Battery Powered TR-707 With Interchangeable TR-808 and TR-909 EPROMs

TR-707 Battery-powered with quick-swappable EPROM sounds

YouTube via rolandsh1000

"I think the 707 has some definite things going for it: great interface, lightweight, individual outs, onboard sound mixer pots, solid trigger outs. However, the things I always thought were odd were that it wasn't battery powered (such a lightweight chassis...why not?), and the sounds were good but not great (probably better than the 505 and 626, but the stepsister to the 808, 909, and possibly 606).

So this mod tries to fix both of those:

The first part is battery-power. I have an internal array of 10 AA cells that can be switched in and they'll power the unit for at least 10 hours. I use rechargeable NiMH cells for environmental friendliness. This enables sitting on the couch jamming with headphones and no wall wart leash!

The second part is a ZIF eprom socket mounted on the front panel where the M64-C memory cartridge used to go (something I know that I would never ever have used). This is wired into IC34 and IC35 on the voice board, which provide the ROM samples for all the drums except the crash and ride. Since IC34 and IC35 were 27c256 sized ROMs in parallel, they can be replaced with a single 27c512 64k ROM, which I've done here. No credit to me: Thierry on the Yahoo TR-707 group figured this out and posted his methods there for adding new sounds. To burn my own sounds, I got the WAVs from Hyperreal for the 808 and 909, downsampled them to ~22kHz and 8-bit, converted them to binaries, then adapted Thierry's BASIC program that organizes all the sounds into on 64K file per their stock organization in the TR-707.

This video shows me running from battery power (the only thing I plug in is the amp). I run through the exact same patterns using sounds first from a 27c512 EPROM with the stock 707 binaries, then my converted 808 EPROM kit, then finally a 909 EPROM kit (I didn't like how that last one turned out...anybody know of better sources for 909 sounds?).

I suppose doing the crash and ride eproms are next!"

pierre schaeffer - "etude aux chemins de fer"

YouTube via apopcollapse.

Anyone confirm this was the first piece of musique concrete?
"The first piece of "musique concrete," composed by Pierre Schaeffer in 1948 out of sounds produced by trains.

This is posted as a reference to a series of articles on the problems of composition posed by musique concrete. The article on Peirre Schaeffer can be found here:

http://againstthemodernworld.blogspot...

If you like this music, please purchase the album:

http://www.amazon.com/L-Oeuvre-Musica..." on Amazon

Update via Joe of Electronic Music Teacher:
"I just want to note that Etude aux Chemins de Fer may be the first piece of Musique Concrete, but it is not necessarily the first piece of "sound collage" tape music. Schaeffer coined the term Musique Concrete (also called "acousmatic music") to describe non-narrative music using "sounds" as the primary source material, divorcing the actual content of the sound from what it represents. (When listening to Etude aux Chemins de Fer we are not supposed to hear trains as trains, but simply as abstracted sounds - elements in the composition.)

The earliest piece of tape-style electronic music might be Walter Ruttman's "audio film" titled "Weekend", from 1930. According to The Transparent Tape Music Festival:

"Weekend is a pioneering work from the early days of radio, commissioned in 1928 by Berlin Radio Hour. In a collage of words, music fragments and sounds, the film-maker and media artist Walter Ruttmann presented on 13 June 1930 a radically innovative radio piece: an acoustic picture of a Berlin weekend urban landscape.

Before making Weekend, Ruttmann had produced the experimental documentary Berlin-Symphony of a Great City (1927) as well as a number of short, experimental abstract animations. After his experience with his films, Ruttmann deliberately sought possibilities for producing an audio-film for radio. "Everything audible in the world becomes material," he wrote in a manifesto in 1929, prefiguring Schaeffer, Varese, Cage and the other giants of the musical avant-garde."

Source : http://www.sfsound.org/tape/ruttmann.html

You can hear "Weekend" at this link:
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/weekend/"

Bob Moog honored at UNC Asheville

Update via Schwertwal in the comments, this occurred last Monday.

via the Citezen-Times.com:

"UNC Asheville dedicates its Bob Moog Electronic Music Studio on Monday.

The 10 a.m. event, in room 24 of UNCA’s Lipinsky Hall, will honor the legacy of the late Bob Moog, who taught at the university 1989-1993. The 30-minute program will include remarks by Chancellor Anne Ponder, music department chair Wayne Kirby, Moog Music product development specialist Steve Dunnington (UNCA '93), and Rosser Douglas, a UNCA music major.

