Title link takes you to a podcast on delamar.de. Scroll to get to the player when you get there. Midway John plays a few sounds followed by talking about the synthesis engine.
Via fat eric in the comments of this post. fat eric babblefished the following off of delemar.de. Thanks fat eric! These are the first samples of the Solaris I'm aware of.
"One of the few highlights on the music fair 2007 for me is surely the Solaris, a Synthesizer, which was developed of nobody smaller than John Bowen. The Solaris began as semimodular software Synth for the Scope DSP maps of CreamWare, where it gained fast a good reputation as versatile applicable Synth. Marc and I had the large pleasure the symphatischen and still inspired Synth veterans to interviewen - the result can hear you as Podcast at the end of the article. With the Solaris it acts around a Synthesizer based on SHARC DSPs with 5 oktaven a keyboard, which with a 96kHz audio engine works. Under that about 40 buttons are 5 LCDs, which represent the button parameters. Additionally there is a graphic display, whose use us is not yet completely clear. The algorithms used in the Solaris are to be waited and improved occasionally over software updates. Also extensions are technically feasible and planned according to John Bowen. Perhaps it will also give at a later time some the Scope algorithms for the Solaris. However - John Bowen recommends to switch on and straight on play the equipment simply. The secrets reveal themselves then allegedly automatically. Who cannot allude the hippen Synth with a music shop, should absolutely clean-hear in the Podcast, because it enters or other hearing sample of the master there himself. An inspiring Synth, which by play joy and great sounds from the mass out-stings. The price will lie around the EUR3000. -. Thank you at John Bowen for the interview!"
"It's got an USB connection on the back. From what I understood, it should be able to act as a simple MIDI controller using that, but the main reason is of course to hook it up to transfer the waveforms.
Someone at the VintageSynth.org forums tried to make an argument on how every VA wasn't modeled but used samples (yeah - long story). I can happily say that this is not the case . The guy I spoke with was one of the engineers (as opposed to someone who does just demos. He was surprised (and delighted) that someone asked this question - as the Wave handles samples not like you'd think. One of the advantages is that you can play whatever you sample over the full range, without artifacts - and this is because the sample file is resynthesized for use in the machine. Everything's generated, no lookup tables!
The memory's about 2 megabytes, non-volatile. Maximum number of waveforms is limited by the display; 99 choices. I said he could expand it by using hexadecimal . The machine's quite ready for release, albeit that there was only one at the stand. In terms of sound it's between the Nord 2 and the 3. On-board effects include EQ, tube simulation, and delay and reverb.
There's no endless rotaries, because several users wanted to know "when they reached the bottom" so to say - that the physical knob would tell them when to stop - so they chose for regular pots."
Click here for more synth shots on Hataken's home page. You can find music made with these synths here.
Shane, the manager of Don Juan Dracula let me know Hataken is working on a remix of "Take Me Home" by DJD. Listening to his music, I'm really curious what it will end up like.
YouTube via clan232323. Sent my way via josh. Note the title of the video has a space between Reac and Table to emphasize the table control surface rather than just the concept of being "reactable."
"Here's a quick patch we made demonstrating the Oberheim Mini Sequencer we recently put on the market. It's triggering an ARP 2600. This particular Oberheim Sequencer has been modified. One of the mods is a CV input to transpose the sequencer CV output - a very useful feature. Here we show pitch transposition occuring every 32 steps. We achieved this by using clock division and an ARP Sequencer's quantized sequence output. You can transpose the sequence using other external CVs, like the CV out from a 1 volt per octave MIDI to CV converter, a 1 volt per octave output from a vintage synth, etc. The cute little yellow and green box is the legendary Tone Tweakers Mojax 3x4 - only the most complicated and awesome electronic musical device ever made!!! ;) This short sequence reminds us of something off Depeche Mode Violator. You may or may not agree, but we hope you enjoy it anyway. And yeah, those are latex gloves. We wear gloves cause our gear's so smokin' hot it would otherwise burn us. :) Email us anytime at minime123@onebox.com"
I recently discovered Don Juan Dracula back on March 4th, this year, when their manager Shane Chisholm contacted me about doing an interview with the band. I'll be honest and say I was a little reluctant at first because this site is about "the synths and not the band," but I liked what I heard, so I asked him if it would be alright to focus on synths and run the interview with their keyboard player. I got the thumbs up, and the following is that interview. I've been listening to their album for some time now and I must say I really do like it. Catchy stuff that will get stuck in your head for days and keep the energy going. Don't miss the videos below. One of which, "Run Away With You" features a kid in the video with a custom toy keyboard. Apparently the kid in the video made it when he saw Hennings keytar and they decided they just had to let him use it in the video. Pretty cool. That said...
