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Showing posts sorted by date for query happy new year from matrixsynth. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Wednesday, January 01, 2020

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone, or rather, Happy New Decade!

I want to thank everyone who visits the site, supporting members, and the sponsors you see above and to the right. You all make this site possible. So, thank you! I am humbled and grateful every day. The site will be going 15 years strong in 2020. Since then there has only been one single day w/o a post when I had no idea there would be something to post every single day. Every single post has gone up by hand, so the support is more than appreciated.

In 2019 we had a total of 13,069 posts. That comes out to an average of 35.81 posts a day, all by hand. We had 819 products new to the site, including 112 new makers, and 64 older items never featured before. You can find a breakdown of some categories here.

In 2019 we lost the following people: Alan R. Pearlman, Mark Hollis, Mike McGrath of Muff Wiggler, Philippe Zdar of Cassius, John Blacet, Carl Matthews, and Gershon Kingsley. I keep hoping for a year we do not lose anyone. These are always the hardest posts to put up for so many reasons. They never feel good enough.

---

That said, synth history continues to be made and I hope to be able to continue to capture it here on MATRIXSYNTH. The good and the bad...

I'm going to keep this post relatively short this year. I'm guessing most of you reading it are daily visitors and are more than familiar with what has, and continues to go up throughout the year. Know as long as posts go up, I am always here and I will always be a daily constant for you as long as I am able. I hope the site brings some pleasure in your daily routine. Consider the site family, but one that hopefully doesn't bother you too much. :) But don't worry, aside from the occasional post like this one, I do my best to stay out of posts, and let the content speak for itself.

Thank you for all the support! You have no idea how much it truly means. I do exist, and you all help keep me and the site moving forward.

Happy New Year everyone! Happy New Decade! :)

cheers,
matrix

Tuesday, January 01, 2019

Happy New Year From MATRIXSYNTH!


Happy New Year everyone!

First I want to thank everyone who takes the time out of their busy schedules to come visit the site. I want to give an extra thanks to everyone who supports this site, including the sponsors you see above and on the right. Without them this site would not be possible.

As many of you know, running MATRIXSYNTH is a labor of love. The site has been running for over 13 years and hopefully will continue on for many years to come. Every single post goes up by hand, seven days a week, including holidays and "vacations." Some of you may not know this, but MATRIXSYNTH is a one man shop by me, matrix. I have not missed a single day of posting since back on August 6 of 2005 when I first launched this format of the site. I say "this format of the site" because I actually registered matrixsynth.com back in October of 1997. You can still see the old site here. On the left were links to sites I visited back in the day. It's actually a pretty neat snapshot of what was around on the web back then before the days of YouTube and social media. I launched this version of the site back on July 20 of 2005. As of this post there have been 175,117 posts on the site. We had 13,302 posts in 2018. Every single one went up by hand. I am extremely humbled and grateful of those who choose to support the site. Thank you so much!!!

Now, for some numbers. I haven't shared them in a while as they started to feel a little redundant year after year, but I figured why not? The image above is a map of visitors to the site in 2018. We had 540,712 users visit for a total of 3,418,064 pageviews. We finally have a visitor from North Korea this year! The numbers are from Google Analytics and should filter out bots. BTW if you look at this all time map, the only country to not have visited MATRIXSYNTH to date is the Central African Republic. It's pretty amazing to think someone from every single other country in the world has visited the site.

The following are the top 10 countries to visit by traffic:

1 United States 4,564(35.30%)
2 United Kingdom 1,070(8.28%)
3 Germany 866(6.70%)
4 France 653(5.05%)
5 Canada 544(4.21%)
6 Italy 512(3.96%)
7 Japan 464(3.59%)
8 Netherlands 357(2.76%)
9 Poland 331(2.56%)
10 Norway 314

(Update: I originally had the list by language which duplicated DE and FR. The list has been updated for country only).

A couple of years ago I started tracking new gear for the year with "new gear" labels. For 2018 we had the following:

695 new items never featured before on the site. This includes 49 posts on older gear never featured before.
111 new makers
92 new synths
63 new soft synths
67 new sound/noise machines
36 new synth effects
266 new modules
42 new mobile apps
11 new drum machines
111 new DIY projects
26 new controllers
40 new tools
7 new cases

And finally we had 52 posts to get the exclusive label for the year. These are the rarest of the rare featured on the site.

Note there is some overlap and the primary focus of MATRIXSYNTH is hardware synthesis. Rather than go into a top 10 list (which I never was into because all gear has its use imo), click through any of the links above to see what came in by category.

On the mega synth front, we saw the release of the Sequential Prophet X and XL (DSI changed names to Sequential as well), the Moog One and Grandmother, Yamaha MODX, Korg Prologue, and the Waldorf Quantum finally made it to release. You can also recap what was featured at NAMM 2018, SUPERBOOTH18, Knobcon, and SoundMit and other events.

This year we lost the following in the synth world. Note this does not include discontinued gear, although with Erthenvar being featured as a company, I may include gear in the the future.

Erthenvar Closes Shop
RIP John Leimseider
RIP Shirleigh Moog
The Candlelight Vigil: A Synth Cover in Memory of Jóhann Jóhannsson (From Prisoners)
David Van Koevering Has Passed Away

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And that's it for 2018. Happy New Year and onto 2019! Thank you to everyone that enjoys, contributes, and supports the site! I started MATRIXSYNTH to track everything synth. It's rewarding to know people out there still enjoy the site. MATRIXSYNTH is my gift to you.

Friday, October 12, 2018

Moby's Drum Machines For Sale

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

You can find them on Reverb here.

Don't miss the video here.

Update: some pics and details captured. I made the mistake of trying to capture them all and then realized how many were listed. :) I ended up switching to the more esoteric models. Quite a few have never been featured here on MATRIXSYNTH before. What's a little bit interesting, is only two new labels were needed, one for Domino and one for Side-Kick-Er. All other brands have been featured before. See the labels at the bottom of this post. Side note: Blogger limits the number of characters to 200 for labels, so I wasn't able to capture them all for this post. You can always search for the brand names featured for more. I assume most do this anyway. The labels are more for maintenance and for finding posts that may not feature brand names in descriptions.

Pictured:

Realistic Concertmate Electronic Accompanist-Metronome

"Fully analog rhythmic companion utilizing 5 beat buttons to combine how you wish. Features metronome, speaker and line out, and tempo control.

Serial: 42-2103. Works with no issue."

Sunday, December 31, 2017

Happy New Year from MATRIXSYNTH! A Quick Look Back at 2017

Happy New Year everyone!

We have to keep this one short as the festivities are about to begin of course.

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy 2018! Keep strong and remember you are never alone. At least not as long as MATRIXSYNTH is around! :) I hope this site provides an escape for everyone. Remember to take time out to play your gear!

As for gear... In 2017 we saw a total of 764 new products featured on the site along with 119 new makers on the scene. We also saw 29 vintage products never featured on the site before. The following is the break down (you can click on each to bring up the posts in reverse order. Note only 20 posts per page will load so don't worry about overwhelming your browser):

14 New Cases
28 New Controllers
106 New DIY projects
119 New Makers
63 New Mobile Apps
343 New Modules
80 New Soft Synths
40 New Sound Machines
9 New Sound Packs
32 New Synth Effects
106 New Synths
47 New Tools
29 New Old Products

Update: 1/8/2017: I forgot to mention the stand out posts of 2017! You can find them here. There were 62 this year. These are essentially the rare and oddball synths you may not have known existed or you rarely ever see.

No New Years post is complete without a look back at who we lost in the synth community. This year we lost five:

William Onyeabor - Nigerian Electronic Funk Pioneer as well as Nigeria's 1st Moog Dealer
Ikutaro Kakehashi, Founder of Roland
Mika Vainio of Pan Sonic
David Alan Luce - Former President of Moog Music & Creator of the Polymoog
Pierre Henry

I hate ending on a sad note, but we can't forget who we lost.

I wish everyone a great 2018. Make the best of it!

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy days to visit the site. Thank you to all who take the time out to create the videos showcasing the gear we love, and of course the makers who make the gear that inspire us. And finally, thank you to all the supporting members of MATRIXSYNTH, and of course the sponsors you see via the banners on the site!

See you on the other side! :)

Sunday, January 01, 2017

Happy New Year From MATRIXSYNTH! - A Quick Look Back at 2016

Happy New Year Everyone!

This post is a little late going up, but better late than never! :)

I'm going to keep this one a little shorter than usual as I am aware I have a tendency to get a little too wordy at times.

First of all, I want to thank you all for taking a little bit of your day out to visit the site. I want to thank those that contribute to the synthesizer scene and actually give me something to post! Finally, I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all the individual supporters of the site, and the sponsors you see on the right and above! Your support literally makes the site as it is possible!

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And a look back at 2016...

Update: I forgot to mention, we had a total of 13,679 posts in 2016!
Update2: also, as always take a look back at the exclusive label for the most interesting bits of synth history.

First a look back at some of the people (and companions) we lost last in 2016.

2016 was rough. On the maker front we lost Don Buchla, who along with Bob Moog, was undoubtably the creator of the synthesizer as we know it today. We lost Ray Wilson of Music From Outer Space, arguably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, influencers in synth DIY. Many makers out there started with his projects.

On the musician front we lost some of synths' greats including Keith Emerson, Isao Tomita, Bernie Worrell and Jean-Jacques Perrey. We lost a couple of pioneers of electronic music as well, namely Jean-Claude Risset and Pauline Oliveros.

The following is the list:

David Bowie - January 10, 2016
Else Marie Pade - January 18, 2016
Stanley Lunetta - March 3, 2016
Keith Emerson - March 11, 2016
Isao Tomita - May 5, 2016
Bernie Worrell - June 24, 2016
Ray Wilson - July 21, 2016
Don Buchla - September 14, 2016
DJ Spank-Spank - September 21, 2016
Jean-Jacques Perrey - November 4, 2016
Jean-Claude Risset - November 21, 2016
Pauline Oliveros - November 24, 2016

And never to be excluded, a couple of the companions we lost:

nonlinear circuit's Bill - March, 2016
CatSynth's Luna - October 31, 2016

Note the above are only those I could tie in with synths. Two artists you might notice missing are Prince and George Michael. Both deserve a mention. Prince I could have tied in with an Oberheim connection. I still remember lusting after an OB-8 after seeing his videos in the 80s.

RIP posts are the hardest to write. Not only because you are mourning the loss of someone great, but because you know your post will never be good enough.


As for new gear in 2016, you might have noticed all of the "New in 2016" labels that have gone up in posts throughout the year. I created the labels back in 2015 as a means to keep track of all the new gear coming in. I also thought it would be a quick, easy, and interesting way to get total counts of everything at the end of the year. Here are the numbers (links will take you to posts for each):

New in 2016 (753)
New Cases in 2016 (18)
New Controllers in 2016 (38)
New DIY in 2016 (108)
New Makers in 2016 (101)
New Mobile Apps in 2016 (65)
New Modules in 2016 (299)
New Old in 2016 (21)
New Soft Synths in 2016 (55)
New Sound Machines in 2016 (34)
New Sound Packs in 2016 (24)
New Synth Effects in 2016 (9)
New Synths in 2016 (112)
New Tools in 2016 (51)

Note, as with anything, labels can be a little tricky. Sometimes there will be overlap, sometimes items will be announced one year, but released in another if at all, and of course, if I'm not made aware of an item it gets missed. You'll likely see a few items from 2015 in the 2016 list for that reason. I also found it can be difficult to categorize certain items. Drum machines for example get bucketed under synths, but I think for 2017 I will create a new label for them and just use both.

