CTRL_Voltage

bacchus

2011-10-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

More Solenoids

2011-09-19T04:07:00.000-07:00

I've got some fun projects in the works, but for now here are some more solenoid pictures. I've progressed since the last post: now I've got the whole assembly put in an aluminum framework and striking a frame drum in the middle of the framework. I'm just running tests on it now, trying to linearize the input values and whatnot.

solenoids

2011-09-02T23:05:00.000-07:00

I've been working on some tests involving solenoids (with the eventual plan to use these in kinetic scupture). I've designed and laser cut out an all-acrylic beater design which converts the linear motion of a solenoid actuator to rotary motion for striking a drum. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the beater and some tests I'm running on it.

NZ

2011-06-19T17:15:00.000-07:00

I'm doing grad school in New Zealand now. Just thought I'd mention that.
Also, I have a bunch of pretty interesting projects in the works (lots of servo and control-theory related things). Keep an eye on this blog, and I'll post info as I make progress.

MIDI to CV for FTDI

2011-05-08T01:32:00.000-07:00

Lots of people still have FTDI Arduinos kicking around. I know I do (several older Megas, for example). I know you could make use of the awesome HIDUINO project for all of your MIDI Arduino needs if you're using a newer 8U2-equipped Arduino. If you're not, though, I'm working on the software pictured above to allow for full MIDI to CV control of analog synths. Included is full CC capability and a built-in ADSR.
This program works by reading incoming MIDI data (from something like Ableton, Reaktor, ChucK, Max, etc.) and converting it to serial. I read midi data with the venerable RWMidi library and send it out over USB using processing's serial library. I then read the data on an FTDI-equipped (or unmodified 8U2-equipped) Arduino and convert the data to control voltage values using awesome AVR firmware developed by Martijn Zwartjes. Works well, sounds great.

State Variable Filter

2011-04-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

I'm putting a 1V/Oct state variable filter (designed by Martijn Zwartjes) onto a PCB (click the image above for a larger version). Eventually I'd like to also add a VCO and a VCA to the PCB, creating a partial analog synth voice on something only about twice the size of a business card. The board is set up to work with +/-12V Eurorack power: eventually I want to make it into a Eurorack compatible module.

New EP: Rio Puerco

2011-04-02T00:47:00.000-07:00

The kind folks at Khalija Records just released an EP of mine. Check it out here.

Chime part II

2011-03-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

Another picture of Chime (click for full size)- I've completed two of the sculptures so far, and would ultimately like to have 6+ for hanging in a gallery space.

Chime

2011-03-06T15:04:00.000-08:00

Some pictures of a motorized chime that I've been working on. The speed of the motor responds to user input data.

TL082 VCO

2011-02-19T14:49:00.000-08:00

You can't get much more minimal than the circuit in the above pictures and still have a reasonably well-tracking 1V/oct VCO. The top picture shows two oscillators hooked up in an FM setup. Martijn Zwartjes and I are using this circuit as a teaching tool in an analog musical circuits class at CalArts (well-- it's mostly Martijn: I'm tagging along and learning everything I can).

Fontanelle

2011-01-16T18:12:00.000-08:00

Here's a recent track of mine released as part of Khalija Record's 2011 Singles Series. Give it a listen!
A bit about the track: It's made of a combination of field recordings and FM synthesis, with the field recordings including fireplace cracklings, claps, a fire extinguisher rolling into an arroyo, a power transformer droning, and a rock skidding across a frozen pond. Try to figure out where the synthesis starts and the samples end...

metal+motors

2010-12-18T01:57:00.000-08:00

metal+motors is an interactive audiovisual installation that I created in collaboration with Rodrigo Restrepo. It features ultrasonic sensors providing user proximity data to a microcontroller (an Atmega 2560), which in turn processes that proximity data and outputs it as voltages for motors.

We presented metal+motors at CalArts on December 16th, 2010.
[EDIT: Now in HD!]

Solenoid frenzy.

2010-10-18T16:13:00.000-07:00

Sound sculpture: In progress... More details soon.

Helio in Auckland

2010-08-18T04:14:00.000-07:00

As part of the Machine Orchestra, I played in Auckland, New Zealand this last Saturday. Here's a shot of the updated Helio set up and bathed in intense red and blue lights. The show went very well, and all of the technology that we burdened ourselves with behaved admirably.

Bézier from Scratch

2010-08-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

I've been working on an implementation of Bézier curves in Processing-- eventually, I'll be taking what I learn in this project and using them in some motor control and audio interpolation applications. I opted not to use the good pre-packaged Bézier implementations available in many of these math and creative programming environments, and instead implemented my own version of a cubic Bézier curve. Anyway, I plotted the output of a few runs of the application. Below are some graphical plots of the cubic Bézier curve: two control points, two endpoints.

probabably

2010-08-03T17:08:00.000-07:00

In the interests of keeping this blog music and media tech-oriented, I've created probabably.com (hosted at tumblr) as a place to put my photos and graphic design experiments. This blog isn't going anywhere, but be sure to check out probabably.com if you're interested in seeing what my camera's been seeing. There might be some crossover between the two blogs, as I start posting up the results of the tech that I write about here (I have future ideas for pen plotters, alternative photography methods, etc.).

Thoughts on DIY PCB Etching

2010-06-27T02:58:00.000-07:00

I've recently become very interested in the idea of home-brewed printed circuit board etching. Why? Probably because I've built one too many of those wonderful rat's-nest-of-wires perf-board circuits. I may have the patience to sit for hours laying my circuit out in Eagle, but I really hate cutting the wires to specific lengths when perf-boarding.

The internet is rife with tutorials on etching PCBs. I chose this one from Hack A Day as a starting point. Right away I was going to do things a bit differently: I'd bought my copper-clad from All Electronics in Van Nuys, California-- I also chose to buy some powdered ferric chloride there as well. In the future, I'll try to save some money and use muriatic acid (as recommended in the above tutorial) simply because it's cheaper.

I immediately ran into problems with the toner transfer technique: I was using a cheap Brother laser printer, and couldn't get any of the glossy magazine pages to successfully work as a transfer substrate for the toner: The toner would just continue to stick to the magazine pages. I tried various different magazines with varying grades of glossiness. No dice. Finally, I popped in some glossy photo paper (Kodak brand-- very pricey) and the transfer worked like a charm. I think I'll continue just using the photo paper rather than shredding up a bunch of magazines trying to find the right type. Feel free to experiment, though: I'm guessing that the cheapness of the Brother equipment I was using might have contributed to persnickety transfer behaviors.

The ferric chloride itself worked like a charm: Just be sure to agitate the board consistently and to keep an eye on it to ensure that you're not etching away the actual traces through the toner. I'd also recommend leaving as much of the board copper-coated as possible: etching away big swaths of copper can lead to increased times in the etchant (which in turn can cause the leads to be eaten away). Finally, I chose to tin the leads on my board. I ran into some problems here: the solder went on very thick, so drilling out the holes became a bit of a challenge. I'll have to experiment with a hotter soldering iron and different solder, I suppose. Be sure to use a fast-moving drill to drill out the through-hole connections: I first tried with a standard drill press-- not nearly fast enough. A Dremel with a press attachment was be a good solution.

Hiccups aside, this was a good project: I'll be etching out the boards for some of my DIY 1V/Oct analog synth equipment.

The Helio

2010-06-20T21:24:00.000-07:00

So-- now that I'm more or less done with what will probably be the final version of the Helio interface, I'm going to post a bit about it: the electronics, the concept, and the software.

