Allen Strange's Electronic Music Reprint Seeks Funding on Kickstarter

via Kickstarter

"Hello fans of Allen Strange and electronic music:

In June 2018, I was looking to buy a copy of Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, at a time when I was getting back into electronics and electronic music after an almost 30-year hiatus. I had vague recollections of a copy in the Electronic Music Studio at York University, where I made my first explorations into sound synthesis. The spine was gone and it was mostly a pile of papers stuffed into a folder. Finding that the only copies available were either poorly scanned PDFs, and used copies for sale online for hundreds of dollars, I was disheartened, to say the least. But I had a thought: what about finding the copyright holder and getting permission to reprint a few copies? It couldn't be that hard, right? I work at a university with lots of resources, so I should be able to figure out how to do it. AND, that way I'd be able to contribute something to the electronic music communities that I'd started to join, such as modwiggler.com, modulargrid.net, and other online forums, and who had been so welcoming, sharing all their collective knowledge and wisdom. These were places where I had heard about Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, in the first place.

I started a thread on Modwiggler to gauge interest. The interest was overwhelming, and motivating. After tracking down the original publisher, it took time to find out who currently owns the copyright. With the endless help and advice of librarians Ann Ludbrook and Sally Wilson at my school who specialize in e-publishing and copyright, we got to work. One of them tracked down Allen's partner Pat and helped ensure that the family once again held title to the work, and Pat agreed to let us give this whole Kickstarter a shot, and sent us her copy of Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls to disassemble and scan. Working with library staff and my research assistant Heidi Chan, we worked to get the book digitized, and ready for reproduction. One of the biggest challenges was to replace all the images of modules. That work fell to Heidi, who scoured the internet for people who still owned the original modules and synths used in the book, getting them to take new photographs for us to use. In some cases, the original designers of some of the modules no longer had them, but they helped us track down modules and acquire new images. With Pat's help, we have added a new introduction by Stephen C. Ruppenthal, as well as a few pages of testimonials from people who learned from and were inspired by Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, from Suzanne Ciani and Todd Barton, to Dave Smith, Dave Rossum, Serge Tcherepnin, Dieter Doepfer and Tony Rolando. The book has a new cover, compliments of Allen and Pat's daughter Erin Strange, who did a wonderful job of creating a new design that carries the spirit of the original 1972 cover into this new edition. The text of book is faithful to the second edition of Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, published in 1983 by Wm. C. Brown Company.

Republishing Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, has been a four-year project since its inception. The goal, from the beginning, has been to bring this important work back into the hands of fans of the original, students and teachers of the history of electronic music, musicians and electronic music practitioners, and designers of electronic music systems. We have permission to make Allen's work available in print and electronic form from Pat Strange who holds the copyright, and Pat has been actively guiding our efforts through much of the project. At present, Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, will only be available through this Kickstarter.

In Pat's own words (from the preface): "Since it's first edition in 1972, Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques and Controls has been acknowledged as the definitive text on modular synthesis. In today’s musical community analogue techniques have made a resurgence among many musicians and composers. The idea of a republication has been in the works for many years and the timing of doing it now just made sense. I am very grateful to Jason Nolan, Ann Ludbrook and the team at Toronto Metropolitan University who saw the importance of this endeavor as well as taking on the task of bring this book back to life. I am so appreciative of their attention to preserving the quality of the book and respecting its content. I know that this project would have meant a lot to Allen, specifically in knowing that his techniques and teachings are continuing to influence the future of electronic music."

This is a non-profit project. Costs involved are royalties, production, logistics and shipping costs. Any residual funds will be donated to community music initiatives focusing on electronic music and electronic music learning. At present two organizations have agreed to receive funds, but we will identify more (in Europe next) depending on the amount of residual funds. These organizations are the Canadian Accessible Musical Instrument Network (http://camin.network) and the Willie Mae Rock Camp (https://www.williemaerockcamp.org).

Finally, I would like to thank Walker Farrell for the wonderful Kickstarter video.

Thank you to all supporters for being part of this project.

Jason Nolan"

Herbie Hancock and George Duke Signed Little Phatty up for Auction

via this auction
"This Little Phatty® synthesizer was donated to the Bob Moog Foundation and the Museum of Making Music by Moog Music, Inc. pursuant to their joint exhibit, Waves of Inspiration: The Legacy of Moog, which was on display at the Museum of Making Music until April 2010. The Bob Moog Foundation and the Museum of Making Music both convey inspiration from music, history, and innovation. They will share the proceeds from the auction.

George Duke signed the back of the synthesizer after his November performance at the exhibit with the inscription “Keep Playing” and his signature. Herbie Hancock signed the iconic curved side panel of the instrument. Duke and Hancock are both considered synthesizer pioneers, making heavy use of the innovative instruments in the 1970s and 1980s.

This Little Phatty will be a unique conversation piece in your studio or music room. After all, who else has a synthesizer signed by two legendary synth players?

This is truly a one-of-a-kind piece!

50% of the sale price will be donated to the Bob Moog Foundation and 50% will be donated to the Museum of Making Music.

From the Moog Music site:
Like the Stage and Tribute Edition before it, the Little Phatty Stage II puts the performer in control of a 100% analog signal path, two ultra stable Voltage Controlled Oscillators, a Voltage Controlled Filter and other versatile features like an external audio input, CV and KB gate inputs and a full MIDI controller.

“The Little Phatty not only has it’s own signature killer sounds, but the ability to use it’s innovative interface as a versatile general MIDI controller make it an incredible tool for both performance and the studio.”
-Cyril Lance, Engineering Manager

Additionally, the Stage II boasts great new features including; MIDI over USB, MIDI Clock Sync, an Arpeggiator, Tap Tempo and a stylish New Black Finish.

The addition of MIDI over USB makes this performance and sound sculpting tool even more powerful. Combined with its warm analog sound, ability to process external audio and its intuitive performance, sound design and control features, the Stage II makes a great addition to any rig... from full-on analog, to a laptop/softsynth setup. You can also connect it directly to a computer running the Little Phatty Editor/Librarian.

MIDI Clock Sync allows you to synchronize the LFO and arpeggiator rate to the tempo of your MIDI sequencer, drum machine or software. Sample and hold, triangle, square, sawtooth and ramp wave modulations can now be perfectly timed with your rhythm tracks and the arpeggiator.

The arpeggiator is a great new performance feature with applications for musicians in all genres. Its wide variety of uses is sure to find a place in any style, and of course it also syncs to MIDI clock. Tap Tempo brings LFO and arpeggiator tempo sync functionality to situations in which there is no MIDI clock.

“The new features in the Little Phatty Stage II bring true analog synthesis to contemporary performance and production.” says Cyril Lance, “USB, MIDI Clock Sync, Tap Tempo and the Arpegiator make it a modern music powerhouse.”

The Bob Moog Foundation
www.moogfoundation.org

The Bob Moog Foundation honors the legacy of synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog through its mission of igniting creativity at the intersection of music, history, science, and innovation. Its projects include Dr. Bob's SoundSchool, which brings electronic musical instruments into the schools to teach children science through music; the Archive Preservation Initiative, an effort to preserve and protect the inventor’s extensive and historical archive; and the future Moogseum, an innovative educational, historical, and cultural facility that will bring Bob Moog’s spirit alive. It will be located in Asheville, NC, in the years ahead, pending necessary funding.


The Bob Moog Foundation is an independent, donor-driven 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is not formally affiliated with Moog Music, Inc.

The Museum of Making Music
www.museumofmakingmusic.org
The Museum of Making Music's mission is to celebrate the rich history and encourage the future of music making.

The Museum's vision is to preserve, communicate, and advance the tradition of innovation and excellence in the music products industry and to help ensure that music making processes, in their broadest sense, continue to thrive.

To achieve this vision, we engage people of diverse backgrounds in the exploration of the creation, design, distribution and use of musical instruments and tools, and provide opportunities for people to develop their personal connections with music."

ADORNO Essays on Music pp. 659-660 (Moogist Commentary)

YouTube via timtsang3 | January 22, 2011 |

"In the most advanced and acoustically sensitive compositions today there is a yawning discrepancy between the blocks that have been joined together, layered, so to speak, and are often astonishingly through-composed in themselves, and the overall structure. It is as if there were no mediation connecting the unprecedented articulation of the details with the equally magnificently through-composed totality; as if the two things were joined together according to principles of construction, but as if these principles of construction were not capable of realization in living phenomena. Mediation is lacking in the banal, as well as in the strict sense. In the banal sense, links are lacking between the individual sounds, in which everything is concentrated. In the strict sense, the events in themselves do not want to transcend themselves; the structure remains largely abstract in relation to them. Until now, integration frequently has become impoverishment. One can observe, along with an extreme increase in compositional means, a kind of regression to homophony. As I described this, borrowing an expression of Boulez's, blocks are being added together, rather than lines being drawn. Hardly any harmonic tensions are created; hardly any complementary harmonies; hardly any monodic, much less polyphonic lines. This shrinkage is out of all proportion to the compositional expenditure of means and construction. It may have something to do with what one can call the preponderance of extras, of the extra-musical in the most recent music, which Schnebel identified as one of the most characteristic phenomena of its development. It is as if music, by using noise, bruitistic effects, and then optical, especially mimetic ones, wanted to make up part of what it is temporarily blocked from achieving in the way of immanent unfolding. Those actions, however, frequently have something aimless about them. Dada turns into l'art pour l'art, and this is hard to reconcile with the idea of dada. Frequently a music is assembled that actually doesn't want to go anywhere. Against this it is argued, above all by electronic composers, that it is a matter of providing materials. If I once said that electronic compositions sounded like Webern on a Wurlitzer, that is unquestionably out of date. But on the other side there is always some primitiveness of results that remains unmistakable in relation to the technical effort. In general, it is probably difficult to develop means independent of the purpose, the quality of what is composed with them. I would like to mention at least one symptom that struck me recently and that perhaps also has something to do with the complex of difficulties - the phenomenon of the restraining of impulses; that music is constantly moving, wanting to develop, but breaks off again as if under a spell. Whether this spell expresses the one that we live under, whether it, too, is a symptom of ego-weakness or compositional inadequacy, is something on which I would not like to pass judgement.

I only wanted to make you aware of all this; not to prophesy or postulate anything. Music today sees itself faced with an alternative, that between the fetishism of the material and the process, on the one hand, and unfettered chance, on the other. A statement by Christian Dietrich Grabbe occurred to me that once greatly impressed me: "For nothing but despair alone can save us." Everything lies with spontaneity, i.e., the involuntary reaction of the compositional ear, quand meme. But if one composes in deadly earnest, one must ultimately ask whether it is not all becoming ideological nowadays. Therefore, one must confront the possibility of its falling silent non-metaphorically and without the consolation that it cannot go on that way. What Beckett expresses in his dramas, and above all in his novels, which sometimes babble like music, has its truth for music itself. Perhaps only that music is still possible which measures itself against this greatest extreme, its own falling silent."

-Theodor W. Adorno
Essays On Music, pp. 659-660."

The NAMM Show Announces Return to Anaheim in June 2022

via NAMM

"We are excited to announce that The NAMM Show, the annual 'family reunion' of the global music, sound, and entertainment technology industry, will reconvene in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Convention Center on June 3–5, 2022.

Previously scheduled for January 20—23, the new dates will offer global industry leaders, buyers, sellers, music educators, artists, media, and music makers the opportunity to reconnect and renew their businesses while taking greater advantage of reimagined indoor and outdoor events, activations, professional development sessions, an expanded digital reach and more at the crossroads of business opportunity."

