Here are all of the photos that I took of my synthesiser. As is obvious, many of them are completely terrible, but I did slowly get the hang of it. These are all unedited. Very fun process, a sequentially reiterative experiment into photography.

It would be great publicity to have my synthesisers sold in shops. Elevator Sound (Bristol) and SchneidersLaden (Berlin) seem to be two great choices – to manage to get my work into these shops I will have to design a great synthesiser and then send one to eaech of these shops, in the hopes that the perople in charge of listing equipment enjoy my work.

Molasses Industries (talked about in a prior post) do not sell through existing retaillers. I think that this is a good route for me, at least initially, because the eistance of Molasses Industries proves that it is financially viable to exist without being part of the greater synth shop world. Also, if I were to sell via existing synth shops, my product would be more appealing if I already had customers, if my work was already out there and being used and enjoyed.

The main benifit that I have experienced from undertaking a Sound Arts BA can be seen in the refining of my creative goals. Over the last three years I have been quietly ‘zeroing in’ on the artisan discipline of creating audio electronics for creative purposes, exposing electronics (in a unashamed fashion) to the user is a manner that is not sugarcoated nor perfected. Before my BA, I had no real idea of what I wanted to do wth my life, I recall having a vague ideal outcome of being a recording engineer for studios. Currently, I am operating as a recording engineer for a handful of small productions of records for bands who are signed; I think that I would have been doing this regardless of my education purely due to the people that are around me, the friends that I have and the scene that I surround myself with. There are plenty of talented musicians who are bound to be signed soon, and working on their recordings is a situational luxury that I have found myself in.

I do however think that there is comparatively more money to be made in electronics. With my electronics, I aspire to present to the user a device that compels them to garner an understanding of how the circuit works (in an imperfect, functional manner), so that they can exploit this understanding for their own creative gain. Doing away with the technical constraints of commercially produced synthesis units (buffered ins/outs, DC blocking between different modules, perfect amplifier design) results in a less predictable but more experimentally fruitful playing experience.

These (^^^) ideas about synthesis are the direct result of studying sound arts. My career aspirations may have taken a great deal longer to be discovered if I hadn’t studied this course, because I wouldn’t have had the free time to digest my ideas and realise that electronics is the path upon which I want to wander, compared to having to source that free time for myself and thus discover these desires on my own (i.e; source money on my own to enjoy free time).

The most infulential visiting practitioner that has made money off of their electronics skills have been Tats (Tatsuya Takahashi, of Korg fame). His initial ingenuity with circuits is what landed him his job at Korg (source: https://www.soundonsound.com/people/tatsuya-takahashi-synth-designer), and that seems to be the only ‘serious’ application of electronics that fits into the sort of ‘serious’ boundaries that are expected of me for this assignment. His work inspires me to continue pushing my electronics knowledge, and to make the synths that I want, rather than the synths that seem sellable or useful to others.

Another influential visiting practitioner has been Rie Nakajima, whose work I regularly listen to. Her work exploits electronic means to produce acoustic ends, using clockwork and motor powered devices to create acoustic sound rather than electric sound (to excite a speaker cone) which is very admirable and also uniquely inspiring. It demonstrates that purely electronic proficiency is not the only way to create art, and a sensitivity to the acoustic side of things is just as valuable as reams of technical knowledge. I especially love her piece “becoming sounds 30 objects 10 minutes”, and I listen to it regularly.

Molasses Industries is another synth manufacturor that I think handles their business very well. Aside from the creative aspect of their work, which I admire greatly and would rant on and on about if this assignment wasn’t so focused on a practical career mindset rather than a creative and expressive mindset, they survive entirely on the proceeds from selling electronic instruments. This is a commendable feat, especially when one considers that they have only been operating as a commercial venture since covid hit hard (this is all referenced in an Instagram post by them, but for the life of me I can’t find it. Their Instagram is as follows: https://www.instagram.com/molasses_industries/ ).

Pricing for their units ranges from ~£200 to ~£500, which seems a lot more reasonable than Ciat Lonbarde, although they are a newer player in the game, targeting a slightly different (and more noisy) audience.

I think that Molasses pricing seems fairer than Ciat Lonbarde pricing. If I were operating on a similar pricing scale and I sold 1 unit a month, then I could afford to live off of 3 days work in a service job + synth profits. Selling 3 units a month, I could afford to do only 2 days in a service job. These numbers seem positive, and I think that after uni I could begin working fulltime, and then slowly transition (over 2 or so years) to part time work; 3, then perhaps 2 days a week. I am in this for the long game, I think. Perseverence pays off, I have heard.

Ciat Lonbarde, a company run by Peter Blasser, is a prominent synthesiser manufacturor operating in the realms of experimental electronics. His circuits are reasonably avante garde, with systems and topologies being named in an abstract artistic manner that does not necessarily conform to the typical VCA, VCF, VCO & VCF standard. This unconventional naming system is derived from creating circuits that operate outside of these norms; electronic circuits do not tend to behave in a manner that is so linear as to just be a VCA VCF etc, but they instead have a life of their own, with nonlinear performance and non-singular function being oft-arrived upon characteristics. Tugging and squishing circuits to behave linearly in a fashion that aligns to the common modes of synthesis is a game of slow, methodical precision that enforces circuits to adhere to our expectations via many extra modifications. If, instead, we look at basic circuit topolgies as the most fundamental expression of electronic musicality, we encounter surprising outcomes that contradict the regimented uniformality of commercially produced synthesisers.

