| Synthesizer Pop |
[Sep. 15th, 2006|03:52 am] |
Another little "demo" track, with DotCom and 606 for the rhythm. This one is on more of a synth-pop tip.
"Pop" |
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| Cartoon Dub |
[Sep. 5th, 2006|04:22 pm] |
New little track - "Cartoon Dub". Nothing too tricky on the synth side, just some tuned hits, some filtered noise hi-hats. I used a quickly-swept triangle wave for the kick instead of a sine wave, which is what people would usually use to make a nice kick drum (either from an oscillator's sine wave generator or from a self-oscillating filter). Since the triangle basically sounds like a sine wave but with more "buzz," I've found that it makes a punchier and more aggressive kick drum sound, almost like a 909 kick, which tends to cut through a mix when you have a lot of other lower-frequency stuff going on. I usually prefer doing 808-style kicks (all bottom end and thump), but since there was already so much going on in the low end of this track, I went for something that would cut through a little more. I had to cheat a little bit and use a plugin for the tape delay on the lead, because I don't have a tape echo. Everything else is 100% DotCom with no effects.
This isn't meant to be a full track or anything, just a little "test" or exercise. I've been listening to a lot of Linton Kwesi Johnson and Gregory Isaacs lately, and have always been a fan of King Tubby and Lee Perry, so I wanted to see if I could do a little synthesized dub track real quick.
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| Dub Jam |
[Aug. 29th, 2006|04:29 pm] |
"CP Dub"
Another little jam, this one built solely with the Moog CP-251, TR-606, and the DotCom, live to tape improv style. I was kind of going for a "what if Morton Subotnick did a dub track?" or something along those lines, kind of in the tradition of what Excepter is trying to do with their latest "noise dub" stuff.
Here's a picture of the setup:
Basically what you're hearing is the TR-606 running through the DotCom's filter via the instrument interface, and one of the DotCom's oscillators generating a pulse wave which is run through the same filter. The 606's two trigger outputs are firing off each of the DotCom's envelopes, which go into multiples and are routed to the DotCom's amp, to control the oscillator's pitch, etc. The Moog CP-251's two LFO shapes (square and triangle) are routed into its mixer, with the combined output going to the DotCom's oscillator. I can "play" the knobs that control the Mooger's master LFO speed, and then the amount of each LFO applied to the DotCom's osc, as well as the offset of that combined signal (making it higher or lower in pitch), so the end result is a random melody generator that I can sort of "play" or at least direct by tweaking the knobs. Finally, the second DotCom LFO's sine wave is sloooooooowly sweeping the filter cutoff, which accounts for the long, slow high pass filter sweep over the entire mix to give it some extra spaciness. There's some more complicated stuff going on in there, like the Mooger's Sample and Hold modulating the pulse width of the pulse wave that you hear, but I don't wnat to get too complicated.
Kind of a boring actual end product, but the process involved was fascinating and can lead to more practical applications in the future, esp. once I get a DIN-sync box and can start laying down sync'ed parts like this on individual tracks to build a more complicated song out of it. |
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| Oscillator 2 and basic modulation |
[Jul. 26th, 2006|01:59 am] |
| [ | music |
| | yellow magic orchestra - technopolis | ] |
I already wrote a big entry on the Q106 Oscillator, but now that I've added a second Oscillator, it's time for an entry explaining the cool new possibilities that a second oscillator brings to the system.
First, the obvious application: two oscillators playing together in unison generally sounds thicker and fatter than one oscillator.
First, here's a bassline played with just a straight saw wave from one oscillator.
Now, here's the same riff with two oscillators playing in unison - it sounds richer, thicker, and more interesting than the solo oscillator.
If you listen closely, you'll notice a slight phasing effect in that second mp3 - this is because the two oscillators cannot be perfectly in tune with each other, so there are all sorts of tiny fluctuations and phase relationships at work. Older synths like the early Moog modulars had notoriously unstable oscillators - they'd drift in and out of tune and were much more prone to fluctuation. Many theorize that this is a major source of "fatness" in analogue synths, so many modern digital synthesizers even include an "analogue drift" option that introduces minor tuning instabilities among their oscillators.
Intentionally tuning the oscillators further apart is generally called "fat tuning" - many synthesists will use three oscillators, and tune one slightly above and the other slightly below the middle one in order to get a fatter, thicker sound spread.
But what if we want to go further? The two oscillators can be tuned in any relation to each other. Here's the second oscillator tuned two octaves above the first one. It's a subtle effect, but one that might make a lead stand out more. Now I've tuned the second oscillator to a fifth above the first. It kind of reminds me of an old Commodore 64 game sound or something. With a third oscillator, we could even start to make basic three-note chords triggered from one key.
While it's fun to layer two sounds together, a much more interesting and obvious use of two oscillators together is modulation! By tuning the second oscillator down into lower sub-audio frequencies, I can use its output as a modulation source, patching it to modulate the pitch of the first oscillator for a subtle vibrato effect - or I can crank up the amount of modulation applied to the oscillator's pitch to take it straight into outer space.
