Re: Stockhausen, radios, minimalism

[Bret <echoplex@yahoo.com>]

Thanks for the tip on the Stockhausen interview, fun reading.  

I had forgotton about the fun of radio until several of you started
discussing this.  As a kid in 1968, I heard about Moogs synths and
knew I must have one.  Being 11 it was out of the question, for the
time.  I got interested in Shortwave radio, and recieved one with a
Beat Frequency Ocillator (BFO) for single sideband and code reception.
 Now single sideband (SSB) was cool because you could vary the pitch
of the ham operator who was talking to create some real funky voices. 
In fact, it was difficult to decide what the real pitch of their voice
should be, since I had no reference.

Later, a friend gave me a pair of kid's walkie talkies that were
broken.  I soon discovered that using the BFO while recieving walkie
talkie transmissions of humming and singing would make sounds that
were out of this world.  It was a primitive ring modulator
(heterodyning)   First I would null out the carrier frequency so it
didn't whine.  Sweeping a pitch (my voice) through this setup made
repeating sweeps of sounds, as though there were echos, but they
weren't echos (hard to explain).  Eventually I plugged my guitar into
the walkie talkie to ring modulate that.  At that time, I had know
clue that other people made noise like that.  Voice was the most fun.
  
In the late 70's I experimented with CPU noise from programs running
on my TI 59 calculator, going through inductive pickups (against the
calculator).  Never taped any of this stuff, nor developed any real
control, but it was fun.  Guess I am exposing more of my nerd-dom. 
Always loved tinkerin with gadgets, specially ifin they makes a noise.  

To me back then, the RFI noise was fun.  Now if it happens it is the
CPU of my VS-880 going through the bass pickups and it is NOISE, and
is a sign for me to Step Away from the Mixer, Mr. Moreland, yer
getting too noisey to keep recording.  

Someone else asked about use of analog synth filters on guitars, etc. 
I used to have fun playing a guitar through the audio input of a micro
moog in a couple of ways.  One is to set the random, auto trigger
sample hold to control the filter frequency with the filter quite
resonsant.  Frank Zappa has used this too good effect (isn't his an
oberheim sample hold?).  The other way I have done this is using the
LFO to sweep the resonant filter, more like a rhythmic wah wah effect.
 Like that Bread song, was it The Diary?  You guys probably won't fess
to knowing that kind of music.  Hey man, it was the 70's.

bret

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