Wednesday, 19 January 2022

Dan Simmons - Hyperion - introduction

Hyperion by Dan Simmons was published in 1989.

It has won Hugo (1990) & Locus awards, but  never received the attention of books like Herbert's "Dune" or  Asimov's "Foundation". 

Rumors are that it will soon be a movie.
Maybe this will give it the attention it deserves.

There are 4 books in the series:
Hyperion, Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, Rise of Endymion.

The structure of the novel and it's influences are interesting.
It's composed of a series of tales told by a group of 7 travelers .. kind of like Chaucer's "Cantebury Tales" and Boccaccio's "Decameron".
The title, Hyperion is taken from one of John Keat's (unfinished) poems "Hyperion" which used as a source, the Titan wars of Greek Mythology. 
The poet Keat's is really important. It's the name of one of the cities of the planet Hyperion and the second book "Fall of H" is a series of dreams of the poet.




There are 6 tales in the novel.
1. The Priest's tale
2. The Solder's tale
3. The Poet's tale.
4. The Scholar's tale
5. The Detective's tale.
6. The Consul's tale.

These travelers relate their interlocking tales while on a pilgrimage organized by the "Church of the final atonement" to the Time Tombs of Hyperion.
Each story relates to the the planet Hyperion and gives the opportunity to tell who they are and build
the Simmon's universe.
Their journey takes them to the evil creature known as the "Shrike".... The Lord of Pain.
Each pilgrim has their own unique reason for the journey and they all suspect they will probably never return.

The pilgrims are:
1. Father Lenar Hoyt - a Catholic Priest.
2. The Martian soldier Colonel Fedmahn Kassad (of Palestinian descent).
3. The poet Martin Silenus who was born on Earth (and wrote a book about Earth before it was destroyed).
4. Sol Weintraub, a Jewish professor, with his infant daughter Rachel.
5. The detective Brawne Lamia.
6. The Consul, Merin Aspic.
 
The story is set in the 29th  century.
Old Earth has been destroyed, and humanity has colonized the stars forming the "Hegemony of Man".
Mankind  is allied with the Technocore AIs. This alliance is not all that it seems and I suspect The Technocore doesn't have Mankind's best interests at heart.
The Technocore manages the "All Thing"  ...the connection between all humans. Through this connection, humans can vote on legislation, communicate with each other, and access information instantaneously......reminds me of the internet. Remember, this book was published in 1989.

On the extremity of "Colonized Space" live the "Ousters". These are modified humans (who are at war with the Hegemony of Man).



Sci Fi links

Sunday, 16 January 2022

Clocking the Buchla 252e (with a 225e)

 
 The Buchla 252e has no midi or analog clock input as it was designed to be THE master clock.
 

 The 252e manual says it supports MIDI clock, sync receive and sync transmit.
Transmit is straightforward, but syncing and receiving MIDI from something like a DAW,
needs a module like a 225e.
There may be other modules which could do the same job but I think the 225e module is a great pairing for the 252e. They communicate with each other using i2c.
 
The 225e has 16 busses, but the last 6
are impt in syncing things. These are busses J to P.

These handle controller and clock messages. They are translated into 0-10V CVs

Each controller Bus is divided into 2 groups: (a) or (b).....(two controllers for each of six busses).

Controller output bus P(b) is actually not a controller, but is a dedicated MIDI Clock output.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
If Channel is set to “Clock” (after 16 and before 0) a different interface is displayed:
 


The Div fields allow the 225e to generate 10 volt pulses based on rhythmic divisions of an incoming MIDI clock. The numerator represents a count; valid values are 1-8. The denominator represents a note length.

1: Whole note                                                     8: Eighth note
2: Half note                                                        12: Eighth note triplet
3: Half note triplet                                               16: Sixteenth note
4: Quarter note                                                   24: Sixteenth note triplet
6: Quarter note triplet                                          32: Thirty-second note
 
 
Str = Sync Transmit
Src = Sync Receive


So if you wish the 252e to receive and be controlled by external midi clock follow these steps:
1. On the 252e, press and hold the Master BPM knob until the display reads Off.
2. Turn the Master BPM knob on the 252e until it reads Src (Sync receive).


 ----------------------------------
 
If you are trying to clock a larger modular system from the 252e  (without a 225e) use Cell1 output.
This will supply a pulse every time  the cells return to step 1.
 

Use a clock multiplier like the  Northern Light Modular 2TT.
Set an output to be a multiple of 2, 4, 8, 16 etc and you have a master clock while retaining the pulse outs.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

You can also use the 256e  as a clock multiplier
 Buchla Quad voltage processor

















You can of course  use any of the pulse outputs on the 252e as a clock.

Personally, I just think the 225e is the easiest module to use. It allows you to add a midi clock input
to the 252e, is a perfect and flexible clock multiplier/divider and is a preset manager to boot.



Here, bus P is supplying the clock.

P(b) is your unmodified clock.

P(a) is the clock multiplied by 2.



























I'm using abelton as the clock source.


Remember to set it up to transmit midi.

Options/ preferences/ midi

































 New Album


Thursday, 13 January 2022

Tycho's Nova - SubHar & DFAM 12

 Some patch notes
This will be released on my 3rd album - Pursuit of Harmony. 

Tycho's Nova
 
I clocked this from abelton using the touchprone MIDI to clock (settiing 8)
Album 3
 


 

Wednesday, 12 January 2022

Build Your First Synth - Complete Workshop For Musicians and Artists

....

A great tutorial on building a basic synth. 

Good for the beginner who is interested in Arduinos, teensy's &  microcontrollers in general.