Infinite Jets Update, FWIW . . .

[Winston Psmith]

We've got the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred hanging over us, so no landscaping work today. It is pouring outside, getting on towards 8:30 in the morning, and it's still pretty dark from the dense cloud cover. Good day to work on Music.

 

Working with the Infinite Jets makes me think of an instruction from Karl Stockhausen: "Make a sound, hold it until you feel that it should stop, then stop." (Perhaps not the best, nor most literal translation, but you get the idea, nonetheless.) The IJ makes a much better Music partner if you slow down, and listen to what it does.

 

After some experimentation, I see two main applications for the IJ; at least for my own Music. Either I want it to be the foundation of its own Ambient pedalboard, or to use a Splitter Box to create a discrete, parallel signal path for the IJ, and whatever additional processing I may add to it.

 

Honestly, the IJ doesn't need, or really want, a great deal of additional effects processing added, at least not for the processed Samples the IJ generates. Splitting off your signal right at or near the front of your signal chain means that the IJ will always get a consistent signal strength, so you won't have to re-calibrate it repeatedly, and you can do whatever you like to your main Guitar signal, without changing the signal feeding into the IJ. A best of both worlds sort of approach.

 

One thing I'm going to try today is sending the MIKU Stomp into the Infinite Jets. If I get anything fun - how can I not? - I'll post the results on SoundCloud and add a link here. It probably won't be as funny as the guy sending the MIKU into the Rainbow Machine, but we'll see . . .

[Dannyalcatraz]

Miku into IJ? I might say a rosary for you, just for safety"s sake!

[Larryz]

I wish we could get some of that tropical storm rain out here in California. My whole county is on fire at the moment...good luck with the Jets...

[Caevan O’Shite]

I wish we could get some of that tropical storm rain out here in California. My whole county is on fire at the moment...good luck with the Jets...

 

So very sorry to learn that!! Be safe and well and good... you and yours and EVRYONE out there...

[Larryz]

Thanks Caevan, we are all safe as those in the path of the fire all evacuated. I'm quite a distance away from the fire but have friends that are displaced from their homes. Don't want to steal the thread but appreciate your thoughts...

[Winston Psmith]

@Larryz - Damn, brother, I hope those folks can get home, and STILL have homes to go to when it's time.

 

I have other friends in Southern California, and this has been an ongoing battle for too long. Something is seriously out of balance.

[Larryz]

Thanks Winston, so far my friends homes are still standing. Homes out in the out back communities like Grizzly Flat and Omo Ranch have all been wiped out. I had a buddy at my house for two days and another buddy opened his house for 3 more of our friends. So far the fire has burned 62,000 acres with zero containment. We are finally getting fire crews and planes coming in after 3 days of the forest service let it burn policy and CDF taking over now...Thanks for the good vibes!

 

Make that 73,000 Acres

[Caevan O’Shite]

...Karl Stockhausen: "Make a sound, hold it until you feel that it should stop, then stop."

 

Splitting off your signal right at or near the front of your signal chain means that the IJ will always get a consistent signal strength, so you won't have to re-calibrate it repeatedly...

 

Does the IJ have any trouble digesting long, sustained parts, perhaps depending on Voice and Trigger Mode selected?

 

For example, if you feed it long, even very long, sustained notes or lines, or chords, carried through by feedback- be it 'naturally occurring', or via a magnetic or acoustic-electric device? (Not necessarily from a pedal or processor... ) Another simple example of more or less the same idea would be keyboard passages. Any of these wouldn't be the same as placing anything else in the path between the instrument and the IJ's input...

 

Volume-swells and fades?

 

Perhaps a repeating loop that degrades with each repetition, like tape or tape-sim types? (If so, each pass of the looped phrase might elicit different responses from the IJ, time and again... )

 

One thing I'm going to try today is sending the MIKU Stomp into the Infinite Jets. If I get anything fun - how can I not? - I'll post the results on SoundCloud and add a link here. It probably won't be as funny as the guy sending the MIKU into the Rainbow Machine, but we'll see . . .

 

Haahh! You may have your work cut out for you, in the 'Funny stacking applications with the Miku Stomp' department- but I have faith in you, Winston. I am confident in your abilities and experience.

 

Try placing the Miku Stomp after the Infinite Jets, too...

[Winston Psmith]

Does the IJ have any trouble digesting long, sustained parts, perhaps depending on Voice and Trigger Mode selected?

 

For example, if you feed it long, even very long, sustained notes or lines, or chords, carried through by feedback- be it 'naturally occurring', or via a magnetic or acoustic-electric device? (Not necessarily from a pedal or processor... ) Another simple example of more or less the same idea would be keyboard passages. Any of these wouldn't be the same as placing anything else in the path between the instrument and the IJ's input...

 

Volume-swells and fades?

 

Perhaps a repeating loop that degrades with each repetition, like tape or tape-sim types? (If so, each pass of the looped phrase might elicit different responses from the IJ, time and again... )

 

Good questions, some of which I'm still exploring. If the weather turns nasty on us today, I'm going to try playing some sustained E-Bow driven passages into it, see what happens to those. I'm also going to run some Synth Sequences through it. Like playing Loops into it, playing Sequences is a good way to run repeating Musical phrases through it to see how, or if, they change over time.

