A buzzing and chirping organic contraption.

Insectoid Machinery

Ribosome

A little battery-powered elegy.
Sounds: littlebits.
Recording: TE OP-1.

Art Et Facts

Sewing machines dancing day and night. 

A musical sign after being sick for a while: BEMI Music Easel improvisations recorded live onto Boss RC-505 Looper.

Deux Miniatures

Live-Improvisation auf Buchla 200e mit Eventide Space und Elektron Octatrack als Looper anlässlich des diesjährigen "Happy Knobbing", dem alljährlichen Treffen der Liebhaber modularer Synthesizer.

Live improvisation on Buchla 200e with Eventide Space and Elektron Octatrack as looper, recorded at this year's "Happy Knobbing", the yearly gathering of modular synthesizer enthusiasts.

Live @ Happy Knobbing 2015

Make yourself comfortable and enjoy this little walk thru a fairytale forrest.

For the technically inclined: An improvisation on a Clavia Nord Lead A1.

Märchenwald

PLEASE NOTE

(a) Please listen with headphones! This music contains psychoacoustic effects that require headphone usage. More details below.

(b) This piece exists in 2 versions, this one was recorded directly from the mixer, the other one was recorded with microphones. You'll find the link to the other version at the end of the description.

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?
I performed this live at the Happy Knobbing 2016 in quadrophonic surround, i.e. with a loudspeaker in every one of the four corners of the room. The idea behind this improvisation was to rotate not only sound sources around the listener, but also have specific properties of the sound rotate as well, independently of the sound source positions. If this sounds as crazy as it reads, I succeeded.

The problem is how to re-create an immersive four channel listening experience using only the two channels stereo offers. So this version of the piece was recorded directly from the four mixer outputs, then mixed to stereo using "binaural" plug-ins in a DAW, which try to re-create the surround listening experience, but only when listening via headphones. This technology is based on re-creating the tiny acoustic distortions occuring when soundwaves hit your head and ears, and your brain uses these distortions as cues to better identify where a sound comes from. Alas, the results depend on how close your own head and ears resemble the digital model of the idealized head used to create these distortions, so for some of you the effect will be barely perceivable, while others will get the spin.

In any case, I hope you enjoy the ride!

LINK TO DUMMY HEAD VERSION
There is another way to re-create a surround listening experience in stereo using headphones: the dummy head, a special microphone enclosure. As it is a microphone recording, you will hear background noises, and as the mics are not state-of-the-art, you might miss some treble and bass. But the immersive surround experience of a dummy head recording can be more pronounced and quite different than the one created with binaural plug-ins. Give it a listen here:
http://soundcloud.com/wolfgangschaltung/chairoplane-live-dummy-head

Chairoplane (live, binaural)

PLEASE NOTE

(a) Please listen with headphones! This music contains psychoacoustic effects that require headphone usage. More details below.

(b) This piece exists in 2 versions, this one was recorded via microphones, the other one was recorded directly from the mixer. You'll find the link to the other version at the end of the description. 

WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?
I performed this piece live at the Happy Knobbing 2016 in quadrophonic surround, i.e. with a loudspeaker in every one of the four corners of the room. The idea behind this improvisation was to rotate not only sound sources around the listener, but also have specific properties of the sound rotate as well, independently of the sound source positions. If this sounds as crazy as it reads, I succeeded.

The problem is: How to re-create an immersive four channel listening experience using only the two channels stereo offers? To accomplish this, this version of the piece was recorded using a so-called dummy head, a generalized model of a head with microphones instead of eardrums. This way of placing the microphone inside a head re-creates the tiny acoustic distortions occuring when soundwaves hit your head and ears, which your brain uses as cues to better identify where a sound comes from. Alas, the results depend on how close your own head and ears resemble the dummy head, so for some of you the effect will be barely perceivable, while others will get the spin.

In any case, I hope you enjoy the ride!

LINK TO BINAURAL VERSION
Beside the music, the dummy head microphones capture all other sounds, like audience reaction. And as dummy head recordings fell out of fashion within the general audio industry, the microphones used in the dummy head are a bit old, so the recording will lack some treble and bass. The version the link below points to will give you a better sound and no background noises, but as it has been recorded from the mixer outputs, I had to re-create the dummy-head-distortions using computer plug-ins, which give a very different spatial experience than the dummy head.   
http://soundcloud.com/wolfgangschaltung/chairoplane-live-binaural

CREDITS
I am very thankful to my friend weinglas, who provided the dummy head and the recording. If you want some great sonic adventures, make sure to check out his pieces here:
https://soundcloud.com/weinglas

Chairoplane (live, Dummy Head)

It was a sunny day and a nice journey to Frankfurt to play at Xerox Exotique's "ModulaireMondaine" together with other artists, so I have no explanation why I had to play such dark, moody music. Hope you enjoy it nevertheless.

It was my first live improvisation on a Eurorack synthesizer, with most of the sounds being articulated via a vintage Breath Controller, for which a colleague kindly built a Eurorack module prototype.

Live @ Xerox Exotique "ModulaireMondaine" 2017

A yellow sky, dusty winds blow over red soil.

Multitracked small Serge Modular thru Lexicon PCM-80.

Martian desert

Short demonstration of some of the Roland Jupiter-8 sonic capabilities.

Jupiter First

A short glimpse of a peaceful summer afternoon.

Yamaha CS01 MkII meets monome norns.

Norn's Garden

Live-Improvisation an einer Buchla 200e Electronic Music Box am 22. September 2018 im Häuslingshaus zu Langwedel. Leider nur Mono, aber der Herbst ist trotzdem gut hörbar.

Live improvisation on a Buchla 200e Electronic Music Box on September 22, 2018, at the Häuslingshaus in Langwedel, Lower Saxony. Mono only, but you can feel the autumnal vibe nevertheless.

Live @ Langwedel 2018

Ein zäh fließendes Kühlmittel gegen die hochsommerlichen Temperaturen: Live-Improvisation an einer Buchla 200e Electronic Music Box am 10. August 2019 auf der 15. EA Party in Lathwehren.

A slow-moving coolant against the beautiful summer mood outside: Live improvisation on a Buchla 200e Electronic Music Box on August 10, 2019, at the 15th EA Party in Lathwehren near Hannover, Germany.

Live @ EA Party 2019

Nur für den Fall, dass Sie sich fragen, wie meine Stimme klingt.
Just in case you ever wonder what my voice sounds like.

wolfgangschaltung

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