there was a music studio in the suburb of Zurich, with a train track nearby. I brought my psalter to this location, and played a little tune. Around 2016.

Psalter02

Diva softsynth by u-he. Date of recording unknown, probably around 2016.

Transferring files sometimes leads to the situation where all those files show the same date, although they were stored at a different date.

DivaIntro2

we had two saxophone players, however I cannot recall which one played on this excerpt. Very good performance, albeit spontaneous and experimental. My contribution was in the background with some soft synth drone, and of course setting the stage with microphones.

Sax And Synth Drone

old recording from the early 90ies. If I remember correctly, everything was done with a Roland SH-1000, a digital delay, and a Tascam 238.

Edit: I think it was not the Tascam 238, but a digital 4-track device which I used when I was on the road. Portable recorder, with one of those ZIP drives for storage. But I simply don't remember.

this is what happens when you have a tape recorder and a new sound sampling keyboard, and go to the zoo. It's funny how the Beo birds imitate human whistling. Recorded in early-mid 1990.

 I think the repeating pattern came from an MS-20.

Im Kinderzoo

simple medieval melody I had in my head. Recorded mid 1990 on a Tascam 238. As usual at that time, a very bad mix. Turn down the volume to protect your ears and speakers.

Petite Danse

another example of the wave 2.2 sequencer/arpeggiator. Percussion noises made with a glass ashtray and a pen. Recorded sometime in the 90ies on a Tascam 238.

PPG sequence 03

I think this is a Farfisa organ, a Kawai 100F synth, and the metallic hihat of a CR-78. Recorded in the mid 90ies, on a Tascam 238.

Regagner La Vie

thanks to the Shanti Jay meeting point in Zürich, I was able for the first time to meet the Indian Taanpura (or Tampura) instrument. Fascinated by its sound, I went home and tried to create a similar sound with wave 2.2's wavetable oscillators. Two oscillators for each of the four voices I guess. Of course it doesn't even come close to the rich and moving overtone spectrum of a real Taanpura.

Recorded around 1999, probably straight to DAT.


Edit: 20 years later, I realise that the tuning is not right. It is not possible to get the 'right' tuning with an original wave 2.2 synthesiser. It can be achieved with external MIDI, but at that time (and today) it was not possible.

PPG Taanpura

a sample from tape winding loaded into an Emax sampling keyboard, and live tape action overdubs. Was fun to make. Recorded in the 90ies. The tape machine was a simple Revox A-77.

Tape Melody

I was never good at speaking a text to those answering machines, so I produced this little piece to actually use it in my answering machine. The problem was, how to bring the audio into the machine, as it has only a microphone input. I had to hold the machine close to the speaker to do that. Recorded in the 90ies using an t.c.electronic M.One and the Roland VP-330, and a Behringer compressor for ducking.

I doubt anyone would wish to, but in case you want to use this piece for your answering machine, you can do that, alter it, make it shorter, etc.

telephone answer robot

needless to say I'm not a guitar player. Nevertheless I was able to layer four guitar tracks. The guitar was a cheap Strat copy. Recorded mid 1990 on a Tascam 238.

4 electric guitars

if I'm not mistaken, this is a live Aalto session with an iPad running a custom Lemur template.

Aalto Jam Session 2013 Oct 26

early sound experiments with minimal setup. Small 1 1/2 room apartment, first Mackie 16 channel mixer (Mackie was a new brand at that time), some nice keyboards and beatboxes (PPG Wave 2.2, Roland VP-330, CR-78, TR-808), but full time job with sometimes long travel. Not much free time. You can hear it in the sloppy production and bad mixing. No musical education either, except for recorders.

P_S2

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