Jon Appleton: A Tribute

video upload by CatSynth TV

"We pay tribute to composer and electronic music pioneer Jon Appleton who passed away on January 30, 2022. He founded the Dartmouth Electronic Music Studio and later the graduate program in digital music, where we was a teacher and mentor to many composers and musicians over the year. He was instrumental in creating the Synclavier synthesizers from New England Digital, and raised the profile of electro-acoustic music in the United States through societies like SEAMUS and his numerous teaching residencies. We at CatSynth send our thoughts to his family, friends, and colleagues.

To learn more about his life and legacy, please visit his website https://www.appletonjon.com/"

Jon Appleton: In His Own Words

video upload by Jon Appleton

"An interview with composer Jon Appleton filmed at his Vermont residence.

Made with Void Engineering www.voidengineering.com"

Music for Synclavier and Other Digital Systems: With Jon Appleton, Composer


You can find additional posts mentioning Jon Appleton here.

New England Digital synclavier II Owned by Malcolm Cecil

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

via The Malcolm Cecil Reverb Shop

Note auction links are affiliate links. See the site's privacy policy for more info.

"This New England Digital Synclavier II System is owned by Malcolm Cecil

This NED system and keyboard is being sold as is. It comes with the Synclavier II keyboard as well as rack unit with midi inputs/outputs and Sample to disk units. There are some proprietary cables needed to fully test this unit so we are unable to fully perform diagnostics. The rack units appear to be in pretty good shape cosmetically and come housed in the blue road case in which these NED systems were known for. This will likely require someone who is knowledgable in operating these units and it is very possible some repairs will need to be done. The keyboard itself is fairly dusty and will likely need to be cleaned internally as well. There are also a few sticky keys.

All items in The Official Malcolm Cecil Reverb Shop ship fully insured with delivery confirmation and an embossed Certificate Of Authenticity."

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1985 NED SYNCLAVIER 3200 System

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

via this auction

"NED Synclavier II 3200 system with VPK keyboard, iMac G4 with Synclavier Software, Monitor, Mouse, keyboard, Flightcase for the keyboard and all the connection cables. 110V. The Mainframe has an internal hard drive with an extensive sample library for quick loading times. The system comes with 16 outputs and midi IN - OUT module installed in the mainframe. 16 Voices polyphony upgraded to 32mb of memory, start up floppy and some diagnostic discs..."

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Synclavier II 2 ORK FM Synth Keyboard Controller

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

via this auction

"Synclavier 2 ORK. This is the original keyboard for Synclavier 2 FM synth from the late 70s and early 80s. It will work with a PSMT or 9600 tower via Synclavier 3 software. The ork has been fully restored with brand new keyboard bushings, a complete overhaul of the wood, and has been throughly cleaned."

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NED SYNCLAVIER VPK - Handmade Miniature 1/6 scale.

video upload by Ronaldo Lopes Teixeira ROLT

W ands (CSR285CD) by Western, Creed, Spybey

via Jesse Creed aka The Passenger:

"This one is from recordings with the late Phil Western and myself. Made into a proper album by Mark Spybe after Phil's passing. Made with VCS 3, Sh101, oberheim 2 voice, Yamaha cs30, Korg dv 800, arp solus, synclavier 9600, prophet 5, eventide h3000."

Album info and pre order here.


Phil Western helped found Subconscious Records with Skinny Puppy's Dwayne Goettel in Vancouver, BC, 1993. He was also a founding member of the bands Download, PlatEAU, Frozen Rabbit, and Off and Gone [via Wikipedia]. He passed away in February 4, 2019 at the age of 47.

E-MU EMULATOR II Sampling Synthesizer (1984) The Liquid Stack Sound

"(c)2007-20 by RetroSound
supported by UVI: http://bit.ly/retrosound-uvi

Many people asked me over ther years for the famous Liquid Stack Sound.
The Sound is from the EII OMI disk Expansive Synth Stack and he is a part of 4 sounds (Liquid Stack 1-4)
I think the sound is sampled by the NED Synclavier. The DX7 Sound 'Stratotron' is very similar too.

RetroSound synthesizer demo videos since january 2007.
All is for free. If you like my work, so can you support me with a donation or a purchase of my music albums. Thank you!

