"The Alesis A6 Andromeda is without any doubt the most powerful and flexible analog polysynth ever made. But all that power and flexibility comes at a price: complexity. The sheer number of patch parameters is almost overwhelming yet most can be easily controlled with all those knobs and switches.
But it's quite a different story for multi-timbral Mix setups. The A6 display is more than adequate for most tasks but using it to set up a Mix can be awkward, tedious and quite error-prone. Mix Maker was designed to make that process a lot easier and user-friendly by providing a familiar and intuitive mixing desk interface to those 'hidden' Mix parameters." [link]
Random patch generator for the Alesis Andromeda A6.
"Tired of your A6 always sounding the same? (Yeah right ;-)
ANDROMIZE it!
ANDROMIZER is a utility designed to screw up your Alesis Andromeda's current program edit buffer. Utterly, completely, and irretrievably.
ANDROMIZER sends series of MIDI sysex messages to your A6, automatically changing lots of program parameters to random values. The result can be stored in patch memory or tweaked until doomsday and then stored, or even discarded on the fly.
What to expect? Your instant, self-running, aleatoric chaos patch will not appear just using a randomizer. Remember that the only thing this tool does, is: to give a host of parameters totally random values. Most often, after a complete run of ANDROMIZER, what you will hear is complete silence, because most combinations of parameter values in a system like this just do not make sense. I have tried to reduce the number of useless configurations... but not too much, since such a selection process necessarily means applying personal taste. Be prepared to spend a lot of time tweaking, trying to figure out why the bloody thing sounds like it does (or does not make any sound at all), and how to make it sound more to your liking...
How to use it? In all the ways it wasn't designed for, how else? :-) Seriously, I could tell you how I've used it successfully to create some remarkable sounds, but that wouldn't be much fun, would it? The only advice I will share: be selective about which modules to randomize. Not all of them are equally useful. And don't forget you can use the Normalize button to (wholly or partly) initialize your patch to default values."
YouTube via inducejack. via a new blog, Chicago Jack (check it out). "SUPER FOUL 707 JACK WITH REVOLUTION 303 emulation accompanied with a random arpeggio from the infamous pss 480 triggered electribe style."
currently up for auction on VEMIA. "RA Moog X-Y controllers all in a row. These five, serial numbers 1002-5 and 1008, are part of the CEMS custom Moog system. Joel Chadabe and the other guys who used the system would set up elaborate interacting sequences with the eight 960/962s, delays, VC mixers etc., and then tweak them with these joysticks." follow up to this post. To see all VEMIA posts to date, click here.
images via this auction. via Xavier. Note the auction is over. Don't miss the video below.
"Internal Signal Routing The SK-1 has 4 voices and percussion. Each voice is made up from an audio signal and an envelope control signal, which are combined to give the end voice. This module allows you to switch on or off any of the 4 voice audio paths, any of the 4 envelope control signals and the percussion. The patch panel then lets you have for instance, voice 2 under the envelope control for voice 4. You can then patch the percussion audio into the envelope control for one of the voices, which gives sustain effects or patch it into the audio signal and it gates the percussion with the keys, so the percussion sounds only while a certain voice is active. You can even swap the audio and envelope control signals over, which gives a buzzing / click type noise when you press a key.
Audio Filters / Level This module modifies the filters where the envelope control signal and the audio signal are combined to make the end voice. The knob is in 2 stages where it controls the level of the audio signal, but keep turning it and it then affects the filter. The control will take the tone and ‘squash’ it so for instance the bass line in the demo song, rather than a contiuous note turns into a blip, or stacatto effect. Very hard to describe but appears in the video at 2:28 sounds a bit like it is playing backwards. There is a knob for each of the 4 channels, and another knob for patching. The patch knob connects to 2 patch points, the idea is that one side connects to anywhere on the signal routing module, and the other goes off to the main patch panel allowing all the digital signals to be combined with the audio ones. In the video it is applied to the bass line and removed at 2:09 which gave it a ‘metalic’ twang, but that just depends where you plug the patch cables in.
Outputs This module brings all the 4 voices and percussion sounds and a video signal to the outside world. The SK-1 has lots of low pass filters / anti-aliasing filters inside before the final sound reaches the speaker / rear connector jack. The connectors on the top are pure unfiltered audio, which sound much brighter and if you are lucky enough to have a good mixing desk you can add your own EQ / FX to each voice. Likewise Casio have heavily attenuated the bass audio in the accompiamnents but now you just take it at any level you want from channel 3.
