Blofeld Keyboard

Presenting the Blofeld Keyboard. To my complete astonishment, it is a Blofeld. With a keyboard.



Not to be a negative Neddie, but for an additional $550 over the cost of a Blofeld, you'd think you'd get more than a Blofeld duct-taped to a 49-note MIDI controller and two mod wheels.



Doesn't it look like they simply took a Blofeld PCB, poked it through the case and called it a day? The Waldorf XTk justified its existence as a keyboard. Throw in a few more knobs or something. Imagine if Dave Smith took an Evolver and did the same thing. He didn't. The MEK included a substantial user interface, greatly improving the tweakability. The DID build in an internal power supply. Yay!

Update: also Mark Strauss points out in the comments that the keyboard Blofeld has 60MB of on-board sample storage.

Eight Techniques to Break out of a Creative Dead End

Often I hear peers complain about lack of inspiration. Here are a collection of proven funk-breakers for you to get back into a productive phase.

Pretend you're a film composer
Turn on the TV. Turn off the sound. Load a movie. Put something visually interesting in front of you. Now, let your hands travel across the keyboard. There are probably sound psychological reasons why this technique works, and they're probably related to why film music is as effective as it is (something about how the brain is busy processing visual information enabling music to pull more directly on your emotions) I find myself playing chords and in keys that I don't normally do. If you want, go all out, forget the improv and write a new score. If people like the result, you can blow their minds later by showing them how it magically syncs to this video you picked out.

Create a piece of music using only one piece of gear
Pick out a piece of gear you've been neglecting and build a complete piece of music using only that instrument. You know, like the Twenty Systems release. (soooo envious I didn't think of this as an album concept, but, then again, I'm not signed to a label, so it wouldn't have received such a lavish packaging treatment).

This technique forces you to solve problems in a different way. Now, I'll admit that many of these techniques, including this one, are simply different flavors of imposing artificial limitations. The reason for this is simple: when you cut off access to your favorite solution, you have to think creatively to work around it and develop new techniques in the process. In addition to being inspirational, you'll develop new creative vocabulary.



Developing a piece of music using only one synthesizer is especially interesting for synth nerds as we often wonder about the personality of a piece of gear without it being layered in a mix with other elements. To point to a piece of music and say "this was done all with such and such and nothing else" produces a very vivid example and gives listeners a good idea of the 'flavor' of that synth.

Don't use MIDI
What happens when you can't easily fix the wrong note or correct your timing? You're at the mercy of what you can actually play. So, concentrate on that. It is liberating. Use the whole synth's surface. So what if your synth can't transmit MIDI CC for every knob? Record the resulting audio of your performance of twisting that knob. Your performance may not be as sophisticated as what you could create out of real time, but it'll be more considered. You'll find the nuances of your playing have a charm, and you can build upon that with overdubs.

Eschew polyphony
Everything has polyphony these days. Even soft synth recreations of monosynths often have polyphonic modes. How often have your fingers traveled the same tired chord structures? Break out of this habit by using only a mono synth - or restrict your polyphony to one. Think contrapuntally. Build your chord structure out of interwoven monophonic lines, instead of homophonic block chords.



Create ten new sounds
Often sound design is part of a process of creating something specifically for the project you're working on - a diversion or possibly an impediment to your final goal. Go into a delibrate sound designer phase. Dedicate some time to creating a new bank of sounds with your favorite tool. Try to learn something new about the instrument, or apply some technique you've recently discovered. Check out Gordon Reid's excelent Synth Secrets series available for free at the Sound On Sound website for inspiration.

Transcribe a piece of music/make something exactly like....
It seems like every time I've been given a project that has to be done in a certain way, it wants to go in a different direction. It is almost torturous to stay on the reservation instead of veering off to do what I want to do.

So, if you're stuck, try picking out a piece of music you like and attempt to recreate it. Even if I attempt to model every aspect as closely as possible, I'm usually left with something that exposes my prejudices and limitations - which is a good thing. This is yours, embrace and build upon this. When you feel the urge to turn left when you're supposed to turn right - go for it. You'll be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Buy yourself a gift
Very often a new toy is inspirational. This can be something small, like a new plug in or a mini KP or it can be something unbelievable awesome, like a mint Rhodes, or a loaded 200e system. Sigh. Where was I? Oh right. You know, this is one area where having a modular is really rewarding. Instead of buying a new synth, you can add a new module and enjoy the inspiration that comes from how that module interacts with the rest of your system.

