man with the moog

flickr by dawachan1

full size

"it sounded like a church organ from a doctor who episode"

MOOG or synthesizers.com? Or other?

45 Tribute - A Tribute to Daniel Hansson of Elektron

"In August 2007 Elektron CEO and co-founder Daniel Hansson passed away in an unfortunate auto accident. It is in large part his creative vision and eye for detail that have made Elektron's products what they are today. The 45 Tribute pays homage to his creative genius and his philanthropic spirit. Artists from the Elektron community have taken their time and energy to contribute to this project freely in his honor.

All purchases of the 45 Tribute should be viewed as donations, as that's what your purchase translates to. All proceeds collected from the 45 Tribute will be donated to the World Wildlife Fund. So you pay $5.00 for 30 songs, and you get to be a philanthropist in the process! POW!

As if the 30 tracks, or contributing to World Wildlife Fund wasn't enough to motivate you, Elektron is giving away one free SidStation! Everyone who purchases the 45 Tribute within the first 30 days will be automatically entered to win."

via Joel: "For $5, you get to download an album featuring a mix of famous acts (Autechre, John Tejada, etc.) alongside tracks by members of the elektron-users.com forum. The $5 you pay goes to the World Wildlife Foundation, one of Daniel's favorite causes. Give it a look/listen!"

http://www.45tribute.com/

SUPER Space Drum

YouTube via yumitree
"Just a quick video of me messing around with my newly acquired Electro Harmonix Super Space Drum (used by the Clash, as I learned from the vintage EH catalog in the box).

The song used to test out the Coordinator input is Game Theory - The World's Easiest Job."

Battle Angel Alita

via Zamise:
"Its from Battle Angel Alita, Angel of Redemption Vol. 5 Season of Revenge, Battle 23: Lost Sheep. Story and Art by Yukito Kishiro.

Rumor is that it might be made into a big movie next year by James Cameron with that 3D CGI glassesless phillips technology. Supposedly he bought the rights to the story and has been working on it along with some Avtar movie which I know little to nothing about, but its been in the works for a while already. I've only ever really liked or have followed Battle Angel manga & anime. If it goes over well with Cameron's version, I'm thinking this part of the story that this drawing is from would hopefully make it into the begging of the second movie of maybe 3 movies about her."

Looks legit to me: 2009 on imdb
Volume 5: Angel Of Redemption on Amazon

New Years Revolution

image via Renee' of New Years Revolution

KORG MicroKorg

ixiQuarks

"ixiQuarks is a software environment designed for live improvisation that allows for user interaction on hardware, GUI and code level. The environment enables innumerable setups with flexible loading of tools and instruments. The ixiQuarks consist of different types of tools: basic utilities, instruments, effects, filters, spectral effects and generators.

ixiQuarks exist in 3 different forms: ixiQuarks, ixiQuarks Pro and ixiQuarks as Quarks library for SuperCollider. (ixiQuarks are written in the SuperCollider programming language). For non-programmers, we recommend ixiQuarks, for people that like experimenting with programming and write their own instruments as part of ixiQuarks, we recommend ixiQuarks Pro. For SuperCollider users, we simply recommend installing the ixiQuarks from the repository.

Tools:
basic utilities: AudioIn, Recorder, Player, BufferPool, PoolManager, FreqScope, WaveScope, EQMeter, MixerNode, Amplifier, ChannelSplitter, TrigRecorder.

instruments: SoundScratcher, StratoSampler, Raindrops, Mushrooms, Predators, Gridder, BufferPlayer, GrainBox, PolyMachine, Quanoon, ScaleSynth

audio effects: Delay, Freeverb, AdCVerb, Distortion, ixiReverb, Chorus, Octave, Tremolo, Equalizer, CombVocoder, RandomPanner, MRRoque, MultiDelay, Cyberpunk, Moog

filters: Bandpass, Lowpass, Highpass, Resonant Lowpass, Resonant Highpass, Resonant, Klanks
spectral: SpectralEQ, MagClip, MagSmear, MagShift, MagFreeze, RectComb, BinScramble, BinShift

generators: Noise, Oscillators."

