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music / electronics / code / noise
Illegal State
of Mind
Dub music, DIY instruments
& audio electronics.
music
machines
code
music
00 / ABOUT
One project.
Several kinds of noise.
Illegal State of Mind is the solo project of Jakub Krysakowski, built around dub music, bass, electronics and experimentation.
What started as a music project gradually expanded into building instruments, effects and tools for making music. Some are analog, some digital, some run on ESP32, and some are simply small pieces of software created to solve a particular musical problem.
The interesting part is where these worlds meet: the machines become part of the music, while the music creates new reasons to build machines.
01 / MUSIC
Low frequencies.
Wide boundaries.
Dub is the center of gravity, but not a boundary. The music moves through reggae, psychedelic dub, bass music, electronic textures and whatever else fits the moment.
Some tracks begin with a rhythm or a bass line. Others begin with a box of components and a sound that did not exist the day before.
[ WATCH / MUSIC PLAYLIST ]
02 / MACHINES
If the instrument is missing,
build the instrument.
Sometimes the instrument I need does not exist. Sometimes it exists, but building my own version is more interesting.
These are some of the instruments, effects and audio devices that grew out of that approach.
M_01
Samplotron
A compact ESP32-based MIDI sampler built for hands-on performance: load WAV files from an SD card, map them to notes, then save the setup on the device.
M_02
RudeBox
A single-voice ESP32 drum synthesizer played from an external pad. Eight controls push it from toms and kicks to laser sweeps, noise hits and strange electronic percussion.
M_03
Acid Leak
A raw transistor bass distortion built for synth-like saturation without throwing away the low frequencies. Somewhere between overdrive, fuzz and an analog synthesizer.
M_04
Sirenotron
A handmade analog dub siren and sound generator designed from scratch for live effects, oscillator sweeps, LFO modulation and useful noise.
03 / CODE
Code is another material
to work with.
Some instruments are completely analog. Others emerge where hardware and software meet. In those projects, firmware is simply another way to shape the instrument.
Firmware, schematics, utilities and documentation for many of my projects are available publicly on GitHub.
github.com/SOFTWARE_01
Sequence Editor
A lightweight step-sequence notepad for preparing patterns before transferring them manually to a hardware sequencer. It runs entirely in the browser.
THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Experimental music calls for unconventional tools.
Some musical ideas fit the equipment already on the desk. Others ask for a new effect, a different instrument or a small piece of code.
The tools I build open new ways of making music. The music, in turn, suggests what to build next.
That creative exchange is what Illegal State of Mind has gradually become.
music → tools → new music →
04 / WATCH
Watch the process.
The Illegal State of Mind channel brings both sides of the project together: tracks, performances and dub experiments alongside demos of the instruments, effects and tools used to make them.
Watch on YouTube05 / LINKS