Sounds of Science: 8 Futuristic Musical Instruments

I love Wired magazine, I really do. They are always covering the current state of affairs with technology and culture, which inevitably bleeds into music. They’ve covered artists such as Thom Yorke and David Byrne, they have a [warranted] love affair with Brian Eno and they nominated of Jack Dangers, of Meat Beat Manifesto fame, as one of 2005’s Sexiest Geeks. They even reviewed The Orb back in 1994! Go Wired!

Currently Wired has turned it’s critical eye on Futuristic Musical Instruments. Keep in mind Wired is not Create Digital Music, nor are they Analog Industries, and they markedly missed noting the monome as one of the ‘must have’ instruments of the past few years, but they have managed to capture a lot of what is currently happening out there in the commercial musical instrument world. It is of noted interest that there are some very interesting links in the comments section as well.

Artist:Richard J Valeo
Title: Hardware Sessions, Session 1 & 2
Catalog Number: trans.010
Type: Digital EP
Release Date: 26.07.2008
Format: 320 CBR MP3
Duration: 19 minutes
Size: 30 meg
Download Here:

As of lately I have had a real fascination with hardware and making it sound as raw it can sound.

I really love the texture and grit of equipment, especially when something isn’t working right. My ears prick up when I can hear the values step on tunings due to dirty pots and knobs. My favorite is when oscillators sound like eggs being cooked in corn oil, all spittery and sputtery.

I thought about it for a while and decided that I wanted to find a hardware delay that sounded kinda nasty. I wanted to hear the low bit rate of an old digital delay, so I sought one out. I knew that I would be tweaking it out so I wasn’t worried when I first took a listen to it.

At first the DM1000 sounded rather nice. No real grit to speak of, no real bit rate degradation.

I opened it up (with the encouragement of Matt Scopp) and found some nice little pots that said, of all things, clock. Nice.

Actual 4 bit sound playback sounds totally different than 4 bit crushed audio, played back and output as 24 bit from a computer. The real 4 bit output has real crunch, density and presence

In order to make some nice sounds I hooked up a few more pieces of gear. My trusty Oberheim OB-1 that has just been resurrected from the grave, and, i dug up the ‘wrekah’ — a bent ibanez distortion pedal that does one thing, wreck sound

I hooked the wrekah up to the Elektron Machinedrum. You can hear it come in at 4:32 in session 2.

All of that and some midiverb 4, and away we go.

There are 2 different pieces in this series. The first piece is entitled ‘oberheim’, and it was the third take during the first session. That session took place during Matt Scopp’s visit. The second piece is entitled ‘hardware’ and was recorded earlier today. I mastered both of these tracks today, July 26 2008.

Theses pieces are about playing with tension and release, challenging the listener’s focus, and the suspension of disbelief. These are themes that I enjoy exploring again and again. I feel there is a lot of work that can be done in this realm.

I found it interesting to look at both of these waveforms side by side so I decided to share the screen grabs. It appears that both performances have a similar overarching structure, as well as, interestingly enough, timing. It could almost be said that they are different performances based on the same score.

Session 1 Overview

Listen to a clip of session 1: oberheim

oberheim session clip

Session 2 Overview

Listen to a clip of session 2: hardware

hardware session clip

Zip of both sessions.

Follow the link below to download both sessions mp3s in their entirety.

Download zip of MP3s here - [30 meg / 2 files]

So, Philip Sherburne wrote a post this week on Pitch Fork called “The Month In: Techno” It starts out like this…

“Everything feels fucked up. The environment, the economy, war, terrorism, an unraveling Constitution, obesity, reality shows, the coming 2012 apocalypse meme– it’s hard to be optimistic about much these days.”

Phillips article was ok — it got to the point and made some sense from his perspective. A lot of the manifestos, tho, sounded extremely ostentatious and pedantic. Like this post.

I want to respond to some of them. I am not going to make any friends with this, but, whatever. If you put it out there you should be willing to be criticized…

Begin long-winded post poking fun at techno producers.

“Make a full EP or LP completely sober…”
- Oh man. Thanks for that! I’ve been making music and always been high and just thought everyone needed to eat a pill or spark up to ‘get it’. That explains *EVERYTHING*! whew. problem solved.

“Tracks should be mastered either professionally or properly”
- Oh. Thanks for this too! I thought that pumping it through L2 on “squish” was enough, because, you know, people are on drugs and they like it like that!

“Live acts just using a laptop should be called “semi-live.” That’s already common in Holland. ”
- Go Holland! Because, you know, computers really do ALL the work. Are you kidding me? I guess they are from the ’school of guitars’ because only ‘real instruments’ can be ‘played live’. jeeze.

