Selfoscillate punches it up a notch this week.
His track here is mostly based on algorithmic sound generation, and the sound sources have been driven by fractal equations. So rather than playing synths by hand himself, he sent equations to trigger oscillators --- and if he'd sent those same equations to trigger random graphic generators, they'd've turned out looking like fractals.
We're extremely glad to have Selfosc trigger another single for us here, and the result, no matter what the math behind it, is intense: sprinkly little arcs of confetti and spectrum analysis flitter across your eardrums in this track. It's kinda like smoking a calculator.
This one goes on for a while. Most of my Tachikoma singles are short and digitally sweet. Dub Bear, unlike me, seems to enjoy getting his money's worth out of his Alesis Midiverb. I mean, why is he still using that thing?
Only he knows the answer. When I listen to this track, I try to pay attention, i really do. But then the track just keeps on looping over and over and you get lost in it. Dub Bear is obsessed with the filter amplifier and tweaks it incessantly, meaning that every time that analog skank comes back, it always decays differently.
I don't know why this guy can't compress his tracks down to a manageable length. Hell, I don't even know why he named it "crocodiles." Maybe you should just listen to it and figure it out for yourself.
Technology is awesome. It can be also be frustrating and for some, like myself, it's a little tedious to learn. Seems that the reward is greater (if your interested in computers anyway.)
The image to the right I made in the late 90's with a program called 3D Studio Max. It's the same program I created imagery for Gronk with. Back then I never thought that I would be programming computer games and toys. I only imagined myself making graphics and interfaces, not actually coding anything. Today, the Drunken Boats sent me a link to a perfect little road map on how to integrate SQL server databases, html, php, xml and flash and it made sense to me. I immediately logged into the server and made my own SQL database. It doesn't query or echo anything. It just is. It's existence is enough for me right now, a major development for these field tests.
Now I understand this reads as a bunch of useless acronyms and jargon to most of us, just like it would have for me when I created that mechanical robot picture. I think that's what I'm saying, a decade later and I was programming computers. That I never really tried either. Learning how to make websites lead to one thing and the next and then it became enthralling and addictive soon after. The more I learn, the more clarity I have in one arena, the more I want to climb the next useful plateau.
Blips and Ifs and Audiotoys are pushing my skills towards new levels of programming and webdesign I never imaging I'd reach. I am greatful for these learning experiences and hope you enjoy the toys and technologies.
If you compare the earliest Tachikoma tracks (from 2003 --- I consider the first album to be "transients and artifacts") to the ones from now, there's one key difference, that I've noticed, anyway. The drums.
The original drum programming uses many sounds like clicks and errors, which loop in a sort of minimalistic way, and sound quite thin since they're so short. Also, there're a lot of high-pitched microsound-like tones. I was cutting my own clicks at the time and building my own drum libraries. I'd also incorporate samples from old, silly-sounding drum machines like the Korg MiniPops.
But now I've found that my drums sound far more like gameboy tones. For most of them, they don't actually come from my gameboy, but from Casio drum machines or Commodore64 samples, and are bit-reduced by distortion modules to give them an early NES-like flavor. A key element to the Tachikoma sound is a tempo-synched, random LFO modulating the sample rate (or sometimes the bit rate) of that distortion model.
Classic example: this track. Actually, I guess by noticing it and naming it as something I do, I should really change it. And anyway, this track's about more than just sampling a gameboy; it's about living inside a gameboy made of clear amber. And that's where I do live.
Listen to blipsandifs054.mp3 - 5 MB
We got so much great music in the can, coming up soon. All brand new, and all amazing. I hate to brag but the next few Blips and Ifs tracks are going to be ones you remember... hang on....
One of the biggest issues I've noticed about the blipsandifs collections is the difficulty of navigation. If you wanted to learn about the singles or look at the covers you would have to navigate our html page at blipsandifs but soon we will release the new XML jukebox created using the same technologies and research we've put into the audio toys. Although the jukebox isn't an audiotoy. It is an MP3 player that will show you the cover of each single, allow you to listen to all the songs, read the blogpost that was released from it, and play all our archives. We are very excited that we've got the knowledge to achieve this and are heading into the user interface and debugging stages.
Tachikoma is also madly at work developing new sounds and concepts for gronk and the second proposed audiotoy: Paper. Stay tuned...
The cover says it all, on this one.
2007's just begun and Tachikoma is living in a giant glowing white tower in the Fraser Valley. He's dropping dark trip-hop remixes that aren't anything like his usual idyllic glitch love-ins. This is a good example of Tachikoma's patented 'double-wheel break manipulation,' and some prickly synth lines are lurking in the background, too. He's colluding with the Chinese Mafia. He's harder, darker, and less friendly. The dream state is a police state.
Listen to blipsandifs053.mp3 - 2.7 MB
![Remix of [710W3]'s Superflat Single #49 by Dub Bear](http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7970/1042/1600/921110/blipsandifs052.jpg)
Ever since we signed Dub Bear, that guy's been producing up a 7-bit storm.
Here he turns in a rub-a-dub remix of [710W3]'s hit from last year, 'fried egg dream state.' The synth stabs are straight from Germany, and the VCF is pulsating. Dub Bear even runs his whole final mix through a range of low-grade effects boxes boxes boxes boxcfffffff until the echoes are recorded to a floppy disc and mailed to a P.O. box next to a salmon-filled stream in Alaska.
We have another remix of this track coming up soon too, so you might want to buy new subwoofers.
