MATRIXSYNTH: Thursday, July 10, 2008

Thursday, July 10, 2008

klee 404

YouTube via D22D21. via Scott, via this electro-music.com thread.
"Beginning of the system. This one is Scott Stites E-M Klee sequencer and Thomas Henry XR VCO trough Yusynth Minimoog VCF clone. It all ends in TH VCA-1. Fun!"

UD-1 not quite done

flickr by Collin Mel
(click for more)

full size

Pixelh8 @ HAC, Ipswich Pulse Festival

YouTube via Hiddenfortress
"'The Master' performed by
Pixelh8 @ HAC, Ipswich Pulse Festival
Camera Tom Juby
Visualisations Martin Russ
Copyright Hidden Youth Records UK"

Roland TR-909 Customsynth.co.uk

more images here

CustomSynth

Bugs-galore - Weevils, TShirts, Raffles, Pics

BugBrand Newsletter:

"***
Weevil08s - new batch of 18 released today

A fresh batch of Weevil08s has just been added to the shop

Strike now if you want one in Red or Green. (a further batch will follow before too long)

***
TShirts
I've begun screen-printing my own shirts and they're now available from the shop in a few different colours.
Great if you live somewhere where it doesn't rain all the time (.....)

***
Workshop Oscillator Machines & Raffle
The two workshop events (Berlin and Lisbon) went really well with about 30 people, many of whom had zero electronics knowledge, successfully building their own machines.
I have now ordered a further batch of PCBs so that I can do more workshops and also offer kits for people - due around the end of the month!
(These new PCBs will have silk-screening on the boards to make part placement easier)

I've now made up the final few 1st-run boards and am offering four of them for sale (in case you don't want to make your own with the forthcoming kit).
These also have better dials on them - the standard kit just has little dials like on the PostcardWeevil, but these ones have nice dials as shown here:
http://www.bugbrand.co.uk/pages/sounddevices.htm#workshoposc
There are three MP3 sound examples too, showing some of the sonic possibilities.

Ok, but I only have four of these so we're going to do another raffle!
Email me back to say you want to enter and then on Monday (14th July) around midday (UK time) I'll pull four names out of a hat (a real hat, not a virtual one).
-> the price is £65 plus shipping (£3 UK, £4 Euro, £5 Worldwide) and I'll sort Paypal payment with the winners of the raffle.

Hope that makes sense?! Email me back if you've got questions..

***
Photos
I just started a BugBrand Flickr account and will be plopping things up there gradually - today, tomorrow, the next day, etc... http://flickr.com/photos/bugbrand
(at the moment there's just a couple of pics from the recent Portugal trip)

***
Other buildings
- there aren't any fixed plans as yet for AudioWeevils / BugCrushers / other things -- you'll hear by BugMail when other things are moving more.
Sorry for slowness...

***
***
That's it for now!
Best to all!
Tom"

Pictured:
Suitcase - Jul08
flickr by bugbrand
full size

Voice of Saturn Sequencer demo

Voice of Saturn Sequencer demo from Peter Speer on Vimeo.

"My VERY newly finished Voice of Saturn Sequencer kit, with a Moog Rogue and a couple of Frostwave pedals.

1.
S-Trig out to Rogue
CV Out to CV In on the Blue Ringer

2.
S-Trig out to Rogue
CV Out to Low Pass Cutoff Frequency In on The Resonator

3.
S-Trig out to Rogue
CV Out to High Pass Cutoff Frequency In on The Resonator

Head to theshamblers.blogspot.com for a review"

DX7 Logo Art

via liam

http://www.myspace.com/luchumusic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liamcloyd/

Oberheim Matrix-1000

images via this auction

GLEEMAN PENAPHONIC

images via this auction
"Here is an altra rare synthesizer from the early 1980's, the Gleeman, Black with a serial number 0055."

Oberheim 4 Voice Vintage Synthesizer Shell

images via this auction

Moog Micromoog

via this auction
"This is Moog Music's 'synthesizer for everyman. [The] design approach for the Micromoog was to use a minimal number of functional building blocks and to configure the instrument for the greatest amount of performer control over these blocks. The Micromoog consists of the basic necessities: one voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), one voltage controlled amplifier (VCA), two contour generators, and one sample and hold. The 'open system' inputs and outputs make this Micromoog a basic musical building block which can be expanded to meet the performer's growth.'----[from Micromoog Operation Manual ---by Tom Rhea]"

CLICK FOR MORE »

x0xb0x tb-303 clone

images via this auction

Me and my Beast

flickr by -shook-

full size
(check out the belt buckle)

"photography by T. Paassen"

www.myspace.com/shookshookshook
www.shookmusic.com

sn76477-based synthesizer (continued)

flickr by zeni666
(click for mouseovers)

full size

"Added the capacitors selectors, switches for the mixer and the envelope select logic, a switch for external/internal VCO and logic ICs for controlling LEDs of the envelop select logic."

Rhythm 8.0 Commercial

YouTube via rconlives

"Rhythm version 8.0 Free Homebrew Drum Machine Synthesizer for the PSP! http://www.psprhythm.com"

Severed Heads - ABC's Rock Arena - Part One.

