cicadidae | ambient/drone music with modular synthesizer

video upload by M Hob

"Cicadas are coming back this year and their song blends more and more each day with the landscape. I wanted to compose something which evoked my feeling when I listen to these wonderful insects buzzing away late on the afternoon. Most of my music is completely improvised (often building from how a certain patch performs or over randomized sequences) but for this track I wanted to try something different: composing a more rigid structure around which I could play.

Before I started this channel most of my music playing was strictly interpretational (playing from sheet music). I feel confident enough now that having something to guide me will do just that: guide, not impose strict guidelines.

The track was performed on the Monsterdrone using VCV Rack as a tuning guide (while playing with the pitch knobs) as a mixer through NYSTHI's Vector Mixer. I programmed the Crow to create a Lorenz attractor which controlled the position on the Vector Mixer, creating the orbiting feeling of the 4 voices on Monsterdrone. This enabled me to react and interact with the evolution of the song by choosing at what moments the song would intentionally evolve. The Minibrute added a deeper droning voice, controlled by the 3 position parameter on the Lorenz attractor. This voiced was shaped by a long looping envelope which hopefully adds a subtle rhythmic wave to the track."

undersky | exploring VBrazil's Monsterdrone synthesizer!

video upload by M Hob

"The Monsterdrone is a strange (in the best sense of the word) synthesizer - featuring 8 VCOs arranged over two banks (4 pairs of oscillators) with FM between the two banks, an inbuilt mixer for the 4 voices, and a very fun rhythmic section in lieu of an envelope, an internal clock and 3 filters (2 independent BP filters and a resonant LP). It's a Brazilian synthesizer built by VBrazil Systems (https://www.vbrazilsystems.com/) and it excels at creating thick droning sound and textures (as its name implies).

In this track I decided to simply play the mixer (and rhythmic section) of a fixed tuning on each of the 4 voices as I explore the different possibilities of this great synth, without any other instruments or modulation sources. Everything is played over some beautiful sky footage I've recorded since the spring thunderstorms began here in Brazil during the last few weeks (ending one of the longest draughts in recorded history where I live). To add some atmosphere to the track I used Ableton's Hybrid Reverb with an impulse response recorded at Maes Howe (https://www.openair.hosted.york.ac.uk...), the neolithical cairn in Orkney and used Freakshow Industries MISHBY for some high frequency glitching/tape distortion.

Everything was recorded live on Ableton."