Rotor Fine Video
There’s a new Ramp video available, this time for Rotor Fine! Check it out. I like it a lot. 
As with last time, the video was provided by James over at Evergreen Eye Visuals, so feel free to Like that Facebook page of theirs if you enjoy the video.
First Official Ramp Video: To the Sun
Many thanks to my good friend James, a.k.a. Evergreen Eye, for putting this together for me!
New YouTube Video: Fakey Clock Division
Dec 23, 2009 YouTube
Last night as I was going to bed, I got an idea for a patch on the modular that I wanted to try, so I returned to the den and gave it a go. It worked like a charm, and the patch was simple enough that I figured I could document it in a video. Unfortunately, I was ridiculously tired, so not only is my handheld shooting pretty shaky, but I randomly say “oscillator” instead of “envelope generator” and use a bunch of other terms involving timing more or less at random. Still, the basic idea gets demonstrated, which is that you can send a bunch of velocity pulses at a series of velocities over MIDI from Logic and then dice the various velocity sets out to trigger different things using a signal processor or signal processors.
A few things to note:
- There’s no real limit to how many discrete velocities you could use this way;
- I use this to divide a rhythm into even fractions, but the pattern you set could be totally arbitrary;
- I use the pulses to trigger envelope generators, but there’s no reason you couldn’t use them to trigger anything that uses a threshold-based trigger;
- I chose even durations for all of my velocity pulses, but you can set the “pulse width” by choosing different durations of notes;
- I used arbitrary pitches and then just ignored the pitch / gate / trigger information completely, whereas there’s no reason you couldn’t still use that information usefully (although you’d have to remember that the ‘off’ notes are sending all that data also).
Anyway, here’s the video:
Basic Introduction to Filters with the Synthesizers.com Q107 Variable State Filter
Another video that I shot using just the digital camera without separating out the sound. I think this will be the last time I do that. First, the camera stops the video unexpectedly with no obvious indication that it’s done so, resulting in things like that half-sentence at the end. Second, it introduces a high-pitched whine to the audio. (I always thought it was our air conditioner, but it turned up in my videos from camping as well.) Third, the mic is not very sensitive. In future, I’ll probably try using a dedicated video camera for video and recording the audio tracks (synth and voice) separately off the line out and a mic in Logic.
In the meantime, though, this covers the basics of the module and should be follow-able. I’m not sure if it’s *too* basic. I have a lot of not-synth friends who say that they enjoy the videos. Anyway, let me know if you enjoy it!
Simple Patch Monday!
Jul 6, 2009 YouTube
A simple bell tone patch demo (the video cuts off at the end because my camera stopped recording, but all that was left to say was, “I hope you had fun!”, so… I hope you had fun! Also, the high-pitched noise in the background is how the camera’s mic picks up our air conditioner — I usually filter it out with SoundSoap, but I just tossed up the raw video today):