Fastheadache

Loops, exercises, etc.

2012-02-13T13:43:00.001-05:00

I've posted a few snippets to soundcloud this afternoon. All stem from explorations of a small number of modules - <8 spaces specifically. 2.13 is a sequence, with some uncertain components, that was patched and manipulated throughout the weekend (as pictured). Throatish employed 140/180/291/266/259, and is otherwise pretty self-explanatory. Line 1&2 were experiments integrating the 140 as an erratic clock and modulation source - and also included 281/291/259/266.

Untitled

2012-02-02T12:35:00.001-05:00

The death of Mike Kelley is a huge bummer.

New Drawings

2012-01-28T10:26:00.002-05:00

Click them for larger (Flickr) views.

Scene 4 (After Casting the Glass Axe).
Second preparatory draft. 12" x 8", Pencil.

Scene 12 (A Break Between Takes)
Second preparatory draft. 12" x 7.5", Pencil.

Scene 15 (How the Left Hand May Control the Right)
Second preparatory draft. 12" x 7.5", Pencil.

Metasomatism

2011-11-14T11:03:00.000-05:00

A short piece, the first I've posted in quite some time.
I've added a 140 to my system, and had some fun with it here in conjunction with the 281 and 266. I'm fond of the ping-pong duophony of the 266, and the minor illusion of delay here.

I'll be focusing my attention on a series of drawings over the next few months, but will try to post with more frequency my less frequent studies on the 200.

Vague Terrain 19: Schematic As Score

2011-05-01T12:35:00.004-04:00

Moritz Ellerich's Fabelphonetikum schematic

Derek Holzer has put together an impressive essay on artists experimenting with electronics for edition 19 of Vague Terrain entitled Schematic as Score, and kindly included me among them. Framing it as he does with his own work reinterpreting Tudor's Rainforest, the article is an inspired merging of concepts, visuals, and audio results. The article includes work by:

Derek Holzer/ Jason R. Butcher / Jessica Rylan / Lesley Flanigan / Loud Objects / Martin Howse / Moritz Ellerich / Peter Blasser / Synchronator

- Click here to view the issue -

My entry includes remarks on Self-Playing process, and the audio recording of the "For Loud Speakers" patch diagram seen here (partially):

I recommend browsing through previous Vague Terrain journals as well - as they are all quite interesting.

S3 - model 297 experiments

2011-04-28T12:46:00.002-04:00

I cannot believe it has been so long since my last post.
Changes in work and living situations (all for the best), have distracted me a bit from this purpose. I present now, a few sketches from the past few months.

I added an Infinite Phase Shifter model 297 to my system recently and these recordings are all experiments intended to familiarize myself with its behavior. Particularly satisfying to me among this batch are Crackling Line and Dry Pine Sap Line, which are both Self-Playing experiments using only the Infinite Phase Shifter, Complex Waveform Generator, and the Source of Uncertainty. I suggest listening to them at relatively high volume through speakers in a nearly empty room ~~after imbibing an entire bottle of artificial smoke flavoring~~.

Watered Path required most of the system, the 297 included in order to manipulate feedback, and is not a Self-Playing Patch.

Driving Conversation, also served as a test of the extreme times available through external control of the 281's Attack and Decay stages. The actual piece takes a very long time to decay completely to silence.

I hope enjoyment is the result upon listening.

Recent Sketches

2010-12-15T12:32:00.000-05:00

s2.1-6 (recent sketches) by Jason R. Butcher

Restless Devices - Samples

2010-11-19T13:48:00.001-05:00

As promised, images from the "Restless Devices" show with Joe Tsambiras currently running through Dec 5th at Beep Beep Gallery, for those not proximal enough to visit.

A recording of the patch what was on playing throughout the gallery the night of the opening:

Stills from the animations - with backgrounds based on pages of Cornelius Cardew's Treatise.

Untitled (Treatise Pp. 125-126), 2010

Untitled (Treatise p. 31, An History of Elitism 1965-2010), 2010

Untitled (Treatise p. 188), 2010

And here are the images I used for the fascia of various sound players, featuring recordings and experiments on the Series 200:

4.5.10, 2010

12.20.09.SPP, 2010

Untitled, 2010

And one of the non-sound player noodle images:

Untitled, 2010

SPP / ERR

2010-10-19T14:52:00.005-04:00

For your enjoyment (?), a few recent recordings and details of two images for the upcoming show at Beep Beep Gallery (see previous post).

10.17.2010.2.SPP - A short recording of a self-playing patch (noodle) from this past weekend. Intended to be listened to at high level, the end of silence marks the moment I turn the system on:

Erratic Music Box:

Upcoming exhibition - Restless Devices

2010-10-18T12:00:00.001-04:00

I will be exhibiting some new work (short animations, sound players, etc.) alongside Joe Elias Tsambiras (excellent drawings, etc.) at Beep-Beep Gallery, November 13 through December 5th.
Some previews to follow this post...

complex.waveform.degenerator.edit.

