Is it ready yet?

With the modular explosion of the last few years one would think the last few modules I need to complete my vision for this Moog would have popped up.. Not really, it's slow going.

I am however a little closer then I was thanks to doing a random spontaneous search for the 905 Reverb.

Someone please send me a 984 Matrix mixer and I'll shut up (for a moment)

instruments and folklore

Although much of what is interesting and exciting about a musical instrument is a holistic experience that comes from making music, there are times when one's intellect has other questions.

Sadly not many people seem as interested as I am in the history and folklore that goes along with instrument design. This is not to say that the various people with whom I spoke weren't generous with their time, quite the contrary.

My feeling is as a general rule is that for example, some aspects of an instrument's development and the changes that occurred before it reached the point of being considered classic are not that interesting to people when for me they are important touch stones that often reveal what a designer may have had in mind to begin with with.

I am trying to unravel a bit of a mystery relating to my Wiard system. See if you can follow me.

Wiard system number 2 (six modules plus controller) was sold by it's original owner when they moved abroad, theoretically as a whole unit. That system was integrated into a lager system which ultimately ended up being 24 or so modules. It was used on a bunch of recordings and then sold of in parts.

I ended up with what I assumed to be some pretty early modules among the ones I bought. The first three Wiard systems reacted to black light, I never tested mine but I figured that two (VCO & SEQ) plus the controller where early enough.

Fast forward a few years and I buy 1 module (The Filter) and realize that my friend is selling two more from that system. He is the forth owner so already the details are harder to trace but from what I can figure out from talking to a number of people involved including previous owners, I feel like I am one module away from owning system two. I have put out the word that i am looking for the last module.

Now, 5 of the 6 modules believe to be part of that early system are in my case and I'm doing some dusting. I finally, all these years later pull out the black light.. What do you know, the Filter, Sequentizer and VCO don't glow. Only the Envelator and the Waveform City.

It is clear from the graphics on these panels that they are very early and were done in Grant's garage. My understanding is that there is only one blue "The Filter" and it does appear in a photo I have that is alleged to be system 2. I also know that the first three systems had glowing paint.

Where does that leave me?

Information may come from my posting this but in truth, the end result is my instrument s my instrument and it may have some aspect of folklore to it but it's most important that we make our own.

todays improv

Sept 18 09 by Tommy DOG

EDIT some patch info:

Two Anti-O, inter modulating dulled down with a Boogie then a Borg 2. The controllers on this patch where Evelator & Sequentizer with tempo controlled and interrupted by the Wogglebug and noise ring. LFO for timing was s always a Borg.

A little electronic improv

I do as much improvisation as I can, often with modular synthesizers as they remind me of plasticine which I used for so many years to relax. make toys do animation. I am especially fond of The Wiard as it is truly something that inspires and surprises.

This bit of racket came from my screwing around with the Sequentizer which is one of my least used, thus understood modules. What started to come out where these notes that reminded me of Clavichord music.

Klavawiard by Tommy DOG

Sometimes life is too busy to really comment on it virtually. It's not the lack of things I feel like writing about, it's the fact that I'd rather be making music then writing about it's gritty technological details.

I've noticed that there are constant trends in the modular synth community. Not surprising as it is booming in a way that makes the past seem quiet. Between the awareness that people are developing and the push to make things that never existed before, it is both an expensive time and an exiting one.

One subject that is of current interest to many is Don Buchla's amazing instruments which are now the source of much gear talk. Having gone from institution and avant garde to a seemingly more available state, many in the synth community have developed a Buchla lust.

I understand one's affinity to an instrument and do personally like some specific designs that Buchla made but when it comes to full systems my heart belongs to Moog and Wiard.

foot pedals

At some point I saw these wonderful photos of a very early Moog that lives at the University Of Michigan. I was very taken with the early pedals that seemed so slapped together, in fact I was so much so that I began asking around to see if anyone had a set of pedals to sell.

From what I had seen the early systems had two different types of pedals. There were the ones pictured and another style that not only went up and down but sideways as well. This was somewhere in between an early stompbox design that I have an example of, which controlled volume and tone and the Wonka elevator.

While buying some panels from a nice gentleman named Bill, I did the logical thing and shot off a note about the few Moog parts I was still after.

It turned out Bill had a few of these pedals raw and loose. No mounting, no instructions but some valuable information instead. Bill was able to tell me that they were common of a lot of organs, much like the Pratt-Reed keyboard that Moog also used. He thought that they had been manufactured by Allen.

A short time later I received a strange E-mail telling me of a shipment. Shortly the explanation followed. Bill had generously sent me the pedals. I was thrilled and nervous because I had no idea how I was going to get them to work.

After some attempts to get an actual diagram or something from some Moog experts I know failed, I decided to just go for it. Tonight they work again, pitch control and groovy detuning at very reasonable voltage ranges. Yeah, I used a meter because I wasn't going to blow anything up.

Here's my reproduction.

Happy Birthday Doc

I've had some relationship with Moog synthesizers since I was very small. From my love of The Beatles who managed to use the Moog so tastefully on Abbey Road to Gershon Kingsley who recorded an album in my grandfather's temple and featuring his iconic voice.

As a young artist I dreamed of being really professional, at least enough to warrant my owning a Minimoog. A short time later I had the gear and was trading and debating ideas with Bob Moog himself when it came to things like alternative controllers, our shared love of the then forgotten Theremin and later his effects pedal line.

I don't think Bob cared whether a customer was famous or if a good idea came from the peanut gallery. He was generous with his time and loved what he did.

Shortly before he died I began my dream of building a Moog modular. I was advised by a friend that this would be a waste of time and money given the difficulty of the task of buying a few modules at a time WHEN I could find them.

Over the years I met a hell of a lot of people, almost all terrific and interesting. People who worked with Moog (the man), at Moog (the company) and of course with Moog the instruments. Some of these people became friends and some shared their stories of a funny man who caused a funny machine to make funny sounds.

The piece of music I played tonight was for one person, whether he heard it or not.

more Pro Suckage

Let me put this to you dear readers simply; smaller is never better.

Bigger is pretty much always better. Extra is always a plus and bonus is never viewed in anything but the most positive terms.

"lite", "nano", "mini", "Jr." are all LESS THEN something that probably came before it.

If I wanted something edited, truncated, sawed off or shrunk I would have to hand in my "Proud To Be An American" card and hop over the border into Canada.

So next time some weenie in a sales job tries and con you with the virtues of the improved tininess of something, tell em you want it big, loud and full of action because that's what makes life worth living.

Fireworks?
Fuck you, I want the atomic bomb!

next please

After installing Pro Tools LE 8.O into my new Mac Pro I discovered that 2 Gigs of RAM was not enough to keep my mouse from spazzing out. The joy was only exacerbated by the lovely inspection of my new MBox2 Pro which feels like it was made by not just cheap but retarded Chinese slave labor.

I give up.

4 more gigs coming whenever the fuck the shipper decides to get around to it. Meanwhile I'll enjoy the speediness of the improved Ethernet speed and download some zombie porn.

it's not pro

1. If it's made entirely out of plastic
2. If it can't be serviced
3. If it's designed to take up very little space in your dorm room

This is is the first installment of what I imagine will be an ongoing bitch fest over turning a new computer into a usable recording device.

Enjoy my pain.