accomplish... musically?
• Pick a leader. Democracy has its limits. At times you need one person who will be the point. Who will make the split calls. Who will cast the vision for the band. You'll get farther faster if you pick a leader.

If you're young, and your in a band, and your talented: Now is your chance! Right now, you would probably sleep under a bridge for a couple nights while on tour. It would be a little uncomfortable... but a little fun, too. Try doing that when there's a wife and 4 kids depending on your paycheck.

Go for it, guys!

The WSG (Wierd Sound Generator)

Over at Music From Outer Space, Ray Wilson has a DIY (Do It Yourself) synthesizer project called the Wierd Sound Generator. For a few bucks, you can buy the components (locally) and put it together yourself. Half the fun is making the enclosure (left as an exercise for the reader).

There's a few good Youtube videos that demonstrate this thing. Check your brain at the door.

• A standard-looking model.
• Potar and his son
• A guy modding it up to add lights.

I plan to make up one of these as a project to do with my kids. I'll let you know how it goes.

Sequencing

Often, a band will get in to MIDI and synthesizers so that they can extend the sonic range of the band without adding another member. For example, you might have a song that would sound really good with an orchestra background. But, you don't want to have a 90-pc. orchestra waiting off-stage so that you can do that one song some justice. Synthesizers can help you get some of those extra sounds to round out your performance. Using a sequencer can also help you automate some of your other moves (like changing patches on your guitar rig so that you're not tied down to your pedalboard).

When we talked before about MIDI, we said that note information is going across the wire. Note that timing information is not.[1] So, if you just dump all the note information into the synthesizer then the synth will play all the notes as fast as it can. This is usually not what you want. A sequencer will keep track of note information and timing information so that you can record a performance and then play it back later. The sequencer, when playing a piece, will send all the text messages at the right time. So, think of the sequencer doing this:

"Dude #1: Play a C#"
(to self: one mississippi, two mississippi)
"Dude #1: OK, stop the C# and play a D. Dude #2 play an F#"
(to self: one mississippi)
"Dude #2: Stop the F# and then play an F#"
(to self: one mississippi, two mississippi)
"Dude #1: Stop playing all your notes and then switch to your Piano sound"
....

There's a couple ways to create a sequence. If you don't have any MIDI controllers, you need a sequencing program like Rosegarden, Cakewalk, Cubase, etc. Using the programs it's possible to enter in the notes by hand. (I'll probably explain the typical methods later.) The other (better) way is to record your performance with this sort of setup:

You plug the MIDI OUT of your keyboard (controller) into the MIDI IN of the sequencer. You also need to set up the Keyboard so that the notes you press only go to MIDI OUT (and they don't make any noise). Then, you connect the MIDI OUT of the sequencer into the MIDI IN on the keyboard. If your keyboard is also a synthesizer, configure it to "listen" to the incoming data. Make sure these are happening on the same channels. If you have any more synths, plug them up using the MIDI THRU ports.

The sequencer needs to be configured to echo incoming notes. But what this setup will do is allow the sequencer to record what you're doing as the messages are being sent to the synthesizers. The sequencers are able to record note info, the status of your pitch wheel, and knob/mod-wheel tweaks you make, and "patch" changes (when you change the synth voice).

After you've recorded it, the sequencer has note data — not audio. So you can fix mistakes, change keys, change tempo, etc. You can also insert stuff. For example, if you put a Line 6 Pod into your synth chain, you can send messages to the Pod that will change the patch you are on, change the volume, turn on/off the wah, set the delay time, etc. (This allows your guitar player the freedom of jumping off amplifiers instead of standing at his pedal board.)

