MATRIXSYNTH: Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Knox Bronson's Pop Down The Years

The second Valentine's Day post this year.

This one is an image of a bee on a Serge Modular from the album cover of Knox Bronson's new album Pop Down the Years. You can find it on Amazon (mp3s available).
"it will be everywhere, including itunes, within the week. Pop Down The Years is VERY electronic and very much fun, with old- school song writing, pretty good singing (if i do say so myself - the girls seem to like me!) and full, rich electronic/ orchestral instrumentation, vintage and new. You can hear whole songs at sunpopblue. My NEW site, devoted solely to my music, is www.knoxbronson.com."

Update via Knox in the comments: "the cd is available on Amazon and all the other sites this week, but won't hit iTunes until next week. But that's okay, 'cuz Amazon doesn't use DRM."

An Insider's Guide to Casio CZ Synthesizers

image sent my way via brian c.

by Andrew Schlesinger

$484.46 on Amazon

:)

If anyone knows more about this book, feel free to comment.

Happy Valentine's Day via Cynthia - Synthacon Filter

via Cynthia

"Howdy Matrix!
We're shipping Synthacons again.... (now our new improved Mark III design). Image Attached for your marvelous website!!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Cynthia"

BTW, I am not planning on a specific Valentine's Day post this year (I don't think I had one last), so... Have a Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Imagine if your honey gave you one of these, a Steiner Parker Synthacon Filter. :)

The Chemical Brothers Modular - Update

See this post and scroll to the bottom for an update via Mike Brown of Livewire.

Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman at the Radiophonic 08 Festival

via Dana Countryman:

"Just a quick note to mention the upcoming lecture and concert by Jean-Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman at the Radiophonic 08 Festival in Gateshead, England. It all happens on March 1st, 2008. More info here and here"

Be sure to check out these previous posts on Dana Countryman and Jean Jacques Perrey.

During their previous shows (where I actually took this shot myself) Dana played his MOTM/Dotcom modular and Jean Jacques Perrey played his favorite istrument, the Ondioline which is similar in concept to the Ondes Martenot and Tannerin.

KORG Electribe ES-1 MKII

images via this auction. Be sure to check these out full size.

Whilte Forat Angelmuse Roland V-Synth

images via this auction
"This brilliant, unique, all-white keyboard was very recently purchased from a selling agent for Marcus Brown, one of Madonna's keyboardists. The tax man already taketh away, unfortunately, so I must immediately pass this bit of musical history along to you! Check out all the images and see this amazing beast in all its splendor. It was used on tour (read this article about it!), so there are one or two very small dings, which aren't noticeable until you peer at it point-blank. It is 100% operational, and comes with power cord and a printout of the 200-page manual. If you'd like to take a gander at it ahead of time, the PDF file is located on the Roland website, right here (warning: 3MB PDF file link; access may require a free registry at Rolandus.com).

It is maxed out in RAM and comes with a 128 MB Kingston flash memory card to store your sounds separate from the internal memory. It is also signed by Marcus, underneath the unit, clearly visible in one of the images. Its FORAT customization is worth-class; FORAT has designed custom MPC & synth systems for a renowned group of A-list artists."

Yes this is the White Forat previously posted here and here.

"So Run The Tears As Wine" Acid Symphony

YouTube via Homevaurio.
"ori Hulkkonen And His Experimental Piece For 10 Roland 303's "So Run The Tears As Wine" @ Festival For New Music (UMF), 5th Of August 2007, Turku, Finland. The Acid Symphony Orchestra: Jori Hulkkonen, Jesper Dahlbäck, Kalle Karvanen, Aku Raski, J-P Parikka, Janne Puurunen, Kimmo Oksanen, Petri Salonen, Tuomas Toivonen, Johannes Auvinen, Tatu Peltomäki. The Film ©Sähkö Recordings, Keys Of Life Records & Las Palmas Films 2008."

via jori:
"i've been reading you everyday for such a long time so i thought it would be nice to give something back! please check out this 3-part (approx 22 minutes) documentary about the Acid Symphony including ten tb-303s and one tr-808. it all took place at a festival in finland last summer."
www.jorihulkkonen.com
www.myspace.com/jorihulkkonen
www.myspace.com/processory

PS on http://www.jorihulkkonen.com/studio.php there's some stuff some fellowgeeks may find of interest

Monome?

