Gustavo (aka “audioel” on YouTube) submitted this rather appropriate (and very cute) video:
Apu really likes the TB-303 acid sounds of the Future-Retro Revolution demos
Of course, he is a cat and tries to use “kitty science” uncover the source of the sound, but to no avail.
Looks like the laptop is a black macbook, similar (or the same) as the one I got last December. I'm wondering whether the tb303 track is just a recording, or a softsynth running on the macbook.
If you need switches or other molded electronic parts for your next circuit-bending or DIY synth project, you might consider this company out of Hong Kong and southern China:
http://www.fhhk.com/eng/info.html
You just can't make this stuff up 😉
From our friends at matrixsynth, here is Moogy the moggy!
Moogy is actually the feline companion of Corky Burger. You can hear a “collaboration” of theirs entitled Moogy Boogie. Apparently Moogy enjoys hiding in the gaps between analog synth modules. I hesitate to think what would happen if Hercules attempted to fit in there.
Matrix had been campaigning for Moogy to win a contest featuring cute animals with electronic gadgets. She definitely got my vote. Unfortunately, the contest is now over and it appears that Moogy lost out to a chinchilla. We will have to launch a better coordinated campaign next time…
This video came via our friend synthmonger. It was part of something called neave.tv, basically a custom video-channel application the web that plays a selection of syndicated material from YouTube, Google Video, and elsewhere. Synthmonger was actually calling attention this particular video featuring pjtoro's musical suit appearing on a Russian or Eastern European TV show. The suit appears to be a series of synthesizers controlled by body sensors. Pretty cool. The feline-themed models are a nice touch, too (hey, this is “CatSynth”).
More detail can be found at pjtoro's site, including design information, more images/videos and even an interactive flash simulation.
Back on neave.tv, I found a few other interesting videos. Most intriguiging to me was the a work called Sixes Last by 1st Ave Machine, a design and animation house located (surprise) on 1st Avenue in New York. They did an amazing job of blending natural elements with surreal biology. You have to think about it for a few moments to decide whether it's real, completely animated or manipulated in some fashion.
It's really not hard to create ones own syndicated channel like this with Flash, dynamic HTML/Javascript and the APIs provided by YouTube and other video sites. What interests me more are a few of the videos themselves, such as the work by 1st Ave Machine and others, which remind me that I still want to do more experimental video and animation work to complement my music. I've been spending much time back exclusively with music and sound (and trying to sell the CD lately), but there are some upcoming video opportunities I might want to consider…
video
syndication
youtube
synthesizer
synth
musical+suit
animation
surreal
Inspired by a discussion on the Bay Area New Music maling list about electronic-acoustic music as well as different electronic tools/technlogies (e.g., MAX, CSound, etc.), I present the Guess the Electronics game.
Simply listen to each of the challenges below and leave a comment on how you think each was one created. You can also take a guess as to which examples include acoustic material.
It's fun for the whole family ?
I suppose on the eve of MacWorld, I can take a moment to brag about a recent Mac-related accomplishment of mine:
E-MU® Systems has announced the release of a Beta Macintosh OS X driver (Apple CoreAudio) for its 0202 USB 2.0 audio interface and 0404 USB 2.0 audio/MIDI interface…
…E-MU's new Beta Macintosh OS X driver is now available for free download at www.emu.com.
This is what opening the “can you say” demo patch looks like in the current OSW 2 user interface prototype?
I suppose the new UI isn't quite ready for prime time, but I thought the attempt at auto-converting existing patches looked rather cool. I wonder how some of the aesthetics can be incorporated into a correctly working version…
For comparison with the current release, visit the Open Sound World site – the same patch is used as the front page.
Somehow, I also think the image represents my state of mind at the moment. I'll let you interpret that as you will. Let's just say after a pretty good January 1, things have been a bit weird. I prefer not to delve too much into the personal on this forum, though you can read an interpretation of Luna's point of view on her Catster page/blog. Actually, the most interesting part is a typo I made but left in. Again, I leave identifying and interpreting it as an exercise to the reader…
From m/n/m/l we have a cat under a Serge synthesizer kit. Looks like a comfy little spot.
m/n/m/l has some interesting music available on CD and for download. Judging from the quote on the website, I am guessing m/n/m/l shares my frustration with low CD and download sales:
June 2006
people from all over coming here. USA, Germany, China. But why?? read, look at pictures? download a couple tracks?
sales from downloads and CD's was up during the winter, lately it's dead again. don't really feel like spending all my time doing marketing marketing marketing,too much else going on now anyway.
Well, here's another cat sitting next to an Octave CAT – wonder why that comes up so much.
Actually I am quite interested in the Octave CAT and Kitten synths, I'm trying (yet again) to bid on one on eBay.
In the meantime, I have been trying several methods to emulate them, including building an Emulator X patch. The Kitten is definitely more feasible because it only has one oscillator and thus no FM – FM is nearly impossible to do on the Emulator platform. However, I did one out of MIDI controllers. So the end result is a “Kitten lite” that contains all the oscillator waveforms (Saw, Triangle and Square/PWM), the two independent sub-octave waveforms, square and sine LFOs, filter with realtime cutoff and Q and envelope mod, and of course ADSR envelope.
While not a real Octave Kitten, it's a nice little playable instrument.
Today's podcast release looks to the past. My performance two years ago at the Live Looping Festival in Santa Cruz received a lot of positive feedback from other musicians and audience members,, and it's one of my favorites. But it is largely overlooked by most visitors to my website. I encourage readers and listeners to check it out.
The performance was realized almost exclusively using Open Sound World, with a little backup from the Proteus 2000.