Victorian Synth, as I understand (and of course as a result of my readings) is to come up with components of a synthesiser with several electronic and/or mechanical devices.
This week’s forum or rather Music Technology Workshop) of ours, gave us the basic understanding of the use, application and coordination between such devices. The aim was obviously to create a musical patter; (I strongly believe in the fact that there is NOTHING such as noise in the sense of an unpleasant sound. Music IS subjective)
We initially broke simple computer speakers apart and used their elements for our study of Victorian Synth.
The process was not sophisticated in the first place. Having the electric current coming from a 9V battery, we momentarily connected and disconnected our wires (also connected to two phases of the battery) to a speaker. This provided an electric spark and a sound (the same sound that small sparks have! I don’t know if there is a particular name for it in English).
The experience was to have several things on top of the speaker, in the middle of the electric current, on the surface on which the connections were made, and so forth. We also used objects such as classes to dampen the sound or/and change the environment of the sound source hence the quality of sound.
As obvious in the 3 different videos of Victorian Synth that I have put here (all derived from Youtube) the whole process` requirements are simple. It just needs a bit of creativity to think of new sounds and ways of making those sounds.
The piece I have put here is consisting of 4 parts. 1st part is just momentary connections of two electrodes; second part is what is called “Electric Feedback”. The short distance between the centre of the speaker and the point of the connection (of electrodes) provides a magnetic field from which the speaker would be affected again, and the result would sound like what you hear! The 3rd part is having the momentary electric pulses, and pressing the surface of the speaker in a very sentimental manner! (It would break for f***’s sake) The effect is the change of the pitch, and the reason for that is the change of the pressure from the back of the speaker’s diaphragm. The fourth one is simply scratching one of the electrodes to a Lighter Stone (Is it called this in English?) and check the result.
Cool, huh?
References:
- Christian Haines, Stephen Whittington 'Music Technology Forum' Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 26/07/2007
- Bowers, John. Suborderly (http://suborderly.blogspot.com/2007/03/suborderly-music-victorian-synthesizer.html) [Accessed 1/08/2007]
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1 comment:
"I strongly believe in the fact that there is NOTHING such as noise in the sense of an unpleasant sound."
After four kids, believe me there is such a thing as noise. Swing by anytime to pick up the quartet for your listening pleasure. ;)
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