A few weeks back I was in Asheville, NC to do a play and attend the Mountain-Skies festival. On Friday morning  May 11th, the participants of the festival were invited to tour the Moog Music factory. I thought I’d share I’d share my photos to help celebrate what would have been Bob Moog’s 78th birthday. A big thanks to Greg and Hong Waltzer for setting up this tour.

Of course this is something I’d always dreamed of doing so I'm wearing my "kid in a candy store" grin as I entered the showroom. The showroom is filled with Moog products that you can try hands-on.

We also got to go behind-the-scenes into the factory. Below is a photo of Moog Voyagers being burned in.

Note that ALL Moog products that ship world-wide are made in this one factory and are hand-assembled. So running at full production that means about 4 voyagers a day. Of course they run at much higher rates of production with smaller less complex products.

The tour then takes you through shipping and the loading dock through to the Moog Studios where they film all those groovy promo videos.

The whole touru took about 45 minutes and I took quite a few photos of the whole experience which you can view the set on flckr or via the embedded player below. See photo titles for a description for each picture (“Show Info” when running the player full screen). Enjoy! Oh and, don’t forget, you can help keep Bob Moog’s legacy alive by contributing to the http://www.moogfoundation.org/.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

In celebration of Bob Moog’s birthday, Google has released a Moog Synth doodle. Moog just released a video of Moog’s Chief Engineer Cyril Lance discussing a bit of history and the doodle.

In celebration of Bob Moog's Birthday Google created a web based synthesizer for the world to enjoy. Moog's Chief engineer, Cyril Lance, overviews the doodle' s capabilities to help you get started crafting sounds. Now everyone can explore the wonders of subtractive synthesis and express their creativity by sculpting sounds. Remember, experimentation and learning will reward you with a lifetime of rich synthesizer experiences.

 View embedded video.

Don’t forget, you can help keep Bob Moog’s legacy alive by contributing to the http://www.moogfoundation.org/.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Last weekend I had the honor of participating at the Mountain Skies Electro-Music Festival 2012 in Asheville, NC. It was my first time in Asheville and the first time for this particular event. Greg and Hong Waltzer and the rest of the Mountain Skies crew curated a wonderful lineup of artists who turned in some incredible performances. Hong shot and edited these video highlights (and shot the photo above) which give you a good sense of the diversity of acts and what it was like to be there.

I also want to give a shout out to Michael O’Bannon who was created visuals for my performance.

Watch part 1  of embedded video in HD.

1. Paul Harriman eigenharp ephemera
2. Klimchak electro-acoustic multi-instrumentalist
3. mindSpiral twisted matter
4. Mahoney and Peck progressive dark ambient
5. dRachEmUsiK glitch-groove ambient beats
6. Aligning Minds dubby soundscapes
7. Moog Guitar Inventor Paul Vo
8. Elizabeth Langa aka Auracene

Watch part 2 of embedded videon in HD.

• Kevin Spears kalimba and electronics
• Waveformation organic electronic (Linda Go, Greg Walzter, Chris Stack, Geary Yelton)
• Mark Moshery playing “Dark Signals” on keys, Theremin, and Tenori-ON
• Machine Eat Man Egyptronica
• Kevin Kissinger theremin
• Gerber and Vnuk tribal ambient
• Loop B Brazilian junk percussion

I took a lot of photos of the event including photos of the Moog factory tour and will include them in an upcoming post.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

In the late 80’s and earl 90’s while I was playing in the Head Full of Zombies in Colorado Springs, Fluorescent Echo was rocking the Boulder scene with synth pop. I never bumped into them back then but I did end up meeting Fluorescent Echo’s songwriter, programmer, producer and backup vocalist Heather Valey out on twitter. Now a sound designer in Austin TX, she and Denver-based members J. Forest Kelly (vox) , and Michael Smith (guitar) have reformed to release a brand new album called Glow.

There a 5 original synth driven songs followed by a cover of “Warm Leatherette” . The rest of the album is made up of 5 remixes of the original tracks. I was honored to have been included and remixed the song “Now is Now”. Listen to the original here, and my remix here.

You can buy the album here as a digital download (MP3, FLAC, AAC…) which includes lineR notes and scans of a lyrics notebook which is super cool. That same site has link if you’d also like a phyiscal CD.

Remix notes on “Now is Now”

I worked on the remix over a three week period in January. My notes are below:

FUN FACTS

• I started with 22 clean stems with no FX.
• The final remix had 53 tracks. Not all tracks were used during playback as some were used for resampling and such.
• The entire song was produced, mixed and mastered completely within the digital domain within Ableton Live 8.2.7 on Windows 7. Production started on my older HP DV6 system. I moved the project to my newer HP Envy 14 half-way through the production as I needed more CPUs and GBs :^)
• I used over 100 instances of digital effects – mostly Ableton but also SugarBytes (Effectrix), Tone2 (AkustiX), and Image-Line. I also resampled using effects to create audio clips.
• While I mostly used the source content from the stems for the remix, I did program and play some new parts. The intro and last chorus drums were programmed on SonicCharge uTonic drum synth with heavy morphing. I added some new arpeggiated analog synth line via U-HE ACE. I also used Waldorf Largo in the verses to create a subtle bass to warm up the mix. I also used Tone2 ElextraX to boost the energy out of the bridge.
• I worked on the song in multiple sessions over a period 21 days from January 4^th-25th 2012. Project took about 14 hours actual work.

00:00 INTRO VOX

I completely replaced the original introduction. While the original was great, I decided I wanted to create a new one for a few reasons. First, I wanted to highlight the character of the lead singer John’s voice right from the start. Next, I LOVE the sentiment of the lyrics in the chorus so I wanted to kick the song of with the chorus. Lastly wanted a non-beat driven start to the song to make it easier for DJs to blend this track into a mix. All this being the case the song kicks off A Capella. I used Tone2  AkustiX to sweeten vocals.

00:20 INTRO INSTRUMENTAL

After this there is an instrumental section based partly on stems from the chorus with some new drums I programmed. I wanted this to be simply MASSIVE and shake the house so lots of sub-harmonic kicks. I morphed and sliced the drum synth (Sonic Charge uTonic) creating motion, variety, and a big dynamic range for the kicks – sometimes sub-woofer huge, sometimes not. I added a new bass line to complement the new drum vibe. The guitar is the stem from the chorus. I added gain, EQ, filter, slicing and delay to it.

To transition to the first verse I use the delay tails from the guitar plus a resampled section of the vocals (frozen reverb reversed).

00:52 VERSE 1 PART A

I drop out almost all supporting tracks to make room for a sparse first verse to highlight the VOX and lyrics. Some reverse samples from the vox in here. One thing I wanted to try here was using ONLY the kick drum from the original stems for ALL instrumental parts. I compress it heavily, then boost it’s volume, then use automation to turn on and modulate Bit Reduction, Beat Repeat, Ping Pong, and Reverb. With the drums alone I felt it lacked warmth, so I added a new subtly and warm bass track using Waldorf Largo.

01:10 VERSE 1 PART B

As we get closer to the first chorus I wanted to drop the bottom out of the mix so I cut the kick completely. This is because for the upcoming first and second choruses I decided to use the kick and snare from the stems and I needed the section to be more “thin”. The machine-like hats are the original hats with heavy automated transposition. Bass synth starts here. It’s the original but heavily processed to make it more spongy – bringing closer to the timbre of the hats. I compressed it and crushed it. I added some time-based filter, phasing, delay and more crushing. Then some filter and  verb. Reverse vox and guitar stab from original stems makes an appearance right before the chorus.

01:27 CHORUS 1

“Now is Now” sample from original stems (which is EPIC btw). Original kicks but compressed, volume boosted again then compressed again with a different compressor. Lots of work on the snare to make it pop. Volume boost, filter, a little slap-back via delay and some verb to give it a little gate. Hats are original bit pitch shifted. Guitar as back – similar to guitar in instrumental into. Added some arpeggiated synth via U-HE ACE. Lots for work on placing the vox in space and adding delays.

01:49 VERSE 2

Bass is back from Verse 1 Part B, but this time the kick and hats are new. I sequenced them using SonicCharge uTonic drum synth. They are then crushed, filtered, delayed, beat repeated and verbed.

CHORUS 2

This is a pretty crazy mix so far so I decided to make Chorus 2 very similar to Chorus 1 so the listener would recognize it – and of course sing along.

BRIDGE

The original stems had some great vocoded pad-like sounds and I wanted to highlight them plus the lyrics and vox and give the listener a little break as we approach the EPIC final chorus. To this end I drop out almost all instruments which really opened things up to make room for the vox and vocoding. Kick is from uTonic. The guitar stabs were created by using the original guitar stems. I switched the original guitar stab to the back-beat using a delay totally wet. I EQ’d the guitar to drop the mids completely so you’d hear the warmth the the vox. I made a copy of the vocoded vox and manually mixed a reverb (including reverb freezing) and recorded this automation.

02:43 Almost a complete drop out prepping you for the build.

02:58 Out of this bridge I created a big build teeing you up for the instrumental break. Swell is from guitar, two synth parts I added using ACE and Tone 2’s ElextraX virtual synths. Some original snare hits thrown in.

03:03 INSTRUMENTAL BREAK

Hats again are original by pitch shifted. Lost of original stems. I spent a good amount of time adding effects to a Rhodes-like piano from the original stems. Volume boost, frequency shifter, filter, delay and reverb with automation. Here and there I bring the guitar – but it’s timbre is quite different as a result of EQing. Loved the original bass here, I make it stand out in the mix.

Here and there I us the kick and snare from the stems with big effects.

03:40 END CHORUS

Ok here we go! I switch back to the huge and morphing drums from the opening and blend them with the original drums. One a big PA this sounds HUGE.

There was a counter melody in the original version that was down in the mix. I really liked it so I promoted it to primary melody and lyric for this last Chorus. Even though there a massive amount of drums going on, I worked to get it out over the top of the mix so you could hear it really clearly. Lots of real-time automation on delays to enhance the vox.

04:08 A return of that awesome synth hook at the end of the song as well. I added a new arpeggiated filter swept part to drive the beat along.

04:24 END

“Now is Now” load and clear with some delay tails from the vox “Finallly Free”, synth, and the guitar.

AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!

What a pleasure to work on such a great song with so many hooks and great material in the original stems. Bravo Fluorescent Echo!

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Next week I’m week flying out from Boulder to do a workshop and performance at the Mountain-Skies festival in Asheville, NC. Come by and say hi if you live in the area.

While I’m there I’ll be touring Moog Music. I’ll take lots of pictures :^)

Watch my twitter and facebook page for updates as I go.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

There are some cool events going down at DU in the next few days.

Join the University of Denver's program in Emergent Digital Practices for special events with international Marsico Visiting Artists, Francisco Lopez (Spain/Netherlands) and Paul Prudence (UK).

PLEASE NOTE THAT FRANCISCO LOPEZ'S SOLO PERFORMANCE HAS MOVED TO THE PLANETARIUM!

Wednesday, May 2, at 7pm*

The HyperCube, Shwayder Art Building

Francisco Lopez & Paul Prudence, “Hydro-Acoustic Study”

Plus a special screening

Thursday, May 3, at 6pm

The HyperCube, Shwayder Art Building

Francisco Lopez & Paul Prudence, artist talks

Friday, May 4, at 7pm*

Gates Planetarium, Denver Museum of Nature & Science

2001 Colorado Blvd

Paul Prudence, “Rynth”

Francisco Lopez, solo performance

WORKSHOPS

Thursday, May 3, noon

The HyperCube, Shwayder Art Building

Paul Prudence, visualization workshop

Friday, May 4, noon

The C-Cubed Studios, Shwayder Art Building Francisco Lopez, listening workshop

* All events are free and open to the public. Seating is limited for the performances. Attendees should send an RSVP to dms@du.edu to reserve up to 2 seats. Please indicate which event(s) you plan to attend.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

http://www.franciscolopez.net/

Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the major figures of the sound art and experimental music scene. Over the past 30 years he has developed an astonishing sonic universe, absolutely personal and iconoclastic, based on a profound listening of the world. Destroying boundaries between industrial sounds and wilderness sound environments, shifting with passion from the limits of perception to the most dreadful abyss of sonic power, proposing a blind, profound and transcendental listening, freed from the imperatives of knowledge and open to sensory and spiritual expansion.

He has realized hundreds of concerts, projects with field recordings, workshops and sound installations in over 60 countries of the five continents. His extensive catalog of sound pieces (with live and studio collaborations with over 150 international artists) has been released by more than 250 record labels worldwide. He has been awarded three times with honorary mentions at the competition of Ars Electronica Festival and is the recipient of the Qwartz Award 2010 for best sound anthology. [Pedro Higueras, Sonom Studios]

http://www.paulprudence.com/

Paul Prudence is an artist and real-time visual performer using generative and computational methods to create audio responsive visual systems. An overview of selected works can be found at Transphormetic - http://transphormetic.com -, as well as information on performances, lectures and exhibitions. He is a researcher in the field of procedural art, computational design & earth processes. He maintains the weblog Dataisnature - http://dataisnature.com - devoted to these subjects.Join the University of Denver's program in Emergent Digital Practices for special events with international Marsico Visiting Artists, Francisco Lopez (Spain/Netherlands) and Paul Prudence (UK).

More here http://www.du.edu/ahss/edp/news.html.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

Artist Jack Hertz has pulled together a fantastic collaboration album Take to the Trees for charity. Donate and download here http://sound4good.bandcamp.com/.

In celebration of Arbor Day on April 27th 2012. Sound for Good is giving you a lot of great music for your donation of just $1 USD (or more) to help plant more trees. Download a large collection of wonderful music from various artists with 100% of your donation going to the National Arbor Day foundation to plant trees. Read more about the foundation at www.arborday.org

Sound for Good is a project that was created by Jack Hertz to discover how we can publish and promote great music as means to support good causes. This is an independent project that is not for profit or monetary gain in any way. The artists time and 100% of your donation will are given to support good a cause. Help make this a success so we can all learn how to use art and commerce for good.

credits released 27 April 2012
The amazing cover photo was taken by John Koch-Northrup. View the full hi-res image at the following url:www.flickr.com/photos/johei/4420730269/sizes/o/in/set-72157625072500449/

There is a huge amount of music from great artists on this album including Ian Boddy, Burning Artist, Chromasonic, Crystal Dreams, Todd Fletcher, Groupthink, Jack Hertz, HG Fortune and Inner Dreamer,inside/ outside, Oskar Menzel, Joe McMahon, Mesawzee Eagle, Mirada, Shane Morris, Mystified, redgreenblue, John Sherwood, and Symatic Star.

I’m honored to have contributed the track “And What Do The Trees Hear When the Wind Blows?”.

My song is an ambient sonic journey starting with natural sounds which morph into the hidden inner world of trees and back again. The piece starts off with a120 degree stereo field recording of wind blowing through aspen trees and surrounding trees in Louisville, Colorado just outside of Boulder. All harmonic content from my song is derived from the field recording. I’ll do a behind-the-scenes post on this in the future if you’d find it of interest.

Donate and download here http://sound4good.bandcamp.com/.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

I first met Tim Thompson last Spring when I performed in Sunnyvale. He invited me over for an An “Exclusive First Look at Tim Thompson's Kinect-Based Instrument: MultiMultiTouchTouch”. Since then we’ve kept in touch and he’s made incredible progress on this three-dimensional instrument so I thought I'd do an update post.

Now called Space Palette, it offers more windows of control and expressiveness and also has interactive visuals that react to gestures. Space Palette’s design makes it a fantastic casual instrument allowing for walk-up players. Tim has been spreading electronic musical joy by bringing it to events such as:

• February 2012 Guthman Atlanta: video
• December 2011 Dorkbot SF:  Here's the slides, here's some pictures, and here's some video
• October 2011 Y2K+1 LoopFest in Santa Cruz: video
• October 2011 Decompression in San Francisco: video
• September 2011 Burning Man: video
• More here…

I got to play an updated version of Space Palette when Tim and I were in Atlanta in February. It’s expressive enough to scale beyond casual play and Tim has become quite a virtuoso with it as can be seen in his latest performance at STEIM in Amsterdam below.

Watch embedded video.

I encourage you to visit http://spacepalette.com and http://timthompson.com/ to follow Tim’s progress.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html
www.ModulateThis.com

I just bought the "Juno 106 Ableton Pack” from AfroDJMac  and wanted to turn you on to it.

It contains 22 unique Ableton Instrument racks, each one created with a unique preset from the Juno 106.  I’ve added controls for 8 macros to each instrument, which allows them to be manipulated and twisted into new and ever changing sounds.

Watch embed overview video

More here: http://afrodjmac.com/2012/04/14/roland-juno-106-ableton-live-pack/

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html
www.ModulateThis.com

Ronnie over at the wonderful Rekkerd.org has released a new free sample pack –”Sound Recordings Vol. 2”.

Ever since recording some sounds a few years ago, I’ve been meaning to take the trusty Zoom H2 for another round. I finally took the time to capture another batch of ordinary, and perhaps some less ordinary sounds.

By the way, I have and use the hell out of my trusty Zoom H2.

For Rekkerd Sound Recordings Vol. 2 I found a number of interesting objects to hit, drop, slide, slam, press, etc. After a good amount of editing the pack ended up containing 90 samples. Various noises produced by light switches, fans, drawers, and lots more included.

The samples are in 24-bit/44kHz WAV format. Plenty of background noise is included, and those with a good ear might spot one of my kids in some of the recordings. 100% high quality lo-fi!

So why did I record these sounds? Well, I personally love create rhythms/percussions with unusual sounds so I figure I’m not the only one. Also included in the pack is a number of such loops that I did exclusively using the recorded sound and and a bunch of processing. You can listen to those loops below.

Swing by here to download a zip file with all the sounds http://rekkerd.org/rekkerd-sound-recordings-vol-2-free-sample-pack/. While the download is free, I gave a donation to Ronnie via this page http://rekkerd.org/about/.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html
www.ModulateThis.com

Project: INIT is a new video series I’m kicking off today. In the videos I will offer real-time behind-the-patch footage taking you on sound design missions from INIT using a variety of sonic weapons. By simply coming along for the ride you'll learn more about synthesis and how to make unique sounds for your productions.

Exploration and Discovery

A variety of synthesizers will be used focusing mainly on synths that offer interactive visual feedback making it easier for you to connect with the concepts. Don't worry if you don't own the exact synth - watch anyway - as concepts & techniques are most likely transferable to most synths and if nothing else I hope to spark some ideas for you.

So, for up-and-coming synthesists and producers the videos will help you grok the world of synthesis in less time. For seasoned synthesists and producers these videos will serve as inspiration for new ideas and help you learn your way around the featured synths more quickly.

How Does This Relate to Patch Lab?

