MPC - no not that one.

This turned up on AH via Cikira. It's not an Akai MPC model. MPC stands for Music Percussion Computer. It was manufactured in England as a drum kit, sequencer, mixer and computer according to Synthony. It also had a Timex Sinclair 1000 personal computer interface. More after the hop.

Photos from rrooyyccee

Some amazing synth shots from rrooyyccee on Flickr. This actually came in from royce via AH. This one with the green oscilliscope running in the background is my favorite. Gorgeous.

Korg Poly-800 Moog Slayer Mod

Just saw this on the Vintage Synth Museum boards. It's a DIY mod for the Poly 800 that adds knobs and increases the range of the filter. From the site:
"This thing can do dangerous sounds, like the speaker-blowing (and ear-blowing!) sounds of old modular synths. It's really sick.... In addition to the usual disclaimers (if you break it, it's your problem, not mine!), I'd like to also point out that I will not be responsible for blown speakers, amps & ear-drums." Hard to beleive but it did score high marks from some who have tried it.

Update: I was trying to figure out what looked off about the picture below other than the mod. I didn't think the Poly 800 had volume and speed pots of the same design of the Polysix and I don't remember a tune pot, then I realized, duh, the picture is the EX-800, the Poly-800 desktop unit.

J and Moog - Flickr shot

Synth shot in via Flickr.

Update: unfortunately the image is gone.

Psych-Tone Melody Synthesizer

Someone posted a link to this on AH regarding the Muse. From the manual:

"This is a new and unusual approach to music synthesis. The sounds it produces are modern - to say the very least - and the operation is extraordinarily simple. Technically, this is a 'psuedo random sequence generator' operating as a tune computer with tempo, voicing selection, tone shaping, and pause gates."

Jomox XBase999

For all us 808 and 909 style dum machine lovers, the XBase999 is slated to come out this Fall or Winter. I haven't had the luck to play with a Jomox yet, but all I ever hear is how great they are. This one looks pretty promising. Click here for specs and more info.

Triadex Muse - (Link to VSTi of Muse)

It's funny how some things come in waves. I was reading the new issue of Future Music magazine and the "Back to the Future" feature item is the Triadex Muse. It's a rare and interesting piece of gear known as the first digital musical instrument. It came out in 1971. It's basically a sequencer with built in speakers and tone module. I thought how cool it would be if you could midi it up and use it to control other synths. Well, I catch up on email and there's a thread from Cikira on AH on just that. The owner of the Muse below converts the output to MIDI. Also, there is a software simulation of the Muse that transmits midi. Pretty cool.

From the email thread, "We agreed that a good word for these things is "inscrutable". It's tough to figure out how the sliders interrelate, but sure enough you get repeating, evolving patterns, and as it plays you start to identify recurring motifs. Its internal speaker puts out a decent level, and it does a little light show that reflects what it's doing, only it doesn't really help you figure it out. "

http://www.trovar.com/muse/muse.html

Sonic Steel Bass - You've heard this sound in film before.

Someone sent email to the AH list asking for the source of a low droning bass sound in a film. I instantly recognized the sound from numerous films and wondered where it could have come from. I thought it could have been Symbolic Sound's Capybara Kyma system, but someone posted a link to Sonic Steel Instrument's Sonic Steel Bass. That was the sound. The instrument was used by Lucas Skywalker Studios for their filmscores as well as the Discovery Channel's "The Power of Music." Amazingly rich sounding instrument. Click here and have a listen.

"The Space Bass is a 10 ft sheet of mirror finish stainless steel with 5 octaves of tuned steel and brass rods bolted to a bar. The rods can be double bowed, struck percussively or the metal sheet can be rubbed to create still another effect. Several tones can be created by bowing a single rod, creating a multi-tiered overtone series. The Space Bass emits deep, primordial, archetypal resonances that invariably put audiences into altered states."

GenoQs - OCTOPUS

Interesting new sequencer coming out. Click here for more info.

It reminds me of a mix between the Latronic Notron Sequencer and Buchla's 250e pictured below.

Legowelt... Ah, gear lust...

Legowelt sums up gear lust perfectly. Click here for more pictures. Crazy cat, Legowelt is... I love his writing sytle.

From the site:
"The studio is where its at'..the place where the music is made.A sanctuary, a gearfreak's fatherland or whatever. A dangerous place also...You might spend days here forgetting there is a world outside. The machines are no machines anymore: you treat them with respect, they have personalities...some of them love, others don't give a fuck...but they are alive...and might even be considered close family.

Its difficult to describe to a stranger what it is like to be a 'gearfreak' (i.e. having a keen interest in electronic music instruments, especially old analog ones). Bob Moog ( a famous inventor of synthesizers) once said: "its halfway between being a musician and hot-rodding your car" and thats pretty much right...its nerdy but macho at the same time, and for fellow gearfreaks there is nothing quite like the exhiliration of the 'gearlist'...where the people tell what gear they use and have.

That is the point of this part of the Legowelt site, to see what gear is used in the Legowelt studio. For a non-gearfreak this might be complete nonsense, but for those who dig it....here it is (with the additional pictures!)..and also remember there is some fancy shit here, but also lot of tracks are actually made ghetto style in the living room or on the road on cheap ass equipment such as Amiga computers, boss drummachines and borrowed portable grooveboxes, just to be mixed in this studio on the mixing desk...and fuck yeah sometimes that don't even happen. "

And I'm back!

Had a great weekend at Ocean Shores, WA with my wife, kid and good friend Scott. Just caught up on email and some goodies came in. Posts coming shortly!