Inputout series

Early flyer for the i/o workshop

inputout — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:24:58 +0000

The inputout series is holding a workshop in the beautiful Byron Bay (NSW, Australia) area late February early March.

We will be building and developing instruments and testing and performing with them. It’s a good chance to get together and discuss DIY fun stuff!

Romantic musical interfaces

inputout — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:13:05 +0000

As a special present for some soon to be married friends of the series we commisioned a chord memory designed to be played by two. The happy couple can play sentimental duets (as long as it’s a pentatonic scale) based on the central pitch ribbon. A few controls for tonal change too…

Best wishes to

Eliad and Olivia!

Chord Memory guitar variants

inputout — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:05:51 +0000

To make that extra special performance sometimes you need to rock out. A guitar is a pretty good way to do it, but we’re making electronic music aren’t we???

The inputout development humans have transfered the electronics of the normal chord memory into a pseudo guitar with an extra long ribbon controller for added pitch range. There are six strings that can be scaled to the user’s taste. We have set the default to offer major or minor scales for easy arpeggio action. Here’s a view of the development path with a few more pictures of the latest prototypes…

Chord Memory //blue edition//

inputout — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:53:16 +0000

Similar to the red one except there’s no keyboard. ?? The scaling functions need to be ironed out but she works…

Chord Memory //red edition//

inputout — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:49:09 +0000

This is the conventional CM instrument. It’s red. It has a seven note keyboard that plays a user defined scale based on a root note that is established by pressing somewhere on the ribbon controller. In addition to this there are four tone control parameters (default setup is, Attack, Decay, Filter cutoff, Resonance). The user can switch between monophonic (solo) mode and chord mode. The older version had a seperate solo mode that worked like a theremin (when it worked) we’ll get to adding that to this one too. When we debug it…

Evolution from breadboard. (chord memory)

inputout — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:40:04 +0000

There’s more info on the chord memory in old posts here, but here’s a recap:

The chord memory is designed to compliment house and dub music production and performance (other music too, maybe). The influence comes from a variety of sources, 80′s keyboard chord memory functions, the autoharp and omnichord and even guitars. wow. We’ve gone from breadboard to wood and sticky-tape to wood and nails to wood and plastic prototypes, it’s kind of settled now, we think anyway. They work and look cool. Rough edges are still there, but it’s DIY after all.

This is a kind of evolutionary tracking of the CM instrument.

Backlog of pictures

inputout — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:59:49 +0000

is coming.

Some of this info isn’t new, but it’s new here.

The series is chugging along, the most elegant pieces are the chord memory prototypes. We have two keyboard prototypes,

one dual ribbon variant, two guitars and a special custom “romantic” instrument for a wedding gift for some special friends of the inputouters….

coming through post haste.

Diploma stress and (hopefully) forward movements.

inputout — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:55:25 +0000

The diploma caper seems to be drawing to a close. I’d be more excited if I wasn’t crippled by an incredible fear of public speaking.

Aware people keep them fingers crossed around monday afternoon (31st of August 2009).

Post diploma plans are pretty cool. We are busy finishing tracks for the upcoming inputout feature on junkbeats recordings. Some new and recognisable sounds I’m sure. keep tuned…

Also we’re busy planning the i/o workshop in Australia early next year. (more details soon-ish)

long awaited update…

inputout — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:48:49 +0000

After a lot of deliberation and false starts the inputout series has abandoned regular web silliness and returning to blogland.

In light of this there is a hefty slab of informations coming.

About time I suppose….

i/o series admin.

inputout showcase on junkbeats recordings

inputout — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 09:43:50 +0000

We’re excited to be putting together a showcase ep for the junkbeats crew in Australia. Can’t say much yet but we have got some cool tracks from some cool artists. Tracks from Diligent and Ed Function are done, more to come soon…

here’s a preliminary cover design.