MATRIXSYNTH: Subconscious


Showing posts with label Subconscious. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Subconscious. Show all posts

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

Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Semblence


Published on Jul 5, 2016 Dimitrios Sismanis

"Voices:

Kick/snare: MI Peaks

Hat: Noise from Turing Machine and URA into WMD uHC, envelopes from Quadra. Sequenced by Turing Machine into Bastl Little Nerd and then SSF Propagate.

Bass: Verbos Harmonic Oscillator into Ripples, sequenced by Rene. Envelopes from Intellijel Dual ADSR.

Voice 1: Subconscious Communications Vampire into Ultrafold, Streams and then Clouds. Fold of Ultrafold modulated by slow LFO from Expert Sleepers/Silent Way. Sequenced by Popcorn, which receives gates from Little Nerd clocked by Knit Rider.

Voice 2: Mutable Braids in wavetable mode, FM’d by Subcon Vampire, timbre modulated by ADDAC 501 into WMD SSM mangling all 4 random outputs. Braids into Rings with multiple paramaters modulated by ADDAC 501/SSM, and then into Clouds #2.

Voice 3: Piston Honda mk II into MMG and the 4MS DLD. MMG mode and frequency modulated by ADDAC 501/SSM. Sequence from Turing Machine.

Voice 4: Intellijel Dixie II x 2 and into Polaris and Strymon Mobius, Timeline and then Big Sky. Sequence from Turing Machine. Envelopes from Peaks #2.

Voice 5: Cyclebox into Korgasmatron, both filter cutoffs modulated by ADDAC 501/SSM, and then into Snazzy FX Wow and Flutter. Both oscillators of Cyclebox sequenced by Pressure Points for chords. Pressure points modulated by Wogglebug, and receiving clock from QCD, which also is modulated by random LFO from Expert Sleepers/Silent Way.

All quantizing by ADDAC 207.

Some compression, EQ, panning, reverb, etc added in Ableton."

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.

Friday, October 30, 2015

Moog Sub Phatty Explorations 5 - Halloween Drone with Evaton Technologies RF Nomad


Published on Oct 30, 2015 matrixsynth

Set to HD for best quality. Listen on good monitors or headphones and turn it up.

http://www.moogmusic.com/products/phattys/sub-phatty
http://www.evatontechnologies.com

Single note drone on the Sub Phatty.

In order of appearance:

1. Evaton Technologies RF Nomad Radio Waves (modulated by subcon M37)
2. Roland TR-909 Bass Drum Heart Beat
3. Quasimidi Polymorph Hi-Hats
4. Korg ER-1 odd percussion sounds
5. Moog Sub Phatty one note drone

All but the 909 awash in reverb & phaser.

Happy Halloween Everyone!

All parts here.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Subconscious Communications Voicetail Filter


Published on Oct 27, 2015 darksideothetune

"Saw Wave Through All Three Filters"

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

cEvin Key interview 2015


Published on Jun 23, 2015 ED電音頻道 E.D.Music Channel

Mention of Plan B and how Subconscious Communications eurorack came to be. New triple filter, triple envelop generator, and triple delay in the works.

"Copyright: E.D.Music Co.
Special thanks: cEvin Key, Dave Skipper, Kenichi Hata"

Monday, June 22, 2015

Modular Wild presents Fonitronik MH11 ADC Pattern Sequencer-Clock and pulse width


Published on Jun 22, 2015 Modular Wild

"A continued exploration of the Fonitronik MH11 ADC Pattern sequencer. This time our demonstration focuses on the how the clock signal can impact the dynamics of your sequences.. Sound and Video by Raul Pena"

All parts:

Thursday, January 08, 2015

Subconcious Communications (Plan B) Model 15 Complex VCO Signed by cEvin Key

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

via this auction

Skinny Puppy's cEvin Key is the man behind Subconcious Communications.

SN 52 of 110

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Dokta Vampire Drums


Published on Dec 31, 2014 kuxaan sum

"100% Modular Patch with newly won Din Sync DrumDokta.
Subcon Model 52 Vampire does Bassline.
Synth leads and squeaks from Subcon Model 15 & Intel Rubicon.

DrumDokta sent through Plague Bearer and AS EMS Synthi Filter...
FX from Erbe-Verb and ModCan delay via dubmix"

Saturday, August 09, 2014

modular synth : another IDM study


Published on Aug 9, 2014 ipnoteca

"here a brief description of what is going on:

4MS QCD control:
ch1 - Z8000 horizontal row trig the kickdrum made with DARK ENERGY - cv in by channel 1 pressure point that provide division or multiplication
ch2 - woggelbug clock in - cv in by channel 2 pressure point that provide division or multiplication
ch3 - trig one channel of QUADRA - cv in by channel 3 pressure point that provide division or multiplication
ch4 - clock goest to RCD. cv in by EOR from a maths that gives a really nice varispeed groove

from RDC
various clocks sent to trig 3 different maths to different input, and to reset control direction of both 16 step on Z8000. vertical row trigger INTELLIJEL dual adsr that provide to trig bass sound made with SUBCON OSC passed throug DOEPFER wave multy then filtered by MMG

QUADRA+EXPANDER
various cv coming from 3 different matsh control the A/D cv to open close the hit hat made with white noise and all the glitchy sounds coming from HERTZ DONUT and CYCONIX CYCLEBOX sent through the echophon cv in freeze.

