Maestro Ring Modulator - New Flickr Shot

I missed this one when putting up this post - it comes from the same flickr set by ruk777. I just saw it on Sendling. The caption reads:
"to my knowledge, this is the first ring Modulator ever created. It was part of the 'Analog synthesizer' module that Bob Moog, Tom Oberheim and the folks at ARP worked on in the 70s. That is basically where all the early Maestro "pedals" came from. This piece is super rare,and though it is missing its foot pedal, it would command a lot of dough on Ebay"

If you know the truth behind this either way, feel free to comment.

Via Pinkus in the comments: "this is true. late moog worked for maestro...making the big mtal tank looking pedals with the contols on the side (phaser, distortion filter...ect)"

Via Tommy Dog in the comments: "Tom Oberheim was building these during the late 60's, he had done the first Phaser pedal for Maestro which was owned by Gibson / Norlin.

Norlin bought Moog later in the 70's and there were some product devolopment shared by Moog and Maestro (who farmed out many pedal designs to others)."

Via David in the comments:
"I doubt it's the first ring modulator. Harald Bode developed a ring modulator for Moog (the Bode Ring Modulator Model 6401 and Bode Dual Ring Modulator Model 6402) in 1963. Check out the Bode page on Obsolete.com.

According to the Moog Archives there's a Bode Dual about 1000' from me right now."

Update via dmxkrew: "If you're interested in those early maestro pedals, oberheim effect pedals etc, I read this interesting book by tom hughes: link"

SYSTEM SYNTHESE on YouTube

via Frederic. YouTube by dftdsr.

synthi aks in action on YouTube

Update: Looks like I put this up in may already. My first double post. Oh well...
Not bad with 3585 posts to date.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


YouTube via cores303

Kraftwerk Drawing and Stitch

Moogulator of sequencer.de sent me the following drawing by Florian Schneirder of Kraftwerk. Florian drew it for Dirk as a thank you gesture for selling Florian his ARP Odyssey. Title link takes you to the post on sequencer.de which also includes a Kraftwerk stitch by Herrn Schneider's daughter. Cool stuff.

Update, Moogulator gave me the ok to post the stitch shot as well, so here it is. Thanks Moogulator!


Update via Moogulator in the comments:

"ps: note, that on that stitch florian has no hair, so his daugther knows her father ;)"

Too funny.

Georg Mahr

Title link takes you to Georg Mahr's website, home to a number of gear shots and general synth info.

via Yves.

Update via sendling in the comments:

"see also here ;-)

MSQ51 Sequencer by Georg Mahr"

Doepfer modular_cat_6 - New Flickr Shot

flickr by Syntax Terror. Title link takes you to one more.

Korg Trident Demo

Title link takes you to the post on sequencer.de.

vacuum tubes! - New Flickr Shot

flickr by andrewyang. Trip. I didn't know these were Electro Harmonix and made in Russia.

Update via zerozeroisland in the comments:
"Yes, it's pretty odd. E-H founder Mike Matthews bought a Russian vacuum tube factory back in the 90's, i assume so he could insure a steady supply of tubes for his products.

But he's been having a hell of a time holding on to it. apparently, corrupt Russian businessmen and officials have been trying to take over his factory. it's a pretty fascinating story; you can read more about it here & here "

C64, Monome and MAX/MSP

via C64Music!

Jean Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman Live - Seattle

Remember this post? Well, I managed to make it to the kick off show in Seattle tonight, or rather last night. It was a very FUN show. Filled with quirky bits of music and musings by Jean-Jacques Perrey. Definitely recommend seeing them if you get a chance. Title link takes you to a ton of shots and some short video/audio clips I took with my old digital camera. Apologies for the poor quality.

One of the coolest things about the show was Jean-Jacques' antics during the performances, from pretending to ride a horse to air guitar. Classic, funny stuff. He said his goal was to make others happy and to bring a smile to our faces - to have FUN. I'd say he more than succeeded. What was also fascinating was the stories he'd tell before each piece. I don't want to ruin it for anyone that might make the upcoming shows, so let's just say there was a fascinating story about Salvadore Dali and one about Disneyland. As for gear, Jean played the Ondioline (that brown box in front of him), what looked like a Moog dual manual organ, a couple of synths and a few Moogerfoogers. Dana primarily played a Yamaha DX7 and every now and then he broke out with the Synthesizers.com modular. Oh, and his little elephant mascot joined the show as well. : )

You can read more about Jean Jacques Perrey here, and Dana Countryman here.

P.S. I also had the pleasure of meeting and sharing a table with Blake of Hotels. They use a Casio CZ-3000 and JP8000 in their set up. I just checked out their site and MySpace page. Good stuff.

Update:
OK - SPOILER (do not read this if you are going to the show and want the effect of hearing this story for the first time - this is the story about Salvidore Dali):
Jean talked about how Salvadore Dali asked him what he was working on next. Jean said he was working on 'Flight of the Bumble Bee.' Dali said, hmm.. that's not that special. Jean said, well I'm doing it with live bees! Dali said, oh I must hear this. Jean recorded the buzz of live bees and other bugs. He then sliced the tapes and mapped it to the full range of a keyboard. It took him 46 hours to set this up. He then played it for Dali. Dali was blown away and said he must play it for him again. He said Dali said Mignificent! It was a fascinating intimate story and I really am not doing it justice. You just picture them sitting together and Jean playing this for Dali. Amazing. You can read more on the tape process in this excerpt of his biography.

Oberheim Voltage Controlled Filter - New Flickr Shot

flickr by ruk777. Trip. Never saw one of these before.

Caption for the archives:
"This was my very first 'pedal' back in 1986. Again, this was one piece of the analog synthesizers Oberheim and others were inventing back in the '70s. There are two effects in this box. One is a very cool sounding envelope filter. VERY touch sensative. It also has a "random arppegiator", or "sample filter hold". This circuit was stolen by Z-Vex for his "Ooh-Wah" and "Seek-Wah" pedals. It basically takes the note and throws it around to different tones, if that makes sense. You can control the speed."

MBSEQ V3 Session 3 on YouTube

via sequencer.de

Synth - New Flickr Shot

flickr by ChristianU.

Kraftwerk Live on "Chorus" French TV Show Oct 1st 1978

Title link takes you to more. via Frederic. Yeah, I think Kraftwerk beat Numan on the robot thing.

electronic devices digital interface (EdDi) on YouTube

Glitch Station - 2 * 25 dtype inputs
midi in - midi thru
16 midi to switch interface
light organ interface - 3 photo cell link
3 momentary push switches
3 hold switches
5 variable resistors
eddi is used to interface electronic devices such as kids toys - cheap keyboards - video signals - mechanical devices - anything that switches

shown linked to casio sk1

via Frederic. Title link takes you to more.