Syd and Saul Stokes performing Dreamer at Freight and Salvage, Berkeley California

video upload by Saul Stokes - Frequensea

And now for something a little different on the site in via supporting member, Saul Stokes. Close-up of the gear he's playing at the end.

"This week, we made our way over to the Freight @ Salvage in Berkeley, California, to test out our latest track, Dreamer. Dreamer will be out later this Spring on a new EP we're finishing up. The Freight & Salvage has an amazing sound system, but I was dealing with very low stage monitors, which wildly makes you feel like no one can hear you. You have to trust the sound engineer, and it can pull you out of the zone. Syd, on the other hand, easily commanded the song with simple vocal perfection. This piece is an extraction of music built from my Frequensea Episode 7 composition. Dreamer reminds me of a lot of classic electronic music. Perhaps an amalgam of early OMD and Massive Attack. The first lyrical line pays homage to This Mortal Coil's 'Morning Glory.' Look us up on Instagram to see where we'll be next.

IG #syd_and_I

Battery Powered Equipment:
Novation Circuit Tracks
1010 Music Black Box
Korg NTS-3
Minidexed
Bastl Bestie mixer"

Custom White MiniDexed - TX-816 in a tiny box

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

via this VEMIA listing

Click the auction link on top when you get there for additional listings.

VEMIA is Peter Forrest's auction house. He is the author of The A-Z of Analogue Synthesizer Books.

"What is it? MiniDexed is a high-performance FM synthesizer that replicates the sound of eight DX7 instances, delivering the iconic tones of the TX816 and TX802. Designed to run 'bare metal' on the Raspberry Pi, MiniDexed operates without the need for a Linux kernel or operating system, ensuring efficient and seamless performance. It is assembled into a custom made case, 3D printed. It’s ready for immediate use and compatible with any MIDI keyboard or sequencer featuring MIDI out. By default, its eight modules are assigned to MIDI channels 1-8, but these settings—and more—can be easily customized using the intuitive menu. Used just 3 hours: I had bought it just to compare it to my vintage TX816. I loaded the same sounds in either synth (yes, it loads by MIDI the DX / TX sounds!) and compared A/B. Simply UNBELIEVABLE. For a deep dive into MiniDexed's software and features, please visit this page."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Syd and I - Live at the Faight collective in San Francisco 2025

video upload by Saul Stokes - Frequensea

This one is in via supporting member Saul Stokes.

"Syd and I are a father-daughter electronic music duo. Our style of music comes from Syd's amazing singing, lyrics, and compositional skills combined with my 30-year history of electronic music. This is our first EP, 24 on 7. For our live sets, we have fine-tuned the perfect live show setup. Our entire set is battery-powered and built into a travel case. This allows us to set up and perform quickly anywhere. Contact me for booking possibilities! Check out the rest of our EP using the links below.

Instruments:
1010 blackbox
Novation Circuit Tracks
Korg Kaoss pad Nts-3
Rasperry Pi MiniDexed
Bastle Bestie
all battery-powered!

Spotify -
https://open.spotify.com/track/54cHys...

Bandcamp -
https://saulstokes.bandcamp.com/album...

Apple
/ syd-and-i

Thank you,
Saul

Follow us to stay updated on future live shows and new music.

ig@syd_and_i"

UAP-inspired music and video performance // Minidexed synth // Space travel // Aerial sightings

video upload by Saul Stokes - Frequensea

"Using various combinations of synthesizers, analog circuits, and specific melodies, Stokes conjures a visit with some beautiful Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena. UAPs are observations of events in the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or known technology.

During this performance, Stokes discusses the realities of deep space travel as well as a short performance and talk about the fantastic Minidexed synthesizer."

Dtronics DT-DX Desktop Synth Now on Kickstarter

video upload by Dtronics

"Eight DX7-compatible FM-synthesizers in a box."

You might rememer the MiniDexed DT DX from previous posts. You'll find a few new demos above.

Details and pics via Kickstarter follow.

The MiniDexed FM synthesizer similar to 8x DX7 (TX816/TX802)

"Dtronics DT-DX Dtronics, Dutch maker of high quality synthesizer controllers such as the popular DT-RDX for the Yamaha Reface DX and other MI-related technology announces the DT-DX Kickstarter project.

At the end of last year we came across a fantastic project on Github, MiniDexed.

We immediately fell in love, imagine 8 x a DX7 in mini format.

This compact powerful hardware unit is based upon the Github project MiniDexed and about to provide you with legendary FM sounds in a purpose designed instrument at an unbelievable small footprint and affordable price.

This beautiful project just needs to be made more widely accessible to everyone who is not handy enough to put it together themselves.

So we desided to contacted the developer to see if we could work together to create a ready to use Dtronics DT-DX. The response was very positive, and so the DT-DX project started in colobaration with PROBONOPD (MINIDEXED).

Eight DX7-compatible FM-synthesizers in a box

The DT-DX relies on a Raspberry Pi 2 Zero hardware which runs a version of the famed software-synthesizer Dexed which closely emulates the legendary Yamaha DX7. It makes use of MiniDexed which ports Dexed to run on a bare Raspberry Pi without the need for a Linux kernel or operating system.

When we at Dtronics came across MiniDexed, we immediately came into contact, with Probonopd who manages the MiniDexed project. The DT-DX is the result of this collaboration.

We went ahead to build a prototype and decided to create a dedicated sturdy hardware in a metal housing to be used as a professional musical instrument on stage, in the studio and at home. We also took advantage of a specifically designed printed circuit board to make optimal use of the functions being offered by MiniDexed.