Ciat Lonbarde charges (reasonably) large sums of money for their instruments, the cheapest sitting at ~£500 and the most expensive for ~£2000. I think that £1.5k for an electronic instrument is relatively steep, especially if it costs sub £200 to manufacture. In a similar vein, guitars and other instruments have large markups, but I somehow do not think that those are overpriced. Perhaps I shoudl re-evaluate the aspect of the ‘silicon luthier’ in making electronic musical instruments, and maybe I should aspire to charge more for my own instruments.

I was initially thinking of a price around £200-300 for my first run of instruments.

After I am finished with university I will need a workspace to do woodworking, for the enclosures of my instruments. I have done research into this, and have found a community led workspace in Herne Hill (20min cycle from me) that is only £25 per month (plus some donated time). There is a waiting list, so I will likely not be able to get onboard with things immediately, but I will be trying to make as many enclosures as possible within university while I still have access to the space. These enclosures will hopefully cover the waiting time that I have to face before starting in a studio. Besides, I doubt that I will sell many synths initially.

There are a handful of other options near(ish) to me but these are drastically more expensive. One in Battersea (£70 per day), one by Burgess park (£360+ per month) but these options do not seem favourable for a person of my woodworking abilities and financial backing.

I would also (in ideal circumstances) like to have a workspace to do my electronics work. I already have all of the necessary equipment to work efficiently and precisely, but I am growing tired of working in my bedroom. I think that for me, relaxing and working in the same environment is detrimental to my efficiency. It also lends itself to me trying to work constantly (at low productivity) with very little solid downtime. This seems to be slightly detrimental to my mental wellbeing. I do, however, think that acquiring this hypothetical workspace should be reserved for when I am making enough money to cover its associated costs, so I have decided to not research this side of things too heavily; most of the available workspaces are ~£150+, which is great but not ideal if I am not earning money from my creative work.

My website ( https://hywelpryer.hotglue.me/ ) advertising my electronics is up and running. I like the look of it, have embedded a demo video, linked my contact details etc.

Currently unsure how exactly to make it live; if the link is clicked, then it takes you directly to the webpage, but searching for the page gives no results on Google… will have to research a tad more.

This is a good step forward for me as this website can act as a good place to link to from my Instagram (likely the first point of contact for interested buyers) that can act as a definitive catalogue and showroom. I am planning on doing an instructional video that runs through the features of the synth to also link on the site – I reckon there are plenty of interesting ways for that to be done.

I also did a small photoshoot with my synthesiser, the result of which can be seen on the website. I am pleased with the outcome, despite the image not being as sharp as it could be. I feel that I should commit one way or the other, either lofi or hifi. Middling quality is slightly tacky, but deliberate low quality has its own charm.

My mind is presently occupied with how best to spend my time after university, and perhaps not so much occupied with getting through the last month of university. I am squinting my eyes and pretending that it (university) is not there, because I am struggling to cope with the notion of another four three weeks of this. I am dreaming of making my own synthesisers and selling them for £300-£500 apiece, whilst also working a service job, unless I can find work that is slightly more invigorating. My professional future looks less like -SOMETHING- and more like -NO UNIVERSITY-. At the moment, university deadlines and their associated work are occluding my thoughts and actions, as if I were thinking through sludge or goop. As a result, I have no large or long term goals, except for this hazy optimism through the mist that life will be better without deadlines.

The ‘CV’ segment of things seems straightforward, although I am wondering exactly how to frame it – since my aspirations are not so linked to employment, per se, I am slightly adrift as to how to angle the whole thing. The appraisal seems relatively straightforward as I can look at synth retailers, synth manufacturors etc, I just hope I do not get penalised for not having a ‘typical’ set of post uni expectations. The lack of obvious employers makes me think that I might have to adjust my goals (at least the goals that I claim to have in my submissions) to appease the mark scheme and thus get a good grade.

Today I’ve dabbled in some (low quality) filming + (high quality) audio recording to document my first synthesiser. Creating promotional content such as demonstration/documentation videos is an important next step, as I have my heart set on selling my electronics after graduating. The purpose is for documentation and promotion online, and I’ll be posting it to Youtube (I’ll have to make an account for my electronics) later today, as well as my personal Instagram.

Before I do so, I am interested in AI upscaling the footage, as the video was captured on a low quality digital camcorder. I like the aesthetic of the low resolution, but I think that interesting results may come from upscaling the footage. The frame rate is very low, and I think the look of interpolation with super low resolution could look fantastic. I’ve got my analogue oscilloscope wired up in the footage to provide some eye candy, and the low resolution and strange exposure makes it look very cool – with a smooth framerate, the choppy scope feed could turn into a pulsating organism.

After an hour or so of research I’m still hunting for (free) Mac AI upscaling options. ‘Flowframes’ seems to be the go-to for windows users, but is not compatible with Mac. I’m rabbitholing into open source software, and hating every minute of it.

After a further 30 minutes I am firstly feeling like lunch is needed before tackling this. Secondly I am thinking that non-ai frame interpolation might be worth a shot.

After a brief snack I’m now exporting the video (after fixing some corrupted frames and neatening up the audio a tad). Will be attempting to use normal frame interpolation rather than AI, which is a tad disappointing as I thought there might be some fun artefacts that arise from AI’s wonky ‘thinking’. Normal frame interpolation involves creating a frame between each pre-existing frame that contains the adjacent frames layed apon one another at 50% opacity. I’m a bit doubtful that this will work its magic, but will try.

A couple hours and a trip to the shops later, I’ve found a method of achieving some wacky interpolation, and am currently partway through the second attempt to render the video file: the first failed whilst I was at the shops, with no error message in sight upon my return.

The short clips below show samples of pre and post interpolation.

Second rendering attempt failed at roughly the same spot; I might just sack off the interpolation and keep it choppy. I still have ideas about using AI, downgrading the resolution and then using AI to upscale it back to peculiarity, watching what the AI does with very little to work with.