Ciat Lombarde instruments

#1

Hi!
i have discovered this video
but i already know this instruments
I'd like to have this kind of instruments but it is too expensive, with axoloti how would you create this sound?

And the interface? are piezo under the wood?

Axoloti - volume change 7 sine oscillators
#2

what do you want to know, how to create the sound, or how it is controlled?
For the controls you could use something cheap like Korg nanoPAD and just use the controller values from the pads.

The sound in this video is mostly the result of the delay and reverb pedals, imho. with enough delay/reverbs everything sounds like ambient.

#3

MADONNA! those prices

#4

yeah, Ciat Lombarde have quite a following... (almost cult like :smile: )

theres very little details about exactly what their instruments do, so to replicate one would be nigh impossible, unless perhaps if you had one (I don't!)

from what Ive read, the important things seem to be...

  • tactile / physical - its about the interaction
  • lots of combinations, again teasing you to just plug stuff into other stuff to see what happens.
  • chaos... seems to usually have a certain random element to them

Id love to hear more from someone that has one, the concepts are really interesting... Id love to know how they play out in practice.

so I don't think I would try to replicate, but i think it would be interesting to try to build something in the same 'spirit'....

#5

it has seven wooden bars that you press to express seven oscillators
within. Each oscillator has its own fine tuning slider, embedded right
within its bar. Also, there is a master pitch knob, and a master chaos
knob. The master chaos knob makes the instrument go from pure triangle
tones to a nest of noise. It does this by gradually increasing
modulation from one oscillator to the next in a circular pattern.

of course the 'chaos' is probably just FM (or AM) modulation.
So, all you need 7 tunable oscillators, master pitch knob, and some FM. and because FM often sounds harsh in digital circuits I would put a LP filter somewhere to smooth the sound.

#6

and 10 second long reverb

#7

probably just force sensing resistors (FSRs) - like in many pad-like controllers.

#8

The pedant in me feels obliged to point out that its Ciat Lonbarde with an "n", not an "m". I've played with the Shnth and one of the Ieaskul F. Mobenthey eurorack modules briefly, and came away more confused about how they work than before.

#9
  • Not cross-posting - I tried patching something simple with 7 sine osc controlled thru midi cc; its in Your Music/Projects :wink:

And, yes fell in love with those instruments.

#10

you inspired me to have a bit of a play with this yesterday...

basically I used the soundplane (in mpe mode) , and driving 7 oscillators, using pressure for amplitude, and Y for FM both within within one oscillator and between oscillators.... (of course X is pitch) - sounded really good with an external reverb (not really got an axoloti verb i like yet)

I think my next step though, is to try some alternative control methods... perhaps dedicating areas of the surface to an oscillator, and using one of more XYZ zones for each oscillator.
(the issue being I want to control FM on an individual oscillator, separately for the FM between oscillators)

#11

Great to hear :wink:
It IS liberating other expressive ways to have, as you say alternative control methods (again you seem to "read-in-between-the -lines)

I will refine patch using Johannes tips (in the end I did manage to get away) and will focus on MPE /Continuum of course.

Reverb - lines of delays?? many of them ? (also have a new "toy" in the house for this, starts by an H

#12

Actually, the 'bars' have round piezo disks glued to the center. Piezos generate a voltage proportional to their flexing and Peter uses this voltage a a modulation source. As I recall, that voltage is generated only while the bar is being flexed (moving), so if you could possibly hold the bar in a fixed state of flexure, no voltage would be produced. You could certainly try this on an Axoloti analog input port and see what happens. One could also experiment with a pressure sensor as Johannes suggested, but then you need to glue it in place on the top of the bar so that direct pressure can be applied. Resistive pressure sensors do not respond to shear stress as piezos do.The reason as to why the piezo disks respond to flexure on the backside of the bar is due to shear mode generating a voltage. As for the Ciat Lombarde circuitry, much of it can be found on Peter's website, however some intensive searching (and decifering) may be required.