My Tools

Updated September 2008

Instruments

My primary musical instruments and tools include the following:


  1. Roland AX-1 - guitar-style controller keyboard in a gaudy bright red. It's velocity sensitive, has a control strip for pitch-bend, a control bar, and plenty of buttons (for sustain, reverb, and other such uses). People notice it! In the Army I'll often use the more recent but similar AX-7, which is white instead of red, but I use a different sound source at work - a Yamaha Motif Rack. http://www.Rolandus.com/

  2. Yamaha MFC-10 - MIDI foot controller - foot buttons and foot pedals, with inputs for more controllers. I use an Army-owned one at work, too. It is very flexible to use - I can program pretty much everything I need on it, and it merges the MIDI info from my keyboard into one out. I map the built in pedal to modulation or foot controller (CC4) and route external FC7s to volume on different midi channels most of the time. I can change what the individual buttons do with each separate piece, but usually 4 and 5 are Sustain, and 2 and 3 are hold buttons (sustaining just what is currently playing until I come back and turn it off). I usually play standing, so it is important to have several sustains available (I also have a sustain button on my keyboard). I usually apply the other buttons to controlling FX, such as turning the Leslie on and off for organ sounds. Rarely, but sometimes, I use them to play notes or switch sounds. Yamaha FC7s are the best CV pedals I've ever used. Yamaha Professional Music and Audio

  3. Kurzweil SP76 - This is my controller keyboard that I use when I want more of a piano feel or more keys. It has 76 weighted keys and plenty of options for controller changes. I also use it for solo piano gigs because it has built-in piano and electric piano sounds. I bought it primarily because it combines those features into a lightweight package at a relatively low price. The control strips as opposed to the usual modulation and pitchbend wheels also featured big in my decision. Kurzweil
  4. Roland Fantom Rack - I ended up purchasing a Fantom instead of a Motif because it has a built-in sampler, unlike the Motif. However, I'm questioning the wisdom of this decision because the Roland needs lots of tweaking to work like I expect it to and even to sound good for some instruments like organs (a surprise from Roland, which makes the very good VK-7 organ!). The most annoying thing that Roland does - on other keyboards, too - is limit their keyboards to match whatever instrument it's imitating. If I wanted the limitations of another instrument I'd hire someone or play it myself! The AX series, for instance, have an E for a bottom note, which is unusual for keyboards, but corresponds to a guitar's lowest note. On the Fantom Rack, the most annoying discovery is that, in order to match one of the limitations of real organs, the sustain pedal is turned off on all organ patches - press the pedal, and it does nothing! This messes up one of my primary playing techniques of layering piano sounds with an organ sound instead of strings, and makes the one-handed AX series very choppy at times. Ok, so you just enable it, right? Well, not exactly - I have to use up a user patch to save it if I make any changes, which I'm doing. Why not default all uneditable presets to maximum capabilities instead of "authentic" limitations? There are reasons that people use these instruments instead of the originals, and most of these reasons have to do with the limitations of the originals!

  5. I don't use the Ogygen 8 as a performance instrument (or very rarely). Instead, I use it for note entry in my notation software, and for playing some other programs on the road. Until a good light-weight roll-up keyboard with midi or USB becomes available, this and its sister the Ozone are the lightest and smallest out there.
  6. Casio Privia - I'm sure I owe somebody money or dinner, or something for breaking an oath or bet about this. Casio is typically the Yugo of electronic music instruments, and I never thought I would own one. However, the Privia line is actually quite decent. If you can't fit a piano in your home, they are excellent practice instruments - especially considering their low price. In fact, I prefer the piano sounds on this keyboard to the built-in sounds on my Kurzweil. I'm under no illusions that it's a Steinway, but it is very good for how I use it. Casio Privias

Older Equipment

This is equipment I don't use too often anymore, but I keep them around for backup and sentimental value.


  1. Fatar ST1176 - This is my spare controller keyboard, and it used to be my main 76 key. I replaced it with the SP76 primarily because the Fatar is a little too heavy and fragile to be moved often. The keys are heavier and slower than I like, but it's not bad. I would still practice on it until I purchased my Privia. Fatar is an Italian company, so unfortunately their website is only in Italian. They also build custom keyboards for some artists, but the coolest thing is that they build only controller keyboards.

