miniMusic MixPad

"MixPad is a full featured MIDI file player/recorder/editor. It will let you take any raw MIDI file with you on your Palm compatible handheld or phone. You can play the song with our Krikit audio engine, on connected MIDI hardware, or on a sound card if your handheld has one. MixPad differs from any other MIDI file applications for the PalmOS; it includes powerful graphic support for simple viewing and mixing.

Usable for real performance situations, or music practice, MixPad gives you a powerful real-time mixer interface to control channel volumes, panning, and solos and mutes for every track during playback. The main display gives smooth scrolling of all MIDI data (including velocities and controller data) and zooming. Unlike other MIDI file players that use hundreds of kilobytes (or even megabytes) of memory for sound samples, our software synthesizer generates audio without any recorded sound; it's only 10k! Song files are also very small (usually under 100k)."

Title link takes you there. Be sure to check out the rest of the miniMusic suite.

Mike Oldfield's OB-Xa?

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction. Sent my way via Tom of Music Thing.

Details:
"Superb condition Oberheim obxa rare 8 voice model with 120 program memory an absolute must have for the synth conesieur.

All 8 voices work and tune up without any problems,there is no yellowing of any of the keys and all leds lightb as they should,wooden end cheeks are in good condition and the only blemish is a couple of scratches by the filter section which is shown in one of the pictures.

This synth has a very intersting history in that the guy i purchased it from said he bought it from an auction house that was selling job lots of studio gear from Mike Oldfields studio as Mike was apparently moving his studio to another country and sold lots of kit off.

According to the guy I bought it off he said the album crises was made with this obxa.

Anyway I am not really an Oldfiled fan so I was not that bothered about it but the brown flight case with the tubular bell logo on it always intrigued me so I did a bit of investigation and sure enough I found a site that listed items of mikes gear that was sold and sure enough there is a mention of an obxa,dsx and brown flight case (I sold the dsx to an oldfeild fan ages ago)with tubular bell on the front.Email me and i will give you the web address of the site as I don't want to break any ebay rules as you always get some jealous little snipe who could only dream of owning a synth like this reporting you to ebay hence the relist.

Anyway the above is mentioned out of interest I can only assume it belonged to Mike as I find it hard to believe that there are many obxa dsx and brown flightcases with tubular bell on the front,speaking of the flightcase you will be really pleased with the flight case as it looks to have been hand built and to spec it looks and feels exspensive,it is filled with high impact foam and the obxa fits perfectly inside the foam it has definitely been made to specification,it even has the number 67 on the front which i assume is for when it was toured so they knew what was in tour case 67."

MOOG Synthesizer IIIp

Remember the MOOG Modular IIIp on Craigslist for $12k? The seller was notified it was too little for the system so he took it down. It's now back up here, now listed at $32k. I backed up the shots and details here in case the site goes down after it's sold.

Original (1969) & Current (2007) Owner - Philip Michael Davis



History of Use:
- Gil Evans Jazz Group - Tour of Europe - Live performance
- Basil Poledouris - Several Film Scores
- "Tommy" - Aquarius Theater in LA - Live performance
- "Jesus Christ Superstar" - Universal Studios Amphitheater - Live performance
- "Sgt. Pepper" - Stage production on Broadway - Tom O'Horgan producer
- "Electrical Light Parade" - Disney - Recorded at the Paul Beaver Studio in LA
- "America on Parade" - For Disneyland and Disneyworld
- Paul McCartney - "Ram"
- George Harrison - Ravi Shankar - film score
- David Gates - "Clouds"
- Numerous commercials
- Various Movie scores

The First Gumby Episode: Gumby on the Moon

YouTube via dmgivideo. I remember this one. Anyone know what was used for the audio?

Delia Derbyshire Pot Au Feu

YouTube via scatterkeir. Via CDM.

PanKAT MIDI Steel Drum Controller

"THE WORLD'S FIRST MIDI PAN CONTROLLER"
• Special tunings for Pan players
• One-piece, 30 pad design, plus 2 virtual controller wheels
• GM sound engine included for instant plug n play! (128 sounds)
• PanKAT also includes multiple steel drum instrument samples for various software samplers for use with a PC or Receptor.
• Same responsive, pressure sensitive FSR sensors as all KAT controllers
• 128 factory kits for turnkey performance with any GM sound module.
• 128 user kits for programming your own kit configurations.
• Headphone output for private practice
• Power to layer the keyboard with independent MIDI control
• Special performance features including dampening, deadstroking, poly/mono modes, velocity shifting, alternate notes per pad, pitch bend on the fly, warp arpeggiator, loop control functions, and much more.
• 2 programmable inputs used for control,
or HiHat & Bass Drum pedals
• Ongoing software upgrades: The PanKAT will continue to evolve.

Title link takes you there.
via JB.

KeyToSound Nextsyn

"Nexsyn is a hybrid instrument that combines sample playback and synthesis technology. Nexsyn is designed for the musician, sound designer, and producer who wishes for a powerful synthesizer with high quality output, advanced modulation, and precise sample based key-map playback....

Nexsyn is capable of laoding sample based keymap files (XWM) and comes stock with a 4GB sample library (thanks Big Fish Audio!). By loading an XWM file as an oscillator, Nexsyn can modulate it as you would find with a subtractive synth. There are no limitations to the modulation possibilities. This makes combining a Vox Continental, a Hammond B3, and a pulse wave into a unique sounding organ patch as shown above. Any sample based keymap file can be modulated as an oscillator, or played without modulation for prestine representation of the instrument."

Title link takes you there.

Sounds of the Korg MS-20

YouTube via Newueel

I found this looking for a video of the giant instructional version of the MS20 posted below. If anyone knows of any, let me know. I seem to vaguely remember seeing a Japanese instructional video of one.

