In War Times

In Which a Science Fiction Author Writing About Jazz Completely and Unexpectedly Illuminates Why I Play Synthesizers

If I was 10 years older I’d probably be a sax player instead of a synthesist.

But I didn’t know that until I started reading Kathleen Ann Goonan’s book In War Times. Goonan writes amazing novels. They’re thick, heavy, and deep. In the best of ways, of course. And they’re filled with music, with jazz. Now I like jazz, but would not call myself an aficionado. Keith Jarrett, Branford Marsalis, Etta James, even, all favorites of mine along with many others. I’m much more of a rocker, though. But if I’d been born in 1940 or ’50 instead of 1960 maybe I would have turned out much like her characters. 

The beauty of Goonan’s writing is how I feel almost immediately immersed, even though I’ve never been to those 52nd Street jazz clubs, or to the ones in Harlem. And when I was the impressionable age her characters were when they were listening to their first jazz platters, for me there was Switched on Bach, Yes, ELP, Genesis, Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, Larry Fast, and later, in high school, Tangerine Dream. It was all over after that. I am to this day haunted by the textures of the movie version of A Clockwork Orange. So compelling, so beautiful, and making the movie all that much more intense.

As a preteen, though, my world was filled with the textures of the then new synthesizer. Just like the people in Goonan’s novel discovering the magic of jazz, in my slightly different time I was awakened to the birth of the synthesizer. I remember the disgust and outrage about these new “so-called instruments.” They were unnatural, synthetic, offensive, which was a common complaint. They would cost orchestras their jobs was another. But to me, it was eye-opening. The world of my father humming Greensleeves while conducting invisible musicians on the radio was what I was brought up with, followed by the ’60s with the “hippy” music, thanks to my sister and her DJ boyfriend. But then the synthesizer happened, and that was it for me. And like Goonan’s characters, I was taken in, swept up, and swirled away into a new world. That magical box of textures, sounds previously undreamt of, the joining of music and technology, just as in her book, that happened to me, too. 

If I was just a little older, I might have picked up a saxophone. But it was the Moog that got me instead. But Goonan’s book got me as well, grabbing me in its headlong rush into jazz and physics and world conflict. From the first page it had me, and who knows where it’s going to take me as I’m only 21% in (thanks, Kindle, for stealing page numbers out from under us!). And I admit that sometimes at the end of her books I’m left wondering what I just witnessed, but in some ways that’s half the fun. I’m always left with a “wow,” regardless. 

This is not a review of In War Times, nor is it even that much about the book at all. What this is about is the sense of discovery, the exhilaration, the newness of something that had never been heard before. For Goonan, maybe, jazz. For me, the synthesizer. No, what this is about is her unbelievably accurate description of me, as a kid, hearing the synthesizer for the very first time, with its magical textures that uprooted my world. Even though I’m not actually in her novel of course, yeah, she was writing about me. 

So I’m writing this to say, “thanks” to Ms. Goonan. She somehow managed to finally put into words exactly how I felt, and why I chose the synthesizer to fill my life. Why I had to. Even though the novel was jazz and the ’40s, it was also about me in the ’60s.

Yup. She nailed it.

In War Times  By Kathleen Ann Goonan

Animoog for iPad

So today was the first day I really sat down with Moog’s new Animoog app for the iPad. Not for any good reason, but I stayed up after midnight on the night of the announcement to see what it was about, and when I saw that it was only $1 (temporarily) it was basically a no-brainer. And for a few days after that I picked out presets and played with the knobs a bit and thought it was pretty cool. I even downloaded the manual. (Which I have now read. Twice.) And while there’s been a bit of controversy over their “First Professional Synth Designed for the iPad” tagline, I have to say that after spending some quality time with it I’m pretty much blown away.

At first I thought it would be a cool toy, but after using it for most of the afternoon today I’ve come to think of it as a “real” synthesizer and not just an iPad app. First off, it doesn’t just have a few waveforms. Instead it has 56 different “waves,” plus one silent one. They’re not static waves either but rather actually synthesized tones. It’s almost like they’ve taken an analog synthesizer and a wavetable synthesizer and made a mashup on the iPad.

