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Monday, December 19, 2005

More Essential Synth Books - Peter Forrest



The "A-Z of Analogue Synthesizers" books by Peter Forrest are hands down two of the most highly regarded synth publications out there. I have a copy of each myself and they are absolutely essential in my opinion. Highly, highly recommended if you are into synths. They read like an encyclopia/catalog of synthesisers. There's a load of detail on each synth including specs and images. I sent an email to Peter Forrest asking if he had a recommended link to put up for the image on the right pane below. He ended up sending me a few nice scans of the books and another book, which I do not yet have, (but heard good things about), "Analogue Heaven, the Museum of Synthesizer Technology." Title link takes you to those shots. These are great books to curl up in your favorite spot and just flip through. Sometimes a book is just better than a computer screen.

For more info on ordering send email to pforrest@vemia.co.uk.

Electroniscape - Exercises in Synthesis

Title link takes you to Ron Berry's Electroniscape. It's a wonderful site with a section on "Synthesiser adventures" and "Acoustic Modeling." The section on synthesizer adventures is a mini history page on synthesis with snapshots of various modulars. The section on acoustic modeling covers the use of analog modulars in creating real world instruments. The image below is taken from this section. If you want to learn more about honing your programing skills, this is a great resource. Check out this sample of creating a plucked string. What's great about this sample is you can hear it evolve as it is programmed. Models covered include plucked strings, bass guitar, gongs, bells, etc, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet and flute, other sounds. Link via Eric on AH.

Green Buchla Thunder

Update: fixed title link to bigger shot. Sorry about that. : )

One of four made. Umm... That would probably be my choice of color, you think? : ) Another via echo7even of The Electric Music Box. Title link takes you to a larger shot. Make sure to check out The Electric Music Box for more Buchla. Thanks echo7even!



More on the Buchla Thunder.
"THUNDER IS A SPECIALIZED MIDI CONTROLLER that senses various aspects of the touch of hands on its playing surface, and transmits the resultant gestural information via MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to responsive electronic instrumentation."

Minimoog Voyager - New Flickr Shot

Nice shot of the Minmoog Voyager.

Mike Ford's Creations on GetLoFi

Wow. Some interesting gadgets via Mike Ford on GetLoFi. I think these beat the hippo in the prior post.

Synthopotomus - New Flickr Shot

Yep... Title of that schematic in the shot says, "Your First Wacky Electronic Noise Maker Thingy."

Update: Source of the schematic via the comments:
http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/YOUR_FIRST_SYNTH/YOUR_FIRST_SYNTH.html

Online Rhythmicon

Title link takes you to The Online Rythmicon. Via Alex Dorfman. Interesting. Thanks Alex!



"The Rhythmicon was a musical keyboard instrument built in 1931 by Leon Theremin at the request of composer/theorist Henry Cowell. Each key of the Rhythmicon played a repeated tone, proportional in pitch and rhythm to the overtone series (the second key played twice as high and twice as fast as the first key. The third key played three times higher and repeated three times faster then the first key, etc.)"

You can also find more on the Ryhthmicon on 120 Years.

Roland Jupiter 4 Samples

Title link takes you to a post by premieklovn on VSE with some really nice Jupiter 4 samples. Enjoy.

Elhardt on Synthesis

Elhardt. Some of you may recognize the name. For those of you that do, it might conjure up a number of reactions, some good some bad. : ) He has been the source of a number of controversies and one grand spectacle in the synth world - the Bahn Sage. The Bahn Sage was probably the biggest synth spoof ever. I remember spending weeks with others trying to find more on this mystery synth. A photo showed up on the net and it quickly spread, followed by more, and finally a brochure that had people whipping out their Photoshop skills to analyze in detail. In the end it was a fake; a brilliant hoax.

Now Elhardt has be showcasing his amazing programming skills by conjuring up some of the most realistic acoustic examples of real life instruments with an Alesis ION, Andromeda A6, and MOTM modular. Is it real or is it another hoax like the Sage? Who knows. I'm inclined to believe these samples are real given the attention to detail with the Bahn Sage, and replications of real world instruments by synthesists such as Wendy Carlos in the past, but you never know, do you. His samples are pretty awe inspiring (check out the links to some of my previous posts below for some examples, specifically the realistic drum set).

Another controversial perspective on synthesis from Elhardt? Knobs are not performance controllers. They are used to edit and create sounds. That's it. If you want to control sounds while playing, use the dedicated performance controllers on the synth like the mod wheels and keyboard. : ) I like to play outside of the box myself. Regardless I am impressed by Elhardt, and I do appreciate his dedication to synthesis.

Recently Elhardt sent an email to AH on his perspective on synthesis. I asked him if it would be ok for me to post it and he said yes. Enjoy. Or not. : )

Elhardt on Synthesis:

"Following are all the reasons I like to do realistic emulations of reality.

1) There is nothing interesting about playing samples. Everbody is doing that. Buy a $200 Casio and it does it. The skill of synthesis is completely missing. An artist paints a landscape, he doesn't just snap a photo of it. Sample libraries make everybody sound the same. If everybody synthesized their own acoustic sounds, everybody would have a different style.

2) Sample libraries are so insanely huge and can't even be fully used in real-time. I'd have to spend weeks sifting through 35 Gig of string samples and articulations and go through days of intense sequencer/midi programming to get them to play in a realistic manner. I'd have to use them from a computer with bug-ridden software. Major sample libraries are never complete, and constant updates suck money from you for the rest of your life. It's all going in the wrong direction.

3) I want instruments that play like physically modeled instruments. I just call up one patch and play it expressively in real-time. Simple. I also want to do instruments I can't buy samples of, or create brandnew instruments never heard before.

4) BTW, I have a lot of sample libraries, and some of the instruments suck, sometimes it's just a few notes that suck, sometimes the attacks are too slow and they can't be played fast, there are mistakes made (like clicking noises in garritans trombones, or a mono sample within stereo samples and so on), there's the repetative nature of hearing the sample recording played everytime the note is played, and so on.

5) Synthesis died in the 80's, before anybody ever pushed it to its limits. That is unsatisfying to me. When I first heard Tomita, I thought he was synthesizing virtually everything. Through the years, I found out he was using real instruments, mellotrons, and other acoustic methods in places. I want to do what he didn't. When I do a CD, I want to say I created all those sounds. As synthesists, aren't we supposed to show those snobby acoustic musicians we don't need them or their sounds?

6) Acoustic sounds are complex and hard to synthesize. It demonstrates extreme skill, knowledge of sound, and totoal control over a synthesizer to accomplish the advanced and difficult programming to acheive some of those sounds. It requires coming up with new techniques and tricks which are challenging and have never been done before. We've been hearing awful string patches, corny brass patches, cheesy drum patches for decades now. I want to push subtractive synthesis to its limits to see what it can really do, even if it were for no other reason than to say, "see", it really can be done.

7) Doing spacey synth pads and sequenced bass lines and that stuff is all nice and good, and I create many patches like those myself. But those things are relatively easy to accomplish. They don't force you into extreme patches of a 100 modules or into using a 42 band filter bank and spending weeks to acheive something nobody else can seem to do. You can't do this stuff on a Minimoog or OB-8. So as Matthew pointed out, it's mostly unexplored terrain. And doing something for the first time is more motivating to me than doing things already done.

BTW, my latest Nord violin I believe sounds better than the Synful one over certain ranges of notes. After I make two more passes through the 42 band filter bank refining it, I think I may have a better sounding violin over the entire range. Though it still won't play as smoothy. I'm also back to working on my additive string synth for the winter. The one I started working on before Synful hit the market and took some of the wind out of my sail."

Some previous posts on Elhardt:

http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/08/bahn-sage.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/12/alesis-ion-ralistic-drum-kit.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-ion-demos-by-kenneth-elhardt.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-andromeda-a6-and-motm-demos-by.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-andromeda-a6-samples-by-kenneth.html

Sunday, December 18, 2005

TB-303 Package

No title link. I recently posted on the Roland TB-303 Bass Line Chordwheel. echo7even of The Electric Music Box sent the following shot of a TB-303 and all accessories. You can see the chordwheel in the shot. Sounds like he got a killer deal on this package as well. One man's garbage is another's prize. Lucky man.



"HI Matrix,

I just posted a comment about the 303 Chordwheel.. I have all the 303 Accessories.. the guy I bought it from bought it in 1983, brought it home,, HATED it and stashed it in his closet.. I found out about it several years ago but just bought it from him recently.. pretty much brand new.

attached is a pic. the pattern sheets I got arent pictured. he found them in his stack of old synth brochures.

-r"
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