VidiSynth Generates Audio from Light Sources

Posted on February 28, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Expanding the VidiSynth Part III from paul sobczak on Vimeo.

Paul Sobczak has recently posted some videos documenting the VidiSynth. It’s has four independent oscillators that are controlled by either potentiometers or inputs from other sources. In this case he is using light dependent resistors or LDRs that suction onto a display. As video plays on the display the pitches change on all four oscillators based on the position of the LDR on the screen producing corresponding sounds. I’m not sure how Paul plans to use this, but I’m anticipating some interesting generative work with a synesthetic theme.

Morton Subotnick

Posted on February 24, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Electronic music pioneer, Morton Subotnick, gives a tour of his New York studio and discusses his career on Electric Independence. In case you’re unfamiliar, Subotnick is responsible for commissioning Don Buchla to build the famous Buchla Series 100. Oh yeah, and he’s using Ableton Live. Awesome!

Synthesizer Noise Jam #1

Posted on February 21, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

I have been recording a series of solo noise jams using the Roland Super Jupiter MKS-80 while in the process of researching repairs. The unit currently cannot be tuned and does not respond to keyboard velocity information. This does not prevent me from exploring what the instrument can do sonically, without depending on traditional scales, or harmony. This sort of experimentation is usually done with modular synthesizers, or instruments that have most of the parameters available as tactile controls. In other words, to do this on an MKS-80 you need the MPG-80 programmer, or a viable alternative.

As far as physical controllers go, the CME Bitstream 3X seems to be one that a lot of MKS-80 users are talking about. It looks like a pretty good controller for a lot of things, but once again, it’s a little on the expensive side of things. I opted to use the reKon editor as a plugin and map MIDI controls to it as I described in reKon Audio VST-AU MKS-80 Editor. This worked great, with no noticeable latency. Here’s a segment from the first experiment in this series.

Noise Jam Segment

Resonant Wobble

Posted on February 6, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

One thing I hadn’t explored yet on the Roland Juno-106 is how well it produces synthesizer effects. This is the sort of sound that I would normally create using my Sequencial Circuits Pro-One, and admittedly the filter on the Pro-One is a little more agressive, but I decided to give it a go on the 106. This sound was made using the filter self-resonance discussed in detail in the article Eerie Pseudo Oscillator Microtrack. Using the LFO on the VCF creates the wobble, then I adjusted the LFO manually for speed modulation.

Resonant Wobble

Pulse Width Modulation

Posted on January 22, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

I setup and recorded this example of pulse width modulation using my Roland Juno-106. I started out playing an octave with the pulse width set to half way. Next I moved the pulse width up and down covering the full range possible. Eleven seconds into the recording I enabled the LFO on the pulse width and adjusted the speed of the modulation all the way up and then all the way down again. The picture shows the LFO in action. Notice that the LFO operates as a triangle, but with slight curves on each slope, which is probably a result of the analog circuitry. Here’s what it all sounded like.

Pulse Width Modulation