A Tale of Two Templates

As I prepare to record my new album, Fuga Electronica, I have been working out how to transcribe the various fugues for the Synclavier. Since there are basically two types of fugues - those written for chamber groups or orchestra, and those written for one or more guitars - I came up with two different Encore templates that will make the process logical.

With a 32 voice Synclavier, a stereo timbre program takes at least two voices, so that means, in real terms, that I'll be working with a maximum polyphony of 16 voices. However, If I want to get a natural reverberation effect, I'll have to set each track's polyphony to two, meaning that the max polyphony will only be 8 parts. Given that fact, I set up two different templates with 8 staves.

For the chamber ensemble fugues, I'm just going to put everything in a string section system, marked ARCHI here, with three additional tracks of ALTernate timbres possible, above. This will make the three, four, and five voice fugues a snap to transcribe.

Then, for the guitar fugues, I set up a six stave system, as that is the maximum number of simultaneous timbres a guitar can produce. Under that, a stave for a contrabass octave doubling and sound effects. One of the things I got best at with the Synclavier was creating sound effects. Once, I met Al DiMeola, and mentioned to him I programmed some of the sounds that came with the Synclavier. He said, "Not the sound effects?!" And I said yes. His reply was, "Those are amazing!" One of the nicest compliments I ever got. So now, after all these decades, they will finally find their place in my music. I'm psyched.

Once I get the fugues into the Synclavier, I will MIDI synchronize it with my Mac Pro and do additional orchestration with the native samples in Logic Pro X for some of them. That will give me an additional 16 MIDI channels to work with, so I made a third orchestral template for that. I think only three or four of the fugues will lend themselves to this treatment, so most of them will be pure Synclavier.

Here's how the album layout will be:

Fuga Electronica: A Symphony of Fugues

01] Alegro: Four-Voice Sonata-Fugue in E Minor (Orig. Guitar Duo), 2011 - 3:00

02] Lament: Three-Voice Sinfonia in D Minor (Orig. String Trio), 1990 - 3:30

03] Valse Macabre: Three-Voice Fugue on a Tone-Row (Orig. Wind Trio), 1995 - 3:00

04] Andante: Four-Voice Fugue in F Minor (Orig. String Quartet), 1994 - 5:00

05] Jubilate: Four-Voice Ricercare in F Major (Orig. Wind Quartet), 2006 - 6:30

06] Scherzo Comico: Three-Voice Fugato in D Minor (Orig. Chamber Orchestra), 2005 - 1:00

07] Allegretto: Three-Voice Fugue in A Minor (Orig. Solo Guitar), 2005 - 2:00

08] Adagio: Five-Voice Ricercare in A Minor (Orig. Symphony Orchestra), 2013 - 10:00

09] Finale: Free-Voiced Ricercare in E Minor (Orig. Solo Guitar), 2007 - 5:00

Total Time: 39:00

So, three of the fugues originated on the guitar, while the other six were various chamber and orchestral groups. I start the transcriptions tomorrow!

Happy New Year, everybody.

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Epic Vacation in my Ferrari 456M

Finally took a much needed break from all things music. Basically, it had been over nine years since I did anything like this. Last time was on a BMW K1200LT motorcycle, but this time it was in the Ferrari. I left at 4:30 AM on the 24th and got to Roswell, NM the first evening. Some nice areas of Texas, but familiar to me, so I didn't take any photos. Left from Roswell at 4:30 AM on the 25th, and went through 200 miles of rain and wet roads in the dark. Quite an intense adventure, actually, and the Ferrari was perfect. This was all on US380 across the state, and then I hooked up to I25 on a jog north to Socorro, NM, where I hit US60. West of Socorro the rain ended and the sun came up.

Into the sunrise on US60 west of Socorro.

Away from the sunrise on US60 west of Socorro.

Just a few miles down the highway is the VLA - Very Large Array - radio telescope. This has been used as a set in several science-fiction films, one of which was 2010 that had a scene where Roy Scheider's character was sitting on one of the dish towers.

At the VLA radio telescope.

Took a scenic detour via NM12 and into the Gila National Forest. It was beautiful, but it was a two lane road with no shoulders and no places to pull off, ergo no pics. Fantastic drive, though. After snaking up through the Apache National Forest in AZ, I rejoined US60 to head down through the Apache reservations. This is a very famous road with miles of switchbacks, esses, and sweeping curves. There were plenty of RV's - it was Friday - but I still had clear road for a few good stretches (Passing RV's in a Ferrari is amazing fun. It just takes a couple of seconds. lol! Only a motorcycle could do it better). Probably needless to say, the Ferrari is the awesomest car on the planet for that kind of driving, so my cheeks hurt from smiling by the time the road straightened out. That road was the thing I wanted to do on this trip, and it was as near perfect as one could hope for. Here are a couple of pics on US60; the first where it started getting interesting, and the second in the Apache reservation right before the really serious stuff.