A studio tour will follow, including live student performances and hands-on opportunities on the theremin and synthesizers.

The Bob Moog Electronic Music Studio houses a variety of classic analog synthesizers and processors, including a Voyager Mini Moog, Moog pedals and theremins. Next door is a recording studio with a high-end recording and mixing console, and an electronic keyboard lab, equipped with MIDI keyboards and Macintosh computers.

Concert Thursday night

At 8 p.m. Thursday, UNCA's Electronic Music Ensemble will perform original scores with Moog synthesizers, theremins and electronica at White Horse Black Mountain in Black Mountain.

Electronic music scores written by UNCA electronic music students will accompany excerpts from "Metropolis," Austrian director Fritz Lang's legendary 1927 science-fiction film. Admission to the concert is $7, a portion of which will benefit UNCA’s music department."

PatternMusic Instrument Settings

YouTube via richardlawler
"PatternMusic Music Creation App for the iPhone. Tutorial on instrument settings including voice, note length and transpose."
Available on iTunes here:

APK.avi

YouTube via gaufresderiz. Audio comes in at :41.
"ATARI PUNK CONSOLLE + 8 step sequencer...
+ Speack n spell circuit bent
+ Thing A Ma Kit"

MP2000 - 025 - Moog Sensastions by Pat Prilly

flickr by goldenticket
(click for more)

"I'm a big fan of the Montparnasse 2000 aka MP2000 record label. Over on my site www.entertainingthings.com I'm working on making a few posts related to the label with tracklisting, pics, info, sound samples etc. It will be a work in progress for a few days. The post is at http://www.entertainingthings.com/2009/11/20/montparnasse-2000-part-1/.

If you are a fan of the record label or whatever feel free to leave comments and link to it from your blog/facebook etc

Right now almost every MP2000 picture is one i took and edited down to 1200x1200 if you would like the original larger version so you could edit the pic to make it better (clean it up with photoshop) feel free to message me

As mentioned my posts on EntertainingThings.com are a work in progress but I will be adding links to where people can buy the records so if you are selling it one of ebay or something you can contact me and ill add the link.

Also if you have a better quality picture of a cover or an alternate cover please contact me and ill add it to the site. "

MP2000 - 35 - Moog Mig Mag Moog by Jean-Jacques Perrey

flickr by goldenticket
(click for more)

CLICK FOR MORE »

This Is Sandy P

flickr by Masonic Boom

"What happens when you cross the Aphex Twin with Delia Derbyshire?

You get Sandy P, the heroine of a couple of novels, is what you get.

(Or would that be Karen Tregaskin? ha ha ha)"

Ham Heart Synthesizers -"the sweet yellow and black one..."

YouTube via bigcitymusic
"This Ham Heart, hand-made analog synth box sports one main oscillator, four modulating LFO oscillators, a filter and switches for LFO ranges. These little boxes are chock full of interesting drones and wild sounds. All Ham Heart synths are unique looking and sounding..... they're all different and we like that!"

The Raven /// A100 Analog Modular system

YouTube via beckhusen
"Except the sound of the bell in the middle of the clip all sound variations which are not the same like the first regular looped drone of the beginning are made only by changing parameters at the A127 VCRF (triple voltage controlled resonance filter) . That's an absolute great module and i won't imagine to miss it in further productions."

5U for the weekend - Serge VCS

Details and link to more pics on VoltWord.

Roland JD-800 Synthesizer

via this auction

"The Roland JD-800 is a fantastic keyboard and one of the few digital synths with complete slider and button control over all parameters. It's capable of monster analog pads, surreal digital textures, and surprisingly good distorted leads."

CLICK FOR MORE »

OBERHEIM OB-1 ANALOG SYNTHESIZER

via this auction
"It has 2 sub-oscillators in addition to it's primary oscillators. The really cool thing about this synth is it's sweepable waveforms. Instead of having 3-4 or even 5 waveshapes is that they are preset and cannot be changed sonically. These Osc's let you sweep from saw to pulse waveforms which will give you all timbres in between and you can fine tune each Osc. And of course it has 8 Memory locations to store your favorite patches!! The silver buttons have faded a bit with age but all work perfectly. The performance section is also amazing allowing you to do a whole lot with your left hand while playing/soloing."

Moog Minimoog Voyager OS - morse code

YouTube via LF0
"Some kind of morse codey type sound randomly generating itself on the OS - at some point this week I'll do a nice long demo of the OS."