Starting with a basic single-oscillator sawtooth wave, I patch the low-frequency triangle wave from oscillator 2 to the linear pitch input of the first oscillator. As the little riff plays, I start to crank up the amount of signal applied to the oscillator's pitch input - it begins as a little warble, and as I turn the knob, the sound oscillates more wildly and over a greater range until it's in outer space territory.
Here's the same thing, but with the square wave. I also vary oscillator 2's frequency (speed) in this clip, from the normal starting speed to significantly faster and significantly slower speeds. You can hear what a dramatic difference that merely varying the speed and amount of modulation applied can have on the sound.
And finally, the same as before but with the ramp wave. I can also use the sine wave and sawtooth shapes, but they're variations on the ones that I've just displayed, so I chose to stick with the most dramatic examples.
And finally, we can't forget pulse width modulation. Unlike the other waveforms generated by the oscillator, the pulse wave's actual waveform can be shaped and modulated, which I talked about the basic idea of the pulse wave and pulse width modulation in one of the early entires in this blog. By patching to oscillator 1's pulse width input, I can modulate the shape of its pulse wave. Here's some basic pulse width modulation - oscillator 2's low frequnecy triangle wave is modulating the pulse width of oscillator one's pulse wave. Like before, I vary the speed and amount of modulation just to show off some different sounds. The pitch doesn't change like in the previous examples, but the shape of the pulse wave rapidly changes from normal square to thin notch and back in time with oscillator 2's triangle wave. It's a cool effect, and one of my favorite synthesizer sounds for melodic leads.
Well, those are just some basic examples of modulation - either or both of those oscillators can be kicked into low frequency mode and then used to modulate anything else that can be modulated on any other module, so there is really a world of possibility - modulating the filter for rhythmic sweeps of the cutoff or resonance, modulating the amp to cut the sound in and out for a tremolo or gating effect, and so on. There's also a whole oscillator sync function that I'll get into when I write up the applications of having a second envelope generator. |
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| Still Alive! |
[Jul. 21st, 2006|11:36 am] |
Yuck, I've neglected this journal! I've just been busy with life and other stuff, but I'm about to start this thing up again with some new entries to get caught up.
Here's a pic of the modular's current state:
A little dark, but you can see that there are some new modules - another envelope, an external instrument input interface, two multiples. I'm going to do entries on those things and their applications next.
Also, I just traded/sold what little other remaining gear I had and ended up with some cash plus a cool Roland TR-606 drum machine, fresh out of 1982.
While the 606's own sounds are cool but pretty limited, I mainly wanted it because it has two trigger outputs that you can program alongside its drum sounds, each of which sends a quick voltage blast out to whatever you patch it to - namely, my modular! Working with only the little 16-step patterns that the 606 can do, I'm forced to get creative and end up coming up with fun little "happy accidents" based on how the modular triggers in response to the 606's voltage outputs. Really, it's about getting into that mindset that guys like Giorgio Moroder and Phil Oakey (The Human League) had to be into back in the day; it's just more in line with the whole voltage-controlled modular way of working than using Cubase or digital sequencers. Not that I'm abandoning Cubase or anything like, but it's fun to have another, more primitive option for sequencing.to shake things up a little bit.
With the money that I have left over, I'm trying to make a decision whether to buy an old Roland MC-202 (early digital sequencer that spits out analogue voltages) or the Moog CP-251 (a little box that I can add to the modular that gives me the functionality of five or six modules without taking up any space in the cabinet). The MC-202 is a primitive, confusing "calculator"-style sequencer that makes it almost impossible to accomplish whatever melody or rhythm you set out to make, but the upside is that you invariably come up with all sorts of "happy accidents" that are more interesting than whatever you were initially trying to program. I'm interested in the idea of more sequencing options, especially weirdo MC-style ones, but I'd also like the extra functionality of the Moog CP, which would really add a ton of new stuff I can do with the modular. |
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| new demo |
[May. 17th, 2006|03:37 am] |
Hey, everyone!
I'm working on a new entry for this, but in the meantime, here's a little demo I made with the system so far.
"Shimmer"
Kind of downbeat, but neat. I've got a bunch of other little tracks like this that I've made, and I'll be uploading them soon. |
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| Envelope Time! The Q109 Envelope Generator |
[Apr. 11th, 2006|02:38 am] |
The Q109 Envelope Generator!
When I press a key on my keyboard (through my Q104 MIDI-to-CV converter module) it generates a gate signal. This is a pretty simple on/off signal - when the key's pressed, it's on. When the key isn't pressed, it's off - not that nuanced if we're trying to make dynamic musical sounds, as that sounds that we're used to hearing from normal instruments tend to fade in and out, or have certain ways of attacking before decaying and fading away. The envelope generator takes this boring on/off gate signal and imparts a four-part countoured curve to it.
