Happy Knobbing Modular Meeting 2007

YouTube via Moogulator. Via sequencer.de where you will find more info on the event.

Buchla 259 Complex Oscillators

via this auction.
Details:
"Once upon a time, Don Buchla had a garage sale. Synth geeks familiar with Don and his work AND lucky enough to be on his call list when crazy things like this happen, got a couple of weeks to buy the NOS stock of 200 and 100 series inventory that he had left. I bought a fairly large pile of it for The Audities Foundation collection. The last modules to get finished where these 2 oscillators. The parts are NOS from Don or new parts currently manufactured to orginal spec. They were assembled by the very talented Mark Verbos in New York this last winter and function beautifully. I have been testing them in our studio system for the last 3 months and found NO issues." via Chris

Midievil Monome Rave Machine

YouTube via midievil, aka Roberto.

Arguru, Fruity Loops Creator Dies in Accident

Sad day. Condolences to everyone close to him.

Translated via hispasonic.com:
"Arguru, virtual programmer of Image Line (FL Studio) and creator of sintes of DiscoDSP, passed away yesterday near Benalmádena (Malaga), in a car accident.

Yesterday Sunday 3 of June, to 18:45 hours, the car of Juan Antonio [left the road] in the AP-7, near Benalmádena (Malaga), despeñando themselves and ending its life. Its burial was celebrated Monday to 17:30 today, in the park cemetery of Malaga, company of its relatives and friends more close friends.

Arguru was [hispasónico nº 2,751], one of most veteran. He was [sworn of IV the Musical Battles], celebrated in the spring of 2004, and many moments, active participant of our forums.

But mainly,] the 19 of July of 2002, George was known to found the company [DiscoDSP along with Real. DiscoDSP is the person in charge of sintes as famous as [Discovery] and Vertigo. In [December of year 2002] we already gave account of one of his first products, NightShine.

Arguru was a great professional, who called the attention by the quality of his creations. Sintes of DiscoDSP is surely the perfected and powerful virtual instruments more of the market, without concessions in quality of sound.

The community to tracker will have without a doubt a great memory of Arguru thanks to [Aodix], secuenciador-tracker very powerful, that incorporated professional MIDI, support VST and other characteristics. ] Was also an important component of [Smartelectronix and the scene [Buzz].

In 2004,], the creative company of the famous FL Studio left DiscoDSP to give to the jump to [Image Line. Arguru had a great implication in the development of FL Studio 7; it created in addition sampler Directwave, and very recent [Deckadance], a software for DJs.

He was referring an absolute one of the small group of Spaniards who dedicate themselves professionally to the musical technology. Some we already remembered to him from the excited ones to char them of IRC-Hispanic. Arguru always emphasized by its seriousness and the deep knowledge of the synthesis and the programming.

A great loss, to an age in which nobody would have to leave this world. From we give to many spirits to family and friends him, and left to a sense memory for the brilliant Arguru here, to which we will never forget in Hispasonic."

via sequencer.de.

Gyre

"Gyre is a program I've been writing in Max/MSP for playing my Buchla 200e. It is a work in progress, but I'm finding it pretty usable, even in its current state. One of the things I like about Gyre is that it separates the timing information from the note generation processes. For example, this means that I can have a rhythm going driving a step sequencer, then switch to a Sample & Hold using the same rhythm pattern."

Title link takes you to more info. via sequencer.de.

Top 10 Synths of All Time

As we all know there was a bit of controversy over Sonic State's Top 20 Greatest Synths of all time. The controversy of course was what was on the list did not match up to what might have been on your list. Mick decided to put up a post on his top 10 synths of all time. Title link takes you to the list with descriptions on why for each. The number one synth on his list? The Yamaha CX5M. Its fascinating to see what people pick and why.

BTW, if you want to share your top 10 or top three for that matter, feel free to leave the list in the comments with the reason why for each. If we get enough entries, I'll add this to the sticky posts list on the right.

HGSounds Astralis

"If interplanetary excursions are your thing, you will love Astralis, a synth to loose yourself in. Astralis is packed with soundscaping features, an intuitive hands on professional sound design environment. Ideal for any style of music though particularly suited to Ambient, Psy, and styles requiring atmosphere. It is a tweakers synth though be warned whole nights can vanish very easily!

Aside from having 2 independent synths with dual and spectral oscillators, 2 cascadable filters (8x), 2 Modulation Sequencers, a Gate Sequencer (TranceGate), and a comprehensive FX section, Astralis also includes an impressive Microtonal Scale System. This system uses patches created using the included Microtonal Bank/patch manager. Custom scales of up to 24 notes can be created, and scale entry is designed with scala files in mind using either ratio or cent values. 160 patches are included as default including a wide selection of eastern tunings. Unlike many other microtonal systems Astralis does not rely on the pitch bend which remains fully functional."

Title link takes you to more info including samples. Via Sonic State.
HGSounds Astralis aka Home Grown Sounds Astralis.

Custom Modular for $50

via mistercooper on this VSE thread:
"It contains the following.
1x +- 15V power supply
1x dual 10 step cv sequencer
4x ADSR envelopes
3x VCA
1x SV 24db filter
1x Bode Frequency Shifter (!!!)
1x Dual Trigger Delay
1x Noise generator
1x Frequency Standard
2x VCO
1x Keyboard interface
1x FM
1x Phase Locked Loop
1x Pedal interface
1x Flanger
1x Reverb w/ tank
1x something of which i have no idea what it is
1x multiple

and a quadruple pedal

I answered an ad- "Hand Built Music Synthesizer from the 1970's - $50". Of course, I immediately got my hopes up thinking I might have stumbled upon an old paia or maybe even an I4600, but quickly dismissed such thoughts, and assumed it was some shoddy kit or broken junk someone was trying to get rid of. I was obviously wrong. Shocked
I drove about 20 minutes to the person's house. I was then greeted by a late middle aged woman with a lot of dogs. She yelled to her husband upstairs that the synthesizer person was here. After some strange noises, he came downstairs. The guy could have been R.A. Moog himself. Balding graying hair, huge glasses that were probably as old as the synth. He led me into the family room and... wow. My jaw dropped. The guy is a retired electronics engineer. His wife and him are moving and she would rather he didn't bring this monster with them. It was his labor of love throughout the 70's, and I can see why he got into engineering. He designed the entire thing himself, basing most of the designs on old Moog stuff. It even has a state variable 24db filter (the only module thats currently on the fritz), and a bode shifter! Very Happy. The guy got into the zone, clearly having no one else to share his old passion with, and demonstrated the unit for over 2 hours while I just sat there, amazed. As I was leaving, I found out that he was going to take it to the landfill before his wife decided to post the ad. Shocked Shocked Shocked She was even coming in periodically to remind him 'Remember, we are willing to negotiate, wayyy down.' I laughed inside. A lot. Felt kind of guilty as I left. He threw in a bunch of replacement switches and blank panels for the empty spots (cant wait to stick some of my DIY circuits in there). I got about 30 1/4in patch cables, too. Ah hell, who am I kidding"

I guess it does happen folks. via the comments of this post. Images mirrored here for when the VSE thread disappears.

Synthiship

via Dave of umop.

Space Probe Project

via Cyril Colom:
"I'm working on a new project dedicated to experimental drone sound. I will launch new probes regularly.
PS : one of the three drone i already launched was exclusively composed with a famous not so old analogue synth. There is a clue somewhere... guess the synth

Guess The Studio Pics #4

Continuation of this post.
And the answer is...
via Mr. Array:
"as many people have pointed out already, the studio belongs to none other than Lil Jon who is responsible for many hits this past decade. The same Lil Jon who was parodied by Dave Chapelle. The other artist in the photos is Rhymefest who won a Grammy for "Best Rap Song" for co-writing Kanye West's "Jesus Walks".

The video that these shots came from was filmed in March for use in a "making of" promotional video for Rhymefest's new song "Angry Black Man": link

Said "making of" video should be done any day now :)"

the white stripes - icky thump (live jools holland)

YouTube via modecl. Sent my way via Ryan. MOOG Little Phatty.

icky thump - live on jools holland - 06.01.07

electro-music 2007 Shots via Inverse Room

Title link takes you to them. via Inverse Room:

"Hey Matrix! Just got back from Electro-Music 2007...my EM duo The Bemus Point played there, along with dozens of other people. These pics are from yesterday (Sunday)...a very fun event. The owner of those Buchla synths actually let everyone play with 'em. Amazing!"

Awesome. I have yet to get my hands on one myself. One day...

Polysynthi Sketch 2

Part two of this post via ben.

"i've done another polysynthi thing, this time on its own. i recorded it 'pure' with no fx, eq or anything [except for the built-in delay]. i just layered up a few simple parts. its only short though"

Title link takes you to the sample. Thanks ben!

Buchla 106 Six Channel Mixer

via this auction.

Details:
"This is module from the Buchla 100 series. Their catalog describes it as: Two 3-channel mixers with both separate and common outputs and level controls for each input.
Panel Units - 1
You can read more about this and other Buchla 100 series modules here."

via tom

DIY MOOG 904a

Title link takes you to shots via Keith via AH:

"the reason I built my 904A was because there was NOTHING available at the time that sounded anything like it, just approximations.

I happened to be given a 904A front panel, (it was from the Welsh mini people when they were working on moog module re issues), and i thought that the panel needed justice doing to it. There was also the element of challenge and a chance to increase my electronics skills which are very poor.The only original parts are the 3392s and the 4058s which are essential for the sound, you can use modern equivalents but they need offsetting (as in the MOTM-490) to get the right sound, and a couple of the wire wound trims because they happened to be available, nothing else in there is vintage. I made some great friends building that filter, I have a fantastic filter, it cost me much less that a real one and above all I enjoyed the experience.

Oh, nearly forgot, the knobs are original NOS, they make all the difference :o)"