Rikane Delmarre is Dead

Superbooth 2017

#colinbenders wigging out at the #doepfer #booth at #superbooth2017 #masterful #patching 🎛🎛🎛🎛 pic.twitter.com/PF4bREn7rI

— Neal Beard AHM (@nealbeardAHM) April 20, 2017

DIY MIDI controlled solenoid

#midi #controlled #solenoid #fun #synthdiy pic.twitter.com/e2gYpkag1O

— Neal Beard AHM (@nealbeardAHM) April 12, 2017

DEATH / Transmission / LIFE : MYTHOS

Neal Beard and his Machines have their track 'Rikane Delmarre is Dead' included on a new compilation from Necktar.

The themes of this, their 7th compilation, is Death / Transmission / Life : Mythos.

(Beetween 15 and 17 hours of music by sound pioneers from all around the earth) Stay tuned §:)

Download or stream here

More info on their website here

3 New tracks...

New NB Tracks on Soundcloud

Two new tracks up on Soundcloud...!





Both tracks made  with a Doepfer a100 played with hands and feet using foot switches and foot controller, various circuit bent toys being modulated by a combination of Midi (using highly liquids diy controllers) and 555 timed vactrols, EHX electric mitsress, and EHX Man. Mixed and aranged using an analog Mackie mixer and Logic Pro.

Recorded Portsmouth 2013.

Neal beard and his machines hope you enjoy listening to their musical collaborations.

Schneider's Buero Berlin

Whilst on a recent holiday in Berlin I made a pilgrimage to the legendary Schneider's Buero; but first I had to find it. Not an easy task!

Once inside the staff were all really friendly, knowledgeable and able to advise, whilst also allowing me space to experiment on my own. I went there with a shopping list, expecting to have to pick and choose depending on what was in stock. They had everything on it!

Could this be the hotline to the London test salon...?

You want hardware? They got it!

Even the ceiling is cool.

My daughter loved this Doepfer LMK2+ housed in an old piano.

Summing up: if you're into analog synths and you're in Berlin,  Germany, or even Europe, I'd definitely make a trip there. In fact I'd like to take another trip to Berlin, just go to Schneider's. It's a unique place with a fantastic vibe, great staff,  great gear, and an ethos that exudes enthusiasm and passion for what they do. Long live Schneiders!

New tracks in Progress

Two new tracks in progress:

A composition called Crappy Cat V,VI,I,ii in C (although I think I might rename this Crappy Keyboard Synthesis V, IV, I and ii in C) and an improvisation called Back to the Womb.

Both tracks created using an A100 and a circuit bent Yamaha DD10. The A112 sample was of my daughter.

Nearly, but not quite finished...

The Bells - Music in progess

A new track in progress called The Bells.

It's starting point was to explore metallic sounds in any way I could; through frequency modulation, ring modulation, delays, piezo mikes and drivers, spring reverbs etc.

This idea then became merged with my work as an illustrator on Charles Dickens short story, 'The Chimes'.

Here are the first two mixes. The beat was made by tapping a high hat with fingers and a brush. In the second mix I beefed the bass beat by making a low pass duplicate track and mixing it in, whilst also using it as a side chain of a noise gate on a oscillator making a bass tone.

The Bells - mix 1
The Bells - mix 2

Friend Giskard

Friend Giskard - a new track!

Made using a Doepfer A112 8 bit sampler, various other Doepfer modules, LSDJ midi synced with a LSDJMC2,  a home made matrix mixer with feedback loops, and home made spring reverb. All the panning and envelope manipulation was done with two VCA's and an VCLFO (with a voltage inverter).

I edited the samples using a Mac running Audacity and dumped them to the A112 using a script called MAKEDOEPFER written by a member of the Doepfer forum, which converted my Wav's into sysex files. Thanks to Zoe for this!

The track was inspired by Asimov's character R. Giskard Relentov and the sample was taken from his final speech. You can listen to the whole speech here...

Friend Giskard - The Final Mix?

On a train journey I managed to mix down Friend Giskard to a state I think I'm happy with, or as happy as I'll ever be. The whole thing was done on small headphones with train noise, so I'll sit with it for a bit and play it on a few different stereos. It's possible I might have punched the kick through a bit much, but we'll see!

It ended up being a piece in two movements. The first having abstract atmospheric noises, and even a small melody structured around the four-time kick, and the second having the noises cross into a backdrop of silence building to ambient noise (with a spring reverb fade out.)

Anyhow it's got all the elements I wanted, and I think for me at least it evokes Asimov's writing.

