View current page
9 matchs for vermona:
"Mouse Party 2" [mp3 removed]
Back to the sampler--these are sampled drum hits from the Vermona rhythm synth, using the "kit" made last summer. Tried a couple of new things: making midi controller curves change the snare's pitch and tuning a "chime" (itself a chord) so it could be played like a piano (the melody's pretty basic). A few effects added here and there. Most of the rhythmic interest comes from the "claps."
Update: Discovered this was clipping slightly. Fixed that, and fattened up the sound a bit.
"Two Note Lead" [mp3 removed]
An exercise in musical minimalism using the Electribe RmkII, an instrument I've been neglecting as I learned my way around the Vermona analog drum machine. The Electribe, being an analog-modeling digital synth, has a more brittle, metallic sound, but that's not without its pleasures. I only used the machine's onboard sequencer for the "break" or second theme in the middle--everything else was performed in my computer's host sequencer, which plays the Electribe via MIDI. The played and internally sequenced parts were then sampled and overlayed inside the host; you can hear some phasing and detuning when two like parts are played simultaneously and crossfaded. The most time was spent on changing the settings of the Electribe's rhythm synthesizer voices, away from some fairly awful presets. The resulting piece has an "Assault on Precinct 13" feel--if I can be so presumptuous--but clangy and jangly (and more upbeat than the Carpenter).
Update: snipped out four bars in the middle.
Below are three songs that I'm reposting because all were changed--fleshed out or tightened up--since I first put them up. I'm also listing the software and gear I used, to be ultimately self-indulgent. All were produced in Cubase SE.
"Un-tribal" [mp3 removed] Kontakt 2, Battery, Reaktor Subharmonic, self-sampled Vermona DRM MKII drum machine, Spektral Delay (malfunctioning), LinPlug Alpha
"Anthropos Essentia" [4.8 MB .mp3] Absynth, Spektral Delay, Kontakt 2, DRM MKII, Battery
"Hiphop Snares" [mp3 removed] Miscellaneous drum loops, Waves Enigma, Reaktor Carbon 2, FM7
"Suite 6 (Almost Live)" [mp3 removed]. An older tune I had adapted for a live playing situation when I did my lecture/performance on May 19. It's "rougher" in that the Sidstation gets glitchy when you change patches and turn knobs aggressively. In doing a studio version of the live version (of the studio version) I did some overdubbing, but it still has more of a live feel of egotistical musicians stepping on each other.
An important factoid omitted from my talk (because I just learned it)--the company that makes the drum machine (Vermona/HDB) used to be the state synthesizer company of the former East Germany.
"artMoving" [mp3 removed]
This song was written last week and performed at my lecture/recital/video screening on May 19, at artMovingProjects in Williamsburg. The instruments are the Sidstation synthesizer and the Vermona analog drum machine, with sequencing in Cubase on my laptop. In a live play situation, some of the settings (Sid patches, individual drum decay and volume) were changed as the song ran--for this .mp3 I recorded it in two overdubbed takes, one for the drums and one for the synth.
"Drum Machine": Notes for my lecture/performance tonight, Friday, May 19, 8:00 pm, at artMovingProjects, Williamsburg
In the '80s the Roland TR-808 and TB-303, failed drum machine and bass genie, were scarfed up cheap by kids and "acid house" was born.
"People's music" - affordable tech for credible psychedelic party - Dionysian, anti-"control system" - different view of Modernism - apolitical vs opting out - "who controls the pleasure?" (The Man or the kids?)
Current soundmaking tech divides functions of the Drum Machine:
--sound generation is mechanical (voltages or digital signal processing is "sculpted" to make percussive noises)
---composition/sound design is done in the Sequencer
* Grids of MIDI notes - musical Mondrian
* editing of waveforms
Both are visual. Visual artists have a "home court advantage" (ear also helps)
"Drum Machine" video. (May describe, not show--it's a bit somber)
Doubly ironic:
--all sounds are "bent" from conventional drum sounds - spacy, not realistic
--visual elements *do not correspond* to sounds - problematized, anti-MTV
Live performance of 5 demo songs played with a sequencer (on laptop) controlling Vermona drum machine (subbing for TR-909) and Sidstation (subbing for TB-303):
Clip City
Godhopper
Protest Song Variation
Suite 6
ArtMoving (new, composed this week)
Increasing interest in creating sound/image combos. Play the following videos:
--End Notes (w jimpunk)
--Sensor Readings
--Ninja Elements
"Unfriendly Satellites" [mp3 removed]. This is partially a remix of another blogger's .mp3--only a couple of snippets of gnarly analog (?) noise yanked out of a much longer but very interesting tune. That's all I'm saying for the moment. The pretty-sounding refrain is a snatch from a Kontakt FX sample called "3 Friendly Satellites," a great title for an evocative bit of sound. The samples were timestretched to fit the sequencer grid and treated with a few Cubase insert effects. The drum-and-bassy rhythms are done in Intakt, a beat-slicing instrument. As long as we're revealing trade secrets (ha), here's the rundown on the previously-posted "1987" [4.7 MB .mp3]: the Vermona drum hits were downloaded off the internets, trimmed in a .wav editor, and further tweaked in Battery. The main chorded theme is done with Reaktor's Titan synth (my favorite so far), and the rising, slightly scary bass chords are done with another softsynth called the Linplug Alpha, a real gem of an instrument. OK, that's it for advertising consumer products. It's all software and I'm still the music-creator, right?
Update: snipped a few bars of "Unfriendly" near the end. There's redundant and then there's redundant. Update 2: took almost 30 seconds out near the end. Same reason. Update 3: added 5 seconds back in for a thrilling (or at least logical) climax and took a screen shot.
"1987" [4.7 MB .mp3].
The rhythms in this song consist of sampled (then altered and resequenced) beats from the above drum machine, which was originally manufactured in the titular year. (Just as an aside, as mentioned earlier, this blog has adopted 1987 as its foster year. See past references here, although one unrelated one came up because 1987 was in the URL for a link.)
Other songs written and posted in July, but not related to 1987:
"Drum Reverie" [mp3 removed]
"Mouse Party" [mp3 removed]
"Audrey Zapp" (lean version) [mp3 removed]
"Nine Inch Bells" [mp3 removed]
"Cryptkicker" [mp3 removed]
"Alpha Romeo" [mp3 removed].
"Alpha Romeo" is not actually made with a Vermona drum machine. It's all soft-synths, but the "kicks" are analog-modeling. I just posted this picture because I think it's beautiful, and kind of fits the vibe of the piece.