All that said, if you look at the numbers above we had 753 new products/items appear on the site last year. Always of notable interest were the items from vintage synth history that were never featured on the site before. Last year there were 21. An interesting side note is that matches the 21 we had the year prior in 2015. I won't go into any in detail as you can take a look at the label yourself and as I mentioned above I'm going to try and keep this post short. You can check out any of the categories above.  Also worth noting is there were 101 new makers to the site in 2016!  Check them out via the link above.

I was never one for top 10 lists, as although they can be fun, I'm a firm believer that all gear has something to offer. It's up to us to use the gear and find out. That said I do think it's worth mentioning some of the major synth releases this year. Not only does it gives us a quick look at what the major players released but it also lets us see when they were released in the year.  The following is a quick list:

  1. Korg Minilogue - January 8
  2. Yamaha Montage AWM2 & FM-X - January 11
  3. Clavia Nord Piano 3 - January 18 & January 21
  4. Roland A-01 - January 19
  5. Korg Limited Edition Kronos Platinum
  6. Make Noise 0-Coast - January 20
  7. Artuia MatrixBrute - January 21
  8. Dave Smith Instruments OB-6 - January 21
  9. Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators - January 21
  10. MFB Tanzamus & Tanzbar Lite - January 22
  11. Mellotron Micro - January 22
  12. Modal 008 Rack - January 25
  13. Anyware Instruments Modulator - March 23
  14. Nord Drum 3/3P - April 4
  15. New Minimoog Model D - May 18
  16. Moog Brother From Another Mother - May 18
  17. Audiothingies Micromonster - May 27
  18. Mini GRP A2 - May 28
  19. DSI OB-6 Desktop - June 22 & June 23
  20. Mode Machines ADX1 - June 28
  21. New Black Oberheim TVS - June 28
  22. Ninstrument SynthBoy+ July 2
  23. Behringer Deepmind 12 - July 7
  24. New Red & Blue Korg Electribes v2 - July 20
  25. Yamaha FM Synth for iOS - July 21
  26. Jomox Alpha Base - July 23
  27. Korg Desktop Odysseys - August 28
  28. Percussa Remote - August 29
  29. KORG MicroKORG-S - August 31
  30. Korg Volca Kick - August 31
  31. KORG Odyssey Desktop Modules - August 31
  32. Roland System-8 - September 3 and September 9
  33. Roland TR-09 & TB-03 - September 3
  34. Roland VP-03 - September 3
  35. Synthstrom Audio Deluge - September 8
  36. CMS 2607 - September 23
  37. Dreadbox Murmox V2 - September 25
  38. Arturia Drumbrute - October 7
  39. Bastl Instruments Kastle - October 7
  40. Korg Monologue - November 1
  41. Full Size Korg Arp Odyssey Keboards - November 4
  42. Cyclone Analogic TR-606 Clone - November 16
  43. Tangible Waves AE Modular - November 16
  44. Modal Electronics CRAFTSynth - November 18
  45. Cyclone Analogic TT-78 - November 23
  46. The White Schmidt Synthesizer - November 25
  47. Plankton Electronics Ants! - December 9
  48. Dreadbox NYX - December 15
  49. Cyclone Analogic TT-303 MK2 - December 15

Note this is only 49 of the 112 items in the new synths in 2016 category. I'd recommend checking them all out.

What stood out for you in 2016? What are you looking forward to in 2017? Leave a comment or two below.

I want to end this with a humble thank you to everyone that makes this site what it is!

Thank you and Happy New Year!!!  On to 2017!

Sunday, December 25, 2016

MERRY SYNTHMAS!!!


Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone! New posts will go up shortly. I just wrapped up on the morning's festivities and now I get to relax, post, and watch episodes of the original Little Rascals in the background. Yep, it's become a family tradition believe it or not. BTW, if you haven't seen them, do it some time. They are absurd in the best way.

As you can see, this year was pretty slim on the synth acquisition front. As you know Novation sent in an UltraNova for review (BTW, I should have a little surprise for you all, coming in January, courtesy of Novation), my wife picked up a Voyager pint glass from Moog for me, complete with beer, and I received my yearly Christmas card from Analogue Solutions (thank you Tom!).

The biggest gift of the year, of course, is running this site. I want to thank all of you who take the time out of your day to visit, contribute, and spread the word. I want to give an extra thanks to the supporters of MATRIXSYNTH!, and of course my sponsors above (thank you DSI!) and on the right. Without you, this site would not be the same, let alone possible. Thank you all!

Merry Synthmas and happy holidays everyone!

BTW, feel free to share what you got this year in the comments below. I'd love to hear about it! It's alway fun to live vicariously through others.

Friday, January 01, 2016

Happy New Year From MATRIXSYNTH! - A Look Back at 2015


Happy New Year everyone!  I want to thank you all for a great 2015 and I wish you all the best in 2016!

The following is my yearly round up for the year.  Feel free to dig into this post as much you like, or skip it and leave a comment at the bottom of the post. I'd be curious to hear what stood out for you in 2015. Do you like the direction the synthesizer world is headed in, or would you rather see more or less of any type of product?

Thursday, January 01, 2015

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. ;)

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Happy New Year! The Year in Synths 2013


Happy New Year Everyone!

