Now Playing : Labby Road (2008 version)
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I’ve always been a music lover, but in the mid to late 1970?s one composer in particular captured my imagination.
His name is Larry Fast (pictured below) and he is one of the pioneers of electronic music.
Larry created a series of albums under the project name Synergy from 1975 through to the present. He also toured with Peter Gabriel in the 1980′s and frequently tours with The Tony Levin Band. If you are interested in electronic music, I urge you to visit Larry’s Website at Synergy .
Larry Fast made me realize just how much you could accomplish by yourself. In the early to mid 1980′s I acquired a Moog Prodigy synthesizer, and using a primitive “ping-pong” technique with two home cassette decks, began creating my own electronic music. The results were less than impressive, due in equal parts to inexperience, lack of equipment and lack of time. Unfortunately, a career in Information Technology diverted me away from my musical pursuits.
Fortunately, computer technology has now led me back to creating electronic music. Unlike the primitive methods I used in the 80′s, I now exclusively use virtual instruments, computer software which emulates the sounds of synthesizers of the 1960′s 70?s and 80′s as well as real world acoustic instruments, opening up a wide range of possibilities.
Listen to “Labby Road”
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“Labby Road” is my first composition in more than 20 years. Creating it was a very emotional experience for me. It made me realize what I had been denying myself for two decades, and it led me to create this Website so that I can share my experience with you. “Labby Road” is my metaphore for re-disovering my long lost creative soul, something that I urge you all to try. I guaranty that it will change your life.
Listen to “Labby Road Remix”
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I learned a lot of things while creating “Labby Road” and “Long Dive”. I wanted to go back and apply some of what I’d learned in an attempt to fix the mistakes I had made the first time around. I’ve stopped short of re-recording the song from scratch. Instead, I took the original MIDI data, cleaned up some of the timing errors, added a few notes here, took out a few notes there, changed the virtual instruments, added effects on some tracks and slowed the tempo by 5 beats per minute. I’ve also adjusted the levels on all tracks in an attempt to improve the overall sound quality. The result is Labby Road Remix.
Listen to “Labby Road III”
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It was always my intention to go back and re-record “Labby Road” from scratch one day, hopefully after I’d finished eight to ten songs … enough for an album. My mind however, keeps wandering back to this melody, and I’m starting to think that it has been keeping me from completing several other projects that I’ve already started. Like a needy Labrador Retriever, this song keeps shoving it’s nose under my hand for more affection.
So, here is the definitive version of “Labby Road” (for now at least), with better virtual instruments and better mixing. Maybe now, I can move on and put out some new material.