News – Museum Of Communication
Source: https://museumofcommunication.org.uk/news
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:21
News – Museum Of Communication
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Stromness Museum News
We have a connection with Stromness Museum in Orkney through a common interest in communication issues and, in particular, with events surrounding the scuttling of the interned German High Seas Fleet in 1919. Follow
this link
for the latest news from the Museum.
MoC Video
In a Goudie lecture for the Museum, Paul Mauchline talked about to how to go about connecting and playing various instruments together using MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface) and sequencers.
The piece was improvised using sampled sounds ( spoken words and strowger telephone exchange mechanism) together with a variety of synthesiser modules and one keyboard synthesiser ( bottom right of the screen). The larger keyboard shown at the bottom in the middle of the screen is a master controller keyboard. That is, it does not generate sounds of its own but sends MIDI note information to a string synthesiser ,a small FM synthesiser and a vocoder ( see below).
The sampler is the dark blue box left of centre above the master keyboard.
The MIDI “out” from the master keyboard is distributed to the MIDI “ins” of each instrument using a MIDI “thru” box which echoes MIDI information simultaneously out of 5 MIDI ports.
The round pad visible near the centre of the screen is generating a free running rhythm pattern which is being routed to a small black box located just to the lower left of it.
This is a vocoder and the master keyboard controller also dictates the chords produced by the vocoder ( via its MIDI “in”) which is then applied to the audio signal coming out of the drum pad. Usually vocoders are used with human voices but any audio signalvcan be used as a modulating source.
To the left of the master keyboard controller is a small sequencer ( black box) which has been set to send random MIDI notes at various intervals to a small basic sound generating module located far left of the screen just above the dark blue sampler.
You can also see various effects pedals which add echo and reverberation to some of the audio outputs from the sound modules and synthesisers.
You can also see a small box with buttons at the top of the screen around the middle which Paul occasionally operates.
This is a “Babble Box” built by Paul around 5 years ago. You can find out more on YouTube using this link –
https://youtu.be/ubs8OROdjXY
If anyone would like more information about the equipment shown in this video Paul will be happy to provide it.
Back numbers of
Transmitting
now available online
Back numbers of our membership magazine
Transmitting
are now available on this site from no. 87 (May 2019) onwards. Simply follow
this link
.
Skip to content
News
Stromness Museum News
We have a connection with Stromness Museum in Orkney through a common interest in communication issues and, in particular, with events surrounding the scuttling of the interned German High Seas Fleet in 1919. Follow
this link
for the latest news from the Museum.
MoC Video
In a Goudie lecture for the Museum, Paul Mauchline talked about to how to go about connecting and playing various instruments together using MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface) and sequencers.
The piece was improvised using sampled sounds ( spoken words and strowger telephone exchange mechanism) together with a variety of synthesiser modules and one keyboard synthesiser ( bottom right of the screen). The larger keyboard shown at the bottom in the middle of the screen is a master controller keyboard. That is, it does not generate sounds of its own but sends MIDI note information to a string synthesiser ,a small FM synthesiser and a vocoder ( see below).
The sampler is the dark blue box left of centre above the master keyboard.
The MIDI “out” from the master keyboard is distributed to the MIDI “ins” of each instrument using a MIDI “thru” box which echoes MIDI information simultaneously out of 5 MIDI ports.
The round pad visible near the centre of the screen is generating a free running rhythm pattern which is being routed to a small black box located just to the lower left of it.
This is a vocoder and the master keyboard controller also dictates the chords produced by the vocoder ( via its MIDI “in”) which is then applied to the audio signal coming out of the drum pad. Usually vocoders are used with human voices but any audio signalvcan be used as a modulating source.
To the left of the master keyboard controller is a small sequencer ( black box) which has been set to send random MIDI notes at various intervals to a small basic sound generating module located far left of the screen just above the dark blue sampler.
You can also see various effects pedals which add echo and reverberation to some of the audio outputs from the sound modules and synthesisers.
You can also see a small box with buttons at the top of the screen around the middle which Paul occasionally operates.
This is a “Babble Box” built by Paul around 5 years ago. You can find out more on YouTube using this link –
https://youtu.be/ubs8OROdjXY
If anyone would like more information about the equipment shown in this video Paul will be happy to provide it.
Back numbers of
Transmitting
now available online
Back numbers of our membership magazine
Transmitting
are now available on this site from no. 87 (May 2019) onwards. Simply follow
this link
.