Members sprinklerhead Posted January 18, 2012 Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 Nice use of the radio and I'm always a sucker for cold war era videos. I have a huge collection of old A-bomb test videos and documentaries. Another cool trick with AM radio and something I still want to do, is get on or near an electric bus or commuter train and the radio will pick up tons of motor noise. I could ride the bus all day recording interference noise, but in SF I'll need at least one or two people with me to make sure no one grabs any of the gear. Damn crack heads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donaldcrunk Posted January 18, 2012 Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 good trick! i'll try it at some point definitelyi try to incorporate as much Cold War crap into everything that i do as i can. i've studied that period in history literally my whole life, and i will shamelessly say that there are probably very few people in this part of the country that have as much on - tap expertise about soviet military hardware as myself. history like that is very fascinating to me. and i'm just a huge techno-nerd i guess.i have a new project that i'm working on in regards to collecting & using electronic transmissions from both the natural and artificial world and integrating it creatively into my noises. if that project works, it will hopefully be the start of something much larger. but that's in the future - for now, i'm still learning the tools i need to complete this project - namely Arduino programming, GSM telephony, and GPS tracking. i'll leave it at that for now until i'm farther along in the process - but in a few months time hopefully i'll have made some progress and be able to share and solicit more help for my goofball ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted January 18, 2012 Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 Since you're a cold war AND radio noise buff, have you done anything with numbers stations? Those broadcasts always sound so creepy to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donaldcrunk Posted January 18, 2012 Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 very much!http://soundcloud.com/donaldcrunk/golden-fist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mate_stubb Posted January 18, 2012 Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 So scenic, maybe you know the real story behind this mystery?http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/09/ff_uvb76/all/1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donaldcrunk Posted January 18, 2012 Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 indeed, this numbers station is one of the driving forces behind my getting into shortwave. i think Don Solaris was the other driving force, he had one and trumped it a lot and i thank him for that. anyway, i don't have any real unusual insight on this station compared to others. i still have not tuned it in myself, my level of equipment probably won't be able to do that until i own my own antenna farm (ha!) but i have of course heard the live feed online. it's one of the last Great Mysteries of that era that intrigues me. i've never seen pictures from the original Povarovo transmission site, but the article does have a nice description. the favorite theory is the Dead Hand 'deadman switch' system - which is a system i believe existed in some form, but was almost certainly shut down not too long after the Cold War ended. soviet paranoia during the height of Operation Ryan during the 1980s cannot be underestimated, especially given that it and the resulting programs were driven by the deep seated institutional paranoia of the First Directorate of the KGB. they really thought that Reagan would launch a pre-emptive, surprise nuclear attack on the Rodina.but Soviet and post Soviet strategic rocket command & control is still one of those enigmas that we don't know the whole story on yet. like the article says, it's a very 'sexy' theory, but such a system almost certainly no longer exists and does not explain the continued transmissions - or the relocation of the transmission site to a very LARGE antenna array in a different area of Russia (didn't see that mentioned in the article). somebody 'left the mic' on at one point in UVB-76's history, and some garbled russian everyday conversation was picked up - but that was probably just maintenance on the equipment. modern russian strategic forces are directly controlled by the civilian leadership, but there exists a complex in Yamantau Mountain that we still don't know a lot about. it's easy to think of it in terms of our own Cheyenne Mountain NORAD complex, but Russia doesn't always do things that way. it is most likely a combination strategic control center and 'continuation of government' bunker, similar to our own Mount Weather. what is interesting to me as that the change in behavior of UVB-76's transmission roughly coincided with the construction/expansion of this complex. so there are secrets upon secrets - i love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donaldcrunk Posted February 28, 2012 Members Share Posted February 28, 2012 time to bring the madness back this time with a PURE EURORACK VIDEO six patches of madness in a short time for your pleasure. zip pow guuurrrrrr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Metrosonus Posted February 28, 2012 Author Members Share Posted February 28, 2012 Moscowbuzzer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donaldcrunk Posted February 28, 2012 Members Share Posted February 28, 2012 also, if anyone remembers forumite urbanscallywag, you might be interested to know his new "Patch Chord" module is up for sale.http://erthenvar.com/store/euromodules/patchchord