US60 in northern AZ.

US60 in the Apache reservation.

That was some tiring driving (!!!), so I was happy when I got down to Tucson and met Peg and Tim. Peg used to book gigs for me out west, and so the three of us headed out for Mexican food and Margaritas. I love Tucson. I'm tempted to move there, but I know I belong here.

Peg and Tim ready to order and drink!

This next stunt would be impossible in any two-seat Ferrari: The three of us headed up to Prescott the next morning. So glad I got this model for my first Ferrari. I want a two-seater someday, but not today!

Tim and Peg, waiving the peace sign (We're old hippies!)

We stayed at the historic Hassayampa Inn in Prescott, which is walking distance from their famous Whiskey Row of bars (This was the point). Old people think ahead before doing a bar crawl!

The beautiful Hassayampa Inn lobby.

The famous Whiskey Row. We hit 'em all!

Next day we went back to Tucson via Sedona, and north AZ is very beautiful coniferous forest.

Near Sedona, AZ.

Left Peg and Tim to head to Alpine, TX, where I used to live. Just hung out with a few friends for my last night away before coming home.

Ready to head back to Texas.

Prada Marfa. A local artist's gag.

An almost deserted Railroad Blues, Alpine, TX.

Last call tequila shot. Next morning home.

It was awesome and I needed it bad.

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Hexaphonic Guitar System: 3

I got the adapters I needed yesterday, so I was able to get everything connected solidly. These little puppies are very useful, and I didn't even know they existed until I started poking around on eBay. What they do is, they take an insert jack - which is usually used as a loop to insert compressors or effects units, hence the name - and they make them into direct outputs. Evidently, live sound engineers use them a lot to get direct outputs from their boards for live multi-track recording. The RMC Fanout Box has an insert jack for each string, so if you want to use them as outputs, as I do, you need these adapters. Otherwise, a regular mono TS guitar cable won't make proper contacts.

I expected them to be from some exotic manufacturer, but no, they are made by Hosa. I got eight so I'd have these extras. For those interested, it is called a DOC-106 INSERT DIRECT-OUT ADAPTOR. They must be fairly common if Hosa makes them.

Here's one unboxed. As you can see, it has a male stereo TRS jack on the right, and a mono female TS jack on the left. The male TRS makes all of the proper contacts, and the female TS accepts any old guitar cable. The female return jack was just left out of the wiring. Very cool.

*****

I set all of the units up to provide distortion for every string, and it really doesn't sound like six different guitars, and complex harmonies still sound mushy, just not as mushy as with a mono or stereo system (There is some crosstalk between the strings). Mixed into the background of the clean stereo guitar sound, though, it's very spooky. I'm going to need the winter to mess around with it, but one thing I know for sure, and that is that the solid state preamp in the Lexicon MPX-G2 does not have a sweet enough overdrive sound. I knew this would be the case, as I've been spoilt by over thirty years of MESA/Boogie tube amps. But since I've proved the concept with the Lexicons now, I'm going to build another hexaphonic system with six MESA/Boogie preamps. Since the ones I want are discontinued, it will probably be a while before I can scare up six of them. In any case, this has been a marvelous project and I'm learning a ton from it.

Now that I have all of the elements sorted out for my main recording studio, I'll be able to turn my attention to the Synclavier and the Fuga Electronica album. In my down time from working on that, I'll explore the hexaphonic possibilities. First, though, I'm going for a week's vacation out west in the Ferrari! I haven't been away from my house in over three years, so I'm hitting a wall with my motivation and I badly need a break.

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Hexaphonic Guitar System: 2

This morning, I got up and finished the connections for the hex system.

First thing was getting the RMC Fanout Box connected to the six MPX-G2's. Note that I found some red felt that matches the Synclavier keyboard. No scratches!

One nice feature of the MPX-G2, is that it has guitar inputs on the front, and on the back. I used 6' guitar cables so I'd have enough slack to service the system without unplugging everything.

Next step was to connect the guitar to the Fanout Box, and the Fanout Box to the Axon AX-100. The cable on the right is from the guitar, and the cable on the left is to the Axon.

Unfortunately, the 13-pin Roland-compatible guitar synth cables do not come in specialty lengths. The shortest I've ever seen is 15 feet, so I had to use a cable saver to make it manageable.

