Five12 2002 Summit - Report


On December 11 of 2002, Eric Willamson, a.k.a. Suit and Tie Guy arrived via train from Illinois to the great southwest town of Albuquerque for a few days of Hammond organ repair, musical improv, Fattoush, and a bit of sequencer software testing. Though a short visit, it was filled with the craziness that only green chilli, cheap brandy, and a trip to Surplus City can bring. Local host and Five12 proprietor Jim Coker upended the too-small-to-party Five12 Studio and moved it all into the cleared-out dining room.

On Friday the 13th, and Sunday the 15th, Jason Fink (website at dimbulb.org) dropped by to add a bit of his special guitar sound to the proceedings. Sunday was also joined by neighbor and guitar wiz Seth for a tour of the electronic madness in progress and even joined in on Jason's custom guitar for a track or so.

Here are a few pictures from the event. MP3 samples of recorded audio will follow in a few days. (Click thumbnails for large view)

 
The STG-In-ABQ rig
A local Hammond L-100 rigged for direct out into a Pod (with pedalboard), a Korg ER-1, the Five12 Modular (on loan), a powerbook running some mysterious software, a Moog-on-loan, the always handy Mackie 1402, and some assorted rack gear from the massive STG Studios archive: Digitech Studio 400, Electrix Repeater and WarpFactory, MOTU Flaky Express, and a newly acquired Alesis D-4.
 
The Five12 local rig
(from bottom rt), PRS Custom 22, Korg Z1, Yamaha MFC10 pedalboard (w/ 3 Yamaha FC10 CC pedals), powerbook, pod pro, fireworx, blue tube, Roland M120 mixer, Waldorf MicroQ, Motu MIDI lost-note-offs-in-osX interface, Axon NGC77, 22" Cinema Display (on loan), (in foreground rack) pair of MOTU 828's, Mackie 3204, pair of lexicon MPX100's, and finally, the not-yet-figgured-out patchbay. The lovely angled red racks are courtesy the work of local woodworker and guitar-builder Jason Fink (with a bit of help from Jim).

Monitoring for the event was handled gracefully by a pair of Mackie HR824's. Recording was also well executed by MOTU Digital Performer 3.1 running on a really-no-louder-than-any-other-mac Dual 1 Ghz MDD PowerMac.


 
Eric explains some esoteric features of the Steinberger TransTrem
Actually the guitar on display is based on a Klein guitar and was built by Jason Fink, standing to the right. Jim Coker (seated), watches.
 
All this guitar talk makes Jim dizzy
Or perhaps it was the unexpected channeling of Keith Emerson, due to the potent combination of an L100 with a MiniMoog perched on top.
 
The guts of a Hammond L100
Just after being rigged by Eric to run direct. You can just see the 2 10KOhm resistors on the carpet at the bottom of the photo. Eric found the L100 + Pod to be a pretty decent substitute to his usual C3 + Leslie 122 rig at home in IL. All participants found its gritty sound to fit well with the variety of more modern electronic sound produced over the weekend. Also in this shot are a good view of the support for the Minimoog's control panel, and ER-1, and (at the far right), a peek into the side of the Five12 Modular.
 
 
 
Despite some setbacks, a rousing success

Was it the fish pills or the burger? Who knows, but Friday the 13th was a night me an my gut would just as soon forget. None-the-less Eric was able to spend the time getting his makeshift rig in top shape, and as the weekend progressed, we were able to make real progress in the beta testing of the as-yet-unnamed Five12 software product. We were able to reconfirm that there are some bugs in the MOTU MIDI driver for OS X, and that MIDI sync issues are usually directly related to flaky clock reception. We also did our first piece in 5/4, confirming the flexibility of the software, but also pointing out a few issues with odd meters (that will be soon worked out). I managed to produce a CC heavy sequenced line for the modular that was so crazy, I nearly fell off my chair. Getting the last few dozen tweaks done on the software will take some time, but we're all still convinced that this will be an exciting product.