The synth I kept

Moving to another country requires you to seriously pare down your belongings. I brought only what I could fit in my previous car — Rhonda the Honda — which meant I had to be choosy with what I kept. One of the things I kept is my trusty Korg Wavestation A/D rackmount synthesizer.

Long before that fateful day when Karl Mohr and I took our accordions out on the streets of Toronto, I was a synth player, and my favorite synth was the Wavestation, which I bought from my friend, TV/film composer Steve Skratt back in 1992.

I played it during back at Crazy Go Nuts University, in our grungy, Faith No More-esque band, Volume…

…and after I graduated in all sorts of projects including providing sound effects and background music for my work making interactive CD-ROMS…

…to synth jam sessions, such as the time when Steve Skratt, Karl Mohr, and I were part of the group providing the music for the book launch of The Lion in the Room Next Door, which was written by Karl’s mother, Merilyn Simonds:

As I’m in the process of reviving some old computers of mine and bringing them back to active duty, I’m also bringing the Wavestation A/D back to life. Expect to hear it sometime soon.

If you’re curious about what the Wavestation A/D can do, check out this video, which provides a grand tour of this classic synth: