TED JAMES

I had the day off in observance of Independence Day, so I spent the majority of it finally getting this off the ground. There's still a bit of work to do, but I'm happy with the way this site (or collection of sites) is working. Integrating Flavors.me with Posterous.com has been a beautuiful dream. Soundcloud, on the other hand, is a little rough around the edges. I'll have to try incorporating my individual tracks into individual posts in Posterous in order to talk about / document what I'm doing (like I have been doing via Tumblr for BETTEROFFTED.com all along). Expect updates to the images section soon. Porting all my stuff to Picasa is pretty easy, but labeling the images is a little time consuming. (If you've taken pictures of me and you're not yet credited here let me know.) 

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Part 1 in a series of quasi-weekly articles for aspiring producers and gear lovers.

Building a studio can be a time consuming process while on a limited budget. I've had some experience with putting a home studio together in the past and have come to terms with the fact that there is a balance between what you want and what you need.

For example, I love synthesizers. I have quite a few. I appreciate their flexibility and their limitations. I like the way they look and enjoy the satisfaction I get from actually reaching out and touching one. But taking them in can get expensive fast.

Let's start with where you put them. Keyboards take up a lot of space. If you have one keyboard, you can most likely just put it down on your desk or a tabletop or a single stand. If you have 2 or more keyboards, you'll find yourself looking into multi-tier stands. This can start getting pricey depending on how you want to use your stand. A good quality or road-worthy stand can cost a good amount of money. If you need to gig with the synth and this is the stand that you need to use on stage, you'll probably need a bag or case for it, too. Obviously a good case for the keyboard is a must if it's going to leave home. If it isn't going to leave your house or studio you'd be a fool to not have a dust cover on it when it's not in use. The reality is, depending on the type of stand and case you want or need, you could be spending just as much or even more than your keyboard's value on a stand and case, and we haven't even gotten to cables yet.

Let me explain. I got a good deal on a very new Roland SH-201 that had a broken key. The synth worked as it was, but since I'm fairly handy with a screwdriver, I decided I'd bring it back to 100%. I ended up paying $300 for the board and under $8 (with shipping) for the replacement key. It took me about 10 minutes to replace the key and by the time I had it back together it was as good as new. Since the SH-201 is ultra-light and (in my opinion) super-versatile, I decided I would start using this board exclusively for Paper Eagles shows. (Plus, if for any reason it breaks down while on the road, it will be easy and relatively cheap to replace. It comes to our shows in an SKB 4214W flight case and sits on a Roland-branded Ultimate Support V-Stand. The case will cost you at least $299 new, the stand $179, with an additional $30+ for the Roland-branded carrying case. That's a lot to think about then you're sitting around dreaming about the gear you want. You could go with a cheaper case or stand, but I value the equipment these products are made to protect, I'd prefer to not worry about my livelihood falling off a poorly built X-frame when the locking mechanism fails (once is enough). So to sum this all up: a little over $300 for the board, roughly $600 to transport and store it. And we still haven't gotten to cabling.

Cables are important.

Let's take a look at audio cables first. I've used a lot of different cables for a lot of different things and so far, and this is what I found. Cheap audio cables are just going to let you down. Over the years, I've tried to be thrifty and go with a cheap instrument cable. This is really not the way to do it. Super budget cables are almost always shit, and it's not really worth the gamble to find out if the one you just bought is an exception. Spend the extra couple of bucks to buy something with some sort of guarantee. I have Monster Cable StudioLink TRS cables that are almost 10 years old. They sound great and they last. I gig with Monster Standard 100 Instrument Cables and also use products from their DJ line. Having a lifetime warranty on your cables goes a long way. When you have to spend your hard-earned money on accessories for your gear, you need to think about your purchases as an investment in your own future and not a temporary solution. I prefer to spend $25 on a cable once, rather than $25 over and over again to correct my purchasing mistakes.

When it comes to MIDI cables I sing a slightly different tune. Now, I'm normally not a fan of Hosa cables, but I initially bought their MIDI cables because they were cheap (and at the time, colorful). If you take care of them and keep them wound nicely they will last. Mine have. There is less to go wrong in a MIDI cable, so take care of them and buy a few extras when you can and you should be good.

No matter what brand of cables you decide to go with, be sure to get a length that is flexible enough for you to actually use it. Short cables might be cheaper, but if you decide to move that synth off your desk and onto your new 3-tier stand across the room, you'll be making another trip to your local music store.

Also, make sure you get yourself a big bag of cable ties and keep your cables neat. They're a cheap and easy way to help protect your investment. I get mine from wolfyenterprises1 on eBay.

