Serge Modular

Click here for shots via this auction.

Details:
"SMOOTH FUNCTION GENERATOR, NOISE SOURCE, DUAL ANALOG SHIFT REGISTER, DUAL UNIVERSAL SLOPE GENERATOR, DUAL PHASER, UNIVERSAL EQUAL POWER AUDIO PROCESSOR, TIMBRAL OSCILLATOR, PRECISION VCO (TWO OF THESE), WAVE MULTIPLIER, VARIABLE Q VCF, DUAL TRANSIENT GENERATOR, DUAL AUDIO MIXER, TOUCH ACTIVATED KEYBOARD SEQUENCER.

Serge gets its name from Serge Tcherepnin (pronounced "Cher - epp - nin"), a multitalented composer and electronic designer born of Russian-Chinese parents and raised in France. Self-taught in electronic design and circuit building, Serge enjoyed doing 'junk electronic' projects early on, making tape compositions using various electronic noisemakers cobbled together out of transistor radios and the like.

After studying music and physics at Harvard and Princeton, he taught music composition at the California Institute of the Arts. This was the early 70's, the heyday of Moog, ARP, and Buchla synthesizers. Calarts had a few Buchla-equipped studios. These were expensive, highly sought-after instruments, kept under lock and key. Getting studio time on one at Calarts meant being either a recognized staff composer or someone who maneuvered themselves into favor. The Buchla, ARP, and Moog synthesizers were interesting in their way, but could be improved upon. They were both expensive and bulky, a system with a decent number of functions could take up a whole wall in a small room. Serge and students Rich Gold and Randy Cohen wondered what they could do about this. After kicking around some ideas, they decided they were going to do their own synthesizer.

The first modules were designed, soldered, and built at Serge's home in what was essentially a kitchen tabletop operation. Before long, the word got out to other professors, students, and musicians about this new synthesizer. They wanted a piece of the action. Serge set up a strange sort of guerrilla manufacturing operation at Calarts on a second-story courtyard balcony. People paid $700 upfront for parts, worked on the 'assembly line' soldering and building modules, and eventually got themselves a six-panel system. Somehow, the Calarts administration either didn't find out or wasn't too bothered by this.

Another interesting player in this drama was composer Morton Subotnik, a professor at Calarts. He had a long association with instrument designer Don Buchla in the early 60's, the two of them collaborating on fundamental aspects of synthesizer design. When Mort spoke, Don listened. Serge caught on to this, and sought to woo Morton away from the Buchlas, but that was difficult. Eventually, Serge did build Mort some custom equipment.

In the 70's Serge collaborated on the design and construction of TONTO, a large polyphonic modular system. TONTO had the ancestry of many early Serge designs, some packaged behind faux-Moog front panels, including the NTO.

Serge eventually quit teaching and began to build synthesizers more seriously, using the first designs as a springboard. The Serge company was started in 1975, in the West Hollywood area, then headed north to San Francisco's Haight Street a few years later. It was always a humble bohemian concern, running more on enthusiasm and the love of making music than money and hardheaded business sense. Business tapered to a trickle in the middle 80's, and Serge, to support his family, started doing various outside electronic consulting projects. In 1992 Serge decided to move back to France. It was at this point that he sold the closely-guarded circuit designs to longtime associate Rex Probe, who then founded Sound Transform Systems. Production record keeping was pretty informal; it's estimated that "hundreds" of Serge systems were produced in the early years.

Today, Serge is again doing musical composition and is involved in helping Russian Jews move to Israel.

As Moog was a powerful East Coast influence that inspired ARP and Polyfusion, Buchla was the West Coast influence on Serge. Several Buchla designs, including the use of touch sensitive nontraditional keyboards, sequencers, random voltage generators, function generators, and matrix mixers found their way into Serge's repertoire. But that's not to say that Serge is merely a Buchla clone. Serge made many unique contributions, including the wave multiplier module, and some ideas were taken to new heights. Serge's oscillator designs have extraordinary accuracy and stability, especially considering their discrete nature. His philosophy of allowing the easy interplay of audio, control, and trigger signals, combined with the use of banana plugs, makes these systems wonderfully flexible.

There's no denying the amazing staying power of the Serge designs. Largely because of the development of convenient microprocessor-based keyboard synths, the 80's were a nasty time for analog synthesizer makers, practically all of them throwing in the towel. Serge's business slowed way down but never completely went out of production. With the recent clamoring for analog gear fueling successful production, Rex Probe and Sound Transform Systems look poised to carry the cream of analog modular music synthesis over the threshold of the 21st century, into their fourth decade of realization.

Sound Transform Systems has done a great job of continuing the analog modular lineage. Most of the traditional Serge modules are there, a few old ones were dropped, a few new ones added. The details are constantly being improved in many visible and invisible ways. They are still laboriously handmade, though the entire build process has been improved. Turnaround time has been improved from several months to 'just a couple'. All the components are top notch. The panel graphics and layout of many of the modules have been redesigned to make them more compact while keeping or improving the functionality. The circuit designs on many modules have been updated."

Serge Modular System

images via this auction and this auction.
Auction 1:
QUANTIZER MODULE
ASR MODULE
ASR MODULE
DUAL TRANSIENT GENERATOR MODULE
RANDOM SOURCE MODULE
SMOOTH STEPPED GENERATOR
CV PRO MODULE
DUAL UNIVERSAL SLOPE GENERATOR
EXTENDED ADSR MODULE
SMOOTH FUNCTION GENERATOR
NOISE SOURCE MODULE
DUAL PROCESSOR MODULE
DUAL PROCESSOR SLOPE GENERATOR
PHASER MODULE
VOLT CONTROLLED STEREO MIXER
NEW TIMBRAL OSCILLATOR MODULE
PRECISION VCO (2 MODULES)
WAVE MULTIPLIER MODULE
VARIABLE QVCF MODULE
DUAL TRANSIENT GENERATOR
DUAL AUDIO MIXER MODULE
TOUCH ACTIVATED KEYBOARD SEQUENCER

Auction 2:
"PREAMP DETECTOR
FREQUENCY SHIFTER
C/M MODULE
WILSON ANALOG DELAY MODULE
MIXER MODULE
VARIABLE SLOPE VCF
RESONANT EQUILIZER MODULE
DUAL PHASER MODULE
DUAL CHANNEL STEREO MIXER MODULE

Serge gets its name from Serge Tcherepnin (pronounced "Cher - epp - nin"), a multitalented composer and electronic designer born of Russian-Chinese parents and raised in France. Self-taught in electronic design and circuit building, Serge enjoyed doing 'junk electronic' projects early on, making tape compositions using various electronic noisemakers cobbled together out of transistor radios and the like.

After studying music and physics at Harvard and Princeton, he taught music composition at the California Institute of the Arts. This was the early 70's, the heyday of Moog, ARP, and Buchla synthesizers. Calarts had a few Buchla-equipped studios. These were expensive, highly sought-after instruments, kept under lock and key. Getting studio time on one at Calarts meant being either a recognized staff composer or someone who maneuvered themselves into favor. The Buchla, ARP, and Moog synthesizers were interesting in their way, but could be improved upon. They were both expensive and bulky, a system with a decent number of functions could take up a whole wall in a small room. Serge and students Rich Gold and Randy Cohen wondered what they could do about this. After kicking around some ideas, they decided they were going to do their own synthesizer.