1. How many members of the band play synths?
Henning: Our songwriter Henrik uses keyboards as well as guitar when he writes songs, but while recording and live it's me who playes the keyboards.
2. When and how did you get into synths?
Henning: In 2000 I think, Henrik asked me to play keyboards in his new band. I hadn't really played keyboards before, but like a lot of kids I was forced to take piano lessons when I was growing up, so I still remembered a little. When we started out, all we had was Henriks old Casiotone MT-800 and a Casio SA-10. Those two keyboards were the basis of our first EP and live-shows for a couple of years.
3. Do you view yourself as a synthesist, keyboard player or both?
Henning: I don't really see myself as neither actually. I like to collect old keyboards, synths and gadgets that make cool sounds. And I play them in a band.
4. What synths do you use in the studio and on tour.
Henning: Live i mainly use a Yamaha SHS-10 as a MIDI-Controller for the Korg Microkorg. That way I'm able to move around more on stage. I really like the diversity of the microkorg, and the simplicity of it's interface. Being able to quickly switch between custom sounds and finished presets makes it ideal for live use, which is probably why everyone is using them these days. Though it seems everyone is using one these days.
I also still use that old Casiotone and a Yamaha kids organ once bought at a flea-market for the lead-sound of "Take Me Home". We have gradually moved away from the pure Casio-pop sound, using more real instruments as well as synthesizers and not just FM-keyboards.
In the studio we have started to use more soft-synths lately as well, mainly because it's easier, and cheaper. Unfortunately we don't have the money to buy every synth we want.
We will be recording our next album soon, and we're looking to purchase the new Korg MicroX before that. I'm also trying to get hold of a Korg MS-10 for the studio-session. Everytime I buy a new synth or keyboard we try to use it somewhere in the recordings. That way we get a variety in the sound. I try to not use the same sounds more than once... We have used quite a lot of different gear over the years. Mainly cheap kids-like stuff, I just like the sound...
5. What is your favorite synth and why?
Henning: The Casio VL-1. Just because it's so small, and still so funny sounding. And it's a calculator as well. A friend of ours actually used his on a math exam once...
6. What do you think about the role of synthesizers in music today and it's influences in the past? What would you consider to be you main influences (musicians, technologies, anyone)?
Henning: The last couple of years you have started to hear more and more bands becoming popular using synthesizers in their songs, and I like that of course.
-Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo -not so much Erasure) and OMD has influenced me a lot with their simple monophonic style of playing and composing.
-As well as Casio.
7. What is your dream synth and why?
Henning: I have been dreaming of getting a Moog Prodigy and a Yamaha Cs-5 for a little while. Because they are the synths mostly used on my favorite album by Depeche Mode "Speak & Spell".
8. Do you prefer a particular type of synthesis (analog, digital, modular, FM, etc) and why?
Henning: I do (of course) prefer real vintage analog stuff, because it's the "real deal". But it's very hard to get hold of here in Norway, and lately americans on ebay don't want to send their stuff to Europe anymore. I also have a love for beaten up kids' casio stuff. I still look for them at flea markets every spring.
9. BTW, I was wondering what the little keyboard in the "Run Away With You" video was?
Henning: haha !
-it's actually a danish kids toy keyboard called "elektronisk keyboard 11 -100" gaffa-taped onto a kids guitar!
-The kid in the video made it himself actually before the videoshoot after he had seen pictures of me with my keytar. So we had to let him use it...
--------------------------
And there you have it. I want to thank Shane Chisholm and Henning Krane of Don Juan Dracula for taking the time out for the interview. I also want to give a big thanks to Shane for giving out 20 free downloads of DJD's album to Matrixsynth readers (they are all gone, btw). DJD is about to break out on the international scene and I wish them all the luck. I had a great time going back and forth with them for this interview. When they get big, remember... You saw them here first!
I'll leave you with two of my favorites from the band:
Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction
I try not to grab stock photos as they are readily available on the web, but this is just absolutely stunning. Note the seller is Novamuik. I've dealt with them in the past and they are a great shop - highly recommended. Be sure to check out the other shots at the auction or the title link.
Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction. Details: "This is a very rare ETI 4600 synthesizer by jaycar electronics. The ETI came out as a kit in which you could build week by week with each issue of the jaycar magazine. This synth has been professionally put together (electronics)."
