![You suck at protoshop. No, you [i]really[/i] oo.](http://blog.gg8.se/images/you-suck-at-photoshop-you-really-do-your-awful.png)
Originality Award Monthly November: burnkit2600
December 11th, 2008The November winner of Nonfinite’s Originality Award Monthly is Burnkit2600 for their album This Is The Sound. Burnkit2600 are also avid circuit benders. For example, me and Veqtor are planning to bend our Alesis HR-16 after seeing his HR-16 info page.
Congratulations to a well deserved prize!
ModularDuino - An Arduino Based Modular Synthesizer Concept
December 9th, 2008
General Description
The idea of using my Arduino for modular synth utilities started out as a crazy idea that I’m now starting to seriously like. The pictures above shows my first design, an oscillator. (I have plans for other modules, see the bottom of this post)
The left picture shows the first prototype where I tried to use PCM to produce the sound. That didn’t sound too good, so I built an 8-bit resistor ladder passive DAC. But I only hade enough of one resistor value, so I used only that value. This gives a non-linear output voltage response. (Distorsion) Additionally I’m only using 6 of the possible 8 bits, further degrading the sound quality. The input voltage response does not conform to any standard (Eg 1V/octave) but has a inversely proportional relationship (f(V)=c*1/V, where V is the voltage, c is some constant and f is the resulting frequency) This relationship is not completely unlike how a Gameboy responds to sound values that you write to it’s sound controller. However, surprisingly enough, it seemed almost impossible to hit musically dissonant intervals, so it seems like I did something right.
I could fix these things, but considering how much I like the itty-gritty lo-fi sound, I doubt that I will.
So, me and Veqtor hung out in Studio 6 at EMS, playing around with the Serge interacting with the Arduino. The result is the following sounds:
Sound Samples
Clean/Filtered side by side
This is a short sample to demonstrate what the Arduinoscillator could sound like in a typical modular setup.
Right channel: Clean
Left channel: Filtered by the Serge multimode filter, in LP mode, using an envelope. Various parameters are controlled by the Serge sequencer, and the seuencer is triggered randomly.
Arduinoscillator Glitch Mode
This sample demonstrates how the Arduinoscillator sounds when modulated by the Serge precision VCO, itself and the 50 Hz ground loop that it picked up from my finger. (Hehe)
It gives a pretty good idea of the waveform that this thing outputs.
Funky Arduino Acid
This is the result of my and Veqtor’s session at EMS, where we built a patch that controls the Arduinoscillator with the Serge analogue sequencer, a bit of Serge filter on that, some Serge generated drums. You get the idea.
Even though the oscillator waveform is a sine, it has some pretty smooth digital overtones, that together with the frequency response is perfect for funky acid, as this sample demonstrates.
Future ModularDuino plans
ModularDuino is so far just a concept, more than a truly useful product. The Arduino with it’s accessible design and relatively affordable price, has the potential of becoming a cheap lo-fi component for modular synthesizer users. Some people think that lo-fi sound and digital artefacts is only something bad. Whereas I think it has a place and can be really useful for producing certain sounds.
Anyway, here’s the roadmap for the project.
- Implement real 1 V/Octave frequency response for the Arduinoscillator. (Or keep it this way, hehe)
- Implement φM (Phase angle modulation. When most people FM, they means this) This can be done, but probably requires me to learn more about the Atmega168 controller on the Arduino and write some assembly code. Bricks will be shat.
- More waveforms can be added relatively easily.
- I’m also planning a delay module. The Arduino has the potential to store a buffer of about a second in RAM, which could be used to create a lo-fi 8-bit delay comparable to BBD delays.
- It’s pretty possible to make waveshapers or distorsion units with a characteristic digital sound.
- Envelopes, LFOs and perhaps sequencers with extended possibilities, editable code and a lo-fi touch.
- This is just a little dream of mine, but I would guess it’s not completely impossible to create a filter using the arduino. The most CPU intense part of most filter algorhithms is usually the resonance, so my idea is to solve that with an external feedback loop, while the Arduino emulates a 1-pole filter.
The last module might not be worth it, but the others can be achieved pretty easily, so check back regularly. I’m planning to release the code and schematics under a Creative Commons license at some point, but right now the code is a mess and the schematics only exist as prototypes on a breadboard, so bear with me.
I’d Also like to give a shout out to the crazy Aussie Sebastian Tomczak who’s a Gameboy fetishist and Arduino wiz. A little bird whispered in my ear that he’s planning yet another audio-related Arduino project. I’ll be waiting eagerly. 
48 kHz and the number 168
December 7th, 2008Weird things… I don’t want to believe in things like the law of attraction but sometimes I’m starting to doubt. Like with number the number 168. I released an album on the now defunct Project168 (Go here instead) and I thought it was a cool number for some reason. And sure enough, I started noticing it “everywhere” like on car plates and other random places, but I thought that was just because I knew about it and actively thought about it. That was until I discovered that I was born on the 168th day of the year.
