With the modular synthesizer business being as brisk as it has ever been I can't quite understand why an affordable power racking solution hasn't appeared.
Yes, Doepfer has released their "low cost" suitcase, which is not at all a suitcase but is still cheaper then a box with a handle. This thing would be fine if you had a desire to buy a bunch of them and then do all the stuff that would make them solid but you'd end up spending a lot of money.
I'm at a point where I'm pulling stuff out of my racks and hoping to run into a good deal on a G6 at the right time but I know too God damned well I'll be the same place again soon enough.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Vacation pocket music
I have mixed feelings about many of the pocket music devices that some people use seemingly just because of their size. Granted I am a stompbox fanatic and I do usually prefer them to much of their rack counter parts.
I recently go a chance to try the Korg DS-10 which has gotten a fair amount of press already. My interest was very small, after all I had always been a little put off by people's revisionism that has turned an ok synth into a classic. I figured it won't kill me to try it and try it I did.
After some inital screwing around I finally put on my test visor and gave the little bastard a whirl. Much to my shock and amusement they managed to not only pull off a fun virtual synth but they added a bunch of extra stuff that makes it better then an actual emulation would have been.
Me? I'll be taking my DS on vacation loaded with Electroplankton, Korg DS-10 and perhaps some homebrew stuff loaded on to my R4.
I have not liked many copies of synths I own and have found many soft synths to also be unwieldy power hungry son of a bitches that can't do anything complicated because the GUI has eaten the processor. Did it have to take some toy company to finally do it right? I'm not sure but if you are going to have a DS anyway you might want to wait for the US release in Sept.
I recently go a chance to try the Korg DS-10 which has gotten a fair amount of press already. My interest was very small, after all I had always been a little put off by people's revisionism that has turned an ok synth into a classic. I figured it won't kill me to try it and try it I did.
After some inital screwing around I finally put on my test visor and gave the little bastard a whirl. Much to my shock and amusement they managed to not only pull off a fun virtual synth but they added a bunch of extra stuff that makes it better then an actual emulation would have been.
Me? I'll be taking my DS on vacation loaded with Electroplankton, Korg DS-10 and perhaps some homebrew stuff loaded on to my R4.
I have not liked many copies of synths I own and have found many soft synths to also be unwieldy power hungry son of a bitches that can't do anything complicated because the GUI has eaten the processor. Did it have to take some toy company to finally do it right? I'm not sure but if you are going to have a DS anyway you might want to wait for the US release in Sept.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Circuit Bending
Circuit Bending is it's self the art of exploring a circuit board to find new pathways that will generate an altered form from the original designers intended function. Sometimes one is simply adding additional functionality, other times skewing the form.
Circuit Bending is not "modding" it is not something one does with schematics or circuit maps to tell you what to do.
Why this is so confusing is beyond me. Reed Ghazala created these parameters for the art form he named and crusaded for. His name, his concept, his rules.
So many people are "teaching" this art form, selling instruments that they have Bent and making money off of one man's idea yet they can't see to respect the little bit of philosophy behind what the intention of his work was in the first place.
Circuit Bending is not "modding" it is not something one does with schematics or circuit maps to tell you what to do.
Why this is so confusing is beyond me. Reed Ghazala created these parameters for the art form he named and crusaded for. His name, his concept, his rules.
So many people are "teaching" this art form, selling instruments that they have Bent and making money off of one man's idea yet they can't see to respect the little bit of philosophy behind what the intention of his work was in the first place.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Can't stand myself
I was thinking about posting something heart felt about the crap one goes through on some days, trying to meet a deadline on a project while still staying within whatever bullshit artistic thing you currently conned your dumb ass in to believing this week.
Bottom line, I'll probably rant and not say a word about my lame internal turmoil as it would only make the two or three losers that read my blog realize that I am just another weepy arty duche bag without any merits and fading street cred.
Anyway...
So I've been trying to do a new single for a few days. The some total of the recordings seems to be three totally different things that don't fit together and aren't even that good. Needless to say I'm thinking E.P.
Trying to record in an unprofessional or rather a very much home studio manner without proper monitoring and shit is like having sex by yourself when you are "not in the mood" and doing it in an awkward location that you would only consider sexy based on the fact that you were with another person who wanted to "do it" there.
-That makes sense right?
