Comments on: Dot Matrix Synth

By: wad

wad — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 17:59:16 +0000

Man or Astroman’s song “A SimpleText File” was played using… exactly that. A SimpleText file running from an old all-in-one Mac to a dot matrix printer. The big question is, what exactly were they printing? Somehow, they figured out a pattern of characters that would give them the tones they wanted out of the printer. Seeing it live, though, they really needed the audience to be quiet and have good mics, because it was terribly quiet.

By: p3on

p3on — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 01:41:53 +0000

paul slocum rocks! i caught tree wave in dallas late last year opening for the trachtenburg family slideshow players, and i picked up their ep. it’s great stuff! and after i looked into paul, it’s even cooler :P

By: p3on

p3on — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 01:31:15 +0000

By: mason

mason — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 21:12:33 +0000

Man or Astroman was playing dot matrix songs in concerts ten years ago. Not certain how they created the source, but not terribly novel either way.

By: loafofbread

loafofbread — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 05:10:05 +0000

Paul Slocum is the man, Tree Wave has a really cool sound and I would love to see him live some day.

By: cprompt

cprompt — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 04:04:43 +0000

Oh, and BTW. Track 7 is a homebrew C64 synthesizer program, if you put the audio on a cassette tape and use the tape deck interface. Bonus.

By: cprompt

cprompt — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 03:59:11 +0000

That lovely synth is incorporated into many of the songs by the band Tree Wave. I was so impressed by how “natural” and “organic” the synths sounded that I bought the album Cabana EP+, and I’m still happy with it.

Check out the MP3s at http://www.treewave.com, or get some OGGs at http://www.observatoryonline.org/releases/view_release.php?sku=os034.

By: Cyanidetransistor

Cyanidetransistor — Tue, 31 May 2005 23:09:03 +0000

I’ve known about this site for some time, in fact its in my favorites, and I’ve corresponded with Paul a few times in the past about this hack. He spent many long hours with a logic probe and an oscilloscope tracing logic patterns in the software to allow him to program it. he also has some sweet Atari and c64 hacks, but should you wish to attempt a dot matrix synth hack yourself, remember you are in for a long haul.

By: noouch

noouch — Tue, 31 May 2005 22:27:03 +0000

I want a mellotron…

By: will

will — Tue, 31 May 2005 21:20:29 +0000

Man, I wish I had access to the stuff needed for this kind of hack. I’m a solo industrial recording artist; Something like this would be right up my alley :)

By: Oli Jenks

Oli Jenks — Tue, 31 May 2005 20:04:06 +0000

Nice hack, but I wonder what you could do if you attached tapes along the long access of the roller? That way you could almost scratch the sound by moving the print head, and access a number of instruments! Maybe if you could encode on a magnetic tape which covered the whole of the roller, and offer a whole sound scape.

This also reminded me of theses guys
http://www.theuser.org/dotmatrix/en/intro.html

I saw them at the ICA a few years back, they basically work with different models of printers. Each printer will contribute a part to the whole piece. I was conscious of grinning ear to ear as it reached the peak of the performance.

Got to love dead tech.

By: strider_mt2k

strider_mt2k — Tue, 31 May 2005 17:39:36 +0000

I’m very suprised at how subtle and melodic that stuff ends up sounding.
Neat!