Conference napalm::commusic_v1

    Well, the liner notes look good.  I'm especially interested in seeing
    how pukin' on the keyboard sounds over MIDI.  If it's good, it may be
    yet another thing that the General MIDI Standard won't cover.  <sigh>
    Nit: Wons & Zeroes is now Ones & Zeroes.  
    
    Steve

From:	MAST::GRUNDMANN    "Bill, 223-4973"  6-NOV-1991 09:47:35.30
To:	RGB::ROST
CC:	GRUNDMANN
Subj:	RE: Tapes Are Ready

Thanks Brian!

I gave the tape a listen, and the audio quality is great!!
This seems to be a departure from tapes of the past, there's
a lot more of what I feel is real "computer music". I guess
it's partially because none of the tracks sounded like
a GB demo tape. And the only one with vocals was that
incredible polka...

	Great job!!!! thanks again,
	Bill
    

There is too much music in the world.  On TV commercials you can hear imitations
of Philip Glass, John Cage, all the rockers (even down to their voice),
Joplin (for a while back there), and classical music.  In other words, you don't
have to make any effort to collect and study recordings of different genres
to have a sense of the superficial qualities of different styles.
People's tastes are no longer distinguished by their having heard different 
styles of music; we've all heard it all.  But that knowledge is still 
superficial.  It is probably better to focus on the types of music one really
knows deeply and to develop a style with that.

In addition, articles in Keyboard and Electronic Musician on quicky music
theory can compensate a little for deficits in musical training.

People working in computer technology are often very proud of their accomplish-
ments in that field, having been educated in the field and having worked for
years with computers.  This breeds an arrogance that they take with them
to their music, in which they have almost no training and usually little
professional experience.

>Errol Phillips
These were the most professional and commercial sounds on this tape.

>CYRIL'S CASTIAN
This had a firm beat.

TOM BENSON
I really feel that the bass is loud in all the selections, and I have a
hi-fi EQ that pushes it down.
>  Polka Divine

Certainly in season, soon.  The most beautiful music I have ever heard.

>  Relics of a Future Civilization
Big pretentious pieces with long pretentious titles are very "in."  They win
Pulitzers all the time.  You'll go far if you pursue this.  The selection is
too long for the tape.  The point was made in a couple minutes.

> Curious Goods
>	playing, though...  This got 'honorable mention' in Guitar Player
>	magazine's last reader's tape contest.
Congratulations on the honorable mention!

>Steve Sherman

>	1. "How It Goes" - 4:07
I think the end 
needed a sting.  A fade out like that usually doesn't follow a sting
and re-entrance of the accompaniment.
>	2. "Ones and Zeros" - 5:50
This is pretty successful; the layering of the orchestration keeps it going
for slightly less than the length of the piece, but only slightly.

You get a lot of mileage out of two pieces of equipment.  
   
I demure with respect to my own contributions.
   
Rick Ryen

>INCOGNITO
>	This is one of my favorite Spyra Gyra tunes.
You means it's a cover? Oh.
>	I was not pleased with the sound of the alto-sax
>	part in the early part of the song, and found it
>	difficult to get the feel of a real alto sax. So,
>	I used a preset called "RB's Wine", which sounds like
Yeah, uh, it fails.  The melody is now in the bass, and it isn't a very
interesting melody.  It would have been OK to bring the glass forward
in the mix, but a better solo sound would have solved the problem.
Getting a personal, expressive solo sound is difficult with MIDI instruments.
Sometimes we arrange ourselves into a corner trying to avoid unexpressive
solo voices.

>John Arnold
>
>Industrial/Polyphony

>     Argyle Bagpipe
hardly heard it.
Part 2 reminded me of Stravinsky's piano sonata, or his octet.
OK.
   
>Brian Rost
>
>"Scriabin"
>
>Alexander Scriabin was a
When I heard the voice patch, I thought it owed something to Poem of Ecstasy.
What colors do you associate with the piece?

>"Get A Whiff Of This"
This reminds me of Stockhausen's Of the Seven Days; if I hadn't been told that
it had resulted from intoxication, I would have guessed.
   
