Dual Sequential Circuits Multi-Trak

"To do this, two Multi-Traks were used, one with a bad keyboard. The aluminum case was cut on one of the cases and its top was piggy backed on to the multi-trak with a good keyboard. The master controls the slave via midi which includes sequencer control. Still has 16 individual voice outputs and four 'mixed' outputs. A custom cable was made to join outputs into a single mono or stereo output for both synthesizers."

Title link takes you to more shots on Synthwood.

Synthwoodspecializes in:
Synthesizer Woodworking
Specializing in replacement wood parts for Classic Analogue Synthesizers
Custom design for modular synth cabinets, cases, side or end bells and conversions and modifications
Beautiful and exotic woods: Koa, Mahogany, Black Walnut, English Chestnut, Maple and more
Tasteful finishes (French polish, Linseed Oiling and blends)
Tapered black stainless finishing screws included

Synthwood Custom Prophet T8

"A little history: This was the last Prophet T8 made by Sequential Circuits. There was no wooden keyboard made for it and it was either given or sold to an SCI employee.

Later the case was taken to a machine shop where the front end was rip sawed off and the wheels were placed inside of the case. It was necessary to keep the wheels plugged in so that the modulation section would work properly. If you have a T8 with a keyboard that is far beyond repair, this can be done for you."

Title link takes you to more shots on Synthwood. Reminds me a bit of the Rhodes Chroma Expander.

Synthwood specializes in:
Synthesizer Woodworking
Specializing in replacement wood parts for Classic Analogue Synthesizers
Custom design for modular synth cabinets, cases, side or end bells and conversions and modifications
Beautiful and exotic woods: Koa, Mahogany, Black Walnut, English Chestnut, Maple and more
Tasteful finishes (French polish, Linseed Oiling and blends)
Tapered black stainless finishing screws included

Update via Stephen in the comments:
"I've got an update for this. John Bowen confirmed that my T-8 was used on the bench at Sequential and that Stanley Jungleib ended up with it during the Yamaha liquidation. Stanley sold it to person in the Bay Area who then sold it to a friend of mine in 1989. I had known about the 'keyboardless T-8' since 1992 and eventually coaxed my friend into selling it to me just last year. My father finished the case earlier this spring and I updated the ROMs to rev 3.8 (they were 3.7)."

Red Martian

One of the people I met at this year's PNW meeting was Stephen Jones. You might recognize the name from this post on the custom wood case for the Sequential Circuts Pro One. You can find more info on the case and other custom work on Synthwood. I actually need to put a couple of posts on the custom T8 and Multi-traks there.

For this post, however, I want to focus on Stephen's band Red Martian. If you like Severed Heads, you will like Red Martian. I asked Stephen what his music was like and what bands influenced him. Not only is he influenced by Severed Heads, but one of their tracks was actually remixed by them. Pretty cool. BTW, you know my policy on only posting music if it showcases a given synth. Well the track "Behind the Mask" features a Prophet 5. Details:

"On behind the mask casey recorded his drums with live bass and keyboard. I then went back and tapped out a gate track along with his human tempo and used that to trigger the backing sequence. All of the synthesizer sounds were done on the Prophet 5. I got the mono lead sounds by killing voices and playing it it unison. "no moogs here". The vocals were done with a SVC-350 vocoder along with the Prophet 5."

Check out their MySpace page to get to the track directly and check out their main site for more. This is good stuff.

PNW06 via David Skinner

Title link takes you to shots of this year's Pacific Northwest Synth Meeting via David Skinner.

Rev1 Prophet 5, Rev3.3 Prophet 5, and Creamware ASB Pro-12 pictured.

Zeit Desktop Sequencer

Remember the Zeit Sequencer? Here's another tabletop version via sequencer.de. Infection Music are the makers of the Zeit.

Moog Taurus Pedals

Title link takes you to some nice shots pulled from this auction.

Moog Taurus Demos

YouTube via william19139. Sent my way via Frederic.

