stephen kern
Los Angeles
Trycho Tunes Performance Sequences
Stephen created Trycho Music International and the popular Trycho Tunes line of midi sequence products in Los Angeles in February 1984. The idea was to provide fairly instant gratification to musicians who wanted to use midi sequencers for playing gigs and on studio tracks but who were facing the daunting and usually forbidding technology and time constraints involved with programming midi music from scratch.
Original Trycho products were delivered via 5.25″ and 3.5″ floppy diskettes and supported a large number of non-standard midi playback formats found on keyboards, sequencers, and computers of those years…
Trycho ...
Stephen began programming sequences in 1983 with the release of Sequential Circuits’ Model 64, a rom-based Commodore computer sequencer designed to store data on 5.25″ floppy disks.
Trycho Tunes was established soon after, with national advertising in musician trade magazines beginning in 1985 and trade show appearances such as Namm by 1986.
Steve spent a lot of the early days traveling between LA, New York, and Washington DC to work with music publishers and the US copyright office in establishing licensing and protection guidelines for this new type of music product and it was during those trips that Steve met and became friends with writers, arrangers, and producers of some of the most beloved songs in pop history.
Due to the sheer amount of time necessary to port and convert midi sequences to the various midi hardware/software systems of those days, Trycho was, by late 1989, operating with a staff of four (Debbie, Deniece, Gary, and Steve) and two rooms of banks of pc, Mac, Atari, and Amiga computers. All connected to dozens of software/hardware midi sequencers and keyboards that sequences would then be ported into and meticulously set up.
Hardware manufacturers such as Kawai, Korg, Roland, and Yamaha embraced Trycho from the very beginning and were shipping their newest keyboards and standalone sequencers to the company on what seemed a daily basis.
By 1992, Trycho entered its busiest time ever, distributing product to musicians direct and via major music retailers and distributors in eight countries.
The company was now operating with ten employees, led by the always-amazing Ruthie, Janie, and Gary on a split shift basis to handle the massive volume of incoming toll-free phone orders, faxes, dedicated telephone tech support, licensing, and system porting. An extensive in-house printing and mailing department was utilized to make the daily 5pm outgoing order deadlines.
Distribution via internet would be added two years later.
Trycho sequences were also licensed to many digital piano and synthesizer manufacturers throughout the eighties and nineties who then preloaded Trycho songs into their products.
Stephen personally programmed the thousands of midi sequences that the Trycho company released during its years of operation.
By 2007, Stephen’s focus shifted to custom client projects only, which is where things remain today.
TrackRenew
In 2005, Stephen began accepting various audio restoration projects that were proving difficult to navigate by owners of audio/film masters. Stephen’s ability to immediately hear individual elements of a mixed recording proved invaluable in quickly implementing restoration solutions, particularly when projects involved the unmixing or demixing of audio…
TrackRenew ...
It was during this same time that cutting-edge tech tools by companies such as Cedar and CSP found their way into the mainstream and into use by Steve.
Today’s restoration tools are lightyears ahead of those from prior decades and yet it still takes a trained ear to identify a recording’s key issues, not to mention experience in knowing how to proceed with best solutions.
Interactions of mixed sounds on film or recorded music are, in most instances, far too complex for even current machine learning code models to effectively handle in an automated way. Stephen’s historical forte is in the area of microscopic listening and solution implementation.
TrackRenew.com continues to operate here in Los Angeles as a referral-only based audio restoration service to the industry.
Bakersfield - pop/rock band from 1970
Bakersfield was a 1970 group formed in Des Moines by five musicians, including Steve, who’d been involved in the local music scene ever since the Beatles’ first appearance on Sullivan in 1964.
At the time, Bakersfield was one of the few, if only, bands in the area exclusively recording and performing self-written music.
The group recorded extensively at downtown DSM-based Lariam Studios, completing a first album and three singles just five weeks after the band’s creation and then off to a year long, non-stop gig schedule with studio sessions between.
As the group evolved in the studio, Lariam evolved as well, expanding from dual twin-track machines to Scully 284-8. Group tapes would later be transferred and worked on at Criteria Miami and then on here to LA.
In general, the Bakersfield band was created only because a funny thing happened on the way out of 1966…..
Bakersfield ...
Paul Kantner (above) pretty much summarizes the roadmap out of 1966 that a lot of us were experiencing. It wouldn’t stop there.
“…Being on the edge was the only place that made sense. I wasn’t always entirely sure where the edge was, but Brian seemed to be the guy who could find it…”
“…I thought things were crazy after Monterey but when Woodstock hit, the local scene became so much more polarized….”
