Ian Helliwell's Tone Generation

[Note: I'm not seeing how to skip episodes in the player above aside from sliding the progress bar to the end to get to the next one.]

You might remember Ian Helliwell mentioned in previous posts on the site here, including his book Tape Leaders. Atomic Shadow wrote in to let us know about his 34-part history of electronic music titled Tone Generation [player above/episode list below], as well has his work on SoundCloud.

The following is a short blurb from his website, http://www.ianhelliwell.co.uk:

"Leaving school and full time education aged 16 armed with six O-levels, Ian is a self-taught and self-funded multi-media artist, working in music, film, animation, analogue electronics, instrument building, collage, installations, live performance, light show projection, graphic design, writing and film programming.

Ian coined the term ‘creative soldering’ to best define his ‘intuitive electronics’ approach, and since the 1990s he has designed and built a unique range of electronic tone generating machines – Hellitrons and Hellisizers – which he uses to realise his compositions."

"The Tone Generation is Ian's audio series looking at the early period of electronic music history, focussing on experimental tracks mostly drawn from his CD and record collection.

TG 34 - Louis & Bebe Barron
TG 33 - Cybernetic Serendipity
TG 32 - Electronics in Space
TG 31 - Synthetic Sound
TG 30 - Beaver & Krause
TG 29 - Electronics in Rock 2
TG 28 - Electronics in Rock 1
TG 27 - Edinburgh Festival Concert 1961
TG 26 - Electronic Odyssey 1967
TG 25 - QEH Concert 1968
TG 24 - Analogue Synthesizers
TG 23 - Electronics for Feature Films
TG 22 - Moog
TG 21 - Buchla
TG 20 - Electronics and Voice
TG 19 - Women in Electronics
TG 18 - Computer Music
TG 17 - EMS
TG 16 - Electronics for Expos
TG 15 - Electronic Music Authors
TG 14 - Electronics for Dance
TG 13 - Electronics in Jazz
TG 12 - The RCA Synthesizer
TG 11 - Expo 58
TG 10 - EM Worldwide
TG 9 - Canada
TG 8 - USA
TG 7 - Soviet Union & E. Bloc
TG 6 - Scandanavia
TG 5 - Holland & Belgium
TG 4 - Italy
TG 3 - Germany
TG 2 - France
TG 1 ..."

Metasonix TM-2 Dual Vacuum Tube BandPass Filter& VCA SN TM2-54

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

via this auction

"Metasonix TM-2 Vacuum Tube Dual Bandpass Filter and VCA. These are rare and highly sought after. This one is SerNum 54. It is also the early gold version before Eric Barbour went to bright yellow. They are rare, some sell for ridiculous prices, this one is fairly priced.

This filter is very raw, It can growl, bark and squeal like a stuck pig. It has CV inputs for Filter and VCA, which means you can rock out with this interacting with your modular synth, or stick in an expression pedal for your guitar.

There are several videos of the TM-2 on Youtube (not mine if you want to hear it.

This one is in great shape, everything works and it has very low hours of use. I'm only selling it because I am downsizing and I'm not using it much. Time for someone else to have fun with it.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Flight of Harmony QUAD PLAGUEBEARER SN 15/20

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

via this auction

"Not one PlagueBearer, but 4 in a case. This is unit 15 of only 20 made. Version 1.1

As such it has CV for High and Low knobs but not GAIN.

The coolest part of this is that you can feedback from one section to another for some great head ripping effects.


The Plague Bearer is called a filter, but that is just a description of the circuit topology, what it can actually do goes way beyond that. It has been described as a filter, a waveshaper, a mangler, a crusher, and – my favorite – as an “FSU module”.

Calling it a filter may be a bit misleading, but I have no idea what else to call it. It is a filter, but it does more (all at the same time, really) excessive phase shifting, waveforming, ringing, formant generation, and so on. I guess it could be called a waveform modifier or enhancer, but those don’t sound good either. It was named the Plague Bearer for a reason.

All f(h) devices are designed in accordance with how they sound, not to achieve mathematical perfection.

FofH avoided the conventional design approach while designing this circuit, so it’s very problematic to try to describe this filter in the normal terms. The slope is directly tied to the gain of the circuit, making it variable, and the Q is affected by all three filter controls. The setup is actually a combined High- and Low-pass. The corner frequencies are adjusted by the controls and can be overlapped completely, which gives a comb-filtering effect.

Runs on two 9vdc batteries or from included power supply.

Manual is for V2.3 single unit but is applicable to operation."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Roland TR-8S triggering the Moog Subharmonicon #shorts

video upload by Piotr Garbaczonek

"Just got the Roland TR-8S and wanted to make a #short with it and see how it sounds with the Moog Subharmonicon. Lmk in the comments what you think of this short piece. Cheers!