You can find more info here. You can find videos here.

modular synth

YouTube via flowerseven. "I'm using the drum machine as a trigger for the filter envelope."

Korg DW-6000 + Poly 800 II

YouTube via NelSonOfABitch. "They playing both. I know that's pice of shit."

Mondo Modular Episode 2

YouTube via scootermccrae
"Yet another bold journey into an audio world where many have tread before and even fewer haven't... (wait a minute -- this doesn't make any sense?!?)

Anyway, just me again getting some cool sounds out of my truly amazing modular sound generating system.

Please bear with me and in an episode or two I'll post some video of electronic music giants like Herb Deutsch, Gershon Kingsley and Bernie Kraus that I've shot over the years.

See the rewards that lie ahead for making it throught these punishing viewings? Who sez I'm not a pussycat sweetheart?"

Roland RS-09

images via this auction

"Comes with the original 70's retro vintage japanese case"

Siel DK70

images via this auction

Roland D-50

images via this auction

"The keyboard is somewhat too spongy in my opinion, but the after touch sensitivity can be controlled by a lever, which is rather nice. There is also a Chase Play function, which can be used to create some very intriguing delay effects. 'All in all, the D-50 is a very warm-sounding synth - Finding it particularly usable for lush and thick synthetic backwashes and complex woodwind sounds.'"

ARP Little Brother

images via this auction
"The Little Brother is an expansion module for any ARP-System monophonic or polyphonic synthesizer. It has its own built-in VCO oscillator and LFO. Use it to double up your monophonic Axxe or really fatten up the sound of an Odyssey, 2500 or 2600! The LFO can add really new and cool modulation effects to these synths too! Best of all several Little Brothers can be stacked to greatly expand or enhance the functionality of your ARP synths in a modular-like fashion! Though the Little Brother uses ARP's System Interface for interfacing with these other synths, it has CV, gate and trigger inputs and an LFO out as well." Note the waveforms: BRASS, HOLLOW, REED, FUZZ

Elevation Theodore Dubois Sound from Rogers MX 200

YouTube via jopachelbel
"compsed by Theodore Dubois
from Dix Pieces de Orgue
I have played it on my Roland Juno Alpha 2 Vintage Analog Synthesizer
and Rogers Organ Sound Expansion MX -200"

Peterson Engineering Foot Stomper Bass

flickr by alexp202
(click for more)

Update: if anyone knows more about this one, feel free to comment.

Update: Peter Forrest of VEMIA and the A-Z Books to the rescue:
"NY then IL firm who made at least three things like this, late 70s early 80s. Second was 24-note version; third ('Bottom Line') had controls you could mount at hand height (on the case-lid put upright with little stabilisers, or on a keyboard)."

Olivier Grall's Waldorf Wave Page

"One of the best sounding and powerful synth ever made . Designed and made by ex. PPG team , this synth is a hybrid of digital oscillators including analogue filters, coming directly from the heritage of the PPG Wave with the wavetables.

Released in 1994 around 300 have been made. This one is from July 1995.

The solution to get a DX7 + a VS + a JP8 + a PPG in the same box !
Warning ! Wall of sound !"

click here for the page with samples and more images.

ASM-2 on Synth.nl

"Today I also started working on the ASM-2. Most of the components arrived. You can see the stack of components in the picture on the left. Yes this will actually become a synthesizer :) Sorting out all the components was the first task and checking if I had everything. I knew some resistors were missing since they were in backorder. But probably I will find out along the way what I'm really missing. I put all the components in plastic bags, so I can't loose them. But from the amount of resistors only I know that this will be a lot of work to build."

Click here for the full post on Synth.nl. BTW, check out the root of the blog for more that has gone up recently including a post on the Cwejman S1 MkII.

DELEC Analog Bass Pedal Synthesizer

images via this auction
"The brandname is Delec bs1. Either this is a diy kit or a 'one of' prototype of some sort. There isn't any on the net about this synth, so it's very rare. It sounds enormous! The sound you get from it is seriously full and fat. There are pitch controls for both oscillator 1 and 2 so they can be detuned from each other for an even more fatter sound.

