Donny & Marie Show guest Desy Arnaz Jr.

YouTube via 512R1H4. via Steve of Street Electronics. Donny Osmond.
Update via brian in the comments:
"Jay Osmond is on the clear Vistalite (or Fibes) drums, Desi in the red sweater with white shirt, the blue Vistalite drums is little Jimmy Osmond.

Donny had several synths, have never seen him with a Moog modular before. Main stage unit was something he built himself for their tours..."

From Which the Gristleizer Came

Update: be sure to check out the comments of this post for more, including some comments and links to more info from Chris Carter.

In case you missed the update to this post, BugBrand dropped by the comments with the following:

"I'm just about to meet up with Roy Gwinn (literally in a couple of hours time) who wrote the original article back in the 70s for Practical Electronics magazine (he was 16 when he published it!) from which the Gristleizer came.

If you're interested, Clone Analog Gear have a pdf of the article::

http://rubidium.dyndns.org/cag/pdf/gep.pdf

It was published as the Guitar Effects Pedal."

You can see a video of the Gristleizer here.

Update via kapnkrunk23 in the comments:
"Sorry to everyone for the delay. I know everyone is excited about this. We at the shop are super stoked to be doing this. We have had a pretty awesome response from minimal advertisement. So due to the over whelming emails, We are going to start an email newsletter dedicated to replying to your questions. A few of which are about the CV mods. We are still up in the air, but leaning towards adding them. And as you all were wondering about prices, here it is….

PCB $30
Kit without box $100 (PCB and parts)
Kit with box $220 (PCB, parts, box drilled, no powder coating)
Kit with box and powder coating $250 (same as above with finish, and control labeling)
Pedal version $325 (complete. Will be similar to the PE version only with cool graphics)
Table top version $350(A modern reproduction of the original TG black box)

Kits will not come with instructions. Sorry. But will come with the parts list and layout.
The completed versions will come with a limited lifetime warranty against parts and workman ship. Owner will be responsible for shipping.

Please inquire about custom powder coating or using you own artwork. We will have a website up for the shop as well as a dedicated page with a secure checkout. We will be taking pay pal. We will also take check or money order. Pay Pal order will add 3%. Debit and credit cards can be taken over the phone. Pictures and sounds will be up as soon as we complete the first one. Which will be soon!!!!!

If you have more questions feel free to email us. I hope everyone is as excited about these as we are!!!!! I personally have wanted one for a loooong time. THEE return is soon.

Charles Howes
Smashing Guitars

P.S. I would like to thank Both Chris Carter and Roy Gwinn for supporting, and allowing me to do this."

Updates via Chris Carter:
"My original Gristleizers were based around the PE kit (PCB & components) produced by Phonosonics in the UK in 1977. I've never made any secret of this, and in fact for a while had the PE schematic on my site. However, I added some mods of my own and designed a completely new case and made units for myself, the band and friends, probably about 10 in total. Cosey's still works to this day but mine was unfortunately 'lost' shortly after appearing in a exhibition in London a couple of years ago. I'm going to upload some photos of an original Gristleizer to my site soon and I'm currently in the process of building myself a replacement. See here: http://www.myspace.com/ChemistryLessons"

"OK original Gristelizer photos and additional info now available here: www.throbbing-gristle.com/gristleizer and/or here: myspace.com/chemistrylessons"

Update via kapnkrunk23 in the comments:
"Here is a link to our myspace www.myspace.com/theegristleizer . This weekend I will be driving to Chicago to deliver the first of The Gristleizers to Throbbing Gristle. Which will be the official release. Our website will be up VERY VERY soon. I have to say. This has been a very intense project. Which has been a team effort of Endangered Audio a division of Smashing Guitars in Asheville, NC. The passed month and a half Todd Kelley(owner) has been working super late nights removing quirks, looking at waveshapes, turning things, and adjusting them. Truly the brains of it all.

Everyone will be super pleased. We will be publishing mods for it on the EA/SG website. CV in and out pads are included on the boards. We ran tests using Moogerfoogers, and man was it sweet. Keep an eye out on our myspace, TG's website, and as soon as it is up, The EA/SG website where orders will be taken, through a secure checkout. In the meantime, feel free to email us at smashingguitarsasheville@hotmail.com. Thank you all for waiting. It is now time for THEE GRISTLEIZER!!!"

Update: some pics and notes on the new Gristleizer from vav: "Smashing Guitars/Endangered Audio are indeed making a fully authorized Gristleizer available. At the TG show last night in Chicago at the Logan Square Auditorium , 7 were made available for sale. I picked one up, and TG was kind enough to sign it. I even requested Gen sign it next to the AC input, as it's kind of male but kind of female :P She seemed pleased. Here are the photos, and i'll try and get some demos up soon."
Update: audio via vavmusic:

Gristleizer by vavmusic

"Easy-peasy: Korg ER1 left/mono out to Gristleizer in. Gristleizer out to interface in. Recorded straight into Tracktion with no effects applied. Apologies for any digital clipping, Gristleizer is quite unruly. TG fans will recognize the drum pattern. Start of clip effect is bypassed, then put into VCF mode, manual tweaking of Speed, Depth, waveform type, Bias, Level. Switch is thrown from VCF mode to VCA at 1:08, manual tweaking of all controls again." Update via kapnkrunk23 in the comments: "For Immediate Release Smashing Guitars/Endangered Audio Releases The Gristleizer ASHEVILLE, NC APRIL 27, 2009ó Smashing Guitars has announced the release of the first of their new product line, the Gristleizer. The flagship of the newly formed Endangered Audio (a subsidiary of Smashing Guitars), the Gristleizer is an extremely rare and unique unit. Originally designed by Roy Gwinn in 1976, the Gristleizer is based on a design published in Practical Electronics and sold in kit form by Phonosonics. Chris Carter of the British industrial music and visual arts group Throbbing Gristle modified the kit in 1977, unleashing what is known as the Gristleizer. Lost to time, the unit has been re-designed and produced by Smashing Guitars Owner/Engineer Todd Kelley, with assistance from Charlie Howes. After months of research and consultation with Gwinn and Carter, the audio path has been kept original-- "we've taken what people love about the sounds of the original Gristleizer, and given them much more" says Kelley. The Gristleizer had its initial release at the sold out Throbbing Gristle performance at Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago on April 25, 2009, one of their first performances in the USA in 28 years. Features of the Gristleizer include: table top design; 18VAC power supply with dual 9-volt battery operation option; professionally etched PCB board; LFO controlled VCA and VCF filters with four wave forms; chassis mounted bias control; bypass switch; and LED for speed. Pads have been left on the PCB board for mods, with on-line releases of these mods to be made available by Endangered Audio. The Gristleizer will be available from www.smashingguitarsasheville.com, and from the retail store of Smashing Guitars located at 103 Broadway St. in downtown Asheville, NC. The unit will be made available in small batches and will be announced from both the website and www.myspace.com/thegristleizer. The table top version retails for $374.95, PCB circuit board available for $49.95, with a stomp version available soon. Owned and operated by local musicians and engineers, Smashing Guitars is a full service music shop, repair and building facility servicing Asheville, NC and vicinity since 2002. Endangered Audio is their handmade, in house product line. EA is recreating obscure classics as well as interesting original designs of a number of effects, instrument tube amps, tube hi-fi and pro audio projects. All of this occurs by their own staff on the second floor of their facility, "the lab." Any outsourcing is kept local or within the USA. For more information, press only: Dave Harris, smashingguitarsasheville@hotmail.com General Inquiries: Smashing Guitars 103 Broadway St., Asheville, NC 28801 www.smashingguitarssheville.com www.myspace.com/smashingguitarsasheville www.myspace.com/thegristleizer" flickr group shot by Chris_Carter_

PPG In Extremo

Title link takes you to a track by Stefan Trippler done with the Waldorf PPG 2.V.

Yamaha SY-2

Click here for shots via this auction.

Check out the details. They claim the SY-2 is the only alternative that has the GX-1 filters. The GX-1 was as you know, the predecessor to the mighty CS80. I was under the impression the CS80 and CS60 had the same filters as the GX-1. The auction details do mention the CS60, so the seller is clearly aware of the CS60. Can anyone out there confirm if the filters on the CS60, CS80, GX1 and SY-2 are different or the same? Note the SY-2 was Yamaha's first synth according to the auction details pulled for this post.

Click the image to see the presets. Anyone know what Hawaiian Guitar sounds like? Considering the Wersi Bass Synth had a Hawaii Effect that you can see in the video in this previous post, I'm guessing Hawaii was in during the 70s. If so it's interesting how the popular culture at the time makes it's way into the design aspects of a given synth. Groovebox anyone? That is over isn't it?

Details:
"This is the only alternative to gets the classic GX-1 filters without paying 50000$. I'm telling you, you'll never heard something like that. The sound is unique, personnal and organic. It looks like a preset synth, but it's definately not! Think of the presets as your waveforms...

Here's some specs :
- 28 'presets'
- 37 keys keyboard with aftertouch (VERY sensible and expressive, exactly like a CS-60, I did the A-B test because I own one...)
- 1 VCO (It seems that one some preset, there's a second sine VCO after the VCF, as you find on a CS-60 and CS-80)
- 2 analog resonant filters, 1 LPF and 1 HPF
- 1 VCA envelope ADSR
- 1 VCF envelope (called 'Tone Bend' on this synth) ADS Written ATTACK TIME, INTENSITY and DECAY TIME, this envelope is inverted on some presets
- Pulse width
- Portamento
- 4 Octave transposition
- Vibrato control(LFO) : Speed and Depth
- Foot controller assignments : VCF (Wahwah) and Volume
- Aftertouch assignements : Vib Depth, VCF (Wah-wah) and Volume.
- Sensitivity knobs for aftertouch and Pedal"

Roland Oberheim

Title link takes you to some tracks previous unreleased by Ross Healy, aka Cray5656, primarily featuring the Roland Jupiter-8 and Oberheim Xpander.

Synth Samples on VSE

Title link takes you to a ton of user submitted synth samples on the VSE Forums.

Solton Polyvox

Click here for shots via this auction

Details:

"This is an odd stereo analog synth from Italy, looks like early to mid 80's. On the back tag it says Ketron Anacona Italy. Polyvox by Ketron Lab., and serial # 12xx/85. It is polyphonic, and all keys can play at once.

It has two sections, a large controller with voice banks, a footpedal with two switches, hookup wires,and a keyboard that has it's own voice banks. The keyboard has a 120 bass for the left hand. Before you roll your eyes (like I did ten years ago when I took this in trade!), the 120 bass controls a complex string, choir , organ, and bass guitar with a cool sequencer ! The strings/choir/organ sound is very lush and reminded me a lot of my K*rg Polysix when you had the effects switched to ensemble. The amazing thing about the voices is that there is a lot of flexibility and adjustments.

When I first started playing with this last year ( I had hoped to list it here before thanksgiving), I got lost in the mesmerizing grooves you could quickly make with the left hand (and I can't play accordian!) . Now it is 6 months later and I feel that I have explored this enough to describe it! I wrote 2 songs with it just this week! The phrase I keep thinking of is "This is not a cookie cutter instrument". Although similar in many ways to the basic concepts of the cheap Yam*ha's and Cas*o's (on board rhythym, drums, basic song arrangement, ala one man band), this has different arrangements, more dark new wave, kind of reminding me of the english new wave of '79-'82 . No polka madness here! And none of the aforementioned cheapies can lay down lush strings like this.

As for the right hand, you get the basic analog imitations of instruments, plus 3 mo*g-like synth sounds. The only adjustments are brilliance and modulation, and you do get a decent 'mo*g sound. Analog does make a difference, as I did not feel that I had to alter any of the instruments, like I usually do when recording the cheapie digital synths.

There's more. There is a stereo section that has the instrument moving in(or is it out?) when a key is hit. It does not continue to move if you hold the key down.. There are many adjustments for the strings, choir, organ brass, piano, percussion. Plus there are many ways to make up the sequencer for the arranger. As far as I can tell from playing it the last 6 months, you can not alter the arrangement/sequencer, but you can adjust what is in the mix.

The drums are decent sounding, and you can switch off the individual instruments. There is a tone slide that was pretty effective.

All works good, sliders work clean, leds light up, things go on and off as they should (at least as I think I should, I had no luck finding a manual online) except for two things.For some reason each time you hit one of the sequencer programs (pre-set) the drum tempo goes to the top speed 90, and you have to adjust it down to a more normal speed (40) and I could not figure out the bass program with 2 stops and a sustain (like an organ pedal). The bass guitar and double bass work fine, so I am not sure why I can't bring that section up.

This is not for everyone looking fo an analog synth, and I understand the desire to create your own voice (I'll be listing my mini-mo*g in a couple of days). But as a former synth freak, that had over 50 analog synths (and the same number of digtal ones!), I have found that the voice you spend a lot of time creating is similar enough to presets, that you could have saved a lot of time using a preset and simply modify it with outboard gear!

Anyway the point I want to make here is that this is not for someone that will be building a patch from a sawtooth oscillator , the strength of this unit is in it's songwriting/one-man band arranging. If you like your music on the odd and dark side (Resid*nts?), you will love this unit. If you think Abba and the Eagles are where it's at, do not bid! If I wasn't retired from the biz, I would keep this over the Mo*g, even though this is worth less. I have yet to find another one through go*gle searches. If you do end up getting this, and writing a hit song with it, only you and I would know how you did it!"

Quasimidi Sirius

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Anyone know what the Carrier-IN and Analyse-IN do? Click the image to see the inputs. I'm guessing the Carrier-IN is the audio in for the vocoder.

MOOG Prodigy

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Roland MC-4

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

via Johan

Roland SH-1000

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Details:
Specs: link
Review: link
Video: link

via Johan

Restoring Patches From Tape

Good tip from David Hillel Wilson, curator of the New England Synthesizer Museum.

"There is an issue with downloading synth patch tapes from the Internet, and it goes like this: The Human ear can't hear absolute phase, so that an up sawtooth sounds exactly like a down sawtooth. However, the cassette input circuits on most synths CAN hear absolute phase. Many of the .WAV files are inverted, either by the sound card the poster used to digitize them, or the sound card you used to play them back. The answer here is crazy, but it works: After trying with no success for several hours to load up an OB-Xa from an Internet wave file, I tried this: I took two alligator clip leads and an extra patch cord, and used them to swap the ground and the hot on the EAR output jack on the cassette tape recorder. It loaded on the first try! You can also run the sound through any inverting mixer (such as on the ElectroComp 200). I have tried to send this info (and the Sequential Split Eight factory sounds as an .SYX) to the website that hosts these files, but my messages keep bouncing back."

Update via swissdoc in the comments: "Why not just inverting it in your soundeditor before saving from the soundcard to tape?"