Crazy Synth Dreams and a Real Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard (Review)

I had another synth dream last night. This time I was out in LA making a trip to Noisebug with my wife. When I get there it turned into me just happening to drive by and noticing it was there. Hey, there's Noisebug, can I check it out!? Followed by a reluctant yes from my wife. :) Odd how dreams work that way. Note I've never actually been to Noisebug, so this was just my imagination. When we get there a guy comes out to our car and while I'm sitting there, I ask him what he has that might be interesting. Drive-up service! He says he has a Waldorf Pulse for $249 and some other things. I ask about the Pulse and he brings it out to me. I decide I must have it even though I already have a Pulse Plus. You can chain them for polyphony. I then convince my wife that I should go in and have a look around. I do and the place is probably a 4500 square foot warehouse, high ceilings like Costco, filled with synths and other electronics. Kind of like a massive or rather mini JRR World in New York but in an industrial flea market type setting. There are a number of shops in the open space. Tons of used synths. I start walking the aisles and see a few Oberheim DXs, OB-Xas and a few interesting Waldorfs. There's an orange XT with custom writing on it and coloring. If I remember correctly there's some 80s digital and DCO based analogs, a DX7, KORG DW8000 and some other random synths. I go to buy my Pulse Plus at one of the counters closest to the entrance and I notice a Yellow Waldorf Q with some red writing on it. It says something about Waldorf and it's in Spanish. Apparently Waldorf made it for one of the hispanic guys in the shop. The guy behind the counter points at him and rolls his eyes. Anyway, I pay for the Pulse Plus and I ask him if he has anything else for such a good deal. He says he has a Roland D50 for $150. I always wanted one so I ask him if I could check it out. I do and it's in fantastic shape. It has a green led type display with operator algorithms. Note the D50 isn't an FM synth. In my dream I wonder what that might be. The pitch benders on it are actually long thin pull tabs but you don't pull them, you press down on them. Kind of like the proportional pitch control on some of the ARP Odysseys but more like thin extended keys that you press down. It was actually pretty nice feeling but somewhat cheap. I tell him I'll take it and he takes it away to prep it for me. I head to another section and there's a Prophet-5 hiding under a card table for $554! My wife is going to kill me. I turn it on and all voices are working but they are out of tune and the keys have graffiti on them from Sharpies. It's also physically shorter than a full size Prophet-5 - about three octaves. I debate on whether I should get it and I think I could really use Stephen of Synthwood.com's help as he definitely knows his Prophets (in real life too!). He says probably not since I have one already. I ask him if he plans to pick it up. :) He says nooooo. The sales guy lets me know the D50 is ready, so I leave Stephen playing the Prophet-5. When I'm walking over to the counter to purchase the D50 the guy says with the additional $50 off, the D50 will come out to $100 and the Pulse is $200. Both are pristine! What a deal! While I'm purchasing them I realize my wife is still in the car!!! She's going to kill me!!! But if I explain the good deal I got, I'm sure she'll understand even though I've been in there for a good 30 to 40 minutes. :)

And that's it! I haven't had a good synth dream in a while. What caused it and why Noisebug? Well... I'm sure it has something to do with that Waldorf Blofeld Keyboard you see here. It just arrived yesterday from Noisebug! My initial impressions? Absolutely fantastic synth. Note, I've only had a little over a few hours with it, so the following impressions are initial. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but I have spent time with quite a few synths, analog and digital. I'm a bit of a Waldorf fanboy, but not because it's Waldorf. They just make fantastic sounding synths with impeccable design. I do love most if not all synths though. I have a tendancy to look for the good in synths and what each individual synth has to offer vs. looking for what's wrong and/or negatively comparing a given synth to another with obviously more power. That said, here are my initial impressions:

On the physical design:
Extremely classy looking, superb keyboard and knobs. Solid metal construction. The mod and pitch wheels are light, thin and have little pointers poking out at the mid points. At first I thought they might be a little flimsy, and I wasn't sure how the I'd like them, but so far they feel good. I like them.

On the interface:
Extremely well laid out. I wasn't sure if it would be difficult to navigate, as if you look at the top right you will see that the matrix there only has the most common parameters you might want to edit for each section. How do you dig deeper? Well, with any section selected (indicated by the led on the left of the matrix), you turn the top left knob (photo above) by the display to get to deeper settings. You then use the two knobs under the display to edit. The display BTW, is pretty nice. Anything you edit shows up graphically and changes in real time. Overall the synth is super easy to navigate. The endless knobs are smooth and solid.

On the sound:
Definitely Waldorf but more. Like I said above, I have an XT, Q and Pulse Plus. The XT is a wavetable synth, which means you select a wavetable as a sound source. Think of a wavetable as a spreadsheet holding a single cycle waveform in each cell. Once a wavetable is selected you can then set the cell reference point for each oscillator. You can then apply modulation to that reference point to sweep through the wavetable. You can do this with an LFO, Envelops, aftertouch, the mod wheel, etc. With the XT note that all oscillators share the same wavetable, so there is only one shared across oscillators in a single patch. With the Blofeld you can have a different wavetable for each OSC 1 and OSC 2. With the XT however, if you change wavetables while holding a note down, you will hear the wavetable change. You can get some really cool effects going this way. With the Blofeld the wavetable does not change until the next note is played. Note if you have an arpeggio going on the Blofeld the sound will change. OSC 3 is your standard virtual analog oscillator. Note OSCs 1 and 2 do have virtual analog waveshapes. The Blofeld has the XT wavetables and the Alt 1 and Alt 2 wavetables from the Q. In addition to wavetable and virtual analog synthesis, the Blofeld also has sample based synthesis! The samples act as oscillators to be used as sound sources in the synth engine - think synthesis as the focus vs. sampling. What it does is bring a whole new sound palette to the Waldorf line of synthesis. When I think Waldorf, I think wavetables and VA, now sample based oscillators have been added to the mix. How does it sound? Fantastic! There are some nice organic samples on board including a really nice Nylon guitar patch A014. I did notice a small quirk with this patch though. If you hold down C2 or a couple of notes around it the loop repeats at the end point much like old samplers. It doesn't do this for the rest of the keyboard range and I didn't notice it on other patches. Update: this problem went away after updating the OS. I went from 1.10 incrementally up to 1.13.

As for audio quality, presence and hi fidelity, the synth sounds absolutely amazing. One of my biggest gripes with some virtual analog synths out there is that they can sound somewhat muffled and weak. They are missing that certain boldness and presence you find in many analogs. A bit watered down so to speak. I was curious how the Blofeld would sound in this regard. To my ears it is very, very bold. Possibly more so than the Q rack - almost more "analog" sounding. It's on par with the Pulse and either as bold if not bolder than the XTk. It really has presence.

Summary
Overall, I am in love with this synth. For the price, $999 from Noisebug, it is an absolute steel. It is super compact, more so than the Nord Lead, it's built like a tank, has a fantastic interface and the sound is bold and broad. You have virtual analog, wavetable and now sample based synthesis. If this synth came out at the same time as the original Q I could see it going for twice as much. I'd recommend this synth to anyone. It is a great starter synth to learn the basics of subtractive synthesis and you can dig real deep. The interface is a breeze to navigate and the synth engine is extremely powerful in spite of it's price. Highly, highly recommended. Note there have been some bugs reported on the Waldorf list. Waldorf is working on updates, however the current bugs may or may not matter to you.

