MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014 Pics

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Update: added a few notes below.  I hate picking highlights because I honestly do love it all.  That and I don't like missing anyone or anything.  The focus is on what's new.  More will come with the videos.

This is the full set of 282 NAMM pics including the following sub-sets just posted:
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: WMD et al. Modular Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Moon Modular Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Miselu, Quicco Sound & Audiobus Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Studio Electronics & Pittsburgh Modular Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Schmidt Analog Synthesizer Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Radikal Technologies Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Big City Music Booth & Aerosmith Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Buchla Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Elektron Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Dave Smith Instruments Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Monome ALEPH Looper Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Moog Music Booth Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Dubreq Stylophone Pics
MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Bob Moog Foundation Booth Pics

And that's it for my NAMM pics. Videos will follow over the coming days. As you can see I missed a few of the major synth booths including Clavia/Nord Keyboards, Waldorf, Access, Teenage Engineering, Korg, Roland, Novation, Studiologic and Yamaha. This is no slight to them. I would have loved to check them out, specifically the new A1 from Clavia and the new Waldorf 2-Pole filter.  I did see the new full size KORG MS20 kit but the booth was packed and I didn't get any pics. I knew anything AIRA was not going to be shown so I skipped Roland. I typically go to NAMM on Saturday as I'm literally glued to the site posting away all the NAMM news along with everything else that comes in up to then. By Saturday I have a pretty good idea of what has and hasn't gotten plenty of coverage on the site.  Based on that, new product announcements, and prior commitments with those that reached out to me, I go through my list of booths in order.

As for standouts, although I didn't get to try the new A1 from Clavia, I was impressed by the new oscillator and effects section in the demos to date. I like what I hear. I do think they made a mistake with the messaging on it being an entry level synth. Not sure why they chose to go that route as it degrades the synth's capabilities in my opinion and the price does not reflect an entry level synth.

The new Elektron Rytm sounded fantastic. I should have a video of Highsage jamming on it coming up. Hopefully the audio is good.

The Sub 37 is a thing of beauty.

I'm a fan of the Prophet 12 and the new Prophet 12 module. I'm a fan of mixing digital with analog and I think it is capable of timbres you simply can't get out of pure analog.

The Tiptop Audio system at the Big City Music Booth was absolutely insane! Tomio is a Jedi master on that thing. I should have video of it coming up.

The new Make Noise modules were a mind trip. Video coming.

Noise Engineering is new to the scene and their modules sound fantastic. I particularly like the drum module. They also have a vocal formant module. I mentioned the Yamaha FS1R's formant synthesis and they said it was actually based on it to an extent. Video coming.

The STG EMS Oscillator sounded insane. Video coming.

The new Studio Electronics Boomstars sounded pretty incredible. Video coming.

It takes quite a bit to surprise me.  Two things did.  Full on patch memory on a modular synth with the Buchla Music Easel and what's coming for Audiobus. The Miselu iPad keyboard and Quicco Sound controller were pretty cool devices as well. The Future Retro Triadex Muse based sequencer caught my interest. I didn't show it, but it definitely was a geek out moment for me and caught me by surprise. Who would have thought technology based on the obscure Muse would re-appear today.

That's it for now. The videos and pics should speak for themselves. I love it all.

Noise engineering news on NAMM 2014

Noise engineering news on NAMM 2014 from Andreas Schneider on Vimeo.

MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: Noise Engineering Booth Module Overviews & Demo

Uploaded on Jan 30, 2014 matrixsynth·286 videos

http://www.noiseengineering.us

Modules featured include the Ataraxic Translatron, Basimiuls Iteritas, Variatic Sequent and Loquelic Iteritas. Details on each captured further below for the archives. Directly below is a direct audio in demo.

"The Ataraxic Translatron is a linear feedback shift register oscillator similar to those used in the first generation of home video game consoles such as the Atari VCS as well as many other classic arcade games.

Linear feedback shift registers are an ingenious way to produce a variety of sounds with an extremely small amount of hardware. The Atari VCS used only around 35 logic gates to produce all of its sounds. The complexity of tone for relatively minimal hardware made this synthesis technique common for sound in the first generation of video games where hardware costs were the primary development constraint. As video games entered popular culture these sounds became iconic but have seldom made it out of the video game world except when sampled from the games themselves or as their own genre of music “chiptunes”. The Ataraxic Translatron gives you classic arcade sounds in Eurorack format to be used just like any other VCO.

13 patches vary from a simple square wave to white noise with your favorite arcade sounds in between. All tones are available in 6 octaves range. A standard 1 volt per octave pitch control and CV control of the current patch are squeezed into a compact 4HP. An external clock mode that allows an external clock to drive the shift register allows for additional tone generation and modulation.

Please note that Noise Engineering has no affiliation with Atari and the use of the word Atari is as an example of a classic product that uses a similar sound generation algorithm."

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Happy New Year From MATRIXSYNTH! - A Look Back at 2014

Happy New Year everyone!

I want to start by thanking everyone that comes to MATRIXSYNTH and helps make it what it is - the readers, the supporters, and of course all the sponsors on the right.

THANK YOU and have a GREAT 2015!!!

This site is a labor of love and a ton of work. This site is ultimately meant to be an testament to everything synth in the making. We have over nine years of daily synth history captured here, 119,983 published posts. I can't wait to see what the future brings us in 2015!

That said, here are a few interesting bits from 2014 in the longest post of the year. ;)

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MATRIXSYNTH NAMM 2014: WMD et al. Modular Booth Pics

Pics of the WMD modular booth at NAMM 2014. Manufacturers include WMD, STG Soundlabs, The Harvestman, Verbos Electronics, Flight of Harmony, Foxtone, hexinverter, Steady State Fate, Enclave, KOMA Elektronik, 4ms, Delptronics, Super Synthesis, Noise Engineering, Pro Modular, and Audio Damage.

Spot Don Buchla!

New Noise Engineering Modules at NAMM 2014

Published on Jan 24, 2014 perfectcircuitaudio·41 videos

NAMM 2014 Pics by PYRAPHONIC

You'll find the full set and notes on each at PYRAPHONIC here.

Pictured here:
Harvestman
Noise Engineering
STG EMS Oscillators

What is The Vanilla Synthesizer? It's Ready, That's What

via the STG Soundlabs/muSonics Electronic Newsletter:

Is it The Vanilla Synthesizer or the muSonics TVS?

I started working on this project a year and a half ago.

Originally my thought process was to make a new American format synthesiser that could be sold as modules, kits, and bare boards. I was concerned about the future of the format, and I felt a new line of basic modules and infrastructure at a variety of price points was important. I still do.

STG Soundlabs was a failure because I made things that ultimately the eurorack market simply did not want. Yes, I sold some, and will continue to maintain the line as best as I can, but it's very hard to find photos of eurorack installations with STG Soundlabs modules in them, but rare to find a nice big man-sized synthesiser without my modules in it.

Another thing I wanted to do was teach myself how to do my own engineering. It didn't start that way, but it became that way. I'd been a hardware product developer since 2005 but never actually laid out a circuit board. That is no longer true, and I've done things beyond this project that I haven't even talked about.

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