MATRIXSYNTH: Sunday, June 1, 2008

Latronic Notron Mk1 MIDI Step Sequencer

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

"Here is the INSANELY rare [gold color] Latronic Notron Mk1 MIDI Step Sequencer. This is a truly fantastic piece of equipment that holds a unique place in the serious electronic musician arsenal. Much more than a standard MIDI controller or software sequencer, this is a living instrument that can be found in the recordings and live set-ups of such luminaries as Bjork, The Orb, Goldie, Claude Young, Paula Temple, etc. It is a certified Techno, D&B, Electronica classic.

This is the original, ultra-rare version 1. There are only about 100 of these in existence, many in the hands of famous musicians. Despite being produced int he late 90's there are still unique features on this sequencer not found anywhere else (not even on the Genoqs Octopus or the Sequentix P3). My favorites are the cumulative transpose and supersteps."

"The Notron is a British-designed MIDI step sequencer used by Björk, Howie B etc. Produced in two models, the Mark 1 was available between 1996 and May 1998. The Mark 2 was a slim blue box produced until about 2001. About 100 Mark 1 units were sold and a similar number of Mark 2s. The Notron is no longer produced.
It was developed by Gerard Campbell and the software was written by Dave Spowage of Concourse Systems (UK). It was sold under the company name Latronic. In 1999 it won a Millennium Award from the Design Council and was exhibited at the Millennium Dome during 2000. For some time the Notron was on display in the London Science Museum.

In the words of Paul Nagle from his Sound On Sound (June 1997) review: 'Is it a hi-tech bathroom scale? Is it a 21st-century computer game? Is it Darth Vader's toilet seat? No, it's an innovative LED-laden MIDI step sequencer, with the power to wring new life from your old synths'."

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Modular Synthesizer... simulated polyphony

YouTube via mooguphonic
"Simulating polyphony on a monophonic modular synth by using a multitimbral patch, using two waveforms tuned at intervals."

Antkowiak vs the Crumar Roadrunner 2

YouTube via RothHandle
"Today I did some more recordings for the Kryz Antkowiak album and I had the wonderful and super talented Cecilia Linné come by and record some Cello on some of the Tracks.

The last song she recorded on was song number 10 and after she left I started working on a small solo section and then my mind started wandering...So it turned into a presentation of the Crumar Roadrunner 2.

This film was shot at roth händle studios et.c et.c

www.roth-handle.nu"
If you are interested in the track discussed in this video, here's the follow-up:

Walkthrough of Kryz Antkowiak 10

Moog MULTIMOOG Checkout by Mike the Teacher

YouTube via MikeTheTeacher
"Mike checks out a rare Moog Multimoog synthesizer; 01 June 2008. Mike has almost no idea what does what except for the basics, and is seeing what changes what."

KORG KEIO MINIPOPS 5 RHYTHM MACHINE

YouTube via AnalogAudio1
"shows the Mini Pops 5 rhythm machine in action"

Analog Lab Vocoder X32 Prototype

video upload by wetdragoon

"The first serial number of Analog-Lab Vocoder X-32, 'Pre-serie' exemplar. demo by Jean-Loup Dierstein, the famous french tech. Very short video took in 2002-2003, lost in my archives since, and found today ;) just for historical purpose!"

Knob tweaking an Oberheim Matrix6r

YouTube via aredj
"Not so much a sound demo rather than a Doepfer Drehbank demo, just aimlessly turning knobs set to common parameters on the Matrix... Put in use it makes programming this synth a joy rather than a chore. No matrix mods used except for mod wheel opening and closing the filter."

Redsound Darkstar XP-2

images via this auction

Roland SH-2

images via this auction

Inside the V-Synth, part 2

You can find the full post on Sequence 15

"The COSM Filters
The 'COSM' acronym is a Roland trademark which stands for Composite Object Sound Modeling. Basically, it's a set of software algorithms that implement all of the familiar analog filter types (high pass, low pass, bandpass, and notch), as well as a number of more complex types, physically modeled resonators and some other algorithms that either aren't actually filters or do things other than just filtering (such as compressors and guitar amp simulators)."

follow-up to this post

MonoMiK EMS VCF test

YouTube via MusicMiK. You can find more previously posted here.
"The next filter is completely developed now, it's an EMS-style diode ladder filter.
A lot of the circuitry surrounding the filter core is the same as on the transistor ladder filter, just some levels are a bit different and the resonance control works completely different."

EML Electrocomp 500

via this auction

SYNTH

Cool red Corvette with SYNTH license plate.

via Dave

BTW, if you know of other synth license plates, feel free to comment. Dave Wilson of the New England Synthesizer Museum has one with SYNTHE. You can see it in this post sitting on top of the ARP 2500. And then there's Mike Walters' POLYMOOG plates.