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This page will be a scrapbook for the ideas I come across. The main initial
source is the
Strange Bible.
As everyone knows, Allen Strange's Electronic Music Systems,
Techniques and Controls is the best book on analogue synthesizing. It
includes copious exercises throughout but two sections are of particular
note. The chapter on control voltage sources includes two key patches,
'correlation of random voltages' and Dream Machine. and ends with a series
of exercises and projects, of which I will list the relevant ones below.
Then, the final chapter of the book is 'scores for analysis and
performance': again I will list the ones I might use, |
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Correlation of random voltages, Allen Strange |
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Dream Machine, Allen Strange |
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Allen Strange, control voltage exercises
1-3. contemplate acoustical and electronic instruments
4. experiment with linear and exponential functions
5. become aware of the voltage range used on your equipment as it is
important for subsequent exercises
6. experiment with intervals on three VCOsthis is building up nicely
7. 'if you have access to integrators, quantizers and multipliers
(coupled VCAs), turn discrete control voltages from keyboards, sequencers
etc. into continually varying functions. A fixed voltage may also be made
into a fluctuating voltage by multiplying it with a sloped voltage such as
an EG, LFO, fluctuating random etc. Now reverse the process and turn varying
functions into discrete levels. Invent an instrument based on this process.'
8. experiment with alternate tunings, starting with Robert Ehle's
Prelude in 19 Tone Equal Temperament, by attenuating the voltage from a
keyboard.
9. now try the Asian 7-tone equal-temperament.
10. set up alternate tunings and a method of switching between them
11. 'take a single voltage function and apply it to every controllable
parameter in your instrument', repeat with two and three control voltage
sources.
12. Daniel Goode's Faust Crosses..', see below
13. random access sequencing after Frank McCarty , see fig 1
14 John Cage's Williams Mix, uses shaped pieces of pre-recorded tape.
Simulate the shapes with VCAs.
15. interacting tapes, a similar idea to the Apples&Pears
patch below, see fig 2
16. Robert Ashley's String Quartet Describing the Motions of Large Bodies
- a real string quartet making scraping noises which are processed through
logic gates.
17. extracts from patch books:
a) ARP Axxe bass
b) Roland 'guns'
c) PAIA 'small dog or laughing hyena oe creeping bird or?' see fig 3, this
is difficult to read. |
fig 1
fig 2
fig 3 |
Allen Strange, scores for analysis and performance
1. Douglas Leedy, Entropical Paradise (with Bird Call) fig 1
2. Frank McCarty, Stochastic Arp fig 2
3. Mark Styles, Orion Rising fig 3
4, John Strawn, Akarui Tsuki fig 4
5. Dan Wyman, A Shadow of Its Former Selfalthough I have attached
some of the diagrams for my own benefit, these only make sense in the
context of the text. Buy the book. |
fig 1 Entropical Paradise
fig 2 Stochastic ARP
fig 3 Orion Rising
fig 4 Akarui Tsuki |
Daniel Goode's Faust crosses the
Raritan somewhere in East Africa and finds himself back home, a little south of
the Reich... Now there's a title for you (as we Welsh tend to say).
Essentially, the piece involves picking a tune, setting up the first few notes
on the sequencer and than gradually working through the rest of the tune setting
one note at a time, so the piece gradually 'wipes over' itself. He suggests
Yankee Doodle on a 10-step
sequencer, I'll have an 8-step to begin with and am inclined towards the last
few notes of the
Beethoven violin concerto. Strange says don't use a quantizer, I am inclined
to have one VCO with and one without. Just waiting on Tom from Analogue
Solutions to come up with the SQ8. Mr Goode has a terrific web site
here and Faust is in the scores (one
of the one-pagers). |
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The best example from
Apples and
Pears, I'm inclined to try it with BBC Radio 4 (speech) as the voice and
Radio 3 (music, usually classical) rather than the Chopin Nocturn. |
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Online patchbooks (as I find them)
ARP Odyssey 1981
Page started 26th June 2009.
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