And.. that's all for now. Synth dreams and a real synth dream come true for me. I love my Blofeld!

I want to give a special thanks to Antonio at Noisebug. He was a pleasure to deal with. I ordered my Blofeld on Tuesday, it was shipped that day, and it arrived on schedule Friday. I was given a tracking number on Tuesday without having to ask and I was able to plan accordingly. I had absolutely fantastic service from Noisebug and can highly recommend them. Note they currently have the Blofeld Keyboard on sale from now until the end of July for $999 which is what I paid for mine. It's one heck of a birthday present. :)

You can find more pics including box shots here.

Update: soon after I wrote this mini review, I later hooked up the MIDI out on my Blofeld Keyboard and to my dismay it was not working. I had OS 1.10 loaded. Upgrading to 1.11 fixed the problem. I then upgraded to 1.12 followed by 1.13 and the fix stayed in tack. MIDI out is working. I just wanted to note this in the post in case anyone else ran into the problem. You can find the latest updates here. Note, one other person on the Waldorf user forum also had the problem on 1.10 and upgrading took care of it.

Peter Kirn's Real World Digital Audio

I finally got around to spending some quality time with Peter Kirn’s Real World Digital Audio, and I must say it's solid. You might recognize his name; Peter runs the Create Digital Music blog. This is a great book for both people new to the subjects covered, and those experienced. Flip through the book, pick a chapter that interests you and dig in, or read it from front to back. As an aside, I find that I spend most of my time behind a monitor. Being able to take some time off and kick back with a paperback filled with all of this information was refreshing. Note this is a long post; I wanted to touch on each chapter so you'd have a good idea on what's covered. Don't miss the QA at the end for why Peter wrote this book and what he hopes people to get out of it.

So, what is the book about and what can you expect from it? Simply put it's a book about audio production and how to set up a home studio in the most practical sense. What's cool about it and what makes it stand out from other tutorials is that it goes into some depth on how things work - the theory behind how and why you apply certain techniques. BTW, it's filled with tips, links to other resources, tutorials and more. It's written and designed to help de-mystify technique and process. The book actually starts with an excellent chapter on sound theory. It is well written, easy to follow, rich in content, and it provides links to more extensive documentation if you want it.

References to more in-depth information are actually one of two recurring themes in the book that I really appreciated. The other is solid examples and walk-throughs that you can do yourself. Peter solidly lays the foundation for each topic and then provides tutorials and links to more when appropriate. Note that the book is standard college book size and roughly 615 pages long. I found that the level of depth for each topic was nearly perfect in most cases. BTW, the book would make an excellent college course and is meant to be a self study and handbook. It has solid and practical content that you can actually use and build a foundation on. If I had a friend who wanted to get into music production, I'd buy her this book, and I'm sure that after reading it she'd probably be teaching me a few things. : )

So, will a lot of the material be redundant to what you already know? Maybe. Everyone has their own level of experience in audio. You will probably find that you have some chapters covered and others not. Some of this will be familiar to you, but think of it as a good way to reinforce your ego. ; ) To be honest I actually did find little nuggets of information that I did not know in areas I considered myself to be well versed, and sometimes these little nuggets are worth more than a whole chapter. I also found that some of the topics that I didn't expect to be interested in at all were completely fascinating to me (Mics for example in Chapter 6 Recording Instruments and Sound).

The following are the chapters in the book.

Chapter 1: Understanding Digital Sound
This was my kind of chapter. Simply put it covers how sound works. The physical waves and characteristics of sound, how we perceive it and how it is handled in digital form. If you want to know more about bit rates, phase cancellation, signal-to-noise, partials, etc, this chapter covers it.

Chapter 2: Choosing Your Tools
This chapter focuses on the basics behind setting up your hardware and software focused on audio workstation recording (instruments and effects are covered in later chapters). Things like inputs and outputs, choosing the right computer, and music and sound production tools are covered.

Chapter 3: Setting Up Your Equipment
This chapter focuses on how to set up your physical studio such as considering ergonomics, sound isolation, speaker placement, connector types, voltage levels, noise and hum, etc.. Some really good bits in this chapter.

Chapter 4: Preparing Your Computer for Audio
This chapter focuses on setting up your virtual studio. It includes tips on installing and setting up audio hardware and software, optimizing your system and getting the latest driver updates.

Chapter 5: Quick Songs with Patterns and Loops
This is a fun interactive chapter where Peter walks you through setting up loops with either GarageBand on Mac or Kinetic on PC (demo versions of both are included in the CD that comes with the book).

Chapter 6: Recording Instruments and Sound
This chapter is broken up between the characteristics of different mics, placement and positioning of mics for different recording techniques, and digital recording in general including setting levels, monitoring and different recording methods. Again, this chapter surprised me in that I thought I would have little interest in mics in general. It was a fascinating read for me being new to the subject

Chapter 7: Processing and Effects
This chapter covers everything you want to know about effects. What's awesome about Peter's book is that he goes into how and why things work. The chapter covers the Basics of Signal Processors, Equalization, Dynamics Processors (compressor, limiter, expander, etc..), Time-Related Effects (delay/echo, reverb), and Specialized Processors (distortion, modulation, pitch correction, etc).

Chapter 8 MIDI: Notes, Rhythms, and Physical Control
This chapter is cool. It covers the basics like connecting your MIDI devices and it covers things like recording and editing your MIDI performances, but it also includes things like the Anatomy of a MIDI Message. Again this is not a technical book on audio so you won't get a in depth MIDI manual here, but what you do get is good solid overview of how MIDI works beyond just hooking up a controller and banding on some notes.

Chapter 9: Synthesis and Software Instruments
Ok, I admit this along with Chapter 4 are my areas of expertise, so... It was awesome! I approve. : ) The chapter starts with an overview of synthesis including different types of synthesis and.... It encourages you to make your synth you! It encourages the reader to program their own sounds. The chapter covers sampling, the building blocks of synthesis including oscillators, envelopes, filters, modulation, etc. Way to go Peter! I love that anyone that might go through this book not being familiar with synthesis, will now have a tutorial like this. Too cool. NOTE: this along with much of the rest of the book could easily have just been a quick "10 step" guide to hooking up your studio. What's awesome about this book is that it presents how to do things with why behind it. It appreciates the theory and reasoning that goes into setting up a good studio.

Chapter 10: Put It Together: Arrange, Mix, and Master
This chapter covers Arranging, Mixing, Mastering and Sharing your work. This chapter is the meat and potatoes section of laying and mixing tracks. Things like arrangement view and timeline, slices and beats, spatialization, dithering and export quality are just a few of the things covered in this chapter.

Chapter 11: Producing Printed Scores
This chapter focuses on notation software. This is the meat and potatoes chapter on writing and editing notation.

Chapter 12: Music and Sound for Video
This chapter covers synchronization (matching sound and image), timing and notation, performing with live musicians, postproduction and more.

Chapter 13: Playing Live
This chapter covers how to play soft synths live, using audio inputs and effects with real time control, live sampling, djing with a computer, and more.

So do I recommend this book at the asking price? Yep. It's worth it. I would take a look at the chapters above and ask yourself if one, could you use it, and two are there topics you would enjoy reading on a lazy afternoon? If the answer is yes to either of these, get it.

This is a great book Peter, congratulations on this acheivement!

1) Why did you write the book?

