MMML Tapes

In the late 1980's and early 1990's, the Mostly MIDI Mailing List (MMML) put togther a series of five cassette tapes with compositions by members of the mailing list. Duane Bowker compiled the first four tapes, Bill Fox compiled the last one, and Neil Weinstock, Topher Gayle, and Greg Youngdahl made significant contributions along the way. The music, although leaning heavily to the electronic side, contains a wide variety of styles and techniques. Everyone wanted to show their 'best stuff', so the quality of the music and recordings is quite high.

NOTE: The actual audio files have been taken offline to respect copyright issues. If you want access to a particular file, send email to me@timthompson.com .

Mostly MIDI : Only In It for the MIDI (1992)

Heaventh Seven	Bill Burnette	© Bill Burnette
	Performed by MOTU Performer(TM) on a Korg M1REX and a Roland D50, with a little extra noise from an EMU Proteus 3.

I Disconnect	George Demarest	© George Demarest
	The Song: Originally written several years ago with different lyrics and feel. Revisited it recently, changed the lyrics, tempo and feel to where you hear it. This recording is a "demo" version. The "Real Thing(TM)" will have some rhythm guitar, REAL bass and a better lead vocal :-). The song is about that nudging self-control that takes over when eye contact and or body language tells us to do/want things that are not (or are) meant to be. Lyrics are available upon request. Insruments: Sequencer: Opcode Studio Vision running on Mac IIcx Drum Sounds: Roland R8-m drum Module (drum porgrams entered via keyboard) Bass: Korg M3r (Fretless) Tremolo Rhodes: Roland P-330 piano module Analog Strings: Oberheim Matrix-1000 Reverb: Lexicon LXP-1 Delay: Korg SDD-2000 Compression (vocals/kick/snare): Yamaha (??) Vocal Mic: AKG C-414BULS Lead Vocals: George Demarest Guitar Solo: Joe Maggelet (Ovation something-or-other) Synth Solo: George Demarest on Akai EVI (Electronic Valve Instrument) Backing Vocals: Jean Avery, Jamye Chambers, George Demarest Mastered to Tascam DA-30 DAT using Urei 809 and Tannoy PBM 6.5 monitors. Just to do it, I recorded this tune without any tape rolling. Studio Vision did just fine for this application. The solos aren't right and the vocals are a hack: but there it is! On the wind synth solo, I am using just the onboard analog synth that is bundled with the unit.

Spring Meadow	Eric S. Crawley	© Eric S. Crawley
	Composition date: Sometime in 1989 or 1990 Equipment used: Korg SG-1D digital piano, Yamaha DX-7, Roland D-110, Roland S-330, Roland Juno-106, Atari Mega2ST, C-Lab Notator, Tascam 238 8-track cassette, ART Multiverb, ART Proverb, Yamaha E1010 analog delay, Roland M240 mixer, Tosiba DX-900 PCM-VCR (for mixdown). Mastering Equipment: Tascam DA-30 DAT, Peavey AMR Stereo Parametric EQ, Alesis 3630 dual compressor/limiter/gate, BBE-224 Sonic Maximizer. The piece started out as a bunch of 4-bar improvised sequences with just piano and flute. Two of the original sequences appear towards the end of the piece. Yes, I quantized the improvised sections and then orchestrated them with various sounds, changing around the sections until I hit something I liked.

Eyes of the Warlock	Pete Giacomini, Nancy Levine	© 1992 N. Levine/P. Giacomini
	Music: Pete Giacomini Lyrics: Nancy Levine Lead Vocals: Carol Tourgee Backing Vocals: Kerstin Howarth Lead/Rythmn Guitars: Steve Schwebel Drums: John Del Riccio Keyboards: Pete Giacomini "Eyes of the Warlock" was originally sequenced on a MAC II running MOTU Performer. The instruments used were a Kurzweil K1000, Yamaha DX7, Peavey DPM V3, and Roland R8M. Effects units used were a Yamaha SPX90, Alesis microenhancer, and 2 Alesis microverbs. The sequence was then transferred to a Roland MC50 which was used in the recording studio. The 16 track analog master was recorded at Suite 16 Studios in Piscataway, NJ and mixed down to stereo on a Sony PCM2500 DAT.

Halcyon Days	Neil Weinstock	© Neil Weinstock
	Sounds: Korg M1REX, Oberheim Matrix 6, Yamaha TX81Z, Alesis D4 Effects: Yamaha SPX90II Mixing: Mackie CR1604 Sequencing: Commodore Amiga 2000 running MicroIllusions' Music-X Sequencing was done using a variety of recording and editing modes. The M1REX generated the bulk of the sound, with the Matrix 6 adding fatness (mostly to the lead), the TX81Z adding a sound I just couldn't get quite right with anything else, and the D4 supplying all drums. The SPX90II acted as primary reverb; internal effects in the M1REX were used for chorusing. The final sequence was mixed through the CR1604 directly to DAT. Thanks to Steve Schwebel and Bill Burnette for loans of their TX81Z and DAT recorder, respectively.

State Machine	Tim Thompson	© Tim Thompson
	One Waldorf MicroWave, recorded through a Roland DEP5 direct to DAT using Keynote 5.0 on a 33 Mhz 486 under UNIX SVR4. Standard MIDI File and patches available on request.

Mi Cinco Centavos	John Helton	© John Helton
	"Mi Cinco Centavos" started out three years ago as my two cents worth to add to the first MMML tape, but due to numerous, time consuming distractions, never made it. Now, after adjusting for inflation, I have five cents worth to contribute. My original theme was to seqence a drum solo bracketed by a simple melody line and driving bass (typical for a drummer). The idea was to develop a believable percussion line that was not soooo mechanical. Initially, the tune was developed on a PC6300 using "Band-in-a-box" with a Casio CZ1 keyboard, and Roland U220 noise box. The drum solo is a randomly sequenced set of 16 patterns which were all step time recorded in BIAB. The final take was cleaned and tuned using the Keynote extended (thanks to Greg Youngdahl!) DOS version from the BIAB midifile output. All the voices in the final version are produced on the U220.

Day of Reckoning	Allen Ginsberg	© Allen Ginsberg
	Equipment: Casio FZ-1 and Vision 1.4 The title and "program" for this music came after the piece started taking shape. Basically, I wanted to do something with Indian percussion and the Sitar; this is what came out. The first three and one-half or so minutes of gloom and doom - representing, one presumes, the entry of the dammed into you know where - is followed by a transition to a lighter theme which, to be consistent, would have to represent the entrance of the saved into paradise. One suspects that the anticipated number of people in each category has something to do with the duration of the corresponding musical segments.

Heaven's Parting Wide	Jim Collymore	© Jim Collymore
	This piece is one of my orchestral works. It was meant to be a movie theme (you know, at the beginning of a movie when they're rolling the opening credits). I composed this back in May of 1991 in about 2.5 hours. Typical of my "composing" style, it is really an improvisation that I just took and fleshed out. Technical Stuff - the instruments used were: Ensoniq SQ-80; Ensoniq SQ-2; Korg DW-8000; Roland U-220; Alesis HR-16. The four-track master was done on a Tascam Porta-2 with DBX. The mixdown was made on a Pioneer CT-1040W with no noise reduction added. An Alesis Microverb was used to sweeten the mix.

Prologue	Steve Klinkner	© Steve Klinkner
	This piece was originally composed and produced at the Goucher College Computer Music Studio in Towson, MD, for a seminar course in electronic and computer music in 1985. This was my first attempt at computer composition. Original equipment included an IBM PC and Peabody Institute (Baltimore) home-brew ASCII-based (yes, I'm serious) composition and sequencing software, Yamaha DX-7 and TX-816. Re-produced in 1992 at my little home studio in Middletown, NJ, in 1992. Current equipment consists of Mac IIcx, Master Tracks Pro, DX-7, TX-7, and TX-802. (I am grateful for the various net groups (rec.music.synth, MMML, et cetera) which allowed me to pick up about half of my studio used, at great savings). Overall structure of the piece is ABC, with the A&C sections computer-sequenced and the B section played by hand (intended to be less rhythmically precise). The piece was meant to be a hard-driving prelude to the softer piece which follows. As a historical note, the professor (Geoffrey Wright of the Peabody Institute) thought my piece to be much too conventional. The majority of the pieces in the seminar explored minimalism, or 'concrete' themes (one example: 'cat love_poem \| ascii2midi \| sequencer'). My earlier musical training was purely classical, so I found those seminars very enlightening.

