Electric Independence: Ulrich Schnauss

Posted on March 19, 2011 by John CS Keston

The latest from the excellent series, Electric Independence, is an interview with German electronic music producer Ulrich Schnauss.

VidiSynth Generates Audio from Light Sources

Posted on February 28, 2011 by John CS 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.

Short Circuit Videos

Posted on February 26, 2011 by John CS Keston

Short Circuit – 021911 – Ostraka from Low-Gain on Vimeo.

Short Circuit – 021911 – Sputnik Viper from Low-Gain on Vimeo.

Short Circuit – 021911 – Square Wail from Low-Gain on Vimeo.

Short Circuit – 021911 – web dimension from Low-Gain on Vimeo.

Logan Erickson, also known as Low-Gain, organizes the monthly electronic music event called Short Circuit. As well as doing a great job with the event, he produces excellent, HD documentation with the direct audio signal from the house system synched up to the video. Above is his documentation from the February 19, 2011 event that I had the pleasure of participating in. Checkout his Vimeo page to see videos from former Short Circuit events and interesting experiments by Low-Gain.

Long Grain Rice

Posted on February 15, 2011 by John CS Keston

Here one more short video from our cymatics experiments last Friday. This time a the audio is agitating long grain rice on a one eighth inch think plywood platform.

Mustard Seed Activity at 73Hz

Posted on February 14, 2011 by John CS Keston

Getting these mustard seeds to scatter and converge in this cymatics test took tuning the cycle~ object in Max to around 73 Hertz. The spherical shape of this material lends itself well to this sort of experiment. The next time we attempt this we will be using a more controlled environment with a leveled, more sensitive membrane between the speaker and the seeds or grains.