The first modules were designed, soldered, and built at Serge's home in what was essentially a kitchen tabletop operation. Before long, the word got out to other professors, students, and musicians about this new synthesizer. They wanted a piece of the action. Serge set up a strange sort of guerrilla manufacturing operation at Calarts on a second-story courtyard balcony. People paid $700 upfront for parts, worked on the 'assembly line' soldering and building modules, and eventually got themselves a six-panel system. Somehow, the Calarts administration either didn't find out or wasn't too bothered by this.

Another interesting player in this drama was composer Morton Subotnik, a professor at Calarts. He had a long association with instrument designer Don Buchla in the early 60's, the two of them collaborating on fundamental aspects of synthesizer design. When Mort spoke, Don listened. Serge caught on to this, and sought to woo Morton away from the Buchlas, but that was difficult. Eventually, Serge did build Mort some custom equipment.

In the 70's Serge collaborated on the design and construction of TONTO, a large polyphonic modular system. TONTO had the ancestry of many early Serge designs, some packaged behind faux-Moog front panels, including the NTO.

Serge eventually quit teaching and began to build synthesizers more seriously, using the first designs as a springboard. The Serge company was started in 1975, in the West Hollywood area, then headed north to San Francisco's Haight Street a few years later. It was always a humble bohemian concern, running more on enthusiasm and the love of making music than money and hardheaded business sense. Business tapered to a trickle in the middle 80's, and Serge, to support his family, started doing various outside electronic consulting projects. In 1992 Serge decided to move back to France. It was at this point that he sold the closely-guarded circuit designs to longtime associate Rex Probe, who then founded Sound Transform Systems. Production record keeping was pretty informal; it's estimated that "hundreds" of Serge systems were produced in the early years.

Today, Serge is again doing musical composition and is involved in helping Russian Jews move to Israel.
As Moog was a powerful East Coast influence that inspired ARP and Polyfusion, Buchla was the West Coast influence on Serge. Several Buchla designs, including the use of touch sensitive nontraditional keyboards, sequencers, random voltage generators, function generators, and matrix mixers found their way into Serge's repertoire. But that's not to say that Serge is merely a Buchla clone. Serge made many unique contributions, including the wave multiplier module, and some ideas were taken to new heights. Serge's oscillator designs have extraordinary accuracy and stability, especially considering their discrete nature. His philosophy of allowing the easy interplay of audio, control, and trigger signals, combined with the use of banana plugs, makes these systems wonderfully flexible.

There's no denying the amazing staying power of the Serge designs. Largely because of the development of convenient microprocessor-based keyboard synths, the 80's were a nasty time for analog synthesizer makers, practically all of them throwing in the towel. Serge's business slowed way down but never completely went out of production. With the recent clamoring for analog gear fueling successful production, Rex Probe and Sound Transform Systems look poised to carry the cream of analog modular music synthesis over the threshold of the 21st century, into their fourth decade of realization.

Sound Transform Systems has done a great job of continuing the analog modular lineage. Most of the traditional Serge modules are there, a few old ones were dropped, a few new ones added. The details are constantly being improved in many visible and invisible ways. They are still laboriously handmade, though the entire build process has been improved. Turnaround time has been improved from several months to 'just a couple'. All the components are top notch. The panel graphics and layout of many of the modules have been redesigned to make them more compact while keeping or improving the functionality. The circuit designs on many modules have been updated."

Serge Tcherepnin Coming Back to Modular with Tiptop Audio

Serge Tcherepnin, the man behind the original Serge Modular Music Systems from the 1970s is back at the drawing board with Tiptop Audio.  This is HUGE news.  Another legend of synthesizer history has returned. Note the newer Serge Modular systems are from Rex Probe's Sound Transform Systems. Serge Tcherepnin will be working with Tiptop Audio on new designs.

Update: they will be working on bringing both the older designs to euro format as well as new designs modified to be used with Tiptop stackable cables in lieu of banana jack.  Note older designs including modifications have been available in multiple formats via other manufacturers including Ken Stone's CGS and Bananalogue.  A VCO and the noise source are in the works.  The noise source is actually the original Serge design (the copyright is for the new schematic), and can be used independently, or can used in conjunction with the SSG to create a random voltage generator. (see the comments below)

Some history on Serge Tcherepnin from Wikipedia:

"Serge Tcherepnin is the son of composer Aleksandr Nikolayevich Tcherepnin and grandson of composer Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin. His mother was Chinese pianist Lee Hsien Ming. He had his first instruction in harmony with Nadia Boulanger and studied from 1958 to 1963 at Harvard University with Leon Kirchner and Billy Jim Layton. He became a naturalized American citizen in 1960. In 1961 at the Darmstadt Vacation Courses he studied with Luigi Nono. He then studied in Europe with Pierre Boulez, Herbert Eimert, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Between 1966 and 1968 he worked at the studio for electronic music of the Cologne Hochschule für Musik. From 1968 he directed the electronic studio of New York University. Starting in 1970 he taught composition and electronic music at the School of Music-California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. He has been involved with the development of synthesizers such as the Serge Modular and founded the company Serge Modular Music Systems. After selling this company in 1986 he returned to France. He has composed works for tape and electronic instruments, multimedia works, chamber music, a Kaddish for speakers and chamber ensemble (1962, on a text of Allen Ginsberg) as well as pieces for saxophone and for piano."

Update 2 via Tiptop Audio on Muff's: "Ok fellows, I don't have any front panels to show you yet, but i can share some of the progress we've made on this project:

I have been talking to Serge for sometime now about making the Serge system in eurorack. It all started when I introduce him to our Stackcables, he loved it and said that very few people are aware of how shielded patchcords would enhance modules such as the Serge VCFs, VCAs, Ring Mod, which are already ultra low noise. He continued by saying that with shielded patchords, the modules will
attain studio quality performance. I guess that from that point it was obvious, we are going to start a new Serge system in the best format in town, eurocrack.

So this is how it's going to work, all modules will be:

1. Original Serge designs

2. Serge color coded jacks

3. Serge original fonts and graphics, work flow

Or in other words; the whole Serge experience.

Those who have/had a Serge know what i'm talking about.

For starters, we are looking at making the Smooth and Stepped Generator (SSG) with added randomization, the Dual Slope Generator (DUSG) and the Wilson Analog Delay (WAD).

The fact that we are going to design all these from scratch give us the option to add features, but it is totally up to Serge to decide that. It is going to be his system and his ideas.

On the WAD we are working directly with Dave Wilson and hopefully we could figure out how to implement it with available parts.

The whole thing takes a very long time; Serge is a busy man so please be patient. I'm sure it is going to be worth the wait. It's a great joy seeing Serge drawing schematics again, and I will do my best to make it available for all of us to use."

The Master of Synthesizer Design : Axel Hartmann : From Inspiration to Iconic !

"Apr 11, 2025

The Master of Synthesizer Design : Axel Hartmann : From Inspiration to Iconic !

Hosted by Vin Curigliano of AAVIM Technology, I am joined by guest co-host Pete Brown of Microsoft, and special guest Axel Hartmann who has been the go to designer for some of the most iconic synthesizers of the last 35 years, and continues to be one of the leading designers in the field. Chances are, you have seen or played one of his designs.

We discuss Axel's history in music and technology, what lead him to follow the path to Industrial Design, and what motivated and inspired him to focus his attention and creativity, primarily in the area of musical instruments.

Starting with his early career at Waldorf that was initially in graphic design but expanded into the area of industrial design and the eventual design and development of the iconic Waldorf Wave synthesizer, as well as many other well-known and much-loved synthesizer designs for numerous other manufacturers.

We then cover a large number of his better-known designs, and get first-hand insights and behind the scenes details of what is actually involved in bringing these instruments to market.