Those four parts of the envelope are Attack time, Decay time, Sustain Level, and Release Time, or "ADSR." ADSR Envelopes are pretty much the standard on traditional analogue synthesizers, though the original Minimoog only had a three-part envelope. Some synths (like the Casio CZ series in the eighties) have attempted to employ more complicated multi-stage envelopes, but the good old classic ADSR always seems to win out for quick, intuitive, and useful control of sounds. While the Synthesizers.com system uses knobs for its envelope section, many synths, like my Roland System 100, use sliders (pictured below). I have to admit that I prefer using sliders when it comes to setting envelopes because I feel like you get a more visual representation of the shape of the envelope, but I've adjusted to the DotCom's knob system.
If you take a look at the picture of the module at the beginning of this entry, you can see that each of these parameters has its own dedicated knob used for setting its value. "Attack" determines whether the signal fades in slowly (long or high attack value) or triggers immediately (short or no attack). After the signal reaches its highest level in the Attack phase, the Decay phase begins, in which the signal falls over the amount of time set by the Decay knob until it reaches to the Sustain point or Sustain level, the level at which it holds or sustains as long as the key is held down. Once the key is released, the Release phase begins, in which the signal fades out over the amount of time set by the release knob; long release means a long, slow fade out, while a short or 0 release means that it drops to nothingness immediately when the key is released.
Confusing, huh? It can be, but work with an envelope generator for just a few minutes and it becomes immediately intuitive, which is what matters.
Moog literature often refers to envelopes as "invisible hands" that can be programmed to turn knobs on a synth, and I think that's a great description for the practical applications of an envelope module. You see, an envelope generator doesn't make any sound on its own; it's a control module, meant to be used to control other modules in the system. By patching the gate in from the keyboard into the Envelope's input, then patching the output to an amplifier or filter, I can use the envelope's "invisible hands" to control how the amp or filter behaves when I press a key.
Here's some examples! All of the examples below use the basic sawtooth wave through the amplifier module, or through the filter, then amplifier module.
1. Normally, the oscillator's sound just drones on and on, but when I patch it into the amplifier, I can taper the sound down until I hear nothing. Then, I patch the envelope to control the amplifier's volume when I press a key. Depending on the settings of the envelope, the volume of the sound will behave differently over time. Here's a few little melodies.
This one has no attack, no release, no sustain, and a very short decay. You immediately hear the notes, and then they quickly fade out, like a plucked instrument.
Longer attacks and releases here; the sound fades in and fades out slowly.
Everything at 0 except Sustain, which is all the way up. Key press = note. Key release = silence. Not much nuance until the end, when I turn up the release so that the final notes fade out more naturally.
2. Now, let's use the envelope on the filter module instead of the amplifier! Normally, I'd move the filter cutoff knob to affect the sound as described in the Filter entry, but I can patch the envelope up so that its "invisible hands" will move the filter cutoff knob in accordance with the envelope setting. Let's do it!
Shorter Attack and Release settings sweep the cutoff when I hit notes, before I turn the Attack and Release up all the way for a few long, slow, eerie filter sweeps.
A shorter attack and then quick decay with zero sustain and release makes a brassy sound that quickly "opens up" as the note is played like the splatting and blatting of a tuba or trombone...
...while even shorter settings make it faster, fartier, and funkier.
By now, you should be getting a good idea of how the envelope affects the way that things behave - and this is only scratching the surface of its applications in even such a basic system. I could patch the envelope to control the oscillator's pitch, making it rise and fall with each key press, or I could even patch it to the pulse width input of the pulse wave so that it could change the shape of the pulse while over time (pulse width modulation). Instead of using the oscillator, we could repeat #1 and #2 but patch the noise source into the amplifier and filter, then use the envelope to contour the noise source's sound. Hissing white noise quickly becomes a cymbal or wind, while pink noise quickly becomes a snare drum or gunshot when the envelope is modulating the amplifier that the noise runs through. Many people use several envelopes in a modular system; the general rule is one envelope for each amplifer at the very least, but many people like to have several so that one can control the way the sound's volume behaves while the other controls the filter. Even better, once we get Multiples involved (next installment, coming soon!), one envelope's output can be sent to several different modules at once so that they all simultaneously respond to the envelope's shape when a key is pressed.
Well, that's more than enough for now. I've already received a multiple and my second oscillator, so the next two installments are covered, and I'd like to give Pulse Width Modulation and Modulation (aka "Stupid two-oscillator tricks") their own entries as well, exploring the real craziness that having two (or more) oscillators adds to the mix. I'll also be posting some music I've made with this little setup once I get this Cubase problem worked out (again, if anyone can help with that, I'd really appreciate it!). I've already made a dubby track, a hip hop one, and a Moroder-esque four-on-the-floor dance track, all 100% created with the DotCom system. Until then! |
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| The Q108 Amplifier |
[Apr. 11th, 2006|12:48 am] |
Moving on...the Q108 Amplifier!
The Amplifier is generally the final stage in a patch, as it allows me to control the final volume of whatever sounds I'm messing with. It's a pretty boring, utilitarian module, but it's essential. The term "Amplifier" is actually a bit misleading when it comes to this module, because it doesn't amplify the signal; instead, it attenuates it, so I start out with the full blasting signal, then use the "initial gain" setting to tone it down. The amplifier is generally used in conjunction with an Envelope Generator (coming up in the next installment) so that the sound of the waveform will fade in and out in response to key presses like a "real" instrument.
