Synthtastic

Recorded direct from the board. Performing a LIve improvised MPLS Techno set via BugBrand modular (total of 5 voices), Roland TR-8, Akai MPC1000 (drums/vocal samples only), Frostwave Fat Controller (sequencer), Acidlab Robokop (gate sequencer), Intellijel Metropolis sequencer, & Reverb.   

Live@Communion 4 - 27 - 14 (Mastered)

Live board recording of 2 sets played at ANTI I in MPLS Minnesota on 08-14-14. Hex Inverter Mutant Drums, Jupiter Storm used for drums. Boomstar SE80 for acidbasslines sequenced by Frostwave Fat Controller. Eventide Space/Timefactor for Aux sends 1&2. 

Low - Gain Live - ANTI I - MPLS  - 081414 Set 2 (Master)

Florist - "Vacation"

Florist :: The Birds Outside Sang

Florist :: White Light Doorway

Plucks and Dancing

Dawn After A Long Day

This is an excerpt from a greater piece titled "Outdoors At Night", in which the natural sounds of an outdoors area at night were re imagined by electric sounds. 

Outdoors At Night (Clip)

It's beautiful up there, but it's not easy...

A Troublesome Space Voyage

Suspensful Digital Rainforest

Resting And Thinking

caring

For Daytime

Faerie Woods

Going to do some basic patch notes for this one for anyone interested..

This track is a recording of a stereo mix of 4 inputs coming from my eurorack modular synth going into a mixer, being played live as it recorded.

There are 3 voices:

~One stereo voice which is Rings, the resonator module going into the Dual Looping Delay by 4ms. The DLD left and right outputs are going to the mixer.  Rings is being fed a white noise source on the 2nd polyphony setting and in the Modulated/inharmonic strings setting.  Rings is being sequenced by Rene with the quantized voltage output. This is making the main melodic flute/string sounds, as well as the occasional jitters, stereo spreading, and plucks.

~The second voice is a Mangrove oscillator running on a 4 step sequence by Pressure Points.  It is un-quantized and playing 3 notes very low in the mix, and the occasional detuning sounds are from those notes.

~The third voice is the bass, a Verbos Harmonic Oscillator, with the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th harmonics being modulated by Just Friends.  This creates the pulsing drone effect.  That is going through the Three Sisters filter, which I start to open wide and make self oscillate towards the end of the piece.

At the end of the piece I am mainly interacting with the Three SIsters,  the DLD (to loop the glitchy static like sounds), and giving the Mangrove some FM from one band of the 4ms SMR.

I'm Calm Are You Calm?

Comfort Things

Live improvised jam using MakeNoise dual Pressure Points + Brains + Analog Memory, 
Piston honda into dual ModDemix into Opto Mix to Sea Devils Filter. Optomix being controlled via Maths. SEQ01 triggering maths Optomix Brains, etc. Lots of modulation provided by AnalogMemory and Pressure Points. MG-1 used to reverse direction of Brains. Quantimator transpose  controlled via Z8000, Analog Memory to Piston Honda CV attenuated by Synthwerks SP-1P. Lots of fun going on here! 

Make'n'Noise

It's the bottom of the 9th... let's take home that trophy.  ,,,,,,  Home run!

A Big Victory

The first time I heard Emily Sprague’s music was on lines. Somebody posted a video of hers, 'Three Sisters + Harmonic Oscillator', that had captured their attention as a high watermark...and it’s easy to understand how. The straightforward and earnest exploration of a beautiful module, through a looped melody you could listen to for hours, seemed the work of a seasoned pro. Somebody else commented, revealing that the synthesist was Emily Sprague from the band Florist. While they brought up that Emily had just started working with modular synths in the last year, digging deeper revealed that the video was actually made in her second week.

Beyond the quality of her music, which has only swelled over the last year, what’s fascinating about Emily’s work is how public her process has been. While most whittle away for months, releasing new work only after long incubation, Emily seems to revel in sharing each step of her growth in realtime — a direct response to the trajectory of her own self-education.

If you’re new to modular synthesis, this is the episode for you. If you’re deeply settled, this is the episode for you. Emily has retained a beginner’s mind while leveraging her rich decade-long background as a musician, producer and engineer to create music that is playful and emotional, while remaining technically impressive.

As you’ll notice, there are more music breaks in this episode than previous ones — due to my own fandom and Emily’s generosity, you’re the first to hear the demos that will make up her much-anticipated modular album.

Beyond her talents, Emily is an insightful and passionate addition to the lines community and personally, I hope that her reflections help anyone who feels that their voice is un or under-represented in this field to join the conversation at llllllll.co

Emily Sprague: SOUND + PROCESS #8

Drone set with Serge Resonant EQ via CGS build. Running Harvestman Piston Honda through CGS Serge Resonant EQ. Piston being FM'd via Pokey Module and wavetable modulation by flame clockwork summed CV out. Eventide Space for reverb/delay.

Synthtastic

dawnsk