On 12 Sep 2009, at 6:36pm, Tomás Mulcahy wrote:

Hi,
Can you please pass this message on to the Beatles remastering team, especially Guy, Steve and Allan? Fantastic job, it’s like rediscovering the Beatles music all over again. Wonderful sound, well done. Beautiful packaging design and presentation of photos.

Thank you all!

Best wishes,
Tomás.

On 18 Sep 2009, at 1:11 pm, Newson, Jackie wrote:

Dear Tomás
On behalf of the team at Abbey Road I would like to thank you for the courtesy you have shown in emailing us with your kind words. When we embarked on this project we realised that it would be impossible to please everybody, particularly in view of the fact that this was The Beatles. However once we had decided on the approach that the team wished to take to satisfy ourselves, we then had to get the approval of Apple and EMI. Once that had been achieved the job was done, we were happy, Apple and EMI were happy and we are gratified that you too are happy.

Thank you.

Allan Rouse
Project coordinator

Needless to say it sounds great!

My brothers and I put this on the stone on Mushera where my father passed away. There is a lovely article here by the people of Millstreet.

Briefly:
What you have here is a selection of the best, most unique sounds the CZ has to offer. I think you’ll be surprised at what this synth can do. I’ve been using these synths since 1992, so as you can imagine I’ve built up a big library and explored in depth what these synths can do. I’ve left out typical sounds such as strings, brass etc. that are done better on other synths, or are done to death on other sample libraries. Although there is one very special string sound, created by layering two patches with special pitch modulation in the CZ envelopes and no Kontakt trickery- you won’t believe it’s a CZ.

So I hope these sounds add something unique and useful to your library.

Read all about the Casio CZ series of synthesizers here.

Furthermore:
I’ve made the sounds as authentic to the original machine as possible. This is not a CZ that’s been made “phatter” or “heavier” or “wider” using effects and Kontakt trickery. However, in some cases I’ve taken the opportunity to improve the sound where appropriate. I feel that what you have here is a CZ with all the character plus a few hot rod enhancements for professional studio use.

I’ve used some of the modulation and effects inside Kontakt to recreate some of the Casio parameters that do not sample well. For example, vibrato in most of the patches comes from Kontakt, not the Casio. I’ve used various settings of either the chorus or flanger to recreate the onboard chorus of the CZ when it is an important part of the sound. I’ve also taken the opportunity to “stereoize” some effects where appropriate. For example some of the sounds have stereo echo, where a mono echo effect would have been done with the envelope in the CZ. The electric piano uses a stereo tremolo effect, whereas on the CZ this would have been a rather limited mono tremolo effect using the envelope.

Many of the sounds use the layering capability of the CZ-1, as well as the velocity modulation. You’ll see that some sounds have up to three levels of velocity sampled. On the CZ-1 this is actually quite a clunky feature, so with some sounds I’ve used a low pass filter to augment or replace the velocity to DCW (CZ filter) modulation. So in many cases the sounds are actually more responsive than they are on a CZ.

Why 16 bit?
The CZ uses a pretty funky 12 bit companded DAC running at 40kHz, so a modern 16 bit/ 44.1kHz audio interface is more than sufficient to capture the full dynamic range. Plus I think it’s a waste of space and resources to use higher sampling rates/ bit depths. So you’ll notice that these sounds load very fast, even where there are lots of samples used. To this end I’ve also not gone overboard on multisampling, but I’ve done enough so that in an A/B test with the real machine, there is no audible difference. So there are only three sounds where it was appropriate to sample every single pitch on the CZ.

The compressed dynamic range of the original DAC is used in some of the sounds. There are a couple where the tone changes randomly with each note played as the internal DAC creates audible glitches. It’s great on some of the bell sounds, and one particular bass sound is very special- check out Chop Bass. I’ve captured this using up to 4 “round robin” samples in some cases.

For the same reason, layering on the CZ often sounds better/ different than layering inside Kontakt. So I’ve avoided any layering in Kontakt because it wouldn’t be authentic to the original CZ sound, and it offers the user greater scope for creativity.

So we’ve set up a new shop here and here where you can download tracks.