There's more to discuss when it comes to the amplifier, but I'll get to that in the Envelope Entry (next!) and the "Beginning Modulation Entry" after that, since I just got my second Oscillator and can now dive into all sorts of cool cross-modulation by using one Oscillator to modulate another, the amplifier, the filter, etc. |
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| some recording help? |
[Apr. 11th, 2006|12:39 am] |
Hey, everyone -
I'm working on some tracks with the Dotcom setup right now, but I've run into a problem. I previously only really used VSTi's, which render directly to disc instead of recording in realtime, so it hasn't been an issue. But now that I'm triggering the Dotcom system over MIDI and recording the audio, it's reared its ugly head.
I know that some of you use Cubase SX, so I hope that this is one of those easy fixes that I'm just not thinking about. I've been recording a lot, and I've found that all of my recorded audio is a little bit "ahead" of the MIDI clock/MIDI notes - no real problem since all audio tracks are "ahead" by the same amount (in sync with each other), but it's become a problem when I want to excise a certain measure and copy and paste it - I'm losing the attack of the first note, which is really noticeable with kick drums.
Here's a picture of the situation -
What's going on? I figure this is a latency issue, but it seems like if anything, the audio should be late or behind, not ahead. Is Cubase trying to automatically compensate for latency or something, thus moving the audio "ahead" of the beat?
What can I do to fix this? |
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| The Q107 Filter |
[Mar. 30th, 2006|02:28 am] |
I cannot overstate the noble filter's effect on shaping sound in analogue synthesizers; while all components contribute to the character of a synth's sound, the sound of a synth's filter is the sound of that synthesizer. For all intents and purposes, every synthesizer makes the same initial waveform sounds that I showcased earlier in this journal - the same old boring sawtooth, pulse, triangle, etc. waves. When those waves pass through the synthesizer's filter, that filter's special character is imparted onto the final sound. The classic creamy Minimoog sound, the wonderful fartiness of the Roland Tb-303, the biting Arp Odyssey tone, and the dirty, squealing Korg MS-20 are all the result of those synthesizers' particular filters.
The type of synthesis performed by analogue synthesizers like this modular is referred to as subtractive synthesis because sounds are created by removing - filtering out - some of the harmonics that make up the basic waveforms produced by the oscillator. It's kind of like the musical equivalent of sculpting a hunk of marble into a statue; we begin with a plain, unrefined sound like a basic sawtooth wave and then use a filter to "sculpt" that sound into a more usable, musical tone. This is the heart of sound creation and the basic idea behind these types of synthesizers.
Filters are fairly simple when it comes to functionality. The oscillator's output sound is patched into the input of the filter, then the output of the fitler is patched into an amplifier or mixer so that we can hear it. The filter's two main controls are cutoff (also often known as "frequency") and resonance (also known as "Q"); tweaking and turning the knob for each is how I shape the sound. Cutoff controls the frequency at which harmonics are filtered out of the sound, and Resonance highlights or amplifies the frequencies near the cutoff point. The more we turn up the resonance, the more the cutoff point frequency is highlighted, so cranking the resonance causes the sound to take on a "squealing" or "screaming" tone that can quickly distort. It's common to turn up the resonance about midway and then sweep the cutoff point; the classic "filter sweep" sound is expressive, vocal, and sweeping the filter either by hand or patching it up to be automatically swept by another parameter (such as an envelope) is one of the fundamentals of many synth sounds.
The Q107 filter has four classic filter shapes/modes; Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, and Notch. I'll explain what each filter type does to the sound, but in this case a picture (or rather, mp3) speaks a thousand words. All four of the following examples were created by patching the sawtooth wave into the filter, for consistency.
The Low Pass Filter is the most common and expressive filter sound; if a synth only has one filter shape, it's definitely going to be low pass. Technically speaking, "low pass" means that only the frequencies lower than the cutoff point "pass" through; frequencies higher than the cutoff point are filtered out, and the sound gets more muffled as the cutoff is swept downward.
Sweeping the filter cutoff with medium, then higher resonance.
The High Pass Filter is the opposite of the Low Pass Filter; instead of filtering out frequencies above the cutoff point, it filters out the frequencies below the cutoff point, causing the sound to get more nasal and thin as the cutoff is swept upward.
The high pass filter thins the sound out and removes the lower frequencies of the tone.
The Band Pass filter filters out frequencies above and below the cutoff point, allowing only the middle "band" of frequencies to pass through. Changing the cutoff point moves the actual band of frequencies across the spectrum.
The band pass is a little more dramatic, and can sound like either a high or low pass depending on settings.
Finally, the Notch filter (sometimes known as "Band Reject") is the opposite of the Band Pass filter; instead of filtering out the frequencies above and below the "band," it allows those frequencies to come through but filters out the "band" in the middle. It's a subtle effect, almost like a phaser effect, and sounds good when modulated by something else.
The subtle notch sounds great with a slow sweep of the cutoff.
