Posted on : By : paul Posted in : ARP|hardware|news|synthesizers

I bought an refurbed ARP Solus on Reverb

ARP Solus
My brother, John, purchased a used ARP Solus in the early 80s. I borrowed it, and played in on the first two Funharm cassettes. I have over two dozen additional unedited tapes of me abusing the thing.

When I moved from LA to Sacramento in 1984, I relinquished the Solus, and I’ve missed it since.

Last month I saw a fully refurbished Solus on Reverb for $1200 plus shipping. I looked at the listing, longed after the lost Solus, and went about my day.

A week later the price was dropped to $1000.

I thought about it for about 10 seconds, then bought it.

It’s in great shape. The top octave on the keyboard is a bit wonky, but the more I play it, the more it loosens up.

It’s good to have a Solus in the house again.

More soon.

Posted on : By : paul Posted in : audio|bandcamp|korg|locations|mono lake|news|recording|video|youtube

New Track: “Wilder So”

Today is Bandcamp Friday. This morning I recorded a new track, “Wilder So.” This afternoon and evening I worked on a video to accompany it. This is the result.

The track can be streamed and downloaded/purchased on Bandcamp.

Thanks for your support, and thank you for listening.

Special thanks to Kate Burkart and Ruth and Glenn Garland. And this track would not have been possible without the assistance of Dan Phillips.

Posted on : By : paul Posted in : audio|hardware|korg|locations|mono lake|news|recording|synthesizers

Another Mono Retreat

View from the patio of my temporary Mono Lake abode (from December 2019).

In early December, I spent a week at my favorite place, Mono Lake.

The weather, for 7700 feet high-desert elevation at the eastern foot of the Sierra, in early December, was disturbingly mild. I was hoping for cloudy days and some snow, but there was none of the latter and little of the former. I did a lot of reading, writing, taking photos and videos, offroading in my truck, some volunteer work, and relaxing (somewhat).

I also spent some time working with the Korg wavestate, tweaking programs, recording, and tracking and processing some existing stuff.

Posted on : By : paul Posted in : audio|buddha machine|hardware|korg|news|poly-800|recording|sweetwater|synthesizers

Scrolling, cursoring, taking notes


A couple months back I traded in the defective Modal Electronics Argon8 for a Korg wavestate. The latter isn’t especially easy to learn, with a lot of menu-diving involved.

The stock “performances” that were oh-so-cinematic in the YouTube wavestate demos turned out to be, with few exceptions, not so alluring after a few listens; I spent last evening scrolling through program presets and making a list of favorites.

I’ve also been working on learning the ins and outs (and sends and inserts and returns and busses) on a new Mackie 1642VLZ4 mixer. Initial forays include incorporating blends from three different Buddha Machines, as well as continuing to digitize long-neglected Funharm cassettes dating back to the early-to-mid-eighties.

Posted on : By : paul Posted in : audio|bandcamp|bedroom cassette masters|korg|news|poly-800

Funharm track on Bedroom Cassette Masters 1980​-​89 Volume X

Today Bedroom Cassette Masters released a free (well, pay-what-you-like) compilation on Bandcamp entitled 1980​-​89 Volume X that has some very snazzy PDF liner notes.

It also has a contribution from Funharm — track 13, “Ideal Planes”, from 1985. A portion of said PDF snazziness is screengrabbed above.

Thank you to Bedroom Cassette Masters for including my song, tracking down highlights from 80s (and 80s-influenced) home-recorded electronics, and putting together an impressive package.

Posted on : By : paul Posted in : locations|news|recording

(meanwhile, someplace just outside Lee Vining, CA)…

I find myself, as I often do, in the Eastern Sierra. I’m just north of Mono Lake. I head this way whenever I’m able to get time off work.

This time I brought more stuff than usual.

A couple months ago I purchased a demo unit of Modal Electronics’ Argon 8 wavetable synthesizer. Since then, I’ve been trying to learn its various knobs, patches, effects and other doodads.

The place I’m staying has no satellite TV, and very slow internet. It’s a good place to concentrate; the only real distraction is the view of the lake. It’s a good location for sketching out ideas and doing some recording (and re-recording).

I have an old M-Audio Firewire 410 interface that only works with old versions of OS X on old laptops. So I brought the old laptop. The Modal app, however — useful for patch editing and the like — only works on new(er) laptops. So I brought the new(er) laptop, too.

As misfortune would have it, the Modal app stopped recognizing the Argon after I upgraded the latter’s firmware this morning. The synth still works fine. So it goes.

More soon.

Posted on : By : paul Posted in : interview|news

ultravillage interview

Mark Griffey interviewed me earlier this year for his ongoing Ultravillage project. While some aspects of the conversation seem a bit, um, exaggerated — I attempted to tone down certain portions after Mark graciously offered to have me fact-check — it’s flattering and more than a little overwhelming to see all this in print. And hey, there’s an embarrassing period photo to top it all off. </humblebrag>