Lately on the Sex Tape front i've been trying to devise an electric guitar/synth, mainly to see what sounds l can find as well as dropping the keys out of my set up if possible. The Moog Freqbox is at the heart of this progression, basically when hard 'synced' (left-hand switch) the incoming audio signal is used to modulate the VCO, you can actually play the oscillator like you're sending in a CV signal, in more simpler terms you can turn any instrument into a synth by running it through the Freqbox; audio goes in and the voltage signal of the oscillator (being modulated by that audio) goes out. However when feeding in an electric guitar signal, the sound of the hard-synced oscillator is really abrasive, akin to an oscillator fuzz; it's virtually impossible to play chords or anything requiring the sound of more than one string at a time, you could lower the mix but then all you're really doing is creating a guitar distortion/fuzz pedal. Oh yeah and this is suggested in the manual; the Freqbox is useless without an expression pedal to plug into the Freq jack, you need to be following your playing at all times by lowering or heightening the frequency of the VCO to have any dynamic sound.
For the time being i've continued with running a keyboard (early early Yamaha Portasound) through it, currently for better cleaner results. The guitar/synth/voltage mixer set up in question is pictured below, note the very valuable CV expansion with the Moog CP251 and the Korg KP3 (pre-amp) still getting some heavy sounds of it in the mean time!
In other news, Melbourne's New War have their 'Ghostwalking' 12" launch this time next week (08.10.11) at Black Wire records on Parramatta Road Annandale which l'm helping out with; playing an opening support Sex Tape set. The gig poster with most details listed is included below, seems like it will be a good show from what i've heard of the bands listed, i've never seen any of them live so i'm looking forward further more. The promoter who's a good friend of mine asked me to play after she saw the set l did a little while back at Ching-a-Lings in Darlinghurst; that set was a pretty abrasive; keyboard and Moogerfoogers so it shouldn't be a problem doing something like it again, think i'll leave the experiments on the synth/guitar machine at home next weekend, maybe not..
Jim S
New War 12" launch event on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=286263108057816
