History of the Synthesizer - A Brief Look Back

The synthesizer was a long time in the making. The history of
the synthesizer is one that goes back long before electricity -
many of early composers conceived of the concept, but could
never put it into practice. In fact, it would take the invention
of the silicon chip to make synthesizers possible.

The first synthesizers were very crude in their abilities. They
date back well over 50 years. They were wired manually to create
a given sound. They consisted of an oscillator, or tone
generators, in one of three basic waveforms. These were
sawtooth, square, or sine waves. This signal was then passed
through several other modules to alter the initial tone. These
first synthesizers were not triggered by a keyboard like they
are today and they were abstract in their uses.

It didn’t take long for many rock musicians in the 60’s and 70’s
to realize the benefits of these instruments. Many companies
were formed in these days. For example, Moog, Arp, and Oberheim
were some of the manufacturers that would produce the first
synthesizers. Most of these first models were only able to
produce one note at a time. In 1978, the first polyphonic units
were created. They were still typically analog in their design
and had a very distinct sound.

Dates To Know:

1940’s and 1950’s: A variety of different
automated electronic musical controllers were built.

1950: RCA produces an experimental device that
synthesizes voice and music.

1958: Daphne Oram from BBC Radiophoic Workshop
produces the Oramics technique.

1960’s: Real time synthesizers were designed
but were mainly used in studios. They were simply too large.

1964: The Moog Synthesizer was the first to be
displayed at Audio Engineering Society Convention. Four years
later, it was a hot product.

1967: The album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, &
Jones, Ltd became the first album to hit number one with a
synthesizer used on it. It was from The Monkees’.

1970: The first synthesizer with a built in
keyboard was designed by Moog.

Synthesizers enjoyed many innovations over the course of the
following few years. They would become self contained and then
movable, allowing them to be used throughout the home and
recording studios. The synthesizer has continued to evolve and
is widely used today.

Singers - Promote Yourself

START SMALL
Many successful entertainers began their careers from small beginnings. There are many avenues open to you to help promote yourself in the entertainment industry.

You can produce your own posters and sell tickets to your very first concert, in your local area. It doesn’t cost much to hire your local school or community hall. You can invite your family and friends or even advertise your concert more widely. For a few dollars you can advertise in your local newspaper.

If you are even more adventurous, you could organize a tour to some nearby towns. Don’t forget that you can sell your CDs at your own concerts. Make contact with the local music shops who may agree to sell your product for you while you are in town.

THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER IF YOU USE THE INTERNET!

The internet has provided an excellent opportunity for independent artists to become more easily recognized, worldwide. You have a number of different options open to you and you may wish to choose one or more of these.

One idea is to design your own internet site. You can even include samples of your product in the form of mp3s. You can even sell your CDs on the net. If this seems too much of a burden to you, then you can employ the services of a reputable internet site to promote and sell your product.

David Willis - Australia’s Singing Teacher to the Stars!
David Willis has made quite an impact on Australian EDUCATION and the ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. An accomplished pianist, singer and actor, David owns the Gold Coast branch of the Australian Talent School, teaching professionals and amateurs of all ages the art of Singing and Presentation, whilst nurturing their passion for Music and Performance.

As a specialist Singing, Speech & Presentation Teacher for over 20 years, David is proud of his SUCCESS STORIES including Radio Announcers, Sporting Celebrities (e.g. top Australian jockey, Simon Marshall), numerous “YOUNG TALENT TIME”
team members including Debbie Hancock, Joey Dee and Greg Poynton; plus stars from the Musicals,including Dale Burridge (”Phantom of the Opera”, “Les Miserables” and “The Rat Pack Is Back”). A lover of quality choral music, David was co-founder of the Australian Children’s Choir. He has produced more than 30 Australian Cd albums.

For more information or to get onto the CDOrders TALENT BOARD, log onto http://www.cdorders.com

Former Econoline Crush Frontman Trevor Hurst Debuts as HURST!

Rock ‘n Roll does not start until noon.

