Shiny Things

Music

My first piano lesson was the day before my fifth birthday. I often combined computers and music, like in my live performance software PatchMaster and SeaMaster. Both stem from an older program I wrote called KeyMaster I originally wrote on the Commodore 64 and used on stage for years. I later ported it to the Atari ST and rewrote for the now-defunct BeOS.

My 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, and started playing out with a band again in 2013. Everything from progressive rock to dance pop to electric jazz; covers and originals. Here’s a video of Miles at Connelly’s in Times Square, New York City in 2013. I’m the guy with the beard and glasses stuck to the side of the stage. There’s also another group of us that gets together every week or two to jam and learn songs from the ‘70’s - today that we like and can put our own spin on.

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.

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

Software List

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 and SimpleSynth for testing MIDI apps I write.

Old Gear

Just for fun, here’s a list of my old gear. I can’t remember everything I’ve ever owned — I started playing in bands in the late ‘70’s — but here’s what I remember that’s not in my current setup:

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.