YMO Rydeen Cover on Synth1

Click here for a pretty amazing cover of YMO's Rydeen done with Ichiro Toda's free VST Synth1. Scroll down for the link when you get there. You can get the VST here.

via Elhardt on AH.

Music Arcade - Radiophonic Workshop

Doctor Who / Dr. Who Theme


Fairlight

YouTube via Fynci. Title link takes you to more.

Update via Doktor Future in the comments:
"Dr. Who needs no banjos or Moog ladders. It's not about the East Coast vs. West Coast sound at all -- it's about the UK sound, which, as you know, comes from outer-space.

In fact, EMS in the UK got their start by stealing an Atron energy nebulizer from a type-40 TARDIS. Normally, this would not be cause for concern as the device was genetically keyed, but the average UK citizen is so inbred that by lucky statistical chance, EMS found not only that they could activate the device, but that somehow they could get impressions from the Matrix itself!

After many astral voyages at the EMS laboratories, it became clear that true access to the historical knowledge of the Time Lords would be impossible due to the defenses of the latent psychic energy of all timelords past, so they set to work on a device capable of distracting the Matrix's mental defenders.

This became known as the EMS 100, and became the centerpiece for their own make-shift TARDIS.

About this time the BBC needed some ideas for good shows, so the EMS folks created another EMS 100 unit at the BBC Radiophonic headquarters so their engineers could also be inspired by the hyper-galactic knowledge of the Matrix.

Of course, portable versions of their technologies were placed in select hands over the ages. Each artist was given a goal: design a unique composition that can distract the time-lord defenders so as to access the true Matrix directly.

One of the most introspective works, giving almost total sub-conscious access to the Matrix was the well known album 'Dark side of the moon'. What is not well known however is that the word 'moon' in the title of the Album refers to "Pazithi Gallifreya" (Gallifrey's moon), and the nodum-quazmulcator buried within its surface.

Humanity owes so much to the psycho-quantum-sonic attributes of the the EMS line of 'synthesizers'!

Sadly, once the Presidents Council discovered the breech, they issued an edict to EMS to halt production of their technology to all without Gallifreyan permits.

This has created an underground bidding war for EMS devices. Even though the atron nebulizers have been disabled by the Time Lords, many still collect the devices to reminisce to the 'good ol days' when Matrix security was as porous as the US Government's firewalls.

There are rumors however, that a new type of Atron-nebulizer emulation may soon be available.

If so, and we can only hope, that a new wave of EMS devices will be available for todays generation of psycho-temporal-astral knowledge seekers."

The Wretchrosonix!

Via NAMM 2007 on fdiskc.

via CornMaiden in the comments of this post.

SMS 2000 Dual Filter Test

Remember the SMS 2000? There was and still is a huge debate whether this thing is real or not. Well, it keeps getting better. Here's a video of it. : ) So, physically it definitely exists. Now, you have to ask yourself, is it producing the sound in this video or is the player is "lip singing" to it? Hey, if Britney Spears can do it...

via Dr. Kyle Han Ten.

Update: Previous SMS 2000 posts

Update: Here's the thread Dr. Kyle Han Ten found the video. If anyone reads dutch, feel free to comment if there is anything interesting in the thread. I beleive I already posted all the shots in my previous posts when the SMS 2000 first surfaced.

Moebius

Another from Elhardt on AH:
"A while back I seem to remember somebody wanting to gather a list of recordings the Serge synth was used on. The MP3 below is from the 1979 record called Moebius. I'm clearing up online space, so get it now before I take it down. This piece uses a Serge, Oberheim 4 Voice, Minimoog and Violin."

Kraft and Alexanders Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture and Nutcracker Suite

Via Elhardt on AH:
"I want to clear up some online space, so before I pull down the mp3 files below, if you want to hear or get them, do it soon. They are from Kraft and Alexanders long out of print 1977 recording of the Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture and Nutcracker Suite, done on an Arp 2600, Arp Odyssey, and Arp Pro Soloist, therefore making them good Arp synth demos. The 1812 mp3 is some excerpts taken from the much longer recording that was too big for me to put the original online."

I grabbed them. Title link takes you there.

Kinetic Sound Prism Demo?

Remember the Kinetic Sound Prism? Title link takes you to a 3.99M demo according to Elhardt. The question mark? Well Elhardt is the man who brought us the Bahn Sage, and is suspect number one on the SMS 2000, so...