Alligator Whoredown Chorus	Conolly, Gayle, Goodspeed	© 1989 Conolly, Gayle, Goodspeed
	by Famous Last Words: Pete Conolly - Lead vocal, chorus, kazoo; Nat Goodspeed - Chorus, kazoo, MIDI jockey, recording engineer and plumber (he fixed the sync...); Topher Gayle - Chorus, first kazoo, mandolins, guitar, piano sequencing, arrangement; Band-in-a-Box - Drums and Bass "Alligator" refers (obliquely) to the little shirt-pocket badge of the confirmed nerd. ALLIGATOR WHOREDOWN CHORUS (c) 1989 Gayle-Goodspeed-Conolly 1. I am an honest young programmer, travelling through this world of sin And tryna take part in my share of it, but I gotta pro-vide for kith and kin. Don't wanna go back to Gasoline Alley, t' waiting on tables or slinging hash I call my home that Silicon Valley, that's where I'll be till the next big crash CHORUS I prostitute myself to High Technology! I whore my mind to the Company! But I don't Make no apologies, 'cause I'm Hauling in mucho dinero! 2. Well the Boss Man before me dangles that golden health plan, fat salary, And now my eyeballs, they are rectangles, from staring at that CRT. Seems my world's gone black and amber, spread-sheet cells upon my brain, And my rear end is out of camber, from sitting on that rolling ball and chain. CHORUS 3. I miss my home and I miss my family. I miss my wife and I miss my kid. I miss my train, and I miss my good friends. Tell me was it something that I said or did? I ain't seen a human being, ain't had no fun, for ten weeks and a half. I think I'll start my very own virus, and I will have the last big laugh! CHORUS

Let Me In - Take 900	Duane Bowker	© Duane Bowker
	All MIDI tracks, except drums, were entered in real-time (and with no time quantization...in case I've never mentioned it, I hate time quantization) from a Casio DG-510 MIDI guitar controller. The drums were entered from a Korg DS-8 keyboard. MIDI events were stored and sequenced using the Texture package running on an AT&T PC6300 with a Roland MPU-401 card. Synths on this song include a Korg M1r (electric piano), Alesis D4 (drums), and Yamaha TX81Z (bass). The solos on this piece were done with the MIDI guitar set in its simultaneous MIDI-and-audio mode. MIDI was directed to the M1r ("Hard EP" patch) and the audio was directed through a Peavey amp head with saturation (peak clipping) turned up a bit then through a Digitech DSP-128 effects unit. The solos and vocals were added during mix-down to a standard cassette (hence, the higher level of hiss on this piece). The solos and vocals really didn't require "900 Takes"more like four or five.

Street Man	David Arberman, Victoria Parks, Bill Fox	© David Arberman, Victoria Parks, Bill Fox
	Composed by: David Arberman Performed by: "It's Them!" Victoria Parks: Acoustic Guitar and Vocals. Bill Fox: Three Electric Guitars, Acoustic Guitar, Sequencing, and Engineering (Recording and Mixing). You heard It's Them! perform Victoria's song, "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" on MMML Tape #3, "Thirds." On MMML Tape #1, you heard David Arberman's song, "Devil Sky, Angel Moon" which won honorable mention for being in the top 10% in the 1989 Music City Song Festival Competition, Amateur Division, the Rock, Rythm & Blues, and Soul Catagory. Now you get to hear these two formidable forces combined! I chose this song for the It's Them repertoire due to its topical nature and the fact that Dave's demos of this song really kick; BOTH of them! (Come on over some time, I'll play them for you - in my car as my cassette decks are in storage.) Technical Data: I sequenced the drums, bass, organ, and piano parts on Roland's Director-S sequencing software, a pattern-based sequencer which runs on a Roland S-550 sampler module. This sampler supplied the bass and organ sounds. Roland TR-505 and Yamaha RX-5 were used as percussion modules, their internal sequencers not being needed. There may be a little percussion contributed from a Roland D-110 module. The piano came from a Roland MKS-20 Digital Piano module. All of this was sequenced with live performance in mind. Therefore, and especially since I had no tape syncing ability, this backup band mix was fed, in stereo, to tracks 1 and 3 of a Tascam 38. Track 2 received Vic's vocal and tracks 4 through 8 had all of the various guitars, two acoustics (Ovation and Martin D-18) and three electrics, Gibson's "The Paul" model. I used a Roland GP-8 to process the electric three different ways and played it through a Yamaha R-1000 reverb and a Fender Princeton Reverb amp, miked with a Sure SM57. Victoria's vocal was done with an AKG C414. Mixdown was done with Tascam 30 and Teac 5 mixing boards, an Alesis Midiverb II, and a Ross Time Machine (DDL). Mastering was done on a Sharp R-DAT. Controllers used were Roland PAD-80 and Ensoniq Mirage.

Find a Way	Beatbox-D (Neumann, Baker and Mullins)	© Beatbox-D (Neumann, Baker and Mullins)
	Music and Lyrics by Bob Neumann and Roz Baker Keyboards and Programming, EMAX Sax Solo: Bob Neumann Vocals: Roz Baker Piano accompaniment and solo: Sam Mullins From the CD "BEATBOX-D" N.E.P. Records, 1992; Available from: Bob Neumann c/o N.E.P. Records PO Box 1582 Bridgeview, Illinois 60455 USA Instruments used: Hybrid Arts Smptetrack II with ATARI 1040ST Computer, EMU EMAX SE Sampler, EMU SP1200 Drum Machine, EMU Proteus, Oberheim Xpander and Matrix-1000.

Betsy	David Nason	© David Nason
	Noise Reduction: Dolby B MIDI Equipment: Roland D5 Keyboard, Cakewalk software running on AT&T PC Guitar Equipment: Yamaha APX7 Electric-Acoustic Guitar recorded direct Recording Equipment: Tascam Porta-2 4-track w/DBX, mastered onto Nakimichi tape deck. Digitech 128+ used for effects. Description: Bass, drums, and synth sounds all played by myself and recorded via MIDI using Cakewalk. These MIDI tracks were then recorded on one track of the Porta-2. Rhythm guitar was then recorded on a second track of Porta-2. The remaining two tracks were used for lead guitar. All guitars were recorded direct into the Porta-2 and played by myself. All effects (reverb and a little delay) were recorded when mastering rather than when recording the tracks themselves.

Sonata in Two Movements	Dick Hamilton	© Dick Hamilton
	No notes provided

2andFro	Howard Moscovitz	© Howard Moscovitz
	"2 and Frow" was composed using a mixture of algorithmic techniques and improvised keyboard playing. The piece was put together on a 386 PC running UNIX SVR3 and keynote version 4.7b. About 25% of the notes heard were input via the keyboard, the rest generated by algorithmic functions. I call the main algorithm TransPolyRestification. Keynote was used in the interactive text mode, not graphics mode. The methodology involves calling algorithmic functions that I have been developing over the past several years with various parameters until I find the result I like. This compostional technique results in a program the performs the piece. I consider this program to be composed improvisationally. Equipment used includes Yamaha TX7, Yamaha TX-81Z, Alesis D4, Kursweil Midiboard, Alesis Midiverb III, Korg P3, Roland M-240 mixer and Sony DAT recorder.

Cyborg Children of Vatar	Eugene Beer	© Eugene Beer
	1. Space ship approaches Earth 2. Marching down the ship's ramp 3. Assimilation with human children on the playground Sound modules: Kurzweil K2000, DX7II (with Boss SE-50 reverb) The music was recorded in linear segments using Cakewalk Pro with no overdubbing, quantization or editing (other than appending the segments). It was then played back, mixed with a Tascam M106, and recorded to DAT. With the contrast in musical style between parts 2) and 3) I tried to convey the oxymoronic concept of "cyborg children" (who will never attain adulthood).

A Programmer's Song	Greg Youngdahl	© Greg Youngdahl
	Since this is an instrumental piece I had no words from which to draw a title from, and thus had such a vast array of possible titles to choose from that I had trouble choosing one. I settled on "A Programmer's Song" because the song kept reminding me of why I make my living designing software rather than music :-) The song came into being one night when I was testing my Keynote port for extended DOS. I had received a new beta version of the DOS extender that fixed some problems it had handling hardware interrupts, and Keynote had become quite stable, so rather than spending my time chasing crash dumps, I was actually working on music. The tracks were spontaneously created that night, and then edited with Keynote over the next few evenings. I had to adjust a few wrong notes, and I ended up cutting out a section of about 8 measures that was too screwed up to fix, but I only added 4 bass notes after that first night. Equipment wise I used my Kawai K1 for the bass and solo patches (and as my keyboard controller), my Yamaha TX81-Z for the chording patch, and my Korg DDD-5 drum box for drums. All MIDI recording and editing was done on my 386 DOS system using Keynote. I mixed down through my Peavy 12x2x1 mixer directly to my Akai cassette deck using a bit of on-board reverb for the drums, and an echo patch on my Alesis Midiverb-II to enhance the solo.

