MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: REON Booth Pics & DRIFT BOX Modular Video

Published on Feb 4, 2013 matrixsynth·266 videos

Three videos and pics of the REON DRIFT BOX modular system. Lots of blinky lights. :) The third video and the bottom pics are the best. When I arrived at the booth NAMM was shutting down and Reon was packing up. Fortunately they turned on their systems and gave me a few demos.  Note the infrared controller in the first video.  If you look closely you will see the red sensors between all the lights.  Note the location of the patch bays in each system - one is on the left and one is on the right.  Also note each "module" is essentially an individual DRIFT BOX.  It appears they are mounted in each system with the patch points on the side.  You can find REON's website in Japanese here or Googlish here.  I believe I saw the beatnic.jp Mountain synth at the booth as well, but I missed getting a pic of it.  See the beatnic.jp label below for a couple of videos of it.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: eowave Booth Pics & Orage Magnetique Video

Published on Feb 4, 2013 matrixsynth·263 videos

Demo of the new Orage Magnetique modular synthesizer by eowave. If you look closely you will see that the individual modules are on one large panel.  The system is compatible with eurorack and other modular systems that support the 1 volt per octave standard.  This is another example of an easy way to get into the modular world by picking up a synth that happens to also be a modular.  eowave said the inspiration for the synth were lunar landscapes and the exploration of sound.

Also featured at the booth were the eowave DOMINO desktop mono synth, eurorack modules and new infrared & touch interfaces.  See the pics below for the individual modules.  In the last image you will see the eowave ribbon controller sitting on top of what looks like a gong.  That's actually a speaker.  Someone apparently mistook it for a gong during the show and hit it displacing the speaker!  Not me BTW.  :)

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Arturia Booth Pics

Some pics of the Arturia booth. The MiniBrute is still looking good.  Arturia let me know that they have finally passed their production constraints and are now producing them full boar.  There's a pic of the Nocho Perc patch overlay below.  I don't think I noticed the name of it before now. The Origin made an appearance as well as their new SPARKLE and MINILAB.  See the NAMM and Arturia labels below as well as their website linked above for more on each.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Waldorf Music Booth

Two pics from the Waldorf booth at this year's NAMM. That was it folks. No sign of the new Pulse 2 which is currently slated for Spring of 2013, or the Waldorf / TempoRubato iPad app. Hopefully we'll see some news at the Musikmesse.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Buchla Booth Pics

Some pics from the Buchla booth.  Click on them for the super size shots.   Note the first two are from my Canon Rebel T2i and the rest are from my iPhone 4S as the battery on the Canon ran out.

Featured at the booth were the 200e system and of course the new Buchla Music Easel, The Electric Music Box.  The design of the Music Box is essentially the same as the original, and will actually come with a reprint of the original manual pictured below.  The last image in this post is of Don Buchla, the man himself.

I had a little hands on with the new Easel and lets just say out of every synth I tried at NAMM this year, this is the one that made me feel the most like a little kid in a candy shop.  It brought back that sense of childlike wonder you rarely get when you've become extremely familiar with most forms of synthesis.   For those of you not familiar with the Buchla paradigm, although there is overlap with traditional subtractive synthesis, the approach is different.   Buchla's systems invite you to explore sound in a way that you might not on standard OSC to Mixer to Filter designs.  Instead of attempting to re-create specific and often somewhat predictable sounds,  these systems are more like electronic sound labs.  This might sound silly, and I mentioned it to Don, but his systems remind me of what you might have thought synthesizers were when you were a child or when you were first introduced to synthesis - magical boxes that allow you to morph and explore sound rather than a keyboard that emulates known instruments.

The more you become familiar with the standard building blocks of synthesis (oscillators, filters, envelopes, LFOs) the more predictable it becomes. The focus tends to be more about creating or targeting a specific sound and then playing notes with that sound.  Not so much on a Buchla. Yes you can play tonal music on a Buchla, but for me, and definitely on the Music Easel, the experience was more about exploring the entire system and the manipulation of sound over time.  Yes you can approach other feature rich synths in the same way, but the Buchla just leads you there.   This is why people that love Buchla are willing to shell out more for them. If you are curious about why that is, I encourage you to check out the Buchla website, and of course the Buchla label below to see what others are doing with their systems.  Keep an open mind.  Buchlas are all about synthesis and the manipulation of sound.  They were originally designed for the composers of Musique Concrete.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: John Bowen Solaris Booth Pics & New Editor

