January 27 to Feburary 2, 2005

:ORLANDOWEEKLY

Inside an unassuming building

in west Winter Park, Joseph Rivers prepares todemonstrate the frequency response charac-teristics of his main mixing room. In this special-ly configured chamber there are bass “cannons”built into the walls, and finely attenuated moni-tors power up silently, waiting patiently for thesignal which they must faithfully reproduce.Rivers looks over with a grin, and asks, “You likeelectronic music, right?”With that, the first ringing notes of Prodigy’s“Smack My Bitch Up” sneak out of the tweeters.As the round, clean bass line kicks in, it’s clearthat the engineering that has gone into buildingthis room has paid off. The air vibrates with thelow frequencies (as do any loose articles ofclothing) but no audible distortion is present,even at the extreme volume.Rivers has used this room since 1992 torecord and mix albums for many artists, fromthe local electronic act Prophecy and Southernrockers Molly Hatchet to Rocket 88 to formerYes/Moody Blues keyboardist Patrick Moraz.Operating under the quite appropriate monikerof Audio Playground, the complex boasts threestudios, fully equipped with an enormousamount of high-end recording equipment, bothdigital and analog. It’s a facility that can clearlyhandle just about any kind of recording, for justabout any kind of artist. However, the most fas-cinating thing about the Audio Playground isn’tthe studios, the vocal booth or the mixing facili-ties. It’s the museum.Audio Playground has the largest publiclyaccessible collection of synthesizers and elec-tronic music equipment in the United States.With more than 1,300 pieces, many of whichare rare or one of a kind, Rivers has pieces ofvintage gear stacked up in every availablespace — in the hallways, in the studios — yetmost of the pieces are housed in a huge muse-um room, set up from floor to ceiling.

ARCHIVAL OBSESSIONS

About 14 years ago, Rivers found himselfreleased from the Air Force, but legally unableto apply his specialized training in robotics inthe private sector. Music had always interestedhim, so he took jobs as a DJ at clubs and privateparties. This interest eventually became a full-time job as he accepted a DJ position at aDallas radio station. But radio was not wherehis passion lay, so Rivers decided to pursue aneducation in recording at Orlando’s Full SailReal World Education in 1990. By 1991, he hadgraduated, and began building his studio inWinter Park. Along the way, he decided todevote some of the space to displaying his vin-tage synthesizer gear.Starting with his small personal collection, headded piece after piece, to the tune of almost ahundred every year. Scouring garage sales,basements, attics and, more recently, eBay forthe remains of early synthesizers, controllersand drum machines, he carted away theseobsolete treasures for repair and preservation.“I started doing it because of the sound; it’s acertain sound of the era,” he says. “Now it’sbeing noticed and being duplicated digitally, asbest they can, but when I first started, [the gear]was all being dumped … people were saying,‘Oh, I’ve got to get into this digital thing,’ andeverybody was forgetting the original sound,and after a while, people started going, ‘Youknow, I miss that sound.’”Archiving is an important task for any muse-um, and Rivers takes it seriously. Each time hegets an addition to his collection that is func-tional, or repairs a broken unit, he takes thetime to preserve the sounds of the device byrecording a complete collection of those soundsin high resolution. After all, many of the devicesin his collection rely on electronic components —transistors, vacuum tubes and the like — thatare no longer manufactured, and thus spareparts can be hard to come by. Ultimately, hisplan is to prepare interactive exhibits that willallow visitors to listen to the sounds that eachdevice is capable of, building up a website thatwill enable people to discover the basics of syn-thesis and explore the various instruments inthe collection. His website,

www.keyboard museum.com

(which is offline as of this writing),will contain Flash applications that demon-

KEYED UP:

Joseph Rivers and asampling of his collection

The digital delights of Winter

by Ian Monroe, photos by Vince Hobbs

PleaSynth