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

EP ALBUM: ROUTINES, RITUALS, & REPETITIONS

http://genthalz03.bandcamp.com/album/routines-rituals-repetitions

ROUTINES, RITUALS, & REPETITIONS
by Gen Thalz d[0-0]b

5 track EP (Extended-Paranoia) from the lost subterranean chapter of pure mundane day to day routines, rituals, and repetitions which was converted into voltages and feedback; sequenced and loop into sounds...

Genre: Electronic
Style: Techno, Experimental, Ritual, Noise, Acid, Glitch, Drone, minimal
Year: 2016

released January 9, 2016

Created, Mixed, and Arranged by Gen Thalz
Produced by Marlon B. Zoleta
Album Cover by Gen Thalz

Ex-nihilo Studio

© all rights reserved

d[-_]b

Feedback Loop [short story]

“FEEDBACK LOOP”

[short story] by Gen Thalz

Aux Send Line/In

4 Tape Cue EQ

3.5mm mono LPF 95%

*Alaala

“Hon, honey! Nakikinig ka ba? Kanina pa ko nagkukwento di ka man lang kumikibo.”, sita ng misis sa kanyang mister na nagmamaneho sa highway. “Ha? Eh, sori. Parang nangyari na ‘to?”, nagulat at nagtatakang tugon ng mister. “Talagang nangyari na ‘to dahil araw-araw tayo dumadaan dito! Pinagsasabi mo…”, imbyernang sagot ni misis. “Hindi pramis.”, sagot ulit ni mister, di na kumibo ang babae tumanaw na lang sa daan at sandali silang nanahimik.

Maya-maya. “Hon, ano ba nangyayari sayo? Kanina pa kita pinagmamasdan parang di ka mapakali, wala ka sa sarili baka mabangga tayo niyan. Gusto mo ako na magmaneho?”, usisa ni misis. “Ha? Hindi, ano. Parang bigla lang sumama pakiramdam ko, para kong lalagnatin”, paliwanag ni mister sabay himas sa batok. Nagalala naman bigla si misis at agad nitong hinipo ang noo at leeg ng mister kung mainit ba, “Wala ka naman lagnat, ano gusto mo hon? Tubig?”. “Ok lang ako hon, don’t worry. Parang may naalala lang ako na di ko alam kung ano…”, “Ha?”, “Pakiramdam ko may dapat akong gawin at baguhin pero di ko maisip kung ano ba yun, alam mo yung ganung pakiramdam?”.

Lalung nagalala ang misis, “May problema ba hon? Sabihin mo sakin, sa work ba? Baka stress ka… May nagawa ba ko? Anong gusto mong gawin ko hon?”, malambing na pagtatanong nito. “Hindi hon wala, bigla ko lang naramdaman ngayon ‘to. Siguro dahil ‘to sa panaginip ko kagabi na may tinutuklas daw ako kasi gusto ko daw mabago sitwasyon ko doon sa panaginip, tapos ang lungkot-lungkot ng pakiramdam…”, salaysay ng mister. “Bakit hon ano daw yung sitwasyon mo?”, “Hindi daw maayos eh, magulo.”, “Eh ano naman daw yung tinutuklas mo?”. Bago makasagot ang mister ay hui na ang lahat, hindi na niya nagawang makakabig pakaliwa at tuluyan silang bumangga sa trak na nasa harapan nila, hindi kumagat ang preno. Napasigaw na lang ang misis, “HOOOOOOOON!!!”

*Panaginip

Saktong 3:30 ng hapon, uwian na. Agad na nagsitayuan ang mga estudyante nang marinig ang “Class dismiss” sa kanilang maestra. “Ano Ter sama ka ba?”, “Kayo na lang tol, next time na lang ako…”, matamlay na sagot nito. “Sige tol, ‘kaw bahala… Oy, tara na! Intay!”.