>Bill Grundmann

>Astral Fountain	Ocean Once a Canoe	4:55
>Jazz Fountain		jetway 7		9:28

When I wrote AlgoRhythms, I wrote it to to implement my own musical taste.
I don't like to write regular rhythms, so AlgoRhythms doesn't make them.
The pulse feature was an afterthought.  I don't like writing melodies, so
AlgoRhythms doesn't make melodies.  Your s/w takes another tack: it assumes
textures of melody/accompaniment/chords and has good control of meter.

>Jazz Fountain is an earlier attempt at writing a program
This fooled me more.

>Sections are randomly constrcted from single measure pieces
>that are chained together. Chunks of previously played
Like Mozart's musical game?

Tom Janzen (positively thrilled not to have to listen to this 
tape a third time; boy do I hate rock and pop).

    Overall, this tape may be the most listenable one yet for me, a more
    even set of music than the wild highs and lows of the past tapes.  I
    didn't even get totally sick of the pieces while mastering and duping.
    That's because of both the quality of the recordings as well as the
    style of material.  
    
    Pick of the tape:
    
    Touch choice, but Errol Phillips' pieces jumped right out at me.  The
    second piece, "Caribbean Pearl" was the best of the four.  The only
    fault I could find with Errol's pieces were that the sax, as usual,
    sounded lame.  
    
    Honorable mention:
    
    Bill Grundmann's first piece was good, but it was the second piece that
    blew me away.  The Jazz Fountain algorithm turns out some good music.
    While I wouldn't call it jazz, it could pass for some of the
    "jazz-lite" that gets played today, only it was more interesting (no
    small feat considering a Mac wrote the song)!  I only wish the software
    could be ported to the Atari ST...  Between Bill's work here and on the
    last tape and Tom Janzen's AlgoRhythms, I'm developing much more of an
    interest in computer-generated music.
    
    As for the rest:
    
    I really enjoyed Tom Benson's stuff.  I heard "Divine Polka" last year
    when he submitted it for tape #8 (it got bumped when I ran short of
    space).  "Relics" hit a nerve with me thanks to the mellotronish pad. 
    Always a sucker for a mellotron.  The guitar playing in "Curious Goods"
    was a real surprise when I first heard it on the third GUITAR noter's tape. 
    I'd like to hear more in this vein.
    
    Steve Sherman is back again and his two submissions remind me of his
    earlier stuff, except for the improved sonics.  I'm still not convinced
    with the solo horn parts, though.
    
    I liked Tom Janzen's submissions very much.  It's interesting to hear
    such pieces done with alternative instrumentation.  
    
    Rick Ryen's stuff was a mixed bag.  "Incognito" did nothing much for me
    and when I found out later it was a cover I was a bit surprised.  Then
    again, I never cared much for Spyro Gyra anyway.  "Zoop" was much
    better, a nice little piece.
    
    John Arnold's piece was too short.  I would have liked to hear both
    sections extended, and maybe some more obnoxious industrial noises as
    well.
    
    						Brian

    I'm still doing my first listen.  Boy, if ever there was a Commusic
    tape worthy of actually paying for, this is it.  I agree with Brian
    about the horn solos on some of my stuff.  Gotta work on those.  That
    "Divine Polka" was a hoot - even for a devout Christian like me!
    Gotta line up the titles with the tunes.  Really, this tape is good!
    For a while there, I was afraid that I'd have to hide my face in shame
    because of my submission ...  but, as Tom points out, I'm too arrogant
    for this to have bothered me for long ... ;^) ;^)
    
    A better review later ...
    
    Steve

    I've given the tape a few listens and concur with the general comments;
    this is a pretty nice compilation.  My SO even asked for a copy!  Piece
    by piece review in the works.  Hats off to Brian for a very nice
    mastering job too.
    
    len.
     

    
Well I have listened to the tape a few times. Need to have it sink in a bit
before, I can review it, my first reactions are usually bad as I am a
perfectionist. Anyways after many 'listenings', these are my impressions
of the music on the tape.

In general I think the tape is pretty good, I don't think I'll pay for it
though. My favorite on the tape is Polka Devine. It is perfect
as far as I am concerned. The accompaniment, the singing, well I couldn't
find a fault if I wanted too. Get that song to Dr. Dimento.

