We had a thread on the old place, and this week's activities prompted me to revive it.
It is taking forever to set up my studio after moving house, but it is taking shape. Today I plugged in my Eurorack modular setup and I was pleased I remembered how to use it after a medium-to-long break. I celebrated my tax refund by ordering a new module, the Behringer Abacus. I really don't need it but it will be fun to learn as it is a technical beast. Modular is meditation.
I'm having a modular makeover, selling my Swiss army knife Pico System 3, replacing it with a new oscillator, mixer and envelope, some more patch cables, and still getting some change. Two of the new ones are from Latvia, (Erica Synths Mixer and Modulator) and the third one is Greek (Dreadbox Hysteria VCO). The Eurorack standard is a global hit but it's still mostly Euro for me.
Irrev-Black wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 6:27 pmCrazy origin story! I'm going to chase down the music now.
Every now and then some fantastic African music breaks through my white wall of ignorance. One of my favourites is Balani Show which, I I read it correctly started out as a cheap alternative to having a balafon group play at your party (traditional xylophone like instruments). It somehow ended up being this intense hypnotic minimal techno.
There's a slight problem with the origin story, because Korg weren't making synths in 1968, and Moog machines were made to order. There weren't "hundreds" of them in existence. I felt like a spoilsport for mentioning this, until I found another article which perhaps explains it better. The ship was found in a field and scientists also detected traces of cosmic particles similar to those found on meteors!!! This suggests to me that the synthesisers were taken by aliens who traveled backwards in time!
Whether or not you choose to believe the origin story of that cosmic sound (why one would want to reject such a good story, I can’t imagine), the sound itself is undeniably hot, innovative and irresistible.
stylofone wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:34 pm
There's a slight problem with the origin story, because Korg weren't making synths in 1968, and Moog machines were made to order. There weren't "hundreds" of them in existence. I felt like a spoilsport for mentioning this, until I found another article which perhaps explains it better. The ship was found in a field and scientists also detected traces of cosmic particles similar to those found on meteors!!! This suggests to me that the synthesisers were taken by aliens who traveled backwards in time!
Whether or not you choose to believe the origin story of that cosmic sound (why one would want to reject such a good story, I can’t imagine), the sound itself is undeniably hot, innovative and irresistible.
Irrev-Black wrote: ↑Fri Nov 17, 2023 11:31 amFuck yeah. Everything needs to be checked, and I have kicked myself in the arse for such an oversight.
Blame the Guardian writer for missing a key element of the story - whoever invented or embellished this tale had a wicked sense of humour, it's the sort of misinformation the world could do with a bit more of!
I weakened and bought a Critter and Guitari Pocket Piano 201. I've always liked the look of their quirky instruments. This one won me over because it adds layers of versatility and hackability beneath the wood and metal exterior. Plus it's open source, and already this has yielded a quite fantastic Mellotron patch. It's like having a Lego toy with all the glory of the Tangerine Dream discography hidden inside it.
From the download site for the samples:
These WAV samples were taken from 2 different Mellotrons...an M400S and an M4000. The tapes were in mint condition when sampled. The samples were recorded with the tone control fully clockwise. Each ZIP file contains one set of samples of about 20 megabytes. Each sample is approximately 7 to 8 seconds in length.
There's also a nice vibraphone and Karplus-Strong plucked string setting.
I spent the last two days rearranging the studio. By using the shelf I was able to remove TWO tables from the very small room, and it feels much more spacious. Everything is now connected and working, I just need to tidy up the spaghetti and slide a few things back into place. I've been using it a lot lately, which helps suppress the unhealthy urge to buy more toys. The switch to Linux running Bitwig software is also motivating me.
