August 1983 is) 9261) ELECTRONICS-MUSIC- HOME RECORDINGa PSeruciny Ws eeten Eraecctts na Per Peary eon aes Pa cy ics ees te $1395.00 Roe) eae oaSTAFF PUBLISHER John S. Simonton, Jr. rrr craig Anderton MANAGING EDITOR Linda Key Brumfield ‘TECHNICAL, TLLLUSTRATOR Caroline ood ‘crRCULATION Ramona French ‘Peggy Walker OOKREPING Cathi Boge PRINT PRODUCTION Phuong Nguyen SENCO Color Press POLYPHONY (ISH 0163-4534) ig published Bimonehly ar 1020" Wa. Wflahirg Blydey Sidahons” ley, "ox “ia1i6, by Forypvony Petia og Caz eaktce goattatt oe oe 1382"6y"Boiyohogy Pobltehing Go. RIL Toner pe” xiprodgeed” inte Fer lige “ea Bing pela Bt Oklanona Clty, on 73128. anyenr ING, rac deadline Goueace ae G08) BezS480. DEALERS, 6 DISTRIBUTORS balk, prices a availet auests contact Linda Brimfield af" (4055*saa-54a0. SUBSCRIPTION rates ‘nerican Foreign Here We nov accept Mastercharge and. "Visa Baymeat,sGr-eubecrapt tone, Beck” Seavey once Und: Pokelgs gapunntt Bee Be Shan Sonal ork ertified’ check in US funds dram’ ona ae"bank TACK ISSUES are available at, $2.50 ,each ‘Sends S4ge" and. request ger "Back complete index’ of features, or see the MANGE OF ADDRESS notificati TENGE, Sout Eoservadarere. and "e Godoy and’any nusbers froa the Hise ae Uelh ass jour sey, gldreste Post, office’ "chat" you ‘BO “vant” setond contreiied’», cirevfation cgvpideds. mie wf a Etta Brastion” 10 POROAGTER, snd ldcne changes to Behe Te CONTENTS SSH: 0163-4534 =a==== Polyphony === Volume 8, timber 5 August, 1983 ial —ate ea An Interview With Donald Buchla ‘byt John K, Diliberto s..+e++ rr Build @ Simple Drum Synthesizer bby: Doug Young snexeees) 36 Digital Drums, An Overview byt Graig Anderton veseeeseseeesseeeseeesees 22 Exploring Just Intonation by! David Dory 8 Fender's Teiad Taterface - a Gate ~ Sanple/itold cireuit by: Michael Rogaloki s+sssesseeseeeseeeeveee 20 ‘The Penultimate Coapressor Byt Thomas Figueiredo .. 10 Viewpoint: Why Spring Reverb Will Never Die ‘byt Craig O'Donnell sssssseseseesee+ 8 COLUMNS Book Review: Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, migsass Se id Doty seeeesees ° On Location: Concerts, US Festival, NAM by? Craig Anderton poseeseaeses a Practical Circuitry, Micro Drums Part T by Thomas Henry eeeseseseeseeeees 2 ReView byt Robert Cartberg, 4 Pa oS By NS) Ad Index esseeesee ve Mt Current Events sess 7 Bquipaent Exchange seseveseveseeeseee we M6 (COVER PHOTOGRAPH by: Vesta Copestakes ~ CAVE GRAFIX August 1983 3Robert Carberg’s” gg t~CS~=«@dSs 's -view Wnemoniste Biota (dys Records). AIl ausic is just noise, arcanged in patterns we can recognize and identify with. The Maezonists work with the raw materials of music, without the comforting re Ference points of tune or rhythm as"pure noise elevated co a night= re soundtrack, The key to 8 good “noise portrait” 1 vo keep you so busy trying to figure out how it was done that you never question why it was done, Maemon~ fete succeed.* Tomek Lamprecht Tomek (ATL 21057). Base, guitar, sad drums, aided by a Patelight CM.t., ia funky tunes vith occasional vo- cals, all by this one guy. It's pretty hot stuff Wiles Davis Star People (crs 38657). My biggest complaint with Wiles is that he gets into pal terns and can't break out =~ I mean he must have remade Jack Johneon six times in the 70s White this one and We Want Miles (see February '83) are definitely echoes of Man with a Horn (his big 1981 comeback album), at least it's a fertile field and he does add one interesting twist -~ play- Ing Oberneim ae only @ non-key- boardist could. Marcus Miller Suddenly (Warner os. 23806-1). When Man with a ra thrust this bass player into the "hot new talent” spotlight, a follov-up solo LP aust have seemed inescapable. Unfortunately, he's 2 better bass player than song~ uriter/vocalist/synchesise, and the contrast is apparent. Ricky Starbuster Starburst (cas- Sette). The first release by one who intends to "make a career in Enis stuff or starve to death". He's got # better chance than most, vith enjoyable pieces con sisting of everything from iatro~ spective mood drones to punk rock (featuring the voice of his 6 year old niece). ‘The majority have a quiet soloing over a repetitive Background, aot unlike Michael 4 Poyphony Garrison, although Ricky's pieces are shorter and generally more daring. Wis equipseat is top notch: Prophet 3, Pro-1, and Roland drum unit (all self-pro- grammed). A very full 90 minutes for $8.50 postpaid from Starbuster Productions, PO Sox 5582, Madison, wr” 53705. Various Elektronische Musik (0r~ nament CH7.921).. Tape studio Works in the old “eut~and-splice” style, including the usual oscil~ lator’ aveeps, tape speed changes, odd taped tidbits, and tont-poens Ga a combination of German snd English). Unlike some others, there's enough variety and subtle humor to keep it Light and enter~ Gregory Taylor Given Names (cas- sette). A good collection of nesmerizing drones (mostly in the lower register) slong vith some ‘uptempo numbers built on epercus~ sion and § & H triggers. Taylor's Search for Conalities includes not only rich, vibeent aynthesizer chords, bue some unusual taped voice loops, soothing asture re~ Cordings, and guest spots by a guitarist, sax player, drummer, etc. $6 plus postage from Taylor, 4330 Moreh Park Blvd., Glen Eliya, TL 60137. Moebius Tomspurea (sky 083). tt Looks Like the Teutonic” explosion has about fizeled out, The “other hal€" of Cluster sets unfiltered, raspy synthesizer voices against each other in mechanical, pre- Gictable patterns. ven the cover tries to elevate ugliness ~ closeup photo of mindless graftici over rusted metal. Nein danke. ‘Tyndall Durch Die zieten (sky 081). Sky {2 rapidly becoming the ECM of ecm; putting out joyless records with auch endearing covers as @ bare tree on a frozen plain. Jargen Krohan and Rudolf Langer have progranued computers to re= peat what sound Like finger exer~ Eises ed infinitum over « rhythm box. Sound enticing? vou Deyen/Schuets Inventions (Sky 082), Diester Schuetz is a guitarist, and Adelbert. vo Deyea Sayathosice, pue this record oa automatic repeat on ay turnta~ ble, and after six or seven eyeles fe seil1 hada't sade much of an Impression. But T aid get the Sunday paper read —~ these short, pleasant, ‘non-involving tunes are perfect for thet, Straight shooter 5 (Sky 080). A cultural oddity -- heavy metal with synthesizers, Well, it's not Feally heavy metal, but it would Like fo be, Cultuceide Year one (t.?.). Culturcide nas been described a5 modern day Faust, which tells only part of the story. As originators Sf auch of the musical Dada move~ ment of the 70s, Faust showed a Tot of wit and verve. But their music wes also uscommonly economi- al and unpretentious — qualities singularly missing in Culturcide, Gulturetde Is more akin to Throb bing Gristle, based as it is on rhythm box, ‘spoken lyrica, and distorted instruments, Por pri- cing vrice Cultureide, 3305 Kon trose #114, Houston 1X’ 77006. Peter Gabriel Plays Live (Geffen 4012). Live albums have always boon kind of a contradiction: trying to capture the special excitement of @ live concert with another recording, but without either duplicating the original recordings or changing them too auch, Gabriel does a good job of proving that he can play his heavily-processed music Live (see also February '83), but the rowdy Sudience, who whoop, holler, and yell, requests (Gome even for Eno's Ausie), prove more a distraction than an addition. Wicola Frangione (ed.) Mail Music Project (LP 001). 7 artists from around the world were iavited to send @ free piece for this project, without any limite as to Tength ‘or content. The results have been arranged chronologically according to dace received, and Feleased in a numbered edition of 1000. The artiste range fron obscure to unknowa, and the pieces from very arty to extremely arty, but Frangione overlaps and edits then to keep things woving. §15 postpaid from Frangione, Vie Orti- gera'17, 20052 Monsa, Icaly. continued on page 9 August 1985ON LOCATION: By: Craig Anderton Since a toe of you eajoyed reading about the activities thet go slong vith being © Polyphony Siltcr: FebruaryI9e3 Uneue)y_ era's the tatere Stecattgenc (audtitlea "Mow Z Spent ty Summer fa Snusch of Tncerercing Things co rive avout One of ay flea pricritics for the summer vas seeing nove Live euolcy wince (anoag suber rersoos) Wreck 12s ty"huty av clear te teey ap othe toch of the ete scone av possibile wanted fo find out how various groupe solved certain stag~ ‘The first group I sav wae Ultravox: The most stciking aspect of their stage setup was chat it was painted entirely in light gray —- amps, instruments, Speaker cabinets, drum set, everything except the Dull, you aay? Not when you carry good Lighting equipment, Color changes were incredibly vivid when projected on an all-geay background, and In addition the Lighting seemed to de computer—con- trolled and synchronised to the music oa stage. ‘Theis set vas tight ond included virtually, all the post-Joha Foxx era "hite” -~ "Sleepwalk", "New Europeans", "che Voice", "Reap the Wild Mind", and to om, Druner Warren Cann alternated between stan~ dard druns and what sounded like a TR-608, often combining the tvo, Chris Cross played aostly syn thesized bass (apparently synched to the drum unit), Dut when he ewitehed aver to electric bass, the visual jolt of movement (as opposed to standing behind a keyboard) helped keep the pacing moving tight along. Billy Currie played keyboards aad Occasional violin (which the crowd loved), and Midge Ure added textures on guitar and keyboard, as well Polyphony a5 contributing one of the strongest and most ex- pressive voices T've heard ina long time ~~ even Tate in the set on a vocally difficult song like ytenne! (One of the highlights occurred when the stage Lights dimmed, and four Sinaons drum pads were Lined lupins row. With Cann's drum machine purring avay, fall four musicians played in real-time on che Sim fone pada. It was one amazing percussion break, and the audience reacted appropriately. Overall, Uites vox impressed mea lot. They have a power and professionaliem on stage which ie only hinted at on their records, ‘A few weeks Later I say Ronnie Montrose & Mitchell Froom at the Cotati Cabaret, one of my Favorite venues {n Northern Califoraia. (Montrose is well known for his guitar work vith the groups Montrose and Gannay shat is not well known is that Montrose plays soldering iron too, and hae built Several custom devices a3 well ax modified many commercial ones.) Anyway, Montrose and Froom have put together # synthesizer duo thac utes programmed Sequencers, drum machines, keyboards, and guitar to ake a very full, electronically-assisted sound with only eve people, The all-insteumental sat touched 4 Tot of bases ~~ improvisatory rock, electronic sounda, dence music, and even some touches of fu~ Ston-like jazz, But T vas not only sucprised by the Hiehneas of the sounds T was also anazed they could Keep all this technology under control ia a live performance contest, ‘The technology is not really Guite adequate yet to do what they're doing, but Sonchow Montrose end Froom pull it off (just vait UACIT MIDI takes over...)