And then 48 kHz. I started using 48 kHz locally on my computer because my craptop laptop soundcard is designed for that frequency and thus produces less artefacts that way. So far so good, when suddenly during the last two days, several sound files not produced on my computer (And thus unaffected by my own sample rate policy) turned out to have that sample rate instead of the more standard 44.1 kHz or 96 kHz. And then the Blipfest live stream.
I still don’t seriously believe in that stuff, although it does tell you something about the human mind and its capability to imagine stuff and see what it want to see.
</weird rant>
Blip Festival advertising on 4chan
December 2nd, 2008
I just noticed this. Maybe this is old news, after all I haven’t visited f4ilchan in like OVER 9000 years. I heard moot broke up with AdBrite which would explain why they’ve accepted Blipfest as an ad publisher. I don’t mind, it helps spread the chip luv.
Blipfest general info:
Archaic game and home computer hardware is recast into the unlikely role of musical instrument and motion graphics workstation in the BLIP FESTIVAL 2008, a four-day event showcasing nearly 40 musicians and visual artists occupying the international low-res cutting edge. The Blip Festival takes place DECEMBER 4—7, 2008 at The Bell House, and is presented by Manhattan art organization THE TANK and NYC artist collective 8BITPEOPLES.
You can’t spell dinoaids without aids
December 1st, 2008You can’t spell dinoaids without aids, and that’s kind of the point.
( v v v clickie clickie! v v v )
Download: Quarta330, live at Back To Chill, Tokyo
November 22nd, 2008
Whether you honoured the nihilistic ritual No Music Day or not, you should check out this liveset by Japan’s Gameboy Dub warrior number one. He’s a genius, not only in composition, but sound design. He manages to get a sound that’s sooo crisp, yet so smooth.
The rest of the stuff on that page is pretty good too. It’s mostly livesets/dj mixes of tasteful electronic music like dubstep and other styles.
24 Watt Bicycle LED Light
November 13th, 2008I stumbled upon this link earlier today. Probably the strongest bicycle lights I’ve ever seen. It’s a 24 Watt lamp, but the twist is that it’s made with ultra bright LEDs. If you’ve used one of these, I bet you won’t go back to the old piss poor standard bicycle lamps. If I were to start riding a bike in the woods, I’d probably build one of these.
Not only is it useful, but the images are pretty neat. It gives the Finnish woods a pretty eerie feeling. (Scroll down to the bottom of the source page for more)
Source: 24-wattinen led-valaisin (Finnish)
Google Translation
10% discount on Gameboy gear from Nonfinite Electronics
November 11th, 2008
Nonfinite Electronics recently teamed up with CrunchyCo, an independent group of inspired individuals who are into lo-fi music and arts. To celebrate this, Nonfinite is offering a 10% discount on all of his products. (He has everything from Prosounded backlit Gameboys to Gameboy flash cartridges in his shop.)
But hurry, the discount is only valid for two weeks from now! The coupon code for the discount is available at www.crunchyco.com.
Veqtor: Analogue vs Digital
November 8th, 2008
My friend Veqtor is building a modular synth, but so far he’s only got two modules, a Doepfer A-143-2 Quad Envelope and a passive ring modulator. (That I helped build) No fun? Wrong!
Listen to the sound clip in his blog post!
The envelope can be turned into an LFO by using feedback where a step in the envelope retriggers the the envelope. (Ie, “when reaching sustain, retrig”) The resulting waveform varies between triangle and sawtooth, depending on the attack and decay.
And as can be seen, the ring modulator has, not only the usual X, Y, Z, but each of them has a + and - port, totalling 6 in/outputs. This was my idea, and it works like this: When only one of the +/- ports of one group is connected, it works like a regular ringmod. When both a + and - are connected, the signal pins of the respective signal pins of those inputs are connected to the respective poles on the ring modulator. Or to put it another way, the - input is connected to where Ground would normally be connected. This is ok since the transformers make each group (X, Y, Z) electrivally isolated.
The result is that the - input is subtracted from the + input. For example, it’s interesting to route a signal with an effect on + and the same signal dry on -. (Filters and phase effects work the best) As for the output, you can, eg, connect Z+ as an output (As usual) and connect Z- as an input. We haven’t tried this yet, but I’m sure it will sound interesting…
As for Veqtor’s blog post, he goes on to discuss the difference between analogue and digital synthesis, and where each one. An analogue synth has a certain quality to it (In the neutral sense of the word) which is hard to emulate, whereas audio can be processed digitally in ways that analogue synths and effects can’t do it.
When creating the clip in the blog post, he was using, among other digital effects, PSP Nitro. I will hereby take the opportunity to say that I’ve always thought the name of this plug is a bit ironic, since PSP=Playstation Portable and Nitro is the code name that was used for Nintendo DS. Yeah, I know. That’s a very obscure thing to notice, but I had a little laugh about it when I first saw it. Of course it’s completely unintentional from their side.
Gakken SX-150 DIY synthesizer now for sale internationally!
November 7th, 2008
SX-150 button mod from Collin Cunningham on Vimeo.
Remember the this? Gakken SX-150 is a DYI synth that came with the Japanese magazine Otona no Kagaku. Guess they noticed the international demand. It’s now for sale on from MakerShed.
Cheers γGoblin for notifying me!
