Music Before the Money

(Diagram compliments of http://clonewheel.ashbysolutions.com)

There is no other instrument in the world like a Hammond B3. You don’t turn it on, you start it up. You have to warm up the tone generators by holding a switch down, which is reminiscent of starting a ‘52 Ford 1/2 ton. Then there’s the oily smell and the whirring sound as the spinning Leslie speaker and horn cranks up to speed.

So, have synthesizers copied this sound? Well, first, like a violin or any other instrument, there is no one sound to the famous organ. The Hammond B3 organ has a myriad of tones because of the percussive attack and the tonal drawbars.

Then there is the Leslie speaker. This combination of a rotating horn and lower speaker not only has a sound of its own in rest mode, there is a Doppler effect in fast motion. The sound waves also change as the speaker and horn start to accelerate and then, afterward, the sound “floats” as the twin speakers slow down. So in a synthesizer you would have to have about 5 patches (tones), one for for each operation. And that is just for one organ tone. For every movement on the many draw bars multiply each sound by those five variables.

In 1979 Korg, an upstart synthesizer company, rose to the challenge of creating a portable B3 organ and for 30 years the world saw the Korg CX3 organ synthesizer as the heir apparent of the B3. At first the CX3 and its big brother, the BX3 (double keyboard), took the world by storm as keyboard players left their huge, back-breaking cabinet organs at home. However, even this marvel fell out of favor when digital synthesizers swept the neighborhood. As FM synths pushed the CX3 aside it sat on the sidelines with the B3. There weren’t enough purists left to care about the many tonal qualities of either.

In the late ’90’s the “retro era” began and MiniMoogs and other analogue synthesizers were suddenly in demand. The Korg CX3 was another keyboard that experienced a Renaissance but working models in good shape were hard to find. So Korg relented and began releasing an updated version of their famous keyboard, right to the wood-grain finish.

The new CX3 now uses digital technology to model the original B3 sound. In addition, new breakthroughs in digital sound modeling have allowed Korg to include hundreds of traditional Leslie speaker and amplification quirks in its repertoire. To accomplish this feat the new CX3 is designed with 91 virtual oscillators that can be used simultaneously for a dual 61-note polyphony. The sound is extremely realistic and, in addition, the keyboard can produce other sounds through MIDI technology.

The new boards are around $2,000, which is pretty good for all that punch.

Cory Doctrow just finished a chilling article on the history of music file sharing that points to further gloom for the music business. He states that:

“. . .the latest record-company salvo in the copyright wars, a cozy deal with British
ISPs that will have them spying on and degrading the connections of
subscribers accused of infringing downloading.”

What Cory goes on to say is that this will not stop file sharing but will drive it further underground with private file swapping networks. In other words, the insatiable thirst of the record companies to fleece us out of everything we have is going to backfire on both them and, unfortunately, the musicians and songwriters.

Despite what the media has told us Napster was a very good idea for every one. Here’s how Napster 1.0 worked: Music lovers could download as much as they liked for a base price which worked out to around $15 a month, or the price of 1 1/2 CD’s. Cory also says “they had the fastest-growing technology in the history of the world at their disposal, 70 million internet users in 18 months, and they’d found that the average American user was willing to spend $15 a month for the service.”

So what happened. Napster was sued into oblivion and new operations sprung up to take their place. But these new guys were not as honest as Napster and now file sharing - or stealing - is breeding a new generation of music user who does not feel they have to pay for the labors of those who create music.

As I have stated before, I don’t care about the Michael Jackson-owned Beatle portfolio that makes him millions a year. But I do worry about the guys and gals who can’t get paid for what their music is worth. However, now the moguls have created an underground network of computer-savvy music enthusiasts who can get songs at will. And fewer good people are getting paid

However, what I do like is that making music, even on computers, and sharing it on venues like YouTube is broadening the industry and taking it from the hands of Sony and the other guys who still make billions by just re-releasing a bunch of ’60’s songs that they got basically for nothing. Popular music didn’t just happen. In an older blog I found a pic of an ad put out by the musician’s union in the 1920’s stating that vinyl would kill the music industry. It didn’t. It gave obscure bands and orchestras new fans.

When I watch the “idol” reality shows I can’t help but wonder how good many of these contestants are. I mean they have more talent in one hand than I did at that age. A few of them even have even showed up with their voice teachers. That’s cool. If you got one, go for it!

We stared out by playing birthday parties for friends and then dances which we thew ourselves. We thought we we hot stuff and wanted more. So then we went on the road . . .