Here are some links of mine:
https://linktr.ee/pgarbaczonek
Go follow my Patreon here:
https://www.patreon.com/pgarbaczonek?..."

Wake the Dead (The Dead are Woke) ("Illumination in the Final Dark Age" version) by Audio Illustrator

via supporting member Audio Illustrator.

"Here's a revamped piece for my upcoming new album called 'Illumination in the Final Dark Age'.

This is called 'Wake the Dead (The Dead are Woke)' and the entire album will have a Gothic Pink Floydian vibe to it.

I hope you enjoy this piece."

Behringer Model D, Eurorack Modular, & various VSTi's.

New Keyboard Synth Teaser from Waldorf

"Something is coming our way! #waldorf #synthesizer"

At least we assume it's a synth.

Working. Under. Pressure.

This one was spotted and sent in via Soviet Space Child.

Moog Subsequent 37 and Matriarch - Jam session

video upload by ollilaboratories

"If you like my music you can find it here http://bit.ly/BurgMusic and also please consider supporting me at patreon for as little as 1 USD http://bit.ly/BurgPatreon

##

Please say hello to my new little friend in the studio, the Moog Matriarch. With this jam session I just wanted to capture the first explorations into this modern godess of vintage Moog sounds.

Gear Used:
** Moog Matriarch, 4VCO in Unison mode, PWM ( no external FX; built in analog delay only )
** Moog Subsequent 37, 2VCO + sub solo sound ( Timeline ICE + Empress reverb Modulated Hall )

All live and recorded down on Zoom H5 2 track, no overdubbing.

Apologies for the right hand cam which was left with autofocus turned on ( rookie mistake deluxe ). I hope that it is still enjoyable.

#subsequent37 #matriarch #moog"

PSF Todd Barton

video upload by Todd Barton

"I had a blast at Phoenix Synthesizer Festival yesterday! Thanks to all that made it possible and to all that watched. Here's the brief set and a walkthrough of the performance patch. Wonderfully, in the live stream, Youtube decided to grab a phrase of my voice during the walkthrough, loop it a slowly pitchshift it . . . what a trip! You can hear that here:"

Phoenix Synth Fest YouTube Random Pitchshift

video upload by Todd Barton

"Unsuspected Youtube glitch which spontaneously looped and pitchshifted a single phrase until it turned into a glitch beat. Fascinating! Enjoy . . ."

Patch of The Week: Envelope-Controlled Phaser - with Next Phase, an all-analog module for Eurorack

video upload by AJH Synth Official

"This week I'm using an envelope generator to control the phasing effect of an analogue phaser - the AJH Synth Next Phase, which can be used in a similar way, or as an alternative to a filter/VCF. Phasers are often heard swirling around in answer to their own internal clock, but with the Next Phase's CV control of frequency, this can be controlled by an ADSR in the same way you would control a filter, producing similarly expressive, but also unique results.

The Next Phase can be configured to sound more akin to vintage phasers of the past, with perhaps only 4 stages, less emphasis (resonance), and the colour control to create a darker tone. However, with it's huge range of possible combinations of both stages, and emphasis stages (up to 12 for each), extensive frequency and emphasis range, depth and modulation controls, it can go way beyond famous vintage units and produce some otherworldly modulations, from subtle to extreme.

Next Phase User Guide video coming soon.

Index:
00:00 Start
00:29 Overview & Patching
01:05 Envelope control of Phaser
03:35 Performance Example
05:25 Patch Sheet


Video by DreamsOfWires

Vermona PerFourMer MkII: Dark ambient (no talking)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"Two DB-01s are used to sequence the Vermona PerFourMer MkII. The bottom DB-01 is just a single note sequence sent to channels 3 (bass) and 4 (scream thing) which alternate. The top DB-01 is on random payback and triggers voice 2 which is low rumbly noise. This voice also has the SpaceTime pedal as an insert effect. Voice 1 is played by me on the little Korg keyboard. It uses the B3K pedal as an insert effect. The master stereo outs go direct into the Zen delay which has a good dose of overdrive. With an overdribe through an overdrive it has a bit of a noisefloor which headphones will reveal as soft soothing noise. No other effects or processing.

I was tempted to include the sounds of the DB-01 units, which fit rather well, but thought it was more useful to just have the P4 as the only sound source. Sometimes in demos I find it fristrating if there's too many machines playing since you never know what each machine is doing.

Instead of talking I used captions. Better or worse? Would love some feedback. Some people hate voiceover stuff even if it is a far faster than text and want the audio kept pure. Ob the other hand maybe captions are distracting?

No timestamps since it's all just a big noodle.

My site: https://richarddehove.com/
Lots of downloads for supporters on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/richarddehove"