KVR Audio

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Mon Jul 17, 2017 3:02 pm

Recorded this last night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnTzU63-Y4c

Here's the soundcloud link.
https://soundcloud.com/justin3am/lacryfi

The droney parts come from a spring drum which you can't see in the shot. It's run through a resonator and reverb. I just shake the spring once in a while or tap the drum head to get the resonator going.

thomekk · Post by **thomekk** » Wed Jul 19, 2017 12:59 am

Interesting!
The moving balls are fascinating. What are they doing? Thought for a while they were actors for signal-producing, but that was obviously a wrong assumption.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Wed Jul 19, 2017 3:16 am

The marbles drive the main rhythm. There is a piezo mic under the wood box, which is routed through the mixer, in the box next to it (a Koma Field Kit). That channel is then routed to the main output and a send. The send is routed to a delay and a granular sampler, then back into the mixer, creating a feedback loop. At first you just hear the marbles (though pretty distorted), then you hear the delay add some rhythmic variation, later the sampler plays back slices of sound recorded from the marbles and things get more chaotic.

I found it really neat how the rhythm would change depending on when and where each marble hit another. Subtly changing the angle of the wood box could dramatically change the rhythm. But the underlying clack of the solenoid holds down the beat, at least to my ears.

Thanks for listening.

layzer · Post by **layzer** » Wed Jul 19, 2017 8:20 am

brilliant use of marbles, they create a most interesting percussive sound
driving the rest of the weirdness. A+ for creativity!

AsPeeXXXVIII · Post by **AsPeeXXXVIII** » Wed Jul 19, 2017 12:36 pm

This was most intriguing. Did you build that marble machine thing by yourself, by any chance? c;

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Jul 19, 2017 1:38 pm

Im 5 seconds in, and hh, I love the Fieldkit and the marbles....

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Wed Jul 19, 2017 4:34 pm

AsPeeXXXVIII wrote:Did you build that marble machine thing by yourself, by any chance? c;

Kinda but it's just a solenoid which I clamped to the wooden lid of my Field Kit, which includes the circuitry for driving the solenoid or a DC motor. I put the components together to make it work the way it does and I assembled the Field Kit from parts but it was a kit and the PCB was already populated with most of the parts. As a DIY project, the effort was minimal. The work went into finding an interesting application the sound of clacking marbles.

Of course delays make everything sound more interesting.

Thanks for listening, all.

Frantz · Post by **Frantz** » Fri Jul 21, 2017 3:34 am

Reminds me a bit of the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet which is nice. The marbles are the star of the show but there is enough sonic weirdness to make this interesting. Nice job.

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Fri Jul 21, 2017 9:45 am

What was the granular sampler, btw? Phonogene?

Allomerus · Post by **Allomerus** » Fri Jul 21, 2017 9:52 am

Enjoyed this.
The marbles are cool and like Frantz says the sonic weirdness makes it interesting.
Well done.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Fri Jul 21, 2017 4:27 pm

Thanks for listening. Sonic weirdness was definitely the goal!

whyterabbyt wrote:What was the granular sampler, btw? Phonogene?

Yes, a Phonogene. I put a Morphagene in my Shared System case, so now I use the Phonogene in a smaller case with some standalone noise makers (Quad Plague Bearer, Horndog, Field Kit). I also have a Microphonie in that case which is a great companion for the PG. I'm using a MFB Dual LFO and a Woggle Bug (of course) for modulation.

seismic1 · Post by **seismic1** » Sun Jul 23, 2017 10:50 pm

This was very enjoyable. I loved the marbles (from a failed pinball-player perspective), but I thought the stars of the show were the drones, which had an almost "vocal" quality in places. Highly inventive choice of instrumentation.

Good work

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Mon Jul 24, 2017 3:39 am

Thanks! Though they got pushed pretty far back in the mix, I put a lot of effort into the screaming ringmod sounds and the resonator drones. I wanted them to respond to input from me but also do their own thing without my input. I wish you could see more of the spring drum, as it would be easier to see how the sound changes if I shake or hit it.

nineofkings · Post by **nineofkings** » Tue Jul 25, 2017 12:58 pm

layzer wrote:brilliant use of marbles, they create a most interesting percussive sound
driving the rest of the weirdness. A+ for creativity!

Totally agree. I feel that occasionally modular sets can get bogged down in endless unclear tweakery, but the marbles added a great creative twist that provides a touch of familiarity even to non-musical audiences, and showed the process of how the sound processing works. Good work!

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:22 am

Thanks. I agree, when it comes to performance, it's important for the audience to be able to identify some interaction between what they are seeing and what they are hearing. When it comes to modular synths, there are so many modes of interaction which are unfamiliar to anyone who doesn't have experience with that specific instrument... unless the player is using something like a keyboard. I knew early on that I didn't want to play my modular with a keyboard but I understood that no one is interested in seeing me program a sequencer.

So, I always try to incorporate physical objects that are responsible for an obvious part of the sound. Sometimes it's a dramatic FX transition with an x/y pad. Others, it's a boring old guitar. In this case it was some marbles. I'm working on my solenoid driven robot drum kit now. lol

3am - Lacryfi (improvised noise/ambient)