2010-04-05T22:58:00.001-04:00

For your enjoyment, a short edit from a recording this afternoon. I employed the same patch used for a collaborative performance with Don Hassler for the recent Atlanta installment of the International Noise Conference at Eyedrum. One might assume that there are a number of external sound manglers being applied, but everything, with the exception of a slight reverb added in ProTools, is generated on the Buchla Series 200.

Chaotic Synthesis

2010-01-31T22:48:00.010-05:00

A few months ago, I created a series of recordings in response to an incredible article highlighting some of the most remarkable properties of the Buchla Oscillators of the 100 and 200 series. The article is Dan Slater's Chaotic Sound Synthesis, published in Computer Music Journal, Summer 1998 Volume 22, Number 2, ISSN 0148-9267. Here is a photograph from the article, of a CBS Performance System 3 featuring a chaotic patch:

This article was also available for a period on the web, at a time when there was very little info of Buchla systems to be found. If only those who now decry what they perceive as "secrecy" on the part of Buchla users knew how hard it was to find out exactly what a Kinesthetic Input Port was ten or more years ago! In any case, I digress.

The article is a wonderful resource filled with several very interesting approaches to creating chaotic sound - and once my 200 was operational, I almost immediately began directed experiments in order to explore some of the territory Slater describes.

Chaotic Synthesis Recording #3 (edit), August 2009:

If you would like a copy of the entire (19:40) recording, I have self-produced a limited CD release of 20, priced at $10 to be sold at some upcoming shows. E-Mail me if you'd like to order one. Here is a photo of the CD and the single sided bristol "cover" - that features an illustration of the patch used for the piece:

For some other demonstrations of Buchla VCO cross-modulation characteristics be sure to check out the following links:
Christian Mirande's 258 Demonstration video
Mono-Poly's 158 Demonstration audio
Mono-Poly's 144 Demonstration audio

3 Edits

2010-01-22T14:02:00.002-05:00

Here are some snippets of three recent tracks - all single-take recordings of the buchla 200 without any additional equipment. Reverb was added in protools afterward. The patch developed for "A Difficult Embouchure" is more or less what is at the core of each of these tracks, with deviations and additional modules besides the 259 and 266 occasionally being incorporated.

12.20.09.3 Self Playing Suite (edit)

- TRACK REMOVED -
Comprised of several (~12) single-take segments of a single patch, between which I made adjustments mainly to the timing and timbral parameters at work (but without changing the actual patch interconnections).

12.23.09 (edit)

- TRACK REMOVED -

This experiment was conducted in a similar manner to playing the "Operation" boardgame. The 259's modulation oscillator CV output was fed back to its processing input, and in addition, several other CVs were stacked to this same connection (4 or more). For the duration of this track, I merely held the banana plug connection inside the jack but didn't not fully plug it in, touching it erratically to the sides, making or breaking the connection. At various points, gate modes were altered as well. This is a bit unusual in that few (perhaps none) of the other tracks using this core patch make any use of the 292C Lopass Gate at all.

1.20.10 (edit)

This track represents an attempt to replicate a track from December which substituted the 258C for the 259 I most often rely on as a sole or primary source with excellent results. This track lacks the subtleties of the original (which relied heavily on sine>square transitions), but has more variation due to the 259's expanded capabilities. The 275 was critical to this piece in adding character/dimension.

12/12/12/13

2009-12-14T00:44:00.004-05:00

Continuing with the patch I've been using lately - the core of which is the 266 and a single 259 - while directing the experiment toward including "movements" (7, in this instance) within a single self-playing recording:

And from Saturday - two takes of the same Self-Playing sequence (or rather, with two patch cables added for the slower, second take). This experiment deviates from a standard sequence with nested loops through the use of second external clock source under the influence of random values also advancing the 250e. Some reverb added in protools:

4-H Club (in response to a drawing)

2009-12-07T12:46:00.024-05:00

Golden Blizzard - an artist collective of which I am a member - was recently selected to participate in More Mergers & Acquisitions on display December 10, 2009 - February 14, 2010 at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. Seeing that the collective has something of a history of self-celebration and operates at times like a recirculating delay line overdriven with feedback, we decided to each reinterpret a single arbitrary, older piece of work for the show.

Golden Blizzard
4-H Club, 2006
22 x 30 inches

Although I had originally planned on a different approach, in the end I chose to respond by recording a piece with the Buchla and reformat one of the solid state audio players I created for the most recent Golden Blizzard show (seen here). Below is a photograph of the finished player installed in the gallery:

Jason R. Butcher
4-H Club, 2009

And of course, the track itself - All Buchla 200, with processing/editing by way of ProTools:

The show opens December 10, 8-10PM.
Although I've spoiled the surprise as to my own work - I'm sure my Blizzmates' work will amaze and stimulate you.

