Ableton Live 10 Announced with New Wavetable Synth, Echo, Drum Bass, and Pedal Devices

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Ableton

"Live 10 introduces four bold devices, new features and improvements that keep you in the flow, and an expanded sound library. Plus, a built-in Max for Live, extended Push features and much more."

Playlist:
Ableton Live 10: What's New
Ableton Live 10: Capture
Ableton Live 10: New Device Visualisations on Push
Ableton Live 10: New MIDI Clip Editing on Push
Ableton Live 10: New Step Sequencer on Push
Ableton Live 10: Workflow Improvements
Ableton Live 10: Wavetable
Ableton Live 10: New Audio Effects

Also see: Ableton LIVE 10 First Look at We Are Robots London

And an overview of the new Wavetable synth by AfroDJMac:

Wavetable Ableton Live 10 Tutorial and Walkthrough

Published on Nov 2, 2017 AfroDJMac USA

"Wavetable is Ableton Live 10's new wavetable synthesizer. It's incredibly powerful and deep. In this video I show you the ins and outs of how everything works, as well as Wavetable's spectacular Push 2 integration."

And a brief description on each new device via Ableton, where you can find some interactive pics with additional details:

"Create with new devices

Meet Wavetable, Echo, Drum Buss and Pedal: new devices that mean colorful new sounds are possible with Live’s instruments and effects.

Wavetable

Immediately playable, infinitely capable, Wavetable is a new synthesizer built by Ableton. Shape, stretch and morph sounds using wavetables derived from analog synths, and a range of other instruments and sounds. Start sculpting sounds right away—even without a deep knowledge of synthesis—or explore its rich palette and potential through an intuitive interface.

Echo

Echo brings together the sound of classic analog and digital hardware delays in a single device—your new go-to delay. Drive and shape sounds with its analog-modeled filters, turn up the noise and wobble for vintage imperfections, or add modulation and reverb to create diffuse soundscapes, wailing feedback and more.

Drum Buss

Drum Buss is a one-stop workstation for drums, capable of adding subtle character or bending and breaking drums to your will. Add warmth and distortion with drive and crunch, take control of dynamics with compression and transient shaping, dial in and tune boom and control bass decay with the dedicated low end section.

Pedal

With separate circuit-level models of overdrive, distortion and fuzz guitar pedals, Pedal brings the character of analog stomp boxes to Live. The effect goes all the way from subtle to reckless—it excels at warming up vocals and other instruments, driving synth sounds or completely smashing drums. And of course, it sounds great with guitars."

Cwejman S1 Mk2 Semi-Modular Analogue Synthesizer

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via this auction

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Concert Featuring Nonlinear Labs C15

The C15 in Concert - Tim Sund Quartet from Nonlinear Labs on Vimeo.

"In October 2017 the Berlin-based keyboardist and composer Tim Sund introduced the C15 to the concert stage by playing a complete show solely on two C15s. We recorded and filmed the concert with his inspired and expressive band at Kunstfabrik Schlot in Berlin."

Update: re-published 11/29/2017

iOptigan - Optigan for iPad & iPhone - Demo Song - midori2tree - Optiganally Yours

Published on Nov 2, 2017 optigandotcom

iTunes: iOptigan - Stefan Stenzel

"Pea Hicks of optigan.com and Stefan Stenzel of Waldorf present... iOptigan!

Now available in the iOS app store!

PLEASE NOTE: if you're listening to this demo on a mobile device, you may have trouble hearing the keyboard part in the right channel, due to a YouTube quirk. For best results, please listen on a regular PC.

This is a demo of iOptigan running on an iPad Air. The music is "midori2tree" by Optiganally Yours, which is an old song that appeared on various compilation albums. The disc used is "Rollin' Easy.""

Exploring Apps 02 // Ribbons : Expressive Electronic Instrument

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Computing.Sound

"Exploring the 'Ribbons' iOS iPad app by Olympia Noise Co..
Here I'm using the apps internal sound engine, but it also can send MIDI."

via iTunes: Ribbons : Expressive Electronic Instrument - Olympia Noise Co.