"I really felt that a general reference on making music with computers,
written in a way that beginners could approach but that was also
thorough and up-to-date, was missing. What the average musician does
with computers has expanded so much. It's not just recording, it's not
just mixing. It's also playing soft synths and designing sounds and
composing and arranging and scoring and so on. I wanted to see a
big-picture book that put practical information on all these topics in
one place, without being overwhelming.

It happened that I talked to Chris Breen at Macworld about this, and
learned Peachpit was looking for just such a book. I didn't originally
intend for me to be the author, to be truthful, but that's how things
often happen.

After you finish a book you hopefully have more perspective on the
process than while you're in the middle of it, or at least that was
the case for me. For me this was a way of condensing a lot of
knowledge out there into a central location, not only my own knowledge
but what I've learned from all sorts of great teachers. I've been
reading a lot of other books lately -- non-music books, as I've been
programming visual work in 3D environments -- and it's great to have
that experience with other people's writing. Even as a web-based
writer, I'm totally dependent on paper, and on the unique ways you can
express information in book form."

2) What do you hope people will gain from the book?

"I really wanted to convey the fundamentals of music production
techniques, beyond the specifics of certain applications. You'll see
plenty of illustrations, but for me what lets you sit down and make
music is feeling comfortable with the language and the interfaces you
see. I certainly love getting a new synth and playing with mysterious
knobs and such, but you also want to be able accomplish what you're
trying to do, to focus on sound and what you imagine, and to deal with
all the technical issues that could otherwise slow you down.

And it's certainly not an endpoint -- hopefully a book gets you
started on topics, and makes you want to read and learn more. I think
I'll have to start a running web bibliography for RWDA, because people
are already asking "where do I go next?" which is fantastic."

3) How do you recommend people read the book?

"This is entirely dependent on where you are, because we worked really
hard on making it compatible with a broad audience.

It should be completely possible to start on page 1 and read to the
end. We talked a lot about how to go from one element to another, to
make it readable. I also tried to design the hands-on examples so that
you could work through chapters -- particularly after the first third
of the book, once you get into more practical stuff -- and try things
out. There's the demo software on the DVD for that purpose, some of
which, happily, you can use indefinitely. (Even the Ableton Live demo
is pretty functional without purchasing it.) That's important, because
if you haven't yet chosen your software tools, you can try this stuff
out and get a taste, and make a more informed decision about which way
you want to go. But if you do have software tools of choice, I tried
to be careful about covering ideas that apply from one program to
another. I often wrote chapters with Cubase, Pro Tools, Logic, Digital
Performer, SONAR, and Live all running, looking from one to another.

So, that's the linear approach. But it's also designed as a reference
book. For people who are more experienced, I expect they're more
likely to use it that way, either to brush up on a topic by picking up
a chapter or just to refer to it occasionally. Something very fun has
happened for me, which is I can now pick it up as a reference."

DSC - DIGITAL SOUND CHIPS OPUS MAX BOARD

DSC - DIGITAL SOUND CHIPS

From the creators of the Bluebox synthesizer comes a new project for DIYers. Currently on Kickstarter here.

"A short introduction to the OPUS MAX BOARD music computer and development board for making music gear with the STM32H750 micro controller. https://digitalsoundchips.com It will come with a profession grade synthesizer and audio effects unit to loop sounds through the board externally. And with information on how to make your own music gear like synthesizers and audio effect units."

"Back in 2011 the worlds smallest synthesizer DSC Bluebox was made, but vent by unnoticed. This time Digital Soundchips that made the synthesizer is back, and want to solve the problems that they once went through for you and others.

Now we a ready to present a single-board computer for audio plugins and music gear. And with one profession grade synthesizer plugin, and a multi effects unit to loop audio through. That uses a open plugin standard with plugins on microSD card.

Imagine making professional music hardware gear, based on a super simple audio plugin format. And develop music gear that can use several plugins simultaneously.

We want to make a pre-configured scalable solution, so you can start writing your audio code and run ready-made plugins. And lower the development time for new music gear from years or month's, to weeks.

Lets make it faster and fun to develop commercially viable professional music gear.

CLICK FOR MORE »

New Cogito Cartesian Sequencer for Audulus

"Using Audulus for audio processing and pushing the iPhone to its ultimate limit, Audulus user Bimini Road has created Cogito, a Cartesian Sequencer. Building on the work of other talented Audulus users--JDRaoul, afta8, and jjthrash, --- the patch is worked out and explained in detail on the Audulus Forum.

The Cogito Sequener’s user interface is enabled by the Custom Nodes upgrade, an Audulus feature which allows custom-designed user interfaces.

Audulus is a minimalist modular software synthesizer and effects processor. With Audulus, users can build synthesizers, design new sounds, or process audio. All with low latency real-time processing suitable for live performance.

Audulus for iOS is available on the App Store for $14.99. An iPhone 4s or iPad 2 is required.

Audulus for Mac is available on the Mac App Store for $29.99. Mid 2010 or later Mac is required.

Audulus for Windows is available directly through audulus.com for $29.99. Buy now and receive ALL in-app upgrades FREE. That’s $45 worth of upgrades.

For more information, visit audulus.com."

The following are some details on the sequencer captured from the Audulus forum. Impressive.

"Ok, so here it is - the first (somewhat buggy) draft of Cogito, my Cartesian Sequencer - so called because...well, you'll see. I pushed the iPhone to its absolute limit with this one. It only takes up - ONLY, haha - 30% of the CPU, but I can *barely* get it to work with a synth beefier than 1 OSC node, 1 ADSR, 1 delay, and 1 reverb. It's official - I need to get a new Mac if I really want to pursue my Audulus dreams.

First, thanks are in order:

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Interview with Hexfix93 of VAC

The following is an interview I just wrapped up with hexfix93 of Velvet Acid Christ. As you know, this site is about the gear, namely synths, and the gear that helps drive and enhance synths, but ultimately the focus is on synths.

I was chatting a bit with hexfix93 and asked him if he would be interested in a slightly different take on an interview, one focused on synths and their impact to his world. We all have our story regarding how our obsession with synths first started, how we see and approach synths and what they mean to us. I thought it would be interesting to hear his story. The following is the interview.

Before it begins, I want to thank hexfix93 for taking the time out for this. We all have a different approach and a different story when it comes to our synths. This is his. For more of his music check out VAC and don't miss Toxic Coma. Cheers, matrix.


1. What was your first synthesizer, how old were you when you picked it up, and why did you pick it up?

"It was some kind of old yamaha cheap thing. i got it for my atari st, so when i played games like leisure suit larry that the music wouldn't come from the wimpy fm built in sound, but a general midi synth instead. it really didn't sound all that great. i wasn’t really a keyboard player at this point.

The first synth i got as a keyboard player was a roland w30 sampler workstation. And we made like 3 records with that keyboard. i remember gary slaughter an x vac member, spilled orange vodka drink on it. and i had to take it apart and clean every part of it by hand slowly, it took weeks. it was a pure nightmare.

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An Interview with Barry Schrader

Hi everyone! As you know Barry Schrader will be giving his farewell concert at CalArts on September 26. The following is the beginning of my interview with him. I opted to post the questions and answers as they come in.  New QAs will get a new post so you do not miss them and they will be added to this post so we have one central post for the full interview. This should make it easier for all of us to consume in our busy lives, and it will allow you to send in any questions that may come to mind during the interview process.  If you have anything you'd like to ask Barry, feel free to send it in to matrixsynth@gmail.com.  This is a rare opportunity for us to get insight on a significant bit of synthesizer history, specifically with early Buchla systems, and I'd like to thank Barry for this opportunity. Thank you Barry!

