"Latest OS installed. Includes USB thumb drive with bonus Spectralis kits and utilities, including some hard to find sound sets, power cable and (2) 128MB SM flash cards
Multitimbral workstation with analog filter, can load multi-samples, parts/tracks for drums + 4 synth parts, including a nice sounding analog mono synth. Stereo external inputs.
The analog filterbank is capable of creating some old school analog drum sounds too."
"Kleines Klangbeispiel des Polymorph mit Hilfe des MAP1.
Ein großes Dankeschön an Matthias Spelbrink, den einzig wahren Quasimidi Supporter, für dieses schöne Gerät."
"Small sound sample of the polymorph with the help of the MAP1.
A big thank you to Matthias Spelbrink, the only true Quasimidi supporter, for this beautiful device."
"This project is a 1-off gift for my parents. It began as an experiment with the SDS Accord Melisma module's core. Outside of a module rack the hybrid synth must provide all of the signals you would normally patch, in the way they might be patched allowing autonomous operation as a stand-alone composition.
The piano also has a fairly large Flash memory and sequencer system similar to the Accord Sequarallel module (some of the SW was stolen from the Sequar!) in order to play recognizable songs that have been recorded in. I included a couple of Sequarallel's FX, and would have added more if time permitted, but as is usually the case, time ran out and I had to wrap it up and send it on it's way in time for Chrissy.
The piano has some settings, primarily the "mood" selector which will bias randomization of song types toward this selection. i.e. Mood=Summer, then there's a good chance a Beach Boys tune will start playing, followed by "Sunny Days" or "La isla Bonita". Like Christmas, "Melisma" is one of the moods and will either compose it's own music from banks of progressions in any one of the 8 PROG memories, or will take an existing song and apply Sequarallel FX to it, thus completely changing the way it sounds. (It's the perfect plagiarism tool I'll tell ya!)
On top of all of this, the keys on the piano animate thus making it a player piano! I'll be honest, the keys don't match actual chords even though the original design was for just that. Due to circumstances beyond my control parts didn't arrive so I had to wing it with what I had around the workshop. It would have been nice, but only to someone that plays piano, I doubt anyone else would even notice!
The project wasn't without disastrous goof-ups though. I managed to fry most of it by passing 12 volts through everything, AFTER recording in over 200 songs. Luckily I had backed up over 100 songs so it only took 2 days get the rest in. Then there was the "I have no idea how electromagnets interact" crisis which was a result of making a bad decision under stress from Canada post losing my order or whatever happened. That's covered in the video.
All in all this was a fun & challenging project which pulled me away from the intense programming I had been slaving on for 3 months prior, thus offering a holiday without leaving the farm, which is double bonus these days. Wow am I ever refreshed and ready to just back into it, both feet tippy toes down. Cheers! Enjoy the video!"
"Intro video that demonstrates a few simple methods of morphing between two sounds in a single preset, and if your Continuum has 3 DSPs a simple technique to morph between two separate presets that you have loaded as a combination preset."
"This example is incredibile, near mint and it even comes with its original volume pedal: fully working with a new fresh battery just replaced in November 2020! Cosmetically it’s perfect, only the white keys are slightly yellowed (it’s almost imperceptible, but it is important for us to highlight everything). :)
Derived from the same project of Solton Programmer 24, the TS4K has the same analog fat sounds, programmable patterns and separate outputs for the bass and drum parts.
Fingered playing with styles and auto-accompaniment but also recording with quantizes from 4 to 96 resolution and variable time signature. There are several preset functions for live play!
Features:
- 49 velocity keys
- 16 x 2 LCD display, 48 buttons and 13 sliders for mixing parts control
- Pitchbender on top left
- Midi interface (midi clock is possible) - headphones + main analog out + bass individual out - 7 outs for drum section - 2 custom connectors for pedal controls (pedals not included) - 2 pedalswitch inputs for start/stop and fill-in (pedals not included)
Recorded live early evening on December 18, 2020 using a Yamaha RS-7000 MIDI Sequencer and a room full of MIDI synthesizers. The sequencer was painstakingly programmed to play all instruments as well as automations, modulation, volume & patch changes. The instruments ran through 3 mixers and a rack of compressors and outboard effects. All parts were mixed and recorded to stereo tracks in a single take. This video was recorded early evening on winter solstice December 21 and edited days later.