AudioCubes OSC Server MaxMSP5 Demo

YouTube via Percussa
"visit http://www.percussa.com/ and make patches for Max/MSP using AudioCubes - download the free external and demo patch or use the free OSC server available on the Percussa AudioCubes website."

Conrad Schnitzler: Collection A #3 Macher

Conrad Schnitzler: Collection A #3 Macher
by CON-tribute

EMS Synthi. via the EMS SYNTHI blog

ADASYNTH - Test

ADASYNTH - Test from Cyberspace on Vimeo.

"Initial testing of ADASYNTH, a modular synthesizer buit around the arduino microcontroller."

Kaossilator et EWI

YouTube via hakodj
"Un ambiance sonore très cool ,une sonorité de guitare jazzy et un solo avec un EWI...
Laissez-vous charmer!"

Vintage MOOG MEMORYMOOG analog synth

via this auction

"One curiosity: this actual synth has been pictured on the unfamous "A/Z Encyclopedia of Vintage Synthesizers" book written by Peter Forrest; you can see it greatly pictured inside the book' gallery! :)" [available in the synth books section]

Users Manual by Dominic Milano

little spaceman

flickr set by tim prebble
(click for more)

Oberheim Expander / OB-Xpander?

via ConcreteCancer on the forum:
"Okay, my dad is trying to remember an Oberheim product that looked like the OB-X and was called an OB-Xpander.

Anyone have any info on these pups? They are mentioned on a few websites but i can't seem to find anything solid or pictures."

Note this is obviously not the Xpander. I seem to recall mention of the "Expander" on various synth lists and forumns in the past. I did a quick search in the archives here and on Google image search but came up dry. Anyone recall this one and/or know where we can find an image of one?

Update:

This one in via Vincent. Click here (note this is an affiliate link and supports the site, if you prefer a non affiliate link, click here), wait for the Amazon book reader to come up and then in the left search box, search for OB-Xpander. Click on the first link that starts with "page 170." In the resulting page, scroll down and you will see it.

The following is a question from Vincent. If anyone knows, feel free to comment:
"I was a Music Synthesis student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA in the late '80s, and I'm willing to bet that this photo was taken in one of their synth labs, as prototypes occasionally made their way past faculty and students for evaluation. '82 was 4 years before my time, but I'd swear it's from a Berklee synth lab. Can anybody confirm? I have an OB-8, rev B5 with MIDI; cutting it down to look like this in an 'OB-Xpander' format could be very practical, in 2010"

Roland VG-99 Demo Trak Sci-Fi Synth by Paul Leishman of New Wave Artist Anjelicas Baby

YouTube via AnjelicasBaby
"Hi Paul Leishman from British new wave, dance, electronic pop and synthpop music artist Anjelicas Baby here. Just been experimenting with my Roland VG-99 guitar modelling processor in cubase. Here is a short demo piece entitled Sci-Fi Synth. All guitar and synth sounds are off the Roland VG-99 guitar modelling processor with the exception of the drums. I used a Jackson Performer PS4 guitar and a Roland GK3 pickup for anyone interested.

Anjelicas baby music can now be downloaded or listen to from the following sites. iTunes U.S., iTunes Australia/N.Z., iTunes Canada, iTunes UK/European Union, iTunes Japan, Rhapsody, Napster, eMusic, IMVU, Amazon MP3, Lala, Shockhound, Amie Street, last.fm, indiestore.com, play.fm, limewire,"

RC CIRCUIT BENT MULTI OSCIILATOR FM DESKTOP SYNTHESISER

YouTube via djwidow420
"a unique 6 oscillator fm synthesiser by resonance circuits"

M-.-n feature report on TV Brussel

YouTube via discodirt.

follow-up to this post

"Feature report done on Marc Nostromo's musical activities."

"Tags:
Marc Nostromo M-.-n lsdj littlesounddj lgpt littlegptracker"

Time Scape Wave Sequencer preliminaria

YouTube via benpumpkin. Folktek on Ebay
"This is a brief preliminary video meant to be a visual presentation (not a sonic one) of the "Time Scape Wave Sequencer" by Arius Blaze of Folktek. There will be more to come. enjoy"

J. S. Bach's Air on a G String for Modular Synthesizer

New version up here.

souvenir de chine -jarre-nordwave solo

YouTube via graal7
"my second version of jean michel jarre "souvenir de chine" with nordwave solo ."

208 lightshow

YouTube via isledemort
"208 Random circuit triggering Modcan delay, Verbos' 258 VCO, Noise Ring, Teezer & VCS.
VCS clocks the 208, & a CGS Utility LFO modulates pretty much everything else."