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"Poetry at the core of arts" with a Dedication to Pierre Henry by Marc-Henri Arfeux & the Access Virus

Many of you will be familiar with the Access Virus compositions by Marc-Henri from previous RADIOKLOW posts. Marc-Henri bridges the gap between electronic music and other forms of art. His most recent work is a poem in tribute to Pierre Henry accompanied by the Access Virus. The tribute is hosted on La poésie au cœur des arts : le Blogart which translates to "Poetry at the core of arts". Click through and click on the Access Virus image to get to the piece.

via Marc-Henri:

"This site called 'Poetry at the core of arts' is the net the extension of a book of the same title, an anthology of poetry published by the french publisher : Editions Bruno Doucey. The book contains a poem I wrote about electronic music. The site was conceived to developp an exploration for some of the poets and artists of the book. I am one of them for, poetry , music and painting.

You will find the poem I wrote for the book, three pieces of music composed in january 2014, four poems by other authors of the anthology, three improvisations performed in early february 2014, a former composition called De Haute Vallée you have seen in the form a video in late 2012, an interview in french and some photographs taken at my flat when I was interviewed."

The following is Marc-Henri's poem translated into English:

"Orpheus veil"

Fly down into Orpheus ear,
Where roll clockworks
Of the forbidden stars
And voices shreds seeking vision.

Listen at the well of walls
Echoes of illuminated faces
In their bronze palaces.

Pavings, folds of roses,
The naked heels
Playing the freshness game
With embers
And the childhood kisses.

Travelling back to horizon,
In the limestone of nights,
Is now the prophecy of the spices,
With its tissue gifted with red
And the sobbings of an initiation.

Marc-Henri Arfeux - 2013

----------

Update: the following an English translation of the interview with Marc-Henri Arfeux on "Poetry at the core of arts". It is a fascinating read and reminds me of why I initially got into synths. My first synth was a brand new Oberheim Matrix-6 back in 1986. When I first started exploring the Matrix-6 I had no idea what the parameters did, so I just dived in. For me it was an exploration of sound for the sake of sound and a fascination in creating musical instruments never heard before. The focus was on that exploration rather than the attempt to mimic real world instruments. Much of this spirit is covered in the world of musique concrete and is captured in the interview below. Do not miss the part on the short wave radio. Truly fascinating and an inspiration for sonic exploration.

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A Patch A Day by hamiltonulmer

Update: you can find hamiltonulmer's page here.

"I am not new to music, but I am new to modular synthesis. So I am creating one simple patch a day in order to get used to my small system.

I will do approximately 365 patches over the next year. Over that course of time I will likely add modules, change my setup, and explore various rabbit holes.

Two questions arise from these constraints. First, is a small 6U, 84HP system musically sufficient and diverse enough for a worthwhile patch, every day? Second, given that no matter what I intend on recording a patch a day, regardless of the outcome or circumnstance, what is the relationship between quantity and quality?"

via Pierre Serné on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

Playlist:
(these are in reverse order by hamiltonulmer - Day 1 was missing in the playlist so I embedded it below).

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Vince Clarke's ULTIMATE SUPPORT AX48B Stands For Sale - Synths May Follow

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

According to the description some of Vince's synths may follow. See the seller's other items for more.

"Having recently moved from a spacious log cabin studio in maine to a smaller basement studio in new york city (see pics at vinceclarkemusic.com), vince decided to replace his free-standing ultimate support keyboard stands with space-saving wall-mount units and asked us if we wanted them. we didn’t! but we felt bad that they were taking up precious space in one of vince’s closets and agreed to help him unload them. we received 8 stands in total. as of writing this, two have been sold so we have six left. hopefully they’ll sell soon cause now theyre taking up precious space in one of OUR closets! >:[ now, vince is quite a modest guy who doesn't normally go around autographing his stuff, but after several very long and painful negotiations, we convinced him to autograph this stand for you!

so why should you want this lovely keyboard stand? well, some might argue that this piece is a crucial part of the erasure sound! others might not. whatever the case, this awesome 2 tier ultimate support ax-48b apex keyboard stand would be a great place to put 2 of your beloved keyboards. designed to be quickly and easily assembled and disassembled, its ideal for gigging musicians who are in a rush. the arms come off in a matter of seconds and can be stored in the compartment on top of the stand. the 3 legs slide out from the compartment on the bottom of the stand. its great for studio use as well. see our pics above for a photo we took of this or one of the other similar stands in vince's maine cabin studio where it was ultimately supporting a Moog Minimoog and Roland Juno-106. and if you dont play keyboards, well, this item would probably make a rather handsome coat rack as well!

NOTE: the photos shown here may not be of the actual stand you receive since we have 6 of them, but they are all autographed and are all in similar condition.

this particular stand is in very nice shape, with some typical scratches and dings but nothing worth mentioning in detail. it was autographed with a silver paint pen. we taped a piece of paper over it before loading it into our synthmobile (tm) and will leave it the way it is so it doesnt smudge before you get it. once you get it, you might want to apply a clear coat over it if you wish to preserve it. want more general info on the ultimate support ax-48b? please search the web. keyboards not included.

if this auction goes well, we may ebay a couple of the spare synths and drum machines vince traded us a while ago. the ones he used most may become part of the massive vintage synth recording studio we may make available for select projects.

check out erasure’s new album (the violet flame) and find erasure tour dates near you here."

Madrona Labs Introduces Aaltoverb

via Madrona Labs

"Hi there, it’s been some while. I'm excited to be writing you again, with the big news that there's a new beastie in the Madrona Labs family. Meet Aaltoverb, our very first effect.

A number of times over the years, people have asked if Aalto’s reverb could be made into its own plugin. The thing is, our focus here at Madrona Labs is on instruments, not effects. And so it didn't really seem to make sense to add a reverb to our lineup. But more time passed, and I started to think, what features would a performance reverb have? This question led to Aaltoverb, a reverberator with a focus on dramatic sound sculpting and completely smooth tweakability.

Aaltoverb’s coolest trick is this: you can smoothly change the size of the virtual space that the sound is reverberating in. This results in in pitch shifting that is reminiscent of what tape delays do when the speed changes. But instead of a single speed, the shift applies to the whole acoustic space, vibrating “air” and all. So a giant room can turn smoothly into a small and natural sounding chamber, and then into a tiny and very unnatural resonator. With longer decay times, weird spring-like beasties can be found along the way.

The controls are minimal, and are meant to interact in musical and inspiring ways. You can read all about Aaltoverb on the website, and in the manual. It's short but tells about some tricks you might not figure out otherwise. And: cartoons!

Aaltoverb 1.0.0 is available now as a 64-bit VST3 for Windows, and as 64-bit VST and Audio Units for Mac OS X. A single license covers both Mac and Windows and is $35.

Get a bundle deal!
Another thing people have asked about over the years is bundle deals. You know, where you buy more than one plugin at a time and as a result you get a discount. This was hard to imagine doing until our web maestro Philip did a bunch of work to modernize the site, including adding a shopping cart feature. But now that's done—and so are bundles.

They work very simply and so we're calling it the Simple Bundle feature. Buy more than one plugin in a single transaction, and save 15% off the entire purchase. That's it. Even if one of the plugins is, say, $35.

