I Want to Rock With You, song made with Novation Ultranova

video upload by That Makes Synths

"This is a song Brad made with the Novation Ultranova and Bass Station II.

Vocoder patches can be downloaded from Novation's website: https://downloads.novationmusic.com/n...

Novation Refurbished Gear:
https://us.novationmusic.com/certifie...

That Makes Synth does not own the rights to Battle Star Galactica and is not affiliated with Novation."

And the making of:

That Makes Synths Presents: The Novation Ultranova

video upload by That Makes Synths

"In this episode of "That Makes Synths", Brad takes a look at Novation's Ultranova. This is a fun synth with a great vocoder and arpeggiator. In particular, Brad will show the sound sets Novation released for their 25th anniversary. Unfortunately, he did not see the sounds still on Novation's website. However, the vocoder patches are still on their website:

https://downloads.novationmusic.com/n...

Also, if you want to find great deals on Novation gear, check out their refurbished store:

https://us.novationmusic.com/certifie...

Brad is not affiliated with Novation and does not own the copyright to Battlestar Galactica."

Synth Artist Interviews via I♥SYNTHS

You might remember the I♥SYNTHS interview with Richard Devine previously posted here. Jim Smith of I♥SYNTHS has been sharing new interviews on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge.  There are currently a total of nine artist interviews.  The following is a list of each with with one pic, one quote and one link to the full interview.  You'll find some great synth spotting throughout and of course you'll get some insight and perspectives on the synths and more from each artist.  You can also find I♥SYNTHS on Facebook.




009: Shawn Rudiman

"I♥SYNTHS: What was your first synthesizer?

Shawn Rudiman: My first synth was a Yamaha b200 M. That was what started me on this wild ride. It was a Prosumer FM 8 voice / 4 op poly. I got it for Christmas in 1990. I believe I was 18 and It was my first real love. That poor synth has had a lot of flight time hours on it. They keys have started to degrade and melt and the buttons are all in need of serious replacing as well. I still love it and pull it out sometimes. The next day after that Christmas, I went out and picked up an HR16b, with whatever money I had saved. I still have that as well and it’s been modified now with the patch bay-hack that scrambles the 16-bit data lines which makes the sounds totally into something new."

CLICK FOR MORE »

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.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Interview with Mutable Instrument's Olivier Gillet

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

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

JuanVilchez is the interviewer.

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

Mutable: The exciting new projects:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Do You Play Synths? Poll

I posted the following to the Waldorf list in response to someone leaving a snide comment asking "where's the music" in regards to Cikira's synth shots. I see someone left one in the comments of the previous posts as well. This seems to be a reoccurring theme in response to people with larger collections of synths. I thought it would be fun to put up my reply along with a poll on what others do. Feel free to comment. In the end, for me, people do different things with their synths and I can respect that. What I can't respect are people that are inconsiderate of others and feel the need to tell others what they should be doing just to justify their own perspectives on things...

"The thought of people dictating what others should or shouldn't do is kind of sad. Not everyone enjoys the composing part of making music. My favorite thing to do? Grab a synth off a shelf and explore it. The music comes out of the exploration, not the other way around for me. And 99.9% of the time I do not record it because the music comes in spurts and the focus is definitely not in making a piece of music but listening to the sound and the effects of different parameters. Does "music" come out of it? Usually yes, but it's different. The sound drives it.

The following is a loaded question, but why would anyone who only wants to make music have that many synths? Note that I'm not saying that people who like to compose music shouldn't have that many synths. What I am saying is if you do have that many synths, you probably appreciate them in a slightly different way - not just as sound sources for making music, but rather for the love of synths and all the different characteristics of each.

This always reminds me of the difference between the art of synthesis and the art of keyboard playing. They are different. I'm reminded each month when I get my copy of Keyboard Magazine. I see synths, but it's about 90% music composition and keyboards, not synthesizers. Thank you Mitchell Sigman! His column on synthesis techniques is about the only bit I'm guaranteed to enjoy every month. That and the reto synth section as well as Peter Kirn's articles (Peter also runs CDM). The rest might as well be on pianos... The point of this is there is an appreciation of synthesis I think most of us enjoy that is very different than the focus you might have in composing a piece of music. I like to think Cikira shares this enthusiasm for synths with the rest of us. In my book, anyone that makes the comment of "show me the music" is either ignorant of what synthesis is about or is just trolling." That or just plain inconsiderate. So are you a synthesist/ sound explorer, musician, or both?

Synths in TV and Film

Note: some of the videos below have been pulled from YouTube, but I'm keeping mention of them up as a reference that they are out there.

Let the page load before scrolling - it's a long one.
Be sure to see the Synth Movies list and see the Synth Movies and Synth TV and Film labels for more.

1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Synths: ARP 2500 played by Phillip Dodds, head of ARP Engineering, Yamaha CS-?.


2. Fame Synths: ARP 2600, MOOG Minimoog

CLICK FOR MORE »

New KORG Gadget Mobile Synthesizer Studio for iPad

iTunes: KORG Gadget - KORG INC. - (Currently 25% off at $28.99)


Published on Jan 23, 2014 Korg·423 videos

"WINTER NAMM SHOW, ANAHEIM, CA, January 23rd, 2014 - Korg releases Gadget for iPad, a mobile synthesizer studio that offers the ultimate mobile synth collection for iPad. It was designed for anyone looking to explore software synthesis, musicians looking for a diverse palate of synths in one integrated app, or those looking to take their iPad music production to the next level.

Korg Gadget offers a collection of 15 different synthesizers and drum machines called "Gadgets", which can be freely combined to create powerful electronic music (on the latest iPad-as of Januray 2014-more than 20 Gadgets can be run simultaneously).

