#22

I originally ignored blasser (linked from discussion about cocolase I think) because the prices seemed out of reach and I didn’t see the point of researching something I’d never personally use. His website told me everything I thought I needed to know about the company and seemed disorderly and frustrating.

Eventually I reevaluated my position. There’s no way to do a comprehensive search about modern synth tools without his name popping up. Most importantly, at the time, he was local. When I bought my shnth and tetrax his workshop was close enough for me to drive half an hour to pick up the orders (but I’m a hermit and chose not to invade his families’ privacy).

There are many reasons I’m grateful that he is alive and working on such inspirational musical instruments.

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#23

had a lunch with peter a few months ago in karlsruhe and saw him perform - can post some videos if people are interested…overall very memorable conversation…

I asked him whether there can be a true sine tone in electronics, since those who talk about sine waves, really mean triangle, or quantized scaled quasi sine-wave etc…and he answered:

“Keep asking that question.”

to the point.

great guy

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#24

I’d love to see/hear any new video from your time with him

were you, perhaps, at this event? http://zkm.de/media/video/globale-performing-sound-playing-technology-peter-blasser

watching that discourse made me love him even more and is a pretty comprehensive portrait of him

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#25

yeah, that’s the one. i missed his workshop, but did see his performances later that day i think.

will upload some videos soon…one involves “air purification” :wink:

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#26

It is definitely esoteric weird shit, but I, like many others, like it specifically for that reason.

I was just thinking the other day that what attracts me the most to his approach is that it’s not (often) built around the “fundamental building blocks” of oscillators, filters, and amplifiers. It’s often a different paradigm where the parameters that are being modified have a coupled effect on things like frequency/pitch/amplitude, etc…
Like the different controls for up and down ramp in Tetrazzi/Sidrazzi type synths, or the bounded oscillators in the Fourses. What you hear, in the end, has complex/intertwined modulations of “oscillators”, “filters”, and “amplifiers”, but not in a one-to-one control paradigm/scheme.

I was also reminded of this performance while he was over for the workshop linked above:

Specifically in that when setting out for the gig, I was picking out the instruments I was going to take, and my go-to stuff generally involves his instruments, and in this case, I specifically wanted to take my Old Mr Grassi. He suggested I take something else, and then it hit me, that although I’m normally “the ciat-lonbarde guy” at a gig, in this one specific circumstance, I was most definitely NOT “the ciat-lonbarde guy”, lol. So I went with drums, and it worked well, hehe.

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#27

lol

awesome backstory
also

[quote=“Rodrigo, post:26, topic:3322”]
his approach is that it’s not (often) built around the “fundamental building blocks” of oscillators, filters, and amplifiers. It’s often a different paradigm where the parameters that are being modified have a coupled effect on things like frequency/pitch/amplitude, etc…
[/quote]yes!

and this is why I overcame my silly prejudices about him

nothing against those who do focus on a “pure” (mainly) east coast approach, but it’s not why I got into synths nor what excites me while learning

I feel like it’s beating a dead horse but the 1-to-1 correlation most folks enjoy is predicated on having control of the synth system. I’m interested in something else

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#28

Big time. I actually don’t feel any creative desire/input when dealing with a system like that. Don’t know what it is, but it extends beyond the sounds and interface, though both of them are typically coupled (and problematic). I mean, I can probably make something I would enjoy, and I do eventually plan on buying some euro stuff, and there will probably (have to) be at least some regular things in there, but it’s not my interest in moving that direction.

Maybe it’s just that, an issue with philosophy, and that’s what drives me to make art/music(/tools/instruments) the way I do.

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#29

For years I paid little attention and put Peter’s instruments into the “noise box” category. Flawed thinking I know and one that I am glad I changed my mind on (not that there’s anything wrong with noise boxes).

A CL story. I went to a synth meet once. It was overseas so I was very limited what I could carry so ended up bringing my Tetrazzi. There were Buchlas, EMS, tons of Euro and Serge there but the thing that got most attention was the breathing sound I got going on the Tetrazzi when I was demoing it for a group of people. It got so much use for the rest of the meet (having been largely ignored prior to my demo) that I thought the wood barres were going to wear out! A lot of people I think got over their CL preconceptions that day and I know at least 2 went on to buy a number of Peter’s instruments for themselves.

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#30

Peter gave a talk at my department right after the Shnth came out:
http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/595M/?p=1368

#31

very happy to see this thread, been thinking we should start one. when i came across CL for the first time i mostly wrote it off as snake oil, in big part due to the language Peter uses, but it just looked so amazing i wanted to find out more. and then the strangest part was that at some point i realized the way he describes circuits actually fits the sound and makes perfect sense.

i used to have a cocoquantus and miss it dearly, and one day will get another one. i have a custom sidrassi made by meng qi:

thinking about selling it though as i don’t use it as often as it deserves, and i want to use it as an excuse to spend more time with shnth which i really ought to [if anybody wants to trade cocoquantus for my sid let me know!].

we should perhaps start a separate thread for shnth/fish, especially since @Rodrigo here - Rodrigo, looks like the forum on shbobo is down?

oh, and mocante looks and sounds amazing.

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#32

I’ve not checked in ages, but last time I did (literally years ago), the forum was down. I think it was a vbulletin thing and probably got too riddled with spam to be manageable?

Can/should stick fish/shnth stuff in here too. I just didn’t wanna make the thread title be super long.

#33

I absolutely adore PBs work

I don’t see myself ever selling the coco and plumbutter
I have two shnths and an op1 that are super under utilized right now that I’m trying to sell

I haven’t been able to play for a couple months but I have ample time for several weeks now

One of the kids from my wife’s after school program immediately took to the coco at last years lock in

peter’s instruments and kids work well together

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#34

ooooo any video of the sidrassi? might be very interested to buy it!!!

#35

i’ll send you some demos!

1 Like
#36

@Rodrigo yeah, that’s what i figured, a couple of times i went last year it was full of spam unfortunately…

@wednesdayayay was reading your great comment here the other day and getting inspired to get into shnth programming again: http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/08/wacky-wooden-shnth-makes-eerie-sounds-colors-outside-the-lines-documentary/

one thing i really want to try some day is using shtnh as a controller for the trilogy / teletype.

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#37

i had some of peters devices a few years ago. i’d seriously consider the plumbutter2 if i could connect it to / trigger it from the eurorack, but i haven’t seen much discussion on the safety of that.

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#38

you can find some analysis about the voltages involved with plumbutter here: https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=116667
not sure if there’s a difference between the pb1 and pb2, though.
hope it helps.

1 Like
#39

yeah that’s helpful for the output. i’m particularly curious about the input tolerance.

#40

What would you want for the shnths? I don’t really need it right now but this thread has given me serious CL envy and those seem like the only affordable inroads :no_mouth:

1 Like
#41

for folks in SF or nearby - Peter will be doing a tokante/shnth building workshop at NoiseBridge Hackerspace on June 25th:

https://www.facebook.com/events/992628444139217
https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Synth_Building_Workshop_with_Peter_Blasser_of_Ciat_Lonbarde

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