The Homely Coed	Mike Knudsen	© Mike Knudsen
	Originally composed in 1964, my undergraduate junior year at Penn State, this tune used Dorian Mode long before I knew what it was. I had lyrics for this song, but they weren't that great. My original version was in 3/4 time, and was dusted off and renamed "The Ballad of a Young Function" for my Comp Sci grad school roomate's lyrics (they're pretty good). If I'd been wide awake the night I made this tape, I'd have added this hand-played version after the sequenced performance, for comparison. The tape version, unplayable by hand, was arranged right at the mouse and CRT of my Radio Shack Color Computer about three years ago, using my own UltiMusE-III notation composing program. No music paper involved, since I'd designed UltiMusE to support easy editing and testing via MIDI playback. The performance was on my el cheapo Yamaha PSS-480 with a touch of Microverb, straight into a Tascam Porta One. The steel drums and calliope (pan flute) add extra spice to the middle section.

Situation	Duane Bowker	© Duane Bowker
	The drums were played on a DS-8 keyboard using an Alesis D4 drum module as the output device. All other MIDI-based tracks (i.e.- all tracks expect electric guitar and voice) were played using a Casio DG-510 guitar controller. MIDI tracks were recorded using the Texture sequencer package running on a vintage AT&T PC6300 with a Roland MPU-401 board. The MIDI tracks included parts played by Korg M1r and Yamaha TX81Z synths. Electric guitar and voice tracks were added in real time during mix-down to DAT. I made liberal use of a Digitech DSP-128 effects processor. The guitar audio passed first through a Peavey amp head with the saturation (peak clipping) turned up.

Mostly MIDI : Tape Number 1 (1988)

Twinkle Tune	Tim Thompson	© Tim Thompson
	This used a Roland D110 (organ, brass, flutes, drums), TX81Z (melody thing), Kurzweil 1000PX (piano) and was recorded using keynote 3.0 on an AT&T PC6300/OP-4001. Mixed direct to a 2-track through a Roland DEP-5 reverb/chorus. Recorded in small pieces, put together with quantization and tweaking by keynote.

Get the House Pump	Bob Neumann and Roz Baker	© Bob Neumann and Roz Baker
	Instruments include an EMU-EMAX sampling keyboard (piano), an Oberheim OB-8 (bass), and an EMU SP-1200 (drums). Sequencing was done using an Atari 1040 ST running Hybrid Arts SmpteTrack. Vocals by Roz Baker.

Canal Street	Audrey and Kyle Burson	© Audrey and Kyle Burson
	Instruments on this one include a Fender Strat guitar, Roland D-50, Roland S-50, Yamaha TX316, Yamaha DX7, Casio CZ101, Yamaha RX5 (drums). A Memory Moog was used for the bass line. Effects include an Alesis Midiverb 2, a Yamaha SPX-90, and a D1500. Sequencing was done using a MacIntosh running Opcode 2.6. Audrey wrote the song and Kyle produced it.

Destiny Calls	Jim Collymore	© Jim Collymore
	This was done using a Korg DW-8000, an Alesis Microverb, a Tascam Porta-Two, a Roland TR-505, and a MAC SE with Opcode's Midimac sequencer. Jim refers to this and his other piece as 'structured improvisations'.

Skylight	Duane Bowker	© Duane Bowker
	Most of the parts on this one are produced by a Yamaha TX-81Z synthesizer, with the background added by a Korg DS-8. Sequencing was done on an AT&T PC6300 running TEXTURE and the final mix was recorded through a Digitech DSP-128. All parts were played initially on a Casio DG-510 guitar controller.

It's All in Who You Know	Guy Story	© Guy Story
	This piece features vocals by Guy, guitar (Fender Stratocaster, Gibson ES-335), a Roland guitar synth (G707/GR700), a Yamaha FB-01 synthesizer, and a LinnDrum. Effects added with an Alesis Microverb and an ART Proverb. Recording done on a Tascam 38 deck (no noise reduction). Sequencing done using Mark of the Unicorn's Performer.

Akem I	Craig Cleaveland	© Craig Cleaveland
	This piece uses the unusual but highly symmetric scale: B,C,D#,E,G,Ab and uses a mixture of 3/4 and 4/4 time. All parts were played on an Ensoniq ESQ-1.

Bus Trip	Stew Lindenberger	© Stew Lindenberger
	This piece features all Oberheim equipment, including a DMX drummer, a DSX sequencer, and an OBX8a synthesizer. The "top" part was played "live" while the synth was also playing the sequenced part.

Devil Sky, Angel Moon	David W. Arberman, Bill Fox	© David W. Arberman, Bill Fox
	Composer: David W. Arberman. Recording and Mixing Engineer: Bill Fox Dave programmed the percussion parts on a Roland TR-505. Its MIDI out was connected to the MIDI in of a Yamaha RX-5. The TR-505 was set to broadcast the snare drum part on the same channel/note number recognized by the RX-5. The RX-5 was set to sync on external MIDI clocks and was playing a tambourine hitting on 2 and 4 of a one measure pattern. The TR-505's stereo output was sent to two input channels of a TEAC M-5 mixing console and was recorded on channels 7 and 8 of a TASCAM 38 with slight reverb in the center. The tambourine output of the RX-5 was sent to another M-5 input and mixed into the stereo submix on tracks 7 and 8 with some reverb. The snare output was sent to the center of the submix dry to add punch. It was also sent to a digital delay and then the reverb for a slapback effect. Dave then added bass guitar, run directly into the mixer, and electric rhythm and lead guitars recorded through a Roland GP-8 guitar processor that directly fed the mixer. His vocal was recorded with an AKG C414 microphone, limited with a Furman Sound compressor/limiter. During mixdown, reverb and a slight delay (doubling) were added. Where the music cuts out, the doubling effect level was increased, then brought back down when the music started again. I played my guitar through the Roland GM-70 guitar to MIDI converter, controlling a Mirage sampler with a piano sound loaded and the Yamaha TX81Z set to its stock "Voices" patch mixed in the background. The last track was still the GM-70 controlling the TX and Mirage, but now they were set to string patches. Mixdown was to a Sharp R-DAT.

Warble	Naim Mowatt	© Naim Mowatt
	This is a recording featuring live guitar and sax parts playing along with a bass line from a Casio keyboard, a drum part from a Roland TR-505, and a rhythm part from a Yamaha TX-81Z. An SPX90 was used to add reverb.

Arpe	Tom Duff	© Tom Duff
	Arpe is a fragment of a larger work-in-progress about the extraction of order from chaos. It runs for 2 minutes, 28 seconds and is performed by a VAX 8550 running ninth-edition UNIX(trademark), a Teletype 5620 terminal, Tom Killian's homebrew MIDI interface board, and a Yamaha DX7. A pipeline of four C programs running on the VAX computes a sequence of time-tagged MIDI packets and transmits them to the 5620 where they are buffered and forwarded in real time through the interface board to the DX7, which used the calliope voice from a Yamaha ROM. The recording was made by running the DX7's headphone output directly into a Nakamichi BX-2 cassette recorder.

Fat City	Nat Goodspeed and Topher Gayle	© Nat Goodspeed and Topher Gayle
	Lyrics & music: Nat Goodspeed. Sequencing and vocals: Gayle & Goodspeed. Digital Equipment: Alesis HR-16 Drum Machine, Ensoniq SDP-1 Elec. Piano, IBM XT with Music Quest MPU401 clone, Personal Composer V2. Analog Equipment: Teac A-2340 4-track tape recorder, Barf home- customized elec. guitar, Trashmo Amp with mechanical 2-person wah-wah, old mexican congas.

Bubble Jam	Steve Schreiber	© Steve Schreiber
	The synthesizer parts on this piece were done on a KORG DW-8000 (ambient sounds and violins) and a Yamaha TX7 (Hammond Organ). An Alesis HR16 was used for the drum track. The synthesized parts were sequenced using Voyetra Sequencer Plus Mk.III. These were then recorded onto a Fostex X-15 Multitracker along with a live guitar part. A digital delay pedal was used on the guitar track. Steve says this piece was inspired by "...the giant soap bubbles you can make with a device called The Bubble Thing invented by David Stein."

3AM Soggy Diaper Blues	Duane Bowker	© Duane Bowker
	I wanted to put something a little more experimental on the tape but my wife insisted on this one. It's pretty conventional 12-bar blues but features vocals by Sammy (age: 2 yrs., 0 mos.), Keelan (age: 0 yrs., 2 mos.), myself, and a "mystery toy" Bass, piano, organ, horn, and drum parts were sequenced using a PC6300 running TEXTURE. Essentially all of these were "entered" from a Casio DG-510 MIDI guitar. The sequenced parts, played through Yamaha TX81Z, KORG DS-8, and ROLAND TR-505 boxes, were recorded onto a TASCAM 234 deck. Vocal and live guitar parts were then dubbed over. Some effects processing was done using a DSP-128.

Take My Love	Bob Neumann	© Bob Neumann
	This song features vocals by Roz Baker. The instruments used include an EMU-EMAX sampling keyboard, an Oberheim OB-8 and Oberheim Xpander, a Yamaha DX7, and an EMU SP-1200 Drum Machine. Sequencing was carried out using an Atari 1040 ST running Hybrid Arts SmpteTrack Sequencer Software.

Last Call	Tim Thompson	© Tim Thompson
	Tim used a Kurzweil 1000PX (piano and strings), Roland D110 (drums), and a TX81Z (flugelhorn) on this tune. Recording was done using keynote 3.0 on an AT&T PC6300 with an OP-4001, mixed direct to a 2-track through a Roland DEP-5 reverb/chorus.

First View of Earth	Jim Collymore	© Jim Collymore
	On this one, Jim used a Korg DW-8000, a Yamaha FB-01, a Yamaha QX-21, and a TEAC M-09 mixer.

Trickle Down Theory in Practice	Craig Cleaveland	© Craig Cleaveland
	This tune features an Ensoniq ESQ-1.

Copyright Notice	Duane Bowker	© Duane Bowker
	Would you believe a couple of strong cups of coffee was all I needed to create this effect? No??? Well, a Lexicon Varispeed II helped a little.

Mostly MIDI : Take 2 (1989)

Let 'em Roll	Guy Story	© Guy Story
	Written and arranged by Guy Story. Vocals by Geoff Worton, an Englishman who continues a tradition of wonderful R&B singers from across the Atlantic. Geoff now lives in Weehawken. Sax by Milton Entzminger, native of New Jersey, who has toured Europe with Lionel Hampton. Background vocals and guitars (Gibson ES-335) by Guy. The rest: Yamaha FB01 and DX100, and LinnDrum, sequenced by MOTU's Performer, synced via Opcode Timecode machine to a Tascam 38.

Caffeine-Based Life Form	Tim Thompson	© Tim Thompson
	Done with an AT&T 6386 WGS computer running UNIX and X windows, using Keynote 4.0 software. Most of the sounds are from a Roland D110, with help from a Yamaha TX81Z and Kurzweil 1000PX. Mixed direct to 2-track through a Roland DEP-5.

The Son	Marty Askinazi	© Marty Askinazi
	Created using Voyetra's Sequencer Plus MKIII software on an IBM AT. The synths used include a Korg M1R, Roland D110, and Yamaha FB01.

You Mean That's It	Bob Neumann	© 1989 Bob Neumann
	The vocals are public domain samples from an EMU EMAX SE. Instruments used: EMU EMAX SE Sampling Keyboard, EMU SP-1200 Sampling Drum Machine, Oberheim OB-8, Oberheim Matrix-1000, YAMAHA DX-7; Sequencing: HYBRID ARTS SMPTETRACK running on an ATARI 1040ST. This recording was made direct to two-track master; No multi-track tape decks were used.

Sat-on-a-Cat	Sammy Guthrie, Tom Michel, Steve Schreiber, Bob Kirby	© Sammy Guthrie, Tom Michel, Steve Schreiber, Bob Kirby
	(In the words of Tom Michel...) One day I got a new voice cart for my synth. Never having used the RAM card slot before, I stood up to check out how to insert the cart. In the 10 seconds that I was standing, Sammy (My girlfriend's cat) sat down on my piano bench. Not realizing it, I sat down with nearly full force onto poor little Sammy. Sammy provides the only "vocals" on the tune (and will get all royalties). Tom Michel - Roland D-50, Yamaha TX7; Steve "Bwana" Schreiber - Les Paul guitars; Bob "Bathroom Humor" Kirby - Drum Porgramming via Yamaha DD-5 playing an Alesis HR-16.

12-String Solace	Phil Vourtsis	© Phil Vourtsis
	Performed on a KORG M1 with Cakewalk II running on an AT&T PC6300.

Dance of Rejoicing	Jim Collymore	© Jim Collymore
	Equipment: Ensoniq SQ-80 for all 5 voices, a Yamaha FB-01 for doubling on the bass part, an Alesis Microverb, and a Tascam Porta-Two 4-track cassette for the mastering. I also used a MAC SE running Opcode's MIDIMAC Sequencer.

Gam	Tom Duff	© Tom Duff
	`Gam' is 5 minutes 9 seconds long, and is performed using 8 different factory bell and gong voices on a Yamaha FB01. My intent was to invoke a chaotic but resolutely tenacious Gamelan. The only pitches used are the first 16 harmonics of C below middle C (midi note number 48), so the piece has not much harmonic motion. (Actually there are other pitches because some of the patches are tuned an octave above or below standard pitch.) The FB01 is reputed to have micro-tuning capabilities, but I have no documentation on it, so the pitches are all quantized to the equal-tempered scale. The patches used, from lowest and slowest to highest and fastest, are 3/27 Bells, 3/41 Marimba, 6/37 TubeBe1, 7/42 SpChime, 3/21 Vibes, 6/35 Vibe3, 4/47 Celeste and 3/20 Glocken. I generated the MIDI scores on a VAX 8550 at Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ running tenth-edition research UNIX\(rg and played them back through a Teletype 5620 terminal in my home with a homebrew midi interface board designed and built by Tom Killian connected to the DX7 or FB01. I recorded the piece by running the synthesizers' stereo outputs directly into a Nakamichi BX-2 cassette recorder.

Little Bang Theory	Duane Bowker	© Duane Bowker
	The drums, sax, strings, and some of the bass parts were generated by a KORG M1r; organ and "analog" bass were generated by a KORG DS8; an additional bass part was generated by a YAMAHA TX81Z. All synthesized parts were orchestrated by an AT&T PC6300 running the TEXTURE sequencer package (all parts, except drums and organ, were played originally on a Casio MIDI-compatible guitar... drum and organ parts were played on the DS8 keyboard). Synthesizer parts were then mixed onto two-tracks of a TASCAM 234 Syncassette deck and the live guitar track was added later, using the same Casio guitar played through a Peavey equalizer/pre-amp and a DSP-128 effects unit.

Nadia Rag	Mike Knudsen	© Mike Knudsen
	This piece was MIDI sequenced with no human intervention, using a home-written graphics notation sequencer running on a Radio Shack Color Computer 3 (retails for $199) using a Unix-like operating system, OS-9. The Coco-3 uses its serial port (software timing loops) to drive a Casio MT-240 ($99) and on most songs, a not-so-cheap MT-32 (just sounds cheap, lots of white noise). MT32 and Casio are mixed in a Radio Shack mixer (designed for disk jockey parties, it appears) and recorded on a Tascam Porta One using dbx noise reduction on tracks 1 & 2. I cut in the Korg DW-8000 thru a Microverb. "Nadia Rag" is one of my [acoustic] piano ragtime compositions from about 1975, moused in from sheet music. For this I layered the Korg's honky-tonk piano in with the other two synths' same to get a slightly "ripe" piano in a big hall. About 4 minutes.

Broken Promises	Christopher Gayle & Nat Goodspeed	© Christopher Gayle & Nat Goodspeed
	BROKEN PROMISES (Nat Goodspeed 1989) Vocals - Nat. Drum and Bass sequencing - Nat. Piano sequencing - Nat and Topher. Guitar and Mandolin - Topher. For us, a technological breakthrough in that we loaded a sync track onto the four track deck, thus freeing up one of the two tracks we had been using for the stereo output of the MIDI controlled drum/piano/bass. More significant was the fact that this arrangement allowed us to continue to tweak the sequenced info even after the analog tracks were recorded. Equipment: Ensoniq ESP-1 piano, Alesis HR-16 Drums, 1965 Guild Starfire IV guitar, Aria mandolin, TEAC 2340 4-track deck, IBM XT running Personal Composer.