USING IT LIVE

Sequencers are pencil-necked, inflexible, perfect people to play with. If a sequencer was a human, you'd call him a jerk because he doesn't listen to the band. If you're playing with a sequencer, it's his way or the highway. (One notable exception is Ableton's Live.) If you play with a sequence (even from Live) on stage, you will need to make sure that the band is fully synchronized on the tempo. The most common way to do this is with a click. This like a metronome that only the band hears while performing. Usually, at least the drummer will have the click, but anyone else who is going to be playing with the sequence will need to hear the click. The band will also need have the song progressions memorized. (Intro → Verse → Chorus → Verse → Chorus → Bridge → Chorus → Chorus → Outro).

If the band gets off the sequence, there is no recovery.[2] You either have to stop the sequence or grasp to get back on track. Here's a few ways to get the click:

• Dedicate a synth (like the sequencer's built-in drum machine) to giving the click. The audio output of that synth will either go straight to the drummer's headphones, or into the mixing console the controls the stage monitors.
• If you're using a high-end keyboard with extra outputs (e.g. Left, Right, 1, and 2), you can often route the click to one of the auxiliary outputs). Or if you are using a softsynth and a break-out box with several outs, you can use one of those outs for your click.
• If your keyboard has stereo outputs and is able to do more than one sound at once (multi-timbral), you can dedicate the Left output to your real music, and then use the Right output for your click sounds.
• If you guys are musician gawdz, you can watch a blinking lights on the sequencer's console for the tempo.

Someone will have to be dedicated to starting and stopping the sequences. If you have a keyboard player or a DJ... that's his job. Otherwise this usually falls to the drummer. However, the drummer usually has too many things going on already... so a guitar player with a MIDI foot controller might be a better option.

USING IT LIVE (Take 2)

What we've talked about so far is a MIDI setup that is inflexible and pre-recorded. You also have to lug around synths and set them up. You have to make sure that they're all talking to each other. All set up so that the synths will make freaky sounds while you're playing cool leads on the guitar. Why are we doing all this again?

You might consider recording (audio) all this stuff. Put the synth sounds on the Left. Put your click on the Right. Load it into an MP3 player (or iPod if you live an iLife in an iBand) and plug the output into separate inputs of the PA/Monitors. It's the same thing, right? And it weighs a lot less. If you have some loopers, you can possible load them into that for real-time rearrangement.

You might be thinking, "But... but... my synths are all sound awesome in stereo. If I put all the audio on the Left... then I lose my stereo. I just can't live with that!" The answer to this is simple: 99.9% of the places that you are going to play have a Mono mix for the PA. And if they do use a stereo mix... it's not for what you think it's for. Use all the stereo you want in the studio. On stage, you have to deal with mono. Even if you give the sound engineer a stereo signal, he's going to combine them into one, single, mono signal.[3]

ONE LAST WARNING (STUCK NOTES)

Remember how in MIDI there's a command for note on and a separate command for note off? What happens if you send the note off command... but the synthesizer was too busy to heed your instruction? What if the sequencer forgot to send it? What if the patch that you chose has an infinite delay loop that has become very odious sounding? Then, my friend, you have a stuck note. There's a special MIDI command for "EVERYBODY BE QUIET!!!" There's another one for "DUDE #4, WOULD YOU *PLEASE* BE QUIET." This is often called the "Panic" button or "All notes off." There's often one on the front of the synth. Otherwise you can send these messages (CC means Control Change):

• For a single channel: CC#123 All Notes Off
• For all channels: CC#125 (Omni Mode On/"Everyone be quiet and listen"), CC#124 (Omni Mode Off/"As you were...")
  

You usually don't need to know those 3 control codes... it's usually already set up in your sequencer. Know where it is before you get on stage.

SUMMARY

So, to wrap up, here's what you should take away from this one:

• You can use a sequencer to automate your synthesizers.
• You can use the sequencer to automate your other digital gear.
• You must have a click set up if you're going to use a sequence.
• Instead of a sequence, consider using a stereo recording with the audio on the Left and the click on the Right.
• Know where the panic button is (all notes off).
  

Y'all have fun!

