Thursday, January 28, 2010

VICMOD RECORDS LABEL LAUNCH 30 MARCH 2010 MIUC



VICMOD RECORDS will have a label launch 30 March at Make It Up Club, Melbourne Australia.

Some of the label artists will be performing live.

CRAY ( live mix of all the labels releases and future releases)
VICMOD
STEVE LAW
ROD COOPER
and more.

We will have on sale the first 6 releases by.....

RICHARD LAINDART ( early Moog recordings)
DON HASSLER ( Self playing Buchla and EMS SYnthi)
CRAY ( Digital machine soundscapes)
WHITE NOISE CAROUSEL ( Electro Acoustic chill)
ROD COOPER ( Electric appliances performance)
STEVE LAW ( Electro Acoustic recordings)


Doors open at 8.30.

watch this space.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Make Noise Pressure Points



YouTube via dkimcg
Newer info on the Make Noise Pressure Points.

Pressure Points is a controller in which 1 of 4 sets of 3 tuned voltages are selected by touching the corresponding printed copper wire at the bottom of the instrument. Touching Pressure Points, you become part of the circuit. In addition to the tuned voltages, a gate signal (Gate OUT) and a control voltage proportional to the amount of pressure applied (Press OUT), are generated when the module is touched. Up to 4 of these modules may be Chained together to create controllers of varying size and complexity. Each of the Gate and Press OUTS are normalized to their respective SUM BUS which is output at the last Gate and Press OUT in the Chain.

2 potentiometers allow the circuit to be adjusted for desired playing response. One is an internal trimmer which may be adjusted to compensate for size of your digits, and moisture of your skin. The other is adjustable from the front-side of the module, and sets overall system sensitivity.

An expansion port on the backside will allow for sequential control via the forthcoming Points Expander, bringing all of the typical functionalities of the analog sequencer to this system.

The Pressure Points operates from a single supply and may thus be powered with a wall-wart or even a 9V battery. Pressure Points will, of course, operate perfectly powered from the dual supplies found in euro rack format cases from Doepfer, MonoRocket, MW. Having the single supply operation allows for greater ease in building of custom enclosures.

The faceplate for the Pressure Points is actualy a printed circuit board. Therefore it will be black, with white and gold graphics.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Best Free IPhone app ever made. Instand Mego (Hecker etc)


TOPLAp

This free iPhone app is a random noise generator and a puzzle all in one. If you like Heckers work or any of the Mego ( Editions Mego) artists work you will love this.

TOPLAPapp is a sonic puzzle based around a virtual machine for sound synthesis. This machine only accepts a few valid instructions, and you control it by placing each command letter within a grid, along with setting some associated parameter sliders. The machine runs through the grid, following the instructions to create the output sounds, which are usually of a somewhat noisy character, hopefully interestingly so. The historical antecedents include instruction synthesis as pionneered at the Institute of Sonology in the 1970s, and the live coding movement, of modifying a running program as it acts. This app is intended for those interested in more experimental sound art, and is in no way a traditional diatonic melody generator. Don't download this unless you are open to stranger computer music sounds.

Be careful of your ears, this app can produce wild sounds at high volume. Program this sound synthesis puzzle machine by dragging letters TOPLAp to the grid; you can also set a parameter for each position via the slider at each slot. The audio engine whizzes through the states many times per second. Press ! to clear the grid, and ? to randomise. No save or load is allowed, to promote improvisation. Live coding engineered by Click Nilson.

TOPLAP is the Transnational Organisation for the Promotion of Live Algorithm Programming, or somesuch abbreviation (TOPLAP website).

2010 the year of TOUCH

TOUCH ME
by Ross Healy
In the ever expanding world that is the euro modular format we will see a minimum of 3 companies delivering their take on the touch plates or sensor plates in 2010.

Touch keyboards are not a new deal for the analog synth market with the Buchla and Serge touch panels being in existence since the 70's, but since then there hasnt really been anything like it.

First up is the news from the largest euro manufacturer Doepfer with their take on the Touch keyboard A100 TKB. No further information at this time. We are told it will make an appearance at next weeks NAMM.


Next up is the MakeNoise Pressure Points


Then we have the newest company to the modular world Synthwerks with their FSR-4.

The computer world is also wanting us to touch more with the not too far away Apple iPhone slates that will have multi touch and I wouldn't be surprised if all the amazing iPhone apps will be ported to the iSlate? Think a cheaper and more expansive Lemur.

The one thing all of these have in common, other than the touching, is none of them are for sale as yet, but that wont be the case soon.
All in all we will spend more time triggering sounds via analog and digital instruments than we have in the past!.