Speechless	Bill Fox	© 1984, Bill Fox


White Water	Neil Weinstock	© Neil Weinstock
	This piece was sequenced using the Music-X package on an Amiga. The various parts are a mix of hand-played and mouse-entered (I'll let you figure out which is which). An M1R handles most of the load, while a Matrix 6 is used for the bass parts at the beginning and end, a mellow brass pad, and the synth solo. Outboard processing is through an SPX90II.

The FireBrand	Peter Giacomini	© Peter Giacomini
	Instrumentation: Yamaha DX7(strgtr1a), TX216(Bass,Bells), RX11(Drums) Kurzweil K1000(Digital Piano,Synth Strings 1,Stereo Trem Vibes) Roland Alpha Juno 1(Fat Brass 1) Effects: Yamaha SPX90 (stereo echo) Alesis Microverb II (reverb 3) The FireBrand was sequenced on an Apple ][+ using Passport Designs MasterTracks. Step and real-time recording modes were used. The mixdown was done directly to stereo using a Fostex F250 and Peavey R6M mixer through a BSR EQ3000 graphic equalizer into a Sony PCM-2500 DAT.

Song in the Key of Wood	Bill Burnette	© Bill Burnette
	Sounds: Korg M1R (Pan Flute, Guitar 1, Fretless) Roland D-50 (Wood Harp) Yamaha DX7 (Bamboo Vib) Effects: Alesis Microverb (Large 2) Sequencer: Roland MC-500 Mk-II with S-MRC Sequencing was done using real-time, step time, and various editing. The mixdown was done directly to stereo by a Yamaha MR1642 into Pete's Sony PCM-2500 DAT.

ASAP (Ag and Steve at Play)	Ag Primatic & Steve Falco	© Ag Primatic & Steve Falco
	The title derives from Ag going off on OYOC, so we had to get the recording done quickly (about 6 hours total). First, a click track was put down with Steve's antique home-made drum synth (non-midi and definitely NOT heard on the final mixdown!) Then Ag put down the piano background, the bass, drums, and finally the lead track - all by playing an Ensoniq EPS sampler. Steve criticized and provided "musical consultation." Most of the recorded sounds come from the EPS. MIDI was used to link the EPS to a Yamaha TX81Z to double the lead instruments. An ART Multi-verb was used for ambience both on individual tracks as recorded and on the final mix.

RT1	Howard Moscovitz	© Howard Moscovitz
	This composition, called RT1, was created using a real-time music composition program which I wrote called RT. RT allows one to automatically generate cannons with any desired time delay, harmonic transposition in any key or mode, time quantization, volume adjustment, melodic inversion, and mapping to any desired midi channel (voice). The piece was improvised in one pass in real-time. Therefore, I think it is probably closer to jazz than to any other kind of music. Instruments: Kurzweil Midi Board, Yamaha TX7 and TX81Z, Korg P3, Alexis HR16, AT&T PC.

Talk Box Rap	Eugene Beer	© Eugene Beer
	Speech Plus text-to-speech converter sampled on Korg DSS-1. TX-81Z and DX7II sequenced on QX7.

Dogwood	Dan Vanevic	© Dan Vanevic
	I have a Korg DW-8000 and a Casio CZ-101. I'm using a Yamaha KM802 Mixer that feeds directly into my regular old tape recorder (Onkyo TA-2130). I have no mixing deck, so the songs are basically recorded "live" The final (cornerstone) piece of equipment is an AT&T PC 6300 equipped with a MIDI/RTC board of my own design. The software running on it is home-brewed (no one supports my board but myself!). I used a "record/playback" program, so the background part is a riff I recorded and then playback, repeating it enough times to last through the song (thus the fade-out). The leads/melody lines are played live (and it shows ... I'm not a keyboard player!).

Syncreation	Steve Michelson	© Steve Michelson
	Equipment: Korg P3, with Rock Card (POC-01) (Piano Sound, Drum Sounds) Yamaha DX11 (Synthesizer Sounds, Bell Sounds, Electric Piano Sounds, and anything else that sounds unusual) Alesis Midiverb II Yamaha AM602 6 Channel Stereo Mixer Beltron PC-XT Clone with CMS-401 Interface Software: Cakewalk 2.0

Timeout; First Try	Mark Johnson	© Mark Johnson
	Equipment used: Roland MT32 controlled by an Atari ST running custom software. Timeout uses pizzicato strings and guitar patches. First Try uses drum and harp patches. All patterns and notes are computer generated. I use parameterized non-linear equations to generate sequences of MIDI note-on/note-off messages. Changes in the parameter settings result in a wide variety of equation behaviors. The compositions themselves are not computer generated. A human composer must still search for interesting or pleasing musical fragments and combine them into a cohesive whole. (That's the part I'm not very good at, unfortunately.) The non-linear equations provide the musical fragments, instead of the composer having to make them up in his or her head. The software I've written reads a score containing time-stamped parameter settings for up to six generators. As the score is played, changes in equation parameters are made at the appropriate time. I also wrote an interactive version of the program for exploring possible parameter settings to ease the search for "pleasing or interesting" patterns. I wrote this software after reading "Chaos" by James Gleick, which I highly recommend. The non-linear equation I use is the same as that used by May to model ecological systems. Working with this system is a bit like having a number of recalcitrant musicians at your disposal. You can tell them how you want something to sound but you can't tell them what to play.

Miniature Wind Trio	Rick McGowan	© Rick McGowan
	The tape was recorded on a Yamaha CMX-1 recorder. It's a 4 channel cassette recorder running at standard cassette speed. I put the music in stereo on channels 1 & 2, which correspond to the STANDARD left and right channels on side A (i.e., it's regular stereo and you can play it successfully on a standard stereo cassette player). It is recorded with "dbx" noise reduction "on" (The supposed S/N ratio is 65db, but "I seriously doubt it!" Equipment: Yamaha TX802 synthesizer, Apple MacIntosh with Passport MIDI interface, Boss 16 channel mixer and RRV-10 reverb unit, Yamaha CMX-1 cassette recorder. Scored for 2 "wind" instruments and a keyboard resembling a harpsichord, this is rather classical in orientation and intended to demonstrate some tunings.

ARABLUZ	Stew Lindenberger	© Stew Lindenberger
	produced with: AT style 286 based PC clone Roland MPU401 (midi interface) Sequencer Plus mk III (super program) Yamaha FB01 (FM synth box) Roland TR505 (drums) Peavey 701 (seven channel stereo mixer) homebrew four channel stereo mixer Technics cassette recorder w/ dbx This work started out with an attempt to reproduce the rhythm section from an unidentified jazz piece - however, after a little playing around with the rhythm tracks the flavor changed. The improvised 'solo' drums and instrumental melody were recorded by the sequencer, and later cleaned up using its extensive editing features. The melody voices (two superimposed) were 'dirtied up' a bit with a slight amount of detuning, portamento, pitch and amplitude modulation.

Mostly MIDI : Thirds (1991)

Time	John David Miller	© John David Miller
	No notes provided.

REACTOVATE -6 !	Bob Neumann	© Bob Neumann
	This is an industrial-dance composition using the following instruments: EMU EMAX SE EMU SP-1200 Drum Machine Oberheim Matrix-1000 Oberheim OB-8 ATARI 1040-ST running Hybrid Arts Smptetrack II Sequencer software The track was composed and performed by myself.