Title link takes you to a 6.73M mp3 of the Studio Elecronics CODE via Novamusik. Everything in the sample is the CODE. I backed it up here for the archives. You can find more details on the CODE here.
Update via the seller: "I see people have been discussing it. Just to clarify, this unit puts out a full 4 octave range from its quantized outputs and does it well. I believe that at maximum position, some of the quantized steps will put out a major 3rd above the 4th octave and others put out a 4th above the 4th octave.
In addition, we just posted a video of this particular Oberheim Mini-Sequencer to Youtube to demonstrate that it's working well. We feel that the modifications done to this unit make it much more useful than the stock Oberheim Mini-Sequencer. It can be seen here:"
Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.
Details: "This is a very unusual vintage item, Hard to find. It is a six keyboard music trainer. It is designed so that a teacher can have 6 students sit down at once and they can teach them all at the same time or indidvidually. 120 volts ac.
The keyboards all have their own headphone jacks for independant operation and also there are some swithches on the unit that seem to allow coupling together so each can hear the others for duet, trio,etc up to all 6. Also has some in or out jacks so maybe you can mix with other sounds? Not sure of all the functions of the other switches, but there also is built in speaker under the console too. There is some type of wired remote as well, I assume so the teacher can combine or separate each. Each keyboard has its own headphone/output jack, level control, and a multiposition "voice"control, that changes the sound to different synthesized sounds. They have a nice early synth sound to it perhapse like a simple moog or early roland?. Polyphonic ( multiple keys on each keyboard can be pushed and work at the same time) Probably uses early standard analog synth generators perhapse made by one of the big synth companies- all put into this big console -may be more valuable for someone to separate into six early synth units and sell each separately. It has been tested and all of the keys on all of the keyboards worked (except for the one of the keyboards seemed to have scratcy controls and has one key that did not work-probably needs contacts cleaned or adjusted). We did not have a lot of time to further check this, or know what all the extra switches on the remote and console do, so it will be sold as is-guaranteed not dead.
It conveniently folds up and wheels away so it is sort of portable. Because this item is so large it will be local pick up only or you can arrange truck pickup from your end after its' paid for."
Title link takes you to the video on Sonic State. The demo includes the arpeggiator and note repeat functionality. Pretty cool. I'm hoping the MPK49 sets a new standard on more sequence performance oriented keyboard controllers.
It covers the sampling and wavetable features. The sampling is more extensive than I originally thought. You can modulate sample OSCs with standard OSCs. Also, it looks like the smiley was just a teaser. Bummer, I was actually hoping that would be real. They should do it.
"this is a dual gate delay for Frac-Rack systems. it delays the start, but not the end, of a gate (or "v-trig") signal for up to more than ten seconds. it has two channels with a link switch, and a purple LED indicator for each channel's output. there is also a "slew output" on each channel which gives a simple AS envelope whose attack time corresponds to the gate delay time. this module uses Switchcraft model 41 jacks, which i happen to think are very nice. details on the freeware version of this module are at the designer's website."
Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.
Details:
"Offered for sale is a very rare fully functional vintage rack-mount Fairlight CMI III computerised musical instrument workstation in excellent condition. Also fitted is Fairlight MFX2 capability, which adds a 24 track direct to disc recorder / editor. The system is a late model, and as such has the latest and best in technical innovations, whilst still retaining the classic legendary sound of the CMI.
The system has 16 voices, 16 Mbytes RAM, colour graphics card, digital sampler and 24 output router. It also comes with the later MFX alpha-numeric keyboard, and a proper weighted action music keyboard. A 15” LCD screen (not the one illustrated) is included. There are two 4 Gbyte hard discs, one empty for disc recording, and one full of the following libraries:
Complete Fairlight library, Prosonus Strings, Brass, Percussion, Sound Genesis strings, plus many libraries collected over the last 20 years dealing with top producers and musicians. These include libraries from: Pet Shop Boys, Trevor Horn, Hans Zimmer, Frankie goes to Hollywood, Art of Noise and many, many others. The complete Fairlight IIX library is also included.
The system will be serviced, have a full set of manuals (including a very rare service manual), all leads, latest firmware, and come with 3 months warranty. It is currently in an 18U rack, but can be dismantled for ease of shipment. In this case each module is professionally packed by first wrapping the part in polythene, placing it in a larger container which is filled with liquid foam (see photo). Once set, this provides superb protection.
