Direct mp3 download or play:  Signal Generator Piece

Here is something I made in 1974 using two tape recorders, and either a homemade theremin or an audio generator. I honestly can’t remember some of the details or what instrument I actually used, because I have a habit of not labeling tapes. I do remember having access to recording equipment at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California because of a class in electronic music.
Located in a small room, was a recording setup with two tube type Magnecord tape recorders. They were very heavy professional units, which could handle ten and a half inch reels. One was a model 1028 and the other a 1048. They looked identical, except the 1028 had 7 1/2 and 15 ips and the 1048 had 3 3/4 ips and they were both half-track stereo. There was a professional looking Sony mixer with 8 or more channels. I think there were two Ampex amplified speakers with tubes similar to the one pictured. My setup for this recording was to feed the audio generator into a mixer input and have it panned to one side. Then the output of the mixer was connected to the ‘line in’ of one Magnecord recorder. Then I took the ‘line out’ of the recorder monitoring the third (playback) head and fed a stereo line back into the mixer. I made sure the audio signal was on the opposite side with respect to the audio generator input. This would create a ping pong (left/right) echo.  Next I ran the tape from the first recorder to the other recorder setup just to the right of the first machine.  The second tape recorder fed a stereo signal back into the mixer which would feed back the sound recorded on the first recorder a few seconds later.
With everything set up I could now begin recording. I very carefully started both recorders. They were both running at 71/2 ips with the first machine recording and the second machine playing.  Also the tape tension had to be just right to avoid breaking the tape or being too loose. While running this arrangement for a few minutes, I determined how high I could raise the faders on the mixer before the feedback would get out of control and become distorted. I then started fading tones from the audio generator up and down, letting the feedback from the two tape recorders process the sound. I recall being inspired to make this recording after learning about Brian Eno doing a similar and I admit a much nicer recording. I was also influenced by the sound effects of a favorite movie of mine, “Quatermass and The Pit.”  In addition, I’ve always liked the sound effects on “Doctor Who,” particularly the episodes from the late 60s through the middle 70s. I very much admire the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which made the sound effects and music for a good number of British TV series including Doctor Who.
After making the recording onto a 7-inch reel, the tape could simply be played back on a single tape machine, and what I have here is the result. I know this is a bit goofy, but it did give me goose bumps the fist time I heard it.

Magnecord Model 1028 Professional Tape Recorder

Eico Model 377 Audio Generator

Ampex Model 620 Amplified Speaker

Direct mp4 download or play:  Aphex Twin – Bank of America (original version)

Here is the original version of a Bank of America commercial from the fall of 1997 that appears to have the music of Aphex Twin. The piece is Girl/Boy Song, released in 1996. Note the beginning of the commercial is cut off for a second or so.

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Direct mp4 download or play:  Aphex Twin – Bank of America (alternate version)

This is another version of the same commercial, with a sort of watered down “easy listening” version of what sounds like Girl/Boy Song. I don’t know if Aphex Twin performed this music.

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Direct mp4 download or play:  Aphex Twin – Bank of America (other alternate “easy listening” version)

Here is another version of the commercial with the alternate “easy listening” music with different dialogue.

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Direct mp3 download or play:  Aphex Twin – Bank of America – left/right comparison

This audio has the original Bank of America commercial on the left channel, (voice over and sound effects) and on the right channel the part of the Aphex Twin piece (Girl/Boy Song) mixed to mono, featured in the commercial. The music is fairly well synchronized, so if you fade the sound left and right, I think you will agree the music is identical.

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More information about this commercial, and the Bank of America “motion” campaign of 1997 can be found here. There is no mention of Aphex Twin in that article, however. I can remember being a little perturbed when I first saw these commercials. I always wanted to point out that some artists have sell out sometimes. In fact a lot of artists have to sell out in order to survive or maintain a lifestyle. Of course, Negativland would never do anything like that at least not that I know of.  As for me personally at this time, I merely wanted to point this out, and I am neither for or against the commercial, although I have thought about it on and off for over 10 years!