What a busy year it has been in the world of synths.

This is going to be one doozy of a post, so bear with me. This post is a review of the year in synths for 2013. We begin with Tributes to Those We Lost This Year, followed by New Manufacturers & Makers, Older Manufacturers Added to the Site, New Gear Announcements, Top 10 Posts by Traffic,  My Standout Posts for the Year, and finally This Years' Synth Events. I did my best to keep things as short and concise as possible.

Let's begin with the hardest part of the post.

Tributes to Those We Lost This Year

RIP Bernard Parmegiani - Electronic & Acoustic Composer
Lou Reed RIP
RIP Dick Raaymakers aka Kid Baltan
RIP George Duke - DreamWeaver
RIP Ralph Dyck, Sept 28, 1941 – May 20, 2013
RIP Ray Manzarek

All missed and never to be forgotten. Take a moment to remember them.

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New Manufacturers & Makers

Starting last January, I decided to keep a running list of every new manufacturer and maker introduced to the site during the year.  This is something I haven't done before and I thought it would be interesting to see how many there were in the year.   It's easy to focus on the big synth announcements throughout the year, but what about all the new makers and brands? I shouln't have to go considerably into the significance of new designers on the scene, so I'll just say two things regarding them.  One, the number of new makers is a direct reflection on the interest in our scene, and two, these are the creators of new gear which directly translate into new designs not previously available to us.  Think about that for a moment.  These are makers and designs that did not exist before.  They are part of our synth history.  So what is the total count of new synth designers for the year? A whopping 113. Think about that a bit. One hundred and thirteen new synth designers and brands this year alone.

Here they are (note a handful date back to 2012, but 2013 marked their momentum and availability):

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year from soundmachines!!!


via Davide Mancini in The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

"Happy New Year from soundmachines!!! This was our first, unforgettable, year. We thank all the people out there who supported us, near and far, as we enter a new year of products and, most importantly, music! Love from Italy."

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

A Patch A Day by hamiltonulmer


Update: you can find hamiltonulmer's page here.

"I am not new to music, but I am new to modular synthesis. So I am creating one simple patch a day in order to get used to my small system.

I will do approximately 365 patches over the next year. Over that course of time I will likely add modules, change my setup, and explore various rabbit holes.

Two questions arise from these constraints. First, is a small 6U, 84HP system musically sufficient and diverse enough for a worthwhile patch, every day? Second, given that no matter what I intend on recording a patch a day, regardless of the outcome or circumnstance, what is the relationship between quantity and quality?"

via Pierre Serné on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

Playlist:
(these are in reverse order by hamiltonulmer - Day 1 was missing in the playlist so I embedded it below).

Monday, December 31, 2012

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!!!  I hope 2012 treated you well and I wish you the best in 2013!

As I do each year, I thought I'd reflect a little on the past year.  These posts are always difficult to write, and I always wing them, so bear with me.  It's impossible to justify a whole year's worth of synth coverage in a single post.  The following is just a small bit of what comes to mind when looking back.  You'll find a top ten list of posts with the most page views followed by my picks for the year further below.  Apologies if I miss anything, and of course, if you have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment below.  I'm curious what you, the readers of the site, felt stood out in the world of synths this past year.

First, I want to begin this post with a HUGE THANK YOU!!!  If you are reading this it obviously means you have come to this site and some of you have been coming here for years! Thank you for sticking with me. This site is a journey I hope to continue for years to come. Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to showcase their synths, and thank you to those that share what they find! Thank you to those that link to the site and help spread the word on MATRIXSYNTH via Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and your own websites! And of course, THANK YOU to all the sponsors on the right who believe in the site enough to support it!

A nod to previous New Years posts, pictured to the left is the MATRIXSYNTH world domination map. :)  I always think it's worth taking a look at who's watching the site.  Synths are global and you are looking at a map of the readers of MATRIXSYNTH.  Everything you see in green represents a visit from that country.  The darker the green, the higher the number of visits.  This is just for the year, but for the life of the site, we still haven't gotten a single hit from North Korea!   I don't know what they have against synths!  ;)   You'll find the top 10 visits by country further below.

This is the eighth New Year the site has gone through!  The focus for the site this year has been the same as previous years, and I plan to keep it that way.  This site is about showcasing specific synths, not just synths in general, and not just news and press releases.  The focus is on the individual synths that have existed throughout history, the technology behind them, and the lives they lead with their odd owners, myself included.  :)  Yes it is about the gear, their makers, and their players.  It has always been my opinion that synths in general have a tendency to be undervalued. Compared to say collectible guitars, they are often discarded and devalued in favor of next year's model, next year's technology.  It has always been my opinion that every synth has something of value to offer,  something specific and something unique that gives it its character. I built this site to showcase that.  This site is about the history of synths as their history unfolds - videos and images of synths being played and used, by both those that make them and those that play them.  Vintage synths being offered in the second hand market, being exchanged from one sonic explorer to the next. It really is a wondrous thing. Think of the magic synthesizers bring into your world. That is what this site is ultimately about.  Some posts may not seem to make sense now, but they will in time, because they will be a look back in time. A day in the life of a particular synthesizer.  I love analog and I love digital. I love all synths and this site celebrates that.

And now for a little reflection on the year. This year we had a total of 16678 posts including this one.  That comes out to roughly 45.69 posts a day.  Not a single day of the year went without a post.  So what dominated the synth year?  Mobile, modulars and a few dedicated hardware synths.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Christmas Medley 2012 by Michael Brückner


"This is a mix of five (at this moment still) unreleased tracks, three of them featuring my wife Cäcilia on vocals:

Prelude - Wedding Tune - Interlude - Sunturn Tune - Bronstein

The first three come from a set me and Cäcilia performed at the wedding of two friends in 2009, track four is from late 2006, and the last one for a never released compilation in 2008.

