Arecibo Sound

Google had a doodle for the Arecibo Message the other day so I looked it up.

It was a message for alien life sent in 1974 to the star cluster M13 some 25,000 light years away! The message had 1,679 binary bits at a frequency of 2,380 MHz with 10 Hz modulation. It was at the speed of 10 bits per second, or 600 bpm.

I played the pattern on my Yamaha keyboard using the Vox Humana voicing and frequency scaled down to A note, 220Hz, because we can't hear 2,380 MHz! I recorded that onto my Tascam recorded and edited it in Audacity. I recorded it at 100bpm, but Audacity speeded it up to 300bpm, half the speed of the actual message, because it sounded best.

I wanted a static fuzz effect so I used an English Electric Lightning jet engine sample from my Samsynth Blue Noize Project. I chose the Lightning because in it's time, it was cutting edge but it's a bit obsolete nowadays like the Arecibo Message.

That was good but not very musical so I added a "Lost In Space" woo-woo sound using the oscillator in my Blue Noize Machine.

I used some stereo panning in Audacity so wear those headphones!

https://soundcloud.com/samsswingnskank/arecibo-sound

Tubb Fest!

Ernest Tubb Fest at the Ubiquitous Open Mic last week. I played 'Thanks A Lot' and 'Just A Drink Away'. It was great but I didn't have the big cowboy hat!

I was playing through an Ammoon American amp-simulator pedal into the PA system. The Ammoon is the same as the more expensive Joyo American which is a copy of the more expensive Tech 21 Blonde! It lets you get a variety of amp sounds into the clean PA without having to carry a big amp around. I dialed in a slightly dirty Fender sound, and I think it sounded pretty good and was convenient because you can power it off a 9V battery.

Here's the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7ZNoi9WF4A

Pedal:
https://www.ammoon.com/p-i1712.html