- Angust 1983 5ON LOCATION: Highlights of the set included Montrose playing 4 custom-made percussion controller along with drum jachine, and a powerful version of the theme from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” that absolutely knocked me out. TF you get the chanc, catch Montrose and Froom's act == they're musical and technological pror who uring some real ausic out of fa bunch of silicon. Next, 1 checked out the Us Festival with a couple of friends (audio/video technician David Kart, ay collaborator on the PAIA "Vocal Zapper", and foraer DEVICE author Gary Kirkpatrick). For those who don't know what an Us Festival is, it's basically Steve Wosniak weing the bucks he made from Apple Computer to stage his particular vision of Woodstock-for-the-80s. The 1982 version had mostly gotten pretty favorable reviews; it had been well- Organized, but of particular interest to me vas the technology taie section of the festival. This vas billed as @ high-technology exhibir that alloved hands-on meetings with computers, electronic instru seats, ter ‘The first good aove we made was renting an RV. and parking it close to the festival site, which was {n Devore, Califorala (aear San Bernadino). Between the heat (often in the 100s) and the pollution (gaop, choke —~ it was pretty bad), sir conditioning never’ Looked #0 good, Having « mobile kitchen also made us somewhat more independent of the eyathefood doing sold at the festival. "The event was spread over three days, with the firet day being nominally "new wave" groups (INKS, Divynals, Wall of Voodso, Oingo Boingo, English Beat, Flock of Seagulls, Stray cata, and the Clash), the second day heavy metal (Judea Priest, Ozzy Oe~ bourne, Scorpions, Van Halen, ete.), and the ehird day "top 40" (Berlin, Quarterflash, U2, Missing Persons, Pretenders, Joo Walsh, Stevie Wicks, and David Bowie). ‘Aa you wight expect, the performers were ant- Like dots ona distant stages hovever, unlike outdoor concerts, the sound vas quite good. total wattage was 400,000 Watcs, but what really fade the sound work was four speaker towers located halfway detwoen the stage and the perimeter of the Listening area, These were fed with time-delayed aignais to that no sacter where you sat, there vas a inimun amount of echo, There vere two large "Dis- fmondvision" screens, Bright enough so that you could even see them during daylight, which showed what was happening on stage. ‘There were aleo two huge screens for nighetine viewing (each "day" typically ren from 10 AM to past midnight). while the cech~ nology vas well-applied, 1 still feel there is no Way that a Loud sound ayeten and video screens can Substitute for seeing a hot group in a small club. ‘The first day had the most reserved, and amall~ est, audience ("oniy” about 150,000 people). My ‘Sain conclusion at the ond of the ay was that most new wave music is simply not designed for stadiums fand huge outdoor concerts; the audience scoméd most Fesponsive to the Stray Cats, anything but @ new wave group. They seemed to love what they vere doing, avoided the standard rock cliches (hey everybody-clap-your-hands-Let's~party ete."), and perhaps most importantly, had simple instrumentation that carried well over the big space, Synthesizers definitely do not "carry" ae well ae guitars 6 Polyphony Heavy metal day vas an experience -- 300,000 denim clad humans, mostly young men, attending a modern day ritual. It war something to valk into the festival area and sce five times as many people sitting ona hillside as inhabit my entire county. Wot being that big a heavy aetel fan, T figured this would be a good day to check out the technology exhibits The. promise of the Us Festival was that we should all work together, that technology is wonder~ Ful and’ can help us work together, and other vague~ Iy-ESTish stuft, There was even much-publicized and well-meaning (but probably ultimetely irrele- vant) live video hookup with the Soviet Union. Yet the technology exhibite themselves were very di appointing. What was there vas fine (Danny Sofer Showing off the Oberheim "Systen", for example), but there vasn'e very much of it. T vas told the tech nology exhibit was about half the size of the pri vious year. Then there vere the sominartina chance to hear Emaett Chapman play and talk about the "stick" (he sure can play that thing), and listen to Bob Moog, Robin Jigour (alpnaayntauri), John Bowen (Sequential Circuirs), and Chapman talk about inetrumenta and Subjects buch as the MIDI interface. While I en= Joyed running into all these people, and had a fine Elme chatting with Moog about computers and stuff think we both felt somewbac out of our element and were glad to sce a kindred soul), the talke were poorly attended, Too bad =~ the agin reason 1 vent to the Us Festival vae because of the technological come-on, but in reality the whole thing was really not much more than « three day series of rock con~ ‘The main attraction of the thied day was David Bowie, uno was exceptional. It was almost worth waiting what seemed like forever ip the cold of the Bight, breathing air so foul you could develop film init, co-sae hie unusually erisp and professional show. ‘There vas more, but you get the ides, There was good music, mediocre music; @ couple of neat Taser shows, whose effects were diluted by heavy handed and naive propagandizings crazy people, nor mal-locting people, but mostly, LOTS of people. Quite an experience. ‘went on the agenda was the Chicago NAMM (W tional Association of Music Merehanee) show, where all the manufacturers strut their sew products. I'm sure every other music magarine will, by this time, have covered the event, so T'll keep it short. Firet, though, the disclaimera: I didn't see half of what T wanted to see, and T apologize in advance to thove magufacturers vho had neat products at the show which did not make ie into this article, Probably the most talked-about itea among jour— naliste at the show was the Kurzweil plano, shown in prototype form at a hotel euite, It waa impressive. Basically, the Kursveil is a sampling keyboard a 1a Emulator or Fairlight, but claims to use artificial intelligence to create @ model of an instrument based on multiple samples of the instrument's sound, All'T can say 42 regardless of whatever technology they use, the Kurzweil is amazing, The piano sound in uncannily like a piano ~~ dynamics, timbre changes, and all ~~ end the other sounds they denon Strated were equally strong. Kurzweil projects a price under §10,000 and delivery in early 1984. Well seon.a lot’ of promising start-up companies August 1983are never heard from again when faced vith che Fealities of production and distribution, but I wish Kareweil well and hope they succeed in what they're doing. Even as a prototype the piano seemed like = genuine breakthrough. ‘360 systems introduced @ relatively low-priced keyboard vith digitally recorded sounds (strings, fuze guitar, nylon string guitar, ete.). While not sophisticated as the Kureweil,, the price/perfor~ fiance ratio shoved that aempling inatrumeats are no Tonger playehings for the elite. ‘The other big keyboard buzz was the long- avaived introduction of Yamaha's DX series of FM= based keyboards. The price is right (under $2000 for their most costly model), and the sounds are different from standard analog. synthesizers ~~ sort of bright, bell-Like, and complex. There ia also 4 breath controller available which helps create bigh- Ty realistic brass articulations} however, T should emphasize that the DX keyboarde are capable of far fore than imitative ayathesis. while T don't think that the DK series will displace standard analog synthesizers, if you're looking for an entirely new Fesily of synthesized sound colors, Yanaha —~ never a me-too company in the first place -~ has come through. ‘fa guitara, Fender probably got che most atten tion due to their re-designed Line of amps (by technician and former DEVICE author Paul Rivera); and their revised guitars. The Steiaberger guicar S1so generated a tremendous amount of excitement, and considering now great it sounds, that's noe Surprising. I vas disappointed once again to see that the Lafamous Roland GR-700 guitar syathesizer was no~ here to be found. Will it ever come out? Drum aachines were a big deal at the NAM show. Mim introduced their Drum Computer, Linn vas still shoving the LinnDrum although rumors abounded that the next Lina product would be a combination drum jachine and poly sequencer, Oberheim shoved off the DE and DMX in conjunction with che Oberhaim Syston, and E-mu contiqued to amaze and delight with the Druaulator (they algo showed their pad progranmer land TBM PC incerface), All these companies seem to be selling drum machines as fast ae they can make them, and I can see why.they're great fun (see the related article in this issue). Curiously, there tar no Japanese entry in the digitally-recorded dune sueepetakes, although Yamaha shoved some or gane Incorporating drum machines chat used PCH digieal recording. Signs] processing was dominated by digital delay Lines, but Korg also shoved a cute, inexpen~ five, good sounding effects system where individeal effects boxes plugged into compact pedalboard. This appromch reduced the cost of the effects, so that you could buy four effects plus the pedalboard for the cost of four conventional effects. XR showed theiz ew "Precision" line and got good reac~ tlona, while BOD also showed their new Line (the PX series). In digital delays, Rolend introduced a low-cost delay Line that can ayne to external events, as well fae some other low cost delay devices. Ibanez hes feally cleaned up their act, producing delay lines with far better specs than last year's models vhile Fetaining competitive pricing. ey Polyphony ———————— Not all Wireless Microphones are Created Equal This One Is A Telex Recommendations by performers, as well ab enginoors, have made Telex the fastest growing wireless mle systom In the inausty Performers tel us they prefer Telex wireless mics because of ‘he ich fal'bodied souna: And because the mie feel and 1 ike converional mieropnones “Toquote perfermert: he Telex wireless mic sounds superior {o any ve used for vocals wvred or wireless the freedom I gave eu group sold me on the concept, and the sound soe me on Telex ‘Aucio and broadcast engineers stated that thoy prefer lex because nth Just the sddiion of @ second antenna. they have the most reliable diversity" wireless mic racelver avalabl, Indoors or out And because the eomeancer eresity provides ‘amc range from a whisper to fl forsine. “To quote engineer: the Telox Wireless a the best wove teetec, and wave ehacked them "rom a auarter mile, tho signal wae etl eisp ang clear. forthe money Tolox outperfommed a othere wo bed. When youre ready or wirloss mics, Telex offers you a choice ‘VHF frequency groups, hard hol or bell-pack tare dynamic or eleciret microphones and a host of Scvessories. Compare out specs against ary others, and by al ‘Means, compare the ace. Weve aultcrtaln youl aloo prefer Teien Mase in USA. Pease write Yor fl Stal. Quality Produets forthe Audio Professional NSS TELEX. TELEX COMMUNICATIONS, INC.ON LOCATION: Long delays (beyond 4 seconds or #0) vere also abundant. Electro-Harmonix (yes, they're back) Showed off their new 64 second delay/recorder, which Looked quite promising. DeltaLab showed the "Echo tron, and used a demo tape I had recorded sing the device aa part of their show demonstration. This tion on the "Effectron” line delivers 4 seconds ay for under $700. Deltalab also introduced « Tow-cost progrenasble delay line scheduled for in troduction later this year Audio/Digitsl showed = 6.5 second broadcast delay, and mentioned that” soon their 10-2 digital delay would be expandable to 6.5 seconds (total cost of 7¢-? plus expansion, about $1400). Lexicon dida't have any new Long delay products, but contioued to spotlight the PCN=42 (one of the first loag delays) and their other products. Incidentally, I've written an article about long delay techaigues and manufacturere which vill appear What else vas there? Well, the Fostex X-15 multitracker =~ © portable 4 track cecorder that lists for under $500 ~~ caused a real stir; but lot of the things I like beet about a NAMM show happen after the show closes each day (and not all of Lt would be aultable for discussion in Polyphom ay!) Sutice it to say that I had a great time Hanging out vith fellow writers, editors, engineers, and musicians, eating everything from superb Ttalian food to sushi, and talking sbout anyching that touched on slectronics and/or music. NAHM shows are remarkable events but it's the people, as well as the products, that make the event remarkable, After NAMM, T stopped over in Oklahoma to visit the folks at PAIA and of course, the Polyphony offices. There waa « bunch of business that re uired tending to, but I also managed to spend some time hanging out with Joha Simonton at his local lake, svinaing, coming up with new ideas for the magazine, and ealking about his incredible VICW20 based SMPTE program (which was in ite final design stages). Afeer all that time in Southern California and Chicago, it was a welcome change of pace to de Somewhere with a more relaxed lifestyle. ‘After that, the summer started to wind down. 1 sav a Pat Metheny (Jaze guitarist) concert in Ber Keley, and it was very impressive, Pat Metheny has a truly engaging personality to go along with hie Superb musical sense, and unlike many fas! susicians, played pratty egoless music. The new drummer (I didn'e catch hie name, but think it was Paul Wertico) was exceptionally solid and dyna ic. The use of electronics was subtle yer pecve Sive, and despite being primarily « plano player, Lyle Mayo showed a lot of sensitivity towards his synthesizers, Catching Metheny's band was a nice counterpoint to all the rock and techno-pop music T had seen. The electronics vas just as important, but was far more delicately used and war, at ali times, subservient to the players. So that's how T spent my summer. I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and got sone vicarious pleasure out of little arachair travelling. Fast, Accurate, Transparent, Quiet... . Affordable PHOENIX SYSTEMS Polyphony 91 ELM STREET MANCHESTER CONNECTICUT 06040 August 1983 203-643-4484re-v: ‘continued from page 4 ‘TRAX 0982. XTRA. A compilation project of Piermario Ciani (also L/47th of above), wherein 9 grovs teaded tapes back and forth unti they seemed finished. Three of the 9 are made up of sccomplished ausictans playing normal lastru- yenta; the other six play "cape", “poises", and synthesizers. The final mix is an odd event, to say the least. §5 plus post from Giani, 33032 Berefolo, Udine, Te ly. Michael Jackson Thriller (Epic 38112). By now probably everyone hae heard how hot this album ise Sure, a couple tracks with Paul Mecaztney and Vineant Price border fon the ludicrous, but the rest is very surefooted. "Listen in