"This is an original Cat and not the Cat SRM or the Cat SRM II... The rear connectors are external audio input; glide switch (for a footswitch, not included); pedals to VCF and VCO1 (pedals not included); series patch to slave and from master; and audio out low/high..."
via this auction "An ambient light source and square-wave nosie maker.
The synth is based around a 4093 quad nand gate CMOS chip. Capable of hideously beautiful beepy noise. The 4 cascaded oscillators interact with each other to create a relentless range of synth tones. The power starve dial adds further modulation and manipulation of the oscillations.
The noise-making circuit is built into a Mood Cube I got from RED5. The Mood Cube lights up using 3 LEDs. I hacked the circuit to affect the rate of the light cycle. I also added a voltage starve for this circuit too. The reason being this; when the LEDs are on full power, they drain power from the 4093. This in turn adds further lovely modulation to the tones.
The controls are as follows: * 4 dials on top to control the rate and tone of the oscillations. * 1 dial on the left side for the 4093 power starve. * 2 dials on the right side. 1 for LED rate and 1 for LED intensity. * 2 switches on the front. 1 momentary push button and 1 toggle switch. * 1 output jack located on the back side. * 1 on/off switch and 9v battery holder on the underside of the cube.
The cube fits well into the palm and can be enjoyed by anyone with a passion for harsh, grinding noise terrorism and pretty colours. It's powered by a single 9v battery which is housed in the bottom of the cube. There's a 6.35mm jack socket for hooking up to your amp/mixer/effects. There's no internal speaker!"
Mood Cube Quad Nand Synth
YouTube via TheZombiest | January 27, 2011 |
"A 4093 quad nand synth built into a mood cube from Red5. The 4093 is 4 cascaded oscillators. It has a voltage starve dial with an LDR in parrallel so the LEDs of the mood cube will modulate the oscillations. I didn't expect when I first made the circuit that the mood cube LED circuit would affect the 4093, but it does. I added a voltage starve to the LEDs and a cycle rate dial."
"A bass sequence with the usual suspects and heavily processed by tyme sefari recorded in ableton live with a little ping pong delay, reverb and heavily compressed by Rough Rider from audiodamage
2 voice of the harvestman hertz donut in sin mode crossfaded in lopass filter mode by qmmg ,pitch controlled by woggle out of wogglebug, amplitude controlled by maths and wogglebug in max/min a172, wavefolded by the stg modulated by lfo a147, filtered by borg 1, first out in tyme sefari where the end loop is modulated by the lfo, dir/record/played switched by a169 clocked by zorlon cannon (wogglebug too ) , feedback from delay out to in 2 of borg1 switched with antioscillator etc ...
"This composition is called THE FIRE PLAINS and it is the second in a series of 12 studies for the Vulcan harp and theremin. The Vulcan harp was introduced by artist and visionary Wah Ming Chang more than 40 years ago for a STAR TREK episode. Over the years it has evolved considerably, along with the technology involved with its manufacture. It is acoustic, electroacoustic and electronic (it is the electronic component that permits such things as the playing of complex harmonies, glide pitch shifts, arpeggiation, etc.).
This piece is a study for the use of the gated arpeggiator. Before starting to play, I tapped two bars on the "tapper control" in the tempo I wanted the arpeggiator to engage in the second half of the composition (two bars instructs the instrument to play sixteenth notes - one bar would have told it to play eighth notes). Once the pattern is entered, all the harpist has to do is touch the tapper to engage it and apply it to the chords that are struck. From that point on, it is activated or deactivated alternately by touch until it is cancelled.
This instrument is a prototype. It is entirely self-contained and it is not MIDI capable. It has 15 banks of its own sounds, and each bank has 10 programs. The instrument is also provided with its own effects, timbre controls, etc. It is not mechanically activated like a keyboard. It triggers its sounds by means of the frequencies that the strings are tuned to, so it must be very accurately tuned prior to playing. It transmits directly to its amplifier by means of an antenna integrated into the pin column (the extended curved vertical arm that holds the tuning pins) so there are no cables.
This performance was recorded in a single take because it was too tricky to try and piece it together with only one video camera. Once the track was complete, I overdubbed the theremin part using the Samuel Hoffman 1929 RCA theremin. I didn't bother to show myself playing the theremin because there are already quite a few videos here on YT of me playing theremins of different sorts. The Vulcan harp, on the other hand, is rare. There are only two instruments in the world like the one you see in this video."
Milton Babbitt passed away yesterday January 29, 2011. He was 94 years old. Via Wikipedia:
"Babbitt later became interested in electronic music. He was hired by RCA as consultant composer to work with their RCA Mark II Synthesizer at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center (known since 1996 as the Columbia University Computer Music Center), and in 1961 produced his Composition for Synthesizer. Babbitt was less interested in producing new timbres than in the rhythmic precision he could achieve using the Mark II synthesizer, a degree of precision previously unobtainable in live performances (Barkin & Brody 2001).
Babbitt continued to write both electronic music and music for conventional musical instruments, often combining the two. Philomel (1964), for example, was written for soprano and a synthesized accompaniment (including the recorded and manipulated voice of Bethany Beardslee, for whom the piece was composed) stored on magnetic tape."
Babbitt: "Occasional Variations"
YouTube via NewMusicXX | October 24, 2008 |
Re-Published on Sep 15, 2009 Karin Schneider
"Milton Babbitt: "Occasional Variations"
Realized on the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, 1968-1971"
copyright 1997 Eric Chasalow, all rights reserved"
Update:
milton babbitt- vision and prayer
"NewMusicXX | February 02, 2011 | 3 likes, 0 dislikes
Re-Published on May 25, 2015 Joe
Milton Babbitt: "Vision and Prayer"(1961) for soprano and synthesized tape. Bethany Beardslee, soprano. The text and title are from a 1945 poem by Dylan Thomas, the first section of which reads: Who Are you Who is born
In the next room So loud to my own That I can hear the womb Opening and the dark run Over the ghost and the dropped son Behind the wall thin as a wren's bone? In the birth bloody room unknown To the burn and turn of time And the heart print of man Bows no baptism
But dark alone Blessing on The wild Child.
"Cary Grace performs an impromptu improvisation on the Buchla 200 Series Electric Music Box, while taking a break from hand-crafting Wiard 300 Series Modules. Programming assistance provided by Michael Murphy of Modern Implement Company. - The Airtight Garage: http://www.fromefm.co.uk/profile.php?..."
With the recent publication of the closing of genoQs Machines GmbH by regular legal procedure, we are issuing a long overdue message to give you a realistic outlook for the future. We also want to contain the spread of inaccurate information about the circumstances, and share our view of things.
"Simple R-70 drum beat is fed into TSP CAS pedal. Control Voltages from Frostwave sequencer are being fed into pedal. Top row of sliders is routed to repeat rate. Bottom row of sliders is routed to gate input for triggering the pedal rather than use the gate outputs matched for the upper row of the sequencer (just for this example). Other random sounds that come in occasionally are from the grey Zoom beatbox, Acidlab Bassline 2, and Bugbrand Modular that are feeding a mixer off screen.
Sound quality is so-so from camera, but you get the idea."
via this auction
