Something New Coming from Make Noise

via @makenoisemusic

"Something new is brewing...

Check back next week for more information!

#modularsynth @blindoldfreak"

Interesting side note: @blindoldfreak is Alessandro Cortini of NIN.

Everything Ends Here

Blindoldfreak - Everything Ends Here - Minibrute 2 cover

Published on May 2, 2018 joeSeggiola

"From the album 1 (2009, Modular Brain).
Made in spring 2018 with Arturia MiniBrute 2. This is my first recording with this synthesizer. Additional gear used: Korg SQ-1 sequencer, Mooer ShimVerb reverb pedal."

TTSH ARP 2600 clone - Everything Ends Here (blindoldfreak)

Published on Dec 15, 2015 Henry Hurt

"I was so happy when my TTSH was finish at last, so I had to record something. Only one take. "Everything Ends Here" by blindoldfreak."

Everything Ends Here

Published on Nov 18, 2011 Alessandro Cortini

"San Francisco Electronic Music Festival 2010

Alessandro Cortini + Don Buchla, performing the piece "everything ends here", from Blindoldfreak's 1st EP, 1.

available on iTunes

and Amazon."

Everything Ends Here (Alessandro Cortini) // Eurorack, Rings, Mangrove, Bermuda, Plaits, Hermod

Published on Apr 9, 2018 Lost For Words

"I love the video of Alessandro Cortini, who wrote this track, and Don Buchla (modular father) playing this live. See link below. A simple 3 part melody loop with great feeling. I hope I did it a little justice.

In my take on the piece, played on a Keystep and recorded and sequenced by Hermod, Rings goes to ZVEX Instant LoFi Junky. Mangrove and Bermuda play the other two pieces. I use the Erica Polivoks filter and the Ripples filter to bring in distortion with a careful resonance/cutoff balance. Mangrove goes to Ripples then to Pico DSP for additional distortion and crunchiness.

Some sound effects from Plaits are bounced around in the Tapographic Delay.

Recorded to cassette. Mastered with Ozone etc. in Reaper.

Cortini and Buchla :"

Everything Ends Here

Published on Nov 18, 2011 Alessandro Cortini

"San Francisco Electronic Music Festival 2010

Alessandro Cortini + Don Buchla, performing the piece "everything ends here", from Blindoldfreak's 1st EP, 1.

available on iTunes:

itunes.apple.com/us/album//id304187276

and Amazon:

amazon.com/1/dp/B001RK05OS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1235173416&sr=8-1"

Suzanne Ciani to Perform with Alessandro Cortini & Mark Verbos Saturday at Machines in Music, NY

via @ctrl_mod

"Come see Suzanne Ciani perform Saturday w/ @blindoldfreak @markverbos part of @machinesinmusic @knockdowncenter"

machinesinmusic.com

"Machines in Music is a free two-day modular synthesizer exhibition that brings together users and makers for hands-on exploration, discussions, and performance. Last year’s conference hosted 24 modular synthesizer companies from around the world, attracting the attention of beginners and experienced synthesizer users alike. This year’s event is co-curated by Verbos Electronics and Control, and will allow even more participants to meet industry professionals and test out new modules."

Don Buchla Has Passed Away

It has come to my attention that Don Buchla passed away on Wednesday, September 14, at the age of 79. Anyone coming to this site should be well aware of who he is; who he was to the world of synthesizers. For those that aren't, he was by all means one of the fathers of the modern day synthesizer. Credit usually goes to Bob Moog, mainly for two reasons. One, Bob Moog chose the standard keyboard as the main interface for his synthesizers as they were more accessible to musicians. Two, Bob Moog's approach focused mainly on reproducing the sounds of acoustic instruments. Wendy Carlos' Switch on Bach and Keith Emerson's use of the Moog Modular brought Moog synthesizers to the mainstream.

