MATRIXSYNTH: Plan b


Showing posts with label Plan b. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plan b. Show all posts

Thursday, November 02, 2023

DANNY CAREY • TOOL • CHOCOLATE CHIP TRIP • LIVE IN WINNIPEG 2023


video upload by Peter Grenader

"live recording of Chocolate Chip Trip form the 2023 Winnipeg Tool show, featuring Danny Carey at the Toolbox synth. Images are of the Toolbox in Palm Springs, October 2023 before their Power Trip Festival performance, while installing a new LFO in the bottom row"

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

re:VOLT • SUBOTNICK SIDEWINDER • RAVEL SCARBO Live at the San Fransisco Electronic Music Festival


video upload by Peter Grenader

"re:VOLT (Jill Fraser, Peter Grenader, Thomas Klepper) live at the 2023 San Fransisco Electronic Music Festival, September 16, 2023 at The Lab

Maurice Ravel SCARBO (0:15)

Morton Subotnick SIDEWINDER (10:09)"

Sunday, May 07, 2023

MUTABLE MADNESS (sometimes it's luck)


video upload by Peter Grenader

"Tripped on a really great patch which incorporates a Mutable Rings as the sounding module, and Mutable Beads which made it magic. Enjoy"

Friday, January 06, 2023

TOOL • TOOLBOX SYNTH DEMO FOR DANNY CAREY • CHOCOLATE CHIP TRIP


video upload by Peter Grenader

"The first demo of the additions and patch changes for the Toolbox to be used by Danny Carey in upcoming Tool shows. This is the first time he has seen/heard the system since it was reconfigured, outlined in this video posted a few months back:" [posted here]

Saturday, August 13, 2022

Mutable Instruments • BEADS Demo


video upload by Peter Grenader

"Messing around with Beads. It wasn't my intention to do a complete demo of the module in this video. I am demoing it's effect on the patch i've constructed on the system.

Key modules:

Flame 4 VOX
Plan B Model 9 Mixer
Doepfer A-125 Phase Shifter
Plan B Model 23 Analog Shift Register
Plan B Model 32 LFO
EAR Model 27 After Effects Processor"

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Plan-B system at Noisebug


video upload by NOISEBUG

"We have collect enough modules over the past few years to finally build out our Plan-B system.

Here are a few video clips on the system in action."

https://www.noisebug.net/

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

MAKING A MODULAR SYNTH FOR TOOL • DANNY CAREY


video upload by Peter Grenader

"I am Peter Grenader - the designer, curator and sometimes sound designer for Danny Carey's Toolbox, the modular system used live with Tool (Chocolate Chip Trip).

I recently did a huge overhaul and expansion of that system and this video details that journey.

For a recent interview detailing this system and my involvement with Tool, check out Kris West's Spiral Out podcast:

https://spiraloutpod.podbean.com/e/pe...

For an article on how this synth came into being check out The Fortheye:

https://www.fourtheye.net/2013/11/pet...

EAR/Plan B Synthesizer official website:

https://www.ear-synth.com

Peter Grenader's POV website:

https://www.pov-music.com/

zZyzx Society:

https://www.zzyzxsociety.com/"

Sunday, July 10, 2022

Sunday Morning Mort aka Early experiments with Mutable Beads


video upload by Peter Grenader

"This is a lively Sunday morning jaunt with my newly acquired Beads... which, as silly as this may be, is offscreen in this video.

I know, lame.

Hear me out! The Mutable Beads is currently kicking the crap out of me. I have no idea of it's capabilities. It's all hunt and peck at this point. In one of those experiments, i noticed by putting a metric rhythm patch through it and syncing the Seed input with the same clock that's driving the patch that it would, magically, double the frequency of whatever it's processing.

This immediately reminded me of a certain passage Mort Subotnick is famous for, so i ginned up a quicky sonic xerox. This all came about after i produced a demo of what 'real' lowpass gates can do, which hearkened back my percussive motif fetish that dominated my piece The Secret Life of Semiconductors (search 'Peter Grenader Secret Life" on apple music or bandcamp if curious).

Everything you hear is being gated through vactrol-based LPGs, namely the Plan B Model 13 Timbral Gate. The first voice is from a Flame 4 Vox in which i cycle through a few of it's wavetables. The second voice is it's manifestation via the Mutable Beads in which i am controlling the wet/dry mix via Plan B Model 24 wiggly random voltage. The third voice is via a Plan B Model 15 which is getting it's pacing from Malekko Varigate 4.

Panning courtesy of an EAR Model 7 Panner, driven by a second wiggly random via a second Plan B Model 24

The first and third voices are being driven by two Plan B Model 10 EGs to both open the LPG and thwap the VCO frequencies.