parti- cular to the synthesizer work (Exon an even dozen studio synthe alsts) — it doesn't dominate but ie ie very effective. The Creatures Feast (Polydor SHELP-1). Songatress Siouxsie and her Banshee drummer, Budzie vith Lote of studio reverb, tap pevao-Hovatian posing. it's kind of cute, Bil Neleon Chimera (Mercury B19). Similar in approach to Nelson's lace release (see April "83), with the addition of some drustaing by YHO's Yokiniro Taxaha- shi. This is sort of a "home Fecording™ ~~ Nelson plays nearly all the instruments (and there are @ lot of them) and recorded the Jin tracks in his well-equipped home studio — but the drum tracks were flows ia from Japan. Ab, ehe revels of aulti-track. Talking Heads Speaking in Tongues (Sire 23883-1). On one hand it's comforting to know that some things never change. After going off in their ova individual direc Elona (see Jan/Feb '82), the band can cone together again and tara out an album nearly identical to tthe last one three years ago. On the other hand, where wae this albua two years ago when we needed ier ‘Thomas Dolby The Colden Age of Wireless (Capitol 12271). Dolby ie similar to Peter Cabriel (see feb '83) in that he Fills out continued on page 35 Polyphony BOOK REVIEW Electronic Musict Systems, Techniques, and Controls Geccond edition}, “By Allee Steangey published by Willlaa G. Broun Co., Dubuque, Tova 1982. By: David Doty Waen the firet edition of Allen Strange!e £ tronic Music appeared in 1972, it was a very nearly comprehensive guide to an emerging medium, In the decade following its initial publication, electronic ‘susie hardvare end techniques have evolved rapidly, but until recently no similarly detailed book had energed to chronicle the new developments. Now, this Lack hat been remedied by what is ostensibly nev edition of this sane book. In fact, what ve Rave here fa an almost entirely new book, rather than a mere revision of the earlier work. Ae stated in the preface, Strange, who i faculty menber at San Jove State University, intends his book as the text For a college course in elec tronic music. For this reason the synthesizer is portrayed as a modular monophonic instrument instal Ted in an institutional studio. That most of the synthesizers in the world today are hard-vired and relatively portable is # fact that Mr. Strange has chosen to ignore. This fact need not trouble the potential reader too much, however, as the book Euplores the behavior OF synthesizert primarily at the module and patch levels. While only the owners of large modular aystens will be able to utilize all Of the techniques in this compendious 272 p: virtually any analog synthesizer on the market today ‘can be understood in terms of the information pre~ sented here. The organization of the book follows a fairly familiar plan, beginning with a brief chapter on the basic paremeters of sound, Followed by introductory accounts of the basic building blocks which make up aL synthesizers, Successive chaptere introduce the Concept of voltage control and the various types of Sub-audio and audiovrate aodulation, Each technique presented is illustrated by one or more patch 2 version of the standard patch chart format famili- ac to reguler Polyphony readers. Often, several Alternative patches are presented, to results from The selection of techniques and devices enumerated is exhaustive, ineluding such relatively recent developments a Linear aM. and hard and soft ayne, and exotic devices such as frequency shifters and’ vocoders. Waving thoroughly examined sil of the compon- ents of the typical modular synthesizer, Strange goes on to offer chapters on the various other devices commonly found in an electronic music. stu- dio, including tape decks, aixers, and reverb wait: While these chapters are not elways as detailed oF up-to-date ar those concerned with synthesizer odales, they teil constitute & valuable resource for anyone wishing to become familiar vith the operation of an electronic music studio. The book Concludes vith « chapter on performance electronics and a collection of scores for performance. This continued on page 12 ‘August 1983The Penultimate Compressor By: Thomas Figueiredo Tvecame interested in the NES72 high performance compender 1G because i've always had an Obsession to find the best sound ing compressor. This circuic comes close £0 the realization of a perfect compressor. The NES72, ike the NES70, hae tvo separate channels or gain blocks to work with, Tn ehie circuit we use both halves of the TC. Some problems that plague all aingle channel companders are third termonic distortion and low Frequency distortion (due to con trol signal ripple), along with high frequency channel overload aad noise modulation (i “oreathing"). ‘The firet two probe lems are solved by conpressing the high and low frequencies separate ye Al, A2, A3 and their associ~ ated components in figure | form an active electronic crossover with a 1 kis crossover point. These are 3ré order Butterworth filters which exhibie “18 dB per octave cutofé and flat magnitude response, LP3S6s are chosen as the active devices for thelr very high input impedance, fast slew tate, and extremely stable oper Elon into capacitive Loads (see National Semiconductor "Audio Handbook", 1980 edition). They are also very quiet, and in my opinion bi-fete are the best choice for a high impedence input stage. Since input buffer Al and the active fileers it drives (42 and A3) are both inverting, the Crossover output is non-inverting with respect Eo the iaput. The next stage (see Figure 2) consists of two parallel compres Sore buile around che NE572, and includes Aéy AS, and AT through Als, The circuit ts only drawn once for the sake of brevity, hovever it must be repasted twice teing each half of the NES72. ‘abvand AS are external op amps in the feedback Loop of the compressor. T chose the NESS34N, however @ dual type ouch ae the NE5532 could be used for Ad and 10 Polyphony August 1983AS. D1, D2 and D11, D12 Limie the Output ‘to approximately 7 Volts peak-to-peak, vhich protects the equipment following che compres Sor. C19 and C24 acaure thet the diode capacitance doesn't inter fere vith full audio bandwidth operation. C22 and 023 are the attack capscitors. They deteraine the Attack time of the compressor, ia other vords, the anount of time it Cakes the compressor to react to an incoming signal. With «Oil uP cap giving an attack time of 4 m at high frequencies, anda 1 uP cap giving an attack time of 40 as at low frequencies, the result ie very low distortion, €20 and C21 are the recovery capacitors; they determine the amount of time it takes the co pressor to release. They ean alo be thought of ae controlling the ‘amount of sustain. A recovery cap FIG.2 spe_ pon conor a of 4.7 uP yields @ 200 ms recovery time, as recommended by the May 1981’ signecice "Compander Product Guide" for high end audio proce: ing, I chose 10 uF capacitors, resulting in a 400 a recovery time which gives more sustain vith goiter. Simple compander systene are subject to a problem called breathing. Ae the system changes gain, the change in the background folse level can sometimes be audi- ble, To our design the circuits bute around 620, C21 and C22, ©23, along vith op anps A? through Als, butter the timing capacitors and’ allow improved accuracy of the compressor with low level signals. Combining this techaique with band-splitcing vireually eliai- nates any breathing problems. ‘aT through Als could be 1/4 of an LMS24, T chose TL0B4s hou= fever, because bi-fers cause less loading due to their high input impedance, Op amps Ad and AS are con~ figured in the inverting node, We need another inversion, waich is accomplished in the next stage. Op amp AB is our output six Techose an NESS34A for this ye (g00 figure 3). 32 and R33 Tinie the current consumption to approximately + 10 mA (chese re~ sletors are décessary on any E5534. in the cireuit; see the May 1981 Signetics application note, "single and Dual Low Wolse Oper. tional Amplifier", Ad end AS Fequire the same treatment to prevent large quiescent currents From flowing due to che 2 to 3 Volt DC offset at pin 6 of AS and AS. This bias te Induced et pin 43; ie may be trimmed out by adding 2k to 100k resistors from the 415V supply to pin 2 of Aland A5. However, this introduces extra hissy 90° T recommend not worrying about the offset since it does sot affect the audio perforsaace of the op amps. Bypass capacitors C28 through C31 are necessary vith the WE5534 to isolate the op amp from any spurious noise riding along on the power supply lines. Ievs also geod practice to add bypass caps fo Al through A3 aa well; in fact, this is recommended for binfet op ‘np applications in general. Finding parts, and other tipa, This circuit te relatively compiex and many of the parts are hard t9 locate, The resistors and most of the capacitors are avail~ able from Mouser Electronics (isi Woodside Avenue, Lakeside, Ch 92040). The NES72, NES532, and NE5534. are available from PGS Electronics (Route 25/B0x. 304, Terre Haute, In 47802). The WES72 and TLOB4 are available from Redio Shack. Also note that power supply connactions and pinoute. for AT though Al4 are not shown since number of different op anps willWork. Pinouts can be found on the Te’ spec sheet or package Ci, Radio Shack parts. package). For best stability, all £i1- ter cape should be polystyrene oF mylar, and all timing caps (for attack tine, rele: ete.) should be ‘tencalum or mylar, AIL resistors in the inputs and feed back loops of the audio anps should be metal film, 12 types (atthough you can use a DVH to match Sf tolerance types if you have a bunch to choos fron Ed.). Finally, it's neces: use 2 well 415 Volt power supply. PARTS List Resistors (see ext) RL, Ra, Ra 100% ra 150 ohms Re 8.06%. RS 9.53% RERS, R29-R51 10k R10, RIL 17.3% R12, R13, R20-R27 Li Rue R17 Suk Rig, R19 3.3 328 oz 332, 233 100 Ohms Capacitors (see text) a 0.22 uF cach 8200 oF < 3900 pF c 0.039 uF Ct 0.033 uF ce 3300 pF Co-cls, 25-026 2.2 uP c17, cis, c28.c31 10 uF 19, 024, €29, ©3001 uP 20, cat see toxt 22, 23 see text oy 3 F 32 22 oF Semiconductors D1, 02, D1, p12 3.6 Zener Biode D3-p10 W914 oF equivalent AAS L356 binfet op amp Ay AS, a6 1WES334A op amp Aral LM324 oF TLO84 Gee cexe) rel mE572 compander mise, Sockets, Jacks, box, 2 Polyptiony +BOOK REVIEW continued from page 9 section of the book vill likely prove the lease Gsefal for most readers, as the circumstances des eribed clearly belong to’ the academic avant-garde of the 60s and early 70s. It is doubtful that many non-acadenic readers will have either the equipment or the inclingtion to perform Strange's Vanity Faire fo Douglas Leedy's Entropical Paradise (with Bird i}. There are, however; some useful tips om organising and troubleshooting a performence setup. ‘Taken as a whole, Electronic Music: Systems Techniques, aed Gontsols should proves vaTusbTe Tesvuree foc any student of synthesis. Wore ex- perienced players may find that its encyclopedic Collection of patches alone justifies the $11.75 price. My only real complaint about this book, and itis a relatively minor one, concerns its styl Because of its academic orientation, the language used is sometimes more pedantic than the content seems to require. T hope that this fact does not Aiecourage any would-be readere from utilising what clearly the most comprehensive electronic music book on the market today. August 1983PLAY DRUMS AND GUITAR-AT THE SAME TIME? Page eae can accent your playing with pees Glass breaking, a chord or lick ome Ne Niemen Ea eae ee eee eg Peete eet Perea mere Ney Maem Pum ue ace tapel! epee ICUs ia ae eons oe Peni menor eaters CPE colte [=] aoe nse RR oe Cem nen Paes agama Porc Mae eee ar Cu Cae Rea Mn Cg a6 Aan Role ene eee cece piecemeal eek eau fae cB ee Meta ad a) ecm eed ay Cena mon sae ROR Roe eels Motels) oso ogee one Ko Cr eneaens cece eens eRaTN= Veni BA een Recta aac Raeeeteae ager ete een can trigger the replay with a tap of the hand or foot, INSTANTLY Pee rece perce the unit CNS WG ge Pree ete anaes arte pt tie cme ai eee eee oes Perm can ear eeasunt ae) CSR Ariana Renee eee Pe mea ca oul Caen Cerieci Oem ann SPECIE)An Interview it By: John K. Diliberto ‘I think that electronic technol ogy offers us the possibility of divoreing ourselces from the necessity of virtuosity, without divoreing ourselves from the possibility of intense and mean ingfal interaction with our instruments.” Donald Buchla individualist who follows Ria par- tieular vision despite all the obstacles, hardships, derision, ‘exits that are available Tike Lewis and Clark, Buckminster Fuller, and Warcy Partch he flics against the winds of convention and sometimes, by his very effort, changes those Donald Buchla makes electron ic music instruments. And though those instruments resemble what we know as synthesizers, and work in much the same way, Buchla insists that they are aot synthesizers. He sees each of hie devices as part of the larger electronic music instrument family, "Elec~ tronic inetrumente are a family of insteuments", he