Homemade Talkbox

Professor Gurevich suggested that I look into making a talk box, so I've been doing some research on how I might go about doing this. It turns out it's pretty simple, and all you need is a compression driver or old speaker, a plastic tube, and something to connect the tube to the driver. This guy's video is pretty comprehensive and his talkbox sounds pretty good, so I'll probably use his method.

WIRELESS CLOCK SYNC W/ ABLETON

Was figuring out how to clock sync when the Ableton 9.6 release notes came out...

Wireless clock sync. https://www.ableton.com/en/link/

Everyone using Live should update as soon as possible. We can start using Link!

Infected Mushrooms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X88Y6XoCsnU
So I don't know if you guys know Infected Mushroom or not, but they're an AWESOME Israeli psytrance/electronica duo formed in Haifa in 1996. They've said a lot of their inspiration comes from 80's techno. Although their music sounds a little different from what we're writing, the sounds they get are incredible and they have some really cool melodies I easily catch on to. You can tell a lot of thought went into composing their tracks.

Here's a link to one of my favorite albums of theirs.

The Avalanches

So I was thinking on our trials towards writing lyrics for our tracks and I started to think about one of my favorite records, Since I Left You by The Avalanches. This record is produced almost entirely out of samples, and for many of the tracks to have lyrics, The Avalanches used various vocal samples to form various quirky sentences, which remind me of our "Silver Apples of the Moon" track. Anyways, I was hoping to distribute this as inspiration for these lyrics, and possibly an idea of a future track of ours with sample based vocal lyrics. Anyways, this beat isn't exactly techno, but it's also not that far off in a lot of ways! And if you have time, you should definitely check out the rest of this record.

Arca

I know earlier this week we were talking about my being added to the vocal processing squad. This is my inspiration for vocal processing that I would like to bring into our techno realm. Arca's also one of my favorite producers (aside Dimlite). If you're looking for some insane sound design to chew on, bite his latest record Mutant.

Composing for a Space

Among the many things that the lab section is working on to augment our performance with novel instruments and compositional mediums is a project involving the conversion of our classroom into a suitable Ambisonic environment. Ambisonics--meaning "surround sound"--is a step beyond the typical 5.1 surround configurations that we've been exposed to, and ultimately masks the location of the speakers, allowing the sound to exist in a parameterized position in three-dimensional space. It also requires a crap-ton of speakers.

What will this technology mean for our performance? At a minimum, it will allow us to use the space that we play in as a compositional medium in itself by prescribing sonic elements motion and location on the surface of a hemisphere surrounding the audience. If realistic distance cues can be created, we may even be able to use the entire space of the audience. The project will take time to implement, but in the mean time I challenge everyone to think about a new compositional consideration: where in space does my sound fit? Is it bouncing around exuberantly? Descending around the audience? Gently hovering above them? Similar to how animation techniques can give a character personality, this extra dimension can shape how a sound is perceived--including its emotional context. Of course, being able to use this spatialization technology does not mean we should use it for every song or every part, so just as with our choice of timbre and layering we will have to exercise our judgment in using this new tool.

Sexuality / Intersectionality in Techno

http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1927

above is a link to an article that goes over the various techno scenes and what queer and marginalized groups literally created the genres before they got sucked into the 3D vector vacuum of Mainstream Club Culture and appropriated to "EDM" as we know it today, which is generally dominated by white males in the United States as far as I know -
(this might be a broad overarching statement so please prove me wrong in the comments!)

There are still queer spaces for techno. Of those I know - Honcho's Hot Mass in Pittsburgh, this recent development serves as a queer space for many.

This article is very thorough and also gives you the sense of the international scene too.
What was happening in parallel in different places and the like - including a queer women-oriented scene in Paris which I had no idea about,    Check it out -

FIELD TRIP TO CLUB ABOVE TONIGHT

COME TONIGHT. HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT
THE CLUB ABOVE. Main St.
HOUSE/TECHNO VINYL PARTY 9PM-2AM

Event Name: State of Satori
Our Very own Jeff Garcia is DJ-ing.
https://www.facebook.com/events/914733465290319/

In Triplicate

In Triplicate from Matt Romein on Vimeo.

I found this incredible video piece yesterday. It seems pretty techno to me.

Not sure if something like this is worth considering for our show, but I could definitely see something like this going well with beats!

This Vocoder...

Today Sir Everett Reid showed the folks in Digital Sound Synthesis some music by Dimlite.

I was inspired to listen to more music by this sound design genius and came upon this track. The vocoder is awesome. I hear pitch modulation and I think there's some layering and some other stuff going on. He could just be doing the pitch mod with his pitch wheel, but I'd like to find a way to automate this effect using vibrato or something.  My goal is to try to figure it out and use it for a piece in class.

Ps. If you weren't in Digital Sound Synthesis listen to this as well...