Direct mp3 download or play:   Thanksgiving 1983 – Part 1

Part 1

Direct mp3 download or play:  Thanksgiving 1983 – Part 2

Part 2

What I have here is the complete recording of Thanksgiving, 1983, with my mother, father, and grandmother. I made this tape at my grandmother’s house in Santa Rosa, California. The recording was made using my monaural Superscope C-104 cassette recorder and my Shure M67 microphone mixer, or possibly my older Radio Shack mixer. It appears that two microphones were used, considering what my mother and grandmother were saying at this point (15:40 on the counter, Pt.1) on the tape. I’m quite sure they were commenting on the microphone pictured here and a Shure SM58, which my mother says looks like an ice cream cone.
Part 2 (side B of a C-90 cassette) has a couple of outstanding highlights. The first one, starting at about 10:36 is the discussion of Easy-Off oven cleaner with the “I have Easy-Off” bit that I made into a tape loop. The other highlight is the squeaking noise in the oven, starting at about 8:30 on the counter and is also a track on “The Willsaphone Stupid Show.” I know requests have been made for complete family tapes. This is my second attempt, (Christmas 1984 Scrabble Part 1 and Part 2 was the first) and I hope you like it and of course have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Grundig 121GDM17110384 Dynamic Microphone

Does this look like an ice cream cone?

Direct mp4 download or play:  Sniveling – Part 1

Part 1

Direct mp4 download or play:  Sniveling – Part 2

Part 2

This is something really dumb and I’ve probably said it before, but this performance may convince you that I must be out of my mind. There is a more sane explanation, however. As you may know I rarely perform with Negativland, and other members of the group were always trying to figure out how to have my “presence” on stage, even though I wasn’t actually there. Since a lot of what Negativland is about, (TV, radio, movies, mass media in general) what better way than to have my face appear on TV screens. After some thought, I came up with the idea of video taping myself and giving the tape to the group to use as they please during live performances. In this video, I was to appear to have some sort of a problem on camera, but not making it clear what could be wrong.
I decided on the name “sniveling” for a couple of reasons. First of all, I like the sound of the word “sniveling.” Secondly, I think some of things I do on the video may fit the definition of sniveling. In order to attract the attention of the audience I tried to keep continuously moving my head. One thing that seems odd is that I appear to be smiling or enjoying myself, when in fact maybe I should have been grimacing more or in general look more angry and distressed. To be honest, since I am considered to be a recluse or curmudgeon, I don’t even recall if the band actually used this video in a performance. Maybe someone could clear that up. Enjoy, have a laugh!

SILLY ANGRY WEATHERMAN SEPTEMBER 9, 1989

Direct mp3 download or play:  Japansy
This is the first 78 rpm record I recorded directly onto my Sony PCM-D50 digital recorder, open mike from my Victor Victrola. I say open mike, because the Victrola has no electronics and the sound is produced mechanically from the record. I like to think of the Victrola as an acoustic musical instrument, and it was recorded like any other instrument such as a trombone or saxophone, for example.  According to this website, my Victrola model VV-405, was manufactured in 1923 and looks like the one shown here. However, the unit in the picture has a much nicer finish on the wooden cabinet than mine.
If my memory is correct, I recall my father telling me many years ago that this record was a favorite of his while growing up in Berkeley, California. I guess the lyrics could be considered racist, but I’m sure it was never intended to be anything more than a guy in love with a beautiful Japanese woman.