While the wedding tracks with the biblic quotations are suitable for Christmas (I think) and the Sunturn Tune brings some light to the dark winter days, the closing "pseudo-russian" track ends the set with some cheerful new years wishes (...sort of). I think it's a nice little set for this time of the year - enjoy!

Oh, and: happy and peacful christmas to all of You, and a great, prosperous and auspicious 2013, too!!!! :-)"

via Michael Brückner on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

Remember, all holiday posts are welcome as long as they feature synths. Click on the holidays label below for more.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Befaco VC3

via Befaco on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

"Hi Family! Happy New Year to everyone! New year, new synth! Befaco first module (VC3) and finished power supply! box behind them came the first assembly where we go testing! From here a little and begin to listen as our first module speaks!"

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope it's a great one! 

Putting this post up between the cross over as I need to sign off for the festivities!

First of all, I'd like to say THANK YOU! for a great 2011! It was a busy one here in MATRIXSYNTH land.  The site had a record breaking 18755 posts (including this one) for the year.  That's an average of 51.38 posts every single day (not a single day missed, BTW).  I'm hoping to actually bring that number down a little. Before anyone freaks out, I'm not planning on changing much.  I plan on keeping MATRIXSYNTH exactly the same with the exception of raising the bar on what goes up just a little.   I think enough change happens in life and it's nice to have some constants you can fall back on.  I'm hoping MATRIXSYNTH continues to be one for you.   It's odd to think it's only been six and a half years!  I hope to keep the site going for many more to come.   As for bringing the number of posts down and a little history on the site...

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Merry Synthmas!!!


Hi everyone!  I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Festivus for the restofyas!  Thank you for all your support and well wishes.

Every year I like to put up one post on Christmas day. This year I decided to feature my newly acquired Atomo Synth KRAKKEN keyboard.  Look at that thing.  It turns out it's the perfect gift-sized synth! Not only does it look good, but it's one cool sounding synth.

Click on each pic for the supersized shot. 

I'll see you all tomorrow. Until then enjoy some time with your friends and family, and of course here on MATRIXSYNTH. :) Directly below you'll find my exclusive interview with Alessandro Cortini and be sure to see the holiday label for more synthy contributions this year.

Happy holidays folks!

Update: I'm going to start a new tradition this year. I'll be adding holiday content to this post as stuff comes in. I forget everyone just sits around the house all day, so I might as well do something. Check back often for updates. New stuff will be added to the bottom of post as it comes in.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Interview with Mutable Instrument's Olivier Gillet

The following interview is by Juan Vílchez Gómez for Hispasonic. Juan sent it my way via The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge. You can find a Spanish version on Hispasonic here. The following interview is posted here in English with permission from Juan. MATRIXSYNTH gets a mention! Thank you to Juan and Hispasonic!

"Hispasonic: This time we are talking with Olivier Gillet, the man behind Mutable Instruments and creator of the famous synth Shruthi-1. He reveals exciting information about his next projects and throws light upon synth design.

JuanVilchez is the interviewer.

Hispasonic: Well... Taking into account that the key questions about the Shruthi-1 have been already answered in the forums, or in the comprehensive documentation of your webpage, I propose that you could speak us about the future of Mutable Instruments... as it seems that some exciting new machines are in the making right now.

Mutable: The exciting new projects:

Next project (september/october): the MIDIpal, a small, inexpensive, MIDI processing
unit, running algorithmic transformation on the MIDI notes (arpeggiation, harmonization, delays) along with more traditional filter/splitter/monitoring things. Something you'll want to stick between anything with a keyboard and anything with an audio out in your studio :) This is the first project that will be industrially manufactured - though the first batch will be available as a SMT kit.

A revision of the Shruthi-1 hardware for the next batches of kits - in particular I've spent quite some time cutting the part count on the filter board.

A new Shruthi-1 filter board (MS-20 clone).

A variant of the Shruthi-1 digital board that will replace all the digital oscillators by 12-
bits sample playback from a SD card (and will probably do sampling too). This will add a new dimension to the "Shruthi-system" = 3 "controller boards" (Shruthi, Sidekick, Sampler) x 7 "filter boards".

Something that will replace, in the long run, the Shruthi-1 - and in which I'm trying to address most of the shortcomings and design decisions of the Shruthi-1. This is a more ambitious, risky, project as I'm trying to squeeze in a lot of very new features, and design it in such a way that some parts of the project can be interchanged, with both a SMT version for industrial manufacturing and still a through- hole variant for DIYers. While avoiding reinventing too much and keeping it close to the Shruthi sound. Ready in 6 months? 1 year? I don't know.

Least sexy but most important thing: establishing an actual company -- at the moment what I do is registered as a "side-business" and while it is very simple paperwork-wise, it adds many constraints to what I can and cannot do, and exposes me to many risks in case of bankruptcy.

Hispasonic: I think that it could be interesting not only promoting Mutable Instruments but you as well, as I find that you're a really talented guy and that you've the most valuable opinions and tastes. Just saying... I perceive that you're a shy person (am I wrong?), but maybe it could be interesting to know more about "the creator".

Olivier: I wouldn't see the point of promoting myself - I don't sell myself, I sell synths, and they can "speak" or rather "sound" for themselves!
Many interesting synthesizer businesses are small, quite often run by one single person, who has to wear both an engineering and marketing hat. Personally, I try to keep my engineering hat as much as possible because this is what I am good at, and because I quite like the values that goes with engineering. Chips datasheets don't cheat, at least not on the first page... I see too much people overhyping stuff in my daily job to want to do anything like that when I am working on my synth projects.

