Settling Back In / Handmade Music Brooklyn

We just came back from a grueling but extraordinary trip from S. Korea. In 6 weeks, we discovered much about ourselves as much as we did about Korean culture while away. Before I post on some interesting things we found and experienced there, I'll start with this great video from the recent Handmade Music event in Brooklyn to kickstart some new blog posts for 2010. It's strange to head into the new year so late, but reassuring to find the rhythm of DIY again.



I will have more exciting events/projects to share very soon. It's almost Spring!

- C

DIY / Home Made Ticino / Vico Morcote, Switzerland

Just posted on my mog some new adventures we had in Ticino, the Italian part of Switzerland, at the end of August. Again with the SGMK organised DIY events, we had a great time. Below some excerpts,

"Back in May, one of the organisers of the event told me about being nestled in the Italian-Swiss countryside - a DIY get together in summer, intimate and relaxed. Our busy estival plans happened to slow down at the right moment and here we were, undaunted by the new introductions needed to meet this group of 40+ diverse individuals who had worked hard to finally present their projects to local media and friends/family at the end of the week BBQ."

"We were so privileged to attend, even if only for two nights. We were welcomed by kindest of electronic enthusiasts, artists, friends, DIY orchestras, tupperware techno raving, terrifying microscopy specimens, arduino micro-controlled LED creations, a mega amp built with a modest microchip, ominous black scorpions used for visual display, late night playlist battles, tent camping in a storm..."





More here. Photos are all here.

- C

New Music / Clorinde / The Creative Listener (2009)

Some new music I'd like to share here on fotosis by Clorinde, the brothers Simone and Andrea Salvatici. Their sound is electro-acoustic with electronic textures. Here is the info from my other blog,

"Been holding onto this album for a couple of weeks anxious to get the word out. The multi-instrumental performers Simone and Andrea Salvatici have always been generous in providing me insight into their work and their personal trials in pursuing a passion that can be a heartbreaking process. Music making is inspired, often the battle for survival, a battle of time and constraint. What I found in The Creative Listener were 11 emotive and powerful hymms of triumph and truth.

You feel the frustration and the beauty that encapsulates a year's worth of work, the magic of fantasy and the melancholy of reality. It's instrumental folklore that evokes a gritty and sensational voyage. The result as a listener is exalting and pure. The challenge of being "The Creative Listener" is the seduction, you delve further into their universe and immerse yourself in the highs and lows of this two man orchestra; a bond that is something akin to soul searching, a journey we all need from time to time."

LISTEN / PURCHASE THE ALBUM HERE.

Here is one of their older works in audio/visual form,


- C

Do It Yourself / DIY Festival, Dynamo / Zurich, Switzerland

We attended the DIY Festival in Zurich a while back. It was the fourth year it's been held and I have to say they really did a good job and I look forward to returning. I'll have to brush up on my German for next year.





For more about our trip, visit my other blog.

- C

Fotosis EP / Revisited & New Download Link

The old link was too much of a hassle for most of our readers/friends so I have our EP up on *archive.org.

*We had to upload again as it missed one of our songs (Chimes) due to file corruption, the new link should be ok.



- C

Custom Order: Fotosis No. 007, Noise Generating Synth.

Hello world, its been some months since we have completed anything in the realm of homemade electronics. Basically we have had our world turned upside down lately, I am now living in a whole other country working at a new job and trying to do as much Fotosis related work as possible on my off time when I come back to Lyon on the weekends.

This project was a custom order that challenged us to develop several new systems, most notable a sample and hold circuit and a micro-controller based trigger pulse generating system.

There are too many controls to list individually and descriptions would be difficult because I don't think it would be possible to find similar controls on another system to compare them to. This will probably be the last time I try to make an all in one unit this complex due to the time it took to develop build, test and debug the various circuits and programs that it contains. I feel in the future it would be better to build each of the systems individually and house them in separate enclosures that could be attached to some sort of board that gives them power etc.

Anyway here it is in action Fotosis No. 007...



There are still two more sections to complete, a CV interpretation module that will take in a control voltage and convert it to trigger pulses that can be used with the trigger pulse system and also a rocker pedal that will control the pitch of the oscillators as well as several other functions.

The sound range from more conventional synth noises to full on noise as well as different patterns of beeps and tones created by the trigger pulse generator. It would be the type of instrument ideally suited to someone wishing to create strange little samples for use on their tracks or it could be used live as a bizarre noise generating unit.