Victor Victrola model VV-405

Inside cover top

Model and serial number

Direct mp3download or play:  Purr The Cat
This recording was made in the early 1970s at my home in Martinez, California. My mother, my father, my grandmother, and I are talking and a cat is purring. I sound especially “fruity.” In fact it’s a little embarrassing, but that really is how I sound. This recording was made using a Sony 560D recorder on a three inch open reel tape running at 3 3/4 inches per second. The microphone was most likely my Calrad DM-59 HL. At this time I do not have the capability of playing that tape speed. Instead, the tape was played back at 7 1/2 inches per second on a Tascam 4-track machine, and track number one was captured in Adobe Audition on my computer. While in Adobe Audition, I selected time stretch which I set to approximately 200 percent. I say approximately because I listened for 60 hertz hum and I found it to be exactly at 60 when the time stretch was set to about 198.45 percent. Adjusting the time stretch this way will guarantee the pitch of the voices to be correct.  Then I used the parametric equalizer set at 60 hertz (very narrow 1 hertz width at -35 db) to filter out hum. After that, I amplified, hard limited, and finally applied hiss reduction to the wave.
The purring cat is actually a lot louder than I ever imagined, but I think Adobe Audition will have to take most of the credit.  I just can’t remember which cat was doing all that purring, so I’ve included a couple of pictures. I’m quite sure it was one of the two shown here.

Sassy Sister Suzy

Tabatha Stinkaton

Direct mp3 download or play:  The Stupid T-Phone – Normal

NORMAL

Direct mp3 download or play: The Stupid T-Phone – Slow

SLOW

I thought I might as well put this up. I know it’s one of the dumber things I’ve said, but it makes me laugh every time I hear it.

CAREFUL, ADULT LANGUAGE!

Direct mp3 download or play:  Ham Jammers Early 1980s # 2

Here is the other side of the C-90 cassette tape, “Ham Jammers Early 1980s #1.” This was possibly recorded days before. I used the same setup, except starting at 26:28 (counting down a voice says: “Who are you tryin’ to kid huh one watt uh? How about switching your amplifier on and off huh.”  I switched from the Patrolman 4 radio to my Bearcat scanner for the remainder of the tape. The reception on the Patrolman radio was quite noisy during that session, so I decided to switch to the scanner which would be quieter. The audio quality on the scanner has reduced high frequency response, due to the fact it receives in narrow FM only. Narrow FM allows for channels to be closer together and is less likely to suffer from interference from adjacent channels. At about 10:20 to 9:13, (counting down) one of the operators briefly mentions hearing a recording of jammers on KPFA. That was likely me playing a recording I had made earlier.  By the way, if I heard it correctly, the ham operator said the person on KPFA said “jammers unite” and that he was “K2GOR.”  Funny, I don’t remember saying such a thing and I am not a ham radio operator either.

Bearcat 300 Scanner

Direct mp3 download or play:  A Goofy Dumb Halloween ’09

This is something I made for an “Over The Edge” show sometime in the 1980s or 90s. I can’t recall how I made this, but I think I had records playing on two turntables.

****HAVE A GOOFY DUMB HALLOWEEN****

CAREFUL, ADULT LANGUAGE!

