As usual, I’ve developed a certain schizophrenia, that is, I am of ‘two minds’ about the synth battle royale. One mind, the rational one, is very aware that the synth battle happens in a three hour open mic slot on aNONradio.net. It is part of the programming on SDF, the ‘super dimension fortress’ that is the public access unix system, going strong since 1987. It happens here on Saturdays, at 3:00 UTC, which is Friday, 10 PM CDT, 9 PM CST, here in my QTH. The performers that appear there are gifted musicians specializing in making electronic music live in real time. There is, I think, sort of a house style. There is a range, of course, but generally, the music has a beat, is akin to trance dance, is static, repetitive, and features melody strongly and harmony in the traditional sense secondarily. It is an idiom I enjoy listening to, and seek to master post-theater dance career.
Which brings up my second mind regarding the expression ‘battle royale.’ My battle is with the tools of the trade, which I have been amassing for the entire duration of my adult life, but have not fully mastered. The ‘battle’ is not so much to get it to happen, though I can certainly flop, and things can go very wrong in complex setups. The battle is to get it to happen the way I hear it in my head, more like the artists I hear on Friday nights into Saturday morning, and less like I usually sound when jamming with these drum machines and synths.
Let’s take a look at them:
I started as a virgin on the Synth Battle Royale 18, June 11, 2022. (The link takes you to the archived performance as an MP3 file.) I used the above rig and the Spark drum machine by Arturia.
The Spark is in the upper RH corner of this group.
The Bleep synth is, as you can see in the photo, a very ‘modular’ do it yourself rig that is inherently unstable physically and electronically. It is built up on what we diyers call ‘breadboards.’ Breadboards are a time honored way of throwing together a circuit without doing any soldering. They are populated with through hole type components, and are meant to be temporary. The mastermind of this rig is a fellow named John-Mike Reed, and he has a website. Before you get all excited and want to order this kit, tamp it back down. They’ve long ago sold out. You’ll have to assemble the parts from the documentation. I was able to score the bulk of this stuff as soon as I became aware of it several years ago. I started with the Nebulophone, and then went on to build the Bleep Drum. As noted above, I’ve only scratched the surface of the potential for audio mayhem with this gear. By participating with this rig in the battle royale, I learned much. I’m hoping to make some recordings of these explorations and continue to refine my understanding. But by no means did I come close to my ideal of the battle royale sound. I still sounded like kenbeck fooling around with his diy synth.
The next week, for SBR 19, I went Korg Micro:
See below for the mp3 file links for SBR 19 and SBR 20.
I am planning to follow the practice of programming live in round one for the upcoming Battle this Friday. I’ll be programming this machine:
This unit is a sampler coupled with pads and effects. Its advantage is that it can be easily synced with other machines, and its real strength is the ability to make looping beats out of any sort of audio you can load into it. It includes microphone and line ins, and of course, files can be loaded onto a card directly. The card is a bit old-school now, a ‘compact flash.’ But that makes sample prep on other platforms possible. MIDI implementation is not bad; it has an in and out port only. No thru. The pad feel is excellent, and the menu system, while as cumbersome as most are, is familiar enough that I can reasonably hope to not get too much egg on my face programming this thing live on the air. Stay tuned…
Update:
Synth Battle Royale 20 did not unfold quite as expected. There were more participants than usual, and therefore we were more careful about time expended. I was nest to last in the rotation, as I recall, following Tob, and therefore, to maximize time available, I did not do any sampler programming live. Nor did I assemble a pattern live, or assemble the patterns into a “song.” Instead, I jammed. As far as the contest element goes, I notice that Tob almost always ends up with ++ in the 400s and thus “wins.” He must have a pretty good sized following by now. Next up is smj (W0TTY, aka Stephen Jones), also with a history and a following. He’s the MC , after all. Still, I got up to 50 ++ in the last round of SBR 20. So… onward and upward. Not sure that means I’ve improved; it might mean I’ve regressed. Popularity is a tricky indicator in an art enterprise. It’s, ahem, a popular one, of course! How do I feel about these battles? I think I still have work to do, but it IS an audience, and it is fun to do.