ecalpemos|nl
I make films, photographs and electronic music. I build electronic musical instruments
Blog
About me
Welcome to my website. This website is about making electronic musical instruments, film making and photography. I hope you can find something of interest to you.
Music
Sequenced Reality
Syndrone
Outer Reaches (1992)
Outer Reaches of Knowing 8:17 Variations of K 8:30 Comedy of Justice 6:01 Ancient Knowledge 6:21 Ykaiia 8:32 Avonlea 9:51 Disturbances 6:21 Coda Revised 4:54 “Outer Reaches” was recorded in a weekend in March 1992. All tracks were recorded on DAT (Digital Audio Tape). The tapes were all copied from the DAT master tape. Here is a list of equipment we used during the recording of the cassette: Akai VX600, Korg Wavestation WS1/EX, Yamaha SY22, Yamaha TX7, Yamaha TX81Z, Boss RRV-10 Digital Reverb. Mixed on Phonic BKX8600. Mastered on Sony DTC-55ES DAT. We introduced this first Syndrone product after a living room concert we organized for a couple of KLEM members (KLEM is a Dutch magazine dedicated to electronic music).
Being There (1993)
fragments 6:55 elvis has left the building 4:46 i.o.u. 4:38 sheer vanity 12:25 ykaiia 7:49 avonlea 9:44 being there 20:35 “Being There” was recorded in 3 days in July 1993 in the Dreamscape studio of Ron Boots who also produced this compact disc. All tracks were recorded on DAT (Digital Audio Tape). Here is a list of equipment we used during the recording of the compact disc: Akai VX600, Alesis D4, Emu Proteus/1, Kawai K4r, Korg Poly Six, Wavestation WS1/EX, Oberheim Matrix-6R, Prophet 2000, Roland D50, Planet-S, Sequential Six-trak, Yamaha SY22, Yamaha TX7, Yamaha TX81Z, Yamaha TG55, Yamaha CS-10, Wind chimes, Alesis Midiverb II, Digitech DSP-256 EX, Lexicon LXP-1, Lexicon LXP-15, Yamaha SPX 50D Mixed on Soundcraft Spirit Life. Mastered on Tascam DA30 DAT. The picture shows a moment of one of our jam sessions at Harold’s attic working on tracks for the “Being There” album.
Blind Date (1996)
beneath the surface 7:03 skin job 11:08 last dream before 10:18 we saw elvis at the bus stop 5:10 shift nine – part I 5:31 john doe 5:51 beauty of decay 4:07 müscheln und andere tieren 14:05 shift nine – part II 9:01 “Blind Date” was recorded during several jam sessions between 1994 and 1996. All tracks were recorded on DAT at home and were mastered by Ron Boots in his studio. This second album has some experimental tracks and also more up-tempo tracks. Several tracks are one time only live recordings and capture the spirit of the moment. These tracks have been recorded live to DAT and that’s how it can be heard on the compact disc. Erik Eikelboom is a guest musician playing electric guitar on “Beauty of Decay” (his name has been misspelled on the CD inlay!) The official release date of “Blind Date” was September 1st, 1996. The compact disc can be obtained from Groove NL or send me an e-mail message for more information. Here is a list of equipment we used during the recording of the compact disc: Akai VX600, Alesis D4, Boss RRV-10 Digital Reverb, Korg Poly 800, Wavestation WS1/EX, Roland D50, Yamaha…
Reviews
Here are some reviews of our music. Being There “It was somewhere in 1992 when André Theelen and Harold Teunissen, aka Syndrone, payed me a visit. In those days, I was writing reviews and other articles for KLEM, the Dutch electronic music magazine. They wanted my opinion about their debut album “Outer Reaches”. The cassette contained 59 minutes of well composed music which implemented elements from Brian Eno, Steve Roach and Michael Stearns, but with some very interesting angles and surprises. I decided to take the tape to Ron Boots, who was running Cue Records NL at that time next to becoming a successful electronic musician himself. Like me, he was struck by the duo’s musical approach and abilities. In July 1993 he invited the duo to his Dreamscape studio in Eindhoven where they recorded, in three days, all music for their forthcoming cd “Being There”. The cd appeared in October 1993, containing two reworked tracks from their mc beside five new pieces. In addition to some rhythmic tracks, the band also composed ambient music with nice environmental sounds such as the Parisian subway. The album concludes with the live-in-the-studio recorded 20-minute title track, featuring Ron Boots and Harold van…
Filmmaking
I Want To Believe
STIPOH Promo Video
LEGO Turing Machine
Working With His Hands
To test out my new camera, a Panasonic AF101, I shot some footage of my Dad working in his workshop. My goal was twofold: shoot some nice images and get experience with my new camera, the Panasonic AF101. I wanted to capture the process of creating something with your own hands. For me, building something yourself gives great satisfaction as you can built it exactly the way *you* want it to be and that gives a great sense of accomplishment. [vimeo width=”640″ height=”358″]http://vimeo.com/28513082[/vimeo] Basically, everything was shot with available light coming through one big window. I did use a LED light but I forgot to bring the Minus Green gel so all shots where I used the LED light looked awful, especially the skin colors. I tried color correcting it but I couldn’t get it right so unfortunately I had to leave some shots out of the final edit. In the article “Green Spike from LED Lights” you can read more about that. Nothing was staged or directed, I was just an observer with a camera. I only asked for a little pause when switching lenses for close ups or for setting up my slider for dolly shots. I had…
