Peter Piper

Piper Newsletter January 17 2024

No magic. Just chemistry.
Prominent guests show up to join the party.

Greetings !

Three months already? Where does the time go? There's a song in there somewhere.

One change is that I just recently began using vocals after a long hiatus from that, mostly due to logistics. One bassist / vocalist is working on adding vocals to my attempt at a cover for Iron Butterfly's In A Gadda Da Vida. Another vocalist is working on my only Heavy Rock attempt to date. I'm about as fond of hearing myself as I am at having my photo taken. So, I must have been crazy to put up my first attempt at a punk song with my initial voicings on it. I'm just no good at being fake, even if it's just a fake smile.

Anyway, I'd be very curious to know if any of you have formed an impression of what I try to express in my music overall? I'd really love to know!!

I've mostly stopped adding new hardware synths and stuff, basically because it's as jam packed as physics allows.

Does anyone here love music? :-) Okay, but would any of you consider that music is a necessary part of communication? It's just my opinion, but I see it as a force that gives a nudge here, a big kick there, etc on what society becomes, generally as a stabilizing force, especially over the long term.

Can music help us face our biggest challenges? I'll leave that question for you to answer!

Also, would people care to see my studio? That would be fine, but it'd be quite a lot of photos if anyone cared to see the individual pieces of equipment.

Have a wonderful Spring people.

&PEACE& PIPER

Hello Good People !!

It's been a very long time. I should have made time to send more newsletters and I apologize for that. I have been quite busy.

The studio is pretty unrecognizable. I've literally run out of space for new gear. I got so many synthesizers that I had to do 5 double rows to fit them. Now I'm broke, so at least the timing was good, zero space and being broke fit together. I would like to make a penny off of all this some day. I was hoping someone might have sent me a penny as a good will gesture but I guess people are saying I've got to do better to get that shiny gem.

Next time I'll give a bit of a list of the hardware additions, but it's a long list. I'm thinking it's possible that aside from some major collector out there with a zillion synths this might be the largest synth and recording studio in at least this part of the NYC area.

It's been the same with software. I've got so many multi-terabyte drives going that it can be hard to always fully be certain of which drive is which (yeah, some day I'll relabel everything. I've got a dozen DAWs now and each with their strengths and weaknesses so I switch around between them a lot. There must be an additional 3,000 instruments, sampled or synth or a combination, as well as effects.

I think I'll have to take some photographs of the hardware and some screen shots to give an idea of the flexibility going on here.

So, I'd like to do some higher fidelity recordings. Unfortunately, I can't put up the highest fidelity versions of these songs since I give them away, but they are still all uploaded at least at CD quality,

We've had 13 simultaneous (#1 in 13 different songs at number one songs nationally in the US each in a different genre on and off for a while now. I'd like to introduce some new songs into remaining genres, in good part to force me to keep learning but also in part so that you folks get a variety of music.

I'm going to leave it there for now. There's a lot more I'd like to write about, and hopefully this time there won't be such a long gap between updates.

Thanks so much for your comments and for showing that you're listening (we recently hit 10,000,000 listens and are close to 11 now). Please let me know if there's some other sort of music that you'd really like to see here. Best wishes for the holidays and the future of everything.

Peter (the Piper)

Hello Friends, March 26, 2018

There are now about 650 of you. If anyone has any suggestions on how I can increase Facebook participation please share your thoughts.

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Four Times the Luck
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Some of you may have noticed that there are four versions of the song "Lucky." They're named "Lucky _ Part One," "Lucky Part One v019C9d2," "Lucky 1 & 2A," and "Lucky Parts 1 & 2 Featuring Marc Owen Nutto on Guitar." The songs were created in that order. "Lucky _ Part One" had been codenamed v019C which is what I used for myself to refer to the version number. The next version was a further update to that first version and I labeled and named it v019C9d2 which is what I was using to keep track of the versions in the studio. It's essentially the same as the first version but some new instruments were added. Next came "Lucky Parts 1 & 2A." This is an extended version of 019C9d2 that was made in preparation for adding Marc's guitar. "Lucky Parts 1&2.." took that version and added Marc's great guitar on it.

The main reason I kept all four versions was to show the evolution of a song. Also, "Lucky _Part One" became so popular [it's currently number one globally in Indie] that I didn't want to delete it when the next version came out. To help a bit in separating the songs from one another I put Lucky _Part One in the Indie category and Lucky v019C9d2 in the Pop Genre where it currently sits at #13 nationally [in the USA]. The various "Luckys" have about 75,000 or so listens combined. My main aim with Lucky was to make something catchy and upbeat.
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So, what's new? I made some significant additions to the studio and put out some new songs. Most of the new songs make use of the studio additions. I describe these below.
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Studio Updates
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Aside from acoustic instruments, microphones, electric guitar and bass most of the rest of the instruments are synthesizers and are generally of three types (this is just one way to categorize them, there are many ways):