[1] - Actually, there are some special situations where timing information does go across the wire, but we won't get in to that.
[2] - Although, I've been working on something for Linux and the Jack audio server that allows for real-time tempo adjustment, beat skipping, etc.
[3] - Whether you like it or not, this is the convential wisdom for PA design. The idea is that the stereo mix is only effective for a person sitting in a single spot in your auditorium. That is to say, a stereo mix is not effective for 99.9% of the listeners. Plus, if you pan the guitar to the left, the folks on the right will not hear him. At all. Therefore almost all PA's in all bars, churches, and concerts are set up with a mono mix. Whether you like it or not. Agree or disagree. This is what you will find and complaints about having depth of sound will fall on deaf ears as they roll their eyes at you. And chances are that you are wrong. :-)

How Synthesizers Make Noise

While playing keyboard, you make lots of cool sounds if you tweak some of the knobs while you are playing. In fact, this is what makes a keyboard player different from a piano player who is playing on a keyboard. To tweak the knobs, it helps to know what it is you are tweaking. Today, I'll describe oscillators, filters, envelope generators, and how they work together.

Most of you have seen an audio waveform like this before:
...and most of you intuitively know what this is and what it's doing. If you don't, leave a comment and I'll go back and explain it. If you zoom in on a small section, you'll see this:
Notice how it's an oscillating signal. It's our goal to create a slightly complex waveform like this. This one is a little jagged because it is the combination of drums, guitars, bass, and several synths. So, since our goal is to create an oscillating signal, the typical way a synthesizer works is to start with an easy-to-get oscillating signal, and then season it to taste. Here's logically how most amplifiers process it:

This is what each part is and does:

• OSCILLATOR: This is the fundamental audio signal. It can be a sine wave, a square wave, a saw tooth wave, a recording of something (sample), noise, or anything else you could dream up.
• FILTER: This is like a tone control on your guitar amp or on a radio. Another way to think of it is that it's like an equalizer. It mutates the incoming signal to reduce (or enhance) certain frequencies.
• AMPLIFIER: This makes the signal larger (lounder) or smaller (quieter). This part is pretty boring except for.....

ENVELOPE GENERATORS

Have you ever turned down the volume knob on your guitar, pluck the note, and then raise the volume? Kind of give a glassy or violin sound, doesn't it? Or how about played with a wah pedal? You pluck the note and move the pedal — which gives is a new dimension while you play it. Well, the volume knob swell is like an envelope generator for the amplifier. The wah pedal is like an envelope generator for a filter. An envelope generator changes the settings of your oscillator, filter, and/or amplifier in a time-dependent way. The most common approach to an envelope generator is the ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release) envelope. Here's an image that explains the ADSR envelope applied to the amplifier (the bottom axis is time):

• ATTACK: After the signal to start playing a note (key pressed), this determines how fast and how loud the note should be (initially). To get a really harsh attack (like a trumpet), the attack time is short and the amplitude is high. To get a really soft attack (like spacey music that goes bwwwwaaaaaAAAAAHHH), the attack time is set much longer.
• DECAY: After finishing the attack phase, this sets how the amplitude should change. For an organ or violin, there often is no decay at all. However, for a plucked instrument (guitar) or brass instrument, the decay will usually drop back down substantially.
• SUSTAIN: After finishing the decay phase, if your finger is still pushing the keyboard for the note, this is how loud it will be while you hold the note. It is not time dependent.
• RELEASE: This determines how fast the note should go away after the key is released. For an organ, the signal will immediately drop, for percussion this usually has no meaning, but for something like a piano it takes time for the instrument to stop vibrating.
  

Most folks only play with the ADSR on the amplifier/amplitude. However, you can do some other cool things by using the EG's (envelope generators) for the other parts as well.

