MooSonics Vanilla Synthesizer First Encounter - Cory Flanigan vs Juggable Offense

video upload by suitandtieguy

"My good friend Cory Flanigan, a drummer who plays drums and electronics simultaneously, came over a few days after I finished the first properly and fully functional MooSonics Vanilla Synthesizer, a new basic American format modular synthesiser based on and restricted to the functions and timbre of 1970s Oberheim instruments, specifically the Two Voice, which Tom said was his favourite of everything he made. There is also an LFO module derived from the MS-20 and a control bus module that allows you to address all pitch and gate modules in the system from only one place, instead of having a dumb mess of cables and multiples. The Moog modular synthesisers worked this way, and I think it's the way things should be.

I got it set up and put it through a couple of IK Multimedia pedals, the X-Time and X-Space, because I can't stand listening to naked instruments. It was also nice to spend more time with the pedals, some of the tweaks are Cory and some are me poking around them.

Controlling the synth is a 2 octave MIDI controller with an internal arpeggiator driving a Roland SBX-1 as a MIDI-to-CV converter.

He played with it for a half hour and I decided to hit the record button, he finished at literally 4:20 AM, about an hour and a half later.

I wanted to post the audio because I thought listening to someone who was not a "modular synthesist" but did actually know synthesisers (Cory spent years making sounds with the Korg Wavestation and Radias, Currently has TWO Wavestates) would do with a thing upon first meeting it.

I didn't edit this except for fades at the beginning and end. I just wanted to present it as something you could listen to, in whole or part, as a reference for what my new instrument sounds like.

Bubba Ayoub AKA Juggable Offense made 90 minutes of video art while listening to it so I could merge them and put it on U-Toob. It beats paying Soundcloud nine bucks a month but you will have to skip through some text-to-speech ads for total snake oil products (YouTube is fine with misinformation if you pay them enough money, it seems.)

It would be cool to do this with more people, putting a new instrument in front of them and seeing what they do with it as a first encounter with new technology.

I know what this thing is supposed to do and what it should sound like from my own perspective, but I'm more interested in hearing what other people do with it.

Also leave a comment if you would be interested in a livestream where I just play with this thing and have the oscilloscope handy to answer questions or make certain kinds of patches."

See the MooSonics label below for more.