Desperately trying to finish some new electronics before other tasks consume my attention… the latest module for my DIY synthesizer is something like a clone of the recently released Makenoise Maths, which is itself a riff on the Serge Dual Universal Slope Generator. I actually imagine it much more as a kind of analog computer to tell the truth.

It packs two Serge Voltage Controlled Slope Generators, a pair of bipolar “Attenuverters” with positive/negative offset and a series of “analog logic” functions behind a single panel.

In other words, it can create two different waveforms at low or audio rate, with voltage-controllable upwards and downwards slopes, and can perform a number of mathematical functions close to the original Serge “peak” and “trough” functions on these slopes. And yes, it can go into cycle mode by itself, to give me a basic LFO or VCO function.

First basic tests indicate it’s quite a monster! I tend to use one VCS to trigger the other, then cross-modulate the Exponential CV inputs through the Attenuverter, and use one of the Analog Logic outputs to drive a VCO. Instant chaos. It’s incredible to compare the very different flavors coming from the AND, NAND, OR or NOR outputs from the same two input voltages. This module and one or two VCOs would make a very complex little synth all by themselves.

A quick and dirty example of the above patch:

Voltage Controlled Slopes + Analog Logic test by macumbista

NAND drives one VCO, OR drives one LFO. LFO patched back to left-hand VCS “both” input, also to VCO FM, some other cross-modulations as well. Here’s a photo of the patch:

INPUTS VCS (x 2)

Rise CV / Fall CV / Both CV / Exp CV / Signal Input / Trigger Input

MANUAL CONTROLS VCS (x2)

Rise Time / Fall Time / Rise CV / Fall CV / Linear-Exponential mode switch

OUTPUTS VCS (x 2)

End of Cycle Output / DC Output

INPUTS ATTENUVERTER (x2)

DC Input

MANUAL CONTROLS ATTENUVERTER (x2)

Positive-Negative Gain / Positive-Negative Offset

OUTPUTS ATTENUVERTER (x2)

DC Out / Also linked to ANALOG LOGIC inputs

OUTPUTS ANALOG LOGIC

AND “tough” (lowest of two voltages) / NAND inverted “tough” / OR “peak” (highest of two voltages) / NOR inverted “peak” / Sum of two voltages / Inverted Sum of two voltages

The module was created using PCBs from Ken Stone/CGS synths. I love Ken’s boards to death. I used:

2 x CGS75 Voltage Controlled Slope

1 x CGS26 Analog Logic

3 x CGS04 DC Mixer

There’s really not much out there that can’t be self-built with them, if you’re clever with how you put them behind the panel. I’ll be putting a bunch of CMOS digital logic boards on order soon, and putting together a modular synthesizer super-computer in the spring! Hell, one could almost clone an original Serge with them.

Me, I’m not interested in “cloning” anything, thus the hand-stamped letters and general rough feel. Took some fiddling to get it running properly, but now that it does it’s fantastic.

I had a chance to play with a huge Serge system at CEM in Rotterdam a few months ago, and my main area of inquiry were the Dual Slope Generators there. Made some incredible feedback/chaotic synthesis stuff possible. Maybe I’ll find some audio examples from that session and post them later. Until then…

I moved the following tracks over to my Soundcloud account this morning. These four are ones that I’m particularly interested in, as they (mostly) combine electronics and field recordings. Gongs and bells as well, although I never realized I was so obsessed with them before! I’ll try to get some takes from the new DIY synth up soon. Until then, enjoy…

Derek Holzer-Untitled [boiler room] by macumbista

Multichannel recording of furnace in Karosta, Latvia (January 2003), processed shortwave radio in Mooste, Estonia (September 2004). Released as part of Untitled Songs: 49 Years from Gesang der Jünglinge 2005-1956 2xCD compilation by Sirr.ecords in 2005.

Derek holzer-metallophone drift by macumbista

Burmese gongs, ice field recording, mixer feedback. Recorded 30 July 2005, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Released as part of the Connected Dots.Connected Ideas compilation CD on the Frozen Elephants Music label, 2007.

Macumbista-hollow space capacitance discharge by macumbista

Japanese temple bell belonging to Jeroen Beets recorded 19 December 2006 @ STEIM, Amsterdam. Analog synthesizer recorded 2006-7, Berlin. Mixed 11-14 November 2007 @ RSS82, Berlin. Released as part of the {Autumn Soundscapes} collection on the Madorla netlabel, 2008.

Derek holzer-matrix events(skinned teeth) by macumbista

Self-made 8×8 matrix mixer, Cwejman/Analogue Systems/Doepfer oscillators, digital delay, joystick control voltage, mixer feedback. Recorded with a case of mild food poisoning (thus the “skinned teeth” feeling) January 25th, 2009. Unreleased.