Don Buchla's instruments, however, focused mainly on the exploration of sound. Artists attracted to his instrument fell more into the realm of what was known as musique concrete. Musique concrete mainly focused on the manipulation of sound, initially composed with electro-acoustic instruments recorded and manipulated on analog tape.

via wikipedia: "Buchla formed his electronic music equipment company, Buchla and Associates, in 1962 in Berkeley, California. Buchla was commissioned by avant garde music composers Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender, both of the San Francisco Tape Music Center, to create an electronic instrument for live performance. Under a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation Buchla completed his first modular synthesizer in 1963." On the other hand (also via wikipedia): "Moog created the first voltage-controlled subtractive synthesizer to utilize a keyboard as a controller and demonstrated it at the AES convention in 1964." Update: Wikipedia appears to be incorrect on Buchla.  Don Buchla started working on instruments in 1963, and the 100 was his first VC system completed in 1965. It was then sold in 66/67. The first name of the company was Buchla Associates in 66/67 followed by Buchla & Associates in 70/71. This New York times obituary has a good write-up on Don Buchla's work beyond just synthesizers. It also has 1965 as the date for the completion of his first synth.

Please note, this post isn't about who came first. In my opinion they both did and they both had different approaches. Most of you will be familiar with the terms East and West Coast synthesis. They pertain to these two different approaches with Buchla on the West and Moog on the East.

Don Buchla's passing is bittersweet. On the one hand his creations have finally gained popularity and respect in the modern day synthesizer community - a decade ago the focus was primarily on Bob Moog. On the other hand, he passed away not being able to do what he himself wanted to do in the end. He sold the rights to the Buchla name to BEMI, only to later take them to court. The case was settled, but I have been told it was far short from the initial agreement. It is also my understanding that Don Buchla was discouraged from working on creating new instruments.

One thing to consider is that although there were/are many Buchla clones out there that paid tribute to Don's work, it is my understanding that Don wasn't paid licensing for them and that Don wasn't necessarily thrilled by them. Think about it for a bit. One, people cloned his work, two, he did not get paid for his original creations, and three, people buying clones were putting their budgets towards clones vs. his new creations, for example, the 258 clone vs the new 261e. I was told from a reliable resource, that Don never had any interest in re-hashing old products. In a sense, they were more works of art, and he was always interested in creating something new, rather than re-hashing the old. However, I was told he was fine with people creating clones for personal use, just not for sale.

Writing this post is extremely difficult. I didn't know Don personally, but I did meet him a few times at NAMM. The first time I met him was a bit awkward because he doesn't talk fluff. His answers were very short, and he just kind of stood there as if implying, "are we done yet". I then realized, he wasn't implying that at all, he was just hanging out. The second time I met him, I said hello and didn't elaborate much. He then engaged in conversation with me. It was a simple thing, but something I will never forget. The video below with Don Buchla being interviewed by Mark Vail, captures the way I felt perfectly. If you were ever fortunate to meet him in person you will know what I mean. I'm going to miss him greatly, and will always wish I got to know him better.

And a message from Moog Music:

"Dear Don,

There are no words that can accurately portray the profound impact you have had on our lives. We are deeply inspired by your artistry, and your ground-breaking achievements will always inform the work we hold most closely to our hearts. You and Bob, through your distinctive styles, collaboration and friendship, have laid the foundation for our future. Your influence endures in our minds, hearts and hands as we craft tools that give rise to joyful experimentations. We will never truly capture the elegance and beauty that you and Bob achieved, but we promise to never stop trying.

From everyone at Moog, thank you for inspiring us and giving meaning to our life's work.

Love,
Your Friends At Moog"


Published on Aug 27, 2015 Redaktion Megasynth

And a rare performance of Don playing live with his instruments and Alessandro Cortini of Nine Inch Nails (NIN):

Everything Ends Here

Uploaded on Nov 18, 2011 Alessandro Cortini

"San Francisco Electronic Music Festival 2010

Alessandro Cortini + Don Buchla, performing the piece "everything ends here", from Blindoldfreak's 1st EP, 1."

Buchla 200e Modular Synthesizer - 111108 by Alessandro Cortini

Uploaded on Nov 11, 2008 Alessandro Cortini

www.blindoldfreak.com

Update: this is 111108 by Alessandro Cortini back in 2008 and previously posted here. I thought it looked familiar. Also check out Alessandro's performance 111108 of at the Knitting Factory in 2009 here.