RENE'
the only melody comes from both channel of of a korgasmatron, love that sine, so round and soft, then sent to ERBEVERB
the nice attack is provided by QUADRA"

Monday, May 19, 2014

Disharmonious Silver Stake


Published on May 18, 2014 kuxaan sum·198 videos

"SubCon Model 52 Vampire Explorations"

Saturday, May 17, 2014

SubCon Model 52 Vampire


Published on May 17, 2014 kuxaan sum·195 videos

"1st Patch.
Preview of various outputs.
Plan B Model 24 Heisenberg Generator provides clock to Rainbow Turing Machine. RTM voltages out to 1v/Oct in of Vampire.

RTM pulses #2 out to Doepfer A-143-1 firing off all envelopes in AD mode.

Audio outs from Vampire to both channels of Intellijel µVCA and a Plan B Model 26 VCA. These are being driven by the A-143-1.
One channel of A-143-1 modulates various Vampire inputs.
All VCA audio goes to an STG .MIX and then along to a Plan B Model 40 in Mono mode.

Additional modulation from SubCon Model 37 and Doepfer A-143-9"

Friday, May 16, 2014

Subconcsious Studios Vampire


Subconscious Studios

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Subconscious Vampire & Harvestman at NAMM via Skinny Puppy's CEvin Key


via CEvin Key on Facebook

"vampire hanging with some nice Harvestman Orange at Namm show"

Thursday, December 12, 2013

New Subconscious Communications Model 52 Vampire Eurorack Module


http://www.subconsciousrecords.com

Sunday, April 07, 2013

Modular Wild presents SOUNDS- Toppobrillo Multifilter

Published on Apr 7, 2013 modularwild·25 videos

"A brief demo of the different filter types in the Toppobrillo Multifilter. Amazing results for self oscillation and distortion.Sound and Video by Raul Pena. ©2013 Modular Wild, Raul Pena"

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Modular Wild presents SOUNDS-Subconscious Communications/Plan B Model 15 Frequency Modulation


Published on Jan 20, 2013 modularwild·13 videos

"An exploration of the Subconscious Communications/Plan B Model 15 using FM. Sound and Video by Raul Pena.© 2012 Raul Pena"

Follow-up to this post.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Modular Wild Presents SOUNDS-MODEL 15 Cross Modulation


Published on Jan 13, 2013 modularwild·12 videos

"Exploration of the Subconscious Communications/Plan B Model 15 VCO. Sound examples of Cross Modulation. Sound and Video by Raul Pena.© 2012 Raul Pena"

Monday, January 07, 2013

Modular Wild Presents Maths Minute-Arcade Trill


Published on Jan 6, 2013 modularwild·11 videos

"A timed exploration of the Maths in the Arcade Trill patch found in the Make Noise MATHS manual.Sound and Video by Raul Pena. Special thanks to Tony Rolando at Make Noise.
© 2012 Raul Pena"

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Synthmas!!!


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful season filled with synthful cheer! :) Here are some pics I hope you enjoy followed by my holiday message further below. Don't forget to click on the pics for some great wallpaper.

As this year's message is a little bit more lengthy than previous years, I decided to post it below the pics in order to not distract from them (the pics do look better alone with the black background). That said, as always, Christmas is the one day of the year I take it easy on the site. Non holiday posts will resume tomorrow. Until then, click on the holidays label, relax, and and enjoy everything that has gone up for the season this year. You'll find plenty to bring in that Synthmas cheer. Or catch up on posts you may have missed. The Featured label will bring up some highlights.

As for the pics above,  I wanted to feature some of my new items for the year.   As you know, I paid a visit to George Mattson's last week. Well, it turns out he had a little surprise for me to play with over the holidays. A prototype Division 6 eurorack format Mattson SQ816 Sequencer! You can see it pictured above.

Over the year, I picked up Tiptop Audio's 808 drum modules, a Moog Minitaur which I reviewed here, and a Subconscious Communications Model 15 Complex VCO & Model 37 ELF LFO/Utility VCO, featured in my Halloween post here.

I also picked up quite a few iOS apps. Too many to list, so I thought I'd feature those I received promo codes for as a thank you to those that sent them in. Running the site takes a massive amount of work and time, so these little gifts are always appreciated. Thank you! BTW, if I missed anyone, let me know. Here's the list: Musix Pro, Werkbench, Werkbench for iPhone, uPhase+, Soundbeam, Reactable Huntemann, Reactable Gui Boratto, iYM2151, NLogSynth Pro & MIDI Synth, Samplr, Lis10er, Octavian, Drum Machine Legends, Changeling Sequencer, Orphion, Koushion, and TB MIDI Stuff.

This year I also received the new Synthesizers.com Synth T-Shirt, an 808 Synth T from The Dole Shirt, CustomSynth cable stickers, and the brilliant Telemark "Rejoice!" Christmas Card from Analogue Solutions pictured above.

The best gift of course is being able to share this site with all of you.

Thank you, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!!!

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