Formant Synth Dream

Update as of 9:26 PDT: I made a couple of minor updates in case you read it before then. Sorry!

A quick note on posts like this: I hope you enjoy them. If not, just skip them. When I first started the site I used to share my synth dreams but stopped. Personally I get a kick out of them. I won't share every one, just some of the stand outs. The last one stood out for the humor, this one stood out for the design of the instrument. It reminds me of different makers and their approach. As a maker, do you set out to design a synthesizer, an instrument, or both? Are you locked in by the tools, components, and paradigms of what makes a synth? In my dream both the musician and the maker (who never made an appearance BTW) didn't really know what a synth even was. The maker just designed an instrument and the musician just played it. This reminds me of Don Buchla's original designs and specifically the Buchla Music Easel. This was at the birth of synthesis as we know it. What's interesting is his designs weren't meant to be what they are commonly perceived as today. They were meant to be unique instruments, palettes for sound, hence the Music Easel. I heard even his modular systems weren't meant to be complete fixed instruments, they weren't meant to be mixed and matched. Think about that for a bit. They were modular in design, but they weren't meant to be modular in nature. They were meant to be wholly formed instruments. In the following dream the musician reminded me of Marc-Henri and Barry Schrader to an extent. Marc-Henri almost exclusively uses an Access Virus Ti as a music easel for his compositions. Barry Schrader started with Buchla and then moved to FM synthesis for his compositions. You can find an extensive interview with him here.


And the dream...

I had another synth dream last night. In this one I was at an ensemble event held in kind of a classroom/workshop/gym-type of open space at what felt like an old English or New England boarding school - lots of wood, flat tall ceilings, and windows along the length of the far wall. The ensemble consisted of maybe 18 people in a semi-circle with a small audience in front of them, mainly standing, which I was one of. The instructor had each member of the ensemble introduce their instruments. I was in front towards the left of the ensemble and noticed the last two instruments to be electronic desktop boxes sitting on a card table (synth gathering anywone?), both vintage and almost DIY looking in style. I remember thinking, "I know what these boxes are. They are synths! I can't wait to talk shop with the owners and check them out." Well the instructor starts going around the ensemble starting on the opposite side. Each member introduces their instrument and talks a little bit about them and their technique. There were some interesting brass-like instruments. I think there was one based on an alto trombone, but it was just a flat pipe and no horn at the end. Funny side note is my daughter is currently learning to play piccolo. She plays flute in high school band and decided to finally give the piccolo a try as a stretch goal. If you don't know what a piccolo is, it's a tiny flute for super high notes. She said there were tiny versions of most instruments including the trombone. I looked one up and sure enough there is. A tiny trombone not much longer than a foot exists. The instrument in my dream also bore a resemblance to the ribbon controller featured in the Nunomo QUN post, so I'm guessing that's where it came from - some bizarre mix of the two. Anyway, when the instructor/host got around to the last two instruments, it turned out the first was a theremin based synth minus the antennas. It was made of wood and looked vintage. It would have been interesting if not for the next box. That was something. It was black with white and silver sliders, levers, buttons, and knobs. It was a unique instrument custom made for the owner who knew the maker. The interesting thing was the musician wasn't familiar with synths and didn't even see the instrument as a synth. The maker also wasn't into synths. In the dream he was more like a luthier, more of an artist instrument maker than a synth maker. No offense to synth makers! :) Anyway, it was about the size of an EMS SYNTHI and was black with white levers and sliders and had a bunch of esoteric control blocks with non standard names/labels; similar to something like the Hartmann Neuron where controls are familiar but the names are completely different. For some reason it reminded me of a black Lassence uVentury, Modor NF-1, mixed with some MacBeth and Folktek in design, but again completely different. Again, this maker wasn't into synths. This was a unique instrument. After the talk was over the musician gave a little demo. The sound of it. It was like formant analog but the timbers coming out of it were rich and full, not thin or glossy like most formant synthesis. It sounded like nothing I've ever heard before. After the talks were over I walked over to it to check out the controls and design. I wondered if I could touch it and play with it a little and for some reason, as happens in dreams, I knew it was OK so I started playing with it. There was a thin ivory white reed-like lever about an inch and a half long that controlled a female formant timbre. It was amazing. There was an group of lever-type sliders that controlled a multi band formant filter block and I remember thinking, "Oh this is a filter!" There were envelop sliders and other familiar groups that I now forget, but there were a bunch of interesting controls on it that didn't quite match up to common synths. There were additional effects and shaping tools built into the design and everything just flowed like a natural instrument. Again it kind of reminded me in concept to a Hartman Neuron and Modor NF-1, with maybe a bit of Folktek, but it was more vintage and simplistic in design - just a sold black block with white and silver controls. It was definitely designed as a work of art instrument vs. a synth. Similar in concept to the Buchla music Easel as I mentioned in the intro to this dream above. So after checking it out a little and talking to the owner I realized I should take a video of it for the site! I got the OK to film it, pulled out my iPhone, and started trying to capture some of the controls and timbres it was capable of. When I got to that formant female slider it was gone! I couldn't remember what I did to get that sound and I couldn't find the control again. Damn dreams.... And as in many real world sessions I wasn't getting those rich timbres again. I got lost between timbres! I thought my readers would be disappointed in my programming chops for a split second, but then I reminded myself anyone into programming synths will understand and not care, so I kept tweaking. Well, right then, a foster kid boarding at the school distracted me and started talking to me. I hand gestured to him (no I did not flick him off) to hold off for a second because I was in the middle of filming the synth and trying to capture audio. He understood for like five seconds and started talking again. I asked him to give me a sec but he got upset and said I should be there more for people. I felt bad and wasn't getting anywhere with the instrument at that point, so I stopped filming to talk to him before he left.