Errol Phillips - Well I know him personally, he rushed and sent the wrong
tape in, the mix on the other tape is better.  I am sick of hearing of
his stuff anyways.

Tom Benson - All nice ideas, Polka Devine is a winner. Relics of..... also
liked that great use of dynamics. Nice guitar playing on Curious Goods
    but some how that didn't catch my fancy. (Congrats on honorable mentioned
    though)

Steve Sherman - What is that lead instrument in the first song supposed to
be a trumpet? The lead line was wandering a bit too much for my taste. The
harmony, fills and everything else were really nice though.
Ones and Zeroes- Preferred this one, however I would kill the track with
sixteenth notes hihats (or whatever), I thought it made the piece sound
to mechanical, but then again that maybe the effect you were goin' for.

Tom Janzen - I was looking forward to hearing AlgoRhythms again, I still
listen to the Algo stuff on the COMMUSIC 8. Glad to get the chance
to listen to some of that 'classical' stuff, don't have much time to play
it anymore. Nice job.

Rick Ryens _ Incognito was dragging all over the place in a straight
jacket, way too stiff for my liking.  Your previous submission was way better.
Zoot - was great for a first attempt at playing 'real time', keep with 
the playing you have a good feel for it. The song kinda begs for a melody 
line though, I like the progression and was jamming along with the tape. 
(Hmmm maybe I'll do a cover of it for the next tape)

John Arnold - Good ideas, needs a little fine tuning. What? I don't know.

Brian Rost - Much, much different than your previous stuff and again
good ideas. I liked listening to the songs. Geeze really don't have
any other feedback.

Bill Grundman - Wow a program created those melodies?  Well pretty
soon there no need for MIDIots like myself cluttering the already
music world. I enjoyed the song very much.


I just got to add that becuase of the COMMUSIC tape I have actually
finished or at least approached finishing four of my songs. That's
significant seeing that I have been sequencing for about four to five
years and have well over 60 plus songs/ideas in my sequencer.

Did someone say COMMUSIC 10?             

Errol
    

    >Tom Janzen (positively thrilled not to have to listen to this
    >tape a third time; boy do I hate rock and pop).
    
    I've got an idea for the next Commusic tape:  a collaboration.
    
    It would be called "I Hate Rock and Roll" (a parody of Joan Jett's
    "I Love Rock and Roll") written from the perspective of our own
    Tom Janzen.
    
    If you can come up with a verse or chorus send it to me.  I'll assemble
    them, and if I end up with something complete, I'll record it.
    
    	"I saw him standin there by the record machine
    	 Puttin' down anything written after '17..."

Did anyone else have a problem with the Postscript cassette label
being too small? Or did I trip over a scaling problem somehow? Is my
cassette too big? 

	Errol Phillips
All of these are a pleasant listening experience. Party time! Of all
the songs on this tape, these are the the most traditional sounding to
me, but that's OK, they aren't the same old boring rock beat. 
	O'Samba
No complaints here.
	Caribbean Pearl
It seems like the rhythm gets a little muddled at one point, then the
steel drums are off a bit. 
	Cyril's Castian
I like it. The ending is great!
	Caribe Jump
Did I hear a vibraslap? Liked the horns.

	Tom Benson
These are all from very different directions!
	Polka Divine
Insanity - love it! I agree it's Dr. Demento meterial. Minor nit: at
one point the melody seems to clash with the chords. 
	Relics of a Future
A fanfare for the common man? It feels like something big and
important has happened, but it's not clear what it is. Is that the
point? 
	Civilization
Another large scale mood. I find the unresolved melodies unsettling
and I think it detracted from my enjoyment of the piece. The
kettledrum-like sounds didn't seem strong enough to carry out the
ending. 
	Curious Goods
I like it! King Crimson? Andrian Belew? It's a strangely compelling
piece - and then mystery bell alleyway fog misty sneaks up behind you
it's back. 

	Steve Sherman
	How It Goes
I like the bass line. (Just wondering, is there a splice about one
minute in?) I find the way the one theme segues into the other a
little too ?harsh? (no that's not the word - ?punlike?) Kind of like
we get thrown into it and magically we're back into the other part
again. One minor complaint: the horn part that goes A- A Ab B G-
bothers me, the notes don't seem to fit the key. 
	Ones and Zeros
I like the title - it describes the main motif well. Is there
something encoded in the rhythm or notes? It feels like we're
listening to text in ASCII in binary expressed musically. So what's
the plaintext? 

