at least if I'm not too late already. Weekend Cat Blogging, or WCB, is being hosted this week by Heather along with her adorable cats Pause and Carmel. Hopefully, I get this post in time. If not, it's a good excuse to post a recent action shot of Luna enjoying a new gift from a friend:
I have also added a separate category for Luna alongside the existing cats category for those who want to see more of her and less of the other stuff…
I came across some interesting resources while visiting Ouroboros Complex the other day, in particular references to lo-fi synthesizers for small devices, such as Nanoloop for the GameBoy. Unfortunately, there was no free demo that I could run on my VisualBoyAdvance emulator, but I did find another synthesizer/sequencer that did: Little Sound Dj. It is set up like an old-style tracker application:
One can assign notes within a phrase (or larger structures called songs and chains) to various instruments. The instruments can be pulse tones, noise, built-in drumkits (emulating several classic lo-fi drum machines like Roland TR and even a “drumulator”), and custom waves that you can hand edit:
Although it is cute and fun to play around and see what one can do with such a limited but nonetheless interesting pallette, I think it falls short for actual musical work because of the interface and lack of interoperability with my other software and hardware instruments. Much of the lo-fi synthesis can be easily accomplished with OSW (check out the lo-fi and swiss_cheese tutorials) or several freely-available VST isntruments – and Ableton Live! remains a much more usable system for quick real-time pattern editing. I will be looking into some other lo-fi synthesizer plug-ins or algorithms to use in OSW and post more in a future article…
Here are the ten highest-rated posts based on 90 ratings as of this morning:
the inaugural post (5.00).
moring walk and sea lion (4.33).
In memoriam, Ruth Schonthal (1924-2006), composer and teacher (4.33).
DSI Evolver legal again in Kansas public schools (4.00).
getting ready for tomorrow's performance, part 1 (4.00).
Cat Welfare Society of Israel (4.00).
fun with Emulator X and filter response (3.83).
Luna and table in black and white (3.50).
Green Kitties (3.29).
shades of luna (3.17).
No one has left any comments, so I'm not entirely sure how to interpret any of this. But I'm pretty sure this post will get a very low rating…
jfm3 of Ouroboros Complex posts about as literal a “CatSynth” pic as you can get, featuring his cat Kona and accoutrements as part of his rig. Cat aside, the rig and website include a wealth of personal experiences with analog synthesizer hacking as well as circuit bending (note the mod'ed Speak&Spell). Please give jfm3 and Kona a “catsynth welcome” by visiting their site.
I am inspried to write about Cuba and Castro amid the recent news of Fidel Castro's illness (around the time of his 80th birthday), the manufactured uncertainty about the future of Cuba, and spending part of last night on the couch w/ a few glasses of wine listening to a CD I got while visiting the island in 2001 – actually, it's not the CD I bought in Havana, but a replacement I ordered after my ex lost the original, but I digress. Last week, I posted the following message on the blog of the radio program OpenSource after host Christopher Lydon stuck up for Castro and Cuba when none of his guests would:
“I just heard Mr. Lydon?s experience in Cuba – and I have to say it reflected my own experiences visiting Cuba in 2001 – twice actually, once in June and once in September (shortly after 9/11). I?m not going to deny there?s a certain level of fear and police state in the air, but Havana had a great vibe w/ music and people and drink. Especially visiting after 9/11 there was something wonderful about the alternative Cuba and Castro provided of a romantic, rebellious, joy)ous culture in opposition to some of the most ridiculous U.S. policies (e.g., the embargo). Indeed, many of the socialist slogans plastered everywhere had a quaint quality to them, like the cars. And the health did seem impressive in several ways, for a ?third world? country everyone had really good teeth.”
Certainly, Cuba has its problems economically and politically, and one could argue that the socialist government has outlived its usefulness. But I would like to take a moment to continue to defend the record of Cuba, it's people and their longtime leader. They took the initiative to kick out a corrupt system that happened to include powerful American interests, and have maintained a strong and vibrant culture. And you can't argue with those teeth.
They do not deserve to be the victims of one our harsher long-standing policies, the Cuban embargo, especially as it seems its only real supporters are the exiles in Florida and a few Cold War fossils. Indeed, the U.S. and Cuba could be natural allies in culture and trade at this time – and instead we're pushing them ever closer to the real bad guys in the radical Islamic world and elsewhere for no other reason than a shared hostility towards U.S. policies. Especially visiting in the days after 9/11, the contrast between Cuba and the Taliban could not have been stronger. I wish we hadn't lost that opportunity – maybe with all the current attention, we have another chance to get it right and lift the embargo.
Time for another digression into the world of current events:
I was actually starting to feel sorry for Joe Lieberman, after all he does have a long record of service not to mention that adorable self-effacing Jewish-guy thing. But then he goes and reminds me why he deserved to lose the primary with his comments about how those who voted against him were somehow supporting the terrorists or giving them a victory. First, it was just tasteless to use the news and emergency in London and potential tragedy that way. Second, I'm sure Al Qaeda et al could care less about this particular detail of American politics in their plans. Third, if there's anything us liberal left-leaning types want to see more than fundamentalist Christian radicals go down to defeat, it's fundamentalist Islamic radicals get their “tuchuses” kicked. I also remember his rather nasty attacks on Howard Dean in 2004, trying at all costs to take not only him down but also his supporters and the strong online movement. So Lieberman should just admit that he made mistakes, alienated many of his friends and allies, and should just go with a shred of dignity instead of confirming everything his critics have said.
OK, now back to the cats and synths…
I have been experimenting lately with Emulator X as a synthesizer rather than a sampler, i.e., using only primitive sources (impulse, noise, etc.) and generating new timbres based on the filter section and other features of synth engine.
In one such experiment, I have built several patches based purely on the impulse responses of filters. By setting the Q of each filter (or each section in the Morph Designer), a highly tuned impulse response is produced. The center frequency can be controlled by keyboard input, thus creating a primitive but “playable” instrument. The following example uses a cascade of tuned two-pole filters on a single voice:
The more complex Z-plane filters can also be used to generate interesting impulse responses, though they are more difficult to control in terms of pitch:
In each of the examples above, the responses decay very quickly, yielding short percussive timbres. Longer decays require narrower-band filters, and even though the E-MU filters have very high Q (resonance), most are not narrow enough when compared to the filters used in resonance modeling The exception is the rarely used Contrary Bandpass filter:
The impulse response of this filter is a nearly pure exponentially-decaying sinewave. Combining several voices with different center frequencies, complex resonance models can be generated.
Of course, these examples are far less efficient than the resonance-modeling tools Open Sound World, but by combining the models with Emulator X's modulation features, effects and voice management, some more interesting instruments can be created.
A black cat that looks and sounds a lot like Luna has taken up residence in my neighborhood – a bit shy, but he(she?) wandered over to the patio this morning, walking around me and mewing, then going over to the fountain for some water – I've seen cats do that before, lick the water of the sides of the fountain. Unfortunately, i don't have a camera handy at the moment, not even my cell phone. Just use your imagination for now…
From AFP: a kitty amidst the rubble in a fishing port south of Beirut. This is essentially the type of image I see in my mind when I think about the situation, or cats in war more generally. It was part of an AFP article that Yahoo! syndicated for their main news page covering the middle east conflict today, right under the news that the Lebanese PM had rejected the cease-fire deal.
I haven't seen or received any updates from BETA or the groups in Israel since my previous article, I will certainly post anything that I receive.