What is it?
The Helio is very simple: It's just eight membrane potentiometers connected to a microcontroller board. Think The Stribe turned on its side. In addition to the eight upright sensors, there are 64 independently-addressable LEDs mounted opposite the sensors.

I picture the Helio being used as a replacement for eight knobs or mod wheels: performers can assign parameters to the membrane potentiometers, which output serial data that is then converted to MIDI or OSC information. The LEDs can receive serial data over USB, allowing MIDI messages to be assigned to them: for example, they can turn on sequentially as the user increases the value of the slider, providing the audience with visual feedback related to the sensor position.

The Hardware
The latest version of the Helio features a custom aluminum structure. One of the benefits of living in the LA area is that there is no shortage of spots to find very specific aluminum components. I ordered the bulk of my raw aluminum from McMaster-Carr, but managed to find some nice inexpensive black anodized L-brackets from Apex Electronics. In essence, the Helio's chassis consists of eight posts mounted on two pieces of aluminum which are separated via six standoffs. The microcontroller board and its daughterboard are housed between the two pieces of aluminum. Each post has eight holes drilled into it-- the LEDs are mounted in the holes, with wire braids leading up each post to allow the LED's to be independently addressed.

For a microcontroller board, I'm using the Arduino Mega. If I were to do this project again, I'd go back through and use a cheaper and more replaceable microcontroller (the Arduino Mega's AVR is hard-soldered to the board: having a removable DIP-style AVR would be a nice feature). I etched my own PCB using the toner transfer technique (see above image): my DIY pcb allows me to plug in the sensors and LEDs without needing a big rat's-nest of protoboard-wiring.

The LED Array

To address the LEDs, I'm using a strange solution: rather than be civilized and use multiplexing or other serial to parallel techniques, I created a matrix of wires joined by the LEDs. Due to the one-way-flow nature of LEDs, they can be addressed by setting the cathode pin high and the anode pin low (see the above figure). If I were to do this project again, I'd use a more conventional LED driving technique: mine works fine and is a super-cheap solution, but it leads to a big mass of wires (as shown below-- you can see the wires leading to the custom PCB which in turn is connected to the Arduino Mega).

To address the LEDs in a computationally-efficient manner, I turned to some work I'd done with my friend/teacher Martijn Zwartjes: we'd been working on using the AVR as a DSP chip, and in doing so had to learn a lot about how to work with the on-board timers and interrupts. I decided to make use of some of my interrupt knowledge to drive the LEDs. Below is a short sample of the interrupt code:

ISR(TIMER1_OVF_vect){
int c;
digitalWrite(row[currentrow], HIGH);
currentrow++;
if(currentrow>NUM_ROW)
    currentrow=0;
for(c=0;c
   digitalWrite(column[c], matrix[currentrow][c]);
digitalWrite(row[currentrow], LOW);
}

This code functions by stepping through rows and, in each row, checking which columns need to be set high. In the main loop of the program, specific LEDs can be illuminated simply by setting their position in the 2D matrix array from 0 to 1. Below is some code that, when placed in the main loop of the program, flickers random LEDs on the matrix.

for(x=0;x
    for(y=0;y
      matrix[x][y]=random(2);
    }
}
delay(80);

To make each LED addressable from the host computer via serial, I can simply set the [x][y] of the matrix to 1 or 0 by switching it on upon receipt of a serial message.

Sensors
I used eight SpectraSymbol HotPot 500mm membrane potentiometers- to obtain on/off information, I strobe the ground pin between high and low. This allows me to compare high and low values and, when a certain difference between those values is detected, a 'down' event is reported:
void loop() {
digitalWrite(ledPin,HIGH);
for(j = 0; j
    valA[j] = analogRead(potPin[j]);
    digitalWrite(ledPin,LOW);
    valB = analogRead(potPin[j];

    if(abs(valA[j]-valB)< 16){
      state = 1;
    }
    else{
      state = 0;
    }

    if (state[j] == zstate[j] && state[j] == 1){
      Serial.print("Down ");
      val[j] = valB;
    }
    else{
      Serial.print("Up   ");
    }
    zstate[j] = state[j];
    Serial.println(val[j]);
    delay(20);
}
}
I'm currently exploring ways of allowing the sensors to detect more than one input at once. Stay tuned for updates on that front.

Playing
So far, I've had a chance to perform several times with the Helio-- I'm still not sure about how this whole highly-gestural performance paradigm coincides with my music (which tends to involve generative systems). It's a learning experience for sure, but I've already gotten a lot out of this project: I walked in not knowing how to make LEDs play nicely with sensors and serial, and now I feel like I have a good handle on it.

Feel free to contact me with any code or hardware-related questions.

NIME 2010

2010-06-20T04:45:00.000-07:00

Reporting in from Sydney! I'm at the NIME conference (I showed the Helio during a demo session here). I've seen some cool ideas concerning electronic music performance while here, and was lucky enough to be able to see a demo of the BricK Table and talks by Stelarc and Nicholas Collins. Sydney's a beautiful spot, and I've gotten plenty of good ideas about future projects. After leaving Sydney, I'll be spending a couple of months in Wellington, New Zealand (I'll be working on a mechanized harmonium, some PCB design for kinetic sculptures, and a couple of performances throughout the country as part of The Machine Orchestra).

Helio

2010-06-11T03:34:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of the Helio-- It features 64 independently-addressable amber LEDs, 8 500mm membrane potentiometers (arranged in an upright orientation), a PCB that I designed and etched, and all-aluminum construction.

1v/oct

2010-06-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

Martijn Zwartjes and I have been working on building a complete 1V/Oct analog synthesizer. Here are a couple of pictures of the progress.

So far, the VCO is pretty nicely temperature compensated (if you look closely, you'll see the thermocoupled transistors in on the breadboards). We have a VCO, VCF, VCA, and noise source up and running. The whole thing is sequenced with an AVR (we convert its PWM output to DC via a simple RC filter). Next up: an envelope generator (we're looking at 555-based AR-style generators).

A few things

2010-06-06T12:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick update about what's been going on:

I finished my undergraduate degree at CalArts. Great place.
I'm staying at CalArts for another year to teach before looking into grad school.
I'm heading down to Australia + New Zealand on June 12 to present at NIME and work on some kinetic robot music sculpture in Wellington.
I've been putting in the hours to finish a second version of my touch-sensor-based interface (pictures + descriptions coming soon).
I am in the progress of updating my personal website (check its progress here).

Spring Break

2010-03-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

Spring break is for making music. Above is a picture of the arrangement for a track that's going to end up on an upcoming mixtape (which I'll be sure to mention here).

On a side note, I really like how lots of Ableton users find completely different ways to use the software. What you see in the picture up there is pretty much my typical workflow: lots of tiny slices of audio, lots of individual tracks, strange EQ and filter settings. It's always cool to take a look at other users' setups -- I always walk away having learned something.

Chance-based

2010-03-20T23:24:00.000-07:00

No I Ching, but I do have a whole bunch of digital dice being rolled, their results passed through NAND gates, and their output changing additive synth and FM synth parameters. Click image for full-sized picture.

I/O

2010-03-15T23:49:00.000-07:00

I've got a couple of projects with a lot of I/O coming up in the future. Here's the hardware -- Now I've got to tackle the software.

Yeah-- there are easier ways to do this, but I've got these PCBs, and code for these units will be simpler for me to write.