Which is why I was left waiting for a phone call for 11 o’clock from Trevor Hurst from the band Hurst - it is now 1145am. Shame on me for not knowing better, but trust me the interview that follows was definitely worth every minute, not to mention his performance later that week! I can’t be too hard on Trevor since he has been touring, promoting and interviewing non-stop and when I finally speak to him, his voice has a slightly raspy sexy tone and is very apologetic, but still very charming even at his early hour!

Even though Econoline Crush has had some huge success in Canada with highly acclaimed albums Affliction, The Devil You Know and Brand New History- I was not one of the scores of fans they did gain. Econoline had too much technical wizardry and not enough vocal for my liking. Not so on Trevor’s new 7- song album called WANDERLUST. Trevor says, “ No sequencers or samplers were injured during the making of this record.” Why? Because there are none! This is just one of the many reasons why I love this album so much. Hursts vocals hold strong and carry the music, which is a mix of rock and melodic riffs. Trevor says, “ I wanted to go natural.” He goes on to say, “ The best music can come from a place in your life that belongs to the struggle, and although music comes from many places- sometimes it’s after you have been writing for hours!”

The beauty of Hurst is that they sound just as good live as the EP is recorded. Trevor explains, “ When I am on stage singing, that is when I feel I am at my best. I love being on the road, not so much the grueling hours of travel - just the stage, the crowds and most of all the music! But, performing on stage comes so “natural” to Trevor and it’s no doubt, he was involved in musical theatre as a kid and everything grew from there. Hurst is played a series of gigs opening for Canadian rock band THORNLEY. Take note, if another band of this stature thinks that Hurst has what it takes to hold the weight of opening act - are there any questions?

Hurst is on an independent artist managed by Coalition Entertainment’s Julian Gruhl, but is being distributed by MAPLE and Nationwide through Universal Music. So, although he has opted not to sign again with a major record label, Hurst still relies on them for distribution. Trevor breathes deep and gives me his take on record labels, “ I compare the artist/record label relationship much to that of a pimp/prostitute. As an artist you have your talent and the record company packages it and gets you out there, but at the end of the day you only get a percentage of what that is, most times not even half. Like when a pimp sends a prostitute out in the dress that he bought for her, she works, comes back gives him his money and he hangs the dress back up and gives her a cut.” That may seem like an extreme comparison, but when you really look at it, it makes sense. Of course there are many factors that play into each scenario- they always do.

Away from the buzz of L.A., Trevor finds solstice in his Winnipeg roots. The steady grind and shallowness that often sets the tone in L.A. wore on him and he found that leaving was the best thing for him. Now he is back where he it all came from, living with his wife (yes, he IS married, no kids though and no sign of them) in Winnipeg, writing music and singing songs, doing exactly what “HE” wants!

SOME INTERESTING FACTS ON HURST
Trevor Hurst- English, Irish and Scottish decent (that’s where he gets his good looks!) Canadian born- but WORLD CLASS!

GENE SIMMONS of KISS taught him a thing or two when he was on the road- not what you think! HOWEVER - during Hurst performance I did see a flash of an incredibly long tongue on stage. Most of the crowd (ladies) did a double take!!!

Favourite Canadian Artists- The Trews, Sam Roberts, Leonard Cohen (not Matthew Good)

Favourite Songs - Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones and One by U2

INXS contacted him to be a part of INXS ROCKSTAR- he declined. In fact Trevor despised the entire concept of the show to start with. “INXS should be ashamed of themselves to think that they can replace Michael Hutchence! But I do wish JD FORTUNE well!”

Hustle + Passion + Resiliency

Over the past year and more, I’ve come to really understand what
passion, hustle and resiliency are. If you don’t have the
passion for what you’re doing, how on earth will you really be
successful right? On the other hand, when you really enjoy what
you’re doing, then what you’re attracting into your life is
absolutely fabulous, right? Do you remember a situation in your
life when you really did something because you enjoyed it, and
as you continued, your drive, energy and enthusiasm increased?
How did it feel? Now, wouldn’t you like to have that all the
time, every single day, in every single thing that you do? I
sure do…

Back around 2001, I was really frustrated that I couldn’t get
performances regularly. I probably got invited to play once in 3
months, and I didn’t like that. I wanted to play every week. I
spent some time really questioning myself, my abilities and all
the rest, and sure it was really tough but I had so much
leverage that I really wanted to change and so used my
self-esteem to combat them! For me, my self-esteem builds up
when I see professionals playing and so I went to so many
concerts. I fought hard with my Self 1 and the inner voice
telling me that I’m n the way that works for them, and rubbish.
Then came the secret to my heart, I’ve got to tell people what I
do iunfortunately, it’s different for every single person. I had
to work on getting my communication effective! (I’m sure we’ll
explore this at another date).