I love this one…

“If you can’t do it in real life, don’t put it on a mix CD. … It’s so obviously an Ableton mix– … It sounds great, but if you can’t pull that off at the club, don’t even bother.”
- How do you know it can’t be done live? Perhaps the dude uses Ableton to DJ! Wait, is THAT *REALLY* DJing? I guess not, no Discs and no Jockying…

“Before that track you just made goes out into the world, ask yourself: have you just made something that would knock you out if someone else was the author? Would you need to own it and listen to it again? …”
- True on this one. No joke.

another one that gets it.
Strategy (Community Library, Kranky)

That whole “FACT” rant thing was a bit much, almost as bad as this post I am writing here.

What can I say, someone named pheek gets it as does Peter…

ok - my point? some good stuff in there, but a lot of bollocks. really. it was a bit nauseating.

speaking of nauseating…

I have a writing that was posted to the Modifyer blog back in June. Not a manifesto, more a set of rules for a specific compositional experiment. Shit this is worse than those other postings.. I’ll just post a bit and link to the rest…

http://modyfier-modifying.blogspot.com/2008/06/blog-post_17.html

1. Limited and constant sound sources are to be used in each composition.

2. Once all hardware sound sources are used, additional computer-based sources are allowed, with the stipulation that they are treated as hardware sources.This means they are used on individual inputs and outputs from the computer’s sound card and mixed in the analog mixer as audio.

3. If a sample is needed a software sampler can be used. See rule #2 for stipulations.

4. Once a composition is started it has to be completed before starting a new one.

5. To complete the composition each song will be performed live and a 2 track recording will be captured in the computer.

6. Once a composition is completed it can not be gone back to. The exception is that an edit can be done in post production.

7. If the mix is incorrect or needs to be fixed, this too should be done in post production.

8. The composition title is the name and time of the day on which the composition is created. Notes and annotations are allowed in titles.

9. Once a composition is completed the patches and settings on the hardware will be erased.

I hope i didn’t offend anyone and everyone gets that all of us take our selves far too seriously.

I mean, come on. It is dance music, and it is techo for chists-sake! Even if it was opera or rock i’d say the same thing. Don’t get too caught up in it or it will go the way of … (gasps) … IDM! It is all about having fun and enjoying what you do, right?. Forget the rules, forget the stardom and just enjoy what you do or else there is no point at all. Get high and make music if that is what you want to do, it fucking worked *well* for Bob Marley.

So, I am sure that you know about The Wire. It is the ‘Modern Music’ magazine based out of the UK. They write some of the most in-depth and well informed reviews and articles that you’ll find anywhere, on the web or in print. Really. Where else will you find a magazine that features, ON THE COVER artists such as Ricardo Villalobos, Phil Niblock, Throbbing Gristle, Terry Reily and Vladislav Delay? Absolutely no place. They are pretty much ‘the defacto’ place you turn to when you want to read about the stuff that really matters.

If you didn’t know, on their site they have some really great exclusive content - both mixes and tracks. One of my favorites is a Mira Calix mix from the ‘Faster than Sound’ festival competition page. Some are to download, and some are to stream. Downloading is nice, streaming is problematic if you want to listen to that track on your iPod while riding the subway. You can trick the site into letting you download the files if you take a look at the URL and modify it slightly. I don’t want to get into too much trouble so that is all I will say on that. :)

The other reccent audio treat that has been tickling my ears is the 74 minute uneditted interview with the iconic free jazz trumpeter Bill Dixon.

I can’t help but think that this interview would make for some *amazing* source materail for sampling and sourcing. Stream only? Not really a problem. Take a look at the URL and do a little tweaking and you should be good to go.

Keep on reading and listening to all the wonderful music that is out there!

Recently I had the honor of participating in a series of releases curated and released over on the modyfier blog. Shepherded by the ever-insightful Rayna, this series of site-specific works focuses it’s attention on not only the product of the works, but on the process behind them.

I wrote a 3 page paper to accompany the 4 composition to be posted on the site. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote.

“… Another aspect of the project was that improvisation was used as a central part of the compositional structure. The general form for each song was created using a MIDI sequencer, but the final recorded version was a combination of improvised performance and structured composition. It was this paring of improvisation and composition that allowed this series of compositions to stay fresh and novel. …”

Visit modyfier for the full text as well as to download the tracks. They are experimental and minimal.

Price: FREE
Product Link: here
Rating: 5/5 bloops (amazing)

If you’ve been reading the info on this site by now you’ll get the fact that i am into things that are free. As a case and point that free is not bad, this review is about the wonderful free synth Automat, by the elusive developer group, Alphakanal.