Patch lab is now a catalog site for my bigger collections of sound sets which offer some very deep patches for your exploration. This series flips that concept over. Follow the vids, take notes, go INIT a synth in your rig, make a killer track with unique sounds, make a million bucks, take me out to dinner :^)

Project: INIT | Mission #01: Vocal Formant Lead |  Sonic Weapon: Tone2 ElectraX

Watch embedded video

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html
www.ModulateThis.com

I love comb filters! Buying a Waldorf Blofeld a few years back caused me to start using them even more because it’s interactive display allowed me to visualize the shape of the filter and correlate that with an audio result. Waldorf Largo and Tone2’s ElectraX also offer this feature.

What is a Comb Filter?

I like the definition on p. 49 of the Waldorf Blofeld Manual:

A Comb filter is basically a very short delay that can be controlled in length and feedback. The delay time is so short that you can’t hear its individual taps but a colorization of the original signal created by peaks or holes in the frequency spectrum. The frequency of the colorization is set by the delay length, which is controlled in the Blofeld through Cutoff, while the amount of colorization is set by the Comb filter feedback, which is controlled in the Blofeld by Resonance.

To further illustrate this, I’ve included a screenshot below which has the same filter type in Waldorf Largo, but with VERY different shapes simply  y changing cutoff and resonance.

What Do Comb Filter's Sound Like?

Stay tuned for a future article on this with some video.

Crowdsourced Mindmap of Synths with Comb Filters

 A week or so back I was curious how many synths in my rig had comb filters and started to document them in a mindmap. I decided to take things a step further and crowdsource this on Twitter and Facebook and make an even more comprehensive map. The map is constrained to just synthesizers with comb filters that are in production. It also doesn’t contain FX plug-ins or processors that have combs.

Click here to view an interactive version of this mindmap full screen.

The Crowd

• Matthew Fecher
• Øystein Olsen
• Anthony Distefano
• Howard Scarr
• Garren Grant

Be Combtastic

Now get out there and crank on those comb filters!

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html
www.ModulateThis.com

First let me say if you are pursuing music as a recording or performing artist and you don’t already read or subscribe to The Lefsetz Letter it’s time to start :^).  While his posts are about the music industry in general, a recent post specifically discusses electronic music and I wanted to pass it on to you - http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2012/04/17/electronic/.

Enjoy,

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html
www.ModulateThis.com

I have something special for your Music Monday. It’s a new compilation album called Digital Graffiti Volume One featuring 7 tracks from 5 Denver/Boulder Artists including yours truly :^).  Kudos to Kent Barton (SEVEN7H WAVE) for all the time he put into this. I’m super honored that Kent included me.

One thing that all these artists together is that we all met through the Ableton Denver User Group (which is now going two-and-half years old). So, that said, don’t be a complete studio vampire and get out of your basement from time-to-time and find others on the same path. There is strength in numbers and sharing ideas.

There are a few other reasons I’m sharing this as my Music Monday. First it contains seriously cool tracks so get out your nice headphones. Second,  to give you a glimpse of the strong indie original electronic music movement in Denver. I feel very lucky to have settled here.  Third, to encourage you to band together with your local and interweb friends work on collaborations like this. It’s a great way to get more exposure for your music and get to know your fellow artists better. It also helps break down genre barriers and allows the promotion of electronic music in general.

About the Album

YOU HAVE ENTERED A GENRE-FREE ZONE. Turn up the volume and listen as six Denver producers break new musical ground. released 10 April 2012

Featuring (click links to read bios that Kent pulled together including links to artist sites)…

Chris Lawhead
Kent Barton - SEVEN7H WAVE
Mark Mosher
Mike Stacey - Circle Six
Marc Wei - DJNSM
Brad House - Dubokle

Album Cover by

Brandon Loyche @ I'm Hidden Deisgn

Arranged & Lightly Mastered by

Kent // SEVEN7H WAVE

Download Now

Immediate download of 7-track album in your choice of MP3 320, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.

Listen Now

Enjoy,

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html