Having fought through, I saw powerful results for myself and
with everyone I came into contact with. I attracted performances
every week and soon enough, people just asked me to come along
and perform. It was phenomenal, and I found that I was having an
impact on other musicians as well themselves being recalled to
play with me regularly. It was pure magic, and I was doing what
I really enjoyed.

What I learnt from all that is that its just not enough to have
the passion. If you’re not dedicated to the cause, for example,
getting performances, then how will you be able to strive
towards and get there. The most effective way that I live my
life is to really, and I mean really get clear on what I want
and why I want it. Then, I analyse what I need to do, connect
with the outcome, and just let it appear in my life, simply
through attracting it. In simple, that’s the “strategy” of my
life, and it works magic with all my clients who want to live
success.

The third key thing that I learnt at the same time is that
you’ve got to hold yourself together when you get a “NO” to
performing. Man did I have so many of those! But when you’re
resilient, you have the power within you to quickly dust
yourself off and hit the next name on the list. What I’ve also
found is that these three ingriedients of success are key to my
business, either in getting marketing done, getting clients, and
just seeking opportunities to work with musicians.

What you’ve got to realise is that no matter how much passion
you’ve got, you need to stand firm in your position as being the
best you can be, conveying that message and trusting that
whatever decision the other person makes is right for both you
and them.

I invite you to think about this for yourselves and see what you
could ammend in your approach to making it much more successful
for you. What in your music or personal life could you change a
little? What would really get you going more? What approach
could you take to getting that performance you want?

If you’ve got the hustle and resiliency to develop your passion,
I invite you to take up one of our one-off PERSONAL COACHING
SESSIONS. We’ll work through a particular part of your music,
see what your next step is and we guarantee you in achieving it!
If not, we’ll give you a full refund. It sure is something you
can’t miss.

Be Your Own DJ - Digital Audio Processing Tools Overview

SoundEdit Pro
http://www.deprice.com/soundeditpro.htm

SoundEdit Pro is a digital audio editor for a user-friendly price. It’s the perfect program for home studio recording and for people who are just getting started with audio editing. SoundEdit Pro provides an intuitive, easy-to-use interface and is designed for the everyday user. It has dozens of amazing audio effects and tools for converting audio files into different formats, including MP3, WMA, WAV, Ogg Vorbis and many others. It even includes the possibility to directly load audio tracks! And that’s just the beginning of what you can do with SoundEdit Pro.

Audio Record Wizard 3
http://www.deprice.com/audiorecordwizard.htm

This sound recorder program is designed to work directly with your sound card, so can record almost all audio from your sound card at near-perfect quality. You can record sound from a microphone, line-in, and just about any other programs (such as winamp, realplay, windows media player and others). Direct to disk feature allows you to record sound without running out of memory. Audio Record Wizard can also record directly to the mp3 format if you choose, saving you valuable disk space. You can select the different mp3 recording modes as required.

AudioStreamer
http://www.deprice.com/audiostreamer.htm

AudioStreamer is the Internet radio receiver and recorder that lets you enjoy the thousands of radio stations available on the Internet. While listening to your favorite radio station, you can record any radio station you want, anytime! Browse through the radio stations, selecting a genre and the preferred bandwidth, and enjoy Internet radio! This Internet radio receiver also lets you search for stations by keywords, like ‘top 40′! All radio recordings can be saved as individual tracks, and AudioStreamer automatically adds the correct MP3 tag to the recording.

Cool MP3 Splitter
http://www.deprice.com/coolmp3splitter.htm

There are three methods which you can employ to split your tracks - split by section, split by time and split by size. Whichever you choose to use, you should find it very useful for creating audio CDs from your collection, and you can break up live songs from a recording of a concert you may have into individual tracks. What’s more, the Multi-Thread split technology that the splitter employs ensures that you can achieve the highest possible performance.

