Droning with Pasco Scientific

video upload by osixoone sevenone

"A little drone with Pasco Scientific educational equipment, and a Tibetan singing bowl, looped with Axoloti. The mic input is pretty hummy, so i tuned the drone to the hum and made it part of the drone.
The Fourier Synthesizer is fixed at a base frequency off 440 Hz."

"A few weeks ago I saw this Pasco Scientific set on a second hand site, and thought that these would be great for making drone music. It was made for education on waveforms, AM, FM, and Fourier Synthesis, and once belonged to a University. Steve Mann made a great video about the Pasco Fourier Synthesizer [below]. Today i made a little drone video with this set, and looping it with the Axoloti Core. The dual oscillators have sine, saw, square and ramp waveforms, and there is AM, DSB (dual sideband) and FM. OSC 1 is routed to the modulation input for OSC 2. You can also cross modulate them. At 4:00 i patch the sum out OSC 1 modulation. The Fourier Synthesizer is fixed at 440 Hz, the harmonics have individual level and phase controls."

Pic of the setup.

Steve Mann's video mentioned above:

PASCO FOURIER SYNTHESIZER: Understanding Fourier series with one of my favorite things from 1970s

video upload by Steve Mann

"One of my favorite things from my childhood was the PASCO FOURIER SYNTHESIZER which left me with a very deep and fundamental understanding of periodic waveforms and their Fourier series representations.
I was fortunate enough to be able to play on this apparatus back in the early 1970s.
Here I try to capture the ineffable sense of awe and wonder that it left upon me.
Also featured is the Eico460 cathode ray oscilloscope that I've had since childhood, modified by switching over to a transparent CRT so you can see inside it and understand how an oscillosocpe works.

In 1978 I composed a piece of music that contains only a single note (while its various harmonics gently rise and fall): Adagio for PASCO FOURIER SYNTHESIZER and Lock-in Amplifier.
In 2016 we (Splashtones) did a live performance of this piece, accompanied by hydraulophone and clarinet, as the headline act for VRTO 2016.
See also http://wearcam.org/vrto/
eico pasco015
eico_pasco015.mp4"

February Ends by Sound of Science (feat Jayden Frost)

Published on Apr 28, 2014 Sound of Science Official·3 videos

Sound of Science is Tom J Carpenter and Jason Huffman of Analogue Solutions.

"Available now on iTunes! http://tinyurl.com/mm2rjt9

CD BABY: http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/SoundofS...

Sound of Science is a transatlantic duo comprising Tom and Jason of Analogue Solutions.

Tom has been building synthesisers for over 15 years. He has supplied synths to people such as Trent Reznor, Martin Gore, Vince Clarke, Phil Oakey, Daniel Miller, and many more. The designs are directly influenced by his love of electronic music.

Jason is an analogue synth wizard, composer and a lover of all things that make noise. He also produces the legendary Rezfilter videos (see YouTube) that highlight these excellent synthesisers.

Together they have pooled their years of combined experience in songwriting and sound design to produce real songs using real synthesisers.

February Ends vocals via Jayden Frost:

Jayden Frost electrified audiences across the U.S. and Mexico as the voice and face of When in Rome (replacing Clive Farrington and Andrew Mann) on their extensive tour bringing his positive energy to stage performance, radio interviews and television. When In Rome, who's number one hit "The Promise" reached top ten on the pop charts, and #1 on the dance charts in 1989-1990 (and was the most recognized song in the blockbuster film Napoleon Dynamite).

Some of the acts that Jayden Frost has shared the stage with include: Devo (Whip It!), A Flock Of Seagulls (I Ran), Bow Wow Wow (I Want Candy),The Psychedlic Furs (Pretty In Pink), Animotion (Obsession), Deborah Gibson (Only In My Dreams/Foolish Beat), Gene Loves Jezebel (Desire), Dramarama (Anything, Anything), and Tommy Tutone (867-5309).

- See more at: http://www.jaydenfrost.com.hostbaby.c...

Lyrics via Robert Hawkins:

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Sound Builders: "Cyborg" Inventor Steve Mann Builds Instruments Out of Water

via motherboard.tv
"In Episode 4 of Sound Builders, we travel to Toronto, Ontario to visit the amazing Steve Mann. While at MIT, where he earned a PhD in Media Arts & Sciences, Steve founded the Wearable Computers Group at the Media Lab, and built musical instruments using brainwaves and compressed hydraulic fluids. Lauded by some as the world’s first cyborg, and the initiator of the mobile blogging movement, Steve is now a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto.

For this episode, Steve volunteered to be both guest and host, using his human/cyborg first-person perspective to show us his studio, talk about his past inventions, and ask members of the circus to play the latest of his inventions: the hydraulophone, a highly tactile and mellifluous water-based instrument that Steve hopes can offer the blind and deaf a new method of music-creation.

To submit your own instrument idea, and win $1000, visit www.motherboard.tv/contest."

Mattel Optigan Site

Another nice site from Mattias. Interesting piece of gear. I've never seen or heard one before. It has a very distinct, groovy and at times moody character to it, for lack of a better description. More info, shots and video well worth checking out after the hop.



According to the site, the Mattel Optigan was used by:
"Optigannally yours, Blur, Tom Waits, Steve Hackett, Steve Fisk, Freddie Wadling, Celestine, AK-momo, Nanook of the North, Pineforest Crunch, Mitchell Froom, Elvis Costello, Aimee Mann, Rufus Wainright, Neil Finn, Jon Brion, The Clash, Sparklehorse." It has a beautiful sound to it.