	Tom Janzen
	Day Book For Orchestra
This reminds me of Electronic Music labs back at college. Switched-On
never worked for me. Now, this may seem inconsistent on my part, but I
prefer this style of music played on mechanical, human operated
instruments. 
	Fuga a 2 Clav
Now this I like. The voicing is fun. I like the way I can effortlessly
hear each voice independently. Did you do something special with the
patches? Or is it just that the composition keeps the voices very
clearly separated? 
	Fugue 3 for 4 Voices
At first I hated this. Then I thought it was like the Hardart. Now I
like it. (The round robin effect is certainly admirable from a
computer programming viewpoint in any case.) 

	Rick Ryen
	Incognito
The opening is very good. I find the piano find of - well, sequenced.
But I like it. But the sax (?) does seem all wrong - and it's not just
the voicing (sorry). The bells work. I'll have to listen to Spyra
Gyra's version of this. It seems not to fit their style. 
	Zoop
In-A-Gadda. I found the mistakes too distracting to enjoy (please edit
it!), but I like the idea. A squealling pig guitar would round it out.
Hey, what ever happened to liquid light shows? 

	John Arnold
	Indutrial/Polyphiny
I like how there are different rhythms and melodies latent in the
sample-loop, and how they appear in the song explicitly.  Audio Monet.

	Brain Rost
	Scriabin
Sure sounds familiar. The choir is great - how'd you do it? The piano
starts out good. But then it fades away just as it was getting
interesting. I like the mood. It's kind of like Holzst from the piece
where the 
	Get A Whiff Of This
how do you spell fffmmuhhh...phoooo so there's these little chords and
then they grow up and an arpeggio bully trounces them but good and the
little ghost chords float away to heaven while brain storms when the
guy is hooked up to the mind wave player via a modem on a payphone
forget the bandwidth problems but it starts raining and there's a
fatal transmission error and breathe deep the gathering gloom vince
guaraldi gets confused and power dives and POW!!! you're awake 

	Bill Grundmann
No comment. (This would be too recursive to deal with.)
    

Okay, here's my review.  I've hacked at the liner notes to generate this.
Overall, I liked the tape.  Lots of good stuff there.  Worth paying real
money for, IMHO.  I've listened to the tape all the way through before this
review.  Now, I'm doing a review as I listen.  Of course, it's been YEARS 
since I bought and album, so that may not mean much ...  On with the review ...

>SIDE ONE
>
>Errol Phillips
>
>O'SAMBA

Party, party!  Well done.  Not my type, but hey, what is nowadays?  If there is
a problem, it is that it sounds an awful lot like other stuff I've heard.  Then
again, all rap sounds basically the same to me.

>ISLAND PEARL

Good tune.  Check your steel drum levels.  They're too high, IMHO.  You know, 
even though Roland provides a decent vibraslap, it's not as clear as I think
it should be.  I've got the same problem.  At least we have vibraslaps, but
I think I'll whack at the sample some before I actually use it.

>CYRIL'S CASTIAN

Cute.  But, I'm ready for some rock and roll now ...

>CARIBE JUMP

Definitely a dance tune.  Seems to be stuck in places.  Might be
intentional ...  Overall, you can tell that you've got these tunes in your
head.  Congrats on getting them out.  Feels good, don't it?

>  Tom Benson
>
>  Polka Divine

Easily the best song on the album, or at least a tie with "curious Goods" IMHO.
Polka format is pretty standard.  But, successfully combining it with an 
apparently contrasting theme makes it art.  Even more ironic is that the folks 
that dance to and love polka probably hold both polka and the Christmas tunes 
sacred.  But, mixing the two ...  As a musician, I've got to tell you that 
you've GOT to submit this to Dr. Dimento PRONTO.  But, as a devout Christian, 
I can only enjoy this thing in secret ...

>  Relics of a Future Civilization

I like the horn riffs.  May steal it some time.  ;^)  Nice majestic pads.
I like the title.  I imagine a bunch of ruins bearing witness to an advanced 
technology of a long-dead people during sunset.  The horns representing some
glimmer of ideology hanging on.  Deep, huh?  I'm very graphic oriented in 
much of my music, too.