And the press release:

CLICK FOR MORE »

An Interview with Barry Schrader

Hi everyone! As you know Barry Schrader will be giving his farewell concert at CalArts on September 26. The following is the beginning of my interview with him. I opted to post the questions and answers as they come in.  New QAs will get a new post so you do not miss them and they will be added to this post so we have one central post for the full interview. This should make it easier for all of us to consume in our busy lives, and it will allow you to send in any questions that may come to mind during the interview process.  If you have anything you'd like to ask Barry, feel free to send it in to matrixsynth@gmail.com.  This is a rare opportunity for us to get insight on a significant bit of synthesizer history, specifically with early Buchla systems, and I'd like to thank Barry for this opportunity. Thank you Barry!

CLICK FOR MORE »

Beaterator Debut Trailer and Beaterator Sessions

"Today we are happy to present the debut trailer for Beaterator, as well as Beaterator Sessions: Max & Clay, a live-action video of Max & Clay, two young kids creating original songs and beats using the application – a true testament to the ease-of-use and intuitive nature of Beaterator. The debut trailer features voice-over by none other than Timbaland himself as he outlines the different modes of Beaterator and their basic functionalities in a unique, musical presentation."





"What is Beaterator?
Beaterator is a suite of easy-to-use but powerful music creation tools that allows users of all skill levels to create quality tracks quickly and easily.

Live Play gets users started quickly as Timbaland guides you through experimenting with pre-arranged templates of his own loops and sounds to get things going. From there, you can take your track into the Studio to add, delete, and replace loops, or add your own vocals using the built-in microphone, or an attached microphone. When you’re ready, delve into the Song Crafter to create your own unique beats and sounds to use across all three modes. Beaterator has the power and flexibility to allow you to create great beats, stirring melodies, and complete songs to rival today’s hottest producers. When you’re ready, you can export your creation and share it with the world.

Why Beaterator?
From the very beginnings of the company, Rockstar Games has always had a very passionate connection to music, whether it be the meticulous selection process for Grand Theft Auto soundtracks, or the artists chosen to work on our original scores such as Bully, music has always played a huge part in shaping our approach to what we make. Beaterator is the culmination of those years of passion for music: an easy to use yet surprisingly deep music creation tool that you can keep with you at all times, featuring sounds created by Timbaland, one of the world’s most renowned music production legends.

Background
Beaterator started life in 2005 as a flash application on the Rockstar website, some time before Timbaland’s involvement. Beaterator’s online iteration had a fairly straight forward yet fun interface, that like its modern handheld form, still packed plenty of power and depth for those wanting to get serious about creating music. It featured loops and sounds from well-known and established artists and was a fully functional eight-track song maker.

Timbaland’s involvement was what brought it to the next level. Rockstar has a long standing tradition of working with progressive artists through all mediums, and Rockstar and Timbaland had looked for ways to work together on a project. Recognizing that Beaterator was a set of tools to allow people to create music, Timbaland came on board.

Timbaland has given Beaterator hundreds of loops and sounds from his own personal collection to get people up and making their own songs quickly. Along with the hundreds of loops and sounds that Rockstar composed for the game, Beaterator has become a hugely in-depth and sprawling library of music with which to make full-blown songs.

Beaterator is not a game in the classic sense of the term, and there are no goals or challenges to accomplish. You’re not pretending to make music – you are making music, and everything you need is unlocked and available to you straight out of the box. Whether or not you have experience in song-crafting or studio time under your belt, there is an amazing amount of value packed into Beaterator. It is more powerful and deep than any other portable music application, regardless of console or device. It is also extremely easy for novices or gamers curious about making music to grasp and we’ve taken great steps to remove the intimidation that often inhibits people from entering this world. Rockstar wants to enable people that have always wanted to make music but also make an experience deep enough that experts can use it as well.

Beaterator on the iPhone/iPod touch
Create your own songs on the go with the aid of Timbaland and Rockstar. Like its big brother on the PSP, Beaterator on the iPhone/iPod touch features hundreds of loops and sounds at your disposal to create studio-quality, full-length songs. Although the iPhone/iPod touch iteration does not feature the same in-depth editing tools as the PSP version, the experience of creating, arranging, and mixing original music remains intact."

17 Year Old Suzanne Ciani's Fish Music & More on Vinyl

Label: Finders Keepers Records

Fish Music is set to drop on Record Store Day, April 22.

Format: 7"

More Info:

"Crystal clear one-sided vinyl. Previously unheard recording of an early installation project from a 17-year-old Suzanne Ciani"


You can find more releases from Suzanne Ciani on Finders Keepers Records here.

The following are the other releases featuring Ciani's Buchla compositions, captured for the archives.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Announcing electro-music 2013

via Greg Waltzer: "The electro-music festival is the world's premiere event for experimental electronic music. Known as the "Woodstock of electronic music," it features three full days of concerts, seminars, demonstrations, workshops, jam sessions, collaborations, video art, a laptop battle and swap-meet. Electro-music 2013 will be held at the Greenkill Retreat Center in Huguenot, New York, September 6 - 8, 2013. Now in it's ninth year, we expect this to be the biggest and best electro-music event ever!

The scope of this festival is very broad, covering all aspects of electro-music: experimental electronic music, ambient, space music, circuit bending, computer music, electro-jazz, modular synthesis, musique concrete, improvisation, algorithmic composition, multi-media, visual art and much more. The focus will be on participant involvement, sharing, community development, audience education, and great music.

You can actively participate in electro-music 2013 by performing music or visuals, giving a seminar, workshop, or demonstration, joining the jam sessions, or by volunteering to help with various tasks. Please visit the web site for instructions on how to participate:

http://event.electro-music.com/

The deadline for application is May 31.

Everyone who attends the festival will need to purchase tickets, including performing artists and volunteers. We regret that we cannot provide compensation for artists, or pay for travel expenses. We strongly encourage full participation: plan to attend for all three days to support your fellow artists and to contribute to the sense of community. This makes the event more enjoyable for everyone. Highest priority for performance spots will go to artists who are fully involved. Ticket prices range from $40 for a single day to $333 for a three-day pass that includes meals and lodging."

The Room of Sound

The Room of Sound from musi_arch santacecilia_sapienza on Vimeo.

"From March 5 to 20, 1977, in the Rome National Gallery of Modern Art was held from the 14th Festival of Nuova Consonanza, an association of musicians and composers congregated around Franco Evangelisti, responsible for the practical organisation of the Festival was Vittorio Consoli, engineer, music lover and enthusiastic investigator of the relations between space and sound. For 15 days in the main concourse of the National Gallery, experimental studies were made on the interaction between space and music and between musicians and computer, using compositions by, among others, Mauro Bortolotti, Domenico Guàccero, Aldo Clementi, Franco Evangelisti, Luigi Nono, Alessandro Sbordoni, Edgard Varèse, Leo Küpper and Giorgio Nottoli. The concourse of the Gallery is an exceptionally reflective space, totally non-musical. A huge acoustic dome made up of 100 loudspeakers, fed by the same number of audio channels, was created by Vittorio Consoli, with invaluable assistance from Leo Küpper, and wrapped up in a cloud of coloured aerostatic balloons, which were not fully inflated, and which gave the hall the acoustic properties required and also lent to the event an extraordinary sense of festivity surrounding the musical experimentation; this spirit can perhaps still be seen in the old black and white photos of the event and is still visible in the image we have of the main protagonists – Franco Evangelisti, Leo Küpper and Vittorio Consoli. Given the date, this was no virtual experiment in spatialisation, but a real-time musical event: the sounds, generated by an impressive analog computer, could be transmitted towards each of the loudspeakers and switched from one to another by a hand-made mixer. The most famous precedent for all this was, of course, the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels Expo, the masterpiece of Le Corbusier and Xenakis, animated by the Poème Electronique of Edgard Varèse. However, the most striking precedent was without a doubt the musical sphere constructed for the 1970 Osaka Expo by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Here the composer established the iconic quality of contemporary absolute music, an icon which subsequently symbolically adorned his grave monument. The project we are presenting here, the Stanza del Suono (Room of Sound) can be seen therefore to follow the path of a great contemporary music tradition; today we can avail ourselves of the innovations of computer technology, which allow us to organise the emissions of sound in space in a genuinely contrapuntal fashion, as Vittorio Consoli would say. The spatial evolution of the sounds thus becomes part of the decisions that the composer arranges within his creative system, to quote Schumann. The musical scores are able to not only specify precisely the limitless paths through space traced by the sounds, but also to envisage the ‘unknowns’ involved in the immediate, real-time interaction between sound and space, and between the musicians and the computer program. In this way, this new project of ours is not merely a place for listening to music, but also a place for creating and processing music in a continuous interplay between, space, music, sound, musicians and audience. The project aims at producing a new, long-term, functional acoustic and spatial device that can be employed by all
those engaged in electro-acoustic music research. It was built upon a body of work consistently carried out at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome, in its Department of Electronic Music, up till now directed by Giorgio Nottoli, and is the result of a close collaboration with two Departments of Rome Sapienza University: the Department of Architecture and Design, under Piero Ostilio Rossi, and the Department of Architectural History, Design and Restoration, directed by Paolo Fiore. The idea of setting up a permanent cooperative research area between musicians and architects, on the theme of ‘Music and Architecture’, and of including it in the agenda of Emufest, the International Festival of Electro-acoustic Music, originated in 2011 in the insights and enthusiasms of composer Fabio Cifariello Ciardi and architect Luca Ribichini...[...]"

via Francesco Synth Meeting Mulassano on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

AudioCubes Featured at Electro-Music Festival 2012 in New York

"The Electro-music festival 2012 has been confirmed, with acts from several electronic musicians from all over the US and Europe, such as Mark Mosher, Lux Seeker, Shivasongster, and many others.

The festival organized by electro-music.com takes place in Huguenot, New York at the Greenkill Retreat Center. Last year over 60 artists performed live at the festival, and this year's edition is expected to be even greater. The event will span 3 days in September (7-9), and alongside the musical performances, workshops, jam sessions, laptop battles will take place.

The Electro-Music festival is also called “the Woodstock of electronic music” by the Philadelphia Inquirer. It is an annual event festival organized by electro-music.com, a “cooperative community where artists and enthusiasts participate and benefit together” as they describe on electro-music.com.

One of the highlights of this event will be the live performances with Percussa AudioCubes. Electronic musicians Mark Mosher, Jeremy dePrisco aka Shivasongster, and John Morley aka Lux Seeker, will bring their AudioCubes to the festival to perform live with the cubes. In addition, Jeremy will demonstrate the AudioCubes during a workshop he's organizing about Reason 6.

More information about the performances and the schedule can be found here.

About AudioCubes and Percussa

AudioCubes by Percussa are smart light-emitting cubes that can detect each other's location and orientation in a network, as well as sense distances. The AudioCubes can be used for sound design, music composition, live performance, as well as many other uses, because of the several software applications Percussa created for the AudioCubes. More information about Percussa and the AudioCubes: http://www.percussa.com

Interesting Links
Music Mark Mosher: http://markmoshermusic.com
Music Shivasongster: http://shivasongster.com
Music Lux Seeker: http://soundcloud.com/lux_seeker"

EōN by Jean-Michel Jarre

Published on Nov 7, 2019 Apps4idevices rebirth

Spotted this one on discchord.

Jean Michel Jarre launches a Music App EōN on the Web Summit

Published on Nov 7, 2019 servicesmobiles

"Jean Michel Jarre unveils infinite music app EōN - iOS app produces infinite, ever-evolving music composed by Jarre
- https://apps.apple.com/app/e%C5%8Dn-b..."

"EōN produces infinite, ever evolutive music, abundant in variations, composed by electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre, accompanied by a constant progression of organic visuals.

Once you launch the EōN app, you can listen and watch a new infinite musical experience which has been designed to be absolutely unique for each listener, and always different each time you launch the app.

You can take this journey for as long as you want, the only limit is your device's battery!

