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This is normally where I'd be writing up my VCFMW retrospective.
This year, I am not writing about VCFMW, I mean, not really,...
Instead, I will be writing about VCFJW.
]==---._.'`._-{ VCFJW? }-_.'`._.---==[
But jns, I hear you ask, what in tarnation is VCFJW? Well,...
For a number of years now, every year at vcfmw, WHIXR and ATDIY
from TYMKRS have been visiting me and we have been hanging out
after hours. Given that WHIXR and I both are into making music,
and I happened to see some talk about bringing eurorack modules
on the tymkrs irc chat, I figured, hey, why don't I just bring
my keyboard, and hook it up with midi to my daw contraption,
which then in turn can hook into whatever eurorack things are
happening. And thus, I think we both brought more gear than we
initially had planned, and turned the entire thing into our own
little side-con. VCFMW had extra spare rooms in the hotel, so we
could just squat down in one away from the crowds. Of course,
being the introverted nerds we are, we brought plenty of headsets
for this event, because we wouldn't want to make a fuss with a
lot of noise in the hotel. Especially because that would attract
more people, and we can't have that. WHIXR had a cool headphone
distribution unit in his rack, which came in quite handy.
]==---._.'`._-{ B4DG3 }-_.'`._.---==[
WHIXR and ATDIY make electronic badges for a lot of big
conferences, and they surprised us with a (very) limited edition
set of electronic badges for VCFJW - they are amazing, behold:
badge.jpg
badge.gif
( beware, if you're using lagrange, it does not currently
properly display animated gifs - you'll get a still
image instead. )
The badges feature following controls:
* One on/off switch on the side.
* One push button on the back to send IR.
On the back you'll also find a PI pico which can be connected to
in order to mess with the source code and/or draw your own light
patterns etc,... I have to mess with that part yet, but I will
try that soon!
Pressing the IR send button, sends a signal to other nearby
badges, and sort of records who you've run into.
Infinite thanks to WHIXR/ATDIY for this amazing surprise gift.
]==---._.'`._-{ |\/|US1< }-_.'`._.---==[
WHIXR has an amazing idea for a podcast/zine thing, and given
that we've got a bit of time and a bunch of gear, he figured
maybe we could record a little intro jingle for that.
I mostly play music for my own entertainment/amusement/practice
and when I do it's mostly improvisations loosly based on baroque
or early music. WHIXR seems to have more of a jazz background
and trying to get the two to mix was a bit tricky at the start as
we were both talking different languages, but I think in the end
we managed to make it work.
The eurorack had within it some yet to be released TYMKRS modules
from what I remember, there was a built-in sid chip module, a
crazy amplification module, a fader module, sampler modules that
were using old answering machine chips, a DC generator module, a
tilt filter module, etc,.. - above all that was the headphone
distribution board. On top of the eurorack was a mixer board and
loop-tape track recording thing, and he also brought a sequencer,
and an Arduinoboy.
I was initially going to bring my analog synth contraption, which
I had started on a breadboard, and has a transistor-only CV-based
oscillator, but I couldn't get it working and it was all too last
minute to get it fixed, so instead I brought my laptop with a
multi-port midi routing box thingy that lets me route any port
to any port in software, and also an external usb sound card
thing with XLR and TRS ports. All of that hooked up to my laptop
where I had a plethora of tracking software going:
* Renoise (tracker, also does a decent job at translating midi
notes into instruments with samples or effects or whatever)
* Ardour (do anything with midi/vst/whatever)
* Sunvox (tracker with decent and easy/quick chained synth stuff)
* Furnace (tracker which can emulate historical chips like OPL,
SID, gameboy, etc,...)
In the end, I used mostly just Renoise, because I had already set
that up with some amazing harpsichord samples:
Petite Italien
Blanchet 1720
We sent the midi sync signal from WHIXR's stack back to my midi
box, and sent that into renoise so he could control playback from
his end, and that's how we were able to sync the harpsichord that
was recorded in renoise back to the loop-tape.
Day 1 was mostly figuring out all the above. Where-as day 2 was
about actually doing something on the eurorack with the stuff we
recorded the day before.
Since it'd be hard to match the fast playing, crazy chord changes
of the harspichord recording, for the sake of time, and saving
ourselves some frustration, we decided to back it with some
ambient noise instead.
