maanantai 17. joulukuuta 2018

MANU - Sonic Landscapes

Sonic Landscapes is an exploration of the interrelationship of landscape and soundscape. MANU is a solo-project of Manu from Sigma.

Omuro 88 is a miniature version of Japan's most famous pilgrimage route on the island of Shikoku. It is located in the district of Omuro, on the grounds of the temple Ninnaji. There are 88 miniature temple's in an 3km route that lies at the foot of mount Joju. This long ambient composition is created from simple generative rules that take control of analog synthesizers.

Sampola I & II are created in the spirit of my summer cottage in Finland. The summer nights are magical. Birds are singing all the time because of the midnight sun. The electronic soundscape is created from analog synthesizer recording manipulated with granular-synthesis. EWI controlling Moog Prodigy is used for melody/solo parts. Part II is an exploration of sounds that you might hear when you are sitting ashore. Composition is created with electronically enhanced thumb-piano.

Le Noci is situated in Italy Tuscany. Tuscany is characterized by green hills fringed with cypress trees and medieval hill towns on the top. ”Le Noci” is created from a composition by redistributing and reorganising the audio. I improvised with the Granular-synthesis and created this re-composition.

Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world. Roof of the World or Top of the World is a metaphoric description of this high region also known as high Asia. The city has been the religious and administrative capital of Tibet since the mid-17th century. Composition started from an improvisation with my EWI controlling Moog Prodigy and was completed with Ami's synthesizer parts.

Oumuamua is the first known interstellar object that visited our solar system 2017. It is a mysterious cigar-shaped object with a somewhat reddish hue. Oumuamua is Hawaiian and means “a messenger from afar arriving first”. Composition uses granular-synthesis technique where the source is a sound-exploration recording with my ARP 2600 synth. Here I wanted to create a composition with pure sound and timbre manipulations without any traditional composition structure.

Sant Antimo is an ancient abbey that has been inhabited by Benedictine monks for centuries. It is situated in Italy’s Tuscany. The concert of the cicadas was very special and loud. The idea here (and in Sampola I) is to create new sonic environment from ambient music that blends with the existing sounds from nature.

Nanzenji is a temple of the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism, and is situated within a pine forest at the foot of the eastern hills of Higashiyama in Kyoto Japan. Composition is created also with granular-synthesis where the source is a single recording of a Tibetan Shang-bell played with strokes and singing-bowl techniques.

Arisaig is a small village in Lochaber Inverness-shire on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands. The word Arisaig means “the safe place” in the Scottish Gaelic language. Ami Hassinen played some electric guitar parts where from I created the final guitar tracks with granular-synthesis methods. Melody is improvised with my EWI/Moog combination.
 


credits

license

released December 8, 2018

All music composed, performed and produced by MANU
except Lhasa composed by MANU and Ami Hassinen (keyboards).

Ami Hassinen plays Guitar on Arisaig.



perjantai 7. joulukuuta 2018

Sonic Landscapes

An album of music is about to be released ! This is my second solo album and first under the name MANU. I am trying to get this released before the new year’s eve.


maanantai 12. marraskuuta 2018

PreenFM2

This is a DIY FM-synthesis synthesizer by Xavier Hosxe. I bought the PCB and MCU from Xavier and the rest of the parts from Mouser. Easy to build and now alive! This is a DX7 in steroids:

4 independent instruments. Each of them has:

Powerful arpeggiator (Mutable-Instruments opensource algorithm).
1 effect Slot (LP, HP, Bass boost, Band Pass, crusher)
1 gate effect
The 4 instruments can be saved all at the same time in combo presets.
Each instrument has its own modifiable midi channel. They can share the same for FAT quadruple timbres notes.
Modifiable number of allocated voices… Between 1 and 14.
28 FM algorithms from 3 to 6 operators

Up to 14 voices of polyphony (8 if you use 6 op algorithms). Each voices has:

7 low frequency modulators (3 LFOs, 2 enveloppes, 2 step sequencers).
12 rows matrix : 16 sources, 32 destination (LP, HP, gate, stereo, MI, attack…)
Arpeggiator, LFOs and step sequencers synchronizable on external midi clock or internal clock.

Operator features:

7 builtin waveforms + 6 user waveforms read from the usb drive.
Stereo panning (at the carrier operator level)
8 envelope parameters per operator (DX7 like)

Direct Scala scale file loading for microtonality. Up to 128 Scala scales selectable from the preenfm2.
Modular Randomizer

USB all the way:

Midi over USB
USB drive: huge preset banks: 64*128 presets, 8*128 combos, 256*32 DX7 presets.
The USB drive holds your preset banks, you scala scale files, your user waveform files.
Easy firmware upload and flash.
USB powered

Comprehensive user interface and associated to a 4×20 characters display for easy preset edition
Small, portable and easy to build (no SMD)

Mac/Linux/Windows open-source preset Editor : standalone and VST




maanantai 1. lokakuuta 2018

Waveform Research Archives

Great document of Dennis Verschoor a.k.a. Mr Noodlebar ! He is creating new music with real old-school method.

maanantai 16. heinäkuuta 2018

Strymon Magneto improvisations

Bought this great tape-echo simulator from Strymon. It has four tape-heads that you can mix and activate/deactivate the feedback paths. It also has a pitch shift mode. Great to play with my EWI controlling Moog Prodigy Eurorack-clone going thru Magneto. Very musical effect-module.



Here are some one-take 100% improvisations with only Moog and Magneto.
 

sunnuntai 1. huhtikuuta 2018

Borderlands Granular

Found this amazing granular synthesis software Borderlands for iPad. Easy to use and sounds very good. To load your own samples was not so easy. I purchased also AudioShare for file importing and FileBrowser for Business to access my network disks.


perjantai 19. tammikuuta 2018

Moog Prodigy clone version 6.2

Finally finished my Eurorack Moog Prodigy clone version 6.2. This revision has some new modifications and the potentiometers + switches are cheaper standard versions:

- MOD switch has center position MW which replaces the LFO with modulation wheel acting like an CV-source.
- OSC MOD is a three position switch where PW1 position means that the LFO is modulating OSC1's pulse width
- EXT AUDIO input with potentiometer attenuator

Version 6.2 PCB

I ordered a raw aluminium front plate with the holes. Then I printed the graphics on paper and glued that on the aluminium plate.

sunnuntai 7. tammikuuta 2018

Sigma in Avaruusromua

Happy New Year 2018!

 SIGMA: Letter to Kid Baltan - osa - (Worlds Within Worlds)
VOKOLOGI: Tänä yönä tanssitaan (Ääniaaltoja)
TOIVANEN: Jossakin on Maa (Transitions)
PG-66: Before Leaving (Occasional Tunes Vol. 3)
RASMUS HEDLUND: Kaukana väijyy ystäviä Remix (single)
THE KOLMAS: Seitsemän (Kolmas musiikki)
KAUKOLAMPI: Epiphyte (Requiem for Mika) (1)
SÄRÖLLÄ: Kuumeuni, osa 1 (Kuumeuni)
MARI SAINIO: Souls from the Past (promojulkaisu)
SIGMA: Worlds Within Worlds (Worlds Within Worlds)

https://areena.yle.fi/1-4305727#autoplay=true