Consult Eno
I'm a fan of Oblique Strategies. You can consult a javascript version, your iPhone, or build your own stack of cards.

So, there are seven quick ideas off the top of my head. What are your favorite techniques?

Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas

Ever have a costume party to go to but no good ideas for a costume? I'm here to help.

We all know the story of Ashley Todd now: a McCain volunteer who confessed to making up a story about being attacked by a large black man (enraged over her McCain bumper sticker) who carved the letter 'B' into her cheek, - not really breaking the skin, but causing a sort of lightly red scratched area like a feeble, dyslexic cat might produce? Yeah. That.



So, all this takes is a bit of makeup for the black eye and the backwards B. You could change the story a bit too. For example, you could put a red 'M' on your face (or upside down 'W' - it doesn't matter) and claim a slow, elderly, slightly delusional white man took $800 billion from you to 'spread around' to various lending institutions. Speaking of which, this brings me to my next costume idea inspired by Don Hertzfeldt (see video below): I call it, "the American taxpayer"



So, all this setup requires a large sheet of white EPS foam cut into a popcorn-like shape, with a hole in the middle for your face. And some red ribbons. You can figure out the rest. Your internet-savvy friends will love you. And please, if you do this, send me a photo of the result.

Pure Win

What is open source hardware?

The stribe got a minor smackdown on the make blog earlier at the hands of ladyada. This led to a spirited, but well-behaved thread on the monome site about what exactly constitutes 'open source hardware'.

Is it fair to call the Stribe open source? If not, what should it be called? Everything I've heard proposed is relatively meaningless, or too ungainly to be put in a headline. 'Meet the Stribe - an open hardware project with a non-commercial manufacturing license!

What do you think?

Escape Philosophy goes to camp

It is to the point where I can't enjoy a nice espresso at an outdoor cafe without legions of fans harassing me about releasing tracks in a lossless format. Really, people. It's too much. I'm warning you with peace and love.

Well, honestly, the fact of the matter is, I had been toying with the idea of providing tracks in an uncompressed format, but was unsure how to go about it. Bandcamp makes it easy!

You can download tracks ala carte, or grab the whole enchilada for $5 per album (or more if you're feeling generous). $5 seemed reasonable as that is pretty much what I take home from the traditional model of CD sales after I pay for replication, shipping, lube, etc... You'll need a paypal account to check out, but the funds go entirely to the artist - me. This, in turn, encourages me (for better or worse) to continue making and releasing music.

You can still download the MP3 versions for free, nothing has changed with the creative commons licensing. This is simply a method of obtaining high quality (DRM-free) versions of the audio and screwing the RIAA in the process. In fact, if you don't download these tracks, you are, through inaction, supporting the RIAA, huge media conglomerates and everything they stand for. It's a scientific fact. Peace and love.

A Towering Achievement of Indescribable Beauty
Brood XIV

FAW Circle + two monomes

In this video, I demonstrate multiple monomes running on one computer, how to set up beat sync with polygomé, TR-256 and Digital Performer and OSC communication from polygomé into Circle.




OK - now in HD so you can actually see stuff. Don't try to view the embedded version. Click the expand icon.

kero.fm tracks at SoundCloud

warp recording artist kero posted some tracks publicly at SoundCloud.

onacidagain-final by kero.fm

3deform4-final2 by kero.fm

1bilder-final2 by kero.fm

Check out the web site. More tracks and information.

Have you backed up your data recently?

Remember the car at the end of The Blues Brothers? They reach the ultimate destination of their mission and the instant they step out, it falls to pieces. That is what happened to my hard drive. "You're done with Brood XIV? OK." _dies_

Hard drive failures come in a variety of flavors, but this one was pretty awful. Usually you can tell when a drive starts flaking and that gives you time to migrate the stuff you care about somewhere safe. This wasn't one of those. This was a very sudden hardware failure. There isn't anything in my box of tricks that will work on this, and I've rescued a few hard drives in my lifetime.

I didn't lose any data. Everything I cared about was backed up - even the latest changes to Brood XIV. It would appear my backup strategy is working. Rebuilding my boot drive is going to be a major pain, but at least I didn't lose anything irreplaceable.

So, what is your backup strategy? If your hard drive died right now, would you lose anything you cared about? Most people have moved exclusively to digital photography. Is your photo library backed up?

How To Create a Vocal 'ahhh' Sound on a Modular

There was a request for some help in this area on the analogue heaven mail list. I demonstrate how to set up this patch with four modules.