The synthesizer in short:
two oscillators: choose from triangle or squarewave - octave low/high switch per oscillator, volume control for osc 2 ad/adsr
vcf - lowpass, bandpass and highpass! These 3 filters can be used at the same time and each have their own level control!

However this synth has a defect: the ad/adsr isn't working. Also when you turn the resonance to zero, the volume drops. Everything else on this synthesizer works fine, but the adsr doesn't work so the sound goes on hold (keeps playing) until you step on another key/pedal (because it has no volume/filter control by the adsr). 20kg"

If you know more about this one, feel free to comment. via Danny.

Update via Peter Forrest: "There's a current firm called Delec which makes high-end digital intercoms. It seems to have been founded by a guy called Donald Dilocker - who started off doing live sound and founding a recording studio in the late 70s. Perhaps this was an early project of his."

modded wsg +diy sequencer +clock

YouTube via snazelle

"this is a demonstration of a few modules i have built: the wsg (the big blue box) was built almost a year ago and was my first diy project EVER. the "deluxe" 555 clock (tupperware) and BABY 10 sequencer(orange box) are recent projects. After finishing the baby 10 sequencer, i decided to add a CV in to my WSG...i connected it to the collector of the transistor which works with the A side of the 40106. i added one other weird switch mod as well.

basically this was a test to see if i could add CV to the WSG and it worked.

by the way, the clock has a cv in and toward the end of the video I tried to see if i could mess with it by plugin the gate out of the baby 10 into it, but it didnt create the desired effect. however, the clock is voltage controllable, primarily from a square or saw wave.

contact me at: subjectivity at hot mail dot com"

moog buchla ems

YouTube via emssynthi100

F. Chopin Ocean Etude by Yarosystems

YouTube via yarosystems. KORG R3.
"Playing live Chopin's Etude Op. 25, No. 12 Yarosystems style."

Monome 40h

images via this auction.

with CD drive.

via mati

Olson XX-100 Rhtythm Beat - VEMIA

"Made in Japan, for an Akron Ohio firm. Another very rare machine - they are certainly coming out of the woodwork for this auction. This has probably the worst made-up name/number I've ever seen... XX-100 would be better on a rocket ship. BUT... it is beautifully made, in super condition for its age, and it has some very appealing sounds. As usual Bossa is one of the most useable, but they are all cleverly designed, and the whole thing is definitely at the tasteful and well-executed end of the tackiness spectrum. Buttons manually playing eight extra sounds. The only thing to stop it being near-mint is that the back hinged cover looks like a utilitarian (plain ply) replacement. Very nice indeed, though."
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5911.

And that's it folks. Be sure to check out VEMIA for everything else I did not put up. There is much, much more listed.

I want to thank Peter Forrest for being kind enough to give me the go ahead to put these up. Yes, the auctions get exposure, but once they are over and gone, the images and info will remain. BTW, be sure to click on the images for the full size shots. You can click on the VEMIA link below to bring up all VEMIA posts.

Welson Super-matic S12 Drum Machine - VEMIA

"Rare vintage drum machine which works, but in a way that doesn't let you forget its extreme age. The cracked veneer on the top of the lovingly-made cabinet adds to the effect of being very very old for this technology. Sounds aren't exactly vibrant or accurate, but you don't buy one of these for that. 'Shake' is a nicely-dated name for a rhythm; and the four buttons on top are fun, for adding sounds manually. Lo-fi, lo-tech, but good fun. Nice power / bar light. One of very few drum machines to have an impedance matching control on the back - oops, maybe if I'd tweaked that the sounds might have been brighter."

VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5910.

