Andy 

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Sit back and Relax. I'm mostly harmless... Open your heart and join me on a somewhat lame yet coffee-table interesting journey as I...

• Chapman Stick #686
• The Chapman stick was developed during the seventies by Emmett Chapman. A normal stick has ten strings tuned similarly to a guitar on it's five string melody register (in ascending 4ths) and five in a bassier register (in descending 5ths to the C just above the B' on a 5 string bass). It uses a stereo pickup and cable, which allows separate amplification and processing of the bass and treble halves of the instrument. The instrument is usually played by tapping the string against the fretboard, resulting in a chimey pleasing melody/chord sound, and a woody, growly bass sound. To hear some Chapman stick, go no further than the King Crimson classic, Elephant Talk (from the first Adrian Belew/80's lineup classic album - Discipline), which starts with a stick solo as played by Tony Levin.
• Bass (Four string fretless no brandname)
• Bass is probably my favorite instrument to play. I enjoy playing unique basses like the Ampeg Baby Basses, Zons and Steinbergers, but can't seem to afford one. As with most of my instruments, I use long sustained notes and pride myself on a minimalist playing style.  Learn to play one note that says many things, not many notes that say nothing...
• Guitars
• Gibson Les Paul
• Great for long sustained notes. Perfect for E-Bow, slide and other alternate means of playing guitar. My best built, best sounding guitar.  A joy to play.  I was anti-Gibson for a long time, as I enjoyed the flexibility allowed with three pickups and a whammy bar, but the Les sounds really good, and often stays in tune over several weeks.
• Yamaha Pacifica
• Weighs nothing, sterile tone, thinnest neck around, sounds like a electric shaver through bad distortion. This guitar stays in tune forever, and weighs nothing. Perfect for extended jams of all kinds, and the best bang for buck performer out there when I bought it.
• Ibanez Roadstar
• Perfect for Steve Vai and Joe Satriani licks. Currently collecting dust.
• Fender Squire Strat
• My closest to first guitar. My first guitar, a white Yamaha electric, was stolen by "friends" strung out on nose drugs many years ago. This one is all black,and proudly displays it's discount heritage in it's "Designed by Semour Duncan" Kramer pickups gutted from a Kramer Striker 2000. Sounds and plays well, as a result of years of late nite garage adjustment sessions.
• I posses several other guitars and modified guitars that I keep around for tonal anomalies, or becuase of weird work I have done to them rendering them unsellable (heavily scalloped necks, custom circuitry, etc) or because they carry alternate tunings well (nashville is a fave for rhythm guitar work, and open D for slide).
• I have a no name drum kit that has withstood over 10,000 estimated poundings. I can't really play it, but I keep trying. Boom...Klang.!..Boom.....
• Keyboards and Other Electronicrap
• Korg X5
• The Korg X5 is my main deck. I use it as a composition tool, and more recently for getting back into the first music I first used synths for, sequenced electronic music. When I first started out in 1990, I was more interested in ambient soundscapes and soundtrack music, but as my tastes have changed I find myself gravitating towards various brands of techno.
• The X5 is a great deal, at about $650 out the door if you feel like beating up salespeople (actually I guess if you're really good, it's free). Great for big, fluffy, trippy, swirly sounds, as well as having some great working drums... well, I guess it's a good scratchpad for ideas.  It is very similar in sounds and interface to the legendary M1.
• Moog Prodigy
• Probably heresy for dyed in the wool Moog fans, I really love the sound of this board. Just enough filters and twiddleknobs to get me into trouble, with a simple enough layout to get me with a sound I can use within seconds. Despite a lot of reports to the contrary, I only need to tune this once a gig, and it doesn't ever really heat up or go screaming out of tune. Big bass and some great leads. No MIDI though... good thing I can sorta play if the weather conditions are right.
• Yamaha SW60XG
• I never thought I would love a PC card based synth, but this one is pretty darn nifty. It's XG compatible, which means it uses documented standards for tweaking... so I can tweak. Tweaking music is good. Tweaky music tweaks people in return, and when people get tweaked from music, I tend to get this grin. I'll shut up now.
• Novation Bass Station Rack
• Had it, sold it, getting it back. Not a 303, but it is a pretty good cheesy mono synth with some excellent midi implementation for the price range.  Might decide t go with a TeeBee 303 instead though (a kit built imitation that in my opinion yeilds a great sound, minus that 303 slide).
• Alesis HR-16 Drum Machine
• I love this thing. Easiest sequencing in the world. Too easy. I mean it. Great source of semi realistic cheesy dry drum sounds. Offers tuning up or down 16 half steps on every drum. Makes cool Jungle beats.  Doesn't work too well with my sequencer, but it's a great little box for working out rhythmic ideas.
• I'm borrowing an Ensonic ESQ-1, a hunk of junk that has a weird mode allowing the MIDI control of 8 mono patches... tranceline central I say... it also gets some great noise and woodblock/pole type sounds... pretty essential for the type of techno I'm trying to write these days.
• On a geekier tilt, I use a great majority of sounds from the ever versatile Yamaha SW60XG sound module (which fits in a computer). For control of my rig, I use an Acer Power Pentium Pro 200 (which has, much to my chagrin never had a problem) as well as some other goodies. My software of choice for sequencing is Cubase, but they haven't gotten the audio part right so I'm currently whacking along with my Cakewalk for final tracks and only using the Steinberg stuff for original part construction and working out filter lines, saving it all to SMF of course for import.
• Technics 1200SLmkII
• I finally have two turntables after almost a half year with only one.  The 1200 is one of the most solid pieces of hardware I own, and is really amazing.  I keep my tonearms tipped with Stanton Trackmasters, which I find similar in performance with a slightly 'cheaper' feel and cost than the Ortofon Concordes. At it's simplest, it plays records, but in the hands of a DJ it takes on all the characteristics of a musicial instrument (I'm aspiring to this point as we speak). I occasionally DJ smaller parties, and look forward to bigger opportunities as my skills and music collection develop (I've played a couple parties around 400-500 people now).  I specialize in trancy techno house crud... don't know if that's a legitimate style. I get busted for being weird sometimes, but I've been fortunate enough to have a couple good reviews and a couple really nice people who actually ask when I'll be playing.
• Intimidation Blue
• This mixer fuckin rocks (pardon my French).  Made by a small company in England, it is a full size DJ mixer with three band rotary EQ and kill switches for each channel.  This allows unique mixing possiblities like stealing a lead synth or vocal line from one track and layering atop the bass and hi hat from another.  It's bass cut can also be used to put together music that would otherwise trainwreck due to delay in the kick drum or a super fat bassline.  I also find it's control layout totally intuitive.  This is my main mixer, which I use together with a DOD dual mono digital effects processor on the effects loop to fatten up minimal tracks with some reverb or delay. On a somewhat sadder note, despite all this mixer's strengths, I cannot recommend it until Initimidation...
• a) Mentions that it is mono in ALL advertising and promotional gear
• b) Fix my scratchy ass crossfader
• c) Fix my scratchy ass headphone cue
Well... the president of Intimidation actually came by the house and picked up our mixers and fixed all this stuff, so I stand corrected.  I have also talked to several other users of the other Intimidation products and they seem most satisfied... the Blue is back in shape, and other than the mono thing I'm really happy with it for now.  Might even consider an Apex when I'm in the market for another mixer...
• Gemini PMX-2001
• Here it is... the most awesome mixer ever.  Okay, I'm kidding.  But:  I will give credit where credit is due.  The crossfader works.  The whole thing still works (except the shitty little light they threw in when I got it which worked for less than a week).  The stereo EQ is cool.  No effects routing, no tone controls for each channel, no pan controls, no trim pots, and it only supports two turntables (without an outboard preamp) despite it's four channels.  Why keep it... two words: outdoor parties.  Plus it's good to have a mixer you can put stickers on, or drool on without feeling awful. Did I mention it's also really cool for when your friend who mixes CD's comes over?  Four channel mixing is a really good feeling, especially for ambient type performances, where you can concentrate on beatmatching your vinyl and cue up CD's with spoken word, drones and the occasional beat.
• When making tapes, I usually record direct to MiniDisc, a Sony format that despite some complaints on account of it's compressed data storage format, sounds very good as an analog tape master.  I record as hot as the MiniDisc will take it without clipping, and then experiment with recording different levels to analog cassete tape.  This allows me to screw around until I get the perfect tape saturation and EQ balance, allowing the best possible quality to those I make my tapes for.

