Euro-Rack Format Zeroscillator

Wow. This is absolutely stunning. Title link takes you to the Cynthia website with shots of all supported formats inlcuding MOTM, Blacet, DotCom, Modcan, and of course, this beauty, the Euro-Rack format.

Also check out the Cyndusties list for samples and more.

OB-Xa with Plexiglass Side Cheeks

Title link takes you to a bigger shot. Via this auction.

John Bowen Synth Design & Zarg Music

I was just checking out John Bowen's Zargmusic site and I thought I'd put up a post on it. I remembered reading about John Bowen being part of Sequential Circuits, but I had no idea how large the scope of his contributions to the synth world were.

He started as the first official Moog clinician in 1973 and later joined Dave Smith and Sequential Circuits in 1976. He is the man behind the original 40 Prophet 5 presets and he was SCI's Product Specialist creating 99% of factory sounds for nearly all of the SCI product line. He contributed to the design of SCI instruments. After SCI was bought out by Yamaha, he moved on to Korg where he became the Product Manager for the Wavestation synths, followed by the OASYS project the Z1, and the OASYS PCI. After Korg he joined Creamware and worked on a number of projects including Pulsar/SCOPE and the Pro One and Prophet 5 emulations. Via Zarg Music John has released number of synths including the acclaimed Solaris and the Red Dwarf synths.

An interesting tidbit of trivia according to the history page on Zarg Music is that John Bowen coined both the terms "wave sequencing" and "multitimbre." The basic concepts behind wave sequencing also come from John. Fascinating bit of synth history.

Title link takes you to the Zargmusic site with more. Be sure to check out the history page and samples of each synth. If you haven't checked out the Red Dwarf, make sure to do so. It's a semi-modular with a number of interesting modules including a CEM Oscs-Pair, Waldorf OSC, WaveTable Osc-Modular, CEM LP 24 dB Filter and much, much more.

Wearable Synthesis

Via Synthtopia News. Title link takes you there. "This conceptual model is similar to the analog synthesizer. In analog synthesizer, users can generate infinite original sound by connecting and tuning three modules, VCA, VCO and VCF. We have named our model “Wearable Synthesis” in the meaning of enabling original fashion expression by combining individual fashion items."

David Rogoff's CS-80 Gallery

Title link takes you to a set of Yamaha CS-80 pics, mainly of the inside. Enjoy.

Excel Spreadsheet Based Drummachine

Music Thing has a post up on an Excel Spreadsheet Based Drummachine. Yap... Reminds me of the Excel Spreadsheet Synth also featured on Music Thing. Title link takes you there.

Rhodes Chroma Tapper

Update from Chris in the comments section:
"If you do a search for "tapper" or "thunker" from the home page of rhodeschroma.com, you'll find a number of mentions of this feature of the Chroma. It can also be turned off. In the interview I did with Phil Dodds and Tony Williams, I asked how the "thunker" came about: http://www.rhodeschroma.com/?id=doddswilliams#thunker"



When I recently played a Rhodes Chroma for the first time I was astonished by the feel of the keyboard and the sound it produced. I had no idea what to expect, would this be a somewhat thinned down polysynth or would it have the brawn of the mighty poly analogs like the Oberheim OBXa, SCI Prophet 5, or Roland Jupiter 8. Well let's say it pretty much holds its own against these classics and actually outdoes them in some ways. The sound is absolutely full, thick analog, and the flexibility of routing and modulation options out does the above. But... this is not the point of this post. When I was playing with the Chroma I noticed a sort of thick clunk when pressing its membrane switches and for some parameters I heard this when moving its one editing slider. It through me off and I actually thought it was broken! I was actually a little relieved as at that point I figured there was no way I'd be tempted to buy this particular unit. But then it occurred to me that this might actually be by design. I played with a bit more and sure enough it was clear that this was on purpose. After using it a bit I began to appreciate the thudded tap - it added a certain weight and tactile response to editing the synth which would be missing without it. I find it fascinating that they took the time out to implement this and I'm left wondering if there are any other synths with it. At this point there is none that I know of. Title link takes you to more on this unique feature on the Rhodes Chroma site. BTW, I'm still blown away by the resources and support available on the Rhodes Chroma site. If there was ever a synth resource award, Chris Ryan would be on the top of my list. Links via Chris Ryan on AH.

Two links on the tapper:
http://www.rhodeschroma.com/?id=emm#shapingthesystem (picture)
http://www.rhodeschroma.com/?id=diagnostics#tapper

Linplug Octopus - 8 Op Dual Matrix Synth

8 Op FM synthesizer for OSX and XP. Title link takes you there. Via Moogulator's Machinesound.de blog. BTW, Machinessound is a great synth blog, well worth checking out and subbing to.

The Synth Elf - New Flickr Shots

Yep.... Some more after the hop.

Scaffbeat Studio 1 - New Flickr Set

Title link takes you to a nice synth Flickr-fest. Via Moogulator of Sequencer.de, via http://maschinensound.de/blog/?p=254. Note: There is a video link on this last link but I had a bit of trouble getting to myself and had to head out. I will probably try again later, but I did want to call it out in case you wanted to give it a try.

Update: Click here to go to the movie. When you are there, scroll to the bottom of the page. You should see a FREE link. Click on it to get to the movie dowload.