Now Playing

bj nilsen–the invisible city[2010 touch](thx benny!!!!)
elias canetti–auto da fe[1935 book]

Slowly recovering from two and a half weeks on the road! Played four gigs in three different countries, did several workshops and started my fellowship at KHM in Cologne… Video docs from the Cologne and Moers gigs are ready, and I have some great clips of the Bulgarian TONEWHEELS workshop+presentation waiting to get edited, I will post them soon. Enjoy…

TINY NOISE COLOGNE/TINY NOISE CAMP MOERS
15/17 NOVEMBER 2009
Feat.
Tina Tonagel [de]
Saal5 [de]
Derek Holzer [usa/de]
RaumZeitPiraten [de]
RYBn [fr]
FrlLinientreu [de]
Robert Kondorosi [de]
Justice Yeldham [au]
EOSIN [pt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BK5EQO_8pE

The only true wisdom lives far from mankind, out in the great loneliness, and it can be reached only through suffering. Privation and suffering alone can open the mind of a man to all that is hidden to others.

—Inuit shaman Najagneq, recorded by Knut Rasmussen

If you want to build a modular, my advice is not to do it if you want to have any friends, it takes too much time.

—Jessica Rylan

(click photos to make them BIGGER)

My new DIY synthesizer project is getting better and better. Right after I got my residence permit I realized I had almost a month in Berlin without having to get on a plane, train, bus or boat, so I decided to maximize that time by going deep into the modular cave. The Great Loneliness indeed–but with incredible revelations! This is the realization of a dream I’ve had for ten years now, so forgive me if I geek out for a moment…

The modules I’ve built, from top left to right:

TOP ROW
Two Dual Thomas Henry XR-2206 Voltage Controlled Oscillators (Bugbrand PCB layouts, self-etched)
4×4 Bipolar DC Matrix Mixer (Ken Stone CGS 33 & CGS 04 PCBs)
Blank Panel (singlewide)

MIDDLE ROW
Super-Psycho Modulation Source (Ken Stone CGS 21)
Wave Multiplier (Ken Stone CGS 29)
Blank panel for another Dual Thomas Henry XR-2206 VCO (will complete tonight!)
Blank panel (doublewide)
Two channel DC Mixer (three inputs per channel, large jack outputs)(more CGS 04 PCBs)

BOTTOM ROW
Dual Synthacon Voltage Controlled Filters (Marc Bareille PCBs)
Dual Polyvoks Voltage Controlled Filters (Marc Bareille PCBs)
Blank Panel (doublewide)
Blank Panel (singlewide)
Breadboard Prototyping area (= doublewide blank panel)

Besides most of the PCBs, I’m really committed to making every part of this thing with my own hands. Some people in the synth DIY scene send their front panels out to get professionally etched and anodized. I’m not really concerned with having the “professional look”, partly for financial reasons, and partly because it’s really important to be able to rapidly prototype things, get them in the case and make some fucking noise. The fact that it looks handmade separates it from all that store bought crap that people don’t have any clue what goes on inside of anyways.

With that in mind, I found a great “finish” for the metal by using an orbital hand-sander and 100-grit paper. Very Neanderthal, just the way I like it! The top row modules all have this finish. I’ve got some metal-stamps on order for the panel lettering, and then I’ll probably clear-coat each panel to keep the finger-grease out.

Speaking of noise, sounds soon, maybe on the weekend.

Now Playing (…besides the synth that is…)

baroness–blue record[2009 relapse]
coalesce–ox[2009 relapse]
converge–axe to fall[2009 epitaph]
eagle twin–the unkindness of crows[2009 southern lord]
helmut schäfer & zbigniew karkowski–eminent risk factor[2008 ALKU 65]
light–life is meaningless & goes on forever[2009 self released]
pelican–what we all come to need[2009 southern lord]
prurient–rose pillar 11″[2009 heartworm]

Just back from Romania…six 5 hour walks in Carpathian forests, several solar/laser noise experiments, avalanches of grilled meat and (unfortunately) about 151,200 sampled kick drum beats later. Yes, that’s four-to-the-floor kicks at 120 bpm for 12 hours a day the whole week long…

Put another way, the Sound Camp was alright, although I wasn’t too sure most of the people there were interested in anything other than the same trendy club music playing on hipsters’ iPhones & MacBooks all across Europe. I did find a couple guys there interested in some electronic experimentation–including Sergiu Doroftei, who took my laser sound transmitter as a cue to build his own light-to-sound converter, and Paul Popescu, who constructed a “Ruben’s Tube” of sound-modulated propane gas flames! And Bucharest physician/Star Dome architect Florin Dobrescu turned out to be exactly the kind of space-case visionary that I love to have good long rant with.

I also had some interesting conversations with Le Placard’s Eric Minkkinen about the ethics of cracked software, recycling ancient Macintosh computers from the Paris dumpsters and the potential role of “taste making” groups like our hosts Rokolectiv or Belgrade’s Dispatch Festival in getting their respective scenes out of the music-genre-ghettos they may have fallen into (minimal house, glitch idm, yadda yadda yadda) and exposing them to something more challenging. But then a few more carloads of people in Bucharest got wind of the “party in the mountains”, and suddenly it felt like a mini-Ibiza.

24 hour party people forgiven, I definitely want to thank Cosmin Tapu and Mihaela Vasile for their hard work pulling the Sound Camp together and wish them lots of good luck with their next festival in 2010.

Some Synth-pr0n

While the Romanians were busy reliving their 90’s techno childhoods, I got around to editing some videos from earlier this year. Here’s the first one: