4ms STS and E370 Drum Machine

Published on Mar 23, 2018 The Mad Music Machine

Another tutorial video from synth kid Caitlin!

"We have been invited to take the Mad Music Machine to the Horsham Piazza Italia Festival which features many Italian (and other) high performance cars.

We thought it would be fun to incorporate samples of these cars into our music. Here Caitlin creates a basic drum machine using drum samples in the E370 and cars sounds in the Stereo Triggered Sampler .

The E370 makes for a great drum machine as the drum samples are very are easily tuned and triggered."

E370 & E352 Jam

Published on Feb 25, 2018 The Mad Music Machine

"Caitlin's first full jam with the Synthesis Technology E370 & E352.

The E370 has oscillator one connected to the Roland System-1m which is being used as a filter. Oscillators 2 ,3 & 4 form chords outputted via the E370's onboard mixer.

The E352's 2 outputs are fed to the Mother-32's filer and envelope.

The Mother-32 (along with a Pico Seq) provide the sequencing. MATHS and the Quadra/Quad VCAs the envelopers.

We also use the Hexinverter drums triggered by the 4MS Rotating Clock divider."

Synthesis Technology e370 Chord Mode

Published on Feb 17, 2018 The Mad Music Machine

"A quick experiment with the Synthesis Technology e370 Chord Mode.

The only sound source is the e370 with one oscillator playing a simple bass line, and the remaining oscillators forming Major chords.

We are using our Moog Mother-32 (as a clock only), two Erica Synth Pico Sequencers, the Roland System-1m (as a filter only). Since our last video we have also added an Intellijel Quadra and a Quad VCA to partner the e370.

We next plan to step through the chord table to form progressions using different chord types (rather than just sticking to the Major Chords as we have done here)."

New Book on the History and Impact of MIDI, "Mad Skills: MIDI and Music Technology in the 20th Century"

Mad Skills: MIDI and Music Technology in the 20th Century is a new book from Ryan A. Diduck set to be released on March 13. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.

The following is a quick intro from Ryan:

Growing from my PhD research at McGill University, under Jonathan Sterne's supervision, Mad Skills is a timely cultural history of MIDI — as you know, the most ubiquitous and yet invisible technology across the past thirty-five years of music making. In the book, I situate MIDI within a century's worth of innovation in musical instrument design, and chronicle the industrial and social forces that guided electronic music on toward its present trajectory. I'm honored that the revered British Ethnomusicologist Georgina Born wrote the book's foreword, and London-based Repeater Books will release Mad Skills in March 2018.

Here's what people are saying so far:

"Mad Skills is a history of electronic music technology, of scraps over standards, and of music's relationship to capital in the twentieth century. Through deep dives into archives, original interviews, and an aptitude for the Marxian archaeology of electronics, Diduck opens the black box of MIDI for all to see and hear." – Ben Tausig, Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology, Stony Brook University.

'Most people have no idea what MIDI is, even though it undergirds and regulates a substantial swathe of the sounds they listen to and love. In Ryan Alexander Diduck’s deeply researched telling – a biography of a technology, with a caustic critical edge – MIDI takes on a personality of its own even as it standardizes global music-production to a hitherto unimaginable degree. Blending technical knowledge, business history, and cultural polemic, Mad Skills is a sharp study of a human invention that stamped its post-human character over an entire era of pop.' – Simon Reynolds, author of Retromania and Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture

"A deep/clear read on historical and SOCIAL development of machine music; wisdom about MIDI finally.
– Dan Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never"

Caitlin's explains her team's Astro Pi Code and jams with waveforms created from historic ISS data.

Published on Jan 28, 2018 The Mad Music Machine

"Team STEAMCademy's Astro Pi code is almost complete and here Caitlin demonstrates how it will (hopefully!) be used to collect data on board the International Space Station.

In a previous video she demonstrated how she can use the data to generate waveforms using the Synthesis Technology Waveedit program, and if successful in the Astro Pi competition she will use it to generate wavetables from this code.

Caitlin then has a quick jam with the Moog Mother-32, Roland System-1m and the e352 Cloud Terrarium using wavetables she has previously generated from historic ISS data."

System-1m bass jam with E352, Mother-32 and Mutant Drums

Published on Jan 20, 2018 The Mad Music Machine

"A quick experiment the Roland System-1m playing a bass pattern and and the E352 tuned a couple of octaves higher."

Caitlin creates wavetables for the E352 using data recorded on the ISS

Published on Jan 14, 2018 The Mad Music Machine

"The Code Club that Caitlin attends has entered the Astro Pi competition. As part of their research we have been looking at historic data collected on board the ISS. Here Caitlin explains how she extracted cyclic data from it and used it to create wavetables for the E352 Cloud Terrarium.

