MATRIXSYNTH: Friday, December 16, 2005

Essential Retro

Looks like James Grahame of Retro Thing has a book out and... it has synth. : ) Title link takes you there (scroll down the page to see what's in the book). Looks like a fascinating trip down memory lane as well as current retro design. Very cool. Would make a great stocking stuffer. Congrats James!

"My new book is entitled Essential Retro: The Vintage Technology Guide. It covers a few hundred of my favorite vintage and vintage-style gadgets.

Since I'm a synth addict, there's an entire chapter dedicated to electronic musical instruments. I start with a look at some classics like the ARP Odyssey and Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, but I couldn't resist including a few modern 'vintage analog' devices from Dave Smith, Clavia, and even the real analog growl of the Alesis A6 Andromeda.

Check out www.essentialretro.com for more details. People can buy signed copies direct from the site, and it should be available on Amazon in the USA and UK early next week. Priced at $19.95 in the USA, £11.95 in the UK."

Charles Cohen's Buchla on Flickr

Nice shot of Charles Cohen's Buchla on Flickr.

Nord Lead Demos

Title link takes you to some Nord Lead demos by SpeckO on Sonic State's the-gas-station.

Distorted Music Festival Pics

I recently posted about the Distorted Music Festival in Melbourne Australia. Title link takes you to shots of the festival including synths. Via Andee on AH; this was Andee's first live gig and he had a blast.

"Well, I had my very first ever live gig and it was a blast! I had to get the
A6 and my 20kg+ road case up 2 flights of stairs to do it, but damn it was
worth it:)"

"It was part of the distorted music festival in melbourne (distorted.com.au) so
not only had a great time performing, but also got to see and meet a bunch of
artists I've admired for years, not to mention getting onto a compilation CD
with the likes of converter, architect, scorn and mono no aware!"

My New Wallpaper

More amazing synth pics added to benj-sp's Flickr set. Amazing, synth pics. My new wallpaper. Again. Title link takes you to more.

Access Virus Ti and SH-101 Demos

Title link takes you to samples of the Access Virus TI sent to me by Jose Sogo Flores. Two of the samples are the Roland SH-101 followed by the Virus. Impressive. Also make sure to check out the third sample of the Virus. Absolutely liquid sounding; talk about bubbly. If the name looks familiar, he recently sent in those amazing G2 Minimoog samples. Enjoy, and thank you Jose!