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20191008

Coping with post Trans-Siberian railway blues. It’s been a week now and I’ve yet to unpack. I just pulled everything on my table, keep my stuff in a pile and shuffle it when I need things. Our return trip from Vladivostok to Helsinki took 180 hours. We only had a few daily breaks and a 10 h train change wait in Moscow. I managed to (almost) complete a review of the Ural Industrial Biennial during the ride, made some train ambient recordings and fixed a sock. Despite the discomfort, working on the train felt rewarding. Everything we saw and did fitted into a context. The travel and our group forged a dense social framework which I experienced to be supportive. Back here in Helsinki, I feel vague and I don’t know what to do next. I’m dreaming of new travels and looking for odd-jobs (barista for Starbucks, office cleaning -> edit: got invited to a job interview but the 3h/5d a week gig only pays 550 a month, which is impossible).

I have small gig in a week and I’m preparing for some teaching next month (post-structuralism for kids continues). Swapped my KP3 for a Leploop Multicassa v2. It’s superb and compliments my rack. I’ll miss the KP3 thou.. I had it for 3 years. It seems I’m into electro-acoustics, ploppy filter resonances and organic mutant drum patterns. I’ll try to build a dark techno setup using Multicassa with my softPop. I think they come from the same universe (edit: they really do). Build my first 1u module TRS breakout 1u. The closet I use for work is a mess.

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20190316

Made my first batch of Faux San Pelligriano. 1,5l water is added with ~2g of salts and minerals (10l has 0,92g Table salt, 5,7g Epsom-salt, 4,8g Plaster of Paris, 1,5g Chalk). Digesting Plaster of Paris aka. Burned Gypsum feels weird but I’m confident because Gypsum is also used in the production of tofu. Epsom salt aka. Magnesium sulfate is a spooky material too but it is used also as a laxative and it’s health benefits are well documented. Chalk and salt feel more safe to use.

Spotted Too Many Zoos online. The baritone saxophonist is called Leo Pelligriano. I want to drink Faux San Pelligriano while playing techno as Faux Leo Pelligriano.

Build an acoustic piezo preamp using a tl071. Used the toner transfer method to etch a pcb following this design (some traces came off a bit weak). The same circuit can also be found as a vero board design. Works well, sounds very clean and even amplifies the signal enough to trigger Bastl Skis. I’ll possibly make a lm386 audio amp as it’s companion, so that I can boost the signal further. I’m also planning to run the lm386 independently so that I can use it to trigger the second Skis channel. Drum triggers in the works! I designed how the two circuits would be linked while attending the Frame Epistemic Hospitality event.

Meritocracy is a myth invented by the rich (2019) Nathan Robinson.

It’s no secret that wealthy people will do nearly anything to get their kids into good schools. But this scandal only begins to reveal the lies that sustain the American idea of meritocracy.

[…] equal opportunity would require a radical re-engineering of society from top to bottom. As long as there are large wealth inequalities, there will be colossal differences in the opportunities that children have. No matter what admissions criteria are set, wealthy children will have the advantage.

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20190228

Build my first module: “Tip/Ring Thing (Breakout)”. Its a 4hp unit which divides a 3.5mm TRS socket to two separate mono sockets. I can now transmit CVs (and audio) from-and-to my softPop with the module. It’s essentially a passive two channel splitter and/or mixer. It also works with my QuNexus, which sends CV trough a TRS connection. (Building the module costed me less then 5€ but four hours of time, because I wanted the panel from wood).

I’ve now compiled all of the modules I have planned. Feeling content but I want to deepen my understanding of sounds. I need some kind of drum-sound generator (re-discovered Kastle 1.5), a looping envelope, more VCAs (I’ll possibly build them using vactrol), a second LFO (for slow movements), a second attenuverter (for the second lfo) and a spring echo. Today I used the Turing Machine as an oscillator (by clocking using softPops square wave output), I patched the same clock signal to my clock divider (which serves as a square oscillator, when clock very fast). I then routed the sound of the Turing Machine to the softPops filter and used the QuNexus to trigger the Skis envelope/VCA to control the sound (of the filtered sound and the clock-div sub-osc). I wonder.. Would psychotherapy be more affordable?

My review titled Kun kirjasto lukee meitä (When the library reads us) on the The Library’s Other Intelligences art project is available on Mustekala.info.

Listening and studying Toshimaru Nakamura NO-INPUT MIXING BOARD (2000).

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20190226

Build a PMfoundations clock divider. Everything is working well. A moderate build, took me three hours. Also assembled a Bastl passive mult. To my fury its wood panel broke in assembly. Got my QuNexus from the mail and got the pressure sensitive pads working smoothly with my softPop.

Building up stamina for serious work.

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20190216

Successfully build a Bastl Skis module. Spend my evenings in Kankaanpää Art School by building a scrap-plywood 104hp eurorack case with space for 3u and 1u modules. The case has adjustable support legs, so that it can be worked from an ergonomic position and a lid which can be closed with patch cables attached.