MATRIXSYNTH: Site Tips


Showing posts with label Site Tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Site Tips. Show all posts

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Site Update: A Note on "Auction" Posts

This is just a heads up, in gear for sale posts, new posts will feature "via this listing" instead of "via this auction". If you search for old gear pics be sure to run two searches on the site, one with "listing" and one with "auction" for posts older than today. The reasoning: when the site first launched in 2005, auctions were king. The messaging stuck to make searching for previous posts easier. Since then fixed price listings have taken over and posting via "this auction" when it's not an actual auction no longer feels right. Via this listing is more accurate as it can be either an auction listing or a fixed price listing. I wish I thought of this back in 2005, but again, back then they were auctions. This post is just for regulars on the site who like searching for old pics. Use "auction" for posts prior to today, and use "listing" for newer posts.

The Auctions label, however, will remain for all posts featuring "via this auction" and "via this listing". Unfortunately labels aren't included in the site's search functionality.

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You might have also noticed a new statement on top of all auction/listing posts:

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

See the site's privacy policy for more info on that.

Wednesday, July 06, 2022

A Quick Note on Links On the Site


It appears some people are letting their domain names expire. This is understandable as people move on. The problem though is phishing sites are taking them over. This site is run on Blogger and Blogger has been notifying me of malicious links. I've spent several hours removing problem links. Because of this I've decided to no longer actively link to external sites, with only a few exceptions. If you are interested in a product featured in a post, search for it online or highlight any unlinked links and copy and search.

Monday, June 27, 2022

Top Site Links


Just a note that I removed the links below from the top of the site, as they are on the top right of the site as well. Just doing a little clean-up on the site. I prefer things to be as streamlined as possible. Remember you can filter posts via the label links at the bottom of posts as well.

NEWS | UPDATES | SUPPORTING MEMBER POSTS | SUPPORT MATRIXSYNTH!

Saturday, September 04, 2021

Updated Site Links & Some Tips Navigating the Site


This is just an FYI that the links above (top of the site) have recently been updated. I'm trying to keep things minimial for easier navigation. They are pretty self explanatory, as are the USEFUL LINKS on the (top) right, but just in case:

NEWS = news items / product announcements and the like.

UPDATES = updates in posts. Check this link daily. That mystery keyboard controller in the KORG ARP 2600 post? It was identified and the post has been updated.

POPULAR = Popular Posts, Labels and Archvies = the most popular posts on the site based on traffic directly to the posts, followed by a dropdown of site labels, and a node branch of all posts on the site sorted by year, month, date. Click the dropdown arrows to expand each node.

RARE = the rarest of the rare in the synth world. Many feature one-of-kind items.

MEMBERS = posts featuring supporting member content.

SUPPORT MATRIXSYNTH! = page with a list of supporting members and where you can support the site if you'd like.

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On the right you'll find a repeat of the links along with the following added:

SUBMIT A POST = how to submit a post.

AUCTIONS = auction posts on the site.

COMMENTS = a page featuring the latest comments in posts. You can click on the user names, or post titles to get to the post.

EBAY | REVERB | AMAZON = shortcut links to get to each site. They are affiliate links so if you use them you support the site. There is no extra cost to you. If you don't use them they collect the full seller fees.

And that's it. At the bottom of every post you will find labels that will filter all posts by that label. On the top right you will find a search box to search on posts. It's set to sort by date but you can find a link to sort by relevance on top after the results come up. Finally, at the bottom of every page you will find NEXT links to get to the next page of posts. Once on the next page you'll see PREVIOUS PAGE and HOME added. Home gets you back to the front page and previous takes you to the prevoius page. Keep clicking NEXT until you catch up to the last post you viewed during your prior visit. Again, all of this is pretty common sense. Explore and enjoy the site!

Sunday, August 08, 2021

RSS Feed Update for MATRIXSYNTH

Update: it looks like the Feedburner RSS feed is back:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Matrixsynth

You can use it or the Blogger links below.