  2. Ensoniq Mirage - ancient sampler - the first "affordable" sampler (under $2000, compared to $8000 by the next cheapest), with a whopping 256K ram, 400K disk drive, and 8bit DACs. :-) It's still a lot of fun, though. I have the rack mount version, which has variously been called the DMS-8, and the DSK-R, among other designations. I lean more to the DMS designation because I believe DSK stands for Digital Sampler Keyboard. The coolest thing about this piece of gear (in my opinion) is that there are several different operating systems available (although some people think the analog filters and envelops are cool). I have three operating systems (not counting the formatting OS): 1. Original OS (basic sampler w/dumb sequencer), MASOS (many more sampling parameters, no sequencer), and Soundprocess (Third party synthesizer software, no sampling, but can load samples and make the thing multitimbral, along with having some relatively powerful synth features).

  3. Ensoniq ESQ-1 - My first professional keyboard. It finally died in January 1999, but the talented repair people at Lentine's resurrected it to full working condition the Summer of 2000. The ESQ1 works wonderfully well with the Mirage (the two were designed to work together and are based on the same chips).
  4. Washburn acoustic guitar - I strum it to relax and fall asleep. I don't use picks, and I am still just a beginner.
  5. Bass - I'm a beginner, but I can play country and some other styles. I mostly just play it to do something different or for fun.
  6. Cello - unfortunately this is in storage in Virginia. Eventually I'll get it back, but I still probably won't be able to play it.
  7. Trumpet - haven't played it in awhile, but it was my main instrument for three or four years around high school and my first year of college.

Computers

For most of my adult life I've used Macintosh computers, and I own a MacBook Intel, a PowerBook Titanium G4, and a PowerBook 5300. I primarily use laptops - portability is paramount to me. However, weight is relatively unimportant, so I usually go with a huge laptop to achieve the "portable desktop" effect. After some problems with my G4's paint (and bad customer service relating to this issue), I decided that Apple wasn't worth the high prices for a powerful enough laptop that only meets industry averages in construction quality and support, despite superior design. So...

In January 2005, I purchased an Alienware "notebook" (more like a 12 pound portable desktop), which arrived in late February. It was not a wise decision - it took months to get my delay time down to what is comparable on my 2002 Mac - even though it can handle many more times the demands on the processor (even when I increase the Mac's buffer size to roughly the same delay time). Apparently none of the companies involved knew of any incompatibilities until I told them what was happening, with the consensus prognosis being that the computer doesn't supply enough power to the USB bus for my US428, which had a power cord. Which made me doubt the prognosis... Until I purchased new audio hardware in September 2005, I had roughly 50ms midi-to-audio delay, even though I was originally using, as planned, the same hardware my 2002 Mac used. When I first installed my music software and hardware on the computer, there were a million glitches, requiring lots of tech support, studying manuals, searching online forums and faqs, and experimentation and learning how to deal with and customize Windows's midi system. Midi on Windows as it is out of the box is generally much worse than on a Mac, however, like most other things in the Windows universe, if you have the patience and time, you can have a highly customized system. I didn't have the patience and time - I like to do music. So I got rid of it. Alienware would not take the computer back, even though it had never really worked right, because it worked "can start up".
Evil computer from a terrible company:

However, I didn't have enough money saved up to buy a "nice" new computer, so I checked out the bottom of the line MacBook. I paid roughly $1200 (including extra RAM), and - I swear - the thing worked right out of the box! OK, I had to install my software first, but there was nothing random happening, no noisy audio, no blue screen of death. I was actually mad - I'd spent $3000 on a crappy Windows computer that never worked right, and then a Mac that cost less than half as much could do just as much, but do it without problems.

One positive outcome of all of this is that I bought Microsoft stock when it was down in the low 20s. I figured if they can sell crappy stuff like that and still be profitable, there must be something special about them (deal with the devil?). Or maybe it's just that their stuff is cheap, as in more headaches for the money... Or maybe it's the same reason people still bought Fords in the late 70s - so what if it might burst into flames, they were just used to Fords.

To get my audio and midi in and out of my computer, I use the Tascam FW-1804, which gets the job done and gives me plenty of options. It's mounted right under my Fantom.

For an added control surface, I use a Behringer BFC2000.

Software

Software applications I use in my personal studio include:

  1. Ableton Live - an awesome digital audio program. I love it! I often sync it with Reason using Rewire to get more sounds.
  2. Propellorhead's Reason - a really great soft synth program, with mediocre sequencing abilities, and no audio recording capabilities whatsoever. But good at what it's intended for - flexible sound creation and techno/pop music.
  3. Sibelius - So much easier and intuitive than Finale, I switched to Sibelius and haven't regretted it. I mostly use it on my Mac, but I have it installed on my Alien. I have some playable scores in my music section - the free Scorch pluggin is required.

