Ambient Drone Jam (July 18 2015)

Published on Jul 18, 2015 stereofect

"An ambient drone jam featuring the following synths:

Korg X5Dr
Mopho Desktop
Waldorf Blofeld
Roland Alpha Juno 1
Arturia Microbrute se
Novation Bass Station II
NlogSynth Pro on an ol' iPad1

Not a whole lot to see here as the majority of the gear used is off camera, but the whole thing is sequenced with the old school (circa 1998) Arp-X8 midi arpeggiator from Techno Toys and mixed in realtime. I used the Gliderverb app on my iPad4 for FX and a nanoKey2 for transposing the sequences.

Hope you like it.

Cheers!!"

Circular Keyboard

YouTube Uploaded by organfairy on Aug 23, 2011

"A couple of christmases ago I made a decoration that was inspired by J.M.Jarre's circular keyboard from the 1980's. Now it's time to take it one step further.

In this video I make an actual circular keyboard out of it. But I still need to make some kind of electronics for it. But now that I have made the mechanical part I don't believe that the rest will be that difficult.

The music is something I made in the year 2000 and is a Barbie-like take on Ralph Hütter and Florian Schneider's "Europe Endless" originally recorded by Kraftwerk in 1977. The arpeggio is made using a PC programme called SEQ-303. It is basically a 16 step sequencer on a PC with sliders and MIDI control. The rest is played on Yamaha HE-8 organ, Roland SH-2000 synthesizer, and Kawai MS-20 keyboard."

Monster Synths!

flickr by Easy Skywalker

Update: In case you want to make your own you can find some here:

KORG MS20
Arturia MMV / Moog Modular
ARP 2600
Minimoog
Keyboard Cat
http://sdiycut.com/

Tags: Paper cut outs / papercrafts

Admin: Updates via Twitter

This is just a heads up that you can get updates to old posts on http://twitter.com/matrixsynth.

Every now and then updates for old posts come in. Sometimes I put up a new post here to let you know, and other times I just update the post with a red Update:. I'll try to put the latter up on Twitter like I just did for this post.

I just started using Twitter and I'm getting the hang of it. I realize I don't have to post every little detail, like when I decide to go use the restroom. I will be posting little bits that don't quite fit here on MATRIXSYNTH and I'll be calling out posts that interest me in one way or another for those on Twitter that may not following the site closely. An example of what I posted there but not here is this wireless remote monitor I picked up off of Ebay for $108. It's called an AirPanel and it's made by ViewSonic. In about 2003 Microsoft came out with remote wireless monitors. The project was called Mira. It bombed because for about the same price you could get an actual laptop. The idea was that you could remote into your desktop and work on things at your leisure. I thought... hmm... wouldn't that be useful in the studio. I could remote into my desktop and I'd have a wireless touch screen monitor to control all of my software synths and sequencers. I had some trouble getting a network card that works with it. Yes, the remote wireless V100 comes with no wi-fi. Go figure. I couldn't get on my network with a Cisco Aeronet 350 which was supposed to work, but I did manage to get on with a D-Link 650 with some help from this forum. Now that I'm on, it works great. I was able to sequence my hardware synths using Techno Toys SEQ-303, while playing some soft synths at the same time. The cool thing about this is that the interface is completely wireless and it's a touchscreen! Having that direct interaction with the controls of a soft synth makes a big difference. Being able to walk around with a wireless monitor makes a huge difference.

Anyway, back to Twitter, if you are new to it, think of it as micro blogging. A perfect place to note little things like the above that may not make sense for a full blown post. You just put up little bits of stuff that interests you. You can post like crazy or you can post once a week, whatever and whenever, it's up to you.

Currently I'm adding anyone that follows me, but I'm not sure how long that will last. Quite a bit does come in and I don't keep up with it all, so if you have something for the blog, still send it in here via the comments of any post or contact me directly - my contact info is on the bottom right of the site.

Software STEP Sequencer runs Doepfer A100 sherman filterbank mopho

YouTube via inbetweenmovements
"The step Sequencer Seq-303 is triggering via midi doepfer A-100, Mopho sequencer is edited live via its Editor, Electribe ER-1 is filtered by sherman filterbank, delay Boss SP-303 and Echo park from Line 6, Kaoss Pad is used for breaks, Thanks to Regina for filming!!!"
That would be Techno Toys Seq-303. You can find it and more in the Techno Toys suite, free here.

