Sadly, two people in the music world who I knew somewhat have passed away within the last week.
Jonathan Sterne, aka JES, is someone I knew from the Lines forum, as well as the one thread that keeps me at TalkBass: “Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing” where we talk as much about synths as bass, and about ambient-appropriate effects probably a bit more than either; it’s where the folks convinced me to go for the Miezo that I like so much.
JES always struck me as kind, thoughtful, clever and creative. At the point where I knew him, he was a very solid bass player and touch guitarist, and was starting to explore modular synthesis and “West Coast” synths like the Majella Implexus. The most recent album he was involved with (that I know about) was this:
As it turns out, he was a professor — a historian of music technology, a scholar of disability, and co-director of the online magazine Bad Subjects: Political Education For Everyday Life. I’ve read essays that he’s written, without connecting them to this nice guy I knew online. (I may have even, without awareness, quoted stuff from another essay in a book he was published in, in a thread he was participating in.)
The other person is more well known among synth geeks: Paul T. Schreiber (aka paults), founder of Synthesis Technology and the MOTM modular synth format, engineer behind the Moog/Tandy Realistic Concertmate MG-1 (one of the world’s first budget synths). MOTM was a format very similar to the original Moog modular format, but with better engineering standards. When Eurorack grew in popularity, SynthTech began releasing modules in that format as well, and Paul became one of the most influential designers in that industry — not just through his products but through sharing electrical engineering knowledge.
Paul was smart, funny, and opinionated; generous and a great storyteller. Aside from interacting with him on forums, I was a beta tester for his E352 Cloud Terrarium, and beta tester #1 for his E370 Quad Morphing VCO. (He shipped me the prototype, had me test it a while and send it on to musician Robert Rich; after a couple of other testers, it was sent back to me and I was allowed to keep the prototype. I eventually wound up selling it, as it just wasn’t as well suited to my own musical needs as some other things.) I had a lot of feedback about the FM on it, and I had a few arguments with him and his DSP guy Andrew Belt (of VCV Rack) over some details but all of the discussion stayed cool-headed and respectful on all sides.
Both of them will be missed. I’m going to dedicate my next album to them, and add one more item to my rules:
- the even-numbered tracks must also include at least one SynthTech VCV Rack module. (Since I don’t own any of the hardware anymore.)