Also during this time, John was bassist and synthesist for the Nielsen-Pearson band (1974-1980), performing on 3 albums with them. A review of a CD which combining the second and third albums can be found here (and for fans of West Coast music, can be purchased on Amazon.com). He also assisted Billy Cobham in setting up his Moog Modular 55 for various recording sessions (featured on ‘Inner Conflicts’ and on Stanley Clark’s ‘School Days’), as well as appearing on several other projects, most notably with Herbie Hancock for the Eddie Henderson release, ‘Mahal’.

At the end of 1987, Sequential was bought by Yamaha. After a brief stint there, the Sequential design team moved over to Korg, where John was product manager for the Wavestation series (keyboard, AD, and SR racks, 1989-1992). In 1993 he became part of the original OASYS keyboard project team, culminating with the first public presentations of the OASYS keyboard at NAMM and Musik Messe in early ’96. After cancellation of the project in Sept. ’96, John took part in the Korg Z1 voicing. A year later, with the go-ahead from Korg Japan to resurrect the OASYS technology, he found himself back doing UI design for OASYS PCI synths and effects.