V 0.9

2010-03-03T00:53:00.000-08:00

Spectra

2010-02-10T01:05:00.000-08:00

Kicks + Clicks

Machine Orchestra

2010-02-07T00:18:00.000-08:00

Here's a picture of the setup for The Machine Orchestra. The show was fun-- I had a great time working with some great people, and we played to a sold out house (which is always fun). Can't wait to perform some more-- I've got a couple of performances lined up over the next several months, which I'll be sure to post about here. Click the above image for a larger version.

Factory window

2010-01-31T02:33:00.000-08:00

Now that the Machine Orchestra has finished (with great success, thankfully!), I've had a little bit of time to work in Maya. Inspired by the stunning photorealistic renderings of The Third & The Seventh, I decided to try to create a realistic-looking factory window. Here's what I came up with.
Tools used: Maya, MentalRay, Photoshop for blurs (I've found 3rd party blur tools to be both more controllable and faster than in-Maya lens blurs -- For this still I used photoshop. There are a handful of nice motion-controllable blur engines to use for non-still situations).

More Machine Orchestra Pictures

2010-01-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures I've taken of our work on The Machine Orchestra.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46790909@N05/sets/72157623259418064/show/
This has been a great project so far. I've learned tons about syncing up multiple performers, designing interfaces for real-world performances, and working as part of a musical group (rather than making all of the musical calls myself, which I always do when working on my solo music).

Also, check out this article at CDM: http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/01/25/building-a-hybrid-man-machine-orchestra-pt-1-ajay-kapur-and-michael-darling/#more-9209

Come to REDCAT on Jan. 27th and check it out!

The Machine Orchestra

2010-01-13T01:09:00.000-08:00

I'll be performing using the Helio interface and these speaker arrays at The Machine Orchestra on January 27th. These speakers were all built by Meason Wiley and I over the last summer (Read more about them here). Anyway, the Machine Orchestra performance will be at REDCAT in LA. Lots of electronics, lots of cool visuals. Buy tickets here!

Helio

2010-01-08T00:43:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of an interface that I've been building. It's eight vertically-oriented membrane potentiometers being fed into an AVR-- very simple but great practice for me to work with the hardware and software involved with interface design. Click images for larger versions.

Squares

2009-11-23T00:41:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been devoting some spare time (if only I had more of it!) to working with MIDI input in Processing (see this post). Inspired by the work of Ryoji Ikeda and Carsten Nicolai, I've started building some minimal rhythmic compositions which feed MIDI data to processing. Above is a still of my current patch-- each midi note causes an iteration in the various families of blocks (and each different sound in the piece is assigned to a different block family in the visuals). My idea here is that the creation of the visuals is closely tied in with the creation of the song. We'll see how it goes- I expect to perform a few of these compositions sometime in the next six months or so.

Various Pictures from Japan

2009-11-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

I'll take a quick break from what I've been up to (doing some DSP on an AVR, making some midi-linked visuals in Processing, and designing a touch-sensor based music interface) to point you toward my little photoblog highlighting my recent trip to Japan. Can't wait to go back there.

Blender Time

2009-11-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

Here's another quick rendering that I did in Blender. Again, the purpose of this rendering was to experiment with using the node editor parameters to create a depth of field effect.

Processing, MIDI, and OS X

2009-11-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

Over the past couple of days, I've been creating a Processing sketch that receives MIDI from an external program. Since there's not really a good step-by-step how-to guide around (and because there are a few funny tricks that could trip up a novice like me), I figured I'd put up a guide on getting external MIDI to work with Processing under Mac OS X (I'm using 10.5.8, but these steps should apply to other versions).

Step 1: Get the software. You'll need Processing, of course, and some external source for generating MIDI information. For the sake of this article, we'll be generating MIDI in Ableton Live and sending it to Processing. You'll also need a MIDI library for Processing. This tutorial uses the RWMidi class.

Step 2: Install the Java extension. This is the one step that really tripped me up. Apparently, OS X doesn't have native support for MIDI in Java. Weird, eh? Anyway, you can get the software here and install it in your Macintosh HDD => Library => Java => Extensions folder. The two files libmmj.jnilib and mmj.jar should be put in the extensions folder.

Step 3: Activate the IAC Driver in OS X. [This step is if you want to send audio from an internal program to Processing]. More on the IAC Driver here. Go to the Audio MIDI setup application under Applications => Utilities. Once open, double-click the IAC Driver icon. Click the "+" button to add a port. This will create a new IAC port. Apply the changes. You can now restart your DAW to enable the changes. At this point, you should be able to send MIDI out through the new IAC Port that you created.

Step 4: Install the RWMidi class and run the example app. Starting in Processing 1.0, libraries are installed in a central folder located in the same directory as saves sketches. You might need to restart Processing before it becomes aware of the new class. Run the example application and get busy coding your new custom MIDI app.

EDIT-- Users of Mac OS 10.6 should be sure to download the new version of the Java extension.

Back from Japan

2009-11-07T00:17:00.000-08:00

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/jim-murphy/4066873827/)

I've been back in the US for about five days now. Japan was an amazing place, and I learned a ton and was inspired greatly by the folks at the ISMIR conference. Some of the research that I saw presented there will definitely prove to be a groundwork for my projects for years to come (especially in the field of generative music creation).

Also, I was lucky enough to see Carsten Nicolai and Ryoji Ikeda perform at LiquidRoom in Tokyo on Oct. 31st (thanks to my friend Jeff and his sister Olivia for showing us around Tokyo-- which is now my favorite place on earth). The combination of audio and visual elements created an experience that was much greater than the sum of its parts. I really love their aesthetic and can't wait to see them perform again. Opening for them was Ametsub -- I hadn't heard of him before seeing him, but I was really impressed by his music and visuals. Check him out.

Also, check out this visual patch by my friend Dimitri. Very impressive.

Japan photos

2009-10-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

I'm in Kobe, attending the 2009 Ismir Conference and have been logging my trip to Japan here. For more information about what we're presenting, check out my friends' (and coauthors') blog.

Japan is a beautiful country-- I'm lucky to get a chance to be here, and am deeply impressed by the culture, the people, and the landscapes and cityscapes (not to mention the public transit systems).

Quick updates

2009-10-22T01:12:00.000-07:00

It's been nice and busy for the last few weeks-- thankfully, that business comes in large part from cool DSP and music work. Next week, I'll be in Japan at the ISMIR conference helping to present a paper that I co-authored (about feature extraction of electronic dance music genres).

In other news, I've been doing a lot of work with DSP on the AVR microprocessor. It's great-- and very good practice in terms of writing clean code.

Finally, I've continued work on my generative Reaktor patches. They're more cluttered with control than ever, but I've gotta say: it's pretty good to be able to program a song's behavior and just have it generate music when you press play.

Until next time!

Reaktor Time

2009-10-12T22:30:00.000-07:00

I've been kind of obsessing over generative patches in Reaktor. Note that I'm all for minimalism in UI design if others will be using the interface. For my personal use, I tend to like to have a knob for ever parameter, hence the craziness. Anyway, here's a screen shot of my latest patch (probably around 50% done right now).

Renderings

2009-09-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of renderings of simple objects-- the purpose of these pics is to experiment with depth of field rendering techniques in Blender. For the top picture, I followed this tutorial. It's okay, but the technique is finicky and requires some fine tuning. The lower picture involved me wiring up a node called "defocus," feeding the z data from the picture into the node, setting the camera's depth of field in its object edit stack, and rendering.

As a side note, I've noticed a couple of strange render problems on the second image (such as abruptly-starting lines and whatnot), which is part of the reason why I'm putting this picture online. If you've got any tips about getting clean renders when using Bezier curves, reflections, and DoF, let me know!

