Absolutely not under any circumstances.

Right, so noise. Probably more useful as a modulation source than as an audio source. Makes sense.

So what would happen if you just plugged some electrodes into a mixer with a decent preamp? Would you get some sounds or would it still be like a pulse code that you had to modulate somehow? What if you plugged the electrodes into the CV input of a modular synth oscillator?

So there’s no such thing as an oscilloscope with audio out?

I think in pretty much everything?

Also, I don’t like the Wham version of ‘Last Christmas’ but I like the XX version. And I appreciate how minimal the song is. Just the same chords over and over.

Oh god I hate that one but it gets stuck in my head all December. It IS catchy. And even emigrating to Canada didn’t allow me to escape it. Heard it in a Shoppers Drug Mart last year.

Can I shock you? I unrepentantly love ‘Wonderful Christmastime’. Someone blocked me on Bluesky for admitting that. Is it true he made it with a Yamaha CS-80? If so, it’s hilarious that he got such rinky-dink sounds out of the Bladerunner synth.

I don’t think what I’m thinking of exists sadly. Not sure it’s even technically possible. The impulses don’t directly translate into sound waves, they have to be ‘interpreted’. But does it have to be as shitty ambient music?

Tbh that’s specifically not what I’m looking for. There are a bunch of things like that which just play New Age music when you connect some electrodes to a plant. I want to hear the raw electricity.

Generally, it gets better as it goes along, although ‘Mona Lisa Overdrive’ is a real peak and I love the first books of the next two trilogies, specifically. The most recent book is by far the weakest, although I’m not a massive ‘Neuromancer’ fan either.

‘Mona Lisa Overdrive’ is probably my favourite book by him.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this already! Will be digging in soon.

Can't think of one. But will say that everywhere I went at Christmas last year, these terrible new-sounding Christmas songs were playing everywhere, and it was probably my first experience of thinking: "Is this AI slop?"