thru you

These songs and videos were made by sampling and mashing up unrelated you tube clips of people playing instruments and singing. Nice work by Kutiman.

This one is the third of seven, the eighth is Kutiman talking about the project.

If you click through to the youtube pages, in the sidebar (under more info) there are links to all of the original clips of each instrument part so you can see exactly what materials he’s used.

The idea seems glaringly obvious in a “why didn’t I think of that” kind of way when you consider the massive number of videos on youtube of people showing off their skills or demonstrating their new toys etc.

Related: in Bb 2.0

nailed it

The winner of the Chemical Bros vs Beastie Boys mashup contest I entered over at Beastiemixes.com has just been announced and it’s, um, me. Nice. I’m genuinely surprised as I was really impressed by some of the entries.

Three of the (44) mixes which really stood out for me:

Contretemps – Tripple Trouble vs Lost In The K Hole

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

download mp3

DJ Roach – Sure Shot vs The Boxer

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

download mp3

DJ Topcat – So Whatcha Want vs One Too Many Mornings

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

download mp3

And this is my winning mix:

Super Disco Breakin’ vs In Dust We Trust

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

download mp3

The voting is by the entrants which makes it doubly nice, and also I get some sweet prizes in the mail! Bonus.

If you like this kind of mashing up and remixing – and particularly if you’re into the Beasties – do have a bit of a dig around at BeastieMixes.com.

innovation from moldover

Oh this is cool. Electro musician Moldover has released his album as a cd attached to a light-beam theramin. Check out the vid:

To find out more and hear the album go to moldover.com

block rockin’ beasties contest

BeastieMixes.com is a cool site for people who like to remix and mash up Beastie Boys songs (hey that’s me!) and people who like listening to mashups and remixes of Beastie Boys songs (hey that’s me too!) and right now there’s a “Beastie Boys vs Chemical Brothers” contest on, into which anyone can enter two mixes.

The rules are: Remix / Mash any Chemical Brothers song with any Beastie Boys song. That’s it.


I whipped up my first entry last night:
Super Disco Breakin’ vs In Dust We Trust (mp3)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.


BeastieMixes.com holds these kind of contests a couple of times a year at least, and they’re always fun. Good people. There might even be prizes but it’s not about the prizes. So if you’re into this kind of tomfoolery, get mixing. All the details are here. If you need Beasties acapellas or instrumentals you can find them there too (or ask me, I’ve got a stash).

AND…

If this type of thing is relevant to your interests AND you don’t already have it, go download my Beastie Boys Mashtape, Misty Mountain Hip-Hop



… which is kind of a Hip-Hop Rock n Roll thing I made a while back, mashing the Beasties with Led Zeppelin, White Zombie, Guns n Roses and Sonic Youth. Enjoy.

what do i call these?

I was doing some experiments this afternoon with an aluminium lid, probably from a wok or some other large pan.

I’d noticed it made some quite nice noises when I found it the other day and I was wondering if it might be any use as a reverb plate. I’d always figured aluminium would be too soft for reverb but it rang out nicely when struck so I gave it a go.

wok lid drums wok lid drums

Turns out I was right – it was a terrible reverb plate. But now that I had it on a stand in the studio with a piezo attached I figured I may as well do something with it, and seeing as I couldn’t eat it, I hit it with a stick.

I was reading the other day about my friend Sean’s new pots-and-pans drum kit – which also uses piezos to pick up the sound. I also happened to have another one of these lids lying around, slightly bigger, so I wired that up too.

Sean’s using his for the sound of the pan itself and also as a switch which triggers an oscillator when struck. I think I’ll keep these ones just as amplified acoustic instruments as part of the percussion rack I’m putting together.

Anyway here’s what they sound like:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(using soft rubber mallets to play the 2nd movement of György Ligeti’s “Musica ricercata”)

I haven’t done any audio processing, the recording is straight from the piezos to the desk to the pc. I think I’m going to have some fun with these.

So yeah, the question: what should I call them?

music from a tree

Oh wow.

Read more here.

kidz in space vid

Tim Van Dammen (drummer for Collapsing Cities, visual artist, videomaker) made this awesome new video for NZ group Kidz in Space and it’s so damn cool I thought I’d better share it. I believe they’re expecting the birth of an E.P. soon too.

(hat tip: Peter McLennan)

more about plate reverbs

UPDATED:

A few people have asked how this mixer operates and sounds so here’s a wee video:

As you can see there’s a scratchy pot or two to clean and I still need to make some knobs, but so far so good.

Since I posted here about my fancy new plate reverb I’ve made a few adjustments and tweaks.

I’ve chopped the frame down closer to the size of the plate (about 600mm x 1800mm) and stuck a couple more piezos on it, but more significantly I’ve just about finished building a fancy new mixer for it. And when I say “fancy” I really mean “it’s the first mixer I’ve built and it works!”

The piezos seem to give the best results nearer to the edges of the plate (don’t know why) so I’ve got one centred at each end and one centred at each side like cross, and the inputs on the mixer are arranged to correspond to the placement of the piezos like so:

  • left long
  • left short
  • right short
  • right long

The switch on each channel is for determining stereo/mono. The two left channels can be switched LEFT or MONO and the two right channels RIGHT or MONO (e.g. in the picture above the channels are assigned to left, mono, mono, right). This simple arrangement allows for a surprisingly wide range of possibilities.

The mixer itself is insanely simple. It’s completely passive (no amplification) so it needs no power source. The circuit consists entirely of:

  • the 4 input jacks,
  • the 4 faders,
  • the 4 switches,
  • 2 sets of 4 resistors in parallel,
  • and the 2 output jacks. In that order.