But it goes further than that. They’ve done things with Animoog that you really couldn’t have done on an analog synth because the whole playing surface of it is touch sensitive, and the “keyboard” responds to multi-touch. It’s almost like they’ve taken a synthesizer keyboard and a Haken Continuum and formed them into a 2D synth controller that responds to poly-pressure. It’s actually strange that such a unique and interesting keyboard came out of Moog, but apparently Bob Moog made an actual physical keyboard like this for someone decades ago, and the Animoog keyboard is modeled after that. And the glass playing surface is perfect for it. You can play individual notes, and you can slide your fingers left to right to slide between notes. You can also slide up and down on a note to change the timbre of the tone as well. There’s a pitch correction control as well. Set all the way up makes each note discrete, set all the way down makes it slide evenly from note to note as if you were playing slide guitar. You can also set up the keyboard to play in a scale, either one of the preprogrammed ones or one of your own making.

In addition there are all the “standard” synthesizer elements such as a multi-mode filter, delay module, envelope generators (three of them), etc. Beyond that, there are things like four fully routable modulation paths. But what’s totally cool is that it’s four-voice polyphonic. When they said “professional synth” in their marketing copy I took it with a grain of salt, but after spending some time exploring the synth I have to say that it’s true. I might not have used their “first” bit, but the thing is an incredibly expressive instrument, and I can’t wait to finally hook up my iPad to a MIDI keyboard (although honestly I think I’m going to miss the on-screen keyboard because it’s just so good).

But in some ways all this, while nice, is not even the interesting part. What they’ve done is to add on an X/Y pad like they have on the Minimoog Voyager. The pad is divided into 8 vertical and 16 horizontal zones. The true power of the Animoog is that you can assign a different sound to each of the 8 vertical zones if you want to. You can then change timbres by moving your finger around the X/Y pad. Moving up and down changes between the 8 basic timbres you’ve chosen, and moving side to side changes some parameters of that zone’s sound. It’s hard to explain but simple to do. There’s a great animated image showing exactly what’s going on with the X-Y pad, and in this case a couple of images will save me a few hundred words at least.

But it goes beyond even this. The TRUE true power of the Animoog synth is that you can animate the X/Y pad in several ways. Notes you play on the keyboard are not static, but rather they move around the X/Y pad, and in doing so the timbre constantly changes as the note crosses the boundaries between zones in the 8 x 16 grid. But wait, there’s more. It’s not just that the notes move, it’s that you can draw a path that the moving notes will follow. It’s a simple idea, but that’s what makes this synth generate its unique sounds. While it’s certainly possible to make a static sound that just sits, there are so many elements of motion you can impart to your patches that it’s just hard to express in written words what this thing can do.

Oh, and did I mention the sound-on-sound recording module that has layering and overdubbing? Almost forgot.

So all marketing hyperbole aside, Animoog is an incredibly powerful synthesizer. And while I’m totally looking forward to getting an iPad/MIDI interface soon, 10 minutes with Animoog has made me wish I had a Continuum. And if someone out there decides to make a physical 2D flat surface keyboard I’d definitely consider plunking down some dollars just so I could use the Animoog synth to its full potential.

This is by no means a complete review of every feature the synth has to offer. It has a 9 page manual, but even though that doesn’t sound like much the Animoog has a tremendous amount of depth to it. I’ll try to record a few examples of what it can do over the next few days and post them here. And just to balance out my bubbling praise, there are a few rough edges. Like when “turning knobs” I’ve sometimes managed to hit the change module buttons in the middle of adjusting something. That’s probably my fault, but I’ve managed to do it a bunch of times. Many Mac software synths give you a choice between rotary or linear control of the knobs and I guess I’d prefer rotary. And I have to say that the way you save your patches is completely unintuitive and that’s being polite. It’s also barely mentioned in the manual. It’s not a huge deal as once you figure it out the first time (hold the Save button for an indeterminately long time and you’ll be OK) it’s easy enough to do. Another thing I’d like to see is sound banks. There’s only one, and while that’s fine I’d rather have the built-in bank separated from my own patches. And oh yeah, if you’re going to play live with this, make sure you turn off notifications unless you want to hear all those Words With Friends notification sounds while you’re playing. These are all pretty minor niggles, though. In case you couldn’t tell, I think this thing’s amazing.

Animoog for iPad, from Moog. The real price will be $30 in a month, but for now it’s only $1 (as is their Filtratron app as well). If I didn’t already have an iPad, this app would make me go out and buy one. It’s that good. This is the Moog polysynth I’ve been waiting for.

Update — here’s an Animoog tune I just did:

Music Creation On The iPad

So I’ve had my iPad for maybe five months now, and it’s been a little bit eye-opening. I bought an iPad 1 from someone who had to rush out on Day 1 and get an iPad 2. I got a pretty good deal because I got a much better model than I would have as well as a lot of accessories, and he got a pretty good deal because I financed a large portion of his new one. Win-win.

It’s amusing to still even today read articles about how it’s nothing new and why should anyone bother getting one, but for me it’s been a game changer. I almost never use my laptop at home anymore for my “normal” computing activities, and in fact since I got the iPad my laptop’s not left the house. I go out of town maybe two weekends a month and a year ago could not have imagined not taking a computer with me for a weekend. Now my backpack’s 8 pounds lighter and I hardly have to worry about batteries for the whole weekend.

But this was supposed to be about music. Almost forgot.

My first thoughts were that the iPad would be a cool toy. I loves me some gadgets, personally, so I was really looking forward to playing with one. In fact, I had actually bought a few music apps before I even had one, thinking that if I had a reason to get an iPad beforehand I could more easily justify it. And I’ve gotten all sorts of cool music toy apps, and some more “serious” apps as well, and have had great fun with them. But there were two things that made me change my thinking about the “pro-ness” of the iPad. One was the iRig MIDI interface (still with the slightest whiff of vaporware about it) and the other was the Sunrizer synth app.

The iRig MIDI device, from IK Multimedia, is a large-matchbook sized device that lets you connect your iPad to your MIDI gear with full MIDI in/out connections. It also lets you connect power to your iPad at the same time, something that other devices I’m aware of don’t do at the moment. For me that’s pretty much a requirement. The last thing I’d want is to have my iPad run out of juice while waiting for the drummer to finish setting up. I said before that it’s a little vaporish because they’re only on pre-order at the moment.

But what really changed my mind about making music on the iPad is the Sunrizer app from BeepStreet. I was really bummed a few weeks ago because I powered up my Access Virus Indigo 2 and the backlight was dead, but one listen to the Sunrizer made me forget all about the Virus. OK, slight exaggeration, but still. The thing sounds amazing. I’ve played with other synth apps on the iPad/iPhone and the Sunrizer just blows them away for sheer sonic goodness. Will it replace my Indigo 2? No. But it comes darn close, and I’m hoping a future version 2 will bridge the gap between them. And besides, you can’t throw your Indigo 2 in a backpack, even if it *is* a small synth. And while the Virus definitely is more flexible and more full-featured, the Sunrizer can certainly give it a run for its money. It just sounds that good.

So I’ve had the iPad for a while now, but all of a sudden I can see myself using it live as a synth module. All I need is two more of them and I can go totally portable, and I’m only half joking about that. Think about it for a moment. When the iPad 3 comes out you’ll probably be able to pick up an iPad 1 for under $100 if you get a low end model.

I’ll write a more in-depth post about the Sunrizer synth soon as I truly want to cover it well and do it justice, but until then let me leave off by saying I find I just can’t seem to stop playing it lately.

The Piano

This is my piano. Technically, I have six of them, but this is the only “real” one. It’s in my family’s house in upstate New York, where I spent my summers until I was 16. Unfortunately, the piano wasn’t there until after that, and in fact there wasn’t even a “real” house up there until I was 10 or so. (Hmmm. Too many quotes already, and I’m only up to the fourth sentence.) Anyway, I have three piano modules, a digital piano, a spinet, and this baby grand. It’s in decent shape, could use a good tuning/overhaul, but it still sounds pretty good if you don’t head too far out to the ends of the keyboard. 