Those samples should provide a basic idea of the way that different filters affect the sound of a synthesizer. Often, synthesists will run filters in serial - running the waveform first into a low pass filter, then running the filtered output of the low pass into a high pass filter - or even use a different filter on each oscillator in a system, combining the final sounds together. As things get more complicated and I add more modules, I'll get into more advanced applications like using a waveform to modulate the filter's cutoff, or using the envelope generator to sweep the filter each time I hit a key. I'll actually deal with that one in the envelope installment, which I'll hopefully be able to knock out tomorrow...until then! |
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| We're back |
[Mar. 30th, 2006|01:07 am] |
Hey, everyone - it's been a while! I've been busy playing shows with the two bands I play with and staying generally busy, so I'm ready for a belated update.
FIrst of all, three new modules have been added to the system - the Q109 Envelope Generator, Q107 Filter, and Q108 Amplifier, as seen from left to right below.
Since each of these is a major component of the system, each addition adds exponential functionality, so I'm going to dedicate an entry to each module, explaining what it does and how it affects my system and my ability to make wacky sounds. Speaking of wacky sounds, I've been making a lot lately with even such a limited setup.
I'm still waiting on my next oscillator (there's currently a 6-week backorder on them, and it's been just about six weeks since I ordered it), which will really put things over the top when it comes to patching stuff up.
Next up is a dedicated entry for each of the new modules.I'll leave you with a side view - things are already getting messy, and I love it.
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 3rd, 2006|10:55 pm] |
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I'm still waiting on my new modules, but here's a totally badass video of a guy from the Synthesizers.com mailing list using his 22-space Synthesizers.com system. He basically starts from nothing and then patches up a bunch of stuff as he goes along. It's a cool video to watch, and it really shows you the flexibility of working with one of these systems. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 25th, 2006|12:36 am] |
Well, I sold my Alesis Ion synth to a buddy and was able to pay up most of the rest of my entry-system plan. Hot! The bad news is that the wait time on new oscillators is up to 6 weeks, so it's going to be a while before I get my second one, and there's a three-week wait on the other modules (filter, envelope, amplifier, etc.). I'm not slamming on Synthesizers.com at all - they're a tiny operation, and each order is put together by hand - but in this age of "want it today, have it this afternoon" consumerism, it's easy to forget that sometimes you have to wait for things. It's definitely worth the wait, but I'm itching to get those new modules!
Also; if you're a middle-aged man who reads this LJ and wants to see my boobs, you can go ahead and buy me this -Roland MC-4 with mtr100 tape backup. The MC-4 is an old digital sequencer that spits out analogue control voltage and gate signals, offering a truly crazy four channels of sequencing with two CV outs per channel. It's purportedly the sequencer of choice for Richard D. James (Aphex Twin) and Vince Clarke (Erasure) and is renowned for its impossibly tight timing (for a digital device). It's also notorious for being damned near impossible to use; I guess you have to actually program your sequences in hex code or something crazy like that, which leads to tons of "happy accidents." Buy it now for $1,100 if you've got the cash; theyr'e rare enough as is, and it's unheard of to find one with the backup tape drive. |
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| Musicthing |
[Feb. 3rd, 2006|01:14 am] |
One of my favorite music blogs, http://musicthing.blogspot.com/ , has linked to Bleeps and Bloops! I'm a big fan of Musicthing, and if you like reading about music technology (with snarky commentary!), you should definitely check it out.
Hello to everyone who got here via Musicthing! |
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| Travelogue |
[Feb. 1st, 2006|02:03 am] |
While this journal is mostly about the synthesizer I'm building, I want to take a moment to pimp out a friend of mine that I think is doing great synth music.
His name is Jon Sonnenberg, and he does music under the name Travelogue. He's one of the few people out there doing synthesizer-based music that really inspires me - it's not dance music, not synth-pop, not prog noodling, and not random bleeps and bloops. Instead, he seems to perfectly straddle the realms of pop music (he writes and sings good songs with solid melodies and really nails a great chorus every now and then) and experimental synthesizer music (he uses a lot of weird sounds, home-built synthesizers, often goes off on strange musical tangents) without watering down either one. In his poppier moments, he reminds me of the Magnetic Fields or early Human League (an obvious inspiration based on the band name), but he definitely gets into Kraftwerk/Yellow Magic Orchestra territory in the more robo-machine moments.
Though we've trafficked in the same scene for years, I just got to know Jon when I was on tour back in September. We stayed at his house, and his home studio just blew me away - it's literally floor-to-ceiling with amazing, vintage synthesizer and sequencer equipment. In spite of having a gear collection that could probably finance a small nation if he hawked in on Ebay, he uses a Synthesizers.com modular system like the one I'm building for about 70% of what you hear on his records. It was actually getting to play with his system back in September that convinced me to finally take the plunge and start my own system, which is why this journal exists.
Here's a few tracks. If you dig them, check out and buy his records!
"Your Car" (from The Art of Conversation)
"You and I" (From Imaginary Hospitals)
"Cactus" (from The Art of Conversation) |
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| The Q104 MIDI interface |
[Jan. 27th, 2006|11:41 pm] |
It's time for another update!