If you use RSS to subscribe to MATRIXSYNTH, you might want to re-subscribe. For some reason the Feedburner account I was using was suspended with the last post on Aug 4, 2021, 5:02 PM right after this post. I was never notified as to why. That said, you might want to catch up on posts if you rely on RSS.

You can resubscribe by pasting https://www.matrixsynth.com in your RSS reader, or via the following links:

New posts feed: https://www.blogger.com/feeds/17775202/posts/default

Updated/Edited posts feed: https://www.blogger.com/feeds/17775202/posts/default/-/updates

You can actually subscribe to any label by replacing "updates" in the above with any other label.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

YouTube Playlists Broken - And Fixed

Upate: it appears playlists are back.

Just a heads up, but it looks like embedded YouTube playlists are brokend across the board. Take a looksie here: https://www.matrixsynth.com/search?q=playlist&by-date=true

Note this affects all sites, not just here.

I have no idea if they are coming back. If you work at YouTube or know someone that does, maybe report it?

Playlists take a bit of work to create so this is making me rethink the idea of even creating them. I like the cleaner look with a single playlist on top, but separating the videos out does allow you to scroll down and watch each video in a separate player with the description directly below each video. Maybe that's better form a user experience perspective? If you feel strongly about either, feel free to leave a comment, but at this point I think I will separate them out moving forward. First video and description will show on the front page feed with a "CLICK FOR MORE" link to get to the rest in the individual post view.

Friday, December 06, 2013

KRM Electronics MIDI-CV Converter Prototype Demo


Published on Nov 25, 2013 krmelectronics·10 videos

"This is a demo of my performace-oriented MIDI-CV converter. The unit shown is only a prototype. I'm planning on making a module based version, and also a small PCB suitable for retrofitting a mono-synth.

In the demo I'm using an Ensoniq SQ1 as a MIDI controller. It's not producing any sound. All of the sound comes from a Paia 9700 modular. I'm also using an Akai LPD8 to send MIDI button presses, and continuous controller messages.

My MIDI-CV converter takes the merged MIDI stream, and outputs 2 CVs and a gate to the Paia 9700.

All of the arpeggiator functions can be controlled in real time via MIDI:
- MIDI sync On/Off
- MIDI clock ratio (from whole notes, all the way to 32nd triplets)
- Speed (when not synced to MIDI)
- Gate time
- Latch On/Off
- Arpeggiator pattern (Up, Down, Up-Down, Down-Up, Repeat End Note, Random, User Defined)
- Arpeggiator octave span (1 to 5)"

Note: I created a KRM Electronics label with this post. I added the label to the other technical overview and repair videos by krmelectronics as well. Labels typically get created for new makers & manufacturers and may be applied to posts not featuring their products to give you more insight into their interests and background.

Site Tip: See the manufacturer channels at the bottom of posts for more. You can find the channel label drop down on the right of the site. Or if you know the channel you can click on any channel in a post and replace the channel with the one you want, for example: http://www.matrixsynth.com/search/label/KRM%20Electronics to http://www.matrixsynth.com/search/label/Moog.

Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Site Menu Updates

This is just a heads up. I added the Updates and Comments links to the site menu directly above the posts section (directly below Featured Listings). Be sure to check the Updates at least once a day. Often I'll post a video only to have a follow-up video show up a few minutes later. Rather than put up a new post, I'll update the original and add the Update label. All updates go out on MATRIXSYNTH Twitter and Facebook, so you can follow them there if you prefer. All updates are preceded with a red Update: in the post so you can find them easily.  On Twitter and Facebook the update is preceded with Update: as well.

As for the Comments link, it currently only shows comments from the Blogger system. Facebook unfortunately does not offer a comment aggregation page for all comments on the site. If this has changed and anyone knows how to make it happen, let me know.  Note that if a comment comes in that warrants an update to a post I will update the post and an update will go out per above.