Heiko`s Synthi-Bude

"Hello, this is my little Synthesizer-Studio. The audio-sequence is done with my selfmodified moog prodigy, which is midi-controlled by a little step-sequencer-software called seq-303."
YouTube via moogfreak.
"Hello, this is my little Synthesizer-Studio. The audio-sequence is done with my selfmodified moog prodigy, which is midi-controlled by a little step-sequencer-software called seq-303."

Kraftwerk Pocket Calculator on Bee Gees Rhythm Machine

YouTube via peahix.

"Further adventures in extreme music geekdom. This is me playing Kraftwerk's "Pocket Calculator" on a Mattel Bee Gees Rhythm Machine keyboard, followed by Kraftwerk's Ralf Hutter playing the song live one their Mattel Bee Gees Rhythm Machine. Except theirs is all painted black to hide the "Bee Gees" bit. Clever. You can also see this keyboard on the "Computer World" LP jacket. The other hand-held noisemakers are a Stylophone, TI Language Translator (same sound chip as the Speak & Spell), and a home-made electronic percussion trigger." Sent my way via J Lesser.



And the original. YouTube via technik.

NAMM Oddities 2007

Title link takes you there. Pictured here are The Wag ring to MIDI controller and the Axis Natural Keyboard MIDI controller. You can find them under the Techno Geek Toys section.

MIKADO Analog Sequencing System

Prototype analog sequencer project on the Techno Toys site. Title link takes you to more info including a sample, details for each module and an image of the hardware in the flesh.

"Mikado is a configurable analog sequencing system, optimized for controlling a small (2-4 voice) analog modular synthesizer.

Mikado was designed to meet the need for a flexible, non-traditional hardware sequencer. A primary design goal was to include several modules for creating and manipulating rhythms using dividers, logic, and manual input. Flexible voltage sequencing, quantizing, signal routing, and manual inputs were other necessities.

Mikado is a "semi-modular" sequencer ala the Fenix or Serge systems, rather than discrete modules as other systems are. This is in keeping with the goal of controlling a small system, and reflects the designer's needs. Mikado could also serve as the heart of a larger sequencer system by adding modules from other manufacturers. In the present design, banana jacks are used for patching, though other types of jacks could be used by changing the front panel drilling accordingly.

Mikado's module complement and front panel were designed and specified by Jim Johnson. Electronic design and PC board layout are by Jim Patchell. PC boards for this project will be made available, and a customizable front panel is also available. It should be noted that, while the remaining material on this page describes the sequencer's specified configuration, the circuit and PC boards will have some additional capabilities, such as extra LED drivers, some additional sequencer modes, etc.

Modules
Mikado's module complement is as follows:

* 1 Master Clock
* 2 8x2 Sequencers
* 2 Quantizers
* 1 Pattern Generator
* 1 Transposer
* 2 Analog Switches
* 1 Sequential Switch
* 2 2-input Logic Gates
* 1 4-input Logic Gate
* 3 Logic Inverters
* 1 Type D flip-flip
* 1 One-shot
* 1 Binary Divider
* 1 Prime Divider
* 1 Divide-by-N
* 2 Gate Switches
* 2 Gate/Trigger Buttons
* 3 Toggle Switches"


Via Exsurdo in the comments of this post.

Techno Toys is Now Free!

Looks like the Techno Toys suite is now free! Techno Toys was one of the first things I ever downloaded off the net. It has lived through Windows 95, 98, and now XP. It is the only software I have transfered and continue to use to this day. If you haven't tried them, just do it. Loads of fun. Pictured is the XG-909, SEQ-303, and ARP-X8. The ARP-X8 reminds me of an easy to use Oberheim Cyclone. Think uber arpeggiator. SEQ-303 is an analog style step sequencer with accent. The XG-909 I haven't played much with but obviously it's a 909 style drum machine. Title link takes you to the download. [mirrored here - right click and download the icon when you get there.]