Brood XIV

Here are all the Brood XIV tracks collected into a single package like... like a complete album.

If you've already downloaded the individual tracks, I'd suggest downloading this collection as they are the final versions, and I made some attempt at mastering. The original pre-release versions are no longer available for download, although you may still hear them via the SoundCloud links.

It feels good to release this package, and I'm ready to move on to other projects that I've been postponing. I consider this a sister album to A Towering Achievement of Indescribable Beauty. So, while I may concentrate my efforts elsewhere, I'm sure I'll return to this format for a future project.

Band Camp (including lossless encoded versions)

Download 'Brood XIV' zipped MP3 collection (47.7MB) (direct server download)

Torrent download - seeding by legaltorrents.com

Brood XIV at Jamendo


Brood XIV by Matthew G Davidson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at stretta.com.

Miraflores Locks Video

This morning I woke up to find my cat had not put away her diary. I transcribed her entry from last night which was very difficult since she has terrible penmanship.

October 7th 2:15am
I don't know what it is about this time of the night but, I just go off-the-hook crazy. Totally nuts. I love running around the house, caterwauling loudly, and, most of all, finding extremely noisy toys to play with.

I just discovered something really cool: a loud toy + a hard surface (like the kitchen floor) = SUPER LOUDNESS. This inspired some unbelievable craziness. I was having an amazing time until the old guy game downstairs and TOOK MY TOY AWAY. He put it on top of the refrigerator where I couldn't get it.

That pissed me off, so I swatted at his feet all the way back up the stairs to express my displeasure. He didn't take the hint. So, I got revenge by knocking over the intricate marble run the little ones carefully set up. That took about five minutes because I METHODICALLY LEVELED the entire thing. It was totally worth it because it made a HUGE racket and that made me feel a lot better. After that, I decided to open one of the closets and shed as much as possible. This is pretty easy since my winter coat is coming in.

I didn't get much sleep last night.

Here is a time-lapse video of the Panama Canal Miraflores Locks by Stephan van der Palen. He had uploaded it to google video and I immediately wanted to compose some music for it. I contacted Stephan and he graciously supplied a higher resolution version to work from.

Miraflores Locks

This is the final piece slated for Brood XIV, and one of those unfinished pieces I alluded to earlier.

Compositionally, the sound of this piece moves out of the ambient of Harold Budd and into the minimalism of Philip Glass. The alternating major/minors, the repeating arpeggios - this is all stock Glass. I wasn't trying to create a Glassesque piece, but I was consciously aware of how similar it was sounding as the piece was developing. Even if I try to duplicate a style of composer totally, the end result still bears some personal stamp because it is filtered through my biases and limitations. So, I don't sweat these things. It may resemble Glass, but ultimately, it is my composition.

The basic piano arpeggio that outlined the chord progression was stomped out one morning before work, and then it sat there until two days ago. On Saturday, my wife and kids and myself were all at Whole Foods participating in a pumpkin painting event. The kids were busy in an art-trace, and I felt the empty house calling me, so my wife graciously allowed me to skip back home to record. I set up the mics, copied the project over, hit record and... my neighbor starts warming up his motorcycle for 15 minutes. I managed to record the pedal tones before my window of opportunity ended shortly thereafter. I wanted this on a separate track because I intended to roll off the high end quite a bit.

Saturday night, unencumbered by the necessity of open mics, I tracked the modular lines via French Connection. This time, the result sounded like a combo organ with severe vibrato. Harold Budd used some sort of combo organ before (I believe), so this justified itself in my head. However, it made me wish I had a Mellotron because the tracks suggested that mixed choir sound. Of course, I don't have a Mellotron. Now, if I wanted an actual choir, that is easy enough. I have tons of amazing choir samples, and choirs are something that I have some experience multi-tracking on my own. That isn't what I wanted. I wanted that signature Mellotron sound. Enough time has passed that the sound has gone from innovative to cliche to retro chick until finally settling into something legitimate in my mind. Wink, nudge, like Allan Holdsworth playing a gawdawful Kurzweil K250 sampled guitar via a guitar controller. Or, not.

However, I have a slight problem. I don't have these samples. I have other Mellotron samples, but for some reason I don't have this choir. How can that possibly be? I knew some kind soul on the internet must be offering free samples of this beast. THANKS! The individual sample files are named with their note, and creating the keymap was as simple as dragging the lot into MachFive. As a bit of trivia, this marks the first, (and last) appearance of MIDI on this collection of pieces.

