Jeff Gburek - Musician

I recently had the good fortune of meeting Jeff Gburek an American experimental noise artist who currently resides in Berlin.

Jeff is primarily a guitarist although his techniques would seem quite unorthodox to many. Usually his guitar is laid flat on a table and plucked, played, interfered with using objects like metal files a cello bow and a whole range of different bits and pieces. He also utilizes a laptop during his performances for the live synthesis of electronic sounds the playback of pre-recorded samples and to effect the signal coming from his guitar.

We just saw him perform a piece called Myopia by Djamla Primordial Science that combines experimental movement theatre and live electro acoustic music here in Lyon. We came away from the show feeling eager to discuss what we had just seen. I love it when I'm challenged by by a piece of art or a performance and this certainly did just that.

He is currently touring France and a few other places presenting this and other works with Ephia who performs the bodily elements of the shows. A list of tour dates can be found here.


Samples of Jeff's guitar orientated music can be downloaded from the futurevessel site and you can listen to his computer compositions on his myspace. He also has several CD's coming out soon filled with track which I suppose would be classed as IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) so keep your eyes open.


He gave me some of his back catalog to listen to and I have been doing just that for the last few days. Here is a link to download one of the tracks I was given. Its is a composition comprised of recordings of radio broadcasts collected over several years and is part of a four disk set called Radio Wide World 1994 - 2004. The sound samples were collected using a shortwave radio and include recordings of Number Stations, background noise and random broadcasts that have been arranges to form complex soundscapes.



Below is a shorter but in no way less interesting piece uploaded for your enjoyment. Download here.

"Free Beer, Free Speech, Free Jazz" / IXI Software

Read on the always excellent CDM, I bookmarked the ixi software page for John and I to discuss tonight and hopefully explore soon. ixi is an experimental project with digital music instruments. The visual interface being essential to the music creation, enhancing the process.

Peter Kirn says it best,
"There have always been echoes of that in instrument design: buxom, carved women on viola da gambas, the way a piano keyboard reflects a system of tuning and pitch relations, and fantastical landscapes painted on virginals and other instruments. But I suspect we’ve only begun to see how this area could be blown up with digital instruments."

Here's more info from the ixi about pages to give you a better idea of what they are doing,


"ixi audio is an experimental project concerned with the creation of digital musical instruments and environments for generative music. We are interested in the computer as a workshop for building non-conventional tools for musicians..."

"We acknowledge the constraints that software puts on the musician, the limits that the tool sets for the creative process and we therefore promote and try to disseminate technologies that open up the limits of software (or define new boundaries). We think it should be the artist that defines the scope of his or her instrument (and therefore music), not a commercial software company."

Their free programs are available for download on their website. Check it out!

ixi software page

- C

(photo from Create Digital Music)

Brilliant Arduino Sequencer

Spotted this fantastic Arduino based synthesizer / sequencer on the make blog this morning. The official website for this project can be found here. The links include video of the device in action is well as code and schematics in case you wanted to build your own APC (Arduino Punk Console) not to be confused with the 555 Timer based Atari Punk Console (APC) which is an entirely different but totally fun weekend noisemaker project. Be sure to check out the rest of their website Beavis Audio as they have lots of other cool audio devices and effects.

I have spent hours playing around with the Arduino board since I purchased one almost a year ago today. Our first instrument an optical theremin we called Fotosis No. 001 used one to control various effects. The possibilities this simple USB cross platform micro-controller presents are almost limitless (Well not really limitless) and I love to see what lots of people around the world is doing with this great tool. I also like the fact that this device is getting the attention it deserves from websites like Make so more people can be turned on to its potential.

-J

Downloads: Where to find all of our sound clips

I thought it would be a good idea to do a short post showing anyone interested where our sound clips can be downloaded. I use an upload service called in.solit.us from which we usually embed mp3's but if you want to download the files feel free to do so they can be found here. We release everything we do under the creative commons 3.0 license so you can remix, reuse and redistribute the files with our blessing.

-J

Our New Etsy Shop

We have just launched our new permanent shop at Etsy. For those who have inquired whether we have an alternative sales option from our auctions or for those who like to browse, we hope this online shop will make things easier for you.

The shop is priced in US Dollars but we still ship worldwide. Etsy have stated that they are working to provide more international friendly features in the near future. They have an impressive selection of sellers and I think both John and I are happy to have a proper place to showcase our work.

- C

Modification to the Wacky Sound Generator

Here is a little drawing of a modification you can add to the music from outer space wacky sound generator.

This was one of the first noise making units I built. Its a really simple fun little project that produces lots of cool strange sounds and has the potential to be modified in lots of interesting ways. Here is a post we did earlier regarding our own WSG housed in a cardboard enclosure.

How does this mod work? Well one of the first things you learn when studying electronics is that capacitors in parallel have their values added. So when the transistor in my circuit is open the value of capacitance that determines the frequency of the WSG's square wave is increased by 0.01uf. This translates into a lower tone being produced every time the transistor opens and a higher tone every time it closes. The frequency of open / closed cycle is determined by the inverter connected to the base of the new transistor. So instead of your noise maker making just two distinct tones there are now three or more tones to be heard. Below is a sound clip of the mod in action.

The cool thing about this modification is that you can add several of them to the WSG creating a device capable of even greater sonic madness. Just built the above circuit several times using whatever inverters are free on the CD40106 and connect them all to Q1's emitter. Vary the values of the capacitors and see what sort of noises are produced, experiment.

The only change to the WSG circuit I would recommend that you make would be to change the value of C5 to 0.01uf or 0.015uf so the values don't get so high that no audible sound is generated.

You can set it up on solderless breadboard first and connect it to your WSG using patch cords with crocodile clips.

Parts List:

Resistors

130K Ohm 1/4 Watt

10K Ohm 1/4 Watt

1M Ohm Linear Potentiometer

Transistor

2N3904

Capacitor

1uf Ceramic

.01uf Ceramic

.015uf Ceramic

Cigar Box Electric: Sort of

This is a simple cigar box style electric guitar I made last year using the wooden box that comes with the Electro Harmonix Micro Synthesizer as the body. The neck and bridge were just lying around my workshop in Ireland and I had nothing to do that day so after several hours of work I ended up with this weird instrument.

The scale length is shorter than the fret spacing on the neck would like but it still sounds great when played with a slide or prepared or modified with a third bridge. The hollow body gives the guitar a rather unique resonating quality that produces really interesting tones. Below is a sample of some noises I created using this guitar and our latest electronic synth / effect unit, Fotosis No. 004 there is a picture of the equipment setup at the end of the post.

The pickups are good quality single coils that were replacements I bought for my first guitar. It was not being used anymore due to the fact that it had become so modified and broken normal music was impossible to play on it, but it looked and sounded totally cool. I removed the pickups from the old guitar and cut slots into the EH Micro Synth box through which I pushed the pickups and then secured them in place wit four screws.

This instrument was a gift for Connie as was the little Danelectro Honeytone pocket amplifier that we use all the time now as a preamp.

Technical difficulties

Our internet is down at the moment, so we are trying to maintain out blog from internet cafes and friends houses, cheers guys. They tell us it wont be back for ten days sorry everybody.

Custom Order: Fotosis No.004: Now With Extra Knob

We have just finished Fotosis No. 004. Its a hybrid synth /effect unit that combines noise maker, ring modulator and optical theremin. It was a custom job for a friend and includes two new features that were not on the original Fotosis No. 002. There is now an extra oscillator (Extra Knob) on the square wave section and a footswitch so you can bypass the ring mod. as you would with any normal guitar pedal.

The extra knob gives the synth lots of new capabilities and seems to act a bit like a sequencer, generating a variety of interesting beeps and blips that repeat every couple of seconds. Before I would have described it as a simple noise making unit but now with this modification it has become a whole lot more interesting to me. The sound clip below is a short composition I created the other night to demonstrate some of the devices sounds.



We are constantly redesigning and improving our instruments, trying to build devices that we feel are tough enough to last a lifetime and have a sound unique enough to keep any electronic musician happy. Each instrument will be an improvement on the last exhibiting its own visual style is well as new materials and construction techniques.

Improvements to Fotosis No.004 include, tougher case now made from tolex coated 8mm pine and leather carry handle.

Below is another picture of the unit which shows the 25 Way D type connector into which you plug the footswitch.