Andrew Cooke Exhibition + ARC Performance 040513

 

Ceramic artist Andrew Cooke has invited ARC (Allen, Rayson, Cullen) to perform on his musical instruments at his latest exhibition in The Loft Gallery, Portaferry on Saturday 4 May 2013.

Andrew makes instruments from ceramic and found materials: gourds, diddley bows, harp etc. ARC will perform a number of short improvisations

04 May - 26 May: 'Musical Mud' an exhibition by ceramicist Andrew Cooke. ‘Since mankind discovered the metamorphosis of soft clay into a hard ceramic material, we have been making instruments from clay. I would love to be able to play music; I have tried but failed. I thus make ceramic instruments; it is my response to the frustrated musician inside Andrew Cooke.’ Call out to all musicians - this Exhibition will encourage interaction between the maker of objects and the maker of music. If you are a musician feel free to come and jam on the instruments! If you are willing then make a video of yourself and send it through to Andrew Cooke to be made into a video collage of musical mayhem by local film maker Rik Peel.

Andrew Cooke is on Facebook.

BUILD/CODE/IMPROVISE/PERFORM

 

A series of free hands-on workshops as part of UNDERCONSTRUCTION,

a collaborative exhibition taking place at Catalyst Arts throughout April.

Learn to build and bend circuits, make an instrument from

your laptop and take part in a public performance at QUB's

Sonorities Festival.

BUILD

Saturday 6th April 10am – 5pm, Free

Develop your own playable musical device with circuit bender

and instrument builder Barry Cullen.

CODE

Sunday 14th April 10am – 5pm, Free

Explore programming as musical performance using networked

laptops with Graham Booth. Mac laptop required.

IMPROVISE

Wednesday 17th April 6pm – 9pm, Free

Monday 22nd April 6pm – 10pm, Free

Develop a live performance with Kevin McCullagh & Tullis Rennie

using the instruments from BUILD and CODE.

PERFORM

Thursday 25th April 9.30pm – 12.30am, Free

The performance will be presented at the EARS showcase night 

as part of the Sonorities festival.

To reserve a place, please contact catalystarts@gmail.com with

your name and details of the workshop(s) you would like to attend.

Venue: Catalyst Arts, 5 College Court, BT1 6BS

(+44) 028 90 313 303

catalystarts.org.uk  /   facebook.com/qub.ears   

twitter.com/qubears   /   sonorities.org.uk

Autoharp

Subfusc - Acoustic Placemat - Amplitude Recognition

Example 1 - Acoustic Placemat - Amplitude Recognition from SubFusc on Vimeo.

Saul improvising.
It starts quietly.
Lots of interesting textures from a lean set up.

Example 2 - Acoustic Placemat - Amplitude Recognition and Effects from SubFusc on Vimeo.

Hannah Montana Toy Guts Exploration Edited

Before turning on a soldering iron and committing to a bend on a circuit, it's fun to explore.

Squeeler TL071

Noise / feedback oscillator using a TL071 chip.
One potentiometer.
Six touch points.
On / Off power switch.
Features: wheezing, radio interference, and wild volume jumps.

New Builds 100312

Finally finished building some mini-bleep boxes for Caroline, Martin, and Chris. Compact. Instead of the usual three pots, I dropped one and put in contact points.

Pulley Synth Blog

Last year I helped out in a study at SARC. Some of the PhD students gave me a novel instrument to play with and asked me to keep a diary of my experience with it as I learned more about it by using it daily. Lots of other people took part.

Here are a host of videos of people playing the Pulley Synth.

Listening to a Tree's Rings

Traubeck: “A tree’s year rings are analysed for their strength, thickness and rate of growth. This data serves as basis for a generative process that outputs piano music. It is mapped to a scale which is again defined by the overall appearance of the wood (ranging from dark to light and from strong texture to light texture)

The Text above is taken from Humans Invent.

Zvex SHO Tribute, Touch Bleep

Here are some more fresh builds made for the market this Sunday.
My first painted pedal enclosure. It's got lots of layers - should take a few kicks before chips appear, I hope.
Isopropyl wipe (1 wipe)
Etch primer (2 coats)
Acrylic paint (2/3 coats)
Acrylic lacquer (4 coats)

Boost/drive circuit. Based on the famous Zvex SHO, with some tweaks.

Another 9v noise synth using a 40106 and 6 contact points to control 3 oscillators.

Black Box Bazaar - Jordan Bosstone, Amp/Boost, Bleep Box 2nd Edition

Black Box Bazaar this Sunday.
I have some new builds for sale.

The latest (and most playful) little edition of Bleep Boxes

an amp/booster

and a few fuzz boxes.