Some pics of the Solaris at the John Bowen Synth Design booth.  See a screenshot of the upcoming software editor below.  This is one powerful synth, and you could argue the most powerful and flexible digital synthesizer to date.   It has a number of unique features not found on other synths including "Rotors" which are special 4-step waveshape sequences which act as oscillators. You can select any four sound sources, cycle through them in a Rotar and create a new complex sound source. Via the John Bowen website: "We all know that an oscillator basically takes a waveshape and cycles it continuously. The more complex the waveshape used, the more interesting the resulting cycles will sound. Now select four sound sources (including the external inputs and all the oscillator types mentioned previously) and play these repeatedly in a looped sequence one after the other. This is what a rotor is and Solaris has two of these as additional sound sources that can then be further mixed, filtered and modulated. Still can't imagine what a rotor sounds like? Check out this example: WeirdRotor1Poly"

The Solaris has four oscillators per voice. Along with standard waveforms, you have the Prophet VS waveforms, and wavetables from Waldorf available. There really is too much to cover in this post. If you haven't already I encourage you to check out John Bowen Synth Design for the full feature set, demos and testimonials.  And of course also see the John Bowen label below.

John gave me a sneak peak at a software editor for the Solaris.  You'll see a screenshot of the Arpeggiator editor below.

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Carson & Peter Perform at the DSI Booth Video

Uploaded on Feb 4, 2013 matrixsynth·261 videos

Not the best audio in this video but I thought the performance was pretty cool and I wanted to capture it so here it is.  Carson on the Tempest and Peter on the Prophet 12.  You can see the Bob Moog Foundation booth in the background.  See this post for my DSI booth pics.  I opted to put this video up separately as I'm putting my NAMM posts up in the order I visited each booth.  This video was captured on my second visit.

http://www.davesmithinstruments.com

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2013: Antiquity Music Booth Pics

Some pics of the Antiquity Music booth featuring two versions of the Wheelharp, one with standard flat piano keys and one with circular keys.  Note this is not a synthesizer or electronic instrument. It's a bowed string instrument that you play with keys. "The Wheelharp is a groundbreaking keyboard musical instrument that gives the player the ability to orchestrate a full chromatic scale of sixty-one (61) actual bowed strings at one’s own fingertips, almost like having a real chamber string orchestra at hand."

See the Antiquity Music label below for more posts including video and audio demos.

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ARP Odyssey + Oberheim OB-Xa "Games"

Published on Feb 4, 2013 retrosound72·220 videos

"(c) 2012 vintage synthesizer demo track by RetroSound
'Games'

bass and sequencer sounds: ARP Odyssey Mk III Analog Synthesizer from the year 1980, sequenced by the SCI Pro-One internal step sequencer
all other sounds: Oberheim OB-Xa Analog Synthesizer from the year 1981
drums: Roland TR-707
recording: multi-track without midi
fx: a little bit delay and reverb"

clip random control - ARP 2500, Moog Modular, RSF, EMS Synthi & More - Video

Published on Feb 4, 2013 Olivier Briand·3 videos

"Pendant l'enregistrement de "Random Control" en Février 2009, dans le studio d'Olivier Grall.....
Le CD est enfin disponible en Février 2013 sur le site www.pwm-distrib.com !"

via Olivier Briand on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

Akai MPC3000 Sampler Synthesizer Sequencer SN 49525-01284

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via this auction

"WITH BONUS EXTRAS:
1x APS External SCSI drive
1x SCSI Cable
2x External Iomega Zip Drive
1x Zonet 4 port VGA splitter

Synth Specifications
Polyphony - 32 Notes
Sampler - 16-bit, 44.1kHz, Stereo
Memory - 2MB RAM (22 seconds) to 32 MB
Filter - Lowpass filter with resonance and envelope
Sounds - 24 Drum sets and 4 Pad Banks
Arpeg/Seq - Sequencer: 20 songs, 99 sequences, 99 tracks, 75,000 note capacity
Keyboard - 16 soft pads (w/ velocity & aftertouch)
Control - MIDI, MTC, SMPTE
Date Produced - 1994"

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WASP British Analog Vintage Synthesizer

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via this auction

Korg Mini Pops 35 Vintage Drum Machine SN 780907

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via this auction

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Vintage Jen P-700 Pedal Bass Synthesizer Video

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Published on Feb 4, 2013 9timetravelers·22 videos

via this auction

"Essentially they are a simple analogue synthesizer producing powerful, analogue bass. You can select 8 foot and 16 foot tones independently with foot switches. This means you can use them on their own or together. You can also select sustain and control the decay time. This sustain feature is great for guitarists or live keyboard playing. You can also adjust the bass tone, volume and tuning.
Manufactured In Italy by Jen Elletronica."