So essentially I am not going to go into details regarding the technical elements because there are just too many, so please just bask in the glory of this weird and interesting creation.

-J

Interview With The Creator of Pixelache via WMMNA

We Make Money Not Art has an interesting interview with Helsinki based Pixelache organiser Juha Huuskonen. Huuskonen is a multi-talented DJ, artist and software designer, and according to the article, also deemed one of the "Godfathers of the Finnish media art mafia". Wow!

The Pixelache 'movement' has certainly taken off successfully since its' last 6 years. There is even a Pixelache University with monthly events throughout the network.

For those of you unfamiliar, the Pixelache festival brings together media and technology creations and ideas through various events and festivals in several international cities including Paris, Montreal and New York. Like most events, there are informative seminars, concerts and related exhibits. We tried to attend the last one in Paris (Mal au Pixel) but unfortunately couldn't even though we were in the city around the same time. Let's hope we have the opportunity this year!


Here are some excerpts from the interview,
How Pixelache began:
"The first Pixelache festival in 2002 was put together in an improvised manner, with a tiny budget of a couple of hudred euros. The purpose was to bring local active people together to discuss and present experimental work that fell between the categories - not art, not design, not research, but kind of all of these at the same time. This type of work is of course shown in all kinds of international festivals (today even more than a few years ago) but the other special thing about Pixelache has been that we've focused on showing work by young, emerging creators and taking risks by showing work that is still in the concept or prototyping stage."

Pixelache in other countries:
"Our international events started in 2003, when we organised Pixelache festival in New York and Montreal. Both festivals were organised on a shoestring budget, with a lot of effort and enthusiasm from both organisers and artists. We carried most of the necessary gear and artworks as luggage, organised free/very cheap accommodation and traveled on a Greyhound bus between New York and Montreal.

The events in New York and Montreal brought together a quite unusual combination of local organisations that all had a lot of influence in planning the festival program. In addition to international guests, both events featured a lot of local artists, many of whom were later invited to Helsinki. We have maintained this way of working ever since. The model is sort of opposite to ISEA: instead of a separate international jury, the local organisations are in charge of the program, they never have to present projects that they don't consider relevant for the local context. The program decisions are aided by an on-going discussion between various partners within the Pixelache network."

Read the entire interview here at WMMNA.

Links:

Pixelache
Pixelache University
Mal au Pixel
WMMNA


- C

Happy Holidays / Download Fotosis EP

* The new link to our EP is here.

About two weeks ago we embarked on a little project to remix a track by another group. It was to be a fun project for Christmas that would be released on the web etc. etc.

Anyway we started messing around with this track and after a few hours of cutting and pasting and applying effects in Audacity it was decided that we take a break and since we had all or our gear set up it might be fun to jam a little and record the results.

Well two days later we had 28 minutes (10 short tracks) of music that we were very happy with. An entire EP comprised of sounds created using a collection of household objects a bank of guitar effects pedals and our very own home made instruments. I suppose the resulting collection of tracks could be described as a blend of ambient electronica, dronescape experimentalism and randomized improvisation.

We do not claim to be professional musicians in any shape manner or form but we were extremely surprised with the results. One visiting friend who was the first person aside from ourselves to listen to the EP described it as "Dark" as if it didn't fit our personalities:-)

Well the track we were supposed to be remixing was sort of forgotten and buried under the responsibilities of everyday life coupled with a heavy dose of procrastination and was eventually returned to only for us to find that our dark electro souls didn't really lend themselves to Christmas songs and so we failed in our mission to create the next Xmas number one:-) But we did end up with a collection of really interesting little tracks as a byproduct.

Below you will find two links, one where you can listen to our tracks and the other where you can download a zip file that contains all the tracks and a text file relating to the methods and equipment used to create our music.

You can download and listen to the tracks here or get the entire EP zip file here (In.solit.us the site we use to host our files is a bit weird you have to scroll down to get to the button that lets you grab the track, its below the stupid banner ad).

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year,
John & Connie

Custom Order: Bar Set, Cardboard Keyboard and Cardboard Amp / Part Two...

This is the second post concerning the bar set order, we decided to throw in some little extras, a cardboard keyboard and a cardboard amp.

