MATRIXSYNTH: Monday, October 1, 2007

Mattson Mini Modular MMM Debut @ PNW Synth DIY 2007

YouTube via redmartian.

"This is a little montage of footage shot at the PNW Synth DIY in Renton, WA. The music was composed entirely on the MMM by William Horne of inside synthesis aka williamroh."

Update via William in the comments: "I posted a much high quality version at http://insidesynthesis.com, since the YouTube compression hardly does it justice.

Only delay on the lead bits, and a highpass on the hihat were used. No chorusing, phasing, reverb, or compression/EQ, so it's overall a pretty raw sound.

I double-tracked the lead and bass parts for stereo width.

I'll make a more modern, less 80's song later. Assuming I have time - I'm only borrowing the prototype for a few days."

Thre is also a great shot of George and William in the post. Be sure to check it out.

Roland JX-10 Innards

YouTube via bluelake07
"With two JX-8P voice boards inside, by necessity the JX-10 became Roland's first 76-key synth."

ZIA

"Synthesizers are triggered by hitting Drum Kats & circuit boards with sticks"

via Zamise in the comments of this post
ZIA website

5th Annual Pacific Northwest Synth Meeting

PNW Synth Gathering 2007

click here for the flickr set by Cypher Photography.

Silicon Dream - Andromeda

YouTube via analoq. Sent my way via John.
"Italo Disco music video "Andromeda" from the 1980s by the group Silicon Dream."
Guess the synth...

Cube-Tube x 2 via Narbotic

Atari synth in a tube

It was built by Collin Mel of Narbotic where you can find more DIY projects. You can also check out his flickr set here. Collin was at this years' Handmade Music event. You can read all about it on CDM.

Kufstein Synthmeeting Video

via the Waldorf list:
"at the Kufstein Synthmeeting from the 1th / 2th Sept, Till and me we played live.
You will see and hear Till playing the XTK and me the MQK. [link]

IT is highly recommended to look at all pictures from this event.

Go for all 3 parts !!!
www.bluesynths.de
Greeting from Düsseldorf
Hajo"

Update: be sure to check out the comments for more.

Top 5 Greatest Samplers - Episode 1

via Sonic State

Fender/Chroma Music System

via the Rhodes Chroma list:

"New on the site this month: Fender/Chroma Music System outlines features of the ground-breaking Apple II software for the Chroma and Polaris.

Thanks to David Clarke for this information."

Waldorf Micro Q Demos

Two demos via the Waldorf list. via http://www.vengeance-sound.de/ where you can find more sample sets of other synths.

Trilogy vol 2 - Q-MicroQ Soundset by Manuel Schleis.mp3
Trilogy vol 2 - Q-MicroQ Soundset by Manuel Schleis.mp3

Prophet '08 Track via Stefan Trippler

http://www.trippler.net/files/p8/p8n.mp3

and... A Native Instruments Pro-53 track:

link [4th track in the player]

On The Loose

via Dave

If you aren't familiar with Dave's work, be sure to check out The Packrat, Parallax and the rest of his site.

The PPG Wave 2

Update: I put this up earlier yesterday but decided to move this up so no one misses it. Note this is NOT the popular PPG Wave 2.2 or 2.3, but the super rare Wave 2 that preceded the 2.2 and 2.3. This is a very rare and special synth. This is our chance to see and hear it.

via Boele Gerkes (Something Completely Different):
"After Wolfgang Palm had released the WaveComputer 360s series PPG came out with the PPG 2.0. An 8 voice, 1 oscillator digital wavetable synthesizer with analog filters (CEM 3320) and analog VCAs (CEM 3330 dual VCA). It's the forerunner of the better known PPG 2.2 and 2.3, but to my opinion these are quite different sounding PPGs, probably mostly because of the different filters used (SSM 2044) and different VCAs (CEM3360).

I know and own(ed) all the Waldorf wavetable synths too and have done lots of music with those (WAVE, Microwave 1, Microwave XT, the Q) but those are incomparable with the PPG series.

The PPG 2.0 sounds very intimate and to me it's the perfect mixture of digital and analog components in a synthesizer. I fell in deep love with it. And more famous band and people did too: Depeche Mode, Tangerine Dream, Robert Schröder, Gary Numan and others.

Yes, it's digital, yes it aliasing as hell, but ohhhhh..... everything gets polished again by those lovely filters...

All examples are PPG 2.0 only (plus reverb and delay). It's quite clear where some leads from Tangerine Dreams albums of the eighties come from...

Also the demo-tune is PPG 2.0 only. Not really a good song, but it shows a few sounds the synth is capable of. Since there is no midi on the PPG (yet...), everything is played by hand, so excuses for some timing glitches.

The PPG 2.0 on which all this is done, is on loan from a friend of mine. But I just bought one myself. Should arrive next week."

samples:
ppg-1.mp3
ppg-2.mp3
ppg-3.mp3
ppg-4.mp3
ppg-5.mp3
ppg-6.mp3
ppg-7.mp3
ppg-8.mp3
ppg-9.mp3
ppg-10.mp3

Song:
one complete "song"