LaptopNoise.com Artists using laptops in their noise setups

Artists and bands using laptops
in their experimental music and noise setups/performances

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Do you use your laptop to make noise and experimental music?

Send me via email a description of your setup software/hardware a short bio (100 words or less) and web address to your site/music. I'll include it as part of this site (listing on this site is not intended to be, or implied to be, an affiliation with or endorsement by LaptopNoise.com)
email me: noise@laptopnoise.com

Noise band Black Meat onstage at the
Masquerade Tampa 10-25-05

David aka. one half of "Switchonoff"

I just recently got more into noise, before I was making droney, (dark)ambient stuff. My setup constantly changes, sometimes it's laptop only, sometimes I combine it with other stuff like pedals, keyboards, circuit bent toys... the usual. Sometimes I use no laptop at all, but thats OOT! :)

When I use the laptop as the only sound source in the setup, and thats more and more often, I use my Doepfer "Pocket Control" midi controller (16 knobs to control good old ReBirth! Yep, ReBirth and with it's tons of mods avilable it' doesn't sound a bit like acid house! I punch both 303s through RBs' distortion and a bit of delay then I add some samples from the modded drum boxes wich usually go through the pattern filter and/or the distortoin as well. The 16 knobs control the 303s, all 4 instruments volumes, distortion shape/amount and the delay feedback. Twisting the knobs at 300-400bpm is a real joy, going down to about 20 bpm is sweet too, but all the usual speeds just sound too rythmic for my taste. The laptops' line out is summed and send through one or more of my pedals. (usually just my marshall shredmaster or the boss VT-1)

I made my own ReBirth mod thats geared towards making "noise" and I am currently drawing the shematics for a custom keyboard to launch patches. That'll beatleast cooler then typing on the laptops keyboard, perfomance wise... When using the laptop with other sound sources, I use it to run other instruments signals through some VST effects in a freeware host, again with my MIDI controller to manipulate the sound. Saves me buying a lot of pedals.

www.soundclick.com/switchonoff

impacttestdummy

impacttestdummy uses laptops in conjucntion with hardware synths and samplers to create dense dark organic sounding ambient noisescapes. Using ideas influenced by both modern experimental performers and the futurist composer's, impacttestdummy recreate experience that surrounds us all, as well as creating new noise from the combinations. Simply we are what we hear, see and feel.

Equipment list for impacttestdummy
mthead uses uses a Gateway PC M 1400 1.4GHz with Ableton Live3, Sound Forge7 and a M Audio Ozone controller, Nord modular, Yamaha A3000, Korg MS2000, DS Evolver, Korg Kaoss2
gregor v. Uses a Mac Titanium G4 with Plogue Bidule, Novation Nova, Waldorf Pulse

http://www.myspace.com/impacttestdummy
http://www.impacttestdummy.com

ReGurgiTron

ReGurgiTron uses a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz with Native Instruments Reaktor 4, Novation Remote 25, Pro Tools 7 (for editing and mastering). Other gear used includes Circuit Bent Casio CZ-101 and plenty of pedals.

http://www.myspace.com/regurgitronmakesnoise
http://www.regurgitron.com

Munnin

Joey's setup:
Hardware: 17" powerbook 1 ghz 1 gig of ram, nord modular, fender telecaster/gibson sg, m-audio audiobuddy, ernie ball volume pedal, korg kaoss pad, emagic 6|2, rain stick

Software: max-msp

George's Setup:
Hardware: Sony Vaio 2.8 GHz p4, 512 MB RAM, echo indigo DJ, Novation Supernova 1, M-Audio Radium 49, 9 channel Samson Mixer, DeltaLabs Effectron II delay processor, Contact Mic, Condenser Mic, Kenwood R-1000 Shortwave Receiver (production only)

Software: Max/MSP, Izotope plugins, Reason, Audition (production only).

My primary Max/MSP perform.patch is a set of 8 voices, which can switch between 4 different oscillator types: varied volume sine waves, variable triangle to saw, noise->bp with variable Q, and another one where i take a noise->bp and use that to read the triangle~ wavetable. All these have LFOs on timbre and on panning, and every LFO is variable by frequency, center position, and range. Accompanying this is a series of file loopers, and other playback devices.

The supernova i use for spacey noises as well as synth drones, and i'll occasionally sing.

My more harsh noise patch is a 48 band filterbank and distortion inside the feedback loop of a delay, this feeding into ring modulation, bitcrusher, more distortion followed by a stereo phaser to give depth.

We are currently in the process of building a modular fx unit, which will be mounted in a PAIA fracrack case.

http://comp20.eecs.tufts.edu/~glocke/sound

vedergaellning

Marco Wolf Heimburger
from Sweden:
This is what i use when i make noise (moslty powernoise but still - noise)

powerbook 1.67ghz with ableton live 5.03 and reason 2.5 as software

soundcard/mixer is motu traveler and echo indigo dj
(traveler in the studio and indigo dj for livepreformance)

