Passive Modules Placement

Hello everyone. I added a couple of things to my profile to the right and also feel free to send us e-mails about anything. We read and answer them all!

Aside from 'What is that?', one of the most frequently asked question I receive about my modular is how I put my Multiple up on the top left of my case. A few modules (like the Make noise moddemod) are passive and don't require power from the bus board thus making it possible to jam them anywhere! I read on the Doepfer forums that the top and bottom panels are made of hard wood. With that knowledge, I found some random threaded nails about an inch and a half long and manually screwed them to the top panel. While my random nails worked out for me, I've suggested people go to a hardware store with their module and find a couple of threaded nails that are long enough to comfortably dig into the wood yet thin enough to fit through the holes. Also, the lid still closes if there is a patch in the wood mounted modules. So, instead of wasting valuable real estate in your case, stick it in your wood!
*Yes, I'm aware that my camera eats it. My normal one broke and I have no plans on replacing it.

Live audio_Output: POLYFUSE

Check out the tunes before you come: polyfuse.net

As always, we're going to bring out a substantial amount of gear that hopefully will melt the sound system. This should include a Doepfer modular synth for noise/processing. Access Virus Indigo, Virus Polar, random analog effects and....a guitar! Gasp!

Trash_Universe: Live Webcast NOW

*Update* I am sure, for whoever tuned in, saw just a bunch of chaos. That's cause we were busy trying to have a life outside of the computer, which is rare. Anyway, we had some excellent guests at the Trash residence. Tomorrow we are all headed to lollapalooza, even though it's a three day event, I am just going tomorrow. Surachai has been there all weekend. Click here if you want to us ignore you.

Native Instruments + Beatport was going to have a party tonight but it got canceled cause of some unforeseeable situations. Anyways, some of the guys are coming here including Alessandro Cortini of NIN, Richard Devine, Moe Espinoza of Droid Behavior, Daniel Haver and Jeff Horton of Native Instruments. Come party with us!!! Click here if you want to chat too.

Access: Interview with Hans Zimmer

Access posted a nice interview with film composer Hans Zimmer recently, I found a few excellent quotes. Among them was this:

Hans
On Da Vinci Code, I said, “other than the orchestral stuff, I am only going to use one thing”, which of course was the new Virus Polar because it had just shown up. Then it was sort of fun to go “ok, now what am I going to get out of this one machine” and it was a fun way to sort of figure out hot to push it all the way to the wall. But then I could ruin your day and mention that I did end-up putting another synth into it, because the Virus could not do one thing. Do you know what that synth was?

The Minimoog.

Acccess
Fair enough.

Hans
Right! I had to do that bass thing. At the premier, at the Cannes Film Festival, when that little Minimoog came in, and it was not even vary loud, all the ceiling tiles began rattling and I was very happy!


Check out the extensive interview here.

NIN Tour Visuals: A Massive x0x Style Sequencer, FTW!

So Nine Inch Nails has just started their summer tour in North America, and someone sent me along this link to a preview of what their live visuals are looking like this time around. Of course there are plenty of analog synthesiers rocking the stage too, I'll try to find some more about that later.

Anyway, check out this video. The sound is horrible, but you'll get the idea. There seems to be a lot of touch response visual stuff going on that you'll see. The reason for this post however, starts at 4:55 in the video. Is this the biggest step sequencer currently in existence? I think so, I also think that whoever uses it will undoubtedly look like Vanna White.

Live Setup and Stalking

A quick picture of my setup from this weekend. It's nothing extravagant just two pedals (Deluxe Memory Man and ThingmamaKIT) larger than my European setup. I should draw in heat wave squiggles to emphasize how hot that room was but you'd probably mistake them for stink squiggles. Though I have to admit that screaming is a bit easier with sweat in my eye.

More importantly (as you can tell by the size [it matters]), there always is Shannyn Sossamon. You know something is wrong when you're looking at the picture to the left longer than below. Get your priorities straight!

Eliot Lipp on XLR8RTV

One of our past Workspace and Environment buddies, Eliot Lipp, was interviewed by XLR8R. If you're too lazy to watch the video, it follows him to his studio in New York and runs through his typical day which, not surprisingly, reminds me a day of mine. You can check out his interview with us: Here!!

XLR8R TV Episode 70: Eliot Lipp from XLR8RTV on Vimeo.

Jonathan Snipes Custom Eurorack Case

I received an e-mail from Jonathan Snipes of Captain Ahab and after I asked if I could share this with the world, he agreed. I'm sending out a word of caution before you read this: Understand that you're potentially blowing out your power supply and all of your modules. If you try modding your power supply, we will not be held accountable for you being an idiot. But we will give you a high five (and miss) if you succeed. Enjoy your week! We'll be broadcasting a live show with Richard Devine on Sunday. We'll announce the time later.