The parameters of each Gadget in the app are carefully constructed to provide immediate access to the most useful sounds, and are ideal for producing all forms of electronic music. No musical instrument experience is required- each synth offers a keyboard featuring a Scale function that makes it impossible to play wrong notes, combined with a sequencer that supports the function.

Examples of included synths (full list is available on www.korg.com):

Brussels - Monophonic Anthem Synthesizer
This synthesizer gadget has a simple parameter structure with an intuitive user interface. Its thick unison tones provide the lead sounds needed for any type of electronic music.

Dublin - Monophonic Semi-Modular Synthesizer
This semi-modular synthesizer gadget with classic, vintage looks is especially good for deep bass sounds. In addition to being capable of straightforward yet deep subtractive synthesis with a plain waveform and filter, it also offers a wide range of varying tones via patching.

Miami - Monophonic Wobble Synthesizer
In addition to the bass sounds that are indispensable for today's electronic music, it features an "X-MOD" oscillator that generates complex overtones and modulation, and a "CRUSH" filter that adds distinctive noise. "WOBBLE" modulation can shift the character to produce a wobble sound evocative of an evil monster, often heard in Brostep and Dubstep.

Korg Gadget lets song ideas be captured anywhere, anytime. By connecting an external MIDI keyboard via the Camera Connection Kit, the 15 synths can be played from a real keyboard. A range of iOS music technology is also supported, including AudioCopy, and WIST.

Song data can be exported as audio data or MIDI data for a variety of uses. Songs can also be shared to the GadgetCloud* for connecting to users around the world.

Korg Gadget is compatible with iOS 7 or later, running on iPad Air, iPad mini Retina, Fourth-generation iPad, Third-generation iPad, iPad 2, or iPad mini.

The Korg Gadget for iPad will be available January 2014 with pricing to be announced shortly.

Additional product information is available at Korg.com"



Update: new video by Mee Zanook & details from iTunes:

KORG Gadget Mobile Synthesizer Studio for iPad

Published on Jan 23, 2014

Introducing the "KORG Gadget" Synthesizer Based Mobile Studio
A collection of 15 compact synthesizers/drum modules
Unlimited tracks which can be frozen when CPU spikes
Fully Automatable
Video produced & performed by Mee Zanook.

iTunes: KORG Gadget - KORG INC. - (Currently 25% off at $28.99)

"*** SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE - 25% OFF FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY!! ***

The ultimate mobile synth collection on your iPad
KORG Gadget - the all-in-one music production studio

KORG Gadget offers a collection of 15 different synthesizers and drum machines called "Gadgets”, which you can freely combine to produce powerful electronic music.

*** A collection of fifteen Gadgets ***
Right from the beginning, KORG Gadget gives you 15 compact synthesizers and drum machines. Each Gadget possesses an irresistible presence and can function as the core of your electronic music productions. The parameters are carefully constructed to take you right to the sound that you want, and they’re ideal for producing all forms of electronic music. Even if you don't play a musical instrument, no worries! Each synth offers a keyboard featuring a Scale function that makes it impossible to play wrong notes, combined with a sequencer that supports the function, Just download KORG Gadget to your iPad, and start exploring 15 Gadgets. Which will be your favorite?

*** Ideal track-making experience while on the go. Control two things at once. ***
For the most part, KORG Gadget uses the vertical orientation that makes the iPad easy to hold in one hand and is the most common style of interface on iOS devices. The screen of the iPad is divided vertically in two halves, allowing you to simultaneously control two types of content-"song creation" and "sound creation". by placing the current Gadget on the bottom of the screen while always showing the sequencing environment up top.-This ensures that your creative production flow is not interrupted. That's all you have to know. You'll enjoy the simple and intuitive sequencer, and experience track-making in an environment that's been perfectly optimized for mobile use, while retaining professional quality in everything from the effects to the mixer.

*** Capture ideas for your songs wherever you like. An ideal choice as a second DAW ***
If you run out of ideas while producing a song, try taking KORG Gadget somewhere that you find inspirational, like a cafe or your living room. Then create sounds or phrases with your favorite gadget and stock up on ideas. The data you create can be exported as audio data for a variety of uses. Even if you typically use a computer or sophisticated music production equipment, KORG Gadget is an ideal partner that will inspire you from a different perspective. KORG Gadget is also an ideal choice as a second DAW that's easy to take with you along anywhere.

*** Share songs to the GadgetCloud and connect to users around the world. ***
Songs that you create using KORG Gadget can be shared on "GadgetCloud," a music sharing site for KORG Gadget users worldwide. By exchanging songs between mobile musicians around the world, you can communicate in ways that bypass language barriers, and also improve your skill as a creative artist. This is a music production space that's fun to use; you can submit your songs for selection as tracks recommended by KORG, enter various contents, and use the ranking system. You can also upload from KORG Gadget directly to any social networking service such as SoundCloud, Facebook, or Twitter, sending your tracks wherever you like.

GadgetCloud is based on SoundCloud, the cloud service that's supported by creative artists world-wide. You will need a SoundCloud account.

***A fusion of cutting-edge iOS technology; a mobile studio that continues to evolve ***
By connecting an external MIDI keyboard via the Camera Connection Kit, you can play the 15 synthesizers in Gadget from a real keyboard. A wide range of iOS music technology is also supported, including AudioCopy, and WIST. There's a roadmap for future updates that will add new gadgets and support audio tracks, further perfecting the system as a mobile music production studio. KORG Gadget will continue to evolve in support of serious mobile music-making."

