Barry Schrader: Moon-Whales

YouTube via ExMachinaPub | Feb 22, 2011 |

"This video is from a 1985 concert at CalArts that dealt with real-time video processing of live performances. This is the final movement of Schrader's "Moon-Whales and Other Moon Songs" (1982-83), based on poems by Ted Huges. Performers include Maurita Phillips-Thormburgh, soprano, and Michael Scroggins, live video processing. The electronic music was created on a Buchla 200 system (Electric Music Box)."
http://www.barryschrader.com/
via Barry Schrader:
"Moon-Whales is the seventh and final movement of my work Moon-Whales and Other Moon-Songs composed in 1982-83, and based on children's poems by the late British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes. It was originally composed for the soprano Maurita Phillips-Thornburgh, who performs in this video. The work was performed several times throughout the U.S. as well as in Europe. The final performance was at the funeral of my friend and colleague, vocalist/composer Frank Royon Le Mée in Marseilles in 1993, at his request. Moon-Whales and Other Moon-Songs was my final non-improvised work with the Buchla 200. Unfortunately, the master tapes, being on Ampex 456, are no longer playable due to the binder problems with that tape formulation. As the masters are, therefore, lost, there will probably never be any more performances of this work. I did do a digital transfer of one of the solo electronic movements, Moon-Wings, for some dance groups many years ago, but, unfortunately, not the other movements of the work. I recently came across this video tape, and although both the video and audio quality are poor, I thought it might be interesting to some people as a documentation of the final movement of the work."

Update: some additional info from Barry Schrader in response to a question from the Buchla 200e list:

"All of the electronic music in Moon-Whales was done on the Buchla 200. The Fairlight referred to is the Fairlight CVI, an early hybrid video processor. The "thanks" is because the CalArts School of Film/Video had one on loan from Fairlight at the time.

[Regarding] the '…melodic 12-tone scale…', the electronic music here, as in all of my works involving live performers, has an "orchestral" accompaniment function. Thus, here, it must support the vocal line, and, yes, it is tonal, in a 20th century, abstracted sort of way. Not all of my music created on the Buchla 200 uses a tempered scale. Then, as now, I use a variety of tunings, some of which are invented for a specific piece or section of a piece. "Monkey King", for example, is entirely pentatonic.

Like most things, the limitations of the Buchla 200 depend on the person using it. Some of the ideas that are important to me in the electronic music I create are the development of new timbres, having a high degree of control over what I'm doing, and trying to go beyond what's been done (both by myself and others) in the past. While little of my analog work is commercially available, the "Lost Atlantis CD" contains music that was entirely done on the Buchla 200 in 1976-77. The booklet that comes with the CD has some technical information. I didn't find it difficult to create any particular type of scale with this synth, as I developed procedures for insuring precise control. For example, with "Moon-Whales", I measured voltage data to 2 decimal places with a VOM, and, using this and other means of notating patch data, I usually was able to faithfully recreate a given patch.

The original version of "Moon-Whales" was quadraphonic, and, on this video, everything is really crushed together. Still, you can get an idea of what it sounds like."

bugtasticalicious

bugtasticalicious from emergencyofstate on Vimeo.

"8==d"

Update:

bugin 2 electric bugaloo

bugin 2 electric bugaloo from emergencyofstate on Vimeo.

"same patch minus the drums."

Eurorack Synth and guitar rs510e EMS trapezoid

YouTube via equinoxoz | Feb 26, 2011 |

"Well, it is Analogue systems VCO and EMS Filter/EMS Trapezoid modules and the guitar is going through reverb and filter, modulated by the trapezoid and gate delay..."

Potty Synths...

Hmm....

via TRASH_AUDIO

The Korg MS-20: The Control Panel Part 1 (HQ)

YouTube via AutomaticGainsay | Feb 26, 2011 |
custom white MS20
"Here is a higher-quality version of part one of the Korg MS-20 video on the control panel."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Octatrack synth jam

YouTube via dylannau | Feb 26, 2011 |

"A jam with the new Octatrack, Machinedrum, ARP Odyssey, Moog Voyager, xoxbox and a line 6 DL4. Synths are sequenced by the xoxbox, everything is running into Octatrack and straight stereo to Logic with a mastering channel strip on the master buss."

Reactable Videos by tommyZeta

YouTube via tommyzeta - @Zetatwit

Playlist:
"Black" by tommyZeta
Reactable mobile - Tips & Tricks 01
Reactable mobile - Tips & Tricks 02 HD
Reactable on iPad
Reactable mobile

Reactable mobile - Reactable Systems SL
iPads on eBay

MFOS Soundlab DIY Synthesizer

via this auction

"'Yellow' Magic Synthesizer based on the MFOS Soundlab. This Synthesizer was encased in a original Pelicase and is just optical but also musically curious.

The used MFOS Soundlab PCB is one original one out of the first Series.

Attention: Currently, there is a MIDIMPLANT from Roman Sowa installed. This is NOT PART of the auction, but it can be bought for 30 EUR additionally ( the original buying price of the MIDI was 55 EUR !)

Details and audio samples are available on the musicfromouterspace.com page.

Delivery will be:
- MFOS Soundlab in Pelicase
- Power supply
- Cable for 2 x CV to stereo adapter
- (optional) MIDIMPLANT"
large pics here

Claude Debussy - Clair de Lune (RAC Analog Synthesizer Version)

YouTube via andreanjos | Feb 26, 2011 |

"This is one of the finest pieces of music ever written. It's very cinematic and I was kinda bored on a friday night, so I decided to just make my own version of it.

It's featuring the Minimoog model D, which has some trouble staying in tune, especially on the high notes. The Juno-60 on the chords. I ran the last half of it through this old tape deck, so you kinda get this rough tape hiss and distortion.

I was kinda inspired by this arrangement of another song.
http://soundcloud.com/datashat/arr-da...

I've always been a big fan of David Holmes version as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Oceans-Eleven-D..."

Electric Independence: Morton Subotnick

"In its early days, electronic music wasn’t very musical. Painstakingly put together with wave generators or tiny bits of tape spliced together on splicing blocks by music professors and hobbyists, it was often highly abstract, largely concerned with pitch and timbre, and lacked much rhythm or pattern.

Enter Morton Subotnick.

Back in the sixties, while Robert Moog was developing his pioneering keyboard on the East Coast, Subotnick, Ramon Sender and Don Buchla were toiling away in San Francisco on what would become possibly the world’s first analog synthesizer, the ‘electronic music easel’BUCHLA 100. Instead of a keyboard, it relied on pressure sensitive touch-plates, which controlled individually tuneable keys for limitless micro-tuning possibilities, analog sequencers, and complex waveforms beyond your basic sine, sawtooth, and square waves. You can now find it at the Smithsonian.

Check out more at Motherboard.

See the rest at VBS.TV: Electric Independence: Morton Subotnick - Motherboard | VBS.TV"

Click here for additional posts featuring Moton Subotnick including video of recent performances.
Click here for additional Motherboard TV posts.