do any of you jam with other synth guys?

[Sweep]

The synth players I know tend to be too far away geographically to make regular meetings possible, but we've jointly made music in a couple of different ways:

1) passing WAV files back and forth over the net to gradually build up a piece between us.

2) One of us working up an idea by the other.

The collaborations with EMS Synthi player Frank Spears on one of my two websites, the Synthi Music Site, are examples of both methods. I've also done some work with a Moog player, and a couple of other people.

(All of this was done by hand, BTW. I'm not sure what the `collective MIDI clocking' would involve, but it isn't something I use.)

[Automatic Gainsay]

I need to Jam with Marc Doty, I will attempt to make this happen soon.

This is a thing that will happen.
You are an incredible musician and songwriter, and I have no doubt we'll come up with some really great music.

[Solderman]

From the mid 90's to late 2000, I left my gear at my best friend's house off and on, because I was in the military. He never did play them much by himself, so together it was always amateur night whenever I could visit. When I finally was discharged, we made some extremely goofy and amateurish improvisational recordings, sometimes after a few too many drinks:
The ancient FLAC Page. A few more mp3's from later on here.

He's moved on since about 2009 from music making and sold all his gear.
I miss those days and wish there was someone here in the Houston suburbs who I could make noises with again.

[Bitexion]

I hate playing with others. it makes me doubt my abilities to such an extent that I freeze and can't play to save my own life. I end up doing stupid filter sweeps while the guitarist plays endless cool riffs and looks at me expecting a Jon Lord Hammond solo. I freak out.

[zmd]

Ive experienced that one bitexion!
I do play in rock bands, and mostly its really cool...but sometimes they do seem to want me to shred. I don't shred

[ppg_wavecomputer]

When their keyboard chops are superior to mine, they most likely will not want me to be around anyway.

Stephen

[Bitexion]

If you don't shred, don't show up with a keytar to rehearsal at least.

[forcedopinion]

I have before and I'd do it again but it's difficult. Making electronic music is much more of a personal experience to me than jamming with traditional rock instruments. You gotta lug your gear to someone's place, hook everything up (5x the cords and power outlets needed than plugging in an amp), get your clocks synced up, have sequences ready (if you don't, more time), have patches ready, etc. It'd be a lot easier to have an already established studio to go in to but that's very rare for most of us. Watching other people work is a great learning experience though.

[CZ Rider]

Guess I'm one of the lucky one's to live in an area with many electronic musicians here in the Philly suburbs. I can't imagine going out and playing solo and never have. I'm more of a collaborator and enjoy the process of blending ideas and jams into finished pieces. Was in a three piece electronic band since 1979, and many earlier jams involving electronics before forming that band. Favorite was getting the drummer to lay down an electronic bass jam with a Minimoog and 1130 percussion controller. Many a "Space Jam" started with that combo. And everyone would join in the jam. All pre MIDI and in the 70's.
Philly has a great audience for electronic music, and there are a few venues to play out.
Here is one from the Iron Gate as a duo of electronic music back in 2007. Many live radio jams too!
I wish I coud do solo stuff, but have only been able to put together solo studio tracks?


More recently back in the winter 2012 with another fellow synth player.

[Aaron2]

Holy modular, Batman!

I was a pretty serious guitar player in my younger days, and was in a couple of bands. I started playing synths in 2012, but have never jammed with anyone.

Frankly, one of the things I love about electronic music is that I can be the entire band, all by myself, just by programming and syncing up the gear. It's cool.

I wouldn't mind playing some chords in a rock band, but I really can't solo on keys. Or, maybe more accurately, I can't shred. I can solo, but I'm no Keith Emerson.

[ppg_wavecomputer]

[...]

More recently back in the winter 2012 with another fellow synth player.

Looks a bit like Chuck's Gatherings.

Would love to play there but money is an issue... as always.

Stephen

[24db]

I have a friend who I collaborate with whenever he is in town or vice-versa. We have been friends for over 30 years now and without fail, every one of our collaborative sessions has been fun and productive, but it really depends what you are looking for out of the relationship. For us it's just about having a good time and using each others' gear in new ways, that particularly always seems to be a source of new inspiration!

It also really is fun because the collab songs are almost universally better than anything we come up with on our own (IMHO), so there's definitely something to be said for synergy.

Here is a recent song we did together over a couple of days during our last session, enjoy!

[AdamAnt316]

I've hauled my keyboard gear to a series of jam sessions held at a local ham radio flea market, or "hamfest" (oddly, it shares a name with a certain progressive rock festival, "NEAR-Fest"). Generally, my main instrument there is the mighty Farfisa Compact combo organ, though I generally also bring along a number of small synths to go along with it (Korg Poly 800, ARP Solus, various Casios). The hardest part of my setup process is hoisting the 70lb Farfisa ("Compact"? HA!) into position, though the guys there are usually willing to lend a hand.

Mostly, my experiences have been akin to bitexion's, with me struggling to figure out what to play to go along with the numerous guitarists who show up to these jams (the Farfisa generally does a good job of cutting through the mix, though). I'm used to playing as a one-man band, so I don't really do much playing along with anyone else outside of these jams. It usually takes me time to figure out exactly what notes to play to go along with whatever the other jammers happen to be playing. Also, not all of the songs they play lend themselves to keyboard accompaniment.

My usual trick involves running all of my keyboards into a mixing board, with a pair of headphones hooked into it (helps me to hear what I'm playing over the sonic maelstrom of the guitars, and blocks out some of the outside noise). When a new song starts playing, if I think I can contribute, I turn down the main output control on the board, noodle around on the keyboards until I find something which seems to go along with the group, then turn the levels back up and start playing. Kinda pathetic, I know, but it seems to help.
-Adam
PS: Here's an example of a song played at one of said jam sessions, with my Farfisa kinda audible:

[guillermotin]

I'm currently living on a place with no tradition in electronic sounds or synth music whatsoever. Still, I've managed to gather a bunch of crazy lads and started jamming, and eventually we started to play live covers of songs. Each of us play one synth, with no syncing or midi control, just as we would in a traditional bass and guitar band. This is one of our early results (please don't judge our English - we're not native speakers .

[zmd]

That was great guillermotin! So much fun:)