Powwow 4 - Feedback

Here’s the recording of my live set at the fourth Berlin Powwow session which you can buy from my Bandcamp.



For this performance I wanted to explore feedback and the obstacles and modifiers one can place in the loop. The key players in this were delays, filters, non-linear functions and malfunctioning components.



My main analogue patch featured a Cwejman RES-4 in a loop with a Bananalogue Serge WVX. The combination of four frequency bands of oscillation might have been enough, but placing a Cwejman VCEQ-3 in the chain to dampen or boost the feedback added another level of complexity. A stressed coupling capacitor and scratchy Folds pot on the WVX added to the unpredictability and fun.

Live, I love my Clavia Micro Modular for two main reasons: patch recall, which allows me to set a scene or chop between moods, and polyphony. The virtual feedback patches in this set were simple, but switching them to two or three voices added complexity and interest, for example asynchronous panning or the beating of multiple sine-wave oscillators. You can do it with a ’real’ modular, but at a cost!

This set up is flexible and just about portable. It’s still completely live in that each patch either has to be built or played by hand. But the addition and convenience of the Micro Modular does cause me to question how we approach playing live with a modular. With many musicians turning up to gigs with their rigs pre-patched, is there a difference or even a need for the real deal?

Thanks again to Goldwiener, Hainbach, Paul da Fonk and Mark Berman of Powwow for the opportunity to make some noise.

Nord Coast - Micro Modular Patches

Performance patches created on the diminutive yet powerful Clavia Nord Micro Modular.



I'd seen these odd shaped and coloured boxes lying round in studios gathering dust before. But it wasn't until I saw Rastko Lazic's inspiring video that I took the Micro Modular seriously. Here is a collection of patches, driven solely by the Micro Modular's three knobs:



Yes, it sounds digital and you need to jump through hoops to get the editor to work on a modern Mac operating system, but it's worth it. I've used the G2 demo for years to try out ideas, so I was used to the workflow. The NM engine doesn't have some of the conveniences or modules of the G2. But, as ever, there are workarounds. If you get stuck, consult the Nord Modular Book, edited by James Clark or Rob Hordijk's workshops.

In his video, Rastko uses a new Faderfox controller to play his patches. The two make a perfect pair, but I didn't want to be tied to a USB host i.e. computer. The older FF controllers are less flexible when it comes to custom assignments, so I built my own. I used a Doepfer Pocket Electronics kit and a perspex sandwich. The joystick is a small, game controller type.



With that built (and an old Faderfox controller now bought ...), I've realized that the beauty of the Micro Modular is its simplicity. With some canny patching you can get a lot of mileage out of three knobs! Download the album to access the patches and try them yourself.

Here is a link to Clavia's sound-bank. If you're using a Mac, the V3 Editor will run with varying degrees of stability and frustration under emulation. I have both Win XP and 10.6 versions running under VMWare Fusion on a 10.8 system.