Monday, 1 January 2018

Arequipa - Peru

Happy New Year to everyone.

A post shared by jono (@dj_jondent) on
I hope 2018 brings much good fortune.
Sitting back watching the fireworks last night reminded me of a NYE in Peru.
2011 in Arequipa.
Such a wonderful night.
I made some great friends with whom I'm friends with to this day.

Arequipa was founded on the 15 August 1540 by Garci Manuel de Carbaja. It's beautiful, filled with baroque architecture & frequently rivaled Lima for dominance. Arequipa was for a short time the capital of Peru. It has the second biggest population. Framed by 3 volcanoes, it's high in altitude (2335m above sea level) makes it a great place to acclimatise if you are planning to hike to Machu Picchu (2430m).
We did a trip to these volcanoes (Chachani, Misti and Pichu Picchu) to test for stamina. It's a good thing to do before your hike.

The city's baroque buildings are mostly constructed from sillar, a white volcanic stone.
Even our hotel was made of the stuff.

This was the entrance to our hotel


Below are some pics of the main Cathedral.
The Basilica Cathedral of Arequipa
Located in the "Plaza de Armas". It was opened in 1656.


 It's style is described as Renaissance Revival architecture.

 This is the central plaza.




 Everything was shut. It was the 1st Jan.2011.



For more travel postcards click here:

Sunday, 31 December 2017

Loading samples - Browse shortcut - waveform view

Deluge File Browser, Loading Samples, Browse shortcut, Waveform View

There are two ways to do this on the Synthstrom Deluge:


Method 1
1. Go to Clip/track View
2. SHIFT + Browse (shortcut pad)
3. Use the SELECT knob to navigate to the folder containing the sample
     [BACK / UNDO] will jump back, etc
5. Press the SELECT knob to load the sample
6. Press the Audition keys to play.
    you can choose different pitches as you play higher audition keys.

Method 2
1. Press Shift & Kit
    The file browser is immediately entered.
    You can browse the SAMPLES folder by turning the select knob
2. Pressing  the select knob will enter the folder or load the sample
3. [BACK / UNDO] will jump back, etc
4. After you load your sample you will be returned to track/clip view.

To add more samples to an existing kit.
1.Hold down the Audition pad (on an unoccupied row) and press Load.
2. Press Select
3. Repeat


Waveform view
1 Shift + START (shortcut)
   You should see the waveform with start and end points.
2. You can play it by pressing the Audition Keys.
3. Start = Green
    END = Red
4. Pressing each will cause it to start flashing. You can move the start and end points.
5. You can zoom in using the left/right knob (hold down & turn) to increase the resolution.

Setting the start and end loop points.
1. Hold the start line with one finger and touch the new loop point with another finger
2. Do the same for the end point
3. Start = blue
     end = purple
4. You can zoom in using the left/right knob (hold down & turn) to increase the resolution.

Links
+ Synthstrom - official youtube

---------------------------------------------
Note:
This post covers the deluge with firmware V3.0
-------------------------------------------------------

Saturday, 30 December 2017

Moog Mother 32 - sequencer - recording your first pattern using keyboard mode

This uses KB - keyboard - mode
 
1.  press Shift + KB to enter KB mode

2. Choose a memory slot to store your new pattern.
    There are 64 pattern slots. These are stored in bank and pattern memory cells
    To pick a bank press SHIFT + PATTERN (BANK) and navigate with  the KB/STEP buttons.
    There are 8 banks


    To pick a pattern slot just press PATTERN (BANK) and navigate with  the KB/STEP buttons.
     There are 8 patterns in each bank
  
 2a.  Now Erase the previous pattern in the memory slot chosen.
        Press reset + shift + pattern (at the same time)
        Now when you press the RUN button, you should hear a single note on the first step.


3. Now you can make your first recording.
   Hold SHIFT + RUN at the same time.
   (you will see the first step start to blink.)
 

4. enter the notes using the keyboard buttons & the HOLD/REST button.


5. To stop record mode press the RUN/STOP button



 6.  To run the sequence, press the RUN/Stop button


7. To stop the sequence Press the run/stop  button


8.  prepare to Save the pattern
     Press Shift +  RUN/Stop for 1 second
    You will see a LED flash green. This indicates where the pattern will be saved.
    if you want to change the location use the left/right arrows (marked in green).


9. Save the pattern
    Press Shift +  RUN/Stop

Tuesday, 26 December 2017

Christmas fun with the Roland 100m

Getting familar with the basic D-set

A simple patch using just 5 modules: 112 Dual VCO, 121 Dual filter, 130 Dual VCA, 140 Dual envelope, 150 Ringmod, SH, Noise. The 1st VCO supplies the bass & second VCO, the drums.
The full unedited video is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_QU--2VCrc&t=19s

Tuesday, 19 December 2017

Master Clock & utilities Eurorack case

 Utilities are pretty boring, but necessary.
Over the years Ive struggled to find ways to clock everything that I have.
Is it possible that one device can to it all ???
Probably not, but you can build a case with the modules to do it all.
I think I finally have it.
 
 
The trigger, drum modules and compressor arent necessary, but they are useful to have and certainly do 
make the case even more handy.
 
The main clock source is the cyclic slew 1U. 


The Synthrotec CVGT1 does all the Buchla / Euro conversions. 
Both control voltages, triggers and gates.
 
We need a clock divider/multiplier (2hp), a CV sequencer (Pico).
The mutant brain allows me to trigger drums with MIDI 

The Disting is a mark 1. Its enough.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I can clock my ARP 2500 easily with a gate from the Synthrotec.
 
The CVGT1 has a silver ground jack. (banana).
 
I needed to make a conversion cable -- on one end is the 6.5 mm jack which plugs into the clock input of the ARP sequencer.
 
The other end of the cable has two ends...  a banana ground jack & a banana tip jack.
 
These plug into your CVGT1 ground & gate outputs

Works flawlessly
 
 

You can also clock old Moog, Korg & Yamaha gear which needs V-Trig to S-trig conversion.
You need to make a cable for this,

 
 
 















Some more pics


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Links

Abelton - Instrument chains

 These are related to drum racks, but different.

You dont have the MPC layout.


I have made an instrument rack with 4 instruments.
One impulse drum rack (dub delay), one Analog inst, One operator and a Collision pad.
 
Look in the  Browser.:
Display Categories / Instruments, and drag the Instrument Rack folder onto the first MIDI track 
You can drag whatever instruments you like into the window below the list of chains.

In a earlier post I talked about using the macros to control launching of instruments.
   
We now need to assign each instrument a unique Chain Selector value.
 
Clip 1 launches when MIDI = 0
Clip 2 launches when MIDI =1
Clip 3 launches when MIDI =2
Clip 4 launches when MIDI =3
 


 
To automate the clip selector
Ive added in the clip launcher  4 midi tracks.
 
 
 
 

Here, Im going over how to use envelopes to select which midi clip triggers the instrument.

 
Set the channel to chain select.
And
The first midi clip has an envelope drawn to level 0
Keep is flat ... at level zero along the entire clip
 

Clip 2 will have a level of 1.
 
Clip 3 a level of 2 .... and so on.
 
 



You can download this demo project here:



Wednesday, 13 December 2017

CES Digital Systems trainer - Ed-Lab 702

This is a educational tool to teach students digital logic and give basic microprocessor experience.
I'm hoping it will teach me a thing or two.

I believe there was a suitcase version. This is a console configuration.
The manufacturers website can be found here:
http://cesindustries.com/ces702.htm



There are manuals that accompanied this console. Sadly I don't possess them.

Some closeups: