One hundred and forty two (Polyend Synth/Digitakt) Steve Rutherford 2026-09-21 | One hundred and forty two (Polyend Synth/Digitakt)
American copper - a cover of a Loam song Steve Rutherford 2025-09-26 | A cover of a song from Loam's new album. Devin was kind enough to send over the vocal stem and so I put this together. I deliberately didn't listen to the album version when making this but I suspect it's quite different. Not least because Devin presumably didn't drown her vocals in quite as much reverb!Huge thanks to Devin and the guys. I hope you like it.The original version: youtube.com/watch?v=EXuD7TxjicsMore about Loam: instagram.com/loam_theband
Inkyfest 25 Steve Rutherford 2025-09-19 | Three new tracks for Inkyfest!1. Midnight 2. Fading3. LightKit:- Digitakt - drums etc.- Digitone - bass- Typhon - bleeps/bloops- Minifreak - pads- Guitar
Elephant (A jam with Paul Torchcore Chamberlain) Steve Rutherford 2025-08-31 | Paul and I met up in Elephant and Castle for a really fun afternoon of jamming. This is our entry for the HWJ 'Heavy Construction' challenge. Paul was in charge of vaguely industrial beats and I just played the guitar as usual.There’s another jam here on Paul’s channel: youtu.be/U4trrnZ1O9E?si=HjerKtKst2-j0X-Q
Arequipa Steve Rutherford 2025-08-10 | Mrs R and I are in Peru for a few weeks but fortunately, I brought a musical box to jam with - Model:Cycles in this case. This is an entry for the Hardware Jams jam from scratch challenge where you start with nothing and build up a track of some description.
The return of the rain (Norns l_ll l_ and Model:Cycles) Steve Rutherford 2025-07-19 | After what seems like weeks of hot dry weather, it is raining heavily in London and I'm liking it! This is a jam that hopefully has some triplets in it for the HWJ triplet challenge. Continuing the theme of me buying something, selling it and then re-buying it again, we have:- my second Norns running l_ll__l_. (a generative drone that you can hear at the ends and throughout)- my second Model:Cycles- a guitar that I don't play enough- a new pedalboard that is enormous and has yet to leave the houseIn typical wifely fashion, Mrs R comments that "there's nothing offensive" about my jam. Faint praise. I'll try harder to be offensive next week!
Dream sequence - (with Norns running the NDLS script) Steve Rutherford 2025-07-12 | This is a very freeform jam with guitar and iPad samples feeding into a Norns Shield running the (pretty awesome) NDLS looper script. The jam is also a submission for the Hardware Jams 'One box on fire' challenge. Admittedly, this is more of one box + a couple of other satellite boxes sort of a situation but I'm sure that these are guidelines rather than rules (Pirates' code etc..).
Summer drone Steve Rutherford 2025-05-25 | A drone-y track for the Hardware Jams 'Drone' challenge.My Digitakt is at Elektron's digi-hospital having a new screen fitted and so this time we have a Digitone + the two nanobox synths. In an exciting development (for me at least), a new CME Midi box means that I can use USB-only devices to control MIDI-only synths. In this case, a Launchpad X to control the Digitone levels and a tiny 8 fader midi controller from 8mu to mess about with the drone sound from the Nanobox Lemondrop. Musically-speaking, this drones on in D minor and most of the guitar is Bm7b5 arpeggios (because, you could think of this as D dorian and, if you did, then you could use any of the arpeggios from the C major scale, including Bm7b5)
Organic v2 Steve Rutherford 2025-04-26 | This week’s hardware jams challenge was a long story about mutant plants. This track adopts a slightly organic sound for some of the percussion but that’s about as close to the challenge subject as I managed to get!Chords:Fmin9 to Abmaj7Kit - Digitakt with the guitar plugged in the back. All processed in Logic using Overbridge which is a bit of a revelation as I can now play with the individual tracks..
Agent 606 - take 2 Steve Rutherford 2025-04-14 | A little distortion on the first version so here it is again..--Here is my attempt at some sort of spy-related theme for this week’s HWJ music challenge.. The main spy-like thing here is the use of the E minor major 9 chord which “evokes a sense of mystery, tension, and intrigue, often associated with spy or suspenseful scenes in movies and television shows” (according to google!)Anyway, the chords are:- F#m7b5- F9 - EmMaj9
Mesmerise Steve Rutherford 2025-04-06 | A track without guitar (as you can't just have noodly guitar on every track! ) I recorded a video of something this morning, hated it and then started again and came up with this. What does it have to do with this week's Hardware Jams 'hypnotic' challenge? Well, the pad sound throughout is a sample of a glass armonica instrument similar to that used by Franz Mesmer in his therapeutic treatment of patients. (albeit pushed through a granular synth to make it fluttery) Mesmer, an 18th-century physician, is often regarded as a pioneer in the study of hypnosis and he believed that the glass armonica's music could promote healing by propagating a mystical fluid through the body.
