Experimental: Playa guitar sound installation
14 acoustic guitars, 31 dc motors, 300 m cable, fabric and computer.
Neues Museum Weimar, Alemania
2012
Time machine: MXR 185 Vintage Drum Machine 1983
The MXR 185 is a great American drum machine from 1983. It has individual outputs for drumsounds. The crispy 8-bit samples sound great. The built in sequencer has a “tight” groove, it grooves like hell!
Know more about the MXR 185 Drum synth:
MXR were major innovators during the ’70s with their ground breaking effects pedals such as the Phase 100 phase shifter that defined the beautiful, swirling guitar and electric piano sounds of the decade.
They also produced distortion pedals, sustain pedals and more…. products that set the standard for stomp boxes even today.
They also introduced us to the idea of a pitch shifters and harmonisers (not be confused with today’s pitch correction devices).
Their products weren’t cheap but they exuded quality and had a great sound and an MXR Phase 100 pedal is probably now worth more than it originally sold for!
However, as technology progressed, MXR’s fortunes began to dwindle. Looking for ideas to generate revenue, MXR couldn’t resist the lure of the growing (and lucrative) drum machine market. Linn and Emu had been seen to be very successful with their products and, technically, the concept wasn’t exactly rocket science at the time…. a programmable sequencer that issued triggers to fire off crude 8-bit drum samples stored in ROM chips! Nowadays, this might be a course project for a college engineering student! And so in the mid 80s, they released their MXR 185 Drum Computer.
On the surface, it looked great. Twelve ‘real’ drum sounds each with their own pad at an affordable price. None of the pads were velocity sensitive – you needed to use the ACCENT button for dynamics (but this was typical for the time). However, each sound also had its own individual output and level slider. Whereas the Emu Drumulator compromised in these areas, the MXR was more like a Linn in terms of dedicated pads and controls.
The MXR 185 also had some interesting innovations in the user interface.
Thomas Dolby – Mulu the Rain Forest
• The song “Mulu the Rainforest” from Thomas Dolby’s classic album “The Flat Earth”.
• Shot and Directed by Chad Johnson in August 2012
• © Lost Toy People / Chad Johnson 2012
• Shot with a GoPro attached to the XP2 quadcopter: http://xproheli.com/affiliate/25/quadcopter/xp2-rc-aerial-video-quadcopter
• This video was shot in the Rockefeller Forest in the Giant Redwoods of Northern California.
We are also happy to share that Thomas Dolby has won the Moog Innovation Award award this year. Past winners were DEVO in 2010 and Brian Eno in 2011.
Dolby is a self made man, synth pioneer, and mad scientist. Like Bob Moog, Thomas Dolby’s quest for knowledge and desire to sculpt the world around him led him to the world of electronics, where he designed his own synths, founded his own software company, and charged head long through the world of pop music and into America’s consciousness. To say he was blinded by science would be doing him a disservice, for science has been his guiding light, and technology his namesake. For expanding the sonic boundaries of the new wave movement and for fearlessly embracing the future, Moog is proud to present Thomas Dolby with a custom Minimoog Voyager XL, in honor of being the 2012 Moog Innovation Award winner.
Four Analog Promenades
Four Analog Promenades
Korg MS-20 + Analogue Solutions Telemark + Plogue Bidule + Audacity
1 and 4 are played by hands, 2 and 3 are played by the machines.
Every videos have been made on the august 25th 2012 in Nantes, France.
1-Dreamlike prayer
2-Drifting logic
3-Dredging the time
4-Driven by the sun
“Hello ! My name is Frederic Gerchambeau. I have made this movie and this music. The music has been made in one take using a Korg MS-20, an AS Telemark, Plogue Bidule and Audacity. Enjoy !
http://www.myspace.com/fredericgerchambeau
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I am a (proud !) member of the french association PWM (Patch Work Music) :
http://patch-work-music.blogspot.com/“
Bass Sounds | Moog Little Phatty: Subtractive Synthesis
In this video Arjen Schatt demonstrates how to create bass sounds with the Moog Little Phatty. He starts from the calibration patch (CA CALIBRATION) as usual and create a bass sound as I go.