YouTube via QRhuggies. via Waveformless. Spot the synths.

nemo sequencer TR-808 acidlab evolver

YouTube via pac209. follow-up to this post
"day 1 with the nemo sequencer www.genoqs.com"

5 DIY Panels by ericcoleridge

via ericcoleridge on this electro-music.com thread: "Following the tradition here of people posting pictures of their progress, I'm submitting a few pictures of my first 5 panels, not long ago delivered from Schaeffer. There are a lot of small problems, errors of mine, but all in all I'm very happy with the way they are coming along. I'm completely(?) done with 2 of the 5. I've assembled tons of circuit boards, many of them home made, alot of CGS stuff and others, that I'm now trying group into various modules. I'll probably attempt a dual 259-style VCO next. These panels are:
a Control Voltage Processor and Mixer (Fonik and CGS)
a Control Voltage 'Array' with Noise, Pulse, Mixer, S+H, Analog Shift Register (MFOS, CGS)
a Dual Band Pass Resonator, with mix (Fonik and CGS)
a Quad Low Pass Gate with Mixer (Fonik and CGS)
and a Quad Function Generator (Topp)"
see the thread for more.

Kurzweil K150

via this auction

"It features real time additive synthesis with 240 oscillators, 16 voice polyphony, upwards of 240 oscillators and extensive programmability. The K150 implements a unique editing method in which you mix, combine and alter the 150's 22 resident voices and 69 preset programs. You basically manipulate sounds on a harmonic level for creating various new timbres. With extensive layering effects and abilities you can get some thick and unique sounds. There's 186 patches for memory storage and you can get up to 255 when you remove the installed sound blocks or overwrite presets.

The Fourier Synthesis (FS) is an upgrade (included in this device) to the standard K150 which allows you to define new instrument models by editing their velocities and envelopes, tuning intervals and more further expanding creative and unique sound synthesis potential.

Everything is modifiable and controllable about this synth. Pitch bending, vibrato, EQ, chorusing, polyphonic after-pressure and full 16 channel MIDI implementation with almost everything being MIDI controllable.

You can have up to 3 keyboard regions with up to 7 layers for each region for all sorts of splits/stacks/velo switches and so on. For every layer you can select one of the low-level instrument models and then globally assign controllers, set up the very flexible pitch LFO, add chorus/delay effects (not via DSP but by stacking up voices) and apply timbre shifts.
I find the parameters offered quite nice and very "musical": e.g. the response to attack velocity and the timbre is nicely adjustable - even via MIDI CCs if you like. Together with a fader box and maybe an arsenal of pedals, switches, joysticks and wheels you can do what the terminology implies: adjust an instrument to the musical context or playing style. It is really a fun to play expressively.

The sound hardware uses a 16 bit DA converter at about 20 kHz. The rolloff of the anti aliasing filter is rather smooth but the instrument models may compensate for this. Main CPU is a 10MHz 68000.

The user interface is - well - usable. The one line display and the OS have their limits but after a few days you get everywhere with a few button pushes. What leaves most other synths way behind is that all parameters are in real units: semitones, cents, dB and Hertz. This adds up to the general impression that someone was really trying to do it right.

Polyphony - 16 voices
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oscillators - 240 osc! (sine and noise)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LFO - Yes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DCF - Yes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DCA - 256 stage envelopes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keyboard - None (rackmount)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory - 186 patches (up to 255)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Control - MIDI (16 parts)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date Produced - 1986"

My Chroma is not happy - Repairing a Rhodes Chroma

A thread recently came up on the Rhodes Chroma list regarding problems storing patches. Most synths have batteries that last for years, but eventually they run out and you have to replace them. The person on the list was pointed to this thread on the excellent Rhodes Chroma Site. It's an interesting thread that goes through a few problems on a particular Chroma. I noticed the standard Duracel batteries being used. I'm curious what others think of replacing batteries on synths with them. Is it safe or are you risking the battery linking over time? I'd imagine you'd noticed before there ever was a problem as the memory would be dead beforehand, however, if you don't play the synth for a while...

Updated JH Interpolating Scanner and Scanner Vibrato

via JH on AH:
"I hope it's ok when I post even another message about this project.
I've made an update of the web page, showing how to configure this PCB as an ordinary Interpolating Scanner, a Tracking Generator, a Waveshaper, and a hybrid of Scanner and Waveshaper. The latter produces sounds that are less static than are common in normal waveshapers. Here's a sound sample (first dry, then thru the Scanner/Waveshaper):

It's all explained on the web page, here.

I hope you like it. :)" follow-up to this post.

Roland SH-2 Monophonic Synthesizer External Input Demo

YouTube via zibbybone
"The SH-2 is not only a powerful dual oscillator monosynth, but an excellent signal processor. First I control the SH-2's sound from a red SH-101's keyboard and sequencer. Next, I run the audio output of a TR-626 drum machine through the SH-2's filter and modulate the filter cut off with the SH-2's enverlope follower. Lastly, I trigger the SH-2 filter with the 626's trigger out to the SH-2's Gate In."

Vermona DRM1 MkIII Sequenced

YouTube via bigcitymusic
"Here's the Vermona DRM1 MkIII sequenced with the Elektron Machinedrum. The DRM1 is an amazing analog drum synth which puts it in a class all of it's own. Dedicated knobs for each parameter make programming simple. The new kick channel sounds great!

http://www.bigcitymusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/bigcitymusicdo...
http://www.bigcitymusicblog.blogspot.com"