And that was it! Everything felt right with the kid so that was good, but that instrument! It's gone forever...

Coronavirus Synth Dreams

So, anyone else having any coronavirus synth dreams? I had one last night where using pulse width modulation wasn't allowed during the lock down. I was showing someone how to program a synth and we accidentally used PWM. I remember thinking "why is this part of the lock down? we aren't going out in public or anything." We were then in a small classroom with a few other people trying out PWM. It didn't occur to me that even that limited gathering was a risk to exposure. Only the use of PWM was part of the ban, and apparently we we were being naughty. :)

Synth Spotting in Borderlands 3

via bÖsch @fabmass


"Synths setup in @Borderlands 3 ift.tt/2MuQuEc"

Synthesizer Noise Machine

Published on Jul 16, 2019 lehha zzz

Like weird dream synths. The top one is a custom Novation Bass Station II in custom black with yellow reverse keys. The bottom is a Roland SH-201 in black with orange reverse keys.

Speaking of synth dreams, I had one last night. I as walking down some neighborhood with chain link fenced yards and I saw what looked like a Pro-One mixed with a SynKey. It had a small three or four inch oscilloscope display on the top left where the "Programming" section on the SynKey would be. It was the size of a Pro-One with a titled panel and covered in knobs. It was so cool. A lady with paper grocery bags opened the gate to go in and I asked about it and if it was for sale. She said maybe and that if I liked synths she had a bunch of Keyboard Magazines for sale at the pawn shop down the street. I was then in the house with either her husband, friend or relative showing me the oscilloscope while I waited on a price. He said the price would likely be too high, but I told him I was curious none-the-less. He talked to the lady a bit and came back with $132! I then woke up, minus the synth of course. Sucks how that works. :)

Ensoniq FIZMO and Synth Dreams

via this auction

BIN: $999

"There were only 500 of these ever made, and many didn't survive due to an engineering flaw in the earlier production runs. This unit is one of the last ones produced and does NOT suffer from that flaw. It left the factory with the fix in place and has operated perfectly its entire life, and should continue to for many years to come. It's a beauty." See The Fizmo Fix on Carbon111 for more info.

BTW, this reminded me of a crazy synth dream I had last night. In my dream I was heading to some synth gathering and spotted a pawn shop when I parked. I went in not expecting much and then saw a bunch of stuff in different sections of the shop. I had that "yes!" feeling. To the right there was a two octave Fizmo! I have a Fizmo and debated whether I should pick it up as a lap synth. I then walked over and there was a Blue SH-101 in pristine shape for $400!!! I was definitely going to get that. I then started to see what else they had and Computer Controlled dropped in. I ran to the SH-101! :) Anyway he was coming in from the synth gathering to check things out. If only he dropped by beforehand. I took a bunch of shots for the blog and then woke up thinking well at least I got the shots! Yep... if only. :) The other night I had a crazy synth dream with Tom Cruise. He was on Oprah and then the show switched over to Letterman. He was talking about how he was all into synths now and he then performed some prog rock electronica. He kind of looked like a cross between Gandalf and this guy. Glad that one is over.