Direct mp3 download or play:  Ham Jammers Early 1980s # 1

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I became interested in receiving and recording different types of radio communications. One of the first radios I used was the Realistic Patrolman 4. I thought it was pretty good, because it even had a squelch control. I remember listening to the Contra Costa County Sheriff, Martinez Police, (155.880 MHz before they went to UHF) BART trains, and early mobile phones, (when they were analog and on VHF) and several paging companies. Unfortunately the reception was not good, because the selectivity on the VHF low and high bands is so wide that many signals overlap and become unlistenable.
The one exception was a very strong signal at 146.820 MHz. In addition there were no other strong signals near this frequency. The reception on 146.820 MHz was as good as listening to an FM broadcast channel like KPFA at 94.1 MHz. By the way, at my house in Martinez, California, there were only three VHF signals on my Patrolman 4 radio that were consistently good. Those would have KDFM in Walnut Creek at 92.1 MHz, KPFA in Berkeley, and an amateur radio repeater at 146.820 MHz. I later found out that the amateur station was located in the Berkeley Hills like KPFA, which is probably why the reception was so strong.
I listened to the amateur station regularly, and at first it seemed quite normal. The more I listened, the stranger it became. There was lots of joking, cursing, and playing recordings of other radio operators. They kept referring to “jamming.” This, of course, is the act of an operator deliberately transmitting or keying up their radio while someone else is talking. This would cause the conversation to become garbled, distorted, or completely blocked, depending on how strong the jamming signal was being received by the booster station or repeater. A repeater is actually a receiver and a transmitter working as one. In the case of this one, the amateur operators would transmit on 146.22 MHz, and the repeater would receive these signals and broadcast out at higher power on 146.82 MHz.
As you may have noticed, there is a difference of 600 KHz between what is known as the input and the output of a repeater. 600 KHz is a standard amount of separation for amateur repeaters, and is widely used throughout the United States. I decided to start recording this amateur station on a regular basis. I took the signal from the headphone jack on the Patrolman 4, (a10 ohm resistor across the output to simulate a load instead of headphones) and fed that into the line input on a Shure M67 mixer and then connected the output to the line in on my Superscope C-104 cassette recorder. This setup allowed a VU meter to monitor the recording.
Once I started recording these ham radio operators, known as “jammers,” I knew I was hooked. I regularly listened and recorded for years, and much of the stuff I got was absolutely outrageous. Negativland ultimately incorporated some of this material into their releases. “Jamcon84” and “A Big 10-8 Place” are notable examples of the use of ham radio jammers. There is a website here that appears to be where ham radio operators can talk about the times they had in the early 1980s, talking on the 146.82 repeater and more. There is also a ham radio club in the Los Angeles area, with a similar spirit to the group in the Bay Area. They have streaming audio of their repeater, and you can go here and here for more info. Go here to hear 147.435 live. Just one last thing, “amateur” and “ham” operators (as far as I know) are one in the same, with emphasis on the “ham” in the case of these guys.

Radio Shack Realistic Patrolman 4 multi-band receiver

Shure M67 Mixer

Superscope C-104 cassette recorder

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM August 10, 2006

Several years ago, I made this recording of a baby room monitor. I can’t remember which radio and antenna I used, but the signal was somewhat weak and noisy.  I added reverberation, initially to mask the background noise, but it actually turned out somewhat terrifying instead.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Distorted Accordion

I’m embarrassed, but here I go again trying to make music. This was recorded around the same time as “Distorted Guitar and Voice,” using the same technique. Some of you have requested more stuff like this and I hope you enjoy!

Direct mp4 download or play:  Law Day USA

I reprocessed the video in Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 just today and I think the picture quality may be a little better if not brighter.

Here is a little 16 MM film I found. You had better stay on the straight and narrow! Actually it is from a real film purchased on eBay.  I ran the film on my Singer Graflex 16 MM projector designed for video capture. It is known as a telecine projector and it has a five blade shutter which prevents flicker when used with a video camera. The image was projected onto plain white printer paper attached to a piece of wood. I set up my Sony three chip CCD camcorder and focused it to the small image (less than 12 inches) on the printer paper. Naturally the image is offset slightly because the camera body would block the light from the projector if the camera was perfectly centered on the image. I think I got the alignment almost perfect even with camcorder being slightly below the projected image.
For the audio I accessed the optical pick up audio signal from inside the projector and mounted a jack on the projector that would interrupt the audio signal going to the internal preamplifier when a cable is plugged into it and feed the signal exclusively to the jack. From this jack the audio signal runs on a shielded unbalanced cable to a small metal box with a 1000 ohm audio taper potentiometer, two 10 microfarad capacitors (negative ends tied together and attached to the potentiometer). The two positive capacitor leads are attached to two other shielded audio cables, keeping in mind that the outer conductor of all the cables inside the box are common and are connected together. These two cables are actually molded together as a single wire with two separate audio signals. This cable runs about four feet and there is a 1/8 inch tip and ring (stereo) plug on the other end. This cable is then plugged into the external microphone jack on the camcorder. This jack provides plug-in phantom (1.5 to 5volts) power for electret condenser microphones and there is power on both tip and ring for left and right microphone capsules. This power must be blocked without short circuiting it and the 10 microfarad capacitors in the box do this very effectively. When the projector is sending audio from the optical pickup, the level and the equalization seem to be very similar to simply having a stereo electret condenser microphone operating normally and connected to the camcorder. The 1000 ohm potentiometer is usually almost all the way up and there is an onscreen level meter in the camcorder.
The camcorder was then connected to a computer with a “firewire” IEEE 1394 cable and I captured the video with Ulead VideoStudio 8.The image was actually recorded on a mini DV tape. Later recordings with this camcorder were often done with no tape and captured only into a computer. While the file was in the computer as type 2 dv .avi, I made the audio louder and clearer with Adobe Audition. Then I converted the video to a flash file using freeware called Avidemux.