Erthenvar Patch Chord - a bank of 25 "Oscillator Controlled Oscillators", which can be used to generate chords in a Eurorack system.The Patch Chord continously samples the cycle duration and duty cycle of the input waveform. It outputs 12 semitone steps above the input note, 12 semitone steps below the input note, and the root note itself (available from two output jacks). All outputs are pulse waveforms with continuously variable pulse width.An oversized tri-color LED spans the color spectrum in each octave, so each note has a unique color! The input jack is passively multipled to an output jack so the visual effects of the LED can be had even if the module is not part of the current patch.There four modulation types available, each with an input jack and a three-position switch. The switch can turn off the modulation, allow the CV value to control the parameter, or turn on the modulation. The modulation jacks are all DC coupled and respond to audio rate signals, though the tracked waveform has a lower limit of around 20 seconds per cycle.The SQR modulation forces the tracked duty cycle to 50%, making all of the 25 outputs into square wavesThe INT modulation changes the relationship between each output from a semitone step to an integer or harmonic stepThe ZERO modulation resets all of the output counters to 0, similar to a sync functionThe HOLD modulation stops tracking the input and keeps the last counted cycle duration and duty cycle valuesThis module requires +5V from the bus board! We offer the freelunch as a +5V solution.think of the paraphonic possibilities!another rad demo: seriously awesome module. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xpander Posted February 28, 2012 Members Share Posted February 28, 2012 i'm finally starting some MOTM-format projects that i've had PCBs for. speaking of shortwave, i've had one of these sitting in my entry way for the past month, haven't really used it for years. i need to take it in to have the output adjusted but it would be awesome to sample the hell out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted February 28, 2012 Members Share Posted February 28, 2012 Originally Posted by mate_stubb So scenic, maybe you know the real story behind this mystery? http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/09/ff_uvb76/all/1 That is a fun story. It inspires all sorts of creative thought experiments with plot machinations and conspiracy theories that could make any number of novels and/or movies (and songs too I suppose). So I asked a Russian friend at work who is a Ph.D. physicist and served in the Russian army in charge of a radar station before a series of immigrations brought him first to Israel and then to the US. He and his wife are US citizens now. My friend thinks that the mysterious radio station serves one of two purposes. The first is to generate distracting signals to divert attention away from the important short wave transmissions used for transmission of genuine information. The second (and more likely) is that it is just a reserve communications station that is being held at ready and functioning in the event of a nuclear strike from the US or elsewhere. So the signals sent out are just test signals. He said that Russia still uses short wave for military communications and brought up the fact that just last October two suspected Russian spies were arrested in a home in Germany and when German commandos raided the suspect's house, the suspects were in the process of using cold war era short wave equipment connected with a computer. He said that Russia uses mathematicians to create codes for sending information among innocuous transmissions over short wave - no big surprise really. He also commented that the fact that the station was moved, especially given current issues with obtaining various permits to use land in Russia, means that the station is of significant importance to someone in the command chain (someone with money and/or power). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members sprinklerhead Posted February 28, 2012 Members Share Posted February 28, 2012 Has anyone had any experience with Numerology, Volta and/or Expert Sleepers Silent Way? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted February 28, 2012 Members Share Posted February 28, 2012 Silent Way works well. I am using it with th ES3 mkii lightpipe module and a RME Fireface 800. Calibration was a snap. Also an expansion for the ES3 was announced recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donaldcrunk Posted February 28, 2012 Members Share Posted February 28, 2012 Originally Posted by sprinklerhead Has anyone had any experience with Numerology, Volta and/or Expert Sleepers Silent Way? i've used numerology quite a bit, and Suit is a SME on numerology as well - but i haven't really run the modular with it yet! definitely run other things with it though. Silent Way seems to have overtaken Volta as the software->CV solution that most use, if that means anything. direct CV control with numerology is definitely much more useable and intuitive within the numerology framework i would think than numerology -> midi -> cv , which is what i would have to do now if i so chosed. RE: that bad ass kenwood receiver - what's the model number or specs on that puppy? i think you'll have some fun with it if you pair it with the correct antenna or whatever else it needs. that radio is far beyond my current capabilities! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paolo Di Nicolantonio Posted February 29, 2012 Members Share Posted February 29, 2012 Sampled Fulll Moon by Eden Ahbez into the SSL JJP Samplecorder and slowed it down, added a melody on the dot.com, ran everything through heavy amount of the "ATLANTIS" patch on the Eventide H3000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ElectricPuppy Posted February 29, 2012 Members Share Posted February 29, 2012 niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice, Paolo. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. ;cool: You're starting to kindle some modular gas in me with stuff like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paolo Di Nicolantonio Posted March 1, 2012 Members Share Posted March 1, 2012 Thank you, Puppy But I thought you already have a modular? Did you sell your frac system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gregwar Posted March 14, 2012 Members Share Posted March 14, 2012 http://live.deadmau5.com/ i'm only medium trolling on this one. came home from the bar at 3am 2nite and logged on, watched dmau5 {censored} around with a modcan modular b series live for like an hour (modcan is also from toronto, near bayview ave i believe). love or hate his music he still has pretty good taste gear-wise. we went to see him perform at the skydome (20 000+ people rave). he had what may have been a future retro xs and some other modular gear on stage. despite everything honestly it was a pretty rad show but then again it could have been the drukqs. he also has some suit & tie, metasonix, macbeth, buchla, cwejman, etc. again even if u hate him i really think overall its a good thing for modular synths and hopefully the exposure will lead to more business, innovation, etc here's an older pic of his modular: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donaldcrunk Posted March 14, 2012 Members Share Posted March 14, 2012 deadmau5 is a _great_ example of why you shouldn't buy everything at once. he just had had someone put together an ENORMOUS system, and the first couple videos he uploaded were downright embarassing. a close look at his modular will reveal a lot of 'synthesis nonsense', for instance the upside down macbeth oscillator and the nonsensical row of mixers placed next to each other instead of throught the system. i think its cool that hes into this stuff, but in modular world you're either good at the modular or not - your music is ultimately inconsequential if you can't use the synth. i'm sure he still has lots of exploring to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ghostpaw Posted March 14, 2012 Members Share Posted March 14, 2012 We all use the tools available to us in different ways. One person can build a cathedral while another might spend a life perfecting their hammer & chisel technique. I'd hardly call what he's doing inconsequential. He may not be 100% "According to Hoyle" but he gets results. He earned the money to buy equipment and can use it as a boat anchor if he chooses. His equipment order may help keep the doors open another month at the manufacturing plant. Perhaps a few fans are inspired to purchase modular systems to play with as well. No one is harmed in this arrangement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Gribs Posted March 14, 2012 Members Share Posted March 14, 2012 Here is a recording of last weekend's experiment / patch:Mad XylophonistThe patch is described in the (soundcloud) link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donaldcrunk Posted March 14, 2012 Members Share Posted March 14, 2012 Originally Posted by Ghostpaw We all use the tools available to us in different ways. One person can build a cathedral while another might spend a life perfecting their hammer & chisel technique. I'd hardly call what he's doing inconsequential. i worded that pretty poorly. i didn't mean to demean dude's music, which is fine. i'm just saying that he has quite a bit of learning to do when it comes to synths. that much is obvious from the photos and videos he's released of it so far. again, it's cool that he has it, and hopefully some fan somewhere will discover the joys of modular because of his idol (where would I be if i hadn't seen Martin Gore in a photo with an MS2000 i often wonder) owning one. i just wish he didn't view it as some kind of 'status symbol' and feel the need to buy one of everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members soundwave106 Posted March 14, 2012 Members Share Posted March 14, 2012 Originally Posted by donaldcrunk i worded that pretty poorly. i didn't mean to demean dude's music, which is fine. i'm just saying that he has quite a bit of learning to do when it comes to synths. that much is obvious from the photos and videos he's released of it so far. I'm going off of interviews, but what he does with it doesn't need a whole lot of synthesis knowledge. As far as I have heard, he uses the modular to come up with the sounds, which he samples and later sequences together in a DAW. Electronic dance sounds -- at least, the style he does -- really does not need a whole lot of the more esoteric synthesis techniques talked about on the Wiggler etc. For him, it's more about the fact that modulars are less predictable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ghostpaw Posted March 15, 2012 Members Share Posted March 15, 2012 Originally Posted by donaldcrunk i worded that pretty poorly. No worries. I'm sure I read it poorly as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members donaldcrunk Posted March 17, 2012 Members Share Posted March 17, 2012 got an iphone 4s yesterday, and i'm a little bit overwhelmed coming from the Blackberry. there's already 6 studio uses i've found for it, first and formost running digital performer from across the room when i'm sitting at the drumset or something. good lord does it take nice pictures. thought i'd show off two new modules from STG - i've been wanting his euro filter/wavefolder stuff for a long time, and now they're back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.