Paul is Dead? …that didn’t turn out to be true, so the Ron is Dead thing works out kind of the same… I’ve been immersed in working on a new album project for some time now and somewhere in there came the 67th Birthday… that one was kind of hard to believe…
Yes, I have been hard at work on new music here… it’s been exciting and somewhat terrifying at the same time because I want everything to turn out just right. First up is a new album project with a dear friend of ours, Ginger Eldridge… Ginger is a great singer and I’m proud to be working with her. She is a veteran of the music business and has quite an impressive list of credits to her name. The album project is called “Rewind” and it’s a tribute to some of the great artists who have been a huge influence. The first single will be “dropping” as the kids say, very soon. Stay tuned for that.
It’s also been a blast to work on building my Modular EuroRack Synthesizer from scratch. What is EuroRack? I’m glad you asked… a EuroRack is a collection of modules that are not connected together in any way until you make the connections via patch cables. Most keyboards are simple… they are hardwired and are easy to use… push a button and “Elvira” comes out… (I HAD to do it)… In the Euro Rack world it could take days until a complex routing of the modules takes shape into a good sound. The tradeoff is that you can achieve sounds that have never before been made and likely will never be replicated… if you know what you are doing. It is NOT easy and not for the faint of heart, electronically. A good knowledge of electronics and engineering are always a help!! Most Euro Rack synthesists are the “Pocket Protector” kind of people… you know… NERDS………..Guilty as Charged!
The Behringer System 55 and the Moog Sound Studio are at the core of it. It’s all a homage to the massive Moog Modulars from the 1960’s and 70’s with the penultimate one being the Keith Emerson Moog. I made a trip to the Moog factory in Asheville and managed to get a picture taken with that Beast. It has always been a goal of mine to Deep Dive into the EuroRack World, as it seems to be termed in the modern day. My only fear is that it will be so deep that I may have trouble coming out of it. Once you go down that hole it IS so consuming that you don’t want to leave it. And it’s key to remember that it is Monophonic, meaning you can only play one note at a time. That makes it even more interesting. But I can always add the mighty Moog ONE Polyphonic Synth to round off the whole thing. It’s just an exciting thing to contemplate… There will be a lot of music done in this manner and it is beginning now. Once I get a few more modules added to the EuroRack, of course! That never seems to end………