Making the Andromeda A6

A great thread is up on the VSE Forums on the Alesis Andromeda. I know the threads expire there, so I'll grab some of the most interesting bits here. DB below is David Bryce who worked on the Andromeda. I remember when all of this was happening. Mike Peake was on sonic states the-gas-station and AH. The guys behind the Andromeda really loved synths and they respected the rest of us enough to frequently pulled us in for feedback on the design of the synth. It was as if they were one of us, and in reality they were and still are. Mike Peake stayed active in the synth community and as you can see from this thread, David Bryce is still very active. You have to love a company that does this. Great people make a great company. I personally think Alesis has been one of the better synth manufactures to date. The Andromeda, ION and Micron, and the Fusion have all been pretty amazing synths. The price points for what you get compared to what else is out there is astounding when you think about it. Do take the time to check them out. The Andromeda is a 16 voice analog with a huge modulation matrix, dual filters, built in step sequencer and much, much more. And it sounds pretty amazing imo. Whenever I think I've heard it all, someone makes a demo that showcases a completely new character of the synth. BTW, are there any other poly analogs with 16 or more voices other than of course the fully polyphonic boards using divide down technology?

Alesis A6 Andromeda, Now where did that come from? (title of VSE thread)
---------------
CTB wrote:
Our very own Dave Bryce, who sometimes posts here and works for DSI, was involved in the A6 project. Perhaps he would be the one to ask. Smile

DB:
Actually, we just got tired of people complaining that the QS synths had no resonant filters, so we decided to make something that did. Very Happy Cool

Making Andromeda was really the culmination of a dream for a bunch of us who had grown up with the older analog synths. We had spent years working on sample based stuff, and Erik and Rob Rampley got Alesis founder (and major engineer geek) Keith Barr drunk one night and talked him into letting us make an old school American power synth. Keith actually designed Andromeda's ASICs himself, if memory serves.

One of the back stories was that we were fought tooth and nail by Alesis' sales and marketing VP at the time, who thought we were out of our minds. He once told me we'd be lucky to sell 50 total units. Guess he may have been wrong. Shocked Idea

If anyone has any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer if I can remember. That was a while ago...

StepLogik wrote:
I'm shocked that the marketing group fought you

DB:
It wasn't the marketing group. I was the marketing manager of the synth division, and I was certainly behind it. It was the VP.

,
Quote:
seems like they would want to distinguish Alesis from the "workstation hell" of that era.

DB:
Not just workstations - it was VA synths, too. We figured making a Real Actual Analog synth would catch some people's attention (as Bitexion correctly surmised).

Plus, we were tired of hearing that we weren't a real synth company despite the fact that our ROMplers (especially the QS8) were outselling just about everything else at the time...but there were folks who kept telling us that ROMplers aren't real synths...so we made a real synth. Idea

That seemed to do the trick... Laughing

cbjlietuva wrote:
so maybe i can get my question amswered here:

does the Andromeda have Polyphonic Aftertouch?

DB:
The short answer would be no.

theglyph wrote:
Dave, the one major question I have had and the one thing which has kept me from pulling the trigger on an A6 purchase is what will the status of the A6's ASICs be in the future? CEMs and SSMs were used in several synths from many manufacturers so those chips were manufactured to some degree in surplus as we see today (although they ain't cheap Crying or Very sad). Did Alesis make sure that the IC manufacturer made enough chips to fulfill any future failures or is the well not so deep?

DB:
Alesis is the chip manufacturer...I mean, they don't own the foundry where the chips are physically made, but they do everything else. Consequently, there's no way we can know how many of them Alesis has made/wants to make...

...unless they want to tell us, of course... Wink

Soundwave wrote:
Few questions;

Is the A6 still in production and will it remain so for the foreseeable future?

Will the support continue for the machine i.e. OS updates/fixes?

Are the first, more expensive Alesis A6’s different in any way than the later Numark ones that are apparently now made in the far east as some claim the earlier Alesis ones sound better?

There are rumours that some of the people behind the A6 were also involved in the Xpander/Matrix12 is this true?

Will there ever be an analogue successor or derivative or the A6 as the VA market has kinda reached a standstill now?

DB:
I can only answer two of those questions becuase I haven't worked for Alesis for about seven years, so I have no idea what their current plans are.

Marcus Ryle, who founded Line 6, was one of the guys responsible for the XpanderMatrix 12. He and his team had a lot to do with a bunch of Alesis products including the ADAT and the QS synths...but they had nothing to do with Andromeda.

There are a few "rev 2" Andromedas that were only used during beta. They are slightly different from the production models, but the OS in them is different enough that you can't transfer programs between, them, so they can't really be directly compared....nor, if you could, is there actually any point in doing so. Howver, all the production models are (AFAIK) exactly the same...."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's it as of the time of this post. Check out the VSE thread for updates. I'll try to update this post with the historical bits so we don't lose them. Image via this post.

Top 20 Wierdest Instruments On Sonic State

"Voting starts today as we countdown towards our next IPTV series, the Top 20 Weirdest Instruments. And it's not just synths - you can vote for acoustic instruments, outboard effects, circuit bendery, software, even toys - in fact anything that makes a sound and is truly strange will be considered for the shortlist.

Sonicstate.com has featured lots of strange instruments in news stories and videos from NAMM and MESSE, as well as frequent visits to Jack Waterson's Future Music shop in LA. So what is the attraction of weird technology? "Everyone is fascinated by odd-looking gear that makes weird and wonderful noises," says Simon Power who produced the recently broadcast 'Top 20 Greatest Synths' IPTV series, "when you hear something new and different on a recording it really makes you sit up and listen. We'll be featuring some very leftfield gear in this show. And now that it's possible to emulate lots of these sounds, I think it's interesting to see the hardware origins. Hopefully the programme will inspire the viewers to seek out some of these amazing instruments."

