CellF - live performance, Sydney 10th & 12th June

I had the pleasure of seeing CellF again. The performance was held at the National Art School, Sydney.

This is cybernetics applied to synthesizers & electronic music.

 Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics in 1948 as "the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine"

There are many people involved with this project, but the main individuals are :
Guy Ben-Ary who donated the original skin cells,
Nathan Thompson who designed the housing/incubator and
Andrew Fitch of NonLinearCircuits (NLC) who designed the synthesizer itself.

For more info, click here:
http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2015/10/the-cellf-project-university-of-western.html

Guy's skin cells were converted into neurons using stem cell technology.
These were then grown on an array of 60 electrodes which connect the cells to the NLC synthesizer.

The incubator/cells are housed in the glass cube:

These cells can both receive and send information with the outside world via these electrodes.

I think Andrew's synth is just as important.
Some pics:

It's the translator between the cells & the outside world.

So what does this all sound like? I've seen & heard CellF on a number of occasions and the sounds are always changing & developing.
Friday's performance used a fresh batch of cells which sounded very excitable & energetic.
It was at times hard to distinguish the synthesizer keyboard (Yamaha)  from the cells.

Sunday's performance used a drummer, a double bass & a violinist.
I quite enjoyed this. The space between sounds allowed the cells to be better heard.

Maybe they were also tired after the last 3 days.

Sega Master console

Some future hacking ahead of this wonderful piece of kit.
Thanks to Renee & Wonderboy

.
The sounds are classic 1980s chiptune.
...

Little-scale has some excellent info:
http://little-scale.blogspot.com.au/2008/06/how-to-make-32kb-sega-master-system.html

The Japanese Master System used the Yamaha YM2413, aka OPLL.
It's a cost-reduced FM synthesis sound chip manufactured by Yamaha Corporation and based on their YM3812 (OPL2). The FM sound generator uses an 8-Bit data bus to control all of the registers.

I don't have a Japanese version. This uses the following:

CPU
    Zilog Z0840004PSC
This is an 8-bit processor running at 4 MHz.
I/O Controller
    Sega 315-5237
RAM
    NEC D4168C-15 or NEC D4168C-15-SG
VDP
    Sega 315-5246
VRAM
    2 x NEC D4168C-15 or 2 x NEC D4168C-15-SG
Video Encoder
    Sony CXA1145P

It has 8 kB of ROM, 8 kB of RAM and 16 kB of video RAM. Video is provided through an RF switch and displays at a resolution of 256 × 192 pixels.

Sound is provided by the SN76489 PSG (Texas Instruments) chip. The Japanese version also integrates the YM2413 FM chip, which had been an optional feature on the Mark III.

The PSG (programmable sound generator), or PSG, is a sound chip that generates sound waves by synthesizing multiple basic waveforms, and and combining them into more complex waveforms.

The game cartridge slot.

The SN76489 Digital Complex Sound Generator (DCSG) is a TTL-compatible programmable sound generator chip from Texas Instruments. It contains:

• 3 square wave tone generators.
  • A wide range of frequencies.
  • 16 different volume levels.
• 1 noise generator.
  • 2 types (white noise and periodic).
  • 3 different frequencies.
  • 16 different volume levels.

 Sega used  modified versions of these sound chips that were incorporated into the system's VDP video display processor. (Sega 315-5246).

 https://moddedbybacteria.wordpress.com/sega-master-system-2-sms/
The above link is very useful.
Audio is tapped off the sega 315-5246 at pin 15.

The pinout info re the rest of the Sega 315-5246 seems to concern video rather than audio.
So attempting to mod this console would probably end in tears for me.:-(
Maybe a better option is to purchase a SN 6849 and build a synth around this.

They are literally "cheap as chips". I bought 5 for under $3.

Some SN76489 synth links:
http://little-scale.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/how-to-build-sn76489-usb-midi-module.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Squareinator-A-SN76489-Monosynth/
https://github.com/cdodd/teensy-sn76489-midi-synth
http://www.atkinsoft.com/soundgenerators.html

Buchla Easel Variation 3

Published on May 21, 2016

Some easel exercises & experiments. A homage to A.C.
A simple but quite beautiful tune.
Sorry for the distortion in the audio. My sound cards playing up a bit.

A special wine for a special occasion.
The vines are 40years old. The current vintage is 2013.. its a steal. Dan Murphys is selling this at $339 for a 6pack. It will cellar very well, probably to 2028 & beyond ???

...

This bottle is from 1994... OMG, thats 22 years. Beautiful to drink.

Back to the synths:

303 Marf

Some fun with a Buchla & of course a 303.

Wine Links

Some wine links:

This will be index page devoted to all things wine.

Wine, esp red wine is one of my joys (along with electronics & travel).
 References to some of the nicer drops drunk recently are all over this blog, and I sometimes forget where these pages are. So this is kind of a wine diary.

+++Mutable Instruments Grids ...& Wine
      1990 vintage port from Steins in Mudgee NSW.
      Tollana Cabernet Sav from 1995. (Eden Valley, South Australia)

+++Buchla - Wall of Sound & Wine 
     1995.“Barwang” - Hilltops region of New South Wales.
     http://mcwilliams.com.au/our-wine/regionality/hilltops/

+++Buchla Tempest Glitch & Wine

+++Korg Volca Beats Mod  & Taylors Shiraz, 2001. Clare Valley, SA.
       http://www.taylorswines.com.au/

+++ Buchla Easel Variation & Lindemands St. George, Cab Sav. 1994.


 

Basic Chords & Arpeggios for synths

 Some basic chords you can learn which are useful for lots of tunes:

C, F, G and A minor.

It's important to be able to play these chords in many different shapes and inversions.

Synths offer hundreds , if not thousands of different ways of playing these simple chords.

All these chords come from the C major scale.

 

The only difference between an arpeggio and a chord, is that in a chord, you play

the notes simultaneously, while in an arpeggio you play the notes one after the other. 

Arpeggios are sometimes referred to as broken chords. 

C chord

The C chord contains three notes – C, E and G

F chord

 F Major : F A C

The G chord

 G Major: G B D

The A minor Chord

A min uses A C E

---------------------------------------------------

Chord progressions

A very basic chord progression is C, G, A minor, F

Another good progression is  F, G, Am, C, F G Am, Em

You can play these keys in any inversion.

The left hand may play just one or two of these keys to form the bass notes.

The right hand plays all 3 keys of higher notes

The lowest note played with the left hand has a big effect on the whole sound of the chord.

It's often the one its named after  (the root note).

This is a kind of a default but you don't have to always follow this rule.

Practice , practice, practice.....

Many thanks to Bill and Jordan for their great tutorials around which

these notes are based:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmvwZRwn-j0

https://youtu.be/jO-LEac2oMs 

 

Of course once you have got these under your belt you can think about

layering arpeggios of these chord notes over their root chords

1, 3, 5 ... remember these numbers 

They belong to the Fibonacci Sequence.

 --- welcome to the world of the arppegio.

 

The 1, 3, 5 pattern is known as a triad.

It makes the most simple chords. 

The C major, the F chord, the G chord and the A minor chord are all in the

basic 1,3,5 sequence.

Links

+ 1980s Synth Bass Arpeggio Techniques - addendum

+ https://youtu.be/hMZXQ87OeuU

+ https://youtu.be/Jf3MtbUhrrA 

+ https://youtu.be/w-WGdOhd9l4 

+ https://youtu.be/g0ZW7GAMZ58 

 

Korg PS 3100 - Temperament Adjust

The Temperament Adjustment allows you to tune the synth to different scales.

In the manual, it's described as a 12 note Temperament Adjust
Eg: Mean tone system, the Hepatonal Scale & the Just intonation scale.

In the Western world, we are used to the "Well Tempered Scale"