>  Curious Goods

Man, this is good stuff.  In your liner notes it wasn't clear if this is
your original work or if you are doing a "cover".  If this is original work,
I'm overwhelmed.  If not, it's still a good tune and well done.

>Steve Sherman
>
>	1. "How It Goes" - 4:07

Don't know about everyone else, but my copy had a lot of wow and flutter in 
it.  There's also a jump that shouldn't be there.  Guess I should have
submitted on a better tape.  

More importantly, I've got to go back and redo all the vibrato.  I've done a
lot to get around the vibrato slowdown typical of the D70, but I've really
got to go manual.  This is also my style, but I got lazy.  Also need to add
aftertouch to the horn solo  ...  will probably drag out the DH-200 to do that.
It's easier (for me) than using keyboard aftertouch.

>	2. "Ones and Zeros" - 5:50

Yes, there are definitely counting sequences in this tune.  So, that seemingly 
repetitive "dulcimer" turns out not to be repeating itself as much as one might
think.  Tom is right about the ending.  I've got to tie it up faster.  There
are also other counting sequences in the piece.  Most of them are spread pretty
far.  I'd be surprised if anyone deciphered them all.  The magic to me is that
there is very little that is "random" as much of it is done by algorithms
(albeit I broke with tradition and worked them out by hand).  The string pads
were basically all done in one pass.  I was just in the mood at the time.

>Thomas E. Janzen
>
>	Selections from "Kunst der Fuge" ("The Art of Fugue")
>	all selections 
>	copyright (c) 1750 Johann Sebastian Bach All Rights Reserved

Bach would be proud.

>SIDE TWO
>
>Rick Ryen
>
>INCOGNITO

Ah!  A cover!  Well, it's a well-done cover.  (Is there anyone else out there
that breathes a sigh of relief when they sometimes find out what they're 
hearing is a cover?)  I like the "wine glass" sound.  I'm not sure what the
"melody" is.  Nowadays, I guess a melody isn't always required.  Good sounding
equipment.

>ZOOP

The rhythm sounds good.  I'm not nuts about the organ solo.  Seems to have some
fluffs and gets stuck playing chords.  

>John Arnold
>
>Industrial/Polyphony

Is this what "industrial" music is?  Sounds good.  Not sure what that rumble 
is in the opening part.  Did something distort, or is it supposed to sound 
like that?

Second part sounds classical, then is sounds to me more like an orchestra 
tuning up before a performance.  The reverb quality is first class.  When
I master my stuff, I may consider going to the studio and taking out all
my on-board reverb ...  That Lexicon unit sounds cleaner than my on-board
Roland stuff.

Third part is kind of dreamy.  A bit too loud on the harmonica/flute or
whatever that break part is.  Interesting "crunch" sound.  High notes on the
piano are too loud in a few places.  May want to reduce the velocity on a
few of those notes.


>Brian Rost
>
>"Scriabin"

Music that's mostly chord progressions or is chord-progression-based bother me.
The arppegiation (sp?) provides a bit of a break.  But, it's kind of loud.  
Hurts my ears.  Spectrum analyzer verifies my suspicion.  This is definitely 
"Hearts of Space" fodder.  Might be a good soundtrack for a 50's sci-fi flick.
I like 50's sci-fi flicks.

>"Get A Whiff Of This"

Not sure where this piece was.  Maybe next time we ought to put markers between
pieces.  Never could tell when the puke hit the keys ...

>Bill Grundmann

>Astral Fountain		Ocean Once a Canoe	4:55

Some of this was interesting.  This makes me wonder how much computers will
affect music in the future.  Even though I didn't "like" these pieces, they
were listenable.  I remember ten years ago when computer-generated tunes were
definitely not listenable (John Cage comes to mind).  I'm also learning the
value in applying computer-like algorithms to music.  

>Jazz Fountain		jetway 7		9:28

Were the drums also computer-generated?  They seem to blend very well with
the other voices.  These pieces drive home the point that computer-generated 
tunes are going to have to be taken seriously.  They will be yet another tool 
to add to the kit of the serious musician.

    re: Steve Sherman's comment about noticing wow and flutter on his
    songs.
    
