I found some more demos that I didn’t even remember doing back then. I’ve been listening to them every night thinking I was really good at one time. Everything you hear in these demos was done live with no multi-tracking.

But, of course, back in the early 90’s, when these were done, you played OMB almost every day, if not at a party, then certainly at home. Because the economic meltdown had not yet happened corporations, stores, car dealers, insurance companies, libraries, schools, VFW‘s…..and…..your ordinary man in the street had a party for any reason at all. If it was your dogs birthday, you had a party, if a store or manufacturer wanted to complement a promotion, bingo, you were there providing live music, couples were having lavish weddings and hiring real musicians, etc. Music was HAPPY and FUN in those days, not somewhat somber, profanity-laced and aggressive as it is today.

So I look back at these demos and the memories it brings, and I think about the FUN part of it and I wonder if I could do it all again at this age. For me it was the styles. They were authentic and carefully put together back in the budding stages of OMB-ing.

So the instrumentation on these was….for the styles unit I used the Roland Pro-E arranger keyboard with the zillion styles I had for it, both internal and external rhythm bank ($400 MSL-15 MUSIC STYLE SUPERCARD) and individual $60 style cards. Many were song-specific as in the La Bamba piece. And the sound quality was almost as good as it is today. You’ve got to hand it to Roland. They might not be top dog in sales, but they’re Numero Uno in no-nonsense music products over the years.

My lead sounds were from a DX7 II FD that I tweaked to the bone with a DX7 software application on an Apple computer to mix the algorithms . Playing against the DX7 was my Roland U-20 that I used a lot for the trumpet and brass.

Where you hear one lead instrument overlapping the other, the secret is….say, you’re playing a right hand melody and you want to bring in another instrument on top of it (not AFTER it). Start the “run“ on the other instrument with your left hand BEFORE you finish the notes on your right hand. Within the first measure on your left, switch hands while keeping the “run” smooth so you‘re playing again with your right hand. Or…on songs with only a few chords, play a different melody with each hand at the same time. You’ll hear that throughout Have Navighla and Tea for Two.

On La Bamba I set the marimba to repeat and played thirds. That comes in handy for songs like Spanish Eyes, Yellow Bird, etc. Also I had a Roland Vocoder that I used in it.

On many of the songs, I used the “guitar” patch” on the DX7 that I made up from scratch. That and the Roland trumpet became my signature lead sounds.

My singing has matured a lot since those days, I don’t even remember my voice being that clear back then. And I certainly don’t remember having to eat before a performance.

It would be nice to hear some comments up front this time around. Not just the playing, but also the creativity in instrument usage. It took me hours to get the songs off the cassette tape and into a digital format. Sorry they didn't transfer that well.

can only fit 4 mp3's at a time

That is great to hear those tunes on classic gear after all these years. The quality of those old keyboards sounds good. It just goes to show that although it is old school technology it still sounds good. That is why there are so many hits singles made with the same gear that will always sound good. I love the DX7 Series. And I remember that DX7 editor on the Apple 2. I was so impressed with it I programmed an editor like it for the Commodore 64 to program my TX7.

In 1992 when I first came to Los Angeles I recorded an original tune using the very meager MT32 with a friend of mine Chris Woods playing guitars. While the MT32 wasn't the most capable multi timbral instrument it still worked well enough for us at the time. We recorded this in an apartment in Yucca St Hollywood. I also lifted this from a cassette recording from over 26 years ago.

Great stuff to look back on and reflect !! And of course those recordings could do with a big wallop of EQ now, in particular the highs but then you get the hissing as a bonus.
Delving into my (arranger keyboard) past I came across this 1992 recording with my first arranger keyboard, the Roland E70. Recorded on an old Sony tape-deck and basically in one take, though listening back I assume I added another vocal track by pingponging on the stereo tapedeck !!!
https://app.box.com/s/i3g7wcumztibndr567ormqyxuvjwteqw

regards
John

enjoyed them Mark, thanks

Yours too Nigel and John!

Very nice listening to them all,I honestly think that the majority
of audiences are not interested whether it`s an old Roland E20
or a Genos arranger, as long as they are enjoying what they hear.

Wow! Great stuff, guys.

Gary