Here are some pictures of the Eurorack modular case I built into a Pelican 1520 suitcase with the help of their panel mount insert. Everything is gorilla glued in place - mounted everything to sheets of plexiglass glued into the bottom. Rather ugly I know, but functional. I think eventually I'll add a panel along the bottom (under the modules) for multiples & attenuators. I'd feel a lot better if the IEC input & power switch were secured by more than just gorilla glue too :-) Worked out pretty well, I think. The coolest part of course being the switch I added to the power supply to switch between 115/230v (sort of visible in the second picture) ... very cool, and pretty easy - just used a DPDT switch (already labeled properly!) and followed this diagram on the Doepfer website: Here

So, yeah - cheaper than a Doepfer portable case, switchable voltage, more durable, AND if I get another panel mount insert, I bet I can mount thinner modules (Cwejman, Harvestman) in the lid, doubling the amount of modules I can cram in here. HOORAY. The last photo is of my mobile studio set up in my hotel room in Bulgaria. Shockingly, I received little to no hassle trying to get this through airport security. Only had to open it once. Weird. - Jonathan


The switch for the voltage switching was super easy ... all you need is a DPDT switch, preferably one that's labeled 115/230 and that's difficult to switch ('cause you can really blow up everything if it switches accidentally, or you plug a 115 power supply into 230, etc etc). The picture below is of the power supply defaulted by Doepfer.


This last picture below is of Jonathan's modification.

Livewire: AFG Shipping Now

I talked to Steve Rightnour this morning who is finishing up the AFG for Mike and informed me that he's pumping out the pre-orders. Expect yours soon!
Here is the previous post about the AFG's with proper links to some handy info: Here!
*more details in a bit, I gotta pretend I'm working.....

Fuck it! We'll do it live! - Surachai

Strangely after the European tours and shows around the states, this will be my first Surachai gig in Chicago. I'm not sure what to expect other than not fitting in but I'll be bringing my modular, freshly constructed ThingmamaKIT and a bunch of delays. You can prepare yourself here: Programmed Cell Death

HITODAMA (members of DOSES)
SURACHAI (Fathme Records / shade:red)
LING LING (ex Elders and Tales Of Genji)
Ronny's
2101 N. California ave. (Logan Square) Chicago,IL
Sat. Jul. 26 - 9PM - 21+ -

ThingmamaKIT Construction

I couldn't believe the shite quality on youtube and as a result I'm converting some videos to Vimeo. As always, I have made a timelapse video but this time: the assembly of my Dr. Bleep's ThingmamaKIT. I had to go to Justin's and Byonic's to drill holes into the case because I'm a vagrant and don't own normal things. The directions asked for strange drill bit sizes that no one seemed to have and because of that I spent 2 days cursing it. Either way, it's done. You can make yours all cute and bloopity but mine will serve darker purposes. Pictures of the final product inside the post...

ThingmamaKIT Assembly from surachai on Vimeo.

Longmont Potion Castle

Ever listen to a CD full of prank calls? I hope not, they are usually horrible (Jerky Boys, yikes). Here's someone doing prank calls right, and by right I mean the perfect use of an effects processor to reach maximum confusion with his victims. There's a few more recordings floating around, I'll add more as I find them...

Longmont Potion Castle Official Site

Africa Loves T_A

Well well well, look who finally came crawling to our website proclaiming their love? That would be you Africa! Johannesburg, South Africa to be exact. Even though you stayed for exactly 0 seconds and probably came here by accident I know you still love us. Nothing you can say will change my mind. NOTHING!

Next on the list: Siberia. Only cause your dogs are the coolest.

Create Digital Trash: Real Knobs on an LCD screen, what?

Ok, so I think this is something that Create Digital Music would normally cover, but I thought it was weird/interesting enough for us to bring up. So what we have here is something called Sense Surface, which basically allows you to place REAL knobs right on top of a virtual interface on an LCD screen. So essentially, this would allow you to place a real control knob on the virtual cutoff knob of that one Minimoog plug-in that you have that sounds amazing. Let's check out this video:



It actually seems pretty cool to be able to just throw a real physical knob anywhere you'd like on a screen. Although I think this would become a little bit sloppy when switching plug-in windows or switching to other apps in the background. It WOULD be excellent for alternative controllers like the Lemur, where you could completely remake your Minimoog front panel and then add real knobs on top of it. Just like a real Minimoog....

Check out more info from Gizmodo and Girton Labs

I would love to see this for the iPhone and iPod Touch too.

Trash_ Universe: Live Webcast - Volume 1

Ok, we are going to give it another try. If everything works, we'll have live Acid/Something/Improv for you. Here's the skinny:

Surachai, Benn Jordan and I. Kit includes: TR-808, Moog Prodigy, x0xb0x, Abletone Live, Virus TI, Cwejman S1, Korg KP3, a guitar and Logic recording it all on separate tracks. Lots of MIDI cables.... Hope it works...

Click here to join the chat.

*Update!*
Well, that seemed to go pretty well. We played for almost two hours or so, there are two video recordings (one an hour long, one 2 min long) and some photos of what went down ahead...



Hour Long Recording:



Two Minute Recording: