Flame Clockwork Video Demos

On the unlikely chance that you haven't found these already through my twitter feed, the Muff forum, or even Matrixsynth, here are my latest video demos, featuring the Flame Clockwork Eurorack module.

Flame Clockwork Demo Pt. 1


Flame Clockwork Demo Pt. 2


Enjoy.

Teratoma - released

Sorry I'm lagging on the Serge post, it's coming. This is short though.

Just wanted to say that my first modular album, Teratoma, has been released. Just inside the deadline of the Muff 2008 Artist Challenge. The collections are composed almost entirely of the eurorack modular, except for a few cases where a hand is leant from the MachineDrum and Monomachine, and in one case, a Piano sample patch in Logic.

http://www.virb.com/felixinferious/music/albums/52424

enjoy.

AFG Demo Video Pt 1.

I elected to only do part of my planned demo for the AFG because, I just don't feel prepared to do it justice yet. I haven't spent as much time with it as I had the other modules before making video demos, and I don't think I could adequately show off what it's capable of.

However, what I did think I could do was to show off what most folks are interested in regarding the AFG, and that was the Anti-Matter mode and Harmonic Animation Saw/Pulse waveforms. I hooked up my $40 ebay scope and got to demoing.

[UPDATE] I forgot about YouTube's (lame) 10 minute video limitation, so I had to split "part 1" into two parts. :P

AFG Waveforms


AFG Harmonic Animation


For those who just can't wait for Pt. 2 here's a patch I worked on last night while watching the trash_audio livecast last night. It's two AFGs, one (triangle wave) FMing the other (alien saw wave) with harmonic animation being modulated by the Vulcan. The pitch is being distributed to the Exponetial inputs of each AFG via the Plan B M23 ASR, which is sampling the Ring Mod output of the Dalek Modulator. The M23 is also distributing to one of the FM inputs of the Freuquensteiner, which is also being modulated slightly by the Dual Cyclotron. The machinedrum is providing the rhythm as well as the clock for M23 ASR (using the MD's GND-IM impulse machine). The random stereo panning is provided courtesy of Ableton Live...which reminded me that I need to pickup an A-134 panning module.



I'm working on this track further for my album. This track is entitled "A Visit To The Shroud".

Enjoy.

AFGs Arrive!!!

8D

Of course they have to arrive in the morning *before* I have to go to
work!

[UPDATED]

Ok, so I played around during the day at work - shh, don't tell - and I am absolutely blown away! And, I'm pretty sure I've only just scratched the surface.

As most people have no doubt guessed, the real stand outs of the AFG are the harmonic animation features of the square and saw waves and the Matter / Anti-Matter. You no doubt have guessed what the harmonic animation sounds like (PWM on steroids) but you probably have no idea what the Anti-Matter mode does. Well, it makes it sound fucking awesome, that's what it does!!

Here's the first short demo. This is the animated square output, with the two oscillators of the Dalek in LFO mode and modulating the PWM+ and PWM- parameters (note, this is only half the parameters for harmonic animation). The start of the clip is with no modulation, and slowly I increase the CV amount for PWM- first and then PWM+. I let it get a little crazy and "bottom" out the PWM- cause I think it sounds cool. Then comes a sweep of the Frequensteiner filter. After the sweep, I engage the Anti-Matter mode. BOOM! Another filter sweep, then a quick pop back to Matter mode, and then back to Anti-Matter mode.



In this demo, we're listening to the standard square wave output. First a filter sweep, then engage Anti-Matter, then another sweep, and another quick A/B between Matter mode and Anti-Matter.



Finally here's the PWM output (yes, the PWM is separate from both the Square *AND* the Animated Square !!!). Same deal, starts with no modulation, I increase the modulation, filter sweep, Anti-Matter mode, another filter sweep, A/B Matter and Anti-Matter one more time. The PWM is absolutely sick!



Remember all of these sounds are with *A SINGLE AFG*!

So, on to a less "educational" patch. Here's the Sine outputs of each AFG into each half of the ring mod of the Dalek Modulator. The pitch changes are from the Plan B M23 Analog Shift Register. It's sampling the output of the Dual Cyclotron, clocked by Difference and Square outputs of the Vulcan modulator (I switch halfway through the patch), and each of the 4 outputs are going to the FM inputs of each AFG; one is set to Linear response, and the other Exponential on each AFG. It reminded me of a retro computer. About halfway through the clip, I start playing with Anti-Matter mode. First on the "modulator" AFG, then on the "carrier" AFG, and then finally on both.



And, at last, here's the piest de resistance. I've been into drones lately, so here's a patch I worked on throughout the day.
It's one AFG, using the Animated Saw output. Each half of the Vulcan is modulating the PPM+ and PPM- (I like these on the saw instead of the PWM+/-). The Sub Out of this AFG is set to Saw and plugged into it's own FM input, set to Exponential and adjusted just a tiny bit. This really fattens it up. I must say, I really like the FM'd saw sound on the AFG. I didn't like it at all on the M15, but I really like it here. Finally, the AFG is in Anti-Matter mode.

The "whine" sound in the clip is the Dalek modulator ring mod out, tuned to a harmonic of the first AFG. The "dry" saw part of the drone is just that...it's the second AFG tuned to the same note as the first AFG, using the Saw output. I can't remember now if it was using Anti-Matter mode, but I think it was not.

The Frequensteiner filter is being modulated by the Dual Cyclotron, both the Aux and Main outputs. Throughout the clip, you'll hear me adjust the volume of each of the sounds, the filter cutoff, and the modulation amount of the filter.



Enjoy. Video demo should be ready end of day sunday. i hope.

I'm BAAA-ACK...

...in the saddle again!

So here's the latest. I'm going to be getting a Single Doepfer Monster Case. Shawn's hooking a brotha up, as always. I'll be picking it up the weekend of August 9th, I'll be down in LA anyway, so I'll just swing by the new AH shop :D.

In the meantime, thanks to the boundless generosity of mr. bdu, I have a loaner 6U Doepfer rack to tide me over until I take delivery of the Monster Case.

Once I got it home, I immediately picked a few modules (Livewire Dalek, Vulcan, and Bissel, Plan B M13 and M10, Doepfer A-155, A-138c, A-132, A-188-2, and Harvestman Polivoks) and started in on a patch.

This was my first time with the A-188-2 and it seemed so well suited to noisy stuff, I went in that direction.

Unfortunately, I seem to be having some issues with my audio interface and can only get a few minutes of recording before it dies. This is the longest clip that I was able to get.

The sound source is the Dalek Ring Mod out, with one row of the sequencer controlling the pitch of one oscillator. That is being filtered by the Polivoks and run into the A-188-2. The Polivoks has a bit of self modulation (BP output patched to CV1) being attenuated by one half of the Vulcan and the A-132 VCA. The other half of the Vulcan is clocking the A-155 sequencer.

The A-188-2 has two outputs, each output has it's own delay tap mixes as well as overall Wet/Dry balance. One output of the A-188-2 (the noiser part of the patch) is going to half of the Plan B M13, being opened by the M10, which is being triggered by one trigger row on the sequencer. The other half of the A-188-2 is going to the other half of the M13 which is being opened directly by one of the trigger rows of the sequencer. The M13 vactrols almost make EGs unnecessary for plucky sounds.

So the intro is that second half of the A-188-2...I'm turning the mix from 100% wet to about 15% wet. Then, I slowly turn the balance on the Plan B M13 so you hear more and more of the noisy signal.

After that, it's just messing with adding triggers on the sequencer rows.

Then it cuts out >:(

I left the patch together, just in case I figure this interface problem out tonight.



Enjoy.

PS. Got Twitter? hit me up: twitter.com/jamescigler

I fucking *LOVE* the MachineDrum

I <3 MachineDrum.

Thursday night, after a long frustrating day at work, I came home and I just needed to do something creative...I had to make some music and just relax. Since the modular is still down without a case, I fired up the MachineDrum and dug into making a pattern; something I hadn't done in a while.

I quickly started to remember why I told Surachai that it was my "desert island" piece of gear. If someone came into my studio and said "All this shit has got to go...you can only keep one" it would be the MachineDrum, and I feel this way now more than ever.

