Soundart Chameleon - rare rackmount synthesizer, vocoder, fx processor

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This appears to be the first post to feature pics of the Soundart Chameleon. It was mentioned a couple of times in posts featuring Paula Maddox of Modal Electronics and vacaloco's Gorf development in 2008. See the Soundart label for more. Note there is also an unrelated Chameleon branded self contained modular synth.

From the auction:

"A rare synth/vocoder/fx processor in very good condition. There is a little rack rash and the top has some scratches (see pictures for details). It works perfectly and sounds awesome. The Soundart Chameleon is an amazing addition to your studio. It can host a legendary vocoder called Infiltrator (check out what gearspace says about Infiltrator) and some awesome synths---the best one being Austrailis. Peruse the website descriptions and sound examples for all the different skins you can load onto it, along with downloads of all the sysex files:

chameleon.synth.net/

To change skins, just hold SHIFT while you turn it on. It will display that it is waiting for the next skin. Then, use Bome SendSX to send it the sysex file of the next skin. You can find a link to SendSX here."

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Vaco Loco MonoWave II

"The MonoWave II is a complete change for me in that it's a 100% DSP based synth. My reason for this is that it allows me to experiment with features and the sound of the synth without having to rebuild circuits from scratch.

The MonoWave II is a free download for anyone who uses the Sound Art Chameleon. It was designed with the same goals in mind as the original Monowave, a unique sounding monosynth with unique sonic abilities.

I'm new to DSP and this is my first project, so I've decided to make it a freebie. You can get the latest version, along with a patch dump, in the downloads section. You can also find the source code, including DSP assembly language, here. Please feel free to use it, but I would request that you keep a link to the modulus webpage and also SoundArt webpages in the files."

Samples here

You can find more info on the original MonoWave here. In short it was a mono synth with Moog style filters and the PPG waveshapes for the Oscillators.

As always see the labels below for what's gone up in the past.

Update via Qwave in the comments:
"I can clear up a thing, because I own three MonoWaves: it does not produce wavetables. But it contains all the waveshapes the PPG waves used to make up the wavetables by interpolation. So it does sound like a PPG from the oscillator side. But the filter is a pure and legal (written permission by Bob Moog!) Moog filter.
http://www.till-kopper.de/monowave.html
Scroll down for the english (sort of) version.
Here is my MonoWave rack:
http://www.till-kopper.de/monowave-rack-small.jpg

keep on turning these knobs"

Till"

Update via Lord Avon in the comments:
"It's worth noting that you can control the wavenumbers via MIDI CC, so if you sequence it you can get psuedo wavetable effects, like this demo from Paul Nagle ;-
http://www.vacoloco.net/synths/monowave/sounds/MonoWaving_Seq.mp3"

GorF (Ver 0.15)

YouTube via VacolocoSynth

"As promised, the latest version of GorF.
this time the sounds are coming from the Sound Art Chameleon running the Fahrenheit soundskin.

New features for this version, include :

- Stable timing (I found and fixed the bug in the previous version)
- MIDI clock out (with start/stop commands)
- Step Length mode
- Step "Legato" mode"

GorF and Defender

via Vaco Loco where you will find more info.

"Gorf is a simple 8 step sequencer. It isn't as clever or complex as the Sequentix P3 nor as expensive as certain other sequencers.

I was bored one sunday, and wanted to build a simple sequencer I could use to test Defender and other synths I was building."

snip on Defender: "Defender is my current project, and as such, is a work in progress, so please, don't ask for schematics, code or if you can buy it.

The synth is broken down into three parts,

1. The Voice Card, which holds the filter, oscillators, EGs and LFOs
2. Controller Card, which handles midi, voice assignment and patch storage
3. Front Panel card, which handles the rotary encoders, pitch wheels, etc, etc"


Update via Lord Avon in the comments:

Video demo of GorF (playing Monowave II skin on the SoundArt Chameleon)

YouTube via VacolocoSynth

sounds for Defender ;- http://www.vacoloco.net/synths/defender/sounds.shtml

I'll add more soon, using GorF to control it.

Paul"

Video details:
"GorF is a minimal step sequencer.
I built it to help testing my synth designs.

It sends MIDI notes and velocity on a user selectable Midi channel along with two MIDI CC's (user selectable) and of course has variable sequence length.

You can turn steps on and off using the buttons, but I forgot to show this feature. When I do the next video I'll be sure to show this feature.

It's still in the early stages of development, and has one or two little bugs in it.

The sound is coming from the MonowaveII sound skin.

www.VacoLoco.net"

GorF (Ver 0.15)