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE ABOUT EōN:
« EON » is an ancient Greek God associated with Time & Eternity.

The « time » represented by EON is infinite and unbounded in the sense of « ages » and « forever ».

In cosmology, geology or astronomy, EON is often used in reference to a period of a billion years…

I named this project EōN, as it best defines exactly what it is – an infinite musical and visual creation, which offers each individual a unique experience on its primary support as an App: on each device, and on each launch of the EōN App, you will hear and see a unique ever-evolving orchestration of the music & the visuals. EōN is a never ending, never repetitive, organic art-piece that will live & grow forever in everyone’s own singular space-time continuum, at the tip of their finger.

Personally, I truly feel that EōN is probably one of my most exciting creative projects since Oxygene. I always wanted to create a music specific for each listener and which could constantly evolve. Here it is. EōN is conceived & composed for your own infinite journey.

I had a very clear idea of the organic, living visuals I wanted to accompany my music creation, and I was very lucky to have spent some time in Tokyo at Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. (Sony CSL) where I found Alexis André and his singular visual world. Sony CSL with Alexis have conceived and developed an algorithm generating the endless flow of ever-evolving graphics, which like the music is never ending, nor repetitive.

The algorithm and audio engine that orchestrates the music of the EōN App have been engineered by Alexis Zbik & Vianney Apreleff from BLEASS after we defined the rules of the system together.

CREDITS
Conceived & Composed by Jean-Michel Jarre
Digital graphics by Alexis André of Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc. (Sony CSL)
Music algorithms & audio engine powered by BLEASS
Produced by Aero Productions
Terms of Use: http://jeanmicheljarre.com/eon/terms-of-use"

Make Noise Pop-Up Residents Showcase!

video upload by MAKEN0ISE

"A showcase of the four residents from the Make Noise September Pop-Up at 821 Haywood!

We were so excited to host four Artist Residencies during our Pop Up, featuring some of our favorite local artists. Each artist created a new piece of music with our instruments, all of which are showcased here!

0:00 Pop-Up Overview
1:47 Farewell Phoenix
6:41 Sleep Number
10:44 Thom Nguyen
12:52 Sarah Louise
16:28 Outro"


And the full performances:

Farewell Phoenix September Pop-Up Performance


"Lynn Fister is a Vietnamese-American experimental musician, writer and visual artist residing in Asheville, NC. She has been making drone-pop and ambient music for over a decade. After taking a long hiatus from their own music, Lynn has recently returned to creating solo music once again as Farewell Phoenix. These new explorations concentrate on choral soundscapes manipulated by and integrated with modular synthesizers. She is now particularly interested in how installations, space and environment inform music-making. Although there are no releases to date under this name, Farewell Phoenix recordings should be available in the near future.
https://linktr.ee/farewell.phoenix"

Sleep Number September Pop-Up Performance


"Sleep Number, a solo project by Asheville based musician Sophie Froehlich Hull, was born out of brief moments of exploration between band practices. Sleep Number blends drone and noise, all while a structural undercurrent keeps it grounded. The recent addition of Make Noise’s Strega into her gear has allowed her to lean into the grit and noise side of Sleep Number, further fueling her desire to experiment and push the bounds of cultivating her own atmosphere of sound.
Sophie is the operations manager inside Static Age Records. She also organizes a quarterly live drone session, named 'Drones in the Garden,' with co-founder Lynn Fister. She has two short releases on Bandcamp and is set to record her full album this winter.
https://sleepnumber.bandcamp.com/

Thom Nguyen September Pop-Up Performance


"Thom Nguyen is an Asheville-based improvisor and drummer of MANAS, Nest Egg, We Bow To No Masters, etc. Producing energetic bursts and invoking a sensitivity to space that one often associates with Free-Jazz and New Music percussion, Nguyen’s approach elegantly bridges works of sonic sculpture with a punk aesthetic of immediacy, of aggression and playfulness. He also runs a drum rental business, Batteria Backline.
https://thomnguyen.bandcamp.com/"

Sarah Louise September Pop Up Performance


"Sarah Louise is interested in how music can help us remember what kind of animal we are. Likewise, she is interested in what synthesis can reveal about the natural world. On her two most recent albums, she uses electronics to create organic sound environments for inner journeys. Her newest as-of-yet unreleased music is joyful and danceable, revealing the importance of embodiment and collective energy to her ever-evolving sounds. Believing that everyone’s expression is as important as anyone else’s, she is also branching into facilitation, helping to create nonhierarchical safer spaces for group singing, celebration and whatever else may arise. Having started as a solo 12-string guitarist and singer of traditional songs, she brings a unique sense of rhythm, harmony and emotionality to her electronic music. You can find her music and keep in touch with her musings and group experiences by following her Bandcamp.
https://sarahlouise.bandcamp.com/albu..."

Rockstar Games Announces Beaterator Now Available In Stores and For Digital Download on PlayStation Network

Additionally, the Rockstar Social Club’s Beaterator portal is now live. There you can upload the songs you’ve constructed in Beaterator, rate and listen to anyone else’s songs, and also download and remix tracks on your own PSP. The Social Club will also house all our contests and song battles, so check it early and often at the link below and upload some work!

http://socialclub.rockstargames.com"

"New York, NY – September 29, 2009 - Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is proud to announce that Rockstar Games and Timbaland present Beaterator is now available in North America for Sony’s PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system in stores and for digital download on the PlayStation®Network. Developed by Rockstar Leeds, Beaterator combines the power of music creation with unparalleled ease-of-use and accessibility for people of all ages and skill levels. Beaterator will be available at retail on UMD® and digitally from the PlayStation Network internationally on October 2, 2009.

"Beaterator is a new direction for interactive music,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “What makes Beaterator truly astounding is that literally anyone can be up and making music within minutes.”

“My partnership with Rockstar Games has resulted in something amazing,” said Grammy Award-winning producer, Timbaland. “Beaterator puts studio-quality production tools in your pocket, and makes them easy enough for anyone to use.”

