z3kid3

I posted a link to this earlier on twitter Z3000mk2 into discord 3

I received a Z3000mk2 yesterday. I plugged it in thinking I was going to explore the waveshaper, but I got distracted by using HSM sourced from an original Z3000 square wave. Modulating pulse width did some interesting things, but I really liked the aggressive texture it created. Mind you, you're hearing the audio output of only one oscillator. For much of the example, I'm using the Z2040 filter. Sometimes I'd switch to the cwejman mmf-1. Recorded in one take with a joystick and some knob stuff. It's like a distraction from 'could have the skies', which, itself, is a distraction from 'a funneled stone'

Same thing with Discord 3, I just got it at the same time and this is the only other ingredient. Because Volta was driving the modulations, and there are many synced presets with Discord, everything matches up in an expected way. It made for an interesting demo of the wide variety of effects that can be achieved by a nice-sounding pitch processor inside the feedback of a delay loop. The kind of stuff that made Eventide famous.

I listened to this again and figured someone out there might find it interesting or useful and attached an attribution only creative commons license.

z3kid3 by stretta


z3kid3 by Matthew Davidson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

Another Example of the Reality of Touring

I get irritated when people justify illegally downloading music with the "musicians make all their money touring" mantra that gets repeated and repeated until it is accepted as truth.

If you accept that recorded music and live music are separate art forms, and only a small subsection of music is suitable for touring, what remains is a tiny sliver of acts that have a chance at profitability. Surely, a major-profile act like Imogen Heap supporting a Grammy Award-winning album falls into this category! Well, think again.

Please support musicians and buy the music that you use.

So expensive to tour! Just had a rather depressing meeting with tour manager. Record sales low (across the industry) really impacting me.less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhoneImogen Heap
imogenheap

Printable WTFLOL sign

I thought this was pretty awesome, so I made a printable PDF version so you can help spread LOLs around the world.


This PDF file is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License

The Shift

I'm sure you've all read Nicolas Chartier's response to a boycott letter expressing disapproval of their strategy to sue people who torrented The Hurt Locker. In the email, Chartier states "If you think it's normal they take my work for free, I'm sure you will give away all your furniture and possessions and your family will do the same… I'm glad you're a moron who believes stealing is right."

Here we go again. Content creators equate piracy to theft. Content consumers dismiss this on the grounds that making a copy isn't the same as theft. Both groups commit the fallacy of thinking about theft in terms of physical product. Both are wrong.

Theft has occurred, but it is the theft of use or utility as defined by the traditional models of media distribution. This is exactly like software piracy. Nothing physical has been removed, but someone is benefiting from the use of the software without compensating the creators. Media isn't any different. I fail to comprehend why this has to be explained to anyone.

It used to be content creators could dictate how their work would is consumed. They could sell their work, or choose to give it away. If they decide to sell it, they dictate the price. Consumers paid up front for the privilege of experience, and refunds aren't given because the content is 'bad'

Today, content consumers have the option of paying zero. Therefore, consumers now dictate the terms. Content consumers want to consume up front and have the option to reward the creator if they found the experience agreeable, and they set the price.

The only choice content creators have now is to share their work, or not. Once something is released, it will be consumed, despite the erection of artificial barriers to prevent such action. Compensation is now solely at the consumer's discretion. Fact.

Content consumers are the people who will be buying your product. Now, here is the part that will surprise you. They want to support creators, they want to be given that opportunity. Why? They want to feel some ownership. Don't underestimate the power of choice and free will.

Lawsuits and treating your customers as criminals is the last thing you want to do. Intentionally alienating your audience is something only misguided, habitually-litigious rock stars do.

Effeweam

I gave myself until today to get this project to a point where I could publicly preview it. I still have a few concerns that may be addressed by re-orchestrating, mixing, or redoing a few parts. But, for now, I need to put this, and the rest of 'A Funneled Stone' aside (probably for the best) while I take the opportunity to record a new ambient piano project.

I pulled my minimoog out to test it prior to releasing it for a brief rental stint. I discovered a few things.

First, even though my kids are constantly surrounded by electronic music gear, they both loved the minimoog. I had thought it was the novelty of an unfamiliar device, but there seems to be something about it that really draws them in, especially my daughter.