HANDS ON

This is all pretty boring unless you have something to play with. If you already have a synthesizer... get a hold of its manual and find out how to change all these settings on one of your tones. (Pick a simple tone like a flute, or start one from scratch.) Or perhaps you could visit a local music store and find a MicroKorg or a Moog to play with. (I did that yesterday, and it was pretty phun.) You can also find a softsynth and play around with its settings. Here's some softsynth suggestions:

• Windows/Mac: Check Out KeyToSound's Remedy
  
• Linux: ZynAddSubFx
  

And don't forget: have fun!

Notes and further reading:

• To see what an analog oscillator circuit looks like, check out this sine wave oscillation circuit.
• Sine wave scope image courtesy of , and permission is granted on that site to use its content for non-commercial use.
• The ADSR envelope image courtesy of tge Wikipedia article ADSR Envelope and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. That article also has a lot more info on the ADSR Envelope concept.
  

MIDI Basics (Musical Text Messaging)

When dealing with Sythesizers, you will end up messing with MIDI, the Musical Instrument Digital Interface. Because it is easy to implement, it is almost universally implemented electronic musical instruments, from synths to guitar amplifiers to video projectors. It allows you to chain together several dissimilar devices and have them do the Right Thing.

MIDI is pretty much Morse Code. When you hit middle C on your keyboard, the keyboard will send a MIDI message that says, "Dude: Play middle C kinda quiet." MIDI does not send audio. Just the code. Literally, it sends this message in morse code: 9A 60 31.

• 9 means "play a note."
• A means "Dude:" (specifically, dude #11).
• 60 is middle C (so, 61 is C#, 62 is D...).
• 31 is "kinda quiet" on a scale of 0 to 127. (0 is silent).

These letters are sent over the modem to the synthesizer. The synthesizer says, "Hey, that's me!" and produces generates a middle C. So, you see, there's no music going across the wire. It's just note numbers. Data. In a lot of ways, MIDI is a lot like ethernet, telephones, modems, and text messaging. u dwn W dat?

Notice above that A was "Dude #11." A single MIDI wire can only transmit over 16 channels (i.e. 16 dudes). However, it's possible for 2 or dudes (synths, sequencers) to listen to the same channel. Most devices have a setup where you select the "MIDI Channel(s)" to listen (or transmit) on.

You probably first encountered MIDI by seeing this:

These are called MIDI ports, and here's what they mean:

• MIDI IN - Messages coming in to the device. If this is a synth, you would plug your keyboard controller in to this port.
• MIDI OUT - Messages coming from this device. So, if this is a keyboard (or controller), then the note messages will come out of this port.
• MIDI THRU - This port will make an exact copy of everything that comes from the MIDI IN port, and resend the messages. This will not contain any of the data that is coming out of MIDI OUT. (However, some devices will allow you to do this.)
  

The MIDI THRU port is useful for creating a MIDI Chain, a one-way connected path for midi messages to go through. A really typical MIDI Chain is as follows:


One keyboard (or sequencer or computer) can send messages to a bunch of synths that are chained together. Notice that we're making good use of the MIDI THRU port. You will typically set Synth #1 to Channel 1, Synth #2 to Channel 2, etc. This way, you can have an analog synth making really cool analog sounds, and a sampling synth doing brass or strings, and a drum machine. All of them doing what they do best. From the keyboard, you can change the sounds, volume, pitchwheel, etc., etc.

You can chain together more than 16 synths. However, you will have to have 2 or more that will play the same thing at the same time. Often, you will do this to make cool multitimbral sounds — sounds made by combining other dissimilar sounds.

That's enough for today. The basic things that you should take away are these:

• MIDI is like a text messaging system, and there's several types of commands that you can use it for.
• There are 16 channels on MIDI. You can only do 16 things at a time on a single MIDI chain.
  
• Understand what the MIDI IN, OUT, and THRU ports do.
• Understand how to chain devices together.

Kids' Rock

Check out this video.