I spotted this image of the monome on jhve.com. I ashed jhve what it was exactly and... turns out it was a little trickery to block out this.

Hidden Village (live): 24 Points of Articulation

YouTube via littlescale. Sent my way via nthn' /amsterdam
""24 Points of Articulation" - live breadboarding as performed by Hidden Village (Sebastian Tomczak and Lauren Sutter).

What is digital, what is analog? Can musical form include structural information regarding moving from an unbalanced, ambiguous state (read chaos) to a more balanced, well-defined state (read order)? What is a computer, what is a computation?

Performance was held at the de la Catessen Gallery, 9 Anster street, Adelaide as part of the Tyndall Assembly concert #2.
--
This particular circuit is basically two instances of the circuit found on this link: http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/sea-moss/#seqamp

For more general info on using CMOS 40xx series logic for basic digital sound, synthesis and music visit my "fun with sea moss" page at http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/sea-moss/

Any questions etc, please feel free to drop me a line."

---------------------
http://little-scale.blogspot.com
http://cloudsparrow.blogspot.com/"

T-RES Delays

"This is a short demo of the Jomox T-Resonator. I'm using mostly Program 6 which is one of the delay modes. First you here the dry drum loop then the filter then into the delay sections. It gets really interesting around 1:05ish because I'm feeding one of the outputs back into the T-Resonator."

via Josh of bigcitymusic.

VST TAL-BassLine

"TAL-BassLine is a virtal analog bass synthesizer especially made for bass, acid sounds and effects. It’s based on a robust core and has the usual controls of analogue hardware synthesizers.

A unique -18dB low pass filter with a lot of asymmetric and random components introduce a warm and analogue sound. Very fast, non linear envelopes are also a part of this synth.

* Bandlinited oscillators (saw, pulse).
* Sub-oscillator: square -1 oct., square -2 oct., pulse -1 oct, pulse -2 oct.
* -18 dB/octave low-pass filter (resonant/self-oscillating).
* LFO (frequency: 0,1 .. 30 Hz, waveforms: sin, tri, saw, rec, noise).
* Very fast nonlinear envelope (A: 1.5ms..4s, D: 2ms..10s, S: 0..100%, R: 2ms..10s).
* Simple Arpeggiator (up, down, one octave mode).
* 2x Unisono Mode.
* Panic button.
* MIDI automation for all sliders and pots.
* Precise fader control while holding down the "Shift" button.
* Supports all sample-rates.
* 2x oversampling.
* 23 presets.
* Tutorial pdf.
* ~2.5% CPU (Intel Core 2 CPU 6700, 44.1KHz, 24Bit, buffer-size 1024 Samples)."

click here for more info including the download. via wire to the ear

United Colors of Bananalogue

via Muff Wiggler

Korg & Casio & Roland

flickr by lunaz (ruby blue)

full size

KORG MS20
Casio VL1
Roland Juno-60

Moog 'Industry Profile' 1983 (1of4)

flickr by Neil Vance (click for the rest)

Click on the All Sizes link when you get there to read them. Click here for Neil Vance's Synth Reviews set.

ARP Odyssey Lumina by CMS

images via this auction
"This auction is for a super-rare, one of a kind, ARP Odyssey Lumina by CMS. This Odyssey is from the personal collection of Phil Cirocco at CMS. It is the one and only prototype for an upcoming illuminated slider retrofit kit for the ARP Odyssey and Avatar. Due to an ongoing relocation here at CMS, this mod is not available at this time and won't be available until the end of 08. This unit has been restored to brand new condition by CMS and features all new, color coded, illuminated sliders.

This is the one and only chance to get your hands on a drastically superior version of a classic synthesizer. The illumination of the sliders is remarkable, but that is not the focus of this modification. The replacement sliders are of a much better quality than the originals and feature a teflon bushing for much better action and tactile feel. The precision of these sliders makes tuning the VCOs much easier and the VCOs actually stay in tune! The modulation attenuators have a much better range. The filter FC and resonance sliders are never scratchy and have a wonderful feel when you want to "play" them.

In my opinion, the big thing wrong with the ARP Odyssey, from the very beginning, was the sliders. They were garbage from day one. Sorry Alan. Changing the sliders to high quality teflon units makes a giant difference in the operation of an ARP Odyssey. Custom light sliders.

More info here" via Josh of bigcitymusic.com

painted es-1

flickr by Satoshi Aizawa

full size

White KORG ES-1

Grey Faced Oberheim OB-1

via link

Anyone know more about this one?

Update via Chuck in the comments: the image is via this auction. Someone on AH called out that it is a later OB-1A model which makes sense as Oberheim went with the gray on the OB-X and first OB-SX which both followed the OB-1.

EDP GNAT

YouTube via emssynthi100
"my gnat talking.soon clips to follow with wasp and spider sequencer."

moog modular + drum controller

YouTube via polyvoks
"moog modular playing a simple sequence + moog drum controller"

Sequential Circuits Split-Eight

images via this auction
"The Split-Eight has a gritty and raw sound with a lot of character that suits many styles of music. Bass sounds are tremendous. Has Poly Modulation just like the Prophet 5 giving it some unique and unusual tonal variations. The filters are warm with some beautiful high-frequency spectral movement when resonnance pushed to the edge.
• Eight Analog Oscillators - Saw, Tri, Pulse
• Pitch, Pulse Width, and Poly Modulation

• Eight 24db Curtis Low Pass Filters with Resonnance
• ADSR Filter Envelope
• DADSR Amplifier Envelope
• LFO with Square, Triangle Waveforms
• Wicked Fat Unison Mode
• Built-in Analog Stereo Chorus
• Five Octave Keyboard (not velocity sensitive)
• Split/Doubled Keyboard Voice Assignment
• Program Linking
• Separate A/B/Mix Audio Outputs
• Built-in Grounded Power AC Power Cable
• Newly Replaced Storage Backup Battery"

The Multi-Trak, Six-Trak, MAX, and Split-Eight as share the same synth engine.

Studio Electronics Code 8

images via this auction

Note the binary background.

"Studio Electronics Code 8 OD. It's the ultimate true analog synthesizer, like having eight discrete monophonic synths from the 70's/80's era (you know, the sound EVERYONE looks for?) built into a rack unit. With all that sound, the instrument is amazingly flexible, and those 8 huge voices can be stacked, merged, split up, or run multi-timbrally, any way you want. Built in Moog and Oberheim-style analog filters (you can choose between them for EACh VOICE!)... really nice design with easy to use front panel. Studio Electronics took their worshipped Omega 8 synth, and put a bunch of extras into it. The new "OD" models give you classic analog amp overdrive for each voice. The analog experts at Studio Electronics took their classic Omega Engine and couple of fresh ideas to come out with the NEW C O D E Synthesizer. Two new great features on the CODE Synth are the sinewave generators and the new filter control section. New Sinewave Generator features. Each voice now has a sinewave on oscillator 1 expanding the sound possibilities of the synth. One of the key new features on the C O D E is the Filter Control section, which allows you to sweep through all the filter types in real time with complete MIDI control. The switches in the Filter Control section give momentary control of assignable parameters. The Filter Control Section · Sweep through all the filter types in real time. · Increase or decrease the filter frequency. · Increase the envelope amount. · Increase the resonance amount. · Filter ENV Delay. · Invert the filter envelope. · "CUT" Filter Decay. · Works on the CODE synth engine or external input. The 8 voice version is configured as a 8 input or quad filterbank.  Bank 3 "The Riot" bank included (a $139 value!) Bank 4 All New "Cadix" bank included (a $189 value!)"

MATRIXSYNTH