"The following excerpt is a mp3 I recorded off of the Prism demo tape. As
can be heard, it's probably a better advertisement NOT to spend $30K on this
synth. It doesn't seem to be making any kinds of sounds that couldn't be
done on something like a Prophet-5, except that with the polyphony and
multitimbral capabilities, maybe it can be done without multitracking. And
by the time the Prism appeared, NED had added sampling to the Synclav, and
there was the Fairlight. Both with demo tapes that made you want to buy
them. If I can find somebody to host large MP3 files, I can record those
demo tapes too.

I should point out also, that bubble memory was not a useless or obsolete
technology. It maintains memory on power down without battery backup, just
as my Apple ][ bubble memory card has been doing for the past 25 years, and
might be able to do so even with an EMP from a nuclear bomb. Bub mem was
still being sold up into the 90's in the form of RAM Disc computer cards.
Maybe still is."

Kirikax Speaks on the SMS 2000, SMS 1000 and the Elebus-1

Update: Kirikai's Website: link.
And we have an update on the SMS 2000. If you remember, the man in the second shot of this post donned a badge with the name, "Mr. Kirikax." The badge was obviously meant to lead the viewer into believing that this was Mr. Kirikax showing his new synth, the SMS 2000, a follow up to the Seekers SMS 1000, which was never released. What follows is an email exchange between Fredrik in Sweden and Mr. Kirikae (Kirikax).

Via Fredrik:

"in the middle of the sms 2000 hysteria I did some research on the web, and found mr Kirikax's email adress - or at least I assumed it was his. I sent a mail asking if there was any such thing as a sms 2000(check the forwarded mail) and didn't receive any respons - until today! Assuming the mail is real, which it certainly appears to be, we can draw the conclusion that the sms 2000 certainly is a hoax : )"

The following is the reply from Kirikax in the forwaded email:

"Dear Mr. Fredrik

I designed SMS-1000 mono synthesizer, but I don't know about SMS-2000. I am treating [illness] now, so I can't make SMS-1000. SMS-1000 's formal name is Elebus-1. I append the image of Elebus-1. Elebus-1 is RackMount type Synthesizer. The keyboard has not adhered. My sickness is a serious illness, and doesn't have the capital either. So I cannot sell Elebus-1. Elebus-1 might be produced and be sold when the capital can be procured by recovering from an illness in the future.

Regards,
Masamichi Kirikae. (Kirikax is nickname. this is My real name)"

If this is real, I send my condolences to Mr. Kirikae, and I hope he gets the help and support he needs, both with his illness and in getting the SMS 1000/Elebus-1 off the ground. He mentions lack of capital or monetary backing. What's interesting is that the Elebus-1 above is different than the other Seekers SMS 1000 shots out there. However, before you dismiss the new shot, note that the old shots of the SMS 1000 are old in synth years, and designs and names can easily change prior to release, and sometimes even after. Title link takes you the the new images sent by Mr. Kirikae.

Matrixsynth by Frédéric

Cross between a Seekers SMS 2000 and a Korg MS20.

The SMS Matrix

One knob to rule them all. Via Mike Jerugim.

The SMS Cinema Display and The SMS Matrix

The SMS Cinema Display via Mike Jerugim.
Add some knobs just above the keys and you'd be set.


Update: The SMS Matrix via Mike Jerugim. One knob to rule them all.

Animal Synth P*rn

Ok, get your head out of the gutter. CDM has a refreshing post up on Adorable Animals with Synthesizers, and Matrixsynth got a mention! Some cool shots and a good read to start the weekend. Title link takes you there. Thanks Peter! Oh, and you might notice, dogs! Check out the puppy named synthesizer after the hop. Someone get me a shot of Elhardt. : o

The SMS Yeti

There are some interesting updates on the SMS 2000 in the comments of this post as well as this HC thread. Entertaining stuff if you don't take all of this too seriously. I don't. Apparently all shots of the SMS 2000 have been saved with Photoshop 5 and have the same RGB profile as an image recently posted by Elhardt. Smoking gun?

Yeti shot by pizzamon. Good work pizzamon. : )

Another good one by mgd below.

One Year Of Matrixsynth

The short version:

Today marks the one year anniversary of Matrixsynth. It's exactly one year and 3148 posts since I started this site to track everything synth. Thanks to everyone who makes this site great by either sending stuff in, posting in the comments or spreading the word.

