Cicada: Making Modular A Playable Instrument

Vibrators, rubbers, and lasers. This is the life. 😎
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Laser video referenced in the beginning: • Fun With Lasers And Au...
Those lovely custom acoustic panels in the background: psyacoustics.com
Timespampz
0:00 - Yapping
3:37 - The Basics
5:35 - Vibrations
6:18 - Sound FX & Drones
9:31 - Rhythmic Oscillation
11:37 - Feedback Oscillation
13:25 - Fluid Oscillation
16:38 - LASERS
19:53 - Yapping
#modular #synthesizer #musicproduction

[@physicalsynthesis]

Wild experiments and use of Cicada Benn! Thanks for walking us through your process there!

[@cedwards427]

I could easily be mesmerized by an hour of staring at Lissajous patterns and listening to the associated sounds.

[@SamuelCape]

Benn! Great video - mad respect. I'm going to be performing w/ the Cicada at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition March 12 at Ga Tech. Your video is inspiring and I appreciate your content. You should come out!

[@coltranius]

When you started playing the first time my one year old son was utterly captivated. Each time you started playing he stopped playing and turned to the TV.😊

[@orbik_fin]

The feedback oscillator idea is fascinating. With a variable digital delay in the loop, you could control the pitch with a keyboard. You'd then play a note by touching the pickup with the reed and lift it to stop. Touching in different spots, perhaps with different materials in between should change the character of sound.

[@iamsushi1056]

Ok. We seriously need more videos with fun sound effects on a normally somewhat serious channel like this.

[@MisterConscio]

This make me realise i still got a lot to learn about sounds. Fascinating experiments.

[@physicalsynthesis]

An ever-evolving journey @Senhor Conscio!

[@WorldFungusChamp]

I absolutely love the concept behind Cicada and I am really happy that you've made this comprehensive overview of their device. I wish their products were a bit more price accessible, but hopefully one day I'll be able to save up for one of their kits.

[@physicalsynthesis]

Appreciate your comment @WorldFungusChamp! We are working hard to continue making Cicada as accessible as possible while... you know... hardware is hard! Feel free to check out the different bundles av. on our store that can get you started nicely with acoustic synthesis. Let's be in touch

[@latergarside-244]

13:09 sounds like some TOOL to me haha. Very cool

[@SoundSimulator]

That laser oscilloscope experiment is amazing! Great vid as always!

[@DashGlitch]

whoah this is amazing!

[@monotronfan1]

That laser experiment sounds exactly like a vectrex. I should contact mic mine lol

[@Promethalus]

everything for music, accept placing water that dangerously close to you modular! admittedly, that was a super exciting part of the vid, especially once you started taping the thermos in the direction of your rack, omg, would never dare. disclaimer: don't try this at home

[@ihopethis1]

Super cool! Some of the sounds you were making reminded me of stuff off of the Pathologic 2 soundtrack!

[@medenine4828]

Sounds phenomenal.

[@physicalsynthesis]

AGREED;-)

[@mioszkarpowicz3012]

A lot inspiring stuff on your channel. Thanks for that!

[@AreaNeofob]

Crazy sounds! I love them!

[@radiomorph]

7:07 That reverb!

[@ultratone]

Don’t think I’d have the patience to make these sounds happen, but many times I said “make a song out of that”, or “sample that one”.

[@RPLKTR]

Awesome video, eccentric product. The shimmering reverb is pulling a lot weight here. The laser experiment clicked with me: this sounds and looks like Metaphysical Function, Skrewell, and Space Drone from Reaktor's factory library.

[@staciaward]

WOW!!! You rock! I had NO idea & am sooo thankful to have found your channel & learned something I kinda knew but not to the extent of this- Im hooked & will be sharing & watching - 😊

[@rdean150]

@8:14 ok now you have my attention

[@quadcam24v]

17:43 every modular owner felt this in their soul ;)

[@tlatsegms]

Great sound⚡️

[@curcapsicum]

Absolutely fantastic.

[@aaronthompson317]

You are indeed a Mad Scientist Ben!

[@PeterJnicol]

Ok - so, once again, you do the most interesting things with sound. \

[@Blindrage8387]

Bro. Wtf. That was cool as shit.

[@finitesound]

Phenomenal stuff.

[@caro_lam]

woah

[@alexgrunde6682]

Hard to tell from the video, but I wonder if you could have the cicada sit on a resonant instrument, like the strings of a piano or a snare drum, such that it’s both “playing” the resonant instrument and the modular system at the same time.

[@benjaminschwartz63]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmWalqWFm7ithqM !

[@physicalsynthesis]

@@benjaminschwartz63 thank you Benjamin! Maysun recently demonstrated that beautifully @Alex Grunde. Tones of great applications possible with other acoustic instruments #purpose

[@jonaseggen2230]

That reverb pedal, I think I heard somewhere that this is the best reverb pedal ever. Hm, .. Wonder where that might have been? Anyway. Great inspiring video as always + kudos to Cicada for innovation and effort etc. On this note I find it a bit strange that we don't see more experimenting with, or a faster evolution of controllers for eurorack. One could sort of expect it to be loads of funny DIY controller projects presenter here on YT. I don't know much about electronics but Imagine making an interesting module, aka not same as to many others, must be much harder and more complex than making a controller? One real question though. Why is the case for these "things" so big? Oh, and great sounding demo. Been to plenty of noise, prog jazz and classical modernist concerts, pluss anything imaginable done with audio in artschools, and think this was among the better of the experimental stuff I heard in a long time.

