This is a highly compressed MP3 of my sample CD, as of April, 2003. The bit rate is low enough that it can work with most modems, so the quality is definitely not CD level. The purpose is to introduce you to the styles of music I play, and the instruments I use. When I play live, these include a silver flute, various native and native inspired flutes and didgeridoos, a nylon string guitar, and a clarinet. I have other instruments pre-recorded on a background CD which I mix with the live performance, using a portable mixer and amplifier which I take to gigs. I have a 50 watt system for small venues, such as restaurants, and a 300 watt system for larger spaces. This may not seem to be a lot of power, but for the style of music I play, it is more than enough.
The other instruments include various hand drums, such as a conga and a djembe, as well as beaded gourds and shakers. The orchestral and electronic sounds come from several keyboards and synth modules including an Alesis QS7 (not the 7.1, because I have been doing this since 1995), A Kawai K5000, two early Roland rack modules, and a Peavey sampler. The sequencer is Musicshop running on a Macintosh 5300c, Apple's first "Power PC" laptop. Effects are from an Alesis Quadraverb, A Microverb 4, and a 3630 compressor. The electric guitar sounds come from a late model Strat and a Zoom 505 digital effects pedal, except on Full City Roast, where the guitar is a nylon string (but not classical) guitar made by Fender. It all comes together with a truckload of patch cords and a Behringer 2004A mixer, which has 16 channels and 2 effects loops, I am using most of them. Samples and live performances are recorded with an AKG C100s, a very versatile, high quality condenser mike. Most recording and CD burning is done with a Macintosh 6400/180, using Audioshop and Toast. The CD burner is from Teac, and produces very high quality CDs. Teac burners seldom produce "coasters". MP3 compression was done using AudioCatalyst. I also use a multitrack recorder when there are a lot of live tracks. The whole system could probably be built again today for way less than $2,000, if you are good at finding these things second hand. The price on electronic equipment and computers goes down drastically when the new model comes out. No doubt this could all be done with one of those gigahertz computers and some really fancy (and expensive) software, but buying older equipment is much cheaper, sounds just as good, gives you more control of the finished product, and a lot fewer crashes. One thing that can drive an artist crazy is to lose a day's work because the computer choked. Also, most computer generated music seems to lack the human dimension so important to my way of playing.