Q & A

What's the origin of the name LACOBO Productions?

The name LACOBO Productions exists now for about 8 years. I invented this name in the break of a quire evening. It exists of the first letters of each of my full names and the first two letters of my last name. LAmbertus COrnelis BOuwmeester.  Creating an maintaining this site, but also editing photo's, CD recordings of quires (from recording to sleeve design and printing etc), writing of Visual Basic programs; everything under the name LACOBO Productions.

Why didn't you start earlier taking music lessons?

When I reached the age of 10 years old I wanted to play an instrument (then it was an organ), but I wasn't patienced enough. That one organ lesson given by my father wasn't very successful. A few years later my focus was shifting to computers and everything around it. Though the desire for playing the white- and black key's kept existing. So every now and then I bought an other instruments with those key's. It wasn't before I went to Hoofddorp where I went to a quire with a real music-teacher before I knew: I have to take music lessons. And so it happened.

Can you tell something about the instruments you had in the past?

The PSR-9000 was a very robust machine of 22 kilograms with a wood-shielded speaker set built in. It was my 2nd instrument and I was so impressed with it that I started this site about it. The specs of this instrument are very close to the specs of the 9000 Pro. The only difference was the speakers, 61- in stead of 76 keys and a smaller sound-ROM (although rumors still go over the internet that the PSR-9000 sounded better than the 9000 Pro) and of course the appearance, which couldn't live up with the "young God look" of the 9000 Pro.

The 9000 Pro was an instrumental beauty for my living room and had a stealth Hard drive. Using the built in USB port I had direct access to the sounds on the Hard disk. The keyboard had 64 MB's of sample memory. A volume pedal, the MFC-10 and a sustain pedal where squeezed between the legs of the Z-frame. A very heavy-duty set of Logitech speakers with a superb subwoofer (Z-2200 THX certificated) brought the sound at (nearly) ear-height to my eardrums. Finally the new Tyros-styles made it up-to-date again.

The PSR-2100 was lighter, smaller and a lot cheaper than the 9000 Pro. But the sound quality was almost the same. Because it had built-in speakers, the keyboard was easy to transport and without many extra's it could play. Also the speakers came in handy as monitor speakers during live-gigs (nice to hear what you are playing). I was very happy when I found out that the MFC-10 also could be used with the '2100. My feet still could do something during playing the PSR-2100.

The PSR-3000 was a sort of mixture between the PSR-2100 and the Tyros. A color screen, Mega voices, many styles, USB-in, Smart card reader etc. Very much sound for relatively not to much money (especially because I paid 1200 Euros for a secondhand board). Could have played this thing for years, but the Tyros2 gave enough reasons for an upgrade.

Why such expensive equipment for a beginner?

An instrument that needs to be played on a daily base can't sound good enough. It's then a joy to get playing every day. The layout of an arranger keyboard is very important. This makes it more easy to work with the machine. By using the foot-panel I can do more to bring the background music to life, without constantly removing my fingers from the keyboard.

Are you coming from a music-oriented family?

My father played organ and was the main organ player of a church ceremony at a school in "de Zilk". Later he played organ now and then at a Christmas party at an elderly house. Also a brother and sister of my father are playing organ. My grandfather has played at several church ceremonies. Although playing keyboards is a complete different ballgame I can say that I have music in my genes.

Did you already do a live performance?

My first live performance was a living room concert, where 4 family members attended. Despite the small audience the performance was quite a success. I played around 20 songs at that night. The first paid performance was in Warmond in a daycare centre. During the coffee break I played and after that I started singing on top of midi-tophits of Dutch songs (Foxy Foxtrot, Daar bij de molen, Big City etc.). The 9000 Pro was responsible for the 2nd voice. During the Christmas celebration I played again at the daycare centre. Finally in oktober 2005 I played in Waalwijk at a house warming party.

Are you also playing songs requested by the audience?

For now this is out of the question. It takes quite a long time to study at a new song (sometimes it takes a few hours, other times it can take weeks or months). In a few years from now I want to play at wedding-party's and other feasts, but that's still far away from now.

How does the multiple voices singing work?

The Tyros2  keyboard have a feature called "Vocal Harmony". I can choose different setups: A duo, a complete quire, an accapella group etc. When I play a chord and sing the keyboard creates the rest of the voices, so everything sounds in "Harmony". The multiple voiced songs on my site are this recorded in one motion.

Do you edit your songs before they arrive at your site.

Mostly not. I sometimes fiddle a bit with the output power and use a software equalizer to add some bass and treble. Sometimes I stitch parts of a song together because I can't play it completely at once, but this is a painstaking process and I'm happy to say that I don't have to do that very frequently.

Who takes the pictures on your site?

My Digicam! With the 10 seconds delay and a remote control I take all the pictures. This site is the result of a fine mixture of 3 hobby's: Computers, Photography and Music.

What about the CD?

The CD is kind of an everlasting project. I've recorded now 8 tracks on the hard drive, and I have to record at least an other 12. My demands are a bit higher for the CD recording then the internet versions, so it takes a bit more time then I had planned before. An advantage of this is that my playing skills are increasing and that the final product will be very nice.

What is your own musical taste?

I'm a big fan of Jean Michel Jarre. I have all his CD's and have visited 7 liveconcerts (2x Paris, Mnt Saint Michel, Lille, Brussel, Aalborg, Ahoy Rotterdam), also the music of Vangelis sounds great. A great deal of electronic music thus. But also Dutch artists (Pater Moeskroek, Marco Borsato).