Category Archives: Analogue

Short Attention Span: #3 Sproing

[play] Short Attention Span: #3 Sproing (2007)

Continuing to embrace rather than fight my short attention span, here is the third one in the series.

This one was made with a MOTM analog synthesizer controlling a Sherman filter bank. The source sounds where ticks of white noise modulated with some FM sounds.

I would not characterize the filter bank as “intuitive.” I decided not to get one years ago, but then I went to a show a few weeks ago and was so blown away by somebody using one, that it caused me to change my mind. The learning curve is steep, though. They could really use a better manual and the diagrams of signal paths stencilled to the outside are very incomplete.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.1MB)

Short Attention Span: #2 Glitch

[play] Short Attention Span: #2 Glitch (2007)

Continuing to embrace rather than fight my short attention span, here is the second one in the series.

The sounds were generated in the BEA 5 lab in Sonology at the Royal Conservatory of the Netherlands in The Hague. There were mixed with a remote-controlled macmini running Ardour and Audacity. My lab partners Dave and Tomer most likely contributed to the source sounds.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (922.3KB)

Short Attention Span: #1 Buildup

[play] Short Attention Span: #1 Buildup (2007)

Rather than fight my short attention span, I’ve decided to embrace it and do a series of really short works. This is the first in the series.

The sounds were recorded in the massive analog synthesizer in BEA 5 in Sonology, in the Royal Conservatory, in The Hague, the Netherlands. The mixing was done with Ardour running on a macmini, but displaying remotely on my laptop with X windows. I can’t recall the patches used for the sounds, except that they involved a 200 kilo plate reverb. Tomer may have contributed to this.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.1MB)

Aelita Dreams of Mars

[play] Aelita Dreams of Mars
2003

I remember making this piece, but I can’t remember crucial details, such as the original title. Fortunately, I realised the importance of keeping notes on what I was doing:

Recorded april-july 2003
MOTM and minimodular
theremin-ish patch used on aelita sound track (april)
the rest recorded june 30-july 1
copy of first-mix sent to sonic circuits in 2003

program notes: blah blah blah new sounds old sounds.

I can say with certainty that Sonic Circuits did not select it and that I have since improved my note-taking process.

The parts of it that sound like a theremin were generated with my MOTM analog synthesizer. In April of 2003, Christine Denton and I presented some collaborations at Jack Straw in Seattle, Washington. We worked on a soundtrack for the revolution sequence of the silent Soviet film Aelita Queen of Mars and the theremin sounding parts appeared in that soundtrack. Since Leon Theremin was Russian, it seemed appropriate.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.8MB)

Airwaves No. 2

Airwaves No. 2
2002

Airwaves is a series of tape music featuring the sounds of analog modular synthesis. It primarily uses a MOTM modular synthesizer. Because the sound of this synthesizer is so naturally big, pieces in this series try to give the listener some space by creating music with more air in it.

This piece was performed at Woodstockhausen 2002

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.3MB)

Chaos Patch

Chaos Patch
2000

A chaos patch is formed by taking three oscilators and plugging the output of one into the FM input of the next, so as to create an FM loop. Then one of the sound outputs goes to modulate a low pass filter, another a high pass filter and the last one is audio input to the filter chain. The results are unpredicatable and chaotic.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.4MB)