On Sunday, I again took advantage of the swim lesson/nap time convergence. As if sensing my intent, my neighbor again fires up his bike again. After grinding my teeth for another 15 minutes, I managed to record the complementary arpeggios and the solo accents before my daughter woke up.

Even though piano recording was spread out over three short sessions, I still resisted the impulse to correct the sloppy playing. That isn't the idea here. The idea is to honor and embrace the first creative impulse. The basic arpeggio and chord progression is as I originally improvised it. All the tracks are first takes. There are a number of reasons for this, including simply trying to be productive given the limited time available, but more importantly, I feel 'perfect' music is commonplace. The more you edit out your personal hesitations and mistakes, the more generic the music becomes. After my wife and I got married, we flew to Malaysia to, sort of, get married again for her family. Part of this process involved an elaborate photo session where someone did my wife's hair and makeup. After the makeup was applied, my wife didn't really look like my wife anymore. She looked like a more generic, idealized version of my wife. The makeup moved her from a unique individual, to a stereotype. This didn't improve her appearance, it only made her less unique.

Miraflores Locks by stretta

Miraflores Locks by Matthew G Davidson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at stretta.com.

More on this piece later, maybe tomorrow. Then, I'm going to package up the whole lot, upload it to jamendo and call it done. Note: the pre-release versions posted so far will still be available to listen to at SoundCloud, but I'm going to remove the download links. The 'final' album versions may have slightly altered mixes. For example, I'm going to remove the delay on the piano on 'What Never Was'

NPC - the MPC emulator for the monome

Peter at flatflat.org has devised some software that turns your monome into an Akai MPC. Check it out.

In this post, I will fix the entire music industry

I think we can agree that very few people are paying for recorded music today. Plenty of people are consuming recorded music, though. Meanwhile, television advertisers are scrambling to find new ways to reach their audience with tivos and the internet and such. I have the answer.

Advertiser subsidized music - and not in name only, or just a sly product placement drop. I'm talking full-on pop songs about products. Not jingles for your grandmother, but real, witty, crafted songs about peanut butter, deodorant, tampons, whatever. Musicians get paid. Advertisers get a new outlet. Consumers get free music. Everybody wins.

Spreading Wide My Narrow Hands

So, let me ask you a question. My wife was waiting at the bus stop for my son to come home from school and at this stop is a Cambridge Police crossing guard. The crossing guard had to leave her post for a moment, but she leaves her police coat. Now, what would any sane, normal person do at this point? Right, NOTHING. What does my wife do? Well, she puts the coat on (she's a size 2 and the coat is quite large) and does the chicken dance.

I don't mind telling you this because obviously she didn't mind assuming the somber responsibility of injecting some surrealism into the life of the passing motorists and neighbors. I mean, who wouldn't enjoy that? If I don't say 'WTF?' at least once on my way home in Cambridge, I feel sorta cheated.

So, now, you're the cop and you return and see a small Chinese woman jerking around madly in your coat. Do you call for backup and aim for the head? Reach for your taser? Maybe she's having a seizure? But that doesn't explain the coat. I don't know. I think I'd opt for the taser as the oversized coat would exaggerate the flopping. See, that is what distinguishes 'lovable eccentricity' from 'batshit insane'. Tasers.

Sorry. Had to get that off my chest. Anyway.

I have mixed feelings about releasing this piece. It clocks in at an extravagant 10 minutes, and it is all piano. There is nothing thematic tying it together and the musical progression is very subtle. I thought I might release it as an outtake after I collect all the Brood XIV tracks together, but after listening to it last night, I'm not so sure.

The piece was an experiment to shift through six natural modes. I establish the tonal center with a repeating pattern of root and fifth. There are six sequential shorter solo fragments on top of this that establish the current mode. After each fragment, I pause for a bit to let the tonal center sink in again and introduce the new mode with the altered note of the new scale. Repeat! Repeat! OK!

It works as a casual non-intrusive background piece, but if you're paying attention, the mood gets darker and darker. I start with one sharp, and end with four flats.

So, what do you think? Should I include this in the Brood XIV collection? Does it fit?

Spreading Wide My Narrow Hands by stretta

Spreading Wide My Narrow Hands by Matthew G Davidson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at stretta.com.

Reconstructing The Eraser

Adam takes us though SevenUpLive as he reconstructs The Eraser using a monome 40h