Stephen Jones of Red Martian to Perform Live at PNW AES Meeting

Stephen Jones of Red Martian will be performing seven tracks at the upcoming AES Synth Meeting previously posted here. In case you missed it, George Mattson of Mattson Mini Modular, James Husted of Synthwerks, Kevin O'Neill of Flight of Harmony, Scott Rise of Division 6, and Sebastian Jaeger of The Harvestman will be presenting. If you are in the Pacific Northwest, don't miss this event.

Some previously posted videos of Stephen Jones:

GEKIGANGER - THE TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEY OF THE FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR PART II from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR SYNTH DEMO SIX SE IO M'ACCORGO from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

Click here and scroll for more videos of and from Stephen Jones.

Pacific Northwest Modular Manufacturers to Present in PNW Division of AES

via the Pacific Northwest Section of the Audio Engineering Society:

"Meet the Seattle Area Modular Manufacturers

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 7:30PM
Microsoft Studios
4420 148th Ave NE, Redmond WA 98052, Building 127

Our February meeting features some of the rising stars of the new wave of Modular Synthesis giving demonstrations of some innovative new products as well as showing off some of the more tried and trusted, but never completely predictable, modular delights. This will be a great opportunity to play catch-up for those of you who may be new to the world of modular synthesizers - a world of infinitely variable possibilities that started in the early 70s when modular synthesis was pretty much the only way to go. If you're old enough, think back to the Buchla, Moog 900-series, and the ARP 2600 synthesizers. If not...

In the beginning, there were several separate modules, each responsible for a specific aspect of sound creation: Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCOs), Voltage Controlled Filters (VCFs) and Voltage Controlled Amplifiers (VCAs). It wasn't too long afterwards that Low Frequency Oscillators (LFOs), Sequencers/Arpeggiators, and Envelope Generators joined the party, creating a broad range of wonderful synthesized sounds. The flexibility of such a system was tremendous - primarily because the modules were connected together by patch cords, encouraging sound exploration and design. That flexibility came at a cost - complexity and price. The modular synths of the day were well out of range of all but the most serious musicians and academia. In addition, the different manufacturers had proprietary sizes and interfaces for their equipment.

This complexity led to an integration of functionality - the standard modules and patches that create sounds were put together and pre-patched, with control mainly of the parameters of the components, but not their order/configuration... These units incrementally came down in price until the pendulum swung furthest in the mid to late 80s. Here we had synthesizers whose human interface consisted of a couple of 7 segment LEDs and a data slider. The majority of the "patches" (named for the earlier use of patch cables to build a sound) were pre-set and canned. Much of the joy the synthesist derived from creating and manipulating their own sounds in real time evaporated. On the other hand, for live performance, a synthesizer with presets was really the only practical solution, because there was no way for a modular synthesizer to change patches quickly during performance.

Fortunately, with lead of several visionaries in the field, modular synthesis has been revived and the costs have dropped enough to become accessible to the general audience. There are new modular standards that provide opportunities for many manufacturers to make modules that interoperate seamlessly and inexpensively. On February 17th, we'll meet several of those manufacturers. Come and learn the history, state of the art, and future trends in modular synthesis.

Confirmed guests include:

* George Mattson, Mattson Modular www.mattsonminimodular.com
* James Husted, Synthwerks www.synthwerks.com
* Kevin O'Neill, Flight Of Harmony www.flightofharmony.com
* Scott Rise, Division 6 www.division-6.com
* Sebastian Jaeger, The Harvestman www.theharvestman.org
* Performance by Stephen Jones member of Red Martian http://redmartian.com

Interviews with the featured guests and more information about the new wave of modular synthesis can be found on electronicmusic.com

Steve Turnidge
AES PNW 2009-2010 Section Chair"

NOT NAMM: Synthwerks Interview

"Interview conducted via Google Wave between Paul Clark and Synthwerks founders James Husted and Steve Turnidge, January 2010 "

excerpt:
"electronicmusic.com: I know it's very early days for Synthwerks, but what's on the drawing board for future releases?

James Husted: We have three main families of modules. Controllers, Utility, and Audio modules. In the controller family there will be a few more FSR modules. A single larger FSR module, and possibly a XYZ controller, and a poorman's version of the Buchla 222e Multi-dimentional Kinesthetic Input Port, a 4x4 programmer, and a performance desktop cabinet to put these all in since the typical vertical cabinet is harder to use. In the utility space maybe some switching and patching modules.

In the audio space we plan on a limiter module (essential in saving your speakers if you do noise/bug music), Headphone Monitor, a new filter we call a Plateau Valley filter, and maybe a Mic preamp. Basically as many things as we can make - each new product funded by the last."

You can find the full interview on electronicmusic.com here.