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Cinema Volta
John Maxwell Hobbs
Cinema Volta
John Maxwell Hobbs
Slow decay
This is a generative loop piece. Each instrument plays one of three notes, and then waits for the sound to decay to silence before playing the next note. The whole thing is placed in the reverb from the cistern which has a 45 second decay. 2005-11-27

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 27, 20050 min read
Cyberlama chorus
Here's six Delay Lamas singing in Upsalla's Domkyrkan. 2005-11-26

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 26, 20050 min read
Cyberlama
Delay Lama is a free VST instrument that is perfect for using with a joystick controller. I had a great time with this one and want to do more. 2005-11-25

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 25, 20050 min read
Still playing
Another joystick track. I'm just enjoying playing free and not thinking about structure or key right now. 2005-11-24

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 24, 20050 min read
Dreaming in a tunnel
Yesterday's joystick performance with different sounds. 2005-11-23

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 23, 20050 min read
Sleeping in a tunnel
Still more of the joystick controller experiments. 2005-11-22

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 22, 20050 min read
Just a ghost
Almost the same setup as the last two days, but this time, the only sound generator is the filter itself. 2005-11-21

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 21, 20050 min read
Another take
More playing around with the joystick setup. I changed the synth patch on this one, other than that, everything else is the same. 2005-11-20

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 20, 20050 min read
Different noises.
I don't know about you, but I'm having lots of fun with these noises. I'm using a Junxion from STEIM (the old version) to control both a synth and a filter. Cubase lets me transform the MIDI input on different channels, so I can control more than one thing with the same gesture. There's a bit of a bug with Cubase and the way it handles virtual MIDI inputs on my Mac, so I have to send the stream from the joystick out through my physical MIDI interface and back in again. Oth

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 19, 20050 min read
Twinkle
Another joystick piece. I'm starting to get a feel for the type of control that's possible with this. 2005-11-18

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 18, 20050 min read
Some more noises
I'm doing a bit more experimentation with using a game joystick as a MIDI controller. I'm going to follow this line for a while to try to discover what's possible. Some of them will be more musical than others, but I'm having fun. 2005-11-17

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 17, 20050 min read
Thinking
Some more background ambience. Play this at an extremely low volume and just go about your day. 2005-11-16

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 16, 20050 min read
Wind
Just a simple track full of seemingly random atmospherics. Actually, it's not particularly random, I just worked hard to make it feel that way. All of the sounds were chosen for their harmonic richness, but they are hard to identify as specific notes. This is also a totally "pure" mix - no compressors, limiters, reverb, etc. Just the synth patches themselves and a little dither on the mixdown. 2005-11-15

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 15, 20050 min read
Dark November Morning
This is a simple little piece that combines phasing lines and some random generation of sounds along with it. It fits well with this grey November day in Stockholm. 2005-11-14 I've reached the 3/4 point today. There's only 92 more tracks to go. Now would be a good time to consider a donation.

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 14, 20050 min read
Some more sounds
Similar setup to yesterday, just a different sound source. Sort of an old si-fi movie vibe here. 2005-11-13

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 13, 20050 min read
Background
This is really an ambient track - just let it play in the background at a very low level. It's a harmonic drone run through a filter that I'm controlling with a joystick. 2005-11-12

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 12, 20050 min read
Four Cellos
I took some of the feeling from yesterday's track and tried another approach. This is based a little bit on some of the ideas found in Steve Reich's works like "Piano Phase." All the voices use the same motive, but half of them slow down in tempo each measure. 2005-11-11

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 11, 20050 min read
Another day
I was really stuck and uninspired this morning, so I kept fiddling with technical stuff to avoid doing anything real. Anyway, I finally forced myself to record something. I used no tricks, no effects, just a single synth patch and came up with this little phasing piece. I like it very much. 2005-11-10

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 10, 20050 min read
Second generation
Here's a variation on yesterday's track. 2005-11-09

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 9, 20050 min read
Automatic
I'm letting the computer run things today. 2005-11-08

John Maxwell Hobbs
Nov 8, 20050 min read
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