John LeVasseur
Known primarily as an engineer/producer John has surprised people from time to time with what he calls "... fits of musical outpourings." Airfoil represents the manifestations of these musical seizures.
John's background in analog synthesis dates back to his childhood during the late 1970's with early modular analog synthesizers like Moog and ARP sythesizers; as well as Hammond organs. "I had some friends who I grew up with who had these and other great keyboards, and I was able to play with them and learn a great deal". At that time his primary interest was in replicating the performances of keyboard greats like Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Mike Rutherford and other progressive rock contemporaries. During this time John discovered many other keyboards of the day like Clavinet, the Rhodes and Wurlitzer pianos, and of course Mellotron.
Over time, digital developments have over shadowed the analog technologies in keyboards, yet he continued to apply both of these technologies in tandem. Today, he has merged digital control into analog sound generation to produce the music heard today known as Airfoil.
John uses the following gear:
Analog:
- Synthesizers.com Analog Modular 66sp System
- Moog 952a Duophonic Keyboard w/pitch and mod wheels
- Hohner Clavinet D6
- ARP SE-IV String Ensemble
- Mellotron M400
- Moog Minimoog D
- Hammond C3 (vintage 1957) w/ Leslie 122
Digital:
- M-Audio Keystation Pro-88
- Dell 4550 PC w/M-Audio Delta 44 running:
- Cubase SX
- Arturia Moog Modular V
- Arturia CS-80V
- Native Instruments Electrik Piano
- Reason 3
- Outboard effects include 3 Lexicon PCM-90's, and 2 LXP-5
- Stage Monitoring is through:
- Motion Sound KP-200s
- Motion Sound SL-200s Slave
- Motion Sound SW-15 Subwoofer
Note: John also owns the unique Sythesizers.com "Purple Synthesizer" lovingly known as the Barneycom.
This rig is also being used in a Pink Floyd tribute band (The Floyd Project), currently in development, which will tour the US soon.
John also works as a live FOH mixing engineer and has toured the world in this capacity, working at many levels in that industry. He also has acted as Producer/Engineer for a number of Metal genre recordings for release in the European market.
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