[@physicalsynthesis]

Thank you for leaving a comment @jonas eggen! One behind-the-scene indirect announcement about interesting modules, stay tuned... ;-). To your question about the Nanuk 935 Flight Case: as musicians ourselves, we wanted Cicada to be easily carried on the road as possible and put a lot of efforts in designing the inside of the case. The 13 respective compartments (carrying 18 components in total) are all well isolated and protected inside the robust foam material. Not a large system, but that definitely adds up quickly!

[@jonaseggen2230]

@@physicalsynthesis Thank you : )

[@jonpatchmodular]

17:30 at last a bit of safety around here, be safe kids

[@24x7arts]

So much fun! Did you try blowing bubbles into the water?

[@ch4lk250]

i really think this instrument should be used in a videogame, would add so much

[@JackKnight-v6g]

I sampled a thumped ruler buzzing on a table edge for a wompy synth in a Dr M track once but this is a whole other level. As a modular video artist im noticing similarities to this in using a camera and tv to create feedback art and background textures. Hmmmm video resonator - what a thought, like flashing an image on a tv with a camera filming that back to that tv but at perfect aspect ratio to hold that image as feedback which would slowly degrade visually but not in size. Its not easy to describe but as a fellow entropist (?) I’ll give it a shot lol. On paper seems like cranking feedback to full on a delay pedal and plucking a single note, but with video 🤔

[@pamdemonia]

How did people use electronic gear before loopop?

[@Cray23_Official]

If it could cost like half of its asking price:( still would be too expensive for me to afford it anyway but I would like that. Currently working on something similar like transducer to pickup mic through all sorts of metal structures but having lot of problem with amplifier stage as it produces lot of noise but here is a proof that it can be clean and crisp. Excellent video, subscribed and added your music to my 🍏 music lib. Absolutely dig your stuff. Keep it coming

[@HumbleDoug]

So cool! God some of this gave me goodbumps, I want to start making music so bad.

[@skeetsmcgrew3282]

To quote Towlie from South Park "I have no idea whats goin on"

[@AlistairKarim]

Sir, i must admit, you have quite a taste in audio related weirdness. Btw, those drones reminded me "404.zero" band\project, like a lot. I wonder if they use similar pickup system, even if different exciters.

[@Lcrymlgy]

Been drooling for the cicada since it was first announced, I'm sad it's *so* expensive

[@K0r0n1s]

When I'll catch myself using condoms for musical purposes I know I've made it as a creative musician :-D

[@MakeKasprzak]

Oh man, after hearing the water pouring sounds, I was hoping you'd break-out a straw and "disturb" the water. 😋

[@antagonizingusername]

Are you saying he should have peed into the vase?

[@thirteenthnile3536]

@@antagonizingusername Is peeing through straws a thing now?

[@jtr11095]

It’s like a reed/percussion type synth instrument in a way right?

[@physicalsynthesis]

@J Rob all 3 different Soundboards have been designed to be playful and reactive to touch/percussion/interactions. You can find 4 highly precise FSRs on each quadrant of the Soundboard that let you explore these reactions with even more play 👍

[@segfault-berlin]

Use of SATA cables to connect the transducers is very disapointing, those connectors are rated for only a few dozen plug unplug cycles and are very easilly snapped from repeated stresses. Not a good fit for a experimentation platform that vibrates. I expect physical synthesis will have to do a lot of repairs on those connectors over the coming years. :(

[@physicalsynthesis]

Thanks for leaving a comment @L Brown. We use a custom SATA Cable 7CH, and add a finishing process that strengthens them. The reason for developing this is that we needed a lightweight cable system that was different from Eurorack cables (for safety to other people’s gear since we’re driving higher voltages through them), and we needed to carry at minimum 7 signals at a time. Thankfully, they’ve been pretty reliable so far! 👍

[@segfault-berlin]

@@physicalsynthesis thanks for clearing that up, looks like you put a lot of thought into the design.

[@physicalsynthesis]

@@segfault-berlin Doing our best to provide both a fun & reliable instrument! By artists for artists ;-). Thanks for plugging in!

[@jonpatchmodular]

Very fascinating! After seeing this the Mikrophonie module feels like a joke :P

[@RPLKTR]

Not really. Mutable Instruments Ears, an improved Mikrophonie, costs 100 EUR. Cicada costs $2300. You could get twenty of them for the price of the Cicada. Or get "just" two, and spend the remaining $2000 on a euro case with power, Beads, and StarLab.

[@Ranchpig67]

Too bad this wasn't around for Pink Floyd. Imagine what they would have come up with.

[@davidforrester2106]

Cool sounds, thanks for the demo. That price though! Could make a DIY version of this for pennies

[@RabRabNZ]

now do it with reverb off

[@ts4gv]

……what the fuck

[@ts4gv]

this is amazing

[@sepixsound]

If you had just said something i'd have lent you my heater which also produces this exact annoying sound :)