RIP Tod Dockstader

Left: "Tod Dockstader works in the studio in the early 1960s. Photo: Courtesy Tom Steenland/Starkland"

Sad news in via Atomic Shadow and Cray of Vicmod Records.

Tod Dockstader was one of the pioneers of electronic music working mainly with tape. You can find his Wikipedia page here. Wired has a great interview/write-up posted back in June of 2012.

"Born in 1932, Dockstader was part of the first wave of electronic musicians, who, before the advent of synthesizers in the early 1960s, worked with whatever hardware they could find: reel-to-reel tape machines, sine wave generators and a wild array of homemade circuits and military surplus gear. In the process, they created a universe of electronic music that still sounds unique and prescient today.

The wire recorder Dockstader used to create electronic music was a piece of used military equipment. 'A lot of this [electronic music] happened because, after the war, a lot of the stuff was available,' Dockstader said. 'Normally a person, a civilian … wouldn’t be able to get that tube, this device or that device. That fascinated me.'"

Explore some sound in his memory this weekend.

Below are a few videos in via Cray.  The first is a short on Tod Dockstader recently on Kickstarter, followed by two pieces of his work.  You can find more posts featuring Tod Dockstader here.


Unlocking Dockstader (short) from Justin H Brierley on Vimeo.

The Unlocking Dockstader Kickstarter campaign was posted back in October of 2014.

Tod Dockstader & David Lee Myers - Assembly

Uploaded on Oct 5, 2007

"kaeru"

Tod Dockstader - Water Music, Part 3

Uploaded on Dec 10, 2010 -questasian-

"Taken from the release "Drone, Two Parts Of Apocalypse, Water Music" by Tod Dockstader (1966)

All copyright held by Owl Records. I have only uploaded this because there is not enough of this artist on Youtube for people to enjoy. :)"

RAZMASYNTH Cthulhu // feeding the monster (2) // miniature 26

Published on Feb 27, 2015 LESINDES

"Playing the very rare RAZMASYNTH CTHULHU. Only 10 were made worldwide. Feeding one of the rarest synth modules CTHULHU with Synthesis Technology E340 Cloud Generator"

RIP Leonard Nimoy

Spock's Logic - Modular Synth Jam (w/ MicroBrute) #TTNM

Published on May 13, 2014 The Tuesday Night Machines

RIP Leonard Nimoy. Your influence is everywhere.

"Mr. intellijel Spock and his helpers generate patterns and the Turing Machine does random melodies through a uScale.

Everything apart from the drums is sequenced by the self-playing modular synth patch (even the MicroBrute), which is only clock-synced to the MPC.

Questions or comments? Go ahead and post them below! :) Thanks for watching!

MORE INFO:

Gear used in this video:
- Eurorack Modular Synthesizer (with Vermona qMi, Malekko Wiard Anti-Oscillator, Intellijel, Koma Kommander, Sound of Shadows, Plague Bearer, Spock, RYO Optodist, Voice of Saturn VCF, etc. see: http://www.modulargrid.net/e/racks/vi...)
- Arturia MicroBrute (analog synthesizer)
- Vermona DRM-1 mkIII (drum synth)
- Akai MPC 1000 (clock & drum sequencer)
- Zoom R16 (recording & mastering)

Filmed with a Canon EOS 550D (Rebel t2i)."

Synsonics Drums by Mattel Demo

Published on Feb 27, 2015 Magnus Gladén

Synsonics Drums on eBay

Mutable Instruments Anushri Analogue Semi-Modular Synth and 8 Bit Drum Machine

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"A fantastic synth that mixes digital and analogue. It's got the normal vco/vcf/vca plus a dco that can be used as a sub or for syncing or fm with the vco. There's an ADSR, a fuzz circuit and an lfo.

That on its own makes a pretty nice little synth, but there's also an arpeggiator and a step sequencer with glide, hold and accent a la tb303, but up to 128 steps.

There's also a really clever drum machine built in. Instead of programming steps etc, you use the controls to sculpt the pattern, choosing different densities and structures for the grungy 8-bit style drums to play.

The icing on the cake comes in the form of a patch bay on the right hand side that let's you get this linked up with a modular system.

I put it together last month to start my modular system off because it works really well as a midi to CV converter..."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Diabolical Devices Circuit Bent Alesis HR-16 Demo

Published on Feb 27, 2015 perfectcircuitaudio

http://perfectcircuitaudio.com
Perfect Circuit Audio on eBay

"This video shows our initial explorations with an Alesis HR-16 circuit bent by Diabolical Devices."

eurorack modular synthesizer ambient jam

Published on Feb 27, 2015 bigcitymusic

http://bigcitymusic.com

"Patch notes:

Melody from Intellijel Shapeshifter to Mutable Instruments Shelves and Streams to Sputnik Quad VCF/VCA to Tiptop Z-DSP Dragonfly Delay
4ms QCD/QPLFO to Sputnik Quad VCA/VCA CV input
Sputnik West Coast Random Source to QCD Div/Mult
Percussion from Mutable Instruments Elements to Tiptop Z-DSP Dragonfly Delay"

ZenSound FUTURE TECH Bazille Soundset

Published on Feb 27, 2015 ZenSound

"Soon available at ZenSound:
http://www.zensound.es/soundsets/bazi...

Newsletter:
http://www.zensound.es/newsletter-1/

Future Tech is a new cutting edge soundset inspired in science and technology.
The main purpose of Future Tech is to bring you a new and original arsenal of technological and electronica sounds.

Future Tech consists of cool and soft synths as well as warm and crisp.
Comprised with analogue fat basses and basslines, technological and city inspired soundscapes and backgrounds, futuristic and powerful dynamic sequences and quick arpeggios that can be slowed down to a dreamy melody, broken synthesizers, technological malfunctions and circuit bent toys, complex and intricate rhythms and percussive patterns.
All the patches have been meticulously crafted by Complex AKA Adrian Jimenez for a solid and distinctive sound."

Für Froese (Modular Synthesizer Peformance)

Published on Jan 24, 2015 Rhythmicons

It appears I missed this one. Better late than never.

"In remembrance of Edgar Froese.
This is a live performance centering around a Synthesizers.com Modular, Moog Taurus III Bass Pedals, and accompanied by Theremin and Moog Voyager. Instruments processed by both tape and analog bucked brigade delays.

Vielen Dank, Herr Froese."

How I did it - Episode 2 - Altair 8800 as a drum machine

How I did it - Episode 2 - Altair 8800 as a drum machine from Giorgio Sancristoforo on Vimeo.

"Today's show is all about drums!
The Altair8800 now works as a 8 steps drum machine, with 8 voices!

The sense switches are used as channels' ON/OFF and each one of the 8 steps programmed in the sequence outputs a byte (used as a binary number instead of a MIDI note number) which I've used inside max to trigger all the drum kit samples. As usual the interface is programmed in MaxMSP and it communicates with the Altair with a serial to usb connection.

Easy and way funny!!

see you in the next episode, and may the assembly be with you!

www.giorgiosancristoforo.net"

See the Altair channel below for previous posts.