Oh, thanks! I did add two more tracks. I had a couple extra tunes that I had forgotten about. The original title was going to be "Which Coast?" It was meant to stir the pot a little to see if anyone could hear whether I used east-coast or west-coast synthesis. I used both equally.
Released my Christmas album moments ago! Chose to do an EP this time. It's certainly not your grandmother's Christmas album: https://blackwarriorlures.bandcamp.com/album/bells-a-christmas-ep
Oh, thanks, everyone!
@GarfieldModular, yeah, since I'm not fishing right now, it seemed like a good time to do a music video.
@farkas, thanks for chiming over on the YouTube channel.
@jb61264, Yes, this is it's own format. It's made by Tangible Waves and called AE Modular. Check out their Web site and forums. It's a growing community, new modules added all the time, all kinds of new music, all the time:
https://www.tangiblewaves.com/
https://forum.aemodular.com/forum
https://wiki.aemodular.com/
The whole premise behind AE Modular was to reduce the cost of modular synth without sacrificing sound. Yes, it uses custom made pin wires, but it's all to reduce the cost. But, the sound is amazing.
If you just want to listen to the tune, fast-forward to 8:17.
Oh, wow! You went to Superbooth? Did you get a chance to hear the new TBD module? This will be the first deep sort of module for AE. While I prefer immediacy, having one TBD would free up a lot of space in one's rack.
Yes, the AE is quite compact. It's half the size of Metric 4U, i.e., 10 mm tall modules as opposed to 20 mm. It's hard to believe how much synth you get for the money without sacrificing sound.
I understand about wanting other things. I'm trying to save for a bicycle, but Robert keeps coming out with other modules! Makes it hard to save, lol!
Thanks! I forgot to add patch notes for this track. This is the kind of patch I've been building toward since I started with modular synths. Once I learn about generative music, I knew that I could make a single voice play a solo much like a jazz musician improvised over chord changes. I don't do chord changes, per se. I do modal music, using minimal composition methods developed by the likes of Steve Reich, Terry Riley. Miles Davis and John Coltrane cover the modal side of things.
For this track I had been listening to Turkish bagpipe music, the tulum. Phrygia being a region of ancient Turkey/Asia Minor. Smidgeon meaning small. Smidgen Phrygian means small, Turkish bagpiper. It's also played in Phrygian mode. Unfortunately I'm stuck with the western-tempered scale until Ornament and Crime are ported to AE Modular. Than I can play the proper temperaments and scales.
It's has taken all this time to acquire all the modules needed to play in this style. For the longest time the AE Modular didn't even have a quantizer, switches, trigger delay, Turing machine, etc.
Vital to this patch is the rbss-random bit shift sequencer. A sort of digital rendition of the Turing machine. Those random control voltages are attenuated, then quantized. That makes for the solo voice.
The "under structure," the minimalist texture supporting the solo voice, is handled by basic 16 and 8 step linear sequencers.
Accents and harmonics are handled by beat dividers and the trigger processor called TRIP.
Guess whose tune is first?!?
https://aetherwaves.bandcamp.com/album/ther-waves-vol-3
Thanks! Yes, this is still on my little AE Modular. However, I do plan to move to a Kosmo/5U synth this year. Plan to build it from scratch. The AE has served as a good learning tool, but given the long shipping times and the world wide shortage on electronics components, it'll actually be faster and cheaper to build a large format synth from scratch.
I like the music, and I like the videos (this one quite a lot actually) but I think I would like the video more without the music What can I say, everyone's a critic :)
-- the-erc
Yeah, the music does get in the way, but considering this was a failed fishing trip, it turned out okay.
At about 1:30+ what happened with that road that seems to disappear in the river? Or is that on purpose?
-- GarfieldModular
Yeah, that's the boat ramp. People can back their boat trailers into the water to launch and recover their boats.
https://blackwarriorlures.bandcamp.com/album/the-light-divine
This album I wanted to explore more generative patches. Mostly can the machine improvise, improvise in the same way a jazz musician or how most folks musician improvise over chord structures.
Although this is for my customers, the music is from my latest album.
Thank guys!
@GarfieldModular, Cottondale Counterpoint was a fun one. Waves of Life started with a good old wind-and-surf patch.
@Lugia, yup! This was all done with the AE Modular: no controllers, memory or anything.
Thanks, guys! The thing is I don't even have my AE modular fully built yet. In the end it will be about half the size of Lugia's "Gargantua."
Thx! Frankenputer is the name of my computer. IT has no case. It's just wires and parts bolted together; therefore, it looks like something Dr. Frankenstein to have made.
Yes, that's my AE Modular Starter 2. I have other modules on order, but this is the basic starter setup.
Well, my videos are about the stories I tell. The storytelling comes first. Everything serves the story. In this case those few shots of the Starter 2 gave the story all it needed. I'm trying to make true documentary films on my YouTube channel. Just sitting there looking at the modular doesn't serve the story.
Well, the whole point of AE Modular is that you don't need much money and still sound as good as Euro, Buchla or Moog. It's up to you, but for me I don't have much money, and I'm getting exactly the sounds I want fro ma Starter 2. Will probably double that over the course of time, but no money, wan ta great sound AE Modular is it.
I'm sooo happy that I went with AE Modular. Gargantua is an inspiration to us all. I'm hoping to build seven oscillator system myself, something along the lines of a dotcom 44 or something, but with far more sequencing power and time modulation. You get so much for your money with AE.
Yeah, I'm having trouble with the mix. I plan to buy a mixer. My Tascam DR-40 is doing some funky things. I eventually had to run it in MS decoder mode to get both channel running anything at all. I bought the stereo out module and well other module, but they won't be in for a while. Also I plan to buy a Yamaha MS06X mixer. Bewteen the new modules and the new mixer, it should make it up to par on the sound.
I just received two 3.5mm jack to XLR cable to run into the Tascam, but somehow the level drop. Hopefully a preamp on the Yamaha mixer will fix much of this whenever I get it in.
I plan to save my patches and record them later this year for an album on BandCamp. For now I'll just patch, tweak, refine and advance until I get it sounds exactly the way I want. That's how my videos go to where they are.