The series will feature more exclusive interviews with producers, musicians and users as well as instrument demos and film footage. "This series is less chart-based than 'Top 20 Greatest Synths'. It will have a different feel to it with a lot of emphisis on the instruments," says Power. "We've already lined up some interviews that I'm really excited about. I can't wait to get started. It's great fun putting these series together for Sonic."

"We always try to push the boundaries a bit, but we were really surprised by the popularity of the show, adds series cameraman and Sonicstate co-founder Andy McCreeth. "It was interesting to see how passionate some of the chatroom discussions about chart positions were too We'll be interviewing more musicians, producers, and hopefully some of the inventors behind some truly oddball instruments - I'm really looking forward to it."

As usual the shows will be presented by 'Professor Marc Norris' who's eccentric comments and links became a feature of the recent Top 20 Synths series. But how did he get involved with Sonic State? "Those fine fellows at Sonic found me on YouTube drifting around in Cyberspace," said the Professor (AKA actor and comedian Marc Norris), "I've always had a great passion for electronic music and I was very excited about being asked to present the show."

The Top 20 Greatest Synths links were recorded at the Sonic offices in a single day as Marc was due back on stage for an evening performance. "It was all a bit of a rush, but I had great fun working with Simon and Andy. We had a script but we sometimes just wandered off to see where it would take us."

And what can we expect from the professor in the new series? "I think we'll be seeing more facets of the professor's twisted personality. He's a great character to play with, but leaving him behind at the studio is becoming more and more of a struggle for me!"

The weird instruments to be included will be decided by a combination of voting and the choices of the people interviewed. There will also be suggestions from the Sonic staff and a few unexpected surprises thrown in for entertainment value!

So vote now for your top 3 weirdest instruments of all time, and remember, it's your vote that counts!

Links
Weirdest Instruments Voting
Top Twenty Synths"

elmacaco on the Alesis A6 Andromeda

elmacaco posted the following on AH. I asked him if it would be alright to put this up here and he gave me the a ok. As an A6 owner myself, I have to agree with his assessment. What's interesting is the behavior of the envelopes always stood out to me as being less direct compared to my other synths. I never thought about how the range for each step might be the reason. The A6 is an incredibly deep synth. That said, here are some words from elmacaco.

"I have to say, I love my Andromeda. I didn't like it when I first tried it in the store, but unseen forces brought it to my attention and about a year and a half ago I got one. It's been my main synth since then, never really messed with the presets, always making sounds on it. The first couple of months I would get lost in playing it and not record much, same thing happened with my wurlitzer, which is a good sign. It has such flexibility that it even can fix my modular jones most of the time (and I have a modular for that).

I think what throws a lot of people is that with it, you have to think about more than with the classics. The range of the controls is huge, and that changes a lot for most people. This is particularly true with the envelopes. A pot that goes from zero to 10 seconds has a different feel than one that goes from 2 seconds to 10 minutes, and can make it less imediate. Envelopes are usually an aspect that you don't have to think too much about, but with the Andromeda it becomes more complicated, which is a double edged sword, and one aspect i don't like so much, I wish I could limit those controls to a more usable range for me. Same with the mixer levels, once you get a bit of a handle on it it becomes part of the process, but it is none the less an extended process, which won't be to the liking of many people.

As for the comparion to older polies, well, they all have something, the andromeda is much more broad, so t can be a lot of things, but it wont be breezy to get it like them, but there is more. I remember after a year of having one I would play P5's and memorymoogs at friends houses, which i love in so many ways, but I would be locked into some avenues that used to seem broad but now I see as rather narrow.

The sound of those synths can make you need a variety of synths, to get out of it, but the Andromeda has a way of taking over, other synths will sound better in some places, but head to head, unless that is something you always need, the Andromeda can cover that territory pretty well. Which makes comparisons difficult, because it can more easily cover all your bases than any other synth. I've only recently began to mess with my xpander again, since the A6 can just take over. I have synths I prefer for bass, but I can get something great out of the Andromeda so staying in front of it can be very appealing. I remember thinking the osc tone was better on the roland mono's, then I tried to match them, and I actually matched them closer than i have matched anything else simply by filtering them imperceptively, remember the moog filter on the Andromeda goes up to 40,000Hz, drop it to 20k or 18k, and the high end sheen is gone but is still sounds like a raw waveform, I was pretty astounded at what I didn't know, and that happens a lot.

Realisticly speaking, even if you have a bunch of other synths, the Andromeda can satisfy the needs of a broad range of synthesists regardless of what they are, better than any other analog poly can. Just an andromeda for music means so many more possibilities than just a JP-8, or just a Memory Moog.

Just the multitimbrality coupled with such a deep engine alone puts it into a class of its own. But it will require more thought, it's one of the synths that will make you feel like you are not the bad ass synthesist you think you are, whereas sitting in front of a Jupiter-8, Prophet 5, CS-80, or memorymoog, a good working knowledge of synthesis is enough to explore all the dimentions of it infinitely. Not everybody likes that experience, kinda like how serge and buchla can be like learning a new language and force you out of your comfort zone. The Andromeda can make you feel like a novice again, I still get the sense that I won't ever fully grasp all its features in decades, but what I do grasp gives back in spades."

Hataken Interview

Back on March 31, I put up a post on Hataken, a Japanese DJ artist who primarily uses analog synths. At the time, Shane Chisolm, the manager of Don Juan Dracula mentioned Hataken was working on a remix version of DJD's "Take Me Home". Shane asked me if I'd be interested in doing an interview with Hataken, and I thought why not. It would be interesting to hear his perspective on the world of synths as a live DJ artist. The following is the result of that interview. Note, this is a long one. You will want to use page down to scroll through. If it is too long for you, I recommend reading one or two questions each time you visit the site. Each DIY item below would typically have been a separate post. There is a lot of interesting stuff here. That said, I start with an introduction followed by asking Hataken how it all started for him. Note the focus is primarily on synths as this site is about everything synth, and Hataken delivers. The gear he has both worked with and designed to meet his specific needs is overwhelming. There's also an interesting interlude on experimenting with frequency counters to produce specific frequencies of sound known to have healing properties, and of course there is a bit of the age old discussion of digital and analog.