Donations: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr..."

SynthFest France Videos for May 24, 2020

Published on May 24, 2020 SynthFest France

Playlist:

Waldorf Wave - Eric Mouquet | SynthFest 2020
SyntheGrall - visite virtuelle | SynthFest 2020
Masterclass NED Synclavier 1 | SynthFest 2020
Kosima | SynthFest 2020
Mos-Lab - Visite virtuelle (part 1) | SynthFest 2020
Mos-Lab - Visite virtuelle (part 2) | SynthFest 2020
Yves Usson - Yusynth | SynthFest 2020
TouellSkouarn modular sessions | SynthFest 2020

See the SynthFest France label below for more.

Synclavier Noodle and Chat

Published on May 1, 2020 100 Things I Do

Some raw sounds on the Synclavier.

New England Digital Synclavier II ORK Keyboard with Velocity

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

via this auction

"A great working ORK. You will need a Synclavier system to use this. I considered putting a modern midi controller in the case. I now have a VPK so I don’t need it."

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Vintage Synclavier II Digital Synthesizer Decal Bumper Case Sticker

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

via this auction


"Vintage Synclavier II Digital Synthesizer Decal Bumper Sticker. Approximately 3" X 11"

Good condition for it's age."

Oscar Peterson and His Synths

Published on Jun 22, 2016 Rudy Cortes

Roland Jupiter-8, System 100m, & NED Synclavier. You might remember Oscar Peterson from this TB-303 ad. You can find a handful of posts mentioning Oscar Peterson here.

This one is in via @auralhistories

Synth Spotting with Pete Townshend of The Who

via Pete Townshend's Instagram @yaggerdang

Cameron Jones, mentioned below, is the co-creator of the Synclavier. Curious about that new mac-based program. Cameron recently worked on the Synclavier iOS app and the Synclavier KNOB.

"Between tours I spend a lot of my free time trying to improve my various studios. I have a number of spaces (only one large studio big enough for bands) and each one has a different focus. Recently, after getting inspired by the Eurorack world, and by being able to carry small devices on the road - like Akai MPC Mini, Volcas and Digitakts etc - I realised I’d neglected my larger modular synths that I am damned lucky to have and even luckier to know how to operate. So here’s where I left things with my ARP2500 (restored by the wonderful Phil Cirocco of CMS) and MOOG 35 before I sadly packed my leaving trunk to go on the road. Two months!!! Spiders will move in. The sharp eyed among you might spot the controller and keyboard for my Synclavier 9600 and Direct to Disk system. This has also recently been revived because Cameron Jones created a new Mac-based computer program to run the old towers. Steve Hill’s installed it for me. Cameron also worked with Arturia to create the Synclavier V. This is a fine development of the old FM system. The three stringed things on the wall are all by Collings. Love their boxes. .

This one was sent my way via bÖsch @fabmass

Update: you can find a video of it here. Embedding is disabled otherwise I'd embed it in this post.  Thanks to @Precarsious_333 for the link!

Deftaudio MacroPot Programable MIDI Controller

Published on Sep 4, 2019 DeftAudio

Playlist:
1. Deftaudio MacroPot Introduction and explanation
2. Deftaudio MacroPot operation in Synclavier mode
3. Deftaudio MacroPot quick play [with Sequential Prophet X]
4. Deftaudio MacroPot Assembly Guide

"Deftaudio MacroPot is a single knob deeply programable MIDI controller with extended interface capabilities based around Teensy HW and Arduino programming model. It’s designed to be the most compact Teensy3.2 MIDI implementation in a very dense packaging inside a rugged enclosure. You don’t need to be experienced in Arduino programming, it comes with full featured firmware. However for experienced users can leverage an Open Source firmware available for your own modifications.

Hardware features:
- Rotary dual color (with brightness control) encoder with a push button
- OLED display for a visual feedback and preset information
- Up/Down buttons for a preset management
- 1 x MIDI Input (3.5mm TRS MIDI A or B)
- 3 x MIDI Output (3.5mm TRS MIDI A or B)
- USB MIDI Class compliant with 4 x MIDI devices under OS (1 physical port)
- 1 x Audio/CV/trigger/sync output (via PWM or DAC)
- Programmable activity LED
- Standalone operation from a power bank or power supply.

