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MIDI gear of the 80s: 16 channels of want
It was 1987 in a dark Orange County new wave recording studio when I first saw virtual notes scroll past my eyes on a nine-inch Mac Plus screen. The Yamaha DX-7 and Sequential Prophet 5 were lit up like a space ship, and I knew one thing for sure: I wanted to go to there. I wanted to do what Front 242, Blancmange and New Order were doing. I was hooked: high on aftertouch. So began my wallet-killing, girl-repelling high school obsession and summer-break career. I worked in the keyboard department at Guitar Center, bought racks of gear at cost, and set my sights on becoming the next great electronic music sensation of the late 80s. Or... not. So what was left behind? Several lame Skinny Puppy ripoffs, a few decent dance tracks that I still have hidden away on cassettes in my office closet (of course, I don't have a cassette deck on which to hear said tracks), and plenty of fond memories about some beautiful old electronic music gear. I present here for your perusal some of my more memorable axes.
Zeppelin's Jimmy Page uncomfortable lending master recordings to rhythm games
Many of us could write entire volumes of songs and bands we'd like to see in one or both of the reigning emperors of the rhythm genre, Rock Band and Guitar Hero -- we'd wager that included in everyone's wishlist is a track or twelve from the legendary early 70s rock outfit Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately, Zeppelin front man Jimmy Page recently hung a definitive "No Stairway" sign on the genre, citing his hesitance to lend game developers the band's valuable master tracks.The reasons behind Page's apprehension are unknown -- perhaps it has to do with the recent news of the easily misplaceable nature of master recordings. We hope the group's co-founder can be persuaded to part with the recordings before the siren call of "Immigrant Song" swoons the games' developers, forcing them to include earnest but unsatisfying covers of Zeppelin's bigger tracks. Discerning ears know -- there really is no rock-scream like a Robert Plant rock-scream.