I used 4.7 k ohm resistors which seems pretty low according to what I’ve read and heard, but frankly I struggle with the theory of a lot of this stuff so I just tried a bunch of different resistors of different values until I found some which seemed to make everything work ok. The tin it’s all mounted in is mostly empty, so I should be able to fit plenty of other stuff (like preamps) inside without too much trouble if I ever want to.

Do let me know in the comments if you have any ideas or questions. I’ll post some audio clips here soon, probably after the weekend.

For now though, I’d just like to find some more screws and some fader knobs to finish it off. I’m sure there were some around here somewhere…

just a couple of things

Firstly, a few of my friends have started websites and blogs lately and I thought some of you might be interested in some of them. I’ve included links to their feeds so if you don’t have time now, just subscribe to the feeds and check them out later.

Secondly, vote for Lani. Details below.

Adventure in Soundland

Sean makes all sorts of stuff involving (but not limited to) electronics, musical devices and instruments, art, and engineering. He’s started documenting some of it here:

site: http://artyone.blogtown.co.nz/
feed: http://artyone.blogtown.co.nz/feed/

Travelling Tales

AJ is a well known storyteller who has started posting recordings of her stories on her site, kids of all ages can find them here:

site: http://travellingtales.co.nz/
feed: http://travellingtales.co.nz/?feed=rss2

The Idiot Winds

Vincent has begun blogging about “music, film, arts, literature, politics and a fine scotch.” And well worth reading it is:

site: http://theidiotwinds.blogspot.com/
feed: http://theidiotwinds.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss


Vote for Lani

Finally, Lani needs your votes this week at sellaband.com which is kind of an online competition and fund-raising site for musicians. It only takes a minute and costs nothing to sign up and cast a vote. Lani will buy lollies for anyone who votes for her. Probably.

Righto.

how to make a plate reverb

plate reverb enlarge

Today it stopped raining for long enough for me to do something I’ve been wanting to do for a while – build a stereo plate reverb unit. It took a couple of hours, was made mostly from stuff I found at the tip, cost about $10 and it sounds awesome. If you want to make one of these you can do so with some very basic tools, parts and skills.

The horizontal wires are unrelated. More pics below.

if you’re unfamiliar with how a plate reverb works:

It’s a matter of sending an audio signal to some type of transducer (in this case a speaker) which vibrates a piece of sheet metal (the plate). The vibrations travel though the plate as waves – like ripples from a pebble dropped in a pond – from the speaker at the centre to the edges where they’re picked up by another transducer (in this case 2 piezo buzzers). These convert the wave – it’s shape now altered by the plate – back into an electrical signal and return it as reverb to be blended with the original sound.

Yeah, you can simulate this digitally but analogue plate reverbs have their own special qualities, and if you make your own you’ll be able to create totally unique reverb sounds which are all yours.

As far as I know these type of reverbs were first widely used in the 60s and were considered to be a vast improvement on the earlier “spring” reverbs, the boingy sounding ones that you mostly find these days in Fender-type guitar amps, the ones that make those great clanging noises when you kick them. Don’t kick your amp.

Plate reverbs on the other hand create the rich, dense type of reverb we hear on records by The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Phil Spector, anything from Motown etc etc.

my one sounds like this:

Ok Lani isn’t going to be happy about this, but unfortunately for her this clip is just perfect for demonstrating reverb.

Here’s the dry voice:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

and with the magnificent plate reverb:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Here’s a dry guitar track:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

and with glorious stereo plate reverb:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

the parts i’ve used are

  • An old steel bed frame (could just as easily be built from wood)
  • The side of a filing cabinet for the plate
  • Some small springs from another old bed
  • A speaker
  • Piezo transducers (1 for mono, 2 for stereo)
  • Some light steel wire
  • Some speaker wire
  • Some shielded audio cable
  • Some glue

tools

I used a drill and a pair of pliers. In a pinch you could do it without the drill. Or the pliers.

Oh yeah, you’ll probably need some sort of amp to drive the signal to the speaker. I’m just using my bass head at the moment but I’ll sort out a dedicated amp sometime. Probably.

plate reverb enlarge

The shack I live in is pretty tight so for now the unit is hanging up on the porch. The plate is attached to the frame by springs at either end. I haven’t tried adjusting the tension on the plate or the placement of the springs yet, this is just as it happened to go together.

plate reverb enlarge

The speaker is an old New Zealand made Plessey, suspended on wires (to keep the weight down) and positioned at roughly the centre of the plate.

plate reverb enlarge

As you can see, the front of the speaker cone is about 10mm – 15mm from the surface of the plate. This is just where it happened to land but it seems to work pretty well.

plate reverb enlarge

The piezo transducers are glued to the plate at each end – one for the left channel and one for the right. It sounds great in mono too but if you have a stereo return or a couple of spare channels you might as well give yourself the option.

what now?

  • I’ll definitely experiment with the tension of the plate, I think that could have quite a dramatic effect on the colour of the reverb. At the moment it’s quite dark which is nice for some things.
  • I might play around with the speaker placement, although I’m pretty happy with how it’s working the plate.
  • The piezos only cost a few dollars each so I might try some more in various places around the plate. I think the distance from the centre should relate to the length of the reverb but I’m not sure about that. With more piezos perhaps I could run several different sounding signals to a small mixer and play with them a bit before sending them to the desk.
  • Oh, and I want to build a box for it to live in or find somewhere quiet to hang it. It’s fairly sensitive to wind and dogs.

Any other ideas? Have any advice or questions about building these things? Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE:

I’ve now built a mixer for mixing four reverb returns. Read about it here.