Before we start the interview, I want to thank Hataken for taking the time out for this, and I want to thank Shane for suggesting it. It's a fascinating history of a DJ synth artist with interesting perspectives that I'm sure I will come back to over time. Be sure to check out the video and link to more at the end. And of course be sure to check out Hataken's website.

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

CLICK FOR MORE »

G-Sonique Introduces Psytrance Synths X1- VST / AU Plug-in for Psytrance

video uploads by G-Sonique

Follow-up to G-Sonique Psytrance AI Voices

Playlist:
G-Sonique - Psytrance Synths X1- VST / AU Plug-in for Psytrance, Full-on, Progressive Psy producers
Overview of all sounds / Banks in Psytrance synths 8000 X1 VST / AU instrument rompler
Psytrance Freestyle LIVE improvisation Psytrance Synths X1 VST / AU instrument, Effects Synthesizers

"G-Sonique Psytrance Synths 8000 X1 - The ultimate instrument for psytrance producers

If you are looking for the best sounds for your psytrance productions, look no further than G-Sonique Psytrance Synths 8000 X1. This plug-in instrument is designed to give you the most advanced and professional sounds for full-on psytrance, progressive psytrance, neo goatrance, morning psy, darkprog, psychill and other trance genres.

With G-Sonique Psytrance Synths 8000 X1, you get access to 130+ high quality, multi-octave instruments/banks, created with various hardware and software synthesizers, effects and secret prototypes. You can choose the banks you like from the huge 1,8 GB library included in the G-Sonique club online platform, where you can browse hundreds of instruments/banks of various music styles. You can also layer, modify and effect the sounds to create your own unique sound design.

G-Sonique Psytrance Synths 8000 X1 is not a synthesizer, but a collection of hq banks that makes production much easier, so you can focus on composing and creating hit melodies. You don't need to spend hours tweaking your own sounds in complicated synths, you can use the ready-made sounds that are already processed and optimized for psytrance music. You can find here everything you need for modern psychedelic music, such as psytrance leads, effects, risers, mystical synths, alien voices, organic leads, twisted spirals, drones, pads, hits and more.

G-Sonique Psytrance Synths 8000 X1 uses a special hard drive streaming technology that saves your RAM and delivers precise high quality sound interpolation. It is available for Windows and Mac, as a VSTi plug-in or an AU Audio Unit plug-in. It also comes with a bonus instrument that will be distributed to clients as a special bonus.

G-Sonique Psytrance Synths 8000 X1 is the ultimate instrument for psytrance producers who want to take their music to the next level. Watch the video to see and hear it in action, and get your copy today at: g-sonique.com"

Happy New Year! The Year in Synths 2013

Happy New Year Everyone!

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

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

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

Tributes to Those We Lost This Year

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

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

------

New Manufacturers & Makers

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

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

CLICK FOR MORE »

Mark Pulver on "the Minimoogs"

Mark Pulver is one of those iconic names you come across in the world of synthesizers. He's just a person like you and me, but he has a pretty extensive and respected background when it comes to synths, and he's someone that helped me re-discover the bigger world of synths nearly ten years ago on Sonic State's the-gas-station (it used to be THE synth forum back then), later Analog Heaven, and a private email now and then. He is a "deputy" on Analog Heaven (one of the people that helps administer and keep it under control) and he was good friends with Bob Moog himself. Check out his tribute to Bob. So let's just say I have a huge amount of respect for Mark.

So, I've heard that a Voyager can nail the Minimoog sound as indeed it is a Minimoog plus more, and on the flip side, I've heard that it doesn't quite sound the same. So I thought I'd ask Mark. The following is what he had to say. It's interesting in that after reading it seems so obvious. You'll notice that in a sense it's inconclusive - that is what's obvious about it. Time and design both impact a synth. And no two minis are exactly the same. Title link takes you to Mark's Voyager page for more of his thoughts and notes.

"I think that the Voyager is a great instrument, and it's capable of a lot
more sounds and textures than the original Mini - including some of the
sounds that have made the Mini famous, and some sounds that will make
itself famous in its own right.

I think that a lot of the love of the Mini is how it plays, and that comes
from the 30yo keyboard, caps, trannys, etc. Audio circuits that actually
have bleed through, power supply rails with dirt on them, etc. There are
ways that the Mini handles when you tune the OSCs to a harmonic that
overdrives the filter "just" that way - VERY hard to define, or to catch on
a scope, or to make happen on a modern machine. I really think that stuff
like this comes from design flaws turned into features. Not a bad thing,
just something that can't really be replicated.

There are a lot of things like that in the Mini.. Lay the filter on the
edge of howling - notice how it loves to distort the VCA. _AND_ that
character will change based on the pitch you're playing. _AND_ that
character will change based on if you're gliding between notes. _AND_ _AND_
_AND_...

It's like, the Voyager is a pure design - lotso the same schematic work
from decades ago, but then with grit _designed_ into it. No happy accidents
waiting around the corner like the first time that Bob pressed a key on the
Model A.

It's not a bad thing to design in "flaws that have become features", it's
just different. Ya' know?

I guess the bottom line is that I don't have a concrete answer - to me,
something like this really needs ethereal babble.

And... feel free to post it in your blog if you think it makes sense. : )"

Mark

It does. Thanks Mark!

Admin: Updates via Twitter

This is just a heads up that you can get updates to old posts on http://twitter.com/matrixsynth.

Every now and then updates for old posts come in. Sometimes I put up a new post here to let you know, and other times I just update the post with a red Update:. I'll try to put the latter up on Twitter like I just did for this post.

I just started using Twitter and I'm getting the hang of it. I realize I don't have to post every little detail, like when I decide to go use the restroom. I will be posting little bits that don't quite fit here on MATRIXSYNTH and I'll be calling out posts that interest me in one way or another for those on Twitter that may not following the site closely. An example of what I posted there but not here is this wireless remote monitor I picked up off of Ebay for $108. It's called an AirPanel and it's made by ViewSonic. In about 2003 Microsoft came out with remote wireless monitors. The project was called Mira. It bombed because for about the same price you could get an actual laptop. The idea was that you could remote into your desktop and work on things at your leisure. I thought... hmm... wouldn't that be useful in the studio. I could remote into my desktop and I'd have a wireless touch screen monitor to control all of my software synths and sequencers. I had some trouble getting a network card that works with it. Yes, the remote wireless V100 comes with no wi-fi. Go figure. I couldn't get on my network with a Cisco Aeronet 350 which was supposed to work, but I did manage to get on with a D-Link 650 with some help from this forum. Now that I'm on, it works great. I was able to sequence my hardware synths using Techno Toys SEQ-303, while playing some soft synths at the same time. The cool thing about this is that the interface is completely wireless and it's a touchscreen! Having that direct interaction with the controls of a soft synth makes a big difference. Being able to walk around with a wireless monitor makes a huge difference.

Anyway, back to Twitter, if you are new to it, think of it as micro blogging. A perfect place to note little things like the above that may not make sense for a full blown post. You just put up little bits of stuff that interests you. You can post like crazy or you can post once a week, whatever and whenever, it's up to you.

Currently I'm adding anyone that follows me, but I'm not sure how long that will last. Quite a bit does come in and I don't keep up with it all, so if you have something for the blog, still send it in here via the comments of any post or contact me directly - my contact info is on the bottom right of the site.

5 Years of MATRIXSYNTH!!!

It's that time again. Today is the five year anniversary of MATRIXSYNTH!!! I like to share a little bit about how the site ticks in these posts, some of the history for those that don't know it, some miscellaneous insights this year, and of course some numbers.

It all started back in July 20, of 2005, with a brief post wishing Dr. Bob Moog well. The brevity of the post was a bit of a foreshadowing of what the site would become.

I started the blog when the old site just wasn't cutting it anymore. I created the old site back in 1997 (before The Matrix movies ever existed BTW) as a personal portal for the various synth sites I used to visit. In 2005, blogging was just becoming popular. I found that I had a difficult time keeping track of things in email, my favorites list and the old site. The problem was many of the interesting bits were buried within sites, and possibly more importantly, a new method of sharing information was just emerging. Flickr (Feb 2004) and YouTube (Feb 2005) were just starting, Vimeo (Nov 2004) was relatively unknown, and SoundCloud (Aug 2007) wasn't even around yet.

In 2005, I created MATRIXSYNTH, the blog. I started tracking "Everything Synth". I let people know on various synth forums and email lists I belonged to about the site. In time it grew and people started sending things in. I realized what the site was becoming. It wasn't just a place for me to track stuff, but a place for anyone into synths. It was a daily heartbeat on what people were doing with their synths, not just a news site. In the beginning I posted every single image that came in on Flickr featuring a synth, and every single video on YouTube. It was fascinating at the time, because before then you never really saw what other people were doing, unless you knew them, or unless they had the means to host their own website. Flickr, YouTube, SoundCloud, Blogger, Word Press, and other hosting sites changed this. The site became a place for people to share and promote what they were doing. I received emails from people thanking me for connections they made because of the site. Many sites announced themselves here including DVDBORN (Jan 2, 2006), Muff Wiggler (Dec 4, 2006), TRASH_AUDIO (Oct 22, 2007), Analog Suicide (Dec 23, 2007), NOISESOURCE (April 22, 2008), and many others. The site currently gets over half a million pageviews a month. Think about that. More on the numbers in a bit. Before I get bombarded, I no longer post site announcements simply for the sake of site announcements. At 50 posts a day, it would be suicide and with the amount I post and I would take you all down with me. :) Posts have to be about specific synths, and via links are given.

There have also been a plethora of product announcements from manufacturers that read the site - too many to list. BTW, be sure see the MANUFACTURERS section on the right and the MANUFACTURERS page for a list of manufacturers that read the site and have taken the time out to send in a small 250px x 100px image. Note placement on this page is free. If you are a manufacturer, send me an image and I will add it. Note some dealers are listed there as well. Back to some history...

