Showing posts with label Live. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Live. Show all posts

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Night of the Modular Monsters, September 19 2014, Leiden (NL)

Last night I went out to see a few modular synth-based acts in The Generator at Vrijplaats Middelstegracht in Leiden (NL) at the 'Night of the Modular Monsters'.
(Check out the event on Facebook)
In an intimate setting; a theatre-style room with comfortable cinema-seats, a big screen with cool visuals three live-acts were performing for a group of around 50 visitors...

OR Combiner, a duo consisting of Lama Waaien & Tony Dubshot (from http://www.dubbhism.com/) opened the evening with a dubby set, but sadly I missed their act because i was a bit late and the show had to start half an hour earlier.
Luckily they recorded it, and you can find it at https://soundcloud.com/ism-studio/night-of-the-modular-monsters

Falafel Biels in action at Night of the Modular Monsters
'Freepatcher' Falafel Biels from Rotterdam did a nice 40-minute long non-stop noisy/atmospheric set.
He plays at these kind of events quite often and also designs his own line of Monster Modules.
After the show he showed me a few of his creations, including his 'Bunch-a-clox', a few interesting clock divider modules and other Falufar-branded modules.
Find more on his Facebook page.

Falafel Biels' live setup
Das Ding from Rotterdam closed the evening with an electro-set.
Danny Bosten a.k.a. Das Ding has been creating powerful dark electro since back in the early 1980s, releasing his music and friends’ music via his own cassette label called Tear Apart Tapes.

He told me that he had recently begun to build his own Eurorack-compatible mini-sequencer.
It's called the Baby 8 and if you're interested you can buy a hand built version (stand-alone or rack) directly from Danny. Just contact him via Facebook.

Check out this Juno Plus interview about the Baby 8 for more info.

Das Ding live setup, Eurorack, TR-606 and MC-202,
 and two of his Baby8 sequencers

The stage after the shows
Overall I did have a nice and relaxed evening.
I liked the venue, and it seems perfect for these kind of occasions.
This is the first time i really went out and met some of the interesting people from the Dutch Modular scene.
I did have to leave a bit early because my weekend-schedule is always very full, but i hope i can take more time next time.

I hope to write some more party-reports on PatchPierre.Net in the future, and maybe do some interviews with all these interesting people...
Main info via Dubbhism:

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Random Video: Modular 0001 by Unun Septium

I'm glad that more and more people upload their Eurorack videos to YouTube.
This next one (and his first modular video) is made by Unun Septium (from Ununseptium Warehouse), and it shows a quite interesting 17½ minute long live patching experience with pretty basic modules...
Find more info about this patch HERE

Video: Modular 0001 by Unun Septium

" Never did get around to posting a modular video, so here goes.
Knob twiddling tedium for none anoraks. 
This is pretty basic stuff, just an attempt to make some rhythmic noise using only the Doepfer with no external triggers."
Uploaded by Unun Septium

Friday, April 13, 2012

Video: Ribbon in Minor Key

Here's a video that i recorded last week, mainly to demonstrate the A-198 Ribbon controller in combination with the A-156 Quantizer.
A great combo IMO, but i already wrote about that earlier.

As usual a slightly unprepared and unedited jam, featuring my trusty Elektron Machinedrum, the TB-303 and a A-100 / MAQ16/3 combo.
It starts with the drums and a simple 303-line, an even simpler bassline drops in a bit later (A-120 filter) that gets modulated by an envelope with a slow attack halfway into the track.

The solo sound (played on the Ribbon Controller) is a saw wave that goes through my favorite A-127 filter.
Ribbon pressure is sent to the filter cut-off.
I added a second layer around the 4:00 point, a pulse wave through the WASP filter and through the Wave Multiplier, but you can hardly hear it...

Playing the ribbon is a piece of cake this way, i can even play this tune with my theremin modules, i might do a video from that too...
The A-156 was set to Minor Chord with an added 7th. ...my favorite scale i guess.
That might make it sound a bit depressive, but i kinda liked it that way.
It did represent a mood that i was in, enjoy!