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I lusted after this thing when it was first announced. It's faux-metallic blue case and orange text made it look as cool as I imagined it sounded. This was 1997, and Roland's first offering to the analog modeling scene.  I remember reading about it when it was announced and trying to imagine just how crazy the 7 detuned saws of the SuperSaw oscillator would sound. Not to mention a Feedback oscillator. My jaw dropped the first time I heard the A14 Feedback Lead preset interact with the ribbon controller. Holy shit.

Unfortunately, I was not quite 17, not quite financially sound and definitely not quite capable of dropping $2000 on this blue monster. It wasn't for another 5 years or so before I would finally get my hands on one. I think I paid a little over $800 for it at a local Daddy's Junky Music. Which was a steal I thought. It had already become a classic in my mind. It was all over hip hop radio at the time. Plus I already had great memories of just wanting to have one. I couldn't wait to take it home and make weird rock music with it.

So, flash forward to today. The JP-8000 is still one of my favorite synths and I'll tell you why. First off, this synth has a big up front sound. It sounds great right out the back and straight into the amp. It definitely has that Roland feel, for sure, but a little more alive sounding than the JD-800 sounds or the PCM stuff I was used to using with MC-303's and MC-505's for so long.

The JP-8000 is a 2 part MIDI, 8 voice, 2 oscillator analog modeling synth with a 49 key velocity sensitive keyboard. You can store 128 patches and 64 performances, the same amount of each are permanent presets. Performances are essentially 2 patches either layered, split or grouped together and used individually. Roland employs their standard Upper/Lower control selection which makes navigating performances easy. Best of all, each patch can have it's own independent MIDI channel set.

The JP-8000's oscillator control is really the key to what makes this synth such a powerhouse. All your standard oscillator shapes are there: Saw, Square and Triangle (both with pulse width modulation); as well as the SuperSaw, Noise, Triangle Mod and Feedback Osc which are only available on Oscillator 1. The parameters that you can control vary from Osc 1 to 2 which makes for an interesting twist.

The filter section is your typical ADSR setup with depth control via LFO1. A lot of people knock the filter section here, but for me it is really about the depth control. Also, assigning any of these parameters to the ribbon controller and velocity is a snap and really lets you get expressive with your performance.

Modulation is controlled by the Pitch/Mod joystick thing, which has a nice feel to it. Rate and depth control for LFO 2 is located just above the the control stick which is quite handy for quick left hand adjustments.

There's a separate knob for both Bass and Treble, as well as a chorus/flange effect and a pretty gnarly little delay, comp

lete with 3 control knobs, a little digital sounding but a nice touch on the right patch.

All in all, the front panel controls are nicely laid out. I especially like the way Roland grouped everything in a this-before-that type of manner. It really makes creating patches intuitive for both novice and advanced users.

Additionally, the JP-8000 has a built in sequencer for recording arpeggios and the ability to assign those patterns to keys via their RPS feature. The sequencer also records data from knob and slider movement and can save up to 8 measures of it in 4 Motion Control banks. Motion Control is great for prerecording your knob tweaking for tricky 2-handed melodies or just giving the illusion of having several more hands.

One of the JP-8000's many little gems is it's Trigger function. When active, you can play a chord with your right hand, but not hear any sound until you trigger the chord by pressing keys on the left. The Trigger function also works over MIDI.

By the time Roland's JP-8000 was shipping Yamaha had already released the AN1x, Korg had their Prophecy, Access had given us the Virus and of course Clavia's Nord Lead was already a hit. But with gratuitous amounts of realtime control, flexible MIDI specification and a ton of innovative features, the JP-8000 stands up to it's competition and continues to churn out some truly amazing sounds.

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I spent most of last night cleaning the dirt, dust and soda off of the Ion I picked up last night (thanks Chris). It was in good shape functionally, with the exception of a broken F key. Something must have dropped on it and broke the loop that prevents it from rising up too far. The thing was definitely rising up too far. A little Scotch tape and we’re back in business, a replacement key already in the mail. I was delighted to find that under all 30 of those thick rubber rotaries the pots were all secured to the metal case top, and not to the circuit boards themselves. You can lean right into the thing and not worry about snapping anything. I cleaned the top panel as best I could and put the knobs back on.

Those knobs spin 360° and cover 1000 values per parameter, which sounds fantastic. Liquid smooth. A nice little feature I found while getting to know the controls was the Release Hold. Perfect for droning atmospherics and noise. I zoned out and probably listened to the same patch evolve/devolve for a good 25 minutes before deciding to commit it to memory. I had used both hands and as many fingers as I could to move as many dials as I could at one time and was met with flawless execution, ugly results maybe, but no hiccups or stutters. Proper edge of your seat sound creation.

Nice drive effects. Lots of chorus options. Routing options for days. I think I’m going to be able to coax some really interesting stuff out of this machine.

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