Finally, to keep the menu items from wrapping on mobile devices, I removed the Auctions link and changed Post Guidelines to just Guidelines, which actually makes more sense as they apply not only to all MATRIXSYNTH sites, but the MATRIXSYNTH Lounge on Facebook as well. You can find the Auctions link at the bottom of any auction post so it shouldn't be hard to find.   You can also just search for "auction" or any other term for that matter in the top left Blogger search box, followed by either sorting by date, or clicking the channel label at the bottom of the first post.  Channel labels always sort by latest post on top.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Read This Post if YouTube Embeds are Not Working for You in IE

I had a report that the YouTube videos on the site are not playing for some in IE. It turns out it is due to IE being run in compatibility mode. If you turn it off the videos should come up fine. YouTube has two embed codes available the new embed code that supports HTML5 and the old that is Flash only. iOS does not support Flash so I've been using the newer code. It looks like IE in compatibility mode does not play well with the newer code.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Site Maintenance: New Facebook Comments Added to Posts



Hi everyone!   You should notice a new Facebook comments box at the bottom of each post (click on the comments link or the post title to get to the individual post).  You can now leave comments there if you are logged into Facebook or you can continue to use the previous comment box below.  Your choice!  :)

Update: it was in sandbox (test) mode.  It should be working now.  It does take a second to load as it has to connect to Facebook.

Also if for some reason your age shows up it's because you haven't set any profile info on Facebook. The easiest fix is to click on "Edit Profile" on Facebook just below your name on the top left under the "facebook" logo and set something like Interwebs for your work.  If you are concerned, leave a test comment and then delete it to verify what comes up before posting your full comment.  If anyone knows how to hide the extra info aside from name, let me know.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

MATRIXSYNTH Site Performance Load Issues Fixed

For those of you who have been having trouble loading the site, the problem should now be fixed. Turns out it was due to the Archives widget on the right of the site.  On most browsers it would not load the full archive tree until you started expanding it.  I'm guessing on some browsers it would actually attempt to load the full tree or a good portion of it.  At over 90,628 posts including this one, that would definitely be a problem.  As a quick fix, I have the widget set to only show up on this page on the top right.   Don't click on the link if you were experiencing the load problem as it will likely hang your browser again.

If you are still seeing load issues on the site, please comment below or shoot me an email - email icon is in the Contact section at the bottom right of the site.

Friday, March 08, 2013

The Latest Music on MATRIXSYNTH-C & Site Updates

In case you missed it, the following are the top five music posts on MATRIXSYNTH-C:

Raoul Juke Unchained

Jordan Passmore - His Love (Official Music Video)

The Shadow Influence, Written and Produced by Alek Stark

Diapositive - Nightwalk EP

The Klirrfaktor 'Free Pussy Riot!' Full Set & Release

Be sure to see all of C for more.  This is the music directly from the readers and supporters of this site.

Moving forward I'll be putting up a post here on M for the top five posts on C every day a new post comes in.

On a side note, MATRIXSYNTH-P is going on hiatus, and the site menu above has been udpated.  The Featured label can be accessed via any post that has it moving forward. You can also bookmark it in your browser.  Also, the post guidelines for what goes up have been streamlined. You can find them here.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

A Note on the Modular Battle Videos

Just a quick note on the Modular Battle videos. As you can imagine the number of videos that go up on YouTube will likely increase significantly over time.  To prevent MATRIXSYNTH from getting overrun by them, I'll likely pick one or two each day the same way I'd pick other videos that go up. It's all good imo, but not everything can go up, so I do my best to keep MATRIXSYNTH balanced.  There is an unspoken recipe for what goes up over time and it changes with time.  The gist of it is in the Posting Guidelines, but there actually is a little more to it in order to ensure the most interesting bits get to you. But don't worry, when Battle 2 is complete I'll either put up one master post with all of the videos including those missed or I'll point you to the list on knoobz.com. I'd recommend following http://www.twitter.com/ModularBattle for the latest news on the battle.

