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mcc

What I'm listening to today: "Serge Modular Live Patching Improv - Modular Notes Vol.2 10 - Pure Serge Eurorack"

This box is a rebuild, in modern form factor, of Serge Tcherepnin's 1970s "west coast" modular synth.

The video builds a patch gradually, one wire at a time, which means just listening to it you get a very slowly evolving drone that grows from a buzz to a weird melodic moan. It's some nice, meditative rhythmic ambiance, and it's cool to watch it being built.

youtube.com/watch?v=Leu_bSCx3S

1 Apr 2023 at 21:05 | Open on mastodon.social
12 comments
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today: "Ambient patching with Prism Circuits Canvas and Quasar systems, BPoOT (20220825 191252)"

Prism makes modern re-imaginings of Serge/Buchla style modular systems. These systems excel at patches where control is driven by feedback loops and voltage logic rather than programmed sequences.

This strange, spacey patch creates an ocean of strange cross-interacting sounds loosely driven by a 16-step sequence the circuit moves through as it chooses.

youtube.com/watch?v=u2yL9NCNkK

What I'm listening to today: "Ambient patching with Prism Circuits Canvas and Quasar systems, BPoOT (20220825 191252)"

Prism makes modern re-imaginings of Serge/Buchla style modular systems. These systems excel at patches where control is driven by feedback loops and voltage logic rather than programmed sequences.

2 Apr 2023 at 18:59 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today: "Cartesian Somersaults", FΛDE

Okay, do you remember the "PC speaker"? The piezoelectric beeper thing inside old tower PCs, could only play one note at a time? Well this is a full, catchy, multi-instrumental song created entirely for one of those monophonic beepers (apparently the one in the 1980 Commodore PET). It even fakes drums with short chirps. It hurts to listen to and the waveform in the video hurts to look at, and I kind of love it.

youtube.com/watch?v=LF1nsMBS5S

What I'm listening to today: "Cartesian Somersaults", FΛDE

Okay, do you remember the "PC speaker"? The piezoelectric beeper thing inside old tower PCs, could only play one note at a time? Well this is a full, catchy, multi-instrumental song created entirely for one of those monophonic beepers (apparently the one in the 1980 Commodore PET). It even fakes drums with short chirps. It hurts to listen to and the waveform in the video hurts to look at, and I kind of love it.

3 Apr 2023 at 19:03 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today: "Call Me Up Again", FΛDE

The PC speaker musician again, making something even weirder: have you heard of the "Fairchild Channel F"? The very first "video game console", 1976. It had a beeper inside the case, but it could only play 3 different notes. This song, recorded on actual Channel F hardware, uses some bizarre modern algorithmic magic (manual FM synthesis!?) to squeeze out "impossible" sounds like arbitrary chords & white noise snares.

youtube.com/watch?v=STp1IxOk6M

What I'm listening to today: "Call Me Up Again", FΛDE

The PC speaker musician again, making something even weirder: have you heard of the "Fairchild Channel F"? The very first "video game console", 1976. It had a beeper inside the case, but it could only play 3 different notes. This song, recorded on actual Channel F hardware, uses some bizarre modern algorithmic magic (manual FM synthesis!?) to squeeze out "impossible" sounds like arbitrary chords & white noise snares.

4 Apr 2023 at 19:04 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today: "Chi-Fou-Mi", FΛDE

Okay this is my third song in a row from the same musician but like, how many songs do you know running on Channel F hardware? Because I only know these two (or I did until I got this reply yesterday: mastodon.social/@Korcenton@mas). This is less catchy than the other track but more technically impressive (and more enjoyably technically disastrous). The video has the cryptic caption "HOW IN THE F*CK DID THE TRIGGERING GET BETTER"

youtube.com/watch?v=5kOZEckhuL

What I'm listening to today: "Chi-Fou-Mi", FΛDE

Okay this is my third song in a row from the same musician but like, how many songs do you know running on Channel F hardware? Because I only know these two (or I did until I got this reply yesterday: mastodon.social/@Korcenton@mas). This is less catchy than the other track but more technically impressive (and more enjoyably technically disastrous). The video has the cryptic caption "HOW IN THE F*CK DID THE TRIGGERING GET BETTER"

5 Apr 2023 at 19:39 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today: "It's Universal", Croaker

Somewhere out there in the 90s, before mp3, there must have been an *incredibly* cool scene of BBS-shared tracker music that I missed out on completely (I had BBSes, but could not figure out how to operate Player Pro). This is a groovy drum & bass bop made in 1998 in ImpulseTracker for DOS by… a teenager named Jaakko Iisalo who… went on to become the creator and lead designer of the Angry Birds series. Um. Okay wow

youtube.com/watch?v=pRblrgQ3Ji

What I'm listening to today: "It's Universal", Croaker

Somewhere out there in the 90s, before mp3, there must have been an *incredibly* cool scene of BBS-shared tracker music that I missed out on completely (I had BBSes, but could not figure out how to operate Player Pro). This is a groovy drum & bass bop made in 1998 in ImpulseTracker for DOS by… a teenager named Jaakko Iisalo who… went on to become the creator and lead designer of the Angry Birds series. Um. Okay wow

6 Apr 2023 at 20:36 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today: "Slub", STU

The Atari home computers probably deserve more cred in music production; they had a working MIDI/DAW ecosystem back before Windows was viable or Macs were affordable.