KORG MS20 Educational Edition and Das Synthesizer Handbook

via this auction

Giant sized instructional version of the MS20. Here's another one. via ben.

Sensorium's Studio

Title link takes you to more shots.

Update: No the silver and gold centennial DX7. Here's another.

Update: images mirrored here.

Blue-9

flickr by thumbuki.

Blue Invention

Gratuitous gear shot via Blue Invention. Via the comments of this post.

SIMMONS Silicon Mallet Vibes

Click here for shots pulled via this auction.

Update: you can find a video of one posted here, via Ruud Wiener in the comments.

Details (note this is not mine, nor any auction I put up for that matter):
"this is the rarest of the rare. there is very little info on this on the internet and i havent even been able to find another owner. made at a time when r&d and production cost was extremely high so very few were made or sold. its serial # is 000197. i assume it was the 197th unit made.i think its from the mid 80's. made in england. of real metal and rubber!!! its quite heavy and feels really solidly built. ive owned it for a few years. its really fun to use and makes great sounds, but im not a percussionist and i dont have the room. it also needs some repair. sometimes all or some of the pads dont work right. than it just starts working again. usually if i gently shake the unit. i assume its just a loose wire or connection but i definatley dont want to open it up because i know nothing about electronics. i contacted 2 different synth shops in nyc and described the problem. they both said they could fix it no problem but i never got around to bringing it someplace. there are about 20 pre programed patches of all sorts or sounds. than there are another 80 that are empty to put your own sounds in. it had midi so im sure someone who knows about these things could program some really cool sounds. i always thought of it as a a synth with pads instead of keys. its a really cool idea and if was in some sort of electronic band this would be the coolest. and your sure to be the only one around with one! all the sounds are super tweakable too. controls for: patch volume, dynamic sensitivity, octave, semitones, half tone-quater tone scales, tremelo speed and depth, vibrato speed and depth, mod pedal route, pitch blend, brightness, harmonic, bite, attack time, decay time, gate time. you can also select through patch number, split patch, tune, split position, midi ch, split voice assign, midi mode, sequence. the outputs are: headphones, stereo outs (voice 1-3 and 4-6) sustain pedal, up/down pedal, mod pedal, pitch pedal, midi out, midi thru, midi in, cass out. to be totally honest i had alot of fun playing around with it, but i have no idea what most of these things do. the unit seems to be in great shape for its age. as i said the case of the actual pads and the unit that sits on it are made of metal, so its quite durable. the stand is in good shape and it even has some extra parts for it. it all comes apart and is adjustable with a drum key."

Octave the CAT

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Roland MKS-80 and MPG-80

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

MOOG Minimoog

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.
Details: "Purchased in Seekonk Ma this Moog spent its entire life inside the safe confines of a Boston Ma. broadcast recording studio This very unit has been used in a litany of Commercials and television show soundtracks and has never been gigged or traveled The small Gold Labels are the 70's era labels for the Music store which originally sold this Moog Serial # 6868"

Elektron MonoMachine

Title link takes you to a couple more shots pulled via this auction.

KORG ER-1

No title link. I just really like this shot. Click on it for the full effect.

via this auction.

Fmseq portable

YouTube via laboratoryf.

Details via this auction:

"The #fm_seq (portable edition) is a compact workstation that uses a special FM synthesis chip to produce tweakable sounds that can be sequenced with the included sequencer software. It uses genuine FM synthesis, not the sampled sounds you find with newer audio cards. It's 100% OPL3 compatible and is able to combine up to 36 operators so you can craft and tweak some extremely unique sounds.

Each channel features:

Main frequency (10 bits)Octave (3 bits)Note on/offSynthesis mode (FM or just additive)

Feedback (0-7, the modulator modulating itself)

For each one of the 4 oscillators: Frequency multiply (can be set to 1/2, 1 to 10, 12 or 15)Waveform (Sine, half-sine, absolute-sine, quarter-sine, alternating-sine, "camel"-sine, square and logarithmic saw)Volume (0-63, logarithmic)Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release (4 bits each, logarithmic)Tremolo (On or off)Vibrato (On or off)Sustain (On or off)Envelope scaling per key (On or off)Volume scaling per key (0-3) Vibrato depthTremolo depthPercussion mode (uses 3 channels to provide 5 percussion sounds)

You can easily maipulate the sounds in a live setting and the workstation itself is very portable. Another great thing about this workstation is that you can sit down and focus on programming your sound without the distraction of a million other programs in the background. This Item is completely unique, I built and modified both the hardware and software so this unit sounds really interesting... Watch the video if you want a good idea of what this workstation sounds like. It doesn't cover even a fraction of what this is capable of but it should give you an idea.
Everything comes setup and ready to go.

The software is incredibly easy to learn and understand....you should be able to start making music within an hour of turning the workstation on. UPDATE: A few people have asked if it is able to produce sounds similar to Commodore 64's chip music. The answer is YES....the sounds from this workstation are VERY comparable and in fact more capable since it uses 36 operators to create custom sounds. This new version is 100% compatible with all previous versions."

Korg MS20

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Maggie Osterberg - Little Phatty Artist

Title link takes you there. You'll find a stream link to the right of this image when you get there. The bass reminds me of The Cure. I'm guessing the theremin lead is the Little Phatty. The tune grew on me, only I wish the lead was just a little lower in volume to match up with the rest. Via Maggie in the comments of this post.

Creamware Noah Track

Remember the Creamware Noah? Basically SCOPE in a stand alone box. Title link takes you to a track featuring the Pro Tone, Prodyssey (lead?), EDS8I (percussion) und Profit5 (melody). via sequncer.de.



Image sources (1, 2)

zero zero island control room

flickr by ostara voskhod.

More synths in Second Life. Title link takes you to more shots.