claims, "just Like the wind family, the brass fanily, of members of the string fenily.” Buchla began designing i struments for the electronic £1 y when he vas at the San Francis co Tape Music Center in 1962. His name and instruments are not a9 widely known as those of Moog, Arp, or Prophet, but anong those who know electronic instrumentey the name Buchla ie one to reckon with, He's generally credited With arriving at the voltage con trol godular synthesizer at the sane ti Robert Moog. But from that point on their parallel paths diverge. Moog geared his Instruments Cowarde a burgeoning popular market ‘that he in fact had 4. Hig instruments vere tailored to the expressed neode of musicians Like Wendy Carlos, Keith Emereon, Tomita, and Jan i Buchla, on the other hand, wa: himself a practicing musician and composer. avant-gardist and experimentalist, and his inetrusents reflect those concerns. He is opposed to the concept of imitative ayathesis to the point that he doesn't even Like having keyboards on his in- struments: his concession is a metal touch-plate system. So, Tete noe surprising to him oF anyone else that hie instruments have been embraced by artists oa the sonie frontiers, such as Mor ton Subornick, rather than the popular Determined individualism can become self-righteous with some artist: been almost willfully obscure in pursuit of his musical purit More than one musician has told stories about trying to buy a Buchla instrument and actually being turned dovn because Buchla didn't think their quai was seri= fous. enough. fee being an innovator of electronic music design, Buchla Claims to know little about the actual technology in his cre: tions. "I don't care about cir euitry", he assert sign ay {struments from the outside ia, He speaks of music in terms of language, geature orientation, and interactiveness. He doesn't seek the touch-sensitivity of #0 many keyboard synthesists, but rather an aimoet cybernetic intert between the body, mind, and in- atrument, His own concert perf ances entail audience interaction with his computers, He relates how at one concert he gave £1 Lights to audience members, then aimed them at a screen vhich triggered the instruments, With Buchla conducting and playing his instrument, it’ created a true feedback loop between artist and audience. Buchla is now involved with digical technology. His newest instruments, the 400 Series, de- August 1983part from his modular designs and Contain everything, including & touch-plate keyboard and real-time score editor, in a unit the size of a medium suitease. (The 405 Model has a more traditional weighted clavier keyboard.) You can create any vaveshape fmagin= able with this ingtrument. During 2 demonstration he gave me, one Yaveshape looked Iike a coastal sap of Norway and sounded equally Jagged and complex. ‘After more chan 20 years ia the vanguard, Buchla has evolved an enigmatic personality that tends co undereut his obvious onthusiasm for hie music and in- struments, His Sahare-dry humor Cute through many of his often cryptic anavers, at once daring land provoking further inquiries, But he was also happy to talk about hie creations and verbalize ‘the concepts that are embodied in a Buchla electronic instrument. As he aid, "I's used to sitting in ay ivory tower and passing schematics out under the door. T don't get to talk about them that fuck", Here, Donald Buchla tale. Joha Diliberto: When did you ‘tare putting together electronic Components and synthesizers Donald Bichla: Electronic musical inatrumente in abot 1961-62. 3D: What were you working with then? DB: Instruments of ay ova inven tion, ‘They were an outgrowth of xy own personal need and acoustic JD: So you came to it DBr Yee, as opposed to a techni- SD!" What vere the instruments that you vere working with at the tine? DB: Well, the studio of the early 602, the traditional etudio, var equipped with an array of elec tronic ingtraments, none of which vere designed to make music. The concept of designing electronic instruments was new at the tine. My Firat inetrument was a device that read the shape of the hand and interpreted it as @ waveshape, It embodied the philosophy chat the instrument had to be highly intersetive vith the human being vho was playing it. Tt vas a way OF transcending the Limitations of the instruments that T'was ac~ quainced with, which tended to be Hevieet-packaré oseitlacors, Ampex Rost equipment, borrowed World War IE gunsichre and acm Polyphony “Pm concerned with language and input structure every bit as much as Pm concerned with generative structure.” A lot of people feel chat the Tecent generation of syathesizere is still very non-interactive. DB: I'd ay that'e generally JD: what then makes youre inter active? DB: T'm concerned with language and input structure every bit at ‘much ae I'm concerned with xenere- JD: How does that translate into ‘your electronic designe? Dh: Tt influences the man-machine interface, the vay one communi- cates with the instrument. Te takes place at the tactile level and the language level. JD! Tt seems that one of the benefits of synthesizers is that they have made music more a fune~ tion of the mind and lees a func~ tion of tactile dexterity, some thing that has been the eradition of music for hundreds of years. Dp: Well you chose the vord dex- eeriey, T didn't. 1 think chat electronic technology offers us the possibility of divorcing our~ selves from the necessity of vie~ tuosity, without divorcing our felves from the possibility of what you aight call a synthesizer? out 1 vouldn’t call anything that Tive built @ synthesizer. started designing members of Glectronic family of instruaents in 1962. JD: What differentiates what you design from a synthesizer? DB A synthesizer, according to popular usage, is a keyboard in- strument vith the expectation that hen you strike a particular key that you will get a particular pitch. would even extend the Sxpectation to having « certain type of oscillator followed by @ Filter and a gate, keyed by an envelope with an expected Ti time, fall time, sustain, and so on. 'T would expect a cercain imitative aspect to a synthesizer ~ imitative to the extent of copying what we expect from per~ cussive sounde of the world to Which we are accustomed. “have abeays been outside and I’ve chosen toremain there. Pee been an experimentalist since my early childhood.” BDi_hy #i4 you feel a seed to go Ddutside these expectations? DB: Because I didn't feel a need to go inside them, T have always deen outside and I've chosen to remain there, T've been an ex- perimencalist since ay carly Childhood. T've been interested in avant-garde and experimental fusic far nore than I've been interested iny as @ composer, nore traditional form and otructur My instruments have reflected that “11 grew up surprisingly ignor- ant of what sas going oninother people's music.” “..there are hundreds of thousands of people interested in alternative modes of expres: sion.” JD: Who were some of the people that you vere Listening to in your Fly days? DB: | I grew up surprisingly ig norant of what was going on in other people's music. I was zed to find, in the early six- people in’ San Francisco that were’ composing and experimenting ‘long Linee that did not adhere to the status quo. Since then T've earned that there are hundreds of thousands of people interested in alternative modes of expression. JDi Outeide technology ie still having an effect on electronic instrument deeign. “The advent of the mlerocom- ter has really made it possi- ble to make the electronic medium a very viable perfor mance mediam.” jefore the microcomputer, we were very limited ax per~ formers.” August 1983 6DB: The advent of the microcompu- ter has really made it possible to take the electronic medium very Viable performance medium. Before the microcomputer, we were very. Limited as performers. Bur sow we have a flexibility that should be admired by a player of an instru~ JD: The touch-plates are some~ thing that is very auch associated with your instruments. Why did you go to then instead of some Bther triggering device? DB: Well, it's s cop-out, a com promise between the expectations and demands ~~ the psychological demands, et least — of the black and white keyboard versus the Benerality of the sky-blue input Structure, It's easy co adapt to the expectations that many of us have, and easy to transcend those same expectations with a keyboard oriented in slightly knoun tradi~ tional way: “ammusic as we know itis rooted ina great deal of tradition, and Js resistant to change on many JD: Your basic philosophy seem: to be derived from concept of breaking away from any traditions chat preceeded you. DB: T would guese so, yeahs My oun fnterests are in chat direc tion. We're tradition bound. We have concepts of hat ausic ts, and what is and what is not music We have vietuonity, that ie per formance technique, developed. af- ter years of study and centuries Of tradition, We have instruments that have been refined and re~ fined, generation after genere tion,” go music ss we know it f rooted ina great deal of tradi tion, and is resistant to change fon many levels: the instrumental, the performance, and the listeai levels. I'm not well-rooted in any of the traditions and T'd Like fo Lavestigate the sonic experi fence in a very general vay. 3D: Do you think chat electronics fare a better vay of delving into found? DB: I'm not that involved vith the intricaci+e of aound ae some, I pursue the investigations of timbre, but I'm more concerned with the Investigation of musical Structure, I think that's where ore music Lies, than with what we ight call the static tinbr 3D: You and Robert Moog began 6, Polyphony developing electronic instruments fat about the sane ti DB: Yes, we both had our scarce about the same tine, Ke both used modular designs also. The idea of of discreetness in realms that Were otherwise limited to con Einuuas. Everybody's favorite oscillator in 1961 was the Hew Lete-Packard because it wee very stable and predictable, and very well calibrated, The big limita~ tion was accepted a something that could never be transcended, analy it had ¢ knob on it #0 that Lf you wanted £0 go from 440 Hz to 710 Wz you had to go through every Teequeney inbetueen. Consequent~ ly, to make a jump in frequency you had to splice a tape end put the pieces together. As simple as thar may seem, it was avery fun- damental Limitation of the cla eal studio. Voltage control al- loved us t0 generate and conceive discreet changes in piteh, as opposed to continuous changes. We can then extend that the voltage control of other parameters The concept of the modular design was the original concept of the synthesizer, that is to syn thesize the whole owt of the cum of the parts. And the modules Were the parts. If ve needed ¢ lot of generators ve would obtain a lot of modules that had genera tive functions. If we wanted to do a lot of analysis, we vould obtain modules that did envelope detection and perhaps filtering. IE ve wanted rhythaie elements, we would string together = lot of Sequencers. So the modules al- lowed us to engross ourselves in different kinds of bisses, depen ding on what ve were interested in. If ve vanted we could empha- size the structure, or the density or processing capabilities versus the generative capabilities. Te Yery important level, that is the Btructural level as opposed to syatens that came along shortly thereafter that made all kints of sumptions like the sawtooth Should precede the filter, should precede ‘the envelope genetator or Shacever. T don't even know how the typical synthesizer has come together. JD: ow would you compare your work to Moog'e? DB: Tt's ike comparing apples to oranges. Both of us are making viable additions to the musical instrument family. I suppose his instruments have been more ori- ‘ented co traditional concepts of mutical structure and mine towards non-traditional concepts. At one Eine we were considered to be West coast versus ast coast and in Some sense there is truth fo that concept. Certainly ton or twenty Eook place on the West coast than the Hast coast. BD: Electronic instruments have changed since the first Moog and Buchlae with their big patchboards attached to a keyboard. What ideas have gone into those changes? DB: A lot of Learning has gone down in twenty years, We've found that certain kinds of structural interactions can be aeaumed. Cer tain others can be taken over by the computer that controls the innards of our instruments, and can be specified in s way that ean fake changes in patches instan~ taneous instead of tedious. The computer hes made 2 lot of changes but it's only a small part of it. ‘The language 1a the major part of it, The operative language behind our instrument hae taken over a lot of the role of establishing “Therein lies the exciting poss bilities of electronic instru- ments: the instantaneous re- mapping of the relationship between input gesture and out put response.” sponees. Sbr What do you sean when you Speak of Language? DB: I like to