it's like dominos

Sometimes things just go bad one after another.
Usually it happens when you are tired and repairing something with stiff wiring.

I was on the road to fixing up my EML 101. I had sought out replacement knobs and actually found 10 that a nice guy was willing to sell me at a fair price. The main reason for the need for spare knobs was that the range knob for OSC 2 was no longer working and the actual knob was refusing to come off peacefully.

I opened up the unit, braced the range knob and successfully removed the old knob, replacing it with the new one. Mission accomplished. But wait, just what I feared, two wires had come loose.

Although getting them back in place would have probably been easy with a couple of alligator probes the power died. Having no idea as to what type of fuse is in the unit I tried to unscrew the board with the transformer. Sadly one red wire came loose and I decided to give up.

Between not knowing where that red wire goes or what type of fuse is in there I feel that just giving up is about the best thing I can do right now for this instrument.

The picture below shows the yellow and green wires that came loose. One went to the range, although I'm not sure which lug, the other went to tuning.



Should anyone know the fuse type, have a detailed photo of the board with the transformer or happen to be damn sure about these two loose wires please let me know. In the mean time I will be repeating the words "I suck" over and over again, while I debate sending it to a tech or finding another one and using this for parts..

Robot Love

Alan turned me on to this site. Check out the page with robots. I am so interested in living with robots and maybe starting a band with a bunch of them.

covers, renditions and slaughter

Sometimes one is amazed by the variations that different artists can impose into a great piece of music, making it their own. Other times the outcome of interpretation is something that bypasses one's initial expectations and leads one into a numbing state of shock.

In this situation we are treated to a perfectly good song that by it's very nature should and need not be redone by another artist, not just because it is view with some historical significance but because when one performs music in brute skeletal form, it is usually by design.

First the original
Next the parody
Now the variations 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

updates, etc. & so fourth

Just to keep my readers, whom I refer to as "the loyal 5" in the loop...
I updated the Gear Lust post or really I just expanded on it.

On the collectable gear front: those Ludwig Phase II's have gotten pricey. I mean yeah, they are cool in both looks and sound but one just went on The Ebay for close to 4 grand... I'd hate to say how little I paid for mine, which is nicer then all the ones I've seen for sale recently. I guess that's the collectors world for ya.


Meanwhile, I'm rethinking the Max/MSP project I was doing because my previous project was just more fun for me. Plus, if i really need a simple sampler I could use one of my Kaoss Pads or someone elses' Max patch.

The Max/MSP project I was working on a while back was a live effects processor that was especially good for turntables. I set up each parameter with tempo based suedo random number generators that would alter various aspects of the mix, effect and even toggle differnt combinations on and off. It was pretty fun and sounded good. I think I'm gonna go back to that.

EML 101

Every good instrument has it's own personality. The EML 101 has definitely got a special thing to it. Mine was in the Caribbean at one point and later a closet in the US. it's not a perfect example and "needs some work" like the range knob on OSC 2 but as it is I'm tempted to leave most of it the was it is.

I remember reading about how Brian Eno would mark his VCS3 to make sure certain things were not repaired because the flaws appealed to him.



The EML is not a pretty looking instrument, nor does it have as much hipster cashe as other semi modulars like the ARP 2600 but what is does have is an extra oscillator and enough routing choices to make patching less immediately important in searching for interesting sounds.

Here's a little clip of it making some noises

Max/MSP ASCII Sample player: post 2

It's pretty amazing that with about 45 minutes of dicking around over two days I was able to made a simple patch that bares a vague likeness to what I'm actually going for.

If I was doing this with a MIDI trigger in instead of ASCII, I'd be done and working on bells and whistles. ASCII is probably perfectly easy but I haven't had the slightest experience using the computer keyboard as a controller with Max.. That's kind of going to slow things down.

There are a few objects for ASCII conversion, "key" & "key up" are two that may work. Right now I'm leaning on the former. I may look around and see if someone else has already mapped out the keyboard into pitches so I don't have to.

