Soul in the Machine

Press Kit

cultivatelife.org — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 09:41:00 +0000

Sample Tracks

Sample Video

Coming Soon

Download

You can download the
full press kit here

Photos

Band info and Bios

Band Info PDF, HTML
Band Bios PDF, HTML

Soul in the Machine - Booking Request

cultivatelife.org — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 23:46:00 +0000

Soul in the Machine - Biographies

cultivatelife.org — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 22:00:00 +0000

Incept Date: Sometime in 1999:

The Dark Ages: a not-so-original idea that DJs are great to dance and listen to but provided poor visual stimulation (and something should be done about it) popped into the neuronal axis of Stainless. Performance Electronica. Easy to conceive, less easy to execute. Sandman and Mr. Technology bought into the project with no reservation, but the next two years were spent exploring various dead-ends in instrument design or wallowing in sound synthesis incompetence. The project was
extricated from this quagmire of ineptitude when Mr. Technology acquired and learned all the inner workings of one of our Synths. We could now transform the vibrations from whacking hunks of steel and rubber and laser beams into aural/visual Electronic Mayhem.

2005: Over 5 years later: After countless hours of grinding, cutting, welding, polishing, soldering, sequencing, practicing, designing, and re-designing we're there. Visual Performance Electronic Dance Music. It's been a long haul and it's a representation of nearly all of our collective skills. It's a gamble, for sure. If it works, we will be ecstatic. If not, well, we gave it all. Bonne route.

Mr. Technology:

Hometown: Los Altos, California

Schooling: UC San Diego, Mechanical Engineering

Musical Background: classical and jazz trombone in secondary school. Switched to piano while at UCSD. Took a few music classes in college, but was more focused on engineering. Private piano jazz study upon graduation. After switching to electronica has become a master of sound synthesis.

Unsurprisingly, Mr. Technology is very knowledgeable about all aspects of music theory, from composition, to the physics of sound, and most importantly to this project, the programming and massaging of synthesizers to achieve a desired effect on the listener.

Band Function: Designs and builds lighting controllers.
Programs lighting profiles into embedded microcontrollers, fabricates circuit boards. Co-designs instruments, is the resident 'expert' in stainless steel polishing using Fruit of the Loom tighty whitey waistbands.

Instruments: Marimba, keyboards, drumwall, laserharp.

Stainless:

Schooling: UC San Diego, Political Science & Math/Computer Science

Musical Background: Classical piano during childhood. Switched to new age, blues and jazz in college and post graduation.

Ironically, got a 'C' grade in electronic music class at UCSD (couldn't get a grip on the analog non-MIDI synth). Does better with modern MIDI controlled synths. Private study w/ Rick Helzer (Associate Director of Jazz Studies, SDSU). Switched to electronica after experiencing first clubbing 'rave' type event (If Rick ever finds out he will not be impressed). Musical influences through the different periods of life are in line with the musical training - hasn't listened to much of anything but electronica since 1999 in an effort to better understand the sub-genres. Enjoy merging non-electronica influences into dance songs.

Band Function: Designs and builds stainless steel structures. Co-designs instruments, is the welder and resident "expert" in dreaming up outlandish instruments, most of which will never see the light of day.

Instruments: Laserharp, violin, keyboard, drumwall, slide.

Soul in the Machine

cultivatelife.org — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 21:16:00 +0000

Press Kit: You will find press photos, tracks, video and band info and biographies listed below.

Booking Date and Pricing: To request a booking date or more information regarding Soul in the machine, follow this link and fill out the booking form.

Soul in the Machine - Gallery

cultivatelife.org — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 23:13:00 +0000

Request Received

cultivatelife.org — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 23:59:00 +0000

Thanks for contacting us. We will be in touch soon.

About Soul in the Machine

cultivatelife.org — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 22:17:00 +0000

Band Details:

Soul in the Machine is a live electronic dance band. It differs greatly from more conventional music shows in three principle ways:

1. Soul in the Machine plays electronic dance music
2. The musicians actually play most of the music (as opposed to spinning it on a turntable)
3. All of the instruments, with the exception of the keyboards, were custom built by the band. So is the lighting, which is as large a component of the show as the sound.