The first half, "Mice in the Attic", was arranged on the RS-7000 Sequencer sometime in early 2019 and left without any ideas on how to finish it. At that time it only included the great guitar-like patch on the Korg EX-8000, a Bass Station II patch and a kick drum from the Boss DR660. Early this Fall, the second half, "Love on a Mousetrap", was arranged and paired up with "Mice".
This music was made with a symphony of Korg Synths. Notably the EX-8000 played a very dynamic guitar-like patch through an Alesis Quadraverb from beginning to end. The MS-2000 played various parts, mainly the femenine voice and the Radias played percussions and the masculine voice.
The voice performances on the MS-2000 and Radias were painstakenly edited on The Sequencer to get the articulations *just right*. Lots of pitch, modwheel, velocities and volume/expression CCs were used and getting them right in the basic event editor on The Sequencer was quite tedious. These parts were some of the most difficult and time consuming edits I've ever had to do.
The Wavestate toggled between two versions of the same patch of strings and choir sounds coming in at the start of "Love on a Mousetrap". It also plays the *heavenly* sequence at the end.
The two Minilogues switched quite a few patches - most notably the XD played a wonderful User oscillator named 'Pluck'.
Layering in FM tones at just the right moments was the Yamaha TX81Z - also ran through the Alesis Quadraverb.
The Roland JP-8080 plays *the rise* at the intro and a few quiet pads on the second half. The XV-5080 filled in a few parts emphasizing other instruments.
The Roland TR8S alternated between 3 separate kits to cover the percussion needed on the various sections. One of the kits used a master high pass filter to give it a Casio-like rhythm tone
Dave Smith is represented in not so obvious ways using the Prophet 6 and REV 2. The REV 2 being ambidextrous play 2 patches in a split when needed.
Much care and time was spent on the mix. Two line mixers and a Mackie 1604 VLZ3 routed all the synths and compressors including the Alesis 3630, Behringer MDX 1400, Art Pro Tube Channel, Art Pro VLA II and a Drawmer 1978. May takes were made. Whenever anything needed to be adjusted the entire piece had to be recorded again from scratch.
All MIDI ran through the MOTU MIDI Timepiece MTP AV.
Video was shot using an iPhone 8 through a magnifying glass. Editing was done in Davinci Resolve 15."
Playlist (start the player above and use the controls on the bottom left to skip around):
1. ORNAMENT-8 Tutorial Part 1 (basic connection)
2. ORNAMENT-8 Tutorial Part 2 (Euclidean rhythms, Synchronisation)
3. ORNAMENT-8 Tutorial Part 3 (Operating modes)
4. ORNAMENT-8 Tutorial Part 4 (Сonstructing of Rhythms using clock division)
5. Ornament-8 Tutorial Part 5. MIDI and External Sync.
6. Ornament-8 Tutorial Part 6. PASS Out. Splitting of Triggers.
7. Ornament-8 Tutorial Part 7. X2 input and TIME modulation.
8. Ornament-8 Tutorial Part 8. Control Voltage and Modulation.
"Jamsession with a Korg Lambda (analog String Synthesizer) + Finegear Dust Collector FX + Ibanez Analog Delay AD202 + Roland SBF-325 Stereo Flanger, Synthstrom Deluge, Tom Oberheim SEM + Digitech Bass Harmony Machine BHM4, Guitar + ADA MP-2 preamp and some FX from the Allen & Heath Qu-Pac mixer.
Direct recording with mastering.
"Vlad is the force of nature behind Soma Laboratories, responsible for some of the most brilliantly eclectic and sonically awesome instruments of recent times - check out our look at the Lyra-8 and Pulsar-23, for example.
As well as creating instruments Vlad also is a pretty adventurous performer with them too, and he has a unique and philosophical view on the creative process and the interface between performer, instrument and music. We filmed some 'Meet the Makers' interviews with him at SuperBooth which are definitely worth a look if you haven't already seen them, and we were intrigued to hear his take on the 3 Big Questions."
"This is a cool trick you can do to change the character of a modulation source. Use the binary modifiers to reduce the resolution of the modulation values. This video explains exactly what happens when you do that and how you have to set up your synth."
"Latest OS installed. Includes USB thumb drive with bonus Spectralis kits and utilities, including some hard to find sound sets, power cable and (2) 128MB SM flash cards