Starting off, designing a "kit" is extremely intuitive and the range of "machines" is pretty impressive. My favorites tend to be the E12 (E-Mu SP1200) and the TRX (Roland TR Series) and, of course, the ROM machines (playing stored samples). With all of these machines, you have a serious amount of tonal control; pitch, decay, filter, ring mod, sample start/end, retrigger, delay send, verb send, and more. The more you think about each machine as "tone generators" and less as "drum sounds" the more flexible the MachineDrum becomes in your hands.

Where the MachineDrum really shines though is it's sequencer. From a basic overview, the sequencer is a simple 808/909 style sequencer, with each machine in the kit having it's own track (16 in total). However, where it really takes off is with the sequencer's "Parameter Locks". At any step that is enabled to trigger a sound, you simply hold down the button for that step and tweak any of the parameters for that machine and at that step, those parameters are used. It's like super easy DAW automation; it can even be tweaked in realtime record mode. At any step, if you don't like some parameter locks, just hold down the button for the step again and click in the appropriate param knob and you clear the lock. You can use this to make accents, change filter freq, or even program melodies (have to do by ear, but possible).

It doesn't end there though, each MachineDrum kit has 16 LFOs. By default, each LFO is setup to control it's own track, but simply turing the first parameter knob allows you to assign any LFO to any track and then to any parameter on that track. There are also settings for LFO trigger/reset as well as two separate LFO waveforms with a blend between the two shapes. A couple of the LFO shapes are actually Attack-Decay envelopes, allowing to you use the LFO to program step triggered envelopes.

There's also a great Mute mode (allowing you to mute tracks while play back for performance) a realtime (vs stepped) recording mode, and all sorts of other bells and whistles. All together it makes for a damn fine music box. I feel calling it a drum machine really limits what it's capable of.

Here's the pattern I came up with Thursday night. All MachineDrum...track mutes performed live as I was recording the clip.



I'm now on the hunt for a MonoMachine. After browsing through the MnM manual, I see the same well thought out flexibility as I do with the MachineDrum. Anyone looking to off a MnM SFX-60 MKI, hit me up. Why the MKI...well cause it's gonna be cheaper, but mainly because the MKII is thinner and having it next to my thicker MKI MachineDrum would drive my OCD "fucking crazy". XD

Devi Ever Dream Mangler (hypedition)

Video demo of the Devi Ever Dream Mangler...my possibly one of a kind, Hypedition!



Enjoy.

Devi Ever Bit Mangler

As promised, video demo of the Devi Ever Bit Mangler.



Enjoy.

An update before the break

Not much has been going on here...just getting this sorted out before the trip down to NAMM.

I've been playing a lot more guitar lately and my guitar pedal fetish is starting to flouring. I want the new metasonix amp more than anything, but it's price point (though I'm sure well worth it) puts it out of my league for the time being. One day! In the meantime, I plan on building a bunch of BYOC kits as well as making an even more serious effort to obtain a TX-1 and TX-2.

The other reason for my increased guitar playing (other than it being fun and needing to work the rust out of my fingers) is that the modular is currently in shambles. Yes, shambles! I sold both of the Doepfer A-100P cases (thanks guys) but all the parts to put the custom case together have not arrived yet. They are estimated to arrive by next week, so I'll be getting started on that as soon as they arrive. It was actually kinda fun taking the modules out and getting a peek at their circuit boards, which I haven't seen since they were first put in the case. I had forgotten about some of the messages screened on the Livewire boards. :D

I'll also be without my laptop for an undetermined amount of time. I'm dropping it off tomorrow. I'll have my iPhone with me so I may be able to make some spurious posts from the NAMM show floor, but they might be rather brief so it might not be worth it. But I plan on taking plenty of pictures and will have a sizeable post when I return.

In the meantime, to tide you over, I present a composition originally done for a Xmas employee composition which, due to some serious hate from Logic, did not get finished. It's still not finished, but it's in a fairly progressed state and since it's the only real recording I've done in a while, I thought I'd share it. It's largely the MachineDrum and several tracks of the modular. There's a piano part in the break which is from one of Logic's sample sets. UAD Neve 88RS plugs were used to process each track and there's a little UAD Plate 140 and UAD RE-201 for ambience.