03.03 Steve Rutherford 2025-03-02 | News at my end is: - Spring has more or less arrived in London- Mrs R won the 'pinch/punch, first of the month' game for the third time this year.- I have started playing a game about a cat (Stray). After an unfortunate period when 'Oliver' the cat was being repeatedly murdered by a horde of rat-like animals, he is now alive and well and making his way back to his friends. Gaming has come on a bit since I played 'Prince of Persia 2' on my Amiga!Chords for this (for future reference):Am6 | Caug | Am6 | E7b9. (all from the A melodic minor scale)
A I R Steve Rutherford 2025-02-16 | A video about air, inspired by a preset on the 1010 Lemondrop synth that had wind in the title.. Originally this had a more chords and a different bit in the middle but I cut it back as it was sounding a bit twee somehow. Kit:Digitakt,Digitone1010 LemondropGuitarChords (for future reference): Cm | G# (just Cm in the middle bit)
Decay (Live from Candid Arts Trust) Steve Rutherford 2025-02-09 | The final track from last week's gig
Cadmium (Live from Candid Arts Trust) Steve Rutherford 2025-02-09 | Another one from our gig the other night.
The Maze (Live from Candid Arts Trust) Steve Rutherford 2025-02-07 | Another track from last night's gig at Candid Arts Trust (complete with 45 seconds of up front trumpet noodling.. )
10:15 Power Cut (Live from Candid Arts Trust) Steve Rutherford 2025-02-07 | Adrian and I had a really fun gig at Candid Arts in Islington last night. Lovely people and great music all round.There are a couple of extra tracks that I'll process later but I thought I would get these ones up first.Stuff that we carried to the gig(!)---Synths / drums: Digitakt + DigitoneMixer: Zoom L-6Guitar pedalboardGuitarTrumpetGoat hornFlugelhorn
The 1000 year waltz - TAKE 2 Steve Rutherford 2025-01-30 | The same track as I posted at the weekend but this time with Adrian on trumpet.GIG DETAILS... We will be playing in a venue in central London on 6th Feb - http://bit.ly/3WFXwKd. On at 8ish for about 30 mins. Would be great to see people in the real world!The original video is here - youtu.be/P15OgwbEvkE
The thousand year waltz Steve Rutherford 2025-01-26 | An experiment for me in Neo-Riemannian theory where you ignore the concept of a musical key for a bit. (See this video for more on that: youtube.com/watch?v=IoDW1Nx1NaU)The chords are:Main bit - Bm | G | Dm | BbOther bit - Gm | C#m
Mordros Steve Rutherford 2024-12-30 | A festive jam for Cornish Waves Music. Happy Christmas Paul!Featuring new kit: - a Minifreak (You need at least one of these if you are going to do a jam inspired by CWM)- a 1010 music Lemondrop to mangle a bit of one of Paul’s jams (the granular sound at the beginning and throughout)Oh and Mordros means ‘waves’ in Cornish - or so said Google.
Cadmium Steve Rutherford 2024-12-05 | More jazzy noodling with me and Adrian. Chords (should you wish to join in at home..): Cmaj7 | Ebmaj7 | Dbmaj7 | Ebmaj7. Gear-wise it's just the usual stuff - - Guitar by Duesenberg- Pedalboard (HX stomp for effects, DSM Simplifier DLX for amp simulator)- Digitakt II + Digitone for drums/synths- A trumpet of some description from Adrian.
Bergen - Guitar / Trumpet and Digitakt II/Digitone Steve Rutherford 2024-10-31 | Adrian is back for more jamming. This time at a friend's house who generously lent us his studio for the evening. (Thanks Tony!)