Naughty 900 #s (The Ballad of Toby and Francine)	Duane Bowker	© Duane Bowker
	First of all, let me say I've never actually called one of these silly numbers (but I do get a kick out of the advertisements). Bass, drums, sax, electric piano parts were generated by a Korg M1r (entered via Casio guitar controller), with parts sequenced using Magnetic Music's Texture program. Toby, Francine, and Toby's Fantasy were all sampled on a Casio FZ-10M and sequenced along with the other parts. The rest of the vocals and the guitar music-on-hold were added when the piece was recorded to DAT. The simulated ringing was from a TX-81z.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is	Victoria Parks and Bill Fox (It's Them!)	© 1987 Victoria Parks, licensed by BMI, and (p) 1991, It's Them!
	My submission is from my duo, "It's Them!" It was written by Victoria Parks, my partner, and recorded in my basement studio, Fox's Den. Sound Sources: Me: Yamaha RX-5 drum machine Roland TR-505 drum machine. Roland S-550 sampler (Used standard library patches) Roland MKS-20 Digital Piano Gibson "The Paul" electric guitar through Roland GP-8 processor (Two times: Used Eagle's Chops and Distortion+ patches - at least one if not both are my patches.) Victoria: Ovation acoustic guitar Sequencer: Director-S (runs on the S-550 sampler.) This is our performance sequencer. Procedures: I played the sequence onto two tracks of a Tascam 38. Then added Victoria's vocal with an AKG C414 and a little compression. Her guitar went on next. The next day (Good Friday) I added two guitar tracks, one with the Eagle's Chops patch and the solo with the Distortion+ patch. Total tracks used = 6. I mixed down to stereo on a DAT, adding a quarter note delay in varying amounts to the solo guitar and to the vocal along with some reverb from an Alesis Midiverb II set to patch 26.

Woman with a Past	Guy Story	© Guy Story
	No notes provided.

Madness Express	Topher Gayle and Nat Goodspeed	© 1977 Nathaniel R. Goodspeed
	Topher Gayle - rhythm guitar (1965 Guild Starfire IV) - lead guitar (likewise) - sequenced piano solos (Ensoniq SDP-1) - sequenced horns (Ensoniq ESQ-M, HVYBRS patch) Nat Goodspeed - vocals (1956 Human) - train whistle (Wooden toy) - drum tweaking (Alesis HR-16) - recording, sequencing, and studio engineering (TEAC A-2340 4-track, IBM XT, 1990 Attic) Band-in-a-Box - rhythm piano (Peter Gannon) - bass - basic drums We used Band-in-a-Box v3 to lay down a separate rhythm track for each of the two tempos, then spliced them together, tweaked them, and added piano solos and horns using Personal Composer. We recorded sequenced material as a stereo mix and then added vocals and guitars.

I Can't Wait (Must Trust Fate)	Donald Gotfryd	© Donald Gotfryd
	No notes provided.

Dance Close to Me	James L. Collymore	© James L. Collymore
	The equipment was: Ensoniq SQ80, KORG DW-8000, Alesis HR-16, Alesis Microverb, Mac SE using Vision by Opcode Systems

Paganini Variations	Dick Hamilton	© Dick Hamilton
	No notes provided.

Tang8	Dan Vanevic	© Dan Vanevic
	Saying the "8" in Spanish makes the title "tangocho" which loosely translates to "little tango" You may recall a discussion we had about setting up a "theme" for the MMML tape ... I liked that idea and so I set my own theme and task: to write a tango. I started with a C-Major structure but, before I knew it (tangos being what they are), I was immersed in Harmonic Minors and the tritones they create. It was a real fun experience. Because I have been spending too much $$ in home improvements, I haven't been able to afford to improve my MIDI set-up, so it is still the same as last year: home-brewed PC board and software, driving a Korg DW-8000 and a Casio CZ-101, being mixed through a Yamaha KM802 mixer, feeding an Onkyo TA-2130 (regular) tape recorder.

Daytona Racer	Ed Federmeyer	© Ed Federmeyer
	I used a Casio CZ-1 for the low, pseudo-analog growling in the background, as well as the "synth-horn" passing section. The aprpegio-style thingy is the wonderfull "Warm Bell" sound of an MT-32 (one of my personal favorite patches...) doubled with an Akai S612 sampler playing a sample of a Sequential Multi-Trak patch, processed (looped, etc.) The drum track was done with a Yamha RX7 drum machine. The song reminds me of a long, curvy section of the I-55 expressway that I merge onto on my way to school/work, and I drive a Daytona, hence the name!

New York	Bert Olsson and Frank Romand	© Bert Olsson and Frank Romand
	From the collection, "Cities" recorded between 9/87 and 10/88. Mixed 12/88. Bert Olsson keyboards, guitars, engineering Frank Romand percussion Instruments Casio FZ-1, Yamaha DX-21 and FB-01, Fender Stratocaster. Recording Gear Tascam 22-4 and M-30, Teac 3300, Yamaha QX-5. Effects Roland SDE-1000 and CE-2, PAIA 6720 (Quadrafuzz). Production Notes: The percussion track was tapped into a Roland TR-505 and subsequently transferred to a Yamaha QX-5. Samples from the Casio FZ-1 replaced the 505 sounds. The keyboard parts are half QX-5 sequences, half live overdubs. Three tracks of the 22-4 were overdubs, the fourth contained and FSK sync track to drive the QX-5 during the final mix.

Arius	Peter Giacomini	© Peter Giacomini
	Instrumentation: Yamaha: DX7(Digital Electric Piano), TX216(Bass,Syntauri), RX11(Drums), KX5 (controller for leads) Kurzweil: K1000(Choir, Organ, Vibes, New Age Piano) Roland: Alpha Juno 1(Lead Synth 3, Sweep Synth) Effects: Yamaha SPX90 (reverb) Alesis Microverb II (reverb 3) Arius was sequenced on an Apple ][+ using Passport Designs MasterTracks. Step and real-time recording modes were used. The mixdown was done directly to stereo using a Fostex F250 and Peavey R6M mixer through a BSR EQ3000 graphic equalizer into a Sony PCM-2500 DAT.

Autograph	Tim Thompson	© Tim Thompson
	Autograph - One TX81Z, recorded through a DEP5 direct to cassette using Keynote 4.5 on a 20 Mhz 6386 under UNIX SVR4. The harp solo at the end was algorithmically generated.

An Overture to the Persian Gulf War: The Ballad and Disembowelment of Saddam Hussein	Steve Michelson	© Steve Michelson
	(Not Yet Cleared by Iraqi Censors) This piece was inspired (inspired is probably an overstatement) by the recent goings on in the Persian Gulf. If you listen very carefully, you might just hear a Scud missile or two being launched from the Northwest Coast of Iraq, and intercepted by a Patriot missile somewhere in Israel. The allied troops enter near the middle of the piece, and finally decimate Mr. Hussein's army quickly, desively, and, well, rather abruptly. Hardware: Roland U-20, with U110-2 card: main synthesizer, bells, drums, sound effects Yamaha DX-11: Synthesized Bass, synthesizer, "synthesized xylophone" Alesis Midiverb II, program number 28 Yamaha AM602 6 channel mixer XT-compatible, IBM clone Software: Cakewalk 3.0, by Twelve Tone Systems

Natives	Phil Vourtsis	© Phil Vourtsis
	No notes provided.

Morse Code	Sam Mullins	© Sam Mullins
	The schizophrenic song structure is approximately A B C B' B''(solo) A' C B. I started with the piano riff in the B section. It reminded me of the Dixie Dregs, so I named this piece after their founder, Steve Morse. In retrospect, I don't think it sounds much like a Dregs song but I'm too lazy to change the title. The Moogish lead line in the B sections and the pseudo-harmonica in the solo section were produced on a Casio CZ-1 with an Alesis Microverb. Everything else is Roland U220. The song was sequenced on an Atari ST using Dr. T's KCS in Open Mode. The piece was mixed down directly to a Nakamichi 2-track cassette deck supplied by my neighbor, Greg Butler.

Rnode	Tom Michel, Steve Schreiber, and Bob Kirby	© Tom Michel, Steve Schreiber, and Bob Kirby
	The musicians are: Steve Schreiber - Guitars; Bob Kirby - Drums; Tom Michel - Keys; This is part of a larger work called the Image Test Suite. It tells the story of four of the members of the Image Processing group. This section is about our fine french friend Arnaud (who we call Rnode).

Almost Spring	Jay Gabin and Ahmad Abdel-Wahed	© Jay Gabin and Ahmad Abdel-Wahed
	The synth parts are generated by a Sequential Multi-Trak and a Yamaha FB-01, processed by an Alesis Midiverb III. The drums are by an Alesis HR-16a. Electric guitars are also processed by the Midiverb III. Recorded with a Yamaha MT100II 4 track recorder.

Dan Ryan Rush	Mike Knudsen	© Mike Knudsen
	The piece is "Dan Ryan Rush" named for rush hour on Chicago's most notorious expressway. By Ed Hathaway and John Sakellardes. It uses just about every sound of the low-cost Yamaha PSS-480, and was composed on UltiMusE-III, a notation sequencer running on a Tandy Color Computer 3 under OS-9 Level 2, recorded using dbx on a Tascam Porta One. Dan Ryan Rush includes several musical styles and moods for various sections of the highway, so don't be put off by the "modern classical" intro.