Today I received the Q104 MIDI Interface module, which is month #4 in the "Module of the Month" plan. That's it on the far right.
I kind of put it in a goofy place in my cabinet - right in the middle - but that'll do for now, and I can always move it later. Most people put the MIDI interface to the extreme left or right on the cabinet, as they want to keep the MIDI cable (coming from their computer, a digital keyboard, or a digital sequencer) out of the way of things. As you can see, I'm already getting a "spaghetti" effect with only three modules and patch cables going between them. I can't wait until all 22 spaces are filled!
This installment is a bit more technical than previous ones, as the MIDI interface deals with communication between instruments rather than actually creating sounds. MIDI's a pretty boring idea, so I'll try to stick to utilitarian explanations rather than technical mumbo jumbo.
Because this modular synthesizer is an analogue (as opposed to digital) synthesizer, it has no software, no memory, and no computer components - everything that happens in it, from sound generation to the way that different modules control and affect each other, is achieved by electrical voltages. They synthesizer is played by a keyboard that sends out two main voltage signals - "Pitch" and "Gate." These are called "CV" ("control voltage") signals. It's actually very simple - pitch corresponds to which key/note is pressed on the keyboard, and gate corresponds to how long the key is held down. You'll also see "Trigger" and "Velocity" on there, which I'll get to in a few minutes, but Pitch and Gate CV's are the two fundamentals of any analogue synth.
MIDI, on the other hand, is a very complicated and flexible language that digital instruments, including computer-based software sequencers, use to control each other. Because it's an entirely different thing than the comparatively primitive voltage-based CV system that analogue synths use, the two systems are incompatible - I can't program melodies and basslines with my old Roland SH-101 from my computer-based sequencer, and I couldn't use a key on the SH-101 to trigger samples on the computer or in a sampler if I wanted to.
For people like me that like using digital equipment (like software sequencers, where I can just draw in my melodies, basslines, and chord progressions rather than trying to type them in like a calculator on a hardware sequencer) but want to use the old analogues with it, a MIDI->CV converter is in order. Luckily, Synthesizers.com's Roger Arrick realizes that people like me are the norm rather than the exception, so they offer such a converter as a module for their systems.
The MIDI->CV converter is a simple tool - it accepts a MIDI cable from the computer (or a digital keyboard or keyboard controller, digital hardware sequencer like an AKAI MPC, and so on) and translates the MIDI messages into CV signals. As you can see on the bottom right, it puts out Pitch and Gate signals, but also puts out a Trigger and Velocity output. Trigger is just a short voltage pulse that can be used to trigger one-shot things in other modules (like setting off an envelope, starting a sequencer, etc.) that I don't have yet, so I'll get to that later. Velocity takes the velocity information from the digital keyboard that your'e playing - that is, how hard or soft you hit the keys - and translates it into a CV signal that you can patch to any input that can be affected. This is good for adding expressiveness to the sounds that you're playing - you might patch the velocity output to the filter cutoff so that the filter opens up more depending on how hard you strike the keys. Again, I can't really do much with this until I get other modules, though I did manage to do one trick that I'll cover in a minute.
Remember how I had no way to change the note that the oscillator was playing before, as it just droned on and on? With the Q104 module, I can now play notes up and down the keyboard. I just patched the MIDI cable from my digital keyboard to the module, then patched the pitch output to the exponential frequency input on the oscillator. Voila - instant musical instrument rather than boring tone generator. The Exponential frequency section maps out the voltages so that the right pitches correspond to the right notes on the keyboard without much fuss.
Of course, I still have no way to start and stop the sound because I don't have the amplifier and envelope modules yet, so it just drones on and on without end. But at least I can change the notes and play melodies!
With that in mind, I threw together a little demo, just to see what I could do by just by playing some pitches by using my MIDI keyboard with the Q104.
Here's the little test song that I put together.
The first little melody that you hear is the naked sawtooth wave playing notes - remember that I have nothing to modify the actual sound yet, such as a filter or amplifier. The deeper bassline that comes in is the triangle wave, and then the more complicated melody that comes in is the pulse wave. It's just a goofy little thing, almost like music you'd hear in an old atari game or something. I stuck to making melodies and arpeggios, since I have no way of actually stopping the notes from droning on yet.
Also, remember the velocity CV output that I mentioned before? I was able to give the pulse melody a little more texture by patching that velocity to the pulse width modulation input, with the effect being that each time I strike a new note, the velocity with which I strike the note changes the shape of that pulse wave. Playing the key very softly/with very little pressure has little effect on the pulse width, but the harder I play the note, the more the width is affected. The end result is that notes played lightly sound normal, while harder-played notes sound more nasal and thin. This isn't a very common way of modulating the pulse width, and it's not a particularly useful or musical one, but it's something else that I can do with even such a limited setup.
On a final, sadder note, I think that I might have killed my Roland SH-101 tonight. It's been acting a little screwy for a while (hey, it's 20+ years old), and when I tried to get it set up to be trigged by voltages from the Synthesizers.com system, it emitted a horrible buzzing sound and then stopped making sounds altogether. There's no real reason that this should have happened - the two synthesizers are on compatible voltage systems, and were even playing together nicely the other night - but I think that the voice chip may have just finally burnt out, and perhaps the triggers from the S-com system were merely the straws that broke the proverbial camel's back. I'm definitely going to look into getting it fixed, but some of those parts can be expensive and hard to find.
