Mutable Braids / Make Noise STO meets the Malekko Dual Borg

A sequenced modular jam from TheBuchlaMongo. "Little random Noodle with the Mutable Braids, Make Noise STO, Malekko Dual Borg. Braids is on Channel one in the Manhattan Mix, STO Sub on Channel 2 and the Shape out from the STO on Channel 3. Sequence from Elektron Octatrack, Fx from Eventide Space/Pitchfactor."

"Eve" by Rheyne

Recorded live in one take; very serene electronica. His YouTube videos are beautifully lit too.

Elektron Analog four & Octatrack - ambient system i1

Unusual to hear these boxes used in purely ambient context. Beautifully done I have to say, even down to the sleepy sounding livestock that wander through after about 3.00. (I use these same two boxes for my own live rig.)

From dakitanmonkey.

Waldorf Q - ambient drone soundscape

Give it a minute or so to get going and you'll hear some amazing space drones from this über-synth, thanks to synth4ever.

Emilienstraße (Dub Techno) by Phelios

Phelios says: "My old Atari ST is back! All sounds are triggered by Notator SL using the Log-3 Midi interface. I created a nice pattern chain and did a 1-take recording."

Fugenn & The White Elephants "Narcissus"

From Japanese ambient/IDM label ProgressiveForm.

A beautiful vocal treatment of "I vow to thee my country" - originally an orchestral section from "Jupiter" by Gustav Holst.

Dave Smith Instruments - Pro 2 [Spacewhales]

Legendary synth designer Dave Smith has a new instrument on the market, the Pro 2. I want one of course, but it's not especially cheap. Trooper Starship has done a Space Music demo all with voices programmed on the Pro 2, apart from the percussion parts.




The Pro 2...

"October North East" by Seen From Space

OK it's no more October yet than it's still August! (See previous post.) Not absolutely sure why the months keep on creeping into the titles.

Here are some more underground synthetic beats with a middle based on a classical piece. This time an instrumental snippet from Brahms' German Requiem. For this I've used the absolutely gorgeous 12-string guitar sample in Omnisphere - that's the soft synth that does the spooky drones on the telly when someone lets themselves into their house at night and doesn't turn on the lights, and you just know they're about to become another corpse to be investigated. It has other more cheerful uses though.



More music from Seen From Space...

"New August Moon" by Seen From Space

I know it's not August any more. Never mind about that!

This is ambient dubstep with a drum and bass groove, and a middle section lifted from an oratorio by J.S. Bach. Who says baroque music, especially Bach, doesn't lend itself to the synth treatment?

Hearing "Blue August Moon" by Brian Eno for the first time in years, I was prompted to try something similar. As usual things turned out utterly different from the first idea, but the homage remains in the title at least.



More music from Seen From Space...

"Silent Seas" - ambient drone on 5U modular synth

Another great example of programming a complex synth patch and letting it wend its own unpredictable way. From John L Rice.

"This is an Aleatoric ambient drone created with my large 5U format modular synthesizer. Aleatoric in this case means I setup the patch, turned on the recorder and then walked away for an hour while the synthesizer played 'on its own', creating a semi random piece of music, more or less ;-). This is 25 minutes of that recording. This was done in response to a composition challenge on Muff's modular synth forum (although I cheated and used a reverb plug-in during post processing ;-)"

EMS Synthi E moondrone - more from Ebotronix!

I can't keep up with this guy! He keeps on turning out these many layered soundscapes with synth voices of real quality. Where does he find the time to do all the programming involved?

From Ebotronix.

In the Seen From Space studio

Just updated my website with a montage of the studio hardware; of interest perhaps only to hardware geeks like me! See a larger image and more info on the website.

Carl Oliver - Experiment Thirty Seven

More musique concrète from Carl Oliver, where the modular synth provides its own steampunk sci-fi set, lighting and self-generating soundtrack.

EMS Synthi E, Jupiter 6

The prolific Ebotronix keeps on putting out these intricate improvisations on a huge sound palette. The blue synth is a machine made by British company EMS for the education market in the early '70s. If you're at all familiar with Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, Roxy Music, Tangerine Dream, BBC Radiophonic Workshop and others from this period, you'll certainly know the EMS sound.

"Ambient Chillout/Space Music" on the Roland JD800

I wouldn't normally post videos simply demonstrating equipment, but this synth has such a beautiful sound, and David Hobson's playing/programming is very tasteful. I tried one out in the shop when they were first available and found it a most expressive instrument. It's one of the great digital synths of the '90s IMO, and a doddle to programme because of the all those one-function sliders. I'd love to get my hands on one now, but no room in the SFS studio: it does have quite a footprint!

Waldorf Nave patches: iPad synth - 3

Not a finished piece of music; it's more to showcase the expressive sounds you can programme on this amazing synth.

You're hearing the raw sound output from Nave with no additional effects on the iPad. Just a touch of compression afterwards in Logic to tame the spikes.

Best enjoyed in stereo!

Waldorf Nave patches: iPad synth - 2

Not a finished piece of music; it's more to showcase the complex and unpredictable sounds you can programme on this amazing synth.

You're hearing the raw sound output from Nave with no additional effects on the iPad. Just a touch of compression afterwards in Logic to tame the spikes.

Best enjoyed in stereo!

Experiment Forty

From Carl Oliver.

In Carl's videos, the synths provide their own steampunk sci-fi set, lighting and self-generating soundtrack. Very economical video making!