BLINDOLDFREAK - CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY 2009

Published on Jul 21, 2015 Alessandro Cortini

"A rough video (and audio) testament of my first performance as Blindoldfreak, at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. 2009"

Buchla 200e and I believe a SuONOIO built by The Harvestman.

Blindoldfreak Cover - Everything Ends Here (take 1)

Published on Feb 1, 2013 GDVid12·92 videos

"Blindoldfreak Cover - Everything Ends Here (take 1) This was just off the top of my head.The melody is a bit off. Needs adjusting and second part added."

Check out the original live version with Alessandro Cortini and Don Buchla here.

NAMM 2013: 1st Pics of Buchla's The Electric Music Box

Top two via @harvestman

Bottom via @blindoldfreak

"The Buchla Music Easel lives again!!! Best of namm 2013 already!!!!!"

Everything Ends Here - Featuring Allesandro Cortini & Don Buchla

YouTube Uploaded by blindoldfreak on Nov 18, 2011

"San Francisco Electronic Music Festival 2010

Alessandro Cortini + Don Buchla, performing the piece "everything ends here", from Blindoldfreak's 1st EP, 1.

available on iTunes:

Everything Ends Here - 1

and Amazon: link"

Follow-up to this post where you'll find a couple of pics and a link to a review on CatSynth.

SONOIO -Enough

YouTube Uploaded by blindoldfreak on Jun 2, 2011

"from SONOIO - RED.
Preorder at www.sonoio.org

Directed & Edited by Matt Sundin and Caspar Newbolt
Director of Photography - Matt Sundin
Gaffer - Craig Ward
2nd Assistant - Justin Tellian"

SuONOIO RED Prototype Audio Demo

SuonoioRED #01 by blindoldfreak
"Here’s a 14 minute improv i recorded today with the SuONOIO RED prototype. I hope you enjoy it.

A."

via SuONOIO

The tail end of @blindoldfreak's set. - TRASH_AUDIO Synthmeet 9

Some video of Alessandro Cortini of SONOIO on Buchla via @noisesource.
The event was previously mentioned in this post.

SuONOIO 4

flickr By Noise Transmissions
(click for more)

"This is my SuONOIO, in a custom enclosure I made from a steel project box. I drilled holes, cut out a notch for the headphone jack in the back, and made a stencil of the logo, staying with the original color scheme.

The SuONOIO is a portable synthesizer inspired by SONOIO's music, custom created by The Harvestman (Scott Jaeger). SONOIO is the new project of Alessandro Cortini (Modwheelmood, Blindoldfreak, former keyboardist of Nine Inch Nails).

www.sonoio.org/
www.theharvestman.org/"

SuONOIO Ready to Ship

via @blindoldfreak:

"SuONOIO boxed up, manual printed"

and...

via @harvestman:

"Suonoio is done. Shipment next."

SuONOIO random voltage test

YouTube via blindoldfreak | October 13, 2010

"Testing the newly implemented random function on a ready to ship unit."

SuONOIO montage

YouTube via blindoldfreak | August 03, 2010
See the SuONOIO label below for more.
"Citizen Mori stopped by Scott's place and took a few photos/audio samples of the SuONOIO protoype. here is what he came up with!"

suonoio 3

YouTube via blindoldfreak | August 02, 2010

"another quick clip from the SuONOIO protoype.
more info & blog : www.sonoio.org"

Also added to this post where you'll find parts 1 and 2. Joint project between the Harvestman and SUNOIO. See the SuONIOIO label below.

SuONOIO 1st sound.

YouTube via blindoldfreak | July 31, 2010

"A quick random video from the 1st minute with the prototype.

www.sonoio.org for more info."

SuONOIO 2nd sound.

"A rather droney and noisy patch."

suonoio 3

blindoldfreak | August 02, 2010

"another quick clip from the SuONOIO protoype.
more info & blog : www.sonoio.org"

Monorocket's new Zero case

via @blindoldfreak

http://monorocket.com/