Until next time! |
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| The Q110 Noise Source |
[Jan. 19th, 2006|05:59 pm] |
The Q110 Noise Source is not a module that's included in the Module-of-the-Month plan, so I decided to get one for Christmas. I think that noise generators are essential in any synthesizer setup for creating not only percussion sounds and special effects, but for use in modulating other sounds.
Just like black is not the absence of color but actually every color mixed together, noise is every audible frequency randomly mixed together. Noise is kind of like the "black" (all sounds) to silence's "white" (absence of sound).
The Q110 is deceptively simple; it simply generates noise. The outputs at the bottom are white noise, pink noise, and Low Frequency noise. Take a listen to the first two; white noise sounds like escaping steam or television static, while pink noise has a darker sound like thunder (Pink Noise is simply white noise with some of the frequencies filtered out). These sounds aren't very useful at the moment, but once I get the envelope module, I'll be able to shape them into more useful sounds. In the meantime, using audio software, I created a simple volume envelope to show how noise is often shaped into more useful sounds.
For example, pink noise makes a nice "snare drum" sound.
On the other hand, White noise can be filtered and made into a clicky hi-hat.
Slower volume modulation can create wind or surf.
The other interesting application of noise is for modulation, which is what the Low Frequency output is used for. Modulation is the process by which interesing sounds are created in synthesizers; to put it simply, an output of one module is patched to an input of another module using a patch chord, and the output of that module affects the way that the sound of the other module behaves. It gets more complicated than that, but in this case, the simple explanation works.
By patching the "Low Freq" output of the noise module to the "Linear Frequency" input of the Oscillator module, I can use the noise to modulate the pitch of the oscillator. Check it out:
Triangle wave modulated by noise.
I start with the normal, boring triangle wave, then slowly turn the knob to increase the amount of noise being applied to the oscillator. It's kind of like turning on a faucet; it starts with nothing, then slowly increases to full-blast as I turn the knob all the way to the right. Back to normal, and then once again to full blast before back to normal.
Because noise is a completely random mess of frequencies, the pitch of the oscillator behaves randomly, squiggling and jiggling all over the place as I apply the noise to it. It starts with just a slight "squiggling," but by the time the full amount of noise is applied, you can really hear it jumping all over the place chaotically. Further on down the line, when I add the Sample and Hold module, I'll be able to grab those random pitches and spit them out in defined steps at the speed of my choice, which leads to some really cool effects and modulation applications.
I can do one more modulation trick with this limited setup so far - instead of using the noise module to modulate the pitch of the oscillator, I can patch it to affect the pulse width of the square/pulse wave. I talked about changing the pulse width and pulse width modulation in the last entry, when I discussed the oscillator, so this is the first chance I have to actually do some pulse width modulation.
Instead of affecting the oscillator's pitch, the noise module's low frequency output is patched to the "pulse width" input and can directly change the shape of the wave. What's happening here is that the noise waveform is randomly changing the width of the square wave, making its shape rapidly jump between normal square, nasally thin notch, wide rectangle, and so on, as quickly as many times a second. It's a different effect than just modulating the pitch.
Here, have a listen.
I start with the normal square wave, then quickly increase the amount of noise applied to the pulse wave's shape. You can hear how the sound starts to get sort of distorted and staticky. I play a little melody using just the pitch knob knob, and then at :22 start to manually tweak the pulse width. By making the wave's starting point super-thin to begin with, the sound starts to really break up and sound crazy, almost like a torn or blown speaker effect. This will be cool to use in the future when I need a weird lead sound to really cut through the mix.
Well, that's about it for now! |
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| Skilled with the saw and pulse: The Q106 Oscillator |
[Dec. 29th, 2005|01:09 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | Joy Electric - The Envelopes Brigade | ] |
Hello, and Happy Holidays to everyone out there!
Last time I updated, I talked about buying a used Oscillator from a guy on the Synthesizers.com mailing list, since I didn't want to wait until I got to the first Oscillator in my Module-of-the-Month plan (especially since there's currently a one-month backorder on new Oscillators). The transaction went smoothly, and I'm now the proud owner of my first Synthesizers.com Q106 Oscillator! The thing's practically brand new; it arrived spotless and with an inspection date of this past July, so he only owned it for a few months. Nice!
You'll also notice the addition of the Q137 Power Control Interface on the left there; there's really not much to say about it, as it's simply the on/off power switch and plug for the power cord that plugs into the wall. Many Synthesizers.com users like to mount this panel on the back of their cases in order to keep it out of the way, but since my choice of cabinet doesn't have any open panels on the rear, it has to go on the front. No biggie...on to the fun stuff!