Throughout, we dive into Axel's design philosophy and how he works in collaboration with the clients to bring the designs to life and to market. We navigate the highs, lows, hits, and misses over his career, and much, much more, with some great stories and laughs along the way."

Only 400 to 500 Hartmann Neurons built.

This one was sent my way via Soviet Space Child

The “Thing” The Great Seal Bug.

video upload by Behind Designs

This one is in via John L Rice.

"WW2 & Cold war weapons and spy gadgets were truly amazing! Have you ever wondered about the history of RFID and how it works? It was originally developed and first used as a Soviet cold war spying device. The Thing or The Great Seal bug as it was known, sat on the wall of a US ambassadors office for 7 years completely undetected listening into American secrets. The technology behind this revolutionary device now resides in your pocket in the form of Radio Frequency Identification. or RFID. Thank you so much to everyone who has subscribed and supported the channel so far.

Music Credits Lord of the dawn - Jesse Gallagher
Maestro Tlakaelel - Jesse Gallagher

Research, Script, Voice Over, Animations, 3D Modelling, Rendering, Editing. - Me"

Minimoog Change List - Minimoog Versions

via Brian Kehew of The MOOG Cookbook:

"Minimoog MODEL "D" Changes:

At first look, all Minimoogs seem alike. It seems that the Minimoog is something unchanging that we all know and recognize. They are similar to each other, but there are many features that changed over time. You may already be aware of a few differences, but most people will be surprised at how many variations there really are.

One of my main goals for this site was this very page: to show the developments in the main Minimoog design (MODEL D), and give an idea when the changes happened. To my knowledge, this type of listing has not been done for the Minimoog. Once you see it - you should be able to tell what is "original" on a Minimoog. In some cases, you will even be able to guess a Minimoog's serial number quite closely after only a quick glance! Like "trainspotting" (identifying nearly identical trains by small distinguishing features) this is trivial, but fun.
The process was simple - I compiled a database of over 100 Minimoogs. By asking owners detailed questions, I was able to determine the commmon developments. Cross-referencing this data to known dates of production, it becomes easier to see WHEN things might have happened. Note: This is by no means foolproof, and there are individual Mini's that do not fit the pattern. For now, we will assume that they are mutants/modifieds, and simply note the main trends.
The Changes:
Read through these links first, so you will be familiar with the details. Then, I have arranged a timeline of the changes below for clarity. In the future, I will have photos of the changes, a helpful visual reference...

* The Badge
* The Factories
* The Front Panel
* Graphics
* Wheels
* Left-Hand Switches
* Panel Switches
* Oscillators
* Octave Buffer Board
* Rear Cover
* Power Cable
* Pointer Knobs
* The Wood Case


* The Questions used to make the database.
* TIMELINE of Changes

THE BADGE

(This is the "logo plate" above the keyboard that identifies the company)

* R. A. Moog: When the company began making synths (1964/65), this was the name, carried over from Bob's Theremin business. This metal nameplate is only found on the earliest Minimoogs from (late) 1970 through 1971.
* Moog/Musonics: After Waytena bought the R.A.Moog company, it was merged with Musonics (his own company) and the Minimoogs from this brief period (1971) bear this name. A metal plaque.
* Moog Music Inc. After Moog was sold to Norlin/CBS in 1972, this became the name that would remain until the last Minimoogs were made. MOST Minimoogs have this plate, a vinyl material.

THE FACTORIES

(Moog had several plants during Minimoog production, relatively close to each other in upstate New York)

* Trumansburg: The original factory, built Minimoogs from late 1970 through 1971.
* Williamsville: after the Musonics purchase, operated from March 1971 to 1977.
* Buffalo: a much larger plant, made Minimoogs from 1977 to 1981

THE FRONT PANEL

(Construction of the front panel behind the knobs)

* Metal - A thin sheet of smooth aluminum.
* Metal with Plastic - same as above, but with a thin clear sheet of plastic to cover/protect it.
* Plastic - a heavier vinyl/plastic panel, with a textured surface.

GRAPHICS

(This is the silkscreened labelling on the front panel)

* "VOL." - the earliest Minimoogs (metal and metal/plastic panel) have different designs. The time settings are marked in seconds, the Osc.2 & 3 fine tune knobs have cents/100 divisions, and the Volume knobs say "VOL."
* "Volume" - the design used on all vinyl panel Minimoogs: the knobs say "VOLUME", the times are in divisions from 1 to 10, and the Osc. 2 & 3 tunings knobs are incremented from +/-1 to +/-7.

WHEELS

(On the left-hand modulation section, the wheels and switches underwent a few developments)

* Clear Wheels: the earliest design, a beautiful look.
* Solid White Wheels: same shape as before, but in an opaque white plastic.
* Serrated White Wheels: These have ridged, wavy edges for better gripping.

# Clear Lighted Wheels: same shape as early clear wheels, but with internal lights to show them off. Only on the last series of 25 "presentation" Minimoogs.

LEFT-HAND SWITCHES

* Decay/Glide switches are Red Momentary pushbuttons on the earliest R.A.Moog Mini's. This may be to make the instrument more "performance oriented" as the sound can "change" easier with momentary switches.
* White Mini-toggle switches. Some early R.A.Moog instruments have small toggle switches (NOT momentary) for Decay and Glide. On some, this appears to be a retrofit, as it would be more usable than the buttons. On most, this looks like the original factory issue design.
* White Rocker switches; the standard white plastic rocker switches found on almost all Mini's. Begins during the R.A.Moog period and remains until the last.

PANEL SWITCHES

(These are the colored rocker switches used all across the front control panel for modulation, the mixer, etc.)

* Blue and Orange - the most common color scheme - almost all Minimoogs have this setup. In case you never noticed, Blue is for audio routing, Orange is for modulation routing.
* All White - very few Mini's have this, but there are a few known examples, mostly early Mini's. It looks quite good, actually.
* All Black switches - again, another variation that seems to be original. The factory had them around, as the Power Switch is usually Black. This also looks very cool!
* All Blue - there are rumoured Mini's with all-blue switches (makes sense - it would have been EASY to do at the factory). At least one prototype had this.

OSCILLATORS

(This is an important and controversial point for some Minimoog owners. The Oscillators were changed, at least a few times, in order to make the Minimoog more reliable)

* R.A.Moog - these are the Oscillator circuit boards for the earliest Minimoogs. There may be only about 100 made with these boards - they have "RAMOOG" written on the circuit board itself. The do sound different than the later oscillators, but are relatively harder to keep in tune.
* "Old Oscillators" - a term that is somewhat misleading now that we know about the RAMoog boards! However, most people consider these to be the first half of Minimoog production, almost 6,000 of them made, so they are often called "older oscillators". They are relatively stable, except when switching Octave settings.
On the back panel, one can see a set of 7 small calibration holes behind the Oscillators. This is true for most RAMoog and "Older" Oscillators.
* "New Oscillators" - these were specifically designed to keep the Minimoog in tune, a big complaint for the many performers using the older oscillators. The new oscillators have 17 trim holes on the back panel. They allow for especially precise calibration on the high frequencies, and have the Octave Buffer (see below). Moog began these with #10175 to the end, but many earlier ones have had these retrofitted.

