Feedback Loops & Acid House (“Hum” live set)

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“Hum”: Acid house meets analog chaos, live feedback loops performance

This is my live performance set “Hum”, blending digitally controlled analog synthesizers, surrealist acid house grooves, and feedback textures. Recorded in my home studio, this video revisits the set I played live at Synth-tember / Mini-Blorp at New Alliance Gallery in Somerville, MA.

Featuring chaotic 303 basslines (from Herbs & Stones Liquid Foam), evolving feedback loops (from the Random*Source Serge Resonant EQ), and hybrid digital/analog sound design, this should satisfy fans of modular synth performance, experimental electronic music, and custom audio setups.

🎧 If you enjoy this, check out my previous live set from Bleep/Blorp 2024 on Bandcamp:

Voltage Starving in Eurorack

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Voltage starving op-amps with Blood Cells Audio‘s “Mangle” module.

Following up on my voltage starving conversation with Spectral Evolver a few weeks back, today I’m exploring Blood Cells Audio’s “Mangle“, a Eurorack module that’s basically a voltage-starving VCA, where you can send CV to the op-amps (or insufficient CV to the op-amps to voltage starve them). Here, I try a few different program materials, and show some interesting results of modulating voltage starving over time.

You can check out Spectral Evolver’s voltage-starving Moog gear here:

“Speculation and Imagination”

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New music! 🎛️ 🎵

Check out my latest release “Speculation and Imagination”, combining gentle melodic sequences with harsh, noisy feedback.

These tracks are an edit of my live analog synthesizer improvisation from a online “session” with painter Onozaki Takuya. Onozaki and I meet monthly for jam sessions over Zoom, him in Hanamaki and me in Connecticut, where he paints, and I play my synths, exchanging artistic ideas across our mediums.

If you happen to be around Toyko this week, Onozaki’s works, some of which were created in these sessions, are on display 2/7/25-2/16/25 at “Gallery Camellia”in Ginza.

Random*Source Serge Resonant EQ (ResEQ) & Stereo Processing (Mid/Side)

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Exploring some ideas of using mono effects for stereo processing with the Eurorack Random*Source Serge Resonant EQ.

The Serge Resonant EQ is mono, so, usually, if you want to do stereo processing, you would need two of this (expensive) module to process your signal. With just a single module, though, if we mess with the two “comb” outputs, and consider mid/side processing, we can create some compelling stereo outputs.

0:00 Introduction, I/O overview
0:47 Mono signal in, mono signal out
1:10 Using the “comb” outputs to stereoize the signal
2:01 Mid/side processing the “comb” outs of a mono signal
3:14 Processing a stereo signal, side only
5:10 Processing a stereo signal, mid only
6:20 Changing the source material, side-only processing
9:16 Closing, next steps, mid-only processing

More on mid/side processing for synthesis here:

Gear in this video (affiliate links):

Interactive Neural Net in Eurorack (Joystick & Artificial Neuron)

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Combining human input from a joystick with a two-neuron artificial neural network for chaotic interactive music.

This Eurorack joystick is going into a simple neural network to control multiple dimensions of the timbre of this synth voice. Joystick dimensions X, Y, and Z go into different inputs of the Nonlinear Circuits Dual Neuron, and are mixed together and transformed by a nonlinearity (more here). In addition to the output controlling the waveform and filter cutoff of the synth, the outputs of each neuron is fed back into the other, creating a chaotic artificial organism with which to improvise.

Affiliate links for modules in this patch (though you really don’t need them; you can probably work this out with the gear or software that you currently have):
–Doepfer A-174-4 3D Joystick (Perfect Circuit)
–NLC Dual Neuron (Reverb)
–Noise Engineering Ataraxic Translatron (Reverb)
–Hikari Ping Filter (Perfect Circuit)
–Noise Engineering Sinclastic Empulatrix (Reverb)
–Arturia DrumBrute Impact (Perfect Circuit)
–Korg SQ-1 (Perfect Circuit)

More Music with Artificial Neurons:

New Music! “Hanamaki Sessions 2023”

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I’ve collected and edited some recordings I made with my “DAWless” mobile rig in Japan this summer.

It’s been interesting try to set something up that has the flexibility that I want, while still being portable enough not to take up too much space (and weight) in my luggage. Of course, as it’s often said, limitations can often lead to greater creativity.

In this setup I have my 54HP Eurorack (which can be battery powered if I want to play on top of a lookout tower somewhere), and my Arturia DrumBrute Impact. I do mixing with a little Mackie mixer, and recording with a Zoom H4N (which lets me record sound from the microphones at the same time as the line inputs).

Last year, some might remember, I went around with just the Eurorack synth (with some different modules in it–a benjolin in particular) and recorded my three-track “Ihatov MU” album. This year’s sessions were a fun extension of those ideas.

Perhaps I should do some performing out in New England in the next few months.

Patch from Scratch: Analog Feedback Loop in Eurorack

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Patching up an analog feedback loop in Eurorack with some generic modules.

I don’t do a lot of videos talking about Eurorack for two main reasons:

(1) I’ve actually only been doing Eurorack for a couple years now, even though I’ve been doing digital synthesis and sound design for decades, and

(2) I don’t want my videos to be about any particular piece of hardware that you need to get (as always, I’m not sponsored by anyone).

But, the patch I put together in this video could be done by any number of modules, all I have is a sine wave, a ring modulator (multiplier), a reverb, a filter, and a limiter/compressor/saturator (anything to stop hard clipping). Put them together, feed them back, and you have some dynamic, analog generative soundscapes.

Previously, I’ve shown how to do the same thing in Pure Data, In Kyma, and in Reaktor.

Oh, and you can control it with an accelerometer too!

“Only for a Moment”

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New music up on bandcamp!

A slow-evolving, minimalist piece for modular synthesizer.

Ihatov MU (無) : Noise Music at the Hanamaki “English Coast”

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Screaming noise improvisation on 54HP Eurorack at the peaceful Hanamaki “English Coast” (花巻イギリス海岸).

There’s a feedback loop going here with spring reverb and ring modulation, plus quite a bit of contribution from the After Later Audio Benjolin V2.

More “MU” on the Hanamaki English Coast: