Syncussion SY-1 dark ambient driven by the Midicake Arp (no talk)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"I toyed for some time with the idea of titling this video: "To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest With the Plough". Which is the title of the 1785 poem by Robert Burns. Supposedly Burns was ploughing his field in Scotland when he accidently destroyed a mouse nest; was full of remorse for 'little Mousie' who now faced a disastrous Winter; and composed this rather lengthy poem while standing in the field.

It contains the verse:

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

The key line of which has been popularized as "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray". Which, it can finally be revealed, was my resigned feeling when rendering this video, and which led to the impulse for the silly title. In the end I decided against this title assuming algorithms don't appreciate obtuse connections by mood.

The plan was to string together a good half dozen Arp-driven Syncussion noodles with long stretches of blather about the Midicake Arp settings. After putting most of that together the only part I really enjoyed was one of the darker pieces, so that's the video. At least I learned a little about Robert Burns. It's worth another few minutes of your time to read something of his life, it's fascinating.

Here the Syncussion is in Mode 2 which means the pitch is controlled via MIDI. At times the Arp is also modulating the only other available MIDI parameter which is decay. The two leftside Arp channels control the left-side Syncussion voice; and the two right channels of the Arp control the right voice.

A pedal I bought used many months ago 'Gallows in the Morning' is on the left channel, and a delay on the right. Gallows is a drive and reverb combo pedal. Meh. The reverb is OK but the drive is pretty gutless and has an odd crackle to it. Mode B I never used because it just sucked the entire bottom end away. But it looks good, has a big light, and a nice gloomy name.

In other news I recently had to endure a few days here without my Fab Knocker. Lord, what an agony. So my thanks again to my loyal handful of Patrons. I detest ads.

In reaching this far I thankyou, it's good we can share these little interludes of irrelevancy.

Many thanks to my kind patrons who keep this channel ad-free
My website: https://richarddehove.com/ My other channel "IntraCosmos" of long-play dark ambient textures: / @intracosmos"