Bliptronic – it’s not just for blips anymore!
I’ve finally gotten around to recording my Bliptronic 5000, which was actually harder than expected. The headphone jack is plenty loud but really noisy (as you’d expect from a $50 synth), and the line-out jack sounds crystal-clear on speakers – but it turns out that I’d need a preamp to record from this.
After moderate success trying to use an equalizer to remove the noise, I decided to just accept it as part of the synth’s low-fi charm. I ran it through Garageband’s “Intense Whispering” effect, which gave it kind of a guitar-ey sound. When no notes played, the noise ended up sounding like a rhythm guitar. Turns out if you run synths through some distortion and play with the EQ, you too can sound like Justice!
I have a tendency to tinker and tweak music until it’s perfect, which means nothing ever gets finished or posted. I’m trying to break away from that, and in that spirit I’ve posted several minutes of crazy noises that I recorded last night. It’s not particularly polished, but boy does it sound cool. I recorded the Bliptronic in one take, and during the end part the synth is actually unplugged. It turns out that if you touch the end of an unplugged patch cable, that’s enough to create some interesting noises.
Listen at your own risk below.
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Well, actually, I imagine rave heaven involving glowsticks, loud music, and lots and lots of E, but one out of three ain’t bad. No, not that one, wise guy.