Darren's posts with tag: modular
 This is a synthesis based live improvisation recording I did at home. This 16+ minute set features the Doepfer A100 Modular System; Sherman Filterbank 2; and MOOG Little Phatty. All synthesis were created and done on the spot except for the LP which I've just used a preset to start with and did modulations and filtering along the way. Recorded on KORG MR1000 and delay was applied post. It's a noise and synthesis based improvisation so it's not the usual music you'll hear on my myspace :) Have a listen: iFORESTNoise, blips and analogue goodness... Click HERE to download the session for free... Hope you guys will enjoy it... 
I told her specifically I cannot buy anything else from Graniph. So in we go into the shop. Met my friend there who's the boss of the franchise. With a few stores now island wide, it's hard to catch him in person. So it was good to see him. And then, this yellow top caught my attention. I knew I had to buy it. From the previous times where I found a minimoog on a Graniph t-shirt. This time round, I believe it's the same designer... a MOOG modular (?) and at the corner an EMS VCS3!!! (?) Rare synthesizers by their own right... I'll never get to own one. So let's just buy the t-shirt! I AM A GEEK! :)   
| | Some random synth shots from the past. Thought I'll pick them out from the bunch to post in an independent album. Take it as a synth mug shot album :) I will be updating here when I take a synth picture that I think is worth posting... |
 Woke up with hyper-tension from a nightmare and I cun breathe properly, hyperventilating. :S Every breathe comes with a one tonne weight on my chest. In anycase, called my girlfriend (about the time she wakes for work) to find solace. She's always sweet to wake her pig boyfriend up, so I thought I'll do so at times since I am awake. And now online on Matrixsynth to try take my mind off it. And I saw this!!! Roland System 100m 182 Sequencer which brings you to the auction. Gasp! (I am already short of breathe) Did I see wrongly? USD$4500 for this single panel? Wow... but it will sure come in handy for me. Hah... consequently I thought about some must haves in my life or rather my wish list so here goes me gas'ing again: 1) Moog Voyager 2) KORG M3/ Oasys 3) Rhodes E Piano 4) Alesis Andromeda (I've heard so much good stuffs from it!) 5) Nord Modular G2 6) Roland TR-808 & TR-909 (now I have to use emulation) 7) French Connection Persephone 8) More Doepfer stuffs!!! 9) Zeroscillator 10) Serge Modulars (Edmund Eagan's one is monsterous) 11) Entire Moogerfooger collection (I know Bryan has it!!! woooooooo) 12) Lemur 13) Waldorf Blofeld 14) Access Virus TI Polar Woots... that's a lot for a wish list! LOL and I am sure there's more... Imagine Roland deciding to reproduce TR-808 and 909 I am sure the demand will be high! Anyway, I only see myself fulfilling a few of these list in my life. I don't think I can ever own all of these... :P Ah... OUT!
| | These are pictures taken whilst I compose and design for the play "Everything But The Brain" for Action Theatre. Now showing at the Esplanade Theatre. Here's the demo of three songs which I've picked out to upload (click on the title of the songs to listen):
EVER AFTER
This track, by approach was really simple. I mic'ed up a Hungarian Zither (CITERA) using a contact microphone and it's being fed into the KORG Radias audio in. Using a vocoder preset, I have made it to trigger a synth note (D flat) with a moderate attack and a long release. So everytime I plug a note, it will trigger the synth note. The signal is also routed through it's internal effects with delay and reverb. Another contact microphone was employed to sample the Citera with a BOSS RC-20 and the playback is reversed... This track was recorded live with me improvising on the Citera. (I have no idea how to play it so I just did what I think sound right) You can find a picture of the Citera below...
BEDTIME STORIES
A Plogue Bidule composition using a patch I've designed. The group has a couple of sequencers that triggers the risset bells and sine tones, which was passed through a rebuilder and some effects. Crytal Synths were employed for the generation of the glassy ambient. KORG Radias was used for a base drone...
EINSTEIN'S BRAIN
An abstract of the 10 minute long piece. The piano was from KORG Triton ST88. An improvisation based on the scenic mood was recorded and then reversed and picthed down to underlay the original recording. Another Plogue Bidule patch was designed to sound scape subtley underneath this track...
DISCLAIMER: There are pictures of other synths which was employed for the composition and design of other songs and sounds but I did not include the demo here... It's sad to see the way they treated my music in production... director's call, so what to do :/ |
| | THE VOTING HAS STARTED! Yes, voting will run till this Tuesday 12pm our time here in Singapore. I have provided the voting link so if you like what you hear here, do vote for me :D. THANKS! Stiff competition!
Okies, so here are the entries I submitted into the Cyndustries BUG OFF! aleatoric music contest:
d-DAY|h-HOUR
mo12seCODE
The theme of the contest is "WAR & PEACE"and we are suppose to use any kind of synthesis be it software or hardware based, digital or analogue. If you like it do go HERE to vote for me as your top three picks. Look for the titles. I will be really grateful! :P
NOTE: No looped samples were used and they are all original creations, played live, sequenced or programmed. No matter how aleatoric it is supposed to be, it can still fall under a familiar format of music. There are more aleatoric elements in mo12seCODE than d-DAY|h-HOUR. The random bleeps and glitches of the oscillating and filtering Sherman Filterbank II and also alot of "chance" music involved in this piece (eg. the transistor radio reacting with the MF105, etc). For d-DAY|h-HOUR, it's set to a more typical music track with the filtering algorithms random on the arpeggiating synths. Just because it says aleatorical doesn't mean it must sound weird and out of this world in my opinion.
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This album was taken post of recording the tracks. Here's the description of each piece:
d-DAY|h-HOUR
GEARS:KORG Triton ST88, KORG EM-1, KORG KP3, Sherman Filterbank II, MOOG MF105 Murf, MOOG Etherwave Theremin and ROLAND SH101.
DESCRIPTION: No software synthesis were used except for general effects during mixdown. Majority of the synthesis was from KORG Triton and composed on the fly. Drums were preprogrammed though on the EM1. The piano is from Triton and it was improvised on the spot. Not sequenced.
CONCEPT: I was pondering about war and peace and thought they are pretty dichotomous. The existence of one entails the existence of another. The meaning of peace would not be possible without the precedence of war or vice versa. Inspired by this notion, d-DAY|h-HOUR depicts the attack that ends war... with that, peace entails, but at much cost. Like my other entry, this song was cut in a about 4 hours. Hope you'll enjoy it. Cheers...
mo12seCODE
GEARS: Alesis ION, KORG EM-1, KORG KP3, KORG Triton ST88, Sherman Filterbank II, MOOG MF105 Murf and a small handhelf transistor radio.
DESCRIPTION: Composed and mixed on the fly with general effects passed post. Again this was done in about 4 hours as well. Special Notes: The Sherman Filterbank II was used as a self oscillating modular instead of processing sounds... it was patched for feedbacking itself. The transistor radio was used for creating the sweeping sounds (like wind)... achieved by feeding through MF105. Reaktor 5 was used for some sound designs as well as a simple drum sequence. Most drum sounds from EM1. Gun sounds were designed on Triton.
CONCEPT: "Morse code is the only digital modulation mode designed to be easily read by humans without a computer, making it appropriate for sending automated digital data in voice channels, as well as making it ideal for emergency signaling..." This piece is a stipulation of morse codes being sent amongst artificial intelligence during wars in the future... Resulting in a cacophony of electronic communication. Inspired by visuals of actual morse codes, I've derived patterns from some to enter it as sequenced patterns, repeating them and countering them against each other... and the outcome is rather musical, naturally...
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PHOTO DESCRIPTION
Well, these were taken during the session. The first few LED displays are from the Sherman Filterbank II. Playing around with movements and it's actually quite magical in my opinion. The rest are just straight forward gear slutting.
OUT
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Quite crap actually. This is my first attempt at video-making, from the demo I cut from my previous post SyNtH MaNtRa II. Amateurish stuff. Visual highlights shots from KORG EM1 and KORG KP3. Here's the original video on YoutubeThe song was cut from KORG EM1, KORG Prophecy, KORG KP3, BOSS VF-1 multi-effects processor and Moogerfooger MF105 MurF. For more shots of the session do visit HERE. Pretty lame but it's just out of pure fun.
| | "Cocktail-Patry Effect is the ability of the human ear to perceive a distinctive sound out of a collage of sounds. The ability to filter out a single sound from a collective of sounds. Sounds which are masked by a myriad of noised can be perceivable by the human ear through the exercise of this effect."
Audio Demo: | SyNtH MaNtRa II |
Music Concept:
Using the Cocktail Party Effect as a main driving concept, I composed a motive for the set. There are three tracks of micro-melodies playing the same motive at different tempos and in variations covering different frequency bands. Each track will take precedence at different times, sometimes clashing sometimes in sync. The four track is a shakuhachi-like synths that plays a distinctive melody at the beginning. The drum track is pre-programmed and sequenced prior the recording, acting as a base to mask micro-melodies to make them hardly perceivable, forcing one to engage the Cocktail Party Effect in order to make out the micro-melodies that weaved underneath the on-going drum track. With the ideology of Cocktail Party Effect, Synth Mantra II is a multi-tracked improvisation in the world of synths, filters and effects, melting the boundaries between analogue and digital as they fuse.
The song was composed, arranged and improvised on the fly less the sequenced drums. It's then mixed down minimally and with no effects added post. I did this track in about 2 hours so don't expect a professional mix. It's more for fun... my fun :P.
Technical Details:
All the synths sounds are from the KORG Prophecy, through the Moogerfooger MF105 MurF that changes rate of LFO as well as envelope. The Drum, which was pre-programmed and sequenced, is from KORG EM1, through BOSS VF-1 multi-effects processor and then through KORG Koass Pad III running a Grain Filter. The drum sequence was first passed through VF-1 on a violin filter, which resulted in a clicky metallic percussive sound. This was sampled into 3 banks on the KP3 in different variations. These sounds can be heard at the beginning of the track as it's morphed by the grain filter on KP3. During the actual recording, the drums were passed through a stereo vocoder on the VF-1 and then into the KP3 for the graining.
Photo Details:
The song was composed and played in the dark so that I indulge in the right mood. The LEDs really take on full effects in the dark so I took pictures of it after the recording and also with lights on later. The streaking LEDs happened when I took one accidentally because of unstable hands but it turned out pretty interesting. So I began to experiment and also changing camera mode. The result is some stunning LED displays.
UPDATES: Video is not available HERE. Or you can go direct to Youtube to view it. Don't expect too much :D. |
| | What does this man do in the middle of the night when he can't sleep and boredom sinks in?
"He let a transistor radio speak to a Moogerfooger"
Listen: C o N v E r S a T i O n S
An experimentation that took place when in need of a modular...
For those who are not atuned to experimental music, this piece is hardly musical and may not be assessible to you or may seemed abstract...
I didn't do much except passing the signal of a mini transistor radio with it's static noise running, through the MoogerFooger MF105 Murf... added some random patchings behind the Murf, routing "rate" to "envelop" and at times "mix". The rest is just knobbing, fading, sweeping the radio frequency band and stuffs. No effects or any EQ'ing added. What you hear is what MF105 did to the signal input. Pretty straight forward stuff...
The results? Ambient windy droney stuffs with spurts of crackly cranky random music and voices... Pretty interesting sounds. Musique Concrete?
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