Pitch and Video This module gives overall pitch control for the SK-1 and deals with video generation. The pitch control raises the pitch and has it’s own on / off control. The video control is on/off and contrast, plus a patch input. If you patch a signal from the main patch panel, it combines it with the video ouput giving a range of displays. It also alters the sound when patched in, as the data signals are now going through video circuitry it creates glitchy patterns, weird notes etc.
Patch Panel This is the core for all SK-1 circuit bends, a lot of bent SK-1’s have a load of switches attached, the switches all connect to the RAM and ROM inside the keyboard to alter the sound. Here there are no switches, it is up to you to patch a wire across or use the bend sequencer. The patch panel has 25 connection and it mirrors the RAM and ROM address bus and data bus, plus a few other signals. You can link 2 or 3 points out directly, wire them across to the signal routing patch panel or sequence them.
Bend Sequencer This allows you to automate the patch panel. When switched on, each LED lights in turn, and the patch connector below each LED becomes active. If you connect any of these to the patch panel, when the LED lights up it energises the patch panel switching the bend on and off. Depending on how many of the 10 auto bends and where you put them, you can have gentle modulations to the sound ( at the end of the clip there are some block chords with a gentle auto bend applied ), or severe random noise mayhem. Sadly I can only have 10 minutes on youtube and I no where near demonstrated what this is capable of, I just fiddled with it a bit!
Modular Casio SK-1 Circuit Bent by Oceanus
YouTube via xd515. "Here is a Casio SK-1 comprehensively bent into a fully modular synthesizer. Includes bend sequencer, whole control of all internal audio and envelope control routing, video output, each audio channel output, percussion output. Sadly in a 10 minute video you can only show a fraction of what this can do :-("
click here for New Order's equipment list over the years. Note the list is not complete.
snip:
| Equipment listed in an interview with New Order in the March | 1985 issue of Electronics & Music Maker: | | Seq Circuits Pro One | Powertran Transcendent 2000 w/ Powertran 1024 Seq | ARP Omni | ARP 2600 w/ ARP Seq | Simmons SDS2 | ARP Quadra | Moog Source | Boss Dr Rhythm | Prophet 5 w/ Seq Circuits PolySequencer | Oberheim DMX | Emu Emulator | Octave Plateau Voyetra
via Clavia. Follow up to this post. It looks like the Nord Wave is now shipping.
"The Nord Wave is built on a legacy of making virtual analog synthesizers for almost 15 years. Virtual means “not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so”. Nord synthesizers are digital, but behave, feel and sound like analog synthesizers. An analog oscillator is limited to generating a few basic waveforms, and though we can add LFOs, EGs, and different filter types to make the patch more complex, the foundation of the sound is limited to what the oscillator can produce. Think of it like a highway - you don’t get more lanes by adding lots of access ramps. On the Nord Wave we have not only added a fast lane, but rebuilt the entire highway into a roller coaster. The magic is in the Wave’s oscillators, which produce far more than standard analog waveforms. This is a concept we have been working on since the first Nord Lead synthesizer introduced in 1995, and currently includes: - Traditional analog waveforms such as Square, Triangle, Saw and Sine; - Frequency Modulation, or FM-synthesis, generating very complex and metallic waveforms; - Wavetables: single cycle waveforms with large variations in tonal character; - Sampled waves: Sampled acoustic instruments turned into wavetables with the attack portion of the sample intact; - User replaceable samples: standard .wav-files used as oscillator sources in a virtual analog environment; Filters are great for shaping your sound. We have included not only the basic filter types, but some really interesting multimode filters as well, including a Comb filter and formant filter. The ultimate form of sound-shaping, though, is Morphing: the ability to assign multiple sound parameters, each with custom ranges, to a single performance controller, such as the modulation wheel or a control pedal. It is a very intuitive and extremely powerful feature (just the way we like it), and will change not only your playing but also your approach to sound design. Featuring the ability to use any type of sampled waveforms, the Nord Wave is a sample player and an analog synthesizer in one - and anything in between. Like driving a Ferrari Enzo on the open Autobahn, tangible response and brilliant sound just can’t be described in words - you just have to experience it. More information at the Product pages."