The keyboard is a simple enough affair as it is based on a simple circuit that involves a 555 timer chip to produce a square wave. The casing was created by laminating lots of layers of cardboard together using glue and wood screws. In the video below we are playing the keyboard into the ring modulator of one of our earlier instruments, Fotosis No. 003. The resulting sound is the effect of the square wave noise section from Fotosis No.003 being fed into the carrier input of the units ring mod. and keyboard on the main input.



The amplifier is actually three amps and three speakers in one box. The amps are LM386 chips providing 2.5 Watts each. This set up allows us to play three separate devices into the amp where each device will have its own input, volume control, amp and speaker.

Part one of this post can be viewed here.

- J

Custom Order: Fotosis No. 006, Bar Set, Optical Sequencer, Egg Beater Theremin / Part One...

Connie here. We've been working on a custom order set the last 4 weeks for someone I am very close to. If anything, I wouldn't think anyone else would be capable of supporting 'fotosis' like he has with this one project. In the infancy of our little 'business', it's the friends and loved ones who help us get through the days of uncertainty; the ones who understand our simple dream and allow us to feel that for everything we make, they truly want to be a part of our growing passion and humble expertise. (FYI - I thank all our friends at the end of our blog and also through regular posts)

This set will be showcased in a local popular bar downtown that is known for weekly live music. The requirements were in keeping with our love for recycled materials and parts, as the need for the instruments to be durable to withstand euphoric drunken customers and also the respect of a handmade retro aesthetic including Meccano pieces & salvaged vintage connectors.

We really enjoyed designing and creating this interactive ensemble, something that anyone passing by would want to touch (very important) and an experienced musician could properly plug and play with.


Here is John with the specs;

The optical sequencer contains two oscillators one generating a sine wave the other a square wave. These oscillators are set up as optical theremins, their frequency being determined by three LDR's mounted on the front or the unit.

There are also a number of patch leads, permanently connected at one end to the outputs of a micro-controller. These leads can be connected to banana jacks on the front panel allowing the micro-controller to send trigger pulses to opto-couplers that reroute the frequency determining components connected to the oscillators. The time between trigger pulses is set by a value read from another five LDR's that are connected to the analog inputs of the micro-controller.



Both sound producing sections of the unit are then fed into and mixed by a passive ring modulator before amplification. The resulting noise is a random series of beeps blips and noise that you can interact with by applying lights or shadows to the eight LDR's on the control panel.

The sound producing chips I used for this build were the XR2206 (Sine Wave) and a 40106 (Square Wave).

As this unit is for public use it was important to make the controls as simple as possible so the pots are all dual pots. Example the volume also controls intensity and the filter is also square wave frequency.

The matching theremin with the Egg Beater for an aerial is a solid state unit based on a modified schematic we found online a while back.

All of the materials used to manufacture the casings were found objects like Meccano, random collected screws, bits of metal and wood also a strange French industrial on/off switch.

The whole setup runs off a single boss PSA 230, 9v DC supply.

Part two of this post can be viewed here.

Interview Max Farnea / Creator of The Sound Destruction Unit

I've been admiring Max's work since (again, I know I am obsessed with them!) CDM posted about this incredible modular synth from their flickr pool back in August. Here is the "The Sound Destruction Unit" if you haven't seen it in action.



I have just conducted an interview with not only Max the creator, but also Audrey his wife and fellow artist. These two co-exist with music making, circuit bending, robots, recycled art, dancing, photography and japan. Amazing. It's an interesting and long read, it's in full over on my mog.

Here's more,

"MAX: since I was younger, in the early 80s, electronic music, video games and home computing were my first interests and I lived electronics and computer technology always with a creative point of view. I went deeper in my hobbies studying for some years electronic engineering and taking piano lessons for seven years. Thanks to my studies in electronics I went addicted to robotics and I built a mini-robot for a couple of national competitions."

"AUDREY : my interest in making art with recycled stuff has started when I was watching Max making his electronic experiments and all the junk or surplus material he left on the table. Since now I like finding shapes like faces or body parts in every plastic or metallic piece I take in my hands. After I find such shapes, assembling them is really a natural process. It’s funny when you image me into skip diving in Verona, really funny indeed, but it’s incredible how many unused things can be found simply at home. One of the most beautiful aspect of this kind of art is giving a second life to things...Watching max working on his instruments I’ve found a lot of ideas to make my robots more alive and interactive with little lights and circuits."

