5.12.11

Rehousing the Gristleizer pt.ll / MV-53


on the left: the Gristleizer.
on the right: the Molten Voltage MV-53 tap tempo circuit.


neat little LFO thing, does 4 different waveforms in 4 different divisions with swing. straight and inverted outputs.
rate controlled by pot or by tapping along with yer tempo.
divisions meaning: same as tapped/dialled, double time, triple time, quadruple time.
waveforms square, sine, ramp up/down.

0-9v in theory, although the 0v is never really 0volts.
don't know if that's just my build.
the sliders set the floor and ceiling anywhere between those two, so there's a lot of options there. was controlling the MS-20 filters earlier.. mindblowing.

9 user programmable presets to create your own sequences.
16 steps max. each, combining the 16 options - allowing you to program rhythmical LFO patterns.

all sounds truly promising, dunnit?
only downside i noticed is that in between the two taps that determine the tempo, the LFO flatlines.
which makes it a neat studio tool, rhythm LFO box or even master clock, but it makes me reluctant to take it on stage. i don't want to lose a pulse or rhythm sequence halfway through a tune because i need to adjust it to a running drummer.. which, in all fairness, is more than half of the cases in which you need a tapped tempo.

anyway, still promises to be hours of fun.
especially the complex rhythm patterns are something you'd normally look at software for, haven't seen that around too often.

next up, unfortunately, would be a tap tempo button that actually keeps running and adjusts to the new tempo.. like the overenthousiastic drummer it needs to follow.

29.11.11

Korg MS-20 pix


between the two VCO's is the sync switc.
on the VCA 'panel' is the EG2 switch and the VCA pot.
would like a matching knob for that one..


where the grey stage tape is, is where the old holes are. temporary fix, no doubt.
(lots of space inside, need to come up with extra goodies to fill those holes.)
new jacks are located in a more convenient spot.
not that i'm using them in the picture, but i could.

Korg MS-20 mods/schematics

okay, so i got hold of the schematics and board layouts here.
if you want to reproduce some of these mods, you'll need them, as i already screwed the bugger back together, so no handy step-by-step pix.


EDIT: HERE'S SOME NICE WORK ON THE NEWER MS-20 MINI!

1. patching out the VCO's.
this is easy - just tap into the right points on the waveform selector switches.

as you can see, the white noise on VCO1 is the same white noise source that's on the patch bay, so to me there's no real use in having that twice.


VCO2 is a little more difficult to read, but ok.
the bottom throw i highlighted is the straight saw signal. easy.
next: IC6 turns that saw into a square or pulse wave, depending on the state of its non-inverting input.
as you can see,  the second pole of the selector switch connects that input either to ground or not. when connected, you get a square wave - if not, pulse. that's why the square and pulse waveforms are on the same point, aka the output of the opamp.
therefore it is impossible to tap into a square and a pulse wave at the same time here - the same opamp is responsible for both, and it can only do one or the other. it's basically a hardwired version of the PW pot on VCO1.

the four logic gates on the bottom here are your ring modulator (there's an error in this factory schematic!), and the output goes from R65/66/67 straight to the top throw of the selector switch.

notice that the square/pulse from VCO2 gets used to drive the ring modulator through D8 -
the second pole turns the pulse wave into a square wave when on the Ring setting.
however, the ring gets fed the pulse wave (same opamp output) when in pulse or saw mode as mentioned in my previous post. so out the jack comes.

+++

listening to the waveforms on the new jacks, i noticed the volume drops if the same waveform is selected as the VCO out to run through the internal filters. (listening to saw out patchpoint with saw selected on VCO, for example.)
i might want to buffer them, but for now, it doesn't really bother me.
might depend on the circuit they get patched into, though.