Comments welcome.



Enjoy.

PS. If anyone gets the reference made by the title, sound off in the comments. You'll win some nerd points. ;)

PPS. The first few seconds are only the sub-bass kick. If you don't hear anything, then yo speakers ain't big enough cuz!

The Devils Carrousel

So here is the patch I mentioned last night after getting the Doepfer A-155.

The A-155 has Pre/Post outputs for each sequencer lane. "Pre" is pre-S+H/Glide processing and Post is post-S+H/Glide processing; but if you don't do any S+H/Glide processing, these are essentially a mult. That's how I used it in this case, with the Pre out going to the 1v/Oct in on the Plan B Model 15 and also into one oscillator's CV in on the Livewire Dalek Modulator which was set to a sine wave and put into one of the Freq CV inputs (linear) of the Model 15. The sine wave output of the M15 is then fed into one half of the M13 Dual Timbal Gate set to "Both" with the level all the way up.

The second lane of the A-155 is controlling the other oscillator of the Dalek, set to square wave and fed into the other half of the M13 Dual Timbral Gate, set to "Filter", with the Level all the way down. This gate is being opened by the Plan B Model 10 Poly EG.

The clock for the A-155 is the square wave output of one half of the Livewire Vulcan Modulator. The Difference output of the Vulcan is set for both square waves and it is being used to trigger the M10 which is opening that lower gate on the M13.

From the SUM output (mix) of the M13, the signal is fed into the Livewire FrequenSteiner, which is then modulated slowly by the triangle wave on the other half of the Vulcan as well as the Auxiliary output of the Livewire Dual Cyclotron. This gives an interesting sound because you don't really notice the Cyclotron's effect on the filter frequency when the Vulcan has swept it all the way up, but as it sweeps down, you can hear the Cyclotron's effect...it makes that kind of square wave gurgling sound when the filter frequency is in the lower range.

Finally, the volume is controlled by one of the EGs on the Doepfer A-143-2 which is being triggered by the Gate row on the A-155 sequencer. The release time is slow so it's really adding only a slight bit of dynamics to the sound. I'm also controlling the overall volume with one axis of my joystick controller inverted through the Doepfer A-175 Dual Inverter.

The final touch is the Moog delay (MF-104) with the Frostwave Resonator in the feedback loop to give it a bit more band-limited tape-delay like sound.



Enjoy.

Ghost In The ICs

Before sitting down to wrap up another mastering project and start on yet another (when it rains, it pours) I decided to patch up something on the modular for a while, making a specific effort to use the Polivoks.

After messing around with that sound of the Polivoks self-oscillating with the BP out FM'ing itself that I mentioned in the review, I started a patch using it as a regular BP filter and came up with what I called "Ghost In the ICs".

This quite possibly could be my favorite sound I've come up with yet. I think it could have been even more expressive with the joysticks involved, but it's hard at this stage to play them without the alligator clips popping off or having a flaky connection. Here's what the patch consisted of:

The lower register of the sound (the slightly formant like one) is one square wave oscillator from the Dalek Modulator with a little bit of x-modulation. That is being fed into the Harvestman Polivoks which has it's resonance about 3/4 of the way up, getting a slight modulation of it's frequency by the Auxiliary out of the Dual Cuyclotron (both cyclotrons set to "discrete"; square waves), and the Bandpass output going into one half of the Plan B Dual Timbral Gate with the level up @ 10 o'clock. The gate level is opened by the accent out on the first 8th note of a triplet on the Plan B Model 28 Tap Clock.

The upper register of the sound (higher pitched sine wave-ish one) is the sine wave out of the other half of the Dalek Modulator, also with a little bit of x-modulation. That is going directly into the other half of the Plan B Dual Timbral Gate, with the level also @ 10 o'clock and the gate in "Filter" mode. The gate level is closed slightly (not being opened wider) by a Plan B Model 10 Poly Env, with the envelope going negative (~ 11 o'clock on the knob). The Poly Env is being triggered by the triplet gate output on the Model 28 Tap Clock, with the middle 8th note set to Rest.

