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Stream Operator

Joined: Oct 13, 2007 Posts: 6221 Location: near Austin, Tx, USA
Audio files: 267
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 2:23 am Post subject:
History of the Klee Subject description: As told by Scott Stites |
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The other day in the chatroom, Scott showed up and started telling us about the birth of the Klee. He agreed to having his tale recorded and posted, so here it is!
Les
Quote: | [9:21:26 PM] robsol: hello
[9:21:33 PM] Inventor: hey rob
[9:21:35 PM] Inventor: good news
[9:21:42 PM] robsol: great!
[9:21:56 PM] robsol: bring on the good news
[9:22:13 PM] Inventor: in a few minutes, scott is gonna tell us the story of the birth of the Klee sequencer
[9:22:29 PM] robsol: cool!
[9:22:35 PM] Scott_Stites: Okay...I'll go back to the beginning.....
[9:22:40 PM] Inventor: so yer here for the moment
[9:22:43 PM] Inventor: ok
[9:22:58 PM] Scott_Stites: Thousands of years ago, when the earth was still young, there lived a race of beings....
[9:23:04 PM] robsol: lol
[9:23:04 PM] Scott_Stites: I'll fast forward a bit here...
[9:23:07 PM] Inventor: ahahhahahhaha
[9:23:26 PM] robsol:
[9:23:28 PM] Scott_Stites: Actually, it started around 2004 when Jeff Pontius and I were getting into Buchla circuits.
[9:23:34 PM] robsol: great beginning
[9:23:42 PM] Scott_Stites:
[9:23:58 PM] Scott_Stites: We breadboarded a lot of stuff, and eventually did the whole 266 SOU.
[9:24:13 PM] Scott_Stites: There's a function in the 266 SOU called "Quantized Random Voltage"
[9:24:43 PM] Scott_Stites: It's a shift register that feeds a series of resistors, which formed two different ranges of quantized voltage.
[9:25:08 PM] Scott_Stites: Anyway, it was a pseudo-random circuit.
[9:25:13 PM] Inventor: ok
[9:25:23 PM] Inventor: following you here
[9:25:29 PM] Scott_Stites: It's pretty cool, but I wondered what it would be like to replace the resistors with pots.
[9:26:03 PM] Scott_Stites: I did that, and it worked out pretty nice. The idea struck me, to make it loopable - repeating the same pattern over and over.
[9:26:21 PM] Scott_Stites: I didn't have any way of programming it to do that - the 4006 is serial in, serial out.
[9:26:38 PM] Inventor: you know, scott, i'm recording this conversation, do you mind if I post it?
[9:27:05 PM] Scott_Stites: No, I don't mind. The idea struck me to try Ken Stone's Gated Comparator concept - feed the input of the 4006 with the output of a comparator.
[9:27:26 PM] Scott_Stites: That worked out well, and I had a switch that could loop the output of the 4006 back to the input once the pattern was entered.
[9:27:46 PM] Scott_Stites: That worked out really, really well - I was pretty pumped. I actually made some decent music with it.
[9:28:18 PM] Scott_Stites: I posted the schematic on my site (and I think to the SDIY list). It was some time later that Romeo Fahl (known as VTL5C3 here) built it.
[9:28:49 PM] Scott_Stites: On my old web page, I described programming it as being like "molding soft loose clay", because of the nature of how the pot values add up.
[9:29:15 PM] Inventor: neato
[9:29:24 PM] Scott_Stites: Romeo took that statement and made a pun out of the word "Clay": "Klee".
[9:29:43 PM] Scott_Stites: He said it reminded him of the abstract style of Paul Klee, and the word "Clay" brought that to mind.
[9:29:54 PM] Scott_Stites: So, he called his "The Klee Sequencer" and the name just stuck.
[9:30:00 PM] Inventor: Oh i thought there was some dude named "Klee", my bad!
[9:30:16 PM] Scott_Stites: Well, there was, but he's dead now
[9:30:32 PM] robsol: hehe, i thought it rhymed with "bruce lee" :/
[9:30:52 PM] Scott_Stites: The original's a fun device, but it had only four pots: Stage 4, Stage 8, Stage 12, and Stage 16.
[9:31:02 PM] Inventor: 'Everybody was Kung-Fu fighting!"
[9:31:07 PM] Scott_Stites: With just those four pots, you could get some fantastic variation out of it.
[9:31:35 PM] Inventor: "Their moves were fast as lightning!"
[9:31:38 PM] Scott_Stites: Bruce Lee - - I used to think that, too. I still say that in my mind, in fact (long "ee" instead of "ay").
[9:31:56 PM] Inventor: Sorry Scott, couln't resist the distraction
[9:32:19 PM] Scott_Stites: The drawback was, if you found a bitchin pattern, you better record it as much as possible before shutting down - because it circulated through the 4006, but was gone on power down.
[9:32:34 PM] Inventor: ok
