Very Strange Filter 2

I decided to put this into a case.  I get these boxes at Office Max for about $1.50.  They drill out pretty easily with the Dremel dry wall attachment.  Have all the hardware attached at this point but still need to add the wires.

The top of the box.

This shows the circuit board in the box.  No wires attached yet but all of the components are in place.  This is basically a three part filter.  Probably a bit silly of me to make this without breadboarding it first since I don't really know what it will sound like.

Pendula

Created some sound in Csound based on this video I found on Youtube:


https://soundcloud.com/hmikelson/pendula 






<CsoundSynthesizer>
<CsOptions>
;-RWfo pendula.wav
</CsOptions>
<CsInstruments>
;---------------------------------------------------------
; Pendula
; Inspired by Youtube video of pendulums of various lengths like this one
; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZm_-2O8ovI&list=UUeQEKFH31vvD-InkTGSvCrA 
; Hans Mikelson March 2013
;---------------------------------------------------------
sr = 44100 ; Sample rate
kr = 44100 ; Kontrol rate
ksmps = 1 ; Samples/Kontrol period This must be 1 to make sure to update time appropriately
nchnls = 2 ; Normal stereo
;---------------------------------------------------------
; Pendula
;---------------------------------------------------------
instr 50
idur = p3 ; Duration
iamp = p4  ; Amplitude
il0 = p5  ; Length of pendulum
ib = p6  ; Damping factor for pendulum (smaller damping will ring longer)
ig = p7  ; Gravity
kdclk linseg 0, .005, 1, idur-.01, 1, .005, 0
atime init 0  ; Need to start time at 0
atime = atime + .1  ; Time is incremented each sample
ialpha0 = ib/2/il0 ; Calculate alpha exponential decay factor
aamp0 = 1*exp(-ialpha0*atime) ; Calculate exponetial decay
aout0 = aamp0*cos(sqrt(ig/il0-ib/il0/il0)*atime) ; Calculate the oscillator times amplitude
apan = .5 + aout0/2
outs aout0*iamp*apan*kdclk, aout0*iamp*(1-apan)*kdclk ; Amplify and output
;outs aout0*iamp*sqrt(apan)*kdclk, aout0*iamp*sqrt(1-apan)*kdclk ; Amplify and output
;outs aout0*iamp*kdclk, -aout0*iamp*kdclk ; Amplify and output
endin
</CsInstruments>
<CsScore>
;-------------------------------------------------------------------------
f1 0 65536 10 1
; Pendula
; Sta Dur Amp PendL Damp Gravity
i50 0.0 10 3000  100 0.02 9.81
i50 . . .  90  . .
i50 . . .  80 . .
i50 . . .  70 . .
i50 . . .  60  . .
i50 . . .  50  . .
i50 . . .  40 . .
i50 . . .  30 . .
i50 . . .  20 . .
i50 . . .  10  . .
; Pendula
; Sta Dur Amp PendL Damp Gravity
i50 10.0 10 3000  100 0.02 9.81
i50 . . .  95  . .
i50 . . .  90 . .
i50 . . .  85 . .
i50 . . .  80  . .
i50 . . .  75  . .
i50 . . .  70 . .
i50 . . .  65 . .
i50 . . .  60 . .
i50 . . .  55  . .
; Pendula
; Sta Dur Amp PendL Damp Gravity
i50 20.0 5 3000  200 0.1 9.81
i50 . . .  100  . .
i50 . . .  50 . .
i50 . . .  25 . .
i50 . . .  12  . .
i50 . . .  6  . .
; Pendula
; Sta Dur Amp PendL Damp Gravity
i50 25.0 5 3000  100 0.05 9.81
i50 . . .  90  . .
i50 . . .  81 . .
i50 . . .  73 . .
i50 . . .  66  . .
i50 . . .  59  . .
i50 . . .  53 . .
i50 . . .  48 . .
i50 . . .  43 . .
i50 . . .  39  . .
</CsScore>
</CsoundSynthesizer>

Planar Crystal Live Rig

Demo of the rig.

Planar Crystal Live Rig

My planar Crystal live rig consisting of Waldorf Pulse processed by Lexicon Vortex, Korg MS2000, MPC500 for sampling and sequencing, Thing 2 and Sequencer processed by Kaoss Pad.  Midi clock originates with MPC500 and controls arpeggiator speed on MS2k, Pulse, and KP3. I used Velcro to connect the Vortex to the pulse.

Mini Modular NAND

I have been thinking about the NAND synth and giving it some additional capabilities.  This is my plan for a mini modular based on the 4093 NAND.  Each of the four NAND gates would be made into a separate oscillator.  Each oscillator would have three switches three knobs/pots and three jacks.

