Envelope Generators: A Beginning

            I recently added this audio blog on the basic functions of an envelpoe generator. In the near future I am going to post a video going over the basics of subtractive synthesis; in that post I will go into greater detial on how a envelope generator functions within synthesis. I hope you all enjoy and don't forget to send me your feedback on how I can improve, what you want to see, or any related comments. Have a great Monday! -Kyle

...My mistake in "Player Piano" was my failure as a futurist. I did not foresee transistors, and so imagined that super computers would have to be huge, with bulky vacuum tubes taking up a lot of space. -Kurt Vonnegut in "Letters"

Soldering Basics

            To accompany my most recent video on soldering, I will go over some of the basics.

          

            First thing first, SAFETY is the most important thing. When I am giving safety advice it is because I did not follow other’s safety advice and now it’s first hand information.

• ·      Wear safety glasses; I wear my normal everyday glasses, but as long as you have something protecting your eyes when you are clipping leads.
• ·      Wear shoes; this may sound silly, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been soldering in my room and I get a solder splatter that lands on my foot, let’s just say its not pleasant.
• ·      So to add to that, let’s just say wear sleeves or clothing that protects your skin.
• ·      Properly ventilate your room; you really don’t want to breathe in the lead fumes, it will mess with your nose.
• ·      Don’t play with the iron, it is hot; when you are done using it, put it back in the holder, there is no reason to try to hold onto it while you put your next component on the board (I have many burns that support this).

  Now that I’ve gone over some basic safety guidelines, lets discuss the most basic things you will need to get started soldering.

• ·      Soldering iron. There are many kinds (mine was $50) and it all depends on what you will be doing with it. Just make sure it fits your needs (I like mine because it has a variable temperature setting and a stand).
• ·      Solder. I personally use lead solder because when you soldered something in place, it will become shinny if you did it correctly. With lead solder, if you have a cold solder joint (not properly making connection between the lead and the trace), you will know it by its dull appearance.
• ·      Desoldering tools. There are multiple kinds but I like to have a static free pump and a roll of copper braiding which happens to be more gentle in my opinion.
• ·      Various tools. Drill, screwdrivers, pliers, wire cutters and strippers, files, and what ever you deem necessary. Over time you will figure out what you need the most.
• ·      Other things that make you life easier include: helping hands, tip tinner, sponge, tip cleaner, magnifying glass, and a light.

             Over the past few years I’ve had some good teachers in terms of soldering. So here are some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned.

• ·      Don’t hurry. Hurrying leads to burns and broken components. Unless you are talking about transistors and ICs in which too much heat damages them, then hurry.
• ·      When soldering, touch both the lead and the trace with the iron to heat them up equally for a nice even solder.
• ·      Don’t fret. If you mess something up, chances are it can be fixed.
• ·      Practice. It’s a skill that takes time and dedication.

This is not an all-encompassing guide, but merely a way to get your feet wet. Soldering is fun, so take the time to enjoy it.

Soldering can be fun or frustrating; it is all what you make of it.

...My mistake in "Player Piano" was my failure as a futurist. I did not foresee transistors, and so imagined that super computers would have to be huge, with bulky vacuum tubes taking up a lot of space. -Kurt Vonnegut in "Letters"

Soldering with Kyle Schroeder

          Hello again! I had so much fun and got enough positive reviews with the last video, that I thought I would make another one. Originally, I had something else in mind for the video, but it did not work as planned. I am going to do some editing with the original amplifier repair video; sooner or later I will have it up (all you need to know for the time being is that my friend Edward and I got the amplifier working). 

          As always, let me know what you think of the video, and if there is anything you want to see in the future. Next week I will be posting a video demoing the Korg Kaoss Pad per request. I hope you enjoy!

