Today’s fascinating sound is another example of the conversion of digital imagery into sound and was submitted by Manchester based artist Nick Froud. Nick writes:
“I have been following your blog for months and have found it really inspiring. The software featured in your most recent entry is quite similar to a program I (very quickly) put together for an exhibition idea I have. My girlfriend produces photography based and nature and process, I wanted to adopt these ideas into sound that could accompany each of her pictures in a gallery.
The program I made converts an image directly into sound by scanning along each pixel and outputting a sample to a wave file based on an average of the red, green and blue channels. It also outputs the red green and blue channels as CC data in a MIDI file. In this way, I intend to create music entirely generated from an image but with human direction as to choices of effects to be controlled by MIDI data, layering of sounds etc. The sound generated are much noisier than in other sound / image conversion applications, but I think it gives a better feel of the texture of an image.”
You can hear more of Nick’s creations on his myspace sites Crunchy Alligator and Circastate.
Mould
You’ve probably heard enough about my Casiotone 403 by now, but I’m not finished with it yet. What’s my fixation with this outdated, inflexible, cheese filled, imitation wood grain dinosaur? I don’t quite know myself. I can tell you that it’s not the kitsch factor. I actually like the way this relic sounds. So much so that I bothered to open it up to repair a sticky key. What I found inside were well organized electronics in a wooden and metal chassis that opened up like a clam and invited me in. So here’s another example of of sound from the Casiotone. I added a bass line with the Maxi-Korg and delay on the comping. Two great tastes that go great together. 
As well as classic drum patterns the Casiotone 403 has some nice vintage analog keyboard tones. Short of circuit bending, there’s not really any way to manipulate those tones other than vibrato and sustain under the effects section. These are simple on or off settings, so there’s no depth, speed, or decay adjustments. You get what you’re given, but that’s what you’d expect from an instrument of this sort, and part of its charm. 
I’ve been sampling my Casiotone 403 recently. I have recorded and sampled this instrument in the past, but this time I wanted to gather some of the beats at a slow tempo so that I could play them at many different tempos without hearing artifacts created when time expanding or compressing. This is a loop of the familiar Samba setting. I recorded it at 85 bpm, then cranked the tempo up to 195 bpm and looped it four times before rendering this example. 
Here’s a short little bass line I recorded while reacquainting myself with my Maxi-Korg yesterday. I love the gritty sound of this instrument, one of the most well known of the duophonic synthesizers. Sometimes I find myself reaching for the non-existent pitch or modulation wheels, but the limitations of these vintage devices are part of their charm and might encourage the musician to come up with new ways to play (or rediscover old ways).