I’m not really a piano player, unfortunately not having been tormented with lessons from an early age. I wanted them, though, probably one of the few kids who did. I remember being very young and discovering open fifths, open fourths, augmented and diminished chords. Each discovery was eye-opening, felt like I had been the first to find some new thing. I remembering feeling the world open up to me after accidentally finding sus4 chords, just playing them in the empty apartment before my parents came home, letting them ring into silence, listening to the shifting overtones. It was magical. 

All of this happened on the spinet in my New York City apartment. It’s from the 1940s and in pretty bad shape, long past the time it should have been put out to pasture. That’s why I got the digital piano, in fact, to replace it. Not the same, but I suppose it’s better to be in tune and not broken. But when I manage to get up to the too-far-away house upstate, I always look forward to trotting out my far-too-rusty piano skills. This past weekend felt more rusty and awkward than usual, but sometimes I can just sit down and play and it’s magical. And I still like to play a sus4 and let it ring into silence. 

It’s been months since I’ve added to this blog. Things have happened, other things have not happened, I’ve let it slide. But I’m starting it up again, even after all this time. I’ve missed it. Writing this feels like wearing an old, comfortable shirt. It’s time to start it up again. 

Chimera Synthesis bC16 handheld modular synthesizer

In May of last year I bought a Chimera Synthesis bC16 synthesizer, and it finally arrived just the other day. The bC16 is a fully patchable synthesizer, nothing’s prewired for you. It’s not quite a modular because you can’t change the modules or move them around, but for all intents and purposes it may be the worlds smallest modular synth. It has sorta two VCOs, sorta two LFOs, a VCF, ADSR envelope generator, VCA, ring modulator, MIDI interface and an arpeggiator.


I say “sorta” because there aren’t really two fully accessible VCOs. Rather, there are two linked VCOs with one set of knobs and patch points. There’s a Difference knob (and control voltage input) to let you spread the two oscillators apart. They’re both really in there but you don’t exactly have individual access to them, and there’s just the one output jack. This isn’t a problem, it’s just something I felt I ought to point out. The LFOs are similar. There are two of them but knobs for only one. You’ve two less knobs for the LFO when compared to the VCO, and the VCO’s FM input jack is changed to a Ring Mod input for the LFOs.


The bC16 ships with 10 micro-sized banana-style patch cables. That will probably be more than enough for most purposes. It also comes with a patchable signal inverter so you can take a standard envelope, for example, and invert it before sending it to, say, the filter.

The envelope is loopable as well. If you set the sustain knob to 0 the envelope will repeatedly retrigger itself. You can get nice long drones that way. If you move the sustain knob up just a touch it functions in the normal one-shot way.

There’s still a million things I haven’t yet figured out. The manual is, shall we say, somewhat lacking still. For example, the VCO page simply says “work in progress” and nothing more. At least there is a manual, though. From what I can see in the forums there wasn’t one at all for quite some time. It’s freely downloadable from their web site, though, if you want to take a look at it.

The bC16 is not exactly your “normal” synthesizer (whatever that means!). For one, it uses the 0.586 volts per octave standard, according to the manual. I’m not 100% sure that that’s really a standard that I’ve ever heard of, but just because I’ve not heard of it doesn’t mean it isn’t one. Another oddity is the patch cables and jacks. The bC16 uses 2mm banana jacks, which are really small. There’s nothing wrong with that but it might make it difficult to find pre-made cables from sources other than Chimera. I’m not saying that’s a problem, but it’s something to keep in mind.

I’ve only had the bC16 for a day, but I have to say I’m pretty darn impressed. The build quality is amazing. The thing feels totally solid, and all the knobs and jacks are firm yet smooth. It’s a modular synthesizer that you can hold in the palm of your hand. It’s incredible flexible, sounds good and can make all sorts of noises. I may even hook it up to a MIDI keyboard one day and try to play some actual notes with it.

The piece below isn't really a tune but it's not really a demo either. About five minutes long, it's nothing but the bC16 recorded live into Ableton Live. No sequencers, arpeggiators, or overdubs.

Photo credit: bC16 front panel layout graphic was downloaded from the Chimera Synthesis web site as a PDF and formatted to fit this page.