DD-55 Madness

No, it's not the new game from Nintendo... but better!

My Yamaha DD-55 (secondhand from eBay, kind of like my life) showed up today and it is totally crappy awesome!

I plan to cram it somewhere on my ridiculously crowded video-game-playing music-recording desktop and rock it out ASAP.

How can two telescoping DA-SCAN-6 antennae bring a man so much joy?

So... they finally arrived. My two antennae I have been looking for these past several months in order to complete the building of my PAiA Theremax Theremin have finally arrived! The plan is this:

(1) build the Theremax into an old Atari 2600 (6-switch) case. I have already soldered together the Theremax and obtained the case.
(2) Also build the PAiA MIDI Brain module into the same case and wire it directly to the Theremax. I have soldered together this module, but I need to install a switchboard onto a plexiglass face plate to allow changing the MIDI channels. The idea is that I can quickly choose any CC (or series of CCs) to control via pitch or volume antennae, or a gate feature which is controlled by the rate of change of such, rather than the actual value. By doing so, I could use the theremin to do hands-off controls of pitch, LFO, effects, etc. when playing my keyboard or whatever. I could also use the Theremin to control MIDI-controlled lighting and such, which would be pretty cool.
(3) Mod the theremin with a few switches that will allow me to change the waveform and such for more variable sounds.
(4) Use detachable telescoping antennae so that I can make the unit more portable and easier to tune without opening the case -- just by adjusting the length of antennae... but this could also be a curse because it might not work very well :(

Anyway, the point is that my music lab acquisitions are almost complete. I've been fiddling with Ableton Live and need to become a little more proficient in that, but otherwise I have:

• My Atari 2600 which has been modded with Paul Slocum's SynthCart to use the Atari sound module as a synthesizer unit, Highly Liquid's MIDI2600 to allow me to send the note signals and information using MIDI-in from a keyboard, and 8BitDomain's A/V mod to send stereo-jack audio out and S-video/composite video output.
• Ableton Live for the audio recording, mixing, etc.
• A sweet (yet cheap) mandolin. Always nice. I love the mandolin. I named her "Elise"
• A sweet (yet cheap) concertina. I also love my concertina. Concertinas are so easy to play. I bet a retarded monkey could do it.
• "Dre." That is what I decided to name my totally ghetto 1980's Casio SK-5, which is a really crappy, low-end Casio keyboard that has a built-in sampling feature. You can use a built-in speaker or audio input to record a sound (sample) -- you can have two "long" samples (like 1.5 seconds or something) or 4 separate shorter ones -- and then you can play them at any pitch using the keyboard. But Dre is no ordinary SK-5... he was circuitbent by somebody and sold on eBay, so he has all these switches that make crazy glitch-pop and analog sounds. Plus, his middle-C key is sticking up for some reason, which is just his way of giving everybody the middle-finger. In short, "Dre makes the beats so goddamn funky." He is awesome.
• Ibanez Artcore guitar with retro vibrato-bridge. Since I don't play surf-rock, I don't use this much, but I will find a way. And it works nice with my Ebow.
• Novation X-Station. This thing has like a billion MIDI-assignable knobs and sliders which is totally pimp in and of itself, but it also has a built-in synthesizer which sounds freakin great. It is badass because it is totally an uber-keyboard plus a MIDI interface/controller and mixer all-in-one.
• Electrix WarpFactory which is basically a vocoder but has built-in "robot voice" vocoding capabilities.
• Alesis AirFX to be a total hands-on (hands-off?) audio processing pimp.

So... what I still need to complete my collection are:

• Yamaha DD-55. I sold my old digital drumkit, for two reasons: I am a piss-poor drum player, and it took up too much room. I decided to overlook reason #1 and focus on getting another digital drum kit (every song needs a beat, after all) that is super cheap and crappy but takes up less space. DD55 fits the bill.
• Roland PK-5: This is a set of pedal (floor) keys that is basically a keyboard you can play with your feet. Why is this important? Well... it's not. Unless I want to play live. Then I can play a rhythm or melody sequence on my Atari or X-Station or DD-55 and still leave my hands free to play guitar, Dre, Elise, concertina, or AirFX.

I would possibly also like to use a harmonium, lap-steel, and a double-neck bass/guitar (since I have no bass guitar in the mix right now), but those things will simply have to wait.

Hello

This is Kid Electric and this is my new blog... welcome!