Tuesday, 9 November 2021

Plato

Some notes about Plato
These are personal feeling about the great man.
Possibly, the greatest Philosopher who ever lived.
 
It's unusual to have a philosophy entry in this blog.
But I think this can impact you life and may even make your music better.

Plato is one of the greats

Are his ideas relevant today ? And could he help me make better music ?
 
Plato lived in ancient Greece and  belongs to its classical period. He was born into an aristocratic and influential family in Athens.
Along with his teacher Socrates and his student, Aristotle, Plato is possibly  one of the pillars of Western civilization. 

His biggest contribution is the theory of forms or doctrine of ideas.
 
This asserts that the physical world is not the real world. He said that true reality exists beyond our physical world in the world of ideas.
His most famous books are the Republic, The symposium, and The apology of Socrates.

1. Get started
  “The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
   If you are suffering from writers block, just turn on your DAW, or the synth.
   Start something.
   Acknowledging the importance of beginning a task is important.

2. Conquer yourself.
    “For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.”
     Understand your strengths and weaknesses to take control of your destiny.
     Do not let your instincts and desires dictate your actions.
     If you want to loose weight, you need to understand your weakness, in order to
     overcome and achieve a positive outcome.
3. Hard Work
   Don't be lazy
    “I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident;
    they came by work.”
    Without struggle, there is no progress.



4. Being angry solves nothing
   A person should never be angry at what they can help and what they can not.
   Anger is a negative emotion, which we should avoid.
   Usese reason instead. Calmly evaluate a situation.

5.  Quality over quantity
     “Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly.”
     Do a great EP or single, rather than a mediochre Album.

6. Surround yourself with positive people.
   "people like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person, or
   they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die".
   This also applies to the bigger question of choosing your life partner.
   "Each of us then is a matching half of a human whole. And each of us is always seeking the half that matches".
   Find your soul-mate.


7.  choose your words carefully
     “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.”


8. Be kind and generous.
   Offer your skills, advice, and service to others.

9. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
   “Life must be lived as play.”

10. Drop the ego.
   Realise, that you don't know everything.
   “I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
   If you know nothing, you have everything to learn.
   So be willing to learn from others:
   "he who is not a good servant will not be a good master". 

 
 
11. Be wary of what others say about you , and what you tell the world about yourself.
   “Those who tell the stories rule society.”
   This is especially true today with social media.
   Influencers, will try to change your perception of the world. This can be positive or negative.
   What you tell the world about yourself is impt.
   The story you tell about your reality becomes your reality.
   Even if it's false, you might start to believe it.

12. Be content and grateful with what you have.
    "The greatest wealth is to live content(ly) with little".
    .... or to be happy with little.
    We need food, shelter, clothing. They are the essentials.
    I don't have to have a expensive car, or designer clothes to be happy.
    Don't be resentful of people with these expensive things.
    You don't really know if they are happier than you.
    They may have debt problems, marriage issues, drug dependency.
    We chase the material things in life, but these things will not make us any happier.
    Instead, the treadmill of "keeping up with the Jones" adds stress to your life.
    Buying a Jupiter 8, won't make my music significantly better, either.
 
Just remember,
Most of the stuff that you own, you don’t need. Happiness does not come from owning an array of possessions; it comes from within, from a deep sense of contentment with your life.
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+ Philosophy index  

New Album - Jondent - Little Budda - Bandcamp

 Some ambient music


Friday, 5 November 2021

NLC - Signum HyperChaos - Build Notes - part 1


These are my build notes for the nonlinear circuits eurorack module.
It's 10HP

This is an expansion of Primal Hyperchaos module

"The internal signum switch has been brought out to the panel. It can be used as a stand-alone switch (don’t expect it to be clean and nice) or it can be used to inject signals into the hyperchaos circuit or control the switching of the hyperchaos.
 
Some actions will make the oscillations stop; others will make them go nuts; experiment!" (NLC).
 
 
 
There are 5 CV outputs and one gate output.
 

IN1 and IN2 are the inputs for the Signum switch.
SW1 & SW2 are also inputs.
Use SW1 if you want to control the switching of the hyperchaos with an external signal.
SW2 is also connected to the internal switch for the hyperchaos circuit. 
If you use this input you will find that switching only occurs with an external signal.











All easy to find parts.


 
 
 



ICs first .. just 074 opamps
S1JL or similar 2 Mouser 821-S1JL, dot=cathode
LL4148 diodes 6 Mouser 512-LL4148
































Resistors next
 

 
There are 4 impt CAPS that you will need to pick
You can run the module at different speeds by installing these different caps.
100nF to 10uF will work. 
All 4 caps should be the same value and must be voltage rated for 25V or more
fast = 100nF
medium speed = 1uF
Slow = 10uf

If using 10uF, you may want to increase the value of the 470k resistor to prevent the output signals hitting the rails, not a big deal if you don’t, just turn the Climax pot low to reduce the peaks

I'm going to use 1uF for now.
 
 
Jacks.
 

B1M linear taper pot x2
B100K Linear taper pot

I'm waiting on some pots.
To be continued...................

Part 2 is here:
 
 
Links
+ BOM
 

Tuesday, 2 November 2021

Moog Mother 32 - set up mode - pre version 2.0

This is the setup for firmware versions before April 2020
The new firmware is 2.0
 
 So this page is for the original firmware.

