Monday 27 May 2013

Buchla 100 Krell Meme


Here is a self-playing patch on the Buchla 100, another Krell meme. The patch is as follows: 158 sin/saw vco into 185 frequency shifter then into 191 filter and then 106 mixer ch1. 160 noise into mixer ch2. 144 sq wave vco into mixer ch3. 140 timing pulse to 130 envelopes which control the 191 filter cutoff and a 110 gate. 140 timing is being randomised by the 165 random voltage generator, which also controls the pitch of the main vcos. The 140 also triggers the 123 sequencer which is controlling the 102 stereo locator and pitches of 144 vco. A second 158 vco is being used to modulate the principal vcos. The 102 stereo output goes to each side of the dual 190 reverb, then to the 175 stereo eq. Interspersed with all this are the very useful 156 cv processors, I think all 3 are used in the patch to limit the randomness and range of the 165, and to invert certain voltages. The whole thing is very tweakable, but in this video I just set it up and left it running

High


We had a little Wrangler session yesterday - in prep for our tiny gig tonight in Dalston (see flyer)

After our rehearsal we had a beer at the local. Outside the pub on Old Street there is a crazy big bicycle thats been there for months for some reason - street art? Anyway Phil had to climb up on it because it was sunny and he had a beer-rush

Sunday 26 May 2013

LPlease


I once posted about the amazing 1982 album by Charanjit Singh that proves he invented acid house music in 1982. See here. Well there is a very hopeful seller on ebay with an original LP copy - wanting $4000 for it!

Mix Up


Why are there no other Mix Sequencers? Its such a cool idea but I don't think there has ever been another one made since ARP's 1050 module, designed in 1970. It mixes and sequences audio and CV-range signals, which means it has a huge range of uses. (In the video its the module with 8 white squares on it, in case you were wondering what I'm going on about.) In this patch I am using it to switch between the other ARP sequencer rows - the more conventional analog sequencer, although its also pretty strange because its got 10 steps to each row. So I am truncating that one using the end-point output facility to loop the sequence at 8. So using the mix sequencer I got a total of 32 steps (I am only using the first 4 channels of the 1050). Does any of this actually make any sense to anyone? If not, just move on - theres probably something else you should be doing anyway

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Matthew and Pamela


Ages ago Matthew came round to the studio to meet my synths. He's the mad genius behind ALM / Busy Circuits synth modules, in particular Pamela's Workout, which is a very clever and fun-to-use trigger sequencer. Its got a great vintage LED display like on an old school calculator - SOLD! He very generously gave me a module to try out and here it is finally in my Doepfer system. It sends out eight 5V triggers, each of which can be divisions or brainy mathematical derivations of the master clock. In this patch I am using it to trigger envelopes, LPGs, and the sequencer and noise and filters



Monday 20 May 2013

Miskow Doskow!


Telex-me-up!
(via matrixsynth)
I need that orange chair in here NOW

Saturday 18 May 2013

My Type

UPDATE: Cool! The other two arrived today as well


On my return from tour I had the pleasant surprise that the typewriter had arrived that I bought on ebay while I was away. Isn't she a beauty? I used it for the typed bit on the design for the previous post...

BYE Radio Show No.6




Here is a new selection of music for you to listen to. Its all about the algorithms today

Tracklisting:
The Maths - Pattern Puzzle
Mileece - Formations
John Adams - Light Over Water
John Elliott / Transmusic (music made using cellular automata) - Crecur0
Steve Reich & Pat Metheny - Fast
Benge - Electro-Orgoustic Music Track 7 (from my first album)

The BYE Radio Show 6 - "Matrices, Automata & Patterns" by Zagoba on Mixcloud

British Buildings


More tour snaps, this time a selection of buildings, good, bad, beautiful and ugly

Tuesday 14 May 2013

What A Lauf


When we were in Glasgow, John and Han and I popped down to GoMA, as we like to try and check out the local artefacts if we have time in a big city. We were captivated by a showing of this wonderful 1987 film by artists Fischli/Weiss, called Der Lauf der Dinge. What a magical and wondrous piece of work - please watch it all the way through

Friday 10 May 2013

Thursday 9 May 2013

White Noises


I had a day off in London - and felt I needed to give my studio some love. So I set up a patch on my white synths. It consists of oscillators, filters and spring reverb from the Buchla 100, EMS VCS3 and Serge Modular going into the Serge mixer/panner module. LFOs control the pan and the sequencer controls the levels. Then I edited the video on the tour bus

Tuesday 7 May 2013

Wordsearch


Life on the road. Plenty of time for pointless pastimes, such as word-spotting with the iPhone:

Saturday 4 May 2013

Concrete Poetry


Seeing that typed list in the previous post reminded me strangely of the typed work of Carl Andre, who we also saw at Tate Margate, and which led me to discover Dom Sylvester Houedard.

Back Stage





Sitting back stage at the Regent Theatre in Ipswich, and I noticed a book John had just been given called Back Stage - a very detailed archive of Gary Numan's 1979-80 tours. See here for more info.

Theres a cool list in it of his stage equipment - including five Polymoogs, six Minimoogs, and four MXR Flanger/Doublers!

Les Foxx


Its really great playing in classy venues. The dressing room at the Birmingham Symphony Hall had a nice piano in it:

Rebisus Review




I just found a really good in-depth review of my latest Benge album. Click below for more


Turner Prize


Our first gig was in Margate, and between sound checks we took a stroll down to the Tate. Theres an interesting little show on about JMW Turner's lectures on perspective, and some of the illustrations he made for them. This one reminded us of one of our album covers:

Miss Steer


The second was a trip down to Bush Hall to see Sefa and her new band. Heres a cool picture of Sefa



and heres a video of the gig



By the way Sef - we're missing you on the bus!