Saturday, 2 May 2015

Elektron Octatrack sequencing a Virus TI

The Elektron Octatrack is a very powerful midi sequencer. Here, we have it sequencing a Virus TI.


The OT is a 8 channel sequencer



Sony DMX - R 100 Digital console

This was recently purchased from the ABC (Australia Broadcasting Corporation) studios.
Aunty, as we like to nickname the ABC, was getting rid of superseded equipment at knock down prices.



I just couldn't resist this. Either I just bought a lemon with no chance of servicing or I got a bargain.
Time will tell.

I'm more used to analogue consoles but when these first came out in 2001 they were sold for around $30,000 (AUD). Mine : $3500

I really like the EQs & filters.

AUX SEND - It's a 8 channel BUSS

The screen is touch sensitive - just like a i-pad -- remember, this is 2001 technology.

A touch sensor for the surround pan :-)

All the functions are mirrored on the assignable panel
Extra Links:
1. SOS - Version 1
2. SOS article - version 2
3. The Sony promo video
4. Quick Reference Manual

Wednesday, 15 April 2015

Roland D2 - Groove Machine

This unit is a great groovebox. It's probably not for everyone but I love it.
And yes it's orange too !!! :-)
I laughed at this thing when it first came out. But now I think its a awesome
performance synth. It's sequencer is tight and they are still so cheap ($150) on ebay.

I understand that the D2 has the same synth engine as MC-505 and MC-307.
It has the same 8 part setup as the MC 303 (7 sounds plus one drum part).The synth engine is based on theSuper JV. It's like JV-1080 with different ROM waveforms - more techno oriented samples.

 The D-Field Controller - this is the heart & soul of the D2

 The D-pad is fun. You can do things like reverse the beat in real time, play arpeggiators and adlib instruments using your finger, use the filter etc.
Wanna spin your sequence backwards? This baby can.


Drum sounds: BD, SD,HH,Clap,Cymb,Tom/Perc, Hit.
There are 600 Preset patches and 30 Preset drum kits (from the MC-505).


 The Jog Wheel.

I use  this mainly as an 8 part multi-timbral sound module, and sometimes as a sequencer.
All the synth parameters can be controlled by MIDI CC - which includes 3 ADSR envelopes! (Amp/Filter/Pitch).

There are 3 modes: Sound, XY & Spin.
You can tweak the sounds and save your own creations into one of the 256 users patches.
The rear of the D2. Midi In/out & RCAs  & headphone out.
Would be nice if these were 1/4 inch jacks. The RCAs are aimed at the DJ market.

The PSU is a 9V DC.Centre negative

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more info on the history of Roland Drum Machines click here

Monday, 13 April 2015

Spike - the Acid Cat

Do you love cat videos ???
Well here's Spike playing her favourite synth - the old Roland classic - the SH 101.
What good taste she has.

Monday, 6 April 2015

Roland MC-09 Phrase Sampler - Acid Demo

A few demos of the Roland MC-09.
It's often called the poor man's TB-303.

I reckon t's not too shabby ... but I'll let you decide.

Korg PS-3200 & a Roland MC-09 sampler

This is a bit experimental.
All the sounds are from the Korg PS3200 which I sampled into the MC09.
I'm trying to keep the sounds pure Korg PS-3200.


The Roland MC-09 is a very simple phrase sampler and though it has its own unique character
I'm enjoying sampling the 3200 for it's own special  sounds.

For more info you can read my earlier post on the 09 here:
http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/roland-phrase-lab-mc-09.html 

Here is video 2 of the demo:



Friday, 3 April 2015

Chittorgarh and the legend of Lady Padmini

It's hard to separate fact from fiction in regard to the first sacking of Chittorgarh on August 26th, 1303.
Many details of the historic battle & the eventual fall of this great city are lost in legend.


At the time, most of Northern India was ruled by the Mughals of Delhi. The period came to be called the "Sultanate of Delhi". It's ruler, Alauddin Khilji came to power after murdering his uncle Jalaluddin Khilji.

A. Khilji was a great strategist and military commander. He is remembered in history for being one of the few rulers in the world to have repeatedly defended his empire against Mongol invasions.
After suppressing these invasions in the north, Khilji began expanding his empire by subjugation first of Gujarat in 1299 and then Ranthambhor in Rajastan in 1301.

  He then turned his attention towards Chittorgarh in Mewar, Rajasthan which was ruled by Ratan Singh.

The Rajput King, Rawal Ratan Singh.was described as a brave and noble warrior, a loving husband and a just ruler. His wife Padmini was renouned throughout the land for her ravishing beauty.
The story goes that the Sultan of Dehli heard about her beauty & decided to confirm this for himself. However, Padmini never left her quarters uncovered and the sultan's request was refused.
Not to be outdone, the Sultan amassed his huge army, and lay seige to Chittorgah.

It's debatable whether the Sultan would have attacked a city just to see the face of one woman. 
Chittorgarh itself was of great strategic importance and had earlier blocked his armies advance on 
Gujarat so there were many reasons for its subjugation. (But these details would ruin a good story).


Padmini's husband, knowing that his forces were severely outnumbered relented to letting the Sultan gaze upon the face of his wife.... but only under strict conditions. He could only enter the castle unarmed, and could only gaze upon the face of Padmini through the reflection of a mirror.

Just to be sure, she would be well out of his reach -- sitting in a special pavillion in the middle of a lotus pool. :-)
It's amazing to see the pavillion & pool. ......one wonders what is fact & what is fiction.
One glimpse was all that was needed to convince the sultan to destroy the whole city in order to
possess Padmini. (He was probably also carrying out a survey of the castle's defences while inside).

It appears that the sultan managed to convince King Ratan to accompany him back to Delhi. Maybe his was a condition for lifting the seige ?? Anyway, looks like Khilji tricked him, for once they were outside the walls, the sultan declared  the King of Chittorgah hostage. (Well, what can you expect from a man who kills his own uncle). The ransom for this safe return was none other that Padmini herself.

  The palanquin was the prefered method of travel for royal ladies.

On hearing this news, rather than submit to the Sultan, Ratan Singh's generals, Gora and Badal, decided to trick Khilj. They told him that Padmini would be sent the following morning in a palanquin. At daybreak 150 palanquins left Chittorgarh. This was not unusual for a lady of her standing. As the palanquins went past the tent in which King Ratan Singh was being held captive, they stopped and out came armed soldiers who freed the king.
.... Sounds very much like a Trojan horse story. :-)
It's recorded that General Gora died during this skirmish. (he laid down his life for his king). The second general, Badal, survived.
 

The Sultan was of course furious. The city was surrounded. This time there would be no mercy.

Chittorgarh's troops were heavily outnumbered. Supplies to the city were cut. Rather than slowly starve to death or be eventually invaded, the women of the city chose mass suicide ( by fire.. called jauhar).
The men then rode out to face their enemy. They bravely fought, but were outnumbered and all perished against the Sultan's army. These were brutal times.

So the Sultan never did get get his way with Padmini. She died a horrible way, but preserved her honour.


A rather grim end! The practice of mass suicide carried out in medieval times by Rajput women to save their honor from invaders.seems to have occured on numerous occasions. Their alternative was most likely slavery, rape and death.

"Among the well-known cases of Jauhar are the three occurrences at the fort of Chittaur (Chittaurgarh, Chittorgarh), in Rajasthan, in 1303 AD, 1535 AD, and 1568 AD. Jaisalmer has witnessed two occurrences of Jauhar, one in the year 1304 AD during the reign of Alauddin Khilji, and another during the reign of Firuz Shah Tughlaq. Another occurrence was in Chanderi". (Wickipedia)

Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Truth - A modified Roland TR-77, some Buchla & Euro.

A new remix from Cobramatic using a modified Roland TR-77, some Buchla & Euro modules.
The TR77 (In the form of the earlier Bentley Rhythm Ace 8 with sync mod),
There is a bit of Roland CR-68 in here too plus a short sample off the TV  where the guy says "just tell the truth!". The voice was pitched down and reverse reverb added..

Buchla and Euro inc. 808 modules and a CR68.
Remix in Ableton (voice sample added), EQing and Synth track added.                                                                                  

New Sound Waves Performance - 21st March, 2015

A New Sound Waves live performance at 107 projects, Redfern, Sydney AUSTRALIA
Sorry for the poor audio & video.
Here are a few snippets of video taken on the 21st March, 2015 in Sydney Australia.

