It’s been really nice out here in New Hampshire lately, perfect weather for commuting around town with a bicycle. If you’ve been looking for a little two wheeled inspiration of your own, a great book to check out is David Byrne’s Bicycle Diaries. It’s a quick read that’s very entertaining and sometimes even thought provoking. The concept was simple, Mr. Byrne travels around the world with his bicycle and jots down whatever comes to mind while biking around. Although he sometimes strays from his concept via renting a car or hiring a taxi, he does succeed in providing the reader some sort of abstract idea of what it would be like commuting via bicycle in lands far and away. That being said, the most enjoyable parts of the book are when he is exploring the United States. I found the trips to Niagra Falls and through Detroit to be particularily fascinating.

Bicycles and travel tips aside, most of this book is filled with delightful arm-chair style philosophy. Mr. Byrne succeeded in provoking thoughts about all sorts of topics that I found myself contemplating long after finishing different chapters in the book. He touches on topics that range from the hostile nature of Australia, political dynasties in the Philippines, corporate architecture and landscaping, to the question about whether dogs experience denial. It’s all good fun and what this book made me realize more than anything else is that Mr. Byrne is actually a pretty reasonable guy who can be surprisingly normal and down to earth. Much of his writing reminds me of the type of conversations I would have in some of my own circles.

I, like Mr. Byrne, am more of a commuter type that enjoys using a bicycle to get from point A — B, rather than the type that likes to suit up in Spandex and burn rubber, so this book spoke to me more than it may to other types of bike fanatics. I enjoyed that there was very little righteousness that is sometimes associated with bicycle activists, although the appendix had an interesting dissertation on the future of bicycles in New York City. I typically enjoy the activist stuff also, but I’m glad this book was different and that he kept the writing focused on the experience. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded that bicycling can just be about fun and adventure.

Overall, the book is great entertainment and there’s a little something in there for everyone. To get a glimpse of his writing you can check out David Byrne’s blog.

Find more info on Bicycle Diaries here.

Over the last month, I spent some time experimenting with my Vermona Retroverb Lancet. This clever machine has more than a few tricks up its sleeve so I thought I’d share some thoughts and ideas about this superb effects unit. A bird’s eye glance at the box could see that its made up of a spring reverb component with a built in filter and some modulation options via an LFO.  At its most basic use, it’s a handy little box for adding some warmth to any sound with the spring reverb. This vintage reverb concept is well implemented in the box and the spring of the Retroverb sounds full and rich. No surf-a-billy band should be without one just for this quality sounding spring. But start plugging line sources other than a guitar signal and you’ll immediately discover a new kind of reverb drenched sound that you can modulate in a wealth of different ways.

Like all of Vermona’s tools, the interface is beautifully laid out. The vintage space age control panel makes the reverb unit a real lady killer in the studio. Every knob, button, input and rocker switch is thoughtfully laid out with a handy emphasis on the most important functions being the knobs you want to impulsively grab and spin. Although once you start spinning knobs and flipping switches, it can get difficult to get your head around what’s actually happening to the sound, but after some time with the unit you can start to see that the physical layout of the features can really help you understand what’s happening. It’s worth studying the panel for a bit and thinking your way through the signal flow. You can tell a great deal of thought went into the design of this unit and the result is a playable effects unit as if it were an instrument of its own.

The reverb can be pre or post. Depending on if it’s pre or post, you can set the in & out stages of the unit to mix in the amount of spring reverb by spinning the mix knob left or right. This is a handy live feature to set the mix stage this way, because with the flip of a switch and a slight turn of a single knob you can drastically morph different sounds this way which can be a great for a track variation in an arrangement. The In/Out section also offers 2 forms of distortion. Increasing the gain, you’ll reach a point that creates a warm type of distortion I normally associate with soft clipping found on some analog mixers. Pushing up the drive knob will produce a distortion that’s more compressed and with the right input signal can produce something that sounds more like bit reduction. Both sound great on everything I fed it, but I think these features would especially be a hit with guitarists. To the right of the In/Out is the VCA modulation section which, curiously at first, is separate from the Out section. However, with spring reverb or reverb in general I believe it’s often less is more, so it does seem appropriate that the VCA modulation parameters would be kept separate. This makes it quick and easy to work with the spring should you simply want to use the device like a guitar pedal only for the reverb and the distortion effects.

