215 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
215 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
Newsgroups: alt.rave
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From: sine path square field <tsines@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
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Subject: roland FAQ part.1
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Message-ID: <9301251645.AA15959@bottom.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
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Organization: The Ohio State University
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Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 16:45:37 GMT
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Lines: 206
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i have to make some corrections to this, but this will give you a general
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idea...
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this is gonna be long as hell, so if you are not interested in old roland
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equipment just hit "N."
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thank you.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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the definitive guide to old roland instruments plus some more.....
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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this is a large list of every roland instrument that came before and after
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MIDI. it also contains stuff that is relative to it, the structure of the
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instrument and how much it will cost you, as well as its use and availability.
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i wish to credit my good friend, bandmate and roommate titonton duvante for
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helping me with some information as well as james towning...
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here we go:
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the sh-0x series
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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the sh-0x series were the line of keyboards that roland first sold. they came
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out in the late 70's and they were basically just synths. they were usually
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half size (two octaves) and they had an odd configuration of knobs and some
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switches. no polyphony, and of course not multitimbral. this is the closest
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thing to the moogs that were coming out at the time (except more condensed and
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not made of wood.) what i hear is that the circuitry for a sh-09 is similar to
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that of the 808. these synths usually have a control voltage/gate input from
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any external synth or sequencer of sorts.
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the "sh" stands for synth, if you were wondering.
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the sh-01 is closest to the sh-101 (more on this readily available synth later)
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except there is no pitch lever (i think) and it has the ability to generate
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pink and white noise, which very few synths have now.. it has a VCO (voltage
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controlled oscillator), a VCF (voltage controlled filter), and a VCA (voltage
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controlled amplifier), as well as i think an envelope follower.
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i would suppose that this synth would be in the neighborhood of $100-200, but
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seeing as it is EXTREMELY rare to find these (ie i have never ever seen them
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for sale anywhere) then they might be more. this is a small synthesizer and it
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can be used to generate the classic "LOW BASS" sounds as well as a lot of
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percolating random noises. some people like to make pads and simulations of
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string synths with it by setting the attack a little slower and turning the
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frequency cutoff down a bit.
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other synths in this category are the sh-05, sh-07, and sh-09 (as far as i
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know.) the uses for the others i assume would be slight derivitives of the
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sh-01 but since i haven't seen any around then i wouldn't know for sure.
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the modular series (roland system x00-M series)
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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the roland modular series were two sets that i know of off hand: the modular
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system 100-m and the 700-m. the M stands for modular.
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these synths were modular in the way that a lot of moog equipment once was:
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small modules of filters, oscillators, amplifiers and envelope followers that
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you could stack together and connect via patch cords. you could then control
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the sound by using a CV/gate keyboard output into the modular system as a tone
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module.
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one thing about this is that i think roland allowed people to make their own
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modules to work with this so you could modify it to your personal needs. you
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could add a few more knobs to your envelope follower, and so on..
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i think that the basic system was a VCO, a VCF, a VCA, and an envelope
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follower. i don't know if they included multiples of the modules as a "system"
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per se...
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this is about all i can say about this instrument. i would jump shit if i had
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one but i do not have the money to get one right now and i am interested in
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other stuff more than this. there was a System 100-m for sale for $490 on
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rec.music.synth this week.
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the almighty (x)0(x) series (sh101, mc202, and tb303)
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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this is part of the very famous roland equipment series. most all of these
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synths (and deritives thereof) are utilizing the same circuitry as each other
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with minor sound modifications. here we go here we go here we go here we go....
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sh-101:
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this two octave digital/analog hybrid synth is pretty popular. it features
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everything that the sh-01 did except it is not switchable from white to pink
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noise. it has a pitch/modulation lever that can trigger the LFO to modulate the
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sound as well as an external modulation grip. this grip is just a small wheel
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on a grip that just does the modulation and nothing else. you can attach a
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strap to this and the other side to wear the 101 (wweeee!!) like a guitar. it
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came in several colors of grey, blue, red, and purple. i have also heard of a
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white one but i am not sure. i suppose you could spray paint it if you wanted
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to.
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when i say it is a digital/analog hybrid, i am refering to the fact that the
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clock in it is run digitally. the difference between running a clock digitally
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and analogally (?--> haha) is that the waveform's oscillation peak points are
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what triggers it. this is not the most dependable way of timing as
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interferences and all kinds of fun stuff can fuck it up. the digital clock on
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it should make it more dependable and have it not fluctuate.
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this has cv/gate in and out 1/8th jacks. also, there is a modification that
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you can add a modification to allow a line input before the VCF and you can
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shape your line input with the 101's controls (frequency cutoff, resonance,
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modulation, etc..) e-mail me for details.