Decay - Digitakt II and looped guitar Steve Rutherford 2024-10-20 | Playing with short and long notes for a hardware jams challenge about decay. Two different guitar loops and four patterns to switch to made this a bit of a multi-tasking headache. Oh and the chords didn’t help - Cmaj7 to Ab major means I’m trying to play Em pentatonic over the C and Cm pentatonic over the Ab. No chance of that going wrong then!Guitar stuff: ToneX (amp sim) + HX Stomp (effects) + Infinity looperSynth stuff:- Digitakt II - drums/sequencing - Digitone - bass- Microfreak - pad- Typhon - bleeps and bloops
Snow | Mist | Hot - Another travel jam with the Digitakt II / iPad Steve Rutherford 2024-09-14 | A travel jam from Spain with a Digitakt connected to an iPad via a USB cable. Much less frustrating than my earlier more complciated set up with the Launchpad.Equipment:- Digitakt II- Zeeon (iPad synth for bass and lead)- Quanta (Granular iPad synth for the pad sound)Setup:- iPad connected to Digitakt with a USB C printer cable (for both MIDI and audio)- Digitakt outputs connected to audio recorder. - iPad synths running in AUM with specific midi channels
Estepona - Digitakt II and Spanish guitar Steve Rutherford 2024-08-26 | A two box jam from scratch - one guitar, one Digitakt.. (for this week’s HWJ challenge)The chords are a little more complicated than usual and so there’s a bit of me changing scales/arpeggios as they go by (which is why it took me about a million takes to get it to the point where I was even vaguely happy) Chords (if you want to jam along) areAm11 / Gmaj7 / Bm7b5 / E7b9 / Am6 / E7Except in the middle break where I swap out the E7b9 for Bb9 in the first recorded use of a tritone substitution on this channel(!)Anyway. Onwards and upwards. Love to all.
The Shift Steve Rutherford 2024-08-24 | More jazzy jamming with Max on keys and James on bass.Digitakt II on drums etc.A new ToneX pedal for guitar amp tones.
Calico - Digitakt II / Yamaha silent guitar Steve Rutherford 2024-08-11 | Quite a lot of new things here:- A new drum machine / sequencer (Digitakt II) – I’m liking this a lot- A new guitar – a Yamaha silent guitar with nylon string – super easy to play, compact to carry and sounds great.- A new chord progression theory – using a backdoor dominant thing (CMaj7, Fm7, Bb7) - An interesting sound.- A new scale – Mixolydian b3 (a mode of melodic minor) – or a least that’s what I think I’m playing! (F melodic minor over C major 7 then presumably it is just normal melodic minor over the F minor bit and Lydian dominant over the Bb)Oh and there’s a music thing modular midi slider in there as well controlling the levels of tracks on the Digitakt. A soldering triumph from me having bought it in kit form (it was pretty straightforward!)Kit list:- Digitakt II – drums/vocals + sequencing- MC-101 for the bass line- Digitone for most of the synths- Dreadbox typhon for some bleeps and bloops- Yamaha SLG-200N for guitar stuff.** Same track as last night but remixed, renamed and re-uploaded **
Lost in the Maze Steve Rutherford 2024-07-13 | A tale of rising panic followed by relief. A young woman is lost in a maze but after 4 mins and 30 seconds she finds the exit and everything is ok again. Featuring: Max on keys and James on bass. Video framing by me - with huge apologies to James(!).
Jupiter Steve Rutherford 2024-06-28 | Expanding out the jazz band with Max on keys and James on bass. We could probably work on our camera angles(!) but I was enjoying the music.. Guitar and drums from Circuit Tracks- meTrumpet and goat horn - AdrianKeys - MaxBass - James
10:15 - Power cut Steve Rutherford 2024-06-15 | Another jam with Adrian on the trumpet / goat horn.Equipment:- Guitar- Trumpet/horn- Synths: Circuit Tracks and Dreadbox Typhon.
Ripple - feat. Adrian on goat horn / trumpet Steve Rutherford 2024-04-15 | A jam from a first session with Adrian on goat horn and trumpet. Recorded directly from the desk.Adrian (youtube.com/@adrianbarstadandresen6310)- Goat horn / trumpet - through a Roland VT4 vocal processorMe- Guitar and looper- Circuit tracks and MC-101
Rain - Norns Barcode, Dreadbox synths and guitar Steve Rutherford 2024-03-24 | A sampled raindrop at the beginning is turned into a weird backdrop for the track by the Norns Barcode script. Other than that, we're still in D minor or G dorian (depending on how you look at it).Norns for weird noisesDreadbox Hades for bassDreadbox Typhon for other synth sounds1010 Blackbox for drumsPyramid for sequencing
Cucuracha Steve Rutherford 2024-02-10 | An entry for this week's Hardware Jams challenge about cockroaches.Kit:- iPad running Koala sampler- Norns XL running 'Cranes' - a stereo varispeed looper / delay / timeline-smoosher- Circuit Tracks
Absolve - an experiment with Norns (l_ll l_) Steve Rutherford 2024-02-07 | An ambient jam with Norns and the l_ll__l_ script. A really nice way to spend some time although I’m only partially clear as to what the various parameters of the script do!
