Art + Music + Technology

I've known Stefan Brunner for some time - going back to some of the early Cycling '74 company meetings (I somehow remember him laying out a figure-8 bike path in an alleyway in SF...), but I've never really cornered him on his artistic work. This last February, we found ourselves in a restaurant, and I poked him to explain a little more about his artwork. He started revealing, and I was stunned - I knew he was an active artist, but didn't realize how deeply he was embedded into the thing. From Arto Lindsay to large orchestras to a duet with a mad turntablist, he was multi-disciplinary to the extreme. And he is also a killer developer - both of deep C++ code as well as a variety of devices in Max for Live. All of this reveals itself in his work, which tends to simultaneously be abstract and deep, and which is always exploring the edges of the medium. His work with Pedro Lopes as The Hour Of The Wolf is a great example: just when you think it is totally non-representational, Stefan will peel off a beautiful gui

Fans of VCV Rack and Voltage Modular will be all over the name VULT, but it's also making its name known for both hardware modular gear as well as nifty DSP trickery. Created by Leonardo Laguna Ruiz, Vult produces some of the best virtual modules I've tried, and is branching out into hardware modules and even DSP programming languages. And, of course, this amazing body of work is coming from an equally amazing guy. Leonardo is one of those pan-continental, pan-discipline people that will make you love the modern world. Leveraging a love of recording technology with an education in electrical engineering, he is one of those guys that thinks in differential equations. His passion is in modeling, and his work shows it: the filters, oscillators and other devices that he's created are fabulous examples of math-in-audio at its best. In our chat, we talk about the modules, the language, hardware developments and Leonardo's beginning story. The whole thing is inspiring, and it'll make you want to crack those books ag

I first knew Doug Lynner's work as the editor/publisher of Synapse Magazine, an electronic music magazine before most people even knew that was a thing. Doug laid the groundwork for magazine-as-history in our cultural world, and took the opportunity to leverage his position and location (L.A.) to get a lot of great interviews over the magazines short-ish lifetime. I have a couple of listener requests to have a chat with Doug, which caused me to do a little background work. My God - what a career. Between his CalArts education, the magazine work, his bands and his long history with Serge systems (including being an artist/demo dude for Serge himself), he was clearly a touchpoint for the things that interest all of us. He continues full-force, doing one-on-one teaching, producing a weekly live performance radio show on KZSU (https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/bloopandquack) and releasing new work based on his Modular Tonalism system. All of it is intriguing, and after listening to this chat, I'm sure you are go

Marco Petracca owns many names, but my favorite is HHNOI - his artist name for his work with composition using modular synths. Marco has made some careful choices about how he approaches musical development, how he chooses his tools and how he separates his recording work from his live performance. The result is a satisfying combination of well-crafted songform and beautiful sound design. I first ran across HHNOI as I became fascinated with the Modularfield label, and was really pleased when Markus (from Modularfield) opened the door for a discussion with Marco. We got along great - it was clear that we had shared a lot of experiences: living through the tumult of recording format changes, watching analog come, then go, then come back again, and struggling with synchronization among all these systems. So we have a lot to talk about. You can check out Marco's work at his Modularfield page, on the HHNOI site, or on his Soundcloud page. This was a fun discussion for me, and I hope it is a great listen for you, t

I've known Wes Milholen for a while - I first met him as he was working on some of his first replacement faceplates. He was part of the Denver/Boulder modular scene, and we spent time at meetups and performances. I always found his crisp and clean designs to my liking, and found him to be a thoughtful developer and talented performer. He's gone on to do a lot more stuff: module development, more panel designs, and even design work for VCV rack. As you'll hear in this interview, he views design work to be his calling, and it shows in everything that he touches. We had a great talk - some reminiscing, some product history talk, and a lot of discussion about the world of modular synthesis. Wes has his finger on the pulse of that world, and has some good insight on where things came from and where they are going. Check out his work at https://grayscale.info/, https://1979.ws/ and https://vcvrack.com/. He's also hanging around mose social media sites and Muffwiggler's forum. Enjoy!

