Voice of Saturn Synthesizer and Ekdahl Moisterizer by thingstocome

Today I decided to record using my Voice of Saturn Synthesizer and Ekdahl Moisturizer. I really like both of these boutique boxes. I’ve already used both machines on various Horrorist songs.

“Basically, the Ekdahl Moisturizer is a spring reverb where the springs are exposed so they can be played/hit/fiddled with.” – sdiy.org

For more info: curiousinventor.com and sdiy.org/knas/products/moisturizer

Musotalk is an online pro-audio video show based in Berlin. It’s in German and often the host “Non Eric” has the first look at gear coming from the land of VW (and Ableton, and Steinberg, and Neuman, and Waldorf, and…). His most recent show was a live get together featuring the new wonderful Doepfer Dark Energy. Although the audio is typically video camera distorted it’s a nice view to get an idea of the DE’s size.

If you have not already caught the great Sonic State review of the Dark Energy: click here

“Die Spy Cam vom MusoTalk Event in der Zyankali Bar Berlin. Hat viel Spass gemacht ….und wir haben auch schön Krach gemacht!” – www.musotalk.de

Stribe 1 Kit + shield + ableton live test from Mudo de Nacimiento on Vimeo.

Curious Inventor aka Travis from Atlanta, George produces some really interesting gear. Last year I bought a Voice of Saturn Synth and Sequencer from them. You can pick up CI stuff for the price of a plug-in. The Stribe is a LED touch trip you can control with Max/MSP (and other methods I believe). If you want to control your starship the right way be sure to get a Quad Stribe: click here

“Testing my Stribe 1 kit with Ableton Live trought maxmsp. Excuse about skills… stribes needs “a bit” pressure for detecting changes… is not a hardware issue, it is an “operator” (me) one!” – Mudo de Nacimiento

Our journey to Berlin and Barcelona ends here. See you on the next journey!

Here’s a mod to tame your Voice of Saturn synth a bit. Hey I want green LEDs and yellow switches on my VOS!

“The Voice of Saturn synthesizer with added vactrol based cv-mod for better range of control.” – Travis Thatcher

For more info: www.curiousinventor.com

Related post: The Voice of Saturn Synthesizer & Sequencer

I really love my Voice of Saturn Synth and Sequencer. Recently Curious Inventor added a Modulator module and now a cool Filter with a metal Joystick (yeah!).

“This unit has a joystick or Voltage Controlled low-pass filter. It accepts two inputs that are summed and also voltage controllable (or knob). The joystick is modular, and can be patched to control or attenuate other equipment.” – curiousinventor.com

All these modules are adding up to a unique and inexpensive modular synth. If your looking for a unique home-brew synth you may also want to check out the Mochika2 or the Sound Lab Mini-Synth. The new VOS Filter will cost you $80 in parts or $230 built.

Do any of you guys have a VOS or alike?

Related post: The Voice of Saturn Synthesizer & Sequencer

Peter Speer of Colonial Recordings USA shows us his first night with a Doepfer A-196 Phase Locked Loop Module. I enjoyed following the signal path around in this video. I also think these are some of the types of sounds have that slight edge you don’t get with plug-ins.

–Voice of Saturn Sequencer CV Out to Freq CV on Plan B ELF LFO

–ELF LFO Square Out to Trig In on Doepfer A-160 Clock Divider.
–ELF LFO Triangle Out to In 2 on PLL

–/64 Out on A-160 is triggering the first channel on the A-143-1 Complex Envelope Generator (all channels set to AD mode)
–Mix Out on A-143-1 to Gate In on A-140 ADSR
–/32 Out on A-160 is retriggering the A-140

–Output from A-140 sent to CV In on A-132-3

–Comparator Out on A-196 to Input on 132-3

–Output from A-132-3 to computer

For more info on the Doepfer A-196: click here

Related post: The Voice of Saturn Synthesizer & Sequencer

I’m happiest when creating songs for fun. Music that doesn’t have to fit anyone’s expectations. Constantly those recordings are my best. Remixes fall in the “oh man why am I doing this” category. I really pull my hair out trying to bend someone else’s vision into my own. For the most part if a song is great to start with it won’t need a remix. Sure there are super rock or melodic songs that need to be made into club hits but most of the remixes I get offered are already electronic.

Today I’m remixing a guy named Satronica. He’s one of my good friends from New York. He’s working on an album for Lenny Dee’s Industrial Strength Records. The song titled “Revenge Plan” is vocal heavy. The way he sings is pretty weird, almost an Arab chant style. I’m still trying to figure out how to mash the vocals into a tight grid. I may end up cutting each word up and throwing it into Reason’s NN-XT.

Because the vocals are so strong I don’t feel the need to keep his original music so I fired up some new toys and here’s a clip of what’s on the machine today.Keep in mind it’s just the synths and basic beat at this point. Purely amateur time so far:

Download audio file (revenge_plan_remix_clip.mp3)

The kick is Jomox Mbase 01, the main synth is the Voice of Saturn being sidechained with the key using Ableton’s compressor, later I add in another two copies of the Voice of Saturn channel but detuned left and right. The lazer zap’s are from an Audiorealism ABL. The drum roll is D16′s Drumazon and Devastor also sidechained with the Mbase 01. The snare is loaded into Native Instrument’s Battery 3 and if from a freebee disc I got with Computer Music magazine a few years ago.

It’s not nearly where it will end up but I thought you’d like to check in on the process. Writing this post gave my ears a few minutes break.

The first night Festival Kinetik was great. We sound checked at the same time as Ascii Disko (photo above). He forgot his audio interface so I lent him my M-Audio Firewire 410. I have to mention the 410 because that interface has worked flawlessly for my live show over the past several years. Daniel (Ascii) jumped online without leaving the stage, downloaded the drivers and it worked without a glitch. It only takes a minute to set up the 410 to control the on stage monitors using the M-audio control/system preference panel We had dinner and Sake together and had a chance to catch up with Matt (Satronica) who was one of my best friends when I lived in NYC.

The Montreal Mirror interview I did was out around town and it’s also available online now too. You can read it by: clicking here. I also did a video podcast for Vergel Evans great show LX7.ca. Be sure to keep an eye out on his site for that. Lastly, I did a video interview for noisescape.tv based out of San Fransisco. I was in a strange good mood when I did that interview and told some interesting stories. I will be ashamed when I see it!

There will be a plenty of photos and videos from all the live shows. You can already see one from Nitzer Ebb’s set on YouTube: Join in the Chant

I skipped the after party fun and got enough sleep to pick up the rental car at 9:00AM. We ended up with a Kia Sedona. I wanted something with some power but it rained most of the drive back so in the end the Kia was a good choice.

I arrived in NY and happy me the box from Curious Inventor.com was waiting. So far no audio tests but here’s a photo of my new toys…