You’ll notice that Stripe, not PayPal, is now the default method of payment. We didn't want to leave people out in the cold just because PayPal didn't work in their regions, and since you need a credit card to get PayPal in the first place, hopefully this is more universal. We're always trying to improve the purchase experience, so please let us know how Stripe works for you. If you need or prefer to pay by PayPal for some reason, please get in touch.

Get the T-shirt!
I really love excuses to make a new T-shirt, and Aaltoverb's release seemed like a great one. I thought this one should be a collaboration and happily, Leafcutter John was into the idea. You might know the music he has put out on labels like Planet Mu and Border Community. This year he's gone and made a machine for making artworks, a homemade pen plotter, and the drawings he's making with it have really been pinging my visual cortex in a pleasant way. And so we made a shirt:

The design reminds me of sound decaying, and also of fabric being folded, and the analog robot quality is just (chef's kiss). I am wearing one nearly all the time, and you can too.

What about Sumu?
A long story that must be told short here, because it's nearly the cocktail hour. Very short version: I'm excited about Sumu, and now that Aaltoverb is out I can get back to finishing it.

Slightly longer version: I have some new design ideas for Sumu that required a lot of infrastructure work to pull off. Some to do with graphics and animation, and more on the DSP side of things. Well I dove into that infrastructure work and when I looked up it was a year later, or something. So both as a first use of the new framework and a way to, you know, ship a product, I decided to focus on the Aaltoverb release first. It's a cool enough reverb on its own, but to me it represents a lot more that's been done under the hood. As fall rolls around and I dive back into Sumu and Soundplane work I'm going to share some more about what's going on in there. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the sounds.

–Randy
Madrona Labs"

Professor William Hoskins and His Mystery Moog

Pictured to the left is Professor William Hoskins (via). What you see there is not the mystery Moog, but his Moog modular system. This post is about another Moog synth, one most likely based on the Sonic VI. If you have any information on what this synth might be after reading this, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly. My contact info is on the bottom right of the site. I have already contacted Michelle Moog-Koussa and Brian Kehew author of Kaleidoscope Eyes A Day in the Life of Sgt. Pepper, as well as Trevor Pinch, author of Analog Days [Amazon hardcover & paperback, preview on Google books], and featured in this exclusive post. I also contacted James Husted of Synthwerks, George Mattson of Mattson Mini Modular, Steven Jones of Synthwood, and Carbon111, all of whom know their synth history. None were familiar with what the synth might be.

The story: I was recently contacted by a Paul Rego with the following:

"I've been searching the Internet for over a year now and have not been able find a specific synth. Since you seem to know and work with every type of synth known, I thought I'd ask you...

Around 1973 - 1974, I took private synthesizer lessons at Jacksonville University (Florida). The instructor was Professor William Hoskins and the synth was a custom Studio Moog assembled by Professor Hoskins.

One day, Professor Hoskins showed me his personal, portable synthesizer. He brought out what looked like a brown suitcase. When he opened it, I saw a Moog Sonic VI.

This is nothing new. I've seen lots of images of this synth on the Internet. The one aspect of this particular synth, that I cannot find anywhere, is that it had a touch-sensitive keyboard. The keyboard was made of plastic and had a gray / brown color. Outlining the keys (showing the location of the 'white' and 'black' keys) was an almost medium blue color (about an eighth-inch thick). (He and I tinkered with this synth for about a half-hour to an hour.)

Professor Hoskins passed away several years ago, so I can't ask him about it. I did contact his family but they don't remember anything about this synth.

I do remember Professor Hoskins telling me that he and Bob Moog had 'gone to school together'. I think he was referring to electronics school but I never asked him more about it. I thought I had read somewhere that Professor Hoskins and Bob Moog had briefly worked together on a Sonic VI prototype but I don't know if that's true. (Even if what I saw was a prototype, someone has to own it now and should be proud enough of it to post some photos somewhere.)

I thought the background story might help in your own research on this.

Basically, I'd just like to know if this synth ever existed or am I just not remembering it correctly.

Thank you for your time and attention."

My first obvious guess considering the blue was the Buchla Music Easel or separate Buchla touchplate keyboard modded into the case of a Sonic VI. I sent Paul a couple of links to various images.

Paul replied: "the synth I saw didn't look like the Buchla Easel. Good call though.

The 'blue', which outlined the keys on the Sonic VI I saw was a bit lighter in color than the blue in your photos and maybe had a bit of green in it (closer to turquoise). There was no red or other color on the keyboard (that I can remember) and the entire keyboard seemed to be one piece of plastic with only the blue / green outlines separating the 'keys'.

I also read a story recently about the time when Musonics bought Moog and had a synth ('Sonic V'?) of their own, at that time, but I haven't research this too much yet. One thought I had was the synth I saw was something from Musonics but was never officially released (until it had the 'Moog' name placed on it). I'm pretty sure the synth I saw had the 'Moog' logo and the word 'Sonic VI'. (Not 100% sure but it seems clear in my memory.)"

I also sent Paul images of the EMS Synthi AKS. Paul replied it was the closest, but definitely not it.

I contacted Michelle Moog-Koussa and Brian Kehew to see if they knew of anything. Michelle replied: "...I can tell you that we have several of William Hoskins reel-to-reel tapes in the archives, so there was obviously a significant professional relationship between he and Bob.

I don't ever remember reading anything about the Sonic VI, but maybe Brian does. One thing I can tell you for sure is that Dad began working with John Eaton in 1970 on the Multi-Touch Sensitive keyboard [left via]. The main component of the MTS was the touch-sensitive keyboard, of course. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Dad would have used his work with John to push boundaries on another project."

Brian replied: "Bob didn't design or build the original Sonic V (from Musonics before they bought Moog) that was Gene Zumchak: The Sonic V did have a brown wood style. It's even unlikely Bob did much on the Sonic Six as it was the same thing with a new outer case.

The Sonic VI was the version Moog made in 1972 and later, in a plastic suitcase version. Many of these were made vs the very few Sonic V's. So one might think they saw a Sonic VI when it was the V (same front panel and features). But the brown suitcase and colored keys and touch sensitive thing are ALL unusual. I know a little about Prof Hoskins from the paperwork of the past, but no mention of this synth. Definitely unusual to have keys like that anywhere, anytime!" Followed by: "And there IS touch (velocity) sensitivity on Wendy Carlos' synth by 1971 for Clockwork Orange, but it's used under the normal keyboard. THIS velocity was very possible, but would not make the keys look different. Again - maybe a Sonic V was retrofitted with a cooler keyboard later in the 80s, but why not do so on a BETTER synth!?" :)

On a separate thread, Trevor Pinch got back to me with the following: "Bill Hoskins was important in that he was one of the first people David VanKouvering approached about minimoog reiail sales etc. I have a good album of his somewhere! I think he may have been Bob's favorite composer for a while.

I have no idea about the touch key board but I'm in touch with Gene Zumchak the guy who designed the Sonic Six, so I'll ask him. (I guess you know the joke that the Sonic Six was known by Moog engineers as the Chronic Sick!)

Actually its story might be kinda interesting - Zummy (as he is known) told me that it was made with 741 op amps and in many ways was more advanced than the minimoog.
Maybe it has had an unfair press. I never heard one or saw one for real."

James Husted sent me the image of Professor Hoskins at the top of this post. I sent it to Paul to see if maybe it brought back any memories that might help.

He replied: "The custom Moog modular in that photo is the same one I took lessons on. However, this is an early photo and when I saw that Moog modular, Professor Hoskins had already added a top layer to that cabinet — which included a Moog sequencer. (I have a photo of it, that I took around 1990, but the top part of the photo, showing the upper section, is cut off.)

