It is the annual Blog Blast 4 Peace, a day when countless bloggers pause for a day to post a “Peace Globe”, a simple image with the words dona nobis pacem, Latin for “grant us peace.” Visit the website to find out more on how to participate.
Robotspeak Modular Synth Meet
Last weekend, Robotspeak in San Francisco hosted a modular synth meet, with several manufacturers of synth modules on hand along with collectors and enthusiasts.
Eric Barbour of Metasonix was on hand, demonstrating his distinctive yellow tube-based modules, including a new spring reverb still in a pre-production phase.
I had the opportunity to try these out for myself. I particularly had fun with R-54 VCF, which I may have to get as a companion for my R-53.
[Photo by Edward Sharp.]
Another favorite, Make Noise, was also present. I was particularly impressed with the Phonogene – I had heard it before, but this demonstration made the power of the module more apparent.
I also finally saw and understood what the Wogglebug module does.
Pittsburgh Modular’s offerings were more down-to-earth, workhorse modules. They make an entire basic range of oscillators, filters and modulators that can be obtained separately or in very accessible pre-packaged units like this one.
The Pittsburg Modular demo was quite extensive, spanning several interconnected cases.
In the back room, there was a Buchla modular synth being demonstrated. It is a thing of beauty.
In an interesting twist, the owners of the Buchla and the adjacent Arp 2600 decided to hook them up together. You can hear a little bit of the result in this video:
While Dave Smith does not build modulars, he is a San Francisco institution in the synth world, and was represented at the synth meet. We even got a sneak preview of the upcoming tabletop version of the Prophet 12.
It had the same luscious sound as the keyboard version, though in my opinion the QuNexus keyboard does not do it justice. This is probably a bias a trained keyboardist.
In all, it was a fun afternoon at what I have decided is one of the “most dangerous stores in San Francisco”.
CatSynth pic: Post Hallowe’en with MS-20 mini
Wordless Wednesday with Luna
Music For People & Thingamajigs Festival Closing Night
There is never a shortage of music and art festivals in the Bay Area in the fall, and one can’t see them all, especially while also being a participant. But I was fortunate to catch the final show of the Music for People & Thingamajigs festival on October 14 at Berkeley Arts. For those who are not familiar with Thingamjigs, they focus on music and educational programs using “made/found materials and alternate tuning systems.” Both of these concepts were integral parts of the performances on this evening.
The show opened with an ensemble led by Dennis Aman. The stage was populated by a variety of instruments, including a tuba with a rotating leslie mute, and modified/re-created toy xylophones with alternate tunings.
The music varied considerably. I enjoyed the more esoteric pieces that showcased the instruments and way experienced musicians play them. The toy percussion and electronics worked particularly well. There were also some more conventional pieces, including one that sounded like a typical celtic folk tune, that did not particularly work for me in context of the darker, more percussive sounds of the other pieces.
The second half featured the premier of Symphony in Sea by David Samas. Rather than simply a piece inspired by the sea, Samas took the concept rather literally, with instruments of his own creation as well as contributions from Tom Nunn. The stage was set up with a variety of aquatic themes both natural an artificial, with a beach lounge as well as pirate apocrypha.
[Photo by Bryan Day.]
The piece unfolded over several movements, each related to a well-known phrase about the sea. Different combinations of instruments and vocal techniques were used to evoke different environmental qualities of life in or around the sea.
[Photo by Bryan Day.]
During the early movements, the music was more abstract, with room to listen to the timbral details of the various instruments. However, the later movements were more idiomatic, and even a bit tongue-in-cheek, such as a rousing pirate shanty.
Things did take a turn for the darker with a dance segment featuring Bob Marsh as a sea monster.
In the end, it was a fun performance to attend, both musically and visually. Thingamajigs has several other programs coming up. Please visit their website for more information.
CatSynth pic: CV Sunday from Moog
A nice surprise from our friends at Moog Music, Inc!.
Happy CV Sunday! Love, your friends at #Moog: via @catsynth pic.twitter.com/LEmsQbsg0y
— Moog Music Inc. (@moogmusicinc) October 27, 2013
CatSynth video: NI Maschine + MS Surface Pro demo (Windows 8 tablet for music production)
From acemonvw on YouTube, via matrixsynth. The discussion of the interaction between the Maschine and the Surface Pro went through several revisions and updates. Here is an excerpt from the most recent:
If you’re interested in knowing, I have since studied Maschine and the Surface Pro and find they work pretty well together. I have had much fewer hangups since switching to the ASIO driver. I also found that a few services were causing issues randomly 1) Windows Modules Installer Worker, 2) WMI provider host, and 3) System. System was strange in that it was at about 30% CPU forever. Maschine only took up 10% CPU when running using 2 reaktors, 1 massive, and one Kontakt. Pretty impressive actually!
Yes, the levels seem to be off, I just wanted to experiment with
Maschine and the Surface Pro…My cat Bonnie was enjoying the process too
We think Bonnie was actually rather indifferent to the whole thing 🙂
APAture 2013 Opening Night
After a four year hiatus, Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture festival is back. The previous APAture in 2009 was my first look into the Bay Area’s vibrant scene of emerging Asian Pacific American artists. This time around, I not only attended the festival and gallery exhibition opening, but participated as well as one of the featured musicians. I created a set that featured the dotara, a South Asian folk instrument, as well as a sketch box, DSI Evolver, and analog modular.
The presence of blue and purple in the setup is not an accident, as the color blue was central to this performance. It was part of my costume and the lighting as well.
[© 2013 Susa Cortez/Kearny Street Workshop.]
The piece unfolded with the usual black-cat-blue-light opening, followed by a gradual swelling and fading of sounds from the modular. The dotata and sketch box were fed into the Make Noise echophon for effects reminiscent of old studio tape delays, alongside more modern noisy elements from the other modules. Overall, the performance was well received. For some, it was their first experience with electro-acoustic improvisation, and expressed to me their curiosity about it afterwards.
The opening night also included an opportunity to see the work of the visual artists participating in APAture. There was quite a range of work, and several pieces were quite strong both technically and conceptually. Jessica Tang covered an entire wall with panels connected by strands of red string. A closer look revealed that the panels were successive runs of Google translator on a block of text. The view can observe the decay of meaning and language through her piece:
Yuki Maruyama’s wooden blocks function as 3D versions of manga (comic) frames. The blocks can be assembled into new comic narratives, i.e., an “exquisite corpse”. Having three dimensions, however, allows for more combinations and interpretations of the assembled comic.
More traditional artistic media were represented as well. Wenxin Zhang’s presented stark versions of portraiture and architectural photography.
One of the more amusing pieces was an interactive conceptual work by Alison Ho, in which she invited visitors to stick gold stars with various Asian stereotypes on a blown up image of her face. Her piece was intended to challenge the notion of Asian American’s as a model minority. Clearly, many people were having fun with it.
[© 2013 Susa Cortez/Kearny Street Workshop.]
Other works that piqued my interest was Mido Lee’s starkly beautiful photographs of dead/forlorn trees, including some from desert landscapes; and a minimalist ring of light presented by featured artist Michael Namkung.
APAture has continued throughout October with events focus on different media, including writing, performance, and comics/zines. The next event will be music night on Friday, October 25, at SUB/Mission (2183 Mission Street, San Francisco). If you are in San Francisco, do check it out.