The Beatles played in Hamburg on and off from 1960 through 1962. While they were there they had to play 7 hours a day, 7 days a week. George got deported for being under-aged and then rest got kicked out for allegedly starting a fire. However, when they all played back in Liverpool again something had changed. They were a really tight band and they had songs of their own. The long hours playing every night made them into a very good band.

The road in Canada was probably no different for us than the U.S. was for American bands except for we had fewer places to play and the intervals between gigs was measured in hundreds of miles. During this time we had something that The Beatles never did - recorded music in the vans so we could practice while driving (the driver just sang, thank you very much!) When we came back home we were getting pretty good but then we disbanded, literally, and I went back to school.

What bands back then, and a few today, understand is that a band is a lifestyle. We became buggered when we started making some money. Up until then all our money went for instruments.

Today, most people want to be famous. They do realize the sound of a good song, probably better than I did but, like sports figures, they want the cash and Entertainment Tonight too. I can’t blame them. And maybe they don’t want to know what it’s like playing in a bar and wondering if you’ll get beat up if they don’t like you!

I can’t get over the price of the musical instruments these days. With the 3rd World countries making guitars and the miniaturizing of sound support you can get a guitar-amp combo for $150 that could blow away a Sears Silvertone and amp of the same price over 40 years ago.

Now starting a band didn’t entail instruments as we know them now. A group of us sat around the park singing and only one person could play the guitar. One of the gang could keep beat with a couple of sticks so he was the drummer. I couldn’t do much without a piano and even then I couldn’t improvise so I played bass notes on my brother’s acoustic guitar. I think they were pretty well in tune. Unlike many of the band bios of the time, this was not the band I eventually played in. This was just a band of friends trying to figure out how to do it.

You see, half the fun of starting a band was the thought of starting a band. We would meet at recess and send secret messages in class with thoughts of band names and songs. In fact a couple of teachers thought we were writing cryptically about girls and I was chastised for it. But girls were the farthest thing from my mind at the time - or real ones, that is. The only girls I cared about were in the songs - and this was because I had to remember the lyrics.

Band gear was very primitive, especially in a small town. We borrowed stuff and when I actually got a bass I played it through a record player. The guitar player had an arch-top Harmony acoustic that he attached a pick-up to the F-hole. Then he played it through his Mom’s reel-to-reel tape recorder. But we dreamed of Fenders and Gibsons and practiced how we would hold one, if we ever got one. Or how we would carry a piggy-back amp like a Fender Bandmaster, the Holy Grail of all amps. Or how we would set our equipment up on the Ed Sullivan Show when we finally got there.

Our drummer never did buy drums. The next year we were all in junior high and he hung out with a different crowd. The guitar player (the only one who could play) got in with another band that actually could play 10 songs without repeating. I went into the doldrums of wishing they would all come back and play like we did the previous summer. Because, without instruments, it was a lot of fun.

I used to hate music competitions. The practicing leading up to the date wasn’t the bad part. I would put the time and effort into the studies and my teacher would be happy with my progress. However, on the day of the big event I would lose my self-confident veneer. This was the fear of failure, the needling in the back of my brain of how bad I would feel if I messed up in front of an auditorium full of people.

It is a well-known fact that people need to be tested. It’s how we get better at what we do. if there were no tests for airline pilots or engineers the world would be in sorry state. But why do we need to test kids for music trophies.

Well, I just observed this first-hand. My two 11 year-olds (twins) were entered into the local Kiwanis Festival in three categories of Grade 4 Conservatory. As we had been away the week before I thought they did not have enough time to prepare and asked them if they wanted out. They said they would like to do it.

Now, I’ve never said I wanted to do a recital let alone a test in front of people so I was astounded. I had given them a back door out of it - much like I wished someone would have done for me so many years ago. The difference was that they weren’t carrying the “fear of failure baggage that I had accumulated and so were all for the festival.

They both played wonderfully, as did almost all the kids there. And I feared for everyone of them praying that they didn’t make a mistake. And what if they had? They are just 11 year-olds playing some piano tunes. And they get to hear how other kids played the same tune. In fact, one of the boys remarked, “You know, I really liked how that #4, the little girl, held the “A” before Bar 122. I think I’ll try that.”

What I Learned? Don’t transfer my fears to someone else.

Out of 3 performances each one of the boys got a 1st and 2nd and the other got a 3rd. They had fun, met other kids, tested themselves and heard other ways to play the same songs.