Note the video mentions it's up for auction. I checked and there are currently two up on the bay; not sure which is his. one, two. Update via Synthbaron in the comments: "the 2nd auction has the YouTube links in it."

The Korg 900PS Preset Monosynth

Via Benjamin Ward of Korganalog.net:

"The 900PS is a quite basic but interesting monosynth that came out around 1976. I took some photos the summer before last when I was thinking of flogging it (but I later changed my mind - I am a hoarder too which doesn't help!)

It does contain some nice early Korg quirkiness, such as the harmonics controls (I suppose Korg were going for the organ market with this one), go travelling with the Traveler (cut off frequency slider) and of course the metal modulation bar that runs the length of the keyboard and can be used to control vibrato, pitch bend, loudness, repeat effects and portamento (all at the same time if you wish!) As far as CV/gate is concerned I would have thought that its easy to mod but you would have to ask a boffin."

Inside the Elektron Turbo Midi TM-1

Title link takes you to more also mirrored here.

via Allerian.

Chasing the light

flickr via altemark. Title link takes you to one more.

Future Retro Revolution

PNW Synth Meeting 2006 Images and Video

Uploaded on Oct 22, 2006 matrixsynth

This year's Pacific Northwest Synth Meeting was a blast. I want to thank John Marshall of Sound-Photo for organizing the event and for the pizza. Good stuff! I really enjoyed the pace of the event this year. It was pretty laid back, and I met a lot of great people. Even some that read Matrixsynth! : ) The meeting started at 10:00 AM. I was about half an hour late. When I got there people were just hanging out, talking and playing synths. Once everyone was settled in, we did a show and tell where each person talked a little about themselves and what they brought. Halfway through we stopped for pizza and after pizza, we continued on. All of the talks were great. There were a few funny moments and surprises including some Sequential Circuits history from John Bowen. This year I took a ton of video and unfortunately neglected the camera a bit. The title link of this post will take you to the shots I did take. As for the video, I took over 3 gigs worth, so they will go up over time. This first video is a pan of everyone at the event. You can hear the synths talking to each other in the background. : ) BTW, I want to say thank you to everyone I met. All great people in my book. As for those of you that want the synth content, the vids are coming. I'll be posting all of them over the next few days, and I'll make sure to call out they are from PNW 2006. There is one caveat though: the max file size for YouTube is currently 100M, so some of the larger videos will have to wait. Note that not long ago the limit was 50M, so hopefully it won't be too long.

Plan B Model 24 Samples

Via Peter Grenader on the Plan B list:

"All this talk, so where's the bacon? I've posted some sound samples of the M24 doing it's thing. Go here and scroll to Sound Samples. the Model 24 will be shipping in two weeks.

enjoy.

- P"

Update via Peter in the comments:
"For the record:

1) The M24 IS NOT BASED ON BUCHLA'S DESIGNS other than their function. It's microprocessor based.It's not based on anyone's design, the circuit is completely unique inside. Have a look at the block diagram on the M24 page of the EAR site, you'll see what I'm talking bout.

2) The M12 iis NOT a clone of anything. Buchla's filter is state variable, but a completely different architecture. Mine has four modes, Don's has one...they both use Vactrols, as does Dieter's Stweiner Filter. If you feel you must credit me for 'borrowing', then credit Don Lancaster - because the M12 came from reading his filter cookbook that I borrowed from Mike Brown. That's the only borrowing that went into that one.

3) The M13 is close to the Buchla 292 - but there are some significant changes in play there, namely an added opamp feedback which greatly improved it's functionality for non-Buchla signal levels."

"On 'clones'

Adaptations are nothing new. The point has been made about the many many Moog Ladder clones, but let's not overlook the Wiard Wogglebug and the Buchla 266 as well as the Wiard Borg and the Buchla 292, Banalogue's full product line, the Livewire and Cynthia Steiner filters, The Cynthia and Doepfer Wasp, The Livewire Bissell Gen, the list goes on and on.

