The result of some of the many random experiments with sound in The Lab over the years...

All recordings copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio.

Random Experiments With Sound in The Lab...

Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... are you telling me you built an analog wavetable synth...  out of an oscilloscope!??

Yes.. it seems Daphne Oram and her highly ingenious engineer friend, Graham Wrench, did.. in the 1960s as a core (but sadly often overlooked) part of her infamous Oramics Machine... and I have been trying to follow their footsteps in wonder...  and no, this isn't some digital "emulation".. its the real thing...

Exploring new timbres and textures trying out various shaped masks placed on the scanner screen and new modulated scan paths after my first attempt at building a dedicated all-analog optical waveform scanner loosely based on the original design which really was a brilliant exercise in ingenuity and lateral thinking.

Its all a bit hit and miss but its surprising what you can muster up with this thing.. 

Roughly how the initial recreation works:

A classic analog oscilloscope is set to X/Y mode with the X-axis being driven by a raw sinewave from a monosynth. The scanned beam is then drawn over a shaped mask placed on the screen whilst a very high frequency oscillation on the Y-axis is slowly AM modulated (or simply DC shifted in another mode) thus causing a slit shaped beam to sweep different parts of the mask. Each single scan of the screen equates to a single cycle of waveform operating rather like a wavetable synthesizer. The resulting modulated light is picked up by an analog optical sensor mounted in the scanner hood. This results in a complex waveform of the same pitch as the raw sinewave with a slowly morphing wave shape. Changing the position of the X-axis on the screen also has a direct effect on the timbre of the sound and can also be modulated in realtime (eg. by amplitude from velocity).

One thing that should be pointed out is that none of these recordings employ dynamic filtering - they are pure raw morphed waveforms from the optical scanner head.

The brightness of the beam can also have an effect on timbre as it determines where in the conduction curve of the light sensor the modulated light will operate over. If the brightness is set high a harsher, less linear and more saturated sounding timbre results and at lower brightness the sound is softer and reacts in a more linear fashion to the occlusion caused by the edges and openings of the mask.

From my practical experimentation over the past few months, my opinion is that the whole concept is fiendishly clever in terms of its sheer simplicity but its also hellishly temperamental and I can completely understand now why Daphne reportedly became frusrated with the scanner as its often not even possible to replicate what you generated the day before let alone consistently as the whole process is so organic and prone to tiny changes in alignment of just about every optical, mechanical and analog parameter it really isn't very practical as an every day instrument.  As an experimental instrument and raw sound source on the other hand it is truly remarkable at times.

Recordings Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Experiments With Oramics Analog Optical Waveform Scanner Concept...

I really can't believe how well this lashed up experiment worked!

To add to the mysterious event, it had to be undertaken in near darkness for reasons that will become obvious...

The stringesque effect:

A rough description of how my analog recreation of Daphne's Optical Waveform Scanner works can be found in the playlist description.

The Drone Effect:

This was made by removing the tape mask from the screen and placing a metal aperture grill at an angle between the screen and the sensor thus creating a complex interference pattern with the beam scanning behind it.   The Y-axis on the scope was then modulated at a near multiple of the X-axis scanning frequency which resulting in a very effective slowly morphing drone effect.

Just to be clear - this has not been sampled - it is simply two live recordings captured from the hardware mixed and EQ'd with reverb added.

I have subsequently built a device dedicated to more fully exploring this concept as its clear to me it could render some interesting results.

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Oramics Optical Waveform Scanner Concept: Drone & Strings

I have discovered to my surprise and delight its not even necessary to use a mask to generate an interesting waveform - with some concentration it is even possible to place your hand in front of the screen and hold it in a position to make the general timbre of your choice which responds beautifully to movements of the hand to create tremolo and subtle timbre changes.   It would take a lot of practice to master this but these two quick test recordings hopefully give some idea.  

The string like sound was made with a fixed hand shape which I gently wobbled in front of the screen to create a tremolo effect.

The harmonics on the flute like sound were the result of placing a screwdriver in front of the display at an angle in both the X and Y axis and then moving my hand in front of it on every attack thus creating a sort of overblown flute effect.

A rough description of how my analog recreation of Daphne's Optical Waveform Scanner works can be found in the playlist description.

Just to be clear - these are raw generated waveforms with no filtering or dynamics applied - just  live recordings straight into some EQ and reverb directly from the optical sensor and have not been sampled.  Some noise reduction and unwanted bleedthrough was removed in iZotope RX.

I am now planning to build a device dedicated to more fully exploring this concept as its clear to me it could render some interesting results.

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Oramics Optical Waveform Scanner Concept: Waveforms With The Hands...

Exploring some new timbres trying out various shaped masks placed on the scanner screen and new modulated scan paths after my first attempt at building a dedicated optical waveform scanner loosely based on Daphne Oram's optical waveform scanner in her Oramics Machine from the early 1960s.

The last segment is a demonstration of the sort of effect that results in modulating the Y-axis beam with an audio frequency instead of an LFO.

It must be pointed out that no filtering has been applied - you are listening to the raw waveform generated by the optical scanner.

A rough description of how my analog recreation of Daphne's Optical Waveform Scanner works can be found in the playlist description.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Oramics Optical Waveform Scanner Prototype: Exploring New Timbres...