2. sync switch
hard sync is not all that hard to implement.
you need to reset one VCO (slave, preferably the one with the higher pitch, so VCO2) with every cycle of the other VCO (master, here VCO1).


the trick is around D4 and D7.
in this case, you want to pretend that D4 (VCO1) is attached to Q10 and Q11 (VCO2), overriding D7.
you cant't just make that connection, because D7 will then also override D4, and that's no good.
so we throw in a fake D4 substitute.
a wise man on a nice forum mentioned that it would be best to use shielded wires and connect the shields to ground to avoid the oscillators locking when their frequencies are close. you run the risk of them syncing through stray wire capacitance even when the switch is not engaged.
i took his advice - never even tried otherwise, but it works beautifully.


3. EG2 to VCA switch
this, to me, is a big one. i feel it expanded the possibilities of the synth a lot.

slightly edited schematic:


there's a length of wire conveniently running across the board, connecting the EG2 output to the VCA in.
i believe it's labeled 'No.4', but don't quote me on that - anyway, it connects to R125.
if you snip that wire and put in a switch, you can now defeat EG2 control of the VCA.
i also put an extra jack on the side of the EG, as an EG2 0-5v output.

of course, you need to plug some other voltage source into the 'initial gain' to open the VCA, or else it'll be dead silent. but at least now you can choose whether or not you want EG2 in the CV mix!


4. VCA floor pot
since i felt it was a bit of a waste to always plug something (mostly the mod wheel) in the initial gain jack, i decided to hardwire a mod wheel duplicate into an initial gain duplicate, freeing both the input and the mod wheel up for other uses.
it was almost as easy as copy/pasting, except that i didn't need the negative voltages of the mod wheel.



i kind of hustled the schematic around a little, to show what i copied.
i left out the new EG2 jack for clarity.
everything still connects to the same spot, the CV mix node.
i copied the initial gain input (diode + 1M pulldown), and one half of the mod wheel.

this way, the initial gain jack, EG2 and the floor pot all play together nicely.
you can modulate through the initial gain jack, on top of a floor pot drone that'll last until the wall runs out of juice.

if you ever think of offering this mod to people, some credit would be nice.


23.11.11

Korg MS-20

i was getting jealous of the great sounds Wieter gets out of his MS-10.
so i went over the hurdle and bought me an MS-20, hah!
the thing sounds fucking unbelievable..

got it relatively cheap, compared to today's prices - because it had mods done to it (aka extra holes in the top), and i also got a small refund because the Ring Mod wasn't working.
insert new 4011, and voila: full working order!

some genius had decided to bring out all OSC1 waveforms, to make the output patchable.
great idea, if you drill the holes on the Right Hand Side over by the bay, dumbass.

played around with it for a while, and started thinking about what i would like to add, featurewise (hey, it already has holes in it.)

VCO1:
- i'm keeping the tri/saw/square outs.
- do away with the noise (that's on the patchbay anyway)
- and i'll be adding PWM instead.

VCO2:
- i'll go with three jacks: saw, square/pulse and ring mod out.
square and pulse are on the same point.
the ring mod uses the PW wave of osc1 against the square wave of osc2, but if you switch to saw or pulse on osc2, it gets fed the pulse wave instead of the square. so bringing out the ring mod would offer even slightly more tonal options.
- thinking of a Sync switch, using VCO2 as slave.

VCA:
- already added a VCA floor on a pot.
this is basically a hardwired implementation of the 'initial gain' patch, just leaves both the mod wheel and the initial gain jack free for extra modulation.
- putting EG2 on a switch, so i can defeat EG2 and just use the floor pot.
VCA modulation all you want through the init. gain jack, WITHOUT EG2 interfering! 
- EG2 gets a jack out. it's the line controlling the VCA, aka the 0-5v envelope. could be useful.


when all that is done, i need me a voltage mixer..
pix soon.

10.11.11

Silver Apples support

False Friend had the honour and pleasure to support Simeon/Silver Apples on his Antwerp date.
in my eyes Simeon is an electronics pioneer, not so much for the stuff he built but for what he did with it.
Silver Apples were way ahead of their time, introducing basically the same material Stockhausen used - see below - into a pop/rock setting, to great result. i'm not too hot for the new stuff (blame the evolution of Eurodance), but the records that feature them as a duo (Simeon + drummer Danny Taylor, rip) are mindblowing. check those out if you haven't already.

i was totally happy with the set we did. we should play more often, hah.
pictures here.