[9:32:57 PM] Scott_Stites: There was no good way to program it with a specific pattern, unless you put an "ON/OFF" switch on it and had a pencil, paper, and a lot of patience.
[9:33:21 PM] Scott_Stites: Eventually, like all of my projects, some new bright and shiny came along, and I kind of forgot about it.
[9:33:44 PM] Scott_Stites: In Spring of 2006, Jeff Pontius approached me with designing a new sequencer.
[9:34:02 PM] Scott_Stites: Jeff was suffering from prostate cancer at the time; doing heavy chemo, but we forged ahead.
[9:34:29 PM] Inventor: cool
[9:34:36 PM] Scott_Stites: I designed a really cool step sequencer, but I think I made it too complicated - I think along with the chemo and the cancer, it was too much for Jeff to follow along.
[9:34:37 PM] Inventor: i would too
[9:35:11 PM] Inventor: well he played his role
[9:35:13 PM] Scott_Stites: On my birthday, June 18 of that year, I visited him for the last time - he was wanting me to build him a Bi-N-Tic.
[9:35:28 PM] Scott_Stites: Yes, he did. I still had sequencing on my brain.
[9:36:15 PM] Scott_Stites: In August of that year, I was reorganizing my studio, and found the CD4034s I'd purchased on a whim. I realized they held the key to making the Klee a more friendly, yet still weird, sequencer.
[9:36:33 PM] Scott_Stites: I started a thread about the idea. A few days later, Jeff died.
[9:36:47 PM] Scott_Stites: I'm seeing if I can find the thread now....
[9:36:58 PM] Inventor: do you feel that Jeff guided you after his death?
[9:37:33 PM] Inventor: k brb
[9:37:54 PM] Scott_Stites: Yes, I do think so. He certainly was an inspiration, and it pains me he never saw the full Klee.
[9:38:01 PM] Scott_Stites: Here's the thread: http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-12940.html
[9:38:41 PM] Scott_Stites: So, I played with a while, and produced the first rough samples. Tom Fenn (V-un-V) was pretty excited about it, and stickied it.
[9:38:58 PM] Scott_Stites: As I continued with it, people would post ideas about it, provide encouragement, etc.
[9:39:30 PM] Scott_Stites: For example, Invert B was suggested by Jan - he'd built the Klee up on his Nord modular, and found that inversion at that point worked out very well.
[9:39:45 PM] Inventor: back
[9:39:59 PM] Scott_Stites: You can tell just looking at the design, it's almost an after-thought.
[9:40:18 PM] Scott_Stites: I thought about calling it the "Blue Hell" Switch, but stuck with the more functional "Invert B".
[9:40:52 PM] Scott_Stites: So, it became more and more complex - there were a few things I had in there I later took out. Mostly to do with mixing input voltages with the output voltages.
[9:41:07 PM] Scott_Stites: Eventually, I realized the control surface was so large, I'd just better stop.
[9:41:09 PM] Inventor: haha, how practical of you...
[9:41:15 PM] Scott_Stites:
[9:41:24 PM] robsol: heh
[9:41:32 PM] Scott_Stites: At that point, Andy (Uncle Krunkus) actually laid out a stripboard version of it.
[9:41:42 PM] Inventor: kewl
[9:41:48 PM] Scott_Stites: Yeah. People gripe about the PCB build being complicated - try stripboarding it!
[9:42:03 PM] Scott_Stites: Around that time, that's when Tim Heffman perfoboarded his.
[9:42:14 PM] Scott_Stites: His version is a bit different than the electro-music Klee, however.
[9:42:33 PM] Scott_Stites: At the time, I had a few options for how the range control would be worked. One of them involved two rotary switches.
[9:42:58 PM] Scott_Stites: I had a constant current source feeding one of the range switches. This switch flipped through all semitones of a scale.
[9:43:21 PM] Scott_Stites: The second switch provided octaves. So, any combination of the two switches could select a specific interval as the range voltage.
[9:43:24 PM] * Psyingo has returned
[9:43:27 PM] Scott_Stites: That's what Tim built.
[9:43:34 PM] Inventor: hi psyingo
[9:43:40 PM] Scott_Stites: Hey psyingo.
[9:43:53 PM] Inventor: we are listening to Scott's story of the birth of the Klee
[9:44:01 PM] Psyingo: oh shit, scott stites
[9:44:04 PM] Inventor: and recording it for posterity
[9:44:08 PM] robsol: very interesting and inspiring
[9:44:18 PM] Psyingo: sorry if i interrupted :S
[9:44:19 PM] Inventor: try not to curse on the air dude
[9:44:38 PM] Scott_Stites: So, here we are with this not-too-complicated circuit supported by a huge control interface. It pretty well died there.
[9:44:40 PM] robsol:
[9:44:40 PM] Scott_Stites: Or so we thought.
