this is a recording..sort of

[c.j miller]

       Howdy Paul,
     Thanks for reminding me of some of the joys of
qualifying processes as well as results!True though
that I didn't relate a very thorough account of my
circuit contortion experiences.
     I left out my first experience!The SK100 sound-
ed great,but I began a year or so earlier.Sometimes
people just give me working and/or broken audio gear
 to repair or keep,I occaisionally find some bits,
also.I was in a mood for oscillations,so I borrowed
a Boss delay pedal from a friend and made a feedback
 loop with my stereo.Using the delay I could sculpt
feedback at low,rumbling frequencies(sometimes with
answering machine tape loops,or not).
     Soon after I found a cheap radio shack dynamic
microphone,which I removed from about 90% of it's
casing.I brought home two large panels of stainless
steel(the sides of a discarded baking oven).The mic
was just magnetic enough to stick to the bottom of
the suspended plate without interfering with the
diaphragm.I split the input to my stereo amp to the
first feedback circuit,and borrowed another delay
to feed the mic signal through.All day I would stand
 on my bed in this small room moving/rolling various
 textured objects on the steel surface,mixing be-
tween this and the open mic oscillations.
     I made a huge spring reverb from a pair of dis-
carded JBL speakers-I pulled all of the cabinets a-
part,leaving only the panels with the cones mounted
on them.I hand stitched a three foot long spring be-
tween the cone centers and put a small amount of cy-
anoacrylate adhesive on the stitches.The speakers 
faced each other in a two sliding concentric tubes
of thick cardboard,as are used for concrete molds.
As added much distortion I often used the reverb as 
a percussion instrument instead.Amazingly,the 1cm
thick cardboard broke before the cone/spring inter-
face!(more discarded stereo amps used in this pro-
ject).
     I have inherited heaps of broken portable tape
players/recorders.I fix some of them.Many I have 
tried to make oscillators from.This can be done very
 easily(two two-to-one adaptors..)but usually I 
would find the sounds to be unsatisfactory.Lack of
texture or expressiveness were frequent reasons.I
have more patience for modifying big old mono tape
recorders,where everything is arrainged more diffuse
ly.
     NEWS FLASH..........
     I have moved recently,so I am still finding 
lost items amongst the wares.Last night I found my
texas instruments "touch and tell".It looks like a
flat white tablet with a speaker and a large touch
screen/membrane grid.The internals are quite simple:
the large case contains a board of about 15cm by 5cm
 a tiny cartrige containing an eprom fits to it thru
 the enclosure.Three ics populate the board,with a 
few things that look like resistors,but are bright
yellow/green.A ribbon cable links the membrane grid.
     Making some outrageous digital noise with this
thing could not be simpler.Turning the touch and tell on,it either names things that you indicate on
its screen or asks you to point to objects on the
grids picture overlay.Keep the toy talking and try
to bridge traces/pins together with a test lead.
Some wild stutterings,rhythms,and textures will re-
sult shortly.You can mount a switch on the box and
run wires to places that have yielded something in-
teresting.One trick is that not all alterations will
 be complementary of each other,intuition will sug-
gest certain combinations.Pots might be more appro-
priate on occaision.You could perhaps make a control
 voltage input or ten,trigger extractor,etc.I know
I will!
     The fumes have only recently subsided from me
painting the touch and tell day-glo yellow and green
Tonight I will be removing the switches from my most
ly crashed SK1 to mount on the t&t over the next day
 or so.
     I don't know about your area,Paul-but the only
difficult part of such projects is finding the right
 toys!Over the past five years I have only found one
 casio SK sampler and I have not found any speak and
 spells.I go to yard sales,flea markets,etc.I guess
I have more peculiar luck in that regard than most.
     As for the archival wierdness:I am much more
interested in shaping the processes through time 
than in making static documents.
     But I come from a musique concrete kind of back
round.Often,if I have a few tape recorders around I
include them in the jam.I have recently begun docu-
menting location sounds,and often use the tape devi-
ces for playback.One interest that I will develop
much further(as my own computer becomes operational)
is the re-synthesis of natural sound.(my idea of nat
ural sound is much broader than many,if not most)I
won't bother with sampling until I can apply granu-
lation,phase vocoding,to the sounds.I aspire to in-
clude such functions as those and others as indepen-
dant modules and save my main microprocessor for 
different applications.Eventually.
     I will inevitably have a web site over the course of the year,and I will try to include audio
files in my descritions of instruments as reference.
I hope to have the bandwidth to also make a forum
for 'finished' works possible,as well as arrays of
soundfiles for de/re-construction.(eta 9-20 months.)
I know that I won't win any awards for 'creative
writing' anytime soon, but my descriptive faculties
are strange,and I do welcome-and gradually parse and
 integrate-creative critcism.
     Mind the bend the mind-Many happy contortions!
  CJ


Get your FREE Email at http://mailcity.lycos.com
Get your PERSONALIZED START PAGE at http://my.lycos.com