The Well Modulated Dinosaur

for the PingNoise modular synthesizer and the Kastle
2023, 4th order Ambisonics
[►] video with binaural audio

Program Notes

April 22nd 2023

dedicated to my dad

Almost four years ago I performed on this stage with my "El Dinosaurio", a more than 40 years old hand-crafted modular synthesizer (who is staying at home tonight). One year later the pandemic isolated us, and the much more complex Applesauce Modular Mark V (unknowingly jump-started by Applebaum/Friedman fuel!) started to evolve sonically through two years, many iterations, and the life-saving weekly practice of the Quarantine Sessions concerts. Long-form performances with it were attempted, and mostly succeeded.

Here we are again in "real space", and the quest for sound continues with the much smaller PingNoise Modular, housed in what used to be my dad's Samsonite attaché case, filled to the brim (literally) with powerful eurorack modules - space is the limit in this case (pun intended). A computer running SooperLoopy serves as long term memory and throws sounds around in space.

The PingNoise Modular and his little friend the Kastle perform tonight a chaotic ditty that explores recurrent structures programmed within the confines of the Droid ecosystem, extreme cross modulation of oscillators, badly behaving waveshaping and wave folding, misusing a program as sound, and many other noises and processes. A love song? A courting dance? Spring is in the air, we are out again, and dinosaurs are all excited and ebullient.

Another song to add to the ongoing "Dinosaur Songbook"...

Performances

• The Return of the Living B[e]ing Concert, Bing Studio, Stanford University, April 22nd 2023

Fernando Lopez-Lezcano

Composer, performer, lecturer and computer systems administrator at CCRMA, Stanford University

Quick Links

El Dinosaurio
Applesauce Modular Mark V
Planet CCRMA

Music & Performances

Of Dinosaurs and Other Creatures
The Well Modulated Dinosaur
The Love Songs of Flying Dinosaurs
El PianoSaurio
Dinosaur He[a]rd!
Wings
Resurrections
Pia[NOT] Etude
The Miraculous Multiplication of Strings
Y Sonó Como Arpa Vieja
Un Esqueleto en la Cocina
The Hidden and Mysterious Machinery of Sound
Modulate me, please?
Space, S[acred|ecular]
Vox Voxel
Toast and Jam
Divertimento de Cocina
Velvet Skin, Heart of Steel
Fugue 1 (Fanfare)
Jurassic Modulations
Earth Songs
Dinosaur Skin
A Very Fractal Cat, Somewhat T[h]rilled
65 Second Bycicle
The Dinosaur At War
Exit Variations
El Dinosaurio Habla
Kitchen <-> Miniature(s)
Instant Knoll
iICEsCcRrEeAaMm
House of Mirrors
With Room to Grow
Knock knock, anybody there?
Three Dreams
Espresso Machine II
Hot'n Cold
Quest