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Sound Design has been a big part of my musical (and economic) life. Even when I didn't realize it, I was interested in and experimenting with audio and musical sound, building instruments or squishing audio with my twin-speed "Elizabethan" tape recorder, back in the early 60's. What I remember most about that old machine was the smell of the tape on the 5" reels... I discovered that I had a lucky way with synths back in the mid-seventies and spent many hours working part time in the local music store pretending to sell them. Probably, I was subconsciously more interested in keeping the customers out so that I could experiment myself in peace with all that wonderful sound making gear. Particularly interesting at that time was the Yamaha CS80 - a big, polyphonic analog synthesizer. As a piano player, I was never very forgiving of the early synth's major limitations - you could only play one note at a time and there was no response to touch - but the CS80 tried to deal with those issues. You could play 8 notes simultaneously, and volume and timbre were responsive to touch - both velocity touch and individual after-pressure applied to a key. In addition, there was a long ribbon strip placed just above the keys that could be used to control pitch, making the CS80 a very organic and expressive electronic instrument. It was also extremely heavy, very expensive, drifted in and out of tune easily (some folks liked that) and had a tendency to explode if you plugged the foot pedals incorrectly into their sockets (I did that), so it had its downside, but nonetheless it seduced me into the world of electronic music. Sounds of the CS80 are scattered liberally all over the 2nd Vision album. It was however, only a hint of the things to come, as I was unwittingly lured into the world of synthesizer development and voicing. In 1980, I made my first visit to the Yamaha Factory in Japan. That was something. I was there to do a little voicing on a new analog keyboard and get "introduced" to the GS1 - Yamaha's first commercially available FM synthesizer. It was also on this visit that I met Gary Leuenberger who was to become a firm friend and voicing buddy. Well, to cut a (very) long story short, for the next twelve years or so, supported by an enjoyable and strong relationship with Yamaha, I became completely immersed in FM synthesis, synthesizer programming, electronic music, demonstrations, travel and academic music. Some little bits of the story have popped up in various dusty corners of the music press and internet, where you can find a little about my DX exploits with Gary. In the early 90's, I was lucky to have the opportunity to learn something new - this time about sampling and filters, by joining Emu Systems in the USA, which rounded out my appreciation of electronic music synthesis and gave me a tiny peep into corporate america. I couldn't resist putting together a little nostalgic snapshot of my musical life - it's never been spectacular, but I've always been lucky enough to keep busy and find interesting stuff to do... Chronological order seems to make the most sense for this tour, but hhmm.... there may be some cases where I do not own the music rights so I have included just small clips (please, Mr Publisher, don't sue me!... just let me know if this is a bad thing and I'll remove the clip from my site). I've had the good fortune to play with some great musicians - check out the originals when you can, I've provided some links.
May Day Ready for Love Better Way to Be
June -1 June - 2(King of Rome)
Ice Bells Coanda Dancing Circle
Only One with Only one Morph Ariel HM Vortex In the early 80's I enjoyed working with and became friends with Dave Palmer of Jethro Tull - I joined his band, formed with John Evan and called Tallis, but we did not do many live performances. Dave and I also worked together during my time at IRCAM in Paris, producing some interesting electronic versions of Mozart piano pieces, scored by Dave for synthesized orchestra. Dave is now "Dee" - but for that story, you'll need to look elsewhere. David/Dee Palmer Ringtones 2000: Since 2002, ringtone development has proved a rewarding and interesting musical experience. My own involvement with this medium has largely been to provide ringtone marketing material for Yamaha, who make a particularly powerful audio chip for cellphones, the MA series and a corresponding file format called SMAF. You can find out a bit more about SMAF by visiting Yamaha's website www.smaf-yamaha.com. I've written some articles about SMAF, and some tips on ringtone development which are posted there. Some examples of my ringtone demonstrations in the SMAF format are on the ringtones page of this site, and yes, this is just how it comes out of your cellphone - as long as it is an "MA/SMAF" equipped phone. Recently, I've spent more time on the piano and keyboards just enjoying playing, improvising or creating soundscapes. Music integrated with visual arts is becoming my "thing"... |
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This page contains a few brief snapshots of the music that I have composed
or played in times
past - I suppose if I ever express an opinion about music or synthesis, I'd
better come clean and admit to some of the stuff I've done. Some of the music here I really like, some of it I really enjoyed playing,
some of it, I'm not so sure about,
but hey, I did it - that's me on the piano! And that's me on the left, by the way, with my
Chapman Stick. I bought this wonderful instrument in 2004 because, finally,
I figured out that it would be easier to learn a new, neat and light instrument
than to continue lugging pianos and keyboards of various shapes and sizes up and
down stairs. Pity, it's too late to save my poor back - and I'm still a novice
on the Stick, so maybe it wasn't such a bright decision.... 
Throughout the 80's
- during this time, I found myself more and more involved in
the world of synthesizers and electronic music. The first example was made on the DX7II when it came out in about 1985 - "The Only One" has
some great examples of FM "stuff" on the sounds - squeaky guitar,
plucked bass and muted trumpet, all pure FM sounds. Then there was the MIDI Grand Piano. One was installed at Yamaha's R&D Studio in
London, where I was based for a while. I couldn't resist having the occasional
late night moody tinkle on the
keys, hooked up to a TX816 to provide surprisingly effective string sounds. Later on in the 80's, the SY77 was introduced by Yamaha. I wrote
a strange demo for this, engineered with the help of a friend and colleague (aka "mblaze"
). The idea of the demo was to make it sound, when it started like an old '78 record
playing on the veranda of some old colonial house somewhere out in the jungle...
the big sounds would come later. Well, it raised a few eyebrows amongst the
marketing powers of Yamaha "It's not
stereo", "It sounds tinny and scratchy" they said - yes, its supposed to!
It was all planned... Anyway, it became an SY77 demo tune called "Her Majesty's Vortex"
...