MATRIXSYNTH: Monday, June 2, 2008


Monday, June 02, 2008

STEVE PORCARO INTERVIEW - December 2005

Jeff wrote in to let me know about an interview of Toto's Steve Porcaro. You can find it here. The following is an excerpt Jeff called on the synth solo for Rosanna:

"Flash to 3 AM in the morning, the day Greg Ladanyi is suppose to mix Rosanna. David and I are in the studio, everything's setup and working great. ‘We’re gonna finish this ****er, it's the eleventh hour once again’. We decide to use everything in the room and just go around and fill the holes with different “events”. We had the opening line. Then David came up with the descending sequencer line using our Roland Microcomposer playing a Jupiter 8. Then David overlapped that with the gliding Minimoog sound asking me to cop that Rick Wakeman thing with the filter being tracked by the keyboard ala "Catherine of Aragon..."

Lead sound answered by horns answered by lead sound, then David on that sliding ribbon controlled CS-80 riff, then we're stuck. Engineering all of this myself (for which I was nominated for a Grammy award, thank you very much), led us to a happy mistake. Needing tracks, I had erased David's old solo. These were the days when you had to make decisions. Or so I thought. When David and I were trying to figure out what we were going to do for an ending and we just listened through, the final riff appeared out of nowhere, and at the perfect time. I hadn't erased his track all the way through. Thank god. We had all the pieces recorded and sounding great at which point David said "Let's leave it and wait for Tom Knox to come over and bounce it properly". I said "let's not", bounced exactly what we were hearing with all my effects that I was always made to hold off on until we mixed, (then never heard again), and then just hours later beamed, as I watched Ladanyi crank up only two faders, that was our solo. I've always taken credit for the Rosanna solo where in reality, Paich had as much to do with it as I did. Especially the synthy stuff ! All I played was the opening line on the modular horn sound and it’s answers later. What I will take credit for is conceptualizing the whole thing. Thinking like that. Really orchestrating a solo and using all these synths I spent so much time with and showing what could happen when I was given some space that could never ever happen with everyone breathing down your neck."

You can hear the synth solo at 2:52:

Toto - Rosanna

Published on Jan 10, 2013 TotoVEVO

Synthesizers.com Rhodes 73 Minimoog Jupiter 8 ARP Odyssey


YouTube via angelometz
"Yet another jam! Several midi loops in protools play all the synths. The jupiter is controlled by a click track. Reason provides the drums. The minimoog is patched to the dotcom."

Fairlight Instruments Corporate Video 1985


YouTube via psvbluemts
"Fairlight Corporate promotional video 1985 including CMI, CVI and Voicetracker. For all your Fairlight nostaligia needs visit Peter Vogel's personal collection at anerd.com/fairlight"

The Tubbie Box redux - Circuit Bent Contraption


YouTube via carpeteria
"here's a revisit of the internationally famous "The Tubbie Box". did you see the original video? fantastic. here's another one. it's in the dark, so you can freak out with the lights and whatnot while the noise-inducing genius of my circuit bending skills screams through your respective skulls. go ahead, i'll wait. thanks."

The Buchla

"As well as being a University of Victoria music professor, Andrew Schloss is a musician who has played with everyone from Laurie Anderson to Jimmy Page.

At the university, he teaches students to play a rare vintage Buchla modular synthesizer. The California instrument produces the classic bleeps, whirs and blips one associates with early synthesizers. Inventor Don Buchla and Robert Moog each invented modular synthesizers in 1963."

You can find the full article on the Times Colonist.

Serge Modular

via this auction
"Modules included from left to right -
1x Preamp Detector (for processing live input like a guitar or vocals)
1 x Wave Multiplier (my favorite serge module, you can get some very nasty FM sounds off of this)
1 x Variable slope VCF (not your typical vcf, a lot more controllable)
1 x Resonant Equalizer (an extremely nice sound sounding EQ with comb filter abilities)
1 x Universal Audio Processor (kind of like the main mixer of the system enabling you to VC pan or crossfade)
1 x Dual Universal Slope Generator (this is praised as the best the serge has to offer, it serves as an oscillator, LFO and an env all in one, a very versatile module, i would personally describe it as a looping envelope)
1 x Quadrature Oscillator (to be honest ive never understood what the quadrature part meant, but its a decent oscillator pretty similar to other modulars)
1 x Random Source

It's rare to find a used Serge in general, and its even rarer to find one with such a nice set of modules. A lot of the serges ive seen come and go on ebay in the past few years (its only been probably 2-3) they all have had kind of a weak module selection, where youd need to combine at least 2 racks together to get the power that this single rack has.

there are 3 knobs missing in the photograph but before shipping i will replace them with extras i have. also there is some clear packing tape residue still on top of the case, and some rack wear screw rings, besides this the rest of the unit is in perfect condition
listen to an experimental / electronic song i made entirely with this serge here
(by fluorescent grey)"

newest toy

flickr by chiasticon

full size

"for my birthday, i bought something older than me."

cauchy riemann's MFOS modular

via cauchy riemann on electro-music.com

"2vcos, s&h, dual ar, lp filter, 2 lfos, dual vca, noise generator, 16 step sequencer"

