September 30, 2009 at 5:13 pm
· Filed under videos
This is an interesting E-musician TV interview.
As we can see the Cortini’s set up is based mainly on analog stuff and software based enviroments:
Buchla Modular
Eurorack Modular
Jomox Sunsyn and X-base09
Korg MS20
Macbet M3x
Monome
Native Instruments CORE
The Buchla is his main tool, the euro is the modular for “sperimental sounds” (he keeps the Havestman modules on their own…), while the Sunsyn is his polyphonic beast.
As he described , all the sound are “replicated” (as much as possible) on sw for live use.
The other intersting thing is that he somehow changed the way NIN approach to live music, becoming more synth based while before him it was completely sample-based.
Cortini left NIN , and prooduces his music as “Blindoldfreak”.
September 22, 2009 at 5:38 pm
· Filed under videos
GlitchDS is an homebrew application for composing/performing glitch music on the Nintendo DS.
It’s based on samples , that are played by masks and that can be altered with modulations and distortion.
The result is really interesting and is like having a micro laptop for your glitch needs that can travel in your pocket!
I made this video demo during a composing session, so it can sound not so “groovy” or complitely logic in some parts, but can be interesting to show some of the power of this software and how it works.
I forgot to say that it’s sample based, but you can load your own samples with one shot sounds but even loops and then experimentation starts!
September 16, 2009 at 12:31 pm
· Filed under videos
I’ve done this video to show the Yamaha VSS30 in the sample editing territory…
A simple plick made beating two pens together near the onboard mic can be transformed in a rhythm…
September 15, 2009 at 12:11 pm
· Filed under videos
I’ve made this video to demostrate how the the yamaha VSS30 can mangle the internal waves.
Everything is done only with the VSS , no external efx and NO samples.
The Casio SK serie started with the SK-1 (one of the best selling toy keyboard of the period) and the target was a the consumer market.
The little sampler was technically far from the professional counterpart like Emu or Akai, it was just a toy with a tiny memory of few seconds and no memory retain.
Soon after the SK1 the SK5 followed.
The sK5 was an upgraded version of the SK1 with more sampling time, the capability to sample 4 sounds and to retain the sound in memory even with the power swithed off (if the keyboard run on batteries).
The sampling specifics were the same as the SK1 (8bit- 9,38KHz) quite low even for the time, and apart from didattic use by children, the sk seemed at that time just a toy.
The cheap prices of second hads SK and the “Anti Theory” of Reed Ghazala made the fame of the little sk grow.
The interesting circuit bending capabilities of this instruments made them popular between the circuit bending community as a “must have” together with the “Speak & Spell”.
The Antitheory statement , by Reed Ghazala, is that you don’t have to know anything about electronics to do circuitbending.
A circuitbend is like an energy flow thru shortcircuits…
A circuit is not designed to have shortcircuits , so you have to “think different” !
The SK5 is now a well known and is now considered a “real instrument” , not just a toy, after many more or less inportant, famous or trendy artists used it.
Just to name a few…Autechre, Bjork, Portished, Nine Inch Nails , Blur, Aphex Twin, but the list is long…
The heart of the instrument is a 8 bit sampler with a very lo-fi sound and 4 voice poly.
It can samples 4 sounds and play them together with the rubber pads or with the keyboard.
The performance can be registered with the onboard sequencer, with no quantization (you cannot correct the timing).
Every sample can be edited with the “envelope shapes” that adds crescendo, sustain, vibratos etc., can be looped or reversed .
The sample memory can retain the samples if the keyboard has batteries.
There is also the possibility to choose a “long sample” time (it occupies 2 samples slots) to sample a loop for example.
The strenght of this keyboard is without any doubt the sound, because the samples are totally mangled and they sound really different , like pixelated…
This is really great for lo-fi sounds.
The second point is that the SK 5 is an easy instrument to circuit bend and the mods add a great variety of “tools” to shape new sounds with the twist of a knob or a simple switch, a variation not known, an aleatoric change, that’s why Ghazala called his mods projects “aleatrons”.
