MATRIXSYNTH: Wednesday, February 28, 2007


Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Korg MS-10 with modded MG range


Another via darenager. Looks like fierce fish is on a roll.

Apple Patents New Synthesizer Method

Title link takes you to the patent. Via Chip Collection.

Some details:
"Music synthesizer generate audio tones. Many synthesizers generate their tones by using one or more oscillators. It is very common to use several oscillators in a single synthesizer voice but with at least one oscillator detuned. That is to say, that oscillator is oscillating at a slightly different frequency to at least one other oscillator. As a consequence of interference, this results in a periodically changing resulting signal due to the varying phase difference between them.

When there are two slightly detuned sine waves, the resulting signal is perceived as a single sine wave with a sinusoidal amplitude modulation varying with frequency. The frequency of this amplitude modulation is called the "beat frequency".

More often than not, there are two detuned oscillators producing more complex waveforms. Complex waveforms include waveforms in shapes which differ more or less from a perfect sine wave, e.g. a sawtooth or rectangular wave and can be decomposed into a sum of harmonic sine waves (the overtones or partial frequencies). The resulting interference from such complex waveforms is not a simple amplitude modulation but a complex timbre variation. This is because each pair of harmonic overtones has to be treated separately. However, the timbre variation when mixing two slightly detuned oscillators is still periodic with a beat frequency. Moreover, that beat frequency is equal to the difference between the two frequencies of the mixed detuned oscillators.

Synthesizer oscillators are usually tuned in a chromatic scale that consists of equal semitone intervals. An interval is defined by a certain frequency ratio between two tones. Twelve semitone interval steps result in an octave interval which is defined as a frequency ratio of 2:1. Hence, each semitone is the twelfth root of 2 or approximately 1.06. A semitone can be further divided into cents. A cent is one hundredth of a semitone. Thus, one cent is a 1200th root of 2 or approximately 1.0006.

In the prior art, synthesizer oscillators have been detuned by setting a certain detune interval which was usually measured in cents. Due to the fact that the detune interval defines the ratio between the detuned frequency and the nominal frequency, the frequency deviation itself is proportional to the nominal frequency. For example, if the nominal oscillator frequency was 1000 Hz, then applying a detune interval of 10 cent (approx. 1.006) would result in a detuned oscillator frequency of 1006 Hz and a beat frequency of 6 Hz. However, with the same detune interval of 10 cent at the next octave, the nominal frequency would be 2000 Hz with the detuned oscillator frequency of 2012 Hz and a beat frequency of 12 Hz. Accordingly, at a given detune interval the detuned oscillator has a frequency deviation which is proportional to its nominal frequency. Hence, when mixing detuned oscillators, the resulting signal has a beat frequency which varies with the pitch and doubles with each octave.

In order to accommodate for this beat frequency, a compromise is reached but often such audio tones have a beat frequency which is relatively too slow at lower tones and too high at higher tones.

An aim of the present invention is to provide a music synthesizer whereby sounds are generated with an optimum beat across a large range of tones. "

Inside The Future Retro

Title link takes you to more shots of the Future Retro via shaft9000 in this VSE post. Shaft9000 gave me the go ahead to back them up as he will be taking the shots down in time. BTW do check out Shaft9000's AWT for music and more synth shots and info. There are some nice synths there.

Hand

flickr by Decadent.

How to Stream Audio over the Web

Title link takes you to a pdf on how Doktor Future set up Doktor Future's Radio Modular. Via this Matrixsynth forum thread.

ipMIDI

Now this could be interesting. Think community based interactive mega synths - we all interact with it via MIDI over the net.

"MIDI over Ethernet ports - send MIDI over your LAN.

You can route MIDI over your Ethernet network, using ipMIDI ports to send and receive MIDI data between PC's connected to your LAN. For example, if you have a music studio with several computers connected via MIDI interfaces and MIDI cables, ipMIDI will replace them all.

Any MIDI application on the LAN can communicate with any other without any new physical connections, eliminating separate MIDI cables and additional hardware interfaces and if you are running a wireless IP network (i.e. 802.11 a/b/g) you don’t need any cables at all! This is becoming more in demand, the ability to just establish a temporary local wireless network and hook in the PCs."


via sequencer.de

Spring is coming

flickr by Dr. Bleep.

Bleep Labs

A Helitron and His Spectralis

Title link takes you to the MySpace page with tracks featuring nothing but the Radikal Technologies Spectralis. Audio quality on this one is superb.

via this Matrixsynth Forum thread, where you will will discussion on the Spectralis along with a link by Moogulator to his Spectralis page with more info and samples.

Nova Aurora


YouTube via http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=gstraatman. Sent my way via Joe:

"It is the hit Aurora from the synth band Nova. It was a number 1 hit in the Netherlands in 1982. Rob Papen was a member of Nova: link. Same Rob Papen who helped developing Albino and Blue VST synths: link.

According to the dutch 'synthforum' this song was recorded with :

Korg Sigma (Lead en Bass)
Korg MS-10 en SQ-10 (sequences)
Korg MS-20 (Lead Panflutisch sound), effect sounds en other sounds
Diamond Strings (the strings at the beginning of the song)
Roland CR-78 for the drums"

Anyone know which one Rob is?

JanVanVolt's Synthesizer

Image of JanVanVolt's Digisound VCDO via the comments of this post. Title link takes you JanVanVolt's Synthesizer page with more.

Roland TR-909

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

via loscha

KORG Polysix MIDI

Two options for KORG Polysix owners out there.

Korg PolysixM (extensive and expensive) - $380 installed, $200 kit.
""Korg USA proudly announces the PS6-MRK MIDI Retrofit Kit for the Korg Poly-6 Synthesizer. Thanks to modern software/hardware technology, a great classic analog synthesizer, the Korg Poly-6, has now been upgraded with one of the most advanced and comprehensive MIDI Retrofits ever devised for a pre-MIDI synthesizer. With MIDI, your Poly-6 can now join the MIDI revolution, easily connecting with other MIDI synthesizers, expander modules, sequencers, drum machines, personal computers and more ... "

KORG Polysix MIDI (cheap and simple) - $70 installed
MIDI In only

KORG PolysixM pictured

Modular 2007


YouTube via liquidcolor. Title link takes you to more.

Digisound 80-21


Click here for shots pulled via this auction.

Details:
"The Digisound 80-21 is a rare Voltage Controlled Digital Oscillator, and provides a very unusual sonic palette.

The Digisound 80 Modular Synthesizer was a (largely) kit-built synthesizer designed, primarily, by Charles Blakey who ran a small family-owned company called Digisound Ltd near Blackpool in northern England. Many of the early modules appeared as construction articles in two British electronics magazines - Electronics Today International (ETI) and Electronics & Music Maker (E&MM) in the early to mid 1980s.

The Project 80 series - a number of whose modules were based on the CEM (Curtis Electro Music Specialities) range of ICs - was not, however, his first collection of synthesizer modules. He had, previously, produced an early series (the Digisound 20000 series) based around the SSM (Solid State Microtechnology) range of ICs.

Here's a recent article from January 2000 about the Digisound modular written by Paul Nagle (a British composer of synth music and user of the Digisound synth) available in the internet archives of Sound-on-Sound magazine. To quote from Paul’s own web site "Great, smashing, super - this is an amazingly versatile, superb-sounding modular - full of character" - ‘nuff said!

All Digisound Synthesizer modules had a common package design, with modules interchangeable within the cabinet, common voltages, Input / Output impedances, etc. This made it quite simple to design a system, or change that system around if you desired a different configuration. The modules are compatible with the majority of the modular and performance synthesizers of the time, i.e. 1V/Octave exponential control voltage scaling, 0-10 Volt peak-to-peak control voltage ranges, and a regular gate trigger system.

I've been a big fan of Digisound Synthesizer modules since the late 70's, when I used to bug them and Aries Modular Systems for new catalogs! Over the years, I put together a large number of modules (along with Aries Modular, the USA equivalent).

This unit combines the flexibility of analogue voltage control with the clarity and realism of digitally generated waveforms. The design is fully compatible with existing synthesizer systems (1V/octave frequency control, 10V p-p output, linear and exponential modulation inputs) and offers the versatility of 32 different waveforms encoded as wavetables in the 2716 EPROM. A particular waveform can be selected with push button switches using a simple incremental system or a combination of a push button switch and suitable electronic pulses to the input. The useful audio range is 30Hz to 10kHz.

Much more great information can be found at Dave's Digisound Page."

Top 20 Greatest Synths Part 2

Part 2 is up. Title link takes you there.


Link to Part 1

Yamaha CS30L Samples

Title link takes you to samples pulled via this auction.

via ben.

Plexus Makes the PAiA Hall of Fame

Yeah, I think that makes the bar...

Music of Plexus


Previous Plexus posts

E-Mu Ring Mod

No title link. Just the two shots and details pulled via this auction.

Details:
"Up for bid, a 2430 Ring Modulator vintage analog synthesizer module by E-mu. PCBs are date coded 1974. Info on the E-mu modular can be found at emulatorarchive.com - also the following info is copied from the official E-mu literature from the 1970's:

The Eµ 2430 Ring Modulator is a balanced modulator for electronic music. It contains an Eµ 1430 ring modulator submodule. The module has two inputs, modulation and carrier, which are identical for high signal levels. The output is the algebraic product of the input voltages:

Vout = Vmod x Vcar ÷ 5

when the input attenuators are fully clockwise and the coupling switches are in the DC position. AC coupling will level-shift the corresponding input so it effectively centers around zero volts. This can have a striking effect on the output signal, due to the inherent non-linearity of balanced modulation. The Eµ 2430 was designed for high carrier rejection in the absence of a modulation signal, typically in excess of 80dB. The reverse rejection, that of modulation feedthrough with no carrier, is only 40dB.
Power Requirements: ±15 V @ 10 mA typical
Firm-wire Patch Connections:
Inputs - Modulation, Carrier
Outputs One (3 pins)
Power Bus Connected Inputs: None
Adjustments: Gain
Modulation Rej'n - Mod positive
Modulation Rej'n - Mod negative"


Update: Not directly synth related, but you might want to check out the seller's "KORG Univox EC-100 Stage Tape Echo Delay by Unicord" as well. That was a mouth full. linky

Roland Juno 106


YouTube via trevor001.

Alesis ION Filters and Oscillators

Alesis Ion - filters


Alesis Ion - oscillators shaping

YouTube via trevor001. Title link takes you to the rest of trevor001's videos.

Alesis Ion - organ sounds


YouTube via trevor001.

Fletch Theme - Alesis Ion and Juno 106


YouTube via trevor001

Amdek Drum Synth


YouTube via darenager aka fierce fish.

Oberheim OB-Xa

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

OB-Xa Page on Lazy Blue Octopus

MOOG Minimoog

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.
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