OCTAVE BUFFER BOARD

Apparently, not many people know about this. The Octave Buffer Board is a FACTORY modification to correct a design flaw in the original Minimoog: When Oscillators were switched between octaves, they would often go out of tune. This small board was added inside the Minimoog just under the top edge (behind the Oscillator section, and mounted to the metal with two small black screws)

Beginning with serial number #5000, this was done on ALL Minimoogs from the factory. I have seen MANY of the earlier units (before #5000), already retrofitted by the factory or factory-authorized service centers. When the Minimoog was sent in for calibration, new oscillators, repair, etc., it would have been added as a matter of course. It's a very GOOD modification to have done and will not affect the value of your instrument. It will, in fact, increase the value, as your Mini will definitely be better with it. (It is possible that the early RAMoog oscillators do not need this modification - we're looking into it)

REAR COVER

(This is the removable aluminum cover on the back of the Minimoog)

* Bent - on the R.A.Moog Minimoogs, the aluminum is a flat panel bent into a box shape. It has an open seam where the sides join.
* Welded - on all later Minimoogs, this cover was welded at the seams, to prevent dirt from entering the electronics section (a good idea!)

POWER CABLE

(The power cable changed several times during production)

* The R.A.Moog Minimoogs have power cables that enter to the Left of the Accessory jacks (when looking from behind). 2 prongs (no ground) and usually brown.
* When the Minimoog was made with the new "Moog/Musonics" badge, the power cable moves to the Right of the accessory jacks. It was originally brown, 2 prong. This is also true for early "Moog Music" Minimoogs.
* Later, it became 3 prong, in black or gray.

POINTER KNOBS

(An interesting (but rarely noticed) change in the Minimoogs)

* Most Minimoogs have standard pointer knobs - where one end is pointed and the other end is wide.
* There is a specific period in 1974 where Minimoogs have different pointer knobs, where both ends are the same shape. This may be due to a shortage at the factory, or to keep down costs (Note: these same pointer knobs are found later on the Micromoog and Multimoog). However, they ARE original from this period - many people will assume they have been changed.

WOOD CASE

(An obvious difference, very visible. I'm no expert on woods so I'm going to look into this with an expert. There are a LOT of different styles, some just variations on wood stain or color. Here are the basics)

* Early Minimoogs have dark brown walnut casings, rumoured to have been cut from trees on Bob Moog's property. They are not stained or laquered.
* The next series of Minimoogs seem to have a dark Mahogany wood, also unstained.
* Later, the Minimoog came in a "butterscotch" colored stain, over an light-colored unnamed wood.These will be slightly glossy.
* Finally, the Minimoog came in a wood with very dark brown stain, almost as thick as paint. It's not as natural-looking as earlier Minimoogs, but ALL Minimoogs are beautiful!




These are the questions that were asked of Minimoog owners. These are basic changes (mostly external) that help us identify any Minimoog. (I will get into more detail about the internal changes at a later date)

* Serial number ?
* Front plate - RAMoog, Musonics, or Moog Music?
* Casing - unfinished walnut, light maple (butterscotch), or dark stain mahogany?
* Front panel - metal, metal w/ clear plastic coat, smooth plastic, rough plastic?
* Factory - Trumansburg, Williamsville, Buffalo?
* Wheels - clear, smooth white, serrated (rippled) white, lighted clear?
* Panel engraving - "VOL" or "VOLUME"?
* Decay/Glide switches - momentary red buttons, white rocker, (other)?
* Panel switches - orange/blue, all black, or all white?
* On the top edge (behind the wood, just above the Oscillator knobs) are there two small (black) screws?
* Number of calibration holes in back panel? (total)
* Power cable (looking from the REAR) - right or left of Accessory jacks? - brown, grey, or black? - 2 or 3 prong?
* IF there are paper assembly tags inside - what is the date?"

How to discover SYNTH GEMS

video upload by peter m mahr

"Making of SYNTH GEMS1. The new book of BJOOKS.

https://bjooks.com/blogs/blog/all-abo...

SYNTH GEMS 1
Written by Mike Metlay
Concept, and design: Kim Bjørn
Editing team: Chris Meyer, Marc Doty, Gordon Reid, Collin Russell and Kim Bjørn
Copy editing: Diana Smethurst
Image editing: Kim Bjørn
Additional image editing and illustration: Natascha Bondo Bjørn"

"Text from the back cover:

SYNTH GEMS 1 is your guide to an eclectic and amazing collection of synthesizers as art. Experience the history, technology, and sonic innovation of electronic music in a completely new way.

With their widely diverse designs and intentions, synthesizers offer a world of fascination. What thoughts and emotions guided their creators? What do they say about the era when they were created? How do their form and function define one another, and the music they make?

As much for serious synth enthusiasts as for newcomers to electronic music, SYNTH GEMS 1 is an enlightening look into this wonderful world of vintage synthesizers.

An art gallery of electronic aesthetics

SYNTH GEMS 1 takes you on a tour of over 60 remarkable keyboards — large and small, famed and rare, elegant, beautiful, and brutal… and ranging from classics that define entire genres to rare oddities that bring their own grace to the world.

Each synthesizer is presented in a series of finely detailed photographs, with a discussion of its origins and importance. From the dawn of commercial synthesis to the close of the Twentieth Century, the lives and times of these unique instruments are chronicled in exquisite pictures and thoughtful stories – mingling music, technology, commerce, and visual art.

Meet the synthesizer

Besides a brief introduction to the basic elements of synthesizer design, as well as a comprehensive Glossary, the book is rounded out by tours of the three museums that opened their collections to be photographed, and a selection of resources for further study: books, films, educational initiatives, online resources – even ways to play with these sounds at home.

Known classics and significant rarities

Explore the designs and read the stories behind instruments from famous brands such as ARP, Casio, Clavia, Korg, Moog, Oberheim, Roland, Sequential, and Yamaha – as well as vintage gems from Crumar, Electronic Dream Plant, Elgam, E-mu, Ensoniq, Fairlight, Kawai, Gleeman, Lord Synthesisers, Steiner-Parker, Technics, Waldorf, and more.

The GEMS Series from Bjooks celebrate the inner and outer aesthetics of electronic musical instruments:

Detailed and beautiful color photographs, taken specifically for this series
Insightful discussion of the technical details – and the historical significance – of each instrument
Clear and inviting introductions to the concepts that guide these designs"

CLICK FOR MORE »

AEMIT Presents Innovative Eurorack Modules for the Discerning Synthesist

AEMIT ~ Some Sound Snippets from Aemit modular on Vimeo.
AEMIT - Formant tests with System 7.5

CLICK FOR MORE »

Interview with Mutable Instrument's Olivier Gillet

The following interview is by Juan Vílchez Gómez for Hispasonic. Juan sent it my way via The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge. You can find a Spanish version on Hispasonic here. The following interview is posted here in English with permission from Juan. MATRIXSYNTH gets a mention! Thank you to Juan and Hispasonic!

"Hispasonic: This time we are talking with Olivier Gillet, the man behind Mutable Instruments and creator of the famous synth Shruthi-1. He reveals exciting information about his next projects and throws light upon synth design.

JuanVilchez is the interviewer.

Hispasonic: Well... Taking into account that the key questions about the Shruthi-1 have been already answered in the forums, or in the comprehensive documentation of your webpage, I propose that you could speak us about the future of Mutable Instruments... as it seems that some exciting new machines are in the making right now.

Mutable: The exciting new projects:

Next project (september/october): the MIDIpal, a small, inexpensive, MIDI processing
unit, running algorithmic transformation on the MIDI notes (arpeggiation, harmonization, delays) along with more traditional filter/splitter/monitoring things. Something you'll want to stick between anything with a keyboard and anything with an audio out in your studio :) This is the first project that will be industrially manufactured - though the first batch will be available as a SMT kit.

