Sunday, 6 September 2015

Electronic music at the Carriageworks, Sydney

Looking forward to seeing you all this Thursday (10th Sept 2015, 6pm)  in Sydney.
http://www.carriageworks.com.au/
About the Carriageworks (Wiki).


New Sound Waves is a collective of electronic musicians and video artists working primarily with modular
synthesisers. We meet regularly at 107 Projects in Redfern, and our members perform live around
Sydney and beyond.

The artists performing on Thursday night are:

-1
-1 is an electronic musician and producer based in Sydney, as well as the founder of the New Sound Waves
modular synth collective

Benjamin Kinsman 
Ben is an electronic musician, producer and sound designer from Sydney, with a life lived in a sea
of cables.

Patches
Patches creates unique experiences in electronic music, interactive media and film, improvising with analog synths and creating experimental performances by manipulating body sounds.

Cobramatic
Cobramatic is an electronic musician, producer and video maker based in Sydney. Utilising various traditional, and electronic instruments and devices, he creates, manipulate and mangles audio and video.

Unknownfunction
f(x) is an electronic musician/artist based in sydney attempting to deliver unique musical expression utilizing a variety of instruments.

Jondent
Jono is an artist & electronic musician. He began DJ-ing in the electro & deep house genre, but has evolved
by using vintage synthesizers such as the Buchla which encourage abstraction, experimentation & improvisation.

Friday, 4 September 2015

Balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings - Luxor - Egypt

Luxor is on the west bank of the Nile, near the valley of the Kings. The 3rd of Jan is my birthday.
This was a perfect way to begin a perfect day.

Video 1:

.....

Close your eyes if you're afraid of heights.

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Video3

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Video 4
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Video 5

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Video 6

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That's the Nile river.






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For more travel postcards click here

Tuesday, 1 September 2015

Vactrol Pill - NLC - Build notes

These are my build notes for the nonlinearcircuits Vactrol Pill module (eurorack format).
It's a very easy build  & there are no surface mounted components.

The vactrol can be home made if you like. Just a LED & a light sensitive resistor housed in a light-tight package is all you need. Andrew F has a page on how to make these.
http://nonlinearcircuits.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/diy-vactrols.html

Andrew's build notes are here:
http://www.sdiy.org/pinky/data/WAMOD%20PiLL.pdf

The Pill refers to a PLL or phase-locked loop. This type of circuit consists of a variable frequency oscillator and a phase detector. The signal from the phase detector is used to control the oscillator in a feedback loop
so that the phase of the oscillator is constantly matched to the phase of the incoming signal.
I usually start installation with headers (IC & power), then resistors & caps.

This module uses a 4046 chip.


I'm using a Silonex NSL-32 vactrol. They are cheap as chips. The white dot marks the cathode of the LED part of the vactrol. Andrew has labeled this as "K" on the PCB.


It's now time to install the 3.5mm jacks.

 Screw the panel in then solder the jacks


Don't forget to solder the ground tabs with scrap wire.
After soldering the LED you are done. :-) So easy !!!


If all is working, the LED should light up in sync with a gate signal. The top two inputs (in1 & in2) are for gates & CVs. The 3rd input (pm) is for audio.The audio signal is phase modulated by the PLL

There are 2 outs ... the "pm out" is of course the phase modulated version on the inputted audio.

Links
1. Building a VCO using a 4046.
2. The X-4046 VCO - Thomas Henry
3. Simple CD4046 VCO - electromusic
4. Muffs post
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Click here to return to the NLC Build Index:
http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/non-linear-circuits-ncl-index.html 

Sunday, 30 August 2015

303 acid mix - Eurorack & Buchla

Second patch for Carriageworks gig.


...


The 4MS Matrix mixer - a wonderful module.

The NonLinearCircuits ADSR312 - It's a envelope generator based on a Aries design 

The Intellijel Metropolis sequencer -- what's there not to love about this great machine.

Can't get enough of this 303

Thursday, 27 August 2015

Chopper/Bi-Di router - NLC build notes.

These are the build notes for the nonlinearcircuits Chopper / Bi-directional module. 
So what is it?
It's a eurorack format voltage controllable electronic switching module.

The bottom section is similar to your old fashioned gate controlled bi-directional router. Functionally, it behaves very much like the Serge triple bi-directional router, though the circuit is very different.

The top section is based on a 70's delta modulator, (at least in concept). Delta modulation (DM or Δ-modulation) is an technique of analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog signal conversion. It's used for information transmission where quality is not of primary importance.

The signals being switched are also sent through a comparator & they control the switching. Plus you can add CV to all of this. Cool !

Muff's thread is here:



Andrew's build notes are here:

Andrew's Blog:

 I have  2 versions of the PCB.
I'm currently building Version 2 (on the left).
Version 2 has corrections (mods) already done which you will read about in Andrew's build notes.
Mostly replacing some resistors (470K & 22K) & the addition of the 10K .



A 10 k resistor needs to be soldered from the left pad of the 470k resistor to +V, easiest is the closest pin of
the nearby transistor - the collector of BC547.

I've used two 68uf ceramics for the decoupling caps.
I've used 510 ohm SMD resistors for the  LED resistors.
You need to experiment with this. I might go to a 1K for the next build.


Mount pots & Jacks. I used a 1M & a 100K pot ... using this for CV.
Cool. Looks like it works. 


Links

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You can find more NLC builds here.
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Buchla percussion patch 1 for the Carriageworks

Cobramatic (Paul) & I are preparing for a gig probably next month in Sydney (The Carriageworks).
This patch is part of the installation.

We are undecided as to the final formal. It may comprise Eurorack & Kilpatrick modulars.
But we will definitely be bringing Buchla.

This patch is focused to provide drum/percussion sounds. It will possibly evolve into something else by the time we get to performing but for now, this is what it sounds like.