Beaterator is a professional-level, portable studio that guides users through the process of constructing beats and songs with thousands of loops and sounds made by both Timbaland and Rockstar. Jam in Live Play mode with genre-specific templates, or jump into Song Crafter to compose original drum beats, melodies, and even record vocals. No matter the skill level, Beaterator puts the power to make studio-quality music at peoples’ fingertips in a format that's portable, accessible and fun.

Beaterator has received outstanding press across the board: USA Today called Beaterator “a powerful, portable music studio for your back pocket.” Wired says Beaterator “teaches children (and adults) the fundamentals of song-crafting by removing the sense of intimidation” around music creation. Top digital music site, CreateDigitalMusic claims Beaterator “could be a revelation.” MTV exclaimed that Beaterator is “one of the most interesting titles coming to the PSP this year.” Gaming site, Kotaku raves “Beaterator is digital music creation made easier.” GameSpy elaborated, stating “the difference between Beaterator and these rhythm/music games is that here you're creating music, not imitating it.”

Beaterator is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB and will also be available later this fall on the iPhone™ and iPod® touch. For more information, log onto www.rockstargames.com/beaterator.

About Take-Two Interactive Software
Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a global developer, marketer, distributor and publisher of interactive entertainment software games for the PC, PlayStation®3 (PS3™) and PlayStation®2 computer entertainment systems, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii™ and Nintendo DS™. The Company publishes and develops products through its wholly owned labels Rockstar Games and 2K, which publishes its titles under 2K Games, 2K Sports and 2K Play. Take-Two also distributes software, hardware and accessories in North America through its Jack of All Games subsidiary. The Company’s common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO. For more corporate and product information please visit our website at www.take2games.com.

Richard Lainhart: CEMS, Theremin, and Ondes Martenot Lecture, BEAF 2011

YouTube Uploaded by matrixsynth on Jun 1, 2011

First three parts of Richard Lainhart's lecture at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival on Friday, May 6, 2011, 2PM PST. These cover the CEMS (Coordinated Electronic Music Studio - see the CEMS label below for more), theremin, and ondes Martenot. The audio on these are a little on the low side so remember to turn your speakers back down after listening. You can find a full transcript for each part below in case you can't quite make things out. You can catch Richard Lainhart's lecture on the Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum, followed by a performance, in this previous post.

Transcripts for the above three videos:

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Buchla Documentary by Connie Field Now on Kikstarter

Follow-up to this previous post.  via Kickstarter:

"With a passion for music and engineering, Don Buchla created electronic musical instruments the world had never dreamed of before.

When we've told people that we're preparing a documentary about Don Buchla, we get one of two reactions:

a) Wow! It's about time The man's a genius! Why hasn't this happened already?

or

b) Don who?

We want to make a movie that can live up to the expectations and desires and hopes for the people who answered a), and that can introduce Don in the best way possible to those who answered b).

Don Buchla is a legendary instrument maker whose inventions were part of the greatest musical transformation of the 20th century. His pioneering work laid the basis for what electronic music was to become by creating a unique analog synthesizer which completely changed the way people think about, compose, and perform music. The list of musicians and composers who have used the Buchla range from avant-garde composer Morton Subotnick to Nine Inch Nails, with plenty more along the way. Don hasn't stopped inventing since the arrival of the Buchla, and his other instruments combine an idiosyncratic sound with a sense of wonder and theatrical magic.

"Music is a mirror that we hold up to see how cultural structures are formed. Race, social hierarchy, class, national origin the twentieth century saw a questioning of these issues on a global level, and in a sense, electronic music was the soundtrack to that intense investigation into the human situation. Almost all traditional notions of space, time, and physicality have been reconfigured in ways that we are just beginning to understand. I think that electronic music has helped us understand the process we've lived through. Think about everything from the tones you hear coming out of your telephone to the frequencies underlying cellular communication to the algorithms used to route the information holding it all together -- most of this stuff has been explored one way or the other by the avant-garde."
--Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky)

Don was definitely part of the avant-garde. He has been called a mad scientist, a genius, an innovator, a recluse, an iconoclast, and has gathered a horde of fiercely loyal admirers by following his own visionary path, and dancing to his own muse. His name and instruments are known from Indonesia to France.

We have begun to film because there have been performances and interviews to capture that we simply couldn't pass up, such as Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender from the San Francisco Tape Music Center, who commissioned Don to build the first Buchla; French composers Jean-Baptiste Barrière and Marc Battier; and performances by Subotnick and Marimba Lumina player Joel Davel, who has assisted in Buchla's workshop for over a decade.

But now we need to raise production funding to complete the rest of our filming. Among the other people we will be including in the film are early Buchla composer/performer Suzanne Ciani, analog synth performer/music journalist Gino Robair, Lightning virtuoso Forrest Tobey, synth maestro Alessandro Cortini (of Nine Inch Nails and Sonoio), Marimba Lumina co-designer Mark Goldstein, and, of course, Don himself. Ideally, we're hoping you can support us beyond what we're asking for here so we can also edit and do post-production for the film.

With your help, we will be able to do the legacy of Don Buchla justice."

Arturia Buchla Easel V Comparison with Buchla 208P

Published on Jun 4, 2018 Tritone Guitars

"Heath Aldrich and Dave Anderson compare and discuss the Arturia Buchla Easel V with Heath's physical Buchla 208P. Video production by Jesse Bader"

I'm familiar with Roman Filippov's 208r clone, but not the 208p. I did a quick search and found the following: (Update: turns out the 208p is essentially a clone of the clone. Some info added further below)

Buchla 208p Music Easel First Sketches

Published on Mar 19, 2018 Heath Aldrich

Update regarding the 208p: "Papz put his version out earlier this year, and it has all the fixes implemented from Roman's 208. http://www.portabellabz.be/208pcb.html. I recommend this version of you want to build one."
You can find a few posts featuring Portabellabz in the archives here.