Real life synth dream: a few years back I went to Maui and on the last day after giving up on synth hunting from one jewelry pawn shop to another, my wife and I went to a Taco Bell to get something to eat. I snuck into one last pawn shop by the Taco Bell. I saw guitars and amps and got that feeling, "yes!". In the back corner was a TR-909 with a sticker on it that read 220, no dollar sign. I asked if that was the price. They said they'd give me $30 off of it!!! I got it for $190. Problem was they only took cash, I didn't have any and they were closing shop. I ran across a fourway highway as fast as I could to hit up the ATM. When I got back they were outside closing the door. I had that sick feeling in the pit of my stomache, but when they turned around they had the 909 in their hands. I bought it, cleaned it up and it's in pristine condition. True story.

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a synth dream via John Levin

"Perhaps this is a sure sign I've been reading MATRIXSYNTH too long... I had a synth dream!

In my dream, I was involved in the making of a documentary on the significance of the Arp Odyssey to the San Francisco disco music scene of the 1970's.

There was a section of the dream that was about the importance of the PPC controllers on the Odyssey. Some guy had even modded his Arp Omni so that one of the pads on the PPC could control the filter cutoff. At this point, there was even a schematic.

Would the PPCs even work on an Omni? Who knows? It was a dream!

Later, I was at a party, in someone's kitchen. It was still the San Francisco disco scene of the 1970's. There were about 5 cats in the kitchen. More Matrix influence, clearly.

Calling Dr. Freud! Well, I made a dreamy image of a PPC w/ schematic for you too.

Cheers,
John"

Update via John in the comments: "p.s. credit where credit is due. I got the original images to make the dream art from http://www.arpodyssey.com/schematics.html"

Crazy Synth Dreams and a Real Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard (Review)

I had another synth dream last night. This time I was out in LA making a trip to Noisebug with my wife. When I get there it turned into me just happening to drive by and noticing it was there. Hey, there's Noisebug, can I check it out!? Followed by a reluctant yes from my wife. :) Odd how dreams work that way. Note I've never actually been to Noisebug, so this was just my imagination. When we get there a guy comes out to our car and while I'm sitting there, I ask him what he has that might be interesting. Drive-up service! He says he has a Waldorf Pulse for $249 and some other things. I ask about the Pulse and he brings it out to me. I decide I must have it even though I already have a Pulse Plus. You can chain them for polyphony. I then convince my wife that I should go in and have a look around. I do and the place is probably a 4500 square foot warehouse, high ceilings like Costco, filled with synths and other electronics. Kind of like a massive or rather mini JRR World in New York but in an industrial flea market type setting. There are a number of shops in the open space. Tons of used synths. I start walking the aisles and see a few Oberheim DXs, OB-Xas and a few interesting Waldorfs. There's an orange XT with custom writing on it and coloring. If I remember correctly there's some 80s digital and DCO based analogs, a DX7, KORG DW8000 and some other random synths. I go to buy my Pulse Plus at one of the counters closest to the entrance and I notice a Yellow Waldorf Q with some red writing on it. It says something about Waldorf and it's in Spanish. Apparently Waldorf made it for one of the hispanic guys in the shop. The guy behind the counter points at him and rolls his eyes. Anyway, I pay for the Pulse Plus and I ask him if he has anything else for such a good deal. He says he has a Roland D50 for $150. I always wanted one so I ask him if I could check it out. I do and it's in fantastic shape. It has a green led type display with operator algorithms. Note the D50 isn't an FM synth. In my dream I wonder what that might be. The pitch benders on it are actually long thin pull tabs but you don't pull them, you press down on them. Kind of like the proportional pitch control on some of the ARP Odysseys but more like thin extended keys that you press down. It was actually pretty nice feeling but somewhat cheap. I tell him I'll take it and he takes it away to prep it for me. I head to another section and there's a Prophet-5 hiding under a card table for $554! My wife is going to kill me. I turn it on and all voices are working but they are out of tune and the keys have graffiti on them from Sharpies. It's also physically shorter than a full size Prophet-5 - about three octaves. I debate on whether I should get it and I think I could really use Stephen of Synthwood.com's help as he definitely knows his Prophets (in real life too!). He says probably not since I have one already. I ask him if he plans to pick it up. :) He says nooooo. The sales guy lets me know the D50 is ready, so I leave Stephen playing the Prophet-5. When I'm walking over to the counter to purchase the D50 the guy says with the additional $50 off, the D50 will come out to $100 and the Pulse is $200. Both are pristine! What a deal! While I'm purchasing them I realize my wife is still in the car!!! She's going to kill me!!! But if I explain the good deal I got, I'm sure she'll understand even though I've been in there for a good 30 to 40 minutes. :)

