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.

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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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MATRIXSYNTH Swag & Hall of Fame!!!

MATRISYNTH Ts are $20 in the US and $25 outside the US. This includes the shipping cost, three MATRIXSYNTH cards and one magnet.  A set of three cards and one magnet, minus the T, is $5.

The T-Shirts are from Gorilla Screen Printing - highly recommended. If you get Ts done by them, let them know you found out about them here.

Paypal any amount to matrixsynth *at* gmail.com. Be sure to include the shipping address, size and whether you'd like long or short sleeves.

Below are some MATRIXSYNTH Ts and cards spotted in the wild. If you have them, send them in!

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SQ816 Sequencer - Simple First Tests Part 3

Published on Feb 26, 2013 JohnLRice·190 videos

"Once again, me messing around with the a prototype of the new Division 6 eurorack version of George Mattson's SQ816 sequencer. This one is quick, a single patch I liked that I wanted to share."

All parts here.

via John Rice on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

Update: behind the scenes:

"Probably most interesting was NO EGs or VCAs! The two MOTM-300 VCOs used were run through the new Happy Nerding Fun VCF and then out to the final mixer and panned in stereo. The three gate outputs I patched in were all routed to a Synthesizers.com Q961 Sequencer Interface (the first two to column A and the third to column By adding a longer "on time" to column B, combined with the Modcan 59B delay being relatively synced to the SQ816 (a Modcan 53B was the master clock with the slower subdivision going to the delay tempo sync) a pretty nice little syncopation emerged."

MATRIXSYNTH THANKS!!!

The following people have been supportive of the site in one way or another and deserve a special mention.

• Chris Randall
• Chris Carter
• Jacknife Lee
• Laurie Spiegel
• Thighpaulsandra
• Mitchell Sigman
• Velvet Acid Christ
• Peter Grenader (Buzzclick and Plan B)
• Allesandro Cortini (Modwheelmod, NIN)
• The Chemical Brothers
• Richard Lainhart
• Barry Schrader
• Nick Batt (Sonicstate)
• Cynthia
• Ken MacBeth
• George Mattson
• John Bowen
• Parallel Worlds
• Tom Whitwell

Waldorf Demos with Saga's Jim Gilmour at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in 1992

Saga - Jim Gilmour Demo - Musikmesse Frankfurt 1993 1992 Published on May 12, 2013 MadSevenFilms

"Jim Gilmour ( Saga keyboardist) in a demo at the Waldorf stand during the musikmesse in Germany.
Humble Stance, Wind Him up, Don't be late, Careful where you step, On the loose,etc ...."

Update: according the swissdoc, these videos are actually from 1992. That would make the appearance of the prototype Wave in 1992, not 1993. This post has been updated to reflect that. Note swissdoc's write-ups are from 1993 as you can see in the datestamps for the links, and I believe the production model Wave was indeed released in 1993.

Here's a blast from the past featuring a bit of Waldorf history in via swissdoc. This may very well be the only Waldorf footage from the event. Check out the non-working prototype of the Waldorf Wave in the background. 1992 was the year it made its first appearance to be released in 1993. Note the Microwave rack was released earlier in 1989. Further below you will find some notes on Musikmesse 1993 (the following year after these videos) from swissdoc, followed by a transcription of the Wave flyer. This is a fascinating look back on synth history. But first, one more video from the 1992 Musikmesse.

Update2 via swissdoc: "In addition, for those who can read and understand German, there is a big series of three articles available for download (email has to be provided) from the German Keyboards magazine. Inside Wave. Amazing level of detail plus in part three an interview with developers and users plus additional interviews with the people behind the Wave.

https://www.keyboards.de/heftarchiv/1994-10/inside-wave-1-wave-intro/
https://www.keyboards.de/heftarchiv/1994-11/inside-wave-2-tech-talk/
https://www.keyboards.de/heftarchiv/1994-12/inside-wave-3-wave-story/"

Update3: The following scans have been added to the bottom of this post:
Messe.1992.TSI.Messeinformation
Messe.1992.Preliminary.Wave.Info
Messe.1993.TSI.Show.Information
Messe.1993.Wave.Flyer

Saga - Jim Gilmour Scratching the surface - Musikmesse Frankfurt 1993 1992

Published on May 13, 2013 MadSevenFilms

"Jim Gilmour ( Saga keyboardist) in a demo at the Waldorf stand during the musikmesse in Germany.
Scratching the surface"

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The following is a Musikmesse 1993 recap via swissdoc aka George Mueller, who attended, from way back in 1993 (you'll find a transcript of the Waldorf Wave flyer text further below). P.S. for a quick look at the gear released at the 1993 Musikmesse see here and here, both from swissdoc.

"Before I go into this Wave stuff, I'd like to tell you a little about the Frankfurt Musik Messe. Those restless gear junkies, skip the next 24 lines.

