Noticing

/368 - Long Time No See

A few random pictures from the last week. I’ve tried posting a few times about my reflections on the year that was, but I’m not sure there’s been enough separation yet. Either way, it feels weird to be without it and absolutely insane that an entire year went by. 2020 was…

Have been playing with the modular a lot (and enjoying playing for an extra 30-45min than cutting it short to post on the blog) and tonight was pretty fun/cool. Playing a few drone samples, using Kria to sequence the v/oct input on microcell, using Pams to clock with a bunch of feedback patching to produce bursts of notes. Sort of reminded me of the late stages of a raga when the tablas go completely nuts. I was lucky enough to see Maestro Swapan Chaudhuri play live (with Ken Zuckerman at Eastman School of Music) once many years ago and my mouth hung open for a lot of it.

/367 - One More Day

Sine waves on the bitbox triggered by Kria. Was very tempted not to post but chickened out at the last minute. I was making the sounds, why not share them?

/360 - Ticking On Down

Like last night, but different. Playing a few field recordings on the bitbox into clouds, while also looping and chopping in MLR. I had a really fun jam on this same patch this morning, but of course I didn’t hit record and by the time I realized how much I liked it it was too late. So it goes, tonight was fun too.

Getting pretty close to the end of the my 366 (leap year) days and not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, doing this has sometimes felt like a mad dash — that every day I had to slam to get whatever together to have something to post. On the other, I’m not sure I’m ready for it to end and will miss it a great deal. It’s not like by not doing daily posts I will stop working on my ideas, making music, etc but the extra push to make it a focus has been incredible. I want to keep things up but not sure what my plan is right now. I started last year on December 1st. Maybe I should just continue until January?

/359 - Back to Basics

Sort of! I’ve been trying out a lot of things with the modular. All very interesting, and sometimes fun, but so far only infrequently musical. Tonight I didn’t try so hard — played a field recording on the bitbox, played the baritone in and ran both into clouds. Send that to the mixer, but also split to norns running MLR for some varispeed looping. Ah yes. Sometimes you need to take a break from walking to run.

/358 - Sundaze

We had a very quiet Sunday — watched movies and played games together. Sat on the couch and played guitar for awhile. Ash worked on a craft and Emi painted some pictures. Made a bunch of weird stuff with Legos and then made up stories about them. Quiet is nice.

I was hoping to post some music tonight, but nothing really clicked today. Spent the evening working with Pam’s trying to get some generative sequences and scales happening: easier dreamed than done. It all technically works — it just doesn’t sound good yet. Maybe tomorrow probably. haha

/354 - Wind Generator

I got this little mic with a 60’s reel to reel player and it’s so great. Lays flat and is perfect for adding environmental sounds to a setup. This morning I discovered that rubbing my finger across the metal grill through reverb stirred up some lovely windy leaf sounds. Very appropriate because it’s been whipping around here lately.

Everything just sort of clicked this morning. Playing/being surrounded by this in low-light at 5am was the perfect start to my day.

/353 - Quantize It

There’s still a lot to learn, but Pamela’s New Workout is pretty damn amazing. Here she’s triggering 2 granular samples, as well as 2 quantized guitar loops. There are some notes in there that don’t feel right (even if they’re actually “correct”), but the possibilities are pretty amazing. Definitely a reason I see this in so many racks.

/350 - Follower, Following Softly

Long recording tonight. A new module (Sewastopol) arrived today, meant to be the interface which allows me to use my guitar with the modular. It was supplanted somewhat by the realization that Axo can send a hot enough signal to get a clean recording in the bitbox, but it still has some cool extra functions I spent time exploring. This is guitar and samples triggering and modulating other samples into (too much?) granular and reverb. Was going to cut the clip down, but figured I’d just let it rip.

/348 - Darkness and Light

It was a sunny day, I got a lot done at work, and now it’s my weekend. I get to spend all day tomorrow with Emi, doing whatever we end up getting in to. Conversely, I had some issues with the Bitbox — lots of crackling and lights flickering, so not sure if I was pushing it too hard or if there’s an issue. Have to keep trying to see if it repeats, and if there’s a common cause. Fun.

/347 - Same, Different

Emi and I saw this bush this afternoon. With all of this back and forth cold/hot weather the trees and flowers don’t know what season it is or what they should be doing. Cold coming back again tomorrow.