MIDItriggs clock out demonstration

YouTube via MusicMiK
"This is the demonstration of my current small project called MIDItriggs, an universal, open-source MIDI to/from trigger interface for old analog beatboxes and drum machines.

This video demonstrates the clock output feature, which is just added "because we can" :)

You can synchronize and control MIDI sequencers using the built-in sequencer of your beatbox, in the case of the Hohner Automatic Rhythm Player, this is some TTL logic with a diode matrix.

Of course, you can also send the machine trigger signals as MIDI notes, but in this video, they are filtered, just the start/stop/clock messages are sent to the RM1x.

The project will be published with source code, schematics and documentation this weekend.

The firmware is smaller than 4 kilobytes and uses less than 512 bytes of RAM, so it can be used on an ATmega48, while using an ATmega88 or larger can even give you boot loader capabilities to update the firmware over MIDI. The MIDIboot boot loader for this is already published."

Update:

MIDItriggs configuration demonstration

"Here, i show you how to update the MIDItriggs firmware if you use the MIDIboot loader in your MCU, which is an ATmega88 in my unit.

Besides this, i show you how the configuration of MIDItriggs works with just one button for the input (and MIDI events to set MIDI channel and the mappings of instruments), while for the feedback, the sound generators in the beatbox are used to give simple patterns telling you the current state of the configuration items.

The source code, schematics and documentation are public now, you can find everything about the project here: http://www.mik-music.org/MIDItriggs

Soon, a new version with completed documentation and PCB layout will follow, the project will grow as i find other units i can attach this nice toy to. The hardware might need changes for some other units, like the Roland CR-78, which also would be an interesting candidate for this, i just don't have one currently, so this has to wait a bit."

Roland super JX 10 - Dr Who Theme

YouTube via whymatty
"A little Demo of what the roland JX 10 is able to do, everything you hear is the JX!"

Roland TR-909 Sysex Data / Patch Tool

via Paul on the AH list:

"Little bit of research on this and i came across this nice dump tool by audiorealism

http://www.audiorealism.se/adm/sysex909.zip

its a command line tool, but pretty simple, before running it make sure the 909 is stopped and in track mode, start the tool, tell it the midi in/outs and if its successful you'll end up with a file named sysex909.syx (8368 bytes)

to load the dump back, use something like midi-ox, set the delay after F7 to 300ms (worked best for me) first manually send the command F0 41 50 F7, this tells the 909 to expect a dump file, then jsut send your dump back.

Of course its a bit of a pita, but the 909 sysex is quite an early implementation, you could ease the process by adding the F0 41 50 F7 manually to the sysex file. The important thing here is setting the delay after F7 else the 909 wont catch all the data."

audio palette (iPhone/iPodtouch APP)

YouTube via perfumepod
"remix looped tracks and art. samples provided Brian Eno,Kent Jolly,Octafuzz.
http://www.audiopalette.net/"
on iTunes:

audio palette

YouTube via kjolly70
"Audio palette is an innovative instrument that allows you to remix looped tracks in a new way.

In audio palette each sound is represented on the screen as a circle. The closer your touch is to the center of the circle, the louder the sound. Your performance is automatically recorded and looped back with perfect timing accuracy allowing you to create a new loop built from your remix. You can record up to four of these looped recordings and switch instantly between them to create yet another layer of performance. The software also allows you to edit the positions and sizes of the circles on screen, so you can develop your own style of play.

This initial release has four palettes and includes custom samples provided by legendary rock music producer and ambient music pioneer Brian Eno.

Enjoy!

To see a video of audio palette in action, please go to www.audiopalette.net

Features:
- 4 audio palette sample sets
- Automatic looping with high accuracy timing for perfect loops
- 4 touch performance record buffers
- Edit mode with ability to move and size palette circles

Requirements:
Compatible with iPhone and iPod touch
Requires iPhone 2.2.1 or later

For questions or feature requests send e-mail to info@audiopalette.net
For support please send e-mail to support@audiopalette.net"

TI-99 4/A Speech Synthesizer Text to Speech

YouTube via Dogpupkus
"Using the TI-99 4/A and its speech synthesizer... and an ancient portable B&W TV. A Terminal Emulator II cartridge and the Speech Synthesizer are required to do text to speech."

bz fun

YouTube via rezzn8r

Neural Agonizer - brief test thing

YouTube via sduck409

"Greetings from shaky camera world! Video is from my flip video camera thingy, audio is recorded into SoundBooth, no added effects of any kind. Just a quick demo of some of the things my very new Neural Agonizer can do. Oh - the Neural Agonizer is an enhanced spring reverb for analog modular synthesizers - it uses 2 reverb tanks, and was designed by Scott Juskiw of Tellun Industries. I haven't spent a lot of time calibrating the thing yet, so the settings are not optimal - it's all a bit too dark sounding to me, and the stress and trauma knobs don't have enough effect yet. I'll add some annotations of what's going on, but if you're watching this on an iphone or something similar you may not see those."