30.10.11

Oscillations in the Stockhause

Radio Centraal, Antwerp's - hell, Belgium's only Radio Station worthy of that name, is celebrating its 31st birthday.
Tomorrow they're doing a full day on the kids favorite, mr. K. Stockhausen.
i'll make my small contribution in a live breadboarding session, all aboot that all-important electronic music building block: da Oscillatorr.

should be goowd.

11.10.11

Custom Mixer

made a tiny mixer for my bruvva the bassplaya.
he runs his bass and a bass synth through a stompbox line selector, the sum going into his bass amp.
i think the line selector sucks.
problem is: if you say these things out loud, you're supposed to come up with an alternative.
a better one. a smaller one. a pinker one!


left to right: output/bass input/synth input. synth volume. 9v adapter socket.
bass is buffered and goes straight through, so no volume control needed.
both are always on, and they're supposed to be, so that's fine.

hmm. raspberry glazing.

Rehousing the Gristleizer

i'm really happy with how this circuit sounds.
i'm really bummed with the case breaking (twice) when falling (twice).
decided a new case was in order.
one that would be travelproof. nuclear shelter-style, preferably.

this is what it looked like before:


this is what it looks like now:


it's got room to spare for future use!
it really ties that spare room together as well, what with it being extremely pink and all.


mostly used on synth and vocals - suggestions for the right hand 50% welcome.

7.10.11

Austria was amazing. i've never been so close to all the clichés i had of the country. hotels in green meadows up on a mountain, waking up to the clanging of the Cows coming home. no, really.

the gig went really well!
two lazy bums having one day of half-assed rehearsal (hi patrik!) and deciding it would work. it did. although i have to admit i don't have mr. lechner's stamina - feels like i played two shows rolled into one. still have to check the multitrack recordings the organisation was kind enough to provide us with - will definitely have to make an edit of that, i'm sure there's some moments in there worth making public, ha.
more on that later, i would think.

meanwhile i was part of the Monochord Ensemble for champ d'action's Time Canvas here in antwerp, repaired Ultra Metal IceMan's marshall valvestate (nuff said), saw a cool show by Wieter Dockx, had to rehouse the Gristleizer (fell down twice, plastic casing wasn't up for it) and starting going through a harddrive full of recordings made in norway.
first on the pile: the False Friend sessions. gon' be good!!

13.9.11

Off To Austria

excited! - i'm leaving for Austria tomorrow, to take part in KoFoMi #16.
i honestly have no clue what drugs the organisation were on when they invited me.

anyway, i'm going there to play a gig with mister Patrik Lechner, whom i only know from the three emails we exchanged so far. in which we sort of agreed on a maximalism vs. minimalism concept:
he picks me up at the airport in an already overloaded car (aka his stuff), and i'm allowed to bring whatever i can carry on my lap in the passenger seat.

always up for a challenge, so should be good!

1.9.11

Norwegian Harvest, pt.II: Symphonie Monotrone tape



as announced before: here's the Remörk Symphonie Monotrone tape, also known as the fifth NoBasementIsDeepEnough release!
acoustic guitar and korg monotron. and lots of feedbacking funk with both.
51 copies, amazing packaging fully handmade by an enslaved pensioner they keep somewhere in a hole in the ground of a catacomb that was already pretty deep down.


comes with neatly folded photographic artwork by Babs Decruyenaere, which i think is a beautiful visual representation of the two interlocking closed systems to be heard on tape.


mine were all gone before i got home to this keyboard..
so for orders, contact and more things NBIDE, go here!

31.8.11

Norwegian Harvest, pt.I: Knotmees 7"





almost an oldie..
finished in may for 'The Taxandria Colaborations: A Feast Of Friends', but only got my hands on it yesterday. came out pretty well, too!

the result of a very pleasant collaboration with Lieven Segers, which started off as an absurd email and drawing conversation about a fictional bird species - de knotmees - but soon deteriorated.




The whole thing took place in the taxandriamuseum, dedicated to local Cultural Heritage.
Seeing how i was residing in Norway at the time, it didn't take too long to put the obvious together: a black slab with 2 sides of Taxandric Pride, it's a Black Metal warcry for independence of De Kempen!


1.8.11

Gargles From Ipanema 10" - UE105

Vom Grill/Remörk collab. 10 copies. 2 highly annoying sides.
only the A-part of 'girl from ipanema' in what is possibly the most retarded way ever, played again and again and again until even Stout Italian Law Enforcers will whistle along unwillingly.
Tyfus on synths and vocal duties without caring about the lyrics. i played bass, organ, guitar and pressed the 'fill in' button on the drum box at irregular and inappropriate places. where else but on the critically acclaimed Ultra Eczema label? click title link to go to audiosample on UE website..


these foot tappers are all sold out!

for the hour-long version (that's right..) you will want to visit the Contour 2011 exhibition, where it's handling looped muzak duties in the mechelen nekkerspoel trainstation as part of tyfus' installation (27/08-30/10).

29.7.11

Live @ De Affaire

July, 20th. stage curated by extrapool. weeeiirrdest outdoor park festivity setting.
had a blast together wif taifun tyfus!





threw in a little Brenda Lee there. hah! i loves me some Brenda.
we ended up playing an impromptu set together after those.. hope to find footsies of that one as well.
for now, just press play on both videos at about the same time, maybe.

28.7.11

Circuit Bent Yamaha DD-14

spending some time in Norway, i got into circuit bending again.
well, only a little.
we threw a 2-oscillator squeal machine together in a joystick - would have to check for footage of that one.
meanwhile, back home, i got another dumpsterbound present: the Proud Yamaha DD-14.
boom tchh boom.

it's gotten a new pitch control that's independent of tempo settings (i like!!), a subD connector that still needs a breakout glitch bay boxy thing and external trigger inputs for CV control.
i could prolly do the same with midi (this thing has Midi! wha..? - need to check if that is still alive.), but that's not quite the same, is it.

little temporary viddy to slooshy:



check www.circuitbenders.co.uk for all your bendy bender needs!

13.6.11

Rad #2 - Tala Ur Minnet

or, as the old adage goes:
"Red Fish, White Meat."

the Bergen center for electronic art (BEK) organised a great evening of poetry readings and improvised music. location was the private cabin of composer Knut Vaage.
participants were Anne Marthe Dyvi, Espen Sommer Eide, Dag-Are Haugan, Sigbjørn Apeland, Signe Lidén, of course Knut Vaage himself, and me.
names were drawn right then and there to form instantaneous duo-combo's, and everything inevitably culminated in a full-headcount improv session.
find a small photo-report by Anne Marthe Dyvi here.
the whole thing should have been recorded thoroughly, and will be mixed down shortly i hope.

6.6.11

Symphonie Monotrone - a preview

just finished a small feedback symphony for acoustic guitar and Korg Monotron in 5 movements. totals about 18 minutes - here's the fourth movement in a sneak preview.

4 division by Remörk138

of course it's 'just noise' as the neighbours would say.
still, props to Korg: some amazing sounds in a machine small enough to pocket.
haven't even gotten round to heating up the soldering iron yet.
(not that i don't plan to, but that's a different story altogether.)

so you'll hear the Korg Monotron just as i bought it in the store, and a distorted acoustic guitar.. no extra fx added.

enjoy.


edit: the whole thing will be released as NoBasementIsDeepEnough #05, a tape on 51 copies in a beautiful handmade package for which the elderly are being whipped in the sweatshop as we speak.