Oh Boy	Mark A. Johnson	© Mark A. Johnson
	This music was created with a Roland MT-32 driven by an Atari ST running custom software. This software generates patterns based on a model of an ecological system driven into chaos. With slight variation in the model's parameters, very different patterns emerge. I choose the patterns, when they occur and repeat, and their orchestration. These are listed in a script (think of it as a score) and played by the software. Working with this stuff has the same good feeling as walking in the woods; you stumble about, most everything is a variation on the same theme, but every now and then you find something worth the trip.

RECUR 1	Howard Moscovitz	© Howard Moscovitz
	This piece uses modern digital synthesizer and computer technology with an old Moog II-C analog synthesizer (1973). The title implies that old sounds from the analog synthesizer are recurring in my music. This is the first time I have merged the two technologies in a piece. The Moog was acutally played from a midi keyboard through a midi to analog control voltage converter. A commercial sequencer running on a PC was used to synchronize the tracks. I have always liked wacky orchestras. In this piece there is a drum set, a piano, a synthesized voice, and a Moog that sounds like many things.

Copyright Notice	Duane Bowker	© Duane Bowker
	Drums, bass, electric piano and sax sounds were generated from a Korg M1r. The analog-sounding patch was generated from a Korg DS-8. All parts (except drums) were entered into the Texture sequencer package via a Casio guitar controller (drums were played on the keyboard). Vocal copyright notice and lead guitar were added later on a Tascam 4-track deck.

Mostly MIDI : Tape95 (1995)

Katie in Winter	Keith McFarlane	© Keith McFarlane
	This song is a snapshot of my feelings about impending fatherhood. It is simple and sprightly, and attempts to convey my joy in a straightforward manner. (The name in the title, by the way, was a guess at the sex of our baby, and the guess turned out to be dead wrong. I'm sure my son, Conner, will forgive me someday.)

Memphis is Calling Me Home	David Nason	© David Nason
	This song was written by myself and recorded at "The Recording Workshop" in Chillocothe, Oh - one of those deals where you get a free night of studio time in exchange for being a guinea pig for the students. Credits for the performance include: David Nason: All Guitars, Keyboards Gregg Grimes: Drums Janet Cesner: Vocals Tish Simeral: Bass So what does this have to do with MIDI, you ask? Well, I wrote the song and all the instrumentation (including the vocal melody) for it in my MIDI studio. I had everything worked out on Cakewalk, recorded the basics, and asked a few friends to come over and see if they'd like to help me record it "for real" We did, and here it is. Hope you like it.

Take My Love	Bob Neumann & Roz Baker	© Bob Neumann & Roz Baker
	"Take My Love" -Beatbox-D (Roz Baker and Bob Neumann) This is a remix of a track that was included in the very first MMML tape many years ago. The only tracks that were kept were the lead and background vocals. Using SMPTE Time code, I was able to sync completely new music tracks, drum machine patterns, and even new vocal passages to the original taped vocals. All background vocals were in the MIDI domain, sampled and then resequenced and syncronized live down to the two-track master. The male rap artist tracks (performed by J. Strickland) and the recurring word "Edit" was also tweaked using sampling, sequencing, and syncronization via SMPTE. The track was released on a debut CD album entitled "BEATBOX-D" Contact me personally for a copy. Instruments used: ATARI 1040ST with Binary Software "SMPTETRACK GOLD" Software Oberheim OB-8, Xpander, and Matrix-1000 EMU SP-1200 Drum Machine and EMAX SE Sampling Keyboard Bob Neumann PO Box 1582 Bridgeview, Illinois 60455 Phone: 630-257-6289

On a Treadmill	Pete Giacomini	© 1993 Levine/Giacomini
	Lyrics: Nancy Levine Music: Pete Giacomini Vocals: Carol Tourgee Drums: John Del Riccio Keyboards: Pete Giacomini "On A Treadmill" was sequenced using Performer on a MAC then transferred to a Roland MC50 for the studio. Equipment used included: Kurzweil K2000, Peavey DPM V3, Roland R8M, Yamaha SPX90, Boss SE-50, and Lexicon LXP-1. The final mix and mastering was done at Suite 16 Studios in Piscataway, NJ using various equipment. The master was recorded on a Sony PCM2700 RDAT. "On A Treadmill" is included on my 10-song CD ("Mystery MAN" pressed by Disc Makers in Philadelphia, PA.

Friendly Phases	Tim Thompson	© Tim Thompson
	A Roland SC-7 with some Lexicon reverb. A fairly "normal" composition, i.e. it has none of the algorithmic aspects I often use. It's really two song fragments pasted together - one was composed many years ago, and one was done earlier this year. The second half of the piece introduces 3 riffs which are then played simultaneously and cycled between 3 instruments.

Headhunt	Tim Paige	© Tim Paige
	A tribute to Herbie Hancock's music from the 70's. The synth-sounds are from an SY99; I used a lot of my own sounds, plus some of the original patches. I sequenced the song with the SY99's sequencer.

Bayona	John Pittas	© John Pittas
	I finally got around to getting my equipment set up and spent a few evenings right before the deadline trying to come up with ideas for songs. I don't compose on a regular basis and it was a lot tougher than I thought it would be! I don't know where this tune came from or how to categorize it. It's not really representative of the music I normally play or listen to, but some of my influences are evident, including blues, jazz and latin. Nothing too fancy as far as equipment goes. The piano sounds are from a Kurzweil MicroPiano. Bass is an Ensoniq KS-32. The organ is a Hammond XB-2 played through a Motion Sound Pro-3 Leslie simulator. The rest (drums, percussion and "mute guitar" are from a Roland SC-55. Everything into a Mackie 1202 mixer and straight to cassette. No outboard effects. An old version of Vision on an even older Mac SE was used for sequencing. No quantization. I can send the midi file to anyone who's interested.

Wasn't for Savin'	John Helton	© John Helton
	Hammond C3, Piano, Fender Piano Bass: Al Schubert Smokin' slide guitar: Dana Mentgen Drums: John Helton

Frances, an Artistic Rag	Mike Knudsen	© Mike Knudsen
	Background: I wrote Frances Rag in early 1978 for solo piano, and played it at Bell Labs lunchtime concerts as such and also arranged for piano, flute, and violin. I've given out many copies of the sheet music over the years, but don't know that anyone else has performed it publicly. The piece is named for a contract drafting employee I befriended at the Labs back then, who had majored in painting in college but was now doing logic layouts instead of landscapes. The rag depicts her personal evolution from a shy girl into a vivacious, assertive, and sometimes outrageous but cultured and gracious lady. Musicology 101: Frances is an Elizabethan rag, after the keyboard style of Shakespeare's day, such that the A and B sections are not simply repeated as in most rags: Intro - A2 - B2 - A - Trio, etc. but are treated to variations or "jazzed up." So the final form comes out for Frances as: Intro - A1 - A2 - B1 - B22 - A3 - Bridge - (C - Span)2 - Coda. Frances was the third of seven children, as encoded in the A and B melodies' three 8th notes followed by four 16ths. A2 is A1's melody in the Alto under a harmony descant (she sang alto in the Labs chorus). B1 is a continuation of the A tune. B2 kicks over the potted palms (at last) in a family screamfest, which I repeat just for fun after spilling beer into the piano. A3 repeats A2 but the bass and guitar haven't calmed down yet from B2; the dainty Bridge cools them off. The Trio (C and Span) push the envelope of "artistic" ragtime with a touch of Debussy. MIDI Realization: How to orchestrate the piece for MIDI? Straight piano for five minutes under MIDI just doesn't have the vitality of hand playing, even with the crescendi, accelerandi, and other expression tags in my home-brewed UltiMusE composing program. Also, my only authentic piano patch, on the Yamaha PSR-500, is too clunky for the sustained legatos of the A strains. But sustained instruments (woodwind, brass, strings, organ) don't work well for ragtime. So I stuck with various keyboards, mallets, and plucked strings, all on the PSR-500, this year's entry in the Cheap Home Keyboard category. When I get my "studio" put back together, the DW-8000's bells and brass chorus will get a crack at the Trio!

