Devil Fish mods to the TB-303:

Press Release 17 September 1996

This is: http://www.firstpr.com/rwi/dfish/df-pr1.html

Details of my Devil Fish modifications for the Roland TB-303
can be found at:

    http://www.firstpr.com.au/rwi/dfish/ 

There was supposed to be a Devil Fish press release today, but 
things have gone awry and I offer the following report in lieu . . .

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17 September 1996     Real World Interfaces    Melbourne Australia

This morning when I arrived for work, I found the office in 
disarray.  Real World Interfaces Corporate Communications Manager, 
Lydia Tingle, had worked late the night before, after I saddled her 
with the responsibility of finalising the Devil Fish press release 
by this morning.

A note on my desk provided some clues:

    I just can't do it!  Maybe it can't be done.
    How can you put this monster into words??

    Sorry, Robin, you will have to finish the release.
    
    I am confined to bed tomorrow - exhaustion, Doctor's 
    orders, you know.

    -  L.
    

I had recently sent Lydia on a weekend intensive with Gonzo 
Marketing Inter-Global, and was confident she was up to the task of 
publicising the Devil Fish TB-303 mods.  She had returned wild eyed 
and exhausted - jabbering about inflaming desire, pushing buttons 
*hard*, ripping the fabric of discourse and such-like.  

For a moment I thought of Hitler's comment about wanting to be 
afraid of Germany's youth.  Certainly such rabid, irrational 
marketing approaches would bring normal businesses into disastrous 
conflict with the public, but I felt some of this energy was 
appropriate for the Devil Fish campaign.

Lydia's desk was a mess. It and the general vicinity was strewn with 
various small objects - some of which had fallen from their proper 
positions.  The office speakers were propped on her desk as if she 
was to be the focus of their emanations.  The computer was turned 
off.  The melted remains of two candles were in saucers immediately 
in front of the loudspeakers.

Her work had evidently been done with bright coloured felt tip pens 
on the sheets of paper which were now strewn about. I collected 
those which had not been screwed up and sorted them according to 
their degree of abandon.

The best samples of Lydia's work last night are presented below, and 
will stand forever as the official Real World Interfaces press 
release for the Devil Fish modifications:


*  Robin Whittle's Devil Fish modifications to the Roland TB-303 
   Bassline greatly expand the sonic and external control 
   possibilities of the well known acid machine.

*  Once heard, never forgotten, Robin Whittle's "Devil Fish" 
   modifications to the TB-303 provide unique sonic possibilities 
   as well as external inputs for CV and audio signals. Audio 
   modulation of the filter frequency from the output of the VCA and
   from external signals is just one of the fiendish changes which 
   will incite artists and audiences into new levels of . . . 

*  Music, and other some delights, will never be the same. The 
   period before the Devil Fish will be seen by future generations
   to be quaintly restrained.

*  The Devil Fish modifications to the TB-303 transform the silver 
   "Acid Box" into a pumping, ticking, screeching, wailing, brain-
   frying, flesh-spanking, soul-wrenching, button-throbbing,
   searing-hot, Dance-Crazy MONSTER . . . . 


Chocolate wrapping, empty cups and glasses and scribbled 
abstractions were all over the place. Her chair was pushed far away. 
The office handweights had obviously been part of some kind of late 
night aerobic dance session Ms Tingle had instigated.

On Lydia's desk, the Devil Fish sat blinking.  The tempo was set 
high and the volume was fully cranked. The amplifier was turned up 
and I touched the Run/Stop like an archaeologist taking a breath of 
entombed air.  It was fast and hard and totally at odds with the 
office's morning ambience.

. . . 


As Flaming Carrot once observed:

        Everyone is going places and doing things!
        In that building, a man walks to the window and yawns ... 
        Meanwhile; typewriters chatter, phones ring, knuckles crack,
        pencils sharpen, skirts rustle, water runs through pipes ...
        As mouse in wall chews a tiny piece of bread!
        All so Perfect!
        All so Good!

Yes, the pleasures of the gentle mechanisms of Ordinary Life.

What would Carrot have made of Lydia Tingle's scattered workout 
space and scribblings?

Here was evidence of physical dissipation, mental exhaustion, a 
destructive excitement - and oscillations under duress.  Lacking 
insight into the urge for integration with the convulsive, orgiastic 
heart of existence, an observer might decry this as evidence of 
misadventure - perhaps even as a denial of life itself.

Flaming Carrot knew that Ordinary Life was not enough. 

To tear it to shreds, with pleasure, is surely the work of the 
Devil. 

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 Robin Whittle CEO   Real World Interfaces  Hardware and software -
                                            especially for music

 http://www.firstpr.com.au/rwi/             rw@firstpr.com.au

 Heidelberg Heights  Victoria  Australia 
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