I'm spoiled by having the experience of being paid to be mediocre in grander surroundings then my lovely home and I'm no longer inspired or young enough to be otherwise more effective.
Shall I quit and not bother to announce the single?
Should I announce it and then not bother to do it?
My guess I will use this as a means of driving myself into a state of deeper self loathing while continuing to plod on if only so I have the right to piss and moan. You know what? I've always hated artists. They are best dead or at least at a distance. Few of my friends are artists in the traditional sense and I can clearly see why.
Bottom line, I'll probably rant and not say a word about my lame internal turmoil as it would only make the two or three losers that read my blog realize that I am just another weepy arty duche bag without any merits and fading street cred.
Anyway...
So I've been trying to do a new single for a few days. The some total of the recordings seems to be three totally different things that don't fit together and aren't even that good. Needless to say I'm thinking E.P.
Trying to record in an unprofessional or rather a very much home studio manner without proper monitoring and shit is like having sex by yourself when you are "not in the mood" and doing it in an awkward location that you would only consider sexy based on the fact that you were with another person who wanted to "do it" there.
-That makes sense right?
I'm spoiled by having the experience of being paid to be mediocre in grander surroundings then my lovely home and I'm no longer inspired or young enough to be otherwise more effective.
Shall I quit and not bother to announce the single?
Should I announce it and then not bother to do it?
My guess I will use this as a means of driving myself into a state of deeper self loathing while continuing to plod on if only so I have the right to piss and moan. You know what? I've always hated artists. They are best dead or at least at a distance. Few of my friends are artists in the traditional sense and I can clearly see why.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
papa's got a brand new cab
My uncle Steve just finished building be a traditional lower (slant) cabinet for my Moog.
It's already been loaded with some CP panels, mostly blanks and soon I will begin populating it from modules I have stored away and from my other cabinets.
Ultimately, when I actually pull everything together the system will be in the IIIC/55 range with a bunch of bells and whistles. Both oscillator banks are there and accounted for and it will indeed be really modular, aside from the filter switching.
I don't have the energy tonight to start taking apart everything so I will sit back, rest on my laurels and stare gratified in to this cabinet as I drink Guinness.
A dream come true and several years of non stop searching for loose modules as well as pestering Mike Bucki for custom stuff, etc. I'm still missing a few minor things like extra VCAs and a second mixer but I have leads and am already beginning to real stuff in.
It's already been loaded with some CP panels, mostly blanks and soon I will begin populating it from modules I have stored away and from my other cabinets.
Ultimately, when I actually pull everything together the system will be in the IIIC/55 range with a bunch of bells and whistles. Both oscillator banks are there and accounted for and it will indeed be really modular, aside from the filter switching.
I don't have the energy tonight to start taking apart everything so I will sit back, rest on my laurels and stare gratified in to this cabinet as I drink Guinness.
A dream come true and several years of non stop searching for loose modules as well as pestering Mike Bucki for custom stuff, etc. I'm still missing a few minor things like extra VCAs and a second mixer but I have leads and am already beginning to real stuff in.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Ode to Ultimate Support
Over many years I have loved, hated and relied on Ultimate Support modular stands and "Thinker Toys". Because I have been so deeply invested in various custom stands, bags of tubing and boxes of connectors that I don't recall buyingt I somehow missed it when the company discontinued the line. Still a little bit of me died when I heard.
When my friend LH finally had decided enough was enough and the two things leaving his work space were Ultimate Support and milk crates I ended up with the former. In fact, truth be told he still occasionally finds more nests of parts and delivers them to me.
As I continuously try and find some sort of peace and balance in not having a real studio of my own I am always looking to find a way to streamline and improve work flow, one thing usually comes to mind Ultimate Support. Alas I now know that if I need a specific sized tube or an extra whatever I have to just wing it.
I have already bought a bunch of 3/16th hex keys so I have ample supply of those BUT I still haven't found a hardware store substitute for the tubing. Dear reader, hip me to that please.
In the mean time I will as LH to look behind the sofa, check under the family gazebo and look out in his storage for another supply of the gift that keeps on giving.
When my friend LH finally had decided enough was enough and the two things leaving his work space were Ultimate Support and milk crates I ended up with the former. In fact, truth be told he still occasionally finds more nests of parts and delivers them to me.
As I continuously try and find some sort of peace and balance in not having a real studio of my own I am always looking to find a way to streamline and improve work flow, one thing usually comes to mind Ultimate Support. Alas I now know that if I need a specific sized tube or an extra whatever I have to just wing it.