“…This band, Bakersfield, was Brian Lewis’ baby all the way. No other way to look at it…”
“…Brian was one of the most charismatic guys on the local 1960s Des Moines music scene. He came from a classical background, was the most formally trained of all of us, and yet onstage, he was this wild rhythm guitarist on a tobacco sunburst 335, bouncing all over the stage, oblivious to anything other than the groove. A refined bohemian or something… neurosurgeon biker with a chip on his shoulder…don’t know…”
“….I picked right up on Brian’s genuine rock & roll attitude the first time I saw him play in 1967 or so. By the time he was working with the group Seth, I thought he was one of the most exciting stage performers around…”
“…I’ll never forget the day John called to tell me that Brian might want to work with us, but only under certain conditions…”
I immediately said, “whatever the conditions, my vote is yes”….
Des Moines Iowa 1966…….
If you were an operating pop/rock musician in Des Moines in 1970, you likely got there via 1966. And if you were an operating pop/rock musician in Des Moines in 1966, most of us got there by transiting the November 22, 1963 JFK assassination, ahead ten weeks to the first appearance of the Beatles on the Sullivan show February 9, 1964, and then almost immediately into an array of local bands where increasingly, being on the edge was the place to be.
By 1970, such was the situation for the five members of Bakersfield; a band that formed pretty much from Brian Lewis’ demand to ditch the cover-band mentality and find a new edge within what had already been a fairly interesting, if not chaotic, decadent-decade-of-Des Moines.
With the Viet Nam war raging, protests in the city at an all-time high, local fm radio station program directors inciting mutiny against establishment management, Monterey and Woodstock in the rearview mirror, drugs, sex and counter culture music in high demand, Bakersfield entered the local music scene with an attitude that was pure Brian.
Pushy if not outright belligerent.
The main edict from Brian had been that the group perform and record only its self-written music as well as retain total control of sessions and publishing. Which was fine and which we did.
In the process, the group found itself constantly booked. Agent momentum was the initial barometer. Our niche was a little off the beaten path, a lot of people liked what we were doing, crowds were getting bigger, the gigs kept coming, we had total control, we were confident. It certainly felt like an edge.
The band was extremely loud, utilizing huge banks of guitar amps and an equally large pa system. Not unusual for those days, but a bear to haul around. We finally acquired three roadies, although it was still a difficult logistic. We’d chosen to not bring keyboards, but we were bringing lots of guitars. Half of the year in Iowa was blizzard-like. Difficult logistics.
As one of the group’s principal writers, I expressed the feeling after a few months that we might be overbooked. No one in the band was willing to commit to touring, and yet we were playing so many one-nighters, it was the same thing.
The upside of gigging was that it affected the writing in positive ways, translating to better songs in the studio. When a recording session was happening, the group was extremely well-organized with a continuing flow of new material, a work ethic beyond compare, and a quirky yet efficient routine when recording at Lariam.
Because of the band schedule, recording sessions were usually set to begin around 9 pm at night, ending at 4-5am the next morning. Our engineer, Larry McKeever, was a sweetheart and very patient with the schedule. Had to be difficult for him as his days were full doing tv/radio commercials and here we are, a band, traipsing in for an all-night session when he could be home sleeping.
As the group progressed in its abilities, Lariam periodically upgraded its studio setup, which was great timing. When Lariam installed a Scully 284, it was as if we now had a million tracks to work with for overdubs.
Because the group was doing the niche approach that Brian had floated….and doing well with the approach, we began to attract would-be managers, regional record companies, and other contract-seeking entities.
The problem we had as a band was that we had no long-range plan. Nothing.
We had a great routine, owned everything we created, were getting pretty good at making records, had amassed a fairly large catalog of recordings, were pulling off good shows, got a lot of local press, had a growing following….but we had no collective plan beyond the routine we were in.
Lucky for us, contract offers were always uniformly bad.
The band had the luxury of parents who knew contracts, entertainment contracts, and business. Whenever various contract proposals would roll in, the parents were the first to say “this is no good, no way are you kids signing this…”
We rarely discussed the angle of bringing the parents in to force a contract in our favor because after all….none of us wanted to go out on the road….which would be required with any contract good or bad…especially if we began releasing the records….which we theoretically could do….because we indeed had them.
The band was stuck.
We were essentially playing our songs to a widening audience base and yet, we weren’t willing to sign contracts, weren’t willing to lose an iota of control, weren’t willing to tour …and we had no collective, alternate plan.
Whether a cliche or an innovative-but-not-very-useful recipe for being out on the edge, the cycle eventually wore all five of us down.
Ultimately, everything turned out fine. Four albums, thirteen singles, hours of tapes, countless photos, and a bit of tv news film coverage of the band.
Unreleased of course. Because hey, that’s pure Brian.
