My first piano lesson was the day before my fifth birthday. In the past, I often combined computers and music, like my now-defunct live performance software KeyMaster, originally written on the Commodore 64, ported to the Atari ST, and redesigned for the now-defunct BeOS. I've worked a bit on a new version for Mac OS X, but it's nowhere near usable.

The MIDI reference has moved here. It's not a tutorial. Rather, it is intended as a quick overview and a reference guide.

I performed in bands from 1980 to 1993. Everything from progressive rock to dance pop to electric jazz; covers and originals.

I write different kinds of stuff. Most of it is funk/dance/pop, but I also dabble in orchestral, Sondheim-esque pieces, game show themes, thirty-second newsroom background music, and whatever else tickles my fancy.

Perhaps some day I'll post some snippets of my music. Aside from the typeset pieces below and the sequencer and MIDI files of the music I've done on my own, I only have one crappy cassette of a bunch of works-in-progress from the late '80s. It's dated but good stuff. The sound quality is horrendous. Also, the tape broke so I'll need to repair it one day.

I now keep all my collection of music-related links on del.icio.us.

Compositions

Here are three pieces I composed that I've typeset using LilyPond.

Equipment collection

Here's a tech-head's view of the tools I use to create my music.

Equipment List

Kurzweil Midiboard

Korg Wavestation

A big honking seven-foot rack, affectionately called the "Think Tank". Most of the equipment in it was originally mounted in a homemade, rolling, chest-high rack along with a Commodore 64 running my own real time MIDI performance software. PatchMaster. is the current incarnation of that software. It runs on Mac OSX, Linux, Windows, and on the JVM.
- Kurzweil K2000RS (R = rackmount, S = sampling)
- Kurzweil 1000PX
- Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter
- Yamaha TX81-Z number one; displays "Welcome to the..." on power-up
- Yamaha TX81-Z number two; displays "Think Tank!" on power-up
- Alesis D4
- Yamaha RX5 drum machine
- Mackie LM-3204 mixer
- Yamaha MV802 mixer
- Emagic AMT8 MIDI interface
- Roland SDE-1000 digital delay
- Korg DRV-2000 digital reverb
- Crest Audio FA901 power amp
- Two rack-mount power strips
- Akai ME10D MIDI "digital delay" (echoes MIDI data, optionally transposing it up/down one octave)
- Opcode Studio 5 LX MIDI interface (unused)
Korg CX-3 organ
Moog Source
Roland Axis-1 (strap-on MIDI keyboard)
Three empty six-space racks from the olden days of live performance
Speakers:
- OAP wedge
- Home-made (by someone else) piece of crap
Ibanez SR505 5-string bass
Fender Stratocaster
Chapman Stick, 12-string Grand Stick—5 bass, 7 treble, classic tuning (I'm finally getting serious about learning to play it.)
Yamaha U3 upright piano, but it's in the living room along with the ukelele, mandolin, and recorders but far away from all the electronic gear
Apple MacBook Pro laptop

Software List

REAPER Digital Audio Workstation
LilyPond for music notation typesetting.
impromptu for real-time performance. See my Github impromptu repo.
Overtone for SuperCollider-based synthesis via Clojure
Tracktion 3, which I don't use any more
I wrote my own real-time performance program called KeyMaster that I used live from 1986–1993. Its first incarnation was on a Commodore 64, later ported to the Atari ST. I half-heartedly started a Macintosh version. The next was the BeOS version. For the latest instantiation see PatchMaster.

This is not a complete list of all the music software I have. Since switching to Mac OS X, I've downloaded a number of utilities such as MidiPipe, though I don't use them much.

Vaporware List

This is a really old stuff I wanted.

A 50th anniversary Voyager Anniversary Edition Minimoog. Because it's so cool.
A Waldorf Q. Drat; Waldorf has gone out of business.
An EQ.
Studio monitors.
A bass amp.
An amp or pair of amps for the Stick.
A Stratocaster and amp.
Some stereo multi-effects box. Ten years ago, I used to lust after the Ensoniq DP/4+ parallel effects processor, but I'm not even sure if they make 'em any more.
Chapman Stick MIDI upgrade. This is lower on my list.

Band List

Here are the bands and orchestras I've played in over the years. Believe me, you've never heard of any of them.

Starfire (electronic piano, junior high)
RI Youth Orchestra (contrabass, junior high, high school)
All-State band, orchestra, jazz band; One year, both orchestra (contrabass) and jazz band (electric piano, high school)
Just Once (electric piano, trumpet, high school)
Once Again (electric piano, trumpet, high school)
King Lizard Revival Jass Band (trumpet, high school) ("Jass" is the original spelling of "Jazz")
Camelot (conductor and music director, high school)
Guys and Dolls (conductor and music director, college)
Sinequanon (keyboards)
Artisan (keyboards)
Perfect Stranger (keyboards)
Shy264 (keyboards)
Boys With Toys (keyboards)
Optional Stop (keyboards)
Uncommon Ground (keyboards)