"Stephanie Holinka of Sandia National Laboratories tells Boing Boing,
'We are sad to report the death of former Sandia Labs Director Morgan Sparks. He's best known as the Bell Labs researcher who invented the first practical transistor. His work made possible so many other inventions. Without transistors, one cannot begin to imagine personal computers, cell phones, DVD players and the many other electronic devices we rely on daily. His contributions are pretty humbling to mere English majors like me.'"
YouTube via FalgorOne "disclaimer: (with the lyrics, you can sing karaoke! YEAH!)
Ok, first of all, don't take this *too* seriously, it's still just a synth ;). What is serious about this all, is the long waiting that many have gone through. And this song is dedicated to those people. What you are waiting *for* isn't so important in this case.
Long story short: Kurzweil PC3(x) was supposed to first be released on summer 2007, but things developed so the estimated release date was pushed back many times. In my opinion, when I _now_ think about it, it was a good thing. The synthesizer got greater in that time of delay.
However, it was delayed many times and many people waited (and some are still waiting, like me) for their pre-orders a long time. Anyhow, now it has been released and many people have got it. It sounds awesome, from what I have heard of the user demos, and it sure seems it has been worth the wait ^_^.
The wait was very long and personally my order was delayed many times (now 3 months waiting time), and on the last time I decided I'd DO something about it (instead of just complaining ;), so I started writing this song about the whole waiting process and everything. In about 2 weeks, after working on it a bit almost every day, I got it finished.
I sang the vocals during the night between 11pm and 8am (Sat-Sun). I'm now actually happy it was delayed, since I got to write this song, and I would've been distracted from some important work had I got it sooner. So, at the end of the day, I am thankful :). It's all right.
Enjoy my high and tender singing ;)! and be sure to check this baby out if you just can! I think you're gonna like what you hear ^_^!
YouTube via phonstein "The Super Bass Station is the successor of the legendary Novation Bass Station, which was used as MIDI keyboard in this recording, since the SBS was produced in rack format only.
I'm just playing around with some standard patches, because I'm thinking about selling the instrument - so please don't expect any synth wizardry. :)"
"The Polivoks synth is rare socialist moog like madness! The sound is fantastic rich and warm – 100% pure analog machine! It was made in period of 1982-1990 and sold in Russia (then USSR).
The Polyvox (Polivoks) is a duophonic analog synthesizer, with a 49-note (13F-E) keyboard. It features two VCOs, a noise generator, one LFO, a filter (low-pass and bandpass), and two ADSR envelope generators. VCO1 can be cross-modulated by VCO2. Each ADSR can be switched to auto-trigger, each with independent rates.The sound is quite rich and somewhat harsh and aggressive. This is more of a space-synth. You can be sure that you will have never heard the sounds this one can produce. It sounds like these old Yamaha CS-30's, but then fat filters like in Moogs. It is built like a rock, pure military technology, contacts will last forewer. The body is solid and the knobs feel nice. It runs on 220V AC. Polivoks (Polyvox) is the most popular vintage Russian synthesizer all over the world. It has inimitable peculiar sound and very powerful aggressive filters outperforming the famous Minimoog! A fat, lush and very analogue sound is achieved through instability and thanks to unique architecture of the Soviet-era components; in addition, highly reliable military technologies were applied in the process of production. The synthesizer may be used for hard electronic music, or for soft ambient/old school projects and for modelling various effects as well."
Worldwide will come. via Cnet where you will find the full article. An interesting side note is that the people behind the DS-10, AQ Interactive, brought us Hatsune Miku, the "Vocaloid2 girl." Hatsune Miki is an anime character that uses the Vocaloid engine - she will sing whatever text you enter. Image below for reference - I went with the work safe one.
"Korg DS-10 is approved by Korg (I don't know what "approved" means actually!), but will not be released from this firm. A Japanese game developer, AQ Interactive Inc. of Tokyo, will distribute DS-10. Actual development has been done by Korg and Cavia, Inc., another speciality game developer in Tokyo.
The original MS-10 (price 53,500 yen in 1978; US$300 then) was a monophonic, single oscillator job. DS-10 simulator works as two synthesizers (each of them, dual-oscillator affair), since Nintendo DS has dual-screen, upper and lower.
Adding to this two tracks (or two synthesizers), four tracks of drum machine sounds have been built-in. Altogether, DS-10 can be treated as six tracks, 16-step synthesizer/sequencer. Maximum, tune of 99 phrases long can be produced.
Three ways of note entry input: Touch-control screen, keyboard screen, and X-Y matrix screen. All three of them controlled by DS stylus."