You can listen to it here - Friend Giskard.

Is it finished? I hope so!

Salmper Version 2 - Friend Giskard

During another early morning pre-breakfast session I had the great idea of re-naming the track 'Friend Giskard' in honour of Asimov's robotic literary creation, and so added some manipulated 'The Galaxy' samples from Giskard's final speech, beat mapped my previous audio that was LFO clocked, added the booming bass drum from my ER 1, and a crappy hissy noisy, thus muddying the mix into sludgy mess which you can listen to here...

Things to do:

1.Sort out the mix!

2. Add Star Trek Theremin type Choral Sci-Fi noises.

3. Keep the track emptying into silence, I kind of like that.

4. Possibly add some LSDJ type computer jibber jabber, in sync.

5. Try and focus a feeling of robot thought processes and conversations in sci-fi-deep-space.

6. Finish the damn thing...

Salad Needs More Slew

A live-late-night-wig-out-session.

Salad Needs More Slew

Made using a Korg Er1 triggering an oscilator randomly through a morass of cables and pedals.

Recorded Portsmouth 2012

Neal Beard and his Machines hope you enjoy listening to their musical creations.

Spaghetti Triffid Structures

A self generating patch on a doepfer a100 is used to create random pitches and timbres and a Korg Er 1 is used to create rythyms. These are fed into an array of feedback loops and guitar pedals which is then manipulated and spread around the stereo field using a home made matrix mixer in real-time.

Neal Beard and his machines hope you enjoy listening to their musical creations.

Neal Beard EP 8

EP 8 is finished and available for free download here.

Neal Beard and his Machines EP 8

01 Bit Rot Cycle     6:48  
02 Trajectory Error     17:48 
     

Recorded Portsmouth Nov 2011.


Neal Beard and his machines hope you enjoy listening to their musical creations.

The first track Bit Rot Cycle is also on Soundcloud below.

  Bit Rot Cycle by Neal Beard & his Machines 

The EP was recorded using a home made matrix mixer, feedback loops, piezo mikes, a High Hat, an EHX small stone, a circuit bent Belcat analog delay pedal, LSDJ, a MFOS WSG,a EHX Memory Man, a EHX Pulsar, an EHX Holy Grail, a circuit bent Speak and Maths, a cosmic choir from hell and several home made filters, mostly recorded and mixed in a single take in real space-time.

Drone Noise Soundscapes

Recently Neal Beard and his Machines have experimenting with drone/noise sounds-capes largely inspired by the early tapes of the brilliant band Emeralds.

Here are a couple of experiments created using free running A100 oscs being modulated FM by random LSDJ sequences and guitar. The first example is more melodic, the second more fractured and noisy.

Experiment 1.47

Example 3.67

The ideas explored in these sessions are gradually evolving into two new EP's of improvised compositions which should be available for download soon...

Noise 567 sic box

Another machine joins the merry cacophony.

This has to be one of the simplest schematics ever - but don't let it's simplicity fool you, it's an extremely effective noise maker! I tried adding a power starve but it didn't do much, so I changed it to a pot to work in parallel with the LDR.

Here's a film of one in action from getlofi.com

Samples to follow...

New Neal Beard Music

Two new Neal Beard tracks have just gone up on Soundcloud...

Failed BMSR with FM by Neal Beard & his Machines

The Devils Noise by Neal Beard & his Machines

Blast Fed Disaster

Another new machine joins the merry band - a Blast Fed Disaster built from schematics by the excellent Squarewave Parade.

It's a very squirrely but fun synth. If you build one yourself I'd recommend putting the body contacts in as they are the most expressive way to play it. My enclosure is an old Sennheiser microphone box. The body contact plate was salvaged from a crappy electronic steel drum toy.

This new track called The Devils Noise uses it...

Here's what The Squarewave Parade says about it,

"here is an elaboration on Forrest M. Mims III's stepped tone generator, which has also been refered to as an "Atari Punk Console". my version has a little more potential for sound creation, from quantized synth notes to harsh variable digital static. a total of 7 knobs, a hand full of switches and two control voltage ( marked CV ) inputs."

Fridge Squidge (parts 1+2)

More new music from Neal Beard and his Machines.

Two new tracks Fridge Squidge (parts 1+2) have just gone up on Soundcloud.

Fridge Squidge (part one version 5) by Neal Beard & his Machines

Fridge Squidge (after one week version 5) by Neal Beard & his Machines

Made using various oscillators, some circuit bent stuff, a korg Er1, a c64 running Mssiah and a guitar. Vocals by Victoria.