The filter is a multi-mode filter with band, highpass & lowpass filters. There is quite a range in the cutoff and the resonance will drive it effortlessly into self oscillation at just about 1/2 way there. This filter is based on the M.A.R.S synthesizers they produced about 10 years ago. It’s a filter with a unique design of its own and not modeled from the Moog ladder or other common filter models. While experimenting with the Retroverb I acheived rewarding results for this machine just using the filter by itself. The filter has two modulation sources, the LFO (we’ll get to this cool LFO shortly) and a switchable alternate source that could be a control voltage, an envelope follower, or the built in envelope generator.  And if the source signal you are feeding it is all skin and bones, they carried over the ‘balls’ feature from the Kick Lancet which compresses the filter input to fatten it up. This filter has bite, it’s a great addition to any synth toolbox. In fact, if you don’t need the spring reverb, Vermona offers the Filter Lancet which is same exact design of the Retroverb, but without the spring reverb. It’s worth looking into.

If modulations the game, this box has your name. The final sections of the Retroverb provide some modulation sources. You get a LFO and an envelope generator with some very unique features. The LFO has the usual suspects in terms of available waveforms (btw thank you Vermona for including the sine LFO option in this Lancet), except there’s one at the end called EG. This means that this shape is generated by the shape of the envelope generator. What’s cool about this is that you can create your own LFO waveforms from various attack/decay settings from the envelope. If you switch the VCA mod source to EG and set the LFO shape to EG you can get some fun sounds by simply varying the decay/release on the envelope. By switching the LFO range to LO/TR, the LFO will reset on the gate signal firing off the envelope when set to gate. This means you can easily get your sounds to sync to a track’s tempo if using a modular system that feeds the trigger input on the back. Pretty slick.

The Retroverb unit has a bunch of handy inputs that allows you to feed CV/Gate signals and connect numerous pedals. It takes an audio input, a pedal or control voltage, a input switch that can take a control voltage to trigger a ‘crash’ of the spring, a trigger in that takes a gate signal, and an input switch for bypassing the unit with a pedal. This makes the unit a handy performance tool which could be used side by side with any instrument being solo’d. With a collection of pedals, many features could be used hands free, making an attractive addition even for a drum set. With so many inputs, this brings up my only criticism of the unit. It could be that I’m just spoiled at this point, but while using this machine with my modular synthesizer system, I just wished they would have added two more features — two outputs for the modulation section. LFO/EG outputs would have been extremely useful and could have lead to some interesting experiments modulating more than one track Retroverb style.

This leads me to some final thoughts on using the Retroverb as part of a bigger system. First off, the entire Lancet series work amazing together. Like Voltron, the MonoLancet coupled with its eurorack dock, and the Retroverb all come together to make one über mono monster synth. Altogether, the specs for look like this:

• 2 oscillators. Triangle, Saw, Noise, Pulse with PWM. Either or both oscillator can be free running to use elsewhere by detaching the oscillators from the signal path. They can also be shut off to use the system exclusively with external sound sources. PWM via midi for both oscillators, or cv for each independently. FM modulation of either or both oscillators via CV. Pitch Modulation via envelope, LFO or Glide. Global tune.
• 2 filters — a Moog Ladder style LP filter & a unique multimode filter with HP/LP/BP. Both reach self oscillation and can be run in a series or parallel. 2 filter inputs. Moog Ladder style LP filter has FM modulation via CV, optional velocity modulation, and optional cutoff after-touch modulation. Envelope modulation on both filters.
• Filter key track
• Envelope follower
• 2 envelope generators. One can be triggered by CV or an Envelope follower
• 2 VCAs both can be free running, modulated by the envelopes, external cv. One can be modulated by an envelope follower and an LFO. One has a full sustain mode, velocity modulation, and manual trigger.
• 2 LFOs. One with square, triangle, & sample/hold. One with ascending/descending sawtooth, square, sine, sample/hold, and EG shape. One can be reset with gate signals, and has an adjustable range of Low (.05 -> 25 HZ) & High (1 -> 300 Hz). Clever syncing of trigger signals allows one LFO to do double duty as a 3rd envelope.
• Spring Reverb switchable pre/post with crash feature that vibrates the spring. Clever syncing of the crash trigger input can allow this to be used as a alternate noise source. Adjustable global reverb level.
• Midi/CV converter
• 2 audio inputs, 2 audio outputs, 4 pedal inputs (1 cv, 2 gate, 1 envelope follower, bypass switch).
• Midi implementation with velocity on/off, pitch wheel on/off, modwheel on/off, aftertouch on/off, legato on/off, and glide on/off.
• Integration between 1/4″ jack systems and 1/8″ eurorack systems.
• Solid metal construction with small footprint.

If you crammed all of these features in a single box, you’d have an analogue setup in league with a Moog Voyager Rack and its modular extensions. However, the Vermona sound and design is very different from Moog so it’s probably better to think of them not as competitors, but as two systems that complement each other very well. In fact, if you collect Mooger Fooger boxes, the Lancet machines are natural extensions to this kind of cv/gate analogue playground. The Moog MF-107 FreqBox is a great source for feeding a sub oscillator into the Lancet system. As far as modern analag processing goes, reverb is pretty much the only standard analog effect not packaged into a Mooger Fooger. You can achieve a sort of reverb with the MF-104 Delay and MF-108M Cluster Flux, but the Vermona Retroverb has this covered in spades.

After spending some time experimenting with the Vermona Retroverb lancet, I made a track that incorporates most every feature mentioned in this article. I found the results to be very musical, and had a great time throughout the process. The sounds are sourced from the Vermona MonoLancet, the DRM mkIII, and the Retroverb along with some Mooger Foogers, a DSI Poly Evolver, and some eurorack stuff from Pittsburgh Modular. All tracks were then ran through the Retroverb on a return track. The Retroverb is pure fun and one of those tools that reminds you of why you got into synthesis in the first place. Hats off to the team at Vermona. Here’s the track, enjoy!

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This lens is a plastic lens that mounts directly onto your DSLR camera body for instant toy camera and vignetting effects. I found mine at the amazing photojojo store.

I had a lot of fun experimenting with close ups and landscape views. I was able to capture a couple of “toy” photos which I was tickled with and the rest have nice coloring and vignetting effects. On my hike I traveled from the Ring Trail to the Blueberry Bluff Trail which takes you right to the peak. The trail is well marked and is a .3 mile, rocky, climb with a visual payoff.

If you are in the York area, or end up there this Spring this mountain is a perfect excuse to get out in nature. The trails are about an hour in length to complete and well maintained. I think next time I venture into the woods I will bring my wide angle and macro lens adapter, experiment with the panoramic views and take close ups of the woody plants. For now, here are the Holga lens shots, I hope you enjoy them!

Susan is a talented author with a vigorous creative spirit. We’ve had a great time working with her to create a website that is easy for her to manage and flexible enough to enable the presentation of her creative ideas. Built on the WordPress platform, the responsive site features a custom WordPress theme that allows her to manipulate content using principles found in more traditional CMS platforms, yet still enjoy the ease and familiarity of blogging that WordPress does so well. Her site is optimized for SEO and optimized for all devices and browsers including mobile.

We recommend heading over to her site at www.susanverde.com, to check out all the fun articles she is sharing that will inspire you to be creative. This is mandatory advice if you have children. We wish Susan Verde and her new book much success!

www.susanverde.com
www.peterhreynolds.com — illustrator

Purchase ‘The Museum’

@ Amazon.com
@ Barnes and Noble
@ BookHampton
@ IndieBound

Installing the miditribe mod kit is a snap. The most basic implementation requiring just a clean surface and a phillips head screwdriver. However, base instructions leave you with a couple wires hanging out of the battery compartment, which is less than ideal if, like me, you already have a studio with enough wires and cables hanging about already. I decided to go the extra mile and drill holes into the case and mount the midi sockets directly into the housing. Here’s what you’ll need to do this:

First thing first, be sure to follow the instructions that came with the Miditribe kit. These steps are not a replacement for the well written instructions from Amazing Machines. These steps are intended to help someone that may be considering taking these instructions a step further by mounting the midi sockets directly to the monotribe casing. Just like the manual says, you will void your warranty.