Hispasonic: In Hispasonic we are really proud of our community of synth enthusiasts. Here is a little "window" that is going to be seen by a lot of people. Taking a look into your resumé, we know that we can confidently trust you in regard to software and electronic musical instruments. So... what do you want to say to them?

Olivier: If there had something I had to say to the synth public is that they should try to keep a critical eye and ear when looking at synths - there are so many misconceptions (that I used to have too, until recently!) about synths. Things like:
- "UIs with LCD displays / pages [as opposed to 'one knob per function'] suck" Most people having used the Shruthi-1 agree that the interface is very easy to understand. The ESQ-1 looks horrible with only one data entry slider but it's surprisingly very fast to program. While some knob-laden VAs are horrible to use because everything not directly in the front panel might be hidden behind half a dozen of keypresses.
- "8-bits => chiptune sounds!"
Just because something uses 8-bit resolution somewhere in the signal chain doesn't make it sound like a Nintendo. It's not all black and white: The Fairlight had 8-bit converters ; the Dark Energy uses a sound chip that found its way in some 80s arcade machines. And plenty of other weird combinations inbetween.
- "Vintage synths got their good sound from the vintage VCF chips"
I was fooled by this too, and this is why I invested time in getting some of those chips and building filters with them. My conclusion is that those chips were very convenient because they concentrated many useful functions in a small area (and thus made reliable, smaller polysynths possible), but there's nothing magical in them - gain cells and linear/exponential voltage->current converters in one small package. I won't bother with those things from the past in new designs, because the magic is outside of the chip.
- "Stuff designed by amateurs will always be one step behind commercial products"
I hang around a few DIY online communities (for example the SDIY mailing list) and I am amazed by the expertise and knowledge of the people here. And then it struck me that to the most talented electrical engineers it would be a weird career move to actually work full-time on synths, because there are many other fun things to do with their skills. Somehow I think the most difficult thing for a trained EE to go into making synths would not be the challenge of the work, but the challenge of only applying a very small fraction of their knowledge of the field.

Hispasonic: There is a growing community of people that decide to take direct control and create their own synths from the electronic parts (DIY). Any advice for them?

Olivier: A last thing, and this takes the form of a question: "what makes a good synth/DIY project?". To me, three things:

Understanding the difference between a "project" and a "product"
It took 2 to 3 months to design something like the Shruthi from A to Z.
At this stage you'll have something awesome that you can put in a box, use yourself, post a video to Matrixsynth and be very proud of. But then it will take maybe 5 or 6 months to turn it into a "product", to sort unsexy things like documentation, sound banks, testing on a variety of setups, parts sourcing and validation, more field testing, feature requests from beta testers, etc.
I had changing opinions about whether oscillators, filters, modulations, etc. were the most important element to define the "sound of the synth". In the end, my view on that is that what makes a synth good is the presence, or not, of a "vision" or "plot" about how it should sound like, and then the effort made to ensure that every module contributes to this vision and goes in the right direction.
This is why I believe "design by committees" efforts like the Tyrell from Amazona are a bad idea - "just making the majority happy" is not the sort of vision to build something upon. At least not in arts.
When the designer of a synth has never taken the time to actually listen to its creation, it shows!

Hispasonic: Thank you very much Olivier for some of your time - we know that you are really busy these days - and for really getting involved in the topics treated. We do know that you are not very enthusiastic about being interviewed or talking about your products, as you completely trust on their sound as their best marketing campaign. We can’t wait to hear and play with your last creations. They will give us plenty to talk about, for sure."

Useful links:
Mutable Instruments
Shruthi-1 on Youtube
Shruthi-1 audio demos on Soundcloud
Contact the interviewer:
me@juanvilchez.com http://www.juanvilchez.com

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

5 Years of MATRIXSYNTH!!!

It's that time again. Today is the five year anniversary of MATRIXSYNTH!!! I like to share a little bit about how the site ticks in these posts, some of the history for those that don't know it, some miscellaneous insights this year, and of course some numbers.

It all started back in July 20, of 2005, with a brief post wishing Dr. Bob Moog well. The brevity of the post was a bit of a foreshadowing of what the site would become.

I started the blog when the old site just wasn't cutting it anymore. I created the old site back in 1997 (before The Matrix movies ever existed BTW) as a personal portal for the various synth sites I used to visit. In 2005, blogging was just becoming popular. I found that I had a difficult time keeping track of things in email, my favorites list and the old site. The problem was many of the interesting bits were buried within sites, and possibly more importantly, a new method of sharing information was just emerging. Flickr (Feb 2004) and YouTube (Feb 2005) were just starting, Vimeo (Nov 2004) was relatively unknown, and SoundCloud (Aug 2007) wasn't even around yet.

In 2005, I created MATRIXSYNTH, the blog. I started tracking "Everything Synth". I let people know on various synth forums and email lists I belonged to about the site. In time it grew and people started sending things in. I realized what the site was becoming. It wasn't just a place for me to track stuff, but a place for anyone into synths. It was a daily heartbeat on what people were doing with their synths, not just a news site. In the beginning I posted every single image that came in on Flickr featuring a synth, and every single video on YouTube. It was fascinating at the time, because before then you never really saw what other people were doing, unless you knew them, or unless they had the means to host their own website. Flickr, YouTube, SoundCloud, Blogger, Word Press, and other hosting sites changed this. The site became a place for people to share and promote what they were doing. I received emails from people thanking me for connections they made because of the site. Many sites announced themselves here including DVDBORN (Jan 2, 2006), Muff Wiggler (Dec 4, 2006), TRASH_AUDIO (Oct 22, 2007), Analog Suicide (Dec 23, 2007), NOISESOURCE (April 22, 2008), and many others. The site currently gets over half a million pageviews a month. Think about that. More on the numbers in a bit. Before I get bombarded, I no longer post site announcements simply for the sake of site announcements. At 50 posts a day, it would be suicide and with the amount I post and I would take you all down with me. :) Posts have to be about specific synths, and via links are given.