Switch 1 On/Gate: Determines if it is on all the time or if it can be controlled by the gate input.
Switch 2 Square/Saw: Switches a capacitor on the Cv input (I need to add this cap to the circuit shown above.)
Switch 3 VCO/LFO: Switches the feed back to a larger capacitor to make it into an LFO.
Knob 1 Pitch
Knob 2 Volume
Knob 3 Modulation amount (pitch)
Jack 1 Gate input
Jack 2 Cv Input
Jack 3 Output

This is the basic schematic for this.  Assume the gate starts in state Hi Lo then the 1n cap charges until it goes Hi at which point the output goes Lo.  The rate of charge and discharge is controlled by the pitch pot or by the transistor depending on the base current.  The LED monitors the output and turns on or off based on the output.  The LFO switches in a larger capacitor so it takes longer to charge.  The wave shape applies a low pass to the input signal.  I may have made some mistakes in this drawing but this is basically how it works.

This basic structure is repeated four times.

Next comes the filter which I described in a previous blog.  This consists of three simple resonant low pass filters and a clipping op amp differentiator.

This one does not have the voltage control transistor in it yet so I am still working on that.  It also shows a QF connection on filter 2 which should be bypassed.  The way this filter works is to have both a resonant low pass (with assymetry switch) and a low pass (Q turned all the way down).  Then subtract the two signals and clip them with the op amp.  This creates a complex waveform (supposedly).  Finally feed the result out through the final filter with resonance.  Need to add an additional input for external signals as well as transistors so I can modulate the cut off frequency.  The filter will from the base of the module.

RS is a rail splitter.

Planar Crystal 020

The planar crystal is a device which can transport someone spatially, temporally, and inter-dimensionally upon touching.  Those who touch it accidentally may wander the multiverse searching for the way home.


Motif ES7 with PLG-150DX (used for Skrillex sounds, Waldorf Pulse, Dune (Plug-in), mixed in Reaper, Kicks from Pulse and Little Phatty, some effects using Lexicon Vortex.  Drums using BFD Eco and MPC500.  Sound effects include home made electronic drones, filter modulated bulldozer samples and glitched effects.  Audio damage Replicant, Michael Norris Drone and glitch plugins.  Final noise sweep is a Thing 1 Noise generator modulated through a Korg EMX1.  Vocals recorded with DP004 digital recorder and modified using Michael Norris FX and Replicant.  Voxengo Elephant used for mastering compression.  EHX Stereo Talking Machine used on arpeggios near the end to give vocal effects.

Planar Crystal

I am currently working on a psytrance piece.  This piece is somewhat inspired by groups like Infected Mushroom, Ott, and Shpongle.  It is still a work in progress and may be so permanently.  I am using the creation of this piece to help me learn Reason better.

(Note: The latest version is above in a more recent post.)

I started by listening to some psytrance songs to get a better feel for the type of music I wanted to create.  I decided Heavyweight by Infected Mushroom was close to the feeling I wanted to create.  I picked up a simple kick snare rhythm from another song and started working on that.  I set up a couple of kick tracks with one set up as a straight 4/4 beat and the other a somewhat more complex rhythm.  I then set up a snare track to complement the kick.

I set up a track for the hhats and combined hhats and snare and sent to an outboard processor (Lexicon Vortex flange delay effect).  It took me a while to figure out the correct configuration that would allow me to send output to the processor and record the input while monitoring it.  I kept generating feedback loops when I would try to monitor the effect.  I ended up having to go through a mixer with a headphone output to listen to it.

I also figured out how to use Reaper's folders so that I could group all of the drums under one master track.  That way I can "collapse" the folders down so they don't take up so much space as well as control the overall drum volume with a single envelope.  That makes this much more powerful for producing music.

I then used Dune to create the introductory bubbly bass synth sound and played a few notes until I found a groove that sounded good.  I used Reaper's MIDI editor to add filter sweeps to the sound.  I went through my collection of samples and tried to find some that would make good sweeps to be used before a transition.  I put a few sweeps at different spots throughout the song.  I also added some background sound effects with a drone generating plug-in.

Next I wanted to get some analog synth in the song so I went to the Motif and figured out how to send the output from the arpeggiator to Reaper to record an arpeggio while listening to the instrument.  I recorded the MIDI sequence into Reaper then used Reaper to play back the sequence to the Waldorf Pulse Plus.  I modulated the sound of the Pulse with the filter knobs while it was playing and recorded the result directly to Reaper.