Crackle box revisited

Ooh! I have done something bad! I opened up my crackle box sawing a part of the bottom off with a fine saw. I want to connect the output straight into my computer. That's whyh. It was actually forbidden by STEIM but what can you do with anarchist artists, right?

And after the sawing party, while I was looking for a shop to buy myself a plug thing (I actually don't know what they are called in English) I remembered good old THU20 and how we used to connect our analog gear with the boxes which are displayed here to the left. Guess what? A crackle box fits quite nicely inside such connector. So the next phase will be to solder the output of the cracklebox to connect it with the intestines of the THUbox and then (hopefully) rock on.

To make it all up I have ordered a second cracklebox which I will leave intact. Promise.

Read more...

crackle session #1

I did some serious tests with the crackle box today. I am slowly finding my way with the instrument. My difficult is to produce a steady tone. Most times the tone goes up (slowly or in a flash), I think because there is some kind of capacitator filling up electrons. But you can release the electrons by setting your fingers at different positions on the pads. Another technique is using a spike on the right hand side and the fingers on the left hand side. This enables me to produce much more subtle sounds.

I have recorded the crackle box with a MXL mic and did a second round with the MXL assisted by the binaurals. Let's see where that gets me. If I were to follow Michel Waisvisz's exact instructions I would not even be allowed to record this. Michel seems to have been a good Mensch (I didn't know him personally) but he was a bit too rabiate about performance art. The fact that the crackle box, even the new editions, have no line out plug is because you are not supposed to record it. Only perform with it. Right... So actually there should not be electric guitars either, I guess? Talking Heads wrote a nice song about this, come to think of it. Lemme see where the lyrics are.... ah here:

An electric guitar is brought in to a court of law
The judge and the jury (twelve members of the jury)
All listening to records
This is a crime against the state
This is the verdict they reach:

Never listen to electric guitar

Isn't that weird?

Read more...

Krrraakkkllll

Today I received a small package in my mailbox. After opening it I felt like looking into the past. A CRACKLE BOX!!!!! I first encountered a similar box to the one inside in 1984. It was owned by Kees, the bass player of VH De Straks, a local punk band (influenced by Wire, but singing in the Dutch language). I have since never had one in my hands. And now I have my own box. It's number 345 of an edition (the 4th) of 500. It is very cute and invites me to touch it all the time.

I was surprised to see that it is (almost) exact like the old ones. I expected to see a slot for a connection to a mixer or something like that. Instead it is still producing the noise through a tinny speaker. Which adds to the romantic feeling of course. The box is built with delicacy, just like a cigar box, out of cedar (?) wood, lackered.

You read all about the crackle box [ here ]

Thanks, Dick Rijken !!! I'm quite happy with my precious!

Read more...