I have already bought a bunch of 3/16th hex keys so I have ample supply of those BUT I still haven't found a hardware store substitute for the tubing. Dear reader, hip me to that please.
In the mean time I will as LH to look behind the sofa, check under the family gazebo and look out in his storage for another supply of the gift that keeps on giving.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Where's the Sound Lens?
Toshio Iwai has been a very busy guy.
A few years back Nintendo released the psychedelic game for DS Electroplankton to a confused universe. It's an inteactive piece of art mixed with a game and a musical instrument much in the same style of his marvel the Tenori-On which has finally started selling in limited editions worldwide.
The "game" has no winning or losing, just like real life and it suggests a interesting possibility of creating art that functions and is interactive to the point of being a virtually passive element in the process. Meanwhile the new and more expensive Tenori-On takes a similar role but in the form of a MIDI step sequencer with an amazingly elegant interface. Both seem to be the toys of the future but specifically for the musically inclined.
I have been inspired enough to wonder and indeed hope that the project called the Sound Lens will also appear in the form of a usuable tool and work of art.
Thank you Toshio Iwai for seeing the space in between the lines of instrument and entertainment, tool and toy.
A few years back Nintendo released the psychedelic game for DS Electroplankton to a confused universe. It's an inteactive piece of art mixed with a game and a musical instrument much in the same style of his marvel the Tenori-On which has finally started selling in limited editions worldwide.
The "game" has no winning or losing, just like real life and it suggests a interesting possibility of creating art that functions and is interactive to the point of being a virtually passive element in the process. Meanwhile the new and more expensive Tenori-On takes a similar role but in the form of a MIDI step sequencer with an amazingly elegant interface. Both seem to be the toys of the future but specifically for the musically inclined.
I have been inspired enough to wonder and indeed hope that the project called the Sound Lens will also appear in the form of a usuable tool and work of art.
Thank you Toshio Iwai for seeing the space in between the lines of instrument and entertainment, tool and toy.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Max 5
Somehow as I was here fucking around trying to get an old G4 iMac to be usable as something Cycling 74 released Max 5.
I had vowed that I would buy a new Mac when this came out. Of course my research had been so frustrating since Apple refuses to have a mid range desktop machine.
Anyway, Cycling's release is a big deal and it marks a similar change as MSP's original release.
Good going guys! Don't worry about all of the mess in my house over computer corpses.
I had vowed that I would buy a new Mac when this came out. Of course my research had been so frustrating since Apple refuses to have a mid range desktop machine.
Anyway, Cycling's release is a big deal and it marks a similar change as MSP's original release.
Good going guys! Don't worry about all of the mess in my house over computer corpses.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Time marks failure
The other day out of some masochistic impulse I put on a album I did in 2000 and much to my shock the disk began to skip. I checked for scratches and dirt but the disk was clean.
I put on someone else's work and no errors appeared. I replaced it with one from my label from 2001 and that one also skipped. I began to panic and quickly grabbed one from 2006 and it played fine, the same went for one from 1998.
With two disks, isolated. I sort of wondered whether the machine I was playing them in had become picky. Although not a technical nor logical explanation it does happen.
Let's step back for a moment. Since 1998 almost all music on my label has been sold online and in person as a packaged & burned CD-R. Although there have been a few releases where traditional manufacturing was done due to a slightly larger demand, the general rule is that my audience is small and technology finally got to a point where I didn't need to store slow moving product.
In that time I have never received complaints of quality nor failure, although when I first started to do product as a made to order thing more then a few folks thought I was nuts.
I put on someone else's work and no errors appeared. I replaced it with one from my label from 2001 and that one also skipped. I began to panic and quickly grabbed one from 2006 and it played fine, the same went for one from 1998.
With two disks, isolated. I sort of wondered whether the machine I was playing them in had become picky. Although not a technical nor logical explanation it does happen.
Let's step back for a moment. Since 1998 almost all music on my label has been sold online and in person as a packaged & burned CD-R. Although there have been a few releases where traditional manufacturing was done due to a slightly larger demand, the general rule is that my audience is small and technology finally got to a point where I didn't need to store slow moving product.
In that time I have never received complaints of quality nor failure, although when I first started to do product as a made to order thing more then a few folks thought I was nuts.
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