regard an instru~ najor an input structure that we Contact physically, aa output Structure that generates the Sound, and a connection between the to. The electronic fenily of Instrumente offers us the limi- tation, if ve approach Le trad tionally, and the freedom if we approach it in a new vay, of total independence between input and ‘output. And in face the necessity of some way of generating « con nection between the Evo. becomes an important Language pect in the sleetronie family of instruments, here it had played no part with S11 eraditional acoustic instru sate. The relationship between Tnput and output is fixed vith traditional instruments; it's to- August 1983tally flexible vith electronic instruments, It was established by the setting of knobs and rour- ing of the patch cords in the electronic instrument of the 60s. But in the electronic instruments of the 800 ie Le established by hhuaaa intelligence vorking through sophisticated electronic Therein lies the exciting pos: bilities of electronic instru nents: the instantaneous remap- Ping of the relationship between Input gesture and output’ respons: We've only begun to investigate thie because of our own Ignorance and our dedication to tradition, in that ve continue to build elec tronie inetrumente with linear additive input structures, assump™ tive connective structures and imitative outpat structures. Ir "You talk about gesture orien tation and interaction with the ingen hard ly seen to give musicians the touch-sensitivity that « lot of them want. DB: Those sane musicians are the ones who go into the stores and say "I'm the keyboard player from Such and such group and T'd like £0 see vhat you have in the way of Fayatheaizers!."” And the rock and roll synthesizer expert shows all the black end white Keyboards and sure enough, they're all spring- loaded keyboerda. with suitches on the other end. They're all organ ‘oped to throw hammers at etrings, a really crude problem and too graceful an ai c's what these guys have de ded, that's whet the marketers have picked up on, and tha we've got down there in aynthesi~ ger-Land. There same guys that fare complaining that their $6,000 instrument doesn't make every sound that they want, that it won'e imicate anything, finally Start to.realize that it really Will make any sound, But Le won't Initate the musical structure of the thing chat they had in their inde that it vould do. The rea- fon that it won't do that is that it only has a finite number of pitches and they're all designated fs pitehes. There's no interac tion between them. it's all & “I didn’t claim to solve the prob- Jem. Pm just here to elucidate a Polyphony that doesn't Lend itself to alter native musical structures, Did I evade your question? ‘Dr Yoo you dia. DB: Tdidate claim to solve the problem. I'm just here to eluci~ Gate ie. Sb! Ie it a problem ehat you vant to solve? DB: Wo, What T try to 4 persuade as many people a8 po ble that are ina position of influencing our musical heritage and instrument design, to Look on the possibilities of the electron ic family ag 2 legitimate family of musical instruments and not as Geitation or a bastard or a apace wars. We should have the “What I try 0 do ts peranade as ‘many people as possible that are ina position of influencing our musical heritage and in strument design, to look on the possibilities of the electronic family as a legitimate family of musical instruments...” je variety of approaches in the clectronic family es aay other family. We should stop competing the’ oberheim. ‘2 buach of crap, Let'a stop aiming tovards the same pie-in-the-sky, and start developing s variety of instrumen- ther and musical tech— Performances. Let's ching that reflects the ilities of the techno logy at hand, as well as the music niques and creativity behind thea. ety of approaches in the elee- tronic family as any other family.” — NEXT ISSUE: BUILD AN ELECTRONIC BASS DRUM! FOR MUSICIANS Project kitsnow available exclusively from PAiA and Droampfote HRs Those ae sls of parts and circu board ony, ok ElgttoniesProjectsFor Musicane(Sta95 6) ano ae nt teat with Moakeyour, | key- _ Velocitouchi* | ch Prassre — ich bands and Sonoted citarton cee er eynari nba {versions ae svtiase om eso tan S608, Standalone pacage wit care and Powe sop fy shown i he pote lose han 57000 eth leita Fo utes ein of BAA Electronics, Inc. ‘August 1983 7By: Craig O’Donnell (Craig O'Donnell is a menber of the Scientific Americans, and has some unique ideas about the role of technology.) "1 don't care wnat people say, rock & roll is here to stay" -- Danny and the Juniors Danny seems to be right, and I contend that as Long aa there's music being recorded there will be spring reverbs. Why? low about cost, sturdiness, technological advances, size, and sew applications? These have all combined to bring the apring dack, especially in small studios. What is @ spring reverb? It's simply a preamp stage (souetines with £0), @ driver similar io pring ciple to 2 speaker, some springs which delay the electrical signal, a pickup similar in principle to @ microphone, a pickup amplifier, and an. output buffer. Other bells and vhistles are added at the whim of each designer. The principle is EXACTLY that used in an acoustic reverb chamber "dry sound" travels to an electromagnetic trensducer Gpeater) and when the sound's electronic waveshape propagates through the air, a time delay results. Luckily, the speed of Light and the speed of sound are wildly difterent in magnitude. A transducer aicrophone) picks up the sound bouncing around the reverb chanber and takes what it "hears back £0 the ‘mixing console. Springs have internal reflections and reinforcement/cancellation patterns just Like & "Live" oom Pretty elegant, no? The spring reverb is 40 handy and s0 onnipre- sent that we should appreciate its good poiate. Spring reverb techsology was pretty auch stalled until a few years ago: the Hammond-type reverb Like those in a Fender Tin Reverb amp wae what you got. [Ar the 70s progressed we sav improvements; Orban and others came out vith reverbe with an input limiter (ess sproing) and equalization controls to doctor 8 Pobphony Photograph by Vesta Copestakes ~ CAVE GRAFIX the tone, TAPCO packaged a similar unit, sane Lisiver, in ite mixers and a good-sounding reverb 1 was (later, TAPCO put evo in a Tackenount package ‘With four Vanda of EQ on each channel): We'll talk {Bout using nov-iinived untee lacers ‘The efowning touch on chis rapid advance came when Polyphony editor Craig Anderton unveiled his ‘or Spriage” teverb in the October 1960 iesue of deca’ Recording It combined EQ with some of the deca that had been floating around the guitar pick up vorid: series output transducers for « hotter output, parallel input transducers, end «differen Ciat Mhumbucking™ boing-cancellation principle, This unit is so good, and so elegant, it should be put in a flat-black cubs and major studios should be charged $600 for it without belag told vbat's in the black box! Yee for under §80 (the cost of the PATA pares Kie plas power supply) the Hor springs gives Eound that's clone to the cheaper foil-type reverbe land is of course less expensive, and totally difter~ ent in nature, from the digital reverd computers sade by Lexicon and other Worve covered cost and technological advances, 80 far, so good. Obviously if spring reverb can Survive Life in a touring Fender amp, the little suckers are cough. They can certainly withstand hostile eaviroaments better chan foil~ or plat Feverbs and aren't ae delicate as the digitale try the *beer teat" Open a can of beer aa that the spray Kite the controls of a digital reverb, drink Ley Than repeat with any apeing reverb, Continue and.woh, heck, just hurl « canful onto the springs fnd"the computer omit for laughs, wich won? Size fe a factor that vill becoue increasingly important as companies cram more noise into less spaces, very reverb unit wade taker up at leest oe ‘much space a6, and usually more than, ¢ spring unit Cohich can be'as small as one rack apace complete), nd springs fie well toto moet dual-purpose mixer Packages. Perhaps some genius will develop @ $50 August 1983digital-analog hybrid reverb using @ i foil the size of an 8-pin DIP in of a cassette -- I'm sure it can be done —- but let's not weit, okay? Let's press on. Applications. That's the magic word. Ae musi~ cal processing tends to become more digital (and we all know engineers using limiters from the 50s be- cause they sound better -~ and they do), recorded sounds will become more sterile ins certain funda way. Let's circle around that statement? inside a digital drum machine? "A DICITAL RECORDING of an analog drum. NOT @ program that's ‘creating the sounds using FFT procedures, which is too bad because musical signals of all sorts contain incredible amounts of randomness that are extrenely difficult to “describe” digitally. synthesizing sone trumpet at UIT takes the resources of a compun ter about the size of an IBN 370 —~ why not hire sa out-of-work horn man? Sometimes digitizing can be more trouble than it's worth. Of course MIT is engaged in valuable basic research ao they can be forgiven, but ve can't expect to throw a DEC compu~ ter’ into our ‘control room without taking out a second and third mortgage. Digital units operate well only within very strictly designed parameters conceraing sampling. rate, bendvideh, and s0 ony or the hash that results ie scary. ‘This mosne that our sounds are Losing that random, natural edge. Anyone can tell the difference between Johuny Ramone slamming his guitar strings #00 times a minute and a digital recording of one “clan” gated 400 times a minute -- the digi- Eal recording will sound exactly the same, every atcoke", whereas Johnny and hie guitar form a com plex cybernetic system that maker each "stroke" just a Little different from aay other, anywhere, evers A tennish analogy: you coulé contemplate 4 water Fell or ¢ slab of Plexiglass standing on its end. Both possess deautifal, innate qualities but which nore "natural! By contrast, no two spring unite are the a: fat all due to the inherent non-linearities of inex pensive resistors, capacitors, and transducers plus the differences between each and every spring made. How can we ueilize this to our advantege?” Most simply, we can mix spring reverb in the background Of instruments like guitar an¢ synthesizer while recording to add "body". Listen Co the old Lovia’ Spoonful records and you can hear springs gaily banging away on the guitars, This sore of extra suaical information can be thought of ae a poor an's "aural exciter": EQ the springs co a broad Peak from 3 kis to 10 kis, and hide it back in the mix. Limited springs work vell for this, but aon= Timited eprings ork best for the following unusual applications Dub reggae, a tremendously wild form of music from Jamaica, uses bursts of reverb and sometimes slamming reverb springs as a rhytha effect. Springs Sound great in dance-dub mixes, lending an inimi~ table electronic texture (one that's legitimized, by the way, by dozens of 50s aad 60s puremeleceronic music cecordings). Try ity you'll like it (ehe Scientific Americans 40). ‘And back to those drum machines ~~ how can ve “mumanize a sequencer-driven Lockstep dest? Welly here are a few notions. Use springs on a signal it from your "dey" deumbox to drive effects like Elsngers, DLs, ADL, oF more expenaive reverb: Mix thie back in. Use’an envelope follower to track Polyphony the reverb's output and use the EF output to drive any kind of modulator (such a a VCA on the elec= tronic snare during mixdown, the PYM of your synth bassline, noise gate keying the ride cymbal in and out of a delay or plate reverb, a delicately-adjus~ ted Schmitt trigger that'll fire a percussion de- vice, ete.). Think of the reverb'a output as | qussi-synchrosonic control voitage generator. Why Waste an BHT plate doing something Like that? T Geed to have great Luck doing this on an old ARP “Blue Meanie” 2600. Drumboxes, whether digital or analog, need all the help they can get to provide interest to the part of our moakey-brain that moni~ tore what we heer. As you play vith a spring unit, you will dis~ cover new uses. When you think of a reverb as @ very strange combination of envelope follower, sam ple and hold, and noise generator, you'll be on the Tight track, | The rendom nature of @ spring reverb's ‘output just might become increasingly valuable as we digitize our processors — ite random phase-nodula tion effect can be thrown onto synth tracks) ea pecially, to give them interest and depth. . ‘what. bout taking a little of everything in the rhythm Section, mixing it into a spring, delaying the re sult to fall a beat or two Lacer in the mix, and eeeing the result vay back in the contor of the mix ‘or double delayed, mixed vay back in the right channel followed by way back in the Left channel. ‘what would that do to your electronic dance mix hit? T hope this article has inspired you to spring IBY PROFESSIONAL DEMAND} ‘DDG OFFERS FREE ADVICE, PERSONAL SERVICE AND