The reason you didn't see Professor Hoskins' 'Sonic VI' is... I'm guessing that he didn't bring it to the university very often. When I saw it, I was at his home. He had invited me over one Saturday afternoon to see HIS custom Moog modular. It was in his garage, which he had made-over into a nice studio. It also had a two-manual organ, at least two reel-to-reel tape decks and LOTS of recording tape. Later, during that same session, he said 'There's something else I want to show you. Come inside.' We went into the living room and I sat on the couch. He said 'I'll be right back.' After about a minute, he came back carrying a brown 'suitcase'. He set it on the coffee table in front of me and sat down on the couch. He opened it up and... Whoa! I had never seen one of these and it was the first time I had seen a Ring Modulator!

---

I remember seeing Professor Hoskins play his Sonic VI during a live performance of his album 'Galactic Fantasy / Eastern Reflections'. The Jacksonville University orchestra played most of his composition but at one point his Sonic VI was brought out and he played it while at center stage. I could see it clearly from my seat but, of course, I could only see the back of it, which simply looked like the back of a brown suitcase.

---

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Since I think this is important, I thought I'd try to recreate the 'Sonic VI' I think I saw. I 'Photoshopped' a production Sonic VI and attached it to this message. It's the best image of what I think I saw.

Modifying the image forced my memory to go into more detail. Here's what I'm fairly certain of:

• The outer color of the "suitcase" was almost dark brown.

• The outer shape was more square than the production Sonic VI.

• The thickness of the top and bottom sections was thicker than the production Sonic VI model.

• The keyboard was made of slightly textured plastic, otherwise completely flat, was brown / gray in color and had a vibrant blue outline between the keys. (I'm not 100% sure if the "black" keys were outlined or solid blue.)

• The background color of the back panel and the area surrounding the keyboard was almost dark brown. It looked like it was made out of either pressed cardboard or thin wood. It really reminded me more of the thin 'wood' used in old, tube televisions and radios (during the 1960s).

What I'm not 'fairly sure' of:

• I can't remember if it had a Mod Wheel.

• I think there was more space between the modules.

• I think it had two speakers (placed on the left and right side of the back panel). Each might have been the size of the center speaker-grill in my photo.

• I can't remember if there were any connectors, switches or knobs on the keyboard section."

Update: via Aaron aka theglyph in the comments: "Holy shit! That's the guy from JU. There was an electronics repair/pawn shop here in Jacksonville called Active Electronics that had a bunch of synths back in 90's. The owner had a sign in the store explicitly stating that the synths were not for sale and that customers were not allowed to walk up and look at them or touch them. I walked in day and walked close enough to notice that the MiniMoogs had very low serial #'s. It wasn't until I read Analog Days that I found out that the earliest Mini were sold here in Jacksonville. There so much more to this story that I don't know where to begin but I can say that I did an obscure Moog at the store that I've never seen photographed since and I simply thought I was loosing my mind recollecting it. WOW!

Cheers,
theglyph"

Update: Above, Brian originally mentioned Bill Hemsath as the person that designed the Sonic V. He meant to say Gene Zumchak. This has been updated.

Updates: via Dorothy in the comments:
"HI, as a Hoskins kid, I watched Dad perform on the synthesizer and I know we had the Sonic but I thought it was a "V". Dad had several custom modules built for him by Bob Moog. They were friends but didn't go to school together -- Dad went to Trumansburg NY to work with Bob on the synthesizer that they got for Jacksonville University (in 1969, I think). I will have to go digging in the Will Hoskins letters that I have. Those of you who knew Dad know that he was very meticulous about writing up the components that he bought and what they were for.
Late in Dad's life, when he was basically letting go of most composing effort except for revising existing scores, Bob helped Dad find a collector (in Germany, as I recall), who bought all of Dad's big home synthesizer. I think some of the smaller units were in the hands of Steve Smith, who was Dad's right-hand man at the JU studio for some years. Whatever happened to them, I don't think Dad would have cared as long as someone was using them to create music. He wouldn't have collected synthesizers as museum pieces, he actively used everything he got from Moog until he was ready to let it go."

Followed by: "BTW, that last time I spoke to Bob Moog was after Dad died, when Bob came to Rochester NY http://www.esm.rochester.edu/news/?id=132 which is near where I live now. Bob spoke very fondly of working with Dad, because Dad cared as much about the science of music synthesis as any composer Bob knew. Dad did some work with him on modulators and other components for JU and the Hoskins home studio."

Followed by: "Hoskins synth photo --not a Sonic -- in news article 1970 [link]"

Update 6/6/2010:

Some more interesting bits of Moog history:

Trevor Pinch checked with Gene Zumchak who had the following to say:

"I am not aware of a touch sensitive keyboard on the Sonic V or 6. It did have a two-note keyboard and the highest key pressed and lowest pressed could be routed to Osc 1 and Osc 2.

They removed the keyswitch bus and superimposed a highpitch (100KHz?) tone on the voltage string. This might have been the source of a whine that some users complained about that wasn't present in the Sonic V."

via Josh Brandt: 'Okay, I did hear back from David Mash [VP of IT at Berklee and friend of Bob Moog], who says that the story he was telling me several years ago was about a keyboard Bob was building for John Eaton. I asked about the story he'd told me and if the pictures you posted could be of the instrument he'd been talking about, and he said:

"The story I was no doubt telling was definitely about the keyboard Bob built for John Eaton [middle pic above]. Bob was going to show us the completed instrument (which my friends Jeff Tripp and Paul Derocco helped complete), but we never got to see it due to the way the conversation turned over dinner. I did see the instrument several times during the design/build stages and again later after it was complete.

The keyboard was simply a controller and not a synth, so definitely not the portable synth the blog is referring to. I know Brian, and was involved briefly with him and a bit more with Michelle Moog on the NAMM Museum exhibit, and they used a couple of my photos for the exhibit. They're great people and working hard to preserve Bob's legacy.'"

Update via WmJHeart in the comments:

"Thanks Matrix, for hosting this page. I own a copy of Will's Galactic Fantasy & Eastern Reflections (my personal favorite) recording on vinyl. But I also discovered and listened to the entire album on YouTube recently! Here:"

Galactic Fantasy - Eastern Reflections (1979)[Full Album]

Published on Jul 12, 2017 TheHomecoming

"Rare electronic/synth/moog private pressing LP

TITLE 'Galactic Fantasy - Eastern Reflections'

William Hoskins, "Galactic Fantasy, Eastern Reflections" [CP-158]
TRACK 01 AUDIO TITLE "Overture : Stars Are Suns" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO TITLE "Intermezzo : Interplanetary Communique" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 06:39
TRACK 03 AUDIO TITLE "Star Nocturne" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 08:11
TRACK 04 AUDIO TITLE "Scherzo : Comets" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 16:35
TRACK 05 AUDIO TITLE "Beyond Beyond" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 18:54
TRACK 06 AUDIO TITLE "Prolog : Theme and Variation" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 23:40
TRACK 07 AUDIO TITLE "Lower Heterophonie" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 27:55
TRACK 08 AUDIO TITLE "Song : Open Skies" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 31:22
TRACK 09 AUDIO TITLE "Drum Chime" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 35:28
TRACK 10 AUDIO TITLE "Upper Heterophonie" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 39:41
TRACK 11 AUDIO TITLE "Epilog : Processional" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 41:30

A1
Overture: Stars Are Suns
A2
Intermezzo: Interplanetary Communique
A3
Star Nocturne
A4
Scherzo: Comets
A5
Beyond Beyond: An Entropy Study
A6
Eastern Reflections
Eastern Reflections
B1
Prolog: Theme and Variation
B2
Lower Heterophonie
B3
Song: Open Skies
B4
Drum Chime
B5
Upper Heterophonie
B6
Epilog: Processional

Criminally under-rated set of Early American Moog Modular Synthesizer Music - the sole release by composer William Hoskins, the 'Director of Electronic Music and Composer-in-Residence at Jacksonville University in Florida.' Issued in 1979 by the Harriman, NY-based Spectrum - a 'Division of UNI-PRO Recordings, Inc.' the LP consists of a pair of discrete pieces, with each taking up a side of its own."