LividStep: step sequencer made in Max For Live

LividStep: step sequencer made in Max For Live from Livid Instruments on Vimeo.

"This details the major functions of Livid's Max For Live device, LividStep, including playback, how to: add and change sequences, control timing, navigate Live, and control instruments, all from the Livid controller.
The device works in Ableton Live with Livid ohm64 and block MIDI controllers. The device creates an eight step sequencer on one row of the 64 button grid. Fill eight live tracks with eight devices to fill the grid. Each sequence has independent time control for a huge variety of rhythmic possibility.
And, if you make it to the end, yes, the irritation at those who don't use a Livid controller is real and palpable :)"

Livid Step Sequencer part 2 from Livid Instruments on Vimeo.

"Despite the awful "music", this short video does demonstrate something worthwhile. First, I show the simple adjustment needed to make LividStep, a max for live device, work with the Livid block controller. Next, I demonstrate the loop recording and playback feature that adds free-form loops to any given step sequence. Don't just stand there, step out!
Available here:
lividinstruments.com/support_downloads.php"

Novation Launchpad Waveform Editor (3 bit by 3 bit)

YouTube via littlescale
"This evening I made a Launchpad-based 3-bit by 3-bit waveform editor. In a way, this is related to my ever-present desire to touch sound (eg. the Toriton water-based instrument etc).
http://little-scale.blogspot.com/"

Ohm64 and ArKaos Grandvj

Ohm64 and ArKaos Grandvj from Livid Instruments on Vimeo.

"I made a brief video showing the ohm64 working with Arkaos. It is really easy to setup and use. Arkaos in running in demo mode here."

block controller with Arkaos Grand VJ from Livid Instruments on Vimeo.

"Arkaos annouced today that their new version of grandvj would work with our controllers, so I gave it a try. It was really easy to get working, here is a quick demo I did of it after only a few minutes of running the demo. Note that the block and the Ohm64 will work in the same way."

VINTAGE ROLAND TR-808 ANALOG SYNTH DRUM MACHINE

via this auction
"The TR-808 is a classic drum machine that used analog synthesis to create its sounds. The sounds have a very thin and pure quality and aren't grungy like it's successor the TR-909. In fact, the 808 has become the signature beatbox used in most R&B and hip-hop as well as a lot of dance and techno music. Booming bass kicks, crispy snares and that annoying cowbell sound made famous during the 80's are all part of the 808 and its famous sound.

Its 16 drum sounds include the famous boomy low kick, snappy snares, low/mid/hi toms, low/mid/hi congas, rimshot, claves, hand clap, maracas, cowbell, cymbal, open hihat, closed hihat and accent. All of the sounds can be edited and/or tuned and have individual outputs. Unfortunately it is not MIDI equipped but it does use Roland's DIN Sync."

ELEKTRONIKA EM-25 RARE SOVIET USSR ANALOG SYNTHESIZER

via this auction
"Electronica EM - 25 is a synthesizer-strings that has 3 timbre sections: stringed - contrabasses, violoncellos, violins, organ-registers ("16'","8'","4'","2'"), wind-trombones, trumpets.

Stringed and organ sections:
polyphonic attack and release of sound with duration control
switching decay mode

Wind instruments section:
generator of curved with controls: ATTACK, DECAY, SUSTAIN.
modulator with controls: RATE, DELAY, VIBRATO
controlled filter with controls: ENVELOPE, MODULATOR, CUTOFF, ACCENT
filter run mode -mono or polyphonic

There is also a possibility to split the keyboard to 2 section (with setting up different timbres of sounding)

Specifications:
— Number of octaves in a keyboard, 4 1/12
— In audible range, 9 1/12
— Number of programmed timbres, 12
—Power consumption max, 30V*A
— Dimensions, 890x355x102 mm (35'x14'x4')
— Weight without soft case, 15 kg (approx. 33 Pounds)
— Also contains 1.126 gramms GOLD materials, 6.143 SILVER materials"