ONE-DAY SHIPPING OF THE FINEST MUSIC AND SOUND EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE ANYWHERE @crown Traynor KORG polyfusion EVI casey ay ieinim yee =) TAPCO CIs ene Herat pape ale prophet = ROI 3 intersound PLEASE CALL OR WRITE FOR PRICES & ORDERING INFORMATION ~ YOU'LL BE GLAD YOU DID! DDC ree August 1983 1°‘the process of building « EK-x seriea-besed T and-hold (/) circuit to hold ay analog keyboard voltage in meaory for as long as the VGA vas Letting the signal through. The cireuit also required a gate output, since T used @ Keyboard Lacking a’ set of trigger bus contacts. This arti cle" describes how to build such a Circuit, whieh is applicable to other types of synthesizers using analog keyooerd designs. ‘How ie works. ‘The control voltage coming from the keyboard feeds the inverting (-) input of fone section of 4558 dual op amp. As configured, the input impedance ‘of the circuit Is very high, es pecially with respect to DC’ con Erol voltages. Cl; a 0.01. oP capacitor installed at the input, shuate any noise snd transients coming {nto the input to ground. Be sure to use s shielded” cable between your keyboard Cor front panel pateh point) to prevent False triggering at this input. ‘The ‘comparator built around ICIA ‘compares the input voltage with the voltage sampled between the two power supply points at R6y tthe threshold control. Tats con trol determines where the front fend will atart putting out thi appropriate’ voltage swing to the power tupply rail, indicating Beate on” condition, Since ICIA ip-an inverter, as vell a5 2 con ory CIA needs diode at ita ‘output (D1) to pase only negative Voltage swings. “This voltage then goes fo IC1B, which faverts once Seain, and rectifies only positive signals. This lights che gate LED fon the” front panel to show that. this part of the cireuit is vork- ings fees; the Laput voltage at pin’ 2 is more positive chan the Yoltage present at the wiper of 3. The gate signal comes off the Junction of D2 and D3. With D3 and'Rh in circuit, the gate output ‘2 +12. Remove these two compenand the voltage will ‘AIL ehe way £0 +15¥, Signal into. a +15V pulse of “de~ fined width which with the saspling characteristics Of a typical syathesizer keyboard. so there is no question about the sampling voltage appli to pin 13 of the 4066 analog When the 4066 oviten for the period defined by the RC tine constant of RS and C2, "a bit of the input control voltage, and holds it vhen pulse out of 1028 drops sharp ly. Back to 0 Volts. f polystyrene capacitor for C3 in Conjunction, vith a bi-fet type op "azoop” of the Voltage will be very slight, pared to using a ceramic capacitor With a standard bipolar op amp. ‘The importance of using @ polysty- ‘be emphasised fenoughy without the right capy your Yo0s may not pls time you hit the same oF they my drift from ol teh if the VCA allows the Yoo" signal to be audible for Tength of tine. Setting up the cireait is simple; key the lovest note on your “keyboard, and turn R6 until Jou get a reliable gate. Light Indication every tine you hit = Problens and solutions. Now we come co tome of the problens you “will encounter vith these types of circuits. The first problen you may encounter is not getting any gate ou of the cir cuit. This may be caused by a voltage drift at either Fooistive ladder” compri R2, and R6. If you do not have & regulated supply feeding V+ and V~ the “threshold point will fluc~ (especially at the low end of your keyboard). Wot all 15V regulators are created ‘equal! They vary a few tenths of ‘a2Volt from lot to lot, especially when you are buying, soa-preciaion parts. You can increase RS to ‘soak up" any differences though the larger the value, ore difficuit it will be to set a precise value. ‘Also watch polarity of all Aiodes (or the circuit von't work), and. make sure that” the control pin of the 4066 switch gets a clean pulse to turn it on and off, The circuit as shown Works just finey don't. try to climinate 1c2 from the circuit or you will get very errati pling. And speaking of 102, tie S11 soused inpues (pias 7, 9, 11 and “I4) to ground}. also'tie’ the tinued 4066 inputs (pins 5, 6, and 12) to ground, The last precaution is to e that your keyboard com fact are reasonably clean, and adjusted properly so as to not bounce excessively. The edge trigger eireuit (IC2A and 1078) help to lean up the input signal land square off the pulse going to 86, but thet doesn't mean they vill ignore all transients coming their way. If false trig gering becomes a problen, increase Gl'tova Larger value, which turns fon the 4066 for a greater amount of tine, ‘Final coments. Construction is not critical excopt for the points mentioned earlier, ang of fourse, use proper circuit board layout principles. Decoupling the op saps at each pover cupply point aiahoc’ seem fo be necessary, although ehis is alvays good pracy Rice, You aight wane co put’ the whole thing on a piece of perf doard, but’ if you doy leave Little extra room on the board for future projects. This will save you from having lot of Little boards all over the place, and minimize the chances of stray noise ereeping into your cir cultry.DIGITAL ‘The now generation of digital drums represents one of the most significant advances I've seen in the field of musical electronics for quite some Hine. Originally pioneered by Roger Linn’ (the Linn= Drum has appeared on countless records, including "Dare! by the Hasan League), digital drums are aow avellable from a aumber of other companies as well, ‘Thanks to friends in the industry, I recently had che opportunity to evaluate the E-mu Drumaletor (ise peice $995), MiR Drum Computer (91250), and Oberhet Dx ($1395). Playing vith these drum unite hes been a truly profound experience which has al tered the vay T look at, and compose, music, In the apace of 2 few months, working vith and programming these devices has taught me more about rhythm chan 1 had Learned in the past 20 years. Ar a side effect, ay base playing has tightonee op ae voll, and T find il easier to compose songs when there's « catchy drun rift churning tlong in the background. One of the sort important features of the Drum Computer and Drumvlator is syac-to-tape (a retrofit will soon be available for the DE which gives it Sync-to-tepe capabilities as vell), This mean that you can record a click track on one track of 4 ulei-track tape recorder and, using the click track as a timing reference, overdud « drum part on a Separate track, Av the song develops, if it becomes neceatary to change the drum parey pou can siaply re-program the drums and lay down a revised drum track. By syncing this nev pact to the click track, the drugs will still be in spac with the rest of the song. In some cases, T've come back toa song weeks Grreven months) later and progcammed « new drum pare which was nore appropriste ro the tong. Also, Syne these drune op eo Pate Master Synenront Zar" (see the Pebruacy 1963 issue of Keyboard maga- tine) has allowed ac co do a large number of syn- chro-sonic tricks, auch ae programming a drum part designed speci ficslly co trigger a keyboard arpes™ Biator. Bue Tm getting ahesd of ayself.n.so back to basic: Digital drum basics. the new digital drum units record actual drum sounds on ROM (computer ory chips), which provides a degree of realien that cannot be achieved using conventional analog synthesis techniques. Unfortunately, this also sacans thet every drum beat sounds exactly the Nonetheless, in volume level). Note, however, that accenting does not give any corresponding &: well, maybe next year. These drum machines divide the progra process into segment (or pattern) and song m Segments represent individual riffs, fille, end so on. In song mode, these individual patterns are Coubined to make a complete song. Por example, « verse aight require four programmed seguente, = chorus two programmed segments, end an instrumental break a segaent which repeats over and over. In song mode, you would string these together and the drum unit vould play the proper segments in the proper sequence. When programming a pattern, you put the drum unit Into "cecord" mode. A metronome, which is Stually programmable to click at your choice of rates, lets you know where you are in the measure. August 1983When you press the button corresponding to a, partic cular drum sound, the drum unit "remembers" where you played thar drum, As the pattern Keeps repeat Ingy, you can overdub drums until the pattern 2 completes you can also erase unwanted sounds. Quan Hiastion (also called auto correct) can optionally correct your tining to the nearest eighth note, Sixteenth note, eighth note triplet, and so on} the Drumulator end DX even offer an additional nigh Fesolution mode, which defeate che "rounding off" SEF oftect of quantitation. "The DX is the only one of the three units chat offers "atep tine” recording (where you can step Slowly through a pattern and progreny, oF beats as desired) in addition to "real ti recording. This is very handy when you need to erase one or tvo drum sounds out of a complex event Vike a drum roll, or want co transcribe a drum part from sheet music These Grom unite also have cassette interfaces 0 that you can permanently store patterns and Senge, battery backup s0.that a power’ interruption won't kill your stage act, and ¢ variety of conveni- nce features...uhich we'll describe in nore detail ae ve go along. ‘Now for a word about the comparison checklist. The worst possible vay to select drum unit would be to add up the variove features, and decide that whichever hue nore features is the "best deum unite Musical instruments —~ and these are indeed musical instruments =~ inspire conflicting opinions. For example, vhile most guitarists would say chat a Fender stratocaster is a "better" guitar than Fender Mustang, I know one guiteriet vho voulda'e trede in his Husteng for anything, And white 1 feel that certain drum unite offer better fidelity of sound than other drum unite, fidelity of sound is hot alvaye the sane thing as appropriateness of found, “Y often find mysel? syncing ditferent nits to the same clock signal, ané ueing drune from one nit {a conjunction with drums from a second unit Also, these drums “print” differently on tapes Re= member, the checklist {a intended for couparison, fot. judgment; every unit makes tcadeoffe, and auch Sf how you react Eo a drum unit depends on whether or not you agree with the tradeoffs that vere made. ‘Aigo, a checklist can't describe all of the aubeletice, a0 let's look at some digital drum de~ tail ‘Drum sounds. Of the three unite, I feel that che Dram Computer has the uost synthetic~sounding. drums. However, this ie neither 4 complaint nor a mnt. In fact, on one soag 1 found that the WR drum sounds fit with the plece (which was highly ayathetic) better than the more realistic Drumulator fed DX sounds. Both E-au and Oberheim have gathered 2 lot of experience digitizing sounds over the years, and this shows in their respective products) bbut remember 00 that one of the advantages of ROM based drum units is that sounds can be updated at a later date simply by plugging im a new ROM. Tn fact, the MXR Drum Computer includes an external Yoice connector to allow for easy expansion and/or Feplacement of existing sounds, and an alternate base drum sound vas included in ay review unit a One possible option. (Ar we go to press, MAR hae Confirmed that a Library of additional sounds vill lable within « fev months, and quoted extremely jonable projected prices.) While E-mu does not Polyphony plan to offer additional sound ROMs (although a1 scond crash cyabal may be subsituted for the ride Sound), they have devised a process vhereby Emulator owners cen record druz sounds, at vhich point they sve programmed into an EPROM. This is not a trivial process, but it is not impossible either. At pre~ nt, there are no plane for additional DX voices (however, the higher-priced Oberheim DME does accept a fanily of optional sounds). ‘One outstanding feature of the DX is that the drum sounds are individually tunable over about a half-octave range. This lets you obtain variety Of different drum sounds from one unit withoue hav= ing to resort to external signal processing; thereby increasing the overall usefulnass of the device. ‘The Drumulator drums are not tunable, while the MXR thas a master tuning control which varies all druns about ¢1 full step. This is real handy when you want to tune lover for super-deep toms, or tune Righer for a brighter cymbal sound. However, be~ cause (unlike the DX) we're dealing vith « single control, all sounds change pitch simultaneously. While I feel that handelaps are generally the weakest part of any digital drum set (humans just do not clap with netrogomie regularity), the Deva Coa puter hendelaps are particularly unrealistic, Hov- to get some great guicro (wood scraper) Tn fect, hed they labelled the handclaps “guiero", I vould be talking about how realistic the quiero is instead of how unrealistic the claps sound! Just goes to showeee ‘The three tom sounds