MOOG MINIMOOG

images via this auction
"This MINI is the 908 th ever made, from Williamsville factory (sn. T1908E), it has three RA Moog boards inside, except the oscillator one, that is probably a late upgrade, marked Moog Music. The osc board is not the latest one, it sports just 7 trimpots and is the OLD, fat, soughtafter board. It sounds HUGE; its tuning is VERY stable (as a very good Mini can be); no mods, no buffer board; its woodwork is wonderful, no nicks, smooth as silk, nice wood grain; the panels are plastic over metal (not like the latest ones that are all vynil... ); white milky, smooth wheels; everything works like it should; all knobs are there; keyboard works as it should; according to what a renowned Moog guru said to me from USA :-) , its ser. number with T and E means that it was made for european market: in fact, it is 220 V AC supplied ( no 110 V switch)...FAQ: The Mini nameplate is made of metal, covered by plastic like the other panels are, Moog Music Minimoog (it is from the transition era from Musonics to Moog Music Williamsville). Look at the original a white tag inside its "brain" where the date of release is reported: november 1972. Yes, the filter board is marked RA Moog, as the others but the OSC one. Recommended for european Moog fans (shipping is about € 100, probably less...)"

midibox sid

flickr by subat0mic
(click for more)

"midibox sid synthesizer in old vintage commodore c64 computer case read about this DIY project here in the work blog: www.subatomicglue.com/sidl0g/

for information about making your own midibox go here: www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid.html


This is a MidiboxSID, a synthesizer that has sound chips from the original commodore 64 personal computer from the 1980's. These sound chips are called the SID 6582

The synth is built into an original Commodore 64 computer case. And features 8 SID chips (4 stereo pairs - one SID per ear x 4 voices). Each SID chip has 3 oscillators and a variety of other features like filters, ADSR, ringmod, sync. The synth has a very flexible (and simple to use) modulation matrix, LFO, bassline sequencers, and stores patches in presets.

midibox of the week"

Circuit bending tr505 roland


YouTube via BitCrusherTv. "Roland tr505 circuit bend!"

Roland tb303 mods Circuit bending


YouTube via BitCrusherTv
"Modification de la célèbre Roland TB 303!! Aciiid!!!!!!!!!"

Roland CompuRhythm CR-78 Demo


YouTube via mrduckbutt
"Brief demo of some of the features on the Roland CR-78 drum machine. Mostly playing around with rhythm selections (incl. A/B variations), voice cancel, tempo, automatic fills, automatic fading, etc. And of course no CR-78 demo would be complete without playing "In the Air Tonight" and some Hall & Oates ("Kiss On My List"). The former uses the "Disco-2" rhythm with snare cancelled out; the latter uses "Rock-1" with automatic fill 7.

On a side note, I haven't found any permutation of rhythms to give the exact bass drum pattern on "In the Air Tonight". Maybe this is how Phil did it as well, but I just used the programming interface to make a custom rhythm with this bass drum pattern. Then I load this at the same time as "Disco-2" (these are the two yellow buttons pressed in the demo)."

Roland CR-68 demo


YouTube via databass313. "short demo of 68 sounds" via synthzoom.

Yamaha CS-15 Rooting test


YouTube via technogenome
"部屋の模様替え後のRootingのテストを録画したので、折角だからアップした。"
"Rooting redecorate the room after the test to record it, so it折角up."

ROLAND SH-1 1978 VINTAGE ANALOG MONO SYNTH


YouTube via GCom67
"Very simple vid featuring the SH-1 When I get more time I will do a better vid with good pics. W A R N I N G !! SUB BASS FROM HELL!!"

Yamaha AN200: teaser


YouTube via se7ense7
"I bought this thing second hand last week as a portable mini-synth. Boy am I glad I got rid of my Microkorg. This thing is much better. I'm doing more in-depth stuff later. But for now some teaser sounds..."

Oakley Sound TB-303 Diode Ladder VCF


YouTube via djthomaswhite
"My build of the Oakley Super Ladder (pcb ver.3) Low Pass Voltage Controlled Filter. For more information check www.oakleysound.com for circuit boards or www.naturalrhythmmusic.com/diy.html for more information on my projects."

Machinedrum TRX B2 jam


YouTube via enapa1apa
"TRX b2 synthesis at 2 channelsss..."

machinedrum TRX B2 jam PT2

YouTube via enapa1apa
"md with trx b2 basdrumsynth at 2 channels... parameterlocked and tweaked..."

YAMAHA VSS-200 + CASIO SK-1 Sampling Keyboards by RetroSound


YouTube via retrosound72

"vintage gear demo by RetroSound

Back to the 80`s!

Some people wished that:
The funny Demo Songs of the Casio SK-1 and Yamaha VSS-200 Sampling Keyboards.

So many memories... :)

Casio SK-1 (1985):
5 PCM tones: piano, brass ensemble, trumpet, synth drums, human voice
3 additive synth tones: flute, pipe organ, jazz organ

Yamaha VSS-200 (1988):
4 voices, 8-bit sampling, 100 FM tones, 9 DSP effects: loop, u-turn, reverse, FM, AM, fuzz, echo, level and pitch"

Jeff Haskell - Switched-On Buck (1971)

track listing and link on 36 15 MOOG
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