Cyloblog

New Performance System

2008-05-20T00:56:00.003Z

(thanks to the Polizøn Crew for the vid.)

So this is how it was in Madrid, with my own visuals patch running on a second laptop. The pretty patterns are reflecting the status of buttons on the Monome, the text scrolling at the top is showing track titles, below that is the beat count (ie the number of beats so far) and the text at the bottom is showing things like the BPM, Process.elapsedTime (if you are an SC person you will know what that means) and various rave instructions ("time to make the floor burn" etc.)

Shame it stopped working after about half an hour! It just goes to show, you should always test a system as it will be used. I shan't bore you with the details, but next time it will stay the course, if there is ever a next time... (P.S. I'm perpetually available for discotheque duty.)

Berlin

2008-05-14T23:17:00.002Z

Here is the news: I'm moving to Berlin, initially for 6 months. I'll be landing on the 1st June, so if you live there and want to be my friend, drop me a line.

Madrid Gig Streaming?

2008-05-07T21:06:00.002Z

I can't guarantee anything, as I don't know on which part of the website it will be available, if at all. However, I've been told my gig in Madrid tomorrow night (Thursday 8th May) will be streamed live here: http://www.centralmusical.es/.

Legend

2008-05-07T00:16:00.003Z

Computer Music issue 126 / June 08

Flyer for London 17 May

2008-05-04T23:03:00.000Z

PolyRow

2008-05-03T12:13:00.002Z

Did this a few days ago, a new sequencer for the MMS - PolyRow, inspired by the PolyMachine in ixiQuarks. Nothing much to listen to, just proving the concept as usual.

Cybersonica Conic Social London 6 May Flyer

2008-04-28T20:05:00.002Z

My demo starts at 7.30. Info at http://conicsocial.cybersonica.org/.

Bangface appearance time

2008-04-25T07:13:00.003Z

The weekend schedule is supposed to be above top secret, so I hope I won't be shot for letting on that I'm playing tonight / friday night 7-10 PM in the "Queen Vic" (aka Room 3) see you there!

DJ Cylob - London - 6 & 17 May

2008-04-22T22:28:00.002Z

The gigs are coming in thick and fast for May! Here's a couple, both in London.

The first is a Cybersonica event on Tuesday 6 May, where I'll be demonstrating some of the music making software I've been working on, and my use of the Monome. More info will appear here: http://conicsocial.cybersonica.org/.

The second is a Flesh Dunce mini-rave in South London, for which I'll be DJ-ing with my own system, possibly incorporating a little live beat jamming:

Flesh Dunce presents CYLOB and TRENCHER
@ The Bunker Club
46 Deptford Broadway SE8
Saturday 17th May
Entry £3.00
myspace.com/fleshdunce.

Cheers

2008-04-07T18:44:00.002Z

I'll say it again, thanks very much if you sent me a donation on the back of my recent digital EP release. I really appreciate it, but more to the point, it does actually make a big difference in terms of being able to pursue my musical activities. The good thing about having a blog is that you can see this process for yourself.

Flyer for Madrid

2008-04-07T18:28:00.002Z

The mean and moody picture is by Emma Jane Richards. It looks like some studio pose but it's simply from my Bangface gig in December 2006, under red and green lights, as I was looking to one side trying to work out which knob to twiddle (hence the hard stare)

Anyway here is the official flyer for Madrid, and it contains all pertinent information:

POLIZØN presenta - por primera vez en Madrid a CYLOB
en un DJ set especial de 3 horas

+ Polizøn DJs

Jueves, 8 De May De 2008
Sala Ritmo y Compás / Conde de Vilches, 22
Metros: Diego de León / Cartagena / Avd. América
Entrada: 12 euros con refresco / cerveza

Más información: polizonlive@gmail.com

MMS - Chord Sequencer

2008-04-02T11:29:00.001Z

Demonstrating the creation and storing of chords, editing individual notes for velocity, tuning and sound variation, editing a separate group of these parameters for the overall chord, and then sequencing these chords. Sorry the harmonies I came up with aren't very nice to listen to, I was concentrating on showing the features and keeping everything in frame.

Chord Store

2008-03-29T14:22:00.001Z

Literally just got this working.

Yeah it looks nice

2008-03-28T23:09:00.002Z

Dear Novation, please send me one because an endorsement from me would surely send sales figures soaring.