Second, inserting a minimoog into this kind of composition instantly gives it 'that' moog modular character. You'll hear what I'm talking about. I don't have an S-trig cable (one is on order) so I'm controlling the minimoog with volta entirely though the three CV inputs: pitch, amp and filter. When I get the cable I'll be able to use the on-board envelopes, but what you're hearing here is the minimoog driven by cwejman envelopes.

Oh, one more thing about the mini that I found interesting was how all the knobs are in musically-useful ranges. Obviously, all instruments strive for this, but it turns into a major tradeoff between flexibility and resolution where it matters. Resonance, for example, had a huge tonal range in an area that I'm accustomed to a fairly small range. So, the mini is an exceptionally limited instrument, but the whole thing is one big sweet spot.

a little madness in the spring by stretta

The Secret to Motivation

I'm not sure how universally true this is (the cited studies seem to indicate so), but the concepts discussed in this video confirms so much about what I know about myself and work habits.

050110-2

This is a revised version of the music I posted a few days ago. Bass and other elements added. The bass is an Livewire AFG through several recorded filter variants and I have edited between them for structure and emphasis. The AFG is set to animated pulses and the four animation inputs are fed from a quadrature LFO generated by Volta. This is an area where I used a scope on the waveform to ensure the modulation stayed 'in bounds' - subtle, but not collapsing the waveform.

3.2

This is a more full excerpt of the music found on my AHNE 2010 video. The full statement of the beginning is present, as is the long wind down at the end. The final polyphonic synth sound you hear is seven modules, total. Three TipTop Z3000 oscillators, three TipTop Z2040 filers/VCAs and a mixer to combine the voice outputs. Each oscillator /filter pair comprises one voice of polyphony. All the envelopes are provided by Volta. Reverb is, again, Eos.

A Funneled Stone

Many of my musical project ideas come from the desire to listen to something that doesn't currently exist. Music made with a modular synthesizer tends to fall into some fairly well-traveled areas like interpretations of classical music, berlin school electronica or flowing ambient/environmental.

I wanted to hear something layered and multitracked like the classical interpretations, but based on original music, and not shackled to the Baroque. I also wanted the form of the piece to be extended - like, an album side. From experience, I can roughly estimate how long something like this would take. I can produce about one minute of finished multi-track modular synth audio a week. So, an 22-minute piece would take about half a year to complete. Uhhhgggghm.

In today's world, an unknown like myself can't really drop off the radar for that long without being completely forgotten, so I've been introducing little previews of the project here and there. My preferred method of distributing previews is soundclound, but I'm running into the limits of my free account. As I'm pondered alternatives, I was unexpectedly gifted a six month upgraded account. This generous act will enable anyone to listen to these previews. Thank you!



I've entered a very productive streak with my modular. I lost a chunk of time in April with personal events and building a new production computer, however, the new machine is really making a difference.

I received my Hertz Donut and Piston Honda right before the weekend and I spent much of Saturday enjoying them, and produced a nearly free standing section of music on that day alone, and I even had time to enjoy the beautiful weather outside.

There has been some mild interest in a vinyl release of this project, but given my personal resources, it isn't something I could do, even if there were enough interest to merit a pressing to begin with. I've recently closed my amazon vendor account because I'm sick of shipping physical product. Interestingly, prices of the now, out-of-print Archetribe releases quickly elevated. Anyway, this, more than any other factor, is quelling my interest on a vinyl release.

I'll be plorking away at this project for the next two weeks then, it'll aruptly go on hold.

Why?

My wife has scheduled a tuning of her piano, which means I'll shift my attention to a new ambient piano release for a few weeks.

Any exploration of the monome 512 is getting preempted by these projects. 'A Funneled Stone' was already underway, and the kids will be out of school soon, so I must take my open mic time when I have it.

Crazy Santa Cruz City Council Woman - JAZZ HANDS

Hey, here is an excuse to embed a tweet. bortflancrest alerted me to a more concise, edited version of the crazy city council woman video.

I blame America. http://bit.ly/fq3nkless than a minute ago via TweetDeckBort Flancrest
bortflancrest

So, of course, I set it to music.