BEEM gig prep for April, 2026 -- journal and audio

[Ben Asaro]

I know much much y'all love my interminable journals documenting a single synth setup so here's another one for you:

On 23 April, I will be playing my first-ever synth gig at the Brooklyn Experimental Electronic Music Showcase -- BEEM for short -- under my Bandcamp handle of Don Music Presents. https://donmusicpresents.bandcamp.com/

My plan is to play a single Berlin School piece, which will have four parts; each part will have spoken word at the top so that I know when to make some sort of change to the performance.

I assembled my mk1 case this morning so I can start figuring out what I'm missing and how the layout feels when played in anger:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JXuXricPtZ21KPiQA

This case can produce two synth voices (one bass voice and one top voice), kick drum, and rhythmic noise.

I just finished testing the rhythmic noise part of the patch and it works really well, though it takes up a LOT of modules and patch leads!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/d1nzobWBNB63CZfi9

This part of the patch is pretty straightforward: Two tracks of Euclidean Circles are combined in an AV2 voltage processor and the Sum output is sent to an ADSR envelope, which goes into the CV input on the Eudemonia. White noise is patched from the Doepfer noise generator into the Eudemonia and then goes into the Doepfer panning module. The panning module is patched back to the random voltage output of the noise module, which moves the noise across the stereo sound field.

The next part of the patch will be the bass voice, which will use a sequential switch as a shift register for the notes coming out of ONA before it goes into the filter.

The one thing I'm not sure of yet is how I'm going to handle the wet/dry elements of the patch, but I am fairly certain that I will need to use my Zoom L8 regardless since I plan on recording the gig. It looks like the Shakmat Aeolis mixer pads the level down quite a bit from the modular, so this may be all I need to get an acceptable level out to the RV-500/Blackhole.

More to follow!

[Ben Asaro]

Suuuuper early proof of concept sketch with bass and percussion.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NBRtbsHaj9uNGkdp6

[Ben Asaro]

I think I now have the audio routing sorted using a wet/dry submixing method. Everything that gets delay and reverb goes into Aeolus mixer > aa.1 > effects > aa.1. The aa.1 then patches into Mixup and from Mixup straight into the Zoom one a pair of the 26dB pad inputs.

There's a good chance I will probably have to patch any external synths into the Zoom directly and then use the Zoom's internal reverb, which should be fine for a live situation -- but I will test first. I've found that most synths have enough level to work alongside eurorack, but not all.

[Arpangel]

Just looked at their Meet Up page, could do with something like that here.
Hope it goes well, just wish I’d made it to Control in Brooklyn, went everywhere else but.

[Martin Walker]

This is really exciting Ben - congratulations on the gig

I also hope that this April event will be recorded.

[Ben Asaro]

Just looked at their Meet Up page, could do with something like that here.
Hope it goes well, just wish I’d made it to Control in Brooklyn, went everywhere else but.

Control’s new location is WAAAY off the beaten path, it’s more like a distribution center than a showroom now, which is a shame.

[Ben Asaro]

This is really exciting Ben - congratulations on the gig

Thanks! It was funny, my plan was to strategically work my way in through New York Modular Society, and I ended up falling right in!

I also hope that this April event will be recorded.

My plan is bring my GoPro and record the audio through my L8, so hopefully will have video and audio to put together.

[Eddy Deegan]

Suuuuper early proof of concept sketch with bass and percussion.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NBRtbsHaj9uNGkdp6

Nice! Listening to it on headphones, I paused it at 0:52 to look out the window in an effort to determine what my neighbour's cat had just done before realising that the event was printed in the background of your recording

[Ben Asaro]

Suuuuper early proof of concept sketch with bass and percussion.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NBRtbsHaj9uNGkdp6

Nice! Listening to it on headphones, I paused it at 0:52 to look out the window in an effort to determine what my neighbour's cat had just done before realising that the event was printed in the background of your recording

HA! A bit of cinema verite!

[Ben Asaro]

Some notes about how the bass voice was set up. This is also for Future-Me, because I totally forgot how I did it on the album and had to relearn it and reconstruct it from scratch.

Voice-wise, there's nothing crazy going on. It's a standard Moog-style EC synth voice with a multed envelope going to the VCA (exponential response) and low pass filter.

The sequencing is where it's a bit non-standard. One channel of Euclidean Circles is multed between the envelope generator and a sequential switch. The main and 1:2 outputs from the vco ares sent to two inputs on the sequential switch before being patched into the filter. The Oct-Tone gets a straight 8th note clock pulse.

