midierror meets…. Neotropic [EP3]

midierror meets is a monthly music podcast dedicated to the diverse range of people in the music industry. In episode 3, I talk to Neotropic (Riz Maslen) about recording foley sounds, the early days of sampling and touring with ninjatune.

neotropic.net/
ninjatune.net/artist/neotropic

Show notes:
Laundrophonic EP ninjatune.net/release/neotropic/laundrophonic-ep
Future Sound of London http://www.futuresoundoflondon.com/
Amon Tobin http://www.amontobin.com/
Sculpture tapebox.co.uk/

Films:
Koyaanisqatsi [1982] – Godfrey Reggio
Solaris [1972] – Andrei Tarkovsky
Eraserhead [1977] – David Lynch
The Man Who Fell to Earth [1976] Nicolas Roeg

Main theme music by Jason Hotchkiss.
Incidental music by midierror

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midierror meets…. Kenny Young [EP2]

Episode 2 of midierror meets… sees me talking to Kenny Young – game audio guru and all round top chap. We’re talking interactive scores, virtual reality and how approaches game music.

http://www.audbod.com/
twitter.com/kcmyoung

Show notes:
Little Big Planet Series littlebigplanet.playstation.com/
Tearaway tearaway.mediamolecule.com/
Teathered tetheredgame.com/
Squarepusher VR video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Olt-ZtV_CE
Audio Mentoring audiomentoring.com/

Main theme music by Jason Hotchkiss.
Incidental music by midierror

Please comment, share and enjoy the podcast! A new one will be out at the beginning of each month.

midierror

midierror meets…. Cheryl Pinero [EP1]

Over the next few months I’m going to be releasing a podcast series where I speak to people in the music industry.

This month its Cheryl Pinero, Bassist for the Go Team, Salt Ashes, The Ravens, The Microdance, Queen Kwong and more!

Please comment, share and enjoy the podcast! A new one will be out at the beginning of each month.

midierror

Robotica Sample Pack – Pre-order Vinyl

After many months of work, i`m pleased to announce that my Loopmasters release ROBOTICA is ready to pre-order on vinyl!

Have a look at what the test pressing sounds like below:

Select vinyl from the dropdown menu here http://www.loopmasters.com/products/3363-Robotica

Salvaged Spring Reverb – Viscount Intercontinental M70 DELUX

Last year I moved, used, then demolished a massive Italian Viscount Organ. Amongst the things I salvaged was a spring reverb, drum machine and replacement keys. I`m going to start work on reviving the spring reverb first:

The schematics  for the reverb unit, and it`s connection to the rest of the organ are below:

In addition to the reverb unit, I also salvaged most of the PCBs…which means I also have a vibrato board, and an LFO. The schematics for these are here:

Jen SX1000 Modifictions [Sub Osc, Audio Input and IEC Power]

Last year I bought a haggard old Jen SX1000 in awful condition. It was in pieces, falling apart and not outputting any noise. The reason I bought it is because the PCBs all looked pretty good. The first thing to do was clean up the thing, which was no mean feat. Having got it outputting some noise, I set about fixing some broken keys and found an ingenious method of replacing the original parts with a guitar string:

From then on it was a case of checking for dry joints, testing each board individually, until eventually it was back to full working order. So, with another Jen waiting in the wings, I took the plunge and modified this one. Lots of information about the mods can be found here http://www.milton.arachsys.com/nj71/index.php?menu=2&submenu=4&subsubmenu=1 and here http://www.cykong.com/Synths/Jen%20SX1000/JenSX1000-Kbd-Mods.htm

It`s a great machine to work on because its so simple – nothing is too complex to get to and all of the PCBs perform obvious functions. So, here is the result of my Jen adventure…the three mods!

Here`s a picture of Jenny as she is now! I`ve replaced the missing caps with plastic ones, not 100% authentic, but they look good to me.

OUT NOW!! Synth Explorer: TR505

My second release of the new year features the Roland TR505 drum machine. It`s been sampled through a multitude of outboard effects to create some amazingly original and versatile sounds.

• 385Mb
• 24Bit 44.1KHz
• 100 Twisted Drum Loops
• 448 Single Shot Sounds
• 100 Rex2 Files
• 28 Soft Sampler Patches

Check out the demos here:

http://www.loopmasters.com/products/3655-Synth-Explorer-TR505

Dirty Little Secret Remix – BBC Introducing Plays!

Earlier this month I worked on a remix of Ben Owen  – Dirty Little Secret. I went for a trashy, electro-pop sound…something that would appeal to his audience as well as electronic music fans. You can listen to and download the track for free here:

It`s subsequently been broadcast on BBC introducing!

Check out the original here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synth Explorer – SH101: OUT NOW!!

The latest release from the midierror archives features the beastly SH101 analogue monosynth.

https://www.loopmasters.com/products/3584-Synth-Explorer-SH101

 

 

Transcendent Powertran 2000 [PCB Schematic]

Late last year I bought a faulty Transcendent Powertran 2000 – a DIY monosynth made in the 1970s which you could make at home. Instructions were available from `Electronics Today` magazine, with printed schematics and explanations of what what responsible for what on the PCB.

Unfortunately, while this is in pristine condition, it suffers from a faulty oscillator. A fault which I have not yet resolved – and its a pretty big one seeing as it only has one oscillator! Using the audio input I am able to test a lot of the other functions and it seems to me that the ADSR, Filter and White Noise sections are working as normal.

With the available instructions online, you might think it would be an easy fix. Unfortunately, the PCB is split over 4 pages in the magazine and many of the (scanned) photos are blurry and quite low-res. Leading to questions such as Is it “R29 or B28?!” So I have done the world a service and produced an accurate reconstruction of the ENTIRE board:

Complete with colour codings, this labels every element on the Powertran PCB as stated in the instructions. Please feel free to refer to this and please do contact me if you can see any errors.

I would love to hear from anyone who has any idea why the oscillator might not work!

midierror