Top 10 Posts on AudioLemon 2007

OK so it's that time of year... round-ups, reviews and Top 10 lists. I didn't know what picture to use so it was either that or a picture of Letterman.... To create some sense of false tension I guess it's customary to start at number.....

10. Oscilloscope-Art by Ray Sweeten is an excerpt from a live audio visual performance called 'Altercations'. Powerful visuals and grating, droning sawtooths coupled with the most fantastic oscilloscope gymnastics I've ever seen.

9. Buck Rogers Space Funk - oh yes space age synth funk is all the rage in the 25th century - that and cheap silver suits... bidi bidi bidi

8. Robots at a Cocktail Party - A robot that can understand and respond to 4 simultaneous conversations. Some very fancy DSP, a lot of FFT, filtering and a reference database of 50 million utterances. Polyphonic tone recognition is a kind of Holy Grail in music technology and you have to respect the colossal amount of work and research that went into this.

7. Roger Doyles Babel - Had to have a local one... a homebrew if you like. Roger Doyle is one of Irelands most well known electronic composers and I just think Babel is a fantastic piece of electronic music. For me it's electronic music as first principles, basic manipulations of time and pitch to create something new and haunting. Some of the best use of granular synthesis I've heard. I also like the visual... countless days I've spent looking at waveforms... it's almost like a visual description of modern electronic music.

6. John Hurt and the EMS Synthi Sequencer 256 - A clip from a 1979 film called The Shout in which John Hurt playing a struggling musician gets up to all kinds of studio trickery. Considering John Hurt was BBC's golden boy and this was a British Art House movie about an experimental electronic musiciab from the lates 70's.... maybe I shouldn't be so surprised to see a Synthi.

5. Jack Rubys' Sound System - Pictures of the famous sound system and clips of it in use. I found a few killer sound systems this year but I reckon Jack Rubys is KING. Wired for bass and warmth.... I can only dream about playing on something like that.

4. Dewanatron and their fabulous homemade instruments. A documentary on Dewand and Leon Dewan and their unusual take on synthesizers, such as the Dual Primate Control ... a custom built 2-man synth cased in a bird house :)

3. RAI Studio of Phonology - Phonology was one of the first electronic studios in the world. Designed in 1955 by Luciano Berio and Bruno Maderna. Such a killer studio - the noise source is about 4 meters away from the oscillator... This is modular in the old sense.

2. The Voder - A clip of the Voder, the worlds first vocoder (kind of ~), from the 1939 World Trade Fair. I heard about it, read about it, heard it but never saw it until this year. Something I never thought I'd see was the Voder in use... and from the 1939 World Trade Fair to boot.

In at No.1 .... The post I think above all posts was the best post on AudioLemon in 2007 was.... (cheesy MIDI drum roll) Paper Four - I had to end on one for the future so I picked Paper Four a project run by Mid Sweden University. Simply put they've found a way to use paper as a control source and speaker. You can now literally make a synthesizer, sound machine, sampler completely out of paper... speakers and all. Of all the things I saw in 2007 this one has future written all over it.

Cygnus Show, starring the Creamware Prodyssey ASB

"Aleatoric composition using the Prodyssey ASB. A bit messy at times, but a nice exploration of the filter and sample and hold modules." - thanks to xaviercygnus

You don't see too many demo's of these... maybe thats why creamware folded (kind of~)... anyways good to see.

2 Wii & Reason 4

Part 1


Part 2

"Wii midi sync to Reason 4. All instructions for basic setup are included. There will be more instruction vids to come so watch out for them. I will show you how to rewire, trigger clips, have full control over every parameter of every vst. Talking of vsts theres some available for free on www.masheduk.co.uk

MashedUK folk" - thanks to Masheduk

Spectralis training series part 3

" Watch Paul Harlyn interact with the Spectralis Groove Synth and learn how to create a live techno jam" - thanks to paulharlyn

As the title suggests you can find 2 more Spectralis videos if you go to his youtube account.