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Kawai K5000W

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via this auction

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MIDIbox Sammich SID V2 MOS Desktop Synthesizer

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via this auction

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Building Techno and House rhythms on the Roland TR-909

Published on Feb 4, 2013 SynthManiaDotCom·236 videos

"I bought my 909 in the '90s when it was at the peak of its popularity in Techno, House and Rave music. This old faithful has been to many raves and house parties back in the day, yet, amazingly, still works and more importantly, grooves like a fox on rollerblades."

Prototype Macbeth Dual SVF Filter Eurorack Module

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via this auction
"The Dual SVF is a stereo "State Variable Filter" similiar to the filter in the Oberheim SEM module, 12db slope with Low pass / Band pass and High pass outputs.

As it has stereo ins and outs its also great for processing stereo signals.
This is an early prototype module"

Studio Electronics Moog "Midimini" Rack

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via this auction

"This "Midimini" has been built using circuit boards from an original Moog Minimoog."

Creamware Minimax ASB

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via this auction

"Rare synth USB module. Sound superb. Mono and polyphonic operation. 127 factory patches and 127 user patches. Discontinued and difficult to find. Complete with power supply, printed PDF manual."

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First Leap experiment controlling AU/VST effects

Published on Feb 4, 2013 Geert Bevin·179 videos

"This afternoon I took a few hours to write an EigenD (http://www.eigenlabs.com) agent for the Leap (http://leapmotion.com). Currently it only supports sending out the x, y and z axis of two palms relative to the Leap device itself. The API is very intuitive and it shouldn't take long to gradually add support for hand directions and fingers, I wanted to first play around with it for a while though.

In this experiment I control two effects in Native Instruments' Guitar Rig 5. It's processing one of my songs that's playing from iTunes and you can hear the recorded result. I did have to manually align the audio to the video, so that might not be perfect.

This developer version of the Leap device supports a little bit less range and a restricted field of view, which is why it's sometimes missing some detection at natural boundaries. The production versions will not suffer from this.

The song is 'Never Lose' from my album 'Dream Like a Tree': http://gbevin.com/album/dream-like-a-tree/"

Blue Notes Red Socks - Live Percussion and iOS Performance

Published on Feb 4, 2013 gercek dorman·135 videos

"Blue Notes Red Socks is a world tale.... I put random voices from earth and livings in it. There are trafic-jam sounds, animal sounds, streets and nature sounds in it.

I play ipad and korg wavedrum in same performance. I use DrumJam, Orphion, MultiTrack DAW applications with AudioBus app. And I also get my effects on Korg KP3. I use Ableton live for recording and some effects too.

I recorded video with Canon Eos T3i (600D)

Also i took earth video from: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/

If you interested with this video you can find more ios videos and percussion performances from my youtube channel, and also you can find more information about these in my site https://www.gercekdorman.com and follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/GercekDorman"

iTunes:
DrumJam - Sonosaurus LLC
Orphion - Bastus Trump
MultiTrack DAW - Harmonicdog
Audiobus - A Tasty Pixel
iOS Devices on eBay - Daily Tech Deals

NAMM 2013: Samson Graphite 25 Controller Keyboard Overview

Published on Feb 4, 2013 SweetwaterSound·1,251 videos

Samson Graphite on eBay

"Brian Dougherty from Samson shows off the compact Graphite 25 controller keyboard, giving us a thorough overview of its functions and capabilities. Check it out in full detail here: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Graphite25

Samson's Graphite 25 packs the music-making power of their Graphite 49 into a keyboard you can take anywhere. This 25-key USB MIDI keyboard controller is loaded to the teeth with useful features, starting off with a fantastic-feeling semi-weighted keybed complete with aftertouch. The Graphite 25's encoders, buttons, and a master fader give you hands-on control of your tracks and plug-ins, plus there's a set of velocity-sensitive trigger pads for drums. Top it off with a pitch and a mod wheel (rare on a compact keyboard) and the Samson Graphite 25 is ready for any music-making demands.

