Sander Roscoe Wolff

As you may know, some years ago I undertook the rather ambitious task of creating a custom guitar. It was an educational experience, fraught with unique challenges but, ultimately, rewarding. A friend pointed out that I’d not recorded an example of its various sounds and whatnot, so I did.

I’m including three links here. The first is

, with a total of 6 tracks. Please be forewarned that the lead is a bit wooly. I hope to improve upon it with some practice. In this early version there are very few effects (some delay and reverb, and gain on the lead).

In

, I added 6 additional tracks. Three are individual notes in a chord, sustained by a device called an e-bow, and played at double speed. I also added a bass guitar part (the only track not played on the Sandblaster) and two one-note harmony tracks at the end of the solo.

I’m also including a very brief example of the

, on their own, so you can get a better sense of them.

UPDATE:

A friend suggested that I add

to the piece.

After living with this first version for a while, I felt that a different reading of the words would work better. I also added some rather complex effects to the voice.

The result is

.

Read the words.

Except for the first one, all of these were taken in our back yard.

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The fam and I spend the last few days romping around San Diego. We barely scractched the surface of balboa park, and wandered joyfully through the Quail Botanical Gardens in Encinitas. Here are some shots:

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My friend Richard insisted that I sign up on Second Life. It is his belief that this, or something like it, is the future of the internet. In case you’re unfamiliar with this program, it is a 3D environment that uses your personal computer in conjunction with Internet-Connected servers. It enables anyone to navigate through the world, and interact with others from just about anywhere. It has its own economy, with millions of dollars flowing through it, and these ‘virtual’ dollars are transferrable into and out of the real world. Users can own, rent, or lease virtual property, build structures, and develop behaviors, activities, and other objects with amazing ease, yet with equally amazing complexity. These objects can be givin physical qualities (weight, reflectivity, stiffness, etc) and, once created, can be embued with all kinds of behaviors and qualities. I’ve not delved too deeply into the building process, but I created a chair, several hats, and my character. You can see these here:

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