Evolution UC33e midi mixer connected to ableton live - 8 chanels audio and the nineth chanel for sequensing hardware

hardwaresynth:

sidstation - mainsynth
microkorg - dustcollector
FB383 bass synth/ analog filter

hardware effects:
DOD dimension 12 delay/loopsampler (24 seconds at most)
Digitech Death Metal - you all know what is is
Zoom 505 II multieffect
Danelectro T-bone distortion pedal
other:
old tapedeck for tapecompression and drumnoise
Røde NT3
Amps:
Novanex Metalstarter
Novanex "6"

www.corpusanimalis.org

otolathe

k. paul

my setup is: 17" G4 1.5 and a Novation reMOTE audio 25. I push it through a MOTU 896 HD for live use (It gives me more input possibilities) through a pair of Mackie SRM 450 powered monitors. I run cubase sl3, reaktor, absynth, HALion, gLEETCHLAB, Reason 3.0, BIAS Peak, phatmatik pro, etc.

http://www.otolathe.com

Tobor Experiment

Maker of GLEETCHLAB (2.0 is now available)

Here a couple of interesting links of my laptop/software projects:

my 2 EPs are here:

http://beatpick.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=44

And my latest work is currently exposed at the Lovebytes digital Environments Festival in Sheffield UK.

http://festival2006.lovebytes.org.uk/events/exhibitions/bit-scapes.php

xingu

I mainly use an iBook G4 with Garageband for my recordings. It's a lot of found sound and musique
concrete stuff. The idea behind it is that sometimes sounds (such as frogs chirping or birds mooing)
that you find are more interesting and fun to listen to than somebody wanking out a crappy solo on a
guitar. I got into noise at the age of fourteen because I was tired of "conventional" music. Ever since I
discovered that feedback is awesome, I've been recording it ever since.

like I said, hardware/software includes:
iBook G4 (internal mic) w/ GarageBand
Korg Triton Le (61-key)

myspace.com/blackxingu

Bukkake Earlobe

My journey into the beautiful land of brutal noise began literally by accident: I had been using a defective PreSonus FirePod to record audio for a short film. When I later tried to combine this audio with the recorded video, I found that the audio was insanely distorted, and mangled with pops, stutters, clicks, etc. While this rendered it useless for use with the video, I realised that I could build an entire album, perhaps, from the cornerstone of this "accidental noise."

My current setup is pure laptop. I use a G4 1.04GHz iBook, and do all my composition in Cubase. Sounds - including guitars, keyboards, vocalizations, all sorts of various makeshift percussion, and more - are recorded via the laptop's built-in microphone, then are manipulated beyond recognition, mostly with standard Cubase EQ's and plugins. I've just recently looked into some of the free software you have linked to on laptopnoise.com, and have been experimenting with many more aural destruction techniques.

www.myspace.com/bukkakeearlobe

Alex Monk

I make laptop noise! I am a London based composer and use an Advent laptop, Ableton live 5.2, Novation bass station, 12 string acoustic guitar, electric six string, line 6 pod 2.0, Oxygen 8, Contact mics, a variety of excellent free plugins from KVR and field recordings.

www.myspace.com/alexmonk

Nanogoat, aka Lachlan Mooney

Nanogoat has often pondered about the possibility of a world existing outside nanogoat's studio. Lachlan has been quite adamant that the existence of this world in highly improbable and that speaking in first person is not really a worthwhile hobby, but nanogoat can be quite persuasive One day nanogoat decided that if such a world did exist, it would be a jolly sort of thing to attempt to move one's studio outside of one's studio into this theoretical world. After many failed attempts to fit nanogoat's computer into nanogoat's pocket, nanogoat decided that nanogoat should acquire some sort of smaller, more portable computer for this purpose, and so the story begins....

Nanogoats herd:

laptop
max msp
reaktor 5
nord micromodular
casio mt-35 (circuit bent)
roland tr-505 (circuit bent)
little talking scholar (circuit bent)
various mutated toys and circuit kits

http://members.optuszoo.com.au/lokmooney/

600 years in the future

I am known on stage as 600 years in the future. My setup is as follows: g4 powerbook running ubuntu studio os, Boomerang phrase sampler, edirol fa101 interface, Akai throat mic, puke jar (!!!), baloons. I use custom csound and puredata algorithms to reify my noise.

I don't really have a legit website per se but I have a dope ope pe e "myspace" site that goes by the moniker:

http://www.myspace.com/600yotf

Sharza Harza

I'm a noise artist from Moscow. I use a Mac G4 laptop w/ M-Audio FastTrack USB soundcard, Squire bass guitar with ZoomFX and some Behringer pedals, ESI MIDI keyboard, Ableton Live 5, Tracktion 2NFR and GarageBand sequencers, different VST/AU plugins and standalone apps like GleetchLab and other MAx/MSP stuff. You can listen to my noise on MySpace,

http://www.myspace.com/sharzaharza

or d/l some for free from Batman&Robin Records website
http://www.brrecords.com/

V000id - Dark and ambient soundscapes, rhythms and noise.
and VINCENT PRICE - Harsh noise.

As well as my laptop(Dell Inspiron 1720 running Vista+Ubuntu Studio) , a stereo and Zen micro MP3 player, I use (in Vista...)Impulse Tracker, VSTHost and many VST plugins/patches, FMOL, Reaktor, Granulab, FL Studio, Audacity and Soundforge, a few things from ixi Software (lauki, spindrum, crystals), plus random things i may come across or try one off for a project or fun. I drop to Ubuntu Studio sometimes to mess with a sample or create some noise but have yet to implement it to its full potential.

http://www.myspace.com/devnull000

Laptop Hell!
The noise ensemble created for Reaktor is ready to download free here....

Free Music & WAV files
Not everyone has time to create their own laptop noise, so I've made some for you to use and enjoy!