Speakers and more

2009-09-06T21:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy summer. As a part-time job (which has become more than full-time in the past several weeks), I'm doing music tech for a big show that will be at REDCAT pretty soon. For the show, I had to do a bunch of work in Processing and some web design work. Also... I had to work with my friend Meason Wiley (who took the above photo) to build ten six-channel speaker arrays. Not really my cup of tea (I'm more of a "pump a lot of sound out of big speakers" kind of guy), but the project has been very educational: I had to learn how to solder surface mount components with 100% reliability (agh!), solder against a deadline (I soldered up each amplifier in the speakers-- there are two per speaker), and (thanks to Meason's help) learn how to take an Ikea bowl and transform it into a speaker array. I'll tell you what: installing ten copies of Reaktor onto computers used by Reaktor neophytes, troubleshooting a total of 60 channels of audio driven by boards soldered up by yours truly, and keeping a smile on my face for much of the time has been a strain. Hearing those 60 channels pump out ambient music, though, makes a fellow proud.

I've also been busy building a multi-touch table (using the design of my friends' BricK Table) out of 80/20 extruded aluminum. The table will be a lobby display at the show, and the video generated by the table/computer will be projected in the theater onto the floor via four chained projectors.

I haven't even touched on my friend's new online record label whose website I designed, or the funny reggae night that I had to do lights for (it puts bread on the table), or the charmingly-retro innards of an early-80's/late-70's-era Morley wah pedal that I fixed, or the Klee sequencer that I've been working on. Yep-- busy times.

Eurorack Update

2009-08-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in the previous post, I've gone ahead and been bit by the Eurorack bug. I'm very close to starting an FM-intensive, timing-heavy, digital/analog modular system probably using a lot of Doepfer gear (but also some TipTop Audio, PlanB, Harvestman, etc.).

I can't wait to use this as a generative rhythm / minimalistic glitch box. Yeah, I can do that more efficiently and far, far cheaper on a computer (using Reaktor, for example), but I really like the act of patching and physical knob adjustment. Plus, it's more fun to perform with a modular than to hide behind a laptop.

So yeah-- watch this space as I begin to acquire eurorack gear. I'll post photosets, reviews, audio demos, etc. (along with songs and musical clips of my creative output from this gear).

Generative hardware {edited}

2009-07-19T14:34:00.000-07:00

I've been really into making generative patches in Reaktor (and pd to a small extent) lately. Since deep down I am (and always will be) a hardware fan, I'm looking to create a small Eurorack system that serves as a generative rhythm engine, a complex gate generator, and a rhythmic noise machine. I've become much less interested in making a "classic" synthesizer in modular format (i.e. a patchable Minimoog or an Arp 2600 emulator), which was my main interest when getting into modulars a couple of years ago. Now, I'm more interested in strange routing possibilities, magic worked by boolean gates, and minimalist crackly noises with strange rhythms. Basically, I want to have a phsycially patchable Reaktor/Pd -- granted, it'll never be nearly as flexible as being able to instantly lay out 250 XOR gates to see what happens, but I like the act of physically patching the synth enough that I'm happy with the tradeoff.

The point of this whole post is that I've been using the modular planner (here) to lay out a system (click on the above image to enlarge it). I'm in the early planning stages, and it'll cost about twice what I could currently get if I sold off my Frac Rack system, but I'm really excited about it. Let me know what you think of the current layout.

[Edit-- I took some of the suggestions in the comments into account and created V2.0 of the modular. After looking at a lot of my favorite Reaktor patches, I noticed that I use banks of oscillators, often in FM situations, to create pseudorandom gates and whatnot. As a result, I added a Hertz Donut and a z3000 (I really like its frequency counter). I also added a second filter-- having one filter for all of those oscillators seemed a little strange. Let me know what you think! The new image is below, click to enlarge.]

TGIMBOEJ

2009-07-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

I just signed up for The Great Internet Migratory Box of Electronic Junk (TGIMBOEJ) - a traveling package of electronic components that moves from user to user via a wiki list.
It's a cool idea - I have a few pieces of junk that I can't use but others might, and I hope to find some weird parts or other to add to my collection (and maybe use in a noisemaker or LED light show or something). I'll post pictures here when/if the box makes it to me.

Bitwise

2009-07-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

In between various odd jobs and projects this summer, I've been experimenting with generative and procedural music-making. Using Reaktor, I've put together a suite of several random and near-random instruments-- most of them make use of AM or FM, and all of them rely on the behaviors of Boolean logic gates to gate or otherwise create "sequences."
I'm still in the instrument-building phase, but when I move to record these instruments, I'll probably not use any traditional DAW (other than to do a little mixing), and will let the gate sequencers do the work of song structuring. This will be a nicely different approach to my usual method of obsessively placing each drum hit and glitch sound (I don't usually use any software-based "IDM Creation" plugins, preferring to hand slice and granularize my stuff, laying out automation by hand in each track [automation by hand -- is that an oximoron?]).
Anyway, I'll update this blog with sound samples and maybe a Reaktor ensemble or two. Watch this space!

Extrusion

2009-06-26T00:52:00.000-07:00

Here's a final test image (conveniently 1280x1024 wallpaper-sized) that I made of the 3D object in this post. As I write this, I'm rendering (in HD-sized resolution) the first stage of what will become a video to accompany a finished (but unnamed) track that I recently wrapped up.

3D

2009-06-22T00:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a work-in-progress shot of a 3D animation I'm working on. It's a goal to (at some point) integrate these visuals with my songs. If that happens, one thing is for sure: it'll take a long time to render.

And here's a video of the above clip, rendered with transparency and a lighting rig to illuminate the object from all angles. Rendered with raytracing. I experimented with some luminosity from inside the extruded sphere, but ultimately didn't like the look. The look has a lot of potential: expect to see more of it in the future.

Trimpin at the Ojai Music Festival

2009-06-10T14:10:00.001-07:00

This last week, I was lucky enough to intern with Trimpin during the installation of some of his works at the Ojai Music Festival. It was a great experience - Trimpin was as gracious and generous as ever, the festival organizers were amazingly helpful, and the general atmosphere was energetic and inspiring. Below you'll find some pictures of some of the pieces that we installed at Libbey Park in Ojai.

Klompen - a series of hanging clogs, each of which has a MIDI-controlled solenoid. It's a strange, ethereal piece with that produces lovely organic sounds.

Next to the stage at Ojai's Libbey Bowl, I assisted Trimpin in installing various modified found objects onto a tree (dubbed the "Percussion Tree"). Here are two Sonic Smash ball game paddles equipped with solenoids, awaiting MIDI messages.

Above is an array of two cymbals - the upper glass cymbal was a piece of hand-blown glass leftover from one of Trimpin's projects where he worked with glassblowers to create spheres of glass. The glass is cobalt-dyed and is struck with a solenoid assembly nestled in the bell at the top of the cymbal. The MIDI messages to these two cymbals are such that each message alternates between striking the glass one and the metal one.

Here is an image detailing the striker on the glass cymbal. The cymbal was constructed of heavy blown glass, and has a beautiful organic, free-form appearance. The cobalt coloring contrasts nicely with the metallic perfection of the commercial cymbals used in the Percussion Tree installation.