Update via Kimberly S Beasley in the comments:

"Hello, everyone. I am the current chair of the Department of Music at Jacksonville University and I have the original Sonic VI manuals and one of Hoskin's Moogs....happy to share photos tomorrow."

Kimberly sent in the images with the following:

"This has been in the possession of our Professor Emeritus Dr. William Schirmer as it was given to him by Hoskins. Hoskins' granddaughter Dorothy is also aware of the instrument. We also have a large collection of manuscripts of Hoskins.

There is also a mini-Moog we just refurbished in our recording studio."

You can see WM. Hoskins written on the top right of the manual. Note "Home Copy" on the blue cover. It's kind of neat to think of him perusing through the manual in the comfort of his home.

An Interview with ERRORINSTRUMENTS' Paul Tas & New Product Announcements

The following is a fascinating look at the man behind ERRORINSTRUMENTS, Paul Tas. Note the questions are not mine, but were sent in with the full interview by inmar lsbtv grtz sleep good.

So how did all start? What was your life before "error instruments"?

- my life before error instruments can be described as a life of an artist in making sculptures and paintings. I was making sculptures from robots, called "the beeb" collection. It is a wooden robot with the concept that in the 50's, we have thought that robots will replace our jobs. However, with the influence of the media, and the medicines we take against emotions, figuratively we can say that we are the robot, and we get programmed by commercials and news. This robot has been a big succes due to the fact that it has been bought by numerous art collectors from different countries such as Japan and the United States. Furthermore, the collections had been sold also at auctions houses Christie's. Later on, I have started to work more in fashion and art and making moveable sculptures with electronics, I made also a traditional Dutch blue sculptures, big horse heads with the intention of giving a controversial thoughts and ideas. Moreover, sculptures about religion, which was a mix between Jesus and the corporate companies in the world with the meaning behind it, that they use the same propaganda to control people's mindset. I was also threatened by religious groups from Germany and Belgium during the time of exposition, not only me, but also the other people in the gallery. This situation has got to a point where i had to go to the court, but in the end I was free to go. Later i have done a project for Damian Hurst and made some installations together with BitMove for the "Love of God" exposition in the "RijksMuseum Amsterdam". As a result, more and more technical and electrical equipments got involved.

When did you have the idea for error instruments and what did the first steps look like?

- First of all, it is important that you know that as a child, i was not able to read, thus it was difficult to go to a normal school, and i have attended a special school, which allowed me to use my creativity, furthermore my writing was always full of mistakes and because in the 80's we used "Commodore 64", and every time i was writing something, a text appeared " Syntax ERROR". Therefore, the kids at my school, gave a nickname to me , called "Error". As a result, i got a fascination about the things that go wrong with machines, such as glitches or accidentally algoritmes and of course the sound of noises. By exploring the art of circuit bending and hardware hacking, i have found out that many people miss this, because the commercial products were created as a mainstream products, with a result for mainstream music. Thus, with the money that i have earned from art, I have started the shop, "ERROR INSTRUMENTS".

Do you have artistic projects beside error instruments?

- Yes, I perform under the name "ERROR EMPIRE", on several festivals. I have also some conceptional sound projects, called "Pink data". The idea of "Pink Data" is that is not controlled by humans, thus all the music is created by accidental algoritmes. I also make sculptures, with acoustic and electronic purposes. Furthermore, I am busy working on the modelar synthesizer and exploring control voltage. design eurorack modules for and special audience

What is the error philosophy?

CLICK FOR MORE »

Aphex Twin UNIQUE SUPER RARE RSF SD-140 VINTAGE Drum Machine ?

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
video upload by urgobenz

"Original samples and patterns by urgobenz.

Pattern n°1 : RSF SD140 (no effect)
Pattern n°2, 3 and 4 : RSF SD140 (with reverb).
Pattern n°5 : RSF SD140 + Korg 700s
Pattern n°6 : RSF SD140 + Chroma Polaris"

03 DMX Krew - Sppoookey [BREAKIN RECORDS]

video upload by edmx

via this auction

This one was spotted and sent in via xonox who noticed the following: "No mention is made in the auction but there is AFX scratched on the surface of the machine. According to Ed DMX (DMX Krew), Aphex Twin used one on his early tracks. Interview here. It is not my auction, i have no insider knowledge on anything either. Is it possible it's indeed one of AFX's drum machines or is it some classic AFX prank ?"

The SD140 has only been featured on the site twice before this post.

The following is the full description from the listing saved for the archives:

"Up for sale a unique extremely rare vintage drum machine. impossible to find it in another place. Many years ago I found this diamond and made the service in a professional workshop. Please note - this is an old gear for the collection and synth enthusiasts, this drum machine is in working condition, but I will not accept any returns and no compensation after the sale - please accept it. These are the first innovative electronic music devices and therefore you can see in the pictures the old technology of plastic coatings and touch buttons have traces of use, but all functions and buttons are well work.- It runs on 220 volt AC.The sound of this beast is very unique, the sound structure and flow are capable of creating incredible emotions and creative potency. The sound is incredibly relevant, I give a detailed description below. The package will be sent internationally, I pack the electronics well — a double strong box and a lot of bubble — look at my seller feedback.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Elektron Spotlight: Introvert

via the Elektron newsletter
Audio embed below - you might want to start the player first and then come back and read the interview while it's playing.

"Happy and careless 8-bit Nintendo sounds and ever-evolving and intricate compositions. When Introvert operates his machines, these contrasting types of expressions are welded together with ease. The uniqueness of the music gives the impression of listening to something deeply personal.

Why do you think the chip sound is so compelling?

I guess mostly because of the nostalgia of the sound. I mean I think that it is something that most people from my generation grew up hearing on almost a daily basis. It's almost like this minuscule part of our childhood that we can all relate to. Chiptune music to me is just so much fun and those familiar sounds can be made fresh again with modern machines like the Octatrack. I just use the Octatrack MIDI sequencer and my Wayfar MidiNES and go at it.

I also love that even people that I know, who don't really care for what I do musically, can't help but smile when they hear chiptune music. They seem to understand my excitement when they hear that 8-bit grit. It just tickles parts of your brain like a familiar scent from the past. It takes me back to a place when we were all kids and when life was more simple, fun and laidback.

Some of your songs, like»Chicago Dreaming«, are very complex. What is your approach when creating such intricate pieces?

Well, when composing some of the more complex tracks I do, I usually don't have that much of an idea of a finished product and I really don't have a set technique for composing. But what I have found with myself is that I'm usually most productive if I just focus on only one thing at a time. Whether it's beats, synths, Eurorack or just noises for backgrounds, concentrating on just one small piece, rather than the whole picture at once, is really important to me.

