The Make Noise ‘Phonogene’ is a digital re-visioning and elaboration of the tape recorder as musical instrument. It takes its name from a little known, one of a kind instrument used by composer Pierre Schaeffer. It is informed by the worlds of Musique Concrète where speed and direction variation were combined with creative tape splicing to pioneer new sounds, and Microsound where computers divide sound into pieces smaller then 1/10 of a second to be manipulated like sub-atomic particles.

Having voltage control over every parameter, it is most dynamic as a digital audio buffer for the modular synthesist. The Phonogene is comprised of a pair of tool-sets, which work well together. Tape Music Tools allow for sounds to be recorded on the fly, layered using the internal Sound On Sound function, manually cut into pieces using the SPLICE function, and re-organized with the ORGANIZE control. Once it is spliced up, it is possible to create nearly infinite variations of the original loop by modulating the ORGANIZE parameter. VARISPEED allows for the speed and direction of playback to be controlled continuously with one control signal. GENE-SIZE, GENE-SHIFT and SLIDE make up the Microsound Tools. GENE-SIZE divides the audio buffer into progressively smaller pieces called Genes (aka particles, grains, granules). A clock signal applied to GENE-SHIFT will step through those pieces in chronological order, while a control signal (such as the Wogglebug Smooth CV) applied to SLIDE, moves through those pieces in a nonlinear fashion. Using SLIDE, random access of the audio buffer is possible. Obviously, functions such as VARI-SPEED and ORGANIZE are useful for Microsound as well, which is why these functions were grouped into one module. The end result is a sampler/looper/audio buffer that is able to exist within a modular synthesizer system, and offer a vast amount of real-time sound manipulation in a fast and tactile way. 

Features

• Sampler/Looper/Audio-Buffer Instrument Module
• NEW rev. 372 firmware with Improved Algorithm
• Broken ECHO Mode for realtime processing of audio signals
• Digital audio buffer for the modular synthesist, with voltage control over every parameter
• RECord sounds on the fly
• Layer sounds using the internal Sound On Sound
• Cut sound into pieces using SPLICE
• Re-organize pieces with the ORGANIZE control, infinite variations of the original recording possible by modulating ORGANIZE parameter
• VARI-SPEED allows for speed and direction of playback to be modulated continuously with one control signal
• GENE-SIZE, GENE-SHIFT and SLIDE allow for Granularization of RECorded sound
• Firmware Engineered by Tom Erbe and Flemming Christensen
• Pairs well with an iPod, Echophon and Wogglebug