A revision of the Shruthi-1 hardware for the next batches of kits - in particular I've spent quite some time cutting the part count on the filter board.

A new Shruthi-1 filter board (MS-20 clone).

A variant of the Shruthi-1 digital board that will replace all the digital oscillators by 12-
bits sample playback from a SD card (and will probably do sampling too). This will add a new dimension to the "Shruthi-system" = 3 "controller boards" (Shruthi, Sidekick, Sampler) x 7 "filter boards".

Something that will replace, in the long run, the Shruthi-1 - and in which I'm trying to address most of the shortcomings and design decisions of the Shruthi-1. This is a more ambitious, risky, project as I'm trying to squeeze in a lot of very new features, and design it in such a way that some parts of the project can be interchanged, with both a SMT version for industrial manufacturing and still a through- hole variant for DIYers. While avoiding reinventing too much and keeping it close to the Shruthi sound. Ready in 6 months? 1 year? I don't know.

Least sexy but most important thing: establishing an actual company -- at the moment what I do is registered as a "side-business" and while it is very simple paperwork-wise, it adds many constraints to what I can and cannot do, and exposes me to many risks in case of bankruptcy.

Hispasonic: I think that it could be interesting not only promoting Mutable Instruments but you as well, as I find that you're a really talented guy and that you've the most valuable opinions and tastes. Just saying... I perceive that you're a shy person (am I wrong?), but maybe it could be interesting to know more about "the creator".

Olivier: I wouldn't see the point of promoting myself - I don't sell myself, I sell synths, and they can "speak" or rather "sound" for themselves!
Many interesting synthesizer businesses are small, quite often run by one single person, who has to wear both an engineering and marketing hat. Personally, I try to keep my engineering hat as much as possible because this is what I am good at, and because I quite like the values that goes with engineering. Chips datasheets don't cheat, at least not on the first page... I see too much people overhyping stuff in my daily job to want to do anything like that when I am working on my synth projects.

Hispasonic: In Hispasonic we are really proud of our community of synth enthusiasts. Here is a little "window" that is going to be seen by a lot of people. Taking a look into your resumé, we know that we can confidently trust you in regard to software and electronic musical instruments. So... what do you want to say to them?

Olivier: If there had something I had to say to the synth public is that they should try to keep a critical eye and ear when looking at synths - there are so many misconceptions (that I used to have too, until recently!) about synths. Things like:
- "UIs with LCD displays / pages [as opposed to 'one knob per function'] suck" Most people having used the Shruthi-1 agree that the interface is very easy to understand. The ESQ-1 looks horrible with only one data entry slider but it's surprisingly very fast to program. While some knob-laden VAs are horrible to use because everything not directly in the front panel might be hidden behind half a dozen of keypresses.
- "8-bits => chiptune sounds!"
Just because something uses 8-bit resolution somewhere in the signal chain doesn't make it sound like a Nintendo. It's not all black and white: The Fairlight had 8-bit converters ; the Dark Energy uses a sound chip that found its way in some 80s arcade machines. And plenty of other weird combinations inbetween.
- "Vintage synths got their good sound from the vintage VCF chips"
I was fooled by this too, and this is why I invested time in getting some of those chips and building filters with them. My conclusion is that those chips were very convenient because they concentrated many useful functions in a small area (and thus made reliable, smaller polysynths possible), but there's nothing magical in them - gain cells and linear/exponential voltage->current converters in one small package. I won't bother with those things from the past in new designs, because the magic is outside of the chip.
- "Stuff designed by amateurs will always be one step behind commercial products"
I hang around a few DIY online communities (for example the SDIY mailing list) and I am amazed by the expertise and knowledge of the people here. And then it struck me that to the most talented electrical engineers it would be a weird career move to actually work full-time on synths, because there are many other fun things to do with their skills. Somehow I think the most difficult thing for a trained EE to go into making synths would not be the challenge of the work, but the challenge of only applying a very small fraction of their knowledge of the field.

Hispasonic: There is a growing community of people that decide to take direct control and create their own synths from the electronic parts (DIY). Any advice for them?

Olivier: A last thing, and this takes the form of a question: "what makes a good synth/DIY project?". To me, three things:

Understanding the difference between a "project" and a "product"
It took 2 to 3 months to design something like the Shruthi from A to Z.
At this stage you'll have something awesome that you can put in a box, use yourself, post a video to Matrixsynth and be very proud of. But then it will take maybe 5 or 6 months to turn it into a "product", to sort unsexy things like documentation, sound banks, testing on a variety of setups, parts sourcing and validation, more field testing, feature requests from beta testers, etc.
I had changing opinions about whether oscillators, filters, modulations, etc. were the most important element to define the "sound of the synth". In the end, my view on that is that what makes a synth good is the presence, or not, of a "vision" or "plot" about how it should sound like, and then the effort made to ensure that every module contributes to this vision and goes in the right direction.
This is why I believe "design by committees" efforts like the Tyrell from Amazona are a bad idea - "just making the majority happy" is not the sort of vision to build something upon. At least not in arts.
When the designer of a synth has never taken the time to actually listen to its creation, it shows!

Hispasonic: Thank you very much Olivier for some of your time - we know that you are really busy these days - and for really getting involved in the topics treated. We do know that you are not very enthusiastic about being interviewed or talking about your products, as you completely trust on their sound as their best marketing campaign. We can’t wait to hear and play with your last creations. They will give us plenty to talk about, for sure."

Useful links:
Mutable Instruments
Shruthi-1 on Youtube
Shruthi-1 audio demos on Soundcloud
Contact the interviewer:
me@juanvilchez.com http://www.juanvilchez.com

Old Ideas From Pittsburgh Modular

Thought this was pretty cool. Pittsburgh Modular is sharing some modules that never made it into production on their Instagram feed. The following are a few captured for the archives (note: I'm adding them as they come in).

via pghmodular

"Old ideas 1. Fragments Generator was an attempt at analog granular synthesis. A great idea that just did not sound good enough in practice. The module in the picture works but it sounds thin and is treated like an interesting design experiment. We made the mistake of announcing the Fragments Generator before it was finished but the circuit never sounded good enough take beyond prototype. We did like the panel layout and later used it for the Analog Replicator. #eurorack #synthesizer"

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Art + Music + Technology Podcast 183: Dave Rossum Interview

You can find the full transcript on Synthtopia here.

via Art + Music + Technology:

"Dave Rossum has quite a history. From helping to start up E-mu Systems, managing its acquisition by Creative Labs (and working with them through a 10-year run of amazing designs) and the creation of Rossum Electro-Music, Dave has been designing the heck out of music instruments. I was really excited when the Synthtopia folks we able to pull this interview together, since I've been a fan of E-mu devices for a long, long time, and have been mesmerized by the new modules he's been developing.

In our chat, we talk in detail about the development of the early E-mu modular system, the move into sampling technology, the effect of the Creative purchase and the technology developments behind the Proteus lineup. We also go into detail about Dave's design work with the new series of modules that he's working on, as well as the upcoming sampler module that has everyone humming.

This was a lot of fun, and super-educational; I learned an awful lot about the various technological advances behind samplers and sample-based systems. Given my renewed interest in sampling, that was very interesting to me. But his views on analog and digital modular designs, and his willingness to take on impossible projects and find a way to make 'em work - it was inspirational."

Happy New Year! The Year in Synths 2013

Happy New Year Everyone!

What a busy year it has been in the world of synths.

