Music

Muzundrum

Muzundrum is a “game of musicians”. In the standard game, players take turns rolling 12-sided (dodecahedral) dice that contain one of the twelve tones in standard Western music and attempting to place the die on the board to form chords and scales from standard tonal music theory. For example, if a player rolls a G, he or she can place it next to a C and E on the board to form a C-major triad.

There are of course many variations on the game. And the twelve sided dice can also be interesting tools for chance compositions or guided improvisation.

We now have a pair of sample dice here at CatSynth HQ:

The black die has the standard tones as described above, while the white has the solfege syllables do, re, mi, fa, so, etc.

Eigenlabs Eigenharp

The Eigenharp Alpha from Eigenlabs:

The instrument looks a bit like an “electronic bassoon”, but beyond the mouthpiece, long thin shape and wood finish, it is quite different. It has 128 discrete keys that are also sensitive to pressure and motion in two directions, several large heavier keys and continuous controller ribbons. As such, it has the potential to be a very expressive instrument.

There is also a small version, the Eigenharp Pico:

And a new intermediate version, the Tau:

I particularly like the sleeker, modernist design on the Tau.

I did hear some demonstrations, which showed the features of the instrument, but focused on very conventional sounds and performance techniques. There were standard software synthesizers with keyboard and wind control, percussion sounds and beats and patterns controlled by the keys. With so many degrees of freedom and the ability to map different axes of expression to different musical parameters, I would like to see such an instrument used to push musical expression in novel directions.  To this end, it is great to see that they are making their SDK open source.  The first extension I would recommend is an OSC (OpenSound Control) protocol interface.

Snyderphonics Manta

Jeff Snyder of Snyderphonics poses with the new Snyderphonics Manta, a “a touch-sensitive interface for controlling music or video.”

The Manta has a series of hexagonal sensors with LEDs that can be used as independent controls or together as a large X-Y control surface. I’m always interested in new control surfaces, and wouldn’t mind trying one of these out.

jamLink

The jamLink from MusicianLink allows musicians to play together from different locations via high-speed internet. Below we see two performers onsite at NAMM jamming with a guitarist in Plano, Texas, which was 1438 miles (2312 km) away:

(Can you spot the obligatory cat in this picture?)

The performance was relatively tight, though one could hear a slight bit of delay or hesitation on the first beat of some measures.

I have actually had a chance to glimpse the jamLink during its development, and would like to use it in the future. At the moment, however, it is doubtful that the network service at CatSynth HQ is up to the task.

Big City Music

One of the “destinations” at NAMM is the booth of Big City Music, who always feature an array of analog synthesizers and esoteric musical instruments.

This rack featured modules from Metasonix and Wiard:

I have been interested in getting something from Metasonix for a while. But there also plenty of things to consider on this “toy shelf”:

In the lower left is a circuit bent toy from the Speak and Spell series. Above it are various effects pedals from 4ms Pedals:

The pedals all have very appealing visual designs (especially the Bend Matrix in the foreground), as well as interesting sound. You can hear some clips on their website.

I had a chance to play the Persephone Mark 2 from Eowave:

It featuring a “duophonic ribbon”, which allows one to use two fingers on the ribbon simultaneously to play chords with continuous pitch changes and produce unusual elastic harmonies.

Here we see a Dewanatron, I believe this one is a Hynmotron, with two ribbons for controlling sound:

We have encountered the Dewanatron in a previous post.

We received a professional demo of of the Surfin Step Sequencer from Surfin Kangaroo Studio, including its remote control capabilities:

Finally, we had a chance to try out the new digital simulation of the classic Mellotron synthesizer:

It was set up such that one could play both the original (below) and the new digital simulation prototype (above). The simulation faired quite well in an A/B comparison, including trying to play both simultaneously.

NAMM iPhone App

I am expecting to see several iPhone applications at NAMM, but this one is particularly handy as I start my tour:

It can be used to map the convention halls, search vendors by name, category and location, and “bookmark” them so you can see on the map where you might actually want to go (and thus avoid getting lost in the endless sea of guitars in the middle of the convention center). I was able to quickly put in some of my own priorities as well as those I have followed on matrixsynth and elsewhere.

CatSynth at NAMM

We at CatSynth are delighted to be attending the NAMM 2010 Show!

It is the first time I have been to the big music gear show since 2006. While Orange County, California may not be quite as exciting as some of the other locales I have written from, there is certainly going to be a lot of fun gear to look at, to play with, and to photograph with gratuitously posed stuffed cats.

Look to this site and our @catsynth twitter feed for our rather eccentric and eclectic coverage.