Technomania on SonicState

Sonic State has launched Technomania, a video grab bag of randomn synth clips. Below are links to the first two episodes.










Episode 1
James Anderson and Circuit Bending
The Fairlight on Discovering Electronic Music
Russian Polyvoks
Fumitaka Anzai and a Lego Moog Modular
Mootbooxle and his Synthesizers.com modular

Episode 2
Roland CMU-810
The Moog Modular on Discovering Electronic Music
ARP 2500
James Anderson and Circuit Bending
Fumitaka Anzai and a Mellotron 400 patch change

via sequencer.de

DSMIDI Demo V.1. Unveiled

MIDI for the Nintendo DS. Title link takes you to more info.

via ben shannon illustrator.

Denkitribe on YouTube

video upload by Denkitribe


video upload by Denkitribe

Two new Electribe EMX Videos via Denkitribe. The effect pedals are Behringer. Via HarriL whom you might remember from these Electribe EMX videos.

dj sofia loaf on YouTube

via jesse. That's his daughter rocking her sampled voice on the Korg Kaoss pads. : )

KiraSynth - New Flickr Shots

flickr by Mike M. Title link takes you to more.

Defcon Badge Event Generator

Defcon 14 Badge Hacking Contest Winner - Proof of Concept on YouTube


Title link takes you to the full set of videos. If you don't know what DEFCON is, go here. In short it's a hacker convention. I pulled the following posted by shagghie on this VSE post before it dissapears into the ether:

"Don't ask me how, and definately don't ask me why, but I managed to win a competition I didn't even know was going on at Defcon this year... I hacked the defcon access badge and turned it into an event generator for my analog synth, using $20 of parts from Fry's and some god aweful zero-rosin solder and wayyy to hot of a cheap gun! Originally, I was trying to decipher the last 'mode' on the badge that put out random patterns for the blinking LED eyeballs on the badge...turns out it was a pseudo random pattern after all, but in the process I did discover it repleated every 58 seconds, and that the internal clock ran at exactly 64 bpm.... If you double that you get 128bpm, which is a nice healthy dancable pace... So that's when I thought to install a few piezo tweeters on the badge and tap directly off the IC in order to hear the pattern, and then realized I could install a 1/4" phone plug jack and tap both channels (left and right eyeball) and route it to my analog synth's envelope generator, so that i could great note shapes from both channels. Well, the rest is history, and I was able to get some nice phat techno beats out of it after tuning the synth for awhile. Amazing what redbulls and Fatburgers can inspire!

Little write-up in the Washington Post :/ link

Some pictures of other hacked badges and the badge's creater Joe Grand (aka Kingpin of L0pht Heavy Industries): link

Some VIDEOS of the badge in action, the "Blue Light Concert", the semi-lame demo at the awards ceremony, and a small clip of me setting up for what turned out to be a 7 hour long set at Caezer's Challenge private party. I had to jam for 7 hours straigh, performing live, with no loops, no .mp3's, and help from the occasional curious hacker that would step over to play the keys while I manned the machinedrum...
link"

Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman Live

For those of you in the Seattle, San Francisco or Los Angeles area, here's your chance to see one of the pioneers of electronic music, Jean-Jacques Perrey along with Dana Countryman. You can read more about Perrey's influence on wikipedia. Title link takes you to more info on the shows. They play Seattle on August 27, San Franscisco on August 29, Hollywood on August 31, and a special in store meet and great at Analogue Haven on August 30. That would be a pretty sweet gear fest.

Here are links to some excerpts:
Chicken On The Rocks
Furioso Disco
Atomic Twist
Harry's Rag
Podcast Interview

Via Dana Countryman on his gear and the upcoming shows:

"Hi Friends,

Jean Jacques Perrey and I have finished recording our upcoming MOOG CD. It will be out on September 25th, on Oglio Records.

We'll be doing special concerts in Seattle (Aug. 27th), San Francisco (Aug. 29th) and Hollywood (Aug. 31st).
Please check our web sites for more info.

http://www.jean-jacquesperrey.com
http://www.danacountryman.com"

"I have a big ol' modular synth in my home studio.

link

It's mostly Dotcom, with about 25% MOTM modules. I've been working with the legendary Jean-Jacques Perrey for the last couple of years, and we've just completed a new CD of crazy, "Moog" tunes. It comes out on Oglio Records next month.

We're doing a series of concerts on the West Coast at the end of this month to promote the CD. BTW, these are the FIRST concerts that Jean-Jacques has ever done in AMERICA. At age 77, he is still going strong, but who knows what will happen in the future. He is still one creative and brilliant guy, and it's a pleasure to be so lucky to work with him.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to add to my modular -- trying out different modules from various companies, - selling off ones I don't use, etc. I have no problem, having a "Franken-synth"!"

The Sounds of Stars

Make sure to check out badscience.net for more, including Don Kutz, the man recording space.

Via The Mail article:
"The astrophysicist said: 'The stars have sounds in them. In a sense they ring like giant bells or musical instruments. One of them sounds like African drumming and has been used in nightclubs in Belgium for youngsters keen on dance music.'"

"Stars vibrate at very low frequencies which have been boosted so they can be heard by humans. Each star has a unique sound - while some resemble a beating heart, others are more like an orchestra tuning up.

The vibrations are caused by reactions in the intensely hot core, creating waves of pressure that ripple through to the surface.

Because space is empty, the sounds cannot be carried to Earth. But the vibrations constantly affect the stars' brightness, the changes in which can be measured and converted back into sound.

The 'voice' of each star typically covers a couple of octaves in the range of musical notes it produces. The sound of the Sun, which pulses every five minutes, would have to be about 12 octaves higher for the deep rumbling to be audible to humans."

Title link takes you to the full article with samples. Also if this topic intersts you, check out this post on the rings of Saturn.

Note on sending me stuff

Just an FYI, but if you send me anything make sure it doesn't look like robot spam. Every now and then I get an email with something like, "I think you'll like this" or "check this out" with a link. I have no idea if it's someone sending me something synth related or if it's spam. I always err on the side of caution so it goes straight to the garbage bin. So, if you are going to send me something, please make sure it obviously for the site and not spam. BTW, I reply to all of my emails whether with a quick thanks or more, so if you don't hear back from me within a day, I probably thought it was spam and deleted it.

Update: Also if you want a link back to your site for the "via link" please be sure to include it even if you have sent it in the past. I'm bad at remembering people's URLs. : )

Concerto for a Vocoded Ring by Shepitology

Here's an interesting one. Grondo of Shepitology used his wedding ring to tap the microphone on a Kord MicroKorg to play lead with it's vocoder.

"I played the melody with my left hand while tapping on the connected microphone with the ring."

Title link takes you to the post and a link to the track.