Synth Stuff Synth Demos by tritonrecordings36

Published on Feb 9, 2017 tritonrecordings

"No talking, just synths. See the description for my "commentary," but otherwise, just sit back and listen!"

36 individual synth demos at the time of this post.

Playlist:
Synth Stuff Ep. 1 - Korg MS-20 Mini
Synth Stuff Ep. 2 - Korg Minilogue
Synth Stuff Ep. 3 - Yamaha DX7
Synth Stuff Ep. 4 - Roland D-50
Synth Stuff Ep. 5 - Kawai K1
Synth Stuff Ep. 6 - Moog Minimoog D (Reissue)
Synth Stuff Ep. 7 - Moog Sub 37
Synth Stuff Ep. 8 - Yamaha PSS-570
Synth Stuff Ep. 9 - Roland Juno-60

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TB MIDI Stuff

YouTube Uploaded by TBStuffCompany

Note this supports The Missing Link. To set it up for ML use, just slide the Enable button to On and then set the Missing Link as Midi Output. Bi-directional SYSEX support over wireless on The Missing Link however is not yet available.

Playlist:
TB MIDI Stuff Commercial
TB MIDI Stuff v1.4.0 - Pages Manager
TB MIDI Stuff - Bi directional SysEx
TB MIDI Stuff - Built-in Keyboard Controller
TB MIDI Stuff - Built-in Pads Controller
TB MIDI Stuff - Value Notes
TB MIDI Stuff - Dynamic Labels
TB MIDI Stuff - File Sharing
TB MIDI Stuff v1.4.0 preview : bi directional SysEx (very) quick demo
TB MIDI Tiny Stuff for iPhone & iPod Touch : Quick Demo

TB MIDI Stuff - TBStuff
TB MIDI Tiny Stuff - TBStuff

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Free Samples via Zero Divide

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/korger1.zip
Made these just before I sold my Korg ER-1. They aren't properly cut up, unfortunately, but it isn't like it isn't hard to slice them down to size. This is just a bunch of sounds I synthesized to try to cover all of the possibilities that this machine had to offer.

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/kraftydrums.zip
Did these up last night using the MFB Kraftzwerg to synthesize drums and such from scratch. I did cut out the silences on these and normalized, however it should be noted that on a couple of these I ran the input on the MPC just a teensy bit too hot, so a couple of the samples distort a tiny bit (though it's actually a nice effect on the kicks.)

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/mfb522.zip
MFB 522. There's not much here as I was sampling these so that I could experiment with different processing methods, but this is a nice little simple drum kit here.

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/rolandmc09.zip
These are all of the drum sounds from the Roland MC-09. There's a few repeats in here because the kits are made up from a small pool of samples and I was just flying through getting all of the kits sampled. I don't think I've chopped these up either.

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/frxsdrums.zip
Inspired by Wave Alchemy's collection, here's a small selection of Future Retro XS drums. Not nearly as varied as the Wave Alchemy set, but still a good demonstration for myself as to the capabilities of this unit.

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/jomoxmbase01.zip
This is all of the preset sounds and a couple of sounds I built of my own for the Jomox MBase01.

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/dr550mkii.zip
Complete collection of all of the drum sounds on the Boss DR-550mkii. (A lot of the sample sets floating around on the interwebs don't have all of the sounds in them.)

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/dotcomdrums.zip
And this is just a quick little goof-off thing with my Dot Com system doing a couple of basic drum sounds.

Update via Zero Divide:

here's another MFB 522 bank:

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/mfb522.zip
The difference between this bank and the last bank is that for this one, I went through and sampled every sound with the knobs at five different positions. Obviously due to the nature of analog, this doesn't cover ever single possible sound that the 522 can do, but it still covers a lot of territory. I didn't go through and trim it up because doing it manually would have taken way more time than what I was willing to give to something I would end up giving away for free, and doing it with like Wave Trim or the like seems to cut off the tails in a lot of cases.

http://audio-kinetic.iswiz.com/stuff/schlagzwerg.zip
Initially with this one, I was setting out to do like I did with the 522 and try to get nearly every possible sound out of it. Since it shares the same hats/cymbal circuit as the 522, that means that I only have to get the kick, tom, and snare section. Trouble is that the Schlagzwerg has a much greater range than what the 522 has, so I'd have to sample all of the knobs at seven positions instead of just five in order to cover it all. Three hours and 550-ish samples later, I stopped and did the math and realized that for seven positions of every knob and five knobs for the kick, I'd need over 16,000 samples just to cover all that the kick can do. Lesson learned: Plan ahead! So, I deleted all of those samples and just made a smaller collection highlighting what is possible with the Schlagzwerg. The 'FX' bank is what the Schlagzwerg is capable of when you get crazy with the patch cables."