Note Ribbons has been out for some time now, but I do not think I've featured it here on MATRIXSYNTH before now. The following are some screenshots and details captured for the archives.

"Ribbons is an extraordinarily fun and expressive musical instrument for iPad.

Inspired by early electronic instruments such as the Ondes Martenot and the Theremin, Ribbons (formerly "Ondes") emulates the fluid playing style of those classic instruments with an interface and synthesis engine firmly grounded in the present day.

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Rare Roland MPU-500 Sequencer

If anyone knows more about the Roland MPU-500, let us know. This is the first post to feature one.

It was spotted by Riva Lima on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge Facebook Group. I ran a quick Google search and I couldn't find much info, but I did find a car cigarette style adapter for it on Amazon! You know, for the one person out there that wants to use it in their car. They also have a standard replacement adapter for it. The adapters are actually from MyVolts who make chained power supplies for the Korg Volcas and Roland Boutiques.

There is no manual for the MPU-500 on Roland's manual archive, but I did find the following references:

"MRD-500 RHYTHM BANK - S-MRC (PC ONLY)
This is the Roland MRD-500 Rhythm Bank software. This file contains many rhythm patterns for the MC-50/MC-50mkII or MC-500mkII MicroComposer. Use the PKUNZIP program to uncompress this file to a floppy disk."

MRM-500 SMF CONVERTER (PC - 57K)
"This SDISK file is the MRM-500 Standard MIDI File converter for the MC-500 and MC-50. This SDISK file is the S-550 Library Converter for the S-50 sampler."

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Buchla and Serge

Published on Nov 2, 2017 verstaerker

"the easel plays the bg-bassline and the serge the lead and grungy sound sequence
utilizing the wavemultplier and resonant eq

both are sequenced by the powerful squarp pyramid"

Axoloti & Bass Station 2 on the hill tops #5

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Matthew Tyas

"An improvised session, using a Novation Bass Station going into an Axoloti DIY Synth used as a 4 track Looper, reverb and delay. Recorded live in Gan, on the dreamy tops."

Quad Gate Delay (Malekko) - Overview Video

Published on Nov 2, 2017 DRD_Tutorials

"This video provides an overview to the Quad Gate Delay module by Malekko Heavy Industry.

Visit Malekko's webpage, www.malekkoheavyindustry.com, for more information on their module, or checkout my channel for more videos covering other awesome things!

Enjoy!
- Dan"

How to Connect MIDI Devices Over 1km Apart

via EurekaSound:

"EurekaSound releases MIDIMizer-Long Range

MIDI communications over a kilometer away!

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 2nd, 2017 - EurekaSound LLC is proud to announce MIDIMizer-Long Range, that allows musicians to cable together MIDI gear at distances of over one kilometer away.

The MIDIMizer-Long Range system consists of two boxes with the following features:
two MIDI In ports
two MIDI Out ports
one RJ45 port for the long distance Cat5 cable
one micro-B USB port for power
The wiring diagram below shows how to connect the system:

"MIDIMizer-Long Range solves the problem of connecting MIDI gear from stage to mixing board at the back of the hall, or even between buildings" said Dave Graham, co-founder of EurekaSound.

About EurekaSound
Incorporated in 2009, EurekaSound LLC creates unique and custom gear for musicians. For more information, please visit www.eurekasound.com."

AVP MAD-5 drum synth jam

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Single Use

"Jam session demoing the AVP MAD-5 analog drum synthesizer. The MAD-5 is going straight to my mixer with no effects applied. The synth has 5 drums: kick, snare, open hi-hat, closed hi-hat and clap. It rocks.

The bass is from a Pittsburgh SV-1 Blackbox with a small amount of Reon Driftbox in there too.

Recorded on my Nexus 5.

Cheers"

MIKE303 'MusicMachine' Prophet 5 Vp330 Matrix 6 Dmx Msq 700

Published on Nov 2, 2017 AnalogSynthMuseum

Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 : Bass
Oberheim Matrix 6 : Lead & Strings
Oberheim DMX: Drum Machine
Roland Vocoder VP330 MKII : Chorus Vocal & Strings & Vocoder
Roland Sequencer MSQ-700
Electro Harmonix Small Stone Phazer (1974)

Recorded live no over dub, no blue light , no synth plugins !!!!

Understanding Sound Design on the Volca FM - Episode 5: Algorithms

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Oscillator Sink

"Here's the fifth episode in the series where we explore sound design and patch creation on the Korg Volca FM. In this episode we discuss the Algorithms and distil out the 3 core concepts that help you understand which algorithm to pick!"

All parts here.

Roland Boutique Morning Jam- SH-01A and SE-02 polysynth and mono synth

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Expanding Sound

"Just having a little fun as I woke up this morning with the Roland boutique series. They are quite a blast. I used the Roland SE-02 and SH-01A. I made the SE-02 just a touch out of tune as I liked the way it vibes with the SH-01A. Thanks for watching, hope you enjoyed!"

Roland Discontinues the Jupiter-80 and Jupiter-50 Ahead of NAMM 2018

Not sure when this happened, but it appears the Roland Jupiter-80 and Jupiter-50 have been discontinued. Atomic Shadow wrote in to let me know he noticed that they were missing from Roland's current product line-up. I did a quick search, and sure enough I found the old pages with them listed as discontinued, as you can see in the images to the left. You can find the pages here: Jupiter-80 | Jupiter-50. It's worth noting the rackmount Integra-7 has not been discontinued.

The news makes me wonder what Roland might be introducing at NAMM this year. Roland isn't big on mkII models, so I would expect something relatively new to cover the space they left, if anything at all. It will be interesting to see what they follow up with.

Tony Horgan - "Airship Trip" live

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Tony Horgan

"An original track played live on a Roland TR8, 2 Cyclone Analogic TT-303 Bass Bots and a Korg Volca FM. This track started as an experiment in 12/8 time signature."

Smokey Quartz - Wretch Jam #11

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Smokey Quartz

"The Metasonix S-1000 howls and growls during this Halloween noise improvisation. Reverb provided by the Metasonix vacuum tube spring reverb module, R-56. The Knas Ekdahl Polygamist is possessing the Wretch, controlling it with pulse and gate signals."

DSP Synthesizers USB-MIDI2CV - Pre Black Friday Sale

via DSP Synthesizers

"To promote the USB-MIDI2CV there are 20 USB-MIDI2CV interfaces available at a 25% reduced sale price.

Until Nov 25th there are 10 each USB-MIDI2CV and plus available.

So the USB-MIDI2CV is $29 and the USB-MIDI2CVplus is $49 including shipping.

The Pre Black Friday Sale is available here.

Move fast because these will be gone by Black Friday 24th.

Cheers
/Jan"

Ancient Explorations | Ambient Music Synth Eurorack

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Chris Otchy

"This patch was created using the monome grid and kria app to sequence a series of oscillators.

One channel was routed through Shifty to spread the sequence across an Intellijel Dixie 2 and a Mutable tides in VCO mode. Another channel sequenced Rings at a 1/2 speed rate."

Depuratumba - Brisa (Octatrack + Shruthi-1 + iPad)

Published on Nov 1, 2017 Guido Flichman

gear used:
Octatrack
Korg NanoKontrol (via USB-MIDI Host)
Shruthi-1
iPad running DRC app

some compression / eq in Ableton Live

Depuratumba - Fugue (Octatrack + Shruthi-1 + iPad)

Published on Oct 30, 2017 Guido Flichman

gear used:
Octatrack
Korg NanoKontrol (via USB-MIDI Host)
Shruthi-1
iPad running Mood app

some compression / eq in Ableton Live

---

Spotted on discchord.

MOOG Memorymoog Plus Keyboard Synthesizer with rare ABD midi upgrade SN 3468

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

via this auction

Posting this one for mention of the ABD MIDI upgrade. I haven't heard of it before. If anyone has any info on it, feel free to let us know.

