Social
Glacial Communications on FacebookArchives
Stuff you should check out
Meta
Monthly Archives: May 2009
Press The Button Podcast for May 27, 2009
This could be interpreted as an alternate version of the DJ set I did last weekend at Recycled Rainbow PRIMER. One in which I only had a few of the records I actually played , and many that I wished I had at the time (i.e. Manuel Göttsching’s E2-E4 (seriously, any chillout-type set is incomplete without it making an appearance)). I also kicked up the train sounds, in order to more accurately represent the event, which is held adjacent to a heavily used rail line.
Lessons learned:
1. Klein & MBO’s “Dirty Talk” sounds just as awesome at -18% as it does at regular speed. It’s like Belgian New Beat meets Italo Disco and forms some kind of hideous groove beast. Though, really, how can you go wrong with it? It’s a damn near perfect track - good enough to be a direct influence on Blue Monday, anyway.
2. I really shouldn’t try mixing some things live until I’ve, uh, actually tried it a few times. Or just let Soulwax handle it.
3. I really need to rip my copy of New Order’s Video 586 onto the laptop. Wished I’d had it last night.
Press The Button Podcast for May 20, 2009
Press The Button Podcast for May 20, 2009. Show notes are available at http://www.glacialcommunications.com/news
Some WTPA demos
I spent a little more time playing with the Where’s The Party At? 8-bit sampler this evening. I first tried my theorized CD4046 voltage-to-sync circuit, but that didn’t seem to work. Not sure where the problem lies, but I think I’ll need a scope to figure it out for sure.
That said, I then made a couple of quick demo MP3s. The first is a straight up demo: wtpademo.mp3. I play a loop on my RY10, and sample it into the WTPA at its highest fidelity. I let it play for a few bars, and then messed with the sample rate a bit. Then I try some of the special effects – reverse, half speed, one of the “math modes” which takes it into an overdrive, backwards halfspeed, and then triggered playing. Note that this demo only uses one of the sample banks.
The second demo uses the fact that you can vary the sample rate while recording: drumfight.mp3. This is two loops from the RY10, varispeed-sampled into the WTPA, and then manipulated. This again, didn’t take advantage of the banks – I just multitracked it. The first loop plays alone the first fifteen seconds, then the second fades in over the next fifteen seconds and the two play side by side for a minute or so. Then the second starts getting its sample rate further manipulated.
Tagged wtpa
Busy building things
I managed to fix no fewer than three Arduino boards this week – two had broken battery clip wires – one of which was my MIDI sequencer that broke during AHMW, and the third apparently wasn’t actually broken, but just refused to be a Pocket Piano during AHMW. It’s happy now.
Having fixed the sequencer and APP, I uploaded this polyphonic FM sketch into the APP, and then did a tiny bit of recording – here’s an excerpt. One channel is my MG-1 being sequenced by the sequencer, and the other is the APP being manipulated while playing a chord. As the title implies, this might be a rough sketch of things to come in Volume II (of course it would help if Volume I got released sometime soon! For those curious, Volume I is close, just gotta finish the artwork, mass-produce that, and get it to Ryan…)
Also, the Gristleizer is starting to get Gristle-y. Somebody pointed out an error in the layout diagram that when fixed, made things somewhat happier. I’m not sure if it’s perfect yet, but it definitely seems closer to usable. I may fool with it a bit more over the weekend.
Also also, I got my Where’s The Party At? 8-bit sampler kit and managed to get it finished during some vacation days last week. Lots of fun. Expect a demo or something soon. Trying to figure out an appropriate way of getting voltage control of the sync input. I’m thinking a CD4046 PLL ought to cover it, but need to do some prototyping and testing. An oscilloscope wouldn’t hurt either, but I haven’t got one…
Finally, I put together one of the GetLofi APC 2.0 PCBs I ordered months and months ago. I like it better than the one I built a couple of years ago – it actually works right!
Press The Button Podcast for May 13, 2009
Press The Button Podcast for May 13, 2009. Show notes are available at http://www.glacialcommunications.com/news