on all three unite sound just fines however, the DX vill mot Let you play ‘ore chan one tom sound on the aame beat, and if you try to program the different pitched tom sounds in rapid succession, the decay of the preceding tom will be cut off by the attack of the next tom. Drumulator also doubles up the high and mi you can't have them both hit at the same time. (AIT Three drum unite double up the hi hat closed/hi hat ‘open sound; the Drumulator also doubles up the side Stiek/enare and coubell/elave sounds, while the DX doubles up the shaker/handclaps sounds. The Drum Computer sounds are independent of each other). Getting « good hi-hat sound is also a probl although in the context of a recorded track they usually sound okey. The MXR unit audibly re-trig~ Bere, the DX closed hi-hat docan'e cut off the open hi-hat (which is too short for ay tastes as vel), and the Drumulator hi-hat, while in many ways the best of the chree, lacks the sheen you might hope for and also has a'somevhat grainy sound — although a litele high frequency equalization pretty much overcomes these limitation The percussive voices all sound great, but sxtra credit to the DX for offering @ shaker sound, a 'velcome variation from all the “struck” sounds you Usually ind on drum unite, If you alternate be- tween the accented and non-acceated versions, che shaker makes @ great background track. However, Since thir sound is doubled up vith the handelaps, if you mix the shaker in the background you mix the handelaps back as well. The Druaulator also de~ serves extra eredit for its cowbell, If you've ever tried to record a cowbell in the studio, you know how hard it is to get a good sound. Welly they got ite With respect to anare drums, the Oberheim ané ‘August 1983 23Drumulator snares are different yet of equally high quality. The Druaulstor is Iittle flatter and more Ainfi, while che DX sounde more processed and has & Dit more of a "crack". Triggeriag the two simul taneously gives a very fat sound. When I heard the MXR snere’ isolated from the rest of the kit} T thought it sounded quite synthetics but it fits into tracks quite well and has a more Mnew wave” kind of Cymbals are extremely difficult to record digi- tally, which seans you just aren't going to get Killer custain or highs. The MIR crash, however, is quite good, as is che Dx (uhich also has two accent Fevels). The Deunulator ride cymbal is fine {f you Like ride eyabals, but I prefer using a crash most of the time. T often celgger the MAR or Oberhein eyabal from the Drumulater ride output, and the Fesulting sound is excellent. I've also noticed that using a delay line, set for about 50 ns of delay and a touch of regeneration, extends any eya~ bal sound and gives a more natural decay effect. Ease of use. I feel that the MAR and Oderhein waits are the easiest to use, however, the Drumul tor is more complex to use not because of poor design but because it offers more options in ite softvare, which can require more extensive progra ming when creating a drum part, A good example is accents. With the DX, the snare drum has three buttons, each corresponding to a different volume level. TE you vant a softer snare, hit one button} 2 louder snare, the next button; and the third button gives the loudest snare of ail, However, not all DX sounds can be accented; and some sounds have two, rather than three, accents. The MXR, on the other hand, hess single accent which can be added to any of the 12 sounds by pressing the accent Dutton white you press the desired drum sound —= very simple, The Drumulator has the most complex accenting scheme, where you may program any one of Ig accents for cach drum. While thie is a highly versatile vay of dealing wich accents, tt ean also be time-consuming £0 set an accent for each drum —~ although, of course, you can always use the default ‘Settings if you're dapatient and don't want to go to the trouble of programming accents, ‘The biggest adventage of progremmable accents is that you can hhave subtle accents on some drums and wild accente on others; these options are musically useful. For example, I find thet percussive sounds seen to like heavy accents, while drum sounds seem to like light= ‘Or take level setting. With the Drunulator, you progran the various drum levels, while with ehe Drum Computer and DX, you adjust aixer slide pots. I prefer progranmable drum levels since once you have a good mix, you can store it and come back to it later. Yet, there is something to be asid for altering drum levels in real-time, and the slide pots let you do this easily. Of course, with the Drumulator you can.alvays program levels but also feed the individual outputs into a mixing board to vary levals in real time, but if you don't use a mixer there's no convenient way to vary multiple dru levels in real time. Again, it's all « que tion of personal preference, Auother difference between unite is the number of buttons you use to play the drums. With the MXR and DX, ail drum sounds ere available at all times theteta one button for each sound. With the Drumulator, there are four buttons for the twelve Digital drum machine check list — as ee pace ee, wee oe eo oe $5 3 revue oes i Se ‘Master volume control ee SSS Gaeta: ie : ut ee ee Se eee re : veces ores ea See eet = oe emcee : Wood block/clave Se Manually adjustable mix . eee ott we eo ; notes: the ride sound. (2) ‘Some sounds are doubled up (there are 8 outputs for 12 drum sounds). (3) Unlike the Drumulator, appear at specific places (4) Syne-to-tape will be available soon ae a retro- fit. ‘cannot be programed to a song. signed to any drum of combination of drums. (6) There sre four trigger inputs vhich must be assigned to the desired sounds. A pad programmer ie Slated for introduction in late 1983, with a list price of $300. (7) Does not quantize to quarter note or quarter note triplets. August 1983founds (and twelve accented versions of those Sounds), and you must assign which drum sounds or accented drum sounds you want to play to these Duttons, Fortunately, the Drumulator includes an assign mode where, if you're in the middle of re~ Cording « pattern, you can re-assign different drums to these four buttons while the pattern continues, Once you exit assign mode, you can continue overdub— bing with the new drum sounds. This is not as convenient as the one-sound-equals-one-button ap- proach, but it does contribute to the Drumulacor's exceptionally low list price. ‘ALL three deum unite have four seven-segaent nD readouts that inform you of pattern aunbers and the like, The Drunulator and DX also give "beep" messages to signal that a particular operation was Successful (or in some cares, imeuccessful). Software functions. Software design io one of the Drumulator's strongest points. You can program Individual tempos and tenpo changes for each song, store « eegaent mix and transfer it over @ song, have three different vays to end a song (uncondi- tonal end, go back to the beginning, or jump to a different song), program trigger outputs at one of Several rates to occur at specific places in a song for triggering arpeggiators, or sequencers, and s0 on, Clearly, E-mu went Light on the hardware to Keep costs down but went heavy on the software to iBive the operator lote of programming options. The Drum Computer has fever software functions (chat's one of the reasons it's 20 eaay to use), and the DX falls somewhere in between. For example, you set tempo with the Drum Computer manuelly using « alide pot (the readout can show the tempo in BPM; thank~ Fully, any tompo changes you make vill be reflected Inputs DK Em 0c Syne-from-tape eee sync track includes teapo changes o 2 6 External clock, 24 pulses per 1/4 oe External clock, 48 pulses : External clock, 96 pulses soe External clock out Individual drum trigger inputs (5) (6) « Pitch coatrol voltage inputs . RS-232 computer control input . Footavitches DX ems 0c Run/etop footsviten we Advance to next pattern or song 6 Repost pattern uatil released ¢ 6 (8) Does not quantize to quarter notes. (9) Maximum pateern lengeh Is 99 ne than beats. (10) Two accents for bass, snare, and crash cyabels fone accent for closed hivhat and shaker, other Sounds have no accent. (11) Individually programable accent for each drum wre rather when recording the tape syne track). With the Ober~ hheim DX, individual patterns heve progransed tempos, 20 when you conbine them into « song the song vill reflect any tempo changes you programmed into th patterns. Wich the Drumulator, you can store indi~ Vidual tempos for each song, as well as store ancth~ fer tempo for all the segnents. You can also insert tempo change instructions during the course of @ song to speed up or slow down the track. Or how about synching to external clocks. The Dx aynes to 96 pulses per quarter note clocks, the MER to 24 pulses per quarter note clocks, while the Drumulator includes software that lete you syne to 24 pulses per quarter note clocks or any multiple thereof. There's so much more we could get into, but T think it's just about time to give some conclusions about the various units. Mmm Drum Conpater. This device is extremely ateaightforvard to use (what the computer jocks call user-friendly"), has excellent packaging (although Lt is the toughest of the three to service), and is designed for easy expansion should you want to add new sounds (or update older sounds). As mentioned earlier the sound quality is to my cars more synthe tle than the DX or Drumulator, yet thers have Deen Several times when only the Drum Computer made the right sounds for a particular application, The Dre Computer also records extremely vel; giving « strong, punchy sound that translates veil to tape. For songuriters and other people who need to get ideas down fast, this unit ts probably the shortest route from ¥hat's ia your head to reality. Te also tases 1/4" phone jacks throughout, which makes plus~ Pattern (segnent) options DK Eau Do Quantization 2 Maximum pattern length (beats) (9) 9999, Number of patterns 100 36 100 Metronome (click track) oof Programable metronome click . Doumbeat indteation rd Real-time recording : Step time recordin : Erase individual drum beats . Sving fonction oe Shife (subele tempo randomization) . Copy to another pattern 2 ene ‘Join two different sepuents : : ‘Append seguont to itealt soe 8 ‘accent qo) 1) G2) Programable pattern tempo oe (02) Fixed accent may be added to each drum sound. (13) _ Bach pattern vill play at ite programed tom por Changing the tempo changes all segnents. propor-| Elonately, as indicated on the displays August 1983 25ging into mixers and such just that much easier, and you can master the operation of this device in a Felatively short period of time. E-mu Drumulator. If this vere Consumer Rem rte, the Drumulator vould pro ‘designation. The sound quality is exceptional ly realistic and clean (especially if you add some to the sound and pe) In terme of Chia ia without @ doubt the most versatile of the three units; in fact, I wish the other units had sone of the Drumulator functions Such a programasble mix and sang tempo. Note, however, that this same versatility also makes the Drumulator somewhat more complex to operates fortunately, the LED readout indications which “prompt” you are intelligently chosen and extremely heipful.” The inability co tune the drums vill bother come people, as will the use of RCA phono plugs for the individual drum outputs, But in terms Of bang-for-the-buck, the Drumulator definitely delivers ~~ especially if you teke the time to use this device to ite fullest potential Oberheim DX. The ability to tune each sound over a wide range adds a degree of versatility which should not be underestimated. Also, the sound quality Is excellent, end despite being’a relatively, complex machine, the DX is mercifully simple to operate, Having three accont levels available for the bass drum and snare 1s quite useful (although not being able Eo accent the toms can be frustrat~ ing). Remember too that the DX, like the higher s specifically designed to interface Song options Dx Bo D0 umber of songs 50 8 100 Maximum # of sequences per song 253 99 100 End and repeat . End and jump to next song . Erase song ote Step through song. off Insert patterns coe Delete patterns soe e Repeat pattera commends a Copy, pattern parameters to song . Programable song tempo ae Programmable teapo changes a3) 6 Start in the middie of song Cassette/mise. functions DX Ems 0c Load, eave, and verify optio Munber of error messages Load individual pattern Check remaining amount of menory LED readout Minimum tenpo (BPH) Maximum tompo (PX) ‘Tempo readout “Battery backup Saas inlessly with ene reat of the Oberheim "systen"” (on-8 synthesizer and DSX poly sequencer). The Druaulator can also be used with the "System", but requires a simple adapter box in order to be driven by the DSX sequencer. Finally, the DX has aore somory than the Drum Computer or Drumulator (I Counted four 6116 RAMs for the DX, as opposed to two 6116 RAMe for the Drun Computer and Drumulator), and has more