Next, we added a back-lit display in tasty orange, a push-encoder to be able to access sounds and parameter directly from the unit, USB- and MIDI-connectors, an SD-card reader for sound import/export and finally a stereo output using a high quality converter with 122 dB dynamic range. In short: DT-DX is ready to be used with any DAW and MIDI-keyboard and controller.
The Raspberry Pi 2 Zero which is used in the DT-DX is capable of running eight polyphonic tone generators simultaneously which will allow for splits, layers and multi-timbral use as being found in the Yamaha TX802 and TX816. And just like like Dexed, the DT-DX is compatible to any DX7/TX7 SysEx data and therefore also with our own massive DT-7 controller.

About Digital Suburban Dexed
Dexed is a multi-platform and multi-format software-synthesizer which is closely modeled on the Yamaha DX7 to which it is fully compatible through system exclusive MIDI data. It doesn't stop here since Dexed also offers a few additions to the sound engine such as the availability of multiple waveforms as being found in the TX81Z. Dexed is licensed on the GPL v3. It runs as a plug-in on any relevant computer platform and DAW and offers a generous graphical user to edit its 144 parameters. This way, Dexed may not serve only serve as a fantastic sounding instrument but also as an editor to all compatible Yamaha FM-synthesizers. And certainly, it is also great front-end to create and fine-tune your personal sounds which can then be used on the DT-DX.

About Probonopd MiniDexed
MiniDexed ports the FM-synthesizer Dexed to a bare Raspberry Pi. On a Raspberry Pi 2 and larger, it can run eight polyphonic instances of the synthesizer allowing to also recreate the sounds of the Yamaha TX802 and the mighty TX816. Additionally, each instance can be detuned and shifted in the stereo panorama to create wide and complex sounds. On top, MiniDexed adds compressor and reverb effects."

Stunning DIY VST Controllers by Craigyb

This one is in via Florian Anwander via the Sequencer.de forum.

According to the creator of these controllers, Craigyb:

"So when I was 16 (around 45 years ago) I used to dream of the Arp Quadra. A friend of mine who wasn't a keyboard player, but just wealthy bought one and it was sat in his front room doing nothing unless I could call around after school and have a play on this great synth.

Now I know I could probably afford to buy one, but the wife would kill me quicker than the Russians, so instead I took Cherry Audio's VST of the Quadra and created a physical beast with a PC built in to create sounds.

I then followed that up with a synth that I've never met in real life AFAIK but is also quite legendary, the Elka Synth (again a VST emulation by Cherry Audio).

I'm currently working on the Memory Moog version (MemoryMode by Cherry Audio) and I just need to finish the actual hardware as the software controller is complete."

Further below are a few more creations from Craigyb in a separate thread on the Sequencer.de forum here.

"This is a small collection of some of the real synths and accessories I have built over the last 4 years.

Details of most of the schematics and code can be found on my GitHub page http://github.com/craigyjp

A Roland A110 clone
Rack version of a VA polysynth with extras
A rack version of the MiniDexed
A Dual DCO monosynth based on Hagiwo VCO
6 voice polysynth based on the Polykit
16 voice bitimbral rack mount
FV1 based rack mount effects with memory
Gligli Prophet 600 clone with extras
Mellotron sample playback synth
Source inspired monosynth with memories
8 voice poly again Hagiwo DCO based
A 6 voice VCDCO based poly with memory
Dual XVA1 synths and editor in one keyboard
A MIDI analyzer/converter/injector USB and DIN
Roland MKS30 display upgrade to OLEDs
Arturia CS80v editor/controller
OSC Oscar Clone"

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Dtronics DT-DX sneak preview

video upload by Dtronicsmusic

"the Dtronics DT-DX
Based on the MiniDexed synthesizer."

Sound design on MINIDEXED DIY synthesizer

video upload by Floyd Steinberg

"I created a "evolving pad" sound using MINIDEXED's one encoder interface only so you don't have to. :-) MINIDEXED is a bare metal TX816 (8 full #DX7 #synthesizer emulators at once) emulation #RaspberryPI. Table of contents:

00:00 intro
00:22 hello
00:43 basics
01:49 algorithm and operator 1 setup
02:32 operator 2
03:57 operator 3
04:37 operator 4
05:03 operator 5
05:43 operator 6
06:29 lfo setup
07:15 modulation depth
07:42 important things to consider
08:01 full demo
11:11 bye-bye"

MINIDEXED https://github.com/probonopd/MiniDexed



Support: https://www.paypal.me/alexselck

MINIDEXED - honey, I shrunk my DX7 collection

video upload by Floyd Steinberg

"MINIDEXED is a superb implementation of 8 instances of DEXED, the free DX7 emulator, on a 'bare metal' Raspberry PI. Think of a TX816 in mini format. In this video, I walk through the installation, setup and navigating the menu. Table of contents:

00:00 introduction
01:00 assembling the PI setup (LCD and rotary encoder)
01:32 other hardware needed
02:45 installing and configuring the software
03:30 navigating the menu, setting up a performance
06:34 important considerations
06:54 demo (synthwave... )
09:36 bye-bye

Resources for this project:
MINIDEXED https://github.com/probonopd/MiniDexed
Audio hat ("soundcard"): https://raspiaudio.com/
LC Display: https://bit.ly/3L6NF8N
Rotary encoder: https://bit.ly/3KSts6o
GPIO expander: https://amzn.to/3M8Kduf
You can also buy one of the sets by Freenove: https://amzn.to/3rtuvBR - these will get you a lot of components useful for synth projects."