Hapong-hapo na naglakad pauwi magisa ang trese anyos na si Dexter. Mabigat na may halong lumbay ang kanyang pakiramdam na hindi naman niya maintindihan kung bakit. Tahimik siyang naglalakad, nakayuko, deretso, walang lingon-lingon hangang sa makabanga ang isang mama. “Sori po.”, malumay niyang pasintabi habang nakayuko pa din at tutuloy sa paglakad nang bigla siyang hinawakan ng mama sa balikat. Nagkatinginan sila, bahagyang nagulat si Dexter na parang kinikilala ang mama. Ngumiti ang mama at nagsabi, “Mangarap ka, habang maaga pa isipin mo na kung ano ang gusto mo.”, saka ito umalis. Sandaling natulala si Dexter, nawirduhan, “Pamilyar sakin ang mga matang iyon, saan ko ba siya nakita?!”.

“Sabi ko na e! Hindi ako maaaring magkamali! Siya nga ‘yung mamang lagi kong napapanaginipan na umiiyak!", bulong niya sa sarili. "Mama hintay!”, hinabol ni Dexter ang mama subalit bigla naman itong nawala nang di niya naapuhap kung saan ito dumaan o nagpunta.

*Ang Nakaraan…

“Out of Body, Try Number 23. This time magagawa ko na ‘to, hindi pwedeng hindi! Focus. Focus. Focus… ”, bubulong-bulong na kinukumbinsi ng lalaki ang sarili habang inaayos ang manipis na kutson sa sahig. Matapos nun, pinatay niya ang ilaw at sinindihan isa-isa ang siyam na kandila at ilang pirasong insenso. Bahagyang nagliwanag sa silid at unti-unting nangamoy bulaklak ang paligid.

Isang malamyos, banayad, at atmospheric na musika ang tumugtog nang magsalang ng plaka sa kanyang 2^nd hand vinyl record player ang lalaki. Lumagok siya sa isang basong tubig, humiga at saka pumikit. Pinapakiramdaman ang paghinga na para bang may ritmo itong sinusundan hanggang sa siya ay makaramdam ng kakaibang vibration mula sa kanyang balakang.

6.     

6.          6. Sa isang tahimik na lugar humiga, ituon ang atensyon sa pag inhale-exhale.

7.       7. I-visualize mabuti ang taon at kung saan.

8.       8. Concentrate, ‘wag matakot.

Sa makailang beses na niyang sinusubukan ito, ay gamay na niya ang mga dapat gawin sa 17 out of body guidelines na kanyang sinulat at idinikit sa pader upang hindi niya ito malimutan.

6EQUJ5 [Aleatoric Noise|Ambient Drone|Live Sampling] ~ Gen Thalz

Warning: Some sound/s in this audio-video presentation may not be suitable or good for your ears. Listener discretion is advised.

Track: 6EQUJ5
Genre: Electronic
Style: aleatoric, noise, drone
Video Style: dark, glitch, psychedelic

Part 2 of our exploration combining tape loop, skipping cd, and loopception which results to a more atmospheric and sound textural way. The setup is just the same with the first one, we just reassemble the wires and didn't use the DIY Ring Modulator.

Most of the sound here is from skipping cd recorded randomly to a tape loop (23cm long) on a walkman tape recorder then resampled it with a sampler/looper to make it more interesting, atleast for us.

While the feedback from a loopcetion is droning effortlessly, we also resampled some sound it produced and mix it together with the others to make some sound layering.

The voice who looks angry talking in the background is an unknown evangelist preaching about God, obviously that we encounter after a several AM station tuning on a mini-cassette radio, we just need a steady spoken words here to jam with, and he did not disappoint us haha! It is also interesting to note how by chance his radio program ended in-sync with our recording ending.

All sounds is recorded using an analog 4 track tape recorder.

Mixdown using DAW.

Hardware:

- Discman

- Walkman with Tape Recorder

- Mini-Cassette Radio

- Sampler/Looper

- DIY Passive 3x3 Matrix Mixer

- 6 Channel Analog Mixer

The video is a footage of the equipment we used shot using a digicam. We processed those clips to synthesized it and to match the textural sound of the audio. As usual for us, it is very organic how it came out.

"The Cosmic Giggle is... A randomly roving zone of synchronicity and statistical anomaly. Should you be caught up in it. It will turn reality on its head. It is objective and subjective. Simultaneously 'really there' and yet somehow sustained by imagination and expectation..." ~ Terence Mckenna [shaman/ethnobotanist/psychonaut]

Technique [electronica]

Skipping CD [burned]

Loopception

*Still.Frame||6EQUJ5

Tape Loop

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.