DRT YRT – First Morning

Video from the making of the DRT YRT album, Sounds From Unknown Animals.

This is a monome 64 running Stretta’s Polygome App. Polygome is triggering a recording of Elliott’s vocal which was “sliced to MIDI” in Ableton Live 8.

This is a take that did not make the album.

You can download the album free here.

Image: stretta

Matthew Davidson has shared a droolworthy set of photos from AHNE 2009.

Matthew Davidson (Stretta) is a blogger and electronic musician that is very active in music new media, posting frequent blog articles and software and gear videos online. He’s also shared a great collection of electronic and ambient music albums at his site.

Trash_Audio has published an interesting interview with Davidson that looks at his studio, his work and his thoughts on the future of synthesis:

There are few reasons for hardware outside of controllers anymore. All new advances in synthesis and sound processing will occur in software.

That said, I haven’t found anything in software that can replicate the experience of working with a hardware modular. I enjoy working with my hands and I find using a modular is, well… fun. The modular keeps me honest; software instruments are outstanding, but it gets to a point where I feel like the result is more of a showcase of a talented sound designer than a unique musical statement that I created.

Software instruments, in an effort to out-sell the competition, are becoming very rich and layered, providing instant music at the touch of a single key. I feel complex sounds such as this, ‘crowd out’ personal musical expression. A simpler sound, powered by human performance and expression will stand the test of time.

I like software and I see useful and innovative ideas from all corners of the industry. I don’t hold a religious attachment to my chosen platform because if you look past the latest wizz-bang-feature-leap-frog game, you’ll understand that, at its core, every offering is an extraordinarily powerful tool. It wasn’t that long ago I was delighted with a cassette four-track. What we have access to today is staggering.

It’s interesting stuff; check out the full interview here.

Davidson’s got a sweet collection of gear. Can anyone pick out the main synths from the photo?

This is a demo, via Stretta, of Volta – a virtual instrument that turns your audio interface into a control voltage interface.

This video, Where Are You?, captures Stretta (Matthew Davidson) playing a French Connection controller against a looping phrase. If you listen carefully to the phrase, the pulses change slightly throughout the composition. 

The French Connection is controlling a small collection of modules including a Cwejman VCO-RM2, MMF1, Plan B model 11 and Doepfer VCA. The left hand joystick is controlling various parameters including the frequency of the slave osc of the VCO which is also frequency modulating one of the filters.

Besides being a lovely piece, this is the most musical use I’ve seen of the very cool French Connection, which offers the discrete phrasing of a keyboard, along with the more vocal phrasing of a continuously pitched controller.

I’ve said a lot of nice things about Matthew Davidson, his music and his awesome blog over the last few months. 

Unfortunately, I may have to take it all back.

His latest video – the Insane Dog Of Truth Remix – just etched itself into my subconscious and will now haunt me as long as I walk this mortal earth. 

This may be more dangerous than video games that make you vomit, scary country music stars or even getting your lyrics immortalized on personal vibrators. 

As you drift off to sleep tonight, remember that this dog could be under your bed….and it’s hungry….for brains!

Matthew Davidson is a musician, sound designer, blogger and graphic designer. 

He’s released a series of free albums of electronic music, including the all Monome Grids and an album of ambient piano works, A Towering Achievement of Indescribable Beauty.

The Hand That Paused to Gather, below, is an ambient piece recorded yesterday morning before Davidson went to work. It features layers of modular synthesizer and underwater Eno piano. 

If you like this piece, make sure you check out his site and also download A Towering Achievement of Indescribable Beauty.

Stretta got his hands on the new Tiptop Audio Z5000, a modular analog CV-friendly DSP effects processor, and says “Go buy one”:

What the world needs is a Eurorack-format DSP with CV control. Along comes the Tiptop Audio Z5000. First of all, it is in stock, you can buy it now. None of this, announce, wait six months, pre pay, wait some more, get aggravated, learn the boards or parts are delayed, etc… This is a real product that you can have in your hot little hands in the time it takes to ship to your door. Kudos for this. Really. Standing ovation

Secondly, it weighs in at under $200. Yes, really. That, my friends, is what I call a reasonably-priced module. Actually, the price is more like, “I don’t have to think about this at all, I’m just going to buy it.”

I spent all of last night playing with it, giggling. Tons of fun. I love putting reverb before the amplifier so the lines you play are smeared, but still gated by the keyboard. A reverb module makes patching far more easy, and opens up creative opportunities you may not have considered before. The Z5000 also includes a handful of other programs like chorus, flanging, but the real focus is on various reverbs

There is nothing about the Z5000 that feels inexpensive. The knobs are nice, the panel graphics and logo have a professional’s eye. Nothing to complain about at all. It feels and works like a solid, professional product, and not some hobbyist side-project. I’m utterly baffled. I hope Tiptop has more products in development, I’m a happy customer.

Stretta’s review is pushing me over the edge – must. get. eurorack. modules.

Read the full review at his site, and let me know if it doesn’t fill you with unbridled modular gear lust.

Now, where can I find a Eurorack case to match a Synthesizers.com cabinet?

Anyone? Anyone?

Stretta, Matthew Davidson, has released a massive sample library download – Total Harmonic Distortion.

Here’s what he has to say about the library:

Fragments of the Total Harmonic Distortion sample library have popped up in various places, like the recent OLPC Sample Library Set. The complete library weighs in at nearly 3GB uncompressed. It is comprised of loops at various tempos created and processed with my modular synthesizer. Other pieces of hardware made guest appearances like the DSI Evolver, Roland R8 and Waldorf Microwave IIxt, but the bulk of it is the modular.

This stuff isn’t doing anyone any good sitting on my hard drive. I’d like to make it available to the public. I intended to release this via a creative commons license for some time, but the problem is distribution. It seemed rather excessive to dump on archive.org. Torrenting is ideal, but who is going to seed it? Recently, the final piece of the puzzle slipped into place: legaltorrents.com – a community created to distribute Creative Commons licensed media. Download the torrent here. Much thanks to legaltorrents.com and Jonathan Dugan, Ph.D.

Total Harmonic Distortion is released using a Creative Commons Attribution license – meaning the samples are free to use in your work, but you should give Stretta a credit if you use them.