[ Hypnos Forum ]

[...] and now we know the meaning of VCS3, I wonder what AKS stands for   

A krappy sequencer.

Aye, kool shite.

Just an idea...

Stephen

[...] You got to really want one of these and have patience.

As much as I like the VCS-3 for what it does, there are better and more instantly available options around today.

More cost-effective, too.

Stephen

So here is a successful musician with lots of modular toys......Oxygen was the first electronic music I had heard, guess I was about 12 years old when it came out.  Still love to this day!

Well, a 2600 or a Putney are (semi-)modular in nature but due to their size and the limited selection of modules closer to hard-wired synthesisers like an Odyssey or Mini Moog. Patching is a nice bonus but not the main purpose of a 2600.

It's a great educational toy. So is the EMS.

Stephen

You mean the seller has low self esteem or the buyer? If the buyer I think it's more about ignorance.  EBay is not the only place to buy rare music items.  I think maybe these sellers prey on these types.

Both.

The seller needs to price that item like this to make himself believe he's got something that makes him stand out from the others, the buyer needs to have this in order to make himself stand out... well, you guessed it.

I like the Dutch saying What the madman forks out for it...

Stephen

[...] Stephen Parsick (disappeared from the forum and music making apparently) [...]

Thanks for asking, I'm still around. Now that's a relief.

Making ends meet isn't exactly getting easier but more and more time-consuming. Basically, it's all about art and life interfering with each other .

Running a tiny label enterprise (ho-hum...), being creative, and earning money to pay the electric bill at the same time takes more time and energy I have to spare hence I had to cut back a little (in fact, three years ago I decided to take a sabbatical from releasing music for an indefinite period of time). And gosh, I do need electricity...

I hope to be releasing a new album or two in the course of the year but I am not all too keen on live performances, simply because I do not have the time to prepare myself for any.

Stephen

PS: Thanks Jez... wish we could have had more time for a little chat.

[...] Why will people pay $10.000 for a Leica camera.....[...]

I can´t and won´t speak for the vast majority, but in my case, I´d pay that much for a Leica M5 (with a set of lenses) for the same reason I´d pay that much for a Hasselblad, Nagra IV, or a Glashütte watch -- because they are wonderful pieces of engineering and craftmanship.

There are more practical solutions around.

Stephen

Hi all,

as some of you may know, I released a series of limited-edition CDR albums between 2006 and 2010. As I´ve run out of materials, it´s nearly impossible for me to make these anymore, no matter how much some people have begged me to .

There are currently a couple of them for sale on eBay, I´m not affiliated with the sale but I can confirm they are all legit (I know the seller, which is no surprise at 25 copies each). Here´s the auction, just go from there:

http://www.ebay.de/sch/darkshine!/m.html?hash=item460da390fd&item=300876534013&pt=B%C3%BCcher_Unterhaltung_Music_CDs&rt=nc&_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thanks for reading, and good luck. I hope these albums will find a loving new home .

Stephen

Woo-hoo! 

Stephen

I thought I´d share this with you:

"STAR'S END Update - 9 December 2012 
 Stephen Parsick hears the call of the wild, and answers it. His concert CD Astral Disaster (76'28") plays like a souped-up rebuild of Ricochet or Departure From the Northern Wasteland. Answering The Berlin School's challenge Stephen Parsick and his 'ramp project ratchets up the dramatic tension, nearly matching the intensity of his previous Steel and Steam (2011). Sections of this album extend further into sequencer darkness than even Parsick's closest contemporary (Mark Shreeve and his impressive Redshift project). But to prolong the comparison would undermine Parsick's achievement. Surging and dangerously thrilling Astral Disaster holds us in its grip. The first of two ample live pieces begins with strange drones and an amassing density. Here the composer shows his teeth as sets of deep tones build into complex multi-layered sequencer patterns. Running at full-tilt the bass notes nearly blast out of the speakers - burning in a warm distortion. Gentle electric piano melodies and classic Mellotron voices somehow soften this section's expanding motorized pulse. And with so many rhythms being introduced, brightened, altered and then dormanted the piece never wants for much more in the way of melody. The program concludes with an ascent into brighter territory with crystalline notes echoing through cosmic voices. Parsick focuses the concert program's second half on a more gentle gravity - meant to open vast new spaces within the listener. As a sustaining abstract landscape haunts the soundfield, Parsick works his strange and mysterious spell. Well into this floating zone we sense the engine again turning over. Heightening this work's urgency the sequencer lines gradually run bigger, brighter and bolder - yet the closing moments reveal a tenderness that seemed impossible in the earlier thunder. Never less than intriguing Astral Disaster is not like anything else we will hear this year. Delving deeper into his musical obsessions Stephen Parsick has crafted an album that captures the careening, adventurous spirit of the 1970s without ever seeming overly retro. Astral Disaster, and the concert it was taken from, feels fully willed and artfully conceived.
Please tune in to STAR'S END this weekend for new music from 'ramp and the recent release Astral Disaster

For more on Astral Disaster and 'ramp please access: www.parsick.com

Related Content:
Steel and Steam by 'ramp"

Thanks for this review, chuck!

Reminds me of the Sony PCM-F1 machines which used video tape for recording digital audio like this:



We have these at work just for playing back old concerts from the 1980s, I also mixed my first album (Point of Arrival) on the Nakamichi version back in the mid 1980s. State of the art digital recording at the time until DATs took over.

Ouch.

I used an F1 for mastering once in my life. I am so happy there are alternative solutions around .

I still have hundreds of cassette tapes which cover my childhood days (purchased my first cassette player in 1979) until the mid and late 1990s (this is when CDRs took over). Still longing for another Sony WM-DD II... I had one in the early 1990s, and I literally wore it out. Possibly one of the most robust pieces of kit I´ve ever had so wearing it out took quite a while...

Stephen