QUESTION FOR ANYBODY

Hello. Has anybody purchased the low-cost Bass Synthesizer pedal available out there for about $49.99? If so, how does it sound? Is it worth the money?

Adventures in HD Music Selections

We got a 1080p plasma for the house. I was watching Comcast HD music channel. Regrouped Asia and Yes - Pathetic. Steve Howe is basically a skeleton holding a guitar. Also carried Royal Albert Hall clips of the Who in 2007. Roger's voice is godawful. The Seeker is already sounding well tired. Bright spot in group is Simon Townsend. Handling the high vocal parts and looking like he is actually enjoying being onstage. The rest are stiffs. Pete Townsend,too. Deep Purple - a train wreck. Only decent sounding band is Rush in a Frankfurt concert. But they are obviously only going through the motions. Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart are middle aged in appearance and spiritually fat. Geedy Lee always looked bad and that is nothing new here. Bryan Adams doing some solo guitar performance at some peace festival. Looks like hell but has a surprisingly strong and decent voice. Haven't watched old Joe Strummer video yet. More ugh for sure.

R.I.P. Richard Wright

Go listen to the live disc that was part of Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma" release. Richard Wright provided the keyboards to "Astronomy Domine" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". In a few words, haunting, otherwordly, hypnotic. Good music to travel by in the wee hours. Or put some headphones on and slip into your isolation tank. Space music for you to expand by. Another fave of mine is the work Wright contributed to the Floyd disc, "Animals". His axes included vocoder, organ, synthesizers. Beautiful, fluid work. Displayed nice chops when he accompanied David Gilmour on his recent "solo" tour. I didn't see the live show but caught a tour video. Turns out Wright sang the early, warped Floyd single "Arnold Layne". He did it again for the Gilmour tour. Hard to believe 40 years passed by at all. Surely, a virtuoso of the colorful, economic, tasteful, flourish and fill. Wish he had been heard from more.

The Rock Lifestyle

Listening to the recent Nickelback cut, "Rockstar" brings to mind other peons to the life of a rock star. A few of my favorites in this group include The Kinks' "Rock and Roll Fantasy", and "Life on the Road". The Who offered "Success Story" and "Long Live Rock". The Byrds summed it up by asking "So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star" and chronicled some of the highs and lows of the experience. The money apparently is VERY good.

Noise That Hurts

Fun With The Nero Sound Recorder

I was performing a rudimentary test of the sound editor function on my work computer and I came up with this scratchy-mic soaked trifle. I like to pile on the effects.

Pop Mediocrity Knows No Height It Can't Scale

Natasha Bedingfield sings of a "Pocketful of Sunshine" in her bland pop tune. Truth to tell, it will be a "pocketful of gold" more likely judging from the overwhelming popularity and response to the ditty. Fool's Gold.

eBay Update

I sold an Echoplex on eBay recently. A very nice unit I owned but which I didn't use much. I am next trying to hook up with a buyer on eBay who requested a Marxolin. Yes. I have one of those, too! I think I bought it from the same place that sold the Echoplex. How amazing.

eBay To The Rescue!

I am going through my collection of old pedals and musical instruments and weeding out the items that I no longer use. I am placing things on eBay for sale. Sad but true. Quite a bit of time and money was spent on some of this stuff. What was I thinking???!!! Well, I was in love with the things then. Had to have them and exploit their unique qualities. Now, I am not playing or recording anything so these pieces sit idly by. I know I can find them a better home!

Electro-Harmonix: Behave Yourselves!

Electro-Harmonix is killing me! I have seen and heard some of their guitar FX products and they are must own(age). Here I am at a time when I am trying to sell some of my old gear that isn't used anymore and then I stumble across these wonderful toys. I love the octave generators that can produce the psuedo organ/guitar hybrid sound. Love that! May break down and get something soon.

The Muson Was Once Mine!

I bought a Muson, a child's battery operated musical instrument, when it was available in toy stores back in the late '70's. I was in high school and part of an embryonic rock band formed with my buddies. We played basic three chord rock songs and loved the rock format but at least two of us in the outfit admired strange, esoteric noise and the then popular style of Progressive Rock. We would have loved to have added an electric organ or keyboard to our sonic arsenal but couldn't possibly afford them.

Seeking a cheap synth substitute, I plunked down the money (a few lawns mowed later) and picked up the Muson Electronic Synthesizer. The Muson was a plastic orange-cased monstrosity with brightly colored pegs which attached in slots situated above the modest keyboard. The Muson sported its own speaker onboard. The tone the keys emitted when pressed was nothing more that a wailing siren. Quite annoying, in fact, and not particularly endearing or interesting.

It was the built in "sequencer" function which grabbed my attention. By selecting this feature, a series of notes could be picked and played back repeatedly. The colored pegs each represented a musical note. The order in which the pegs were seated could be changed thus providing a different combination of notes. The speed at which the sequencer combed the notes could also be sped up or slowed down. Instant "Baba O'Rielly"-like synth passages! Well, not quite. We spiced up the tonal range of the Muson by processing its output with guitar effects pedals. A little Electro Harmonix Micro Synth and some echo and reverb and you'd swear the UFO's were hovering over your rooftop! A lot of these Muson jams were recorded with a cassette deck propped close to an amplifier (the early days of lo-fi). Haven't come across any recently but I suspect they cozied up to used baby diapers in the local landfill some time ago.

The finest moment the Muson ever had was when I used it to audition for the high school's special "Gong Show" competition. I can't remember why my pals and I didn't bring our own equipment to play at the tryout (probably unrehearsed) but we worked out a deal with one of the organizers that if he liked the sample song I was going to play on the keyboard well enough, we would be permitted to be entered in the contest as a band. The other kids in bands who lugged all their gear to the tryouts didn't think much of this ploy but they all gathered round to hear this primitive approach. I played "Uncontrollable Urge" by Devo and made it about half way through the tune and then assured everyone that the rest of the song would go pretty much like what they had just heard. A swag all the way! Well, we got in as an act and we ended up changing our minds as to the material we would cover ("Mongoloid" by Devo, it was!). I think we finished in fifth place or something. We didn't use the Muson for the song. We decided to just go with a guitar/bass/drum augmentation.

The Muson stayed with me through the years. I used it to provide backing for crude music demos mainly. My dad even placed a 1/4" output jack on it so that I could play through an amp.

My enthusiasm for demo making subsided for a few years, but when it returned, I dug out the old toy and put it to use. The only problem was that I had left batteries inside the stored away toy and the batteries had leaked and corroded the contacts. The Muson played no more. I just recently tossed the thing into the trash. I still have the instruction manual/songbook, though, and hopefully a stray recordings of the Muson somewhere.