Illegal Numbers

An illegal number is a number that under some interpretations and under some legislation represents information which is illegal to possess, utter or propagate. Oh yes, 1984 here we come :) - The only 2 illegal numbers are numbers that represent the code needed to decypher the copy protection on DVDs, HD-DVDs and Blu Ray disks.

I don't know. I read this and I thought something has gone very wrong when Paris Hilton can copyright "That's Hot", it's illegal to sing Happy Birthday in a public place and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act can stop people from possessing, uttering or propagating a number... you have the right to remain SILENT :(

The picture above comes from Phillip Torrone, the senior editor for MAKE magazine. He created a powerpoint file where the illegal numbers quietly scroll on by.

The Mighty MB-6582 !

Named "MB-6582", it's a four channel stereo synth (8x 6582 SIDs) and the up-coming release of MB-SID V2 is going to blow away all other SID hardware.

Midibox MB-6582 Basic Test 1

" This is probably the first video of a midibox MB-6582 project that contains 8 commodore 64 SID synthesis chips. Visit http://www.midibox.org/ for more information on open source, community built synthesizers, sequencers, and other midi projects." - thanks to karnlund

The information came from the C64Music blog via cappy2112. The new SID V2 just on it's own looks pretty animal, you can check out a vid of SID V2 from uCApp.

The 8Bit Philosophy - DVD Trailer

Trailer for the upcoming documentary The 8Bit Philosophy. The trailer is a bit ho-hum and I don't think I saw a single 8bit machine in there... would have been good to see somebody playing around with a MIDIBox Sid or playing about Gameboy or... well something. Of course it's always easier to complain and I am looking forward to seeing it :)

Creating Pads Tutorial (Pretty Sweet)

Part 1


Part 2

Really well presented 20 minute tutorial on creating pads. I really love all the snippets from old school Jungle and D n'B tracks to give an idea of how pads are used. Then he looks at frequency curves, things to watch out for when using filter modulation, compression settings etc. He shows how to use both synthesizers and samples to create pads...

Very tasty - thanks to OldSchoolJungle

Santa Claus conquers The Martians :)

Yes it's one of the oddest, crapiest films ever made. Santa Claus conquers The Martians is a 1964 film where Martians kidnap Santa to give presents to Martians kids. Get ready for reporters going to Santa's grotto, the UN having meetings when Santa is kidnapped, Martians with pleasure aerials and most importantly the drug induced super crazy violent ending.... it's what Christmas is all about...

The film is in the public archive so if you have the time, patience and/or love crap films then...

Anyways A Big Happy Christmas to all AudioLemon readers. Hope you have a good one. I'm off now for the dinner, followed by watching crap TV whilst getting slowly sozzled on beer and whiskey... ah xmas :)

Cloud Number 9 (Lemurized Drum Machine)

" A lemurized ens from Didier. This is not music." - sph9000

It even has a sweet little garage beat... sph9000 has about 4 or so more Lemur videos if you're into the Lemur it's worth a look.

TR 606 - hardcore !

gearfel has 3 clips of a TR 606 in various stages of modification. It's kind of like a video diary of the 606 getting gradually more mangled. The last one, the one above, is the Disto Mod. If you have a 606 you can find out how to modify it at confusedmachines.com

An earlier mod... of the same 606

" 4 switches and 6 knobs to control kick and snare sounds and to add some distortion."- thanks to gearfel

Korg Oasys and some Genesis Combi's

" First attempt with Korg Oasys to recreate some Genesis stuff, bum notes supplied at no extra cost." - spuddyo

My favourite thing about this clip is the very tasty lookin' Creamware Moog Clone... very tidy housing indeed :)

Webcam + cardboard = joystick

"Playing F-29 retaliator in dosbox with a homegrown marker tracker and a virtual joystick driver. " - thanks to inopiaaardbei

More paper madness. This guy uses his joystick to control a flightsim but obviously musicians could think of a few others uses. It's very cool, can be made into any shape and is a lot cheaper than a Nintendo Wii. Next step would be to have multiple tracking for multiple controls. Imagine designing the perfect MIDI controller was as easy as cutting out the right sized cardbaord and pointing a €10 webcam at it....

