Robert Greene on the Crisis Generation

Recommended listening! Viewing our present society's conditions as part of a cyclical progression of natural, psychological changes. With large influence from Machiavelli.

How to Know When a New Instrument Design is Complete

Reviewing the Pyramid Eel and reflecting on other instruments, I set my foot down in the sand and label the first Pyramid Eel "done." Watch the video to hear the full details!

Adding Sensitivity and Expression Using Optical Encoders on Electric Eel Generators

I recently upgrade the generators on my Electric Eel instruments to include optical encoders.  Check out this video to see how it works.

This means I'll be able to measure the speed and acceleration of the bow, leading to much more sensitive and expressive instruments.  I've been wanting to do this for YEARS and now it's finally happening...   

Over the years of playing my generator-based Electric Eel instruments, I have been enjoying how pushing them hard increases the sound volume.  It makes for sound so much more expressive than even my best MIDI keyboards with aftertouch.  It's slowly becoming apparent to me, though, that if I had a better idea how fast the player is pushing/sliding/bowing the generator, the sound could be even more sensitive and expressive.

Early on, I tried to do this by measuring the voltage on the temporary capacitors.   That approach works a little bit, but it doesn't change fast enough and different sound outputs consume the voltage at different rates, so it's way too entangled with the output sound, rather, than focused on what the player is doing.  Therefore, I decided to go WHOLE HOG and use an optical encoder.

This wasn't an easy decision.  These are more expensive and the algorithms get much more complex.  However, I am working again and don't have children (my instruments are my children!), so I went for it.  And actually I had a nice surprise---- over the last ten years, prices have come waaaaay down for these parts.  What used to cost about $300, can now be for only $40.  Yes, it's hard to believe.  It must be through the mass quantities of these parts that get used in factories.  Anyway, I picked up two of them and I've been wiring them up and writing code for them.  Soon I'll be putting them right into the instruments.  I can't wait.  It's going to be a whole new era.  In the meantime, please my newest video so you can share some the excitement that I'm going through!

Can all these analog synthesizer knob PCBs be soldered in just one hour?

Enjoy the time-lapse vid and 80s synth-shread montage music and find out

New Synth Knob Multiplexer - 64 Analogs in one! Part 3

So you know I'm exactly halfway in the middle of my 64-in-1 analog knob multiplexer project, right? To keep it exciting, I did a "Soldering Challenge." Enjoy the time-lapse video!

My bigger goal is to demonstrate all 64 knobs at once, but that's so many circuit boards... and I just got back from a sublimely relaxing vacation... so I decided to challenge myself to build them all in one hour. If I succeeded, I motivated myself with a relaxing swim at Walden Pond.

New Synth Knob Multiplexer - 64 Analogs in one! Part 3

You've seen it run with 5 synthesizer knobs, but now the stakes are higher!  I'm going to daisy-chain three of my circuit boards together.  Then I'm going to run them at top speed.


And if that wasn't enough, I've been preparing a special treat, so watch through the second half of the video :)

All Things Bright And Beautiful Video-Multitracked on 3 Electric Eels

I recorded the gorgeous, classic hymn "All Things Bright and Beautiful" on three different Electric Eels! Lowest two parts are played on Bowed Eel. Violin 2 is played on Blue Guitar Eel. Violin 1 is played on Red Saxophone Eel.

I really enjoy the sounds of harmony and I'm looking for more players to make these recordings with on Electric Eels or other DIY/DSP instruments.

Electric Eels return the nuance of movement to electronic instruments. I free synthesizers from the desktop/laptop paradigm. I make them more like acoustic instruments. They use no batteries, only the energy generated by player movement backdriving stepper motors. So you can take them anywhere and play all night. You don't have to recharge them or wait for their software to upgrade. They do not connect to a cell phone :) I developed them while at the MIT Media Lab in the Computing Culture research group. 

First part was recorded into my phone and an iPad. Subsequent parts recorded into phone while listening on iPad through headphones. Four parts were synced up with an inexpensive, buggy video editor. Recording took place over a six hour period on Saturday, July 13th. Cathartic language has been deleted.

My inspiration was that I loved the sounds of electronic timbres, but hated standing still at a laptop or MIDI sequencer. So I made instruments that require you to move to make electronic sound, just like acoustic ones... but I didn't "fake" it with sensors. The Electric Eels have small electrical generators in them that require you to move to generate that electricity to run the synthesizer and CPU in short bursts.

New Synth Knob Multiplexer - 64 Analogs in one! Part 1

New! Fresh in the mail. A circuit board I designed. Check out the edgy and powerful design!

It muxes 64 analog signals, especially synthesizer knobs, into 1. It lets you read a wholllle lot of knobs with just a few pins. 

You can use three pins from an Arduino or other microcontroller and read all 64 daisy-chain knobs!

You need this board to make professional synthesizers with lots of knobs.