Yellow Rollz Of Peace (for Kira)

Published on May 28, 2013 7numan7·74 videos

"This is a recording of a self-playing patch I made with a Meng Qi Music - Ciat Lonbarde Rollz5' electronic instrument.

The Rollz5 is based on diy "paper circuit" that Ciat Lonbarde published a while ago, and is similar to the Plumbutter instrument, but lacks the PB's sequencer (man-with-the-red-steam) and antenna (deerhorn), and comes with a slightly different configuration of filters (ultrasounds) and oscillators (geometric rollz). Meng Qi Music has designed pcb implementation of the Rollz circuits and offered them for sale to diy-instrument builders. The instrument used in this perfomance was built the MQ pcbs.

The sounds the patch is making, as you can probably hear, include sustained droning notes forming chords that pulsate and shift over time, bass and baritone-treble drum-beats (coming from the gong filters pinged by the slower rollz, i think), and high-pitched cymbal like patterns (from the ultrasound filters, i think).

The video patterns are being generated from LZX euroack video synthesis modules that are being modulated by the audio from the Rollz5 via the LZX Audio Frequency Decoder which has a built-in microphone. The video of me patching is actually where I'm slowly taking down the patch, using the recorded sound for this video to modulate more video synthesis patterns, projected on the instrument and my hands this time instead of the wall. Audio from both cameras was mixed with the computer-recorded audio for the soundtrack of this video (you can hear a few ambient noises, such as from patch cords being removed, that were not made by the Rollz5).

This was my first patch with the Rollz5. And I think it came out very, very nice (especially considering how I didn't really have a clue what I was doing, at first anyways). Throughout the was thinking of a young lady who I have never met named Kira. She is daughter of the founder of an interet forum that I frequent and has been ill in the hospital with life-threatening illness for the past few weeks. This video goes out to her (and all the other people in the hospital, or wherever they are, who need to rest and get well again so that they can proceed with their lives).

Enjoy!"