As i sidenote, i think Apple finally chased all the demons out of iMovie. It does not piss me off anywhere near as much now.

enjoy, or not!"

Thursday, December 09, 2021

Designing one/off Eurorack modules for TOOL w/ Peter Grenader of Plan b


video upload by Peter Grenader

"The Devil is in the details..

I think people who haven't yet done a lot of PCB/faceplate design and integration will appreciate this.

As some of you know, i was the designer of and now the lion tamer for the Euro system used by Tool live (Chocolate Chip Drip). I had to make them a single channel attenuator with very little time left b4 they leave on their new tour and didn't have a lot of free HP in which to do it.

This video goes through the process to make sure things align perfectly when there is no time for rev. 2

Enjoy (or not!)"

Friday, September 10, 2021

Plan B System


video upload by NOISEBUG

https://www.noisebug.net/

"This is our fully built Plan B system we’ve dreamed about for years. After endless hunting and searching for all the modules we’ve finally completed the rig!

Enjoy!"

Thursday, July 04, 2019

Plan B Model14 Dual Voltage Processor/Mixer

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Plan B Model14 Dual Voltage Processor: CV and audio mixer, VC crossfader, sum, min & max outputs etc. Multi-purpose processor - really great for sculpting those CVs & with some cute audio functionality too. The audio VC crossfading has a nicer contour that Cold Mac."

Wednesday, April 17, 2019

POV album trailer - Miles Richmond/Peter Grenader feat. Steve Roach


Published on Apr 17, 2019 Peter Grenader

"A quick test drive of the upcoming POV album - coming Summer 2019"

Peter Grenader of Plan b.

Friday, November 16, 2018

How to: Spastic cellos via modular synth (Carter's 6th String Quartet)


Published on Nov 16, 2018 Peter Grenader

"How to replicate the sound of spastic cellos much like Elliot Carter's acoustic cello part in his 6th String Quartet.

huh?

Before you snark me, you'll understand my humor in the first 20 seconds on this instruction. ha ha. If you watch the rest you may get some insight on how to create some really interesting cello timbres using granular synthesis on a modular. enjoy (or not!)"

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Nebulae/uBursts (Clouds) + 2Hp ARP Experiment


Published on Sep 26, 2018 Peter Grenader

"Initial test of the uBurst (Clouds). Sound sources are a Model 15 pair (sine into sine FM), and the Qu-bit Nebulae II -- with shimmer via Model 12 Mark II Filter and the uBursts. Bursts is incorporated when my right hand turns a knob clockwise on the second panel form the bottom, left hand cabinet. Arpeggegiation via a 2HP Arp. Enjoy, or not!"

Friday, July 13, 2018

Peter Grenader • POV (live modular electronic music)


Published on Jul 13, 2018 Peter Grenader

Peter Grenader of Plan B, The zZyzx Society, EAR, and Subconscious Communications.

"An abridged version of POV - recorded in stereo and live by Peter Grenader using electronically generated and sampled timbres, one being the trumpeting of a large bull Elephant."

An overview of the system:

Peter Grenader's digital/analog hybrid modular performance system

Published on Jan 1, 2018 Peter Grenader

"This is a module by module tour of my live performance modular synthesizer. enjoy!

11 VCOs (including Model 37 full range LFOs)
7 LFOS (including 4 x $vox)
4 Filters

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

New Release by The zZyzx Society


"The zZyzx Society album is now available on iTunes and Apple Music, with physical CDs coming in April exclusively at steveroach.com. Along with synthesists / composers Jill Fraser and Peter Grenader, it features Coil / UUUU member Thighpaulsandra, Tool drummer Danny Carey, instrumental alchemist Chas Smith, harpist Katherine Redlus and Jennifer Irvine on cello.

Full liner notes and technical summaries of each piece are available at the 'zZyzx Album Portal' at: www.zzyzxsociety.com

See this post for an interview with The zZyzx Society.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Third Ear at Tom's Place with Peter Grenader, Doug Lynner, and Shiro Fujioka


Published on Mar 21, 2018 Fourdimensionalsound

"Modular synthesizer supergroup (Peter Grenader, Doug Lynner, Shiro Fujioka) performing in Berkeley, CA. Check out Doug's setup of classic and modern Serge synths (left side), Shiro's mix of modern Eurorack (with a lot of Wiard modules), and Peter's massive Plan B system (designed by Peter, including some modules which are one-off creations) mixed with modern Eurorack."

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Peter Grendader - Brief tour, demo and excuses for my live rig


Published on Aug 21, 2016 Peter Grenader

"A short overview of the live analog/digital hybrid modular instrument used by Peter Grenader for live work within the ensemble The zZyzx Society. enjoy, or not!

