New Modular Synth, February 2021

This has been on my mind for quite a while. Thought it out carefully and here it is. The furniture (case) is hand made by me. The aim was to build my bigger MU Modular system in miniture but different. It was a challenge to pack everything in a small system. The synth is great at noises, bleeps, drones, growls and yes, basslines. A powerful small modular.

Seasonal Greetings, December 2020

Wishing everyone a peaceful time and good hopes to come this year. I think this new year will be a good year for the music. Finally I feel like the seeds I’ve been growing are taking shape.



Few new additions in studio, September 2020

Welcoming two new pieces, a saturation unit and an old orchestral/ synth expander module from the 90’s. Just giving it a try, not sure it will stay here.

Seasonal greetings and update, December 2019

Another year has gone by and time to reflect. Returning from a journey and share my story.I have meanwhile welcomed a new member in the studio. It was a rather large and important update. The studio; A process of growth and change. Good things take time. Thanks again for your patience. I hope you will enjoy the coming projects.

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Seasonal Greetings, December 2018

I wish all good souls safety, passion and continuation for goals, a good spirit and health and dreams to reach, love and happiness. Sorry it takes a while but I am working a lot on music. Come back soon for music.

Violin Harp built, December 2017

I have finished successfully a new instrument wich I call the Violin Harp. It is an instrument with strings. It can be played in several ways. First of all with hands but it comes to life with a bow, a mallet is nice as well for percussive sounds, a pick and so on. It has a mahogany wood finish and various steel strings (they where originally meant for Harpsicord).

Acoustically the instrument its soundboard has a beautiful dark timbre but the idea always was to play it with echo and place microphones, as it isn’t electronic. I made two sections on the instrument with replaceable bridges. This changes the pitches dramatically. One is for the eerie part and one is somewhat musical. There's not really a rule how to play the instrument and the tuning is fixed untill it is retuned to another sound. However because of the bridges a lot of other pitches and scales are available.

An electronic version will follow and a better look/ design. The electronic version will have a V-shape I think, vertically put each side having strings. It will be black with a laquer finish. The size of this one is similar to the body of an electric guitar, more or less. The electronic version will probably be a bit longer.


Website Updated,  August 2017

The website is updated after a long while and I hopefully will be more active again. A lot of ideas where made however during the past months without planning out something specific. I have been searching new things for the studio as well - activity in other ways, people don't see or hear but is the heart of everything. I found a few new signal processors and some other stuff. Hunting the gears. Another thing would be;

I've met with Chris Maene because of a family meeting at his place (he is the father of my brother in law). So.. it wasn't the Ondes Martenot (when we talked) but it is the Ondioline (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ondioline). Both have a speaker wich must've been the confusion. They are yes, similar and I was equally impressed! What a very nice piece! The Ondioline is one of the first synths ever built roughly speaking, invented in 1941 by the Frenchman Georges Jenny, and is a forerunner of today's synthesizers. Of course there’s also stuff like the early Harmonium and ANS synthesizer.

Robert Moog his modular stuff came to be around 1964, many years later. Truly an honour to see it. Sadly it is in very rough condition and should be serviced but Chris wants to keep it as a museum piece. I can understand but it took me a couple of weeks to peace for that haha. Can I have it please haha..No serious..Again I understand..a collecting item…He said to me “If you behave, you can have it maby” :) As a joke but maby he meant it afterall.

Congratulations. A very impressive museum! A work covering decades of work and passion!

Here is a picture of the Ondioline;

Ondioline

The Horror Waterphone, September 2016

Me and my father made another waterphone a while back but this new one is much better. Materials are bronze and copper. The welding did not come with ease. These materials are hard to weld well together unlike normal stainless steel. The waiting is rewarding though. The sound is rather cinematic and the instrument often misses the known deep long echoes (Listen to the Megabass Waterphone for example). My echo has a shorter sustain, simply put it sounds different..two different waterphones while mine sounds more eerie. The instrument has quite a weight though sadly wich is not so pleasant to play properly, should make a custom stand.

Some waterharps are called the 'The Whaler', 'The Megabass', 'Orca' etc. I decided to call this one 'The Horror Waterphone' because simply that is how it sounds! A Waterphone is known to sound eerie allready but you get the idea. 

Thank you Richard Waters, inventor of the Waterphone. + Sept. 9, 1935 - July 4, 2013.

Stringed Instrument (prototype),  June 2016

A while back I handcrafted a stringed instrument. The idea came because of an old guitar I had. I used the original microphones and started to draw with pen and paper. Then with cardboard I drew measurements at real scale, The idea is to do it over and bring better aspects to the shape of the design and building it with more elegance (better wood and finish etc.), also smaller. Should be more pleasant too to play it. It can create beautiful drone sounds though wich was my idea. The strings are thick bronse piano strings!

Still no name but it sounds sometimes like something deep..and creepy often.

The instrument needs to be played through echo/ reverberation. 


 

Past and memories…