Bugbrand Modular Mayhem

YouTube Uploaded by otoskope on Mar 29, 2011

"Ain't she beautiful, my new baby? I just recieved this wonderful machine from Tom Bugs - a Bugbrand Modular. It is obviously capable of some serious sonic mess. And I love the colours!

This patch relies mostly on the delay module, modulated and fed by various oscillators, with extra spice added by the button-trigged envelope to the left, and a few dry feeds to give body to the sound (these are soloed after a while).

Enjoy
/Palle Dahlstedt"

Update:

Bugbrand Modular 2 - Spacious Drone

Uploaded by otoskope on Mar 30, 2011

"Exploring unexpected drone possibilities from a patch originally made for emergent cross-modulation rhythms, which brutally failed when I tried to film it. After some knob-twiddling, this was the result.

From 4:35 there are some nice grooves.

This is my second day with the Bugbrand Modular, and I'm quite sure it will keep me busy for a while...

The sound is recorded straight from the line out of the synth (which is mono).

/Palle Dahlstedt"

Bugbrand Modular 3 - Cross-modulation Space War

Uploaded by otoskope on Mar 30, 2011

'A test of how the different oscillators can inter-modulate, in the eminent Bugbrand Modular, which I received yesterday."

Bugbrand Modular 4 - Timpani drummer

Uploaded by otoskope on Mar 30, 2011

"Exploring a way of creating complex rhythms with minimal means, while keeping resources for creating the actual sounds. Various multiplications of envelope and a couple of oscillators create a rhythm that modulates the Buchla-style Low-pass gate. That constitutes the main kettle-drum sound. To spice it up, there is a complementary synth sound. In the video, I explore various knob settings for the patch."

Bugbrand Modular 5 - Omph Omph

Uploaded by otoskope on Mar 30, 2011

"OK, so I made a few experimental videos on the Bugbrand Modular today, but I just couldn't resist trying to do something more, you know, beat-based (although strangely shifting). One hand holds the camera. That leaves one hand to do the beats..."

playing modular BC16 through DIY pressure sensor

YouTube via otoskope. via otoskope in this electro-music.com thread where you will find additional info.
"A first test of a simple DIY pressure sensor surface for controlling analog synthesis. It is built from cheap conductive foam, with aluminium foil taped on both sides in various patches. Only the right side of the sensor surface is connected. The top foil goes to +5V, and four patches underneath are connected to various inputs on the small analog modular synthesizer Chimera BC16 (the white round thing with knobs in the background). In this first test, the following modulation inputs are connected: volume, oscillator pitch and diff (osc 1-2), and filter cutoff.

The aluminium foil is attached to a sheet of plastic, to allow change of layout, and to make the foam piece exchangeable in case it gets worn out. I plan to upload a video showing more details about how it was made.

Materials used: an old cardboard box, a cut-up plastic folder, adhesive aluminium foil, a piece of conductive foam of the kind you use to transport ICs. Total cost: €4."

YouHero - rehearsal of Palle Dahlstedt's "Short Term Memory"

YouTube via otoskope — May 06, 2010 — "Katarina Widell and Patrik Karlsson rehearse Palle Dahlstedt's piece Short Term Memory - Game Piece for Game Guitar.

YouHero is a project to turn the passive "musicianship" of a Guitar Hero player into something more creative - a real instrument using the Guitar Hero guitar as a controller. The guitar is connected directly to a laptop, running a custom software designed and programmed by Palle Dahlstedt, implemented in MaxMSP, Java and SynthMaker.

The YouHero project will tour around Sweden in 2010, on concert stages and in schools, encouraging kids to create their own music for this new instrument.

http://www.youhero.se

The premiere took place May 5th, 2010 at Pusterviksbaren, Göteborg, Sweden, and this is a rehearsal for that concert, filmed at Element Studio."

YouHero in Concert - Martin Q Larsson's Duello

"otoskope — May 06, 2010 — YouHero Concert Premiere at the Gothenburg Art Sound Festival (GAS) 2010. Patrik Karlsson and Katarina Widell perform Martin Q Larsson's piece Duello, originally written for conventional instruments. That makes it the worlds first transcription for the YouHero guitar.