And that's it! I haven't had a good synth dream in a while. What caused it and why Noisebug? Well... I'm sure it has something to do with that Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard you see here. It just arrived yesterday from Noisebug! My initial impressions? Absolutely fantastic synth. Note, I've only had a little over a few hours with it, so the following impressions are initial. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but I have spent time with quite a few synths, analog and digital. I'm a bit of a Waldorf fanboy, but not because it's Waldorf. They just make fantastic sounding synths with impeccable design. I do love most if not all synths though. I have a tendancy to look for the good in synths and what each individual synth has to offer vs. looking for what's wrong and/or negatively comparing a given synth to another with obviously more power. That said, here are my initial impressions:

On the physical design:
Extremely classy looking, superb keyboard and knobs. Solid metal construction. The mod and pitch wheels are light, thin and have little pointers poking out at the mid points. At first I thought they might be a little flimsy, and I wasn't sure how the I'd like them, but so far they feel good. I like them.

On the interface:
Extremely well laid out. I wasn't sure if it would be difficult to navigate, as if you look at the top right you will see that the matrix there only has the most common parameters you might want to edit for each section. How do you dig deeper? Well, with any section selected (indicated by the led on the left of the matrix), you turn the top left knob (photo above) by the display to get to deeper settings. You then use the two knobs under the display to edit. The display BTW, is pretty nice. Anything you edit shows up graphically and changes in real time. Overall the synth is super easy to navigate. The endless knobs are smooth and solid.

On the sound:
Definitely Waldorf but more. Like I said above, I have an XT, Q and Pulse Plus. The XT is a wavetable synth, which means you select a wavetable as a sound source. Think of a wavetable as a spreadsheet holding a single cycle waveform in each cell. Once a wavetable is selected you can then set the cell reference point for each oscillator. You can then apply modulation to that reference point to sweep through the wavetable. You can do this with an LFO, Envelops, aftertouch, the mod wheel, etc. With the XT note that all oscillators share the same wavetable, so there is only one shared across oscillators in a single patch. With the Blofeld you can have a different wavetable for each OSC 1 and OSC 2. With the XT however, if you change wavetables while holding a note down, you will hear the wavetable change. You can get some really cool effects going this way. With the Blofeld the wavetable does not change until the next note is played. Note if you have an arpeggio going on the Blofeld the sound will change. OSC 3 is your standard virtual analog oscillator. Note OSCs 1 and 2 do have virtual analog waveshapes. The Blofeld has the XT wavetables and the Alt 1 and Alt 2 wavetables from the Q. In addition to wavetable and virtual analog synthesis, the Blofeld also has sample based synthesis! The samples act as oscillators to be used as sound sources in the synth engine - think synthesis as the focus vs. sampling. What it does is bring a whole new sound palette to the Waldorf line of synthesis. When I think Waldorf, I think wavetables and VA, now sample based oscillators have been added to the mix. How does it sound? Fantastic! There are some nice organic samples on board including a really nice Nylon guitar patch A014. I did notice a small quirk with this patch though. If you hold down C2 or a couple of notes around it the loop repeats at the end point much like old samplers. It doesn't do this for the rest of the keyboard range and I didn't notice it on other patches. Update: this problem went away after updating the OS. I went from 1.10 incrementally up to 1.13.

As for audio quality, presence and hi fidelity, the synth sounds absolutely amazing. One of my biggest gripes with some virtual analog synths out there is that they can sound somewhat muffled and weak. They are missing that certain boldness and presence you find in many analogs. A bit watered down so to speak. I was curious how the Blofeld would sound in this regard. To my ears it is very, very bold. Possibly more so than the Q rack - almost more "analog" sounding. It's on par with the Pulse and either as bold if not bolder than the XTk. It really has presence.