Its all a bit hit and miss but its surprising what you can muster up with this thing..  this evening a sort of raspy bowed electric cello sound emerged which really came to life after putting it through a very short delay.  This is pure raw waveform generation from the analog optical waveform scanner - no dynamic filtering or even EQ has been used in this case.

A rough description of how my perceived analog recreation of Daphne's Optical Waveform Scanner works can be found in the playlist description.

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2022.

Oramics Analog Optical Waveform Scanner Prototype: Bowed eCello...

I came up with this test recording today whilst trying out my first set of four slides in the prototype optical analog waveform scanner.  It is quite hard to predict just how each slide will sound and its been quite good fun coming up with various shapes and patterns to produce various timbres, textures and effects from simple/musical to much more bizarre effects such as intermodulation (using patterns) and almost sync like effects.  In the process of exploring the slides I have come up with a beam scan method that increases the linearity of the optical response to the slide profile resulting in a softer, less pulse-wave laden waveforms.

What I am now convinced about is that Daphne would have quickly learnt that its much more effective to scan areas of limited width and Y-axis position / modulation.  The result is a remarkably fluid control of the timbre and how it modulates with time.   

Although there is a ton of reverb in this recording there is absolutely zero dynamic filtering - it is all due to modulating the Y-axis scan slit with a slow LFO so that the waveform is continuously changing over time.

The recording was made direclty from the optical scanner (not sampled) in two takes - one for the drone effect and one for the lead synth.

A rough description of how my analog recreation of Daphne's Optical Waveform Scanner works can be found in the playlist description.

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2022.

Oramics Analog Optical Waveform Scanner Prototype: Morphed Slides...

My studio archives are littered with long forgotten test recordings I made of vintage studio gear that has been through the workshop for clients. Sometimes I have fun throwing a few of them together and seeing what comes out. In this case its a couple of test recordings from back when I custom modified a number of Adrian Utley's wonders a few years back to be sync'able including his Bentley FR-6, TR-808 and a rackmount Oberheim Two-Voice (TVS-1).

Composition  & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2015.

Locked & Loaded: TR-808, Bentley FR-6 & Obi TVS-1 Sync Retrofit testing...

An 1969 Solartron Pseudo Random Generator modulating  a lab oscillator in a 5 level probability distribution of pitches mixed with three drones slightly modulated with the bandwidth filter set to 3.5Hz producing something a little more musical than I was expecting from an old piece of lab test gear!

Original Sound Design & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio 2019

1969 Solartron Pseudo Random Generator: JM1861 Bagpipes

This thing is just plain nuts when you start injecting LFO signals onto the pins of the ADC MUX chip for the front panel control CV channels!!

All segments of this were made with a simple one note sequence whilst the pitch, sample, decay and repeat parameter CV channels were modulated by an LFO with a roughly time related period to the tempo thus causing all manner of evolving natural patterns - this includes the entire section at the end of the recording which was made the same way!..

I feel some serious circuit-bending coming on as none of these parameters are available via midi or CV in stock form...

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2020.

1986 Simmons MTX9: Messin' With Its 'Nsides!...

Having just invested in a crazy number of never used, still in their boxes, JAN (GE) ECF82 Triode-Pentode tubes I spent the afternoon determining whether I'd got myself something worthwhile or a useless pile of glassware..

- the answer?  Well I managed to lash up a working pre-amp, VCA, ring-mod and superhet mixer and then proceeded to have great fun going a bit nuts with it all...  yup - I think there are some interesting projects to come out of all these tubes!

Composition & Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2020.

ECF82: SuperHet Soup

Testing a 1964 Mk 2 Watkins tube Copicat during initial wakeup and assessment on the bench on the isolated variac following essential repairs to free up a seized capstan motor...

Made with two overdubs - one with a lab sinewave generator through the Copicat and one with some drums from the little Alesis Micron in the workshop also being munged to great effect by this lovely sounding all tube tape echo!

Some people say they prefer the sound of the solid-state Copicats but having owned and worked on both I'd say I prefer the tube units for their mojo.

Recording Copyright D.A.Wilson, Hideaway Studio, 2020.

1964 Watkins Mk2 Tube Copicat Awakens: Drum & Sines...

D.A.Wilson is an Electronic Engineer, Sound Designer & Vintage Synth Specialist with a particular interest in combining vintage tube, classic analog and modern digital technologies working as a synth engineer looking after a very considerable amount of vintage studio equipment for Will Gregory (Goldfrapp / Moog Ensemble) and a number of other internationally celebrated electronic musicians and producers.  Having undertaken several major restorations and produced custom electronic designs for a number of major artists including Jean-Michel Jarre, Dani is also known for fully restoring two out of the world's four remaining 1979 Crumar GDS and partially restoring 1938 Novachord 346 (the only known operational Novachord in the UK) to playable order along with developing and producing the new Elfin family of 8-bit polysynths and the popular MIDI Front Panel Animator (FPA), Filter Defeat Module (FDM) and XD-280 Drive Emulator upgrades for the AKAI S612 sampler.

Demos of the S612 Upgrades in Action: 

https://soundcloud.com/hideaway-studio/sets/hideaway-studios-s612-front


Hideaway Studio Kontakt Sound libraries may be purchased directly from: 
https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/hideaway-studios
 

..and a nice introduction by Cory Pelizzari to the Hideaway Studio Kontakt Libraries:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-C7a3ChC9U&feature=emb_title


For more on releases from Hideaway Studio for Kontakt please visit the blog at:  www.hideawaystudio.net