YouHero is a project to turn the passive "musicianship" of a Guitar Hero player into something more creative - a real instrument using the Guitar Hero guitar as a controller. The guitar is connected directly to a laptop, running a custom software designed and programmed by Palle Dahlstedt, implemented in MaxMSP, Java and SynthMaker.

http://www.youhero.se

The YouHero project will tour around Sweden in 2010, on concert stages and in schools, encouraging kids to create their own music for this new instrument.

The premiere took place May 5th, 2010 at Pusterviksbaren, Göteborg, Sweden."

北鏡-編集-DV NTSC アナモフィック

YouTube Uploaded by KyotoTheatre on Aug 8, 2011

"Northern Mirror, composite video Noho THeatre Group's 2011 July 18th production"

via otoskope who brought us the bugbrand and Palle Dahlstedt custom pencil interface videos here.
"In July I made a collaboration with traditional Japanese dancers and musicians, and this is one of the performances. The NoHo Theatre Company in Kyoto commissioned a piece, and I chose the title Northern Mirror, and composed it in my studio. In Kyoto, director Jonah Salz together with me and the performers created a story around my title, and then performed it at the beautiful Oe Noh-gakudo, one of Kyoto's oldest Noh Theatres.

The electronic pre-recorded part was made from alternate-playing piano sounds, and then processed in a Nord Modular G2, using evolutionary algorithms and custom gestural mappings to control the parameters of complex shuffling algorithms."

otoskope also let me know that the stages are sacred. You have to wear special socks placed in front of it and no electronic devices are allowed on stage. Speakers were discretely placed in front which made monitoring the acoustic musicians a challenge.

New Year Firework - oscilloscope art

YouTube via otoskope
"Happy New Year! Some oscilloscope fireworks art - what you hear is what you see! You hear the actual signals producing the pattern - the X and the Y signals fed to the oscilloscope.

The signals are generated in a Nord Modular G2 patch, and the patch is posted here: http://www.electro-music.com/forum/vi..."

Pencil Fields - analog gestural interface controlling Bugbrand Modular

YouTube Uploaded by otoskope on May 9, 2011

"This is a live performance by Palle Dahlstedt on a custom built instrument, using a simple pencil drawing as a gestural interface for controlling complex analog synthesis (on a Bugbrand Modular). The instrument works by creating a voltage potential field in the graphite/pencil markings on the paper using custom movable electrodes made from coins. Then, various control voltages are extracted from other points on the paper, controlling various aspects of the synthesized sound.

A big thanks to Tom Bugs for very valuable electronics advice!

The sound is recorded directly from the BugBrand Modular (with a slight reverb), and from contact mics on the pencil sharpener. There is no normal microphone, which explains the slightly awkward silence in the beginning, while I'm drawing.

Recorded at the second performance (of two), May 6th, 2011, Gothenburg, Sweden. Concert arranged by Levande Musik (www.levandemusik.org)

This work is part of the research project Creative Performance at University of Gothenburg, funded by the Swedish Research Council."

Two Bugbrand SV Filters Having a Party

YouTube Uploaded by otoskope on Jan 30, 2012

"An illustration of the complex waveforms you can get from just a Bugbrand PRC3A SV Filter when fed back to itself. The signal chain is one SV filter to each channel (L and R), nothing else. Feedback strength, and self-modulation (frequency, Q) for each filter are controlled by some auxiliary circuitry (VCAs and bipolar modulators) run by gestural sources (sequencers and looping envelopes).

More on this specific technique here: http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51588

Actually, the cross-modulating envelopes (2xENV1, in the lower row of the modular) create rather interesting rhythmic patterns. It is an interesting technique. Each envelope modulate the other's timing.

Apologies for bad image quality."

Noise Drone Organ

YouTube via otoskope | July 05, 2010

"Palle Dahlstedt playing the Nord C2 organ, in a noise drone improvisation.

The sound is recorded directly from the line outs of the C2 organ."

Bugbrand Major Drum first test (2xDRM1+DRM1x)

Published on Feb 28, 2014 otoskope·45 videos

"Testing a double Bugbrand DRM1+DRM1x 'Major Drum' setup, driven by a simple step sequencer. In essence, this is a two-voice percussion synthesizer. The voices are heavily cross-patched. As you can hear, these modules can do far more than just drum sounds. Each voice contains a dual waveform syncable oscillator, noise source, multi-mode filter, four decay envelopes and much more. 23 knobs, 10 switches and 20 patch points per voice!