Software features:
- MacroPot is based around the idea of controlling multiple parameters at a time and quick switching between presets (macro). Within a current macro it’s possible to assign up to 5 simultaneous active controllers for transmit as well as a push button behavior. This allows to create layers or splits in values, assign controllers to different events, messages and MIDI ports, implement curves. MacroPot is also a 1x3 MIDI interface device with merging capability, which enables it at any place in the setup — as a USB controller for any class compliant device or pass through HW MIDI input for your gear.

MORE INFO: https://github.com/Deftaudio/MacroPot"

Available at: Tindie

Update: pic of the new Deftaudio MacroPot Programable MIDI Controller:

VIDEO - Synclavier Digital at Synthplex

Published on Apr 22, 2019 KeyboardMagazine

"Stephen Fortner checks out the latest from Synclavier Digital at Synthplex 2019."

Synclavier Go! and Synclavier Pocket! for iOS Released

You can find some demos in the archives. The press release:

NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA: having turned heads and opened ears with a show-stopping showcase at The 2019 NAMM Show in Southern California, January 24-27, newly-formed Synclavier Digital is proud to announce availability of Synclavier Go! and Synclavier Pocket! — placing a re-creation of the seminal Synclavier® II Digital Synthesizer’s sound engine from which they take their names into the respective hands of iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch owners as awe-inspiring iOS apps, allowing all the famed FM (Frequency Modulation) and Additive (harmonic) synthesis capabilities to be brought forward forty years for all to musically marvel, at a fraction of the original’s prohibitive pricing thanks to today’s technology, while also effectively emulating the iconic instrument’s intuitive panels of easy-to-touch red backlit buttons and iconic control knob in easy-to-use user interfaces — as of March 5…

Put it this way: while the still-highly-coveted brand of Synclavier® — synonymous with high-end audio production technology that blazed a trail through the Seventies and Eighties before stalling in the Nineties — is in the midst of a galactic reboot, thanks to Nova Scotia-registered Canadian Corporation Synclavier Digital, established in 2018 to re-create a modern iOS-based version of the Synclavier® Digital Audio System, Synclavier Go!, its inaugural iPad offering, is far from being a clone, however... to all intents and purposes, it is a Synclavier®!

So how, exactly, did yesteryear’s trailblazing technology that commanded a princely six-figure sum end up available on Apple’s pocket-friendly iOS platform in true needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few style? Simply speaking, when New England Digital (NED) went bankrupt in the Nineties, technology finally having caught up with the cutting-edge company concerned, co-founder Cameron Jones — co-inventor of the Synclavier® — bought the intellectual propriety rights to the trailblazing series of synthesizers and digital audio systems sharing the notable name.

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SYNCLAVIER - TIMBRE DISK 1 REV 6

Published on Feb 23, 2019 100 Things I Do

"I keep being asked to do more Synclavier Videos so I thought this week I would take a look at some of the Timbre's from the Rev 6 Disk#1 Library!"

NAMM 2019: Synclavier App

Published on Feb 7, 2019 Volterock Review

Synclavier Go!

Synclavier Go! Tutorial - iPad

Published on Jan 31, 2019 redskylullaby

"Tutorial of basic functions and sound design with Synclavier Go! the iPad version of the Synclavier synth by New England Digital.

0.30 Sound Architecture
1.01 Harmonic Envelope, Additive Synth and Frames
2.24 Loading Partial Timbres
3.09 Expression, Pitch, Vol and Pan Modulation
5.30 Partial Copy/Paste
5.45 Volume, FM and Intonation Panel
6.15 FM Harmonic Envelope
7.36 Arpeggio and Repeat
8.15 Selecting Multiple Partials for group edit"

Synclavier Go!

Published on Jan 27, 2019 100 Things I Do

"I thought we would take a look at the new Synclavier Go from Cameron Jones (co-creator of the original Synclavier). Cameron is still cutting code to this day and his latest iteration of the Synclavier sounds excellent. I have a look at some of the Timbre's (presets), it seems like most of the factory disks are included! I might have a look at Timbre creation in another video but its pretty much 1:1 of using the hardware."