Summary
Overall, I am in love with this synth. For the price, $999 from Noisebug, it is an absolute steel. It is super compact, more so than the Nord Lead, it's built like a tank, has a fantastic interface and the sound is bold and broad. You have virtual analog, wavetable and now sample based synthesis. If this synth came out at the same time as the original Q I could see it going for twice as much. I'd recommend this synth to anyone. It is a great starter synth to learn the basics of subtractive synthesis and you can dig real deep. The interface is a breeze to navigate and the synth engine is extremely powerful in spite of it's price. Highly, highly recommended. Note there have been some bugs reported on the Waldorf list. Waldorf is working on updates, however the current bugs may or may not matter to you.

And.. that's all for now. Synth dreams and a real synth dream come true for me. I love my Blofeld!

I want to give a special thanks to Antonio at Noisebug. He was a pleasure to deal with. I ordered my Blofeld on Tuesday, it was shipped that day, and it arrived on schedule Friday. I was given a tracking number on Tuesday without having to ask and I was able to plan accordingly. I had absolutely fantastic service from Noisebug and can highly recommend them. Note they currently have the Blofeld Keyboard on sale from now until the end of July for $999 which is what I paid for mine. It's one heck of a birthday present. :)

You can find more pics including box shots here.

Update: soon after I wrote this mini review, I later hooked up the MIDI out on my Blofeld Keyboard and to my dismay it was not working. I had OS 1.10 loaded. Upgrading to 1.11 fixed the problem. I then upgraded to 1.12 followed by 1.13 and the fix stayed in tack. MIDI out is working. I just wanted to note this in the post in case anyone else ran into the problem. You can find the latest updates here. Note, one other person on the Waldorf user forum also had the problem on 1.10 and upgrading took care of it.

Synth Dreams - Serge Beer Can Modules

Had an odd one last night. I was out on boat and grabbed a can of serge from the cooler. Literally. It was a can of beer that you split open in half. The can perfectly split in half and on the inside of each was a serge modular with banana jacks. It was similar to an m-odule, just in a beer can, one in each half. You got two mini m-odules per can. Not sure how you'd patch it but in dreams, it all just makes sense.

Happy Easter everyone. More Synth Dreams via the label below. If you have any, feel free to share.

A Synth Dream

Chang sent the following in on the AH list. I've posted Synth Dreams in the past and figured this one was worth a post.

"My dream the other night...

I went to a music shop and bought two new synths. One was called the JP6 by Roland but was not a Jupiter 6. It was built almost like a taller, narrower Korg MS-10 or MS-20, with avery colorful front panel.

The other synth was kind of like a Nord MicroMOdular only when programmed it produced these gorgeous, analog drenched sounds and arpeggios. I and my abovementioned companion marveled at the sounds before the ladder sex. Then at some point later in the dream the guy from the store stole the synth back and I woke up pissed.

I have often dreamt of weird sex. I am only human.

I have never dreamt of synths. I am a geek now. Synths & sex? That's reallly weird."


Someone of course wanted to the know the details. Consider yourself warned... There is no synth content beyond this point, so if you are sensitive towards this stuff, move on...

"YOu ased you sick bastid:

Last night's dream has stuck in my head all day.

I can't figure out which part was the weirdest.

After the cut, there is sexy dreamy nonsense. You have been warned.

So the first weird bit was me having sex with the mother of an old high school friend. Only it was not the actual mother, but some sort of composite. And it began on a ladder. Yeah. When we actually, bedded, I tore away her turtleneck sweater to reveal a large surgical scar down the center of her chest and something written on her abdomen which I cannot remember. At some point earlier in the dream she had told me she had recently recovered from cancer. As we had the dream sex, she moaned, "THE CURE!!! THE CURE!!! THE CURE!!!" which neither took to mean sex with me was a cure for cancer (studies are inconclusive) and not an endoresment for Robert Smith and co."

Now this is a crazy synth dream...

buchla 1

YouTube via otisvue.
"patched without using 250e module which is the circular one in the middle of unit (a sequencer, to simplify)"
Funny note: this video reminded me of something I couldn't quite figure out at first. I then realized I had a pawn shop dream last night. In the dream, I had some formal appointment and had to head into the city (not a real city but one of those imagined ones). Anyway I see a pawn shop and decide to get off the bus and walk back to it. I get in and there are a number of synths all relatively overpriced, a DW8000 for $745 and a few synths that don't actually exist but I knew them in my dream. In the corner is a dusty 200e with a about 8 modules in it. I talk to the owner of the shop and he says he's going out of business and closing down soon. I ask him how much for this one (the buchla) and he says 18k and it needed a little work! I of course think, shoot! It's the same price as a new one with problems to boot. At the same time I'm a little relieved as I will not be spending money this time. I then head out for my appointment, no Buchla in hand. I totally forgot about this dream until seeing this vid. I love synth dreams, especially pawn shop ones. There was a time when I was having them every other night. You know you have GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) going when this happens. The best thing is when you find deals in real life and for a split second you literally think, oh no, another synth dream I'm going to wake up from. I picked up a TR-909 for $190 once, a JD-800 for $600 CDN (about $400 US), and a Pro-One for $125, all when prices were high for each. Each one had me wondering if I was going to wake up.