available program memory as well (vhich ‘hat we could conceivably sex future software updates). So which drum unit is right for you? You'll have to decide that, and hopefully thie article hes helped you figure out uhat features are most impor tant to you. But I can promise one thing for cer tain: once you've played one of these babies, you won't want to let go. In fact, just as guitarists Use more than one guitar to get different sounds, oF keyboard players use different synthesizers because those instruments have different "sound signacuc you'll probably find yourself wanting more than one Geum unit, Sure, that could be costly ~~ good in Struments cost money, and there's no way around That. To put things in perspective, though, note that a Drumulator, DX, and Drum Computer together List for about the same asa big poly synthe And when you consider how much of a positive influence these sachines can exert on your music, just about ‘anyone would have to agree that they're vell worth the price. cussed in the articl hear the individual drom sounds from all chr: side for easy comparision; Sounds are presented both by thea selves and as parts of rhythas Patterns. The tape also demon strates che effects of different ‘swing and shift func~ jad ‘accenting. The co: parision closes with sample drum parts from all three drums. The Other side of the tape provides an audio demonatration of Thomas Hen ry'e"Miceo-Drume" program. Por your copy, send $4.95 (postpaid in BUSA) to Polyphony-on-Cassette #1, Polyphony Magazine, BO Box 20305) Oklahoma City, Ok” 73116. Please allow 4 ~ 6 weeks for delivery. August 1983CURRENT EWINIS “Tell Them You Saw It In Polyphony’ New from Korg. Intended for keyboards and guitar a# vell as Line level sources, the MM-25 is @ 25 Wate monitor amplifier vhich Includes high and low EQ, head~ phone jack, and multi-position Function switch. The KMX-8 is an 8 channel stereo sizer with VW meters and self-adjusting input Empedance from 10k to 500k Ohm. Concert news. The McLean Mix (an electroacoustic duo featuring Priseliia ané Barton MeLesn) vill give seven European concerts in November 1983, and will tour the Us in March of" 1984. Por booking and tour information, contact the Mebean Mix at 6 Matador Circle, Austin, TX 78746 (tel. 512-327- 279). Reverb decay time alteration. te Master Room DC-2 from MICMIX (2995 Ladybird Lane, Dallas, TX 75220) allows the user to vary the decay tine of virtually any type of reverb device -- pring, plate, or live chanber, The DC-? also provides up to 30 48 of noie Eeduetion for virtually any type of reverb. Pobphony Mew pedals. MXR hae intro duced a new line of effects boxes, the Series 2000, Effects include the Distortion +, Dyna Comp, Pha- ser, Stereo Flanger, Stereo Cho- Fas, and Time Delay.” These boxes feature built-in voltage regula~ tioa, statue LEDs, dual outpute, FET switching, and e unique inter face connector that provides capa bilities such ag remote avitching, remote status indication, and se Tection of the highest’ voltage power source available (when uted vith an AC adapter). Korg has introduced the Prom feesionsl Modular Effects 40%, @ pedalboard-based oystem that sc Cepts Korg plug-in effects such ae chorus, flanger, compressor, graphic equalizer, fuzz, ete. The fost of four effects plus the pedalboard is comparable to that of four standard effects from competing manufacturers. New tape duplication process from Sony. Sony is using metal— based, nigh-coercivity videotape asters to print « duplicate on to Conventional tape. The master and tape to be duplicated are pressed close together with comprossed air, while @ high frequency mag netic biae field magnetizes the duplicate tape. This process may falzo be applicable to PCM or audio Eape, drastically cutting dupli- cating time and therefore costs. ehe-air 4 regional Electronic Music Festival ie'scheduled for February 1984 in Sint-Miklaas, Belgium. Musici are invited to send thoir music (tape, cassette, or album) to MICKART GROUP, Industeiepark Koord 10, 2700 Sint-Niklaas, Belgium Aitplay ia proaised over several stations, with # combined Listen~ erehip of about 10 million peopl MIGRART advises sending all’ music before December 18th, 1983 (pre~ ferably vie Air Mall). Wireless mic. Nady syste (1145 65th St.) Oakland, CA 94608) has introduced the 49-8T hand-held microphone. Tt featur: an Audio-Technica PR6O mic head, self-contained antenna (a3 angling vires), and low cost. Serge sequences. Serge Yodu~ lar (572 Haight, San Francisco, CA 94117) has announced a new line of low-cost sequencers for modular analog synthesizers vhich features many of the same Functions incor porated into the Serge 16-Stage Touch Activated Keyboard Sequea= cer. The 4netage model Liste for $180 kit, $240 assembled; the 5- stage for $240 kit, §320 assea- bled, A master unit can control fone or more tlave sequencers for highly controllable flurries of tonal sequences, being modulated both harmonically and rhythmical ly. The serio includes 4, 5, 6, 7; and B-atage Sequencers,’ and a Duile-in Quaatizer option is available for all but the S-stage i ee etesg is eee se Risevrere egsoe3sgs eases ose! ee20aeseo jeecessooe acces August 1983 2PownarT ao 2 a BOOKS g SCIENCE OF SOUND ‘The physical and psycho acoustical backgroune to music is an important part of musica sy thesis. Helmholtz’: SENSATION OF TONE is, a century alerts publication, sil the standard text for the physiological acoustics. PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC by Carl Seashore, developer of the Seeshore Musie Test, provides an indepth analysis of musical style and. performance ‘characteristics of many instruments, MUSIC, PHYSICS AND ENGINEERING by Herry Olson, who Worked on the first RCA synthesizer, isa thorough discussion of the physical properties and {sign of traditional musical instruments (plus a chapter on electronic music). MUSIC, SOUND [AND SENSATION by Winckel ls much like the Helmote work, witha bit less detail and more con Centration on peyeho-acoustics. wpsycH PHYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC 3600 ASENS ONTHESENSATIONSOF TONE sa.05 IMSS. MUSIGSOUNDANDSENSATION $450. FMPE MUSIC PHYSICS AND ENGINEERING $6.50 REFERENCE Coften used reference materials to answer the many questions encountered in everyday synthesis, sass ‘THE SOURCE Book of Patoning and Programming fvom Polyphony has over 123 pages of patches In universal flow chart notation the largest publication of ts type. AUDIO CYCLOPEDIA has 1760 pages with 2650 entries and hundreds of dawinge and schematics to answer any question about fatto. Hardbound. ELECTRONIC MUSIC SYNTHESIZERS by Dolton Horn devotes the frst halt to Gescriptions.and functions of commercial electronic musie synthesizers (Moog, Arp, PAIA, ‘bermeim, EML, and Rl the second section provides schematics and projects for the perimenter. SOURCE THE SOURCE $4.00 HEYCLO AUDIOCYCLOPEDIA(hardbounc) S495 EMS ELECTRONICMUSIC SYNTHESIZERS $8: TECHNIQUE ‘synthesists must be well versed ina numberof techniques and principles. "How To" and project ftiented books are a great way to pick up these skils. MULTITRACK PRIMER by TEAC isa ten By-step guide to building, outtiting and operating your home studio. The Byte Book of COM PUTER MUSIC describes computer contol of elactro-mechanical instruments, Fourier analysis Erouits anc loads of software, HOME RECORDING FOR MUSICIANS is Craig Anderton's original {Guide fo outtting and operating a budget studio for maximum results, includes mixer and other Suclo processing crculte and a souna sheet deme recording STEAC TEAC MULTITRACK PRIMER $495, #BYTE —BYTEBOOKOF COMPUTER MUSIC $10.00 HREM HOME RECORDING FOR MUSICIANS $11.95 “HOW TO” GUIDES HOW TO BUILD A SMALL BUDGET RECORDING STUDIO FROM SCRATCH by F. Allon Everest wel tostod designs. HOW TO DESIGN TEST AND BUILO COMPLETE SPEAKER IS BY David Weems Is @ dosit-yourself guide forthe ultimate in sound quality. HOW TO MAKE AND SELL YOUR OWN RECORD — With the malar lables having severe economic pro bloms, many ineidere feel thatthe future ofthe music industry may bo in independent record pro- duction. Learn the fopes with Diane Sward Rapaport’ indispensable handbook of how to get Starlod, MAKING MONEY MAKING MUSIC by Jamas Dearing ~ Everyong dreams of being at the top, but there's an enormous amount of "middle money" out there or the taking. This 's not a book atout how to became & Millionaite Rock Star, but the strategies revealed wil give you the knowledge you need to keop afloat if you decide to pursue a recording contract. A fresh and prac- tical approech to staying alive in the music business. From the publleners of Writo's Digest. BRS BUDGET RECORDING STUIDO $995 WMASR MAKE ASELLYOUROWN RECORD $11.95, HOSS COMPLETESPEAKERSYSTEMS — $7.95 HMMM MAKING MONEY MAKING MUSIC $1295 ORDER FROM: POLYMART, PO BOX 20305, OKLAHO!USE THE ORDER FORM ON THE NEXT PAGE ELECTRONICS reat way to etook your library with materials that are not only heavy ‘practical applications as wel Electronic Cookbooks are ‘on theory, definitions and educational material but chock fu ‘These books can easly replace stacks of manulacturers data sheets and applications notes al in an easy to use reference, Walt Jung's OP-AMP and Don Lancaster's ACTIVE FILTER Cookbooks fre self-explanatory ~ required roading for synthesists! AUDIO OP AMP APPLICATIONS is an fdited version of the Op Amp Cookbook by Walter Jung, containing only audio applications. Lan: feaster’s CMOS book ie much more than a digital reference — ghase lock loops, top octave (Generators, touch switches, and other things you need. ELECTRONIC PROJECTS FOR MUS IANS by Craig Andorton is almost In a class by Itsolt it discusses electronic construction technique forthe novies and provides 27 projects with printed circult boara patterns ana a demo recording of the effect Even if you're an old hand at musical electronics, you'll appreciate that fifo these processors, rom Tube sound Fuzz to Phasa shifter are compatible and work together Without ereating notee, signal oes, bandwidth compression or any of the prablems common ton terconnecting effects from clfferent manufacturers. There's even a complete chapter on how to modify and combine effects to produce your own custom pedalboard, ELECTRONIC MUSIC CIR- CUITS by Bary Klein covers. syntnasizor system design, power supplies, control voltage ators, VCOS, Fillers, analog multipliers and more. Lots of schematics and data sheets on {he most popular music oriented Ics. An excellent technical reference, #oAcB —_OP-AMP COOKBOOK $1595 #EPFM ELECTRONIC PROJECTS FOR MUSICIANS 314.95 #AFCB —ACTIVEFILTERCOOKBOOK S495 HEMCR ELECTRONIC MUSIC CIRCUITS $1695 "AUOA —AUDIOOP-AMP APPLICATIONS. "5 #eMcB CMOS COOKBOOK $1295 w ww EXCITING NEW BOOKS! MUSICAL APPLICATIONS OF MICRO-PROCESSORS by Hal Chamberiain — if you only have ‘Space in your library Yor one Book on musie synthesis, this is the book. Th entertaining and enlightening and teaches both basics and advanced theory through pages of equations. Liberal examples llustate theory and practice of analog signal genoration and processing, MAM” MUSICAL APPLICATIONS OF MICRO-PROCESSORS. THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SYNTHESIZERS by Devarahi — An extraordinarily thorough rant of the sublect of analog synthesizers, Covers everything clearly, and the suggested ex: Deriments are excellent. Well organized ana leaves nothing out CGS." THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SYNTHESIZERS $1595, PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR CONCERT SOUND by Bob Hell — Finally, a manual hat explains in very imple language those many "magic term” you've heard for yeare and nover really understood It's the first book written especially for musicians, roadies, and sound technicians who want (0 KNOW and UNDERSTAND what thelr sound system Is al about. "PGC." PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR CONCERT SOUND. $10.00 yew &MORE FROM POLYPHONY AIBTRACK STUDIO LOG BOOK designed by Craig Anderton provides a pace to keep all the impor {tant information on your tape library. Log i timing, type of tape used, record patches, make notes land use the expanded rack sheet (list sequential changes in tape tracks relating tothe settings ‘of the indee counter. Craig Anderton's CONTEMPORARY KEYBOARD ARTICLES is a colected feorint ofall the articles from June 1977 through February 1681, covers tps, technique, theory, maintenance, and numerous construction projects, DEVICE BACK ISSUES — during the year that {hie newsletter was published, it Toatured almost 200 pages of technical information for the uitarstimusician. A wealth of articles on design, product reviews, and modification and con Struction projects, Sldin complete set, Incividual issues not available. Limited number avallable, CRAIG ANDERTON MUSIC TAPE — Delightful listening plus a booklet explaining how tne etfects ‘STUDIO LOG BOOK $495 ‘CRAIG ANDERTON'S CONTEMPORARY KEYBOARD ARTICLES: ‘COMPLETE SET 12) DEVICE BACK ISSUES ‘CRAIG ANDERTON MUSIC TAPE A CITY, OK 73156 (405) 842-5480