...My mistake in "Player Piano" was my failure as a futurist. I did not foresee transistors, and so imagined that super computers would have to be huge, with bulky vacuum tubes taking up a lot of space. -Kurt Vonnegut in "Letters"

Early Electronic Music

            Early electronic music, before modern synthesizers and virtual instruments, was a very narrow endeavor. Mostly, the musicians who produced electronic music were experimental composers, engineers, and academics. Making electronic music was an expensive hobby and was limited to certain facilities. One of the earliest electronic instruments, the Telharmonium, was so large it was impractical for home use (there were three versions of the Telharmonium, one weighing in at 7 tons and the other two weighing around 200 tons). Other instruments such as the Theremin and the Hammond organ were smaller but they still had a long way to go to capture the hearts and ears of the public.

 

Ever wonder what early audio electronics looked like? Here is a picture of just part of the 200 ton Telharmonium.

            Another early form of electronic music involved magnetic tape recorders slowing down, speeding up, reversing, or even splicing the tape together to perform such tasks as looping. Now in the digital realm, looping is an easy task that takes seconds, where-as before it was a painstaking process. Trying to find an early tape recorder (Introduced post World War II) was no easy task either; they were usually reserved for universities and big budget studios.

            Even when Moog and Buchla came out with their first synthesizers, they weren’t all that popular. The idea was that these synthesizers would be geared for the academic electronic community, to think that we, the consumer, were an after thought. The fact of the matter was that most of the early designs were made with only a few people in mind. At that time there were no focus groups, or grand plan in mind. Moog and Buchla were inventing to invent, to please themselves and a few of their friends or business partners.

            It wasn’t till Wendy Carlos came out with “Switched-On Bach” that an electronic recording even had some sort of influence on the Billboard charts. But once that album came out, the music community slowly started opening their eyes to new possibilities. The possibility that instruments can be radically different and the public would accept it. Little by little, artists started incorporating synthesizers in their recordings, artists like the Grateful Dead and Keith Emerson.

            In the early days of the synthesizer, it was viewed as a solo instrument, not as a lead. Then artists like Kraftwerk came along and used only electronic instruments in their band; they were even moderately successful. Pretty soon, just about every big name band wanted a synthesizer, even The Beatles wanted that sound, and pretty soon synthesizers were accepted as instruments.

            Amazing how, an instrument that wasn’t intended for the masses, but instead for a few experimental performers, slowly gained popularity and crept into the hearts of music lovers everywhere. Along the way there was some superb marketing, but it just goes to show that, sometimes, to be extraordinary, you don’t need to have a plan or a direction, you just need to be Extra-Ordinary.

Wendy Carlos from her album "Switched-On Bach" incorporating Classical music and contemporary synthesis.

...My mistake in "Player Piano" was my failure as a futurist. I did not foresee transistors, and so imagined that super computers would have to be huge, with bulky vacuum tubes taking up a lot of space. -Kurt Vonnegut in "Letters"

Controllers with Kyle Schroeder

            Hello everyone. This is my first attempt at a video blog. I thought this would be a good opportunity to show you some of my audio electronics and give you a basic overview on how they are controlled. Feedback is always welcome, and in this case it will determine if I produce any more video blogs. Comment if you want me to make any video tutorials or something similar. Thank you!

...My mistake in "Player Piano" was my failure as a futurist. I did not foresee transistors, and so imagined that super computers would have to be huge, with bulky vacuum tubes taking up a lot of space. -Kurt Vonnegut in "Letters"

The Invention of the Modern Synthesizer

The invention and development of the modern, commercial synthesizer is an interesting story, and while I am not going to tell you the whole story I will tell you a tale about how and why the synthesizer looks the way it does today. If you want an interesting take on the early days of the synthesizer, you should read, Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer by Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco.

The two men credited for inventing the modern synthesizer, Bob Moog and Don Buchla were from opposite sides of the country; Buchla from California and Moog from New York. At virtually the same time these two men managed to design their own synthesizers that would change electronic music forever.

Moog and Buchla had a few similarities: they both learned to play piano as children, loved electronics, and they both studied physics. As for the similarities, that is where they end. The differences between the two men possibly could have stemmed from their environments and the time (mid 60’s), and it was these differences that controlled the destiny of the synthesizer.

When you think of synthesizers what is the first thing you think of? When I was just getting into electronic music I would have said it was a keyboard. Well, we have Bob Moog to thank for that. Synthesizers are not keyboards, keyboards are just a way to control the synthesizer, but Moog used the keyboard as a way to market his synthesizer and make it relatable to the public. Moog’s thought was that he just created a new instrument, but to control it, give the public something familiar.

Robert Moog with an early synthesizer. Notice the hand on the keyboard, that was an early Moog marketing ploy to clue you in that what was behind him was a musical instrument.

Buchla on the other hand saw his new invention as a way to start fresh musically. As a result, Buchla did not want any pre-existing controller such as a keyboard to control his revolutionary instrument. Sadly, for this reason, Moog’s instrument grew in popularity fairly quickly and easily, while Buchla had a harder time reaching the public. Buchla didn’t do too badly for himself though, in fact he had his own following within the electronic music community, but Moog had everyone else.

Don Buchla with some of his early synthesizers.

Amazing how a simple marketing ploy shaped the way we think about an instrument. To this day, the keyboard is seen as an integral part of the synthesizer, when in fact there are so many more interesting and fun ways to control the synthesizer than with a keyboard.

...My mistake in "Player Piano" was my failure as a futurist. I did not foresee transistors, and so imagined that super computers would have to be huge, with bulky vacuum tubes taking up a lot of space. -Kurt Vonnegut in "Letters"

The Greatest Thing Technology Has To Offer...

The greatest thing technology has to offer us are the endless possibilities it provides to solving our problems. One problem it cannot solve however is our laziness. Our computers, our phones, tablets, software, gadgets, and of course electronic instruments have almost limitless possibilities (there are limits but most of us never come close to finding those limits unless it is how many mp3’s can fit on a computer till there is no memory left) but we find only a few possible needs for them and ignore the rest of what they are capable of doing.

Synthesizers for example turned the audio industry on its head when they first were made accessible to the masses in the late 60’s and early 70’s, so much so that the American Federation of Musicians banned them from soundtracks because they thought they would replace real instruments and the musicians that played them altogether. If you wanted to use a synthesizer in the early days, they were so complex that you had to go through training to better understand it and get sounds to come out of it. They were so complex, some bands had trained synthesists (synthesists or sound patch creators is a more accurate term) come, riffle through sounds till the artist found one he or she liked, and then let the artist perform.

As time went on computing power increased, components became smaller, and synthesizers could be packed with more features such as sound banks, parameters with more control, or even different ways to control the synthesizer and the sounds it could produce. While most would naturally think that these options benefited the musician they actually hindered its synthetic evolution.

Most consumer synthesizers today are no more then glorified sampling keyboards. The manufacturers were able to fit everything that the original manufacturers put in large wooden boxes into a sleek, tiny keyboard with about an 1/8^th of the knobs and in my opinion functionality. This reduction in size and functionality ultimately hindered one’s ability to create sounds, making it easier to just go with the factory presets. My problem with presets is that they sound just like, well, presets. If I want I can go listen to any up and coming electronic artist with a synthesizer and I will wager that 9 times out of 10, they don’t even know how to properly work it (and that’s assuming that they have an actual hardware synthesizer, not just a DAW such as Reason that models its plugins off of analog and digital synthesizers).

My problem with technology is that we want it to be easy and we want it to solve our problems, when instead we should realize that the solution isn’t always easy and instead of relying on the technology to solve our problems for us, we can use the technology as a means to solve the problem ourselves.

The images below show the difference in thought processes between a machine with infinite possibilities and a marketable "all in the box" synthesizer.

An example of an "extreme" analog modular synthesizer.

An example of a minimal digital synthesizer.

...My mistake in "Player Piano" was my failure as a futurist. I did not foresee transistors, and so imagined that super computers would have to be huge, with bulky vacuum tubes taking up a lot of space. -Kurt Vonnegut in "Letters"