A Christmas patch on the Emu and Serge modulars. This was not an easy sequence to set up due to the extremely quirky nature of the early Emu digital logic implementation, but I wanted to test the step sequencer which is capable of generating 32 control voltages if you set it up correctly. There is very little info out there on these modules, and what I could find (the 1978 Emu Systems Catalog, and a more detailed manual called the Emu Modular Synthesiser Operation Manual Retrospective) only had some fairly oblique references to the patch required. Suffice it to say that it took me about 3 days to work it out and plenty of phone calls to Big Al (who knows a lot about early digital logic). It goes something like this: take a clock source and patch it out to the 8 Position Address Generator taking the 'Carry' output trigger (which happens at the end of the 8th step) and mult it out to the 3 clock inputs of a Triple Latch which needs to act as a ring counter. So use the 3 'Q' outputs to feed into the next Data input of each latch with Q3 feeding back into Data 1 to make it cycle. That gives you 3 steps. The clever bit is making the 4th step which means taking the 3 '-Q' outputs and multing them together to generate a clock on every 4th cycle (whenever an "all zero" state occurs). Patch the 4 outputs of the Voltage Source Unit into the 4 ins of the Analog Switch and use the newly created 4 stage ring counter to step through them. PHEW! The rest of this patch uses the Serge to generate some percussive sounds including the Wilson Analog Delay and Spring Reverbs. Its a live single-take jam-up
Sunday 25 December 2016
Emu & Serge for Xmas
A Christmas patch on the Emu and Serge modulars. This was not an easy sequence to set up due to the extremely quirky nature of the early Emu digital logic implementation, but I wanted to test the step sequencer which is capable of generating 32 control voltages if you set it up correctly. There is very little info out there on these modules, and what I could find (the 1978 Emu Systems Catalog, and a more detailed manual called the Emu Modular Synthesiser Operation Manual Retrospective) only had some fairly oblique references to the patch required. Suffice it to say that it took me about 3 days to work it out and plenty of phone calls to Big Al (who knows a lot about early digital logic). It goes something like this: take a clock source and patch it out to the 8 Position Address Generator taking the 'Carry' output trigger (which happens at the end of the 8th step) and mult it out to the 3 clock inputs of a Triple Latch which needs to act as a ring counter. So use the 3 'Q' outputs to feed into the next Data input of each latch with Q3 feeding back into Data 1 to make it cycle. That gives you 3 steps. The clever bit is making the 4th step which means taking the 3 '-Q' outputs and multing them together to generate a clock on every 4th cycle (whenever an "all zero" state occurs). Patch the 4 outputs of the Voltage Source Unit into the 4 ins of the Analog Switch and use the newly created 4 stage ring counter to step through them. PHEW! The rest of this patch uses the Serge to generate some percussive sounds including the Wilson Analog Delay and Spring Reverbs. Its a live single-take jam-up
Labels:
emu modular,
my music,
my video,
Serge Modular,
synth sketches
Wednesday 26 October 2016
Automatron
Tuesday 25 October 2016
Barbican Birthday Bashes
However, this time we (Wrangler) teamed up with John Grant and performed a brand new set of music for our headline show - which was pretty scary for us but A LOT OF FUN. Thanks to John, Ben Eyes, Dancon, Gary and the whole team it was an epic adventure!