After hanging various percussive objects from the tree, Trimpin decided to use a solenoid assembly to strike one of the tree's metal supports. He attached it to the support with cable wraps and sent it MIDI messages that result in deeply resonant metallic sounds. The above picture shows the assembly of the striker: wooden dowels driven by solenoids, metal strikers on the ends of the dowels (giving a sharp percussive sound), and a framework of 80 20 extruded aluminum.

In addition to helping set up the Percussion Tree, I assisted Trimpin in installing "Sheng High," a kinetic sound installation that works by lowering bamboo tubes into water. As the volume of air in each tube changes, the air is forced through pitched reeds. The raising and lowering of the tubes is governed by MIDI data (which in this case was provided by an optical motor driven sequencer - in effect a large infrared MIDI piano roll). Above are the motor assemblies after un-crating and awaiting installation.

Each of the eight pulley groups (resulting in a total of 24 pulley mechanisms) rests on a 10-foot-tall tripod. In the photo above, you can see the pulleys - to each pulley, we attached a bamboo tube. The tube is then lowered and raised within a container of water. The whole installation is very clean and elegant, providing viewers with strange ambient sounds surrounding them from all sides.

The last image is of Trimpin installing Sheng High at Libbey Park in Ojai. I am indebted to him for letting me assist him and pester him with countless questions.

Timeline

2009-06-04T02:36:00.001-07:00

From 'waterglitch' (working title, by the way)

Morton Subotnick at CalArts

2009-05-16T15:55:00.001-07:00

Morton Subotnick receiving honorary PhD, originally uploaded by Dead Waiter.

Here's a photo by my friend Meason--

At the CalArts graduation last night, Morton Subotnick received a doctorate from the music school. This makes him the first recipient of the school's new doctorate of musical arts.

I was lucky enough to take a two-week workshop with him during this last January. It was amazing to be in the presence of one of the fathers of the Buchla synthesizer, creator of "Silver Apples of the Moon" (one of my favorite early synth albums), and one of the founding members of CalArts.

[5-26 -- looks like this photo is temporarily down-- I'll try to locate it and repost it here]

Jimini Modular + Blacet Modular

2009-05-15T00:52:00.000-07:00

CalArts Modular Theater, May 2009.

Sample destruction

2009-05-13T01:07:00.000-07:00

Sample manipulation, gate sequencing, sample position randomization. Custom built for an upcoming track!

MLGI

2009-04-26T12:18:00.001-07:00

MLGI, originally uploaded by Dead Waiter.

My friend Meason just put up some photos of the interface he's been working on -- It's a proximity-sensitive controller that detects the light levels on the user's hands (the light is generated by lasers) via photoresistors. The resistance is fed into the analog input of a CUI board (a PIC-based USB-compatible controller) and is output as MIDI data. He's using it to control Reaktor, ChucK, and other parameters in other programs. It's open source and very open ended, extremely expressive, and is tons of fun to use. Check out http://laserinterface.wordpress.com/ for more info.

Bullet points.

2009-04-25T13:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a while - but in the interim there have been lots of blog-worthy posts. Once I gather my senses, take some cool pictures of the new stuff, and upload some audio, you'll get to see and hear everything I've been up to. In the meantime, I'll post a bullet point list of some cool things.

Along with Sahy Uhns (my friend Charlie), I've designed, built, and performed with a completely DIY modular synth, using new or modified circuits entirely. It patches right into my Blacet Research system. Four square/tri oscillators, a ring modulator, and a filter at this point. The whole package is very small, and lots of parameters are controllable via control voltage.
I've posted a few times about the Arduinome that I'm building. I've gone ahead and ordered an enclosure from Machine Collective. It's en route from Europe. Looking forward to integrating it into my live set for both audio and live visuals.
I've had the chance to use and perform with a Korg Nanopad-- it's very very plastic-y. Still, it's really nice having a $60 controller that includes a pretty decent programming utility (for OS X) - I don't have to worry about having beer spilled on it or whatever.

So yeah-- I want to get some video, pictures, and audio of some of the above points. I'll be sure to post them here when I do!

Analog Electronics

2009-04-06T02:01:00.001-07:00

We're earing completion of the analog synth that I've posted about in the past. It'll be probably around 90 percent modular, with 555-based oscillators (better for microtonal stuff than 1v/octave -- designing well-tracking oscillators requires more experience than I have right now), an LM13700-based low pass VCF, an LM13700-based VCA, and a nice little passive ring modulator. There are four oscillators, both of which can be FMed against each other and then ring modulated, creating crazy organic noises.

The picture shows me testing out a part of a VCO by feeding it CV data from my Future Retro Mobius. It sounded beefy, amazing, and very very analog in the best sense of the word. I'll be performing with the beta version (along with Sahy Uhns) this Thursday. Can't wait.

Song Alert!

2009-04-03T01:56:00.001-07:00

Turns out I had to crank a song out as a deadlined project (is "deadlined" a word?). Anyway, I figured I'd pop the track up online. Details: made pretty quickly (I'd forgotten about the project until about four days before it was due) using all samples, no synthesis. Made in Ableton Live, mixed pretty quickly. Not my usual style of music at all, but I had a lot of fun putting it together. I know-- it's kind of anemic, but if you're in that sort of mood it might be all right.

Here's a link to an mp3 of the track.

The Wizard

2009-03-25T23:56:00.000-07:00

I'm continuing to work on The Wizard-- it's a Reaktor sample playback engine and granularizer that I named after a horrible wizard t-shirt that I sometimes (jokingly) wear. Added is a picture by my friend Eric Mattison and a graincloud delay along with its own mini four-step sequencer. Starting to sound pretty okay- expect some samples in the coming days.

Reakting

2009-03-24T15:09:00.000-07:00

Finally taking some time to learn about event sequencing in Reaktor. I figured that it was pretty lame that I could do it in code-based languages but not in a graphical environment, so I sat down for a couple of hours and figured it out.

A thought: Reaktor is great for creating instruments that only you (or a few who you can directly instruct) will use. If I was intending to distribute the pictured instrument widely, I'd make it cleaner, easier to pick up and use, and less cluttered.

All the same, it sounds cool.

Mobius

2009-03-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

Future Retro Mobius sequencer with some Blacet modules visible. Click image for full size.

Graphics Bending

2009-03-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

I'm not normally into circuit bending in a big way. Just not really my thing (I've heard it done amazingly well, don't get me wrong-- I just like to build my circuits from the ground up, I suppose).

Today, though, I tried my hand at video circuit bending and I enjoyed it a lot more than the audio stuff I've done in the past. My friend had one of those little video game arcade joysticks that you plug into a TV and play. I popped it open and found that the video chip was hidden by a glob of black plastic. Not to be deterred, I scraped away some of the PCB's insulation and began crossing leads. For about a half hour (before the poor machine stopped working entirely), my friend and I got some lovely video glitchiness -- I was tricking the machine into sending video bit data into the wrong pins. I think I'll be doing more video circuit bending in the future-- it would be fun to actually VJ a live set using only bent gear.
Anyway, expect to see some more bent graphics stuff from me. It was fun and ridiculously easy.

Henge

2009-02-26T21:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a screenshot of the latest patch I put together in Quartz Composer. It's a bunch of 3D cubes whose Y values are varied based on which incoming frequencies are detected (it's using a 16 band frequency detector module built into Quartz Composer).

CUI -- PIC-based Musical Interfaces

2009-02-21T14:44:00.000-08:00

I just got my hands on a Create USB Interface (CUI) and am going to do some PIC microcontroller development. Mainly I'll be trying to use it as a MIDI to analog (CV) or as a CV to MIDI unit. I'm going this route for two reasons-- first, the CUI is recognized by the computer as a human interface device. This will let me basically plug and play without having to deal with middleware (which is one of the problems with the Arduino). The second (and more important) reason is that I'm really curious about microcontroller development and want to try my hand at it.