EZ-DJ Plus
http://www.deprice.com/ezdjplus.htm

Anyone can mix music like a pro with EZ-DJ Plus. EZ-DJ Plus is a revolutionary program that lets anyone mix high quality DJ sets from MP3s, and have fun doing it! Use the beat-matched DJ Sets provided or import and mix your own MP3 music files. EZ-DJ Plus lets music lovers focus on the fun parts of mixing like scratching, cuts, fades, tricks, and other cool effects.

Former DJ John Deprice shares his secrets of professional music mastering at http://www.deprice.com/audio.htm

Origins of the Mathers Family

Eminem’s roots can be found in Scandinavia through his mother Debbie Nelson and in South Wales through his father Marshall Bruce Mathers II.

But Eminem has mostly Scottish blood running through his veins. On both sides( maternal and paternal sides), Scottish roots can be found.

Back to the 7 th generation on the paternal side, Peter Mathers from Pennsylvania married a Scottish woman named Isabella (last name unknown). On the maternal side, Scottish roots can be found in Marshall’s family in the 6 th generation : Ailsa Mc Allister from Edingburgh emigrated to the United States –precisely to New York in 1870.

Most of the Mathers have been working as farmers in the state of Missouri.

Marshall Mathers I, Eminem’s paternal grandfather has been working as an assistant hotel manager at Plainsman Hotel in st Joseph Missouri and his wife Rae has been employed at Del Cornonado hotel in guest services.

When Eminem’s paternal grandmother Rae died recently in 2002 from an Alzheimer desease , Marshall Mathers II discovered interesting documents related to his famous son like a Christmas card from Marshall addressed to his grandmother Rae.


Ethymology of the name Mathers


Mathers means mower or reaper.


History of the name Mathers

The name Mathers is related to the Scottish Barclay clan. The family Barclay settled down in a place called Mathers in Scotland in the 13 th century. The history of the Mathers goes back to an english immigrant Theobald de Berkeley and his son who owned the estate of Mathers. Alexander was the first to use the surname Mathers.



Pronounciation of the surname Mathers

It is commonly admitted that the surname Mathers is pronounced as if there was an y in the middle of the name : Ma(y)thers .

If you want to know more about the history and genealogy of the family Mathers, you can find some interesting info here :

homepage.ntlworld.com/davepalmer/eminem/credits.htm



I’d like to thank the people who made up this interesting website. I discovered a lot of info about Marshall’s paternal side. I have a lot of info about his maternal side, so I hope to be able to complete his family tree as soon as possible.

I do teach English and German at public schools. I am an Eminem biographer and a freelance music journalist.

Setting Up Your Own Home Recording Studio

I’ve been recording sound for about forty eight years. Some of my efforts have been good; others-well, not so good.
I’m not an expert on sound recording. However, I have been doing it for a long time and I may be able to pass some information on to you if you are just starting.
In fact, I have my own recording studio in a room in my home. I’ve made several records, tapes and CD, even some have sold. I may have made $500 on my effort of 8,000 hours of work but that’s not a problem. If you don’t have much money (and that should be about 80% of you out there) this article might point you in the right direction. I’ll tell a little bit about recording, equipment and the like. Here goes.

There are home recording studios available at music stores and on the web. You can spend up in the thousands or you can purchase a basic one from $200-$1.000. I recommend something like a Boss 8-track recorder. Some of the newer ones even have a CD burner. Microphones you can spend a fortune or you can get a fairly good one for about $100. If you can get a condenser mic that’s usually a good one to start with. If you get it in a store, ask to try it out on one of their amps. If you hear a hum, beat feet in the other direction. The grounding is not sufficient to make this a good mic. Look around-take your time.
You’ll need a microphone stand and you can get them at many places like music stores and the web.

Another thing-make sure the mic cable matches the Recording Studio Inputs on your machine. The standard is the RCA phone plug. If you don’t have a match-you can’t plug your mic in the recording studio.

You’ll need a set of speakers or earphones. Check your wallet to see which one is right!

And please, read the instruction book that came with your Home Recording Studio before you attempt to operate it. Try to read it completely even though you don’t know what they are talking about. Most of this stuff will come back to you once you start recording.

