In 2008 I was awarded a CPD grant by the then Scottish Arts Council (now known as Creative Scotland) to undertake a residency at STEIM in Amsterdam. The project involved creating an instrument that combined a number of circuit bent devices, custom built modules, DIY synths, high-end effects units, and an fx-pedal or two, into a modular case. Most of the project is documented on the STEIM website here. As I’ve been slowly migrating content from my old site to my new one, and particularly here to this blog, some of what I wrote on STEIM’s blog will be duplicated.
In any case, the idea for the residency was actually inspired by Keith Rowe who laughed when he saw me roll up with my gear packed in a 20kg yellow beast of a suitcase. He just shook his head and said, “That won’t last long.” Thinking back, I’m not sure if he meant me, the case, or the idea of packing up your entire studio every time you have a gig.
I guess it made an impression, especially seeing how much Rowe was able to pull out of a small attaché case. I decided to create a single modular case that was small enough to carry around but still housed enough gear that provided the options that I had become accustomed to. I also wanted develop certain ideas that I had been working on with various electronic devices.
STEIM, by the way, is a fantastic place to do this type of a residency. Founded in 1969 in Amsterdam , STEIM hosts residencies, workshops, performances, and talks about all facets of electronic music involving hardware, software and performance practice. It has a particular interest in interface technology, i.e. how one physically interacts, responds to, or controls technology for performance and composition. As such, it was a perfect place for me to spend a few weeks working on a new instrument.
STEIM’s residency program involves a two step process. First you attend an induction involving a two to three day overview of the centre, the technology, and the software they’ve pioneered. In my case, this included introductions to their software program LiSa, the sensor box JUNXION, and the lofi but fun Cracklebox, as well as talks about where where STEIM and technology in general seem to be headed. After my induction I decided to take advantage of one of the many workshops offered at STEIM and stayed a few days longer to fit in a PureData workshop. This eventually led to my writing several patches that I’ve used to generate material for various compositions since (note to self: write a post with my PureData patches).
Due to scheduling, I had to return to Scotland for a week before returning to finish the final two weeks of my residency. It worked out though as it gave me a week to digest what I had learned as well as to evaluate where I was headed with my design. Although I had some ideas of what I wanted to build, I was far from having a fixed plan. Rather, I had a few ideas I wanted to see if I could pull off, a few kits I wanted to build, and a general idea for how I wanted it all to fit together.
My first goal was to bend two Major Morgan toys and to see if I could get them to interact. Combining two circuit bent toys is finicky business and there are no guarantees that they will ‘talk’ to each other. After much experimentation I ended up connecting them via a series of handmade vactrol circuits. These basically consist of an LED taped to a light dependent resistor. When one toy causes an LED light up, the connected LDR responds and sends a signal affecting the other toy. With a few of these I was able to get each MM to modulate the other, and then housed them in a single box.
Next I converted a toy megaphone into an effects unit. It worked but it’s a rowdy f$%#er. That’s the nature of circuit bending, though, it’s really more about discovering than designing. I did find some uses for it in the end and nicknamed the unit SCAR.
And then I built and modified a Weird Sound Generator. This went pretty much to plan without much trouble, although part of me still wants to rehouse it in a different project box as I put the controls a bit too close for my fingers.
Finally, I purchased a Harvest Man Malgorithm bit reduction distortion unit. A really beautiful piece of circuitry. The designer bases his modules on ideas taken from circuit bending practice, so it was appropriate to include. The problem, though, is that it’s designed to sit in a modular case designed for synths, so I had to make do with fitting it in a box. This was fairly straightforward, although I almost cut my thumb off resizing it.
Once this was all completed (I was working like the devil to get it all done), I turned my attention to designing a mixer that would route all the signals in a flexible manner. It all got a bit complicated, though, and I sent an email to Nic Collins (the author of Hardware Hacking – the ‘bible’ of DIY electronics) asking what he thought or if it was too complex to understand via email. His response was, “Yep, it’s too complicated over email.” Ha! But he did have some good advice that I’m planning on implementing in a later project. Here’s the diagram I sent of my design (I can’t help but smile now thinking what he might have thought when he opened his email):
Finally, with all of the new instruments built, I started the process of housing these in a silver case along with a couple of Alesis Philtre units, a triwave picogenerator, and a cheap Behringer graphic EQ pedal.
This is what it ended up looking like:
The unit end up more of a DIY effects pedal board, but this allowed me to switch modules in and out as needed. This turned out to be a good ideas as I tended to use the devices more often individually, than as a collective single meta-instrument. In the end, the sounds of the modular were too suited to Power Electronics and even though my work crosses over into that sound world, it is generally more finely grained and delicate than what these devices were capable of.
I did learn a tremendous amount from the residency, though, and it allowed me to deepen my circuit bending practice, develop some PureData skills, and meet some wonderful people who have become long distance friends. I also fell in love with Amsterdam in a way that I couldn’t have on a short visit.
And as to the yellow beast, it was replaced by an equally large grey beast, and I still carry a god-awful amount of kit to gigs. I can see Rowe shaking his head even now.