When I first started the blog, I wanted to put up a post at least once a week. It turned out to be more like once a day. I then wanted to put a minimum of five posts up a day, and then 10. I remember days when I didn't think I was going to hit it, and I remember days when I was so stressed out due to the sheer number and complexity of certain posts that I was ready to give it up. Every single post on this site is put up manually - there is zero automation. I now put up close to fifty posts every single day, seven days a week! With the exception of August 6, 2005, at least one post has gone up every single day since the inception of the site. If I only knew then what I know now I would have posted something on that one day. [Note: I thought I missed more than one day, but I couldn't find others - check out the archives in the right by clicking on the side triangles to drill down - if anyone finds another day I missed, let me know]. For those that are curious, it takes me anywhere between about four and six hours a day to do this. How do I have the time? Eight hours (usually less) of sleep, eight hours work, and eight hours for everything else (blog). I do contract-based work from home, so the entire day is pretty much spent behind my laptop working, with only a few breaks for food and a bike ride so I don't melt into my lazy boy. Weekends I get out and make time for my synths, friends, family, etc. The site pretty much is a full time job including weekends. How do I do it? I love it!!! That and there is a technique I honed over the years as crazy as it sounds. The more you do anything, the easier it becomes. It doesn't feel like work to me and even though things are not automated, I have a rhythm and a routine that I have relatively mastered. It took a couple of years to get that rhythm down. Now it's a bit of an addiction. That and with contract-based work I also work in surges, meaning some days are busier than others, and in between contracts I have more time on the blog. It all just works out. This brings me back to the note on that very first post back on July 20. At the time, I really didn't know what to say. It was an awkward first post but with the news that day, I knew that had to be the first post. I thought about what to write and I realized there was nothing I could say, other than providing the link, asking others to wish him well, and getting the heck out of the way. The post wasn't about me, it was about him. That has pretty much evolved into the theme of the site to this day. I want people to experience what others are doing, not my reflections on it. Once I realized that, posting became much easier. Part of this was also realizing that the number of posts going up can be difficult to consume, for myself included. The less I say the less time I waste. I try to keep things short, to the point, and myself out of the post. The site is a bit like conveyor belt sushi, a buffet, or tapas bar. Stuff constantly comes in and you can either take all of it in, or just pick what you want. The cool thing is everything is archived so you can come back to it later.

Some people ask me why Blogger? The reason is it's free and it's owned and hosted by Google. If I'm ever unable to run the site for whatever reason it will stay up. We have lost too many great synth sites over the years unfortunately. The excellent drummachine.com immediately comes to mind. If anyone remembers the site, it was the best site dedicated to drum machines - tons of pics, details and audio samples. It's now a promotion site. This is going to sound crazy, but the limitations of Blogger also keep things a bit more manageable and in check. I like the site as it is. It is what it is and that's what makes the site.

Time for some numbers. I'll try to keep it short this time. According to Google Analytics, since the inception of the site, there has been a total of 8,054,806 visits and 16,856,224 pageviews. That's up from 5,774,890 visits and 11,233,869 pageviews as of last year. If you look at the bottom of the site you will see Site Meter has me at 8,337,466 pageviews. This is because I started Google Analytics after Site Meter and I missed adding back the Google Analytics code a couple of times when updating my template. If you click on the map, you will see we are still missing a few countries. North Korea, I haven't said anything bad about you!!! It blows me away to think visits came in from some places. I chose the map for the image in this post because of this. This site is global. You get to see what people around the world are doing with synths on a daily basis. The site exists because of everyone out there who loves synths - you, me, and those that may not even know about the site yet. It's been a great five years and I look forward to the next. THANK YOU!!!

Update: Twitter: via Chris Carter!!!
http://chriscarter.co.uk/ @chris_carter_
http://www.throbbing-gristle.com/
http://www.chrisandcosey.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Carter_%28musician%29

HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY MATRIXSYNTH from Chris Carter on Vimeo.

"Experimentally yours...

Chris Carter"

Update: I forgot to note the number of posts since the inception of the site. Including this post there was a total of 43,951.

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

The Twilight Sad - I Could Give You All That You Don't Want

Published on Feb 12, 2015 thetwilightsadofficial

http://thetwilightsad.com

Quick disclaimer: I recently discovered this band and absolutely love them. That said, I didn't think I would be posting them here anytime soon as this site is strictly about specific synth demos and heavy synth spotting only, with few exceptions. Well... a funny thing happened. I finally got around to watching this video in full and I noticed something odd midway through that would definitely warrant a post here on MATRIXSYNTH. You will notice the only synth featured in the video is a Roland Juno-60, but that in and of itself really isn't enough to warrant a post. There has to be something more. So why the post? Watch the video and see if you can guess, then come back to this...  Done watching?  So what was the guitar playing vs. the Juno-60?  While watching the video I realized that what I thought I was hearing was the guitar towards the end, was likely the Juno-60. If you didn't catch it, watch the video again, listen, and try see what each instrument is playing. If I'm right, it's a fascinating transition and conceptual blend of the two instruments. The transition happens at 2:08 with the first reveal at 2:14 and 2:20 (guitar) followed by 2:34 and 3:08 (Juno-60).  I could be wrong, and it could be they chose to show the guitar playing rhythm vs lead at those points, but I do know the Roland Juno-60 and most synths in general are capable of making that sound. I thought this was a good example of how a synth can add substantially to a track without having to stand out specifically as a synth, and that gets the post.   To expand on this, what originally drew me into synths wasn't the "synthy" timbres we've come to traditionally associate with synths nor the attempt to mimic real world instruments, but rather the exploration of sound with instruments not possible before. With a synth you get to create your own instrument, and it doesn't have to sound like a synthesizer. One of my favorite synthesists is Richard Barbieri of the band Japan because he did things with the Prophet-5 that sounded more organic than synthetic. He used the Prophet-5 as an instrument rather than as a synth if that makes sense. Sometimes, like in this track, you don't even realize what you were hearing came from a synth and that is a good thing. The title of this track is somewhat fitting in that context as well. Sometimes a synth (and I'm guessing this site for that matter) will give you all that you don't want. There is so much more to synths. It's all good.

Video description:

"Directed By Nicola Collins

Taken from 'Nobody Wants To Be Here And Nobody Wants To Leave', out now on FatCat Records

The Twilight Sad tour North America Feb/March 2015. Tickets at http://thetwilightsad.com/tourdates

Feb 23 Boston, MA - Great Scott+
Feb 24 Brooklyn, NY - Baby's All Right+
Feb 25 Philadelphia, PA - The Boot & Saddle+
Feb 26 Washington, DC - Rock & Roll Hotel+
Feb 27 Pittsburgh, PA - Brillobox+
Feb 28 Chicago IL - Beat Kitchen+
Mar 02 Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry+
Mar 03 Fargo, ND - The Aquarium (Upstairs) +
Mar 05 Missoula, MT - Stage 112+
Mar 06 Seattle, WA - Tractor Tavern+
Mar 07 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge+
Mar 08 Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret+
Mar 10 Sacramento, CA - Blue Lamp+
Mar 11 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill+
Mar 12 Costa Mesa, CA - The Wayfarer+
Mar 13 San Diego, CA - The Merrow+
Mar 14 Phoenix, AZ - VivaPHX
Mar 17 - Mar 20 Austin, TX - SXSW
+ - w/ Port St. Willow

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Buy iTunes - http://smarturl.it/nobodywantstobehere

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RS060 Dr Böhm Dynamic 12/24 (Orla DSE): German EFF EHM

video upload by rejected synths

"Talking synths from Germany, quite a few companies come to mind: Waldorf, Doepfer or Vermona are popular ones still around and there are a lot more, some of them long gone like pioneering PPG. One company that hardly ever makes the list is Dr Böhm Organ. This might be down to the fact that Böhm weren’t exactly a company focused on synths at all but rather one that offered DIY kits for people to build themselves electronic organs.

Strictly speaking these organs were ‘synths’ too and when the 80s arrived, Böhm, just like companies like Sequential, Roland or Yamaha, started to utilize digital control and later digital synthesis in their ‘synths’ too, albeit utilizing interfaces more akin to traditional organs.

One other similarity to ‘real’ synth companies was that they also started to offer expander modules, that could be controlled by midi, expanding the variety of sounds while at the same time saving on space (no keyboard) and costs.

This is where today’s synth comes from. The Dynamic 12/24 was meant as an affordable way for Böhm’s customers of home owners and entertainers to expand their setup with some more organ but also other sounds like strings, e-pianos and some 80s-ish synth staples.

The technology used was taken from one of it’s electronic organs and while clearly trying to hide it (even going as far as filing the markings off the ICs) it was Yamaha FM Chips doing Yamaha sounding 4OP FM. The good thing is of course, that this is actually a great basis for a very wide range of sounds, especially as Böhm was kind enough to add user memory to enable creation and saving of your own patches. Also, editing can be done via midi and there are editors available too. What makes the 12/24 stand out from the crowd of 4 OP modules most though is the unique Böhm analog bucket brigade delay style ensemble effect, that ‘warms’ the FM sound.

Last but not least, the Dynamic 12/24s seem to be widely available and dirt cheap too, at least here in and around Germany. So grab one before they become cool, or anyone finds out they are actually the same as the Orla DSE, a synth that has been used by a guy that goes by the name of Richard David James…"

Notes on the Waldorf Quantum vs the Q and Microwave/XT Series

The following is via Soviet Space Child who has a Q+, an XTk, and a Quantum coming. He spent some time with the manual and found that the structure of how sounds are built on the Quantum differs from the cohesive synth engines of the Q and Microwave series. Yes there are new synth engines on the Quantum, but is it a replacement for Waldorf's classic synths? Perhaps not. Note, I have not had time to check out the manual myself, so this is solely Soviet Space Child's take. Also, he is still excited about the Quantum as you can see further below. If you have an opinion, feel free to leave a comment. You can find the manual on Waldorf's website here.

"Just sharing a few initial impressions as someone who has been using Waldorf synths for over 15 years now...

Judging by the manual, there's a great deal that the Quantum can do which previous Waldorf synths cannot. The reverse is also true, in that there are features in older Waldorf synths, specifically the Pulse, XT, Q, and Blofeld, which do not exist in the Quantum. This new synth really makes it feel like theres been a generational leap akin to when PPG's legacy shifted to Waldorf, i.e. the difference of going from the PPG Wave to the Waldorf Wave, and then MicroWave II/XT. Where as Wolfgang Palm was no longer involved in the new series of Wave synths, similarly the Stefan Stenzel era has given way to Rolf Wohrman. That's not a bad thing, but it really feels like this new synth was developed by a new company.

In terms of specifics where the older Waldorf synths offer more robust features, the Quantum lacks modulation modifiers, whereby two modulation sources can have operations such as '+', '-', '*', 'min', 'max', 'and', 'or', and 'xor' performed on them. The Quantum's 'komplex' modulation source partially alleviates this, though. The Quantum also lacks a random patch generator. While this is seemingly a minor features, the random patch generator on the XTk and Q is a source of great fun. It's easy to get lost in those synths for hours at a time just due to that one feature. There's also the lack of stereo capabilities on the analog filters, which was available for the analog filters on the Q+.

The biggest area where the older synths might seem to shine more than the Quantum, though, is the lack of modulation capabilities between the oscillators and the filters. That is to say, there are currently no FM or sync capabilities between the three 'oscillator' sections, and there are no FM capabilities on the digital formers. Where the Q and XT each felt like one large complex timbre, with the option to layer simpler timbres per voice, the Quantum feels like each voice is up to three simple timbres layered on top of one another.

Stereo analog filters aside, most of these things can be added later via OS updates, and here's hoping that the Quantum has a long life ahead of it in terms of customer support is concerned. Anyone who sells a Q and/or XT with the intent of replacing either with the Quantum might be left disappointed though, at least until the Quantum OS is given some time to mature, and even then the core sound of the synthesizer might be different, especially considering how characterful the Q and XT are.

With all that said, my XTk's and Q+ are not going anywhere, and I'm very much looking forward to having them in the studio with my Quantum."