MATRIXSYNTH

at 8/10/2007 07:35:00 PM

The following is via Sir Ruff on VSE:

"well, I don't normally write about anything new I get, but this this just showed up today and kind of blew me away. I really didn't expect it to sound so damn raw and vintage, but I guess it is essentially components of a ms-20 in a pseudo-preset box. I frankly can't ever see this being used as a guitar synth-the bass is so massive, even with just one oscillator preset on, it would be silly not to use it for this. there is just enough resonance on the filter to achieve the perfect "phwoah" sound... very rude! Twisted Evil totally unlike any filter I have used before-again I assume this is part of the ms-20 legacy... Actually this would be a perfect addition to a ms-10/20 setup due to all the inputs for pitch/filter/lfo/portamento... I guess there were special pedals you could buy for this, but surely other connections would work as well? Failing this, I will at least be able to connect it to my cs15 for some 3 osc madness.

Unfortunately, I don't have a manual, and there's none on the net, so if anyone happens to know the inner workings of the "touch sense" parameter, and others, I'd like to hear!"

And the Poll... I frequently come across mini reviews like this on various forums and... I find them interesting. On the one hand it could just be a reflection of someone's joy in picking up a new synth, but on the other it is a perspective on the new synth. And... I have seen dissapointment as well. The poll, or rather my question to you is, should I put this stuff up when I come across it? It is fascinating in that you get to see one person's reaction to a given synth, but would you consider it worth posting here? On a forum, of course it makes sense. The comment in this mini review that stood out as interesting to me was the following: "I guess it is essentially components of a ms-20 in a pseudo-preset box." The X-911, guitar synth, consisting of MS20 components. Is this correct? Of course if you know it not to be, you are free to correct this statement in the comments here and/or on the thread as well. The thing with the VSE thread is that it will eventually disappear - inactive threads there will eventually expire. Let me know if you think I should post these one of mini reviews via the poll below. Note that I am completely on the fence on this one and normally I would not put this up unless someone sent it in for a post. So if you vote no, I will not take offense to it.

at 8/10/2007 07:19:00 PM

For the ultimate sawtooth wave.

Actually it's a theremin. Title link takes you to more info on fotosis.

at 8/10/2007 04:41:00 PM

via suthnear via this KVR post.

"Since it looks as if Urs has fixed the 16 slot oscillator loading bug I'm now going to convert all the microwave xt wavetables to z2 oscillators. However, I can't just convert the wavetables themselves - they often have more than 16 waves. I'll definitely convert all the individual waveshapes from the xt's wavebank and bang them into z2 tables 16 at a time. There are 100s of them so this will mean many, many new oscillators. This is how I converted the prophet vs waveshapes to z2. However, there is not necessarily a relationship between contiguous waves in the wavebank. Relationships are handled by the wavetables which group individual waveshapes (wavetables are just a set of pointers into the wavebank) . So sweeping z2's table may lead to discontinuities. Also, since there's no way to copy individual waves between oscillators, it'll be tricky to build up your own wavetables using the sounds.

I'll try and create z2 versions of the wavetables themselves - i.e. pick the most characteristic waves in a wavetable and rebuild the wavetable itself as a z2 oscillator (using z2's interpolation where necessary). For the wavetables with 16 waves or fewer this will be trivial. However, for the tables with more than 16 waves, this will be manual and therefore will take some time. Any other suggestions for this?

Also, I don't have any web space - can anyone recommend a decent hassle free hosting service. As noted, I also have the prophet vs waves..."

You can find the waves at the post.
More info on Zebra here. This one sent my way via Greg 'Bug' Strutton.

at 8/10/2007 04:09:00 PM

Title link takes you to the mp3. Via Mark of cold hand murr.

"Red Square, DRM1mkii, and Perfourmer wired up together in a way I'm sure I'll never be able to reproduce... i.e., all sound sources are realtime analog. Recorded in one take with a bunch of frantic knob traffic.

Vermona DRM1mkii, Vermona Perfourmer, Analogue Solutions Red Square, Lexicon MPX-550 (verb and trem), Akai MPC1000 (sequencing), MAM SLE 82, Echo AudioFire 2"

at 8/10/2007 11:29:00 AM

A few videos sent my way via Mr. Array. Note a couple of these are just still images for the audio demo. The ARP Little bother in the first vid is not what you are hearing; it's the ATC-1 that you hear.

Bach Little Prelude BWV 934

"Ok, the last one. I apologize for the mistakes, but that's what I could record while I'm at home recovering from a cold. I played a Studio Electronics ATC-1 from the CME UF6, with Lexicon PCM-60 reverb, Echo indigo I/O, Cubase, iSight with iMovieHD."

Playng with a monophonic Synth

YouTubes via marcelojohann. I actually found this one checking out the rest of his videos and thought I'd include it. Be sure to check out the rest.
"This is a music of my own, actually a simple theme that I like and keep improvising over, but it has no defined begin, ending or structure. Here I'm playing it on a monophonic synth, interleaving notes and using a lot of reverb to give them sustain..."

Studio Electronics SE-1

YouTube via chriszanf.
"This is my SE-1. Im just messing about with a simple bassline and 1 bar of drums. There was only 1 other video of an SE-1 and that was broken/munted but still played. [its in the 'related' below] Ill post more later as Ive just got my studio together finally!!"

at 8/10/2007 10:55:00 AM

"The Orbital is a classic three VCO monosynth with powerful features. It uses the same tried and tested circuits as the Oakley Modular System. It has the same powerful huge sound but in a more compact and classic format.

My design brief was simple. To build a superb analogue monosynth for musicians using existing Oakley PCBs and to fit it all in a 4U rack. It had to be simple to operate, yet flexible enough to keep virtually everyone happy. So what has the Orbital got to offer:

Three VCOs. Each oscillator is the Oakley 'One of three' VCO with sine, triangle, pulse and sawtooth available simultaneously. An ingenious mixing system keeps the overall volume level the similar as the waveforms are switched in and out. Synchronisation is provided so that VCO 2 and/or VCO 3 can be synched to VCO1. VCO2 can have its pulse width modulated by one of the ADSRs. While VCO 3 can have its pitch swept by the envelope generator, for powerful lead sync sounds."

Title link takes you to more info and images on the Oakley site.

at 8/10/2007 10:50:00 AM

Title link takes you to a number of PPG mods on seib.synth.net. While there, be sure to check out the rest of the site.

Pictured is a Wave 2.3 mod
"This modification has been done by DI Helmut Fischbach (who built a lot of stuff for Kraftwerk) for Manfred Hermann und Jon Kaiser from Berlin. For that, the whole Wave was "sliced" and put into a rack case."

Mods include:
Wave 2 Rack
Wave 2.3 with velocity-sensitive keyboard
Wave 2.3 Rack (pictured)