Maths as waveshaper

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Here's something I've been working on this semester:


It's a series of live mixes, using a modular synthesizer, sheets of metal and reverb units as the sound sources. The "presentation version," which I'll be debuting in a couple of hours, features two 7-foot sheets of aluminum, wired as reverberant amplifiers, as the rear channels of a 4-channel playback system:

360 Systems 20/20 "tremolo"

I am very fortunate to have a window of access to all manner of rare gear at the moment, including a full E-Mu modular system (!) and my favorite ring modulator of the pack, the 360 Systems 20/20 Frequency Shifter. Playing with the two earlier today, I managed to coax a downright beautiful tremolo out of the 20/20, which, sure, tremolo from a ring mod is nothing new-- set the modulating oscillator to sub audio and there you go-- but here's a bit of a twist:

The 20/20 has three outs: Low, Ring Modulation and High (the sum and difference have their own outputs (!)). Patching all three into channels of the mixer (with Low and High panned hard left and right) and playing their levels along with the dry signal, I was able to get these sorts of sounds:

360 Systems Frequency Shifter tremolo by Peter Speer

(the E-Mu photo = the drone patch you're listening to.)

My reverbs

Here's the reverb setup I have going on in my studio at school. Who needs a BX-20 when you have a piece of scrap aluminum? Well I do, sure, but until then, these will do:



Inspiration credit: Nic Collins.

$0!

Jess just brought this back from California. Anyone else think it looks exactly like the Moog Guitar?

$55!

New Year's music

As has become our annual tradition, we stayed in this New Year's Eve, had some drinks and recorded some music, including these Beach Boys and Lee & Nancy covers:

"Surfer Girl" by The Speers by The Shamblers

"Summer Wine" by The Speers by The Shamblers



Happy 2011 to everyone!

I have a Blofeld for the week!

I've been thinking about swapping our Opus 3 out for something a bit more modern (by which I mean it will break down less often). Having mentioned that to my pal David, he let me borrow his significantly-more-modern Blofeld (from Waldorf, of PPG fame).

Like anyone who has never used a digital keyboard before, I've stuck mainly to the pad sounds. I'll post some audio later this week, provided I can record something worth listening to. Seriously-- this is how it's gone so far: hold down a C chord, wait 2 minutes, tweak the filter, hit C again, repeat.

Upgrades!

We switched out a handful of modules last week. Here are the new additions:

Party

Doepfer A-152 harsh noise

I've been interested in and confused by Doepfer's A-152 module since I first heard about it, some two years ago. Everyone who had one recommended one, but descriptions and videos were always more in-context than explanatory (aside from Doepfer's manual for the module, which I finally read and is excellent).

I'm happy to say that one has now been added to the sequencing row of our system! And while I get used to working with it, enjoy this patch based on an example in the manual for a "Graphic VCO" (with audio rate CV feeding the switches):

More videos/a review as soon as I figure out what I'm doing...

Prep work

Not to make this a "photos of our new case" blog, but here's another photo of our new case:


Brought it out to the rehearsal space yesterday to practice for an upcoming show with Family and (hopefully) White Wave. It's easy to forget how much better something can sound through a good amp when you don't own one yourself. Case in point: Twin Reverb (see above). You will be mine. Oh yes, you will be mine.

Show details soon!

Alert the truancy officer

This new case is making me regularly late for work. Here's a photo of the drone patch I've had up since waking up-- no time for a proper recording this morning...


...that said, now that our synth is portable, I'm hoping to play out with it SOON. Details will be posted here as they happen.

On the night shift

I picked up a second job, doing soldering work for a local synth maker. Last night was my second shift, so to speak, and my first one doing any actual soldering (the first was just bending resistor legs).

I love soldering, especially large projects like this-- something about the repetitive work calms me down and puts me in a nice mood. Granted, it could be the fumes...

Cassette loop drone

I chopped together a blank tape loop yesterday, and have been using it with the 4-track pretty much nonstop since:

Same video, processed through the modular:

Speaker as fixed EQ

I was making digital copies of dictaphone tapes this afternoon, and while doing so came to the conclusion that I prefer the sound of the tapes through the recorder's internal speaker over the sound of the tapes directly.

So, to get more of the sound I wanted into the computer, I set a 57 an inch or so off the speaker's center and pressed record-- it's a much closer copy of what I want than simply running the headphone output into a mixer.


Have any of you tried this? Do you have a favorite mic for the job? I haven't done much experimenting (and don't have the biggest mic closet in the world), but if this is something you've done or do often and can recommend a set-up, let me know-- I'd love to hear about/try it!

Touch Clock

New utility box on the way

Our (mostly finished) new utility box:


Two A/B selectors, one mute switch, two momentary 9v gates (w/ snazzy green LEDs) and two passive OR circuits. Might try to squeeze a multiple in there as well...

Next on the list are the synth PCBs we've been "collecting." I've finally started sourcing parts for them, and we should have at least one of them coming together in the next month or so. Details/photos SOON!

Tip Top Z3000

Our first dedicated VCO arrived today and it was immediately put to use... as an LFO:

Wogglebug Heart In

Sending a triangle wave LFO into the Heart In on the Wogglebug:

A big thank you to Tony for explaining this to me!