OFF: DikMik in a box

[Johan Edlundh]

At 17:04 1998-05-27 -0700, you wrote:
>Yeah, I know that posts about musical equipment are of less interest to the
>90% (?) non-musician populace of boc-l than posts about comix, Y&T or
>summer blockbuster movies are to me ;^), but this is something that
>Hawkwind fans (especially the non-musician ones) might want to check out,
>'cause the message title comes from a comment made by one of the guys I was
>jamming with last weekend ...
>
>I recently obtained a little box called a "Triwave Picogenerator" from a
>guy in Illinois (USA) who makes guitar effect pedals and other electronic
>music equipment.  Included within are two audio generators and three (hence
>"triwave") modulating LFO's (low-frequency oscillators) that can vary the
>pitch of the two audio generators.  Although it looks a bit intimidating at
>first (there are 13 knobs, three buttons, and 3 LED indicators on it), it's
>remarkably easy to use, and definitely requires no musical knowledge
>whatsoever.  Two of the knobs control the primary frequency of each of the
>two audio generators; with a little practice and a few flicks of the wrist,
>you'll be playing DikMik's part from "Electronic no.1".  Three more knobs
>control the rates of the LFO's, which are displayed by the flashing LED's;
>at a slow speed, you can get long pitch sweeps (listen to the very
>beginning of Nik's 'SR94', before the drums come in), while at the highest
>rates, think "Shot Down In The Night" ('Live 79') or "Valium Ten" (on which
>you can hear LFO rates being adjusted from slow to fast).  Six of the knobs
>control the amount by which each of the 3 LFO's modulates each of the 2
>audio generators (3x2=6), ranging from a slight vibrato to radically
>wacked-out pitch sweeps.  The last two knobs control the mix between the
>audio generators, and the overall volume.  The three buttons each "reset"
>one of the LFO's.  For instance, pressing and releasing the button for a
>LFO set to a slow rate gives a sound like,
>"WOOOOooooIIIIiiiiEEEEeeeeeeeeEEEEiiiiIIIIooooOOOOOOOOooooIIII...".  By
>pressing and releasing, then waiting and re-pressing the button, this time
>holding it, you can get a sound like "WOOOOooooIIIIiiiiWOOOOOOOOOOOO...".
>And, by pressing and releasing the button, waiting, then repeating, the
>sound is like "WOOOOooooIIIIiiiiWOOOOooooIIIIiiiiWOOOOooooIIIIiiii..."
>(that's 3 releases of the button).  There's a huge range of crazy sounds
>that can be created, many that go far beyond anything I've ever heard on a
>Hawkwind album!  And in conjunction with other effect like delays, things
>just get crazier ...
>
>Easy to use - if you can operate a blender (yeah, I admit, it's more
>complicated than a toaster), then you can play the Triwave!  And it costs
>less than US$150.


Poor Man Dik Mik Generator:
===========================

when being sound engineer back in the early eighties for local hard rockers,
I used to take the guitarist equipment to fill up passages before
performances with nice space sounds.

his guitar was hooked into a Marshall amp through a MXR fuzz box and a phase
of unknown origin. I took the plug from the guitar, and put it back into the
Marshall - so I had this loop:

Marshall => Fuzz => Phase => Marshall

when adjusting the three knobs of the two boxes I easily found a sound loop
that was spacey enough to entertain into eternity. it could go on for ever,
and needed no further human interference.
as a final touch I added a lot of echo on top...

your long lost sound engineer -joe



>For more information, including audio samples, check out:
>http://members.rotfl.com/soundshimmer/triwave.html
>or write Dan Green at: green at soon.com
>
>Note that I have no affiliation with the individual who designs, constructs
>and sells these devices.  But I had to pass on this information because
>this is one of the coolest musical items I've ever bought, and anyone who's
>interested in creating Hawkwind-inspired electronic sounds, but doesn't
>want to (or can't afford to) shell out for a "vintage" analog synthesizer,
>should get one, too!
>
>        -Doug
>         ceres at sirius.com
>
>P.S. whoever's organizing a private HW performance/sci-fi convention can
>count on me for $50 if needed, even though I probably couldn't make it over
>to the UK :^(
>
>