There have also been a plethora of product announcements from manufacturers that read the site - too many to list. BTW, be sure see the MANUFACTURERS section on the right and the MANUFACTURERS page for a list of manufacturers that read the site and have taken the time out to send in a small 250px x 100px image. Note placement on this page is free. If you are a manufacturer, send me an image and I will add it. Note some dealers are listed there as well. Back to some history...

When I first started the blog, I wanted to put up a post at least once a week. It turned out to be more like once a day. I then wanted to put a minimum of five posts up a day, and then 10. I remember days when I didn't think I was going to hit it, and I remember days when I was so stressed out due to the sheer number and complexity of certain posts that I was ready to give it up. Every single post on this site is put up manually - there is zero automation. I now put up close to fifty posts every single day, seven days a week! With the exception of August 6, 2005, at least one post has gone up every single day since the inception of the site. If I only knew then what I know now I would have posted something on that one day. [Note: I thought I missed more than one day, but I couldn't find others - check out the archives in the right by clicking on the side triangles to drill down - if anyone finds another day I missed, let me know]. For those that are curious, it takes me anywhere between about four and six hours a day to do this. How do I have the time? Eight hours (usually less) of sleep, eight hours work, and eight hours for everything else (blog). I do contract-based work from home, so the entire day is pretty much spent behind my laptop working, with only a few breaks for food and a bike ride so I don't melt into my lazy boy. Weekends I get out and make time for my synths, friends, family, etc. The site pretty much is a full time job including weekends. How do I do it? I love it!!! That and there is a technique I honed over the years as crazy as it sounds. The more you do anything, the easier it becomes. It doesn't feel like work to me and even though things are not automated, I have a rhythm and a routine that I have relatively mastered. It took a couple of years to get that rhythm down. Now it's a bit of an addiction. That and with contract-based work I also work in surges, meaning some days are busier than others, and in between contracts I have more time on the blog. It all just works out. This brings me back to the note on that very first post back on July 20. At the time, I really didn't know what to say. It was an awkward first post but with the news that day, I knew that had to be the first post. I thought about what to write and I realized there was nothing I could say, other than providing the link, asking others to wish him well, and getting the heck out of the way. The post wasn't about me, it was about him. That has pretty much evolved into the theme of the site to this day. I want people to experience what others are doing, not my reflections on it. Once I realized that, posting became much easier. Part of this was also realizing that the number of posts going up can be difficult to consume, for myself included. The less I say the less time I waste. I try to keep things short, to the point, and myself out of the post. The site is a bit like conveyor belt sushi, a buffet, or tapas bar. Stuff constantly comes in and you can either take all of it in, or just pick what you want. The cool thing is everything is archived so you can come back to it later.

Some people ask me why Blogger? The reason is it's free and it's owned and hosted by Google. If I'm ever unable to run the site for whatever reason it will stay up. We have lost too many great synth sites over the years unfortunately. The excellent drummachine.com immediately comes to mind. If anyone remembers the site, it was the best site dedicated to drum machines - tons of pics, details and audio samples. It's now a promotion site. This is going to sound crazy, but the limitations of Blogger also keep things a bit more manageable and in check. I like the site as it is. It is what it is and that's what makes the site.

Time for some numbers. I'll try to keep it short this time. According to Google Analytics, since the inception of the site, there has been a total of 8,054,806 visits and 16,856,224 pageviews. That's up from 5,774,890 visits and 11,233,869 pageviews as of last year. If you look at the bottom of the site you will see Site Meter has me at 8,337,466 pageviews. This is because I started Google Analytics after Site Meter and I missed adding back the Google Analytics code a couple of times when updating my template. If you click on the map, you will see we are still missing a few countries. North Korea, I haven't said anything bad about you!!! It blows me away to think visits came in from some places. I chose the map for the image in this post because of this. This site is global. You get to see what people around the world are doing with synths on a daily basis. The site exists because of everyone out there who loves synths - you, me, and those that may not even know about the site yet. It's been a great five years and I look forward to the next. THANK YOU!!!

Update: Twitter: via Chris Carter!!!
http://chriscarter.co.uk/ @chris_carter_
http://www.throbbing-gristle.com/
http://www.chrisandcosey.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Carter_%28musician%29


HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY MATRIXSYNTH from Chris Carter on Vimeo.


"Experimentally yours...

Chris Carter"

Update: I forgot to note the number of posts since the inception of the site. Including this post there was a total of 43,951.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to the other side. I hope 2010 is a good one for all of us. Synth posts will be coming shortly, but before then I'd like to look back at the year for the site and share some of that with you. It would be impossible to dig through old posts and pick highlights as there are just too many, so instead I'll look at the number of posts that went up and other stats.

Last year a whopping total of 13006 posts went up! That's an average of 1083.83 posts a month and 35.63 posts a day. It's up from 10,090 posts in 2008. I haven't missed a single day posting in the entire year and plan to keep it that way. The total number of posts since the inception of the site on July 20, 2005, is 35,045.

