Author: Bendu

Bendu is Ben Vance, an electronic musician living in Los Angeles California.

A Silent June

I haven’t shared anything in June. I took a trip to France with my lovely wife and fantastic friends. And then the rest of the month was suddenly inexplicably gone.

I’m trying not to fret though and I’m plenty inspired so hopefully July will be more fruitful.

Custom Reverb Tank Switch

Just wanted to document John Noble’s fine work here. He modified my Doepfer a-199 Spring Reverb module to have 2 sets of  external tank connectors and a switch to change tanks on the fly. The replacement tanks that I found aren’t as loud as the one that came with the module but they still sound good and I like being able to choose different flavors of spring reverb. Thanks John! Continue reading “Custom Reverb Tank Switch”

Modular Strategy

My eurorack modular synthesizer is in a beautiful cherry cabinet designed by Matthew Goike. It was custom made for me and I’m very proud of it. Matthew’s standard design uses uncut vector rails that are 104hp long. I’ve heard of people being able to squeeze 105 hp into them. There was an issue with the wood of my case so matthew had to cut the rails. I had always assumed that it was exactly 104hp and planned my my module acquisition very carefully. I recently discovered while trying to fill a row completely that my rails are more like 103.9hp. So my careful plan has gone out the window. I’ve been in a kind of tail spin since. Continue reading “Modular Strategy”

Recent Inspirations

I’ve been listening to this box set put out by Basta called, “Popular Electronics: Early Dutch Electronic Music from Philips Research Laboratories 1956-1963.” It includes the complete electronic work of Kid Baltan and Tom Dissevelt. Electronic music created for ballet by Henk Badings, film scores by Dick Raaijmakers, and a disc of alternate takes and stems from Baltan’s work.

I ordered it from them directly as I couldn’t find a copy anywhere else and I’m glad I did. The packaging is great – there are a couple of printed scores, a small timeline poster, and extensive track notes to read while you listen. The album is available as a download from Amazon but the packaging is so wonderful I recommend tracking down a physical copy. After the break are some tracks from the album that Basta has on their Soundcloud account. Continue reading “Recent Inspirations”