1. Hardware synthesizers that may or may not have a keyboard as one part of them;

2. Combination hardware and software synthesizers - these are hardware synthesizers that can morph into other synthesizers by loading them with new software. They literally do become new synthesizers. For example the System-1 synth by Roland can be changed into any number of other Roland synthesizers by loading it with new software. These other synthesizers that get loaded into it also exist on their own as type I (regular hardware synthesizers) and you wouldn't be able to hear any difference between what comes out of the System-1 with Synthesizer Type X loaded into it versus Synthesizer Type X as a separate stand-alone synth;

3. Software synthesizers. These could be further broken down by type of synthesizer (link. sample-based, subtractive, additive, physical modeling-based, and so on), but for now let's just think of them as synthesizers that reside inside a computer.

It's that last group where I made the most changes to the studio over the past few weeks or so.

I got quite a lot in the way of new software synthesizers these past few weeks primarily from three companies: Sonokinetic of the UK, Native Instruments and Air Technologies. They're all on the web if you'd like to take a look at the sorts of things they offer. I got basically every instrument that AIR offers. Ditto for Sonokinetic. I also got most Native Instruments' instruments except for those designed for "Maschine." I also upgraded Ableton Live 9 to version 10.

The Sonokinetic instruments are mostly medieval, world, renaissance or a wide variety of classical instruments as well as some regular and pipe organs, choirs, an accordian. carnival instruments, .. a lot! A couple examples of the Renaissance / Medieval instruments I got include the Hurdy Gurdy and the OUD. These can be looked up on the net for more information. They're pretty interesting instruments. All of their instruments are 'sample-based' meaning they for example record live symphony orchestras in hundreds of ways and then let the synth player control exactly which parts of the orchestra play, what they play and so on.

The AIR instruments aside from their take on electronic organs, keyboards and drums (all of which I have gobs of by other manufacturers) are mostly different forms of synthesizers, primarily additive and subtractive types.

The Native Instruments' instruments cover a broad spectrum from Alicia Keyes' piano (yup, they sampled her specific piano), drum sets from the 50s, 60s... through today's, all sorts of basses, other pianos, organs, electric keyboards, woodwind instruments, string instruments, brass and on and on.
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What New Music is There?
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A couple of the most recent songs are essentially showcases for AIR's instruments ("Oh NO!! I've got POTUS Brain!" - I used only AIR instruments for that song which, btw, is supposed to represent what one would encounter traveling through the brain of our 'unusual' leader) and for sonokinetic's instruments (link. "3 Stones of Baalbek," "The Duchess is Coming to Town" which were both done using only Sonokinetic instruments) while "Janey's Got a Tuba" used only Native Instruments' instruments. A few other songs were added since the last newsletter - link. "I Lost My Love Somewhere in India" and "Ole' Kyoto" both of which used instruments from Native Instruments as well as others.
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This past month has mostly been experimental in nature as I try to learn the many new instruments and DAWs I've gotten. I have a very long way to go to become proficient at these and other instruments so please bear with me as I learn.

If there are topics you'd be interested in having me cover in upcoming newsletters don't be shy to drop me a line.

Thanks for your support!!

Wishing you well until next time,

Peter Piper

Dear Subscribers,

Thank you very much for showing an interest in my music. It means the world to me.

You're the best!

Peter Piper

Hey Fans & Friends,

Nice job globally putting my music at the top in Goth and Experimental, the top 2 spots in Emo, the top 3 spots in Electro Lounge, and nationally putting my music at #1 in Indie, #2 in Electronica, #2 in Dance and #3 in Alternative Rock.

Hey Friends,

Thanks for giving Lucky Part One a spin, actually 25,000 spins. So, what do you think? Should I call the first album of songs "Lucky"?

If you haven't listened to the other versions of "Lucky" give them a whirl, you might like them.

Alternate Rock Listeners, Thanks friends for making Ode to Ray 2 the number 3 song nationally and number 4 globally!

All Listeners, I hope you've enjoyed the first 1/4 million listens. "Let's think of the wavering millions, who need leading but get gamblers instead" - The Rolling Stones

Thanks for making my song "Memories From Before the Aftermath" #1 Globally in Emo :)))

Dear Listeners,

If you've listened to some of my Indie then you're in large part responsible for filling Indie National Spots 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 with the songs Lucky _ Part One, Symph Nymph Pt. I, Dinner With An Angel, Lucky Pts 1&2 ft. Mark Owen Nutto on guitar, and The Weather Report.

If you can like, much less relate to, well, (on the optimistic side) you must ..... _____Fill in the Blanks Please____ Would_Love_a_Review _____ Would love to know what songs you'd like.

Peace, Love and Understanding

Hey, thanks for making City Life #1 globally !!

A bunch of songs are now for sale but I don't expect you to buy anything. What would be great though would be if you'd click the buy link and at the page it brings you to just write a really short review of whichever song it is. Thanks so much!