October 2016

Draw 4.5 (1979)

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Ken Shirriff has been restoring a vintage Xerox Alto computer (the PC Steve Jobs "borrowed" his ideas from). On Day 10 Shirriff got the Draw 4.5 program up and running. He can't draw with it yet because the mouse that came with the Alto isn't compatible (the donor bought a substitute off eBay, it turns out). But here's what the interface looks like (jpeg cropped into two parts to fit here):

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Some of these functions are familiar and some are obscure but it's intriguing to see a 37 year old toolbar. Eventually, maybe, we'll have our Roland Barthes who can explain how present-day visual language was warped, I mean, shaped, by this configuration.

draw4-5_1979_gui_shirriff_bottom_crop

"Bassline XL5"

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"Bassline XL5" [mp3 removed -- please listen on Bandcamp]

Recorded and arranged in Ardour (Linux version)

Track 1 -- Ambient and Hoover-ish synth voices are Loomer Aspect, a VST softsynth that works in Linux (the LXVST folder holds the plugin). Sequencing is Ardour MIDI.
Track 2 -- Bassline is SIDGuts module (MOS 6581 chip from Commodore 64), triangle waveform. Sequencing is Doepfer A-154/A-155, envelope Tiptop Z4000. SIDGuts filter is modulated by Bubblesound uLFO sync'd to Doepfer A-160 clock. Some reverb at the end using Calf plugin.
Track 3 -- Above bassline is compressed using Calf and Ableton multiband dynamics plugins, used alternately with Track 2.
Track 4 -- Soft kick drum is Loomer Aspect. Sequencing is Ardour MIDI.
Track 5 -- E-Mu Orbit soundfonts, percussion sounds played in Calf Fluidsynth, dry and wet with Calf vintage delay. Sequencing is Ardour MIDI.
Track 6 -- "Raw" wav files from NI Battery Digital Processing kit, played in Qu-Bit Nebulae one shot mode. Sequencing is Doepfer A-154/155. Wavs are played dry and also using Tiptop Z-DSP Clocked Delays cartridge.
Track 7 -- Synth "lead" lines are played with SIDGuts (sawtooth and pulse waves), same filtering arrangement as above. Sequencing is Doepfer A-154/A-155. Another lead line is a 4-part chord using the SIDGuts, WMD Gamma Wave Source wavetable synth (2 parts), and Doepfer A-112 sampler. The chord is mixed down to a single track using Pittsburgh Audiomixer/Attenuator and filtered in Bubblesound SEM20 filter.
Tracks 8-10 -- Gene Krupa-like Ableton beats layered together (on Windows PC) and recorded in Ardour -- two breakbeats by Sample Magic (audio) and DM ARP 2600 Drums by Flatpack (MIDI kit)
Track 11 -- Celesta notes by a "well-known modern composer" (sample from vinyl)

you would be in jail

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The responsible pundits of Washington think Trump's comment was beyond the pale. Ha ha, it was a happy moment for all of us who've sat helplessly watching the FBI and Justice Dept. scrub the Clintons' record. Bill gets on the plane with AG and boom -- no indictment. Bernie Sanders considers it too unseemly or un-collegial to call out an obviously corrupt opponent. $153 million in speaking fees buys what, honesty?
Below are two appearances of the quote, first from Corey Robin, who has been questioning the "Trump is the worst" propaganda coming from the center-left. Worse than Reagan? Really? Second is Lambert Strether liveblogging the debate, so typed on the fly and not wholly accurate but it captured the wonderfulness of the "jail moment."

http://crookedtimber.org/2016/10/11/trump-the-ringmaster-and-his-unwitting-clowns/

TRUMP: And I tell you what, I didn’t think I would say this, but I’m going to and I hate to say it. But if I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Because there has never been so many lies, so much deception. There has never been anything like it. And we’re gonna have a special prosecutor.

CLINTON: Everything he just said is absolutely false, but I’m not surprised….Last time at the first debate ,we had millions of people fact checking so I expect we will have millions more fact checking because, you know, it’s just awfully good that someone with the temperament of Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.

