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WBLX 51 · Cascade by wblx kultur · project kwiet noise

Module RackOwner's manual · Vol. 1

Fifty-one modules, one clock, nothing sampled. Six steps take you from silence to a take you can keep.

Open the rackRead this once, then play
The guide: a young man with dark curly hair in a black blazer, white tee, black jeans and high-tops, sitting and looking to one side

1Power on

CASC 100 · master bus
The guide standing in a black blazer, one hand held out toward the power button

The guide saysIt strikes a gong when it wakes. That is how you know.

Nothing sounds until you press Power on. Browsers only allow audio after a click, so the rack waits for you. The button changes to Powered, the amber LED lights and a gong strikes once.

The Master strip sets volume, reverb, echo and tempo for the whole rack. Tempo runs from 60 to 180 bpm and starts at 112.

2Play something

CASC 201 to 904 · the modules
The guide crouching, pointing down at the keys

The guide saysPress Hear it on anything. Farmyard included.

Every module is a small panel with its own number. Melodic modules have a 13-note keyboard; percussion has pads. Click or tap them, or press Hear it on a panel for a short demo.

To play from your computer, press Keys on a module to arm it. A to K are the white notes, W E T Y U the black, and Z / X shift the octave, up to two either way.

Drones and Voices latch: click a key to start it, click again to stop. All off silences every latched note.

3Run the sequencer

CASC 101 · 16 steps
The guide sitting on the floor, one hand held out toward the grid

The guide saysRed is an accent. On the bongo that is a different drum, not a louder one.

Sixteen steps and ten rows: timpani, two congas, bongo, triangle, shaker, agogô, gong, djembe and udu. Click a step once for on, again for accent, again for off. Press Play and the telemetry line counts bars, beats and steps for all 51 modules.

An accent changes the stroke. The bongo jumps to the high drum, the triangle rings open, the agogô takes the high bell, the djembe slaps and the udu drips.

Start from a pattern: Samba, Bossa, Forró, Oom-pah, Gamelan or Djembe. Clear wipes the grid.

4Retune the rack

CASC 104 · tuning
The guide standing with his head tilted and his hands in his pockets

The guide saysA piano is tuned so it can change key. This rack never changes key.

One switch retunes all 51 modules. Each note is pulled to the nearest degree of the scale you choose and stays in its own octave, so every pattern still plays.

Ombak adds paired detune, the slow beating you hear between paired gamelan instruments. It starts at off.

5Record a take

CASC 102 · recorder
The guide in a denim jacket and spiral tee, one hand held out

The guide saysIt records what you hear. That is the whole trick.

Rec catches the master bus: everything played on the rack, live, until you press stop. Each take lands in a list with its own player.

Save a take as WAV or WEBM, or Remove it. Takes are numbered as they come: WBLX-51-CASC102-take-01, 02 and up.

6Mix down

CASC 103 · 12 tracks
The guide leaning forward on folded arms, legs crossed

The guide saysTwelve tracks, one module each. The stems come out separately.

Choose a module for each track you want. A track with a module on it is armed and its border turns red. Set the level, or Mute a track to take it out.

Hit Rec on the desk. Every armed track records its own module alone, in time with the others, so you can pull the stems into a desk of your own.

The guide standing with his hands in his pockets, looking away

If it stays quiet

No sound at all
Press Power on. The rack makes no sound until you do. Then check Volume on the Master strip.
Computer keys do nothing
Press Keys on a module first; only one module is armed at a time. Keys are also ignored while a slider is selected, so click somewhere else on the page.
A drone will not stop
Click its key again, or press All off.
The guide in a denim jacket with both fists in the air

Music is counting. Go and count.

Every sound on the rack is made live in your browser. These are the same voices used on WBLX 2002 to 2006.