Listen to blipsandifs052.mp3 - 2.5 MB
Just over a year ago we posted the first A.T. Field Test and announced our concept of going beyond releasing MP3's by adding Audiotoys to the Blips and Ifs roster. Gronk was a terrific first release for the series as well, as Gronk very simply with it's crooked slider explains that this isn't going to be quite like any ordinary slider. Tachikoma's specifically designed sounds fade nicely and create a classic Blips and Ifs soundscape. This toy is creative commons. We heavily encourage you to use it in live performances, recordings or to even break it open to re-write the code, or substitute new sounds. That's right! Visit our Audiotoy section to read more about how you can be a part of Blips and Ifs Audiotoys phenomenon.
Can't believe I found and bought an audiotoy in a store.
I bought two of Tomy's "SwitchSwitch" series. Each one is a small object with a few LEDs and a switch.
Basically, if you turn the switch position to On, it emits a powering-up mechanical-type sound. This will loop until you turn it to Off. When it reaches Off it will emit a powering-down sound. Then the Standby LED will flash for a few minutes and then turn off to save battery power.
What's really funny about them is that if you leave them On for too long, they will emit an overloaded sound and then automatically shut down. The switch won't move back to the On position, but they will enter Standby mode anyway.
They're awesome. They're also magnetic: I stuck 'em to my DX7. But they won't play in your browser, so we still have a tactical edge.
I totally felt those quakes that they're talkin' about. But I never thought that they'd make it on CNN.
Lately I've heard Tachikoma mention two major collaborations between the two of us: The Malchiks and the new up and coming Audiotoy. We have been a part of many cool collaborations including this bloglabel, a number of smaller musical projects, the name of my first born etc... but there has been a new collaboration that Tach may have just realized has happened.
The first official collaboration between two Blips and Ifs producers. Of course there was always that Cheese Richards and Milk Jagger thing. Even thought the Boats and I made that track together, it wasn't officially released as The Boats and [710W3]. So I'm not going to count that one or any of the DAT mining either. Therefore this is the first official collaboration. On December 14th 2006 Tachikoma emailed a Reason music file to me. Making sure we can actually send files between his computer to mine. He was just working the bugs out of operating a Worldwide Blog Label. Little did he know that to his track I added a 'distinctive angst filled [710W3] feeling' to some of the classic glitchy dub sounds of Tachikoma. Maybe not as significant a collaboration as the Malchiks, the creation of this label, the very First Audiotoy or Superflat Single, but an awesome mix of two very different producers none the less.
Listen to blipsandifs051.mp3 - 1.5 MB
As soon as I got my new old DX7 home, I plugged it right in and started recording it.
I'll just provide some specific notes about this track:
1. All sounds are made by the DX7, with no processing at all except volume level adjustment and panning, and a touch of reverb at the end. The drums were made by my Nord Micro Modular.
2. All 32 of the original patches in the synth were used, I flipped between them. What's really odd is that by about midnight that same night, some had dissappeared. I think the battery in the synth's internal memory is malfunctioning. For example: preset #14 was a short pitched drum sound, which you can hear me tapping out a rhythm on at the end of the recording. But two hours later, #14 was a 'normal' synth sound. Also, patches 29-32 worked fine while tracking this, but by the end of the night, they were all blank / silent. Wierd.
3. This isn't supposed to really be a song, so much as a document of the good vibes you get when playing a synth you just bought. Take a listen. The sounds are surprisingly good, although undoubtedly cliched.
4. In the japanese language, the number seven is pronounced 'chi.'
Listen to 32Patches.MP3 - 4 MB
Hello, I am now the proud owner of a Yamaha DX7.
The story is simple. I walked by a guitar store here in Taipei and they had a small synth section in the back. For the price tag of 150$CDN, you could buy a beat up old DX7 synth. All the keys, mod wheel, pitchbend wheel, and output in working order. As I played with it a bit, I noticed that the LCD display screen was totally broken.
I pointed this out to the sales guy and used it as leverage to negotiate him down to half price. Then I had it wrapped up and lugged it back to my place. It's really heavy.
Back at my place I found that it's in good working order, except for the screen as I said. The power cord appears to be one with a Hong Kong plug, but there is an adapter taped on permanently. Also, it transmits midi data on channel 12, and I can use it as a controller for my Nord Micro Modular.
All 32 of the preset patches work. I doubt I'll ever edit it anyway. It sounds .... well it sounds like a DX7. I'm extremely happy now, because I got a good deal on a half-dead hunk of synthesizer history. Of course the first thing I did was record myself jamming with it, and I'll post the results very soon.
Kudos, Dr. Chowning! My hat is off to you.
I have done looked into the future and it is pretty.
Prettier than this pic, anyway. This is what came up when I googled gronk.
The future is gronk. It's our first audio toy. I didn't make it, [710W3] did. That guy is Gerhard Behles, I'm just Robert Henke. If you understand that. Google helps too.
I played with the beta of gronk today. It's so.... perfect. It's perfecter than anything I've built in my nord micro modular, that's for sure.
The success of gronk blows away the first 50 superflat singles. It doesn't devalue them. But it's an amazing departure. It shows you what a few guys brainstorming in a rat-infested garage can do. But mostly one guy.
My hat is off to you, moil. Kudos --- and kudos again. You've outdone yourself. Except for your kids, I mean, those two are better than this, but gronk is a close third, and it took longer than 9 months to be born.
Spinoff time!
Tachikoma's personal/boring blog can be found here.
