For those that make music with synthesizers.

[SignOfZeta]

I have all stuff from Electroharmonix. Their stuff sounds amazing, is super well made, and is assembled in the US.

Memory Toy (bucket brigade delay, AWESOME)
Holy Grail Max (digital reverb that sounds analog, good plate mode)
Clone Theory (stereo chorus)
8 Step Program (this is actually a CV sequencer, does not process sound)

On the track I posted I also used some FX built into the Portastudio during mastering such as the stack emulator.

[Arkhan]

I haven't gotten any USA stuff in awhile.  I have an old 70s MXR Distortion+, and 80s ProCo Rat pedal for distorting things.   All of my pedals come out of Japan.  Guyatone makes these little midget pedals that pack some serious sound considering they're the size of a post it note.

The Rat has a filter, so you can get some nice sounds out of it.

New distortion pedals all kind of suck ass.


I use a Maxon Analog Delay.  I've not found a better delay pedal around really. 


DO YOU CIRCUIT BEND YOUR STUFFFFFFF.

lol.

[SignOfZeta]

No, I don't circuit bent anything.  I can't imagine me doing that, I just don't care for those kind of sounds or that way of working. Its interesting, I guess, but I have a modular so when I want to f*ck shit up I do it that way.

That guy in Zibra has a cool live video where he uses a fax machine somewhere in his huge DIY rig. It just says "print" on the 1. It works pretty well.

[Arkhan]

Yeah, I was only kidding about circuit bending.   Most of it is retarded.

I've seen people gut solid FM keyboards from Yamaha to add knobs that ultimately just make it sound like an Atari 2600.

You don't need to trash a good unit to do that.

[wildfruit]

I have listened to a few of your tracks Zeta. So far my favourite track is look mum no computer. Evokes memories of early 90s European games. Very Amiga.

That's not me! It's a band called Zibra (in this case I'm pretty sure it's just the main guy, Sam) who I've discovered and reposted to my Soundcloud stream. Soundcloud, like every other site now it seams, runs in Autoplay so it eventually starts juat playing whatever.

Damn. I've just realised. Those guys made a video of my home town. Even my old street where my parents still live is there.

[SignOfZeta]

So can you explain the joke?

[esteban]

I am playing Casio SK-1 with my other hand as I type this.

[Arkhan]

I am playing Casio SK-1 with my other hand as I type this.

thats a weird thing to call your dick.

[esteban]

I am playing Casio SK-1 with my other hand as I type this.

thats a weird thing to call your dick.

Well, I am a pianist, after all.

[SignOfZeta]

Hey guys, I made a new track.

https://soundcloud.com/signofzeta/side-0001wav

Its side one of an LP that will be made if I ever actually do the art. You'll have to fill in the blanks plot-wise but I assure you there is a story. Think: Peter and the Wolf with nobody to explain it to you. A city blows up. There is an immortal alien. Someone quits their job and meets a fairy in the woods. Its crazy. I smoke a lot.

Side 2 was recorded at the same time but its taken me 6 months to mix and master because 18 min tracks are a HUGE PAIN. Why didn't anyone tell me this?

[roflmao]

I'm really digging what you're creating, Zeta!

I'm not even in the same galaxy as you and Arkhan, but I've had this keyboard since the mid-late 90s and now I'm teaching my 8yr old son how to play on it. In college (late 90s) I used it to create soundtracks for 3d animations I worked on.

[SignOfZeta]

The first machine I ever had was a Casio PT-1 exactly like the one in this video:

I've been looking around for the perfect keyboard for my kid (still under 2) and I've come to realize this is probably it. It has to be something with no "wrong" settings. If its easy to f*ck up with a certain button then he's eventually going to hit it (learned this from experience). I think his first keyboard may be the same as my first keyboard?

Shame I don't have it anymore. Like everyone else in the 80s, at all ages and income levels, I got a PCM synth and literally forgot where my old analog toy went. Now I need to go to like...eBay. I don't know if music shops even take in gear that low end. I think it was $30 in 1984 or whenever.

[roflmao]

The first machine I ever had was a Casio PT-1 exactly like the one in this video:

I've been looking around for the perfect keyboard for my kid (still under 2) and I've come to realize this is probably it. It has to be something with no "wrong" settings. If its easy to f*ck up with a certain button then he's eventually going to hit it (learned this from experience). I think his first keyboard may be the same as my first keyboard?

Shame I don't have it anymore. Like everyone else in the 80s, at all ages and income levels, I got a PCM synth and literally forgot where my old analog toy went. Now I need to go to like...eBay. I don't know if music shops even take in gear that low end. I think it was $30 in 1984 or whenever.

I saw Jill Sobule play once and I'm pretty sure all she has was one of those little keyboards. It was such a fun show! Man, I haven't thought of her in ages. But I remember that keyboard!

[esteban]

Hey guys, I made a new track.

https://soundcloud.com/signofzeta/side-0001wav

Its side one of an LP that will be made if I ever actually do the art. You'll have to fill in the blanks plot-wise but I assure you there is a story. Think: Peter and the Wolf with nobody to explain it to you. A city blows up. There is an immortal alien. Someone quits their job and meets a fairy in the woods. Its crazy. I smoke a lot.

Side 2 was recorded at the same time but its taken me 6 months to mix and master because 18 min tracks are a HUGE PAIN. Why didn't anyone tell me this?

I thought you were joking about the warfare/narrative...but then I heard the melodic Lazers and Gunfire of The Battle. That concept reminded me of the early Human League "battle scene" tracks...but your music is stubbornly upbeat

Obviously, you need Side 3 (it should be ~18 minutes) to be a brooding, somber, dystopian dirge where we "soar deep into the cold, sterile celestial wasteland" ...only to be reborn/metamorphosize (Side 4) as "the last pulsar in the cosmos"... A beacon of futility. Minimalist pulsation from the cold vacuum of Nihil.  Everything stripped down to basics.

A beacon of hope?
Perhaps.
The last pulsar in the cosmos.



I want Side Deux.

[SignOfZeta]

Side one ended with our three heroes leaving the planet. Side 2 is quicker in pace and has them rematching a much more powerful version of the boss that blew up with the city in part 1.

The original plan (lets see how much of this happens) was when the album was complete I would make an ambient remix of it and also a dance remix version. Same themes with different presentation.

Side 2 is 18 min as well. When it's finished I'm not making any more 18 min tracks until I figure out an easier way to do them. I'm quite excited to get back to short things again. The ambient remix album would be a "CD length" track according to the original plan so obviously I'll have to figure it out by then. Chances are I'll build them in sections and "DJ" them together in Traktor.