Playlist:

1. Buchla 208p Music Easel First Sketch

This is DIY Buchla 208 Music Easel that I built. It took me over 50 hours, and it still isn't perfect, but it is perfect for me. This synth has such a rich sound, and is so easy to change the voice of the patch, that it is hard to not be inspired by playing with it. I have always wanted one, and am so happy I had the chance to build one.

This is a idea that I have been working with since I started calibrating this beast. It is far from complete, but I like where it is going. All sounds were recorded direct from the 208p, no external processing, no external effects. Just a boy and his toy.

CLICK FOR MORE »

RIP Frankie Knuckles - The Godfather of House Music

Frankie Knuckles - Your Love Uploaded on Jul 23, 2009 Backintday·196 videos
"The original 1987 best version Jamie Principle/Frankie Knuckles"
[Tribute cover on a Roland MC-909 uploaded by Lee Mitchell today featured below]

The Godfather of House music has passed away. He was one of, if not the first DJ to incorporate an instrument, in this case the drum machine, into his live performances, as well as working with sound manipulation by splicing tape (musique concrete meets House).

Frankie Knuckles via this interview on Muicradar:

Regarding tape: "That probably started around the late 70s or early 80s. I'd been DJing for the best part of ten years by then, so I knew what worked on the dancefloor. I knew which bits of a song worked. I instinctively knew if the intro needed cutting or extending. My imagination was already doing its thing. I got hold of a quarter-inch Pioneer reel-to-reel machine, and that's what I used to do all my edits.

"And when I say 'edits', I really do mean edits, in the old-fashioned sense: cutting up little bits of tape and sticking them back together to make a new song. Like when I saw the video for Michael Jackson's Thriller on TV, I thought, 'Damn! That's the version I should be playing at the club.' I wanted that whole stripped-down section where the zombies do the dance. So I sat there with my reel-to-reel and started making copies of the relevant bits of music from the original song. I had a rough tape copy of the video version and worked out every bit I needed to recreate that zombie dance backing track.

"In the end, I had a gazillion little bits of tape – some no more than half a second of sound – all stuck together. You know something? It worked! I pieced it all together and I had my two-and-a-half-minute breakdown. And it was perfect – even if I'd been just a few milliseconds out with one of those edits, it would have thrown the whole thing. I was a master of rhythm. A master of editing." [Be sure to see his note regarding the manipulation of sound for effect in The Chicago Tribune quote below]

And on the drum machine: "It wasn't really a drum machine. It was just one of those rhythm boxes that you get on home organs. Y'know… a boom-chikka box. I got the idea because there was always a metronome sitting in the DJ booth at the Warehouse. I never really understood the metronome, but I eventually started messing around with it and used to have it running while I was DJing – it would be tick-tocking just in the periphery of my vision. Eventually I started locking into this thing– locking the tunes and the metronome together, understanding the idea of beats per minute and the number of bars."

"One day my friend gave me this Rhythm Maker box, and I had it plugged into the auxiliary inputs of the mixer. It sounded great. The crowd loved it, and it was very handy if you had a problem with a record or one of the decks. You'd just fade up the Rhythm Maker and people would carry on dancing."

The 909 and the birth of House music followed:

"That was a few years later – I'd say 84 or 85. Derrick May and his friends would come down to my new club, the Power Plant. One night he was carrying a bag, and inside was something wrapped in a towel. I asked him what it was and he just said, 'Oh, I got you something very special – but you got to wait till the end of the night.'

"After I finished my set – which was about 11am the next day – we went into the booth and he pulled out a box with some buttons on it. I said, 'Wow! That looks great, but what the hell is it?' Derricksaid, 'This is a Roland 909 drum machine, and it's going to take us to the future. It will be the foundation of music for the next 10 years.'"


via The Chicago Tribune

"Knuckles bought his first drum machine from a young Derrick May, one of the founders of techno music, who regularly made the trip from Detroit to see Knuckles at the Warehouse..."

"He would extend mixes of soul and R&B records and turn them into dance tracks, introduce new singles being produced by fledgling house artists and incorporate drum machines to emphasize the beat. In addition to building dynamic ebb-and-flow sets that would keep his dancefloor filled from midnight to noon on weekends, he would create theater-of-the-mind scenarios with inventive sound and lighting. 'Sometimes I’d shut down all the lights and set up a record where it would sound like a speeding train was about to crash into the club. People would lose their minds.'”

And via Wikipedia: "Frankie Knuckles (January 18, 1955 – March 31, 2014) was an American DJ, record producer, and remixer.[1] He was born Francis Nicholls [2] in the Bronx borough of New York City and later moved to Chicago. He played an important role in developing and popularizing house music in Chicago during the 1980s when the genre was in its infancy. In 2005, Knuckles was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame for his achievements.

Due to his importance in the development of the genre, Knuckles was often known as 'The Godfather of House Music',[3] and as such the city of Chicago named a stretch of street and a day after Knuckles in 2004."

You can find some previous posts featuring music inspired by Frankie Knuckles here.



Frankie Knuckles Your Love Published on Apr 1, 2014 Lee Mitchell·83 videos

"ROLAND MC909 COVER OF YOUR LOVE BY FRANKIE KNUCKLES...RIP HOUSE LEGEND...."

1986 Music & Electronics Magazine Cassette

via Pea Hicks of http://optigan.com/
"i stumbled across this old cassette i picked up somewhere, thought you might like to post it on the blog. it goes along with the first issue of a very obscure music tech rag from the mid-80s called "Music & Electronics" magazine. it was published by the same folks that brought you "99'er" and "Home Computer" magazines. It may not have survived past its first issue, as I've never actually seen a copy and a google search brings up nothing.

anyway, i only have the tape, which features musical examples to go along with the magazine articles. synths include Casio CZ-101, Yamaha DX7, Roland TR-707, etc. note that the first couple minutes of side b were recorded over by the previous owner, so i just faded in after the missing bit.

would be great to hear if anyone out there has a copy of the magazine itself!"


