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Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
welcome to my corner of the web where i am happy to share my memories, interests & ideas, music and everyday thoughts about whatever comes into my life... While you're at this website All music, concepts, ideas & "dextrosoundlab" images (C)dextrosoundlab2010/socan/ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

GEAR:
 I love synth & audio gear :)
I have mostly Roland gear...i am not sure why, i never planned to have mostly Roland gear after 20 plus years of being a Synth Freak....i just end up selling things other than the Roland stuff...
This post is the first of my posts about my gear collection....





                                         my Boss DR-202 + Roland D2 + Roland MC-909 :)

Saturday, June 28, 2014

SYNTHESIZER FREAKS @ FACEBOOK

Synthesizer Freaks @ FAceboOk
Seven years ago I was recovering at home from a surgery after a workplace injury. Boredom led me to stop watching endless movies and TV show reruns, and create a FaceBook Group dedicated to my favorite pastime, Hardware Synthesizers and Samplers, Midi gear etc....
This past day the group past the 8000 member mark!
Wow, there are alot of Synthesizer Freaks out in the world today, especially compared to when i first caught the bug 30 some odd years ago.
So here's to "Synthesizer Freaks" and here is to all the great companies like Roland, Korg, yamaha and MOOG, Synthesizers.com, Buchla, EMU and all the others that i have not mentioned!

Sunday, September 29, 2013

SoniGen Modular Synthesizer

http://www.sonigen.com/

I've recently discovered a most useful and engaging ''virtual modular'' software synthesizer, for free!
Sonigen let's the user add modules and design patching between these modules to create sound and process audio routed thru the system.
I've restored an Acer notebook which i bought in 2009, so it can be the host for my copy of Sonigen.
Since Sonigen is a ''stand alone'' application there is no need for a host DAW like protools, logic or cubase.
With a USB/audio midi interface connected to the notebook, Sonigen becomes a connected part of my midi synthesizer system....basically it's a new piece of hardware.
In the past I have restored older computers just to run one or two synthesizer and/or sound production applications...My old iMac G3 is still functional to this day...with less than 6 applications installed it is a useful device within the home studio. Today it is a digital multiTracker, specifically Logic Audio.
 I highly recommend ''SoniGen" for any synth-lovin freak....it's also available in vst-i format so you can run it within your favorite DAW.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

teknology

Casio released a pair of pro series keyboard synthesizers early in 2011, this was the first ''pro'' quality music gear the company has created since the 1980's.
I proudly owned a casio rz-1 digital sampling drum machine for at least ten years...at 12 bit and with rather limited sampling times, the device forced its programmer to work within the limitations of its technologies inside...the end result was often more than anyone expected.
Technologies that have been considered ''obsolete'' just because the nature of caplitalism.
  Iam typing this on a new technology, a tablet; my new acer iconia a-210 to be specific.
I am a late bloomer in this tablet fad, trend, phase, whatever it is, I just didn't think I wanted to have a giant phone.
But after a year of using my Nokia x-7, a 4'' touch screen done I was less negative about the uses of owning a tablet.
First, I bought a $99 seven inch ''Craig'' tablet running android is 4.0, and that was that.
I quickly filled it with synth manuals, books, apps & used it everyday along with my trusty Nokia done.
Then one day I saw this Acer tablet on sale for $299 at a nearby store. I bought it, and cashed in my buyers points i had saved which gave me an additional hundred dollar discount.....
I am still getting used to my new technology and it is far higher quality than the plastiky ''craig''tablet, and with spec's similar to a notebook the Acer tablet could perform tasks that were out of reach for the smaller ''Craig'' device.
Even still, I plan to continue using both tablet's. The Acer being the primary unit and the smaller one being the tablet I use outside, while biking, hiking, camping or whatever. The ''Craig'' has a 1.3ghz CPU and 1 GB of RAM compared to the Acer a210 which comes with a 1.33ghz quad core CPU and 1gb of RAM, but those numbers don't say much, the Acer seems to do and run anything I put in front of it, while the smaller ''Craig'' has processing lags at times.
The one positive advantage the ''Craig'' tablet has is it's able to play flash, with flash-11 installed all the free video the web has to offer can be played. The Acer does not play flash and seems to have followed Steve jobs and apple iPad with an absence of flash video content.
At least my Acer aspire-one 725 AMD chip notebook can still do anything I ask it to.
The funny thing is that my most up to date computer system includes Acer AMD notebook, Acer 20" cinema display and an Acer iconia a-210 tablet....I am grateful to be able to play with these gizmo's and every 3 years afford to buy new ones in a bid to stay current with technology....
Edison's lightbulb was designed to do more than glow, it was designed to stop glowing after a certain amount of time, and that ''planned obsolescence'' is still at the root of our western consumer driven society...I would embrace a technological slowdown, which could force corporations to make highest quality products that would last a decade and remain useful in the online experience.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

celluloid kerouac

I first read 'on the road' in and about 1990 when i was a young man of 20.
My girlfriend gave me a copy of the book and thus, planted the seed that would
grow and offer me answers to questions that frustrated my young mind about
freedom and the pursuit of it.
My experience is not special because this book inspired many people in the same way.
After learning of the production plans for this movie i have waited patiently for a few years
to see what a film adaptation would be like.
I recommend this film to anyone who has read the book, but to people who haven't read the book
I recommend that they read the book first.
The film is only good as a companion piece to the masterpiece novel.
Perhaps a 10 hour mini-series would be better for realising 'on the road' on the screen.
Regardless of my opinion, it was a good movie and i am glad i have a copy so i can watch it
again someday.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

commodore 64

Recently it was the 30th anniversary of the iconic and best selling home computer, the Commodore 64.
I began my computer experiences with the commodore PET computer which occupied my high school's ''computer lab'', and one christmas when i was 14 my parents bought a commodore ViC-20 home computer, which we upgraded the next year to a Commodore 64.
I was still using a c-64 as recently as 1998 when i lived on manatoulin island at my friends 60 acre property...my system was running Geos operating system and i played ''skate or die'' for hours.
The ''sid'' chip was the first synthesizer i learned to play with thanks to my c-64 and a myriad of drum machine and synthesizer software.
my favorite was a synth that you programmed within the Geos OS with the joystick...
i'll never forget that feeling of excitement when i would pour through a large box of unlabeled floppy disks full of games and software....each disk would reveal it's contents once i loaded it and the suspense while waiting to see what incredible new game was waiting to be discovered by me.
some people began with the apple II's and other's it was the commodore 64, in fact something like 10 million homes had a ommodore 64 .
i left my massively expanded commodore 64 system and unreal collection of software at my friends cabin/house on manatoulin island, which burned down under 2 yrs ago...back into the ashes it goes, my beloved commodore 64.