The mix/sum output of the Dual Timbral Gate is going into the Frequensteiner with it's Resonance set to ~ 10 o'clock and set to LP mode. It's modulated slowly by the Triangle out of one half of the Vulcan Modulator as well as getting an Accent on the first eighth note (so accents on the quater note beat) from the Model 28.

Finally, the Frequensteiner is going into the main VCA (Doepfer A-131) which is being held open via the "clock divider always on trick" and also slightly modulated by the Triangle out of the other half of the Vulcan Modulator.

I added a little UAD RE-201 and UAD Plate 140 in Logic after recording it.



Enjoy.

ZombieThunder

So I'm the processes of trying to narrow down what modules that I will keep in a single Doepfer A100P suitcase as a "portable" system; the rest will go into a custom case which I am about to start working on.

I started this decision processed basing the results purely on space, but pretty soon that became too difficult and I figured it would be best to just start taking notes on what modules I use most when making patches. One of the more interesting patches I happened on was this one, which I named, ZombieThunder. It sounded like thunder and something I would have heard in a zombie movie soundtrack.

Of course, I took notes on what modules I used, but I didn't on exactly how they were patched...I'm describing it from memory here....

Plan B Model 15 sine is main sound source
Dalek Modulator sine wave was FM'ing the Plan B Model 15
Dalek Modulator other sine wave was FM'ing the FrequenSteiner (LP mode)
Plan B Model 24 stepped voltage (smoothed through Livewire Dual Bissell) was controlling pitch of Model 15
Plan B Model 24 smooth voltage was controlling the 2nd sine wave freq on the Dalek (the one FM'ing the filter).
Livewire Vulcan Max out was also modulating the Filter (although much more slowly).
Plan B Model 10 in LFO mode was opening up the main VCA.



Enjoy.

Livewire Dalek Modulator Demo

This is a demo I have been looking forward too for a while. The Dalek is one of my fav modules because it is so useful, not only as a tone source, but as a modulation source; the latter I use the most frequently.

I tried to showcase it "on it's own" as much as possible since all the other video demos I have done so far have feature the Dalek in some shape or form. So without further ado...here's the Livewire Dalek Modulator.



Enjoy.

Trash Audio Studio Tour

After being sick last weekend and busy all week (and saturday with a mastering project) I finally got around to making a video tour for my upcoming Workspace and Environment interview on Trash_Audio. It was Surachai's idea to make a video and it came out better than I expected.

Rather than narrate this one, I thought I'd give you all a break from my voice and instead write a quick piece as the sound track. And, it made sense to use the stuff being shown in the video.



Enjoy.

Livewire Dual Bissell Generator Demo

As promised, it's a two for one weekend ;) Here is the video demo of the Livewire Dual Bissell Generator. A simple module, but one of my favorite "tweaking" ones.



Enjoy.

Plan B Model 10 Demo

Man, I was really off my game today. Tripping over my own words and loosing my train of thought mid sentence. Thank god for video editing. I almost thought of keeping a gag reel, but it takes up so much HDD space.

With that said, I proudly present the Plan B Model 10 video demo.



Enjoy.

PlayThing-amagoop

The comments (mainly Zerosum's) on the last Thingamagoop post got me thinking about demoing one application of the Thingamagoop. I was initially thinking of video ideas, but as I was playing around I got to jamming with it and it was too fun not to capture.

There is some modular processing applied:
The Thingamagoop (Ghost of Robot TB1X model, although that doesn't really matter) was plugged into the Doepfer A-119 Envelope Follower into the Ext. In of the Dalek Modulator. Ring Out of the Dalek into the Frequensteiner in bandpass mode, through the Doepfer VCA and then finally into the Moog MF-104 delay. There's some slight slow modulation of the Frequensteiner by the Vulcan Modulator and a touch of filter FM from the Plan B Model 15, the amount of which is being randomly controlled by the Dual Cyclotron.