And while the Model 13 is the only circuit adaptation in our line, so is the Cynthia Lowpass Gate (I know because I designed that circuit) and the Wiard Borg, although I don't see comments about either of these.

Add to the mix that well over 60% of the new analog instruments being released today are based on circuits published in Electronotes. The only function in the entire Plan B line that can be found in Electronotes is the sine shaper in the Model 15, but that was only an Electronotes reprint of a circuit originally published in an article Electronics Magazine in the mid-sixties and was done so as an appnote - meaning they intended for people to use it, that's why it was there.

More on this, the M24 is functionally similar to the Buchla 266 as it produces a stepped and smooth random state (and a bunch of toehr stuff).Well, so does the Wogglebug, the Doepfer A149-1(half of the 266 anyway), The Doepfer A-118 (the other half), the Serge Random Voltage Gen...but we all went about it differently and we all included unique features not in the original. Clearly a 'how would I make something that has this function among others' as opposed to 'how to I make a 266 clone' approach on all counts.

For the record however, I personally asked Buchla and Associates if they would have a problem with this and their reply was no, 'everyone needs a wiggley voltage'."

Die 16 Bestn Aus Den Hitparaden '77!

This one is in via André:

"Perhaps I can top the "Yamaha Superstar" cover. It's from a german lp and a guy called Edgar Schlepper. The record itself is really poor, but he used both the GX-1 and EX-1."

Click here for an mp3 of this most awesome recording. A little ABBA. A little Chicago. All done on a Yamaha GX1 and EX1. Who could ask for more. Enjoy. : )

Make sure to check out Anre's site for more.

Moog T at Urban Outfittes

Uban Outfitters is a chain like The Gap. There was one on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Note the 1934-2005. The synth pictures is a Memorymoog btw, not the Minimoog. Anyone know more about this T? Who's producing it? Why the Memorymoog was chosen?

Update: And another.

Oberheim Four Voice System

Click here for shots of Heath Finnie's Oberheim FVS. BTW the unit is for sale in the Boston area, local pick up only. If you are interested you can reach heah at hfinnie at gmail.com.

Tokyo Heartbeatn

Ok, I'm stretching it with this one as I like my posts to be specifically about synths, but I thought some of you might find this interesting. I found it very interesting. Filing this one under samples. More on the Roland R-09.

Via Cyril:
"Two weeks ago i was in Tokyo, i have recorded street sound with my brand new
Edirol R-09. On my blog you will find a compilation called "Tokyo Heartbeat -
September 2006". Raw recording : just me walking in Tokyo with R-09 in one
hand, a fade in&out by track and that's all. Tracks recorded with R-09 stereo
mic at 24bit/44khz, and converted to MP3-192 kbps."

Tracklist :

01) Yamanote Line - 05:30
02) Akihabara - 02:24
03) Sega Club Arcade Center - 08:38
04) From Akihabara to Asakusabashi - 11:30
05) Pachislot - 6:56
06) A bar - 5:06
07) Kita Akabane by night - 01:40
08) A train to Tokyo Game Show - 11:16
09) Ukimafunado Tower - 28:37
10) At the Karaoke (Featuring Tanguy) - 1:43

History of Electronic Sound Manipulation - Harold Bode

Title link takes you to a 2.2M pdf of History of Electronic Sound Manipulation by Harold Bode, mirrored here.

"The history of electronic sound modification is as old as the history of electronic musical instruments and electronic sound transmission, recording, and reproduction. Means for modifying electrically generated sound have been known. since the late 19th century, when Thaddeus Cahill created his Telharmonium. With the advent of the electronic age, spurred first by the invention of the electron tube, and the more recent development of solid-state devices, an astounding variety of sound modifiers have been created for filtering, distorting, equalizing, amplitude and frequency modulating, Doppler effect and ring modulating, compressing, reverberating, repeating, flanging, phasing, pitch changing, chorusing, frequency shifting, analyzing, and resynthesizing natural and artificial sound. In this paper some highlights of historical development are reviewed, covering the time from 1896 to the present ."