I MONSTER Daydream In Blue

WARNING!!!: Not work safe. A bit of female nudity. You consent you are over 18 if you click on the image or title link. Yeah... YouTube via varrod. Sent my way via Kris. Features a bit of EMS Synthi, Korg MS20, Suzuki Omnichord and a string synth. If you know what the string synth is feel free to comment. Synths come in at the very beginning and about 2 minutes in.




Update: the original was pulled, here it is again:

Synth Dreams

Dave of umop.com and The Packrat sent an email on a synth dream he had, to me and a couple of others. I replied with my own. Dave and Peter Forrest thought they were a good read so I figured I'd put up a post. Dave gave me the go ahead to start with his. If you have any similar stories, feel free to post them in the comments. I thought this particular Packrat Toon held a little bit of truth to the experience behind the dreams. BTW, title link takes you to the rest of The Packrat strip. Hmm... Now that I think of it, all the toons would make for great dreams. : ) Click the image to read it.


Before we start. Question: How many of you realized it was a dream in the middle of it and actually tried to take it back to the other side? I have.

Via Dave:
"Not for nuthin', but after I bought some office furniture at Ikea the
other day, I guess the store invaded & scrambled my thoughts, because
I dreamed I bought a little 2-osc analog synth from them.

I'd supply a picture but it was so nondescript it doesn't really
matter. It was about half a MaxiKorg with similarly colored switches;
plain black cheapo plastic body. Mixer faders all the way over on the
side, embedded in the end cheeks like an OB-Xa retrofit (for only two
VCO's?... there were so many faders...); and of course those cheeks
were Ikea's specialty "birch effect" particle board in composition.

One other detail I remember is the waveform knob was a simple knob
which went from brass (saw) to EP (electric piano [??]). When cranked
all the way left, this thing sounded fatter than the brass from ELP's
"Touch and Go" and I recall remarking to my girlfriend in the dream
(who was naked of course...TMI?) that I planned on bringing this
little $199 beauty out with me to Pong* shows as a dedicated brass
synth.

The name? "Ikeaboard" of course.

Just thought I'd share. It's weird to have dreams with this many
technical details skirting so close to the realistic."

############################################################################

Via Matrix:
"Too funny, I used to have synth dreams all the time. There was a time in
real life, where I was hitting up pawn shop after pawn shop looking for
"that deal." I had major GAS. At that time I'd have dreams about shops in
various cities with crazy analog gear I've never seen before. Bizarre
Roland/Oberheim combo analogs. The shops always seemed to have mini lofts
in the back where they stored a bunch of dusty old analogs. I have
re-occuring dreams about making rounds through pawn shops on Santa Monica
Blvd. in LA between Van Ness and Western, which I just realized there isn't
a single pawn shop in that stretch if I remember correctly, and rounds in a
downtown that's a mix between LA, Venice Beach, and Seattle. The most
memorable synth of all things was a Red SH-101 that was shiny and had curves
which slanted in by the keys. Imagine a shiny red SH-101 designed by
Ferarri and you'll get the idea.

Here's a couple of real life experiences similar to my synth dreams:

1) I used to go up to Vancouver B.C. about twice a year and run through this
routine:

1. Check-in at hotel.
2. Walk out and down one side of Granville Ave hitting every pawn shop on
the way to the liqour store (mostly avoiding eye contact with the porn shop
displays in between - Granville basically has pawn shops, porn shops, clubs,
and convenience stores with .99 pizza by the slice). And then walk back up
the other, hitting all the pawn shops on that side.
3. Buy a synth if I was lucky enough to find one (I bought my JD-800 for
$650 Canadian there)
4. Bring it and the drinks up to the hotel room, and go through my cleaning
ritual while drinking these Canadian berry flavored drinks with MuchTV
(Canadian MTV) in the background (my wife liked that show when we visited).
I'd also watch life go by out on Granville. I always got a second to third
story room with a view of the street. I'd spend about an hour clianing the
synth and then play a bit and head out for the night. Back from the night
I'd stare out the window and watch the craziness that happens when people
start leaving the clubs. The whole time I'd be glowing and thinking about
how cool it was that I actually found something. There was a Kurzweil
K2000S I was eyeing in a shop for a while, but I thought the asking price at
$800 or so Canadian was too much for it to be a deal. Visiting Granville
was my pawnshop dream in real life minus of course the mass cool gear, but I
usually found something interesting too look at if not buy. I'd always go
up for my birthday as well, so finding something on that trip was always
better.