The Journey	Greg Youngdahl	© Greg Youngdahl
	This song began life when I got an upgrade to some sequencer software (PowerTrax Pro). I was just jamming around with it and the basis of the song developed. I worked out the piano and drum parts with the sequencer, then added electric bass and guitar on my 4-track tape deck synced to the sequencer via SMPTE (this was really the first time I had done that, aside from some experimenting). At about that time I purchased an Alesis D4 drum module and reworked the drumparts using it (prior to that my JV-880 was providing the drum sounds). The final tracks (again on the sequencer) were the synth lines. I had the basic progressions worked out, and part of my plan was to vary the arrangement so that each time a part repeated it was somehow a little different. At some point I was feeling kind of stuck about what I could do to expand the song and so I gave a .MID copy of the song to Bob Arrigo (fellow MMMLer) who has a compatable JV-90 synth. At this point the drums were still JV based, so he could hear the song just as I did. He returned me a .MID file that included a part he had inserted into the song. He gets credit for the break progression in the middle of the song. From there I completed the arrangement, and was able to add the overdubs (guitars and synth lines). Equipment used: Roland JV-880 synth module w/Vintage Synths expansion board; Alesis D4 drum module (my new toy at the time); Kawai K1 as keyboard controller (none of its sounds were used); Gibson Les Paul Custom through Gibson Minuteman amp (SM57 miked); Peavey bass guitar direct into mixer; Teac 3340-S 4-track reel-to-reel tape deck; Peavey 12x2x1 mixer; Alesis MidiVerbII; Akai 3-head cassette deck for mixdown; No-name 386 33 MHz computer w/Win3.1 and PowerTrax Pro sequencer; Voyetra V24-SM MIDI interface (2 in, 4 out, SMPTE, w/MPU-401 module).

CyberSamba	Dave Tutelman	© Dave Tutelman
	CyberSamba was written October 1992, and this recording was cut in January 1993. I started by using Band-In-A-Box to lay down a starting track for drum, bass, and piano. I imported that file into Cakewalk, where I added the other instruments and improved on the original drum and piano tracks. All the instruments are electronic MIDI instruments: Piano Korg P3 Trumpet Korg DW8000 Flute Yamaha TX-81z Marimba Roland MT-32 Bass Roland MT-32 Drums Roland MT-32

Teapot Tempest	John A. Krallmann	© John A. Krallmann
	Teapot Tempest by John A. Krallmann (1995) Kristina is the best friend I've ever had. She helped me learn a lot about life just by being who she is. One day she observed, "Your music playing seems to have a melancholy to it." Which jarred me into wondering: "Whatever happened to that exuberant person inside of me, and the happy music he used to write and play?" Well, there was still plenty of happiness inside, it was just long buried behind emotional walls. This composition was an attempt to let some happier feelings bubble out. Listening to it now, six months later, I'm not sure the attempt was completely successful, but no matter: that just leaves more room for "improve-ization" on a song for next year's tape! This song is performed on a Technics PX103 digital piano, played via a SoundBlaster MIDI port, driven via my own homebrewed UNIX device driver and MIDI library. The MIDI file itself was generated using the Mup music publication program which I wrote in collaboration with Bill Krauss. Mup is now available in cyberspace from http://www.arkkra.com The title just popped into my head, and since I never came up with anything that seemed better, there it is!

Wind Junky	Topher Gayle	© Topher Gayle
	WIND JUNKY (Gayle, Goodspeed, Conolly) Famous Last Words is Peter Conolly, Nat Goodspeed, Topher Gayle and friends The performers on this recording are: Topher: Vocals, Electric Guitars, Bass sequencing, mixdown Nat: Background Vocals, Recorders, MIDI & recording & mixdown Band-in-a-Box: Piano, drums, organ sequencing (Hard Rock and Waltz styles) This song is about windsurfing. Perhaps more accurately it is about a windsurfer who is entirely hooked by the sport declared, "more addictive than cocaine" by the US Surfin' General. For those of you who are not windsurfers yourselves, you are missing one of life's great pleasures, and I hope someday you'll get the chance to try it. There is a very good chance that the song is partially autobiographical. I admit it -- I am a hopeless wind junky. It may help your appreciation of the lyrics to know that Robby Naish is one of the world's greatest windsurfers. Digital: Ensoniq EDP-1 (bright piano and electric bass sounds, controller); Ensoniq ESQ-M (Organ and wind sounds); Alesis HR-16 (Drum kit); 60386-16 PC running Band-in-a-Box Pro and PowerTracks Pro; Music Quest MXQ-16 MIDI interface (with MIDI Sync). Analog: 1965 Guild Starfire IV guitar; Roland JC-55 guitar amp; cheesy little plastic recorder; Maxon WX-10 weather radio; voices, courtesy of Ma Nature. Recording: Shure SM-57 microphone (vocals, recorders and guitars); Alesis 1622 16-track mixer; Fostex A-8 8-track 1/4" reel-to-reel tape deck; Alesis Midiverb (recorders & vocals); Digitech Time Machine 7.6 digital delay unit (flanged vocals); Onkyo cassette deck (mixdown). This was our first chance to try out a lot of new gear: the mixer, tape deck, effects, midi board, cassette deck -- even the weather radio was new to our studio. So you can imagine the time we spent figuring it all out! But we managed to get the MIDI sync working, which allowed us to lay down a sync track onto the tape that could be started and stopped mid-song, allowing us to punch-in during the analog recording sessions. Nice!

Going To Miami	Dan Vanevic	© Dan Vanevic
	This song was composed using Band-In-A-Box to generate the support tracks, then Cakewalk to slice-and-dice the BB output, record and edit additional tracks, leads and sounds, tweak knobs and sliders, and generate the final General MIDI file, which was played through a Roland SC-7 and recorded directly to cassette. The contagious chorus lead, "G G B E A E" was derived from the title of the song (Goin-G To Mi-A-Mi).

Yopurr	Stan Kobylanski	© Stan Kobylanski
	I wrote this song with the intention of using many of the "interesting" voices available on the synths that I own. The instruments used were a Roland LAPC-1, Kawai K4, and a Proteus MPS+. I used the effects that are available on these synths. I used Cakewalk for Midi editing. I've written only a few songs and this seems to be the best one. I would appreciate any constructive criticism about the writing, orchestration, arranging, etc. of this song.

Simple Things (Not Satisfied)	Tom Cliff	© Tom Cliff
	Band: Quixotics Fred Swan - lead vocals and acoustic Buzz Crisafulli - bass Becky Harrah - backing vocals Gil Hodges - drums Jeff Stevison - keys Tom Cliff - electric guitar and songwriter Recorded at: Metropolis Studio in Columbus, OH in 1993 Abstract: A stream-of-consciousness tune that is a reflection on growing older. Or something.

Odonian Dance	Duane Bowker	© Duane Bowker
	The song is "Odonian Dance" and is about 4 minutes long. The reference to Odonians is from a book by Ursula LeGuin I just finished reading, "The Dispossessed" The Odonians were evidently a group of folks who just got fed up with all the nonsense, so packed up and moved to a new planet where they could start over. Evidently the Odonians had a great appreciation for music, dance and sex. This piece was recorded in my home studio and started as a collection of bassline exercises I use for warm up, woven together in kind of a manic whole. These were layed in with my Casio guitar controller, saved in Texture sequencer software running on a 486PC. I later added the drum lines (played from a hand-made set of wooden drum pad triggers into an Alesis D4), electric piano lines (played from the guitar, synthesis from a Korg M1R), and miscellaneous synth pads (from Oberheim Matrix-1000 and Roland D-50). Once the final arrangement was complete, I created a stereo mix on two tracks of a 4-track deck. I later added a electric guitar section on a third track and then dumped the whole thing to DAT.

Merlinade	Juergen Herre	© Juergen Herre
	Merlinade - piece for symphonic orchestra by J. Herre Instruments used : EMU Proteus I and EMU Proteus II (that's it !)

EC101	Bill Fox	© Bill Fox
	EC101 was originally recorded at the electronic music studio at the Ohio State University in the spring of 1975. It was done on an Electrocomp 101 synthesizer and a two channel, open reel tape deck. I recorded one channel, rewound the tape, and recorded the other channel without listening to the previous material. To prepare the piece for Tape95, I played the original tracks through a BBE and applied EQ at the mixer. The left tape track was fed to a delay unit which returned to the mixer, EQed and panned right. The right tape track was fed to another delay unit which returned to the mixer, EQed and panned left. All four signals were sent to an old Alesis Microverb II and each delay unit's output was cross connected to the other delay's input for a little regeneration.