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

NAMM

It's that time of year again. The NAMM show runs from January 24 - 27 this year.  Be sure to check out the NAMM label daily.  You'll find a link to it in the site menu above, top right.  Be sure check out the comments in posts as well.  You'll find some regarding the new Moog synth posted here.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

New Featured Listings Section

You might notice a new section above titled Featured Listings. I will be capturing the top seven most interesting items up for auction here moving forward. Clicking on a thumbnail will take you to the corresponding listing.

Considering how much goes up on the site daily, be sure to check out the "FEATURED" and "UPDATES" labels above. You can also follow on Twitter and Facebook.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Google+ Buttons

This is just a heads up that individual posts now have the Google+ button at the bottom next to the Facebook Like buttons. Note you do have to click the post title when on the main page to get to the individual post with the button. I couldn't find a way to make the buttons only apply to the post on the main page. Anyway if you are on Google+ you now have a way to + posts you like.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Admin: Blogger Search Working Again

Hopefully I won't jinx it, but Blogger search on the top left corner of the site appears to be working again, at least here on M. MATRIXSYNTH-B search still seems pretty hit and miss. Give it a try. Remember there are two search boxes on the site. Blogger search on the top left which brings up results as posts and Google search on the top right which brings up a results as links. Try both to see which you prefer.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

New MATRIXSYNTH.COM Domain Coming - Possible Site Outage

Just a heads up. I'm switching over to matrixsynth.com domains for the site. M will be m.matrixsynth.com, B will be b.matrixsynth.com, C will be c.matrixsynth.com and some of my non synth sites will move over if you track them, WATCHMATRIX for example. Note you shouldn't need to do anything on your end. Blogger will redirect you including all old links you might have. However, there might be a short downtime. Don't panic, the site will be back up soon. I just tested one and there was about a five minute downtime. MATRIXSYNTH will switch over last.

Done at 2:32 PM. Zero downtime.

Update: it looks like the Google Search box on the top right stopped working. I'm guessing the site will need to be re-crawled with the new domain name. We'll see how it goes.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Search Update

Note this site has two Search interfaces. Blogger Search and Google Search. The main difference is Blogger search shows results as posts and Google Search shows results in the standard list and short description format. I keep both for two reasons. Blogger is good when I want the link to bring up all posts for a given term like all YouTube videos featured on the site from a particular YouTube account. Google Search is better at digging deep and it's faster. Due to the high number of posts on the site, Blogger does a pretty poor job with older posts.

That said, I moved the Google Search box to the top right to make it more prominent. Remember to use both depending on how you want results to come back. Google pretty much finds everything, Blogger is good for recent posts and searching YouTube aliases.

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

A Quick Note on MATRIXSYNTH-C

MATRIXSYNTH-C started as a place to showcase music made by you the readers of the site. The rule for the site is that only music sent in goes up. This rewards you in that your posts stay up longer vs. competing with the flux of posts going up here on MATRIXSYNTH. It also keeps posts here under control. If you are unclear as to what goes up there vs. here, see this post. In short, MATRIXSYNTH is about the gear and MATRIXSYNTH-C is about the music.

That said, a concern of course is that people that have no interest in the sites (promoters and marketers) might drown your posts on C. So... Moving forward there is a new rule for MATRIXSYNTH-C. If you want a post to go up and promote your music, you will need to promote MATRIXSYNTH by linking back to the site. If you send something in for a post, please make sure there is a link back to MATRIXSYNTH before sending. If not it will likely be ignored. People that take the time to promote MATRIXSYNTH will be rewarded by having their posts stay up on MATRIXSYNTH-C longer. Note all MATRIXSYNTH-C posts also go up on MATRIXSYNTH Twitter and MATRIXSYNTH Facebook.

Update: I will make the exception for people that contribute to the main site. Unless I "know" you please call out what you have contributed - so much comes in it's impossible to remember everything. See the comments below for suggestions on how to link back if you are on Soundcloud, YouTube and/or Vimeo.
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