11.27.09 Self-Playing Recordings

2009-12-01T09:23:00.001-05:00

I spent most of the day leading up to the evening performance with Don Hassler at Railroad Earth (excerpted here) developing a Self-Playing patch that could be deviated from for the show. Most notable between these two recordings, the performance excerpt, and "A Difficult Embouchure" (recorded two days later) are changes to control of the Lopass Gate and function generator patching. My goal with each of these patches, was to avoid the easiest solution - some method of randomly addressing 250e stages. In these 11.27 recordings, a pair of function generators controlled aspects of the 266, which were fed back to the 281, as well as to the 259s. I scaled back further for "Embouchure" which began as an experiment to see with how few cables I could achieve a sufficiently interesting Self-Playing structure - but instead led to the elimination the function generators and gating altogether, instead using a rapidly changing fluctuating random voltage to pulse the quantized and distributed sections of the 266 patched to a single 259.

The video, of a descent in the elevator of Smith Tower in Seattle, seemed to be a fitting match and a fun way to deliver a Self-Playing track. Seeing that Self-Playing work is relatively valueless in the time domain, the counting down of the floors here seemed to me to function nicely in place of any discernible dynamic in the overall recording. Thus you know - at least approximately - when you may expect it to end.

A Difficult Embouchure

2009-11-29T18:14:00.000-05:00

A Self-Playing Experiment for the Buchla 259 & 266 only.

As evident in the photo, a great deal of feedback occurring between various sections of the 266, with outputs coupled to all voltage controlled parameters of the 259.
A warped woodwind awaits:

Holy Terror

2009-11-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

Unlike the first few weeks (or even months) after my 200 came to life (01.09) - which saw me running through some of the vast timbres the instrument is capable of with great abandon - I've been spending my time lately trying to examine subtle properties within the instrument and develop greater proficiency in playing and composing with it.

This often takes the form of small exercises.

I turned my attention this Saturday once again to the 221, and after concentrating for some time on the touchplate surface itself, I settled upon the joystick - or 2D voltage source as it is described on the panel. The initial purpose was to try to develop accurate control when using it in instances where it affects pitch - that is to say where any mis/use might be easily distinguishable by the listener. Seeing that the entire 221 moves laterally (to provide a proportional voltage output which one could use for vibrato, etc), one has to be careful when moving the joystick not to shift the entire surface of the 221.

In any case here is what resulted from the latest exercises - I offer you Holy Terror:

The track is comprised of three takes. In each, I gradually decreased the Y coordinate of the 221's joystick, while using my other hand to modulate stereo placement of both 207 panning channels via the lateral CV output. The joystick's Y axis CV was patched to the Primary Osc of a single 259. Amplitude modulation was being provided by the Modulation Osc, which was in turn phase-locked to the Primary Osc. The timbre section was being altered through some arbitrary 250e/266 strobe addressing (the details of which I can't quite recall). The Primary Osc output is fed to a 292 channel (set to combo - knob at 100%), and sent to a panning channel of the 207 and a 275 channel with the send/return directly connected. This 275 mix output was then sent to the other 207 panning channel.

The Original Electronic Book?

2009-08-12T10:50:00.000-04:00

The story as I understand it, and this is painfully paraphrased from Don Hassler's telling of the story in detail, is that at one point in time Carter Thomas constructed this Serge himself during a course at CalArts instructed by Serge Tcherepnin, around 1972. Morton Subotnick had devised this synthesizer construction course in order to get electronic instruments under the students control earlier rather than later in their studies.

I've been hesitant in the past when Don has offered to loan the Serge to me, as it has the sort of aged appearance which at first just spelled F-A-I-L-U-R-E. Don explained the system briefly, and upon hearing that two outputs multed to a single input could destroy a module, I immediately felt even more anxious about interacting with it. Then Don rather casually opened the Serge and in no time, using only a few patchcords, he had a rather raw VCO being modulated by an audio-rate slew generator patched directly to some such by way of etc. The sound was a lot larger than I was expecting (an understatement), and once he got into the filter (of which there are four), I had come around and was interested in borrowing it. Leaving my only worry where I could find space for it.

It wasn't long after I arrived home with the Serge that I felt the impulse to at least hear a little of what it was capable of (under my limited understanding and therefore control). I began patching and before long, I had already passed several interesting sounds along the way. I paused and called Don to thank him. I really enjoyed that first recording, and was feeling stupid for underestimating the machine so egregiously.

Naturally I had read about Serge Modulars over the years as the most practical alternative to a Buchla. However whenever I would examine them online, I didn't find the instrument's interface engaging enough. This particular system is unique however - the paper front panels are oddly charming - the entire case gives the impression of a giant book - The knobs, inconsistent and most of them with little blobs of paint to indicate their positions, kept giving me the false impression I had taken my glasses off. The entire system is practically devoid of textual indicators that, once the associated annoyance wore off, was an unexpected freedom.

I ended up recording four segments in roughly 1.5 hours, with only a few minutes for breaks between takes. They are by no means incredible individually or entirely, but I post one here as an incomplete demonstration of the myriad of sounds this system is capable of generating:

Serge1.mp3 - 20:00

I was particularly amazed by the weird trumpet sound that comes in behind the intro waveform in the first minute. This recording commenced just after I switched the power on and got a basic patch running for the first time.