For the year we had 2,565,300 Visits and 5,804,265 Pageviews. That would be 7028 visits and 15902 pageviews a day. That's quite a bit considering there aren't many subsections in the site. Everything new goes up on the front page. Aside from the homepage, what is the most popular thing on MATRIXSYNTH? Synth Babes at 37,629 hits. The most visited posts for the year? From Which the Gristleizer Came at 7573 hits followed by New SEM from Tom Oberheim at 6,112 and Schaltzentale - Incredible Steampunk Modular at 5,554. Since the inception of the site we had a total of 6,679,552 Visits and 13,310,057 Pageviews!


Total Visits:
2009: 2,565,300
2008: 2,010,102
2007: 1,383,340
2006: 513,060
2005: 207,750 (via AdSense)
Total: 6,679,552

Total Page Views:
2009: 5,804,265
2008: 3,865,863
2007: 2,519,689
2006: 912,490
2005: 207,750 (via AdSense)
Total: 13,310,057

As for world domination we are still short a few countries. North Korea is still avoiding me. Click on the map for the full size. Green means someone from that country visited MATRIXSYNTH! Google Analytics is off though. If you look at last year's map you'll see Niger is green while this year it is white.





The top visits are as follows:
1. United States 1,061,288
2. United Kingdom 228,943
3. Germany 164,705
4. Canada 147,475
5. France 123,881
6. Italy 87,409
7. Sweden 80,801
8. Netherlands 72,783
9. Japan 59,820
10. Belgium 51,663

And that's it folks. Enough with the numbers. Time to get back to posting synths. I want to end this with a HUGE THANK YOU!!! As I say every year, this site is not about me. It's about synths and what people (YOU and me) are doing with them. Years from now we will be able to look back on a little bit of synth history. Thank you for being part of that. I wish you all one hell of a new decade!

cheers,
matrix


Update: I've been thinking about what I'm most looking forward to in the new year on the synth front. For me it will be building out my eurorack modular and either the Apple tablet, a Windows tablet, or both! There's too much cool software out there that I don't use simply because I don't have a tablet. What are you looking most forward to on the synth front?

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year everyone!
I hope it was a great one! This year was a great one for the site.

I said this last year and I will say it again. This site is NOT about me. It's about EVERYTHING SYNTH. It is about what's out there. It's about all of us, it's about what others with similar interests are doing - videos, music, pictures, events, the new and the old, EVERYTHING SYNTH!
I want to THANK ALL OF YOU FOR A WONDERFUL 2008 and I WISH YOU ALL A FANTASTIC 2009!!!

Once a year I like to share a little bit about what the site is about, its history and its readership.
Some stats for the fun of it. World Domination? 12 countries short! If you remember last year, we had 181 countries visiting the site. This year (top map), we are up to 194 countries. Since the inception of the site in 2005 we are at 201 countries (left map)!!! If you click on the map, anything in green means someone out there visited the site from that country. Those in white haven't. The darker the green the larger the number of visits. According to the map, only the following 9 countries out there have not visited the site: Western Sahara, Chad, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Turkmenistan, and North Korea. Crazy! Someone from every other country out there visited the site. It boggles the mind when you think about it. [Side note: I think I found a bug in Google Analytics: Take a look at the top map followed by the left. The top is this year, the left is all time. If you look closely you will see Tajikistan and Kyrgyztan flip colors. For the all time map both should be green if you think about it.

Numbers:

Total Visits:
2008: 2,010,102
2007: 1,383,340
2006: 513,060
2005: 207,750 (via AdSense)
Total: 4,114,252

Total Page Views:
2008: 3,865,863
2007: 2,519,689
2006: 912,490
2005: 207,750 (via AdSense)
Total: 7,505,792

For reference, Site Meter has:
4,289,986 Total Visits All Time
7,960,740 Total Page Views All Time
The total Page Views for Dec was 433,030, the total visits 197,214.
The average Page Views a day for Dec was 13,969, average visits a day 6362.

Pretty amazing when you think about it.

As for number of posts:
I put up 10,090 posts in 2008
21,962 posts all time
That's an average of 27.64 posts a day for 2008 and nearly double 2005, 2006 and 2007 combined.
What this simply means is that there is more out there.

Some history:
I created the original matrixsynth.com in October of 1997 as a portal for me to track "everything synth." The site consisted of two frames. A simple link list on the left and a viewing frame on the right. If you go to the site you will see what it pretty much looked like since its inception. The problem was that the links on the left were only to the root of the sites. I found that a ton of the interesting information out there was deep within sites, and sometimes the info was not even in an actual website, but on various sound, image and video shares, forums, email lists, and so on. I had a backlog of emails saved and bookmarks in my web browser. In July of 2005, I decided to start the blog to track everything.

What am I trying to do anyway? When people ask I usually just say its a blog that I track stuff with. It is that in essence, and over time, I hope it will become something more, something much more.

What is the bigger picture?
I want the site to be a place people can come back to in time. 50 -100 years from now, I want people to be able to come to the site and look back in time. I want anyone that is curious about the world of synths to be able to see a glimpse of it here. A log in time of what was out there every single day. I know I won't capture everything. There are other blogs and other websites for that. What I do hope to capture is just glimpse of it all. I hope it will be a fun trip back in time for future generations. This is actually why I chose Blogger as my platform. When I first started the blog, I started it on my site matrixsynth.com. I hosted it, but the site eventually went down due to increased traffic exceeding my allocated bandwidth. The event made me remember losing some great synth sites out there like drummachine.com (anyone remember that one?). I ended up choosing Blogger as it is owned by Google and you can host the site on their servers instead of your own. Hopefully this will translate into the site running long after I am gone.

Hopefully this wasn't too long. I just figured I owe some background on the site at least once a year. :)

Again, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! HAVE A GREAT 2009 and THANK YOU!!!
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