FOR MORE INFO: http://www.zzyzxsociety.com"

See this post for my interview with Peter Grenader on The zZyzx Society.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

An Interview with Peter Grenader on The ZZYZX Society


The following is an interview with Peter Grenader of Electro-Acoustic Research (formally Plan b). The focus of the interview is mainly on his involvement with The ZZYZX Society, however you will find plenty of insight into gear, including some of what Peter is working on next. I want to give Peter a huge thanks for taking the time out for this.

1. To start, what is the ZZYZX Society?

"The zZyzx Society is a group of like-minded half-crazy avant-garde musicians/composers who at one time or another fell down the same sonic rabbit hole.

Discussions about this began in 2011. Jill Fraser and I tried to get something together, and the circle of people then included Richard Lainhart. Unfortunately, he passed away when we were right in the middle of talking about possibilities. This is actually when I sketched out one of my two pieces that we are currently performing: Organasm. It settled down until Jill and I ran into one another at Mort Subotnick's live performance at Redcat a couple of years ago. We saw a fire in each other's eyes - a need to return to something that we had both evolved from.

Jill and I are ancient friends. We met at CalArts in - God.... 1977. We actually performed together once with composer Gordon Mumma at CalArts and worked extensively together on Mort Subotnick's NEA project, The Game Room, in 1978. Matter of fact, the photo Mort used for the Electronic Works Vol. 1 was taken when we were doing The Game Room - Jill is the blonde and I'm the guy holding the patchord in the foreground.

What really set the wheels in motion though was a recent dinner we had for Thighpaulsandra when he visited Los Angeles a few months ago. Thigh had been speaking about wanting to do another series of performances together since we both did the AnalogLive gig at Redcat in 2007. Jill was already well into the planning stages, although it wasn't clear who would be involved at that time though oddly enough - everyone who will be was there - Jill, Chas Smith, Thighpaulsandra and myself. When Thigh left for his return trip home - the last thing he said to me was a suggestion to get some gigs going - that it will never start unless there's a date, and when you guys get a set under your belt and are comfortable with what it evolves into, that he would come out and gig with us - and that's exactly what we are doing. Well, we'e actually focusing on tracking a CD, but I'll get into that more in a bit."

2. Can you give us a little background on each member? When the world of electronic music started for each and what they've done over the years?

That's where humility sets in - with the notion that musicians of this caliber would consider me a contributor. Why? Let's start with Jill: after earning her masters in composition at CalArts studying with Mort Subotnick and Mel Powell - her first stop was where I landed: Serge's infamous Hollywood synth production facility on Western Ave. She didn't stay there long, however, because she was hired to compose electronic music by Jack Nitzsche for Paul Schrader's film, Hardcore. This began a 25 year career composing both electronic and acoustic scores for hundreds of TV commercials for huge national campaigns: BMW, Honda, Porsche, Nissan, Mitsubishi, HP, NBC, KFC, Carl's Jr., and Apple among others, and in the process won 3 Clios. She also toured with Buffy St. Marie and auditioned for The Sex Pistols - no joke.


Chas will be the only one among us who people will be speaking about in 100 years. He's also from the CalArts electronic music composition master's program and spent his early days with modulars. Until recently he owned a 12 panel serge system he had had for 30+. His legacy will be the remarkable Harry Partch-esque tuned percussion instruments he crafts. He's shifted to metals exclusively which forge these amazing soundscapes, which would take immense work to generate electronically, yet just pour out of these sculptures. Along with collaborations with Harold Budd he's been released many times as a solo artist on Cold Blue Records, MCA, and others, music for Zimmer's Man of Steal score (they actually did a special feature on Chas for that film), as well as the first two Saw films with Charlie Clouser, for Shawshank Redemption, The Horse Whispser... the list goes on.


Man Of Steel Soundtrack - Sculptural Percussion - Hans Zimmer Published on Aug 27, 2013 WaterTower Music

[Behind the Scenes creating the unique sculptural percussion sounds for the MOS Soundtrack
i-Tunes: http://smarturl.it/mos.i
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/MOSdlx_Amazon]


Not sure what planet you'd need to be on not to know where Thighaulsandra's been. Like the rest of us here, his interest in electronic music is lifelong. Stockhausen and Cage were early influences and while you clearly realize his worth in the rock idiom, his experimental roots are unavoidable. Golden Communion - which has garnered stunning reviews in Europe - gives both Gabriel and NIN a run for their money, but you also hear Stockhausen in there and in the string introduction to the title track - Elliot Carter. He began his music career on the other side of the board - as a studio engineer, and this is where he met Julian Cope, who in time introduced him to John Balance - which led to 10 very productive years as a member of Coil - during which TPS began releasing his own solo work. He is a conservatory trained pianist blessed with the birth defect of incredible ability. After Coil he was off to Spritualized for I think three years?