YouTube via worldsfair. via Tara Busch of AnalogSuicide, where you'll find a post on a new Cure Tribute CD, Perfect as Cats. Tara will be doing a cover of "Let's Go To Bed." Hmm...
video description: "Roger O'Donnell will soon be releasing his debut solo album, "The Truth In Me", a beautiful and profound departure from his rock & roll pedigree with The Cure and Psychedelic Furs. Here, he sets up in a cottage near his home in the UK to video a brief performance, only to find himself in the company of some rather unexpected audience members... The cows from the farm next door can't help but wonder where those sweet space sounds are coming from - music soothes the savage beast. Hear , see and read more Roger O'Donnell at www.rogerodonnell.com and myspace.com/rogerodonnell"
YouTube via Synthomania "This is a song made for a norwegian celebration called "Russ". Vocals recorded at my studio, mixed at my studio. Im using mostly Korg Ms2000 in this song, with drums from my RX5,Mc307, DR100, and mc09. Pads by Juno2 and D-50."
"Checking some Everything Counts sounds played over an easy backtape (almost all played live). It sounds raw, as I didn't add any FX to the keyboards like reverb or delay.
Keyboards:
Top: E-MU Emax
Mid: Yamaha DX7 IIFD
(same setup on Music For The Masses Tour -the DX7II was boxed-)
YouTube via MysteryAardvark. via Synthtopia. "Record tunes on your iPhone or iPod Touch . For more information see- http://moocowmusic.com" You can get MooCowMusic Guitarist here: You can get MooCowMusic Pianist here: You can get MooCowMusic Band here:
"Rock Erickson -The first American called to Europe to play and record with Walter Mueller's Millioniser 2000. Harmonica like in principal giving the end user complete control over synthesizer and midi functions with the sensitivity of your own breath. This instrument is a one of a kind powerhouse. The video starts off by showing the functions of Millioniser 2000 and then merges into the on stage video which was shot in London. Rick Fenn of "Lie For A Lie" Sony Music was the music director and lead guitarist along with Charlie Barret from The FIXX on bass. The Millioniser Breath Controller units that I'm currently using in the studio are breathing new life (literally) thru their capability to dynamically control some of the most popular software and rack synths ( Garritan Personal Orchestra, Roland Sound Canvas, Yamaha VL70 ect ) and samplers like SampleTank & Tascam Giga Studio ) in both the mono and polyphonic arena. If you have comments or questions please post here or email"
"I'm not a musician, I'm a drummer (ha, beat you all to it), and as such I tend to instinctually think in measurements of time rather than notes, chords, scales, what-have-you. A lot of my modular programming is based on creating intricate time driven triggers that fire off in interesting patterns to make up what eventually spills out of the VCAs and into Logic. This piece of gear has made that endeavor much more playable (and in sync to boot!) letting me quickly try out different rhythmic mixtures and variations without a lot of re-setting and re-patching. Everyone will use a particular module or unit in their own way eventually, I'm not saying my way is the best, I'm only going to tell you how I've started using it myself and take from it what you will."
"Here is a collection of audio material including Fairlight demos, radio interviews and CMI pieces from the eighties. There are even a couple of recordings from the Fairlight CMI's predecessor, the Qasar M8, designed by Tony Furse. The M8 did not use sampling, the sounds were generated by additive Fourier synthesis."
YouTube via skrenos "This is the Prophet 64 cartridge running on a Commodore 64c with dual SIDs. SID1 is a 8580 and SID2 is a 6581R2. I have lowered the frame rate to 1 FPS as the audio is the most important part.
This is just to show you what kind of sounds you can get out of the Commodore 64 with the P64 program."
Spot the Synths (do not click the above link until you are ready for the answers) as...
"The inside of the case has an accompanying labeled line drawing of the photo ala the Herbie Hancock Sunlight album. It further breaks down specifically which synths are used on each song... as every synth pictured was utilized. Album is physically released on 4/29/08, and available on iTunes on 5/6/08."
This is actually a follow-up to the previous post. I took a look at the online virtual instruments on keyboardmuseum.org's (Audio Playground Synthesizer Museum) Virtual Playground and saw the Rheem Kee Bass. I hadn't played with it before, so I thought I'd take a look. What I was presented with is the image on the left with functional keys. The switches in the image do not work, however there is a switch above the image that lets you chose between Mellow and Fuzz mode. It should give you an idea of what the Rheem Kee Bass can sound like. Be sure to check out the rest of the Virtual Playground while there. You will find a ton of classic drum machines and more.
via Boing Boing