"I was privileged today to have given John Bowen's Solaris a test drive in my studio! Though its not quite finished yet and there are some re-designs in progress, I can honestly say its a programmer's as well as a player's dream!
It sounds absolutely wonderful and is very powerful! It took a few minutes for the interface to sink in, but once it did...wow! Flexible, deep and yet relatively easy to program due to the excellent UI despite the huge number of available parameters and choices. Most parameters are not buried in menus and are easy to access and tweak.
There are a ton of audio-rate modulations available on this thing, none of which generate any artifacts or aliasing at all...lots of FM possibilities, linear as well as exponential. The Moog-style filter was as warm and squelchy as one could want and could be run in other modes besides LP! The "Obie" clone was a good state-variable emulation. The oscillators were plentfull in both quantity and variety. Each patch has a unique architecture, essentially a massively parallel yet integrated "multi" unto itself.
I was suprised at how organic and non-digital it sounded! A one-on-one "taste test" against my analog gear proved this thing has that elusive low-end "beef". Its no slouch as a complex wavetable synth either, holding its own easily against my Waldorf Microwave XT and Ensoniq Fizmo.
You can do FM, physical modeling, subtractive, wavetable and vector synthesis on it as well as the warmest VA I've yet heard.- I'm really blown away! Time to start saving...or figuring out what will have to go"
Some specs via this thread on the John Bowen Synth Design Forum (BE SURE TO CHECK OUT THE THREAD FOR MORE including clarifications):
"The hardware Solaris has the equivalent of approximately 6 Scope boards (the 14 DSP cards), so 6 x 14 = 84 Scope generation DSPs - but remember, you would have to be running your Scope Project at 96 kHz as well...
We have lots of software to finish, so I can't report exactly as to the polyphony count, but here are some of the other specs:
"Control panel lightshow on a ConBrio ADS200 digital FM/Additive synthesizer, taken at the 10th Vintage Computer Festival" Listen closely and you will hear that it has 64 notes of polyphony with 16 oscillators per note. This means you could have up to 1024 oscillators at once back in 1978 or shortly after. :)
For those that want real audio, word from an anonymous reader is that it is not 100% yet, so there was no audio actually coming from the synth - just recordings playing in the background.
Update via Devo in the comments:
"Just wanted to clarify... The sound that was heard of the Con Brio at the VCFX this weekend WAS indeed coming from the synth itself. It is true that the synth isn't 100% functional (yet), but the parts that need to be made "whole" still, are the connection from the keyboards to the "brain" (mostly), which will be sorted out soon, hopefully. The sounds that were heard consisted of existing sequences on the original 8" floppys, coupled with existing sound-patches from the same orig. disks (of which, the OS is derived). BTW: the Con Brio sounds as good (or, dare I say, BETTER) than it looks. Awesome! I hope this info helps. Much kudos to all (past and present) involved! "
YouTube via bdufdiskc. "Everything you hear is being generated by the modular, including the clock timing and the waveform on the scope.
It's also a pretty good demo of what the Analogue Systems delay can do, as much of what you're hearing is a single snare hit into the delay whose time is being modulated by the doepfer sequencer.
YouTube via fizzydiodes. via fizzydiodes on the Matrixsynth Forum.
"Zyklus Mps midi sequencer ROUGH demo !"
Update: link to pdf of manual via dlmorley.
Update via esaruoho in the comments: "AnalogGuy has posted a 3 part video on YouTube with the original Zyklus Demotape:" posted here
"The unit comes in three pieces, the amp, the main cab and the midrange horn. Included are the front enclosures for all three as well as the rear enclosure for the power amp with the attached spring reverb unit."
"The Sequential Circuits Six-Trak is a classic instrument from the 1980's -- the first multi-timbral"
If correct Sequential Circuits can lay claim to the following: Prophet-5: 1st Programmable Polyphonic Synth with a microprocessor to save patches. Prophet-600: 1st MIDI synth Six-Trak: 1st multi-timbral synth
"The Alesis A6 Andromeda is without any doubt the most powerful and flexible analog polysynth ever made. But all that power and flexibility comes at a price: complexity. The sheer number of patch parameters is almost overwhelming yet most can be easily controlled with all those knobs and switches.
