The death of Mike Kelley is a huge bummer.

Unlike the first few weeks (or even months) after my 200 came to life (01.09) – which saw me running through some of the vast timbres the instrument is capable of with great abandon – I’ve been spending my time lately trying to examine subtle properties within the instrument and develop greater proficiency in playing and composing with it.

This often takes the form of small exercises.

I turned my attention this Saturday once again to the 221, and after concentrating for some time on the touchplate surface itself, I settled upon the joystick – or 2D voltage source as it is described on the panel. The initial purpose was to try to develop accurate control when using it in instances where it affects pitch – that is to say where any mis/use might be easily distinguishable by the listener. Seeing that the entire 221 moves laterally (to provide a proportional voltage output which one could use for vibrato, etc), one has to be careful when moving the joystick not to shift the entire surface of the 221.

In any case here is what resulted from the latest exercises – I offer you Holy Terror:

The track is comprised of three takes. In each, I gradually decreased the Y coordinate of the 221’s joystick, while using my other hand to modulate stereo placement of both 207 panning channels via the lateral CV output. The joystick’s Y axis CV was patched to the Primary Osc of a single 259. Amplitude modulation was being provided by the Modulation Osc, which was in turn phase-locked to the Primary Osc. The timbre section was being altered through some arbitrary 250e/266 strobe addressing (the details of which I can’t quite recall). The Primary Osc output is fed to a 292 channel (set to combo – knob at 100%), and sent to a panning channel of the 207 and a 275 channel with the send/return directly connected. This 275 mix output was then sent to the other 207 panning channel.