Anyway here's a 2017 Atari ST tracker song I just really like. Chiptune you can just *almost* believe could have been a synth pop song in the 80s. The hook in the second half slays me, there was seriously a day last week I listened to this song like five times.

youtube.com/watch?v=KuOcR2cAPW

What I'm listening to today: "Slub", STU

The Atari home computers probably deserve more cred in music production; they had a working MIDI/DAW ecosystem back before Windows was viable or Macs were affordable.

Anyway here's a 2017 Atari ST tracker song I just really like. Chiptune you can just *almost* believe could have been a synth pop song in the 80s. The hook in the second half slays me, there was seriously a day last week I listened to this song like five times.

7 Apr 2023 at 20:30 | Open on mastodon.social
Jimmy Stabbedguy replied to mcc

@mcc didn't the ST ship with MIDI I/O and the ability to play digital samples? those were both add-ons you had to pay hundreds of dollars for on PCs

7 Apr 2023 at 20:34 | Open on monads.online
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today, "Yay Bahar", Görkem Şen

This is a performance on the Yay Bahar, a fully acoustic instrument Mr. Şen himself invented, perfected and built by hand. It's got some similarity to traditional Turkish bowed instruments but with loose springs and large resonating tubs to act as amplification, echo effect and occasional additional playable element. It sounds Evocative as heck and Şen seamlessly moves from wowing you with weird sounds to violin solo.

youtube.com/watch?v=CIRTYKuZYu

What I'm listening to today, "Yay Bahar", Görkem Şen

This is a performance on the Yay Bahar, a fully acoustic instrument Mr. Şen himself invented, perfected and built by hand. It's got some similarity to traditional Turkish bowed instruments but with loose springs and large resonating tubs to act as amplification, echo effect and occasional additional playable element. It sounds Evocative as heck and Şen seamlessly moves from wowing you with weird sounds to violin solo.

8 Apr 2023 at 22:36 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today, "Return", STU

This is by the Atari ST tracker artist I linked Friday, from their Bandcamp. This song apparently started life as an ST demo, but at some point they got carried away and made a conventionally produced song that uses an Atari ST as an instrument. The result is dark, echoey dubstep with strange chiptune blood flowing through it and I really ~~~ dig ~~~ the ~~~ vibe ~~~.

stumusic.bandcamp.com/track/re

9 Apr 2023 at 19:16 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today: "Hivemind II", Max Ravitz

The "Mavis" is a single-oscillator budget Moog synth; it's a more expensive, less interesting version of their old "Werkstatt" kit. But it did give us this really interesting video where a Moog employee densely cross-wires seven Mavises to produce every sound in this complex idm track. (The eurorack at the bottom does sequencing and adds a bit of echo.) Never mind the product demo, this is some good dance techno.

youtube.com/watch?v=X2GbnenF5v

What I'm listening to today: "Hivemind II", Max Ravitz

The "Mavis" is a single-oscillator budget Moog synth; it's a more expensive, less interesting version of their old "Werkstatt" kit. But it did give us this really interesting video where a Moog employee densely cross-wires seven Mavises to produce every sound in this complex idm track. (The eurorack at the bottom does sequencing and adds a bit of echo.) Never mind the product demo, this is some good dance techno.

10 Apr 2023 at 19:14 | Open on mastodon.social
mcc replied to mcc

What I'm listening to today: "20230226 - live @ Baitattack!", @nonmateria

"Orca" is a 2D programming language / music production environment by 100 Rabbits. This is a livecoding performance with Orca, recorded at a concert space in Trentino, Italy that I think might be operated out of someone's home. The Karplus is very Strong in this one.

The upload post (mastodon.social/@nonmateria@me) links some other sets from the same night. The video contains a slowly flashing light.

youtube.com/watch?v=iWNW_wWMoH

What I'm listening to today: "20230226 - live @ Baitattack!", @nonmateria

"Orca" is a 2D programming language / music production environment by 100 Rabbits. This is a livecoding performance with Orca, recorded at a concert space in Trentino, Italy that I think might be operated out of someone's home. The Karplus is very Strong in this one.

11 Apr 2023 at 19:00 | Open on mastodon.social
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