 
Festival Details: http://107projects.org/event/open-107/

This was part of The New Sound Waves crew performing live modular audio and video synths.
 http://nswaves.tumblr.com
 https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Sound-Waves/1481454512067136


NSWaves have their own blog on Tumbler
Here is the link to their meeting on the 21st March:
http://nswaves.tumblr.com/post/113773249199/new-sound-waves-performance-meet-this-coming

Video 3:
Live Video performed by Cobramatic using Roland V8 mixer, P10 clip launcher, ex security camera, Video Sythersiser and modules: LZX, MVIP and Geiskes 3TrinRGB+1c 
Video synth is synced to the Eurorack sound modules.



Video 4:

Thursday, 26 March 2015

Korg PS 3200 sq1 & volca beats - upload 2

Playing Around with the Korg PS 3200.
It's been midified. The SQ-1 is a great little sequencer.



The full unedited version is here:
http://youtu.be/Ge53NtsYXJA

Sunday, 22 March 2015

Roland Phrase Lab - MC-09

The Roland MC-09 "PhraseLab" was first manufactured in 2002.
Roland describes it as a TB-303 emulator featuring an effects processor, a step sequencer and a 4 part phrase sampler.

It's basically a single DSP monosynth. .... ie, it's a digital synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds.There are bass (TB-303 emulator), lead and drums parts. There are six control knobs for tweaking the sounds.
They control tuning, Env Mod, Accent,cutoff, reso & decay for the lead & bass.
The rhythm section is the drum. The bottom 3 knobs set the volume for the bass drum, snare & high hats

There are 4 DSP effects : filter, Isolator, Phaser, Slicer.
You can apply these effects to any of the four audio loops (or to live inputs).in real time by tweaking the knobs C1,C2 & C3.

The audio looper is a bit limited in length (6 seconds) but it makes for excellent sounding one-measure techno.



You can either capture audio internally (from the bass, lead & rhythm sections) or externally via the RCA jacks. Once in the looper, the sounds can be layered and effects applied, live.

 Pattern sequencer for up to two measures with 16 beat per measure resolution

Midi in & out. (not thru).  Smartmedia storage. 

If you purchase a SM card make sure it meets these requirements:
Power Supply Voltage : 3.3V
Capacity: 2MB - 128 MB

RCA connections - a bit low quality.

Links
1.  Roland MC-09 Original Demo
2.  Manual download

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more info on the history of Roland Drum Machines click here

Wednesday, 18 March 2015

Travel Postcards - Jondent - Index

Travel Postcards - Index 

My travel postcards are all over this blog.  They are sometimes hard to find. So I thought it would be good to put them into some sort of order. Thus this index:

* Australia  
     - Fremantle - Western Australia (Historic Convict jail) 
     - Tathra (Southern NSW
     - Bodalla - old cheese factory NSW
     - Tilba Tilba (NSW)
     - Joadja Distillery - NSW Southern Highlands 
     - Skydiving Mission Beach - Queensland , AUSTRALIA
     - Mission Beach - Queensland
     - Barrington Tops , Cape Tribulation Queensland
     - Cairns to Darwin - Bus trip - (CAIRNS TO CROYDON) - Day 1  
     - Cairns to Darwin - Bus trip - (CROYDON TO MT. ISA) - Day 2
     - Cairns to Darwin - Bus trip - (MT. ISA to Cape Crawford) - Day 3  
     - Cairns to Darwin - Bus trip - (CAPE CRAWFORD TO Darwin) - Day 4
     - Devils Marbles - NT
     - Western Australia, Tree top walk  
     - Pemberton WA - Fire Lookout Climbing Trees
     - Kakadu National Park - Northern Territory Australia  
     - Bundenna to Otford hike - NSW
     - Tasmania, Australia - Lake Lilla Track  
     - Rack & Pinion Steam Railway - Queenstown, Tasmania
     - Nelson Falls - Mt Field - Tasmania  
     - Wine Glass Bay - Freycinet National Park, Tasmania
     - MUdgee - NSW  
     - Maria Island - Tasmania, Australia
     - Port Arthur - Tasmania  
     - Thredbo - NSW - Ski fields
     - Sydney Northern Beaches  
     - SAAB EMS
 

Bolivia
     - Lake Titicaca 
     - La Paz & Bowler hats 
     - Tiwanaku Ruins

* Burma - Myanmar
    - Golden Rock
    - Shwenandaw Monastery - Mandaly, Burma
    - U-Bein Bridge