From the listing:

"Vintage memory moog plus with rare ABD midi expan.
-Second only to LAMM modification
-unit fair working condition
-kept in smoke free studio environment for last 20 years
-ABD midi expan provides full midi implementation, upgraded from original midi implementation.
-wood paneling in good condition, overall cosmetics good.
-stable power supply.
-keys work.
-two known issues: loose connector likely causing a few buttons on keypad to not work.
Oscillator 3 not working on 2 voice cards.
Sold as is @ reduced price."

Not at that price!

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Macbeth Studio Systems Micromac-D

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Chroma Polaris - Vintage Analog Polyphonic Synthesizer

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ROLAND 1979 PROMARS MRS-2 Analog Keyboard synthesizer

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Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 Keyboard Synthesizer w/ Case

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SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS PROPHET 5 REV 3 WITH MIDI SN 4438

via this auction

"THIS PROHET 5 IS IN PERFECT CONDITION, NO HUM , NO SCRATCHY POT , NO DEAD VOICE, NO PROBLEMS AT ALL WITH MEMORY BACK UP. IT WAS SERVICED BY THE WINE COUNTRY A FEW YEARS AGO AND THEY ALSO UPGRADED FIRMWARE AND INSTALLED A IEEC POWER SOCKET"

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OB-Sx Voice Cards

This one came in on the AH list from Tony of Oakley Sound. The AH list is archived and public so I thought I would capture it here in the MATRIXSYNTH archives as well, and of course to share it for anyone not on AH that might be interested.

"A long somewhat geeky post...

Oberheim had a history of creating vast numbers of 'engineering change orders' (ECO). Essentially changing their designs during the lifetime of the product, ECOs are notes for official modifications done by the factory during manufacture or authorised repair technicians in the field. ECOs are useful tools to allow the manufacturers to improve on their original design, perhaps because of updated specifications, new found parts or deal with component obsolescence. However, quite often they are used to fix things that should have done properly in the first place.

There must have been many ECOs regarding the Oberheim OB-Sx but not all of them are available online. I have an original service manual but the ones in there are the same as these:

http://www.synthfool.com/docs/Oberheim/ECOS/OBSX/

In addition to these this is what I've found out about the voice cards on the OB-Sx.

1. There are at least two types of voice card. The primary difference appears to be the addition of a -15V supply. This requires a different voice motherboard as the power is now admitted via a 5 way connection and not the original 4 way one. The -15V seems to power only the post VCA op-amp. I've not come across any clipping issues in the post VCA amplifier in early cards so I'm not sure what the reason is.

I think newer cards can be used in OB-Sx units with older motherboards simply by linking the two outermost pins of the 5-way connector that takes the power onto the card. Any new card will then behave as an older one.

2. The early voice card was originally designed to use the CEM3340's linear FM input for the 'cross mod' feature. All the older voice cards I have seen have a mod whereby one of the tracks is cut and a bit of wire added to link the cross mod path to the exponential FM input. This was corrected on the newer boards with a different track layout so the modification is not required.

3. All the early voice cards I have seen have an additional 100pF ceramic capacitor mounted across one of the two diodes in the feedback path of the VCF. The capacitor was added to the board layout in the later version of the card.

4. All of the early voice cards I have seen also have an additional 330pF ceramic capacitor connecting pin 11 of the CEM3320 to 0V. This appears to make the unused and externally unconnected gain cell in the 3320 behave the same as other two in the SVF. Why I'm not sure but it could be to prevent the unused cell from oscillating and bleeding through into the audio. The 3340's datasheet seems to be happy leaving it off. This additional capacitor was added to the board layout in the later version of the card.

5. I have seen one early version of the card, dated August 1982, where another modification is added to the underside of the board. This connects pin 8 of the CEM3320 to 0V with a 1nF ceramic capacitor. This does not seem to have been applied to the second version of the card so it is possibly fixing a problem only detected after the second voice card was designed, or perhaps it only affects the early cards. It is probably a problem caused by the physical layout of the PCB.