Previously Owned Instruments

These are instruments I used to own. I still like most of these, but realized that I simply was never using them.


  1. Tascam US-428 - This doubles as an external audio card (helpful for cutting interference noise from computer components) and as an additional midi controller. It's pretty flexible, but not problem free. Tascam

  2. Akai S2000 Sampler - an excellent professional sampler, low on bells and whistles but excellent value and sound quality. I maxed out on RAM, have 8 individual outs, have Digital in and out, bought an internal FX card, and use it with my old PowerBook 5300cs and Zip drive. The PowerBook, connected via SCSI and running MESA II, Akai's editing software, mostly overcomes the small built-in screen. This was my main sound module and the center of my music system in my college years and for the first year or two after that. But I'm just tired of dealing with optical drives, and want to stay in the computer realm as much as is possible. Also, the Fantom is lighter and has more sounds which are available much more quickly, too.
  3. Yamaha TG100 - General MIDI tone module. Very basic and very simple, but very convenient and useful. I originally purchased it to add more polyphony to my setup (which then consisted of the ESQ1, the Mirage, and a Kawai drum machine). For awhile, though, I used it as a substitute for QuickTime Instruments to save RAM and get better sound quality (I only have 64megs of RAM, and I don't use RAM doubler) on my oldest laptop. I'll also sometimes sampled sounds from it, and would then modify them a bit, or create layers and then sample them.

Other Gear/Software I Use

Other Gear/Software that I often use (or often used in the past) and on which I have a certain degree of competence:

  1. ProTools 24 system with ADAT Bridge - ProTools is a product of DigiDesign, a division of Avid Technology.
  2. Max 4.0 - A great product that I couldn't afford to upgrade for awhile (3.0 doesn't work well with OS8 or higher). I purchased the new version available for the first time on Windows, and planned to get back up to speed. Alienware and Microsoft ruined that plan. Max is a graphic programming environment that I use(d) for odd jobs, as a patch librarian, and for generating composition ideas. Opcode was releasing it, but fortunately it is developed by outside programmers, so it has survived. Cycling 74, founded by its original creators, now distributes Max, and with a new, lower price, too.
  3. Alesis ADATs
  4. Studio Vision Pro - My main sequencer during my college years.
  5. Mark of the Unicorn (MOTU) Digital Performer
  6. Cakewalk (various versions)
  7. Buchla vintage analog synth - Really cool synthesizer - similar (but smaller) to the one Morton Subotnick in "Silver Apples of the Moon" (which is one of my favorite albums) and "Touch" (another favorite piece, but I don't own the album).
  8. Moog modular analog synth - the original, similar to the ones used by Walter (now Wendy) Carlos and various 60's and 70's Rock groups. I've also used the MiniMoog.
  9. ARP analog synth (the 2600)
  10. Plenty of professional mics, my favorites being Shure and Audio Technica
  11. Kurtzweil K2000, Yamaha, and Ensoniq keyboards
  12. Panasonic Ramsa DA7 Digital Mixer - I love digital mixers (The ability to save settings is wonderful!).
  13. I've used analog mixers by Mackie, Behringer, Soundcraft, Yamaha, and probably many others
  14. Various DAT decks, portable and studio.

Other Gear/Software that I've Used

Software and gear on which I've spent more than a few days, but would probably need to study again to use effectively.

  1. Finale 98 - Finale still is the standard notation program, despite its steep learning curve (I'm not bad at it now). I've switched to Sibelius, though. By Coda Music.
  2. Metro 5.0 - A surprisingly good sequencing/digital audio program. It was taken over by the same people who make Cakewalk for PCs, but it is a different program (although the same type of program and similar capabilities). My primary motive for choosing it was price, but it performed admirably on my oldest laptop. At the time, I was considering buying Opcode's Vision, but I'm glad I didn't - Gibson destroyed this once great company (they bought the company then fired the programmers).
  3. Media 100 - I used to do my video work on this hardware/software Mac system, using mini DV tapes for recording footage and mastering. Not much of a video guy, but I've done some - and iMovie is pretty easy.
  4. Director 6 and 7 - I used Director to make an enhanced CD with my band, Tattered Hat. Macromedia.

    5. I've also worked in the analog realm on 16 track, vintage 4 track (a Scully from the 60s), and 2 track reel-to-reel machines. I've even gotten down and dirty with razor blades, magnets, etc. for editing. However, I prefer digital - it's cheaper and more flexible, among other advantages. Other software I've used, but not regularly, include Interactor, Csound (I hate it), and various other synthesis, sound editing, and MIDI programs.