*****

Sorting things out quickly became a harrowing experience. The six outputs on the Fanout Box double as inserts, so the guitar cables had to be about 2/3 of the way in to make proper contact, and it was very fiddly to get all six working. Took a long time. Then, once that was done, I discovered that unit #4 had a blown output transformer. Arg! So, I had to cannibalize my secondary recording rack for another MPX-G2 (I have nine total now!). I sort of/kind of expected this, as these units are vintage rack gear at this point.

Due to all of this morning's frustrations, I decided to knock off for the day when I tried the Axon and it was horribly noisy. I'm sure that's due to the improvised guitar connections, so I got on eBay and searched for insert cables. Well, what do you know, but there is an insert to direct output adapter cable! It has the regular stereo male 1/4" connector to a 1/4" female TS connector. Needless to say, I scooped up eight of them so I'd have spares.

So, I'm on ice again until those adapters get here.

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Hexaphonic Guitar System: 1

I finally found a sixth Lexicon MPX-G2, so I was able to complete my hexaphonic guitar system!

Back around 1977, I read an article in Guitar Player magazine about, "hex fuzz." The amazing advantage to hexaphonic distortion is that you can play complex harmonies without them turning into dissonant mush. It sounds like several guitars playing in harmony instead of just one. The problem back then was that the solid state overdrive circuits were primitive, and so they sounded very cheesy. The idea stuck with me, however, and when MPX-G2's started coming down in price, I realized that with six of them and the RMC Breakout Box, I could finally make a high quality hexaphonic system. I started collecting them about four years ago, and it's taken me this long to find six nice units. This post will be about how I put the system together.

To do it right, you need a lot of cables of the correct length.

I needed seven foot long and two foot A/C cords, twelve two foot patch cables, ten 6' guitar cables, and six 1' MIDI patch cables.

Then, of course, a half-dozen MPX-G2's. The original list price for these was $2,400.00, so that's $14,400.00 worth of Lexicons at the original price!

I put the units in an 8U SKB rack with a Furman AR-1215 power conditioner on the bottom, and an Ashly LX308B stereo mixer on top. The Ashly is very cool, because it has 8 channels, each of which has left and right inputs.

The first step is to install the A/C cables. Everything goes down the left to the bottom of the rack, so they will be away from the patch cables: Less chance for noise.

Then the MIDI patch cables. Every THRU goes to the next unit's IN. That way, a single MPX-R1 remote can change programs on all of them at the same time!

And now, the 12 audio cables. See how nice and neat this is? The audio cables are away from the A/C cables, so it will be nice and quiet.

Here's the entire system, powered up. The next step was to dump all of the programs from the stereo unit on the top to the hexaphonic units below. I got my first MPX-G2 in 1999, so I've been tweaking those programs for almost 15 years now!

Ta da! The dump from unit one to units two through seven went off without a hitch. Now all of the Lexicons have the same programs in them.

Tomorrow, I'll connect the hex rack to the Lexicon FW810s FireWire recording interface, and the Breakout box, and I'll be able to start modifying the programs to add distortion. That's done in the preamp section, so this could take a while.

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Guitar Mania

Sorry for the slow pace of posting, but I'm meticulously working out my new recording setup to include the Synclavier and Hexaphonic guitar. It's coming along great, but I need one more Lexicon MPX-G2 to finish it.

In the mean time, I've been getting more guitars to experiment with. First up is an open headstock version of the Blackbird Rider Nylon guitar with an RMC Polydrive.

The open headstock looks more, "normal" and makes it easier to string the guitar. Mostly I just wanted a viable backup though.

Then, out of the blue, my friend Jim Kozel made a Rider Nylon with the new GrapTech Ghost system. He decided it wasn't for him, so I bought it.

Unlike with the Polydrive, all the controls are on the guitar. The sound is also radically different from the Polydrive. Not sure which I prefer yet, but it is nice to have something different that will also work with the hexaphonic system and the Synclavier.

I really hope an MPX-G2 shows up on eBay next month so I can get to sorting the hex system out.

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The Synclavier Has Arrived

So psyched. The Synclavier arrived at about 9:30 this morning, and it took me over an hour to unpack the pallet it came on and then get the stuff in the house. I was exhausted and drenched in sweat by the time I was done, so I took a shower and a break and then set the installation up. The Synclavier works fine, but unfortunately, it seems the old Mac G4 can't run my 17" Studio Display. Pity, as the size is perfect. As a result, I ordered an ASUS 19" flat screen VGA monitor, which will be here in a few days.

As I said before, that's the only Ferrari Racing Red - technically called Rosso Corsa - Synclavier keyboard ever made. I feel extremely fortunate to have ended up with it.

Exactly the same as my car. HA!

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