Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Electrotap Hemisphere Speaker
I might eventually get the Hemisphere by Electrotap instead of a conventional speaker cabinet for my cello and bass. The frequency response goes down to 60Hz, which might be a restrictive for those low notes on the low B string of my bass, but a subwoofer could be added if necessary. The main appeal of this alternative speaker system is that it more closely approximates the sonic behavior of acoustic instruments, in that it radiates sounds in all directions instead of just one.
Thursday, February 09, 2006
Some tips on using a Cocolase
On this thread, "greenseaenvelope" posted some cool ideas for playing a Cocolase. Here's an excerpt:
It is great that you are going to pick it up yourself and figure out how to use it in the way your are planning on using it (I'm on the west coast) because the imputs are the most sensitive thing on the instrument, I am finding. He made their impedance such that you can play through the device using a piezo mike without preamps (I use aux loops so I don't need this, but that's cool). But that makes it so that it picks up radio signals really easily, particularly since I want to use one of the imputs as a "probe", unclipping and reclipping an allegator-1/4" and using my fingers and palms to connect the modulation imputs through my bodies electrical field. You can make absolutely insane sounds by putting all your fingers inside the sidrassi and then send each loop its own independant intermodulated signals for flip, skip, and sample rate/loop length.
Another easy one is putting your palm down on one of the modulation bar since all the big brassos are modulation imputs to the main osc so you connect all the petals on one side together.
Is is VERY important to note that sample rate and loop length seem to be directly related, with the longest loops being interesting digital mud and only the ones that are about 1-30 seconds (or even less) are really all that discernable as the original signal. But the cool thing about this is that you can send a insane mix of 8oscs in control rate to modulate this sample rate and it does the math perfectly. (Edit: then again, how would I know if it does the math perfectly? It just sounds completely bonkers).
Doing more subtle things I found you could send a simple pretty loop of your singer's voice or something and attach just one of the sidrassi petals to flip or skip and set a nice long IP time, sit down and wait five minutes, and gradually the loop will twist and warp into something totally unrecognisable, but still clearly a mangled low fi recording of a melodic womans voice.
When you get it we'll have to do a thread showing ours off and comparing our experiences.
And with the radio thing: Peter replied immediately to my request for help and the answer may be that I wil have to install some resisters near the imputs, but I am investigating this later today. No big deal, since I plan on using my mixer's preamps to manage the audio signals going through the cocolase anyways.
It is great that you are going to pick it up yourself and figure out how to use it in the way your are planning on using it (I'm on the west coast) because the imputs are the most sensitive thing on the instrument, I am finding. He made their impedance such that you can play through the device using a piezo mike without preamps (I use aux loops so I don't need this, but that's cool). But that makes it so that it picks up radio signals really easily, particularly since I want to use one of the imputs as a "probe", unclipping and reclipping an allegator-1/4" and using my fingers and palms to connect the modulation imputs through my bodies electrical field. You can make absolutely insane sounds by putting all your fingers inside the sidrassi and then send each loop its own independant intermodulated signals for flip, skip, and sample rate/loop length.
Another easy one is putting your palm down on one of the modulation bar since all the big brassos are modulation imputs to the main osc so you connect all the petals on one side together.
Is is VERY important to note that sample rate and loop length seem to be directly related, with the longest loops being interesting digital mud and only the ones that are about 1-30 seconds (or even less) are really all that discernable as the original signal. But the cool thing about this is that you can send a insane mix of 8oscs in control rate to modulate this sample rate and it does the math perfectly. (Edit: then again, how would I know if it does the math perfectly? It just sounds completely bonkers).
Doing more subtle things I found you could send a simple pretty loop of your singer's voice or something and attach just one of the sidrassi petals to flip or skip and set a nice long IP time, sit down and wait five minutes, and gradually the loop will twist and warp into something totally unrecognisable, but still clearly a mangled low fi recording of a melodic womans voice.
When you get it we'll have to do a thread showing ours off and comparing our experiences.
And with the radio thing: Peter replied immediately to my request for help and the answer may be that I wil have to install some resisters near the imputs, but I am investigating this later today. No big deal, since I plan on using my mixer's preamps to manage the audio signals going through the cocolase anyways.
Monday, February 06, 2006
The greatest electric guitarist you never heard of
the late Danny Gatton, in this vide clip, can be seen taking a swig from a beer bottle, using the bottle (still with beer inside) as a slide on his guitar, then playing his guitar with his hand inside a towel (I'm guessing to wipe spilled beer off the neck and still play at the same time).
Friday, February 03, 2006
Mark Tilden - Robosapien's Inventor :: Reviews and Ratings Network
I just read an entertaining interview with Mark Tilden. I got the link off of Engadget.com, which says:
If you've ever wondered what goes on in the mind of Mark Tilden, creator of Robosapien and its mechanical brethren, you'll love this interview at YouReview. Tilden sounds off on the Robosapien mods ("best potential hacks are installing stereo camera transmitters in the head"), life as an expat robot-maker in Hong Kong ("it's just a good thing I liked the movie Blade Runner so much") and what's next for WowWee ("Actually it's all top secret, but it'll be good. Promise.") A great look at the man who made robots fun again (though he leaves out his plans for inevitable world domination).
If you've ever wondered what goes on in the mind of Mark Tilden, creator of Robosapien and its mechanical brethren, you'll love this interview at YouReview. Tilden sounds off on the Robosapien mods ("best potential hacks are installing stereo camera transmitters in the head"), life as an expat robot-maker in Hong Kong ("it's just a good thing I liked the movie Blade Runner so much") and what's next for WowWee ("Actually it's all top secret, but it'll be good. Promise.") A great look at the man who made robots fun again (though he leaves out his plans for inevitable world domination).
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