60 Second Landscape
While on holiday we spent a day on the beach. While watching my wife and daughter walking through the water I suddenly remembered Chase Jarvis’ “60 Second Landscape Challenge“. Purpose is to capture a minute of your surroundings including ambient sound so people watching your movie get a sense of the landscape where you were when capturing the images. As I only had my Nikon D300s with me at that time, that’s what I shot this video with. Shot in one take, no editing with only a bit of footage stabilizing and color grading done. [vimeo width=”640″ height=”358″]http://vimeo.com/24292673[/vimeo]
Impressions of Outer Reaches Studio
This is a video I shot in 2008 in my home recording studio. My studio was named after the title of the first audio cassette I released as Syndrone in 1992. [vimeo]http://vimeo.com/34803845[/vimeo] The video was shot with a Canon XH-A1 and Letus Extreme 35mm adapter. I used Nikon Ais prime lenses but I don’t recall which one. I think I used the Nikon 55mm f2.8 macro lens for some of the close up shots. The video has no sound. I used a home made skate wheel dolly for the dolly shots. As my studio is rather small I had to improvise a bit to fit the dolly in and get the shots I wanted but I’m pleased with the end result.
SDIY
Buchlaesque modular
Buchlaesque modular: The cabinet
The problem with building your own modular synthesizer is that, when you have actually finished a couple of modules, you need something to hold them. So for my Buchlaesque modular I built the cabinet first. I wanted the cabinet to be as compact as possible and came up with the design to the left. The height of the cabinet is 616 mm (24.3″), it’s 684 mm (26.9″) wide and 240mm (9.5″) deep at the bottom and 151 mm (5.9″) deep at the top. The cabinet contains three rows with room for six standard Buchla sized modules per row. I started with a four row enclosure at first but that resulted in a rather large footprint and although it looked very cool, I decided against that. Although the design above was OK, I played around with it a bit more and came up with something better. The footprint of this cabinet is larger than the previous one but it looks much more Buchla. So that was the one I went for. It’s still a three row cabinet with room for 6 modules in each row. The dimensions are 684 mm (26.9″) wide, 544 mm (21.4″) high, 397 mm (15.6″) deep at…
Mutant 259 timbre/modulation index section
I’ve been working on building a mutant version (that is: with non-vintage components) of the timbre/symmetry section of the famous Buchla 259 complex waveform generator. I used the schematic Mark Verbos posted on his website as a starting point. I replaced all opamps with the TL072CN. All other components are common resistors (I used 1% metal film for all resistors), caps and diodes. When I finished the circuit I didn’t get any good waveform on the output on my first test. I tried inserting a sine wave at the input of the folding section and got better results after increasing the amplitude of the input signal. After checking the input circuit I found a 1:20 voltage divider at the audio input. So my 4 Vpp input sine wave was immediately attenuated to 200mVpp. After adjusting the voltage divider everything worked like it should. As far as I can tell from stuff I’ve seen on YouTube of real Buchla 259′s the waveforms definitely resemble the original. I’m happy with that as it was not my intention the built a 100% identical clone of the original. Here are some example of what waveforms can be achieved with this circuit. Input signal:…
Mutant Complex Waveform Generator
The Buchla 259 complex waveform generator is a very flexible and complex oscillator. It contains 2 oscillators, several waveshapers and a phase locked loop. It is capable of a very broad range of sonic timbres. I wanted to built something similar to the Buchla 259 based on two 258J oscillator boards I already built. It would not be a clone of the original module but I wanted to try to built some core functionality of the original into my version so it would behave, for those things implemented, close to the real thing. The block diagram for my mutant complex waveform generator looks like this. The signal from the modulation oscillator is fed into the modulation index where you can select the modulation destinations. Timbre can be modulated and the principal oscillator can be FM and AM modulated. All modulation types can be selected independent of each other. So, it is possible to use AM, FM and timbre modulation simultaneous. This is the prototype front panel design. The front panel really is stuffed with controls. There is no more room to add anything else. The switches in the modulation index section are not the final switches. I used what I…
MOTM Modular
Cabinet
CGS modules
MFOS modules
MOTM modules
Oakley Sound modules
Other modules
Klee sequencer
Links
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