Announcement

As you may have heard we are doing a fun challenge for the December workshop.  A 3 Module Challenge with a Twist!  The twist is that you can use up to 3 modules – accolades and adulation will be the reward for those who can do something “musical” in a single module.  Musical being in quotes because as we all know, music IS subjective 🙂  We hope that you would like to participate and if you would like to please continue reading for more details.  If not, remember to tune in to our YouTube channel on December 12th for the premiere!

Unfortunately, with any of these challenges we need to have some rules and we hope you think these are as loose and fun as we do!

Here they are:

1. No single voice modules – so no module that has a VCO/VCF/VCA built in.  Examples include but are not limited to Mutable Instruments Elements and Intellijel Atlantis.
   1. However, if that is all you have we will consider each individual section to be a module 🙂
2. Output modules are NOT considered to be part of the 3 module count.
3. Submit a video, no-longer than 3 minutes where you briefly describe your patch and then play it.
4. Videos longer than 3 minutes will be cut at 3 minutes.
5. The usual “no mobile phone audio” requirement for our videos is waved for this… we want you to participate!
6. Those who do not have a modular synth are welcome to participate with a semi-modular synth with the following provisions
   1. The various components that make up your semi-modular synth all count as modules.  VCO, Filter, VCA, Sequencer, LFO, etc. all count as modules and you are limited to 3.
   2. No computer is to be used in the sound generation or control (no computer based MIDI, Clock, etc.
   3. A MIDI keyboard is considered to be a module the same way a modular keyboard would be, but trust me – we would rather see you be more creative than that!

To submit a video, please reach out via the contact form and we will send you an upload link.  We will publish every video submitted.  Obviously we won’t be able to publish videos with technical issues that we are not able to resolve with you.

Be creative and have fun!  Looking forward to seeing your videos!

This month’s discussion finds Sid Tangerine, Mark Milanovich & Dakota Melin discussion Buchla. It will be a very interesting discussion covering topics such as why to choose Buchla, design philosophy, and the possibility to get (more) reasonably priced modules.Of course we also have performances from several within our little community!

Come on out and join us for the YouTube Premiere!

Of course there will be Premiere chat on YouTube but there will be an additional chat (with voice) on our Discord server for those who also wish to join there!

The next workshop is from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm ‘ish on June 13!  Please join us online at our YouTube Channel!

Hi! This month we will be joined by Dakota Melin and Rich Sherkin (Lower West Side Studio) to talk about collaboration, who they are collaborating with and maybe who they aren’t 😉 Keeping to the theme of collaboration we are going to be doing some of that ourselves as detailed in our previous workshop.  In case you didn’t see it that workshop is on our YouTube Channel along with the previous workshop and some other interesting things. The gist of it is that we are going to facilitate some random collaborations.  To participate please reply to this e-mail and let us know that would like to participate, your name and if there is a preferred genre you would like to work in.  You are encouraged to not put a genre so that you get the opportunity to stretch and maybe do something brand new!  We have had some people come forward but there is still plenty of room so please reply by Wednesday May 27 to allow ample time for everyone to make their track.  Barring a zombie apocalypse we will be letting the collaborators know who their partners are on Thursday the 28th.  Tracks should be submitted as stereo .wav files no later than midnight June 10. Along with the music collaboration and to keep things interesting for our virtual YouTube audience (that’s you!) we would like some volunteers to do visuals for these performances too!  Visuals can be live or pre-recorded video, a series of still images, whatever. We are anticipating 5 or 6 tracks.  Please reply if you are interested in working on the visual aspects of this!  Visual artists will be partnered with the music collaborators to facilitate the creation of the video.

To help keep everyone’s spirit up we are going ahead with a virtual Frequency Freaks Workshop on April 11th, 2020.

Here is the link for the YouTube Premiere taking place Saturday April 11 at 3PM Eastern.

If there are any questions please use the Contact Form.

We will have a mix of Home Studio Video Tours, and Home Studio Video Performances presented as a YouTube Premere on the Frequency Freaks YouTube Channel.  It will be good to get some more content up there as we haven’t added anything in a while!

The YouTube Premiere allows for comments, questions and answers to be submitted via text chat during the premiere.  The total length of the video will be kept to between 1 and 1.5 hrs. Extra video will be saved for the next workshop.

Video submissions will be taken on a first come, first served basis up to the allotted time as best we can manage. Submitted videos will be put together in an order that makes sense to give us a mix of performance and studio tours.

Please, no mobile phone audio for the performances. If you have trouble with this simply create the video with your phone and record audio into your phone but also record the audio in your DAW. Submit both the resulting wav file from your DAW and the video from your phone with similar naming and I will put the two together – Final Cut does a really good job of aligning this stuff!

File Names:

• StudioTour_YourName.xxx
• Performance_YourName.xxx – video file
• Performance_YourName.wav – audio file – if necessary

Upload location: https://www.dropbox.com/request/6djROijexXY6t1pUh19z

I hope this makes sense to everyone – please use the Contact Us form to ask questions and if we need to clarify anything edits will be made here.

The next workshop is from 2:30 pm to 6:00 pm on March 7!  Please join us at the Array Music Studio, 155 Walnut Ave!

A new DiY project to demo, maybe a special guest performance, and performances by your friends at FF!  What more could you want?  See you there! This month Scott Campbell will talk about and demonstrate his now complete Eurorack DiY project.  Working to try to get some special guests in to perform… Will make another announcement if that is going to happen. We also have time for your performances! Bring your stuff to show off and come hang out with us! See you there!

This month we celebrate!  Seriously can’t believe we’ve made it to 3 years of FF Workshops!  Thank-you all for your support and coming out to meet in person!

There will be as little talking as possible this month!  Bring some stuff & Play What You Bring!  1 minute, 2 minutes, 10 minutes… We will fit in as many performances as we can!  There will be cake!

In case you missed the announcement previously, there is a new Frequency Freaks Discourse Forum.  Head on over, sign up and join the discussion!  

Of course, bring stuff to sell, trade, and your questions.

The first workshop of 2019 is from 2:30 pm to 6:00 pm on January 12.
Please join us at the Array Music Studio, 155 Walnut Ave!

This month our own Michael Brooker will talk about the Disting Mk IV.

IT COMES IN PEACE: A user-friendly approach to the Disting MKIV

• With a total of 89 individual algorithms at the release of firmware version 4.9, Expert Sleepers’ Disting has gone from a helpful utility to a universe of functionality
• Let’s explore some of the myriad possibilities offered by this unit, while exploring some useful supplementary material to get you navigating through – and patching with – this 4HP-fits-all digital wonderland

Michael Brooker is a recovering jazz musician with an obsession for modular synthesis and musical expression in general.  Having completed formal musical studies at the University of Toronto (MusBacPerf, Trombone, Jazz Studies) between 2009-2013, but seeking a new creative medium to express himself, Michael recently built a Eurorack modular synthesizer and has been quickly but carefully studying each of the modules, both individually and in the context of the larger instrument.  With plans to attend the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (CvA) in the Fall of 2019, Michael’s passion for electronic music and electronic modes of musical expression are only beginning.

We will also have time for performances.  Please reply to this e-mail to let us know if you plan to play something.