As for me, I am the underachiever. After CalArts and a few small film scores, and a oddly enough a planetarium show for the Griffith Observatory, I put everything down for 25 years. In the early 2000's I found music again and had really good success in the academic electronic music festival circuit. I won the Periodic Festival in Barcelona and was selected for one of the evening performances at the SEAMUS National Conference, which doesn't sound like much, but I was probably the single first-time applicant to land that right. There were 30 or so festivals in the US after that over the next two years including the AnalogLive emsemble performance at Redcat at the Disney Hall in LA with Thighpaulsandra, Chas, Gary Chang, Richard Devine and Alessandro Cortini. The start of Plan B shifted my center to manufacturing, although I was signed, and did a CD for Coda Recordings in 2013 entitled Secret Life.

What I appreciate, especially working with Jill, but it's true of all these guys... our combined experience is such that we finish each other's musical sentences. It's astonishing. Three guys in a garage band and you expect them to vamp off their combined rock tradition, right? But electronic music, are you kidding me? Jill and I started rehearsing with a piece of mine called Benghazi, which is based entirely on a single diatribe of Glenn Beck whining about the attack in Libya. The first day we did what I would call informed noodling. When we started the second day she said she had worked out some other processed bits, and they were phenomenal. It brought the concept into much higher space and with no direct guidance outside of asking for other samples from the source file so not to loose Beck's context narrative. She just got it, completely.

zZyzx Society live in Joshua Tree: BENGHAZI



3. What sort of gear will each member bring to the project? Is there a preference for any?

I can't say for Thigh, dunno yet but he's got an arsenal at his studio in Wales. Jill is primarily using a Push via Ableton and a single Serge panel designed specifically for live performance made for her by Dmitri Sfc. I can name what Chas uses, but it won't mean much as outside of a rack of loopers everything he plays he's made. So for the record it's the Rite, the Replicant and his incredible steel guitar Guitarzilla. I am primarily using my modular - eight rows of it I crammed into two road cases, and then a Roli keyboard using Equator for now, and plans for a proper sampler as the ROli software wreaks Kickstarter deadline. It's fine as a closed synth, but while they say you can import your own samples - you really can't. I had to contact them, and they wrote the code so I could add one specific sample, but are not wiling to help me do more. The keyboard itself however is incredible.

4. What is the collaboration and recording process like? Do you record together or do you pass compositions back and forth for each person to work with separately?

Recording wasn't in the original plan, but that's changed and with Chas moving to Grass Valley - and Thighpaulsandra in Wales it's just like my FB relationship status: complicated. Jill and I are going to lay basic tracks starting in two weeks. So we'll be sending multitrack to both Chas and Thigh, who will be adding to them, then returning the new stack to whomever wrote the piece to do the final mix. The process is identical for Chas and Thighpaulsandra with their works There is talk of a release deal. So... with only one gig under our belts at FUTUREWURLD in Joshua Tree, which was really well received , but still...now we're shifting to recording the four pieces we performed with small gigs during that process, although, all in much more detail than we could manifest live with our hand count. Jill's got one which is actually four individual pieces, I've got Benghazi and Organasm and Chas has Perimeter. Thighpaulsandra is in the middle of one for us now and we're discussing the possibility of rendering Subotnick's Sidewinder.

5. What do you have in your modular system when playing with ZZYZX Society?

At first I brought almost everything. I could basically empty my main cabinet into the two road cases and on top of that I brought the two side cases, but I knew this wouldn't last. After a couple of days of rehearsal when we worked on the two pieces that were modular extensive I identified what was overkill and I limited my modular system to the two road cases (see image). It's eight rows of 88hp.

In the empty space I've now installed an Animodule Midi Gate, which is a brilliant idea and one I was planning on for EAR - but the best man won on that, more power to them for that. With it in that space will be two custom modules consisting of two Sparkfun Wave Trigger boards and a little unity gain mixer. Each of the Wave Triggers will be driven by the Midi Gate. I can use individual keys on my Roli to fire of independent events. Each of these WAVE modules allow for eight polyphonic samples to be played by either the depression of a momentary switch or a gate signal with each group of eight stored on a microSD card which can be loaded on the fly. I see this as an intelligent way of performing with a modular in a live scenario. It's basically what Mort is doing now - assembling the overall sonic contour by playing prerecorded samples as required with a couple of live voices over everything. Very effective and something Mort has been talking since the days I was working with him. It took 30 years for technology to catch up with him. In my instance, I will be playing events I prerecorded on the modular.