I usually take just a Monomachine or a Machinedrum or my Octatrack into a room, away from all of my other gear, so I can just focus on that one machine. That way I can get as lost in that single element as possible. I will usually do that with several machines and then when I can get a large chunk of time to zone out and experiment, I bring all of my machines together and start to layer sounds.

I have an Allen and Heath ZED 22FX so I can run everything all at once and sort of let things build themselves. I currently only use Ableton Live 8 when recording. No other software, no plugins and almost no post edits or software effects. I try to just get things as tight and as formulated as possible before I go into Ableton.

Needless to say the copy and paste features in all of my Elektron boxes get used an insane amount. If a groove really connects with me I will make 10 or 20 different copies and variations of that same groove with different swells, retrigs and lengths. This helps me to have as many variations as possible of a single thought.

Once I have done that, it is possible for me to apply my favorite Elektron trick. It is implemented in the Machinedrum and as far as I know, nothing else out there lets you do this. The trick is the Control All feature. When I found this trick my musical life changed for the better. What I do is I will have one straight groove running on one of my machines (usually my Octatrack or my MK1 SPS-1 chaining tons of patterns together). On my UW I just freak out with another groove by holding function and turning a knob so it will turn that knob consistently for every sound across your entire machine. But the cool thing is that it does not map the same for every machine. So if you are using internal machines or ROM machines parameters will be mapped differently, causing crazy cool things to happen! And when you are done "freaking out", just hold your function key and press the classic button and the saved kit will be reloaded. WOW! Ok, now run that through your Octatrack Echo Freeze delay and your electronic life will be changed.

Which aspects of song writing do you find the most rewarding? And which do you find the most tedious?

For me I honestly think the most tedious and stressful part of the writing process is the recording phase. And it's not really recording per se, it's finding the time to really be able to sit down and fully immerse myself in my machines. I think I have the tendency to over think things and that can be really impairing when it comes to completing things.

But I find the most rewarding part of making music is getting positive words and feedback from people I don't even know, or people that I really respect (like you wonderful people at Elektron or the guys at Trash_Audio). When I get nods from fellow synth geeks or professionals out there in the world, it really makes me happy in a way I can't really explain. I don't get to play out very often but it always makes me feel great when there are music geeks that I have never met who are personally effected and inspired by my music and says how much they enjoy my noises. So I guess what I find the most rewarding is people connecting with and enjoying my musical thoughts on a personal level.

Does acquiring new gear change your approach to producing music?

Oh, without a doubt! I think new gear always sparks excitement and confusion, which forces you to work out of your comfort zone. Every piece of gear inspires a unique spark of creativity that, I believe, can be attributed to the creators of the product and their personal background as musicians. That said, I usually just use new gear to create samples and sample banks for my Octatrack and Machinedrum. So while new things can severely change my approach to my creative process, new gear also helps me find new love and inspiration in current familiar machines like my Octatrack and UW. I recently have really been getting into Eurorack and there is a whole world of possibilities and noises out there that I never could have even imagined of. I have created tons and tons of personalized oneshot drum sounds, drones and swells and dumped them into my Octatrack to be mangled. This works great, because by using the Octatrack, and especially the chromatic function, an unfamiliar instrument can become familiar.

I also play Monomachine, Octatrack and guitar with a full, instrumental, band called Karass and I absolutely love to use my Elektron machines in that context. They are so flexible and enable us to keep things 100% live. While I would love to be able to take my Analogue Solutions Vostok or my Metasonix boxes with me to every practice and gig, I rather keep them safe at home. With the Octatrack we can still have access to all of those noises in a live environment and even expand on those thoughts in a really fun and LIVE way.

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via Introvert on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

Teenage Engineering OP-Z jam and review - 3 days, 7 patterns, and first impressions

Published on Dec 4, 2019 Payton Carter

Teenage Engineering OP-Zs on Amazon

"I got an early Christmas present two days ago. I thought I would show you some of the patterns I’ve created so far, and give a quick 'first impression' review of the Teenage Engineering OP-Z.

I’m coming from the Novation Circuit, which I’ve loved, but I was starting to feel the limitations of the two synth tracks and canned presets. I chose the OP-Z so I could expand the number of synth tracks, allow full control of the synth engines without a computer, and use its awesome, esoteric sequencing capabilities.

I’ll start off with some of the things I like. First, the synth engines sound wonderful. They are very usable and musical sounds. I’ve found myself spending less time trying to find the right sound and more time writing music, because the sounds just work in almost every context. I feel like I could use the same set of sounds across diverse genres equally well. I’m able to focus more on melody and composition, rather than sound design, which helps me be a lot more productive.

The step sequencing and punch in effects are fantastic. I haven’t used it enough yet to be comfortable using the punch in effects live, but the step components are great at adding elements of variation and surprise. You can make it so you’ll never hear the same 16-step pattern twice, but the parameters have enough constraint that it never feels chaotic (unless you want it to).

It’s super portable, and the built in battery is convenient. I’ve only had to recharge it once in the two days of use. I don’t think it’s too small to use comfortably, and it’s actually quite nice to just use it on your lap. I can fit the whole thing in my pocket easily. The buttons feel good to play.

The interface is surprisingly intuitive. It took about 2 hours to feel comfortable with the interface, and now I feel like I can perform most of the tasks without consulting the manual. I only have to reference the step component parameters every once in a while. I have an Android phone and didn’t realize until the second day that TE had just released a beta app. Honestly, I didn’t find it too useful. I prefer using it without a connected screen.

The sampling capabilities are great, especially now that you can sample directly through the microphone or USB audio. I’ve been going through my music collection on my phone and building sample packs from them right into the OP-Z. You can use samples as one shots or sources for a synth track, so the sonic capabilities are now pretty much endless.

Here are some of the things I don’t like. First, the reverb is terrible. I don’t know what TE were thinking. There’s only one reverb algorithm, and it’s very digital and harsh sounding. There’s almost no tweaking of the sound. The maximum decay time is much too short. It’s almost useless at adding large space, so I’ve found it really only works as a stereoizer. It works in some cases, but I don’t find myself using it very often.

I’m slightly concerned about build quality. I bought mine used off Reverb, and when I received it, I was disappointed to find that the encoders were popping right out. I scoured the forums and found a little Teflon thread tape around the encoders should fix the problem. It worked wonders and I haven’t had problems with that since. The back panel is a little loose. The buttons do double trigger every once in a while, which makes me worried for their longevity.

The synth engines, while great sounding, are a little limited. There’s not much tweaking of the sounds, so everything ends up sounding pretty similar. This is less of a con than I thought, because the sounds are very usable and work across many genres. I’ve always held that composition much more important than sound design, anyway.

I wish an analog of the mixer interface on the app was available on the device. You have to go to the fourth page of parameters on each track to change its volume. That’s not very practical in a live setting.

There’s no excuse for how little memory is on board. 32 Mb is just unacceptable in 2019. As great as the sampling capabilities are, there’s only room for 4 different six-second samples per synth track, so you have to pick your favorites unless you want to constantly shuffle samples back and forth from your computer.

Despite its limitations, I’m in love with this thing. It’s my desert island instrument for sure. I am super productive while using it, I can take it anywhere and make music anywhere, and it’s just plain fun to use. Mine was supposed to get wrapped and put under the Christmas tree, but I don’t think I can let that happen."