Solar - an experiment with Norns (Acid test) Steve Rutherford 2024-02-04 | Further experiments with the new music computer Norns. This time with a script called 'Acid test' that generates evolving bass lines. I like the idea of this although was slightly suspicious of the timing at times throughout the track(!)Anyway, here it is. An entry for a hardware jams challenge about a police chase and a kebab.Police radio from freesound.org and played by Koala on the iPadCircuit tracks and Norns for everything else.
Amplitude - an experiment with Norns (Cranes) Steve Rutherford 2024-01-29 | Quite what this has to do with this week's HWJ 'Kebobs' challenge is a bit unclear.. perhaps, I had a few drinks, ate a kebab and then decided to play with a new music toy. Anyway, this is an overly-long experiement with the Cranes script on a Norns Shield XL that bought recently. The XL version fixes most of the things I didn't like about the standard Norns Shield - proper ins/outs + hardware midi connections. Cranes is a looper script that first samples something in stereo - in this case some random notes / samples from my iPad - and then you can control the speed of the left and right channels independently and add overdubs to either.
Harmony 1956 Steve Rutherford 2024-01-08 | A jam in response to a picture challenge on the Hardware Jams Facebook page. The picture in question is Harmony (1956) by Remedios Varo (wikiart.org/en/remedios-varo/harmony-1956). I’m not 100% sure how my jam relates to Ms Varo’s painting but I looked at it moments before I started and so let’s say that it’s in there somewhere. In order to keep track of the bits of looping going on, I thought that ‘sock cam’ might be a good idea. I’m not 100% convinced!Techy stuff:- guitar: Strat, HX Stomp, Bluguitar Amp1- synths etc. Pyramid sequencer, Digitone for keys sound, 1010 Blackbox for drums, Dreadbox hades for bass.- sax: Akai EWI playing SWAM alto sax running on my phone- looping - Pigtronix infinity for both sax and guitar.
Purzelbaum Steve Rutherford 2024-01-01 | A secret santa jam for Ulrich Kämmerling - a really nice guy who I met during an epic weekend of jamming in Berlin earlier in the year.The initial ambient sample came from one of Ulrich's jams (+ a bit of granular delay in the 1010 BlackboxThe electronic wind instrument was a Christmas present. I like the sound but it isn't particularly straightforward to play without making a mistake. Practice needed I think..Anyway, merry christmas / happy new year.
Estepona - a travel jam (1010 Blackbox / MC101) Steve Rutherford 2023-11-06 | Mrs R and I are on holiday in Spain at the moment.. It isn't terrible I have to say.No guitar sadly but I did bring my 1010 Blackbox and MC101. It's an interesting combination.: Lots of options but the MIDI sequencing on the latest firmware on the Blackbox is a bit buggy and so it has been a tiny bit frustrating!Anyway, guitar-free bleeping and blooping as an entry for the hardware jams Beats/Pads challenge. Nice to have some time to enter something for a change!
Spirits Steve Rutherford 2023-10-11 | Just a jam about, erm, spirits from the other world. Oh and a few bits of new gear to discuss:1. A now working Poly Effects Beebo (for one of the Dreadbox Typhons). 2. An Eventide H9 multieffects box - purchased when the Beebo wasn't working and I was about to throw it out of the window3. A Dreadbox Hades bass synth. If you want bass sounds then this is the synth. Lots of knobs, no presets and deep bass. Mmm..3. A pedalboard! Remarkable for me really but I keep going places with my guitar and so this is less effort.
Circa3: Theodicy Steve Rutherford 2023-10-03 | A rehearsal for an upcoming gig at Moustache Bar, London on 20th October.A link to buy a ticket to the gig(!): realsounds.uk/event-details/28A link to our facebook page: facebook.com/people/Circa3-electronic-music/61550257335131
Circa 3: Lunar Base - Live at Temple of Art & Music, London Steve Rutherford 2023-08-25 | The final track from our gig at TAM in London. Huge thanks to Julius for being my partner in crime and to Sadler (instagram.com/2digitvisuals) for his wonderful visuals.
Circa 3: Greta - Live at Temple of Art & Music, London Steve Rutherford 2023-08-24 | Track 2 from the TAM gig.
Circa 3: Cozy - Live at Temple of Art & Music, London Steve Rutherford 2023-08-24 | The first track from our set at Temple of Art & Music, London. Great venue, lovely people and a really great gig for us.More tracks to follow
Circa3: Arrived Steve Rutherford 2023-07-12 | The Julius/Steve synth duo "Circa3" continues. We seem to be finding a bit more space for each other which is good. Onwards and upwards.
Circa3: And Im good Steve Rutherford 2023-06-27 | Another Monday night jam with Julius as part of our Circa3 project. I will admit that this one could be half as long and twice as varied but we were very much enjoying it at the time.
Circa3: Fingerpainting Steve Rutherford 2023-06-22 | A jam with Julius as part of the Circa3 project. Is Fingerpainting a single word? The internet seems unclear and Alexa is confused.Usual guitar setup for me. BluGuitar Amp1, HX stomp, infinity looper.Julius is running a myriad of iPad synths and sequencers
Theodicy Steve Rutherford 2023-06-03 | Created for the Hardware Jams Challenge "Movement". The extent to which this sounds like there's movement here is a bit debatable but I did try (in ways that are too dull to list.)Anyway.. same set up as last week - including my lucky shirt apparently although that wasn't deliberate!Like, subscribe, join the Hardware Jams revolution.
Adrift Steve Rutherford 2023-05-29 | Created for a Hardware Jams challenge about drones. It turns out that it's quite difficult to do a drone track without it, well, just sort of droning on in an uninteresting way. As such, here's a track without much droning but with quite a lot of guitar playing. Equipment used:------------------------------Synth stuff:- Digitone - bass- Dreadbox Typhon 1 - drone / pad- Dreadbox Typhon 2 - bleeping bit- 1010 Blackbox - drums- Pyramid sequencerGuitar stuff:- Guitar- Bluguitar Amp1 amp- Bluguitar speaker simulator- HX Stomp (reverb/tremolo)- Polyeffects Beebo (looping + a bit of reverb)
Fulcrum (experiments with Poly Beebo & Loopler) Steve Rutherford 2023-05-06 | I spent a bit of time trying to get the looper on my Poly Beebo pedal to work in a way that makes sense to me. After some fiddling about and and a firmware upgrade for the midi controller, I now have a really powerful looper that syncs up with MIDI. Hurray(!).Beebo-------------If you haven't come across Beebo, it's essentially a 'design your own pedal' pedal. You pick some of 100 different components and connect them together using the touch screen. It's easy to use but it doesn't take long before you get carried away making ridiculous pedals, e.g.a delay pedal where the delayed bits go into a fuzz and the non-delayed bits go through a chorus etc. etc.. Critically, for this video, there's a component called Loopler which is a super-powerful looping pedal.Signal chain here is:-------------------------------------HX Stomp pedal for basic delay and reverb (into)Poly Beebo:- guitar input to convolution reverb (really nice) and then into the looper. The looper then goes to the guitar output (as you would imagine) but a second path takes the looper output into a granular delay that then comes out of a separate stereo L/R and into the mixer. (blend to taste). All of which sits in the effects loop of the excellent Bluguitar Amp1 amplifier.The Morningstar MIDI pedal (assuming anyone is still reading this nerdy ramble!) is connected via USB into the back of the Beebo which powers the pedal and lets you send messages ('record', 'mute' etc) as well as timing information to Beebo to keep it in time with Circuit Tracks.Synths etc.-------------------The synth stuff is just Circuit Tracks with the 1010 Blackbox doing bass and pads (both of which I sampled from other synths that I own). There's a tiny weird bit of distortion in that part of the mix but I'm not going to worry about it. :-/ That's it!
HWJ challenge: Knitting needles Steve Rutherford 2023-04-24 | This week's challenge was set by me (remarkably). It can best be summarised as "Microscopic: Create a jam using sounds that are so quiet that you can't really hear them". As ever, there have been some really creative responses to the prompt and this is mine. (or really 'ours' as it was recorded as part of a HWJ meet-up in Brighton).The percussion at the beginning of the jam (+ continued throughout) was created using recordings of (Mrs R's) metal knitting needles clicking together and a grain of rice hitting some tin foil. We also tried to play 'microscopically' whatever that means!Jammers:Me: .................................... Guitar and the vocal samples@RuptureRapture ............ Drums/synths from his trio of Elektron boxes@SebticSmile ................... Cello and synths@DocBolus........................ Fretless bass guitar@osvos3278 ..................... More synths and drums