Automat is a 3 oscillator subtractive synth that has 7 waveforms to choose from, including sample playback for each of the waveforms. Each oscillator’s portamento can be set individually as can it’s tone, volume and pan.

There are 2 filter sections per patch with 16 different types of filter to choose from, and each filter’s type can be set individually. Types include low pass, high pass, band pass, vowel and more. That is hot. For free.

The synth also includes an effects section, with chorus, delay, phase and other time based sfx available. Automat also has the ability to use alternate tunings! Pythagorean your cup of tea? No problem. Ganassi your preferred tuning? Not a problem at all.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, the real secret weapon of this beast is the modulation section. Modulations can control just about every aspect of the synth, including pitch, filter, resonance, and panning. In one of the versions the modulations can even control themselves. Amazing.

If you’ve heard any of my work (space madness in particular) you’ve heard the Automat. I really use this in just about *every* track. It has to be one of the most versatile and amazing synths available, at any price. Don’t sleep on this. Head over to Alphakanal and get on it.

What value does something that is “free” have? Does it devalue the actual content if it is given away?

Does something that is free have “less quality” or could it even be “less good” than something that costs money?

This is a very interesting topic when it comes to music, and it begs the question: If an artist gives their music away for “free”, is it worth listening to?

Strange question, or is it? If something is free do you want it more or less than something that is *supposed* to cost money but that you don’t pay for, like a Promo Copy of a record, or a CD given to you by an artist? Those items have value, don’t they?

Legally free or illegally free, free is free. Zero is zero, it costs you nada, zip, zilch. But, for some reason, it appears that for a large majority of people the music that is stolen is perceived to have more value than the music that is simply given away. Does that make any sense? There is a perception here that needs to be broken that “free = bad”. It is almost like the implied value in the music is in the fact that *someone* actually payed for it, even if you didn’t. It’s like ’stealing’ is being in on a secret. There is psychologically implied value in the music when you pirate it.

Well, it is time to break that thought process for a few reasons. Independent labels are going away and more and more artists are turning to the internet to distribute their work, for free.

So, how does one create value with free and why? Just because the medium is digital doesn’t mean it didn’t take time and energy and money to create it. If you like what the artist is doing, support them! There are a number of ways to help generate income from free, and I’ll go over a few of them here.

#1 - Limited free availability. Make something free for a limited amount of time, then, assign price to it. If you can’t get it for free you may want it more, and when you can’t get it for free if you want it you’ll have to buy it.

#2 - Low Resolution for free, High Rez for a price. If you download something, and you like it you can then purchase the high quality version that has all of the detail in it.

#3 - Free/Paid Content Groupings. Give away a limited amount of songs for free, but if the entire package is wanted then a certain respectable price needs to be paid.

#4 - Honor System. Let the unit/item be downloaded for free and let the listener decide after they download it what they want to pay for it.

#5 - Forced Value Acknowledgment System. Let the user download the item for free, but make them enter the actual number $0 in for the price they are willing to pay. This way they understand that they are getting it for free.

#6 - Digital / Limited Physical Bundle. Couple digital media with physical media, be it a poster or exclusive content on a collectible medium that is limited in quantity.

#7 - Just give the damn things away. If the person likes what they hear, they will value it and come back for more and possibly purchase other items.

Think of free music like this - it is the great cutout bin in the sky. How many times did you go into Tower Records (the late) hoping to find that great find in that red tag bin?

And, ultimately, why should we care about any of this? If we don’t support and encourage the artists to continue to make new music, we will be limited to experiencing music from people that just started to make it and are comfortable giving it away, and, we will loose out on all of the wonderful artists that have been making music for decades but they have stopped because they could no longer afford to create the worlds that they inhabit for us to enjoy.

And ultimately, by supporting the artists with downloads and even a little compensation we are showing them that there is value in their work and they should continue.

Just something to think about.

Title: 45 Tribute – For Daniel Hansson
Label: N/A (In cooperation with Red Handed Records)
Release Date: 4.10.08

The 45 Tribute is a compilation to pay homage to the late Daniel Hansson, co-founder of Elektron Music Machines. There are 30 tracks from many well-known artists including Autechre, Dntel, Venetian Snares, Daedelus, Kim Hiorthoy, John Tejada and many more. The release also contains exclusive contributions from: The Sea and Cake, Boom Bip, Tiga, Proxy, John Starlight and others.
The album will be distributed digitally and has a $5.00 cost attached to it. All proceeds will go to the World Wildlife Fund, a cause Daniel was passionate about. Additionally, there are over 25 free songs available for download.

For more information and to order the compilation visit: http://www.45tribute.com