Stuff My Stocking by Vansassa

YouTube Uploaded by caffeinatedrecording on Dec 18, 2011

"An entry for the 2011 Moog Music Inc. Animoog Holiday Song Contest. Song is made with voices, drums, 2 different Animoogs, jingle-y bells, and an Etherwave Theremin into a couple of Moogerfoogers.

You can download this song for free here:
http://vansassa.bandcamp.com/track/stuff-my-stocking

Lyrics:
Buy me something to put under the tree
Buy me something with lots of money
You buy now that's what everyone do
Happy Holidays for me and for you

Buy me something good like jewelry
Buy me something and don't be cheap
You buy now that's what everyone do
Happy Holidays for me and for you

You will buy
Don't ask why
It's what everyone do
If you don't believe in it
You can look it up on YouTube

Stuff my stocking with five golden rings
Stuff my stocking with lots of things
Stuff my stocking with a new Moog
'Tis the season for spiky egg nog

Stuff my stocking with five golden rings
Stuff my stocking with all kinds of things
Stuff my stocking with mistletoe
'Tis the season for a new Moog!"


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One Year Of Matrixsynth

The short version:

Today marks the one year anniversary of Matrixsynth. It's exactly one year and 3148 posts since I started this site to track everything synth. Thanks to everyone who makes this site great by either sending stuff in, posting in the comments or spreading the word.

The long version:
I started this blog because my old site Matrixsynth.com/old simply wasn't cutting it anymore. I created the original site in October 1997 as my portal into the world of synths. I'd see an interesting site and add a link (BTW, the alias matrix and the green on black color scheme came well before The Matrix movies. My first and favorite synth was an Oberheim Matrix-6, hence matrix. I'm a synth geek not a Matrix movie geek).

As time when on I found it difficult to find stuff I previously came across. So... I figured what better way to store and make all of this available to others than via a blog. The idea is very simple. I sub to a bunch of lists, feeds and forums; people send me stuff, I interact with people and I see things I want to save for posterity. When I see something I think I might want to see again, I post it. No discrimination. BTW, if you haven't noticed, this site is not meant to be a journal or publication. It's just a bunch of stuff about synths. If you enjoy synths, I hope you enjoy what you see here. It's a heartbeat on what others also into synths are doing, or rather what I happen to come across on a daily basis. Nothing more, nothing less.

When I first started the blog I never would have guessed so much stuff was out there. People asked me if I thought I would ever run out of things to post. I actually wondered myself. The answer turned out to be only if others out there run out of things to share themselves. Which leads me to...

THANK YOU

I want to say thank you to everyone out there who supports this blog. Anyone that has sent me something worth posting. Anyone that takes the time out to engage in the comments and of course everyone that reads this site and spreads the word. Thank you. It's actually crazy. I started the blog to track stuff only I came across. It's turned out to be a whole lot more. I never would have thought people would be enriching the site via the comments and letting me know when there was something else worthwhile posting. Thank you. BTW, you should notice that I frequently update my posts with comments and I always give credit when credit is due.

As a side note, at one point I offered to open up Matrixsynth for others to post but I got a resounding NO, so I created SYNTHWIRE for others to sign up and start posting. You can also promote your own stuff there, so use it!

Back on point. So, what next? Another year of posting. Thanks all, it has been one heck of a year.

Special thanks to moogulator of sequencer.de, Tom Whitwell of MusicThing, Peter Kirn of Create Digital Music, James Grahame of Retro Thing, Chris Randall of Analog Industries, Circuitmaster of GetLoFi, Carbon111, George Mattson, Brian Comnes, Dave (The Packrat), Dennis Verschoor, fmasseti, Loscha, Ross Healy, Steve Barbour of Gnostic Rocket, vlada of One Blue Monkey, deb7680 of Chroniques de la Mao, Rick of Electricmusicbox, Heath Finnie, DVDBorn, Mark Pulver, Doktor Future, Cikira, and of course Elhardt. ; ) You all contributed a little extra to the blog in your own way. Thanks for that.

And of course to the late great Bob Moog and all the synth manufacturers out there. Thank you.

And last but definitely not least, a HUGE thanks to my wife and daughter for tolerating the time and effort I put into this site on a daily basis. Thank You!

Update: I also want to thank Fernando Alves for making my favicon way back, and Paul and Brian Comnes for being the only two people that bought my matrixsynth shirt way back.

And of course, every person or site I've put up a post on. Thanks for having something worth posting about. ; )

Bastl at Superbooth 2019 - New Products and Updates

The Press Release:

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Akai MPC 2000XL Custom “Black Modular” Phenolic & Walnut Bezel

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

This one was spotted and sent in via M Me.


via this auction

"Custom Akai MPC 2000XL | Caramel Phenolic & Walnut Bezel, MC-2000XL Card Reader
Black Vinyl Wrap, 32MB RAM, 8 Output / Digital I/O Board, v.2 LCD Screen, Fat Pads
Just released October 2019, the 1st unit sold in 4 days. We are now making these units per individual order. Place your order for this custom MPC-2000XL unit by Big Noise MPC. Built to order; we can build your unit to your specifications, colors and desired extras. Price may very depending upon options and part/s availability. Custom builds are delivered within 30 business days.

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TB MIDI Tiny Stuf for iPhone and iPod Touch

From the makers of TB MIDI Stuff

"***** LAUNCH PRICE (60% offers for limited time) *****

TB MIDI Tiny Stuff is a tiny generic modular MIDI control surface for iPhone and iPod Touch.

The built-in page editor lets you create your own pages. It contains some useful tools like pasteboard, undo manager, multi selection or z-order managment.

All drum pads in your custom pages can use Accelerometer Velocity for notes On messages. They can also fire multiple notes at the same time to create "one hit" configurations (each note can use or not the accelerometer velocity).

All pages can be shared via iTunes with a desktop computer or via e-mail directly in the app. You can import pages from Mail and Safari.

TB MIDI Tiny Stuff use CoreMidi : you can use any supported device, like the native WiFi driver. Each page can use a different CoreMidi driver. Also works with Virtual MIDI Ports applications capable and the app provides two virtual MIDI out ports.

Controls can use the accelerometer as input (even faders and knobs), in each dimension (X, Y, Z or, for XY Pads, a mix of them).

The application library contains :

- Rotary sliders
- Horizontal sliders
- Vertical sliders
- Horizontal faders (with different colors)
- Vertical faders (with different colors)
- Mixer knobs (with different colors and flavors)
- Black knobs
- Drum Pads
- XY Pads
- Rounded rects
- Labels

Each control can drive simultaneously multiple MIDI messages like Control Change messages (single 7bits and coarse/fine 14bits), RNP/NRPN messages (7 and 14bits), Pitch Bend messages, Program Changes messages, Note On/Off messages.

You can open up to 32 pages simultaneously. You can manage the pages order, open multiple instances of the same page and change the MIDI Out driver or the MIDI Out channel (or both) without entering the editor for each instance.

TB MIDI Tiny Stuff contains some demo and template pages.

Note : TB MIDI Tiny Stuff doesn't manage SYSEX messages yet.

Visit us : www.tbstuff.com
Contact us : contact@tbstuff.com
Follow us : twitter.com/TBstuffCompany
www.facebook.com/pages/TBStuff/262769697081433"



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This Blog

Thought I'd put up a post on what this blog is and what it is not. Why? I always find things a bit more enjoyable when I know what they are about, and I've noticed from a few comments that some might not know what this site is about.

What it is: A repository for synth stuff I come across on the web.
What it is not: a "News" blog.

Will there be news now and then? Yep. If I come across it and post it. Will I be the first to post stuff? Depends. If stuff is sent to me that's not currently on the web, or I come across it before others then yes, otherwise all of this stuff is already out there, even when I come across it first. What might be "news-like" is any additional information I might add and/or a different perspective. What is also news is anything someone might add to the post. It just depends. I'm not trying to be a news blog, but what's interesting is a lot of this can come across as news. What's really interesting is if it is news to you then it's just that, news to you. A lot of this stuff like Vogelscheiss' site or Tapelab.org have been around for some time, but I had no idea until I visited them. I'm not on all the lists and my guess is neither are most of you as we only have so much time in the day to explore the synth universe. So, I use this blog to track all of that. It's my pulse on the synth world and I hope you find some if not all of it worthwhile. Will there be posts you brush over? Of course! We all have different interests; some will overlap, some won't. You might be on some of the same lists as me and you might not. If you saw a particular post already, think of the others that haven't. What also fascinates me is that in the synth world, old news can be new news. Think of all the history that fascinates us. For example, recently someone on the Synth Sights list was trying to find the infamous OBMx and Gibson story. People remembered seeing it but didn't remember where to find it. Well, it so happened that I put up a post with a link to it a while back, so I was able to find it and send it quickly.

So what is this blog to you? A place where you can see stuff about synths, old and new. Every now and then I hope you find a nugget or two worth your wile. : )

Alesis Andromeda A6 Editor for iPad

Boele Gerkes aka SCD is working on an iPad editor for the Alesis Andromeda. Some details via this thread on electro-music.com:

"Would anyone be interested in that? I am working on one for myself for quite some time now, and it really changed the great synth into a GREAT synth
If there are enough interested people I might consider a (not free, but cheap) public release to earn a little back for the many many hours I have put into it.

It is an editor that uses mixed NRPNs and Sysex messages (that was quite a trip by the way, to "back engineer" how things are done on the Andro) and probably will capture each and every parameter that has to do with sound editing (which are a lot as you all know) and some global stuff.

My main problem with the A6 interface is the tiny LCD in combination with the *way* to sensitive knobs... I *hate* that really on the Andro. But I *love* the character of this synth and possibilities. That's why I started this for my own pleasure.

This editor has for instance have sliders and knobs with which you can change values much more more comfortably than on the A6 itself.
Some parameters (like the level knobs in the 47 modulation pages) wil even have a knob and two sliders for the same parameter, so you can choose with which resolution you want to change the values. It makes sound design SO much easier!
For instance, try to add a little pitch modulation to an oscillator with an LFO... you'll get the idea.

Touching a knob on the iPad will call up the appropriate LCD screen on the Andro.

I am almost done with all synth engine parameters, except for the digital FXs. Those will all get an iPad page of there own.

It is builded up out of pages with a navigation bar at the bottom to reach the various sections.
This is the list of iPad screens that are dedicated to a part:

Modulations (with 47 sub pages for the 47 mod slots on the Andromeda)
Oscillator 1 (with all parameters on one page, including links to the mod pages)
Oscillator 2 (like Osc1)
Pre-Mixer
Filter
Post Mixer
Envelope 1 (with 1 sub page for Looping and Dynamics parameters)
Envelope 2 (with 1 sub page for Looping and Dynamics parameters)
Envelope 3 (with 1 sub page for Looping and Dynamics parameters)
LFO1
LFO2
LFO3
S+H
Effects (with 29 sub pages for each digital effect)
Arpeggiator
Sequencer
Clock
Global (to be determined what will be in there: at least the CRoutes stuff, and the Tracking Generator, plus the Portamento, patch select and some more)

The number of pages will run into the 100+ But navigation will be easy and quick.

What this editor is NOT:
- It's *not* a Librarian and it will not become one.

What this editor is/has:
– a *very* handy tool to design sounds on the Andro! Trust me. It has become a completely new synth to me, since working with it.
- an editor that captures *every* sound editing parameter of the Andro that has a NRPN/sysex control attached (unless a bug prevents one. There are a few on the Andro, but not many).
- a "fix" for the 50% PW bug (a button sets it for you to 52%)
- controls that do right to the values you want to fine tune
- bi-directional (but some restrictions, certainly when using WIFI, due to an Apple bug)

And it is not ready yet, so it will take me some more months probably. I will post some screen shots in the near future."

Followed by:

"Restrictions:

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TB MIDI Stuff for iPad

"***** LAUNCH PRICE (70% offers for limited time) *****

TB MIDI Stuff is a generic modular MIDI control surface for iPad.

You can create your own pages, or use the built-in MIDI keyboard (with Arpeggiator, modulation wheel, pitch wheel and accelerometer velocity), the built-in Pads controller (with customizable pads banks, accelerometer velocity, transposition, full velocity mode and repeat mode) or the 16 channels MIDI mixer (pan, volume and mute).

The built-in page editor lets you create your own pages. It contains some useful stuffs like pasteboard, undo manager, multi selection or z-order managment.

The built-in keyboard, the pads controller and all drum pads in your custom pages can use Accelerometer Velocity for notes On messages.

All pads (including drum pads) can fire multiple notes to create "one hit" configurations (each note can use or not the accelerometer velocity). You also can create any pads banks you need for the pads controller.

All pages and pads banks can be shared via iTunes with a desktop computer.

TB MIDI Stuff use CoreMidi : you can use any supported device, like the native WiFi driver or the camera connection kit with an external sound card. Each page can use a different CoreMidi driver.

Controls can use the iPad accelerometer as input (even faders and knobs), in each dimension (X, Y, Z or, for XY Pads, a mix of them).

The application library contains :

- Rotary sliders
- Horizontal sliders
- Vertical sliders
- Horizontal faders (with different colors)
- Vertical faders (with different colors)
- Mixer knobs (with different colors and flavors)
- Drum Pads
- XY Pads
- Value displayers
- Rounded rects
- Labels

Each control can drive simultaneously multiple MIDI messages like Control Change messages (single 7bits and coarse/fine 14bits), RNP/NRPN messages (7 and 14bits), Pitch Bend messages, Program Changes messages, Note On/Off messages.

You can open up to 32 pages simultaneously. You can change pages with three fingers swipe gesture, manage the pages order, open multiple instances of the same page and change the MIDI Out driver or the MIDI Out channel (or both) without entering the editor for each instance.

Swipe shortcuts (1, 2 and 3 fingers) let you access quickly to the MIDI keyboard, the pads controller or the 16 channels mixer.

TB MIDI Stuff contains some demo pages and 7 pads banks. For the pads banks :

- Default Bank
- Drum Kit (GM)
- Fifth
- Major Chords
- Minor Chords
- Simple Chord Generator
- Velocity"

TB MIDI Stuff - TBStuff
iPads on eBay

TB Midi Stuff 2 template for FL Studio 10 (beta) - ipadtouches.com

Published on Oct 27, 2012 by IPadTouches

"TB Midi Stuff 2 template for FL Studio 10 (beta).
More info : www.ipadtouches.com
For performance mode, normal mode and controls.

TB Midi Stuff is a much cheaper App than Lemur.
Version 2 has a lot of new features, so I was able to port my FL Lemur template for Lemur to TB Midi Stuff 2."

iTunes:
TB MIDI Stuff - TBStuff
iPads on eBay

TB MIDI Stuff iPad Editor for the Yamaha FS1R

TBStuff ported several pages of my Touch OSC editor for the Yamaha FS1R. That editor was mapped for The Missing Link. This TB MIDI Stuff port works with CoreMIDI over USB so you do not need The Missing Link for it to work, although it will work with it over wifi as well. A cool thing about this editor is that communication via USB is two-way, meaning if you change a parameter on the FS1R, it will also show up on the editor. Also, this editor shows you the value as you edit so you can dial in edits more precisely. Currently there are templates for the following pages: fseq, Cmn, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and EQ. More may follow as TB MIDI Stuff has time, but I thought any of you with an FS1R wouldn't mind giving these templates a try. You can find them here.

TB MIDI Stuff on iTunes:

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Update: you can find other user templates on the TBStuff forums here. And, of course, if you create any yourself, feel free to join and share.

Synth DIY Flickr Pool via SynthFrog

You can find the flickr pool here.

Description via akorbeti aka SynthFrog: "I uploaded some photos of my works. They include Mr. Braska too. There are almost 580 photos in there, of various stuff. From wide open synths like the SY77 and the QY 70 (I have to gut the QY 700 too). And some side stuff like eg. a colored octal clock that counted time in octal, by lighting RGB leds. B was bit 0, G was bit 1 and R was bit 2.

Etching stuff, UV box stuff, you name it..

If you leave a comment on a photo, I will give you detailed info about it. It is not too easy to remember and comment on all of these photos :)

for updated stuff checkout www.synthfrog.com"

Bob Moog Interview - Bob the Tool Maker

You'll find it on RL Music here.

I wasn't planning on posting for the rest of the day to reflect on Bob. I spent the day outside with my wife and almost 2 year old daughter, in a way celebrating my daughter's hope in her life ahead of her. We all have a life to live and only so much time. This sort of news always makes this more real. I miss the early years when you either had no concept of it or it was soooo far out you never worried about yourself or those you cared about - you had plenty of time. I thought Bob had plenty of time and I thought I'd be fortunate to one day meet him in person. Life can be too short. I'm back home and my daughter is sleeping. I'm online and watching an interview of Bob Moog on the RLMusic site. I wasn't going to post, but I figure if it's about Bob, why not share it.

Update:
There is a transcript on the site as well. The following is "the connection" that makes Bob the master toolmaker for musisions:

"With so many of my customers buy vintage analogue equipment, why do you think in your opinion has this interest in vintage equipment come back to today’s home & professional studios – why is there such a resurgence of interest?

Bob:
It’s a question that’s asked so frequently, I could be flippant and say “oh it’s just fashion” I have a sense it’s a lot more than that. I have a sense that now that musicians have a lot of experience of digital instruments, in particular, have bumped up against the limitations of digital instruments when it comes to getting really great sound or getting there heads in there and shaping the sound. These very basic evangelist of analogue stuff are becoming clear. In the early years they were enamoured with all the novelty of all this digital stuff like the DX7 being a polyphonic synthesizer with new sound for $2000 dollars. That was a very distracting thing. Then the sample playing instruments- the EMU stuff and the Kurzweil Stuff and all the long string of digital stuff from Roland Korg and Yamaha came out with. There was a certain amount of excitement because it was so new but that’s died down now & musicians are missing really this sense of being able to connect with the sound. I think it’s much more difficult to do that with digital instruments. There is a tactile nature that’s a part of it but it’s also a uniquely human thing that goes on that has to do with more than just how it feels or the harmonics."

Interview with Henning Krane of Don Juan Dracula

I recently discovered Don Juan Dracula back on March 4th, this year, when their manager Shane Chisholm contacted me about doing an interview with the band. I'll be honest and say I was a little reluctant at first because this site is about "the synths and not the band," but I liked what I heard, so I asked him if it would be alright to focus on synths and run the interview with their keyboard player. I got the thumbs up, and the following is that interview. I've been listening to their album for some time now and I must say I really do like it. Catchy stuff that will get stuck in your head for days and keep the energy going. Don't miss the videos below. One of which, "Run Away With You" features a kid in the video with a custom toy keyboard. Apparently the kid in the video made it when he saw Hennings keytar and they decided they just had to let him use it in the video. Pretty cool. That said...


1. How many members of the band play synths?
Henning: Our songwriter Henrik uses keyboards as well as guitar when he writes songs, but while recording and live it's me who playes the keyboards.

2. When and how did you get into synths?
Henning: In 2000 I think, Henrik asked me to play keyboards in his new band. I hadn't really played keyboards before, but like a lot of kids I was forced to take piano lessons when I was growing up, so I still remembered a little. When we started out, all we had was Henriks old Casiotone MT-800 and a Casio SA-10. Those two keyboards were the basis of our first EP and live-shows for a couple of years.

3. Do you view yourself as a synthesist, keyboard player or both?
Henning: I don't really see myself as neither actually. I like to collect old keyboards, synths and gadgets that make cool sounds. And I play them in a band.

4. What synths do you use in the studio and on tour.
Henning: Live i mainly use a Yamaha SHS-10 as a MIDI-Controller for the Korg Microkorg. That way I'm able to move around more on stage. I really like the diversity of the microkorg, and the simplicity of it's interface. Being able to quickly switch between custom sounds and finished presets makes it ideal for live use, which is probably why everyone is using them these days. Though it seems everyone is using one these days.

I also still use that old Casiotone and a Yamaha kids organ once bought at a flea-market for the lead-sound of "Take Me Home". We have gradually moved away from the pure Casio-pop sound, using more real instruments as well as synthesizers and not just FM-keyboards.

In the studio we have started to use more soft-synths lately as well, mainly because it's easier, and cheaper. Unfortunately we don't have the money to buy every synth we want.

We will be recording our next album soon, and we're looking to purchase the new Korg MicroX before that. I'm also trying to get hold of a Korg MS-10 for the studio-session. Everytime I buy a new synth or keyboard we try to use it somewhere in the recordings. That way we get a variety in the sound. I try to not use the same sounds more than once... We have used quite a lot of different gear over the years. Mainly cheap kids-like stuff, I just like the sound...

5. What is your favorite synth and why?
Henning: The Casio VL-1. Just because it's so small, and still so funny sounding. And it's a calculator as well. A friend of ours actually used his on a math exam once...

6. What do you think about the role of synthesizers in music today and it's influences in the past? What would you consider to be you main influences (musicians, technologies, anyone)?
Henning: The last couple of years you have started to hear more and more bands becoming popular using synthesizers in their songs, and I like that of course.
-Vince Clarke (Depeche Mode, Yazoo -not so much Erasure) and OMD has influenced me a lot with their simple monophonic style of playing and composing.
-As well as Casio.

7. What is your dream synth and why?
Henning: I have been dreaming of getting a Moog Prodigy and a Yamaha Cs-5 for a little while. Because they are the synths mostly used on my favorite album by Depeche Mode "Speak & Spell".

8. Do you prefer a particular type of synthesis (analog, digital, modular, FM, etc) and why?
Henning: I do (of course) prefer real vintage analog stuff, because it's the "real deal". But it's very hard to get hold of here in Norway, and lately americans on ebay don't want to send their stuff to Europe anymore. I also have a love for beaten up kids' casio stuff. I still look for them at flea markets every spring.

9. BTW, I was wondering what the little keyboard in the "Run Away With You" video was?
Henning: haha !
-it's actually a danish kids toy keyboard called "elektronisk keyboard 11 -100" gaffa-taped onto a kids guitar!
-The kid in the video made it himself actually before the videoshoot after he had seen pictures of me with my keytar. So we had to let him use it...

--------------------------

And there you have it. I want to thank Shane Chisholm and Henning Krane of Don Juan Dracula for taking the time out for the interview. I also want to give a big thanks to Shane for giving out 20 free downloads of DJD's album to Matrixsynth readers (they are all gone, btw). DJD is about to break out on the international scene and I wish them all the luck. I had a great time going back and forth with them for this interview. When they get big, remember... You saw them here first!

I'll leave you with two of my favorites from the band:

Don Juan Dracula, Runaway With You


Don Juan Dracula, Take Me Home


Previous Posts on DJD

Richard Lainhart: CEMS, Theremin, and Ondes Martenot Lecture, BEAF 2011

YouTube Uploaded by matrixsynth on Jun 1, 2011

First three parts of Richard Lainhart's lecture at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival on Friday, May 6, 2011, 2PM PST. These cover the CEMS (Coordinated Electronic Music Studio - see the CEMS label below for more), theremin, and ondes Martenot. The audio on these are a little on the low side so remember to turn your speakers back down after listening. You can find a full transcript for each part below in case you can't quite make things out. You can catch Richard Lainhart's lecture on the Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum, followed by a performance, in this previous post.

Transcripts for the above three videos:

CLICK FOR MORE »

BURG - Album Movement 05 (KORG volca, Roland Aira, ms-20, Microbrute, Nord Lead)

Published on Feb 21, 2016 ollilaboratories

"If you like my stuff, please support me on http://music.ollilab.com

Alright, stuff is coming up in a fast pace... so this is movement number 5.. i wanted to make this track feel a bit more uptempo even though its just 114bpm. Combining it with some airport/train footage i have been taking lately.. to get a sense of movement, as the track is about moving stuff forward.

Also, as you can hear I am back to the one note stuff on this one.. I feel that it is more BURG, dont what you guys think but i feel it should not be too happy.. the dreamy part must be there, and when fiddling and soloing on a single note it sort of becomes that automatically. :)

For the album I want to make a minimum of 15 tracks.. so i can cherry pick the goodies for the album. Dont worry, all versions will released in some sort of format so they will be available if you for some reason like the 2 track versions better. FYI there will be a fair amount of polishing away all the hiss and noises from the t-resonator and volcas on the 16 track edits.... haha :)

Gear Used: KORG volca bass, keys, sample, Novation Circuit, ms-20 mini, SQ-1, Elektron Analog Four, Roland Aira TR-8, System-1, TB-3, Arturia Microbrute, Roland boutique JX03, Nord Lead A1

FX and Mixer: PreSonus StudioLive 16.0.2, KORG kaoss pad, strymon timeline, SolidgoldFX electroman, Zoom MS70 CDR, Jomox t-resonator, Mooer Reecho"

Salamander Music Systems

via Wavedeform in the comments of this post. I actually posted about the SMS website back on 7/12/2006. You can find all SMS posts I've put up here. Note there are three SMSes: Synthetic Music Systems, makers of the SMS MARS analog synth, Salamander Music Systems, and of course the fake SMS 2000. That said, here is the following via Wavedeform. Be sure to check out the site.

"My rather sparse Salamander site can be found here.

Salamander Music Systems (SMS) was started by Dennis Saputelli, an amazing designer. For its entire history SMS also manufactured lighting consoles, which was a much more lucrative business. Pretty much everyone involved with SMS was into it for synth-geek reasons, though, and saw the lighting stuff as the necessary evil that needed to be done to finance the synth stuff.

I worked at Salamander from roughly 1977-1985. The goal was to build the no-compromise synthesizer we all wanted. This meant that we were somewhat more expensive than a lot of systems of that era. At one point we had some pens made up that read: "SMS - When you don't care _how_ much it costs." There were a handful of (mostly large) modular systems shipped, and somewhere between 30-50 Voice 400s. Quite a lot of custom work was done also. For example, Mike Cotten of "The Tubes" had a bunch of SMS stuff, including a cool custom sequencer.

The modular was really amazing for its time. It used high quality sub-modules for all of its core functions. We started out using EMu sub-modules for the 97 Dual Oscillator, 147 UAF, and maybe one other module (I seem to remember a four pole LPF, too). The EMu modules were really expensive, and hard to get, so early on we designed our own sub-modules, some discrete, some based on SSM and Curtis chips.

The power distribution was perhaps overkill, but it also had significant advantages. Basically, there is a system wide, loosely regulated, +/- 18 VDC, and +9 VDC power supply. Each module has it's own local regulators to bring that down to +/- 15 VDC and +5 VDC. Because a module has its own power supply, it can be swapped around from system to system without the need for re-calibration. It also spread the heat around more evenly. The 1" modules didn't really have room for regulators, so they had their own regulated distribution scheme.

The Voice 400 was also really nice, but came out a little after the Prophet V, and a little before the DX-7; polyphony was the order of the day. A great sounding programmable monosynth, even with a programmable analog delay, was not what people wanted. I had one music store salesman tell me, flat out, that effects in a synthesizer were a bad idea, and that no one would want them. It turns out that they may, in reality, be a bad idea, but everyone wants them, anyway :-).

After SMS had been selling systems for a few years, Serge Systems relocated from Hollywood to San Francisco, just across town. There was a good natured rivalry between Darrell Johansen, Paul Young and the crew from Serge, and the SMS crew. If the respective companies were bigger, and we weren't all pasty-skinned synth-geeks, we would have had rival baseball teams or something. I had been a Serge user, as had Salamander user Naut Humon, currently of Asphodel/Recombinant Media Lab, and his bandmate at that time in "Rhythm & Noise", Rex Probe. Rex was also affiliated with SMS, doing assembly mostly, but a little design, too. Somehow illustrating the cycles of life is the fact that Rex is currently running Serge Modular.

Dennis Saputelli is still doing some lighting stuff, but mostly he does custom design and assembly, on an OEM basis. His company is called Integrated Controls http://integratedcontrolsinc.com/ , and is still in the same warehouse as the Salamander of old. Since I worked there, he has expanded into all the available space on the first floor of the building, and seems to be doing well."

Random Reaktor Stuff

Random Reaktor Stuff 01

Published on Oct 8, 2013 Dennis Harms·2 videos

"I just threw some of my small Reaktor weekend projects into one ensembe to see how it sounds like, you can hear and see the result in this video.

All the instruments in this ensemble are just ideas or prototypes or however you want to call it. Especially the "Circle Seq" thingy is a really basic idea I realized very quickly yesterday, I have quite a few cool ideas where to go with it though (Recursive modulation between the LFOs that run the sequencers should be fun for example!).

I'm doing nothing is this video by the way, all the instruments are entirely self running.

Sorry for the bad video quality, one day I'll learn how to use all this fancy video stuff."

This on the Surface Pro.

Microsoft Surface Pros on eBay
Microsoft Surface Pros on Amazon

Update:


Random Reaktor Stuff 02

Published on Oct 8, 2013 BrontoScorpioMusic

"Another random Reaktor jam using some of my smaller, unfinished ensemble ideas.

I'm controlling the routing matrix of the Node Seq via a MIDI keyboard, everything else is self running. This ensemble does not use any samples, everything is generated in realtime."