Cambodia
     - Angkor Wat


* Croatia
     - Zagreb - part 1
     - Pulla _ Croatia - 1 


Cuba 

    - Havana 1
    - Havana 2
    - Havana Cuba 3
    - Manaca Iznaga Estate - Sugar & Slaves
    - Disco Ayala - the cave nightclub in Trinidad Cuba 
    - Santa Clara - Train, Che Guevara Mausoleum
    - Camaguey - Cuba


* Egypt
   - The Great Pyramid (Cairo)
   - The White Desert Camp
   - Karnak Temple (Luxor)
   - Luxor Temple
   - Balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings (Luxor)
   - Medinet habu - Luxor
   - Philae Temple - Aswan Dam
   - Temple of Kom Ombo 
   - Abu Simbel - Aswan
   - Felucca - Nile boat
   - The Step Pyramid - Saqqara
   - Mt Sinai - hike up the mountain (St Catherines)

* Germany
    - Garmisch-Partenkirchen in snow - part 1  

* Greece
   - Kos - Greece - part2
   - santorini 6


 * India  
     - Kumbhalgarh Fort - Rajasthan
     - Akbar's Tomb - Agra
     - Udaipur - India 
     - Flying Fox - Jodhpur - India 
     - Amer Fort - Jaipur,  Rajasthan - India 
     - Jodpur Markets - Rajasthan, India
    - The Tower of Victory - Chittorgarh Fort - Rahasthan
    - The Baby Taj - Agra
    - Fatehpur Sikri - Uttar Pradesh near Agra
    - Chittorgarh and the legend of Lady Padmini

    - Mehrangarh Fort - Jodhpur, India
    - Hawa Mahal - Jaipur 
    - Jantar Mantar - Astromomy - Jaipur


 * Israel
    - The Separation Wall - Israel/Palestine
    - Israel - Golan Heights - Mt Bental
    - Masada - Israel
    - The Herodium - "Herod's Tomb"
    - Bethlemen - Street Christmas lights
    - Bethlehem - The Palestinian Territory - West Bank
    - The Church of the Nativity - Bethlehem
    - cAESAREA - Med coast
    - aCRE - Akko 



Ireland


   - Yoyogi park - tokyo 2019
   - Shibuya, Tokyo - crossing
   - Fukuoka 2
   - Nagasaki - Suwa Shrine 
   - Nagasaki - Battleship Island -  Gunkanjima


*Jordan
    - Petra

 * Malaysia
    - Sabah
    - Borneo #2


* Mexico
   - Teotihuacan - "birthplace of the gods" 
   -  Monte Albán
   -  MUSEO FRIDA KAHLO
   -  Palenque
   -  Uxmal

*Morocco
  - Essaouira
  - Safi
  - Morocco - Sahara Desert - sandboarding, camels, building mud houses  


*New Zealand
   - New years eve 2016 NZ
   - Petone (Hattersley Loom) - a early sequencer
   - Franz Joseph Glacier (South Island)



* Peru
   -  Cusco
   -  Inca Trail
   -  Machu Picchu
   -  Lake Titicaca
   -  Nazcar Peru - Chauchilla Cemetery
   -  Arequipa - NYE celebrations 2011
   -  Acclimatizing to high altitudes

*Russia
   - Moscow 1
   - Moscow 2 
 
*Scotland

  *Singapore
   - Marina Bay Sands hotel view
   - Clifford pier

*Spain
    - Ibiza Town

Sri Lanka
+ Sri Lanka 8 Colombo Dutch museum
+ Sri Lanka 10 - Colombo Town Hall


* Syria
   -  Aleppo (1999)
   -  The Baron Hotel - Aleppo Syria
   -  Palmyra (the Roman City)
   -  Ugarit - Ancient ruins.
   -  National Museum of Damascus & army museum
   -  Tartus - Syria - seaside city 
   -  A'en Darah - Ain Dara - Syria - Lion of Afrin


*Thailand
    - Chiang Mai - Temples

*United Kingdom (UK)
 
*USA


*Vietnam
    - Ha Long Bay NYE 2019
   -  Hanoi 1 - Vietnam
   -  Hanoi 2
   -  Vietnam's first capital - Hoa Lu
   -  Ninh Binh - Tam Coc - Vietnam
   -  Hue - Imperial citadel 
   -  Han Van Pass
   -  Hoi An - Day Pics
   -  Hoi Ann - night pics
   -  My Son - Hindu Temples
   -  Saigon - War Remnants Museum
   -  Saigon Central Post Office