I’m guessing that you have a guitar, keyboard, drum machine or all so I won’t go there. Most new Recording Studios allow you to “hotwire” you guitar into the machine. That is, you don’t need an amplifyer. In fact, most have a big selection of effects built right into the machine. The effects can be used after some grief. After all, you must remember that the instructions and machine options were probably designed by a college graduate. However, with study of the manual, you will be able to overcome the “user hostile” traits of your machine.

Redoing you room-or other area for a recording studio:
If you are a teenager,check with mom and pop before you do anything drastic to a space in their owned or rented dwelling.
Go to one of those big hardware stores near you. They sell this foam padding for carpets. It’s relative cheap and ugly. It’s about a half-ince of foam. This make wonderful soundproofing of the walls,ceilings and floor. You should be able to get a lot of this stuff for about $50. Again, check with you folks before you change the decor of their dwelling if that is your situation.

About Recording Sound-
Sound Level-When recording, keep the idiot light to about 90-100 percent on your machine. Digital has a tendency to just “drop off” if you exceed 100%. In the old analog days, the sound just became muffled. It took me a while to get used to this trait.

In your recording, you eventually have to be smarter than the machine. For example: You’ll want to push the bass close to the 100% level during remix to get the proper level of your finished product. For treble, you’ll need to back off the about 40-50% or it will be just too loud on the finished product. You’ll have to experiment.

Equalizer Controls-The new machines have the treble/bass set up pretty well without messing with these controls. You can improve on this setting but only after study and practive with your machine.

Reverberation-Nifty control that allows you to add the effect of a concert hall, canyon, etc to your track.
Pan-This control allows you to “Place” the vocal, instrument, drum, etc. in an audio area to your left, to your right or in the center of where you are sitting.

Read the book that came with the machine. These are just a few tips are not intended to fully replace the knowledge needed to make and produce a good recording.

On Mix or Remix:
Set pan(s) on all you tracks to make the appropriate spacing of the instruments in an invisible line between the speakers. For start, place the vocal at 12 noon, the drums at 9 o’clock, guitar at 3 o’clock, Bass at about 1 o’clock. Try experimenting until you are satisfied with the set-up. The drums and guitar, if in the same pan area, like 7 o’clock, tend to cancel each other out. I feel that you should have the drums to the left and the guitar slight to the right or to the right.

Back to the mic: Don’t french kiss it. Leave about 5 inches between the vocalist and the mic during recording. You can purchase a sound popper that cuts down on the wind on some words like “push, pain, party, etc”. The sound popper is place between you and the microphone.

This is basic stuff for the beginner. I know that you’ll improve and with practice and study you’ll make studio like recordings of your stuff.

I wish you the best.

(c)2006 Gene M. Smith

Gene M. Smith has been doing recorded sound for over forty years. He operates Lost Land Audio and has had several recordings and one book. His published songs include “Mina de Plata and Black Roses. He lives near Kearnsville,West Virgina

Tomorrow’s MP3 digital music - will it be small with tons of storage, larger with a video screen, or

Tomorrow’s MP3 digital music - will it be small with tons of
storage, larger with a video screen, or non-existent and end up
in a cellphone.

Changes in the market will likely split into all three markets
the way as stated in the title above. Most of it really depends
on the Americans and Europeans and which continent will be more
aggressive in marketing. Basically Europeans tend to like their
gadgets in one source. But Americans seem to have more than one
gizmo on them. Music players probably will not get much smaller
because they are at the limit of there usability.

Future of digital music

Flash memory players may eventually not be able to keep up with
the hard drive mp3 players due to manufacturers working on
potentially offering more storage where 5 to 10 gigabit players
will become available on the hard drive end. Going forward, they
could be all about video and image playback just like they are
now all about music. This will not move forward until
manufactures and software companies are convinced their
copyright is secure since being such a new area in music
development.

Future music around the house

More music digital video will eventually change music listening
at home. Manufactures are constantly creating devices to take
music from a computer and have it play hi fi digital music on
your home stereo. There are a few wireless systems currently
available on the market, like the wireless music centre from
Phillips, the Sonos digital music system, or Microsoft’s media
center extender. Apple also has it own product called airport
express. All of these can stream wireless music around your
home.