• I rave (aka party, aka run around like a dufus, help out, work door, aka visit events...) from time to time. Raving is a wonderful way to meet people, listen to great music, and happen to be at the events that have been shaping our culture for the past couple years (and I believe will continue to).
• What's it all about anyway?
• I also occasionally spin records at underground parties.
• It's a great way to eat up otherwise usless spare time (since I don' watch TV, I have time for a lot of other stuff). I love to get immediate feedback from a crowd, and I feel there are few situations that allow a performer to get so close to a group of people. I like to play various types of sets, ranging from ambient and downtempo to trance/techno and progressive house.

• Experimental Mixed Drinks
• Guaro (the Drink of Costa Rica)

I helped start a tech support division for a PC company in Costa Rica. I attended training in Taipei, Taiwan.  I rode the metro in Paris when I was three, but have no recollection of it. Went to Disneyland for graduation. A+/Win95 certified. Kicked out of the California State capitol building for not wearing shoes. Drank hundreds of cappucinos at the Mad Hatter in LA. First job was building boxes and packing them with filmstrips for learning disabled children. Been to many Grateful Dead concerts. Flown a glider. Worked in a building that got levelled the morning of the Northridge quake in LA. Got dropped by hostile entity onto a tent in Parker, Arizona. Saw the first three Lollapaloozas. Built a six foot high water pipe in plastic shop in high school. Once met the actor that played Freddy Krueger in a Utah bar. Shook hands with Eddie Van Halen. Asked Detroit DJ Juan Atkins what his name was to his face at a party he was headlining. Wore my "Snoopy Red Baron" pajama top to school in 5th grade on accident. First used a computer at 9 years old. Fell asleep at a Ministry concert. Read Dune in it's entirety within 24 hours of opening it when I was 12. Seen King Crimson play live three times. Had chicken pox when I was eight. Thought Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker got married during the ceremony at the end of the first Star Wars. Was standing almost right where JFK got shot before I realized that he was in fact assasinated in Dallas. Got pulled over driving 105 by an LAPD officer and didn't get a ticket. I am miserably addicted to dark chocolate. Once drank three gallons of BASS ale in one day while working ren faire. Saw the Smashing Pumpkins play at the Whiskey a Go Go when nobody loved them. Worked at Renaissance Pleasure Faire for two years. I drive the ugliest car in my company's parking lot. I speak Polish. Once built a coke can that took off and beaned a friend in the leg. Sorry Craig...