Synthesizer Noise Jam #1

Posted on February 21, 2011 by John CS 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 CS 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 CS 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

Sounds from a Contact Mic Frozen in Water Ice

Posted on January 17, 2011 by John CS Keston

I just got a note from Dan Pugsley of Radium Audio. regarding their new resource Radium Audio Labs. The site will feature a broad variety of sound experiments and explorations. Dan writes,

“Radium Audio has recently started a blog demonstrating some of our explorative processes, and though it’s very much in the early stages of development we have some pretty interesting pieces uploaded already and I was wondering if any of it might be suitable for Audio Cookbook? We have two new explorative projects in the works at the moment, one of which is based on binaural recordings and the other will be revolving around the use of dry ice to create a variety of sounds.”

The projects posted so far include using a coil mic to record the electromagnetic fields from various electronic devices, like an iPhone and a printer/scanner, and my favorite at the moment, sounds captured from a contact microphone frozen in water ice as it melts.

Frozen Contact Mic in Ice by Radium-Audio

Eerie Pseudo Oscillator Microtrack

Posted on January 15, 2011 by John CS Keston

Here’s another result of experimenting with the Roland Juno-106. I created this sound by using the VCF as a pseudo oscillator. I cranked up the resonance to full, and put the cutoff at about half way, then turned off both the square and sawtooth DCOs. You might assume that with the oscillators off, including the noise and the the suboscillator, that the synth would make no sound, well it doesn’t really until you almost max out the resonance. Maxing out the keyboard slider changes the pitch of the notes on a roughly twelve tone scale, but it’s not well tempered, so this creates an eerie detuning between the notes. See the photo above for the exact settings. In the recording you’ll notice an abrupt key change happening a few times where I turned on the sawtooth oscillator. I also nudged the LFO on the VCF here and there to add to the spooky factor.

I’ve done a similar thing with the Pro One before, but it sounds really nice in six voice polyphony on the 106. My guess at what’s happening is that a sort of controlled resonant feedback on the instrument’s noise floor is creating the pitches. This is something that doesn’t really work with digital filters on modeling synths, as far as I know. I know that I haven’t been able to reproduce this behavior on the Korg MS2000. I don’t fully understand what’s happening, but that’s my theory. If anyone has better insight, please share a comment on the article.

Eerie False Oscillator