In this video I just fiddle around with settings to explore the sonic possibilities. Sound is taken directly from the two drum modules, one in each channel (L+R). No external equipment used. No mastering. No FX."

Electronic percussion with dynamic mapping - demo

YouTube Uploaded by otoskope on Mar 14, 2011

"Percussionist Olof Olsson performs demoing an electronic percussion instrument designed and programmed by Palle Dahlstedt.

In this instrument, the musician navigates a huge space of possible sounds, through playing and listening. All pads play a single polyphonic sound engine, but each pad generates its own set of parameters. The size of the cluster of parameter sets can be varied, and the sounds of different pads can be blended, i.e., a pad has an effect also on the sound of the other pads. At any time, the whole cluster of sounds can be moved in any direction. When the musician presses a pedal switch, the cluster is moved towards the current sound, and then this subspace can be explored - so the sounds are changed through playing, and the timberal variation is virtually limitless.

This instrument is a percussion adaption of the vector mapping technique used in the instruments Palle Dahlstedt designed for duo pantoMorf.

The percussion pad is a DrumKAT, and the instrument is implemented in a Nord Modular G2.

This is part of the research project Creative Performance, directed by Palle Dahlstedt at the Department of Applied IT and the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Funded by the Swedish Research Council."

Electronic percussion improvisation 2 - navigating sound space through playing

duo pantoMorf goes analog: gestural Bugbrand modulars

Published on Mar 4, 2014 otoskope·48 videos

"duo pantoMorf is a duo known for their electronic free improv, based around instruments developed by themselves. The idea is to achieve the same freedom they are used to on acoustic instrument. Here they for the first time try the same approach on analog modulars. The basic idea is that when you lift your hands, the instrument goes quiet, and that all sonic gestures correspond to a physical gesture. Hence, no self-playing structures.

Here, they are performing on Bugbrand modular synthesizers. Per Anders also uses a Gotharman Little deFormer 2 for some processing.

duo pantoMorf is Palle Dahlstedt and Per Anders Nilsson"

Bugbrand Modular 6 - A moment of low-dimensional chaos

YouTube Uploaded by otoskope on Apr 2, 2011

"Don't ask me to explain this patch. I've had this little miracle machine for three days now, and keep discovering new ways of intermodulating things. Basically the three oscillators are modulating each other's fequencies connected clockwise, and waveform's counter-clock-wise. At the same time. Plus an audio-rate looping envelope gets modulated in different ways by this chaotic system.

The sound is recorded straight from the Bugbrand's line outs.

Enjoy!
/Palle Dahlstedt"

Lindblad Studios Buchla and Serge Jam

YouTube Uploaded by otoskope on Nov 27, 2011

"Niklas Sjösvärd and David Sabel (electronic music composition students) going about at the new Buchla 200e and the old 80's Serge. Recorded at the re-opening open house of the studios after total renovation.

This snippet shows only a fraction of their jam - they played for about six hours!

The Lindblad Studios is the department of electronic music at the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg, Sweden."

Buchla Boys heavy beats live patching at the Sirén Festival: 1

YouTube Uploaded by otoskope on Mar 10, 2012

"Part of the first set of the last concert at the 2012 Sirén Festival. This is a festival arranged by the students at the composition and individual programs at the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Buchla Boys are David Sabel and Niklas Sjösvärd, and they're performing on a 1980's 5-panel Serge and a 18-size Buchla 200e, both belonging to the Lindblad Studios at the Academy. The patching is improvised, and there's a crowd dancing behind them (too dark to film). This is part of a longer set, and there's more photage coming, of higher quality.

This was filmed with a mobile camera."

Disklavier Controlled by Nord Modular G2

Palle Dahlstedt's Circle Self - a live feedback algorithm for Disklavier

Published on Feb 25, 2014 otoskope·45 videos

According to Palle the "G2 does it all - essentially it is a modular synth (the G2) generating sequence patterns for a player piano based on a seed from a human player (me). No other equipment involved."

"A quick pre-concert test of the 'piece' Circle Self, for Disklavier and electronics. The underlying engine consist of four virtual musicians who listen to each other in an intricate feedback system (hence, "Circle"). All paramers are controlled from a keyboard, through a dynamic vector mapping. But the keybaord output is here fed back to the system, through this vector mapping, so the whole system is essentially playing itself (hence, "Self"). It needs to be triggered by a manual seed to get going, though.

