Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
Audio files: 97
Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 6:07 pm Post subject:
Why thanks, guys.
I've been inspired by something Thomas Henry mentioned about his Supercontroller:
Quote:
the delayed vibrato of the SuperController has a distinct organic feel to it and makes you feel like a musician, not an electronic technician.
That is the way the Klee should be approached, and I want to communicate that idea. It may bristle with a lot of controls, but it's nearly not as complicated to operate as it is to describe. In fact, the most I've ever done with it is just twist pots and flip switches just to see what would happen. I'm not sure there's any way to just decide how you're going to get from point A to point B with the thing. You sit down, hook it up and start adjusting and listening. You'll find you often arrive at point Z a lot, and you'll find that ain't such a bad thing.
I've completed a bit more on the manual now, I'm past the merge switches and I'm into the different modes of operation - with the late addition of Jan's inverter epiphany, the Klee has seven distinct modes of operation as far as how the shift register juggles bits; each one capable of producing differently structured sequences from essentially the same settings. That translates into "This sounds pretty cool, what happens if I flip that switch. More often than not, you'll get a smile on your face, trust me.
Doc V - never hurts to look at the K's again! I'd love to do a Klee print for the cover of the manual, but I fear the copyright laws. There's one piece I'd specifically like to use. Sigh.
Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
Audio files: 97
Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2007 10:02 pm Post subject:
I've changed my mind - the Klee must be destroyed. It sucks you in, and before you know it, the birds are chirping, the sun is coming up, and you have to be to work in 45 minutes....
Here's an example of the Klee totally diverting me from what I intended to do, which was take some scope shots at the breadboard. Mmmmbut, no, the Klee was hooked up, and I just had to listen to what it was doing (it always 'volunteers' a pattern on power-up). Before I knew it, I had something (again) that I wanted to record. After that, I recorded another variation.
This is the softer, gentler side of the Klee - it's pretty much the same patch that Iris used for "Do You Klee", only it's drenched in the Klee's best friends - reverb and delay. The first part of the sample is one recording of the Klee going through its motions, and the second part is pretty much the same thing - same pot configuration, slightly different pattern, slightly different gate bus settings. On that one, I fade in the different parts one by one (you can tell it - it's when the DSC2000 noise kicks in). I crossfaded the two recordings in Audacity.
Items used: Thomas Henry VCO, Rene Schmitz VCO3, Schmitz 2040 Clone, Mankato Filter, Two MFOS EGs, one Thomas Henry VCA, Blacet DSC200, Lexicon MX200. And, of course, the Klee slowly controlling going through its pattern, triggering and controlling with its three outputs.
Very ethereal Scott. Also dark & moody in some spots. But in a good way, not like a pack of teenagers at the mall. This thing truly knows no boundries!
-justin
Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
Audio files: 97
Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2007 6:36 am Post subject:
Maybe the Yogi Bears might like it as easy listening music while they eat the contents of ill-gotten pic-i-nic baskets.
Jan - I used the inverter on this one as well - it was in 8X2 mode so the inverter was only in the loop around the second shift register. So one voice (A) was going through an eight note cycle and the other two voices (B and A+B) were going through sixteen note cycles. You were right about how it not only increases the number of steps, but also pleasantly constantly redistributes the pattern to and fro. In this case, the starting pattern had a low number of bits, and as it recycled, more 'on' bits would glide through, then cycle back to low number (etc.). A distribution like that using the inverter always has a kind of sing-song up/down pattern to it.
That manual is off to an excellent start. Very easy to read and understand.
Lunetta
The name Klee is very cool, but I would like to point out that Stanley Lunetta designed very similar circuits back in the very early 70s. We used to call synths that had these kind of shift register circuits "Lunettas". Stan never got used to that. I just want to point this out for the record. There is nothing new under the Sun (I think Soloman said that).
Anyway, I mentioned Lunetta and that makes me feel OK. I have no doubt that he would not want to change anything. _________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff
Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
Audio files: 97
Posted: Sat Jun 16, 2007 10:34 am Post subject:
Quote:
There is nothing new under the Sun (I think Soloman said that).