Making - Fuzz, Amp, Timer, Bleep

Bazz Fuss (x2)


LM386 Amp (x2)
Two little amps. In addition to a power switch and jack output, the second version had a different large value capacitor - the schematic had a 220uF - I used a 470uF which resulted in fuzzier sound and an exciting and unpredictable octave drop



555 Timer


Bleep Box
A new experiment with the way the box was constructed, this circuit has battery starve which can produce all sorts of interesting wheezes.

DIY Noise Synth Workshop - Saturday 22nd October

DIY Noise Synth Workshop
From the DAS website:
"
Saturday 22nd October
12 – 5pm

In this workshop participants are shown how to build a simple 9v battery-powered synthesizer similar to the ”Atari Punk Console”. It is aimed at those interested in creative audio technology, techno, and noise. Knowledge of physics and maths is not necessary. Participants must be 18+

Workshops are free and open to the public and all equipment will be provided by the Digital Arts Studios. However there are limited places available on each workshop so early booking is recommended. To confirm your place please call the Digital Arts Studios office on

02890 312900

or email

angela@digitalartsstudios.com

to book your place.
*The event will take place at Catalyst Arts Gallery: Catalyst Arts

The main difference with the 9v battery noise maker to be made at this workshop and the usual APC oscillator is the IC. The APC uses a 556, makers at this workshop will use a 40106 and some extra bits if there is enough time.

3x3 Feedback Matrix

Thanks to Handmade Electronic Music I made a 3x3 Feedback Matrix.
The inputs to the matrix are:
3x oscillator 40106 bleep box
Sovtek big muff, Boss PS-3
4ms mini noise swash, Boss DD-6
Output to Sessionette 75 2x10
Boss TU-3 for power.

Singing Snare

I was playing with an old snare drum. I added a piezo inside, attached to the skin. I placed it near an amp; it started to feedback. The pitch of the feedback could be changed by putting pressure on the drum skin.

Bew - Demolition Mix

Here is one of the mixes I put together to be played on set of a film about demolishing a house along with live oscillators through a dirty portable soundsystem.

I made noise.
Crew shot film.
The building was demolished.

Nothing sounds quite like a bath being thrown through a door.

Bew - demolition mix by Bew on Mixcloud

Tracklist

eden Final
Track 3 dufond
Track 1 Aln Vs Cln
Track 2 Aln Vs Cln
Track 3 Aln Vs Cln
Fashion 500 Brainiac
For My Beloved Brainiac
Ilaf Tsmu Poo
Track 13 dufond
Kyoro Xinli Supreme
Jabpunplusone Sagan
Mandolin Work (edit) Leafcutter John
The Disappearing Act Gerritt & John Weisse
Densités Alma Fury
Plus De Lumieres Alma Fury
Live at Emoson (Bourges) 23.oct.99
Alma Fury, Otomo Yoshihide, Otani Yasuhiro
X for O No.1 Xavier Charles
X for O No.2 Xavier Charles
X.O.O.X Xavier Charles & Otomo Yoshihide
Radio Brabant No.7 Xavier Charles
Radio Brabant No.8 Xavier Charles
Track 1-6 The Lost Cocks
Track 7-9 Nuclear Night
a1 animals with wheels bew remix
a2 animals with wheels bew remix

+ Various sound effects records

Video Bending VEC1060

Here's a short compilation of me playing with the VEC1060. Shot using my phone camera to capture + FCP to edit. Again, you can see reflections on the screen.

The sound is from the VHS creating feedback in the VEC + a DJ mix that was recorded for a film about demolishing a house being played with some DIY oscillators. I also dropped in a bit of noise from a cassette recorded at my last show at SARC.

Vocoder

I was browsing The Wire magazine's site when I chanced upon this link to, "How To Wreck A Nice Beach". It's a book published by Stop Smiling magazine about the history of the vocoder. You probably know the sound of the vocoder already. If not click below, watch, listen and enjoy.

Diego Stocco - Bassoforte

This man is really great.
.

I ended up with this mechanical hybrid thing I thought to call "Bassoforte" (bass + pianoforte).

Bandcamp page: http://diegostocco.bandcamp.com/track/bassoforte



Here you can see a gallery with pictures
the instrument in the background

4ms - Mini Noise Swash

I bought a kit from 4ms for my last birthday. The delivery was delayed for a long time by the post office. When it arrived I soldered it all together and found it wasn't working. It wasn't showing any symptoms in common with those that had been dealt with on their forum - I was feeling down about it. My friend C. Baird helped me identify two school boy errors in my handy work. It now works. It is pleasingly filthy. I now want a fully formed Noise Swash CV Max Tweaker.