On preset B1 and with the cut off set to full the problem can be clearly heard, but it is present on other sounds too. At high cut-off frequencies and at low resonance the CEM3320 in the OB-Sx oscillates in nasty way and creates a unpleasant roughness to the sound. Adding the 1nF capacitor prevents the unwanted oscillation. However, I have found that one needs only 56pF to work rather than the 1nF Oberheim used. Adding this capacitor does have a slight knock on affect on the sound even when the filter is not unpleasantly oscillating - it now sounds slightly more polite. The pros outweigh any of the cons in my opinion.

What is interesting is that the same filter circuit is used in the OB-Xa and no such capacitor is required. I guess then that it is PCB layout and not the circuit itself that is misbehaving. It may also be dependant on the batch of CEM3320 used.

6. Later versions of the early card and all the later cards I have seen have another possible layout correction. The tracks going to the 470R/10nF series combination on the CEM3340's linear FM input on each VCO have been cut. A clumsy bodge on the top side of the board then recreates the required series combination but this time physically closer to pin 13 of the CEM3340. I can only guess that this problem was found only after the later card was designed as it is not corrected there. That the mod appears on both many early and all later versions of the voice card means that Oberheim were clearly producing both cards at the same time.

7. The later version of the voice card has an extra trimmer used to set the maximum resonance of the filter. On the older board trimming is set by swapping out resistors.

Tony

www.oakleysound.com"

Somewhere Over The Arp Pro Soloist Synthesizer Rainbow

Published on Nov 1, 2017 Big Blob Blue Boopie

"I debuted this during a 6 week stint at the Blobstar Theater in the Lower Blob Quadrant on the planet Blobstar years ago. It was a crowd favorite then and still is to this day. I was a little rusty at first but soon found my groove."

Close Encounters Of The Arp Pro Soloist Synthesizer

Published on Nov 1, 2017

"I learned this tune while stationed on the Planet Blobstar, it is a huge hit there."

These remind me of the early days of the site when YouTube just launched. I should have a Throwback Thursdays meme. We'll see what comes in. What goes up is what comes in.

Arturia announces the KeyLab 88 & MiniLab MkII Black Edition

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Arturia

"From the smallest project studio to the biggest stages in the world, Arturia's Black Edition controller keyboards put all the power at your fingertips, so you spend more time playing and experimenting, and less time looking at your computer screen. KeyLab 88 and MiniLab MkII are now available in black, but only for a limited time."

Excerpt from Ritchie's Halloween Themed Radio Performance 10-28-2017

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Ritchie DeCarlo

Crockett's Theme.

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Barry Smethurst

"Crockett's Theme. Modular, TR09, Mopho, Groovesizer TB2, MB33

@Aptamusic"

Elektron Digitakt: First Impressions

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Todd Smith Music

"This video jumps into my first Impressions of the Elektron Digitakt. I’ve had this machine for a bit, longer than most machines before doing a first Impression. I wanted to get a good grasp of the machine before speaking out on it.

I’ve already done a few Elektron Digitakt based jams. I plan to do more jams and tutorials in the future. Keep a ear out.

Visit Patreon and grab some of my free samples and presets for various hardware and iOS synthesizers. Subscribe today and stay up to date with all my latest videos !"

Digitakts on Amazon | Digitakts on eBay

PEANUTS — 25 (Pyramid studio session #2)

Published on Nov 2, 2017 Squarp Instruments

"Music performed by Peanuts
Video directed by Peanuts"

EXP-1 amazing features - building a Techno track

Published on Nov 1, 2017 Fingersonic

"Enjoy our last techno track made with the fantastic EXP-1 synthesizer. Made in Italy
http://www.fingersonic.com/where-to-buy/"

Roland Jupiter-80 Performance

Published on Nov 1, 2017 DKS SYNTH LAB

That BladeRunner Sound: a Polysix experiment (live arrangement)

Published on Nov 1, 2017 Javier Alexander

"A new video after some months of inactivity, this time taking advantage of the BladeRunner's fever and experimenting with my Korg synthesizer to make some similar synthetic sounds like the original Vangelis score.
I hope you really enjoy the analog vibes!

-Images randomly extracted from Google...

© 2017, CMS (Javier Alexander)"

Modular - Halloween Patch

Published on Nov 1, 2017 Mike Thomas

"Better late than never! A scary generative patch for modular synthesizer."