What is an Ear Worm
We all know that book worms are people who enjoy reading books, so what do Ear Worms enjoy? simply put, Ear worms enjoy great sound experiences, especially those in the wider realm of electronic and electro-acoustic music. Ear Worms is a weekly live stream hosted by Dr. Lawrence W. Moore of The Wayfarer Project and co-hosted by Jay Goodwin, a maker and designer of electronic and electro-acoustic instruments among other creations. The show is streamed live every Sunday evening at 7:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time. One can listen to the show live by subscribing to The Wayfarer Project’s main YouTube channel and clicking the bell icon for notifications. New scheduled streams usually appear on the YouTube channel by Thursday of each week. One can also catch the stream afterword by listening to them from the YouTube playlist in which they are archived.
021 – Legend 1985: Slide Discussion & Tangerine Dream Score Excerpts Part 2 of 2
This week we will be doing commentary on the second half of the movie Legend 1985, with a focus on the American theatrical release featuring the musical score by legendary electronic music group, Tangerine Dream. We will focus on the musical career of Johannes Schmoelling as he was not included in part 1 accidentally. We will look at his solo work, work in Tangerine Dream, Loom, and S.A.W. The lineup for Tangerine Dream at the time of making the score was Edgar Froese, Christopher Franke, and Johannes Schmoelling.
020 – Legend 1985: Slide Discussion & Tangerine Dream Score Excerpts Part 1 of 2
One of the greatest cinematic fairy tales ever told is the movie Legend, starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, and Tim Curry. It is a tale that epitomizes the struggle between good and bad with stunning, picturesque photography. The film is a tale of two scores, however, in which the original is a standard film score written by Jerry Goldsmith. A second score was used for the theatrical release featuring Tangerine Dream, which was more evocative, colorful, and passionate. We will be looking at slides from the film and featuring some of the audio excerpts including powerful sound design and score by Tangerine Dream featuring Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke.
019 – The Spirit of Robert Moog, Synthesizer, Theremin, and Minimoog
This week, we are covering Robert Moog, the legendary synthesizer and Theremin maker. Moog synthesizers are known for being some of the very best analog synthesizers dating back to the first Moog synthesizer and the Minimoog soon after. Robert Moog was a spiritual man who believed that his synthesizers served as a conduit for musicians to channel the all and bring insights into sound waves. We will take a look at the man and some of his iconic innovations.
018 – Lute vs. Hurdy Gurdy Championship Medieval Music & Monty Python
We are down to our final two instruments in the finals of the Holy Grail of Medieval Musical Instruments. Through voting in the previous three episodes, we are down to the lute and the hurdy gurdy. Which of these Medieval musical isntruments will be the champion? We will also finish our slide through of Monty Python & the Holy Grail along with some AI commentary.
018 – Lute vs. Hurdy Gurdy Championship Medieval Music & Monty Python
We are down to our final two instruments in the finals of the Holy Grail of Medieval Musical Instruments. Through voting in the previous three episodes, we are down to the lute and the hurdy gurdy. Which of these Medieval musical isntruments will be the champion? We will also finish our slide through of Monty Python & the Holy Grail along with some AI commentary.
016 – Monty Python and the Holy Grail of Medieval instruments Part 2 of 3
Our quest for the holy grail of Medieval musical instruments continues as we now are in round 2 of the competition, where the lute, sackbutt, crwth, bagpipes, donbra, zither, hurdy gurdy, and organ will compete until there are only four left. We will look at these instruments, listen to them, and then vote. The tournament will be coupled with some slide commentary and community theater from Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975. A little bit of laughing always helps the learning go down.
015 – Monty Python and the Holy Grail of Medieval instruments Part 1 of 3
The medieval period, also known as the dark ages and the middle ages, is generally looked upon historically as a rather dark and foreboding period. There were some pretty interesting musical innovations, such as the beginning of written music in the Western hemisphere, as well as many beautiful instruments. In this episode, we will be having a jousting tournament between these different instruments in which the chat will be able to vote and choose their favorite instruments. We are in the search of the holy grail of medieval instruments after all. To guide us on our quest, we will also learn from the the great film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like a beacon of light, it will guide us in our quest.
014 – The Oberheim OB-X, discoDESP OB-XD and Flash Gordon 1980 Part 2 of 2
This episode is part two of a two-part episode on the Oberheim OB-X and the film flash Gordon from 1980. The synthesizer was used by Brian May tin both the making of the soundtrack, but also some elements of the score and sound design from the film. As we have already looked at the synthesizer in the previous episode, we will be focusing on the VST plugin by discoDSP called OB-XD, which models the Overheim OB-X synthesizer. We will look at the second half of our film and do some of our regular exploration of AI art, human intelligence and other such amusements.
013 – The Oberheim OB-X & Flash Gordon 1980 Part 1 of 2
This episode of Ear Worms spotlights a match made in heaven. The Oberheim OBS-X is a legendary analog synthesizer that was released between 1979-1981. This synthesizer was popular with bands of the time period and it played a major role in Brian May & Queen’s soundtrack for the 1980 version of Flash Gordon. We will takea look at the synthesizer and the first half of the film to be followed up on in Part 2 of this two part episode.
012 – The Invention of the Radio & The Outer Limits S01E011 The Galazy Being
We will be engaging in some radio nostalgia as we look at the invention of the radio, which involved names like Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla, and Nathan B. Stubblefield. There is some controversy about who invented the radio, but one can trace the individual innovators along with their innovations. After exploring the beauty and power of radio, we will look at an episode of The Outer Limits that was inspired by radio called The Galazy Being. The episode is rounded off by some of our humorous segments that explore the reliability of AI, radio used in music, and some of our favorite radio shows.
011 – Pink Trombone in VCV Rack & The Twilight Zone Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
In this episode of Ear worms, we will be making some crazy sounds using the Pink Trombone module in VCV Rack. This module is based on the web-based speech synthesizer of the same name developed by Neil Thapern. We won’t get deep into the weeds, but people can see how the module works and how they can make some pretty outlandish sounds. We will also look at the famous episode of The Twilight zone, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet which stars William Shatner and Christine White. We will be doing some of our new regular segments as well, as we explore interesting music and try to determine what is real and what is AI.
Ear worms 010 – The Hammond Solovox, the Clavioline, and the Jennings Univox
This week on Ear Worms, we will be looking at 3 instruments from the 1940s and 1950s that were on the cutting edge of synthesis at the time. They were also significant innovations in the portability of synthesizers. The Hammond Solovox, the Clavioline, and the Jennings Univox were portable monophonic synthesizers with accompanying speaker systems. The Solovox was the inspiration for the other two instruments and each one has its own story and place in electronic music history.