1. Miditribe mod kit from Amazing Machines, needle nose pliers, phillips head screwdriver, household drill, stepped drill bit for drilling through metal, small drill bit for drilling through metal for screw holes, and a chalk pencil or something to mark the casing that you can wipe clean.

2. Remove the rubber feet, knobs (they just pop off), and screws on the bottom of the case. Carefully open the case and detach the speaker cable. After that remove all the screws attaching the two pcbs to the case. Since we’ll be drilling into the case, you want to be sure that all the electronic components are removed to ensure that they don’t get contaminated with dust or shavings. Also removing the pcbs will ensure you don’t accidentally hit them while drilling. Just be careful when handling the main pcb, the LEDs can easily pop out.

3. Determine where on the case you want the midi sockets to live. Mark the center and a few points on the outer circumference of where you plan on drilling. Be sure to mark both midi in & out so that you leave enough room on either side for each socket’s screw holes. Drill 2 5/8″ holes with your step drill bit into the casing.

4. Fit in your midisockets into their locations and mark the screw holes with the chalk pencil. Double check that the bit you are using to drill the holes is as wide as the holes on the jack and then drill the four holes for the screws. Be sure you clean the casing really well of any dust or shavings that might contaminate the electronics after you are done drilling.

5. Now we just have to put it all back together. If you put the midi sockets in the top left like many synths do these days, you’ll want to put the main pcb back first and then bolt down the midi jacks. You’ll need needle nose pliers to hold the bolt in place while you tighten them down because with the main pcb board installed, there’s very little room for fingers.

6. Bolt down the Amazing Machines midi board to the main pcb following the instructions in the kit and reattach the midi cables. Match the colors of the wires to the labels on the Amazing Machines midi board.

7. Attach the Amazing Machines midi board to the monotribe’s serial port. Take care to follow the wire color guidelines highlighted in the instructions — blue down, yellow up. Tuck the wires into the bottom of the case, attach the speaker cable and screw back down the secondary pcb.

8. Screw the case back together, reattach rubber feet, and put the knobs back on, you’ve now got a fully functioning midi synthesizer! Piece of cake!

Overall I’m pretty impressed with how useful this little box is now that it can speak midi. I was painlessly able to map all the controls to my midi controller and had nearly double the expressive possibilities with this synth using full size keys, the pitch and mod wheels and various controllers. Using Ableton live, sequencing this thing becomes a real joy. Acid type bass-lines scream out of this thing like banshees and retro computer type melodies are a snap. Using this machine in a more musical context also makes it more flexible with effects devices. Running a sequence that’s in key through a mooger fooger pedal for instance can provide something that’s really quite usable in a mix. Basically before the midi upgrade, most often I would only build a track around the monotron parts from scratch, where now I can find uses for it in an existing mix.

Unfortunately, there’s a couple downsides. The gate on the device can produce clicks and pops while in use. This is apparently a result of the monotribe’s design and not a fault of the midi upgrade. It’s not all that noticeable in mix unless you solo the instrument. You can also try using a multiband eq to cut out most of the pops as well. The other downside of the instrument is really just more of a general truth. I’m referring to how far the monotribe goes into make an affordable analog groove box, yet it could have gone just a little farther to become legend. Playing with this machine for a few months I’ve had a lot of fun with it, but it always just makes you realize that with just a little more engineering it could have been the TB303 of the modern era. If they fixed the gate issue, implemented cv/gate pitch control control, and added a variable Attack/Decay envelope it would be that instrument. Good news is, that Korg Japan has released an update that allows for cv/gate control which is an amazing feature add-on, but for now it’s only available on the Japanese website. I’ve been working with CV for quite sometime and can recommend it as a useful protocol for getting interesting results that are not as easy to achieve with midi. I’m looking forward to the idea of integrating CV on the monotribe with my other analogue gear, I’ll have to post an update when I’ve had a chance to try it out.

Amazing Machines really did us all a service for making this midi kit so easy to implement. Ordering is painless via their website and it arrived in about 7 business days. Located in Brazil, they also offer another interesting device to add onto the Korg mono series. It’s a specially designed feedback circuit for use with the filter input of your monotron/monotribe although the website mentions it can be used with any such device with a filter input. For more information, check out their website: www.amazingmachines.com.br.

All in all, this was a fun little project. It gives you a glimpse into the world of DIY, home-brewed mods, and there’s something entirely gratifying about solving manufacturer shortcomings with your studio gear. And of course, praise to Korg for making a unique sounding product that allows us all to connect with on this level. To me it makes synthesizers somewhat more human and I think that’s a good thing.

Finally, here’s the first track I made with the Monotribe with midi and as always it’s free to download. It’s a techno acid house track of sorts inspired by the Monotribe’s sound. There’s four tracks of Monotribe happening on this one. It’s really great to hear it playing well with all the other synths. Enjoy!

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For more information about the Korg Monotribe and various modifications:

Korg’s website: www.korg.com/monotribe
Korg Monotribe Schematics: www.korg.com/monotribeschematics
Sonicstate’s review of the Monotribe:
www.sonicstate.com/news/2011/05/26/sonic-lab-korg-monotribe
Sonicstate’s review of the Miditribe:
www.sonicstate.com/news/2012/02/21/review-amazing-machines-miditribe-io
Monobot’s blog is full of other mod tips and ideas: www.monomodder.blogspot.com
This guy seems to sell drum mod kits among other things: www.monotribemods.blogspot.com

Merus Capital’s new responsive website is a hybrid cms built on the SilverStripe Framework with a WordPress blogging component. Serving their unique B2B needs, a great emphasis was made in making the site scalable and easy to manage. In addition to managing their own content, we have made a platform for them to manage their portfolio and distribute news and social media content generated from the specific companies within their portfolio. This platform ensures that the site is up-to-date at all times with the latest news, and furthermore, the responsive design ensures that this content is enjoyable across all devices.

Merus Capital is a great bunch of guys who know what they are doing, we here at Be Better wish them and their colleagues great success!

Visit www.meruscap.com.

Slice’s new website, www.slicemagazine.org, is a full blown CMS built on the SilverStripe platform. The SilverStripe platform has allowed us to customize the CMS to meet Slice’s specific needs with event and conference registration, e-commerce in the form of subscription/back issue orders, and publishing articles for distribution. The site is optimized for SEO and adhere’s to responsive web design principles that allow for enjoyment and use on any device including mobile.

We at Be Better Studio enjoyed building this site and look forward to ensuring it’s success on the web!

Visit www.slicemagazine.org

The Creators and stars of The In-Betweens, Clancy O’ Connor and Lyndsay Becker, are a fun duo that are taking New York City by storm with their hilarious web comedy. We had the pleasure of creating a fun little responsive website for them. Behind the scenes of the website is a SilverStripe CMS which gives them access to add as many videos as they want, whenever they want.

Their launch teaser is immediately available on the website and on February 11th Clancy and Lyndsay will unveil ALL the episodes at their launch party! So be ready to laugh a lot when the videos post to the website.

Clancy and Lyndsay are lovely and talented folks and we wish them the best of luck with The In-Betweens!

You can visit their site and watch their teaser here: www.in-betweens.tv

Like them on Facebook too, they will love your support!

I enjoy a good casual discourse on a book so I’ve been thinking that I’ll use this blog to write a little about these books that I’m reading for fun. Through the act of writing about them, I will not only be retaining what I’ve read, but who knows, maybe it’ll be interesting to read about any inspiration that might come out of it.

Inspired by my trip to Iceland last month, my first non technical book of the year was: Njal’s Saga by an unknown author written in the late 13th century.

My version is the Penguin Classic translated and edited by Robert Cook, a native of Pennsylvania now a professor of English Literature at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik. The introduction was clean and insightful, true to Penguin’s legacy of having introductions that aren’t terribly boring. Having read many Icelandic Sagas previously, I pretty much knew already what I was getting into, but what’s particularly interesting about this one is the attention to detail Professor Cook has included in his work to place events that unfold in the saga in historical or factual context. It’s simply crazy to think that most of these people really existed, some version of these fantastic events actually happened, and someone took the time to write so elegantly about them in late 1200’s (and in prose!).