Dynacord Three Drum Units - VEMIA

"Three of these chunky Dynacord electronic drum units, not completely tested because there is only one power supply (Dynacord PAC 918, 18V and 9V AC on a 7-pin DIN)) included, but potentially powerful. Percuter eight track Digital Drum Computer with 8 cartridges: Electrified Bass 1, Metal Snare 8inch, Reggae Snare, Natural Tom 10inch, 13inch, 16inch, Timbales 14inch, Rock Ride Cymbal. Missing top to Pitch control; cosmetically 6/10. Big Brain 16 Track Digital Sequencer, cosmetically 8/10. Percuter S - like the Percuter, but with no cartridges, but each channel has an individual pitch control with on/off switch. Packing at VEMIA: £6 - heavy, and always more difficult to pack three heavy things in one package safely."
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5866.

Roland TR-606 Drumatix - VEMIA

"AAT modified vintage analog drum machine very rare only 10 ever made. unique sound unit includes :- 18 tonal modifications 14 cv inputs 6 audio outputs KADI interface for midi triggering."
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5853.

Drumfire DF500 5 Channel Synth/Mix - VEMIA

"Interesting Japanese analogue drum box by a company that usually made effects. Boxed and in very good condition except for three things: 1.) the remains of masking tape over the tops of the first three channels; 2.) a very slight bend in one corner of the back panel; and 3.) the polystyrene packing material in the box has stuck to the mains lead in many places. Lots of control, and although some pots and sockets are a little noisy (probably from lack of use) overall it is in very good working condition. The box, by the way, says that drum contact pads were included originally. These are not included now, having vanished long ago."
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5795.

SIMMONS SDSV with Seven Modules - VEMIA

"Good to very good cosmetic condition, except that one module has all the little caps from the tops of the knos missing. Superb sounds, with each module having four selectable versions: a factory preset, two user presets set with a mini-screwdriver on the front panel, and one user sound completely tweakable in real time using the knobs on the module. Modules: 4x Tom Tom, 3x Snare (and there is a huge amount of variation possible in each of the sound types) - but **four modules aren't working** . Uses IEC lead. 110V (USA power)."
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5730.

Roland CSQ100 - VEMIA

"Nice old CSQ100. Very good cosmetic condition. I haven't used it as a sequencer for years but it makes a great complex envelope generator by writing in some changing control voltages and triggering it in 'one shot ' mode and adding a little portamento. Has the usual sturdy Roland build quality. Includes a PDF of the owner manual on CD."
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 6011.

SIMMONS SDS6 Mega-Sequencer - VEMIA

"In very nice cosmetic condition - just two knob caps missing on the back panel, and one obvious little scratch there too - BUT not working. Opening it up, it looks like there has been some major damage around the battery area. Some traces seem to have been wiped out. That leaves two boards out of three untouched by that, of course; and the MIDI interface is potentially very interesting. A powerful machine when working, and visually looks great too, with its matrix of lights, but you clearly need access to technical know-how to get it fixed. Please see the picture for further evidence of the damage around the battery - and also to see how nice it looks, and how much stuff the back panel contains, too. Packing will be £6."
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5718.

Synton Fenix - VEMIA

"This is one of the first 25 handbuilt Fenixes - serial number 16. The synth has some scratches at the sides of the case due to mounting in an SKB pop up case which is included with the synth. The front panel is fine. Some pots were a bit scratchy when the synth was checked, but this went away by turning them back and forth (the synth was not used for quite some time). You may be liable for VAT / duty / import tax if you buy this and have it imported into the EC or your own country, not Switzerland." VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 6007.

Synthesizers.com Custom Modular - VEMIA

"Custom Synthesizers.com modular. x1 CAB Custom made Cabs 15U x 8 .com panels across - The system comes with 1 front case lid, that has room enough to allow jacks to remain patched. x2 QDH20 DC Cable Harness. x1 QPS1 Power Supply x1 Q137 DC Power Interface x1 Q105 Slew Limiter x3 Q106 Oscillator - all have calibrated range mod Q106CRS x1 Q108 Amplifier x2 Q109 Envelope Generator - have been modified with timing switches x1 CSMULT Multiples custom 4 x 6 x 6 with switches to link sections x1 Q150 Transistor Ladder Filter x1 Q161 Oscillator Mixer for Q106 x1 Q960 Sequential Controller - With Q960RF Reset Feature x1 Q962 Sequential Switch x1 Q963 Trigger Bus"
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5976.