[9:45:33 PM] Scott_Stites: In early spring of 2007, Tom Fenn (v-un-v) got the idea of designing a PCB for it, selling it, and using the proceeds to help mosc with the forum expenses.
[9:45:50 PM] Scott_Stites: I didn't know how to design PCBs, but Andy was game to give it a shot.
[9:46:23 PM] Scott_Stites: Tom was going to handle designing a panel. We got Bill Manganaro (State Machine) on board to help out with testing.
[9:46:30 PM] Inventor: I'm a big fan of Andy Sharp's music BTW
[9:47:00 PM] Inventor: He's got like 200 plays in my iTunes player now
[9:47:05 PM] Scott_Stites: Yes, me, too!
[9:47:37 PM] Inventor: In fact, why don't I krank him up while we continue?
[9:47:38 PM] Scott_Stites: So, Andy and I knocked our heads together and divided the functions between two boards - analog and digital, to keep things nice and quiet on the CV outputs.
[9:47:46 PM] Scott_Stites: You should!
[9:47:58 PM] robsol:
[9:48:16 PM] Inventor: k, Dark Army by Uncle Krunkus airing now
[9:48:21 PM] Scott_Stites: I can't recall if it was Bill or Andy's idea, but the outputs were organized neatly onto connectors.
[9:48:28 PM] Scott_Stites: Love dark army...stand by...
[9:48:32 PM] Inventor: rob, want me to put it on 8072 for you?
[9:48:47 PM] robsol: yeah go on then..
[9:48:51 PM] Inventor: ok
[9:49:54 PM] Scott_Stites: OK, so once we (finally) had a PCB design in hand, it was time to prototype and test them.
[9:50:06 PM] Inventor: ok broadcasting
[9:50:16 PM] robsol: got you
[9:50:19 PM] Scott_Stites: During that time, Tom had dropped out of the project - too many irons in the fire at the time, so we really had no panel.
[9:50:36 PM] Scott_Stites: Which is one of the charming things about the Klee, IMO - it's open ended to how you want to present it.
[9:50:43 PM] Scott_Stites: You sure have to work for it, though
[9:50:55 PM] Inventor: this is three songs of Uncle Krunkus played over and over
[9:51:18 PM] Scott_Stites: At this time we hadn't mentioned anything about it to the forum - just dropped mysterious hints here and there.
[9:51:27 PM] Inventor: heh
[9:51:34 PM] Scott_Stites: At the time, there was this guy fishing around for projects to "license" and wanted to glom onto the Klee.
[9:51:37 PM] Inventor: mysterious hints
[9:51:56 PM] Scott_Stites: I told him it was already taken, but had to tell him why. He later spilled the beans before we had a chance.
[9:52:10 PM] Scott_Stites: But, anyway, with the beans spilled, I ordered four sets of proto boards.
[9:52:25 PM] Scott_Stites: We had the good fortune of having Tom Bugs on board as a proto-tester by that point.
[9:52:42 PM] robsol: cool!
[9:52:43 PM] Scott_Stites: So, Bill had a set, Andy had a set, Tom had a set, and I did.
[9:52:58 PM] Inventor: oh Tom Bugs is an old schooler?
[9:53:18 PM] Scott_Stites: Tom Bugs is so frikkin' cool, I don't know where to begin.
[9:53:26 PM] Inventor: I haven't run across him much on the forum
[9:53:35 PM] robsol: he lurks
[9:53:46 PM] Inventor: he'll read this...
[9:53:54 PM] robsol: he lives here in bristol, i'd like to meet him
[9:53:55 PM] Scott_Stites: Anyway, we had a helluva team - Bill is an EE, and he helped to figure out a problem that had developed with the debounce.
[9:53:58 PM] Inventor: what will he think? haha
[9:54:16 PM] Scott_Stites: Oh, you ought to, robsol!
[9:54:33 PM] Scott_Stites: He's a really nice guy, and he makes some exceedingly cool things (BugBrand)
[9:54:54 PM] Inventor: you still gettin' tunes rob?
[9:55:01 PM] robsol: i know! i'd like to order from him
[9:55:12 PM] Scott_Stites: So, Tom handled the 12V operation testing, Andy kicked in with his test data, Bill did, we modified some things, then I took out a load and ordered the first run.
[9:55:15 PM] robsol: yes Les, it's distorting a bit tho
[9:55:27 PM] Inventor: there, how's that?
[9:55:33 PM] Scott_Stites: And, the rest is history, I guess.
[9:55:48 PM] robsol: perfecto, Les
[9:55:56 PM] ***: BluJ (BluJ@c-24-7-87-20.hsd1.ca.comcast.net) has joined the channel
[9:55:57 PM] Inventor: ty, i try
[9:55:57 PM] ***: ChanServ has opped BluJ
[9:56:10 PM] Inventor: hey BluJ
[9:56:11 PM] Scott_Stites: But, it was really v-un-v who rescued it from obscurity.
[9:56:16 PM] robsol: wow, nice story
[9:56:28 PM] Scott_Stites: Thanks. It was a great experience.
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_________________ "Let's make noise for peace." - Kijjaz |
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Uncle Krunkus
Moderator