The long version:
I started this blog because my old site Matrixsynth.com/old simply wasn't cutting it anymore. I created the original site in October 1997 as my portal into the world of synths. I'd see an interesting site and add a link (BTW, the alias matrix and the green on black color scheme came well before The Matrix movies. My first and favorite synth was an Oberheim Matrix-6, hence matrix. I'm a synth geek not a Matrix movie geek).

As time when on I found it difficult to find stuff I previously came across. So... I figured what better way to store and make all of this available to others than via a blog. The idea is very simple. I sub to a bunch of lists, feeds and forums; people send me stuff, I interact with people and I see things I want to save for posterity. When I see something I think I might want to see again, I post it. No discrimination. BTW, if you haven't noticed, this site is not meant to be a journal or publication. It's just a bunch of stuff about synths. If you enjoy synths, I hope you enjoy what you see here. It's a heartbeat on what others also into synths are doing, or rather what I happen to come across on a daily basis. Nothing more, nothing less.

When I first started the blog I never would have guessed so much stuff was out there. People asked me if I thought I would ever run out of things to post. I actually wondered myself. The answer turned out to be only if others out there run out of things to share themselves. Which leads me to...

THANK YOU

I want to say thank you to everyone out there who supports this blog. Anyone that has sent me something worth posting. Anyone that takes the time out to engage in the comments and of course everyone that reads this site and spreads the word. Thank you. It's actually crazy. I started the blog to track stuff only I came across. It's turned out to be a whole lot more. I never would have thought people would be enriching the site via the comments and letting me know when there was something else worthwhile posting. Thank you. BTW, you should notice that I frequently update my posts with comments and I always give credit when credit is due.

As a side note, at one point I offered to open up Matrixsynth for others to post but I got a resounding NO, so I created SYNTHWIRE for others to sign up and start posting. You can also promote your own stuff there, so use it!

Back on point. So, what next? Another year of posting. Thanks all, it has been one heck of a year.

Special thanks to moogulator of sequencer.de, Tom Whitwell of MusicThing, Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music, James Grahame of Retro Thing, Chris Randall of Analog Industries, Circuitmaster of GetLoFi, Carbon111, George Mattson, Brian Comnes, Dave (The Packrat), Dennis Verschoor, fmasseti, Loscha, Ross Healy, Steve Barbour of Gnostic Rocket, vlada of One Blue Monkey, deb7680 of Chroniques de la Mao, Rick of Electricmusicbox, Heath Finnie, DVDBorn, Mark Pulver, Doktor Future, Cikira, and of course Elhardt. ; ) You all contributed a little extra to the blog in your own way. Thanks for that.

And of course to the late great Bob Moog and all the synth manufacturers out there. Thank you.

And last but definitely not least, a HUGE thanks to my wife and daughter for tolerating the time and effort I put into this site on a daily basis. Thank You!

Update: I also want to thank Fernando Alves for making my favicon way back, and Paul and Brian Comnes for being the only two people that bought my matrixsynth shirt way back.

And of course, every person or site I've put up a post on. Thanks for having something worth posting about. ; )

Ken Elhardt's Studio

With all this talk about Elhardt possibly behing behind the SMS 2000, I thought I'd put up a post on his studio.

Seekers SMS 2000 Resurfaces

Update: Pevious posts in case you missed them:
1 (original post with convention shots)
2 (the SMS2000 in plastic)
3 (the first prototype) : )

Click here for a post on the SOS forum by SteveCooperman who claims he has played with one - shots saved below for posterity.

Thanks goes to Dennis Verschoor for sending this one in.

The following is the full post:

"About a week ago I received a call from a friend who likes to hop from shop to shop looking for vintage gear or interesting new items. He was standing infront of a synthesiser and describing it to me on his mobile. His description intrigued me to such an extent, I decided to take the hour plus drive to see it for myself. It happened that the synthesiser just arrived that morning and wasn't there more than three hours. After playing around with it a tad, I knew I had to have it. The synthesiser is a programmable monophonic analogue by Seekers called the SMS2000. I had never heard of the manufacturer but the bloke at the shop told me they made an analogue vocoder too.

What is it? The SMS2000 reminds me quite a bit of the Minimoog Voyager. It has an adjustable knob interface like the Minimoog, a 3 1/2 octave keyboard, a crazy set of performance levers, and even a joystick. See pictures at the URLs provided below. But it seems as if Seekers wanted to one-up the Moog Voyager in almost every respect. One more oscillator, one more LFO, one more ADSR, ring modulator, fixed filter bank - like a Moog MuRF right in there but with frequencies set to those of a typical equaliser, full dual filters, and something called an XCU is also included. That's an expansion control unit which is a breakout box similar to the Moog VX-351. I don't own a modular, but it will come in handy patching into my MS-20.

I had been on the fence for some time as to whether I wanted to put out the money for a Voyager. But there always seemed to be too many little niggles and limitations with it. The Seekers seems to have overcome many of those. For example the Voyager can't invert control voltages, the Seekers can. The Voyager forces you into using the display for programming, the Seekers puts every function out there with its own knob or button. The display is only used for patch storage and retrieval, and MIDI related functions. The Seekers has a joystick on the knob interface where vertical controls one filter and the horizontal the other filter. At first I thought it a bit daft that it couldn't be patched to control all kinds of other things too, but when I considered that it seemed like an extra bonus thrown in there, and most synthesisers don't have one at all, then it seemed pretty cool.

The manual is adequate but full of typos and poor translations. Seekers is a Japanese company. There is no mention as to whether the filters are imitations of well known filters or not. Only that the 24dB/octave is a ladder filter and the 12dB/octave is a state variable. But both filters contain lowpass and highpass which can also be combined for bandpass. Both can self resonate.

I've only had the SMS for a week, and with a busy work schedule I haven't had much time to delve deeply into it yet. I'll write a more extensive review after I spend more time with it. The owner of the shop seemed to indicate these are trickling off the assembly line and it could be a couple of months before another shows up. I would expect major players like Turnkey to carry them when they begin to proliferate.

Here are some photos of the SMS. My flat is getting a bit too crowded with audio gear, so it's only a temporary setup. The MS-20 went to the floor to make room for my SMS. My Micromoog will probably be up for sale soon. I can't keep it all."

CLICK FOR MORE »

The SWAN

Is it real? : ) Click here for more.

Synthesizers.com History

Title link takes you to an interesting bit of synth history. When Synthesizers.com first came about people questioned whether it was real or another hoax like the Bahn Sage.

"Monday morning I woke up to many dozens of emails with 'synthesizers.com' in the subject. Wow, something has happened - but what? As I start reading them, some are not very nice. This is a unexpected slap in the face for 3 years work, but why? Come to find out, a few weeks/months earlier, a prankster had posted a professionally created set of graphics depicting a new synth which had duped many people. Not being a reader of the Analog Heaven mail list, I missed the story. Paul Schrieber of Synthesis-Technology who lives nearby told me about it at lunch one day but I had no idea it was such a big deal and caused such a big stink. Anyway, this caused many folks to assume my work was another plot to overthrow the analog synth world. They began by pixel-picking the Q119 Sequencer picture which caused me a lot of grief to create. This was compounded by my whimsical depiction of a synth monolith linked to the home page. And I was so proud of my new found PhotoShop abilities too! On top of that, there were even questions about the photographs I had taken on the About Us page which were only cropped before placing on the website."

It's a fascinating read and it really makes you wonder about the SMS 2000. Another manufacturer that was questioned was Cwejman. I remember when renders first appeared of the S1. People questioned whether it was yet another hoax.

Elhardt even had a little fun:
"Just like the Cwejman and Dotcom, I kind of wanted people to suspect me. I
even faked a picture of a Cwejman sitting in my rack to just lead people
into thinking it was a hoax. That makes it more fun. I prefer to just keep
quiet and make people suspicious."

Well, Cwejman and Synthesizers.com are most definitely real. The SMS 2000? Time will tell. The one thing to note is that with both Synthesizers.com and Cwejman, the manufacturers and others came out relatively quickly, putting the rumors of a hoax to rest. That hasn't happened with the SMS 2000 yet. Anyone out there know anything? : )

The SMS 2000 - New Flickr Shots

flickr by synthfan_bob. Title link takes you to more.

Update: New touched up shot via Elhardt in the comments.
Update: Note the name on the badge. Thanks Elhardt. : )

roland system 100m - New Flickr Shots

flickr by hinotori mortal. Title link takes you to more shots of Five-G in Japan. Five-G is a vintage synth shop. You might recognize Five-G from the poster in this SMS 2000 shot.