Certainly not - I've never heard of Stanley Lunetta (sounds like an interesting guy, BTW), but actually the Klee is based largely in part on a different shift register design, from a former employer of yours, to be exact (credits are given in the unposted section of the manual).
IE, the thought for the original Klee occurred to me when I was playing with the Quantized Random Voltage of the Buchla 266 SOU. The original Klee used a CD4006 just like that circuit. Rather than have a fixed set of resistor values for the random quantization, I substituted pots. I wanted repeatability of the pattern, and some way to control the extent of the randomness. The input comparator for the randomness comes from Ken Stone's Gated Comparator, and the repeatability came from any application that might use a shift register - recirculation. The gate bus is pretty similar to any gate bus on a sequencer, only its under control of more than one bit in the shift register (or can be, I should say). The addition of the logical NOR of Gate Bus 2 I'd never seen actually implemented in a sequencer, but it makes particular sense for a standard sequencer (to me anyway) - heck, one free gates without expensive switches - just a couple of diodes and a Schmitt trigger section.
BTW, Buchla used shift registers a lot in the 200 series designs - the afore-mentioned Quantized Random Voltage, the Stored Random Voltage function of the 266 SOU (but not the 265), and the uncorrelated random voltage function of the Music Easel are three I can think of off the bat.
Of course, any BBD based design operates off of a shift register, but that one is a bit different
That's a gorgeous track! I could listen to stuff like that for hours.
Romeo
Scott Stites wrote:
I've changed my mind - the Klee must be destroyed. It sucks you in, and before you know it, the birds are chirping, the sun is coming up, and you have to be to work in 45 minutes....
Here's an example of the Klee totally diverting me from what I intended to do, which was take some scope shots at the breadboard. Mmmmbut, no, the Klee was hooked up, and I just had to listen to what it was doing (it always 'volunteers' a pattern on power-up). Before I knew it, I had something (again) that I wanted to record. After that, I recorded another variation.
This is the softer, gentler side of the Klee - it's pretty much the same patch that Iris used for "Do You Klee", only it's drenched in the Klee's best friends - reverb and delay. The first part of the sample is one recording of the Klee going through its motions, and the second part is pretty much the same thing - same pot configuration, slightly different pattern, slightly different gate bus settings. On that one, I fade in the different parts one by one (you can tell it - it's when the DSC2000 noise kicks in). I crossfaded the two recordings in Audacity.
Items used: Thomas Henry VCO, Rene Schmitz VCO3, Schmitz 2040 Clone, Mankato Filter, Two MFOS EGs, one Thomas Henry VCA, Blacet DSC200, Lexicon MX200. And, of course, the Klee slowly controlling going through its pattern, triggering and controlling with its three outputs.
Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
Audio files: 97
Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 8:24 am Post subject:
Howard,
I haven't been able to find anything on the Lunettas on the net. Your description of them is really intriguing. I know you're a busy guy, but would it be possible to post a reminscence on electro-music of that time and some detail of the different Lunettas you (and others) built, sort of like your cliff-hanger Buchla story? It sounds like an avenue of exploration that would inspire a lot of people.
Stan just showed us the circuit techniques. We built the Lunettas. At Mills College, we put on a concert of music made from our little home brew Lunettas. We called it the "World's First Lunetta Concert". Stan came and afterward he said, "Howard, this wasn't the world's first Lunetta concert!". It looks like I jumped too fast and he was a little put off by that, not mad or anything, but we were careful about using the name Lunetta in the future. We still called our synths Lunettas though.
If I remember, the only people the built things called Lunettas at that time was me, Dave Berry, and Jim Horton. There might have been someone else. I still have my Lunetta. Here's a picture of it. I don't know if it will still work, probably needs a lot of work.
The neat thing about these machines is that everything is digital logic patched to banna jacks. Except for the six channel audio mixer, nothing is linear. Even the oscillators were made of nand gates with feedback. I can explain all this maybe in another topic. It would really be a thrill if other people make these things after so many years. The logic was some family that preceeded the 7400 series.
DSC02765.JPG
Description:
Mosc's Lunetta DIY synth - circa 1971.