The audio passes through Aeolus Mixer > aa.1 > RV-500 and back into the modular to Mixup, allowing a single stereo output from the modular to FoH. The real secret sauce to this patch is the the combination of Euclidean rhythms and dotted 8th note delay. I had to remember to set the tempo of the RV-500 to half the actual tempo of Pam's so it would see the incoming notes as 8th notes instead of 16th. That's how I get the classic ducka-ducka delay. That took a while to figure out and I couldn't understand why the delay sounded like trash. Doh!

I also ditched the Blackhole in favor of the hall reverb on the RV-500. It's a lot less soupy/ambient and fits the music better, imo.

[Arpangel]

Just looked at their Meet Up page, could do with something like that here.
Hope it goes well, just wish I’d made it to Control in Brooklyn, went everywhere else but.

Control’s new location is WAAAY off the beaten path, it’s more like a distribution center than a showroom now, which is a shame.

I found New York frustrating regarding music shops in general, but I never got a chance to explore seriously, regarding music venues, as you know we probably have to explore the suburbs.
In London it’s not bad, we’ve got SchneidersKeller, Post Modular, Juno, KMR, as for places to play, they tend to pop up from time to time, but you have to be on the ball to catch them.

[Ben Asaro]

Couple of updates, and a diagram!

1. With the price drop on the Behringer Solina String Ensemble, I could resist no longer and ordered one from Sweetwater. It arrived last night but I didn't get past unboxing it. I probably won't get a chance to play with it at all until the weekend, realistically speaking.

But I am very excited as I think it will be a great addition to the setup, and will be MUCH easier to transport than my K2000R or JV-1080!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/S38CR2xjUrbag7a56

(Though I am also considering prerecording the Solina and combining it with the spoken word guide track. This will save me a lot of work, carriage, potential sync issues, etc.)

2. I have changed the delay from dotted 8th noted to dotted quarter. In my opinion it's more interesting and let's the music breathe more. Overall, it sounds more organic to my ears, but I still need to get the delay level just right.

3. I made some adjustments to the bass voice sequencer to get more complexity out of it. The diagram I made will show things more clearly, but, essentially, I was able to subdivide the Oct-Tone into 3 sequence lengths by patching in both a straight clock pulse as well as a /6 and /10 pulse (combined in my second AV2) to the retrig input. So the bass pattern plays for n steps as well as these divisions of the primary clock.

I also added a timbre variation by patching Step 1's trigger output to another envelope going into CV 3 of the low pass filter.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GF3G55PL1zo85dAYA

The end result is very trippy! The rhythm is easy to follow but the notes seem to spin out in a way where you think you should be able to predict it but can't. At least, I can't!

On the Plus side, the first part seems to positively fly by as the piece develops. The challenge will now be how to keep it interesting throughout

[Ben Asaro]

Updated the bass voice patch, there were a couple of errors in the one I did yesterday morning in my pre-caffeinated state.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eh82obwV8BChQVKr6

[Ben Asaro]

The set is beginning to take shape!

After a LOT of back-and-forth, I think I have settled on an opening pad length of ~7 minutes in length: it’s long enough where I can introduce all of the core elements of the piece, but not so long where I spill my entire bag of tricks in the first movement!

Getting a patch on the Solina that integrates well with the modular is a challenge! The Solina has a lot of high frequency content and is really bright in comparison to the rest of my sounds. I ended up using a low pass filter on the Solina to tame the brightness and did a lot of work w Blackhole to make it less soupy and more ambient. I honestly had no idea that Blackhole was capable of being subtle! I think I am going to run it through the DECO as well to see how that sounds. DECO does all the tape things and may tame those high freqs, too.

Sonically, the Solina is far grungier than I imagined (in a good way); it’s quite sinister sounding, imo.

I surprised myself by bringing the kick drum out much earlier than expected. I think having that pulse makes it easier to accept the super abstract nature of the rest of the piece. I’m going to experiment with a slower kick drum in the intro, however.

I’ve also discovered a REALLY weird anomaly with the Tip Top sample player: if the audio exceeds a certain length, there’s an audible ground hum that comes from the unit. An Ebtech ground interrupt solves the issue, but it’s really strange! I never would have noticed it if I wasn’t gradually increasing the length of the opening pad.

My goal is to have the major ideas for each movement completed by the end of March so I can spend April rehearsing the piece in toto.

With the first spoken word interlude, I think the first movement runs ~12 minutes. Conceptually, I like the idea of each movement being shorter than the previous one to create a sense of things speeding up/growing more intense.

Another thing I want to play with today is removing the delay and playing the first movement with reverb only…

[Ben Asaro]

Today’s update will be brief:

I added the MiniBrute to the setup yesterday and that turned out to be a great addition, really happy with that.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/x4qQfjCt6kXNoqHF9

The first five minutes is now pretty much set in stone. Playing along to a “backing track” that is largely silence is definitely reinforcing the muscle memory.

