Sliced Modular Sounds

The Tinysizer is a very interesting synthesizer. It is single thing, about the size of an older laptop that has been folded up. But it doesn't do anything unless you make connections with tiny wires. This turns out to be a great thing because you experiment with connecting any output to any input. Sometimes you don't get any sound, but sometimes you get strange and interesting textures.

The video below is a series of segments of sounds from the Tinysizer, assembled in Ableton Live.

Conrad Schnitzler

I have encountered the name Conrad Schnitzler many times while studying the history of electronic music. It wasn't until his recent passing and Geeta Dayal's excellent biography-obituary in frieze that I began to understand the scope and significance of his work.

WFMU followed up with two three-hour shows dedicated to his life and work. Geeta joined the second show and shared some of her Schnitzler experiences.

I'm not dead yet!

It has been almost a year since I've updated this blog. Rather than reiterate the usual excuses that are posted when a blog starts to grow stale, here's a video I made recently that shows off the Eventide TimeFactor's ability to self-oscillate.

Power Makes Music, and Power is Physics - TimTainment

Tim is a musician, currently living in Hamburg. His music career started as a listener and partygoer. In 2007 he created the TimTainment and started sequencing music.
Tim is interested and influenced in almost every kind of music so TimTainment stands for unusual music creations and different sounds. 2011 will see the launch of Tim's record label.

Obscure Robot: Do you define yourself more by your music or your day job?

TimTainment: I define myself more by my music - that´s my main-work.

Obscure Robot: Does your other work ever influence your music, or how you think about music?

TimTainment: Oh yes - my work as a gardener has got a lot of influence to my music. There are so many sounds in the nature...they give me a lot of inspiration!

Music is everywhere if you really listen and it is a universal language too - that is what I think about music

Tim au Tech by Timtainment

Building Your Own Binaural Microphones - Silent Strangers, Part Two of Two

Silent Strangers is a musician who’s work has been published on the IDMf netlabel. His interview has been split into two installments.

Obscure Robot: Tell me about a particularly challenging track. What was difficult, how did you resolve that difficulty?

Silent Strangers: There is one on Anagram2:Ire that comes to mind. Its called Parallel Being. Difficult to get the loop phasing working right. I have a compound time signature of 13/4+6/4+9/4 for my main drum track. Keeping the rhythm tight enough to keep attention, and making it sit right with a 4/4 bassline was the challenge. In the first version(s) the drum track had a compound of 13/4+5/4+/9/4. Changing it to 6/4 allowed me to work with even number that phased easier with the 4/4 bassline. If I kept it 5/4, the compound would have been 27/4 versus the 4/4 bass. The bassline would have sync'd up perfectly, every 26 bars. And the bassline needs to be tighter in that track, you’ll hear it soon ;)

Hexeract by SilentStrangers

It Depends If It's Good Or Bad Chaos - Silent Strangers, Part One of Two

Silent Strangers is a musician who’s work has been published on the IDMf netlabel. His interview has been split into two installments.

Obscure Robot: Do you define yourself more by your music or your day job / studies?

Silent Strangers: Both, music has always been a huge part of my life. My parents put me in piano lessons at age 6, so its a part of me. My day job/studies intertwine, I attend the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale majoring in Visual Effects. I got into that to make animation/visual art to compliment my music. So music and my work are one in the same.

Left Cold Sampler by SilentStrangers

Music For A Desert Island - Shotguns Part Four of Four

Shotguns is a musician who hangs out on IDM Forums. His interview has been split into four installments.

Obscure Robot: What is your desert island software or hardware?

Shotguns: So, on the software tinge, I would have to go for Reaktor. Why? It's like having a warehouse full of circuits and modules that you can put together as you wish. Also, it includes 100's of friends who offer you things they've built for free.

In terms of hardware, I'm a nut for distortion and guitar pedals, so I'd have to bring a case of those and I would probably bring my trusty MS2000B. I love this synth. It's technically not the "best" synth I own, but it feels like an extension of my fingers and it just makes a lot of sense for me.