mostly free-running self-generating vcv rack patch based on analog vosim synthesis implementation ideas from doug slocum and dakota melín + neural computing ideas from andrew fitch + ancient tape delay ideas from pauline oliveros and terry riley

vcv rack vosim étude

was pointed towards the free GRM Player software 'cause it got an update recently, the interface is absolutely deranged but I managed to wrangle this out of it eventually with the random sequence tool and my own composerly discretion

alternate title: "collage #1 (candy-striped suede from that one seinfeld episode)"

Willems Mix

I recently put together a small Elby EuroSerge sidecar to accompany the Macumbista Benjolin, with the help of the good folks at Noisebug. This is the first patch with the setup that I felt was worth recording, in that classic Todd Barton Krell stylee but with lots of knob tweaks to nudge it between states. Messy patch notes in the image (pretend the external audio input on the ersatz Euro Benjolin is the clock input). A little EQ (Eventide EQ65), overdrive (Soundtoys Little Radiator), and delay (Soundtoys PrimalTap) were applied in Logic, but the one take is unedited.

Krellkrellkrellkrellkrellkrell (the space god of smooth music and seafaring)

The low-pass filter design used in the Benjolin and as one half of the Twinpeak filter in the Blippoo Box and Hordijk modular systems is designed to exhibit certain chaotic properties when overdriven. By overdriving the Benjolin's line-level external audio input with the "modular level" square wave output of the first oscillator (which becomes saw-like with the addition of even harmonics from said overdrive), resonant bifurcations are created as audible subharmonics of the oscillator frequency as the filter resonance is increased and the cutoff frequency is modulated.

The control portion of the patch began as a crude attempt to imitate the Blippoo Box's sample-and-hold arrangement by using the XOR output of the Benjolin to trigger the Stepped Generator, which is sampling a mix of signals from throughout the patch; extensive cross-modulation to and from the Benjolin, the Smooth Generator, and the Voltage Controlled Slope is in play. The patch is played in real time, with numerous knob turns and manipulation of the Cycle switch on the VCS and the Loop switch on the Benjolin.

This recording is one improvised take. Eventide EQ65 provides some corrective EQ, Cherry Audio Stardust provides delay and reverb, and Martinic Colorsound Tremolo indulges my toxic boomer trait of liking a little slow auto-panning now and then.

Dedicated to Rob Hordijk shortly after the anniversary of his passing. Rungle with you on the other side, space cowboy.

Recursion and Bifurcation (for Rob Hordijk)

This began as a mere technical test of certain properties of the Knas Ekdahl Moisturizer using filter pings from a BugBrand Board Chirper. I ended up liking the "Raymond Scott slowly filling a rec center indoor pool" sound of it too much, so I added a slow looping delay in Logic (SoundToys PrimalTap) and recorded a lengthy pass with occasional knob twiddles on the Board Chirper and manipulation of its on/off switch towards the end. Then I spent far too long adding a few more effects for spatialization and making the mix more interesting.

Titled after what the experience of making it became.

Childhood Indoor Pool Trauma Recovery Apparatus

Rings into Clouds. A venerable dead horse of a punchline. But what about Rings and Clouds in a feedback loop, an ouroboros where "into" is a meaningless signifier? I had to investigate. And add a phaser.

Francis Dhomont Cosplay

VCV Rack sketch with Plaits model modulation, knockoff Hordijk Twinpeak filters, and a Boltzmann brain that begs only for the end of its suffering

Y2K-PROOF BEANIE BABIES DO THE MACARENA DURING THE FINAL SCENE OF THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY (for Joel Chadabe)

Maudlin VCV Rack ambient chord patch driven by Vult Caudal's fish tank model, played extensively with secondhand cheapo Korg USB MIDI controller faders because somehow it took me this long to get something to knobbify all this damn software. Recording clips at a few points but I don't give a damn.

A-flat major is the saddest key. You can fight me.

a fish tank that can only be accessed in the swampy outskirts of your dreams

A VCV Rack patch dry and resynthesized by Unfiltered Audio SpecOps. For the pizza guy down the street, you know who you are.

What's so insane about being a regular customer?

An experiment in creating bird sounds with minimal resources in RTcmix that accidentally turned into a pastiche of Pauline Oliveros' electronic works circa 1966 with the aid of some delays, ring modulation, and soft clipping.

Bird Bog, or a Needlessly Specific Exercise in Pastiche

A brief evening improvisation with the redoubtable BugBrand Board Chirper, treated with Unfiltered Audio Fault (delay/frequency shifting) and Soundtoys Little Radiator (overdrive).

BugBrand Board Chirper Improvisation 3/24

Two unedited takes of improvisation on the BugBrand Postcard Weevil panned left and right. EQ, delay, reverb, and limiting ITB.

Two Weevils

An old David Tudor patch on Softube Modular controlled by a Lorenz attractor, double pendulum, and random walk from GS DSP MMMm. Delay, reverb, and phaser for good measure.

lorenz pendula

And now for something completely different. Solo guitar rendition/interpretation/whatever of the venerable Ellington/Strayhorn chestnut (largely taking after Mary Halvorson's playing on the Trevor Dunn's Trio-Convulsant version from "Sister Phantom Owl Fish"). It was late and I was bored and melancholic. Maybe there will be more where this came from.

Please forgive the 60-cycle hum.

The Single Petal of a Rose

for sketches and sundries that don't warrant commercial releases

EVEN MORE MAOIST THAN CORNELIUS CARDEW

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