The Frankfurt International Music Fair was held for the 14th time and was attended by a record number of exhibitors: 1194 from 40 contries. So it's the leading event for the music business.

The Messe Frankfurt has 10 halls of different sizes, three of them are used by the Musik Messe. Hall 9.0 is the most interesting, it's for electronic instruments, 9.1 is for guitars and amps, 9.2 is for stage light, sound and mixers. These halls are middle in size, rows range from A to F, with booth numbers up to 90 each. Hall 8 is for acoustic instruments and publishers; it's funny, all that noise from test-playing violins, flutes and so on. This is the biggest hall, rows from A to P. The monster booth of Yamaha is in the back of this hall with all their synths, FXs and personal keyboards. So it's a long walk to Yamaha. It's a bit risky in this hall, if you enter one booth, browse thru the pages of some book, after talking to the salesman you probably lost your orientation. Hall 10.1 is reserved for grand pianos and uprights. No elctricity allowed there.

It's funny, when you change from 9.0 to 9.1, all those long haired heavy metal guys. One amp or guitar company has a Hard Rock Cafe at their booth, evertime overcrowded with guys drinking cocktails or beer.

So, here we are, the promised report on the TSI shows WAVE MUSIC DEMO and INSIDE THE WAVE.

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Starter - Lunapark/Minijupe

Published on Feb 11, 2008 de1998

Pure, vintage, gold, synth spotting in via @bengoldacre: "MS20, VC10 and more, in their natural habitat"
There are two sets in the video. See what else you can spot, and do not miss the transition.

"Taken from Starter's CDR/DVDR 'Start', the original Songs can be found there oron their 1981 LP 'Starter'"

Found them on BandCamp (they are also on Spotify and iTunes):

"STARTER was a minimal electronic/synthpop group from Switzerland, formed in 1980 by vocalist and fashion designer Francis Foss, Claudine Chirac (from fellow Swiss Wave group Grauzone) and Jet Harbour. Originally the band also included Stephan Eicher who co-wrote two songs but departed before the band recorded their debut album. STARTER began in the city of Bern when Francis, Claudine and Jet decided to create their own brand of New Wave music inspired by Gary Numan and Kraftwerk.They released their debut, self-titled album STARTER in the summer of 1981, making this summer the 30th anniversary of this long out-of-print and extremely hard to find LP!

Using early analog Roland and Korg synthesizers, STARTER’S music seamlessly merges wistful electronics from Germany’s Neue Deutsche Welle movement and powerful vocal stylings from French Chanson. Alongside their Swiss Wave contemporaries like Grauzone, Yello, Liliputt/Kleenex, STARTER created a new brand of hallucinatory ‘Techno-Pop’ made up of chopped rhythms, energetic and almost epileptic vocals that are immediately catchy and hypnotic, perfect for the dance-floor. In 1985 STARTER reformed as a duo with Francis Foss on vocals again and Gary Grey on synth/rhythm programming. Their first single “Victim” took cues from Italo Disco and Bobby Orlando’s Hi-NRG dance sounds and is the bonus track on Side B of this LP. The song “Part of You” was chosen as the lead track on the Gomma compilation CD Teutonik Disaster 2 in 2003 recruiting new fans worldwide and ushering Francis Foss to release a homemade CD-R/DVD compilation of the entire STARTER discography in 2004.

All songs have been remastered for vinyl by George Horn at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley in 2011. Each LP includes a lyrics sheet with unreleased photos and a STARTER badge/button.

Includes unlimited streaming of Starter via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more."

Update: Some solo tracks from Claudine Chirac added below. She played sax as well as synths.


Claudine Chirac - Nautilus (1981) Published on May 5, 2011 sineadoconnickjr

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The Synth Sounds of Parliament-Funkadelic's Bernie Worrell | Reverb

video upload by Reverb

Published on Feb 25, 2020

"Bernie Worrell is most known as the man behind some of the funkiest keyboard lines ever recorded. A musical prodigy from an early age, he went on to become the keyboardist for Parliament-Funkadelic, a collaborator with musicians like Fred Schneider of the B-52s and groups like the Talking Heads, and even had a prolific solo career. In the video above, we're digging into some of Worrell's famous keyboard and synth sounds and how he put them together.

Worrell was a musical prodigy from an early age. He was born with perfect pitch and was a quick study of classical music, even composing and performing a concerto by age eight. He continued on to Juilliard and then to the New England Conservatory of Music before meeting George Clinton. After joining The Parliaments, as they were then known, he'd forever change the future of funk as a player, composer, and sonic voyager.

Here, we look at some of his famous keyboard and synth sounds and how he put them together. Worrell played vintage Moog MiniMoogs, a Hohner D6 Clavinet, an ARP Solina string synth, and a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, among other instruments. In our video above, we're using a Moog Model D Reissue, a Nord Piano 3's Hohner D6 Clavinet patch, the Arturia V Collection's Solina V soft-synth, and a Prophet-6."

Patch notes at here