2) I went to Maui once, and made a point to hit the pawn shops at some
point. I didn't get around to it until the last day. To my wife's
reluctance, we hit shop after shop and found nothing. We burned out and
gave up. On the way back to the hotel, my wife spots Taco Bell. We go in
and I see a pawn shop around back. I say just one more. She's says no, but
I pull the what if that's the pawn shop that has the $50 Minimoog?! She
gives in. I walk in and in the back I see what looks like either a TR-707
or 909. I figure of course it's the 707 with my luck. I get closer and
it's pretty dusty, and... It's the 909. I get that sick feeling in the
stomache, that feeling of panic like someone or something is going to go
wrong. I grab it and look at a sticker on it. It says 220, but no $. I
ask the guy working there if that's the price. Turns out he's the owner and
he says a little nervously, "oh..., we can take $30 off of that" A 909 for
$190! I say sold! But... He only takes cash. I have no cash and he is
about to close! He's in a hurry to go see some blockbuster that just came
out. The shop opens again after my plane leaves. I ask if there is an ATM
close by. There is one across a high speed highway. but he says I better
hurry because he needs to make the movie and will not wait. What do I do?
I bolt across the street. I manage to withdraw the money and run back just
as he's locking the shop. I get that sick feeling like I knew it was too
good to happen, but... he has the 909 in hand and I make my purchase. : )
Only... They didn't have any 1/4" cables for me to try it, and as he was in
a rush, I had to buy it hoping it was ok. I almost didn't get it but I
figured I could get it repaired at that price, so I'm hoping it's just not
too bad. I get back and plug it in. I hear it thumping away. Big grin.
; ) I clean it up and it's immaculate, no issues whatsoever."

Literal Dream Synths - Polyevolver Desktop and OB12

No title link until I have the time and skill Sealed has to mock these up. : ) So, in the previous post I alluded to reoccurring synth dreams I have. I actually created a post on the-gas-station a year or two ago on this, but I didn't save the URL (I'll see if I can dig it up). Anyway, label me obseesed, but I freqently have dreams about synths. Usually they revolve around two scenarios - one, I'm travelling in a city and I hit all the pawn shops; or two, I'm seeing a band play live, and somehow I have access to the stage so I walk around and check out the synths being played; yeah, right. Almost always the synths are imaginary versions of existing synths. Last night I had a dream that I was walking around U2's stage. They had another dedicated band member who played synths for them - he was like the Edge, but another guy and he was an actual member of the band, not a stage or tour musician. He had a four voice Polyevolver desktop that looked about the size of a Future Retro Revolution, but was blue and knob ladden like a Polyevolver keyboard, but different - not as many knobs. He also had an Oberheim OB12, but it was more like an Access Virus or Nord Lead in that the knobs and sliders did not take up the entire surface like a real OB12. The funny thing is this was probably the first case a synth in my dream was not as desirable as the real deal. The really funny thing about this dream was that I realised it was a dream, so I pulled out a Post-It pad and tried to write the synths down before I woke up, thinking that if I did the Post-It would be in my pocket when I woke up. : ) My favorite dream synth? A glossy red Roland SH-101 that looked like a sloped, curved Ferrari. Absolutely beautiful.

Yamaha SY100

Sealed has a post up on the Yamaha SY100 PCM/Vector Synth, an even lower end Vector synth than the SY22 at $99. I have a TG-33 and I know about the SY22, (there once was one in a local classified ad for $0. Yep, free and fully working, but I was too late). So... A Yamaha SY100. I scratched my head a bit, as you might just be doing right now. I don't recall an SY100.... Why? Because it doesn't exist. : ) It's another one of Sealed's dream synths, however this one actually, almost got me. : ) Too many synths, too little time... What's funny is I have reoccuring dreams of synths that do not exist. Call me obsessed. Actually I'll post about a dream I had last night next.