The CUI will probably be handling the analog to digital pitch and gate info for the DIY synth I've been working on. Stay tuned.

Ableton Live 8

2009-02-17T23:30:00.000-08:00

I'm playing around with the Ableton Live 8 beta right now -- Very nice indeed.
(I guess it pays off to register software-- I registered my copy of Live 7 and got an indicator that I was eligible for the 8 beta since I was a 'registered user').
The looper is fantastic, the vocoder should be fun, and the new warp mode seems way more intuitive. I noticed some longtime users of Live saying that they felt hindered by the new warp, but since I never got used to the old one, the new method of drag-n-drop warp markers makes much more sense to me.
I'll definitely be upgrading to Live 8 from Live 7.

By the way, I like the new graphic that pops up while the program launches.

Arduinome Update

2009-02-16T20:09:00.000-08:00

I finished up the diode and LED soldering on the four Sparkfun button PCB's. It went off without a hitch and I managed not to crack any of the 64 glass diodes while bending the leads into position. It looks good and the button pads sit nicely on the board.

As for enclosures, I've been emailing back and forth with a CNC Routing [wiki] shop down in LA. It looks like it'll cost me about $75 plus materials to get a custom plywood faceplate made. I'm looking around for cheaper options, but I think a wooden faceplate would be very nice.

In any event, I can't wait to get this thing up and running!

Arduinome

2009-02-14T01:38:00.000-08:00

All right! I bought the parts to build an Arduinome from a buddy who never got around to putting his together. Very elegant kit-- minimal parts, nice PCB's, high quality Sparkfun button pads... Cool stuff.

Still not sure what I'm really going to use it for. Obviously, I'll do the whole "Slice up the Amen Break" thing, but after that I might want to build a low-res graphic EQ using ChucK and Processing or try to learn some of the Live API to let me do some fun sync with Ableton.

Before any of that, though, I need to finish the build and put it in some sort of enclosure.
God I love DIY.

noise interface

2009-02-09T00:21:00.000-08:00

Here's the (pretty much) finished interface for my digital noise / feedback generator. It's simple, but hey-- ya gotta start somewhere, right? Simple as in-- coded in Processing and ChucK (I like Processing, not too thrilled about ChucK), OSC output from Processing, input to ChucK (which serves as the sound source). Two XY pads controlling parameters. I like simple interfaces, and I decided to put my money where my mouth is and boil the program down to what amounts to four parameters. I need to get OSC working properly, but what you see above is pretty much it. I'll be putting this code up (it's very basic stuff) once it's working. Click on the image to see it actual size.

Projects...

2009-02-07T02:36:00.000-08:00

I'm working on a lot of projects right now. Just lettin' you know.

Subotnick, Buchla, etc.

2009-01-17T13:05:00.000-08:00

At the start of every spring semester at CalArts, there's a series of workshops (called interim sessions) that focus on a wide variety of topics. I was lucky enough to get into Morton Subotnick's session where he talked about the history of the San Francisco Tape Music Center. The 6-hour class (divided into three sessions) was full of interesting stories about the birth of multimedia performances, early tape concerts, and avant garde american music of the sixties. What I was most interested in, though, was his discussion of the creation of the Buchla 100. I thought I'd share an anecdote that he told us about the 100's oscillators.

When he and Don Buchla were doing the rough design of what would come to be known as the 100 series, they were working with a $500 budget. Many tone generators of the time were highly stable but were way out of the realistic price range to be included in the system. The question arose, then: how stable did a musical instrument's oscillators really need to be?

Morton Subotnick got in touch with a concert violinist friend of his who owned a very nice violin. Subotnick told the violinist to get in tune and start playing. It took about fifteen minutes of solid playing before the violin began to slip out of tune. With that knowledge, Subotnick and Buchla decided that they didn't need their VCO's to stay in tune longer than fifteen minutes.

(Later on, Bob Moog told Subotnick and Buchla that he didn't much care for the 100 Series' VCO's, since they dropped out of tune very quickly. Moog said that he'd prefer to have two or three expensive, stable oscillators rather than 10 or so less stable VCO's.)

Morton Subotnick is a great storyteller, and I'm thrilled to have gotten a chance to hear about the history of some of the first modular synths from one of the original people involved with it.

MusicThing

2009-01-11T11:20:00.001-08:00

I know I'm a little late to the game on this, but I just wanted to bid fond farewells to MusicThing. It was the first music blog that I discovered (back in 2004, I think-- maybe early 2005). From there, I followed his links to Analog Industries (my current favorite) and Create Digital Music (another favorite). Back in its prime, MusicThing was pretty amazing - I must have read the Tiny Music series several times and pointed innumerable people toward it. So-- RIP, MusicThing.

Top Songs

2009-01-01T22:47:00.001-08:00

Happy 2009! I thought I'd just do a little post about ten of my favorite songs from the last year. Note that all except for one or two of these songs are more than a year old-- it's just that I've heard all of these for the first time in the last year, and have listened to most all of them obsessively during 2008. Without further ado, my favorite songs that I heard during 2008 (in no particular order at all):

Cex, "At Least I can Say I Tried"
Aphex Twin, "Vordhosbn"
Doubting Thomas, "Father Don't Cry (Extended)"
Amish Rake Fight, "Sonda"
Alva Noto, "Spray"
Sister Machine Gun, "Addiction"
Gridlock, "Clicker"
Squarepusher, "Do You Know Squarepusher"
Ride, "Unfamiliar"
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!"

2008-12-13T13:54:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I designed and built a very simple low pass filter of the Sallen Key variety. It ended up not having a suitable cutoff and resonating in a lackluster manner, but I've gotta say: it was very satisfying to start with a handful of parts and end up with something that I could do a filter sweep with.

To Do: Add more stages, read more about proper component values for what I'm trying to accomplish, see if there are any "better" op-amps with more interesting characteristics. Keep an eye on this blog. I'll post photos, schematics, and more rants about the filter at some point. Bear in mind that I Am Not An Electrical Engineer, so I don't really know at all what I'm doing-- this is just me tacking together some parts based on distant memories from the EE classes I've taken and information I've found in the web.

The joys of circuits...

2008-12-06T16:29:00.000-08:00

So I'm in the middle of a pretty cool project-- A friend and I are trying to create a very simple synth (with a few features that are currently secret) using simple circuits and easy-to-acquire parts. We feel that the x0xb0x is great and all, but it's too much of a pain to send builders on wild goose chases around the web trying to find obscure transistors.

While our synth won't be any x0xb0x (we're both new at this whole circuit design game), it's gonna have some fun features and should be easy to build. After a marathon building session last night, we have a working, wicked-sounding 555-based FM-capable oscillator that's loosely based on an old optical theremin circuit. Not too stable, but it should be suitable for what we need. Stay tuned-- I'll be posting pictures, data, sounds, and updates to this project as it proceeds.

Multi-Touch!

2008-11-16T23:44:00.000-08:00

Musical Applications for Multi-Touch Interfaces from BricK Table on Vimeo.

This is a video I partially shot and edited. It's of the amazing Brick Table here at the music technology department of CalArts. In the movie, the 'roots' patch is controlling a program made in ChucK. Amazing stuff, and far more amazing in person.

I like Ableton Live

2008-11-10T00:24:00.001-08:00

I really love Ableton Live. If you make music (or even if you don't make music yet) download the demo and give it a try. It's amazing.