Let's face it - we didn't get into sound design in order to hang out with a bunch of strangers. We tend to be an insular community, and can barely look beyond our shoes to interact with one another. But the Internet can change all of that, right? Well, maybe - but social media interaction isn't necessarily any easier for meeting people than house parties are. Along comes Holly Vernon with a smart prospect: create a network of connections that can be used to help us find each other, introduce ourselves in a safe way, and build up connects when and where we need them. I happened to hear Holly talk at Synthplex, and found the proposal quite interesting. It can be as simple as posting social media content with the #exsoso hashtag, or you can add your name to the database and use that database to draw people into performances, workshops or whatever you happen to be doing in a new area. Pulled together from Holly's experience finding people to meet, this is a growing opportunity for people interested in breaking ou

Back in Podcast 38, we talked to Jim Coker - the developer behind Numerology and the company Five12. Well, it's been five years, and a lot has happened since then. I met up with Jim at Synthplex, and got a quick catch-up; I also realized that we needed to have another interview, because things have gotten very real for him since we last talked! It's all about hardware, baby. In this case, that would be the Vector Sequencer: a no-holds-barred sequencer for Eurorack systems that brings much of the sequencing power of Numerology into the Eurorack world. This device provides many of my favorite features into its 3u height, so you can expect that I wanted to know how that could happen. As always, Jim was willing to share - and to be patient as I marveled at what he pulled off. This sequencer is significant enough to occupy the center of a decent studio (much like Numerology itself), and bring the step sequencing game to a new level of awesome. You can learn more about both Numerology and the Vector Sequencer at fi

I've been a fan of Modularfield's recordings ever since I first ran into them. Featuring well-known releases by Ann Annie and HHNOI, the label has a strong identity - but it doesn't overwhelm the artists. Thus, you have variety, but a unified approach, and the whole works out quite well. With a new release by An On Bast, I realized it was time to check in with Markus - and he agreed to do a podcast. We talked a lot about the curation process that he and Stefan Liehr employ in maintaining the high level of quality (and, as Markus put it, "timelessness"), as well as the details of hand-making cassette covers, finding new artists and making compelling artwork. It's a great insight into the thinking involved in running and maintaining a label - something I've always been curious about. I'm a fan of Modularfield (obvioiusly...), and suggest that you check out their releases at https://modularfield.io/. Some of my favorites include all the Ann Annie releases, An On Bast's "Summer Camp Experiment", HHNOI's whole cat

Dan Goldstein has been living his dream for 20 years. He started off with Sonic Foundry - back in the golden days - creating the future of audio software from scratch. He went on to be a main developer of Mixcraft, and has recently been involved in the release of Cherry Audio's Voltage Modular synth software. It's a powerhouse, and you can tell that Dan is really excited about it. We took the opportunity to roll through some of his history, and I learned a lot about Sonic Foundry's world. But I also got a chance to see the trajectory of a guy - in Dan - that knew what he loved, and spent a lot of effort pursuing it. You hear it in his voice; despite the fact that he's been doing it for 20 years, he sounds as excited as a teen with his first car. It was cool to talk to Dan about history, but also about his current work on Voltage Modular. If you are interested in playing around with a new kind of virtual modular, you should check it out - it's breaking some new ground, and is a blast to play with. You can chec

It's pretty hard to avoid gear lust when you see 1010 Music's work in action. Originally launched as the Bitbox, the touchscreen, high-function module has spawned a number of implementations, including the Synthbox, Fxbox, Toolbox and - most recently - the standalone Blockbox. I've been in awe of this system since it was first released, and I'm glad to have the chance to talk with the creator - Aaron Higgins. Based out of LA, Aaron and his spouse have 1010 humming. By focusing on a specific setup (a touch-based interface on a fully-digital module base), they have been creating some eye-popping modules for sample playback, digital synthesis, realtime sequencing and even laser pattern generation. You have to see some of these things to believe them, but in general you can say that 1010 is pushing the envelope of what we think a module can do. In our talk, we discuss the development of the platform, the differences in the devices, and Aaron's inspiration and design aesthetic. We also peek at his background as a

