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We’ve started from the most general article and ended up
going through our childhood memories related to techno music and
audio equipment. After reading Dave’s article response I’ve
had another memory flash.
While living in Serbia as a refugee I was in close touch with the
most diverse technology. I lived in my uncle’s workshop -
and my uncle, well, he was a 50 year old mechanics/electronics nerd.
The place was full of goodies and unused parts so I took a liberty
to experiment with whatever was on hand.
One of the highlights would probably be a self-made electronic
keyboard combined with a sound distortion module. Now, how could
kid make something like this? The answer is simple – I didn’t.
The thing was just an old toy rejected by my little cousin Milos.
It used to be a compact version of a very primitive electric piano
and it didn’t work anymore.
I cannot remember in detail what I did to the thing, but one is
for sure, it wasn’t mean to be running on 12V. Couple of fixes
here and there and I made it play again, then I ripped off the front
panel revealing the primitive switches - copper coil touching the
circuit board. The thing was manufactured in Bulgaria so you can
imagine the technology.
Probably one or two square oscilators linked to a set of triggers.
The beauty of this device was in the fact that it was completely
analogue, so for example, if you pressed the trigger harder it would
cover the larger switch surface, making the contact stronger. This
would reflect on the intensity of the sound, pitch, distortion amount
and god knows what else. Sometimes you would get some weird interruptions
in the sound for no apparent reason – so I’ll just call
it a “filter”.
I remember it clearly, like it was yesterday. I bravely entered
the room full of frowned people. Everyone stared at the TV watching
the news to see when the freaking war is going to end. I plugged
the AC/DC adapter in the wall, grabbed my distortion module, like
you would hold a guitar, and said: “Uncle Uros, look what
I’ve made!”
I started playing “Ciciban”, the well known Yugoslav
kids tune. “That’s nice, now go back to the garage and
be quiet, we’re watching the news.” they said. I was
angry because no one gave me any credit for creativity, so I though
I’d abort the “Ciciban” plan and continue in a
bit of a free style.
The module sounded somewhat like a distorted electric guitar so
I went off rolling through the notes and pitches. It felt fantastic.
There was some real artistic potential in what I was doing there
- in front of everyone. I swear, at the time I thought I was as
good as Jimi Hendrix himself.
Everyone else thought I was retarded and aunty said I probably
have an ADD. So my gig was rudely interrupted and all the equipment
ended up flying across the backyard. All that happened in ’91
when and I was only 11 and I still laugh when I remember it –
the expression on my cousin’s faces – precious...
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