3 x Exploration of the Simmons SDSV
After months of repair SynthMania are ready to explore the capabilities of the Simmons SDSV. The SDS-5 (or SDS-V) was a really popular system, used by many of the big names in the 80’s. It was ‘module’ based so you could start with 5 modules and expand it to 6 or 7 in total.There was also different types of modules, toms, bass drum, snare and hi hat. Also it had ‘patch memories’, of sorts anyway. These were basically trimmers that were recessed below the panel. You could also use it in a ‘free’ mode where the sound you had was the sound set on the knobs.
After 11 months in the repair shop the Simmons SDSV is fixed. To celebrate the event, I’m testing the SDSV to explore some of the typical Italo sounds of the early / mid ’80s. The SSL Alpha-Link audio interface’s MADI port is also broken at the moment so I’m recording this audio through the computer’s internal sound card… I’ll create a better Simmons demo once I fix the audio interface. This is not a full song, just some noodling on the Simmons and JP-8 to test the SDSV sounds (which are great!)
A moody, slower demo of the Simmons SDSV, the Roland TR-808, and Roland Jupiter-8 using some classic-sounding sounds. The TR-808 drives the Simmons and the JP-8’s arpeggiator, the rest is improvised in real time. The filter of the JP-8 is set at -24dB and tweaked in real time. Again, due to my main audio interface being broken, I’m using the computer’s internal audio card, sorry for the floor noise.
Simmons SDSV, TR-808, Jupiter-8, Minimoog
Music Korg M1 “Universe”
“Music Korg M1 “Universe”. My favourite patch from this amazing synthesizer.”
The M1 was and still is a popular and widely used digital synthesizer and music workstation. The M1 features built-in AI Synthesis for full digital generation and processing using 4MB of PCM sampled and synthesized waveforms which can be shaped using analog-style editing. The M1 is capable of creating acoustic instruments with clarity, nice digital sounds and good buzzy techno sounds. The M1 is sort of like a workstation-version of the Roland D-50.
In addition to its acclaimed sound, it has a somewhat sophisticated 8-track sequencer. It holds 10 songs and 100 patterns and up to 7,700 notes, and offers full quantizing and editing. Full MIDI implementation suites the M1 ideally for studio production and MIDI system use. Up to 8 parts of multitimbrality with the 8 track sequencer makes for a powerful machine. Add to that a host of digital multi-effects and you’ve got one of the most widely and professionally used Korg synthesizers around.
Live OP-1 + Piano (Crank)
Tryggve Stakkeland is testing out the crank. OP-1 runs through el cap and cathedral. Polar controlling NI The Giant.
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soundcloud.com/trygvestakkeland
Stacking NovaDrones!
Stack your NovaDrones! The Nova Drone is an open source, analog experimental sound and light synth.
It it can be used to create effects ranging from slowly fading drones to chaotic harmonic sequences. It also functions as a complex visual pattern generator when combined with a digital/phone video camera. See the video below for an example of the color patterns generated by holding a camera up to the LED.
The Nova Drones offers 9 potentiometers, 9 switches, 6 oscillators, 3 oscillator sync inputs, 6 frequency modulation inputs and an epic 15 voltage outputs as well as 3 high current outputs for controlling external LEDs. All of the ins and outs have been routed to a prototyping breadboard at the bottom of the unit which allows for liberal experimentation and development of custom circuits. The prototyping area is especially useful for syncing the oscillators of 2 or more Nova Drones together.
The NovaDrone is a new open source hack-able sound and light synth from casperelectronics. Learn more here:
http://casperelectronics.com/finished-pieces/nova-drone/
Modular stuff: Lost Harmonic Identity Part
“Lost Harmonic Identity” never died.
This ist the first track after a while that belongs to LHI.
Starring:
Drums: MFB Schagzwerg, Korg Monotribe, Makenoise Optomix
Drunk guitar: WMD Syncrodyne with Makenoise René
1st pad: Cyclonix Cyclebox
“Dissonant” pad: Intellijel Rubicon
more @ http://www.klirrfaktor.com
DATAMASKIN
