Radio Shack FX2 User Manual download pdf (Page 6)

HACKER BASEMENT TAPES

Foreign Music

Tapes: Cathedral Volumes I & n

Contact: Michael Jon Sohns, PO Box 71243, Milwaukee, WI53211-7343

Equipment:

EPS, Casio CZ-101, Casio SK-1, Boss BX-8 Stereo Mixer.

Sony SEQ-9 Equalizer, Sony TC-W320 Stereo Cassette, and

Pioneer CT-F500 Stereo Deck.

[The second volume used all of the above less the SK-1, plus a

Casio VZ-IOM.]

This review contains another pair of cassettes both submitted

by the same person. On the J-card is this musician's stated in

tent of purpose: Classical-style music on sampler and syn

thesizer. His ﬁrst tape, entitled "Cathedral," has four pieces on

it. "Clouds and Water," "I Will HuntYou Down," "Zen Duet,"

and "Cathedral" in four cantos. The second tape is simply

labeled Second Volume and has seven pieces. "Harpersong,"

"Steel," "Tao Jones" (pronounced DOW JONES), "Canon for

Strings and Voices," "Something Old, New, Borrowed, Blue,"

"Gargoyle's Dance," and "Dragon Suite." I wanted to include

the titles of the pieces here so that you could get at least a hint

of Michael's imagery in his music.

I was thinking that, from the outside, one can look at an

electronic musician much the way one looks at a visual artist

whose tool is a computer. For instance an artist using a com

puter has a range of option not available to a painter using con

ventional methods. Think of the choices of color alone. A

computer artist can choose from a jillion colors and then blend

them together. In addition there are choices of brush stroke,

kind and size. You can even determine what kind of paper you

will be "virtually" painting on as different kinds of paper ab

sorb different kinds of paints differently!

The parallel for the electronic musician here is that when an

artist composes a song, even with a modest home MIDI set up,

there are many choices to be made. How do you begin to

choose from among hundreds or thousands of sounds? When

the sounds are chosen, how does the artist process them? We

all know that different sounds act differently in different kinds

of rooms! Then the artist has to consider that while each soimd

separately may sound wonderful or wimpy he's got to mix

those sounds together. Finally what sounds one way on a

master may sound slightly altered on a mass produced copy.

On these two tapes the genre is classical. The sounds are a mix

ture of modem synthesizer sounds and samples of classical in-

Daniel Mandel

struments. The colors in Michael's palette range from mellow

to magniﬁcent, from tragic to triumphant. Some of them are

long pieces, and have movements contained within. One of the

wonderful aspects of this music is reading about what inspired

each song. Many of his pieces have come from other works of

art, books and music that inspired him, lighting a ﬁre in his im

agination. Listening to these tapes left me with the "feel" of a

foreign ﬁlm. On my usual bus ride to work I was transported

to... some land with a different sensibility, a different approach.

I found myself waiting for Fellini to yell, "Cut!"

Although there are many solo sections, this is not minimalistic

music. Michael admits that "Something Old, New, Borrowed,

Blue" on the first tape might sound a little Phillip Glass-ish —

"some deep dark timbres that grow lighter and lighter." And

then he adds, "some re-worked rock chords that soimd familiar,

and yet very different in this context." Silence on Michael's

tape was treated with what I would call a relaxed respect.

Maybe Michael's been inﬂuenced by John Cage's views on

what an important part silence can play in music. Whomever

inﬂuenced Michael, it was not always important to him to have

the tape ﬁlled with sound.

Some of the voice choices on these solo sections bothered me.

A few of them worked very well. Speciﬁcally there were a

couple of "whistle" patches that were beautiful. Also the vibes,

piano and the synth solo horn patches were great. There was, as

far as I can tell, little if any signal processing on this tape. The

ambience of the piece was dependent on any particular sound's

decay (as was the case with the vibes). Many of the solo

patches used were completely dry. I've heard this used as a

very dramatic effect, especially when it stands out in contrast to

a very "wet" environment. On Michael's tape, though, in places

it detracted from the overall feel. I often wanted just a hint of

reverb.

This tape is not an attempt to mimic acoustic instruments.

Many of the sounds are down-and-dirty AM and analog sounds.

It is not a wide and varied mixture, with probably no more than

20 to 50 sounds total used. Some of the strings are biting and

realistic while others are nasal and layered.

The second volume begins with a harpsichord and a synthetic

bass. As the piece progresses, a rather snappy snare and percus

sion beat kicks in. This is one of the quirkier moments on both

tapes. Moods change very quickly on some of these pieces. It's

this progression, this change of feeling that comes with it, that

is often the basis of the response.

The last song on the ﬁrst side of the second volume is especial

ly beautiful and fascinating, the kind of music I get caught up

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ... 31 32

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