Video: Ribbon in Minor Key

" NetPierre Live, unedited as usual. Totally unprepared and perhaps slightly boring minijam with my Doepfer A-100 system and it's A-198 Ribbon Controller in a simple minor key.
Quantising is done by the A-156
Drums provided by an Elektron Machinedrum "

Find more of my own videos at http://www.youtube.com/NetPierreTV

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

My Main Live Configuration

An interesting topic popped up on the A-100 Facebook Group recently;
" How do you guys trigger your analogue synths sounds on live gigs? "
I do change my setup from time to time, but i do have some kind of basic setup for my live-sets and jams.
I have a total of 5 VCO's in my A-100 system, and i try hard to get the most out of it every time i play.

 Elektron SPS-1 Machinedrum
At the heart of my setup there is a drum-section, consisting of a Roland R-8 and an Elektron SPS-1 Machinedrum. The Electron is a perfect machine with plenty of  electronic drum sounds, i use the R-8 for the more 'organic' drumsounds.

MSY-2 MIDI-to-SYNC Converter
Synchronizing over MIDI is controlled by the R-8, through the Machinedrum and through a Doepfer MSY-2 MIDI-to-SYNC converter straight into the MAQ 16/3 Sequencer.
The MSY-2 is used to keep my TB-303 basslines in sync with the rest.
I also use the CV and Gate outputs from the TB, i get back on this later.

The MAQ 16/3 is Doepfer's MIDI Analog Sequencer.
It has 3 sequencer rows of 16 steps with Gate and CV outputs, i mainly use the top 2 rows for programming loops and basslines. From the MAQ 16/3 it all turns analog and goes right into my A-100 system.

MAQ 16/3 main controls
Row 1: main row, usually a 16 step pattern;
The  first row's CV goes through an A-180 multiple into two separate A-110 VCO's (with sometimes a slight de-tuning involved )
I often turn one of the VCO's 3 or 4 octaves up and send one of its output waves through an A-115 Audio Divider to add some extra (sub) bass.
These layers all mixed together with an A-138 mixer can be send from here to any other kind of filter or effect module, ending in an A-130 VCA somewhere.
The first row's Gate signal goes into input 1 of my A-143-2 Quad ADSR, that contains 4 independent ADSR-type envelope generators.
Gate input 1 is automatically connected to the switching contacts of the Gate input sockets 2, so from that single input i can retrieve 2 different envelopes.
One of them is sent to a VCA, the other one often goes to a CV 2 input of one of my filters.
That is basically my first (sequenced) A-100 Audio-source #1.

Row 2: Usually 6, but sometimes even 3, 8 or 12 steps long;
The CV signal from the MAQ's second row goes straight into my third VCO.
One or multiple waveforms can be sent from there and used for various different purposes, filters etc... coming together in A-130 VCA nr 2
Gate 2 goes into the third input channel of the Quad ADSR, i split up this with another multiple so i have 4 identical envelopes for use in the rest of my system. One of them goes to VCA nr. 2
So that's my second (sequenced) A-100 Audio-source #2.

VCO 4 is controlled by the CV coming from my (synced) TB-303.
The 303's gate signal triggers an ADSR for another A-130 VCA envelope.
I can send this audio-signal through all sorts of modules, resulting in A-100 audio-source #3

My 5th VCO ( and my only A-111 High End VCO ) is used for my solo's.
With an A-182-1 Switched Multiples i can easily switch between my MIDI masterkeyboard or my A-198 Ribbon Controller.
More info on this in detail HERE.
The Ribbon Controller CV goes into my A-156 Quantizer and an A-170 Slew Limiter for easier playing and a nice glide effect, as blogged HERE.
The Gate signal from my MAQ's row 3 (max. 16 steps or pauses) is sent to the 4th input of the Quad ADSR.
I like using this programmed (almost arpeggio-like) envelope to open a filter or amplifier with this, watch the video to see what i mean by that.
I have plenty options to do whatever i want with the wave-forms from this 5th VCO, but I like to keep the sawtooth wave for the A-129 Vocoder.
I guess that makes up audiosources #4 (vocoder) and #5 ( the VCO ) then...

What i did not mention here are the various other mixers and multiples used, the added noise, filters and LFO etcetera, but i hope you understand this is just the basic configuration of my A-100.

Video: Just me... and the Music take 1, an older jam by myself (from YouTube)


" Live Electronic Jam by NetPierre.NL feat. Doepfer A100 + Ribbon Controller, TB303, Machinedrum and effects, no post-production, and sadly no compession ) "