Where the trick comes in is that I have the Threshold on the Envelope Follower set so that when I have my finger over the Thingamagoop's nose (blocking it's photocell), there is no gate output (and therefore no output from the Thingamagoop+modular). So I'm able to mute the sound just by putting my finger over the photocell.

Now, the modular processing imparts only a little bit of character; 90% of what you hear is the Thingamagoop and me flipping it's switches and playing with the LFO speed. It's pretty much impossible to pick out exactly when the FM of the Frequensteiner happens and the Ring Modulation is not that aggressive. I could have easily just run the Thingamagoop into the delay, but the modular added a nice character.

The left most switch on the Thingamagoop selects the "gate mode". Up is a square wave gate, controlled by the LFO speed. Down is no gate at all. It's pretty easy to hear when I switch back and forth. The right most switch is the pitch range. Down is low range, and up is high. You can hear me switch this a few times, in particular there are a few times where I simultaneously switch the gating off and the pitch to the high range...moving your finger over the photocell in this configuration leads to some really cool modulated tibres (which you'll hear). Adjusting the proximity of the "LEDicle" to the photocell of course also changes the pitch and the amount of modulation; I'm moving that back in forth in front of the photocell as well.
I'm able to do this all with the Thingamagoop cradled in both hands...my left thumb over the photocell, right hand fingers moving the LEDicle and switches and my right palm, and sometimes fingers, moving the LFO knob.

All in all, it's really fun to perform and improve with like this! :D

A simple Machinedrum pattern was used for some rhythm (no modular involvement there).



Enjoy, and please comment.

DalekInvasion

This track is more interesting as far as the patch goes than it actually sounds, but I wanted to share anyway...

The main sound source is one square wave oscillator from the Dalek Modulator. It's pitch modulation comes from two sources:

The first is the "stepped" output of the Model 24 Heisenberg, which is paced by one square wave LFO from the Vulcan Modulator, and fed through one half of a Livewire Dual Bissell Generator (slew limiter).

The second source is the other square wave oscillator from the Dalek Modulator, set in Low range and run through the other half of the Dual Bissell Generator. The rate of this oscillator is modulated by the other square wave LFO from the Vulcan Modulator.

Both of these sources are then fed into a Doepfer A-150 Dual Voltage Controlled Switch (only using one of the switches). The switch is controlled by the Model 28 Tap Clock. Every time the quarter note gate is output, it causes the A-150 switch to change from using the first modulation source to using the second. So what you are hearing is the two modulation sources "trading off" every quarter note.

Beyond that, the "main output" of the Dual Cyclotron is modulating the filter cutoff. The Dual Cyclotron has become my favorite filter modulation source. There's something very organic and chaotic about it's modulation and that leads to some very cool timbres when used to modulate a filter (sparingly of course).

Finally, the output of the modular is going into a Moog MF-104 Analog Delay, with the Moog MF-102 Ring Modulator patched into the feedback loop. If you listen carefully, you can hear the delay repeats slowly get more "spacey" sounding. In some cases, it sounds like is almost slowly starting to play in reverse.



Enjoy.

Vulcan Modulator Demo

I feel like a right ass for not posting in so long. Work has been a bit busy and beyond that I've just been too lazy for my own good.

In effort to make amends, I bring you the Livewire Vulcan Modulator demo.



Enjoy.

Model 28 Video Demo

It's Labor Day, I have the day off, and nothing really to do...so that means....video demo!

This time it's the Plan B Model 28 Programmable Tap Clock, per request. I tried to make it somewhat brief, but I still can't seem to make it under the 5 min mark.



Enjoy.

Addendum from Peter @ Plan B (via comments on Matrixsynth):

Regarding the separate START/STOP inputs:
Doing it with two inputs instead of one is a flashback from my Buchla days. My feeling it's better this way as you can if you wish use separate signals to start and stop the counting. This way you could for instance use a keyboard trigger to start it, which would also be used to start a sequencer and reset that seq to stage 1. Then you could use the gate output of let's say stage eight of that sequencer to stop the M28. This way you can get repeated eight beat phrases from the 28 which would begin on the depression of a keyboard. It would be much harder to do that with a single start/stop input.

-P