    I can relate to this problem! I submitted some songs for Commusic_VIII
    and when I heard it on the released tape, man, it was a great dish of
    ointment. I was very used to hearing those songs straight out of my
    synth/computer setup - 0 tape generations in between - and on the tape
    it sounded bad, wow and flutter, bad EQ.
    
    At first I thought maybe Brian had hosed me (sorry, Brian!) - but then
    I thought about it... Starting from my setup, the signal went through
    recording step to give a "master" to Brian. This is generation 1. I
    have had doubts about the quality of my cassette's recordings (it's a
    TEAC W450-R) so I was careful to record directly from my passive mixer
    into my cassette recorder. (Skipping a layer of mixer and equalizer
    that I considered to be simply unneeded noise adders.)
    
    Brian dubbed it to his Commusic_VIII master, generation 2. I would
    think he did no equalization, and I would hope he went straight from
    the player to the recorder with no intervening mixer in the path. (Is
    that correct Brian?)
    
    Then he dubbed copies from his master, giving us generation 3. For me,
    being used to 0 gens at home (and 1 gen in the car) the tape of my
    songs seemed real bad. Compared with the other selections on
    Commusic_VIII, mine had little low-end, and the high-end seemed to
    harsh.  The other selections sounded pretty good, so Brian's process
    was probably fine. So I figured it must have been my lousy cassette
    deck to blame.
    
    So, for Commusic_IX, I submitted my master from the best recorder I
    have (a TEAC A-2340SX) which is 1/4 inch reel-to-reel.  Fortunately,
    Brian could accept this format.  Again, I stripped out the mixer and EQ
    when I recorded. I felt I had done the best I could do on my end of the
    process, and thought the problem was solved.
    
    Hah! Although I'm happier with how my selections sound on commusic_IX,
    now I'm unhappy that the bass sounds thin. Did all you guys goose up
    the bass incredibly, or what am I doing wrong? The bass sounds OK (IMO)
    on my own playback of my stuff, but the bass sounds over-driven for
    most of the other selections. I had to turn back the bass to listen to
    it.  I guess next time (if I have something to submit) I'll add EQ to
    boost the bass, but that really seems unnecessary...
    
    Any ideas, anyone?
    
    

    re: previous reply title. How embarrassing. "exi"!! I think I'll blame
    Note's user interface. yeah, that's the ticket....
    
    Brian, you had mentioned that you just had your tape machine serviced,
    was that in any way related to wow and flutter or speed problems?
    
    And one last comment to add to my previous note. I have always viewed
    equalization as the way to fix problems in my amp and speakers, so that
    when I play commercial tapes and CDs, it sounds the way I like it. I
    had considered getting a second EQ exclusively for fixing synth output
    problems, but the need has rarely come up. I just change the patches or
    the mix instead.
    
    To make sure my signal is reasonably similar to commercial signals, I
    shouldn't fool with the EQ that is for the amp and speakers, right? Or
    am I missing some other consideration?
    

    
    EQ can be used anywhere you need it.  Good EQs are not that expensive
    and are one of the least noisy elements you can insert into your audio
    chain.
    
    Having said that, EQ should be used with discretion.  If you can adjust
    your synth patch to give you more bottom (if that's what you need),
    then that's one way to go, unless it's faster for you to just tweak the
    EQ.  It's your stuff, do whatever sounds best to you.
    
    Audio purists will point out that an EQ unit can introduce subtle phase
    distortions, which is why the best studios don't use EQ in the
    monitoring systems - they tune the room to match  the monitors.  For my
    purposes, and maybe yours, a little EQ is not a bad thing.
    
    Re: compilation problems - Hi-Fi VHS tapes are pretty good for most of
    the music I hear on the radio.  Again, the purists will point out a 60
    Hz noise which is an artifact of the head switching electronics.  If
    you're producing a Ramone's (hey, I like the Ramones!) cover, this
    noise isn't going to be a factor - but if you're recording some George
    Winston piano noodles, then you could conceivably hear the noise. 
    These decks are pretty common now...
    
    Maybe the next COMMUSIC tape could be a video????
    