Some folk like to hear the sound coming from the actual sampler, they say it’s better. Well here’s a pretty good comparision test. It’s the intro to the Pet Shop Boys West End Girls, using the Emu Emulator II Marcato strings. One file is the Emu sound files imported from the original disc into Kontakt using the wonderful EMXP, the other is the sound sampled from the output of an actual Emulator II; analogue, naturally.

Which do you prefer?

EII strings A
EII strings B

mp3 versions:
EII strings A
EII strings B

Without the light from the sun all life on earth would cease to exist. From this we can reasonably conclude that the sun is the source of all life.

Since God created all life we can further conclude that the sun is God, or at least an instrument of God. Many ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians, Aztecs and African tribes believed that the Sun was a God.

When things get burned they carbonise. This is what would happen if we moved closer to the sun i.e. closer to God. Fire, the artificial means of carbonisation created by man, replicates the effect of the sun, fooling the object into believing that it is moving closer to God.

This is why Toast Tastes So Good (yum!).

The bread is transformed from an ordinary food source into something that believes it is closer to heaven, which is reflected in its taste.

This is also why the ‘Body of Christ’ in Christian services is represented by a piece of toasted wafer.

Another example of carbonistion bringing us closer to God is the desire to obtain a tan which, like the toast, converts ordinary pale skin into something glowing and God like.

The book of common prayer based on text from Genesis 3:19 shows that in death, returning the body to dust through cremation can bring us back to God:

In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to Almighty God our brother, and we commit his body to the ground; earth to earth; ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless him and keep him, the Lord make his face to shine upon him and be gracious unto him and give him peace. Amen.

Peter Gabriel is a long established rock musician who’s music has reached people all over the world. We can reveal here for the first time that Peter Gabriel is in fact the Messiah, and that he has left us a number of clues over the years that help to reveal his true identity. Let us examine the evidence:
•Peter shares his name with St. Peter and the angel Gabriel.
•He was a member of the band Genesis, the first book of the bible.
•He often uses religious themes, for example, the song The Blood of Eden; the Passion soundtrack for The Last Temptation of Christ and his CD-Rom Eden.
•Sinead O’Connor who appears on the song The Blood of Eden went from being a wild child to becoming a priest after befriending him.
Does she know something we don’t?

The greatest evidence we have is in the lyrics of his song Solsbury Hill where he describes how he met with God and how he revealed him that he was his son.

Let us examine the lyrics of the song:

He was something to observe
Came in close, I heard a voice
Standing stretching every nerve
Had to listen had no choice
I did not believe the information
[I] just had to trust imagination
My heart going boom boom boom
‘Son’, he said ‘Grab your things,
I’ve come to take you home’.

He is describing how he was told by God who he really was and how he had to come to terms with his status.

Later in the song he sings:

To keep in silence I resigned
My friends would think I was a nut
Turning water into wine
Open doors would soon be shut

He is saying that he has decided not to tell anyone about what he has learned in case he’s branded a lunatic. He also thinks about what new possibilities there are for him because he has miraculous abilities. He contemplates how his life has suddenly changed.

In the last verse he sings about how people are oblivious to his true identity and that at some point in time he will reveal his true self:

When I think that I am free
Watched by empty silhouettes
Who close their eyes but still can see
No one taught them etiquette
I will show another me

Peter clearly feels he had this role thrust upon him against his will. In an interview with Musician magazine in June 1989 he stated:

Christianity is poured deep in my consciousness, whether I choose to or not.

To finish though, If you believe that Peter is the Messiah and that rock’n'roll will save your soul, take heed, because he also gave this warning in the 1972 Genesis song Apocalypse in 9/8:

666 is no longer alone,
He’s getting out the marrow in your back bone,
And the seven trumpets blowing sweet rock and roll,
Gonna blow right down inside your soul.
Pythagorus with the looking glass reflects the full moon,
In blood, he’s writing the lyrics of a brand new tune.

It’s all very simple:
1. Start with the given: CUTE PURPLE DINOSAUR.
2. Change all U’s to V’s (which is proper Latin anyway):
CVTE PVRPLE DINOSAVR
3. Extract all Roman Numerals: C V V L D I V
4. Convert into Arabic values: 100 5 5 50 500 1 5
5. Add all the numbers: 666

Thus, Barney is Satan.