MATRIXSYNTH: Serge Tcherepnin Coming Back to Modular with Tiptop Audio


Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Serge Tcherepnin Coming Back to Modular with Tiptop Audio

Serge Tcherepnin, the man behind the original Serge Modular Music Systems from the 1970s is back at the drawing board with Tiptop Audio.  This is HUGE news.  Another legend of synthesizer history has returned. Note the newer Serge Modular systems are from Rex Probe's Sound Transform Systems. Serge Tcherepnin will be working with Tiptop Audio on new designs.

Update: they will be working on bringing both the older designs to euro format as well as new designs modified to be used with Tiptop stackable cables in lieu of banana jack.  Note older designs including modifications have been available in multiple formats via other manufacturers including Ken Stone's CGS and Bananalogue.  A VCO and the noise source are in the works.  The noise source is actually the original Serge design (the copyright is for the new schematic), and can be used independently, or can used in conjunction with the SSG to create a random voltage generator. (see the comments below)

Some history on Serge Tcherepnin from Wikipedia:

"Serge Tcherepnin is the son of composer Aleksandr Nikolayevich Tcherepnin and grandson of composer Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin. His mother was Chinese pianist Lee Hsien Ming. He had his first instruction in harmony with Nadia Boulanger and studied from 1958 to 1963 at Harvard University with Leon Kirchner and Billy Jim Layton. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1960. In 1961 at the Darmstadt Vacation Courses he studied with Luigi Nono. He then studied in Europe with Pierre Boulez, Herbert Eimert, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Between 1966 and 1968 he worked at the studio for electronic music of the Cologne Hochschule für Musik. From 1968 he directed the electronic studio of New York University. Starting in 1970 he taught composition and electronic music at the School of Music-California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. He has been involved with the development of synthesizers such as the Serge Modular and founded the company Serge Modular Music Systems. After selling this company in 1986 he returned to France. He has composed works for tape and electronic instruments, multimedia works, chamber music, a Kaddish for speakers and chamber ensemble (1962, on a text of Allen Ginsberg) as well as pieces for saxophone and for piano."

Update 2 via Tiptop Audio on Muff's: "Ok fellows, I don't have any front panels to show you yet, but i can share some of the progress we've made on this project:

I have been talking to Serge for sometime now about making the Serge system in eurorack. It all started when I introduce him to our Stackcables, he loved it and said that very few people are aware of how shielded patchcords would enhance modules such as the Serge VCFs, VCAs, Ring Mod, which are already ultra low noise. He continued by saying that with shielded patchords, the modules will
attain studio quality performance. I guess that from that point it was obvious, we are going to start a new Serge system in the best format in town, eurocrack.

So this is how it's going to work, all modules will be:

1. Original Serge designs

2. Serge color coded jacks

3. Serge original fonts and graphics, work flow

Or in other words; the whole Serge experience.

Those who have/had a Serge know what i'm talking about.

For starters, we are looking at making the Smooth and Stepped Generator (SSG) with added randomization, the Dual Slope Generator (DUSG) and the Wilson Analog Delay (WAD).

The fact that we are going to design all these from scratch give us the option to add features, but it is totally up to Serge to decide that. It is going to be his system and his ideas.

On the WAD we are working directly with Dave Wilson and hopefully we could figure out how to implement it with available parts.

The whole thing takes a very long time; Serge is a busy man so please be patient. I'm sure it is going to be worth the wait. It's a great joy seeing Serge drawing schematics again, and I will do my best to make it available for all of us to use."

8 comments:

  1. Did you fail to notice Serge has been working with Ken Stone of CGS for some time?

    ReplyDelete
  2. What's the latest from Serge/CGS?

    ReplyDelete
  3. SSG came out recently. Touch controller - ala Synapse mag, Vintage bidirectional router (I have the boards), phaser, and Serge wants me to release the original VCO too. Oh, and he also sent me the diagram above, so noise will be done to go hand in hand with the SSG, so we can have the random voltage generator. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, is the touch controller pcb available at the moment?
      Thanks

      Delete
    2. Not yet. They are still in the development phase.

      Delete
  4. That's great! Here are some SSG posts. And here's the CGS label. You can see what's gone up to date. I have a tremendous amount of respect for CGS. I was always under the impression that the CGS Serge modules were based on the original Serge designs, some with modifications, but I guess I always assumed the mods came from CGS. For example the SSG being based on the 1982 Smooth & Stepped Function Generator with modifications. Are the new modifications from CGS, Serge or a combination of both? Looking at the module descriptions and history section of the site it wasn't clear to me what Serge's involvement was beyond the original designs.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Mods and updates are by me. Serge either gives me the original (or redrawn) schematic, or I reverse engineer it from a module I have here, the 1973 circuits for example. The designs are very close to the originals, modifications only being to deal with obsolete parts, or to improve functionality or ease of use. The Bananalogue modules (VCS, and VCM) went a lot further, incorporating other design elements.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks! I updated the post.

    ReplyDelete

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