Samson Graphite 25 USB MIDI Controller Features:

• 25-key semi-weighted keyboard with aftertouch, programmable, buttons, and encoders
• 4 x velocity-sensitive trigger pads for drums and samples
• Includes dedicated transport controls plus pitch and mod wheels
• Class-compliant USB provides power as well as Mac, Windows PC, and iPad compatibility
• Includes Native Instruments Komplete Elements"

NAMM 2013: Moog Music Sub Phatty Analog Synthesizer Overview

Moog Music Sub Phatty Analog Synthesizer - Sweetwater at Winter NAMM 2013

Published on Feb 4, 2013 SweetwaterSound·1,251 videos

"Trent Thompson goes over the details of Moog's Sub Phatty analog synthesizer. This crazy new mono synth is already making a massive buzz. Read all about it here http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SubPhatty

Moog unveiled their Sub Phatty Synthesizer. With its all-analog signal path, dual oscillators, sub-oscillator, noise generator, LFO, and ladder filter, the 25-key Sub Phatty makes powerful Moog synthesis more portable than ever. Crank up the MultiDrive control to add everything from subtle grit to full-tilt distortion for a broad palette of punchy vintage and modern sounds.

Moog Sub Phatty 25-key Analog Monophonic Synthesizer Features:

• 25 semi-weighted keys fuel a 100% analog signal path
• 31 knobs and 13 switches give you direct and immediate control
• 2 ultra-stable variable-waveshape oscillators, onboard Noise Generator and LFO
• Square wave Sub Oscillator in mixer section
• Legendary Moog Ladder Filter and MultiDrive deliver a wide range of classic and modern sound"

NAMM 2013: Moog Sub Phatty Behind the Scenes w/ Bernie Worrell (P-Funk)

Published on Feb 4, 2013 SourceDistributionTV·58 videos

"Cyril Lance, Chief Engineer at Moog, talks us through some of the choices made behind the scenes on the design of the new Moog Sub Phatty, accompanied by Bernie Worrell of Parliament/P-Funk noodling on the Sub Phatty and Voyager.

More info: http://www.moogmusic.com/products/subphatty
Find a UK Dealer and pre-order: http://sourcedistribution.co.uk/dealers/area.asp?item=moog

http://www.facebook.com/sourcedistribution
http://twitter.com/sourcedist"

SONICCOUTURE RELEASES KONKRETE 3 FOR KONTAKT PLAYER

Published on Jan 23, 2013 soniccouture·20 videos

Playlist:
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : The Glitch Module
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : Using the Modulation Sliders
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : Focus Mapping
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : The Beat Shifter
Soniccouture Konkrete 3 : Creating Glitch Hi-Hats

"Soniccouture are very pleased to announce the release of Konkrete 3 - a drum and percussion instrument for all types electronic music.

The eagerly awaited follow-up to the best-selling Konkrete 1 & 2, Konkrete 3 includes the original content from those libraries, and adds 41 brand new kits, all housed in a powerful new virtual instrument.


Features :
• Beat generator - The Beat Shifter
• 90 kits | over 5000 sounds
• Custom convolution effects
• Real time glitch module
• Focus Mapping maps single sounds across full keyrange
• Beat Library
• NI Maschine presets
• Kontakt Player compatible

INTRO OFFER :
New users can get 15% OFF Konkrete 3 (MSRP €99 / 129) until 18th Feb 2013
Availability and Pricing
Konkrete 3 is available now for download, priced GBP 99 / USD 129"

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NAMM 2013: Panel discussion: Past, present and future of MIDI

Published on Feb 4, 2013 FutureMusicMagazine·232 videos

"At NAMM 2013, Future Music captured MIDI creators and innovators Alan Parsons, Tom Oberheim, Dave Smith, Jordan Rudess, George Duke and Craig Anderton discussing the past, present and future of MIDI."

Blind Date

Published on Feb 4, 2013 JohnLRice·184 videos

"More stuff . . . .

Thanks for watching."

MOTM / Synthtech: 2 MOTM-486 VCF & 2 MOTM-310 VCOs

MochikaXL 2.2 Main Board Testing

via AtomoSynth on Facebook

atomosynth.com/mochika.html

AtomoSynth on eBay (RSS)

Tulup on ipad: Figure by Propellerhead

Published on Feb 4, 2013 Tulupmusic·16 videos


"Tulup is testing an another great ipad-app: Figure."

iTunes:
Figure - Propellerhead Software AB

SOVIET 5-DIN (5-PIN) --> 1/4" 6.3mm JACK MONO CABLE

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via this auction

mechanical animals

"Dear buyers, the cable can be used for connecting soviet era instruments (synthesizers, guitars, organs, vocoders, effect processors, drum machines, etc) to your modern equipment - amplifier, mixer, sound system, etc.
This cable has been custom soldered by a professional technician from the highest quality components (Schulz cable, made in Germany) and guaranteed to work 100%.