Please note you’ll see other Fairlight systems advertised on ebay, and many will less expensive. However, do some research before you buy. What may look like a bargain might not look so appealing when its obsolete parts finally give up. I have been involved in re-building Fairlight CMIs for over 25 years, and have sold and supported well over 30 of these classic samplers. I am also proud of my 100% positive ebay feedback with over 120 transactions, which I hope reflects my honest and straight forward dealings. I have also described this system as accurately as possible. However, please feel free to ask any questions, or if you’re passing through Sydney, you would be very welcome to have an extensive demonstration."
"This is my take on a bit reducer, bit crusher or decimation as some people call it. This effect is widely used in post production and industrial music. This is perfect for those who want to "digitalize" their sound to get those industrial distorted tones or to get that mettalic sound. The pedal is built into a small, easy powered durable powdercoated aluminium box.
Features.
* Dimensions 4 5/8" x 2 1/2" x 1 1/2". * Volume control goes from 45% to aprox 130% of the original input (taking as reference 100% as unity) * Range controls the frequency of the sound. * Mix blends the original sound with the FX, can dial from subtle to over the top.. * Powered by 9v battery or DC 9v power Jack (center negative). * Jacks on top to save pedalboard space * TrueBypass Switching and Led Indicator. * One year warranty."
"Finally a small and affordable Ring Modulator that offers a wide range of sounds from stutter tremolo, robot gonk, starving robots, metallic tones and everything in betwen, all of this in a small, easy powered durable powdercoated aluminium box.
Features.
* Dimensions 4 5/8" x 2 1/2" x 1 1/2". * Three way toggle mode switch for a wider range of sounds. * Frequency controls the range of the sound, wich is predetermined by the mode switch. * Tune controls the intensity of the effect, can dial from subtle to over the top. * Works like an instrument by itself, if the In jack is disconnected. * To save battery power the out jack had to be unplug. * Powered by 9v battery or DC 9v power Jack (center negative). * Jacks on top to save pedalboard space * TrueBypass Switching and Led Indicator. * One year warranty."
via Ben. BTW, Ben is wondering if anyone has come across a Eurorack format bit crusher. If you know of any feel free to comment.
"Roland catalog from 77-78 "Roland - Electronic Musical Instruments Vol. 2" I got this catalog at the time because of the amps in it, but the main thing of fascination now will be things like the MC-8, Systems 700, 100 & 100M modular synths, GR-500 Guitar Synth, SH-series synths, Jupiter 4, RE-301 Space Echo, etc."
Details "Moog Synthesizer 55 brochure Very nice shape, a few minor marks, creases on front and pen marks by some of the modules (you can just make them out in the lower right of the bottom photo) and a bit of staining on the top (also visible in the bottom photo). None of this is too major, though, and it looks very nice. Complete with a wild-eyed photo of Bob with mutton chops on the back. Includes descriptions of modules 921A/B, 914, 904 A/B, 960 and many others."
Remember the Don Martin Minimoogs? Well, he also manufactured MOOG Modules. Title link takes you to more shots.
Here's the list of Don Martin modules according to Cary on the AH list:
9501 Voltage Controlled Oscillator
9501A Oscillator Controller
9501B Oscillator
9502 Voltage Controlled Amplifier
9503 Random Noise Generator
9504A Voltage Controlled Lowpass Filter
9504B Voltage Controlled Highpass Filter
9504C Filter Coupler
9505 Reverberation Unit
9507 Fixed Filter Bank
9510 Power Supply
9511 Envelope Generator
9511A Dual Trigger Dealy
9512 Envelope Follower
9514 Extended Range Fixed Filter Bank
9521 Voltage Controlled Oscillator
9521A Oscillator Controller
9521B Oscillator
9560 Standard Interface
9591 Filter / Attenuator Panel
9594 Jack Multiples Panel
9595 Ring Modulator
9596 Sample & Hold
9598 Mixer
9599 4 Channel MIDI-CV Convertor
9800R Eight Unit Rack Mount System
9801P Cable Pack
"i took this photo at a gig the other night on my mobile and thought you might like to see it... how often do you see 2 elka soloist's and 2 jen sx1000's on the same table at the same time? they belong to a band called 'tonkl' who are great."
Initial details: * Amazing simulation of the famous Roland RE-201, with the spacious, analogue tone of the original Space Echo * Faithful modelling of the RE-201’s tape flutter and magnetic head sound saturation * Tap input pedal allows delay time to be set by foot * Longer delay time than the original RE-201 * Control parameters such as REPEAT RATE, INTENSITY, and more via Expression pedal * MODE SELECTOR knob with 12 placements just likes the original Space Echo
Title link takes you to a podcast on delamar.de. Scroll to get to the player when you get there. Midway John plays a few sounds followed by talking about the synthesis engine.
