Synth Beat Track 1

This is from a demo recorded somewhere in the late 80's to early 1990's. At the time I was in a two piece synth act trying to be a Texas version of the Pet Shop Boys. I can't mention our name because the singer and I had a falling out and it would be unethical to mention names. I did the music: writing, programming and he sang and wrote the lyrics.

This was so long ago that I don't remember which instruments were used when. All my equipment was stolen in 1998 and I never had the means to replace it. But I was into other things by then anyway. C'est la vie.

However, the equipment I owned:

DRUMS: Roland R8

BASS: Korg Poly 800ii - this was my main keyboard and all tracks were programmed from this. It did not have velocity and or full 128 MIDI key range.

SYNTHS: Roland MT-32 - I used this a lot but didn't like it much (nothing against Roland) because you had to have software to program it which I did not have. All are stock sounds cleverly layered here and there to hide that fact so the polyphony gets broken all the time. I can hear the cutouts when I play the demo.

Korg 05R/W - This helped transform the music into something more professional. I'm sure it's all over the demo but I don't know where. It was all so long ago. I loved this module and experimented with it a lot. I did use unaltered GM sounds from this.

Alesis QS6 -- This was the most professional gear I owned but I don't think it's on the demo. I can't remember if I had it when this was recorded. I reprogrammed a lot of the songs once I had this board to take advantage of the velocity.

SEQUENCERS: Korg SQD-1 - This was the sequencer I used for the longest time. It was very limited so I made creative use of it. It used 2.8' QuikDisks which were hard to find. It's here and there on the demos but later replaced entirely by the Roland.

Roland MC50-or mark 2 (I don't remember) - Once I got this sequencer then I could expand the songwriting, layering and editing. I loved it more than anything. It was always in front of me.

The demo was recorded at a friend's studio over a couple of hours for $40. He had a Mackie 16 track mixer (which was new at the time) and a DAT master recorder. There was no mix or mastering as it was meant as a demo. I plugged everything in, loaded the sequencer, set a level, hit play on the DAT and then play on the sequencer. I had no idea this would turn out to be the only surviving record of the work I had done with this act. We had around 12 complete songs and around 10 songlets (my own term for verse/chorus combinations) that are forever lost. The DAT master was found in a box in my storage closet and had been there for over a decade. I had completely forgotten about it. I got to rediscover the material as if I was listening to somebody else. I can't even remember what keys the songs are in. It's fun listening to your own material and have no recollection of it. I laughed.

I still occasionally get pulled in to play bass or keys or help with songwriting every now and then with other peoples material but I don't pursue music anymore.