Synthesizer 101

As I journey into the world of synthesizers, I've noticed that nobody really lays out what it all means to the musician. The problem is that most of the info I've found sort of assumes that I already know what I'm looking for. I can find lots of stuff that talks about LFO's, arpeggiators, and samples... but few that have helped me piece everything together. So, I'm going to take a few blog posts to talk about synthesizers, and how a rock musician can make the most of them.

To start with, you have to understand how everything is layed out in the synth world, and where the boundaries are. Take a look at this diagram, and I'll define what each word means:

• Musician: This is the guy who is creating the music. It's usually a warm body. Sometimes it can be a computer that is creating the music.
• Controller: This is what the musician actually touches so that the music will be made. Usually, it looks like a piano keyboard. However, controllers can take many shapes... including a guitar, saxaphone, trumpet, and wierd antenna thingy (like the Moog Etherwave Theremins). The controller does not make any noise (unless you drop it on the floor... but that's not the kind of noise you want.)
  
• Sequencer: This is like an automatic musician, but it's actually just a computer. The musician will program the notes and whatnot for a song (usually using the controller). The sequencer will then play back the notes, sending the signals to the sequencer at the right time so that the song has an actual tempo.
• Synthesizer: This is a device that actually makes noises. It's usually an electronic device in a box that you never see (thus the transistor icon). It responds to signals coming from the controller and/or the sequencer. It doesn't care if it's being played by a controller (i.e. a musician) or by a sequencer. All it sees is incoming notes... and it generates tones according to the incoming signal and its current settings and parameters (typically called a patch).
• Listener: Obviously, the tones from the synth are sent to an amplifier and then heard by a person. However, sometimes it's a recording device... or perhaps another signal processor. I put it here because it represents the complete process.

The blue arrows represent a signal flow from one part to the next. Between the controller, sequencer, and synthesizer the data communication is usually done through a standard protocol called MIDI, but not always. In the old days, before MIDI, it was often done by sending a voltage signal. The voltage represented the desired pitch, and the pitch change was 1 volt per octave.

This is a very flexible system. You can purchase all-in-one systems (like the Yamaha S08). However, you can also break it up and just buy a controller (M-Audio's Axiom 49), sequencer (a PC running MusE or Steinberg's Cubase), and/or a synthesizer (Dave Smith Instrument's ). Because MIDI is the standard communication protocol between them, it's easy to mix and match components. But even if you buy an all-in-one package it is important to know where the divisions are. The all-in-one systems are usually logically divided up like this, and use these terms.

What's more, these days you can do all three on a computer. It's not uncommon for me to use the computer keyboard as my controller, use a software sequencer (MusE, Rosegarden, or seq24), and use a softsynth (a software synthesizer like ZynAddSubFx or FluidSynth).

In future posts I plan to talk about musicianship with synthesizer (i.e. how to use them for music), MIDI, the basics of how a synthesizer creates tones (internally), samples, loops, some of the different types of synthesizers on the market, and integrating it all into a live setup.

Gear Lust

Most guitar players lust after guitars and tube amps. Steve yearns for a Les Paul. Mike for a Rickenbacker. Nice guitars. I'd sure like a Taylor and another Electric. But as it happens, my friend James has turned me to the dark side:


(Click here for a YouTube video of a guy putting it through its paces.)

The Dave Smith Poly Evolver Keyboard. It's got 2 digital oscillators, and 2 analog oscillators, and 4 low-frequency oscillators. (Oscillators are the basic building blocks of how a synth generates sound.) It makes some really quality wacked-out sounds. You can even plug in a guitar and use it like an effects processor on the guitar.

And it has lots and lots of knobs.

This is cool, because lately I've been programming my Church's Korg Triton LE. Lots fewer knobs. So, to change any of the parameters you have to hit [MENU] [F3] [OK] [F5] [UP] [UP] [RIGHT] [RIGHT] [RIGHT] (oops) [LEFT] [INC] [INC] [INC] [MENU] [F1] [OK] [F1]. With the Evolver or (or a Moog Voyager), you just reach up and tweak the knob.

*sigh*