I think it would be fun to turn it into a sequencer, along the lines of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27M2ixl6M-w

with shades of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCCiSEPAd9A

(in both cases, I refer to the concepts shown rather than the music itself!)

Cylob - DJ in Madrid, Spain Thursday 8 May 2008

2008-03-28T23:05:00.002Z

Somehow, I've managed to cram this gig into my busy schedule:

Thursday 8th may 2008:
Polizøn @ Ritmo y Compás, Madrid

Doors will open at midnight.

More info soon.

MMS - Step Sequencer Play

2008-03-27T04:19:00.002Z

Demonstrating a few more features, including transforms. I forgot to show that you can also add FX to each step individually, and that each step can play any one of 4 sounds, but anyway you get the idea.

More Orange Squares

2008-03-24T04:09:00.003Z

(Update - see above instead. All my orange squares are at http://www.vimeo.com/cylob)

The step sequencer is new.

Drum Machine Robot

2008-03-24T03:59:00.002Z

via a million other blogs, but it's too good not to include in my online scrapbook.

http://letsmakerobots.com/node/112

Candy

2008-03-23T20:57:00.003Z

Addicted to this tune at the moment, whatever that says.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEvH5cpqLvM

Plus, check the style in this vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GMSay6GWHI

What freaks! I mean that in a good way. When I get my own funk band together, I know who to look to for sartorial inspiration.

Screenshots

2008-03-19T13:43:00.003Z

Here's a nice page I just found:
http://www.morganleahrecords.com/mooglecharm/programs.html

I tried to get into trackers a few times but always gave up almost straight away. I stuck with Player Pro for a week or two one time, mainly because I spent 80 dollars on it, but that was all. I thought I would be into the concept of music represented as a load of numbers, since I got started using the MC-50 which is entirely number oriented, and on a miniscule 2 x 16 character display too. Then again, maybe that's the point. The less information your eyes are confronted with, the more you store in your head, and music isn't meant to be seen after all. So it's up to me to make my ideal tracker with something like 8 numbers on display at any one time instead of 800.
Anyway I found these screenshots inspiring, and they're not all trackers, some interfaces look totally bizarre. They all contain links to the programs shown, which is a useful resource if you're into these things. I shall be duly mining these links for inspiration.

P.S. on the subject of bizarre music software, try using Mammut for five minutes without feeling dizzy.

MMS - Drum Machine

2008-03-14T01:51:00.003Z

I've been working on the Monome Music System for a week and a half now, but it didn't make a sound until tonight. The interface lends itself rather obviously to drum programming, which is as good a place to start as any. This is just a demo, so the drum pattern isn't the best ever (especially since I only had one free hand as usual.)

UPDATE: Now up on (and thanks very much to) MatrixSynth.

DNA

2008-03-12T12:40:00.002Z

Insert impressed expletive here.

http://www.celemony.com/cms/index.php?id=dna&L=0

Melodyne brought out my female side for doing the vocals to "Pepper Spray," which by the way were originally sung in monotone.

Drum arcade makes it on stage

2008-03-07T11:31:00.003Z

I've been writing Masayuki Akamatsu fan letters, since I found his akaRemote software so useful, and thanks to my SuperCollider classes for his interface I got a mention on his blog, which was cool. I wrote to tell him of my idea for putting arcade players on stage: having witnessed a "drummer" in a Kyoto arcade playing with an incredible degree of accuracy, I figured it would be possible to make a whole band of players following game-style falling blocks, programmed according to my music, and playing as robotically as any machine (95% of my music is rigidly quantised - I see it as part of the challenge to make the expression come from other elements.) He wrote back to link me to a video of his 2001 piece "Pray For Rain" which uses a very similar idea.
Choose your own ending to this post:
"I guess that means great minds really do think alike."
or
"Next time I'll try to come up with an idea that isn't already seven years old."

DJ Cylob @ Plex, 1 March 2008 - MP3

2008-03-07T04:00:00.001Z

The usual deal:
click here

It really is this easy

2008-03-06T01:37:00.003Z

Please don't bother to read this poppycock!
Come on, what are you waiting for, give me your one days wages!

Hey I made it to 200 posts of these self-aggrandising dribblings. Well, I'm not going to make a bar graph or pie chart, but thanks to all those who have been supportive in one way or another over the past year. Sorry if I didn't manage to reply to your email but all communication gets read and nice vibes are appreciated.