The story itself it completely epic in its proportions. It’s a classic tale of honor amongst friends and unsympathetic vengeance. This tale is not a child’s bedtime story. It follows a very complex plot with numerous subplots. The book’s author has a frank, straight to the point writing style that executes a certain simplicity that completely sucks you in. The attention to detail with names and events is really quite admirable. If you start Njal’s saga, be ready for a roller coaster ride of family feuds, magic, medieval court battles, large and small scale warfare, spiteful women, conniving villans, and pagans grappling with Christendom. The basic formula here is someone awesome becomes a victim of circumstance and is killed -> friends and/or family takes revenge -> more revenge -> more revenge -> more revenge -> everyone dies -> someone else gets rich and peace is finally resolved via marriage between families.

To illustrate how intense this book is, here is how it starts off at the very beginning before you know who any of these people are:

It happend once that Hoskuld held a feast for his friends, and his brother Hrut was there and sat next to him. Hoskuld had a daughter named Hallgerd; she was playing on the floor with some other girls. She was tall and beautiful, with hair as fine as silk and so abundant that it came down to her waist.

Hoskuld called to her, ‘Come here to me.’

She went to him at once, and he took her by the chin and kissed her. Then she went back.

Hoskuld said to Hrut, ‘How do you like this girl? Don’t you find her beautiful?’.

Hrut was silent. Hoskuld asked again.

Hrut then answered, ‘The girl is quite beautiful, and many will pay for that, but what I don’t know is how the eyes of a thief have come into your family.’

Hoskuld was angry at this, and for a time the brothers had little to do with each other.

This incident between brothers, really sets the tone for the whole novel. Many of the worst deeds are foretold either in philosophical conversation, visions, or in dreams. What’s remarkable is that the characters all have a strange type of optimism that even though they are told they are going to die, or something bad is going to happen, each time, they would still always head fearlessly to their fate.

The tale is really two combined into one. The first half of the book follows Gunnar Hamundarson, an ambidextrous warrior who is pretty much awesome in every way except for his taste in woman. He marries Hallgerd who grows up to be a beautiful woman with dark side who instigates murder and large scale family feuds. Njal is Gunnar’s best friend and he is not a violent man; nor is he any type of warrior. Njal’s honor comes from his wisdom and the ability to foretell gloomy events just in time to save the day. Gunnar’s evil wife puts the friendship to the ultimate test by starting a deadly feud with Njal’s wife. Eventually the feud between wives grows out of hand and starts spreading across the whole south of Iceland. Gunnar retains his honor throughout it all, but eventually makes a single mistake that results in him being outlawed by Icelandic law. Vengeful Icelanders go after Gunnar as soon he’s legally able to be murdered and it all culminates to an edge-of-your-seat confrontation. Gunnar’s last stand is magnificant, the guy puts up such a furious defense that the bad guys have to rip the guy’s roof of his house to finally get to him. By this stage of the book you finally realize that the book has gotten to you; to the point where you actually start thinking like these crazy medieval Icelanders. Instead of being sad at the murder of Gunnar, I found myself thinking, “Good for him, he put up and honorable fight. Nice way to go.” I’m telling you while you are reading this you’ll start thinking like a viking too.

These events with Gunnar lead to the 2nd half of the tale which is about Njal and his sons the Njalssons. Njal and all of his sons are very likable characters. Revenge for the death of Gunnar pretty much leads the reader down a dark and bloody path to the end of Njal and his sons. The main tragedy of the story is how Njal and his family are burned alive in their home by a vengeful gang of rogues. It is truly a very sad climax to the book and all throughout the land the act is considered a disgrace, even by some of the most disgraceful characters in the book.

The burning of Njal is named in several other sources apart from this saga, and it appears to be a very big event in early recorded Icelandic history. The scene will certainly be burned onto my recorded memory as one of the most vivid scenes I’ve ever come across in a book. Apart from the violence, there is a lot of other interesting aspects of the book. You’ll find detailed descriptions of early court procedure, an account of how Iceland became a christian nation, and numerous wonderful descriptions of what daily life was like in the Viking age.

All in all, I would highly recommend it for winter reading. You can’t go wrong with a copy of Njal’s Saga, a warm fire and a horn full of mead.