MATRIXSYNTH: Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Mr. Dithers' Noise Box

YouTube via Analogger. Effects used in a modular nature.
"This is a noise improv I did featuring the EHX Tube Zipper & 16 Second Delay, Red Witch Fuzz God, Antenna 2 Copilot, and Pigtronix Phaser. I ran the signal into a Fender Deluxe 112 and recorded it with a Shure SM-57.

The Tube Zipper and Fuzz God are great distortion pedals but they also do wicked self-modulation. If you do too much self-modulation you will go blind, so I suggest just doing it until you need glasses. The Antenna is one of the strangest ring modulators out there. And I do mean "out there."

My projects will now go by the name "Mr. Dithers." I have just started a myspace page and hope to have tons of stuff on it once I figure out how to design a proper page. Its just very basic right now.

http://www.myspace.com/mrdithersnoisebox"

My Vocoder

YouTube via AnalogVocoder1. He's baaa-aaack... Where's Cowboy?
"My Roland SVC-350 Vocoder!!!! No rack-ears." And Korg Poly-800 as carrier.

Violin for iPhone

YouTube via hit9ent. I wonder if you have to hold it that way. Note the multi-touch chords.
"Violin lets you fiddle with 5 high quality notes for an easy user experience. Anyone can pick this up and create music. Switch from Legato, Pizzicato and Tremolo with a quick tap and use your finger like a bow. Sounds great with headphones, iPhone/iPod speakers or home theatre! We hope you enjoy it and if you have any feedback please visit our support page and we will try to reply as quickly as possible. *Violin Pro will come in the future.*"
You can get Violin here:

korg poly 61 for sale

YouTube via Gazdatronik
"Lots of video Lag-- for sale via craigslist, but some nice moments on the 61."

Roland SH-1000

images at this auction

ARP Solina String Ensemble

images at this auction

Moog Synthesizer circuit board c. 1975

via this auction

"circa 1975 Moog audio circuit board. picked up at an estate sale with other early 60's and 70's guitars and amps. Unknown condition (looks good but I have no way to power it up) and application (maybe for Moog 15, 35 or 55?, maybe a Minimoog or Polymoog??), inspection stickers from 1975 and 1976. Maybe one of you smart Moog guys/gals knows the application. Card size is 5 5/16" x 18"."

Admin: Google Ads Back

You know what that means. The election is over. Obama is our new president.

Sample and bird

KORG MS20 and Sun Conure

via Ken

Midi Atari 2600 playing intervals

YouTube via stikkasoundsystem
"Ableton Live sending random notes to Atari 2600 with SynthCart and Highly Liquid MIDI interface, patched through analogue filters"

KORG DS-10 - The Gremlin Rag

YouTube via starerik
"This was my first complete song using KORG DS-10. The software is pretty limited. You can only use 2 synths at a time, so it sounds very "empty". But still. I hope you like it. :)

It's "The Gremlin Rag" from the movie classic "Gremlins". Music composed by Jerry Goldsmith."

Heavens Basoon

YouTube via SynthFrode
"Heavens Basoon is one of my first melodies made with the Roland Juno 106 Synthesizer. I bought it in 1985 and it is still working and makes great sounds. The only additional "instrument" in this melody is the drum-machine from Korg "Super Drums DDM-110". This melody is made late in the year 2006."

Roland TR-707: Going Back In Time With Bill Holland

YouTube via gearwire
"Digging up a relic of yester-score, Bill Holland takes a look at the Roland TR-707, which is finally stepping out of the shadow of the Roland TR-909 for throwback eight and six bit drum samples, which are all the rage these days.

See the TR-707 at its campiest, complete with more cowbell and even more tambo. It'll be like that time Ben Stiller seized all my candy when I was a kid.

See more on Gearwire.com."

Alesis Andromeda A6 Demo

YouTube via noyzmakr
"Reinklang - Circulator. I believe the drums are from the D4...IIRC. The A6 is shipping again as of 10/2008, yay! Hands down the best polysynth ever. If you don't have one or sold one or several (like me) do yourself a favor and get it. It does creamy smooth analog really really good."

Oberheim OB-Xa Demo

YouTube via noyzmakr. remember, search on noyzmakr on the top left of the site for more.
"A real short example of the mighty OB-Xa with a bit of verb."

Beatbox Live for iPhone

YouTube via hit9ent
"Make awesome beats with the iPhone with Beatbox Live. The app comes with 6 wicked drum kits and 12 melodies to jam too."
You can get Beatbox here:

CME in Pink

"The CME U-Key Mobiletone keyboard, which is already available in White and Blue, it has ultra-slim, full-action semi-weighted keys with a built-in, 64-polyphony high-quality sound module, and an internal high-fidelity speaker driven by a digital amplifier. The CME U-Key comes with more than 20 user-defined controllers, including a joystick, trigger pads, an encoder for data entry, and pedals. All controllers are fully-programmable and each function can be easily set up and saved for later loading by pressing certain keys. USB powered and compatible with both Windows XP/Vista and Mac OSX, it's a great solution for composing on laptops." You can find more info on CME.

