You Will Now Witness The True Power Of... Err... wait...

Longtime readers will know that I occasionally pine about having a complete working alphaSyntauri synthesizer system. I even managed to collect all the parts via about 2 years of eBay searching a half decade ago, but I was never able to actually make the rig work, and eventually I pitched the whole thing in a fit of frustration.

My good friend Mike Fisher to the rescue. He happened to have a complete system that actually worked. (Interestingly, he acquired it at the same time I was hunting for mine, through the expedient of buying a complete working system. Wish I had thought of that.) When we were in Phoenix last week, Mike happened to mention that this ridiculous thing was sucking up space in his studio better suited for, e.g., dirty socks and pizza crusts, and entrusted it to me since I’d actually use it.

(Note: I was using poetic license regarding the socks and pizza. Mike is very neat.)

Anyhow, I’ve got it all hooked up and working, and am madly synthesizing in an additive way. (Oh, yeah, it’s additive. Didn’t mention that.) It is hideously complex to program, and I’m missing some of the fun software; I’ve found .DSK files of same, but I’m not entirely sure how to turn those in to 5.25” floppies, so I’ll have to spend some time working on that.

He also hooked me up with a Korg 770, which has to be one of the most ridiculous monosynths ever created. It can make some really cool sounds, but none of them are what you set out to create. I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with this little piglet. Which brings me to…

Bare Walls: I’m gonna take my office down to the paint tomorrow, as it is getting out of hand. I’ve got to let this K250 go because, as cool as it is, it’s just too fucking big for here. So if you want to buy one at a monumentally cheap price, and you’re in PDX or the surrounding area, feel free to drop me a line. If you’re even thinking of writing me about this elephant and including the word “shipping” or anything related to it in your missive, don’t bother. The only way this is leaving my house is if you come and get it.

Otherwise, a massive reorganization is in the offing. Not only is it fun to move the instruments around, but it can be very cleansing, artistically, don’t you find?