Jim Alfredson

Yeah, the damn thing pretty much plays itself... all we have to do is look like we're doing something. B-)

Another option would be to buy a stand-alone CD recorder. They're getting mighty cheap these days. The HHB ones are real nice.

Good one, Soul Stream. We can't let them know that it's the sequencer, allowing us to play pre-loaded Jimmy Smith licks with the touch of a butto.... I mean.... yeah... it's the volume pedal box.

Aric. Shutup.

Hammond Organ Company went out of business in the 80s. They stopped making the B3 model in 1974. The Hammond name was bought by a Japanese company called Suzuki... not the motorcycle company... same name, different company. They started making a series of clones using digital sampling technology. They released the XB3 in the mid-90s, which was a full sized, B3-like organ using digital technology. It didn't sound very good. There are some Jimmy McGriff records where he's playing it. Either last year or two years ago they released the New B3, which is a full sized replica of the B3 using advanced digital technology. Supposedly it is pretty good, but at around $20,000, no musician can afford one. Joey DeFrancesco plays one because he has a sponsorship with them, but that's about it. They sound pretty good.

Oh Lord, there's a "Man-O-War" album in there. Those dudes are frickin' weird. I saw a snippet of one of their videos on VH1 (some show about bad metal) and it provided laughter for days! What was up with those guys?!

Ah, getting stuff in Detroit. Man, when my dad and I bought the SY77, we saved up enough money and found a guy in Detroit that would sell it to us for $2k (it was going for almost $3k at the time). Crazy Clarence or something. Fucking asshole. We get to the store, in downtown Detroit, and it's the floor model he's selling us. No biggie, it was fine. But there was no box. So he said, "Here, give me the money and then you can follow us to the warehouse to get the box." They were going to have the synth with them, by the way so they could put it in the box at the warehouse. Ummm... yeah. My dad just looked at him and said, "I don't think so." and started to walk out. He was all like, "Okay okay, I'll have my boys go get the box and we can just wait here." Anyway, we got that thing back home to Mason and I had school the next the day, but I stayed up ALL night playing it, and figuring out the sequencer. My mom was mad, but I did go to school the next day.

I don't like no rekkids with "ogun" on 'em.

ss1, why all the hate? B-)

Yeah, that's the great thing about it... the ability to load-in any old DX7 patch. It can also do way more than the DX7 can do. It really represents the future of FM synthesis, since Yamaha dropped the ball after the SY77 (which I also have... great synth... you can use samples as operators in the FM algorhythms... way cool!)

The DX7 was notoriously hard to program. In fact, Yamaha still has a stigma against their synths for being hard to program, even though that doesn't really have any truth behind it now. I used to make my own patches on the DX7 but I was a kid and it was more like trial and error than logical sound design. The FM7 is way cool. It's still one of my favorite soft-synths.

Brilliant!!!

Send it to me, Joe. I'll fix it! Seriously... what's wrong with it? I can probably fix it.

Yeah, synths started getting pretty boring by the late 80s. I had a DX7. That was my first synth. Great little box. Now I play a Yamaha EX7, but just like you I only use it for piano, strings, electric pianos (wurli and rhodes) and horns. Maybe the occasional nutty lead synth line if I'm feeling frisky. Of course I use a real B3 for organ! The future is soft-synths. Have a little laptop and a keyboard controller and you have massive sampling at your fingertips, like GigaSampler. Amazing stuff.

Pistons vs. Portland tonight. My prediction: 'Sheed is going to go nuts on his old team and lay down 25+. Pistons win by 10.

Don't mind aric. He's a fool.

Funny aside: I've noticed you can always gauge the current state of popular music by instrument placement in musical instrument catalogs. For instance, back when I first started getting those catalogs, keyboards and synthesizers were up front. This was in the 80s (surprise, surprise). As we got into the 90s, keyboards were relegated to the very back and guitars and guitar amps were on the front pages. Now home recording gear is up front (mics, digital recorders, software, etc.) and guitars are second, and then MIDI stuff like keyboards. Poor drums are all the way in the back! I think it's interesting.

Is the kilt included?

Oh, and Uninvisible is pretty sweet, too. "Back in Nineteen and Ninety-Two... we were a good band."

I like them all. A good place to start is their first disc on Grammavision, "It's A Jungle In Here." Good stuff. Their latest is pretty wacky. I really like The Dropper. But it's far out!

That's the plan!!

I miss NYC. I totally understand why my wife wanted to move there before she met me. How's the snow treating you, Chris?

That's a real goodun'.

Is the poodle included with the organ in that above shot?

I wouldn't mess with her.