ARTIFACT

Paul Demme a native of Baltimore had been playing the local Baltimore/D.C. music scene since 1982. Paul played in a number of bands, including The Changing Times and Cinema. Paul has done a good deal of studio work as well, playing with local musician/songwriter Mike Meckel. Paul also did session work with Ron Campbell and Andy Rathgaber of Baltimore’s Goth/Punk favorite, The Last Picture Show.

Paul later created his own Synth-based Electronic Rock act Artifact (recording "Excavation" in 1991 and new age styled "Atmospheric Disturbance" 1995.)  The CD's were re-released in 2002 through Solitaire Music.

Paul Demme was voted "Best Regional Keyboard Player" in the Music Monthly 2004 Readers Poll, Published January 2005 (Vol. 22 No.1 Issue #244)

The "Facts" on Artifact

Here is some equipment information for the Artifact recordings.

Almost all of the recording was done in my Mothers basement, going direct to the Tascam, or through the Midiverb and in. I would usually run the DX-7 into an Ibanez stereo chorus, then a Boss digital reverb, helped to warm up the DX-7 sound quite a bit. I also would midi the Oberheim Matrix 6 to the Yamaha TX-81Z, for a blend of analog and digital. I also liked the Minimoog through the Midiverb, for reverb or digital delay. Some of the tracks have the Roland TR-707 playing back a rhythm I had programmed, or I would midi the DX-7 to the TR-707, and play the drum sounds from the keyboard direct to tape, taking advantage of the velocity sensitive keyboard to add dynamics (see the drum track on "All's Fair").

 Again, recording was done in Mom's basement, same basic set up as on Excavation. With the addition of the newer Korg workstations (and the expanded sound palate they provided), as well as my ever eclectic musical tastes, I started to record more instrumental pieces that leaned more toward "New Age" than the Rock, or Progressive Rock background I had come from. My recording habits had always been fairly simple. Find a hook or sound that caught my ear, then improvise until something more concrete appeared. Repeat and overdub until done. Now I found myself using a more free form idea of song construction, abandoning the "verse, chorus, verse, bridge" thing, and just going where ever the song took me. Now the songs were more "landscapes" instead of "snapshots", and song length expanded from the 2 to 4 minute range of "Excavation", into the 6 to 10 minute range on "Atmospheric Disturbance". Oddly, some songs recorded during the "Excavation" sessions ended up going on "Atmospheric Disturbance", due to the fact that they were instrumentals, and fit the mold better there. "Sunday Drive" and "Autumn at the Loch" were both recorded in 1991, but made it on to the 1995 recording due to their overall fit with the concept. I also found myself bouncing tracks less, and even tried to avoid bouncing at all, if I could keep a song to just 4 tracks. Indeed one song, "Madrigal Dawn", was just 2 tracks. A flute sound and a harp sound both from the TX-81Z. It failed to make the final cut due to overall bad recording quality. 

 Some keyboards I owned during the time, but did not use on either recording were:

 Keyboards I sold (like an idiot) prior to getting the Tascam:

On Wall Street, the mantra is "buy low, sell high". My mantra now is "Buy, buy, buy. Never sell". 

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Last modified: September 18, 2005