Direct mp3 download or play:  Whatever Whatever

Here is an odd little bit I made with the voice of a strange woman I found on the internet. I know it has been awhile, and as usual I’m lazy, but I can assure you there is more stuff to come.

Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM August 12, 2007 – normal

NORMAL

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Direct mp3 download or play:  BRM August 12, 2007 – effects

EFFECTS

This was picked up on my AOR model AR-2002 communications receiver at 49.845 MHZ, using a simple vertical antenna. The receiving mode was narrow FM and the signal was somewhat noisy. As with all my recordings of baby room monitors (BRM) the reception was from inside my living room.

Periodically, I blurt out the names of streets I think up. I don’t know why. Maybe someday the rest of Negativland will turn these into an art project of some sort. I’ll add more here as I think of them.

I’ve added a new feature to Street Names Update. In addition to the text, I will be adding the sound of my voice pronouncing the names the way I think they should be vocalized. To give my voice quite an irritating strident sound, a Radio Shack electret condenser microphone was placed into a crock pot with a towel. Occasionally, I will add sound to a street name in no particular order. I added some more streets and vocalizations of the names on August 30th, 2009. Vylpux St. Bottananny Dr. Excize Ave. Pelldop Way Pellandular Blvd. East Gagenaut Court Whilpoot Crescent Polygon Plaza Sylviak Ave. East Fairbutter Way Blithmeister St. Eliopolis Ave. Bipaupsion St. Cornrigger Court Splitchmont Scenic Hwy. Myeloid Place Hemhooker Ave. South Betrum Hoopledorper Way Dueblio Court Exzenioff St. Dobeleet Road Zinfalier Way Chairkarl Court McGuffmaster St. Poisonberry Circle Plasticwood Way Sayfroop St. Baungleberry Lane LaneZenor Sewerage Street [audioplayer file=”http://www.negativland.comhttp://dumb.negativland.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/sewerage-street.mp3] Elrik Avenue Dewisant Place Plate Fly Road West Treatment Plant Court Heitmeyer Beef Road Southeast Pressure Avenue Cheap Street Mangled Metal Boulevard Sensory Perception Place Hellzipper Lane Bitch Street Seatlight Plaza Organeater Avenue South Axis Street The Saint Lawrence Slip West Gas Street Spudknuckler Lane Mufumptious Street Squeaker Toad Court Porktree Way Soap Street Allcrunch Road West Perpat Place Valchris Turkey Boulevard Upper Poodalupe Circle Botchitt Court Fustellation  Avenue Useless Seedless Throughway East Dart Road Vlax Street [audioplayer file=”http://www.negativland.comhttp://dumb.negativland.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/vlaxstreet.mp3] North Zarenex place Multiplication Avenue [audioplayer file=”http://www.negativland.comhttp://dumb.negativland.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/multiplicationavenue.mp3″ titles=Multiplication Avenue] Ridgewater Way South Spitchulum Circle Instrox Street Destructorite Road Sponsanorma Plaza Remote Boat Way Waudogaudophine Boulevard Butylene Plaza Regular Garbage Court Dockular Avenue Gunmeat Street Badapple Place North Expelladapper Street Prunawip Drive