 

 

Part of the answer is that the IJ behaves like a Synth in regard to how long the Samples sustain, and even the shape of the Amplitude Envelope. If you have the Dry knob turned all the way down, all you're going to hear is what the IJ is doing to the Samples it's captured. The Envelope, Dimension, and Waveshape controls all work together in determining the length, and the shape of the Sample Playback, up to Infinite Sustain. (Yes, the IJ is also time-stretching the captured Samples, in order to manage this trick.)

 

Capturing Volume swells might be tricky, in that the IJ won't start Sampling until your signal strength reaches the threshold you'd set by calibration. I don't think there's a way to calibrate it to trigger from dead silence, which is what it would have to do to fully capture a Volume swell effect, starting from from Zero. You'd have a "Blackburst" effect, spitting out processed samples of Digital silence?!?!? My head hurts trying to imagine this . . . of course I have to try it, and see what happens.

 

Bear in mind that the Waveshape control, and the Voice selection on the IJ will also create Volume swells and fades, based on the length of the Envelope setting, the amount of Dimension effect added (and what the Dimension control does within each Voice), and the Waveshape you've selected. Again, this is where the IJ behaves much more like a Synth, or Keyboard Sampler, than an effects processor. You might play a long, sustained tone, and have the IJ chop it up into smaller sections to play back, particularly with the Glitch Voice. Play some heavy, chugging Nu-Metal riffs, and the IJ might slow them down to sonic sludge, or fire them off like Upper-Octave Elf-shot.

 

You have to make peace with the idea that the device is almost playing itself, based in part on what you play into it, and the parameters you've set for it. Welcome to the Machine . . .

 

P.S. The MIKU, run through the IJ, is like listening to alien lullabies, or Inter-dimensional Opera. Add some Delay, and escape the bonds of gravity.

[Caevan O’Shite]

I'm going to try playing some sustained E-Bow driven passages into it, see what happens to those. I'm also going to run some Synth Sequences through it.

 

Cool. An E-Bow is very much in line with the types of things I was thinking of there.

 

Like playing Loops into it, playing Sequences is a good way to run repeating Musical phrases through it to see how, or if, they change over time. â

 

Though with any repeating material that degrades in quality and character and gains more and more 'Wow & Flutter' type modulation with each repeat, as in exaggerated simulations of tape-delay loops, there might be a greater chance of the IJ reacting differently. I would hope!

 

Speaking of which... Feeding the IJ into a looper would be cool; feeding the IJ into a tape-flavored looper like the El Capistan that allows for more extreme "Tape Crinkle", "Tape Age", "Under Biased" or "Over Biased" qualities, and "Wow & Flutter"- AND oscillation- could yield some very interesting textures!

 

Capturing Volume swells might be tricky, in that the IJ won't start Sampling until your signal strength reaches the threshold you'd set by calibration. I don't think there's a way to calibrate it to trigger from dead silence, which is what it would have to do to fully capture a Volume swell effect, starting from from Zero. You'd have a "Blackburst" effect, spitting out processed samples of Digital silence?!?!? My head hurts trying to imagine this . . . of course I have to try it, and see what happens.

 

I like that. And having the IJ not immediately catch on and catch up to volume-swelled inputs could be really cool.

 

You might play a long, sustained tone, and have the IJ chop it up into smaller sections to play back, particularly with the Glitch Voice. Play some heavy, chugging Nu-Metal riffs, and the IJ might slow them down to sonic sludge, or fire them off like Upper-Octave Elf-shot.

 

I like all of that!

 

P.S. The MIKU, run through the IJ, is like listening to alien lullabies, or Inter-dimensional Opera. Add some Delay, and escape the bonds of gravity.

 

Great! I look (listen ) forward to hearing that in the future!

 

Good day and Rock On. Retain your center of gravity, and occasionally joyously defy it.

[Winston Psmith]

Very briefly . . .

 

Volume Swells - The IJ behaved pretty much as I expected, capturing the signal once it reached threshold level. It did capture a Sample with no discernible Pick Attack, but it didn't really capture the Volume Swell, as such.

 

Sustained Tones/E-Bow - No issue with long sustained tones, as such, but again, the the various settings on the IJ had much more influence over how the sound behaved. The Blur Voices worked rather nicely, while using the Unison/0 Octave setting with a long Envelope setting gave me sounds reminiscent of Frippertronics. The Synth Voice gave me thick Pad-like tones, but didn't always trigger properly, while the Glitch Voice sliced & diced the Samples, as expected, often producing highly artificial staccato sounds. The Swell Voice was less stable than I expected, but that might just take some practice, and further knob-twisting, to find a satisfactory setting.

 

IJ into Looper - No real surprises here, as Loopers follow the ancient law of GIGO. Capture a cool-sounding Loop and you've got . . . a cool-sounding Loop. The fun here was turning the IJ On & Off while playing over the Loop, and turning the MIKU On & Off, as well.

 

I used the IJ for Novparolo's session this afternoon, so there may even be a finished, mastered recording later this evening.

 

Afterthought: As part of my day, I went to visit a friend's Violin shop, where they were celebrating their 25th Anniversary with an Open House event. "BOB" help me, I think there's a Violin or Viola in my future.