Maker Music Festival: Pedeplei

Realtime music creation with live looping. I use the iPad as a looper and FX unit, mainly for realtime granular synthesis. I also use a couple of DIY synths and a DIY footswitch.

I started Pedeplei because I really enjoyed watching Tim Exile and Beardyman create music without previous planning. I come more from a sound engineer background than a musician, so I concentrate on using sounds more than melodies. The project started in 2017 when a thug stole my laptop with a bunch of pending projects and I decided to start using my old iPad 2. The iPad gave things a very tactile experience, it is as if you can actually touch the sound in apps such as Samplr and Borderlands Granular. I also wanted to make my own synths, mainly because I couldn't afford buying analog synths. I experimented with square wave oscillators and tried to make my own version of the Bastl Kastl. My Kastl didn't really work as I expected but I still like the quirks and errors it brings. Then I also thought that it would be awesome to use my feet to control the looper in my ipad (I was using loopy HD at the time) so I made an arduino midi footswitch. I got to perform at the Mexico Y2K international live looping festival in 2018 and got invited to play at the Y2K International Live Looping festival in California. I learned a lot from watching other performers and I also saw a few of them using contact microphones, specifically Martin Janyzcec from Czech Republic. He makes "sound sculptures" which are sculptores but more that the art shape, he is focused on the sound they make and he then performs with them. For the festival he only brought a Wood board with strings on it and used a contact microphone. So I copied his contraption, a much smaller board with rubber bands and the contact microphone and then decided to put the piezo disc inside a tin can and have been experimenting with contact microphones ever since. As I mentioned, I am a fan of Beardyman, so I've always been trying to do what he does (in a way) using just one iPad. I still cant do all the crazy sound mangling he does, but I have fun just sampling and looping my voice.

What inspired you to do this?

I didn't have money to buy analog synths and Look Mum No Computer made it look easy to build your own analog synths.

How long did it take to make it?

It's an ongoing project. The simple oscilator took me a couple of hours to put together, the semi modular digital synth was about a month. Puting the contact microphone inside the tin can and then the springs and screws to place the rubber band takes like two hours at the most, mostly because I don't have the right tools to make holes in the tin can.

How long have you been doing things like this?

I started back in 2018.

How much did this cost to do?

The simple oscilator is like $10, the semi modular digital synth was about $50. The tin can is less than $10.

Have you done other things like this?

I have a USB midi foot switch that I use to control the looper in my iPad.

What did you wish you knew before you started this?

How to solder properly. I messed things up a lot before taking a soldering lesson from a friend.

Are there plans available to make this? Do you sell this?

I sell the tin cans as merchandise, If I have a new release I also glue a download code to them, so they are also music album.

What’s next?

I want to put a contact microphone inside a plastic jar and add a circuit so that everytime I hit the jar a light lights up, maybe different color depending on how hard I hit it.

Resoures?

I started by watching Look Mum No Computer making a 555 oscilator. I also got a copy of Make: Analog Synthesizers and Bastl have a lot of schematics in their GitHub.

I am a sound artist and live looping artist. My most recent project, Pedeplei, is about creating sound pieces or songs realtime. I have made a few simple oscillators and a semimodular digital synth that doesn't really work as I expected it to work; but it gets the job done. What I enjoy the most is using my mouth to make noises and then processing them and also using contact microphones as sound sources and triggers. I also have a long distance realtime collaboration project with fellow sound artist Omar Soriano; we use Endlesss to make things work.

How I can help you:
If you want to reach spanish speaking people, I can help translate. I can also offer tutorials on how to start if you want to make your own oscillators or contact microphones.

How you can help me:
Like and comment on social media. Also, if possible suscribe to my bandcamp.

If you like this project, please make a small donation to the artist.