Photo: Antonio Pagano
Thursday 13 October 2016
Wednesday 12 October 2016
Good Company
Click below for the full text
Friday 7 October 2016
More Oscars
Tuesday 4 October 2016
Oscars
The video is made by me filming the sound going through an oscilloscope then messing it up with a vintage video mixer
Here is lovely little Oscar:
Saturday 1 October 2016
Octaveizer
Here is a description of how the Triple Latch works:
Sunday 25 September 2016
Saturday 17 September 2016
Wednesday 14 September 2016
Sparked Lines
Saturday 27 August 2016
Tuesday 23 August 2016
Mix Up Wrangle
Soho Wrangle
Thursday 4 August 2016
Monday 11 July 2016
Pixelpaint
CREDITS:
Visuals: Oil on canvas, Phillips VKR6810 camera, Panasonic WJMX50A production mixer
Sound: Buchla 100 modular synthesiser, a remix of tracks taken from the album FORMS FIVE, SHAPES IN SPACE, by Benge
Sunday 10 July 2016
Sticky
Thursday 7 July 2016
An Arabesque
Wednesday 29 June 2016
Underground Sound
Over the past few months I have been working with John Foxx on the soundtrack to a stage play based on EM Forster's amazing short story The Machine Stops, about a future where humans live underground and communicate electronically via Skype (seriously)
It seems like ages ago now, but back in May we went up to York to finalise the soundtrack and work with the cast and production team at the Pilot Theatre / Theatre Royal studio. More on the play later, but as part of the general build up to the play's opening we were asked to do a special one-off concert at the York Cold War Bunker. How could we turn that down!?! I love things to do with secret government projects and anything from the 1960s-80s period. If you have a few days to spare, check out this website. The bunker has a very small capacity so we decided to play a short (20 minute) set and do it 4 times to 4 different audiences. Weird idea, no? Anyway it worked really well, and the sound man on the night, Ben Eyes, made a decent recording of the performances direct through the sound desk and also with a stereo room mic. I have mixed and mastered it and it will be available on the MemeTune digital download site soon. Here are some pictures of us performing, taken during sound check by Ben Pugh
And here is a really well made video
What is really interesting about the York Cold War Bunker is that it lets you see "behind the curtain" and glimpse some of the mad things that go on without us knowing. For example, look at that last picture of Foxxy and I sitting in front of that awesome glass map. You see all those dots forming a grid covering the whole of the UK, approximately 10 miles apart from each other? They are all underground bunkers! Yes thats right theres a secret bunker very near you right now!!!
Sunday 19 June 2016
Thursday 5 May 2016
Easel Tiger
Sunday 24 April 2016
Shh!
Oh yes and another thing - I made a new Memetune Video ident - inspired by those supercool branding tags you used to get at the start of dodgy horror film videos in the 80s. Hope you like it
Labels:
MemeTune Studios,
my music,
studio vids,
synth sketches
Sunday 10 April 2016
Are You Listening To Me?
Whats more, I'm not sure GN has been on a track featuring so many vintage synths since he recorded Cars! (well, maybe a bit later than that, but you get the point). I do know that he is a big fan of Foxxy, and is on record as saying John was a huge influence on his early synth-based work. So I guess it makes sense that he would want to get involved in this collaboration, which is essentially a reworking of our original track Talk from our Shape Of Things album. So I sent Gary the individual tracks from Talk, and he added a brand new vocal part and some synth drones and then I added some more synth parts and mixed it all at Memetune Central. It will be coming out in a little while on a new album of JF collaborations including some new JF&TM tracks on Metamatic Records. You can pro-order it here
Now for some detail about the track itself just in case there are any geeks reading this blog. Here is a list of the synths used and some pictures and a video:
MOOG MODULAR. Used for the initial low sequenced parts and some drones
MOOG POLYMOOG - Layered top lines and main melodies
LINN LM1 & EHX DRM16 DRUM MACHINES - DRM16 comes in first, then the Linn does the main drums half way through
PAIA MODULAR - The weird sequence that comes in half way through
ROLAND JX3P - Layered top lines and main melodies
OBERHEIM FOUR VOICE - Layered top lines and main melodies
GRATUITOUS STUDIO PIC
Here is a little video of me playing a top line on the Polymoog:
There were also a plethora of vintage delay, flanger and phaser units used, as well as vintage EMT Plate and Lexicons because as Gary said '..the vocals need a shit load of reverb on them!'. So there you have it, hope you like the track when it comes out!!
Award Winning
Saturday 9 April 2016
Spark Up
Look here! You can pre-order the new Wrangler album which features 11 remixes of tracks from LA Spark. Its an epic release, especially if you go for the double gatefold vinyl, but I would recommend getting the vinyl AND the CD because they are both worth having in your collection (I hear CDs are coming back into fashion)
Thursday 24 March 2016
Couvent
Tuesday 22 March 2016
Saturday 5 March 2016
Arpy
Labels:
ARP,
modular synthesis,
my music,
my video,
synth sketches
Monday 29 February 2016
Saturday 27 February 2016
Wednesday 17 February 2016
Drum Together
By the way - Robin - did this belong to you at some point???
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