Once she had created the .wav file she imported into the Synthesis Technology Waveedit program to create the wavetables (see one of her previews videos for details on how to use this program).

She then explains how she modulates the wavetables with MATHS before having a quick jam with her newly created wavetables!"

E352, Mother-32, Roland System-1m and MATHS

Published on Jan 8, 2018 The Mad Music Machine

"We left the Mad Music Machine turned on over night (with the master volume turned down) - we were pleasantly surprised by the new sounds we heard when we turned it back on!

Here Caitlin plays a short intro but does not touch any controls once the simple 16 note sequence starts - it just Maths working it's magic with our oscillators (mainly the E352)"

Caitlin's first experiment with the Maths

Published on Jan 7, 2018 The Mad Music Machine

"We had only 20 HP left in the current form of the Mad Music Machine and have used it all with a MATHS! - here Caitlin has a first experiment with it with the Roland System-1m to improve it's envelope and develop another voice from the main sequence controlled by the Mother-32."

A quick jam with the E352 / Mother-32

Published on Jan 2, 2018 The Mad Music Machine

"This was just a very quick jam as Caitlin wanted to say a quick thanks to lovely people at Synth Tech Modular who have been so supportive of her.

This is Caitlin's own intro and a simple sequence using the E352 & Mother-32. We didn't use any drum modules other than the triggered Mutant Clap which is being used as a filter. The System-1m provides a little bit of reverb,"

'OMD' Jam with Mother-32 controlling E352, Roland System-1m and Mutant Drums

Published on Dec 30, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"Caitlin jamming with a very simple sequence taken from Enola Gay by OMD - we use the Mother-32 to sequence and control our E352, Roland System-1m and Mutant Drums"

Caitlin explains clocks with the Mother-32 clock and the 4ms Rotating Clock Divider

Published on Dec 29, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"We have added a 4ms Rotating Clock Divider to the Mad Music Machine.

Here Caitlin uses it to explain synthesizer clocks by using a clock signal from the Mother-32 to trigger our Mutant Drums"

Caitlin explains modulation using an LFO and the intellijel Quad VCA

Published on Dec 26, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"Caitlin overheard a (non synth) conversation about modulation and although she had been using it (without realising it) for some time, she was not sure exactly what it meant.

So once she understood the basic principle of using one signal to vary another, she decided to make a video."

A quick 'Industrial' jam with the Mother-32 & E352

Published on Dec 24, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"Caitlin has a quick jam with the Mother-32 & E352"

A Merry Christmas from Caitlin and the Mad Music Machine.

Published on Dec 19, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"Caitlin explains how we use the Moog Mother-32 to control and mix the outputs from the E352 Cloud Terrarium.

She then uses this patch, together with the Hexinverter Mutant Drums and the Roland System-1m, to play a special Christmas tune using Sonic Pi MIDI sequencing."

Using the External input of the Mutant Clap to generate another 'guitar' voice.

Published on Dec 3, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"We fed the MIDI of Status Quo's 'Caroline' to the Mother-32 and our Roland System-1m, but wanted to have Quo's 'dual' guitar sound - so we took the output of the Mother-32s filter and fed it in to the Mutant Clap and triggered it on 1/8th notes and generated a very crude version on Rick Parfitt :)"

Caitlin making 'Whale Sounds'

Published on Nov 17, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"Caitlin has been playing with the inbuilt Cross Modulation and Reverb/Delay effects on the Roland System-1m"

Mutant Drums, System-1m, Mother 32 jam.

Published on Nov 14, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"Caitlin finally let daddy have a play with the Mad Music Machine and he fed it notes from a well know Black Sabbath tune."

Blokas Pisound with Sonic Pi

Published on Oct 15, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"We have had the Pisound for a while but hadn't got around to testing it until prompted to do so my a discussion on in-thread.sonic-pi.net.

Here we try it with the Code Club 'Musical Round' Frere Jacques project, firstly with just Sonic Pi audio, followed by MIDI sequencing our Mother-32, System-1m and Mutant Drums."

Pisound / Sonic Pi at 200 BPM

Published on Oct 15, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"Just leaving this running as part of a performance test of Sonic Pi with the Pisound."

Experimenting with the O'Tool Plus Oscilloscope Module

Published on Sep 21, 2017 The Mad Music Machine

"Caitlin has been learning about sound waves at school so we added an oscilloscope module to help her understand sound design.

Here we compare the triangle and sawtooth waves on the Mother-32 with the sine wave on the System-1m.

We then use the cutoff on the Mother-32 to approximate a sine wave."