13.5.11

Live @ Landmark - Guitar chance composition

100 Bergen Notes For Guitar by Remörk138

i went around Bergen asking people to roll two dice for me.
one 6-sided, determining which string to play, and one 20-sided, determining what note i'd play on that particular string (0-19 frets.)
i also asked people the same when they entered the venue.
i quit when i got to 100 notes.
then i played those 100 notes later that evening.

for PrøveRommet, may 9th 2011
Landmark, Bergen, Norway

20.4.11

DarkControl

wheew, been a long time.
lotsa stuff happened (played some more, started a new regular thing with Krist -WCCC drummer- and Wieter Dockx -tape loop whizzzz- of which rehearsal recordings sound verrrry promising indeed, new record released with Jean Martens &co., traveling to norway.. more info to come on all of that)

right now i just wanted to share this one little thingy:


it's a basic controller patch for Doepfer's Dark Energy, to easily access its internal MIDI driven settings, like the internal arpeggiator modes and changing note priority (last or highest).
it's a basic thing, in a first prototypey kinda way - so it certainly still has its faults, i would think. but it works ok for me. these are my first public steps in Max/MSP, so bear with me here. ;)

oh, and it's shit ugly. i know. i chose it to be.

for now, i'll just upload the separate patches. find them here.
made on mac, but this way it should work on pc as well.. you'll just need to have Max or MaxRuntime installed. (go here, under Extras, for a free download of MaxRuntime.)
you should start up the DarkControl patch, which needs the other two for reference.

let me know if it works (at all?), if you find bugs or have any suggestions for versions to come.
any help on improving the patch itself is absolutely welcome..

enjoy.

13.1.11

Live @Polonia

Gerard Herman played a brilliant set using his saxomophone, a tapedeck, a mic, and his grandpa's Snarenbalk (played automatically by a rubbery contraption, all very interesting.)
all i needed was the wink and the nudge and off we were.
mauro pawlowski's drums -already set up for the Club Moral show- decided to join me while their owner was laying down new dEUS vocal tracks two blocks away.

on the record: Doepfer Dark Energy, Gristleizer, Moogerfooger delay and a Roland spring reverb.

Gerard Herman / Remörk jan112011 by Remörk138

5.1.11

Club Moral/ Gerard Herman / Remörk

will be playing a show with

a) Club Moral
b) Gerard Herman
c) all of the above

on january 11th in a cosy polish soccer cantina!
more info on fleshbook.



did the mastering for Club Moral's archival 10" release
"Instruments of Attraction - II. Sociale Hygiëne"
which gets presented there, so should be grim. not fun.
things are never supposed to be fun, ok?
anyway, looking forward to seeing AMVK go wild on the Wasp again..

the Hohner Bass Threemörk, pt. XIII: more plans for expansion

in an attempt to expand on the Hohner - gotta fill that lid - i tried a 4011 pseudo ring modulator (scroll down on linked page) as found in the Korg MS-20, apparently.
started out combining one of the 4 octaves with the MCO, since it seems to work best with straight square waves.
didn't do much for me - more or less the same effect as combining the MCO with the sequencer the way it was already hooked up.
tried different combinations, and gave up on the idea in the end.
as it's not too much of an expansion (if any) on what's already there, it would be a waste of space. and i like mine better, so there.

so, next plan is a subharmonic generator - like a small part of the Mixture Trautonium.
i've already got 4 octaves now, meaning F, F/2, F/4 and F/8.
i'd like to try the subharmonics in between those even divider numbers: F/3, F/5, (F/6), F/7. maybe F/9 and F/10. lower than that is just gonna land me with clicks speeding up or down, and i don't really find those interesting - reminds me of cheap casio keyboards whose effects speed up or down with pitch.
have a 4017 on the breadboard for the first test to come (soon, i hope).
seems the easiest way, although i'll never have access to all subharmonics at once with just one chip, and that's only half the fun.

hmm, maybe running a subharmonic through that ring mod would be better..


++
edit: Ken Stone, Hero Eternal.
http://www.cgs.synth.net/modules/pic/schem_cgs36_pulse_divider.gif
might want to add that /9 and /10, but that should be ez shizzle!
++