Posted By andrew603

Still here… Just pre-occupied

Just a quick update to let anyone that checks the site that I'm still around, as evidenced by the MIDI Music Adventure Show site more regular updates…

I've been real busy with work the last several months.  I know, typical.

I do have many things planned for the site here if I can ever get to them.  For starters, I'm thinking about consolidating the two sites into just one to make things a bit easier for myself.  As it stands now they are completely different web servers!  Nuts I know!

More updates coming hopefully soon!

Posted By andrew603

A MIDI Christmas RETROspecvitve!

Merry Christmas! Christmas Lights

Ho! Ho! Ho! It's Christmas time again and I have for you all a MIDI Christmas RETROspective!  It's a mix album of some of my older stuff that I do not belive I have posted here.  Basically it's all the good stuff that is not in the 2010 Album!  A lot of SC-8850 Remixes as many tracks were from long before I had the XV-5080 and Fantom XR!

As usual, Merry Christmas to all, and to all: Enjoy the music! 🙂

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A special thanks goes out to Gary of GaryW0001's MIDI Home Page for letting me use his excellent MIDI's and post my remixed recordings of them.

CandlesTrack Listing / MP3 Download Links

  1. Sleigh Ride (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 2:23
  2. Frosty The Snowman (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 2:13
  3. White Christmas (SRX – From 2009 CD) 3:34
  4. Adeste Fidelis (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 2:32
  5. Deck the Halls (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 1:44
  6. Away In a Manger (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 1:54
  7. A Twilight Carol (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 1:44
  8. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 1:24
  9. We Three Kings (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 1:53
  10. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 1:38
  11. Secret Track Revisited (SRX – From 2009 CD) 1:23
  12. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 2:07
  13. Jazzy Merry Christmas (SRX) 2:00
  14. Greensleaves (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 2:55
  15. Silent Night (SRX – From 2009 CD) 2:08
  16. "Snow!"  -A Holiday Medley (SRX – From 2009 CD) 4:11
  17. Ye Merry Samba (SRX) 4:05
  18. A Very TANDY Christmas (SC-8850 – From 2004 CD) 0:46

Download a ZIP archive of all the songs. (may not contain all tracks listed if I forgot to update it!)

 

  • Track lengths indicated to right of title.
  • All source MIDI's used with permission by their author or are considered public domain.
  • If you enjoyed this album and would like to show your support, feel free to make a donation of any amount to my hosting bills.

WordPress keeps putting whitespace in here and i don't know why…  Even when I code the HTML MANUALLY!

Anyway Merry Christmas!

 

Posted By andrew603

More Updates Soon… I hope!

Hey all,

I’ve been extremely busy with work the past few months and have not had time to update my websites due to some intense projects/hours.

I still have a fair amount of content just about ready to upload… It’s only a matter of time.

Also: Diablo 3 has stolen some of my time as well, haha!

Posted By andrew603

New updates soon…

Hey there, just thought I would write a quick post about what's going on with me.

 

I just started a new job a couple weeks ago among other life things..  I do have some new recordings to post here but have just been busy.

 

Stay tuned for some new stuff!  🙂

Posted By andrew603

SN-U110-11 has Godzilla’s Roar!!!

I could not belive this when I was scrolling through the sounds on my newly-acquired SN-U110-11 Sound Effects card using my equally-recently-acquired CM-64!  I had to write a little remix around it.

Short and sweet, here you go.  ROFL!

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Posted By andrew603

More Retro Style Riffs

Here are a couple more "Faux Chiptune" mixes and a recording of E1M1 from Doom as can be heard using my newly acquired Roland CM-64 with Electric Guitar and Rock Drums expansion sound cards!

Enjoy!

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Mario 3 Hammer Bros. – Faux Chiptune

Castlevania 2 – Mansions – Faux FM

Doom – E1M1 – Roland CM-64!

Posted By andrew603

Dear Roland…

I would love a new amazing Roland Rack-Mount Synthesizer that is a true successor to the XV-5080 or Fantom XR.  My friends and I have written up some specifications for the ultimate Roland synthesizer.

I believe the current direction of the industry beginning to leave hardware MIDI synthesizers/modules behind in favor of crappy software instruments is a mistake.  The quality is not there, the "classic sounds" are not there, and in my opinion the simplicity is not there.

Anyway, the main idea/purpose of the unit is MIDI Performance playback / studio recording, not necessarily live/gigging use.  Essentially this one synthesizer would render about 20U worth or racked MIDI equipment I have redundant by providing a single powerful module that truly replaces that equipment sound for sound and adds new exciting functionality for the future.  I also believe the fantastical specifications listed below are achievable with current technology.  I would expect something like this to have a price point between $3,000 and $5,000, which I would happily pay.

