New Emu Bits

Update: Here's the full press release: http://www.productionforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=5414



Comments via James of Retro Thing via this post:
"The new Emulator X2 software will include the Transform Multiply functionality that was included in several classic E-mu samplers (The Emax and Emax II for sure). It's a DSP convolution tool that is well known for the bizarre textures it creates. They're also automating multisampling of your fave synth patches with a tool called SynthSwipe."

The New Rolands

Title link takes you to more.

Update: Looks like the 808 has it's own page.

"From the company that made “groovebox” a household name comes a remarkable addition to the famous Roland groovebox family: the MC-808. Optimized for realtime performance, the sleek, silver powerstation features eight motorized faders on its surface — a groovebox first! With Roland’s most sophisticated processor at its core, the MC-808 possesses top-of-the-line sampling, sequencing, and synthesizer features yet it comes in at a new, low price point."


"Look familiar? True to its heritage, the new JUNO-G is affordable and user-friendly. But that’s where the comparisons to yesteryear end. This modern marvel packs a studio’s worth of sound, sequencing, and audio recording into one amazing instrument. Sharing the same high-powered processor as Roland’s famous Fantom-X series, the JUNO-G puts a world of first-class sound and performance features under musicians’ fingertips — and allows more sounds to be added via SRX expansion. Songs can be created with the onboard audio/MIDI recorder, all for an incredibly low price!"


"For musicians new to synthesizers, Roland announces the most friendly and fun analog-modeling instrument on the market: the SH-201. For synth pros, the SH-201 will remind them of why they fell in love with synthesizers in the first place. Simply, the SH-201 is a blast to play! It sounds great too, thanks to such features as Roland’s famous Supersaw waveform, resonant filter, saturation control, and more."



"For musicians who can’t accommodate a choir or group of background singers for their gigs or recording sessions, Roland proudly presents the VP-550 Vocal Designer Keyboard. Much more than a traditional vocoder or harmonizer, the VP-550 uses Roland’s breakthrough vocal-modeling technology to bring the highest-quality, interactive vocal sounds to a dedicated instrument. Connect a mic, select a sound, and play. You won’t believe what can come out of this instrument: spectacular classical choirs, soulful gospel choirs, pop and jazz voices, male & female ensembles, vintage vocoder, and lush string/vocal hybrids."

The Future Retro XS

Title link takes you there.

Toshio Iwai's SimTunes

My masterpiece


I finally got a chance to check out the Demo of SimTunes graciously posted by thewhiteline on this post. To run it, I set the program to run under 256 colors in Windows 95 Compatibility mode (just right click the program icon, go to properties, then Compatibility to set this). I must say I was pleasantly surprised. It's a lot of fun. The way it works is you draw pixels on the screen while four little "bugs" walk around; when they walk over a pixel a sound plays. Different colors play different sounds. There is also music running in the background that your pixels play on top off. It's pretty fun. There are some included images that play composed pieces of music. As you can imagine if you line things up correctly you can get some cool sequences going, or you can just go random and see what comes out like my masterpiece above. I'll be keeping an eye out for the full version myself. Title link takes you to the demo. Thanks again to thewhiteline for this little gem. It would be cool to see this pojected on screen, in some performance art (oh, a composition running that is, not my masterpiece above). : )

The Neurodelic Experience

Update: I've been asked to pull down the original post. I've gone on the scavenger hunt to get into raves a hundred times and have had the wonderful light show of the LAPD break my bliss too many times to remember, so I totally respect this. Modified image below.

Future Retro XS Press Release

Via Gearjunkies.com

Introducing the new XS from Future Retro. A true analog modular synthesizer designed to expand the sound capabilities of all our existing products and other modular synthesizer systems.

Photo under press embargo

Housed in a rugged aluminum chassis that is both compact and lightweight, the unit can be rack mounted taking up 3U spaces, or used with additional desktop end pieces for tabletop use.

The inputs and outputs of the XS are pre-wired in a way which allow it to act as a monophonic synthesizer without the need for patch cables.

Add patch cables and you can connect each section's inputs and outputs in any way desired. With a single unit you can easily create basslines, leads, drones, percussion, and sound effects. Connect multiple units together to form larger systems and the possibilities are endless.

The XS responds to the standard 1V/Oct control voltages and positive gates so it can be interfaced with most analog sequencers or MIDI to CV converters.

The XS provides a wide range VCO or voltage controlled oscillator, capable of covering the entire audio range or acting as an LFO for sub audio oscillation. This VCO can sync it's waveform to oscillators and gate signals, or act as a free running oscillator.

The VCO generates sine, triangle, sawtooth, and pulse width/square waveforms. The pulse width shape can be set manually or modulated with an internal or external signal. The VCO can be frequency modulated by both internal and external signals to create more complex waveforms. The VCO also generates a sub oscillator waveform which can be 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, or 1/16th the frequency of the main waveform. An output is provided for both main and sub oscillator waveforms.

The mix section sets the levels of the oscillator and sub oscillator waveforms or any external audio signal to be sent to the input of the filter. The multimode filter provides 2 pole high-pass and low-pass frequency roll off with dedicated controls for the cutoff frequency and resonance settings. With high resonance settings the filter will self oscillate. The cutoff frequency can further be modulated by both internal and external signals. A dedicated output for the filter is also provided.

The XS includes a unique ADSR type envelope with additional attack and decay time settings for accented envelopes. It's like having two envelopes in one. The envelope can be triggered with a single gate for traditional ADSR type envelopes, or insert another gate signal into the accent input to select the accent time settings. Both positive and negative polarity envelopes are available at the output.

And finally a VCA or voltage controlled amplifier is provided to process the amplitude of signals. The VCA normally affects the filter's output but can also be used to process external audio signals. The VCA can be controlled by an external gate or the internal envelope. In addition, a manual control is provided to control the VCA when no gate or envelope signal is present. The VCA has a level control for attenuating signals sent to its output.

Release date for this product is TBA

A6 Banner

Title link takes you to three shots by Mike Peake, one of the banner below, one of a couple of A6 panels, and one of some parts (wheels, Polyfusion filter PCB, and two Polyfusion Resonator PCBs). Note the Moog Cookbook in the shot. Click for a bigger picture.

The Emulator Archive

All you ever wanted to know about the EMU Emulators. Title link takes you there.

The Emulator I

The Fizmo Tabletop?

Update: Via Carbon111 in the comments: "Read the thread - "suitandtieguy" bought it from some guy that did the chop job. Dude musta thought it was a good idea after a few spliffs, mon. ;) "

Title link takes you to a post on HC where the shot below was pulled. I am aware of the keyboard and rack version, but not a tabletop. It looks like someone just cropped the keyboard version. If anyone knows any more about this, feel free to comment. In the mean time, check out the Deep Synthesis Fizmo Page for tons of info and some great samples if you ever wondered what a Fizmo sounds like.

Future Retro XS Part 2

Update via the comments: http://www.gearjunkies.com/news_info.php?news_id=1065

We will all know on Friday, but I thought I'd put up the following by DB in the comments section of this post:

"Hi, Here is what Jered of Future Retro has said in the past about the FS XS:

"The planned expander will be a stand-alone unit so that it can be used with all of our existing products. This will not be a new model of the Revolution synthesizer itself."

Also, from past discussions with Jered, but I can't seem to find the emails, I believe that it is supposed to be able to add on an Analogue Oscillator, Envelope, and LFO amongst other things to the Mobius , 777 & Revolution.

So it would make the Revolution a 2 Osc synth rather then a 1 OSC with LFO and Envelopes, and the 777 a 3 OSC synth with LFO's and Envelopes, and would make a simple mono synth/mono osc synth out the Mobius.

Should be interesting. Don't know if you can add more then one of these to them ore not. We should be finally hereing more on Friday. "