"He was born in in Lackawanna, New York,[1] into a family with a vocal group and radio program. Smith says that his mother was a major influence on him musically, as she introduced him to gospel, classical, and jazz music. He was part of several vocal ensembles in the 1950s, including the Teen Kings. Art Kubera, the owner of a local music store, gave Smith his first organ, a Hammond B3... He was named the "Organ Keyboardist of the Year" in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009 by the Jazz Journalist Association."
He helped form the George Benson Quartet and followed with a solo career releasing his first album "Finger Lickin' Good". I'd say that pretty much sums up his playing above.
"The Trigger Riot represents a new type of sequencer that is both creatively deep on one hand and intuitive on the other.
From a conceptual view, the Trigger Riot generates 16 clock streams consisting of multiple time manipulation functions (division, offsets, etc) that interact to create the trigger output, and direct access to each parameter via individual knobs allows for quick manipulation. The 8 outputs are the sum of those manipulated streams per row. The outputs of the module are arranged as either a 4x4 matrix, where each of the 16 knobs affects both row and column, or as a set of independent outputs for each row or column. This allows forming 8 complex musical interactions in a ‘Matrix’ mode or 8 independent streams in ‘Independent’ mode and is switchable from one to the other on press of a button for some unexpected results.
Since each of the 16 knobs represents a real time tweakable trigger generator/modifier the Trigger Riot is extremely playable and can result very complex patterns with only few knob turns; patterns that would otherwise take much longer and in some instances be almost impossible to produce using grid based step sequencing. Patterns can have unique time signatures that can repeat or be randomized through probability, time shifted and phased, divided, multiplied and counted, it’s unbelievable how complex this module can get with minimal input.
Functions include:
Divide: Divide the clock stream into either even or odd divisions from 1 to 255
Speed: Multiply or Divide the clock streams in sub clock particles based on 24 PPQ, breaking up the standard grid values.
Probability: Sets the odds of a trigger firing which makes more varied and less rigid patterns or can create subtle accents and fills.
Pulse Width: Sets the pulse width of each stream, creating overlaps and as a result all kind of odd time signatures; also great for sustaining envelopes or for programming a high pulse fro some time.
Clock Offset: Moves the trigger streams in time to change the relationship between streams. Streams can be set to the same amount but offset to trigger in between each other rather than simultaneously to create syncopation effects.
Time Shift: Shifts the triggers streams variably in between clocks for swing type feels and off the grid patterns.
Step: Places single shot triggers on individual clock ‘Steps’ to trigger events once per pattern. This can also be seen as a pulse counter.
Mute/Sel: Muting of each trigger output for live dub mixing or to select which row to edit in ‘Independent’ mode.
Tap tempo: Tap in your own time.
Cycle: Internal reset counter to constrain pattern length and relationships between divisions
Clock Out: Trigger out of the Riot’s highly accurate internal clock
Clock Input: External clock
Reset Out: Trigger output based on the internal reset length
Reset In: External trigger input to reset the internal count
Playing sets:
The Trigger Riot features 4 banks of 4 presets for saving, and instant recall of patterns with any level of complexity making it a real time sequencer. Patterns and banks are not volatile and can be loaded for stage or studio sessions on power up.
Several riots can be synced together with all control signals shared based on a master reset, clock, and pattern across multiple units and even synced with the Circadian Rhythm sequencer.
In addition to that, a master touch controller is in development which can control up to 4 Riots for the ultimate in hardware sequencing for Tip Top’s wide array of drum and synthesis modules (of course, it works great with every other module too).
A little bit of what going on under the hood: The Trigger Riot is made with the latest in high-end microprocessors and a special combination of hardware and firmware technology designed to achieve unprecedented levels of timing and extreme types of pattern complexity.
Size: 28HP
Engine: State of the art 80MHz 32bit Processor MIPS M4K Core
Available: We are hoping to have it released late march 2013, keep your fingers crossed
1: Modification of Manual Stop/Restart Pulse Generation Algorithm to improve relative Transport and Sync position with external hardware.
2: Latest Version of Ableton Live introduced minor changes to the way the DAW processes Space Bar Start which required modification in our code to ensure correct external start position.
3: In rare circumstances the Default Output Levels were not initialized. Fixed.
4: In certain circumstances the Default Initialization Menu did not open correctly. Fixed.
Sync-Gen II is compatible with Mac OSX 10.4 (32 bit – Intel/PPC) and later, Mac OSX 10.6 (64 bit – Intel) and later, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and 8.
Sync-Gen II runs in VST, AU, and RTAS format in 32 and 64 bit hosts.
Sync-Gen II for AAX and Reason Rack Extension are both under development.
Current RTAS Support: Pro Tools 7.0 and later.
Follow the Download Link below.
Simply run the installer over your previous version of Sync-Gen II – the installer does the rest.
Any issues or suspected bugs we may have missed please email me:
"Synth education specialist Marc Doty patches Erik Norlander's Wall of Doom synthesizer in prepration for his demonstration in the Bob Moog Foundation NAMM booth #5307. Demonstrations take place at 11am, 2pm and 4pm today and tomorrow. http://bit.ly/VV49o7 — with Erik Norlander and Marco Vantini at NAMM Anaheim Convention Center."