"MAX : More than half of my retro and vintage stuff was mine when I was child or teenager. Other hardware comes from friends or eBay bids. The line in balancing the old and new when I’m making a new instrument is always different and is traced putting the old stuff in a modern context, and if needed ignoring also the original rules on which it was based on."

I am really impressed with these two. Everything they make is done in their spare time, and not for profit (though they are both planning to sell work in the future). I wish them the best and hope that they find more avenues to show off their talent.

For more about Max and Audrey. My mog interview.

- C

For Sale: Fotosis No.003

Good news everyone! We have been very busy the last few weeks working on commissioned work and as a result haven't posted anything on our Etsy shop in a few weeks, until now:-)

This instrument which we have labeled Fotosis No.003 was designed and built by Connie it was the first unit she has designed and built alone and I love it.

It is currently for sale on our Etsy shop.

In terms of functions it is identical to Fotosis No.002 only the housing and layout of the controls is different.

We are selling it for 300 US Dollars which the same price that we sold No.002 but translates into a bit less for us when you convert it into Euro. But due to the fact that we have upgraded our basic design recently and all future units will have extra features and different construction our next models will be priced a bit higher.

Fotosis No.003 is a three in one device. It contains a simple optically controlled synth, a separate noise maker circuit and a passive ring modulator all in one box. There are ten pots, two LDR's, seven toggle switches and two momentary switches all of which control the active circuits and allow you to turn on and off various effects or sections and bypass parts of the device.

This instrument is housed in a thin sided wooden box also purpose built. Most of the wiring is point to point (in a vintage style) to reduce solder board complexity. The instrument is coated in an orange tolex like material and has steel corners and aluminum trimming around the control panel, there is also a leather carry handle on the front.

The sounds produces vary from weird drones to little sequences of chirps, bleeps and beeps and also full on noise.

There are three sections, two oscillators and a ring modulator each oscillator can be used on its own or can be mixed using the ring modulator.

It can be used as an instrument on its own or as an effect that can modulate the sound of other line level devices that are fed into the input of the ring mod.

There is a video of the instrument in action at...





It measures 36 cm long by 22.5 cm wide, the control panel is sloped and is 10 cm at its highest point Fotosis No.003 weighs about 900g.

Features:

Firstly there is a passive ring modulator comprised of three jacks, input, suppressed carrier frequency input and output. There is also a bypass toggle that switches the input straight to the output. But as with most passive ring modulators the inputs and outputs are interchangeable.

Optically controlled LFO producing a pure sine wave, with frequency switching function, low and high pitch switch and a toggle that switches off the optical function allows you to control the oscillator using two pots for when you want very slow non audible sine waves used mainly with the ring modulator as the carrier signal. Just above the main controls there is a volume knob. You can interact with this sections using the two LDR's mounted on the face of the control panel using you hands or other light sources, our favorite is to use flashing bike lights, strobes or torches for weird whining tones and intense beeps.

Next is a strange square wave noise generator that consists of two oscillators interacting with one another. Screaming high pitched tones can be produced as can low fuzz like sounds when the pots are at their max or min positions, in between you find effects similar to a simple two tone sequencer changing relative to one of the pots. There is also a low pass filter and volume control.

We have been playing around with it for a while now and have still have not discovered all the possible sounds you can create. It would be perfect for anyone into Circuit Bending, dronescape music, performance art, noise art installations, DJ's or just musicians who want a device on the side that they can use as a noise wig out machine. It is capable of plenty more subtle sci-fi effects and also when effect units like delay, phase, fuzz or pitch modulating pedals are connected between the device and an amplifier the number of potential sounds you can produce grows.

None of the controls are labeled because they are often quite difficult to describe, but we will be suppling a drawing of the control panel with descriptions relating to the function of each knob and switch to get you started.

Here is a basic run down of the controls:

Oscillator 1 Top of control panel:

High / low pitch toggle switch.
LDR switching on / off.
LDR / potentiometer select.
Kill switch.
Momentary bypass kill switch.
Volume knob.
Sine wave intensity knob.

Oscillator 2 Bottom of control panel:

High / low pitch toggle switch.
Low pass filter setting knob.
Volume knob.
Square wave 1 frequency knob.
Square wave 2 pulse speed knob.
Square wave 1 Square wave 2 mix knob.
Kill switch.
Momentary bypass kill switch.
Oscillator 1 LDR's.

Centre of control panel:

Ring mod. bypass toggle.
Oscillator 1 momentary bypass of kill switch.
Oscillator 2 momentary bypass of kill switch.
Oscillator 1 LDR's.
Power indicator LED.

Rear of unit:

Oscillator 1 1/4" output mono.
Oscillator 2 1/4" output mono.
Ring mod. input 1/4" mono.
Ring mod. carrier input 1/4" mono.
Ring mod. output 1/4" mono.
Power on toggle.
9v dc jack.

Pure Data: Build Your Own Virtual Synth

I'm probably way behind the curve with this as this software has been around for years but I've only just started playing around with it the last few weeks and am feeling very proud of my first creation (synth / multi effects processor). The software is called Pure Data, there is a wikipedia site here which will tell you all the background you need to know regarding it.

It is free to download from the Pure Data site and is supported on Windows, Linux, Mac some OS's I've never heard of and there's even a version that works on PDA's.

Pd is described as "a real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing".


Unless you are fairly computer literate or a programmer don't expect to get much out of it straight away. The best approach is to download a few simple patches created by others and play around with them for a while to get a feel for the GUI and then explore the examples that can be found in the help browser. Start by building an oscillator [osc~] then adding volume control [*~] and reverb using the freeverb [freeverb~] object. Using pd you can build virtually any sound or effect you can imagine there is even a [moog~] object that emulates a Moog resonance filter.

Pd can also be controlled using external midi devices and firmware can be downloaded which allows you to control pure data with the arduino micro-controller board so potentially you could build a reconfigurable personalized music machine with your computer creating the sounds.

The latest version called pd - extended 0.40.2 contains many of the extensions you need to make the patches sometimes called abstraction that you find mentioned on the web work.

There is also a very good forum called pure data hurleur, this community shares and develops objects and extensions for pd and offers advice and feedback to people getting started.

It is possible to play an instrument through your diy virtual effects processor using the adc object [adc~] if you have a line in on your computer or if you have one of those audio to USB converter thingys.

Cycling 74 the creators of Max/MSP which is a more evolved and expensive version of pure data have a free tool called Soundflower that allows you to connect audio packages together (Like jack but easier to use) so for example you could use Soundflower to record pd using Audacity.


Here you will find a cute little synth to play around with just download and install pd and open the file.

I haven't recorded anything yet but as soon as I do ill post it on this site.

Now if someone could just tell me how to emulate distortion of fuzz that would be great.

-J

Deviant Synth: For all your Synth Oddities

Again something from the musicthing blog. A new synth orientated site that purports to only post about totally out their electronic oddities. Their manifesto states no "links to fansites for Kraftwerk, Klaus Schulze, Can, Tangerine Dream, Ultravox, Gay Fairy Twinkle, or any other hideous 70s or 80s funny-haircut nostalgia keyboard act.... All tech must be ODD".

The site is called Deviant Synth and I will be checking it often thats for sure. The site creator says they are looking for contributors and anyone interested with a wordpress account can add content to the site.

-J

"Electronic artists find inspiration in vintage gear" via Reuters/Yahoo! News

Well, this is something I didn't expect to see on a mainstream news feed. The Reuters/Billboard article states the obvious but it does express enough generally to capture at least the love of those passionate about analog.

"People are realizing what's missing from the sounds they're getting out of software," Phil Moffa of production/DJ outfit Vinyl Life says. "They're conscious of how everything is sounding the same, and digital replication is the same every time. The magic of analog is it's never the same, depending on the weather, where you are in the world, the electricity supply." Great last sentence.

"Moffa dumped all his digital sounds for good in 2005, going fully analog for Vinyl Life's "Flashlight" (Ultra) and each release since. Simian's "Attack" contains no samples, and was entirely made with hunks of such audio antiquity as the Korg MS-20 (1978), ARP Instruments ARP 2600 (1971) and Roland Juno-60 (1982)."

Agree with the experimental aspects and dynamic nature of analog sound, but I think every medium has its' flavour. Nothing wrong with mixing it up, nevermind the hefty price in collecting. Or better, you can always make em like we do!

The full article can be found here. Phil Moffa's site for Vinyl Life is here.

And as a bonus, here is another find from CDM on caring for your vintage synths 'How Healthy Are Your Vintage Synths?' by James Grahame. I've been wanting to link to it for ages so this post seems fitting for those of you lucky enough to have vintage gear to care for!

On another note, we are still in the building phase right now. We have more to come, thanks for your patience.

- C

(Picture from Reuters)