DIY Semi-Modular Analog Synthesizer (testing)

D I R T Y
L O - F I
D I Y

*Patching, tweaking, and harnessing some interesting sounds here (at least for me) for a demo. Twas very addictive. Audio/Video was captured using a crappy digicam. Speaker use is a cheap PC subwoofer, also there is a feedback loop/loopception on 6 channel analog mixer for additional textures and noise. 

//Looking forward to expand it and build more or another. :)

MODULES:

VCO - 2x (Atari Junk Console)
ADSR (Envelope Generator)
VCF
LFO - 2x (Triangle & Square)
Ring Modulator
3x3 Passive Matrix Mixer
RC-LPF
White Noise Generator (not use in the video)
VCA (under construction)
10 Step Sequencer (on breadboard, will solder soon)

Thanks for watching! d[0-0]b

"Our entire biological system, the brain and the Earth itself, work on the same frequencies." ~ Nikola Tesla

*Now i know why a system like this gets bigger and bigger in a basement or in a bed room like an organic matter, because right now i'm very lustful to get more "ins-outs" to insert and knobs to twiddle or is it just the fume from soldering that i became addicted to? Either way it is...

"[cos] It's not enough.
I need more.
Nothing seems to satisfy.
I said
I don't want it.
I just need it.
To breathe, To feel, to know I'm alive.

Finger deep within the borderline.
Show me that you love me and that we belong together.
Relax, turn around and take my hand.

Knuckle deep inside the borderline.
This may hurt a little but it's something you'll get used to.
Relax. Slip away.

I'll keep digging
Till I feel something.

Elbow deep inside the borderline.
Show me that you love me and that we belong together.
Shoulder deep within the borderline.
Relax. Turn around and take my hand." ~ STINKFIST [TOOL]

Thanks for watching! d()_()b

Tape Loop|Skipping CD|Loopception

Aleatoric Music + DIY 3x3 Matrix Mixer & Ring Modulator

Experimenting with tape loop, skipping cd, and loopception (feedback loop within a feedback loop). No synthesizer, drum machine or any acoustic and traditional instrument was used. Recorded straight using an old digicam, eq and volume boost using DAW.

We call it "aleatoric" because of how the nature of the sounds in this experiment was created - by chance.

For example the malfunctioning or skipping sound from the cd player. The discman itself determines when and how it would play those affected area that we burned (you can just scratch or paint it if you like ;D) unless we click "pause" which on the otherhand emits a beeping tones by default that we really like.

The kick drum sound projecting a 4/4 beat. Again, by chance. Purely made out of feedback signal creating a pulsating sound that we harness by accident through random tweaking of the knobs and patching cables to in/out from a loopception consisting of an 6 channel analog mixer, DIY passive 3x3 matrix mixer, and DIY ring modulator.

Lastly, the rest of the sound is from 3 cassette tape loop (23cm long). These 3 cassette tapes have different loop sound - random noises from a radio, i.e. white noise, static, commentators, etc. Done by switching the selector (no timing at all) of the mini-cassette from tape to radio, Am to Fm, and tuning a station simultaneously while in record mode. It is very random what sounds will be recorded to the tape loop. Another thing here is, we played the tape loop on mini-cassette by fading in/out the volume and it decides what part of the loop will be heard. The multitrack tape recorder slowed down its loop via pitch control, while walkman played its tape loop as is.

You can also hear a sampled sound of our voice murmuring "Eight Equals Zero" repeatedly. It was played, sliced, chopped, and resample using a sampler/looper.

Hardware used:

- Mini-Cassette Radio

- Walkman with tape recorder

- Discman

- DIY Passive 3x3 Matrix Mixer

- DIY Ring Modulator

- Sampler/Looper

- 4 Track Tape Recorder

- 6 Channel Analog Mixer

The visual is a combination of datamoshing and video granular synthesis. We say granular because some parts of the video was made from a small very short frame we cut from a videoclip (us walking inside an arcade center) and clone it repeatedly to create a loop almost like a gif. While the datamosh part is done by cutting an equal part of the said videoclip into 2 then mix and render the two again using DAW to create a psychedelic glitch effects.

