Music

My first piano lesson was the day before my fifth birthday. I often combine computers and music, like in my live performance software KeyMaster. That program stems from an older program I wrote with the same name that I originally wrote on the Commodore 64 and used on stage for years. I later ported it to the Atari ST, rewrote it for the now-defunct BeOS, and wrote a Ruby version called PatchMaster.

Currently, I play keyboards in Ellis Island. We made a demo video in 2022. Check it out!

I performed in bands from 1980 to January 1993, went on a hiatus, and started playing out again in 2013. Over the years, I’ve played everything from progressive rock to dance pop to electric jazz and R&B; covers and originals.

I write different kinds of stuff. Most of it is funk/dance/pop, but I also dabble in orchestral, Sondheim-esque pieces, game show themes, thirty-second newsroom background music, and whatever else tickles my fancy.

Aside from the typeset pieces below and the sequencer and MIDI files of the music I’ve done on my own, I have thrown a few things up on Soundcloud for the fun of it — none of it production quality. Out of all of the original songs we did in the late ‘80’s, I only have one crappy cassette of a bunch of works-in-progress . It’s dated but really good stuff. The sound quality is horrendous. Also, the tape broke so I’ll need to repair it one day.

My MIDI reference has moved here. It’s not a tutorial. Rather, it is intended as a quick overview and a reference guide.

Compositions

Here are three pieces I composed that I’ve typeset using LilyPond.

Here are a few of the other songs on my SoundCloud page:

Equipment Collection

Here’s what my home “studio” looks like in 2023. When I play live I take the Kronos and the Hydrasynth.

My Home Studio, 2023

Here’s the schematic for my home studio and my live rig.

Schematic: My Home Studio and Live Rig, 2022

Equipment List

Live Rig

Here’s what I use when I play live with Ellis Island. Everything here is from the above equipment list. You can see it in action here, though that video was made before I started hooking up the synths with MIDI.

I’ve dabbled with WIDI (Bluetooth MIDI) but had some latency problems that have got to be caused by the way I was routing things. If I just set up WIDI between the two synths everything works fine, but when I introduce the iPad with Midiflow and BandHelper, there’s a delay when I use the Hydrasynth to play the Kronos. So I don’t do that.

Software List

Old Gear

Just for fun, here’s a list of my old gear. I started playing in bands in the late ‘70’s. Here’s what I remember:

Band List

Here are the bands and orchestras I’ve played in over the years, in reverse chronological order. Believe me, you’ve never heard of any of them.