So without further ado, here are the specs:

Roland Expanded Articulation Legacy Synthesizer (3U Rackmount)  "REALsynth" or maybe just Roland Legacy

  • Polyphony:    512 for Roland Legacy Engine;  ARX and RLX Expansions have independent and varying polyphony limits.
    • Roland Legacy Engine handles all XV, Fantom X, SRX, SR-JV80, U-110, and GM/GS sounds in any combination.
  • Effects:
    • Multi-Effects:    32 independent systems, 78 Types;  Chainable: up to 4 MFX per chain (IE: You can have 32 MFX for 32 Channels or 8 channels of MFX chains with 4 MFX each!)
    • Reverb:    3 systems to choose from 12 types total;  GM/GS Reverb Mode (taken from SC-8850), Fantom X Reverb Modes, A third all new Legacy Reverb Mode (Stereo Convolution Reverb)
    • Chorus:    2 systems to choose from 11 types total;  GM/GS Chorus Mode (taken from SC-8850) and Fantom X Chorus Modes
    • Delay:    10 types (Taken from SC-8850)
  • MIDI Channels:    64 for Legacy Engine when no expansions are in use.  Channels will get claimed as needed by each active ARX and RLX expansion instrument.
  • Audio Outputs:    Analog 10 TRS Balanced (5 stereo pairs); Digital: 1 Optical, 1 Coaxial, (44.1,48,88,96Khz)
  • Audio Inputs:    1 XLR, 2 TRS Balanced;  Reverb, Chorus, and Delay can be used.  1 MFX Chain may be offloaded to be used.  (XLR and Left/Mono TRS port can not be used simultaniously)
  • Audio Signal:    24Bit/96Khz (Actual sample frequencies vary depending on original waveform source)
  • Display:    320×120-dot Graphic Backlit LCD (Similar to the great XV-5080 display, I can read it from across the room!)
  • Front Panel Controls:    Preferably similar scheme to XV-5080.  Please no touchscreens, for accessibility reasons!  Roland rack units usually deliver in great controls so I'm not worried here.
  • Storage:    Compact Flash memory card (2 slots), perhaps Optional internal SSD option.
  • USB Modes:    MIDI/Performance Mode, Disk Drive(s) Mode
  • MIDI Ports:    2x In/Out, Thru.  In USB Mode, operate as additional MIDI Interfaces for other devices.
  • RAM:        DDR3 up to 8GB (2 Slots)
  • User Memory:    128 Performances per CF Card Up to 128 Patches in 128 Banks per Card (Shared with Compact Flash Sample Storage)
  • Sampling:    Up to 128 Samples and/or Multi-Samples in 128 Banks per CF Card (Multi-Samples Consume 1 sample space for each sample used, limited by CF Card capacity, shared with User Patch memory)
  • On-Board / Preset Sounds:
    • Roland GM/GS Synthesizer (SC-8850 Soundset)
    • Complete XV-5080 Waveforms & Patches
    • Complete Fantom XR Waveforms & Patches
    • Complete U-110 Sound Library (All Waveforms & Patches, excludes consolidated waveforms from the included  SR-JV80/SRX Romset)
    • Complete SR-JV80 Sound Library (All Waveforms & Patches, excludes consolidated waveforms from the included SRX ROMset)
    • Selected SRX Sound Library:  SRX-01, SRX-03, SRX-04, SRX-06, SRX-07, SRX-09, SRX-10 (All Waveforms & Patches)
  • Expansion Capability:
    • 6 SRX Expansion Slots
    • 4 ARX Expansion Slots
      • New Card: ARX-04 Ultimate Strings
      • New Card: ARX-05 Acoustic Guitar
      • New Card: ARX-06 Electric Guitar
      • New Card: ARX-07 Tonewheel Organ
      • New Card: ARX-08 Vocal Designer (Clone of VC2 Vocal Designer)
    • 4 RLX Expansion Slots (All new Roland Legacy Series Expansion Cards!  Complete Vintage Roland Synthesizers with full SysEx compatibility!  More than one of the same RLX Expansion can be used if desired.)
      • RLX-01:    TR-808
      • RLX-02:    TR-909
      • RLX-03:    TB-303
      • RLX-04:    Jupiter 8
      • RLX-05:    D-50 Linear Synthesizer
      • RLX-06:    MT-32 Multi Timbre Sound Module

As a matter of note, I personally could live without any of the audio input and sampling capability, "The Roland Sound Library" is what I am interested in and love!  Also, if it would be possible to include the entire SRX library on-board in the interest of simplifying the hardware (no need for SRX Slots then), that would be even more awesome!

Sincerely,

A Dedicated Roland User

Posted By andrew603

Remix Drafts: Space Quest, Silpheed, and Willy Beamish

Here's some draft version recordings of some remixes I've been working on lately.  Hopefully I will finish them sooner or later!  Enjoy!

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Music From Silpheed – Originally written for my MT-32 from scratch by memory, re-arranged with the Fantom XR and XV-5080.

Willy Beamish Theme – This track uses the Fantom XR, XV-5080, two D-550's and an MT-32!

Space Quest IV – Closing Themes – This track uses the Fantom XR and XV-5080, and is currently using 31 independant midi channels total!  (though not all at the same time… yet!)

Posted By andrew603

Added some new photos and other stuff you may have missed…

I have added a few new photos of my Fantom XR & XV-5080.  Also, if you have not noticed, I am slowly updating the Recording Gear and Synthesizers pages.

I have lots of stuff to post!  It will happen eventually!  🙂

Posted By andrew603

Bouncing Round the Classroom – Remix

My friend Andre composed this piece on his Fantom XR based off a riff he was playing while having some fun with his new Roland SC-88ST Pro using a SYSEX "Preset" I made for my SC-880 (SC-88pro compatible).

Bouncing Round the Classroom (Andre: SC-88ST Pro)

Bouncing Round the Classroom (Andre: Fantom XR)

As promised, here are a couple remixes of it!

Enjoy!

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Bouncing Round the Classroom (Andrew: Fantom XR & XV-5080)

Bouncing Round the Classroom (Andrew: Two MT-32's!)