Stefan Paul Goetsch

Trying out the rather fantastic Orange Meets Pink EEPROM set for The Harvestman’s Double Andore. I am just stepping through the different waves.

Synthesizing a Snare drum with Double Andore and A-199. Noisey waveform from Double Andore channel 1 into A-199, A-199 into Double Andore channel two. Sequenced by PP/Pittsburgh Generator in secret mode. Bang on a trash can.

A song written for a play which premiers tomorrow evening.

An excerpt from a longer track I am working on, posted on request from the muffwiggler webforum.

Part two of my explorations for using the Moogerfooger MF-103 as a synthesizer instead of a processor. Again, no audio used, all sounds are done with the Phaser itself, using control voltage from a Eurorack Modular. This time, Xaoc Devices Moskwa and Pressure Points where used.

I patched this up on a long trainride from Berlin to Switzerland, days before christmas. Its takes me to a warm place, with hot sand beneath and an umbrella in my drink.

Let me know where it takes you!

Travel setup is setup.

My live and travel modular, ready for the road.

Here is new track, a lullaby. I patched this up with my baby daughter strapped to my breast, sleeping. When I recorded the Rhodes parts, she sat next to me and banged the keys. My wife supplied the the countermelody in the middle. Its a family song.

One for the modular synth players around: I made a simple rack for Ableton Live 9, Fireface 400 and Expert Sleepers Silent Way. It offers control over sequencers, CV/Gate and some funky LFOs, all playable via makros.

If you need more info, here is the thread at Muff Wigger. To download, just click the headline.

loudestwarning:

Another recent build, an ‘electroacoustic’ sound box featuring 2 guitar pickups and 2 telephone voice coils with oak ‘rests’ above and below allowing the performer to rest metallic - or otherwise - objects above the pick-ups and either pluck or ‘energise’ them with an e-bow.

The upper panel has 2 pre-amp/envelope detectors from the Buchla Music Easel, 2 BBC pre-amps taken from an ‘70’s desk, a high quality quad VCA/VC mixer, a four channel matrix mixer with the option of either uni- or bi-polar operation, 4 independent attenuverters, a clone of the Serge Resonant EQ and an output banana to 1/4” jack converter…

A heavy build but a fun piece of equipment!

So beautiful!

I have updated the links to the free sample sets I made after a long time of neglect. If you want a crunchy Roland TR-808 run through an Mattel Uncreate Music or a trashy calculator piano, go here.

hellospiral:

I’m considering doing a run of passive 3x3 Matrix Mixers on professionally manufactured dual layer printed circuit boards (a potential PCB design is pictured above along with an old prototype). You, dear reader, are in the rare position of actually determining how much the first run will cost, to a certain degree. Allow me to explain…

Matrix Mixers are a series of inputs and outputs arranged in a grid with knobs that allow one to adjust how much of each input signal goes to each output. It is probably best described as a passive mixer with three channels and three aux sends. It can be used as a:

Passive mixer - Mixes up to three signals, works with both audio and CV
Signal distributor - Sends up to three signals to three different amplifiers/inputs
Complex routing device - Change the order of effects without unplugging cables
Complex feedback looper - Connect two different chains of audio processing circuitry and blend between them. You’ll still have a spare input for connecting other sound making devices.

Due to the simple passive nature of the circuit, there will be some slight attenuation of any input signal. You can turn up your amplifier to compensate for this.

I’ve been building matrix mixers of this sort for a couple of years now, each build different from the last. By doing a production run of these, I will be able to lower the cost significantly and hopefully get more of these out in the wild. If I build 10, the price will be around $100. If I build 30, then the price will be around $75. I’m also considering selling kits or selling the PCBs separately, but only if there’s enough interest to justify a big order.

If you’re potentially interested in grabbing one of these, drop me a line so that I can get an estimate of how many to build for the first production run.

Very interesting device!

Sinan Bökesoy, the developer of Cosmosƒ V2 got in touch after I wrote my first impressions and pointed out that most of the non-standard behaviour of the instrument comes from his decision to work in OpenGL:

I want to remind that the User Interface does not use any system based (Apple’s Cocoa or Microsoft based or other tools) tools to be programmed. It is pure OpenGL and transparent. There are no menus, no pop-up windows etc, and this has been a personal choice and is being intentionally made.

Cosmosƒ is a digital audio laboratory as you would agree. There are many things I would like to implement, fresh new ideas for unheard sounds. In the mean time, I might lack in putting in the comfort that some people are used to have with other synths, due to the time required to develop Cosmosƒ in different directions.

Personally, I am excited at what ideas he will implement and have been getting used to the interface a lot more. Its quirky, but fairly obvious once you get into it. I can again heartily recommend downloading the demo and giving it a spin.

I have been playing around with the new and rewarding music tool Cosmosƒ V2 by Sinan Bökesoy for the past three hours and thought I’d share my first impressions.

Cosmosƒ V2 is a rather different synth/sequencer, based on ideas by composer greats John Cage and Iannis Xenakis. It combines algorithmic composition with granular synthesis and a parallel universe (!), which is rather mind-blowing. Just the presets will make you want to buy this one, as they are incredibly beautiful and create worlds out of single piano or bell sample. Sounds blossom and fade, swirl around your head, morph into glassy textures or disappear in an abyss of noise. It has high-end tone to it, that I would describe as glassy and precise, with very defined textures.

Once you stop messing around with the presets and start diving into it, things get a bit complicated.

A big hurdle is the interface, as it is non-standard, at least for an average user such as me. Just figuring out how to save a patch took some time (look in the lower right corner, the tiny buttons labelled “IMP” and “EX”) . There is no cmd + click to reset values, sounds for the granular engine must be put into the program folder (no drag and drop) and sadly no “UNDO”. On my hi-res monitor, the text is a bit too small to read. Some functions are fixed to the keyboard, with no obvious necessity.

Generally, the interface looks stylish in a Tron sorta way, but is cryptic. This gets noticeable once you get into the second page, which hosts the LFOs for parameter modulation - its difficult to see what is modulated on the first page. I am also constantly checking which universe I am working on at the moment, due to the lack of visual feedback.

These interface issues make it harder to get into the compositional possibilities, which to me at this early stage seem unlimited. I could imagine creating an ever evolving, modulating two hour piece with it, or use the live input to create feed-backed mountains of icy chaos - maybe this is the tool with which I can finally realize my take on the riot scene Xenakis described as a compositional goal? There is a lot to discover here, but I will need to RTFM.

Regarding stability: I experienced three crashes in about 2 hours, but Sinan sent me a solid and crash-free new built within a few hours. Amazing customer support and another good reason to buy boutique software.

Summing up: Cosmosƒ V2 for me is a challenging, rewarding, mind-expanding and great sounding tool, but the experience is yet hampered by its interface. It has an academic and unfinished feel to it. This makes future versions all the more interesting, as the core functionality is there and gives great results.

As you have probably guessed, I like Cosmosƒ V2 and will work with it more. I already find it much more interesting than Metasynth, which was my last big software synth investment.

Get the demo here.

Toy Orchestra, assembled for a play in Switzerland.

Top left to low right:

Cigarbox Monotron and Monotron Delay, Otomatone, Stylophone, Sopran Harmonica, Quad-T Xylophon, two Feedback  Soundboxes, Wolferl Music Box