This is going to be one doozy of a post, so bear with me. This post is a review of the year in synths for 2013. We begin with Tributes to Those We Lost This Year, followed by New Manufacturers & Makers, Older Manufacturers Added to the Site, New Gear Announcements, Top 10 Posts by Traffic,  My Standout Posts for the Year, and finally This Years' Synth Events. I did my best to keep things as short and concise as possible.

Let's begin with the hardest part of the post.

Tributes to Those We Lost This Year

RIP Bernard Parmegiani - Electronic & Acoustic Composer
Lou Reed RIP
RIP Dick Raaymakers aka Kid Baltan
RIP George Duke - DreamWeaver
RIP Ralph Dyck, Sept 28, 1941 – May 20, 2013
RIP Ray Manzarek

All missed and never to be forgotten. Take a moment to remember them.

------

New Manufacturers & Makers

Starting last January, I decided to keep a running list of every new manufacturer and maker introduced to the site during the year.  This is something I haven't done before and I thought it would be interesting to see how many there were in the year.   It's easy to focus on the big synth announcements throughout the year, but what about all the new makers and brands? I shouln't have to go considerably into the significance of new designers on the scene, so I'll just say two things regarding them.  One, the number of new makers is a direct reflection on the interest in our scene, and two, these are the creators of new gear which directly translate into new designs not previously available to us.  Think about that for a moment.  These are makers and designs that did not exist before.  They are part of our synth history.  So what is the total count of new synth designers for the year? A whopping 113. Think about that a bit. One hundred and thirteen new synth designers and brands this year alone.

Here they are (note a handful date back to 2012, but 2013 marked their momentum and availability):

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An Interview with Peter Grenader on The ZZYZX Society

The following is an interview with Peter Grenader of Electro-Acoustic Research (formally Plan b). The focus of the interview is mainly on his involvement with The ZZYZX Society, however you will find plenty of insight into gear, including some of what Peter is working on next. I want to give Peter a huge thanks for taking the time out for this.

1. To start, what is the ZZYZX Society?

"The zZyzx Society is a group of like-minded half-crazy avant-garde musicians/composers who at one time or another fell down the same sonic rabbit hole.

Discussions about this began in 2011. Jill Fraser and I tried to get something together, and the circle of people then included Richard Lainhart. Unfortunately, he passed away when we were right in the middle of talking about possibilities. This is actually when I sketched out one of my two pieces that we are currently performing: Organasm. It settled down until Jill and I ran into one another at Mort Subotnick's live performance at Redcat a couple of years ago. We saw a fire in each other's eyes - a need to return to something that we had both evolved from.

Jill and I are ancient friends. We met at CalArts in - God.... 1977. We actually performed together once with composer Gordon Mumma at CalArts and worked extensively together on Mort Subotnick's NEA project, The Game Room, in 1978. Matter of fact, the photo Mort used for the Electronic Works Vol. 1 was taken when we were doing The Game Room - Jill is the blonde and I'm the guy holding the patchord in the foreground.

What really set the wheels in motion though was a recent dinner we had for Thighpaulsandra when he visited Los Angeles a few months ago. Thigh had been speaking about wanting to do another series of performances together since we both did the AnalogLive gig at Redcat in 2007. Jill was already well into the planning stages, although it wasn't clear who would be involved at that time though oddly enough - everyone who will be was there - Jill, Chas Smith, Thighpaulsandra and myself. When Thigh left for his return trip home - the last thing he said to me was a suggestion to get some gigs going - that it will never start unless there's a date, and when you guys get a set under your belt and are comfortable with what it evolves into, that he would come out and gig with us - and that's exactly what we are doing. Well, we'e actually focusing on tracking a CD, but I'll get into that more in a bit."

2. Can you give us a little background on each member? When the world of electronic music started for each and what they've done over the years?

That's where humility sets in - with the notion that musicians of this caliber would consider me a contributor. Why? Let's start with Jill: after earning her masters in composition at CalArts studying with Mort Subotnick and Mel Powell - her first stop was where I landed: Serge's infamous Hollywood synth production facility on Western Ave. She didn't stay there long, however, because she was hired to compose electronic music by Jack Nitzsche for Paul Schrader's film, Hardcore. This began a 25 year career composing both electronic and acoustic scores for hundreds of TV commercials for huge national campaigns: BMW, Honda, Porsche, Nissan, Mitsubishi, HP, NBC, KFC, Carl's Jr., and Apple among others, and in the process won 3 Clios. She also toured with Buffy St. Marie and auditioned for The Sex Pistols - no joke.

Chas will be the only one among us who people will be speaking about in 100 years. He's also from the CalArts electronic music composition master's program and spent his early days with modulars. Until recently he owned a 12 panel serge system he had had for 30+. His legacy will be the remarkable Harry Partch-esque tuned percussion instruments he crafts. He's shifted to metals exclusively which forge these amazing soundscapes, which would take immense work to generate electronically, yet just pour out of these sculptures. Along with collaborations with Harold Budd he's been released many times as a solo artist on Cold Blue Records, MCA, and others, music for Zimmer's Man of Steal score (they actually did a special feature on Chas for that film), as well as the first two Saw films with Charlie Clouser, for Shawshank Redemption, The Horse Whispser... the list goes on.


Man Of Steel Soundtrack - Sculptural Percussion - Hans Zimmer Published on Aug 27, 2013 WaterTower Music

[Behind the Scenes creating the unique sculptural percussion sounds for the MOS Soundtrack
i-Tunes: http://smarturl.it/mos.i
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/MOSdlx_Amazon]

Not sure what planet you'd need to be on not to know where Thighaulsandra's been. Like the rest of us here, his interest in electronic music is lifelong. Stockhausen and Cage were early influences and while you clearly realize his worth in the rock idiom, his experimental roots are unavoidable. Golden Communion - which has garnered stunning reviews in Europe - gives both Gabriel and NIN a run for their money, but you also hear Stockhausen in there and in the string introduction to the title track - Elliot Carter. He began his music career on the other side of the board - as a studio engineer, and this is where he met Julian Cope, who in time introduced him to John Balance - which led to 10 very productive years as a member of Coil - during which TPS began releasing his own solo work. He is a conservatory trained pianist blessed with the birth defect of incredible ability. After Coil he was off to Spritualized for I think three years?

As for me, I am the underachiever. After CalArts and a few small film scores, and a oddly enough a planetarium show for the Griffith Observatory, I put everything down for 25 years. In the early 2000's I found music again and had really good success in the academic electronic music festival circuit. I won the Periodic Festival in Barcelona and was selected for one of the evening performances at the SEAMUS National Conference, which doesn't sound like much, but I was probably the single first-time applicant to land that right. There were 30 or so festivals in the US after that over the next two years including the AnalogLive emsemble performance at Redcat at the Disney Hall in LA with Thighpaulsandra, Chas, Gary Chang, Richard Devine and Alessandro Cortini. The start of Plan B shifted my center to manufacturing, although I was signed, and did a CD for Coda Recordings in 2013 entitled Secret Life.

What I appreciate, especially working with Jill, but it's true of all these guys... our combined experience is such that we finish each other's musical sentences. It's astonishing. Three guys in a garage band and you expect them to vamp off their combined rock tradition, right? But electronic music, are you kidding me? Jill and I started rehearsing with a piece of mine called Benghazi, which is based entirely on a single diatribe of Glenn Beck whining about the attack in Libya. The first day we did what I would call informed noodling. When we started the second day she said she had worked out some other processed bits, and they were phenomenal. It brought the concept into much higher space and with no direct guidance outside of asking for other samples from the source file so not to loose Beck's context narrative. She just got it, completely.

zZyzx Society live in Joshua Tree: BENGHAZI



3. What sort of gear will each member bring to the project? Is there a preference for any?

I can't say for Thigh, dunno yet but he's got an arsenal at his studio in Wales. Jill is primarily using a Push via Ableton and a single Serge panel designed specifically for live performance made for her by Dmitri Sfc. I can name what Chas uses, but it won't mean much as outside of a rack of loopers everything he plays he's made. So for the record it's the Rite, the Replicant and his incredible steel guitar Guitarzilla. I am primarily using my modular - eight rows of it I crammed into two road cases, and then a Roli keyboard using Equator for now, and plans for a proper sampler as the ROli software wreaks Kickstarter deadline. It's fine as a closed synth, but while they say you can import your own samples - you really can't. I had to contact them, and they wrote the code so I could add one specific sample, but are not wiling to help me do more. The keyboard itself however is incredible.

4. What is the collaboration and recording process like? Do you record together or do you pass compositions back and forth for each person to work with separately?

Recording wasn't in the original plan, but that's changed and with Chas moving to Grass Valley - and Thighpaulsandra in Wales it's just like my FB relationship status: complicated. Jill and I are going to lay basic tracks starting in two weeks. So we'll be sending multitrack to both Chas and Thigh, who will be adding to them, then returning the new stack to whomever wrote the piece to do the final mix. The process is identical for Chas and Thighpaulsandra with their works There is talk of a release deal. So... with only one gig under our belts at FUTUREWURLD in Joshua Tree, which was really well received , but still...now we're shifting to recording the four pieces we performed with small gigs during that process, although, all in much more detail than we could manifest live with our hand count. Jill's got one which is actually four individual pieces, I've got Benghazi and Organasm and Chas has Perimeter. Thighpaulsandra is in the middle of one for us now and we're discussing the possibility of rendering Subotnick's Sidewinder.

5. What do you have in your modular system when playing with ZZYZX Society?

At first I brought almost everything. I could basically empty my main cabinet into the two road cases and on top of that I brought the two side cases, but I knew this wouldn't last. After a couple of days of rehearsal when we worked on the two pieces that were modular extensive I identified what was overkill and I limited my modular system to the two road cases (see image). It's eight rows of 88hp.

In the empty space I've now installed an Animodule Midi Gate, which is a brilliant idea and one I was planning on for EAR - but the best man won on that, more power to them for that. With it in that space will be two custom modules consisting of two Sparkfun Wave Trigger boards and a little unity gain mixer. Each of the Wave Triggers will be driven by the Midi Gate. I can use individual keys on my Roli to fire of independent events. Each of these WAVE modules allow for eight polyphonic samples to be played by either the depression of a momentary switch or a gate signal with each group of eight stored on a microSD card which can be loaded on the fly. I see this as an intelligent way of performing with a modular in a live scenario. It's basically what Mort is doing now - assembling the overall sonic contour by playing prerecorded samples as required with a couple of live voices over everything. Very effective and something Mort has been talking since the days I was working with him. It took 30 years for technology to catch up with him. In my instance, I will be playing events I prerecorded on the modular.

6. Does working on music like the ZZYZX Society influence your designs, or do you keep the two worlds separate?

It's had a huge impact on this. Immediately I started thinking about a group of modules called "the live set" which would be a series of devices which would make live performance easier for a modular artist. I don't want to give anything away outside of saying the guy that developed the Wave Trigger for Sparkfun lives a few blocks from me (wink). I've also had a couple of meetings with Vince De Franco, who produces the Mandela Electric Drums whom I met through Danny Carey. If what we're discussing becomes a finished product, it will be a paradigm shift for realization of live electronic music.

7. What's next for you? You were the man behind Plan B, your designs were featured in Subconscious Communications' modules, and you are back with Electro-Acoustic Research. You recently announced the Model 41 Steiner 4P filter. Do you plan to bring back any older designs like the Milton or will you be focusing on new designs only?

The EAR modules will be a combination of new things and legacy re-releases, but none of the old ones will be brought to market now without significant improvements. Not because they were broken before, but because I see no reason to revisit something without making changes. If you go to ear-synth.com the next product up is the Model 12 Mark II. It's two M12's in one package, both fitted with the IFM Sync function found on the M41. There are all manners of interconnection possibilities as well, so that two two can be used independently, or in either serial or parallel operation off all output taps of a single signal. If you sweep to the 'Future' page there's also the Model 24 Heisenberg Mark II, which adds a new quantized output to the stepped random and three new inter-modulation/triggering options. The Model 10 Mark II could not be more different than the original. Now two voltage controllable DASR envelope generators (Delay, Attack, Sustain TIME and Release). I have also mapped out a concept for an upgraded Model 15 Complex VCO which will make it the VERY Complex VCO lol. There are as well three new modules all ready to go.

I have been working on the relaunch for four years - since cEvin and I did the Subcon license on the 15 and 37. I've been working towards it continually. The first three products are completely done with a couple of revisions of hand built SMT prototypes behind them - ready to go - I just need to email the data off to Darkplace when it's time and product will appear a couple of months after that. If you watch Thighpaulsandra's excellent Model 41 demo video - next to the M41 you will see the Model 12 Mark II mounted in his system and that's one thing I did differently this time - I skipped the breadboard stage. I now go directly to SMT PCBs with Metalphoto faceplates. This addresses all sorts of potential calamities. It forces me to concentrate on the design stage and weeds out all manufacturing hiccups before they hit the Darkplace assembly line because if there are problems there - they aren't going to pay for that - I am. As my dad used to say when he was quoting new jobs.... "I don't do this for practice".

This brings me to something I want to close on. My father went through the Plan B collapse with me. He knew how hard I had worked to get where I did and he knew all too well what I forfeited. He was a tough love guy and at times unnecessarily hard on me about it. But in the end, I did it and he knew before he passed away. I was ready for the Model 41 a year and a half ago. Darkplace had already quoted it. It could have launched then and would have had he not died. There were delays from his death that the family needed to settle. But as far dad... I built most of the prototypes on his kitchen table because the light was so much better there than on my bench at home. He saw me working on them. He saw the Darkplace quotes. The last thing he said to me was 'I love you'.  Right before that - he congratulated me on getting the company back on it's feet and that I found a way to do it all on my own, and he told me how proud he was of me. After he said this, I left the hospital for the day and he died that evening at 3 in the morning. Nothing was worth the six years I went through and the problems I caused people, nothing makes my father's death bearable - but that moment came real. real close.

VELOCITY SYNTH MEET Coming to Seattle October 5th

Details here: https://www.velocityseattle.com

Exhibitors

4ms 4mscompany.com

4ms Company offers alternatives to traditional instruments with our poly-rhythmic clock modules that create evolving complex mathematical beat patterns, a resonator that can cast pop music into micro-tonal keys, a multi-channel wavetable oscillator, a routing matrix that's played like an instrument, and many more innovative devices. Rather than replicate concepts from the past, we strive to turn unique ideas into playable musical tools that expand the possibilities of music. We also offer Do-It-Yourself kits, and many of our designs are open-source.

Acid Rain Technology acidraintechnology.com

Acid Rain Technology is a manufacturer of music hardware out of Seattle, WA. We believe hardware instruments enable a unique connection between human and machine, and seek to improve this interaction through interface design for maximum playability.

After Later Audio afterlateraudio.com

After Later Audio is a boutique audio company located in Seattle, Washington. We make high quality Eurorack modules at accessible prices and we pride ourselves on responsive customer service. You can find our products for sale on our website, at various synth shops (Patchwerks, London Modular, Chuck Levin’s, and Modular 8), and on all of the major ecommerce sites.