As for the backing track, I'm learning that a little bit goes a long way and it's not just about finding pockets to add the Solina, but the actual note choice/density on the Solina needs to be just right or it overpowers the modular. It's also very easy to go overboard on the Solina with the number of voices being used and modulation. What sounds great solo rarely seems to work when used in situ w the modular.

All in all, the piece is proceeding well. It’s a lot of jamming, refining, timing with a stopwatch, making small corrections to the audio track, then jamming some more.

I think my biggest issue now is my tendency to rush things and build up the arrangement too quickly i stead of letting motives sit to create atmosphere.

[Arpangel]

Brings back memories of when I did a few gigs with mine, I found out quite quickly less is more, and multi-function modules we're my friend, things like the Equation Composer.

[Ben Asaro]

I'm sorta defying convention on this one as it's largely going to be a composed piece with slight variations between performances but largely intentional, not improvisational. I'm basically prepping this like I would one of my live recordings, except I only have a month to get it ready.

[Ben Asaro]

Another short update: In short, So far, so good!

I reached the halfway mark yesterday! I'm not going to push the piece forward this week, I will let what I have done so far steep for a few days and will spend the week refining it. I have made two recordings of the first half so far and that's been very helpful, as has working with a stop watch running.

I did end up changing the bass voice to another subtractive lead voice and that seems like a good move. I'm keeping the re trigs that I set up in Pam's and AV2 on the /6 and /10, but have removed the accent envelope (this may return) and shifted the notes into an upper octave. I also unpatched the sequential switch as it was sounding a bit too random to me. I'm really liking how the VCOs sound combined now. Less patching + better sound = improvement!

The MiniBrute is doing the heavy lifting as far as traditional melodies are concerned. I currently have 3 melodic motives that I am using throughout the first half. They are simple, therefore easy for me to remember and play.

[Arpangel]

Brings back memories of my very first modular gig at a music shop in London, I had a Pittsburgh 104 suitcase, consisting of A Harvestman Kermit, Equation Composer, Audio Damage Dub Delay, various Doepfer utilities, that was it, the whole lot put through a Zoom CDR70, it was a mixed bag type of set, starting noisy, morphing into a sequence with a melody, morphing into an effects heavy ending, it wasn’t improvised it was sort of planned, but like yourself, had room to manoeuvre.

[Ben Asaro]

Yesterday's park time ate into my practice yesterday, but I was able to give the set a live playthrough once.

I can confidently say that the first half of the piece (~14 minutes) is complete.

I'll spend this week getting it under my fingers.

I feel like this piece needs a Mellotron bit now ....

[Eddy Deegan]

I'm looking forward to hearing the final results Ben!

[Martin Walker]

As am I

[Ben Asaro]

Today's practice session went without a hitch! 14 minutes straight to the end of Part 1. I'm still going to keep working on it and not rush into Part 2 until the weekend.

But after about 50 play-through attempts, it's starting to take shape.

Last night I was trying to think of an economical way I could bring in more sequencing without having to bring another skiff, and I vaguely recalled reading that the DSI MOPHO has sequencers inside it. Long story, short: it does, and it works great!

Depending on my Moog repairs and what the second half of the set demands, I may either add my Mother-32, Subharmonicon, or the MOPHO. Right now I'm leaning towards the MOPHO since it will give me two sequencers that I can blend between.

[Ben Asaro]

Today's rehearsal was another good one. I think I have the first half on lock. I essentially have three motives in the first half and I'm debating whether the piece needs another one. For now I'm enjoying the sparseness; the piece definitely has plenty of time to breathe.

On the Good News/Bad News front, they are one in the same this time: I'm picking up my Mother-32 and Subharmonicon from repair tomorrow.

It's going to take a LOT of willpower to not try and incorporate at least one into the piece.

At the moment, however, I'm actually leaning towards FINALLY introducing my Dave Smith MOPHO into the performance. It can provide me with two single-VCO sequences -- though sharing the same filter and VCA, like the SubH -- but unlike the SubH, the MOPHO's sequences are 16 steps long.

However, that's an issue for when I'm starting to work on Part 2. For now, Part 1 is enough and it sounds quite tasty, I must say.

There's a chance I will be streaming a test performance of this piece to Earth Modular Society early in April as I kind of warm up/proof of concept. I will certainly let everyone know if that happens. I may be getting a webcam delivered tomorrow to get a dedicated camera on the modular for that exact purpose ...

[Ben Asaro]

Today's rehearsal was FUUUNNNN.

Now that I have a pretty good handle on the timing, I've begun experimenting with the various elements. Overall, it's starting to sound more 'mysterious' and 'mature'.