Me in Harmony Road with my Vox Continental and Roland keyboards.
Those were the days of high-heeled shoes and flares!!!!

A few years of piano lessons and exams soon gave way to pub work (barman at The Orange Footman - Harlow, England)
and experiencing life on the other side of the bar (drinking).

Eventually met up with a college mate (Chazz) and formed a group calling ourselves Four-Wheel-Drive (inspired by Bachman Turner Overdrive).

Eventually we signed up with an agent and renamed ourselves Harmony Road. We were a 4-piece band and played songs from the 60's and 70's.

The band consisted of Graham (Drummer/Singer), Kevin (Bass Guitar/Singer), Chazz (Lead Guitar) and myself (Keyboards)
and we performed at events like Weddings, 18th/21st parties, corporate evenings and clubs.

Since arriving in Australia (1984) I have not touched a keyboard, until my musical interest was revived having listened to some Jean Michel Jarre albums.

I then set about completing my first mini-Synthesiser (ASM-1) since my experiments back in the UK with the PE Sound Synthesiser and The Elektor Formant.

After a phone call from Mark (Quack) I became the resident Sound Engineer and roadie (now that was one reason I got out of the band thing in the first place I can still remember plodding home at 3am on a Sunday morning having left home at noon on Saturday for a gig....... groan!!!) for EarthQuacke a 16+ big band.

I am tall, dark and handsome (I wish!). In reality I am 5ft 10", have dark hair (DID, see above!), brown eyes and am easy going!!!!!

I like having a good time and, like all good keyboard musicians,I like playing with my organ when I get the chance!!!!!!!

The workshop for ELBY Designs

ELBY Designs

ELBY Designs was set up in early 2003 in an attempt to support the SDIY market by providing access to a range of component kits for a number of popular PCB designs. Although the PCB's were readily available, gathering all the components to construct the design often required multiple sourcing for components and, in some cases, minimum-order-quantities.

At the time, the ASM-1 from Gene Stopp was the main focus but the range gained a lot more momentum with the addition of the Cat-Girl Synth from Ken Stone.

Since then I have expanded the scope of the ASM-1 with the introduction of the ASM-2 and the addition of a front panel.

The main intention of ELBY Designs was to offer as near to a one-stop-shop for popular PCB designs including panel components and, where possible, PCB's and front panels.

A few years back, working with Ken Stone I introduced the Panther family of EuroRack modules mainly based around the Cat-Girl Synth.

And now am pleased to add the Serge family of modules to the line in the form of our Euro-Serge system.

Recently I created a EuroSynth Specification that is aimed to provide define the basic design aspects of a professional grade 3U modular system and are slowly bringing our whole product range in to that specification.

And for the curious, the name ELBY Designs is simply a play on the initials of my first and last name.

Laurie Biddulph = L B = El Bee = Elby

The logo is a representation of an oscilloscope showing a squarewave modulated high-frequency carrier.

This image evolves from my earlier interests and work with mains-borne remote control systems or Ripple Control Systems as we called them.

This involved modulating a carrier of around 110kHz with an on-off signal generating a stream of data and imposing it on the the mains power wiring and was used to control mainly lighting, but also air-conditioning and security systems.

Installations included The Garibaldi Inn in Hunters Hill, IBM Australia in Pennant Hills, and Kingsford Smith International Terminal.