VST TAL-Vocoder

"TAL-Vocoder is a vintage vocoder emulation with 11 bands that emulates the sound of vocoders from the early 80’s. It includes analog modeled components in combination with digital algorithms such as the SFFT (Short-Time Fast Fourier Transform).
This vocoder does not make a direct convolution of the carrier and modulation signal as other digital vocoders maybe do. It includes an envelope follower for every of the eleven bands. This vocoder is optimized for voice processing and includes some algorithms for consonants to make the voice more intelligible.
The carrier signal is a VCO (Voltage Controlled Oscillator) with a Pulse, Saw, Noise and SubOsc. But it’s also possible to use the left stereo input as carrier. This way every sound source can be used as carrier signal. This plug-in supports every sample rate."

You can listen to a sample and download it for free on the TAL site. You might remember TAL from these prior posts on their Juno-60 and SH-101 emulations.

MIDI Optigan & Reaktigan Emulation Software Demo

YouTube via peahix. via optigan.com. video description:
"This is a demo of a project that's actually been kicking around for a few years, but is currently on the back-burner. But I figured it at least deserves a demo video. This is an Optigan (actually the first one I ever owned) that's been converted to a MIDI controller (aka the Midigan) for the purpose of controlling Optigan emulation software developed in Reaktor (aka the Reaktigan). Braden Diotte did the Optigan midi mod for me (using guts from an M-audio midi controller keyboard) and Patrick Keller wrote the Reaktor Optigan emulation.

Essentially, for live shows, I needed something more reliable and flexible than a real Optigan, but didn't want to give up the unique interface, so that's why this exists. The software is still a work in progress. You can load any sounds you want into it, as demonstrated in the video. Sorry for the audio quality- I tried to sync up a direct recording of the audio with the audio from the video camera, but it didn't really work out, so I just stuck with the audio from the video camera. I could have just re-shot the whole video but I was lazy so there ya go.

At some point we plan to make this software available (probably converted to a stand-alone app) as well as basic instructions for making a midi controller out of an Optigan (hopefully a dead one!). Stay tuned..."

New Fairlight?

via Failed Muso who spotted this note from Peter Vogel on the Fairlight Yahoo Group:

"here have been discussions from time to time about replicating the CMI using a software emulation. These efforts will have limited success because the "Fairlight sound" relies on the peculiarities of the hardware used in the original design.

In the days when I was the designing CMI hardware, my greatest challenge was to minimise the distortions and artifacts that were inherent aspects of the hardware available at that time. In effect, we struggled to make the Fairlight sound less "Fairlight". So the intimate details of what makes a Fairlight sound like a Fairlight are indelibly etched in my brain.

When Fairlight brought out the Crystal Core Engine last year, my imagination ran wild. Here was a tiny board with enormous capabilities that could be configured to faithfully reproduce the CMI hardware in its FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). Every bit of the 1980's CMI hardware, the essence of its sound, could be reconstructed faithfully in digital hardware form.

To fully appreciate the astounding potential of the CC-1, download the brochure here:

CC-1 Brochure

I also recently discovered that ALL the IP relating to the original Fairlight CMI including all of the hardware and filter designs, sample libraries etc are still retained by Fairlight.au in Sydney.

So I have been wondering if it would be worthwhile to develop a faithful reproduction of the CMI on the "Virtual Hardware" of the CC-1?

This would perform identically to the original CMI series II or III, but run on a PC fitted with the Crystal Core card. The MIDI input would come directly into the CC-1 so there would be no problem of latency introduced by the PC.

At this stage I'd like to "feel out" the market to assess the level of interest in this project and whether the significant investment in R&D will be worthwhile.

The Fairlight Series IV (CC-1, I/O box and software) might be sold for approximately $US5,000.00.

So my question is, what do you think of this idea? How would a Fairlight CMI at this sort of price be received by the market? Who would the buyers be and how would I tap into them?

What do you think?

Peter Vogel"

You'll find some more notes on Failed Muso.

The Dears and The Secret Machines on Amateur Chemist

via Amateur Chemist where you will find more shots and notes on the show.

Top shot:
Keyboardist for the opening band, The Bathroom Murders

Bottom shot:
Two keyboardists for The Dears

Plan B Model 31 Buffered Mult Released

"We are pleased to announce that the first delivery in a 25 piece "hot or not???' initial order of Model 31 Buffered Mults will be at Noisebug by day's end. The 22nd released product in the Plan B line, the M31 is the first utilizing our new (NON-Cliff) jacks and offers significant patching option and functional improvements over other Multiple in the Euro Rack format.

For more info including price and current draw, go here"

Buchla ring mod riff

Buchla ring mod riff from Joe Pascarell on Vimeo.
"a variation of the filter mod patch. all audio from the 200e but going through the 111 ring modulator. the 123 is choosing pitches of the 261 principle and mod. oscs."