6. Does working on music like the ZZYZX Society influence your designs, or do you keep the two worlds separate?

It's had a huge impact on this. Immediately I started thinking about a group of modules called "the live set" which would be a series of devices which would make live performance easier for a modular artist. I don't want to give anything away outside of saying the guy that developed the Wave Trigger for Sparkfun lives a few blocks from me (wink). I've also had a couple of meetings with Vince De Franco, who produces the Mandela Electric Drums whom I met through Danny Carey. If what we're discussing becomes a finished product, it will be a paradigm shift for realization of live electronic music.

7. What's next for you? You were the man behind Plan B, your designs were featured in Subconscious Communications' modules, and you are back with Electro-Acoustic Research. You recently announced the Model 41 Steiner 4P filter. Do you plan to bring back any older designs like the Milton or will you be focusing on new designs only?

The EAR modules will be a combination of new things and legacy re-releases, but none of the old ones will be brought to market now without significant improvements. Not because they were broken before, but because I see no reason to revisit something without making changes. If you go to ear-synth.com the next product up is the Model 12 Mark II. It's two M12's in one package, both fitted with the IFM Sync function found on the M41. There are all manners of interconnection possibilities as well, so that two two can be used independently, or in either serial or parallel operation off all output taps of a single signal. If you sweep to the 'Future' page there's also the Model 24 Heisenberg Mark II, which adds a new quantized output to the stepped random and three new inter-modulation/triggering options. The Model 10 Mark II could not be more different than the original. Now two voltage controllable DASR envelope generators (Delay, Attack, Sustain TIME and Release). I have also mapped out a concept for an upgraded Model 15 Complex VCO which will make it the VERY Complex VCO lol. There are as well three new modules all ready to go.

I have been working on the relaunch for four years - since cEvin and I did the Subcon license on the 15 and 37. I've been working towards it continually. The first three products are completely done with a couple of revisions of hand built SMT prototypes behind them - ready to go - I just need to email the data off to Darkplace when it's time and product will appear a couple of months after that. If you watch Thighpaulsandra's excellent Model 41 demo video - next to the M41 you will see the Model 12 Mark II mounted in his system and that's one thing I did differently this time - I skipped the breadboard stage. I now go directly to SMT PCBs with Metalphoto faceplates. This addresses all sorts of potential calamities. It forces me to concentrate on the design stage and weeds out all manufacturing hiccups before they hit the Darkplace assembly line because if there are problems there - they aren't going to pay for that - I am. As my dad used to say when he was quoting new jobs.... "I don't do this for practice".

This brings me to something I want to close on. My father went through the Plan B collapse with me. He knew how hard I had worked to get where I did and he knew all too well what I forfeited. He was a tough love guy and at times unnecessarily hard on me about it. But in the end, I did it and he knew before he passed away. I was ready for the Model 41 a year and a half ago. Darkplace had already quoted it. It could have launched then and would have had he not died. There were delays from his death that the family needed to settle. But as far dad... I built most of the prototypes on his kitchen table because the light was so much better there than on my bench at home. He saw me working on them. He saw the Darkplace quotes. The last thing he said to me was 'I love you'.  Right before that - he congratulated me on getting the company back on it's feet and that I found a way to do it all on my own, and he told me how proud he was of me. After he said this, I left the hospital for the day and he died that evening at 3 in the morning. Nothing was worth the six years I went through and the problems I caused people, nothing makes my father's death bearable - but that moment came real. real close.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Unboxing the Model 41: a striking moment of humility & appreciation


Published on Jun 18, 2016 Peter Grenader

"Completely, utterly blown away at the response this post has received on social media (FB). For those of you who know the backstory involved, this was a very big day for me.

The same thing happened to my dad's career. At 62, when most hang up their cleats he started a second career not knowing as I didn't if this one would take. It did,and he worked at it until he was well over 93 years old. The family always knew he could it. I wasn't sure if I could however. Just found out I did and listening to it now I don't even recognize the voice in this video. I had no idea i had grown up so much. And looking back everything that happened EVERYTHING was compulsory for that to occur

Social media makes you lonely. It has enabled friendships for all of us we would never have before, but with that it has changed the definition of what a friendship is. It's no longer people as much as it is images. It's not phone calls, it's emojis. Who would have thunk that there were actual beating hearts on the other end who know when to care and do so... because you are friends.

Today, I do.

To all of you and especially to those who supported me even when it wasn't fashionable to do so - thank you."
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