Sound Experiments 7 (2020)

 

More sound and light twiddling crumbs.

Sound Experiments 6 (2020)

For this segment of the series, iphone apps are used to generate some noise.  The apps used were bent.fm, Moog Filtatron, Moog Model D and Synthmaster One.  The Magic program was used to generate some audio activated effects.  Listen up.

.  Also used the Magic program to get some sound activated graphic response.

SOUND EXPERIMENTS 10 (2021)

 It has been a couple of years of neglect toward this blog again but I will try to resume some semblance of normal activity.  I am sharing the 10th version of "Sound Experiments".  The 6, 7, 8 and 9 will be uploaded soon.  

In this episode, I look at and play some of my musical devices including Bleep Labs' Pico Paso pocket noise synth, the Realistic Electronic Reverb unit made way back in the day, the PAIA Gnome Analog Synth box, and the Yamaha RY9 "Big Jam" and its guitar synthesizer emulation. The Electronic Reverb and the Big Jam were recently sold through ebay. I hope that these effects are heavily utilized and get a proper second life!

Thanks!

Sound Experiments 4 (2019) - Overindulgence is kept to a minimum. I promise.

Riffs, fragments and noise.  A collection of old and new instruments and FX pedals are tried out and aurally regurgitated. You will hear a Mellotron tone recreated on a guitar through the Electro Harmonix Mel 9 pedal, the Dave Smith Adrenalinn pedal makes an appearance, Suzuki's Omnichord is put into play. You Rock's MIDI guitar checks in too. Som many great effects and instruments are out there.

Realistic/Radio Shack Electronic Wind Chimes (2019)

This was certainly an oddity!!  Wind chimes constructed of plastic equipped with a contact sensor that would enable the onboard "chime" sounds.  All powered by six AA batteries.  Well, the chimes are more an electronic approximation of acoustic wind chimes and their timbre doesn't alter much so I don't think this item ever really took off and replaced the real thing.  Not the most attractive appearance either and it is a bit unwieldy, weight wise.  Realistic/Radio Shack marketed this product but I have not been able to pinpoint exactly when or for how long.  Nice try.

TEENAGE ENGINEERING PO-16 MELODY MICRO SYNTHESIZER

This little puppy is cool!  Barely bigger than a credit card and a couple of sizes thicker, this micro synthesizer is a brilliant musical idea generator.  The melody micro synthesizer is one module in Teenage Engineering's new line of sub $100.00, easily transportable music making devices.  There are also bass synth and rhythm generating modules.  Interesting cardboard packaging for the PO-16 which has a removable strip (like a box of granola bars!) that comes off to reveal some basic instructions printed on the insides of the packaging that reflect the simplicity and intuitive nature of using this device.  Plenty of cool sounds and effects to choose from and a pattern recorder that will allow you to quickly generate and play back ideas.  On board speaker and headphone jack included.  I'm taking it with me on vacation!

YOUROCK MIDI CONTROLLER GUITAR

Here is a Yourock guitar acting as a midi controller for the Akai Miniak synthesizer.  The note tracking is very accurate and the ability to play polyphonic chords is awesome!  The Yourock guitar can be had for $250.00 on Amazon.  Controlling midi equipped devices is the Yourock's strength.  It also has its own built in instrument sounds but they are limited and rudimentary.  I do like the 12 string guitar simulation though!  A very cool product.

R.I.P. Richard Wright

Go listen to the live disc that was part of Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma" release. Richard Wright provided the keyboards to "Astronomy Domine" and "Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun". In a few words, haunting, otherwordly, hypnotic. Good music to travel by in the wee hours. Or put some headphones on and slip into your isolation tank. Space music for you to expand by. Another fave of mine is the work Wright contributed to the Floyd disc, "Animals". His axes included vocoder, organ, synthesizers. Beautiful, fluid work. Displayed nice chops when he accompanied David Gilmour on his recent "solo" tour. I didn't see the live show but caught a tour video. Turns out Wright sang the early, warped Floyd single "Arnold Layne". He did it again for the Gilmour tour. Hard to believe 40 years passed by at all. Surely, a virtuoso of the colorful, economic, tasteful, flourish and fill. Wish he had been heard from more.

Pop Mediocrity Knows No Height It Can't Scale

Natasha Bedingfield sings of a "Pocketful of Sunshine" in her bland pop tune. Truth to tell, it will be a "pocketful of gold" more likely judging from the overwhelming popularity and response to the ditty. Fool's Gold.

The Muson Was Once Mine!

I bought a Muson, a child's battery operated musical instrument, when it was available in toy stores back in the late '70's. I was in high school and part of an embryonic rock band formed with my buddies. We played basic three chord rock songs and loved the rock format but at least two of us in the outfit admired strange, esoteric noise and the then popular style of Progressive Rock. We would have loved to have added an electric organ or keyboard to our sonic arsenal but couldn't possibly afford them.

Seeking a cheap synth substitute, I plunked down the money (a few lawns mowed later) and picked up the Muson Electronic Synthesizer. The Muson was a plastic orange-cased monstrosity with brightly colored pegs which attached in slots situated above the modest keyboard. The Muson sported its own speaker onboard. The tone the keys emitted when pressed was nothing more that a wailing siren. Quite annoying, in fact, and not particularly endearing or interesting.

It was the built in "sequencer" function which grabbed my attention. By selecting this feature, a series of notes could be picked and played back repeatedly. The colored pegs each represented a musical note. The order in which the pegs were seated could be changed thus providing a different combination of notes. The speed at which the sequencer combed the notes could also be sped up or slowed down. Instant "Baba O'Rielly"-like synth passages! Well, not quite. We spiced up the tonal range of the Muson by processing its output with guitar effects pedals. A little Electro Harmonix Micro Synth and some echo and reverb and you'd swear the UFO's were hovering over your rooftop! A lot of these Muson jams were recorded with a cassette deck propped close to an amplifier (the early days of lo-fi). Haven't come across any recently but I suspect they cozied up to used baby diapers in the local landfill some time ago.

The finest moment the Muson ever had was when I used it to audition for the high school's special "Gong Show" competition. I can't remember why my pals and I didn't bring our own equipment to play at the tryout (probably unrehearsed) but we worked out a deal with one of the organizers that if he liked the sample song I was going to play on the keyboard well enough, we would be permitted to be entered in the contest as a band. The other kids in bands who lugged all their gear to the tryouts didn't think much of this ploy but they all gathered round to hear this primitive approach. I played "Uncontrollable Urge" by Devo and made it about half way through the tune and then assured everyone that the rest of the song would go pretty much like what they had just heard. A swag all the way! Well, we got in as an act and we ended up changing our minds as to the material we would cover ("Mongoloid" by Devo, it was!). I think we finished in fifth place or something. We didn't use the Muson for the song. We decided to just go with a guitar/bass/drum augmentation.

The Muson stayed with me through the years. I used it to provide backing for crude music demos mainly. My dad even placed a 1/4" output jack on it so that I could play through an amp.

My enthusiasm for demo making subsided for a few years, but when it returned, I dug out the old toy and put it to use. The only problem was that I had left batteries inside the stored away toy and the batteries had leaked and corroded the contacts. The Muson played no more. I just recently tossed the thing into the trash. I still have the instruction manual/songbook, though, and hopefully a stray recordings of the Muson somewhere.