MTIID

2008-11-08T16:36:00.000-08:00

(MTIID are the initials for the CalArts music tech program, for what it's worth).

Greetings and salutations. Just popping in to put up a couple of pictures of from around the CalArts music tech program.

Above is a picture of one of the studios (B304)-- It's more of a classroom really, but it's got a nice Genelec 5.1 setup. If you're in the mood, you can make yourself dizzy with surround panning apps in Reaktor.

The picture you see above is my friend Alex messing around with MIDI and ChucK. You can see the CalArts Serge in the background.

And lastly-- Here's Owen Vallis configuring the Brick Table. It's a truly stunning multitouch interface.

By the way, I've got a couple of songs in the pipeline that I'll be uploading here before too long. Ever since getting Ableton Live, my creative output has increased exponentially.

Pyramid Head

2008-10-26T01:01:00.000-07:00

Pyramid Head-- I made it as an exercise is creating soundscape instruments with NI Absynth. The main sound was created from the ground up, starting with just a sine wave. I also tossed in some accents with FM8.

As my friend said, it's "good sleep music."
Lossless .wav available here (be forewarned-- it's big).

Live, Reaktor, and Modular Goodness

2008-10-21T00:33:00.000-07:00

I just figured I'd update with a quick post about what's going on...
First things first-- I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of Ableton Live. Aside from being a nice live performance tool, I'm looking forward to using it as a sketchpad/song prototyping tool. I got a nice student discount on it (Ableton Suite, actually), and will be sure to post any impressions here.

Also, I've been playing around with Reaktor. It's seriously fun, very deep and flexible, and my experience with modular patching lends itself well to the Reaktor mindset. Sure, the workflow isn't terribly fast, but it'll speed up as I get more practice with it. The picture above is me using a slightly modified Travelizer ensemble to process some samples I made of a wineglass being struck.

Finally, I went ahead and ordered a new Frac rack for my system from Blacet Research. It's sitting here empty right now, but I intend to add various kits and modules of coolness to it as time and money (mostly money) allows.

Euro

2008-09-18T14:13:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to check out Noisesource's lovely Eurorack setup live and in person a few days ago. I've gotta say-- a large modular rig with lots of multifunction modules is a force to be reckoned with. I was a stranger in a strange land around all of the Euro modules, but it's awesome to think that there is a whole format's worth of synth gear that I'm completely unfamiliar with.

For the time being, I want to finish off my three racks of Frac gear, but then I'm going to seriously consider going the Euro route.

Anyway, above is a slightly desaturated glamour shot of Noisesource's system. It's awe-inspiring in real life, especially if the room is dark-ish and the LEDs are blazing away.

Circular Logic

2008-09-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

The Situation: A laptop makes for an amazing performance tool. The ability to call up samples, synthesize stuff on the fly, and be pretty portable makes it tempting.
The Problem: A laptop performance just isn't that engaging (unless you're a hyperkinetic superhuman like Girl Talk or something). Also, it can be a pain to remember if you have the kick sample set to trigger after you press the P key... or was it the O key... or the I key? Yeah. That's why...
The Solution: A slick interface device that lets the performer put the laptop away and step through that fourth wall a little bit. Sound like the Monome? Sure! But why not have a circular sequencer-style interface? A circular monome, if you will... Kind of like a Midi control surface version of the venerable FutureRetro Revolution.
Anyway, I'm just tossing ideas around right now, but with the difficulty involved in obtaining a Monome these days, it would be cool to not only make a DIY Monome, but to also innovate a bit.

The Lawn Ornament

2008-08-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

Looking over old posts, I noticed that I haven't put up one of my more recent songs. Without further ado, here's The Lawn Ornament:

Kore Player + CopyShop + Reaper + lotsa the usual suspect VST plugs.

Peacefully In Your Sleep

2008-08-13T21:52:00.000-07:00

What's a guy to do without Logic? Well... he could download Nodal and make some Twinkle Music with it. That's just what I spent my day off today doing. Here's Peacefully in Your Sleep, Choice Machine's decidedly non-glitchy semi-generative music in the key of C# Major. Played with (and I cringe to say this) the samples from GarageBand and a healthy dose of verb.
Disclaimer: I'm new to the ambient thing, and if I had a true DAW, I'd be adding some cool drums or percussive samples to the mix, along with some white noise. The whole thing would be better mixed and would generally sound much more professional. What you'll hear below is simply a sketch. Click the icon below to follow the link to the file on Ovi.

Mac? Yep.

2008-08-12T20:50:00.001-07:00

Got me a Macbook. So far, considering that I'm on a budget, the computer seems absolutely great. I need more RAM, but that shouldn't really be a surprise. Right now, I'm waiting to get a copy of Logic. Should be fun to mess around with the AU SDK (I've heard horror stories, so we'll see what happens). In the meantime, I've been playing around with Quartz Composer (Apple's node-based programming environment). Lotsa fun-- very intuitive. Above is a picture of Vector World, a quick animation that I put together. It looks cool in a low-key, trippy sort of way.

Apple?

2008-07-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

So I'm thinking of migrating to a Mac. Not a 100% Change, as there's still plenty of software that's PC-only. Still, for classes and whatnot, I think it would be smart to have the same hardware as the teachers.
As a result, I'm looking at spending no more than $1000 on the computer and getting Logic Studio for $449 (educational discount). I'd really like to find a MacBook Pro for $1000 or under, but I think that in all likelihood, I'll end up with a straight-up MacBook. Question is, how good is a plain-old MacBook at running Logic? Is it good enough for live use?
Something tells me that I'll be needing some advice from those familiar with it and some hands-on experience over at an Apple store.
(image from apple.com)

dusty_guitar

2008-06-30T20:31:00.000-07:00

Only dusty because, well... I don't play guitar. My keyboards are never this dusty. My modular can get dusty, but it isn't these days.
I just thought it was a cool picture, that's all. Gee whiz but I love the depth of field I can get with an SLR.

CopyShop

2008-06-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Just for the record, Shuriken's CopyShop is a seriously fun vst. I've been using it on a piece that's coming together very slowly, and it's really great. Not for everyone (and its automation perameters seem a bit less than perfect), but if you like glitchiness, this is fun stuff.

[Edit-- check out the comments for more about the parameter issue. After looking at it, I think it might be REAPER's fault and not CopyShop's fault]

The Bell Curve

2008-06-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a song made entirely with instruments from the free Kore Player by Native Instruments (embedded below). It has five tracks- two nylon guitar sample tracks, one drum sample track (preset = 'shy kit'), and one flute sample track. You'll hear that it starts with some basic loops and ends up being basically improvised classical-style guitar (or as close as I felt like getting on a keyboard controller). Effects used: Frohmage on the drum track to give everything a muted feel, Kjaerhus' Classic Delay on the guitar loop track (with some feedback automation) and Classic Reverb on the improv track. I mastered the mix using Kjaerhus' Classic Master Limiter, ReaQ, and some volume automation.

What's the point of this track? Well, I had today off of work, so I decided that it was high time to put some ideas down. If I feel the urge, I can go through and add some variation to the loops, but for now (as an exploration of the Kore Player), I'm happy with it.

New Song OMG

2008-05-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

The next track doesn't have any modular synth on it(!), but is full of delay and some quality Mbira samples from Soniccouture. It's called The Unilluminated because my room was dark for most of the time it took me to put together the basic sequences for this song (how's that for deep meaningful song titling?). Lots of automation used-- the more I use it, the more I like it.