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there is a small battery inside the 101 that stores your 99 note sequence.
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there is a hold function which holds the note that was last played. there is
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also an arpeggiator that can can go up or down or both. (like philip glass type
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stuff.) the waveforms can be from a sawtooth, a square, a noise, or a random
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wave. like the sh-01, the wavelength distances can range from 16-2 feet (very
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low frequencies to very high frequencies.) there is a noise generator that just
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adds noise to whatever you are playing..
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you can usually find these from $65-200. they have always been easy to find.
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just look at pawn shops and shit.. of course, i traded a bass guitar for mine
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last year in october.
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the mc-202
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the mc stands for microcomposer. and that is just what this little angel does.
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except, i never use it that way (too much of a hassle.) i call it my little
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angel because this thing produces the deepest, roundest bass that i have ever
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seen. i love it to death.. can;t wait to MIDI it! anyway, this machine has
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basically the same circuitry again as the sh-101 and sh-01 synth, minus the
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ability to go to different waveforms. i think it is stuck with a square wave,
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maybe, maybe a sawtooth. it doesn;t do as much as the 101 does but i think it
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makes up for its bass sounds. i think of it as my bass machine.
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the intentions for the product were supposed to be that you would write an
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entire song on it (in step time, of course) and then you could play it back and
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change the tempo, portamento, accent, and all. you could save your songs to
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tape and also load them from tape as well. there was also a two channel mode
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which allowed you to record one channel then i think record another channel. so
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the machine was two note polyphonic (more than one note) it had a 5-pin sync
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jack in and two sync outs. unreliably, you start and stop sequences and even
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drum patterns from the 303 and 606, even the 808 i assume. there are also
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cv/gate in and out jacks. this is good because playing the small buttons on the
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202 can be a pain in the butt. ugh... btw, this machine i think was made in
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1981 or 1982, maybe 1983.
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these have been rather hard to find. i got mine from analogics in ne ohio
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through a phone call, basically asking him what he had. i took the 202 last
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january for what i thought would be a replacement for a non-existant 303 at
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them time. i got it for $175. i saw it later at rogue for $80. then i never saw
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one again. as far as i know, me and dan curtin are the only two people in ohio
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that use a 202 in techno.
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the tb303 bassline
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i assume that the tb stands for something like, "the bassline" or "tone bass."
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whatever the case, this is also called the acid machine...etc. it was used in
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the later 80's house music (phuture, adonis, derrick may) and this is what the
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drug acid would have sounded like. this, along with the 808, 909, and 106 is
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probably one of the most famous machines that roland ever made.
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the heart of the 303 is the square/sawtooth wave. it has 6 knobs at the top of
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the machine to control this wave (tuning, frequency cutoff, attack, resonance,
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decay, and accent.) the wave is switchable from square to sawtooth wave. there
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are no lfo's or noise filters or anything.
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the 303 is run by what i think is a DCO-->digitally controlled oscillator. i
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think actually all of these machines are run by DCO's but anyway, this is the
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"computer controlled" sequencer of the machine. you can store 64 patterns,
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which are split into 4 groups and then each group has 8 patterns each on A and
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B. you can also tie 4 patterns together to make a song. you must program the
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pattern in (again!) step time (ugh!) with rests (no sound), staccato (moving
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at the tempo of the click), and legato (extending through several clicks.)
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i have arbitrarily programmed my 303 from the start and i will continue to do
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so. i usually just piss around with it until i find something that i am happy
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with (which is usually the case.) when you are in the write mode of the 303 you
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can hit pitch and then hit tap. this will let you hear the notes in the
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sequence one by one. as you keep hitting tap you can hit slide or accent and
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this does the really fucked up slides and accents that orbital uses as well as
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all the acid stuff and all.
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the 303's intentions were to simulate a bass guitar. somehow i don't really see
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this being as natural as a bass guitar. i think it is more like an electronic
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bullfrog or some percolating electronic coffee pot. weird.
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to find a 303 these days is a batch of good luck. i picked mine up for $100 at
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a pawn shop. they were asking for $150 but we couldn't get it to work at the
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store (heh heh) so i asked if he would take $100 as is. i got it home and later
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that day i had many basslines programmed. now, i have heard of people selling
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them for $75-350. the actual blue book price for this is << $35 >> but i am
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sure that people know that there is a demand for this machine, so they jack it
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up. i have to say, GOOD LUCK!
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there is no 404. i am making another file to post now about all the drum
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machines.
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sines
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--
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ENHANCED (design/music)---> todd sines * 384 e17th ave, columbus, oh 43201
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body release (techno)----| tsines@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
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ANALOGUE heaven (m.list)-| 614.299.9529. work 614.294.7485 / 614.292.3219
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sunrise (techno parties)-| fax 614.294.1885
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