Splatter, 3D and hardware

Having recently finished a video for Vimeo (https://vimeo.com/616793028) about dot distribution and positive and negative 3D space that used old school 3D glasses (and why not?) I came to the conclusion that one of the most interesting bits about the project had been the use of a decidedly old fashioned rack sampler. In my case it is an Akai S2000, I have a more upmarket S3000XL, but the stripped nature of the S2000 has always been more attractive to work with. I love sampling drum machines MPCs but the way that a rack sampler assumes you want to map to a keyboard every time and the detuning that causes makes for many happy accidents. I have a couple of these, one of which has been heavily modded by Circuitbenders (sample grinding pictured) well worth the cost for the sonic madness (https://www.circuitbenders.co.uk/synthmod/S2000.html) and myself. (Gotek and SCSI2SD) and the one pictured which has had a new screen and will have a Gotek fitted in due course. Sequencing is from the Korg SQ64 which is a lot of fun with loads of potential for randomness. I always feel that the S2000 get you closer to the ones and zeros of sound, because whilst the assumption is you might want to record a grand piano it will also cope with short (although not too short) samples and can spit them out fast, plus it always manages to sound clean and punchy. Despite what you may have read it handles wavs no problem, but I have to use an old mac running C6 if I want to transfer samples digitally from more modern instruments. 

I_wouldn't_but_BlueBell_V03_180p

 https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/574574687

A new video from repeated lockdown walks, some quite long through bluebell woods near home. The shifting textures and woodland light caught my imagination. 

Metro_V03_pt02_1080p

 https://vimeo.com/482681479

Part two here, now it is back to the parked Waveform project and the Akai S2000 with hand drawn sounds inspired in part by Daphne Oram

Metro_V09c_pt01_1080p

 https://vimeo.com/482681479

A companion piece to CORONASCOPE. Inspired by walking through the countryside and hitting the mindless calm repetition of one foot in front of the other moving through a landscape of incredible complexity, where everything is unique but slightly different, grouped together in sets by consciousness. I had also been reading a lot about the birth of techno in Detroit and was struck by the parallels between the urban and rural landscapes. The nature of techno with seemingly endless repetition but subtle complexity connects seamlessly with the fractals of nature. Now live on Vimeo part 2 to follow

The hand drawn 'Waveform, project looks as if it will have to take a back seat as part two of my lockdown piece is taking shape. The combination of listening to lots of Detroit techno with its formal structures and taking long country walks inspired me to look at how far the environment can be restructured in a formal grid and still retain its organic nature. 
 

Kaleidoscope

Due to the somewhat surreal nature of life during lockdown and in a response to it I am currently working on a new video ('WaveForm' is on hold, about 75% completed). This creeping through the looking glass slow motion car crash that is the Covid 19 crisis just too bigger emotional sink hole to ignore (...and I had the digital equivalent of off-cuts to use up). The project has three angles, a computer simulation of the virus, a faux word search and a Kaleidoscope. Hoping to use some natural sound in the audio but that will depend on circumstances, currently the soundtrack is using sequenced guitar samples, but they have been shifted so far from the source as to be almost unrecognisable. I am trying to dispense entirely with rhythm in the audio and move towards a fractured but smooth audio texture only. 

WaveForm

A new video is taking shape. Sitting somewhere between drawing and sampling, this project uses some of the knowledge I acquired back in 2010 /11 when I made software driven drawing tools to make animations as part of BT Storytellers project (what a long time ago the 2012 Olympics seem now, talk about the past being another country…). For this project I am drawing individual waveforms and sequencing them with a drum machine.