Ultimately, this song could use quite a bit more polishing, but I want to get it out of my head and behind me (for now).

Yet another studio move.

2008-05-11T20:53:00.001-07:00

It's getting to be a rather regular thing, moving studios back and forth, setting them up, dealing with cabling nightmares, and trying to figure out where to put bulky things like a 12U SKB case with modular stuff inside it.

Next time I take this down and set it up will be late August. I'll be setting it up out in California when I move in to start at CalArts. Yep, I'm excited.

A couple of things I'm wondering about CalArts, as long as I'm on the subject:

Will I need a Mac? I've got both a Windows desktop and laptop (the laptop's hardly powerful enough to do any sort of satisfactory DAW work). It would seem fitting for an art school to use Macs, so I'm wondering if I'll have to see about buying one. If I end having to do so, I'll start asking around to figure out which would be the best value.
Will I actually be able to graduate in two years? I'm going in as a Junior, but I have no music classes on my transcript. I suspect that more than two years worth of music theory and the like are required to graduate from a Music Technology program. We'll see.

Amish Rake Fight: funny name, amazing music

2008-05-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to Amish Rake Fight. Nothing much to say about it, other than that I find it deeply inspiring. It's ignited a creative fire under me to become obsessive and perfectionist when it comes to detail in my music. Just listen to the amazing album 'Fellow Prisoners' and hear for yourself-- its nearly spiritual in its attention to detail... So many layers so perfectly laid down. Everything sits with everything else. I'm listening to it and realizing that I need to stop obsessing about 'getting the song done.' No... I need to attempt to learn something from Amish Rake Fight and keep tweaking the sounds, their placements, and their effects until it really does sound just right. Time to stop cutting corners.

Words of wisdom:

2008-04-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

Just sayin'. (Photo from here, by none other than Mr. Wiggler)

Thresholds

2008-04-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

I just finished work on a very basic Processing sketch that sweeps through all of the threshold values of an image. Here's a link to the sketch (at 350x350 pixels-- it looks a ton better full screen). I've found that images with a good light/dark balance look best while images with tons of bright colors and few dark colors (e.g., an average landscape snapshot) end up looking very bad. Anyway, the sketch is powerful (way more than an animated .gif or something) because you can adjust each value to optimize it for the particular image that's selected.
The above picture shows the sketch at three aesthetically-pleasing stages. The picture is one of mine that I took last year in downtown Albuquerque.

Twelve Months

2008-04-20T13:33:00.000-07:00

Today (my birthday) marks the one-year anniversary of my modular synth. It's still small-- only one frac rack worth of synthesis-- but I've seriously enjoyed putting it together, learning to solder in order to assemble the kits, and, most of all, exploring the literally boundless sonic possibilities offered by even such a small system.

I'm saving my money for CalArts, so the system's growth will probably be stunted over the next months, but I do intend to add another rack and at least a Miniwave before long.

Oh-- I also got the superb book "Processing: A Programming Handbook for Visual Designers and Artists" this morning. It's a great-looking book. Well printed, full of wonderful images, and packed full of good code examples. I'll keep this blog updated with my Processing sketches.

Bidule

2008-04-05T23:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a screenshot from Bidule by Plogue. Tons of fun-- very efficient workflow... I've been using it to play around with creating fun, complex MIDI signals for my modular synth as well as making intricate self-running drones. I read about it at an old post on Analog Industries and already see that it'll be a true powerhouse for sketching out effects plugins and whatnot. In the future, if I end up getting into VST/AU design, Bidule will probably be the first step to allow me to get some cool ideas.

The above sketch is a self-running drone (it loops a Micron-recorded preset pad that's subsequently delayed and granulated). I also loop a sample of laughter and run it through Frohmage. Finally, I use a sequencer to generate some MIDI notes that run through the built-in drawback organ instrument and into a multi-tap delay and GlaceVerb. It ends up sounding very cool and the workflow was efficient to the point that the above patch took about 10 minutes to make (and I'm still a complete newbie with the program).

Fun stuff.

Frohmage

2008-03-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd interrupt your day with the announcement that Ohmforce's free Fromage filter is basically a ton of fun to use. Very nice interface... fast to learn, crisp and clean when you want it to be, ugly and otherworldly at other times. Go grab it-- it's good stuff.

(as you might see in the above pic, I'm using it to filter the top off of a recorded table-strike that I'm using as part of a polyrhythm track that's sounding pretty cool, even if it's taking me forever to get anywhere with the composition)

CHOICEMACHINE.NET

2008-03-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a website for my on-again-off-again music endeavor Choice Machine. My skill at web design is hyper-limited and (at the moment) doesn't involve any SQL or PHP (allowing for dynamic content). Eventually, I'd like to integrate some sort of dynamic elements to allow for a photo gallery and maybe a news section that's easy to post to.

It'll be over at choicemachine.net when it's up and running (which will probably be a few weeks since godaddy for some inexplicable reason requires tons of time to pass between registering and domain transfers. Dumb dumb dumb). Thanks to Mr. Muff for hosting, by the way.

My hope is to have a nice info-filled website up and running by the time my Artist Challenge 08 project is done and ready to go.

CalArts!

2008-03-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

All right! I just got accepted to Calarts! No word on how much money I get from them yet, though, so it's certainly still up in the air as to whether I'll go or not. In any event, it's really nice to know that I got accepted to the home of Serge, Subotnik (and a way nice new PlanB modular).

Thanks to all who gave me advice as to which schools excelled at experimental music recording programs, and to those who told me that it would be worth it to apply to CalArts even if I thought it was out of my league.

News.

2008-03-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

Whew. Today's the last day of spring break, which has been relaxing and unproductive. Aside from catching up on disturbing cinema, I spent a while polishing the solo piano piece that I've been working on (Metamorphosis Two). It's sounding good, even on my family's old-old-old piano.
At the moment, my funds to dump into the synth and recording gear are pretty low. As soon as more money comes my way, though, I'll be ordering up another frac rack to allow for further expansion. If that doesn't happen before late April, I might just ask for one for my birthday...

In other news, I'll be hearing from various schools pretty shortly. I'll post updates here, good news or bad.

Blacet + Mobius + SKB = Happy J.w.M.

2008-02-28T22:35:00.001-08:00

My new 12U SKB case is working out great-- robust, ugly-but-functional, and big enough for a couple thousand more dollars of modular development. If you need a case that's rugged-enough for moving around every few months (at least) and not as heavy as a big wooden case, I'd recommend one of these.

Processed

2008-02-27T14:34:00.000-08:00

It's been crazy around here. Resumes, applications, tests...
I haven't gotten a chance to do much recording of any sort, but I did find an old microphone that I've been testing out. It's an early-eighties Realistic 33-1602 condenser mic that sounds way better for voice than anything else I have.

Last night, I got a chance to do a bit more learning of Processing. I decided that I wanted to simulate an LED matrix, so I put this together (a more recent version is depicted in the screen shot above). Right now, it's hyper-simple, only a few lines of code. Eventually, I want to add the ability to cycle through colors based upon the x-coordinates of a function's Cartesian output.

In synth-related news, I ordered a 12U skb case from a forum member. It should be here soon. I'll add some pictures once I get everything installed.

--edit (3-21-08): this is now a lot more advanced, with RGB modulation following a user-specified function. In appearance, it ranges from the sublime to the chaotic.
Next step (when time presents itself): Add the ability for a waveform follower to allow external inputs (like sound or light levels) to modulate RGB.