Set up mode allows you to program things like 
1. Assignable output, LFOs, Midi to CV, Clocks, dividers, 
2. midi channel
3. Tempo input modes

 
You can enter setup mode by holding these 4 buttons:
 shift + reset + set end + step8. (in this order)
The LED above the shift button will start flashing yellow.

 There are 3 pages.
Use the left/right buttons to navigate to each page.
page 1. Assignable output 
page 2. midi channel
page 3. Tempo input modes

You can exit setup mode by holding these 4 buttons:
 reset + shift + set end + step8.
(Push the 4 buttons in this order so you don't accidently set the parameter to 8)


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

Page 1. Assignable output
This is the biggest page. 
There are 16 different parameters in this page.
Step buttons 1-8 select function values 1-8
Shift + step buttons 1-8 will select values 9-16
The value is indicated by green Octave/Location LEDs.
 
 
Summary of ASSIGNABLE OUTPUT MODES
1: Accent (Default)
2: Sequencer Clock
3: Sequencer Clock / 2
4: Sequencer Clock / 4
5: Sequencer Step Ramp
6: Sequencer Step Saw
7: Sequencer Step Triangle
8: Sequencer Step Random
9: Sequencer Step 1 Trigger Output
10: MIDI Velocity
11: MIDI Channel Pressure
12: MIDI Pitch Bend
13: MIDI CC 1
14: MIDI CC 2
15: MIDI CC 4
16: MIDI CC 7
 
Function 1-4 send out trigger pulses from the assignable output jack.
These are linked to the sequencer clock in various divisions.
 
Function 5 & 6 output one slow ramp or saw wave over the course of
one sequences. 
Function 7 outputs one slow triangle wave over the course of  2 sequences. 
Use these for example when opening up a filter slowly over one or 2 sequences.
It's kind of like a tempo synced LFO..
Patch the assignable out to VCF cutoff in.
 
Function 8.
Its really impt in self generative patches - use random output
on each step.

Function 9.
sends a 5V pulse out of the assig output on step 1 

Function 10.
This converts the velocity MIDI information (coming into the M32 via the DIN jack
into control voltages (which come out of the assig out jack)

Function 11
This converts the aftertouch MIDI information (coming into the M32 via the DIN jack
into control voltages (which come out of the assig out jack)

Function 12
This converts the pitchbend MIDI information (coming into the M32 via the DIN jack
into control voltages (which come out of the assig out jack)
 
Function 13
This converts any MIDI information on CC channel 1 (coming into the M32 via the DIN jack
into control voltages (which come out of the assig out jack)
Useful if you are using a DAW.
 
Function 14
This converts any MIDI information on CC channel 2 (coming into the M32 via the DIN jack
into control voltages (which come out of the assig out jack)
 
Function 15
This converts any MIDI information on CC channel 4 (coming into the M32 via the DIN jack
into control voltages (which come out of the assig out jack)
 
 Function 16
This converts any MIDI information on CC channel 7 (coming into the M32 via the DIN jack
into control voltages (which come out of the assig out jack)
 
 
 
Page 2. midi channel
After selecting Page 2, 
press Step buttons 1-8 for MIDI Channels 1-8, 
and (SHIFT)+Step buttons 1-8 for MIDI Channels 9-16
 
Page 3. Tempo input modes
After selecting Page 3,
press Step buttons 1-3 to select the desired Tempo input behavior.
1: CV INPUT MODE
2: SINGLE CLOCK ADVANCE MODE
3: DIN SYNC MODE
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, 1 November 2021

Sefrou - Morocco

 Sefrou is a city in central Morocco situated in the Fès-Meknès region.
 

It's a Berber town. Situated in the middle Atlas region .
 
 It's about 30km south of FEZ

 
 The Oued Aggaï  River runs through the city.
 
 
 

 
 Its a great place to see a real local market.
 

 Sefrou is known for its historical Jewish population, and its annual cherry festival.
 
The Jewish population dates from he 8th and 9th centuries.
Most came from Algeria. 

Much of this population however emigrated to Israel in 1967.
 
This is part of the old Medina .. old city

The town is very pretty and was designated a world heritage site by Unesco.
 
The Aggai River cuts through Sefrou
The city is made up of the walled medina, the new medina (outside the walls) and the fortress
(Qal'a).




Saturday, 30 October 2021

Mother 32 - sequencer - editing a pattern - step mode

 To edit a sequence use Step Mode

1. Press SHIFT & STEP

2. Press The RUN/STOP button to hear the sequence.

3.  as the sequencer can only display 8 steps at a time we need to use
     the top four (1-8, 9-16, etc) buttons to jump to different bars.
 
4. We can turn ON or OFF a step by pressing the key associated with that step.
     Do this while the sequencer is running.

5. To further edit each step press SHIFT and the step you want to edit.
    The step being edited will start flashing. 

 5a   You can  now add RESTs & ACCENTs using the associated
        two buttons on the left
 5b  You can also change octaves during this stage (use the arrow keys).
 5c . Changing the step length is also done here. 
        Use the tempo knob to change the length from 1 to 8
        The LEDs will indicate the length.

6. To exit hold SHIFT + the step


------------------
Also check out the 8 LEDs. These will light up when you are playing a sequence.
LED 6 indicates a ratchet. 
LED 5 indicates a glide 
LED 8 indicates a hold /rest
LED 7 indicates  an accent
-----------------------------------------------------------

Remember to SAVE your CHANGES.


1.Press SHIFT + Record (1 second ... the LED indicating the memory slots blinks yellow)

2. Press SHIFT + Record again