I promise not to end the year off with only posts about modular, even if it’s where my head is at right now. PLENTY of other projects and ideas around here to keep moving ahead with.

Each of the 3 modules (not counting Axo) are sort of their own little universe to explore. Spent the evening trying out different settings in Pam’s, triggering and modulating. Pretty insane how much you can wring out of everything in there by playing them against each other. Another quick recording tonight — same samples as last night, different patch.

/346 - Moduloti Complete

I managed to get it all together and tested today! Currently it’s just passing midi from usb device (norns or ipad) and host (qunexus) to the Bitbox but it’s working great. The 4 encoders each have a push button and adjacent led so I can page through 4 sets of 4 parameters. I have a Sewastapol arriving sometime this week, so I’ll be able to use its send to run audio into Axoloti for more effects in the rack.

Hit record as I was playing around with things: field recordings from last winter at the park (remember that?), gamelan samples, and single cycle waveform drones. I’m beat, goodnight.

/345 - Sooooo Close

I tried my hardest to get this thing done (pretty bored of posting about it, really want to get back to making music with it) but didn’t quite get there. 3.5mm midi in and out tested and working! LEDs tested and working! All that’s left is to mount and wire the encoders. Not too hard, just a lot of wires.

Oh, then I have to program it to do something. ;)

(New phone this week pleeeease my camera is dying)

/344 - Here We Go (Again)

Another beautiful day. We took a long walk and played on the playground this morning, then finished up all my pre-winter chores (except getting the garage organized) this afternoon. This weekend was great, but it went by really fast!

Tonight I managed to cut another faceplate for moduloti and get so so much desoldering done so I can finally get this thing all the way together and working with the encoders and LEDs. I was really itching to patch a bit tonight, but getting this done and back in the rack will be worth it.

/343 - What a Day

Another beautiful (and choreful) day outside. Spent a little time this morning working out the design changes I need to get everything I need on moduloti under that 10hp plate. Still a bit of redrawing to do, then cut another plate, and wiring…

ON TOP OF THAT: Today the first day in 4 years that I haven’t been ashamed to be an American. Unity and respect, what an idea. ♥

/340 - Closing In

It just sort of dawned on me tonight that I’m less than a month from finishing my goal of 1 post a day for an entire year. My mind is blown because I don’t think I ever conceived that I could actually do this. I also noticed that somewhere along the line I messed up my post numbering. Ugh.

Here’s an excerpt of tonight’s drones.

/339 - Sounds and Connections

Although it’s now apparent that the axoloti module needs some rework to make everything fit, I was able to get it finished to a point where it works to pass midi, and act as a usb host and a device simultaneously. This is really cool! Was using the qunexus to play a sample chromatically, while norns running Kria was triggering and pitching 4 others. This isn’t all that musical, but it’s the record of playing and tweaking and trying and listening for quite awhile so I might as well post it. Regardless, those doumbeks sound cool.

/338 - Here

After the tracking going silent, and then updating to “arriving late”… everything was delivered on time as expected. haha Got everything racked and working. Wow. There’s so much in these 3 modules that I know I’ll be working on them for quite awhile. Played around for quite awhile tonight and it was a lot of fun, but I really need to get my own samples onto the bitbox stat. I also need to get moduloti finished so I can start using my other devices with the modular. It’s a whole new world.

It also snowed today for the first time this season. Nothing much to show for it, but it looked pretty coming softly down.

/337 - Moving Ahead

Made more progress on the Moduloti board today. It turns out that whatever aluminum alloy was used for the panel material I have is too hard for my tiny endmills. Not to be undone, I grabbed some plastic laminate that I had and sort of matched the bare aluminum. This cut lots better (obviously) but I did have to cut a second because the hole positions put the axo board into the rail and the module wouldn’t fit.

Boards are cut and all the desoldering is done. It’s a tight fit and wiring this might not be very fun. but in the end this is going to be a really amazing tool for my case. I was hoping to have this ready by the time my modules arrive (tomorrow!) but hopefully I’ll get it wrapped up by next weekend at the latest.

/336 - Moduloti

Made some more progress on this today. Tested and confirmed being able to power it board off the modular power bus and that hacking on 3.5mm trs jacks works for midi I/O. I can use the encoder switching/control subpatch I’ve already made for my other Axo, so just need to work out a 3 or 4 midi LFO scheme. Hardware seems like it won’t be too bad, but I always seem to end up in trouble on something. haha