Marble Falls Band

Young Musicians Earn Top Honors

Congratulations to all of the seventh and eighth grade students
from Marble Falls Middle School Band (Texas) who traveled to
Howard Payne University in Brownwood on Saturday, February 11th
to participate in the Region 7 U.I.L. Solo and Ensemble Contest.
Students earning a top ranking of first division are:

Solos -

Flute: Tony DePaoli, Luz Hernandez, Codee King, Austin Newport,
Krista Riley, Claire Sembera, Rachel Sultemeier, Melisa
Wagstaff; Clarinet: Sarah Barr, Shayna Baxter, Jody Turner; Bass
Clarinet: Brenda Aguilar; Alto Saxophone: Derek Reed; Tenor
Saxophone: Emma Ramey; Trumpet: Jaron Browning, Brandon Machado,
Jet Rodel, Cristina Silva, Isaiah Vidal; Trombone: JW Bryant;
Percussion / Snare Drum: Timothy Behrens, Chris Torres;
Xylophone: Amber LeCates.

Ensembles -

Woodwind Trio: Kali Marcell, Halea Stanton, Marissa Williams;
Saxophone Trio: Ryan Bendas, Derek Reed, Dustin Rogers,
Saxophone Quartet: Lauren Burney, Bryan Hicks, Nathan Hellrung,
Emma Ramey; Trumpet Trio: Jaron Browning, Bobi Klaeger, Rachel
Schelde; Trombone Trio: JW Bryant, Beth Ratliff, Jeri
Thompson; Percussion: Timothy Behrens, Tiana Clark, Jack
Guenther, Cage Johnson, Walker Klingsporn, Amber LeCates, Jared
Marcus, Shiloh Ribera, Austin Sellers, Chris Torres.

A total of 49 medals were awarded to the students. Special
thanks are extended to Mrs. Rebecca Brasuel, Mr. Larry Sherwood,
and Mrs. Paula Brakhage for accompanying the soloists on piano.
Middle school band directors are David Langford, Rachel Faehnle,
Ron Davis and Brad Behrens.

Voice Lessons Can Help

I have always been blessed with a natural singing voice, or so I’ve been told. In fact, that belief was what propelled me to launch my career as a singer in a rock and roll band. We have been performing onstage now for over five years with some success, but I often worried about the career I chose.

Why? After most gigs, I would be terribly hoarse for days afterwards and I would start to worry how long my voice would last. Maybe I was doing something wrong. So I started looking for professional singing teachers and they actually helped.

There are dozens of singing teachers who offer their services online on the internet and they are a good source of help. Believe me when I say that you cannot learn vocal lessons from a book. You need someone to interact with, someone who can answer your questions and critique your technique as well as correct your mistakes and teach you proper breathing. There are some things you can pick up from a book on vocalizing, but for best results, there’s nothing like a singing teacher who can give you hand-on guidance.

I’ve had my share of different singing teachers ever since I made my decision to learn about proper signing technique. The sad truth is, not all of them are good, so be very selective especially when you are starting out. For instance, my first teacher was just horrible. It sometimes seemed like she had no idea how to sing and I felt myself being scammed. I tried to give her a chance for a few lessons, but things were clearly not improving. I was left with no recourse but to find a new teacher.

Thankfully, my next singing teacher was better, but he was aloof and I wasn’t comfortable with him personally. He just seemed to be too hands-off for me. He would always cite his past experience with overcritical singing teachers, but it was obvious that they had influenced his teaching style and not in a good way. He believed that his students should be free to make their mistakes and learn from those without much guidance or correction, and this didn’t quite jibe with my learning style. I’m the kind of person who thrives on feedback and he just wouldn’t provide any. Again, we had to part ways.

I have found that the best singing teachers are those who have great teaching skills and with whom you click with on a personal level. I guess it’s no surprise then that my very best singing teacher was a personal friend of mine who just happened to be in training to be an opera singer. He always enjoyed explaining things to me and, since we were friends, we communicated openly. Although I’ve studied with other teachers who are more knowledgeable, there’s still no one who has taught me more than my friend.