ETI 4600 - VEMIA

"ETI International 4600 Modular Synthesizer from 1975. Electronically it has been professionally assembled from kit form by the guys who later founded Fairlight (told to me by the previous owner). This ETI 4600 also contains a few Fairlight PCB's, so don't know if these guys were already involved in the synthesizer industry at that time. All parts are present and it does make sound and noises when you use the pin matrix board. Notice that this system does need a good service and calibration. List with what a ETI 4600 offers you: 4VCO's, Noise Generator PINK/WHITE, 5 Mixers, 2 Filters, Joystick, Keyboard Control, Keyboard, Equalizer, Reverb, Main Output, Headphone Output, 2 External Inputs, 2 Amplifiers, Controller, Envelope Control, 2 Transients, Pin Matrix 22 x 22. System comes with 220V power supply, original manual printed in 1975 with instructions on every module + schematics for each module and part list, and 11 pins. Note that this is a 33 year old modular system that needs a good service and maintaince. The wooden case has been completely rebuilt by myself and has been coloured in white oak. It looks a bit greenish/brown but it certainly gives the system a great old look as you would expect from an old system. The case has been built using the original manual and i did some modifications on the wooden case to make it more useful and give better possibilities to service/work on the system."
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5946.

Update via peterwendt in the comments:
"As for the Fairlight connection ... apparently, the 4600 was co-designed by Kim Ryrie, a co-founder of Fairlight, and Trevor Marshall, who had some provisional patents on the switched-resistor VCFs and on the sawtooth waveshaping in the VCOs. (He used variable-duty-cycle HF oscillators and CMOS switches to turn the resistor paths on and off in a VCF, thus varying the effective resistances and the cutoff frequency.)

Trevor's WWW page about it is here.

I've always been puzzled by the stories of the Fairlight involvement. Interviews gave the impression that this was their first attempt at a synthesizer before they went on to the CMI, but I don't remember them mentioning Trevor. I'm not saying that there was a controversy, but I just don't know who actually did what.

If I remember correctly, the 4600 construction articles started in ETi in Oct. 1973."

Update via peterwendt in the comments:
"Not wishing to spread undocumented hearsay, I did some research.

An article about the Fairlight CMI in Sound on Sound states that Ryrie designed the 4600 and founded the magazine, ETI (Electronics Today International) that published the construction articles.

That's where I read about the supposed Fairlight connection.

The actual construction articles are on Cloned Analog Gear as a large PDF file, here.

One of the intro/title pages specifically states:

"Designed in Australia by Barry Wilkinson and Trevor Marshall". Ryrie's name doesn't appear.

But the articles are just as I remember them. Sigh."

EMS Logik Synthesizer + ext. keyboard - VEMIA

"Selling my beloved EMS Rehberg Logik Synthesizer with external EMS Rehberg keyboard controller. The Logik Synthesizer is in excellent condition, has some very very small surface scratches from normal use over the years. The Logik Synthesizer has Serial No.51. Electronics are in the best condition you can find, like new to be honest. Description of what this Logik Synthesizer contains: VCO, VCF with Phaser Output, LFO, Noise Generator, Slow Ramp Generator, Envelope Shaper, External Input, Portamento, Ring Modulator, Inverter, Output Section. Possibility to add the external keyboard controller. Or an external sequencer. This Logik Synthesizer does have an internal keyboard with black and white knobs, computer look-a-like buttons that looks like a 'normal' keyboard, and can be played like a keyboard. The Logik is a monophonic synthesizer which requires patching using cables instead of the usual EMS pin-patching. Included is the original powersupply which is 18 Volts DC, cables to make patches on the synthesizer, manual on cd-rom in PDF, and connector cable between the Logik and external keyboard controller. EMS Rehberg external keyboard controller. Serial No.96. Keyboard can be used on the Logik Synthesizer, Synthi-E or Synthi A synthesizers. In very good good condition, has some wear of normal use over the years. Keyboard is monophonic."
VEMIA - Click on Auctions, Search, and search for 5943.