Soul in the Machine strives to add greater visual stimulation to the primal aural excitement experienced by fans of electronica. It intends to exhibit unique electronic instrumentation built specifically to complement the Brave, Old World of the music synthesizer.

Electronic Music is compelling for many of us because it allows great complexity in timbre, something that, prior to the advent of modern sound synthesis, was not able to be plumbed to the great depths being explored today. Soul in the Machine intends to bring some performance 'magic' to this new aural world: the magic of the live musician coupled with the lighting effects of custom instrumentation.

As always, the audience will be the judge.

Instruments

Laser Harp:

Conceived, designed, and built in early 2002, the laser harp was the first instrument Soul in the Machine built that was both functional and visually stimulating. Today it remains nearly unchanged from its original incarnation, although a significant upgrade is in the works that will allow for alternate tunings to be used. Currently the laser harp is tuned chromatically, like a piano, which can be limiting.

The laser harp is played by breaking any of the laser beams.
Phototransistors mounted in the bottom of the harp detect the change in light amplitude, and trigger a series of electrical events that eventually result in a MIDI signal being sent to the synthesizers. Depending on the song, the harp can also send information that depends on where the laser-harpist breaks the string. This allows for pitch bends, filter changes, etc.

The top curved portion of the harp was laser-cut from a large sheet of stainless steel. The box sections that makeup the side and the bottom were fabricated by us, as was the truss constitutes the large vertical member.
This truss was used by necessity; originally in its place was an aluminum box section, but it was too flimsy and caused false triggers any time the laserharp was bumped. The truss provides a stiff and light solution, and looks interesting to boot. We were pleased enough with its advantages that many instruments have the same or similar designs.

Henry is the primary laserharp player, although Erik will jump in every now and then.

Drumwall:

Probably more time has been spent building and rebuilding the drumwall than any other single instrument. The current drumwall is actually our 3rd attempt, and the drums are the fourth revision. Although the very first drum design was a spectacle to behold, it proved to be unreliable and dangerous. The 2nd and 3rd designs were ugly and difficult to play. With the current design, we've finally achieved a drum that is both highly playable and visually stimulating.

Within each drum is a set of lights that is instantly reactive to what we're playing. When you hear a sound coming from a particular drum, you will see a light that accompanies that sound. And if you pay attention, the light will have the same characteristics as that sound. For example, a sound with a long decay will have a slowly fading light. Or, a sound with an echo will have lights that echo as well.

The Octopus is the drummer, so the drumwall is his baby. The drumwall is certainly big enough for more that one drummer, and on several songs Henry and Erik will be playing the drums alongside the Octopus.

Marimba:

The marimba is similar to a normal marimba, with two exceptions.
It's electronic, so we can make it sound like whatever we want it to, and it is flanked by two double-helix light sculptures that are interconnected to the marimba and provide a visual feast.

The stainless steel double helixes have 288 individually controllable light channels, so the visual possibilities are vast. Watch the two towers during a show and notice how the patterns correlate with whatever the marimba is playing.

Erik plays the marimba.

The Slide:

The tall, trussed-out, shiny, stainless steel object is perhaps our most odd instrument. Like many of our projects, Henry decided to make this new instrument that would "take a day or two". Well, it took significantly longer than that, as we kept feature-creeping and fixing inadequacies with the original design. The end result, however, is quite captivating (judging from audience response)

The slide is played by moving the big handle up and down. That's it. The handle is connected to a big roller chain, which turns wheel that is connected to some electronics. The electronics send out MIDI signals that effectively change the quality (or timbre) of a sound. You'll see the slide being played with phat sounds that can morph from one extreme to another.

Henry is the chief slide-player.

Bass Drum:

Like everything else, the bass drum is made entirely out of stainless steel.
It's so heavy that we had to make a crane to lift it onto the stage.

None of us play the bass drum - it's there to do the job that we just didn't feel like doing. 4 to the floor. Notice that each of the mallets has individually controllable lights within, as well as the drum itself. Look even closer, and you'll notice that the mallets are made from carbon fiber.
This was one of the few applications where stainless steel didn't cut it… too heavy. The carbon mallets are light and strong, which allow for quick response time.