This is the third piece in the Circle series. The previous two are:

Circle Squared (the virtual musicians are controlled by a musician using expressive pressure pads)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gcCLfmLyeE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-b1cKBsG1I

Circle Keys (the virtual musicians are controlled by, and interacted with through the actual piano keyboard)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkTi8PfKFhY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5sMRIY_D5o

The system is programmed by Palle Dahlstedt, and it is part of the research project Creative Performance. Recorded in the Sjöström Hall of the Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The Disklavier belongs to the academy's department for electronic music, the Lindblad Studios."

Electronic percussion improvisation - navigating sound space through playing

YouTube Uploaded by otoskope on Mar 11, 2011

"Percussionist Olof Olsson performs an improvisation on an electronic percussion instrument designed and programmed by Palle Dahlstedt.

In this instrument, the musician navigates a huge space of possible sounds, through playing and listening. All pads play a single polyphonic sound engine, but each pad generates its own set of parameters. The size of the cluster of parameter sets can be varied, and the sounds of different pads can be blended, i.e., a pad has an effect also on the sound of the other pads. At any time, the whole cluster of sounds can be moved in any direction. When the musician presses a pedal switch, the cluster is moved towards the current sound, and then this subspace can be explored - so the sounds are changed through playing, and the timberal variation is virtually limitless.

This instrument is a percussion adaption of the vector mapping technique used in the instruments Palle Dahlstedt designed for duo pantoMorf.

The percussion pad is a DrumKAT, and the instrument is implemented in a Nord Modular G2, visible to the right in the video."

Heart-driven modular synth - first test

Published on Nov 2, 2012 by otoskope

Bugbrand Modular

"I hooked up my heart through an ECG monitor to my modular synthesizer. From the ECG monitor, built from a kit today, I get the sound of my heart, and a control voltage signal. I use these to modulate various oscillators and filters, and also to clock a sequencer.

This is just a first test, and it seems to work."

Bugbrand Beats - celebrating modular expansion

YouTube Uploaded by otoskope on Jun 2, 2011

"A patch celebrating the arrival of some serious expansion for my blue modular system from Bugbrand.

The sound is recorded directly from the line signal from the synth, and could need some serious mastering, but I had fun doing it.

In addition to Bugbrand, there are some bananafied Wiard modules, and a Haible 'Living VCO' in the system."

duo pantoMorf - improvisation

YouTube via otoskope
"duo pantoMorf is a Swedish electronic free impro duo and research project. Beginning in 2006, they have actively developed new ways of controlling electronic sound. The video shows an improvisation on two instances of the instrument "the expressure pad", which has become their main performance instrument. Based on a completely novel way of mapping gesture sound, it allows enormous timberal flexibility and expressive fingertip control at the same time. Both members have a background as musicians on traditiona instruments, and this duo represents is one of the results of their efforts in bringing back musicianship into electronic music, that is, to be able to play electronic sounds as directly as acoustic instruments. The dogmas are: If we lift our hands, the instrument goes silent. That means, there are no pre-programmed processes, and every sound nuance corresponds to a physical gesture from the musician.

duo pantoMorf have performed in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, USA and Canada. Further tours are planned, for Portugal (October 2009) and USA (March 2010).

Left: Palle Dahlstedt
Right: Per Anders Nilsson

Video produced by Anders Bryngel - see http://www.youtube.com/user/waddagood... for more by him!

http://myspace.com/pantomorf

A technical paper on the instrument can be found here: http://www.init.ituniv.se/~palle/publ...

Thanks to University of Gothenburg, Swedish Research Council and Clavia."

Baby Bugbrand noisebox mayhem - DIY micro frame

Published on Oct 28, 2012 by otoskope

"I spent my day converting an old toy drawer from my childhood into a small modular synthesizer frame for some Bugbrand modules.. This is the first test, with a chaotic feedback patch, just for fun.

The baby frame holds 7 frac-widths worth of modules plus power supply and distro. Currently I stuffed it with the following modules:

front side
CTL2 joystick/touch control
SYN2C tri-core oscillator
SYN2A utility oscillator
PRC3A SV multimode filter

back side
PRC1 PT Delay
DD1 Ring mod/LPG

and a Mini Power module"