There are voices in our lives that are always welcome. One of those, for me, is Marc Weidenbaum. Marc has a long history of writing about things that I (and, I'm guessing, we) care about, and has been one of those people that consistently opens doors of musical understanding for me. As the editor and chief bottle-washer of https://disquiet.com/, he uses his words to explore music and sound in a way that I find inspiring. As the 'stimulant' behind the Disquiet Junto, he is also prompting musicians to produce work based on an idea - using suggestions that aren't always specific, but can often lead artists to do things that are a little out of the ordinary. In our chat, we talk about everything from Marc's background working at Pulse, to his own musical practice, and also a lot about the inspiration and details behind the Junto. We also get to hear about the breadth of work that Marc pursues, and how he pulls it all together. Super inspiring, and a call-to-action to boot! Enjoy!

I'm a sucker for a great book, and especially a great series. I also like knowing about books that will help people become better Max programmers. That combination comes into play with Maurizio Giri and Alessandro Cipriani's "Electronic Music and Sound Design" a (so far) two book series that explores Max/MSP programming through electronic music technique. But Maurizio is into more than that: an active composition teacher, he exercises his electronic music muscles by creating pro-level Max for Live devices and iOS apps under the name Amazing Noises. The Amazing Noises Outer Space device is one of my favorite beyond-reverb plug-ins, and those apps feature some of the most intuitive user interfaces seen in audio development. In this chat, Maurizio and I talk about the development of both books and applications from the standpoint of a traditional composition professor, and also discuss the way that modern (and often computer-enhanced) classical music is managed today. We get some great insight into a great mind,

Talk about wired in! Cassie Tarakajian is keyed into a lot of my favorite projects, from the Miraweb project, to p5.js, to the Node for Max project that was part of Max 8 - tons of favorites there. But a key part of this is that it is all focused on the intersection of the web and artwork - a place this isn't always comfortable. In our chat, we talk about the history of fun on the web, how having a ubiquitous art canvas can be both liberating and unnerving, and ways to make art-coding available to whomever wants it. We also talk about the importance of open source software, and the effect that changing technologies and mobile platforms have on web-based development. You can learn more about Cassie's work by checking out her website: https://cassietarakajian.com/, the p5.js site (https://p5js.org/) and Cycling '74's Max 8 page (https://cycling74.com/products/max-features). She's super-active in other areas of web-based art tech, so you are bound to run into her work wherever you happen to go. And she's also go

If you know synths and movie scoring, you know Michael Lehmann Boddicker's work. He's one of those people that I've always followed - his work is impeccable, and always on-point. He's involved in a new conference - Synthplex - and I took the time to have a quick chat with him about it. This conference seems like a combination of Superbooth, AES, TED talks and a music festival. There is a lot going on, a lot of industry focus, but it is specific to business-to-customer activity, so there will be a lot of information useful for anyone that can walk in the door. If you want to see a list of the performers, speakers or exhibitors, you can check out the site: www.synthplex.com I'm going to be there - if you will be, drop me a line and we can try to meet up. Enjoy! (Oh, and I'm going to get Michael to have a regular podcast chat soon - I promise!)

Note: Mattijs and Hidde are part of the group of presenters at Cycling '74's Expo, which will be running from April 26-28, 2019. Ticket prices are about to go up, so if you are thinking about going, sign up now! Showsync is one of those software pieces I've been hearing about for a while. Under development - and active use in show - for many years, it is now available for commercial purchase. With some high-profile users (and show) using the software, it was interesting to me to learn more about the people behind this software. Mattijs and Hidde have been active members of the Max community for some time, and their work has taken advantage of the Max for Live connection to create a tightly integrated video solution for live shows. But rather than creating a 'reactive' system, Showsync provides all of the functionality of a timeline development system for 'composing' video content that can be synced to performance. As we hear in this discussion, this changes the way you can consider video use in live performan

Now that the podcast has been running for five years, I'm seeing that some of our earlier interviews have been doing great new things - and so have I. We've settled on a format that brings out great questions, but I didn't quite have my ideas in order 'back then', so some of the details were missing. Time to rectify that! Dan Nigrin (episode #2!) is one of my favorite people in the music tech world - primarily because he only does what he wants. He has an incredibly important day-gig, so music and music tech is there for him when he wants to relax. And how does he relax? He creates crazy sequencers and decodes old tape and sysex dump specs. From the MC-202 (which has been coming up a lot lately...), through the Oberheim DSX and now to the Ensoniq Fizmo, Dan takes on the improbably projects in the same way that some people take on the New York Times Crossword. He's into it, spends countless hours, and takes great pride in cracking the codes along the way. In our chat, we get into his background, how he got pul

Alessandro Cortini should be well-known to most of the people that listen to this podcast. From his work with Nine Inch Nails, to his modular-fueled solo work, and to his inspirational videos and interviews, Alessandro is on the mainline of music tech. But he's also decades behind (in a good way...) because of his love of Don Buchla's designs and instruments. I know of no other person that is so obsessed with Buchla equipment - and making music with it. In our chat, we talk about the variety of ways that he interacts with his instruments, his interests in modulars that are more than gear collections, and the way that great gear inspires him to make the music he loves. We also talk about a few of his specific releases, and how they (sometimes inadvertently) come into being. Of course, I also get to ask about his cassette 4-track interests (another thing we share) - and how he finds unique ways of using one. I loved doing this interview; Alessandro was pretty hyped on coffee, so he was on fire! I hope that you

Sometimes I get in a mood - you know? The last thing I need is a screeching industrial band or ear-piercing experimental trip. Sometimes I need to relax - and sometimes that means laid back, bossa-infused electronic tracks. When I go on that trip, tracks occasionally jump out for me - and one artist kept coming up: Michael E. It had a relaxed feel that was right for the genre, but small details kept cropping up: inventive arrangements, nice (real) instrumental support - and a lot of work. I checked out some of his bio material, and was shocked by the number of releases he's produced. Michael is hyper-productive, and I wanted to learn more. I reached out to Michael E and he was up for an interview; it was going to be different from the typical fare, but it turned out to be equally interesting. Michael's background, production planning and collaborations all informed my understanding of how he does his work, and it was great to talk to someone that was dedicated to making a career in music-making - without fall

During a recent Cycling '74 retreat, I was helping out with some sticky support issues - and I ran across a really cool thing. A guy with a Gen issue was asking about some deep details - and was talking about sharing the info on his blog. I checked out his blog, and my eyes popped out: it was amazing. I had to know more, and that led me to discussions with Martin Russ. Once I saw the name, I knew who I was talking with. The author of the book "Sound Synthesis and Sampling", a column-jockey for Sound on Sound magazine and an adept Max for Live programmer, I was excited to learn more. And so, this podcast! Martin does something that few people do: he shows his patches. Not only does he show them, but he describes them in detail, and talks about his thinking while he was digging into the details. This is the kind of introspection you don't often see in Max programmers, and I found his blog (http://blog.synthesizerwriter.com/) to be a great location for interesting details on MFL programming. It turns out that Ma

Dr. Kate Sicchio is hard at work redefining what it means to be a media artist. Deeply embedded in the dance world (she identifies as a choreographer), she has been working with dance-oriented electronics and coding, and has extended that into the live-coding music and visuals world as well. Her work ranges from code-and-body critique to algorave gathering organizer - and seems to get it all right! Starting off as a serious dancer, Kate also was drawn to web programming, and soon found a way to combine the two disciplines into a singular practice. This led to work with live-coding, wearable sensor and motor development and is even now moving toward custom language development. If you are interested, you really need to check out her website (http://blog.sicchio.com/) and Vimeo videos (https://vimeo.com/user5717715). Dr. Sicchio will be one of the presenters at the Cycling '74 Expo, to be held in April 2019 at MASS MoCA. You can find out more about the Expo here: https://cycling74.com/expo Enjoy!