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2.06 MB
Viewed:
13645 Time(s)
_________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff Last edited by mosc on Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:13 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
Audio files: 97
Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 10:12 am Post subject:
Wooow. It looks like some mad blend of Buchla and Serge! I notice there are a couple of parts on the panel that look sort of "burnished" - was that for grounding a finger or something (kind of like benders do today) or is that "wear and tear"? (dial-up = not downloaded the 2MB version of the pic yet) _________________ My Site
Wooow. It looks like some mad blend of Buchla and Serge! I notice there are a couple of parts on the panel that look sort of "burnished" - was that for grounding a finger or something (kind of like benders do today) or is that "wear and tear"? (dial-up = not downloaded the 2MB version of the pic yet)
That little panel is just the output mixer. The panel is painted. I was trying to rub off the paint but it was too much trouble. The top and bottom panels have no paint. Touching a banana plug to the unpainted panel creates a logic 0. Makes a good binary keyboard. You don't need that on the audio mixer, so I gave up. I'm pretty lazy. _________________ --Howard
my music and other stuff
Joined: May 16, 2005 Posts: 8932 Location: Birmingham, England, UK
Audio files: 19
G2 patch files: 1
Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2007 1:48 pm Post subject:
goodrevdoc wrote:
Very ethereal Scott. Also dark & moody in some spots. But in a good way, not like a pack of teenagers at the mall. This thing truly knows no boundries!
-justin
Odd that. It pissed it down over the weekend in ways I've never seen it piss before (). Today the sun came out, it was really hot, and I went to some outdoor adventure centre (next to a dry ski slope) and there was this weird gothic-like rock climbing structure that said to me "what a great place to have a concert featuring a Klee bang in the middle". The music of Ashra's "New Age of Earth" was also going through my head for some reason, and now your spacey track! Thanks Scott! I'll raise a glass of Calvados to you! _________________ ACHTUNG!
ALLES TURISTEN UND NONTEKNISCHEN LOOKENPEEPERS!
DAS KOMPUTERMASCHINE IST NICHT FÜR DER GEFINGERPOKEN UND MITTENGRABEN! ODERWISE IST EASY TO SCHNAPPEN DER SPRINGENWERK, BLOWENFUSEN UND POPPENCORKEN MIT SPITZENSPARKSEN.
IST NICHT FÜR GEWERKEN BEI DUMMKOPFEN. DER RUBBERNECKEN SIGHTSEEREN KEEPEN DAS COTTONPICKEN HÄNDER IN DAS POCKETS MUSS.
ZO RELAXEN UND WATSCHEN DER BLINKENLICHTEN.
Joined: Mar 22, 2005 Posts: 363 Location: Boston
Audio files: 1
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 6:03 am Post subject:
Hey-I didn't realize this thread had been re-animated... cool!
Great track (once again) Scott. Always amazing.
Howard...Plug that thing in! I want to hear it.
I've been stockpiling Dexedrine in anticipation of attempting the stripboard version of this in the fall. I figured that I'd have put a sizable dent in my nerdular by then. But summer is here, which means I'll be cruising Revere beach in my 97' Honda civic hatchback (you know, the one with the Frazetta barbarians airbrushed all over it) cranking the Subotnick and waiting for the girls to flock. Nothing gets them going quite like a little Wild Bull...
ahem..in all seriousness I can hardly contain my excitement at the thought that I may actually be able to own and operate a Klee in the foreseeable future. Three cheers all the hard work!
peter _________________ Freq Out
o---------------<>---------------o
Joined: May 17, 2007 Posts: 456 Location: Northern CA, USA
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 9:53 am Post subject:
mosc wrote:
I still have my Lunetta. Here's a picture of it. I don't know if it will still work, probably needs a lot of work.
If you need a volunteer...
(I have a local expert to help if I get stuck! He might get a kick out of seeing it again too.)
mosc wrote:
The neat thing about these machines is that everything is digital logic patched to banna jacks. Except for the six channel audio mixer, nothing is linear. Even the oscillators were made of nand gates with feedback. I can explain all this maybe in another topic.
I hope so. this is quite interesting.
mosc wrote:
It would really be a thrill if other people make these things after so many years.
Sounds do-able. Let's do it!
mosc wrote:
The logic was some family that preceeded the 7400 series.
How small the world is .. I'm glad to have been able to point you to your neighbor
It would be cool if he could comment here, or more properly we should have a new thread about Lunettas. Would be a good opportunity to keep some history from getting lost.
Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
Audio files: 97
Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 4:20 pm Post subject:
Quote:
It would be cool if he could comment here, or more properly we should have a new thread about Lunettas. Would be a good opportunity to keep some history from getting lost.
I second that emotion
Quote:
I'll raise a glass of Calvados to you!
And I to you, if Calvados can be had in Kansas. Back on track, redesignating. Had another project to get done first. Then reverification, then......
Joined: Dec 23, 2005 Posts: 4127 Location: Mount Hope, KS USA
Audio files: 97
Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 12:13 pm Post subject:
The Klee Sequencer must be destroyed. It is an evil device designed to evaporate the minutes, hours and days of your life.
Every time I plug into this thing, I literally get lost in it. If the Lunettas were like this, I would estimate Mosc to be 27 years old now if he'd never laid a hand on one.
Here's a simple example of what I'm talking about. It uses two voices. The "bass" voice is the Thomas Henry VCO pulse wave patched through the Mankato Filter then through the Thomas Henry VCA. The VCO and VCF are controlled by the Voltage A output of the Klee. An EG is triggered from the Gate Bus 1 trigger output - this EG is controlling the VCA and the filter cutoff.
The second "high" voice is a Rene Schmitz VCO sawtooth wave, going through his version of the 2040 clone filter. This VCO and filter are both controlled by the A+B output of the Klee. An EG is being triggered by the Gate Bus 2 trigger output. This EG is controlling the 2040 filter cutoff.
Both of these signals are fed into a mixer module. The triangle wave from each VCO is also fed into the mixer module. That way I can mix in either the "Voice" patch of each VCO, or just the raw triangle so I can listen to what the raw pattern sounds like.
The Klee Pattern is only three "on" bits. Two gate bus switches are set to Gate Bus 1, the rest are set to Gate Bus 2.
This example demonstrates a method of programming patterns that I like to think of as "bit shuffling". With this method, one starts out with a particular pattern and alters that pattern simply by switching between 8X2 mode and 16X1 mode at different times just to hear what happens. In fact, that is the only Klee control I alter in the entire example. I just flipped it randomly, not paying attention to what the LEDs are doing.
The sample starts out in the 8X2 mode. Register A is circulating one high bit through its eight steps, and Register B is shuffling two bits through its eight steps. The first thing you hear is the low voice triangle wave going through its pattern. Then I fade in the high voice triangle wave going through its pattern. Then I fade in the bass "voice" which is controlled by the EG, and fade out the bass triangle. Then I do the same with the "high voice", so what's left is the two voices controlled by the gate bus.
After that, all I do is flip the 8X2/16X1 switch from one mode to the next at random times and listen to the different patterns that emerge - I linger briefly, then flip again. This "catches" the shift registers at various points. Sometimes just one bit is "trapped" in shift register A and two bits are "trapped" in shift register B when flipped into the 8X2 mode, and sometimes vice versa. Depending on when the switch is flipped, it also affects the spacing between the bits as they charge from one register to the other. All of this plays into selecting when the bits trigger the gate bus, and which pot voltages are added together, resulting in different voltage and rhythm patterns. This is a simple example with only three "on" bits. It gets wilder the more "on" bits you have.
If one flips the switch at exact intervals, the pattern will seamlessly change from 8 steps to 16 steps and back without changing. If one switches the mode at odd intervals, that's when the new patterns emerge.
Anyway, by sheer chance, the sample ends up with the same pattern it started with (easy to do with three bits - also easy with multiple bits - one can simply load the original pattern). Towards the end of the pattern, I mix in a small bit of the DSC2000, which is plugged into the 2040 filter, then I bring up the high voice VCO triangle again as the sample fades out.
Once an interesting pattern is found, one can then start manipulating the gate bus switches, which can and will have a further dramatic effect on what the bit pattern sounds like. That's not to mention the merge switches, Invert B switch, pattern and load switches, or the pots themselves. In fact, the permutations provided by these controls are the secret to Klee's time-eating capabilities.
I swear, I've never had so much fun with a collection of CMOS chips in all my life. I've been jacking with this thing since last August, and haven't scraped the bottom yet.
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