JonDent - Exploring Electronic Music: April 2016

Sunday, 24 April 2016

Buchla 216 & 114 Keyboard

Some musings on the 216 & 114... before I forget.

This site is my online diary where I sometimes jot down ideas. Please write to me if this is of help
to anyone else (or if this is downright BS).

Anyway, these keyboards aren't your usual Buchla type touch controllers.

The left 3 keys of the 216 are totally different to the right section.
They might as well be separate keyboards.
The right side has your standard two CV outs per key (with respective pots to set the CV level).
There is just one (double) CV pulse out for the 8 keys.

The left 3 keys each have separate CV outs (set by the lower pot) and a separate pulse out.
So we have 3 keys that that are not connected to each other .
The lower knob sets the initial CV level & the upper knob sets the decay slope for that voltage.

How does one use such a device & why would Don B make such a controller?
I think the answer lies with his early interest in music concrete & in the playing back of recorded tape loops.

When each key is patched into a VCA the lower pot will open & close the gate, and the upper pot
will control the duration length of the sound. A three key controller like the 216, will allow you
to "play" 3 sounds.

A 10 key controller like the 114 will allow access to ten sounds.
This is why I believe Don also produced the 107 - voltage controlled mixer.

It's not just a mixer. It's really 10 VCAs.

The 10 keys on the 114 & the 10 inputs on the 107 seem to match and make a lot of sense.

If you are using a 216, with only 3 such keys a 292 is a good alternative VCA to match.

Philae Temple - Egypt

This is now a island, but it was once a temple complex located near the expansive First Cataract of the Nile River in southern Egypt.

....

This place is amazing for many reasons.

The building of the Aswan Dam would have flooded the ancient site completely. So the engineers moved this entire temple complex to higher ground.

A breathtaking feat.

Philae was said to be one of the burying-places of Osiris.

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Click here for more travel postcards

Carl Cox Pure - Sydney 23/04/16

Carl Cox at Pure - Hordern Pavillion.
A great night out. Now that Future & the Big Day Out are finished I hope Carl
will be stepping up to the decks more often here in Australia.

Carl cox live

A video posted by jono (@dj_jondent) on Apr 23, 2016 at 7:26am PDT

The 2016 lineup features Cox himself alongside internationals Joseph Capriati and
Format:B and locals DJ HMC and Eric Powell.

The 2016 lineup features Cox himself alongside internationals Joseph Capriati and Format:B and locals DJ HMC and Eric Powell. - See more at: http://www.beat.com.au/music/carl-cox-unveils-lineup-pure-event#sthash.JN9VXTwp.dpuf

New Sound Waves Meeting - 17/04/16

It's always lots of fun to meet up with the guys from NSWaves.
I got there a bit late, so many of the guys had gone home.
Still there was much to see & it was a Sunday arvo well spent.

Justin of Metro Modular showing some of his new modules.
Plus his beautiful valve oscillators:

Justin's facebook page for MetroModular is here:
https://www.facebook.com/Metro.Modular/info?tab=page_info

His website is here:
http://www.metro-modular.com/

They just don't build them like this anymore.

My 12u Buchla:

Tuesday, 19 April 2016

Roland TR 909 Programming Tutorial - getting started

When you first turn the 909 on, it will go into track play mode.

You need it to be in pattern play for it to run a sequence.

....

So before you can do anything with the 909, you will need to do these things:

1. Choose the sync/tempo mode.
2. Choose the pattern bank
3. Select Pattern Write
4. Clear old patterns.
5. Enter the notes.

1. Sync Mode
a. Shift + Tempo Mode (Din sync, Midi, or Internal)
You need to tap the Tempo mode button till the display shows either
a "0" in the left (Din), a "0" in the middle (MIDI) or the BPM on the right (eg 120)

2. Choose the pattern bank
Shift + Either Bank 1 or 2.

3. Select Pattern Write
Shift + Pattern ( there are 3 patterns)

       The pattern write LED that you picked, should start to blink.
   You are now in EDIT MODE.

4. Clear old patterns.
   a. Pattern clear + any of the buttons (with the pattern you wish to clear)
       Hit buttons 1 - 16

        If you now press play (on the external sequencer or the internal 909's sequencer), you won't hear
        anything, though you will see the sequencer lights running across the 16 steps.

5. Enter the notes.
   Either use step or tap mode.

    I like step. While the sequencer is playing, enter the notes

You accent the drums by hitting the buttons twice.

To get to the Open High H:
Hold instrument Select + both STEPS 13 & 14 at the same time.

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Shuffle/Flam
To adjust the shuffle, you press Shuffle/flam and one of the buttons 1 to 7.
You can back it off a bit by going back to 4 or 5...

Flam uses the buttons 9 to 16.
Flam is like a ratchet double hit

You can change the time signatures, but hitting scale.

Scale changes the sub division of the pattern.

---------------
MIDI
Use the following procedure to set the MIDI receive channel:
1) While holding SHUFFLE / FLAM, press the appropriate MAIN Key (1 – 16).

That's basically all you need to get started.

Sunday, 17 April 2016

Korg MS 20 - Notes 1

The MS 20 comes pre wired but the connections can be broken and re-routed using patch cables.

I'll break it up into the following sections
1. Modulation Generator
2. Envelope Generator 1 (Pitch Envelope)
3. Envelope Generator2 (Filter & main VCA Envelope)
4. Keyboard
5. Mod Wheel & Momentary Push Button
6. Sample & Hold.
7. ESP (External Signal Processor).

1. Modulation Generator
This Korg speak for the LFO

It's hardwired to three parameters:
a. The pitch of VCO1 & VCO2
b. cutoff of the highpass filter
c. Cutoff of the lowpass filter.

Here is a close up of the internal routing:

Only the Triangle / Saw waveforms are hardwired . If you wish to use the LFO's square waves, you will need to patch it.

Adjusting the control panel knobs between MG & T.EXT will effect the mix of wave forms

A bit about the T. EXT.
This refers to the Total External input.

Any CV plugged into here will effect the pitch of VCOs 1 & 2, plus the Cutoff of both filters simultaneously.

2. Envelope Generator 1
The patch panel doesn't show clearly where its hardwired too.
You can see that it has 2 outputs: a normal & reverse wave form.

It's actually connected to the pitch of the two VCOs. (via the frequency input on the patch panel)

You can apply this envelope to the VCOs by using the EG1 amount control.

If you plug something into the frequency input, you will break the connection between EG1 & the VCOs.

3. Envelope Generator 2
This is wired to the filters and the main VCA.
It controls the filters' cutoff.

The hardwired connection to the VCA cannot be cut, but you can add extra CVs to modify the signals from EG2 via the initial gain jack. EG2 also has a reverse output.

EG2 is applied to the Filters using thetwo EG2 amount controls.
One is for the HP filter, and the other for the LP.
The External inputs give you flexible control over how you modulate each filter.
Above each EG2 control is a MG control. Thus the MG is still connected and can be used in conjunction with the External input sources.

You can plug in all manner of CV like the mod wheel, noise, EG1, the square MG, a sequencer, etc etc.

4. The Keyboard
It's default is to of course send CV to control the pitch of the VCOs.

In addition it sends gate signals to both EGs

You can break the connection to both EGs by plugging something into TRG IN.
Use this is you are using an external sequencer such as an SQ 10 to trigger notes. If you wish to just trigger EG1, use EG1 TRIG IN.

Being able to access the CV of the Keyboard is useful. Use it to control the filter for example.
You may also want to break the keyboard connection to one of the VCOs, by plugging in for example a LFO, the mod wheel or a sequencer.