A Little Melody

A Little Melody from Joe Pascarell on Vimeo.
"more buchla/genoqs ... a simple little melody ..."

syndrome wpw

"I've made a synth page that lists the gears used in my brand new album with some pictures. You'll see a doepfer modular system, a DSI prophet 08 and Mopho, a Korg MS-20 and some other stuffs. 3 of the tracks can be listened on myspace. Those 3 tracks were mainly made with doepfer A-100 modules and DSI prophet 08: myspace.com/syndromewpw.
Here is the link"

Do check out the myspace page as well for some trippin' hoppin' music. The first track, The Vivian Girls has the classic Fairlight Orchestral Hit in it.

The Quadatrix Vertical Sequencer demo #1 of many

YouTube via dolphinicus
"The Vertical sequencer has been added the the Semitone set"

Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer

YouTube via retrosound72

"vintage gear demo by RetroSound

The queen of all drum machines...
Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer from 1981

This demo vid shows the drum instruments and the various functions of TR-808.

You must have very good bass loudspeakers or a subwoofer to hear the deep frequences."

Japan - Cantonese Boy/Ghosts LIVE @ OGWT 1982

YouTube via CircusOfHeaven. Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, Oberheim OB-x, Roland System 700
"with sir Sakamoto on keyboards! beautiful performance, beautiful David. Japan is love, spread it all around!"

Analog Synthesizer Builders' Summit 2008 in Tokyo

via Gan on the SDIY list:
"We had 8th "Analog Synthesizer Builders' Summit" on 2 Nov in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan. The meeting is annually held to show synth builders' makings and to exchange technical information. About 30 people attended this year. A lot of interesting things were there, such as very unique synth controller, SF-taste noise machine based on Gakken SX-150 synth, Moog modular clone, hand-made FM module programmed from scratch, PC builtin keyboard (or keyboard builtin PC), very small MIDI-CV, mechanical rhythm machine, etc.

You can see the meeting report over the net. Check following if interested:
http://analog-synth.jp/summit08/e_index.html
http://gaje.jp/2008/11/04/613/
http://mtomisan.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

Enjoy,
---
Gan
http://gaje.jp"

Oberheim DS 2a Sequencer

via this auction

The description is in German. Here it is Google translated unedited:
"He was the successor of the DS2 and has doppeltsoviel memory as its predecessor.
Year built this sequencer is about 1979. You can save 3 songs and each sequence on a trans Drrehregler Poznan and the pace of change.
On the back are Gate A CV - and outputs for Oberheim synthesizers as the 4 voice modules or SEM, Arps, such as the Odyssey and Moog (Modular Systems) and Minimoog.

To Roland (for example, a SH 101 or MC 202) to be able to control, you need a converter for Roland CV GATE norm.

Was used this sequencer, for example, by Peter Gabriel."

Novation XL Limited Edition

via sequencer.de

"Special Design, same features. 999 made. Works fine and perfect with Ableton Live."

green on black

Encyclopedia of Electronic Music

via Aliens Project:
"Bernd-Michael Land (b. 1954) aka Aliens Project started making music in late 1960’s, first on one of the early transistor organs and then switching to synthesizers while playing in various Rock bands. Parallel to that, he also started his solo career that saw him building his studio piece by piece, adding some sophisticated modular synthesizers to his setup. Since then he has released several cassettes and CD’s, worked for sample libraries (among them “Bad Samples”, “Australian Collection”, “Bionics” and Toy of the Month” series) and collaborated with several artists, including Coco of Programmierte Welten. Behind the Blue Room is his latest effort containing 16 tracks. It starts with “Battlefield of Thronos”."

Ursula Bogner

"It seems almost incredible that Ursula Bogner’s musical talents should have remained undiscovered until now. Yet in view of her biography, this might have been just as inevitable.
It was on a flight to Vilnius that I met Sebastian Bogner, Ursula’s son, who told me he was on a business trip for a pharmaceutical company. The usual small talk soon led to the topic of his mother Ursula, who also ‘liked to play around with synthesizers’, albeit purely on an amateur level and in a dedicated music room fitted especially for this purpose in the parental home. Among her acquaintances, it was simply considered one of her many eccentric hobbies and not paid a great deal of interest. At a cursory glance, Ursula Bogner’s life seemed simple and bourgeois to the core: a pharmacist, wife and mother, firmly ensconced in a detached house. A setup that made her obsession with electronic music all the more bizarre, an obsession that drove her to build her own studio for extensive recording and experimentation."

Read the full story on Faitiche and be sure to check out the samples. Really great stuff. Fascinating story that makes you wonder how many others were out there. I wish we knew what synths she used. via floppy.

It's Election Day in the USA!!!

Yeah baby! GO VOTE!!! I'll leave you with this one as inspiration. Keytars and boobs.
Only in the good old USA. :) See MATRIXSYNTH is balanced! Yes to Proposition B8B!

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

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