Having added pitch control and variable echo on one channel is helping the patch actually sound like it's doing something fun already.

Samplers

I never could view Ableton Live which I love as a software sampler as some folks do. The same could be said for the Electro Harmonix 16 second Delay (NOT THE REISSUE) looping and sampler are not the same thing.

I miss hardware samplers. In fact I can safely say that I basically stopped using samplers when I stopped using my Akai S950 Although I do use the Doepfer A-112 which is both a wavetable Oscillator and Sampler, it's still not the same as stretching twisting and tweaking something until it makes you laugh like crazy.

Another thing that's lacking is that slightly offbeat triggering of sounds in late 80's Hiphop. That still has it's charm. I actually plan to settle this missing mojo via Max/MSP and build a simple sample triggering patch that just has the basic functions like reverse and looping but triggered by the ASCII keyboard on my ibook

Should take no time at all. Max/MSP is so great for getting stuff like this done and in all of the years that i have used Max, I can safely say I have yet to get to a point of being an expert but I still manage to get my ideas done without errors or crashing. Great program.

925 Voltage Controlled Reverb

Mike Bucki just sent me my 925 reverb.
9-2-5 you ask??
You mean 9-0-5!
Nope.

From my understanding this got as far as prototypes in the custom shop at Moog, mine indeed has a smooth finish panel instead of the flat mat finish that we usually see on Moog modules and is old stock.

Mike spent a great deal of time matching output transformers to different reverb cans and tweaking it with caps until he was sort of satisfied and then I said "come on Mike it's time.. I can always tweak it myself or run it through the fixed filter bank"

Mike is not a guy who likes to let work go that he isn't 100% happy with, which as he would say is "a good thing". He and I have built up a trust where he knows I'll tell him the truth and we are usually in agreement.

To this day I don't know that our two sets of ears have disagreed yet on anything Moog. Although our musical tastes are as far away as Asia is to Motorhead.

So how does the 925 sound?
Great!



I plan on writing a full thing on Mike for this blog pretty soon and I'll see if I can find out some of the details behind The String Filter, Ring Modulator, Sample & Hold, VC Reverb, Dual VCO Rack and some of the other less common Moog products which Mike has continued to build.

In the maentime, if your vintage Moog needs a tune up give him a ring at 716-438-0756

Salesman: slight return

So after ending on a nice reasonable note I get a hand addressed item in the mail from the salesman's place of employ. Needless to say, I was not happy. The item was an generic offer to have a special credit card for this music store (a place I haven't bought anything from in 7 years)

I decided I should call, talk to a "manager" or what was probably really just a higher ranking salesman. He took the brunt of my foul language and what for the most part would seem like paranoid pissing. Admittedly, I am an aggressive fucker who doesn't like being fed a line of bullshit.

I have now asked not to be contacted by mail, phone or E-mail. Should the company wish the express their apologizes for not respecting my wishes in the first place, they can send that telepathically.

Mike Bucki, the mixer and MORE MOOG

I got a note asking me whether the Moog Keyboard Mixer was made by Mike Bucki. When I E-mailed him an answer I figured I had what was worth posting in my blog.

The comments I made are below:

The mixer was not really a Bucki special. It was made in Moog's engineering department between 1980 and 1982 (he can't remember) out of parts from the Lab amps and who knows what.

They did go as far as to screen the graphics on there and it's a pretty well thought out 8 channel stereo mixer with 4 knob EQ section & spring reverb.

Regarding the "Mike Bucki" specials, I can speak highly of his revisions on the Moog sample & hold which has been re-numbered 1528. Also he has taken the CP3 mixer section and created a 4 channel mixer that fits a single full height Moog space.

Most of his work is exact to the specs but there are a few cases where he's done stuff like balanced the output of the 902 VCA so that the volume is equal in either control mode.