User Profile

Heya,

While most people just know me as the Old Crow (or even just 'Crow'), others have actually been known to call me Scott. The full name is Christopher Scott Rider, but I promise you I'm not going to react to 'Chris', as that name only ever shows up on things like credit card receipts.

Anyway, I specialize in design and repair of electronic music synthesizers. Most of the gear I work with was originally designed between 1970 and 1995, although I am always eager to delve into the latest machinery. I am one of three people in the world willing to repair the Yamaha CS-80, which is well-covered by my http://www.cs80.com/ website. I also do synthesizer module design for http://www.synthtech.com/ , which IMHO represents the best in terms of audio specifications and electronic circuit design practices. I was trained in piano for 13 years, and while I do not get to compose music as much as I like, on occasion I'll configure the synthesizer menagerie for a studio session and end up with a decent track of electronic music. I *almost* have enough for a CD...

My second hobby, animation, is well-documented on my older site, which I have archived at http://www.oldcrows.net/~syzygy/ This includes American and Japanese animation styles. As a board member of the Midwest Animation Promotion Society, I try yearly to help bring the the art form forward through the MAPS-sponsored Anime Central media convention, see http://www.acen.org/
Want to chat with the Crow? Look for the Director of Convention Operations at the next Acen, and you've found him (usually trying to fix a problem). In past years, I've done a fair bit of writing for various online publications such as http://www.ex.org/ and http://www.atanime.com/ and as my writing output has fallen off in recent years, I hope to get back into it as soon as time allows.

I have a 1987 BSEE from West Virginia University. I spent 15 years doing industrial process controller design, 5 years as a government contractor, and now spend most of my spare time working my LLC partnership.

Married on July 26, 1997, to Maria "AKane" Munoz Rider. One child thus far, Jason Scott Rider. We call him 'Jason', to avoid confusion in the future. ;)

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