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Sweet!
Forum Activity for @damon
Music for Kalimba, Dulcimer & Modular Synthesizer
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
The first instance of the dulcimer comes in at 9:38.
Music for Kalimba, Dulcimer & Modular Synthesizer
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
Thanks, these modular synths go all the way back to the atomic bomb experiments. After the war someone had the bright idea to turn all those oscillators and such into musical instruments. Therefore, modular synthesizers developed at about the same time as the revival/contemporary mountain dulcimer, circa 1940s for so.
Yeah, the dulcimer comes in much later. It's all meant to be integrated so that you can't really tell what instrument is playing.
Music for Kalimba, Dulcimer & Modular Synthesizer
Adventures with 'other' instruments...
I recorded this about a week ago. It's an original composition of mine where I experiment with using acoustic instruments for control a modular synthesizer. I also use these tracks in my fishing videos on YouTube:
Complete track: Music for Kalimba, Dulcimer and Modular Synthesizer
Here how the music is used in my fishing videos:
updated by @damon: 02/28/25 08:30:09AM
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General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Yeah, with dulcimer I hear very much the same kind of music Steve Reich was composing back in the 1960s and 70s:
Honestly, I think it would sound better on dulcimer because the unique harmonics dulcimer has compared to guitar. Since minimalist music is also modal, dulcimer is also perfectly matched to this kind of music.
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General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Welcome!
Quote: Love this recent synthesizer discussion -- I've thought for a while that dulcimer could have an interesting role in ambient music, being a drone instrument and all.
My thoughts exactly.
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@wally-venable , solid information! This way I can try this without spending a ton of cash.
updated by @damon: 01/22/25 08:45:30AM
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General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Quote: A solid body electric is fine, but probably expensive, and will have to be custom built with a considerable wait time.
Great point. I don't have any kind of dulcimer at the moment. Honestly, I don't think I need the solid body since all the electronics are in the synth itself. So, it might be best to find a quality used instrument, then add a pick up of any kind.
I've even thought of buying a pre-made fretboard, then build a Tennessee Music Box out of the cedar dad left me. Then I could install any pick I wanted. Just spit balling ideas.
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Well, this is an analog synthesizer . There is no MIDI. It is not a computer. Think Apollo era technology.
What's more is this is also a modular synthesizer . Every component is separate and must be connected via a wire. The synthesizer is only controlled by analog electricity, i.e., control voltages. 1 volt = 1 octave. This is a 5 volt system, therefore, 5 octaves.
Quote: " Can your system deal with input from a microphone or a common electric guitar? If not, an electric dulcimer will be no different."
Yes, in fact the only way to get external inputs is via common inputs like an electric guitar or microphone.
Are there digital components? Yes, but the principle is the same: It's only controlled by a wire and knobs. Even external MIDI has to be converted into control voltages, i.e. analog electrical signals where the synth itself is calibrated to 1 volt per octave making it possible to make music out of pure electricity.
To get a better idea of what I mean, here's the little clip Alabama Public TV did on me: https://www.pbs.org/video/black-warrior-lures-ibg1ax/
So, my thing is I want to add dulcimer to this whole mix. Getting an analog instrument into my synth is easy. It's just another microphone via the I/O input or the envelope follower . The envelop follower allows me to take any external audio signal, record player, tape recorder, iPhone, instruments, microphone even other synthesizers, and bring the level up to AE modular synth levels, which are very hot, btw. From there:
Quote: " Now, from the input signal an envelope is derived, giving the volume of the signal as CV [control voltage] which can control what you want, e.g. filter cutoff, pitch or what else is CV controllable within your AE system. The SMOOTH knob controls the shape of the envelope/suppression of the audio signal component." (From the AE Modular Wiki page.)
So, with all that, I ask would something with a magnetic pick up be more "interesting" than a Piezo pickup? Again the modular synth doesn't know what MIDI is. It only eats, digests and poops electrons. From your answer, and from what I understand, it won't matter.
It's almost as if you took a bunch of guitar pedals, stripped off the casing, and had to manually patch every wire and connection yourself to make it do anything.
updated by @damon: 01/21/25 12:06:28PM
Introduce Yourself!
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Hi, I'm Damon. I'm a fisherman, tackle maker, filmmaker and composer. Totally new to the dulcimer world. The thing is I compose all the music for my YouTube channel. I want to add an electric dulcimer to use as a controller of sorts for my modular synthesizer. I'm not sure if I need a solid body dulcimer with a magnetic pickup, but I suspect a Piezo pick up would suffice as the synth has a signal amplifier and envelop follower to generate gates and control voltages to control the synth.
Check out this video to hear the kind of music I compose: https://youtu.be/Y8FyNbTsNKE?si=Gs_CvqYvixUxHywe
Let me know what you think.
Thanks.
Attached is a picture of my modular synthesizer. It's totally Frankenstein. You have total control over the sound. Everything has to be patched with a wire and tweaked with knobs. I've been looking for a way to fuse an acoustic instrument with modular synths.
updated by @damon: 01/21/25 08:37:40AM