Intro - Ducts

[rbedgar]

Hi all.

Nice web site. Looking to hear new sounds, find new venues.

My background is somewhat varied: rock music, classical electronic (Moog, tape and razor blades), computer music, classical south Indian music, singer/songwriter. I enjoy all kindsa music.

Music samples can be found on my website www.robertedgar.com .
You can get ahold of me through rbedgar@stanford.edu

Looking for places to perform electro-acoustic music in the SF Bay Area.

-Robert Edgar

[seraph]

[Mohoyoho]

Welcome. Be careful with those razor blades.

I saw your other post. Tell us more about the Moog mod you were using.

[mosc]

Your web site is really nice. I'd like to hear some of your razor blade music, BTW...

[rbedgar]

Hi again. Thanks for your notes.

The Moog stuff was quite some time ago. A few years ago I transferred some of my 1/4 inch 2- and 4- track pieces to CD, so I do have a few pieces I could put up. Not the best transfer, but it would give you the idea.

In the very late 1960s, Syracuse U School of Music put in one of the first large Moog installations in a university (this according to Moog, who I spent a day with a few years ago in LA). I arrived a year or so later (in 1970), looking to take flute. However, I wasn't a music major (I was in art), and was told that none of the instructors were available...but, that there were openings in the electronic music class. Turned out that none of the music students at the time (well, all but one or two) stayed away from the Moog because it seemed too un-musical or uncontrollable.

I'd been listening to Stockhausen and Varese, so I jumped at the chance.

Electronic music composition classes there were taught by Franklin Morris. He had studied with Hindemith, and was friendly but somewhat reclusive. Absolutely a nice guy, very open to any experimentation, and remained the most competent at electronic music composing of any of us during the five years I took from him.

So let's see if I can remember the Moog modules we had. Some of these are approximate, maybe there's someone else out there who remembers more precisely? Maybe five oscillators. Two sequencers across the top. Four VCAs. A couple ring modulators. A VC active bandpass filter, and a graphic eq I believe. Monophonic keyboard and trigger and gate module. Of course, everything had linear voltages--which was probably part of what scared off the music students. Sample and hold, and a noise source. I think that's about it. We recorded into two 1/4" Ampex tape decks, one 2-track and one 4-track. Separate mixer. Four speakers, one on each wall.

After the first few years Morris bought a little Buchla mini-synth with a deplorable (but portable) touch-sensitive keyboard that was painted onto it's case. I developed a distaste of using a synth for imitating acoustic instruments, probably partially in reaction to the music students' disdain for the lab.

The last few years I subscribed to a great newsletter called Electronotes, published (photocopied) by Bernie hutchens out of Cornell. I still have all of the newsletters--they gave explanations of how the analog circuits worked, and schematics for building your own. People started collecting parts and you could buy a kit through the newsletter. I still use a power module I made from an Electronotes circuit in the 1970s today.

So there ya go...maybe more that you wanted to know! On the other hand, some of you seem to be of the same vintage, and may have made your own Electronotes synths.

[mosc]

Good story. Thanks.

I used to subsribe to ElectroNotes too. I wonder if there is an on-line archive of those somewhere.

[deknow]

...i don't think so. from what i've gathered, you can buy them directly from bernie, but it often takes some time to get them. this info may be out of date....but seemed current a few years ago.

deknow

[rbedgar]

As soon as my web host gets its technical end together (they say in about an hour) I'll upload a 3'18" piece titled "This is a Tape-On Velocity" to my site at www.robertedgar.com . It'll be at the bottom of my home page, under "Electronic Music, 1976".

I haven't been in touch with Bernie since I left Syracuse, but a friend on this coast Eric Barbour (a unique and brilliant guy who designs and builds tube-based voltage-controlled synths and modules) told me a couple of years back that Bernie had switched over to digital work.

There was a phase that circuits passed through, between strict analog and before CPUs, when logic gates started to work their way into synth circuits. Interesting time, I've never seen anyone revisit that transitional period...

I took some time a year back to publish some of the art/technology developments between the 1970s and late 1980s. If interested, I reprinted the article on www.robertedgar.com on the "Digital Art Portfolio" page, titled " A Context for First-Generation PC Art" dated April 2005.

I've been meaning to do more on the history side, but like most of us I don't have all the time in the world...

Anyway, my interest in this site is to spend some time on what others have done lately with electro-acoustic performance. Let me know of where I should be poking around!

Best,
Robert

[seraph]

[rbedgar]

Thanks. This was what I was looking for. Wonderful range of work.
-r

[rbedgar]

This has been the time for vendor's technical glitches...but my site host finally fixed their server, and I was able to put a selection of my electronic work up.

The 1970-1976 pieces are Moog and splicing tape work.
Later pieces use various synths and modules; hardware and software.

At the present I'm focusing on live performance, so the "Duchamp" related pieces are unedited. They are either solo or are accompanied by Roger Winkerman on bass.

I hope those of you who listen enjoy what you hear.

-r

[Mohoyoho]

Great story. Thanks for telling it.