    I NEVER use EQ anymore.  Rather, I rely on the spectrum analyzer to
    figure out how much bass/mid/high there is and adjust my patches or
    parts accordingly.  I go with the goal of making sure it visually matches
    what I am now becoming accustomed to see on "good" mixes.  I find that
    when I do it sounds reasonably good on home speakers, phones and in the
    car without me having to twiddle with any of my adjustments on all
    three.  I figure I then have the best chance of making it sound "right"
    on anybody's system.
    
    
    Steve

    Bitch, bitch, bitch  8^)  8^)
    
    OK, here's the lowdown on how I did the mastering.  
    
    1.  I used my Sony double-well deck as the "Playback" deck (except in
    Bill's case, where I used my Sony open reel) and my Harmon/Kardon as
    the mastering deck.  I used Sony metal tape to record the master.
    
    2.  I set levels either using the tone (if one was provided) or by
    eyeball to get maximum level to the tape.  If the tone was provided, I
    also adjusted the balance.  There was no EQing performed.
    
    3.  The master was used to dub to the tapes you received.  Most were
    XLII.
    
    As for wow/flutter, too much/too little bass, etc.:
    
    I noticed wow and flutter on many of the tapes on playback.  Not a lot,
    but some.  It's amazing how lsitening to CDs for a few years has
    attuned my ears to imperfections in tapes and LPs. Sustained tones like
    solo horns and solo piano are the first places I notice it.  With each
    pass, a little more is certainly added.  In addition, I have no speed
    controls on my decks, so some shifting of pitch was likely over the
    generations.  Top this off with the phenomenon of "head bumps" which
    causes some low bass emphasis increasing with each copy (this was most
    noticeable to me on Errol Phillip's first piece, which on the
    distributed copies sounded much bassier than the orignal he sent me).
    
    As Steve mentioned, it's a surprise when you compare the sound of your
    gear in real time with the taped sound.  Even with expensive decks,
    there is always a little imperfection (well, maybe not if you're going
    digital or 30 ips open reel).  I certainly tried to keep the quality as
    high as possible.  
    
    As far as the "glitch" on Steve's piece, I'm not sure what that is.  By
    the time I noticed it, I had already erased his master, so I can't say
    for sure if it was a bug in my gear or not.
    
    As far as the repair on my deck, it went into the shop because the
    power supply had died, turned out to be the rectifier had failed.
    
    							Brian

>Grundman
>	Tom Janzen
>	Day Book For Orchestra
>This reminds me of Electronic Music labs back at college. Switched-On
>never worked for me. Now, this may seem inconsistent on my part, but I
>prefer this style of music played on mechanical, human operated
>instruments

This is not switched-on.  This is an orchestral score.  It was sight-read by
an orchestra in Los Angeles.  It is all written out by hand on vellum with
drafting pens, and if you want the score I can send a copy.  This rendering
uses synthesizers to imitate live instruments.

>	Fuga a 2 Clav
>Now this I like. The voicing is fun. I like the way I can effortlessly
>hear each voice independently. Did you do something special with the
>patches? Or is it just that the composition keeps the voices very
>clearly separated? 
	I don't remember what i did, but probably just assigned two separate
drum patches to left and right channels, and each one plays two parts.
The fugue is for two keyboards; each keyboard part is assigned a channel.

>	Fugue 3 for 4 Voices
>At first I hated this. Then I thought it was like the Hardart. Now I
>like it. (The round robin effect is certainly admirable from a
>computer programming viewpoint in any case.) 
I didn't do any programming, I just used the voice alternate function on the
TX.  It was cheap thrills, no real work.

Tom

    Hey, Brian!  I'm not complaining!  :)  I think you did a great job!
    
    Steve

    I hope I didn't offend Brian, I intended merely to discuss the
    practical problems with recording things. I'm very happy with
    the quality of the tape!
    
    I just wanted to share my thoughts about submitting a tape and hearing
    the results....

    re .16
    
    Tom, I plead ignorance! Perhaps you could enlighten me on just what is
    switched-on. I was reminded of Walter Carlos's Switched on Bach when
    I listened to  Day Book For Orchestra, that is all I meant. I sincerely
    hope switched-on is not a derogatory term, I didn't mean that!
    
    	Bill