Dennis Electronics Honolulu & Tau Systems Vintage Synth Ads

via Retro Synth Ads where you'll find the full write-up.

"Dennis Electronics "Increase your synthesizer's capabilities..." and "Expand your synthesizer's capabilities..." 1/12-page black and white advertisements from page 36 in the November/December 1977 and page 50 of the January/February 1978 issues of Synapse Magazine."

Follow-up to this post.

SDIY Assorted random project ideas

See http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma/ems11/projectideas_sp11.html. I mirrored this below for the archives as it's on an edu site and they have been known to disappear after interest is gone. There are some interesting details on various synth designs including the Rhodes Chroma VCO, Yamaha CS-80 filter, Roland Jupiter-6 filter, Korg MS-20 sytle VCO, Buchla 148, Tau 1005 Utility VCO, Korg Delta, and more.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Schematics via Mike Peake

Title link takes you to them. Be sure to click on the "All Sizes" link for each.

GX1 Ring Modulator
CS80 Ring Mod (pictured)
Tau VCA 5
Tau VCA 7
Tau VCA Layout
Tau VCA PCB
Polyfusion Octave Divider
MS20 Ring Modulator

JH Frequency Shifter PCB Update

Via JH on AH:

"I've soldered all components to the prototype board of the main FS-1A PCB, and made a quick demo in connection with an old Dome Filter board (that I had originally made for the FS-2). It's all hooked up with alligator clips, and connected to the insert path of my mixing console because I needed a microphone preamp. I think it's a quite stupid demo, but it shows that the new board works, and I think the sound is very clean for a frequency shifter!

New demo (boring, but showing off some of the sound quality):
http://electro-music.com/forum/download.php?id=8848
Older demos (more dramatic);
http://www.jhaible.de/mp3/jh_ber_1.mp3
http://www.jhaible.de/mp3/jh_ber_2.mp3

Unfortunately, I'll have to make a redesign of the main PCB. I noticed that some of the LM13600s I have in the drawer don't work properly, because their gm matching is too bad for that application. In my prototype, I've used a NE5517, and it works perfectly; but that doesn't mean every NE5517 would. So, I'm adding a gm balancing potentiometer to the new design, which will fix the problem, but which means extra investment in another prototype.

I also have ideas for the second board. I'll probably include an extra string of all pass filters, for a deeper Barberpole Phaser effect. And maybe an aread with veroboard-like structure, for everyone to experiment with additions of his/her own. More about the 2nd board later.

I think even though I expect considerably less demand for this project than for the Tau phaser (it's a more difficult project, after all!), the price per board could be similar, so expect something around 55 ... 60 Euro for the set of 2 boards.

JH."

Tau/Aries/ARP-inspired 20-pole Phaser

via JH via AH:
"I've made some first tests with my version of the Tau/ Aries/ ARP-inspired 20-pole Phaser.

Sound demos (mp3 format) are available:

jh_tau_demo_1_115.mp3
(White noise, and single VCO saw wave gated by Trapezoid, from Synthi Clone.
Run thru the Tau, added a little bit of reverb, recorded with Tracktion.)

jh_tau_demo_2_korg_drums_181.mp3
(Two stupid drum patterns from my Korg Electribe.)

jh_tau_demo_3_lambda_clavi_161.mp3
(Me playing the Clav sound on the Korg Lambda and my 5-year-old son Tassilo
turning the knobs of the Phaser.)

jh_tau_demo_4_lambda_strings_604.mp3
(Lambda Strings, also with Tassilo on the Phaser knobs)

Picture of the finished module: link

(What I will make available is not finished modules; just the naked boards
as shown here: link)

If you want to follow this project further, I'm making updates and announce prices on the electro-music forum: link

I've chosen this way simply because I can put up pictures and audio files there, so I can document this project without making a web site of my own for it. (This will probably come later.)

JH."

Symbolic Sound's Tau

This one via Doktor Future in the comments of this Acxel Resynthesizer post:

"Check out Symbolic Sound's new Tau re-synthesis algorithm. It has a lot in common with the Acxel:

- Dedicated Hardware
- Real time waveform manipulation

Screenshots
MP3's

Tau sounds *way* better than their previous resynthesis algorithm (which is still in the software if you want to use it). I have been working Sound that uses this re-synthesis algorithm and their 'cross-filter' convolution algorithm at the same time. It's pretty wild. I big fan of Symbolic Sound."

More on the Acxel Resynthesizer

A few more links via Chris Strellis.
mp3s
pics and info
Mov 1
Mov 2

And the Acxel Resynthesizer is featured in this DVD, also posted here back in September 2005.

Update via Doktor Future in the comments (also posted here):

"Check out Symbolic Sound's new Tau re-synthesis algorithm. It has a lot in common with the Acxel:

- Dedicated Hardware
- Real time waveform manipulation

Screenshots
MP3's

Tau sounds *way* better than their previous resynthesis algorithm (which is still in the software if you want to use it). I have been working Sound that uses this re-synthesis algorithm and their 'cross-filter' convolution algorithm at the same time. It's pretty wild. I big fan of Symbolic Sound."

Update. We killed Chris's bandwidth. Chris gave me the ok to move these to Twango. Here they are:

Tau - New Synthesis Algorithm by Symbolic Sound

Cool to see something new from Symbolic Sound, makers of the Kyma system.



"Tau sound synthesis and processing for time/frequency warping and multi-way morphing in Kyma X.3
CHAMPAIGN, IL—February 14, 2006—Symbolic Sound Corporation has developed a new technique for morphing, warping, and synthesizing sound in the Kyma sound design environment. The Tau and its accompanying graphic editor provide tools for creating natural sounding multi-way audio morphs, insane transmogrifications, and mysterious synthesized effects. Listen to some examples here."

List of features

In the Tau Editor you can:

* Time-align multiple files
* Match or transform the frequency, amplitude, and formant envelopes of files
* Morph across two, three or more sounds
* Record your real time transformations on disk for later editing
* Create an entire library of synthesis patches at the touch of a button (Galleries)
* Test the mix and morphing combinations in real time as you are editing
* Analyze a new sound by simply dragging it and dropping it into the editor
* Morph without time-smearing or "robotic" comb filtering effects
* Edit with complete freedom, knowing that you have unlimited undos

Title link takes you to more.