WHIXR had sampled an old record, which he slowed way, waaaaaaayy
down, until it sounded like the devil was trapped within the
loop-tape. While WHIXR worked the playback controls, I worked the
fader module knob to try and fade the legions of hell in at the
right moment. It took a few tries to get that right, but we got
something passable eventually. :)
Next, I thought maybe we could add some rain sounds and thunder,
and we started trying to produce that using the SID chip module
which has a noise generator that could pass for rain with the
appropriate filtering. BUT... instead, a golden haired angel
came down from the heavens above^H^H^H^H^Hthe hallway? And spared
us that effort. Enter: SUPERPHONE.
]==---._.'`._-{ SUP3RPH0N3 }-_.'`._.---==[
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At VCFMW a few years ago, I saw one of the coolest phones I
had ever seen. A superphone 7800. It's got a built-in VFD,
has built-in calculator functionality, I mean, the thing is
basically a smart phone - and it looks amazing. Here it is:
superphone7800.jpg
I think it was the year after that, where I met Bea Thurman,
who was showcasing an amazing Apple IIe Soundchaser setup,
and where I also learned of her band superphone existing. I
immediately made the connection to the phone I had seen the
year before, and indeed, that was hers! - When I got home
from the show I subscribed to the superphone youtube channel
and I've become an increasingly bigger fan with every new
release. - The first thing that blew me away was a
Gary Numan cover part of the Superphilm 7 video:
Gary Numan - Are friends electric cover
(Because of this, I always thought the band was named
after the phone, and came after the vcfmw event which
featured the phone, but that's not the case, as Bea
explained to me, the band actually pre-dated the phone,
and the phone, well, that was just fate!)
Anyway, at vcfmw this year, superphone closed the show
with a concert. A few things went wrong with the PA but
even in spite of that, it was amazing, I think.
The subject matter of the songs very much resonated with
me, covering the problematic state of the world,
computing, etc,... but whilst also reminding us of the
beauty of the world around us, the value of friends,
etc,... Superphone manages to tackle quite heavy subject
matter with an amazing sense of humor and
lightheartedness. There is genuine, true artistry happening here,
Lots of synthy goodness in the music, obviously heavily inspired
by Devo - but after seeing Bea effortlessly channel Gary Numan
and randomly start playing Joy Division, it is no surprise to me
that I became such a huge fan :)
During my yearly visit to Bea's table, I invited SUPERPHONE to
VCFJW and maybe have a bit of a jam - and sure enough, some time
after the show, we were graced by an appearance, and as Bea was
going through various SUPERPHONE songs and video's on her phone,
suddenly the sound of rain came through - Now, remember, we were
in NEED of rain for our song. I'm like ... Is that rain?! can we
steal your rain?! - and we could, and we did, and it was good.
Had a fantastic time chatting after that, and that was as good of
and end to the show as I could have wished for. After that it was
time to pack up for me, and haul everything back to my room,
because hotel checkout was at 11am which meant I had to be more
or less awake to haul everything back to the car again. I was
hoping to hang out a bit more on sunday, but my body said NO.
Everything hurt, and lack of sleep was causing black spots to
appear in my vision, so ended up calling it and going home after
doing one last tour around the vcfmw venue sunday morning.
]==---._.'`._-{ EP1L0GUE }-_.'`._.---==[
Every year now at the end of the show in these retrospectives
I've been going on about VCFMW has been getting bigger, and
bigger, and bigger, and this year it was indeed so again. But
I think being able to ignore 90% of the show and hang out in a
separate room somewhere makes up for a lot of the problems that
come with the new huge scale of the show. Indeed, it seems it's
so big now, that it's hard for anyone to keep track about
everything that's going on. I had a fantastic time regardless.
I look forward to hearing the finished product of our little
music endeavour. :)
]==---._.'`._-{ L1NKZ }-_.'`._.---==[
VCFMW website - it will eventually be updated with the pictures
and videos of this year...
vcfmw.org
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TYMKRS on tindie - Go buy all their stuff!
The toymakers on Tindie
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Superphone site, merch, and all that...
Go buy all their stuff!
Superphone website
Superphone bandcamp
Superphone youtube
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The reason I've been somewhat absent from everything online
(including gopher) lately is because all of my time and effort
has been going into starting up an art-related business thing.
I made an e-commerce website completely from scratch in Pascal
and have been working on resin pours, painting, lasering, 3d
art, and the like - come buy my stuff! :P
photronic art
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