TRUMP: Because you would be in jail.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/10/2016-presidential-debate-2-trump-v-clinton-washington-university-live-blog.html

Lambert Strether
October 9, 2016 at 9:24 pm

CLINTON [TRUMP?] It’s just words, folks, it’s just words. Heard when Hillary was going to bring back jobs to upstate NY. Inner cities. I’m gonna help AAs, Latinos, inner cities, she’s done a terrible job. She wants their votes, does nothing.

RADDATZ [Back to the tape.] Facebook, social network. Bring in social media question.

JEFF Trump says it’s changed him. How? When you walked off the bus, did that change you?

TRUMP Locker room talk, not proud of it. If you look at Bill Clinton, mine are words, his are actions. You can say it any way, Bill was abusive. Hillary attacked them viciously. Kathy Shelton. Don’t tell me about words. Absolutely I apologize for words. Clinton was impeached, lost his licesne to practice law, paid Paula Jones $850 It’s disgraceful and she should be shamed. [applause]

CLINTON So much not right. He can run his campaign as he wants. I am reminded of what my fried Michelle Obama said “When they go low, you go high [cheers]. If this were just about one video. But everyone can draw their own conclusions about whether the man on the stage is real. He never apologizes to anybody. Not ht Khans. Not the Federal judge. The reporter he mocked, our children were lying. Never apologized for the racist lie on birther. He needs to take

TRUMP Your campaign manager Sid B needs to apologize for sending the pictures around. And Michelle B. I’ve gotten to see the commercials talking about you Hillary. You talk about friends! You lost fair and square.

You should apologize for the 33K emails. And two boxes [???]

If I win, I am going to instruct my AG to get a special prosectutor to look into your situation. Never anything like this! You get a subpoena and then delete 33K and acid watch, bleach. People’s lives have been

CLINTON Everything he said is absolutely false. Good thing Trump isn’t in charge of the law.

TRUMP BC you’d be in jail [applause]

my private position is "you stink"

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The text of Hillary Clinton's lucrative speeches is finally coming to light (TYT reads them aloud on YouTube). Inspired by Steven Spielberg's portrayal of Lincoln (!) she believes that as a politician "you need a public and a private position." So when she says at the Democratic Convention that she opposes the TPP trade bill, you can assume that privately she'll do everything in her power to get it passed. Another grabber is her complaint that when people "with successful and complicated lives" come to Washington they have to divest assets. She sees this attempt to prevent bias as "onerous and unnecessary." She also admits to bankers that she is "far removed" from middle class life because of "the fortunes that my husband and I now enjoy." Fortunes, indeed. In a leaked email her campaign manager admits that Bill Clinton accepted a million dollar contribution from a Keystone Pipeline supporter. (An earlier estimate of the Clintons' haul from "speaking fees" since the early 2000s was $153 million.)

Hillary-voting friends say they "don't want to look at Clinton's evil right now." We should all vote for evil because it's strategic, or something.
Other friends were quick to accept the spin that the Russians were meddling in the US campaign (as if that has anything to do with the substance of the emails). Because some security experts say they backtraced it.

Machines in Music (cell photos)

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Photos from my visit today to Machines in Music: New York's Modular Synthesizer Exhibition & Events, a two-day festival concluding tomorrow.

 

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Installation by Benton C Bainbridge

 

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Photographic print by Benjamin Laposky

 

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View of exhibition tables with modular gear (faces blurred by my special "shakyware" to protect the unwitting)

 

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More tables

 

Walked around and looked at gear and talked to exhibitors from the various small companies demonstrating Eurorack modules. Some things I learned: (i) Erica Synths is pushing to have its Graphic VCO finished by Christmas; (ii) The Qu-Bit Nebulae went out of production because Raspberry Pi was re-designed in such a way that it no longer worked as a Nebulae component (a Nebulae II is planned -- with its own inbuilt PC -- but hasn't been announced); (iii) ALM's Sidguts only had a run of 50 modules; (iv) If you are interested in a SIDGuts Deluxe ask the dealer to include a SwinSID chip -- they should have one; (v) The WMD/SSF Pole Zero lowpass filter sounds beefy -- I liked it; (vi) Synthrotek's Dirt Filter is interesting and bizarre and might work in my "pallette." Nice to see Wizardishungry and catch up. The Knockdown Center in Queens (a rehabbed factory) is a vast and impressive space for events of this type. A lot of oscillators humming in one room.