Captain of industry

Well that was fun……yes, FUN! A summer of music, madness & mud. And my new V2.0 rig behaved itself. The ‘Astro Gears’ were great for backing loops……flashy but functional. At Green Man I had 2 ‘Alienettes’ dancing with me……more next year I hope. I got an onsite park this year which was great – no lugging through the mud, hooray! Next year I’m making a bigger Aqua Shield!




I did a little video of the experience (and earlier years) if you want to relive the mayhem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWf7x4T7Of8&noredirect=1

Now to the future……….I have decided to develop and produce some of my inventions. The ‘Vibe Bar’ will be first off the ranks. My plan is to revolutionize synth playing by

(1) Making Vibe Bars standard on all keyboards which will allow the player to produce ‘mechanical’ vibrato and pitch bend – very important for expression.

(2) Turning my Claude Controller into an ipad or tablet app. (Anyone out there interested?)

(3) Getting them into music tech schools and doing lecture tours extolling the virtues of real time sonic manipulation. I believe it’s precisely this area of performance that’s the reason people generally prefer an acoustic instrument over an electronic one.
That’s my little rant for the day.

On the gig front I just did a wedding in Cambridge on Saturday which was a hoot!

I’m doing a party in Oxford on the 27th October and I’ll be at the wonderful Horsefair Shopping Centre in Wisbeech on the 31st for Halloween (3:00 – 5:00)

So if you want to ‘rent a spaceman’ drop me an e. sonicmanipulator@hotmail.com.
I shall try to be more frequent with my blogging and let you all know how I’m getting on with my gadgets.
Stay spaced,

The Sonic Manipulator

The Sonic Manipulator...JULY 2012

Greetings all aliens.........I've been buried in wires and solder for the last few months and have now created (badum, badum) Sonic Manipulator V 2.0!! This involves a laptop, My new ‘Astro Gears’ - 8 (3 ft) light up ‘gear sticks’ for loop manipulation – 16 possible loops per song. A modified USB keyboard with another invention of mine the ‘Vibe Bar’ and the ‘Claude Controller’ – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h2hjW1QwvQ - a new invention of mine consisting of 36 (light up) wheels for complex timbre articulation – allowing the synth to cry & scream. It’s very cool. I did Glade festival a couple of weeks ago and it went great although there’s a few bugs to sort out.




I will be doing it again this Saturday (7th July midnight) at the Natural Rhythm Festival Harlocks Farm Soham Road Ely Cambridge CB7 5TR /

Then the next weekend At the Stockton Heath Festival - http://stocktonheathfestival.co.uk although I’ll be in version 1 spaceman for that one (no power)

Then the next weekend will be the fabulous Secret Garden Party which is always a hoot!



Then it’s Olympic Games time and I’ll be doing the Exhibition Road festival both Saturdays - http://www.exhibitionroad.com/exhibition-road-2012



Then it’s Green Man & Shambala festivals and then…….rest!



C U There, Claude – The Sonic Manipulator (V2.0)

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The Sonic Manipulator is back Jan 2012

Greetings all aleins........It’s been some time since my last blog. The council guys were closing me down everywhere I played in London…….even got fined on Brick Lane…..so I wasn’t impressed..


I’ve been flailing about in Cambridge & Bedford a bit but did a couple of schools in November and they went really well.. I’ve got a whole lot more booked in May up in York.

I’m also doing the Nottingham Lite Nite on the 10th Feb. I’ve done it before and it’s cool…….lots of trippy lights and projections.



The great news is I have just invented the ‘Claude Controller’ - a MIDI controller which involves two significant things. First there's my 'vibe bar', which is kind of like a whammy bar for keyboard.. I've been using these on my synthesizers for many years now and find them indispensable for expressive performance. The second part of the system is a series of 35 vertically mounted wheels (like the ones on the side of keyboards) but arranged in three rows, laid out like the black and white notes of a keyboard with the third row (and 2 joysticks) at the back. These all send MIDI controller information and are mapped to - in the case of an analogue synth engine many of its parameters - filter, resonance, ADSR, etc (of course all synthesis methods would work equally well). This makes it possible to impart very complex timbral changes which are necessary to create an organic 'realistic' sound, the way in which acoustic instruments do. I’m expecting it to change the world!!



I’ll have a video hopefully by next week…….I’ll post it up. Stay tuned, TSM..