Sugar Minott - Christmas Time

A Dubby good Christmas from Sugar Minott - thanks to delboy65 sent my way via Colz

analog synthesizer buchla

"259 and 261 with 250. i met DON and these modules are actually the ones from his own system since he didnt have any ready to sell he was kind enough to let go some of his system. thanx DON" - thanks to emssynthi100

Waldorf Blofeld presets

" Little Blofeld demo. Presets only." - Porcu68

It's such cute little thing :)

Arduino Theremin - Merry Christmas!

" Me playing Jingle Bells on my Arduino Theremin!..." thanks to bietz17

UPDATE: Al, creator of the clip, gives the direct link to information on this particular Theremin Arduino project in the comments.... just in case you miss the comments here's the link

http://alandtech.blogspot.com/2007/12/arduino-theremin.html

iPhone Synth

"It's very much like Propellerhead's ReBirth (remember that one?) and other step-sequencers. I tried to demonstrate how some of it works but my big sausage fingers +plus+ trying to face my MacBook's cam just proved more challenging than I thought.

What's cool about it is that not only can you set each note in each step of the sequence, but the type of oscillator per note (ie square, sine or white noise for snares/claps), the volume of each step, and you've got 3 octaves to choose from.

But that's not the best part - as shown in the video, it's using the iPhone's accelerometer to mess with the filters - the cutoff and resonance.

Application created by http://roventskij.net/index.php?page=3" - thanks to scribemedia

Nord Wave Demo

A demo of the Nord Wave from Filament on this electro-musician post. "I loaded in a set of 6 drum samples with the Nord Wave Manager. I had OSC1 set to Noise and OSC2 set to the drum sample set. I set up a midi loop in cubase and just tweeked away. Here is a 6.40min mp3 of my session. The sound quality is amazing. I am more than happy with my Wave purchase and would recommend this machine to anyone. The possiblities are endless. Hope you enjoy."

Click to Listen

Colz December Dubstep Mix

Colz has posted up a December Dubstep Mix. Killer dubs and whites... you can Download the December Mix HERE. If you didn't catch the November Mix it's we'll worth the download. High Quality Dubstep mixes are hard to come by so...

Robot Sleigh Ride

"Robotmaker's all analog modular holiday tune. Recorded in one live take, with some prerecorded tracks. The polysynth part uses Kontakt instruments created from modular samples (MOTM GX1 Filters)." - thanks to robotmakers

Killer :)

Free Samples Time :)

It free samples time again and this time it's with a DN'B flava. It's the usual sample fodder... kiks, snares, perc, vocals and even a piano or two...

"The following sample packs have been put together by drumnbass.be members. You can download and use them under the condition that you don't forget who made them

A lot of time and effort has been put into these sample packs but since we are such nice people you can use them freely to spice up your dnb productions. Please give us a sign when you use any of these samples in your own tracks since we would love to know what you're doing with our precious samples!"

Download the samples from DrumNBass.be

Retrosound on YouTube

"The Roland JX-8P is a classic analog Polysynth with a very soft nice sound.

more info: www.retrosound.de"

At this stage Retrosound has 69 synth demos up on YouTube. None of them are very visually pleasing. They most often just have a still photo of the synth being demoed... still he has 69 of them up there so it's worth a look. Go to his account retrosound72 to see more.

Vinyl scratch simulation with Nord Modular g2 synth

" A patch that simulate turntablism performance. All sounds are generated by g2" - thanks to leoleox

Cardboard Keyboard and Amp with Fotosis No. 003

It's paper synth time again... this time it's a teeny tiny cardboard keyboard and amp. Its all hooked up to a Fotosis synth. You might remember Fotosis from this post about a synth they made in cardbaord casing. They seem to be extending the range. Very cute looking :)


" Here are two more devices we have just completed.

The little keyboard you see in the center is based on a simple 555 timer circuit, the keys come from a busted kids keyboard and the housing was created by laminating about thirty layers of cardboard together with glue and wood screws.

The little amp is actually three amps in one. There are three LM386 2.5 Watt circuits, one for each instrument we plan to plug into it. Each amp has its own 100mm diameter 8 Ohm 10 watt speaker. The housing was constructed using a laminate of MDF and cardboard all held together with glue and wood screws.

In this video the little keyboard was being played into another of our instruments, Fotosis No. 003. The keyboards output was fed into the ring modulator of Fotosis No. 003 and modulated with a weird bleeping carrier signal.

Read more on our blog: http://fotosisdiy.blogspot.com"

Jin-Yo Mok - SoniColumn

The last Drum Buddy post reminded me of the SoniColumn by Jin-Yo Mok. The drum buddy uses a kind of music box approach to sequencing and Jin-Yo Mok has a facination with music boxes. This one I liked the most.



"SoniCoumn is an interactive sound installation that can be played by a person’s touch. The installation takes the form of a column-like cylinder, of a height that does not quite reach the ceiling but just high enough for one’s reach. Grids of LEDs installed inside the column light themselves on by the users’ touch and emit unique sounds. When a user cranks the handle, the column slowly rotates itself and plays the light patterns of the user’s touch. " Find out more at SoniColumn.

.... very pretty :)

Drum Buddy Demo

"Available at Fresh Kills for auction preview, the Drum Buddy is a quintronandmisspussycat.com and the invention of renowned New Orleans musician, Quintron. One of only 10 produced, Serial #1 from the 2008 New Line Cypress Drum Buddies will be auctioned on eBay beginning January 26th 11:59pm, and ending Tuesday, February 5th (Mardi Gras Day) at 11:59pm. New York City musician, Laurie Anderson and Nels Cline of the band, Wilco have acquired 2 of this limited run of Drum Buddies. Visit quintronandmisspussycat.com for more info, images, & music." - thanks to freshkillsflagship

Pretty cool... one part synth, one part drum machine and one part music box :)

Can You Feel It - Bass Patch

The Bass part in Mr.Fingers "Can You Feel It" is probably one of the best known and loved basslines in all of houses history. It's a pretty easy bassline to achieve but to some it's probably an uphill battle. To that end Sami on this KVR post recreated the famous bassline using a free synth from Togu Audio Line the U-NO-60... a clone of the Juno 60 that was used to create the original bass. The picture above shows the patch settings.... you can click on the picture to go large :)

Have a listen to the result: LISTEN

Download the U-NO-60: DOWNLOAD

Ableton Live7: Analog

Programming the Live7 synthesizer "Analog".
Cuz starting from "init" is kinda boring i've added some trippy animations in this lil' tutorial.
- thanks to acidmoongfx

Stockhausen RIP

Karlheinz Stockhausen, pioneer of electronic music and venerated composer has died aged 79. RIP :(

Wikipedia Entry

Vienna Vegetable Orchestra

The Vegetable Orchestra performs music solely on instruments made of vegetables. Using carrot flutes, pumpkin basses, leek violins, leek-zucchini-vibrators, cucumberophones and celery bongos, the orchestra creates its own extraordinary and vegetabile sound universe. The ensemble overcomes preserved and marinated sound conceptions or tirelessly re-stewed listening habits, putting its focus on expanding the variety of vegetable instruments, developing novel musical ideas and exploring fresh vegetable sound gardens.

I love Dub music

" this is mix was realized with a korg EMX 1, a sampleur SP 404, and the KAOS Pad...more info on myspace.com/lekksorchestra"

thanks to kkcorchestra

All Irish Dubstep

Sorry for the lack of posts this week but I've been busy trying to get a set together for tomorrow night. Between that and setting up the new computer I had very little time. The gig should be good fun. All Irish Dubstep... All Live... sweet.... :)

Doepfer MS-404 midi mono synthesizer

" This Doepfer MS-404 mono-synth is being played by an SND SAM-16" - thanks to jkselsyn

The Doepfer MS-404 is one of the many TB 303 clones that came out during the mid 90's. It doesn't sound too much like a 303 still it's a cheap little analogue synth...

My Desktop Wishlist

I just bought a new Desktop PC running Windows XP Pro. I am very happy with it so I thought I'd post my component list. I ordered the components from and had it built by Elara.ie. They only charged €40 to build and €40 to install the OS.

You can have a look at my wish list on Elara HERE. In the end I went for an Intel Motherboard and the Q6600 Quad Core processor. All I can say is it's a dream machine. Last night I kept throwing things onto it and it didn't skip a beat. Eventually I got bored and gave up. The processor was only at 30%. I ran 5 Altiverbs, 20 URS compressors, 20 URS EQ's, Battery 3 with compression & convolution reverb, Sampler in Ableton, 5 instances of Massive all playing 3 note chords, some of own synthedit projects and on and on. This exceeds what I will ever need in terms of audio processing.

In total the PC came in at €1200 which is less that half the price of an equivalent Mac Pro and that includes the education discount. There are obvious advantages to buying a Mac Pro but unless you are in fact Pro and can write off some of the costs against tax... I might look at a PC. I'm not trying to bate a MAC V PC flamewar... I'm just telling it from my point of view. I know they are not exactly equivalent but they're not too far off either.

The reason I posted this is I found it very difficult to come to a decision. I did a lot of research and came up with the most powerful, stable, usuable computer I could. The only thing I might change is the case. The Antec P182 is quiet but still audible. The fan is low level but constant.

The Ram is Kingston Value Ram. I didn't buy the Value Ram because I'm a cheapskate... this is the only Ram I could find that matched exactly the requirements of the motherboard.

Lastly the cooling system on the wishlist is not the one I got. In the end I just got a cheap heatsink... does the job and is quieter.

All I can say is the Q6600 Quad Core processor will change the way I make music. This is not something I ever said about a computer before, let alone a processor.

JUNO REACTOR Synthesizers-Inside Tour

" Ben Watkins of Juno Reactor opens the vaults and shares some wisdom (from ART UBER ALLES - Juno Reactor Tribute)" - thanks to MysteriousArt

Isidore, the modular robot with CV lights

"Hi all !
Here's a video of my modular stuff and cabinet. You can see the CV
lights we were talking about a few weeks ago (txs Dieter for the
schematics!).

16 steps MIDI sequence running on cubase, then converted to CV by
MCV24, all sounds by A100 simple patch. White light is controlled by
1st midi chan gate, red light by 2nd chan gate + LFO.
This also of course can work with the wiimote stuff too =)" -thanks to DamagedMeat

Can you imagine this thing live. About as Sci-Fi as you can get.... better than a crappy mactop ;)

Creative Commons is 5 Years Old

"CC is turning 5 and to celebrate we’re throwing a community-wide party. If you’ll be in the San Francisco Bay Area on December 15, join us for a night of celebrating the commons at a party generously sponsored by Mozilla and Last.fm. The evening will feature announcements by Joi Ito and Lawrence Lessig, a live acoustic performance by Gilberto Gil, video remixing by Phi Phenomenon, and music provided by DJ Spooky. Space is limited so please RSVP to party@creativecommons.org as soon as possible to let us know if you will be joining us (seriously, please do this!). Details are listed on our birthday flyer.

If you’re not in the Bay Area, don’t worry. There will also be parties in Berlin and New York City. For more details about these events, or if you want to register a party in your own part of the world, check out our wiki page for more information. Air Mozilla will be streaming Gilberto Gil’s performance for those who won’t be able to attend any of the parties. And of course, please feel free to celebrate CC in Second Life as well.

No matter where you are in the world, we invite you to celebrate CC’s five years of helping to keep culture free and celebrate the future of participatory culture."

via Cory Doctorow

Learn About MIDI The 1980's Way :)

DIGITALSCREAMS has uploaded a MIDI tutorial from the 1980's... I think my mother and Dennis Taylor had the exact same glasses as the dude in the video... The 80's was a strange time for massively oversized spectacles and cheesy rocked out MIDI jazz ;)

There are 8 clips in total. I only posted the first one go HERE to see the rest.

COLZ NOVEMBER DUBSTEP MIX

Colz, Irish Dubstep DJ, has uploaded a new Dubtep mix - All your bass are belong top us :)

Click on the pic or HERE to download it.