Update: Note the reference to "Techno Bach" at 32:15. According to wikipedia, "The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988." Yes, this is not Techno techno, but interesting. I wonder when the term "Techno" was first used in reference to any music.

If anyone out there has more info feel free to comment or send me an email and I'll updated the post.

Update:

via pea in the comments:
"YMO, "Technopolis," 1979
Kraftwerk, "Techno-Pop," 1986
the terms "techno-pop" and "techno-rock" were definitely in use before Kraftwerk's usage, though."

via electric454 in the comments:
"the b side of the Buggles single Clean, Clean from 1980 was a song called Technopop"

via Jim W on AH:
"In 1978 I co-founded Tekno Tunes indie label, Tekno Town Studio (Northampton, MA), and Tekno Tours booking. We booked acts as diverse as Buddy Rich, DNA, The Slits, Pere Ubu, & WKGB among others. The music I wrote & played from 77 - 83 as The Scientific Americans was described as " techno punk" by several major publications.

So far I haven't found an earlier instance, so for now I claim naming rights for techno as a musical genre. Actually, my music partner, Craig O'Donnell (author of Cool MAC Sounds) came up with it. We used it constantly for 5 years."

via C.R. in the comments: "The song "Techno City" is from 1984.

I think that's the first use of "techno" in the sense of techno music."

Moogfest Announces Suzanne Ciani as the 2017 Moog Innovation Award Recipient

via Moog Music

"The 2017 Moog Innovation Award will be presented to Suzanne Ciani at Moogfest 2017, the annual music, art and technology festival in Durham, North Carolina. This award recognizes her 45 plus years of genre-defying work that exemplifies the bold, innovative spirit of Bob Moog. Past recipients include visionary artists like Gary Numan, Devo, Brian Eno, Bernie Worrell, and Thomas Dolby, and synth designers like Herb Deutsch.

Ciani, the first woman to receive the award, superseded many of her male contemporaries as a synthesist, sound designer, and composer. Well known as an early protege and long-time devotee of Don Buchla, and a friend of Bob Moog, her use of synthesizers created entirely new sounds that opened minds around the globe to electronic music as a valid form of expression. She is a five-time Grammy nominated composer and the first woman to score a Hollywood film. Her work has been featured in countless commercials, video games, and feature films.

Today, Ciani continues to inspire generosity, curiosity, and experimentation for a resurgent, multi-generational community of synth-enthusiasts and electronic music fans. Ciani’s 4-hour durational performance at Moogfest 2016 modulated between a rolling quadraphonic soundscape, stories about her early days working in New York, and tips for operating rare Buchla synths while spatializing audio. Ciani returns to Moogfest 2017 to receive the Moog Innovation award, where she will perform and be celebrated in a workshop, featured conversation as well as host a screening of a recently released documentary about her innovative life in electronic music.

Additionally, we are pleased to have more voices added to the choir at Moogfest...

Comedians often are the reflexive lens of culture, giving uplifting commentary to our often complex world. With this spirit in mind, comedian and actor Hannibal Buress will be joining us as the comedic lens and moderator in two conversations: One with the wildly inventive hip-hop producer & lyricist Flying Lotus, and another with psych-pop trio Animal Collective and legendary 1970’s synth pioneers and psych outfit, Syrinx.

Chicago based experimental song stylists Circuit de Yeux will be added to this year’s line-up, bringing her conversely expressionate sense of abstract pop to the Moogfest stage.


About Moogfest
Moogfest is the synthesis of music, art, and technology. Since 2004, Moogfest has brought together artists, futurist thinkers, inventors, entrepreneurs, designers, engineers, scientists, and musicians. By day, Moogfest is a platform for conversation and experimentation. By night, Moogfest presents cutting-edge music in venues throughout the city. This mind-expanding conference attracts creative and technology enthusiasts for three days of participatory programming in Durham, North Carolina. Performing artists include early pioneers in electronic music, alongside pop and avant-garde experimentalists of today.

Ticket information:

Engineer Festival Pass (limited quantity) - $1500
This two-day synth-building workshop, led by Moog engineers, invites a select group of enthusiasts to build their very own unreleased Moog analog synthesizer and sequencer. The hands-on workshop is conducted in two three-hour sessions within the Pop-up Moog production facility. No experience is necessary, but basic soldering knowledge is recommended. Participants in the Engineering workshop also have VIP access for the duration of the event. Priority access to all festival venues for performances and conference programming: conversations, workshops, and installations. Access to exclusive VIP viewing areas and events and gift bag. Complimentary food and drink in select locations. Workshops are available via RSVP. Engineer Festival Pass holders will receive first priority on a limited basis. Pre-Sale Engineer Festival Passes available for a limited time, while supplies last.

Buy here

VIP Festival Pass - $499
VIP access for the duration of the event. Priority access to all festival venues for performances and conference programming: conversations, workshops, and installations. Access to exclusive VIP viewing areas and events and gift bag. Complimentary food and drink in select locations. Workshops are available via RSVP. VIP Festival Pass holders will receive first priority on a limited basis.

Buy here

Festival Pass - $249
General Admission for the duration of the event. Access to all festival venues for performances and conference programming: conversations, workshops, and installations. Workshops are available via RSVP. VIP Festival Pass holders will receive first priority on a limited basis.

Buy here

Payment plans are also available. Simply select 'Monthly Payments with Affirm' as your payment method during checkout. More details are available here."

Happy New Year From MATRIXSYNTH! - A Look Back at 2014

Happy New Year everyone!

I want to start by thanking everyone that comes to MATRIXSYNTH and helps make it what it is - the readers, the supporters, and of course all the sponsors on the right.

THANK YOU and have a GREAT 2015!!!

This site is a labor of love and a ton of work. This site is ultimately meant to be an testament to everything synth in the making. We have over nine years of daily synth history captured here, 119,983 published posts. I can't wait to see what the future brings us in 2015!

That said, here are a few interesting bits from 2014 in the longest post of the year. ;)

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