Features:
— high quality Schulz cable;
— 2m (6.56 ft) length;
— top quality custom soldering work by a professional technician
— durable and reliable"

Messing Around With A Jaminator

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated. Published on Jan 27, 2013 thirtylives·4 videos

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"Jaminator Electronic Guitar Synthesizer / Toy produced by World Of Wonders in 1990, no cartridges, box, manual or other materials included..."

Advert scan below.

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Latronic Notron Mk2 Sequencer SN 2-000019

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via this auction

"This box is remarkably inspirational and creative. It’s hard to say how, but the midi (I find, anyway) can be a dry, calculus-like thing to work with. The Notron takes it and makes it feel organic, exciting, evolving and new.

My favourite features include:

- The scale presets where you can impose a scale over the sequence you tapped in and it will play it in that scale. Very musical.

- The way the elements can be different lengths, rebound, skip, stutter, etc. leads to some crazy patterns.

- The way individual steps can become way more using the stutter and enveloping. Hard to explain but a brilliant feature, it’s great to write a drum line with melody like step shapes and then drop it into a drum track. It will surprise you every time!

Maybe other step sequencers do all that too, but they sure don’t do it in the same elegant and seriously intuitive way as the Notron 2. I beta tested the Genoqs Octopus and it was amazing in different ways, the huge matrix of switches was lovely, a real joy to use but somehow (for me) it lacked the “musicalness” of the notron.

It’s also beautiful to behold with its lovely shiny deep iridescent blue finish. The Notron is a truly inspirational piece of musical gear.

I know the whole “did you know Aphex Twin used this one time!” comparisons are a lame so I won’t do that. I do just want to say that Bjork helped make this box famous when her and Howie B picked a few up each. I heard Howie did a live show with just two of these and a linndrum or something. Nice. It’s magical on drums, all the single hit weirdness you can get going on is simply brilliant..."

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Murom Aelita Russian Analog Synthesizer

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via this auction

"Very rare in the US and unique sounding monosynth. It has 3 DCOs and modulation possibilities similar to the Minimoog..."

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Audio rate modulation with Animodule LogicOgic and Quad Comparator modules

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated. Published on Dec 8, 2012 pdarkXIV·3 videos

"I wanted to show one of the things that makes the LogicOgic and Quad Comparator eurorack modules from AniModule so special - Audio rate modulation!

I use the modules to do distortion, make pulse width modulation and to create a suboscillator.

The following modules were used in this video clip:
* Animodule LogicOgic
* Animodule Quad Comparator
* WMD Synchrodyne
* Doepfer A-138 Mixer
* Pittsburgh Modular OUTS"

via this auction for the AniModule QuadComparator.

"It’s a simple quad comparator.

It will take your Voltages and turn them into Logic On.

It will deliver 4 x Gates and 4 x Triggers, so it’s handy as a signal – trigger converter in a pinch too.

You can set the threshold anywhere from about -10V to +10V.

Input 1 is buffered then normalled to JackSwitches 2->4.

So you could send an LFO in to Input 1, set different thresholds for all the inputs and have all the gates/triggers fire at different points from the same LFO.

~39mm deep"

Moog Realistic Concertmate MG-1 SN 17 276

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via this auction

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Formication Moog Multimoog

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via this auction

"I was in a band called Formication. We self released a few CDs over the years. I’m not doing this to promote us as we’re not together anymore. Plus I don’t like making synth show off videos. But if you search the web for our music, you’ll find us. Spotify and iTunes have some. I didn’t use this so much in our recordings but I did sometimes. When a loud punchy synth note that isn’t part of a sequence shakes your flappy trousers then it’s probably the moog..."

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RC CIRCUIT BENT 'DRONE DROID' SOUND GENERATOR / SYNTHESISER

Published on Feb 4, 2013 djwidow420·226 videos

"THE COMBINATION OF A CIRCUIT BENT CHILDS SOUND FX TOY AND A LOW FREQUENCY OSCILLATOR

MANIK GLITCH PATTERNS AND WARPING DRONE TONES"

Resonance Circuits on eBay (RSS)

Synth Rorschach #18: Kitten on the Keys

via CatSynth

This one reminded me of the Bahn Sage (see label below) meets The Schmidt. It's kind of interesting to think The Schmidt is real.