The Q106 Oscillator is the fundamental source of sound in a synthesizer - it creates the basic tones (waveforms) that are sculpted and shaped by other modules into the final sounds used in music, such as "bass," "kick drum," or "lead." These raw waves - triangle, sine, sawtooth, ramp, and pulse - appear at the bottom of the module, and are all simultaneously available. I simply connect a 1/4" patchcord (a simple cable like the one used with an electric guitar) to the output of whatever wave I want to hear and then plug the output into my mixer.
The pulse wave, patched up and ready to go
So what's up with all of the other knobs and plugs on this thing? Look at the top of the Oscillator in the first picture. The range switch (on the left) and frequency knob (right) control the basic pitch of the oscillator. The range switch selects the octave and the frequency knob allows me to dial in the exact pitch, kind of like tuning a guitar. In fact, modular synths need to be tuned up before playing or recording just like traditional acoustic instruments. In the old days (the seventies), synthesizers had to warm up before they could be tuned, and still remained notoriously unstable and sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Thankfully, this modern synth has an improved design and is far more reliable while still retaining the minute fluctuations that many believe give analogue equipment a warmer, fatter, more human sound.
Here are a few mp3 sound samples of the basic waveforms. Since I haven't connected a keyboard yet, I'm just using the basic droning waveforms and using the range switch and frequency knob to mess with them a little bit.
Check out the sine wave.
The sine wave is a very basic sound with very little harmonic content or character; it's best used for deep "sub" basslines or high-pitched whistling sounds. It also shows up as the basis for some percussion sounds when shortened to a mere blip.
Here's the triangle wave.
The triangle wave is similar to the sine wave, but its more defined "peak" (compare the pictures of the waveforms above their sockets on the bottom of the oscillator) gives it a bit more bite. It's still a mellow sound, but has enough buzz to be used for more mellow lead lines (check out Boards of Canada; they're nuts for triangle leads for some reason!) and is good for layering or combining with more aggressive waveforms to create thicker sounds.
The sawtooth wave, the king of waveforms.
The sawtooth wave is a very rich waveform with much more harmonic content than the sine or triangle; as such, it's great for almost any sound that needs to be noticed. Sawtooth basslines buzz and grind, while sawtooth leads are aggressive and cut through any mix. The sawtooth's "beepy" quality also sounds great in intricate, ticky sequences and arpeggios.
The ramp, a backwards sawtooth.
The ramp is basically a backwards sawtooth, and has a similar sound. It's especially interesting when used to modulate a filter or the pitch of another waveform, but I won't get into that until later on (ie. when I get another oscillator and when I get the filter).
Finally, the pulse wave.
The pulse wave, also often called a square wave, is probably my favorite waveform to use when making sounds. Its round, hollow sound is killer for beefy basslines and massive leads, especially when used with pulse width modulation (more on that in a minute). The thing that makes the pulse wave unique is that the user has control over the pulse width - that is, the actual shape of the square wave being generated. By turning the "pulse width" knob, the pulse wave can be morphed from a perfect square-shaped wave to a very wide, rectangular wave to a very thin notch of a wave. Dropping the science, this means that the sound can be morphed from the regular, thick sound to a very thin and nasally sound to complete silence by turning the "width" knob under the "Pulse Width" section. That's what I'm doing when you listen to this sound sample; it gets thinner until it completely cuts out into silence, then cuts back in before morphing back to the original sound. Pulse Width Modulation is simply patching in another module to automatically sweep the pulse width on its own, and I'll get into that further on down the road.
That's about it for the oscillator for now. As I incorporate more modules into the system, I'll explain Pulse Width Modulation, the Exponential and Linear Frequency sections, and the Hard Sync, but all of that stuff's simple.
Pretty boring, huh? Just basic sounds droning on, with no real ability to do anything musical - yet. As I get more modules, I'll be able to make the sounds fade in and out naturally when I press keys on the keyboard (amplifier and envelope modules), morph, squish, and bend the sounds (filter), and so on. I'll get to those when they arrive.
In the meantime, I already have a few more modules on the way in the mail, and I'll be writing them up and posting sound samples once they arrive and get incorporated. Feel free to post thoughts, ask questions, or whatever in the comment section.
Until next time! |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 14th, 2005|10:22 pm] |
Hey, everyone!
I didn't think I'd be updating again this quickly. Since I got my cabinet the other day, I've been hyped to get started actually doing stuff - something about that gorgeous, yawning, empty cabinet just seems to be saying "Fill me up now!"
Since there's currently a 1-month backorder on oscillators (the basic unit that creates sound in a synthesizer) through www.synthesizers.com, and I won't even be sending them the monthly payment that corresponds to my first oscillator until January, I decided that I just couldn't wait that long to get started making sounds, so I bought a used oscillator from a guy on the Synthesizers.com discussion list. I got a good deal on it, it's in great shape, and the guy has a good reputation on there, so I know he's not a scam artist.
The thing about oscillators is that you can never have too many; the classic/common synthesizer setup involves three oscillators, but since the Synthesizers.com systems use regular oscillators instead of dedicated LFO's for modulation (don't worry if you don't understand what that means; it's simple, and we'll get into it when the time comes!), you can never have too many.
This means that I should at least be able to make sounds as early as next week - Nice! |
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