DIY Video Mixer

                                                                                 

Synthetic.Tree

[Video_Synthesis]

DIY Electronic Music Instrument

Dual oscillator with 8 step sequencer, 2 LFO and mild fuzz

Sound Title: "intron"

*A little improvise jam with voltage and frequencies using our recent hand job electronic music instrument, we don't know how to end it so we just fade out... ;)

 

intron_

 

*still.frame

ROM (Reboot Our Minds) ~ Gen Thalz

Another analog session

with live circuit bending and DIY kit

feat. the voice of Mr. Terence McKenna (shaman, psychonaut, ethnobotanist)

*This is the second part of his speech in the video:

Catalysts to say what has never been said, to see what has never been seen. To draw, paint, sing, sculpt, dance and act what has never before been done. To push the envelope of creativity and language and whats really important is, I call it, the felt presence of direct experience which is a fancy term which just simply means we have to stop consuming our culture. We have to create culture.

Don't watch TV, don't read magazines, don't even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time, where you are now, is the most immediate sector of your universe and if you're worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, you are disempowered. You are giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media, so that you want to dress like X or have lips like Y or something. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking.

That is all cultural diversion and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, and your fears... and we are told no, we're unimportant, we're peripheral, "get a degree", "get a job", get a this, get a that, and then you're a player. You don't even want to play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world. Where is that at?

CHAMBIRA: improvise Mbira + Monotron Delay (demo)

CHAMBIRA: an improvise ethno-industrial electronic music instrument (demo)

*This is our version of the native instrument Mbira and kalimba

*We used "tsane" or tweezer as a key hence the name Chambira (chane and mbira).

*The case is a hard carton box that we bought on Papemelroti.

*For amplification of the vibration, we just used a simple acoustic guitar pickup.

*We run it through a Monotron Delay analogue synthesizer to tweak and get some delay or echo effects and some noisy sounds.

*The tune is a short composition that we make just for this demo video and call it "Protocol".

DIY Mini Analog Bass Synth (demo)

Music, video, and DIY/Circuit Bent by Gen Thalz 

- This is our version of the simple Toy Organ schematic, we reverse engineer it to make it sound more bass-y.

- It is a open circuit 7 key analog bass synth, it means you can add more key if you like or some stuff like filters, white noise, etc.

- It has a pitch pot so you can adjust the tone level that you want, and of course volume control.

*The melody in the video is purely improvise not preconceive or plan, and the droning sound coming from the amplifier is not intentional. We like it so we keep it.

CYMATIC EXPERIMENT: Visible Sounds

“Dance of the Frequencies”

Sounds, video, and improvise by Gen Thalz

“The world is sound” ~ ancient wisdom

“Everything is in a constant state of vibration” ~ modern physicist

Combining sound art electronica and psychedelic paranoia; doing simple sorcery through electricity, circuits, and frequencies we attempt to turn sounds into visual geometric patterns using the magical arts of Cymatics.

Cymatics is the study of visible sounds and vibration, explaining how sounds or frequencies creates or interact with physical matter.

As the Bible states, “and God SAID, ‘let there be light’, and there was light…” (Gen. 1:3)

*Sounds were coming directly from a 7W/8ohm speaker vibrating the canister cap of candies we found at home. Frequencies were generated by a DIY astable oscillator.

*Other noises are from outside world.

*Apologize for the clumsy footage.

DIY Electronic Music

This Machine (minimal acid glitch) 

Live at The Bedroom 09.23.2013

DIY ELECTRONIC MUSIC: Atari Punk Console with dual monostable and 8 step sequencer

Handmade, Handcraft, Handjob.

Music, video, and performed by Gen Thalz

*This is our realization of the Atari Punk Console (original schematic by Forrest M. Mims III). We modified and circuit bent it by adding one more monostable oscillator.  The 8 step sequencer is based on the Baby 10 Analog Step Sequencer schematic, we just reduced it to 8 step and used a simple 555 timer as a clock.

- All the sounds in the video was created/generated by random tweaking, knobbing, hand grounding of this synth.

- Sounds is coming out from the amplifier.

- No special effects, secret techniques, and formula or other traditional instrument was used. Just pure imagination and modulation.

Fact: We really don’t know how it sounds like that. We just experimented with the values of other components like resistors and capacitors. This simple synthesizer is not so stable, it sound different every once in a while. Our suspicion is because it is not yet solder, the 9v battery is almost draining, or because it is our first attempt to do something like this. What you just saw and heard is an actual live improvisation with the circuit, very generative and cannot be repeated because it has no specific pattern which knobs and parameters to turn. We just go with the flow of the electricity and frequencies. Also there is a glitch, Knob #1 is not fully functioning.