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Soundtronics to Partner with MFOS on Bringing Synth DIY to the Masses & Other Formats

Sountronics is currently seeking funding on Indiegogo to bring MFOS based completed modules in various formats including 5U, as well as introducing simple DIY kits for those not experienced with DIY. As many of you know, Ray Wilson has cancer. Ray is still behind this campaign. You'll find some notes on that below. Soundtronics does plan to ensure that the MFOS range of synth DIY remains available. Note this is the first Soundtronics post on MATRIXYSNTH.

The following is what they have to say:

"Off-the-shelf modular synthesisers can cost upwards of £2,000, an expensive investment for today’s musician or enthusiast. Soundtronics has partnered with MFOS (Music From Outer Space) to bring you an extensive range of affordable, customisable, and quality DIY synth modules, suitable for beginners and professionals alike. We’re sure you’ll love them as much as we do!

Soundtronics’ DIY Synth modules, Lo-Fi Noise Boxes, and Single Board Analogue Synths are available in varying levels of kit form. This allows enthusiasts like you, with a budget big or small, to collect units until you have the final setup you require. Plus there's the added satisfaction of knowing that they were hand built by yourself! If the idea of some soldering doesn't excite you too much, our team of technicians can expertly assemble the units and deliver them to your door in full working condition.

Soundtronics’ modules are designed to be combined in any desired panel setup and are currently compatible with 5U (MOTM format).

With your support, we will redesign these modules and make them available in formats such as Euro Rack, Moog, Dotcom, and Frackrack. For a more customised feel, the module front panels are also available in a number of colour combinations to suit the interior of any home office or recording studio!"

"Formed in late 2013, Soundtronics is a relatively new division of the Technobots Online Group, passionate about making quality analogue synths more widely available and affordable. Technobots Online is well established, having supplied mechanical and electronic components to hobbyists, education, and trade since 2001. This means that ideal component suppliers, manufacturing equipment, and delivery services are already in place for the modular synths.

Located in Warwickshire, the Technobots Online team consists of technology enthusiasts, each with their own particular passions. Soundtronics, and the DIY MFOS Synth module project, have the benefit of being personally (and enthusiastically) managed by our director Paul Cooper."

"Music From Outer Space is run by another synthesiser enthusiast, Ray Wilson, in the USA. Back in 2003, Ray began publishing synth designs that have continued to evolve and gain credibility over the years. If you are not familiar with Ray’s superb designs, we cannot stress enough how essential it is that you visit his website musicfromouterspace.com, where you will find a complete library of information on each and every module we are offering here.

We will also mention that you can purchase PCBs direct from Ray, along with some front panels and other hard to find parts.

Important Update

Last November, just around the time we were going to launch this campaign, we learnt of the sad news that Ray had been diagnosed with cancer. In order for Ray and his family to fully concentrate on beating this, he stopped taking retail orders through the MFOS website. We are deeply appreciative of Ray finding the energy during these difficult times to keep us stocked with PCBs, so that we in turn keep them available online to MFOS builders around the world.

Since postponing this campaign, we have had the opportunity to discuss the essential role of MFOS in this Soundtronics' campaign, and Ray has encouraged us to move forward. We shall therefore be working with Ray over the coming months to not only ensure the availability of the MFOS product range, but make it the most complete DIY synth range on the market.

Many of us have been directly or indirectly affected by cancer, so we would like to take this opportunity to ask that you consider visiting Ray's crowd funding site where you can directly contribute to Ray's medical expenses."

Moog Music and Paste Magazine Debut a New Performance Series, Live At Moog

"Series launches with Yo La Tengo, White Rabbits, Matisyahu, and more

DECEMBER 10th, 2009 - ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA - Today Moog Music Inc. and Paste Magazine launched an innovative new web video series featuring performances filmed at the legendary Moog Music factory in Asheville, North Carolina. The series kicks off with a performance from quintessential rock innovators Yo La Tengo. Bands were given access to the Moog factory to explore and experiment with the dozens of synthesizers, guitars and effect pedals designed and manufactured here. Often the artists rearrange their songs to showcase the otherworldly sounds of Moog's instruments, yielding a performance unlike any other.

Each week a new session will debut on Paste's homepage. The first season features Brooklyn indie rockers White Rabbits, reggae star Matisyahu, New York jazz trio Medeski, Martin and Wood, songwriters Erin McKeown and Jill Sobule, live-electronica artist Pretty Lights, Widespread Panic keyboardist Jojo Hermann, jam-rock stalwarts moe. and the aforementioned Yo La Tengo. The series will continue with a second season debuting in the spring. Each episode features multiple songs, behind-the-scenes footage, and exclusive info on each band.

For many musicians, a visit to the Moog Music factory is the equivalent to a kid going to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. "It's been great to see bands like Yo La Tengo, or White Rabbits, who have varying experience with Moog instruments, come in empty handed and eager to see what they can do with the gear," says Zac Altheimer, Marketing Director for Music Allies, the Asheville-based company producing the series. "We've captured some really amazing performances that differ greatly from the band's albums or typical stage show." Moog Music President Mike Adams agrees, "This experience has opened the ears of the bands that have visited to the sonic possibilities available with Moog gear. The bands and their fans will benefit from these free ranging musical explorations which have initial exposure here at PasteMagazine.com."

Live at Moog can be viewed at www.pastemagazine.com/moog or www.liveatmoog.com

About Moog Music: Moog Music and its customers carry on the legacy of Bob Moog, the inventor of the synthesizer. Moog designs and manufactures electronic musical instruments, including Little Phatty® and Minimoog® Voyager® synthesizers, Moogerfooger® effects modules, Etherwave® theremins and The Moog Guitar. Founded by Bob Moog, Moog Music designs and manufactures its products in Asheville, N.C."

New Synthetic Sound Labs 2530 Tube VCA / Timbral Gate Eurorack Module

"The Russians Are Coming!

What happens when you apply 1950's era Soviet technology to a modern analog
synth? You get the new SSL 2530 Tube VCA / Timbral Gate module - a wild blend of vacuum tube warmth and distortion, along with an incredibly useful VCA that is so much more than the sum of its parts.
The 2530 uses miniature pencil-sized vacuum tubes that were developed and refined by the Russians over 60 years ago. They are exceptionally low current and low voltage devices - so there's no need to generate the traditional high-voltage power supplies that are required for most other vacuum tubes. Very cool stuff!

While it’s a surprisingly good VCA, it really shines when it’s over-driven - rounding and folding the input waveforms like nothing else available. In some modes, it’s prone to whacky self-oscillation that can be made to lock onto the harmonics of the input waveform in cascading howls. Totally adjustable and controllable.

In conjunction with and licensed by Ken Stone (CGS), Synthetic Sound Labs has further expanded on Ken's designs to include several other circuit enhancements to make your Russian dreams "Come True".

SSL has added LEDs behind the tube to visually emulate the warm glow of the filament, and pulsating blue LEDs that simulate tubes as they are being driven by control voltages. A custom acrylic window shows off the effects in true retro fashion.

SSL uses quality fiberglass-epoxy printed circuit boards, precision automated robotics and meticulous hand-crafted assembly assure years of trouble-free service.

Synthetic Sound Labs has been in the analog synthesizer business since 1973. The 2530 is yet another in SSL’s growing line of new synthesizer modules. Proudly made in the USA.

Pricing is $295 US.

You can find a demo of the MU version here.

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