Joined: Jul 11, 2005 Posts: 4761 Location: Sydney, Australia
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 7:31 am Post subject:
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Nice post Les.
It's also the story of how I learned to lay out my first PCB.
I am so proud that I was a part of that process.
Really good international co-operation.  _________________ What makes a space ours, is what we put there, and what we do there. |
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Sound
Joined: Jun 06, 2006 Posts: 842
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Posted: Sun Sep 13, 2009 2:04 am Post subject:
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Thanks Les for record it , and thanks for share Scott.
I like a little bit more my Klee after read his story.
Big Hug.
Oscar.
Editing my English. Last edited by Sound on Fri Sep 18, 2009 4:41 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Inventor
Stream Operator

Joined: Oct 13, 2007 Posts: 6221 Location: near Austin, Tx, USA
Audio files: 267
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Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2009 3:31 am Post subject:
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Well, as a follow-up, I'm happy to say that we are getting some really good collaboration from folks on some other electro-music products slated for eventual store distribution. Most specifically I refer the the Karplus-Strong Modular board.
Not only did several people contribute many thoughts and suggestions, but dan (loss1234) actually prototyped my design before I even had a chance to do so! Now that's what I call teamwork in action. dan discovered an unpleasant defect which is horrible clock noise, but there are a few ways to slay that beast with a vengeance.
So in the tradition of the Klee follows a pair of other designs, new fun stuff emerging from this amazing electro-music.com community. It's great to be a part of it all. Where will it be in 100 years?
Les _________________ "Let's make noise for peace." - Kijjaz |
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neandrewthal

Joined: May 11, 2007 Posts: 672 Location: Canada
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 5:27 pm Post subject:
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So that's what became of the fabled Jeff Pontius
I was always curious, but didn't want to ask. _________________ " I went through quite a few trannies til I found one I liked" - Wild Zebra |
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Scott Stites
Janitor


Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
Audio files: 96
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 7:17 pm Post subject:
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Jeff was one in a million. He was one of the kindest, most generous guys I've ever known, extremely knowledgeable about synthesis and the history of synthesis, and (if I can throw 'synth' in one more time) he was a hell of a good synthesist. He had a gigantic modular - MOTM, Modcan, Oakley, DIY. His album "Synth Imagery" is still one of my favorites. At the time he recorded that, he had a Prophet 5 and an MS-20 and a slew of other things. There's a song he did totally with the MS-20 that really makes one re-think what that thing can really do.
He was an associate professor of statistics at Kansas State University. When he passed away, they had something more truly like a celebration of his life than a memorial service at the university. I was honored to come and speak of the synthesizer part of his multi-faceted personality, and they played the track "Prophet Dreams" off that album, perhaps my favorite of his recorded work.
Last summer I helped his widow catalog and disassemble his equipment - his brother was going to take it all back to Pennsylvania. She hadn't altered anything in the studio since he passed away. Jeff's last patch was still up. I didn't know a lot about how he had things rigged up, but I managed to turn all the power on and get the monitors going. We didn't hear anything. I thought maybe there was just some switch I'd missed, and as I stood there talking with his wife, from out nowhere rose this beautiful delicate sound, rising and falling in pitch, timbre, amplitude and location. It was Jeff's last patch - a self sustaining noodle-like thing that just weaved in and out of space, never repeating. If I didn't know it was Jeff that patched it, I could still have told you it was his - he had that much original style. He had his own sound; if you ever get a chance to hear "Synth Imagery", you'll know what I'm talking about.
We got as much work done as we could before finally having to turn off the power and disassembling the synth. I wish I could have recorded it.
I really miss that guy. _________________ My Site |
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blue hell
Site Admin

Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 24423 Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
Audio files: 297
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 9:28 am Post subject:
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That noodle story is beautiful. _________________ Jan
also .. could someone please turn down the thermostat a bit.
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neandrewthal

Joined: May 11, 2007 Posts: 672 Location: Canada
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:09 am Post subject:
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Scott, that was the most touching story I've ever heard
Unfortunately, I don't think I'll happen to hear that CD since I can't find any information about it online. _________________ " I went through quite a few trannies til I found one I liked" - Wild Zebra |
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Scott Stites
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Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 10:51 am Post subject:
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The noodle gave us goosebumps; the good kind of goosebumps.
Neandrewthal, you couldn't find it because I screwed up and put a space between synth and imagery. The name is actually "SynthImagery". You can listen to it on-line here:
http://www.rhapsody.com/jeffrey-pontius/synthimagery
"Prophet Moods" is what they played at his service, and is one of my very favorites of his.
"Galaxy MSQ2004310" was the one done entirely on an MS-20. It's the reason I never believe it when people sometimes write about how limited that synth is. I love that piece, too. Hell, I love all of them....
His wife did the cover art. _________________ My Site |
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blue hell
Site Admin

Joined: Apr 03, 2004 Posts: 24423 Location: The Netherlands, Enschede
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State Machine
Janitor


Joined: Apr 17, 2006 Posts: 2810 Location: New York
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 1:32 pm Post subject:
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Nice thread here and Scott's story really put a tear in my eye. Beautiful really.
As far as Klee history, I could not have worked with a better bunch. The team was organized and motivated. We all really had a blast prototyping this seuqencer and working out the circuit issues one by one. Probably the most fun I had doing a build. I was honored to be a part of the team
Bill |
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v-un-v
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Joined: May 16, 2005 Posts: 8932 Location: Birmingham, England, UK
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 2:49 pm Post subject:
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Scott Stites wrote: | You can listen to it on-line here:
http://www.rhapsody.com/jeffrey-pontius/synthimagery
"Galaxy MSQ2004310" was the one done entirely on an MS-20. It's the reason I never believe it when people sometimes write about how limited that synth is. I love that piece, too. Hell, I love all of them....
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Unfortunately not.
Quote: | We're sorry, we have detected that you are outside of the United States. The Rhapsody MP3 Store is currently only available inside the United States. |
I really want to hear Galaxy MSQ2004310, having an MS-20. I can't hear anything at all- not even a sample. Is there another way of getting to hear this track?
Quote: | [9:56:11 PM] Scott_Stites: But, it was really v-un-v who rescued it from obscurity. |
Scott, I am indeed, extremely touched by your nice remarks. However, I can't emphasise more what a truly amazing bloke you are too, and none of this would have been possible without your absolute genius.  _________________ ACHTUNG!
ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS!
DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN.
IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.
ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN. |
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Uncle Krunkus
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Joined: Jul 11, 2005 Posts: 4761 Location: Sydney, Australia
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 3:26 pm Post subject:
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I'll second that Tom.
Sure, some of us got to play "elf" for a while, but Scott is definitely the man in the red and white suit!  _________________ What makes a space ours, is what we put there, and what we do there. |
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Scott Stites
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Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 8:25 pm Post subject:
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So could one of you guys tell that to my wife?
That's a bummer about not being able to listen to the SynthImagery tracks overseas.  _________________ My Site |
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neandrewthal

Joined: May 11, 2007 Posts: 672 Location: Canada
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Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2009 11:48 pm Post subject:
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v-un-v wrote: | Scott Stites wrote: | You can listen to it on-line here:
http://www.rhapsody.com/jeffrey-pontius/synthimagery
"Galaxy MSQ2004310" was the one done entirely on an MS-20. It's the reason I never believe it when people sometimes write about how limited that synth is. I love that piece, too. Hell, I love all of them....
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Me too.
Ordered
Got "ambisonic picnic" by Nikmis on a whim as well since I enjoyed his music on free online labels in the past. _________________ " I went through quite a few trannies til I found one I liked" - Wild Zebra |
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Uncle Krunkus
Moderator

Joined: Jul 11, 2005 Posts: 4761 Location: Sydney, Australia
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Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2009 1:27 am Post subject:
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That reminds me.
I need to buy some new albums. It's been a while.  _________________ What makes a space ours, is what we put there, and what we do there. |
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