New Hardware Keyboard Synthesizer Coming from Modulus

Teaser pic via modulusmusic.me where you'll find a couple of audio demos. Just look at it. Reminds me of a John Bowen Solaris, meets Synton Syrinx with a touch of Oberheim OB-12. Modulus is from Paul Maddox who brought us the Monowave. See the Modulus and Monowave channels for previous posts. We knew something was coming. This is the first glimpse. Some things you can clearly see from the pic: 5 octave keyboard, tons of knobs and sliders including two rows of knobs on the lower right that can be indicative of an onboard sequencer, and a display with what looks to be a larger data knob to the lower right.  Unless the PWM demo has been multi-tracked, this will be polyphonic.

Modulus will be at this year's SDIY UK event.

Update: I forgot to mention, Paul Maddox is also the man behind VacoLoco.  It looks like vacoloco.net now redirects to the new modulus website, but you can get in the back door here, and of course a bit of VacoLoco synth history is archived here on MATRIXSYNTH.  See the VacoLoco channel below.

rezfilter's 8-Step Sequence Wins Vacoloco GorF Contest

You might remember the contest from this post. It looks like rezfilter won with his "An 8-Step Sequence: Analogue Solutions Oberkorn & Telemark-K (Keyboard)" posted above and previously here.

via Vacoloco on Facebook: "The "win a gorf" competition has been extremely hard to judge, but sadly there can only be one Winner. In the case I've chosen Jason Subtractive's entry (below). Thank you again to all those entered, I can safely say that judging this competition was considerably harder than I was ever expecting. The quality of entries was just outstanding."

http://www.vacoloco.net/

vacoloco Gorf-XL in Eurorack

via VacoLoco on Facebook

"Here you go, this is the new project, a euro rack version of GorF with CV/gate outputs. There's a few extra features To be added yet. And this should be available to buy ready made and set up."

http://www.vacoloco.net/

Vacoloco Coming to Synth DIY UK 2013 & Drake Music Raffle

via Vacoloco:

"VacoLoco will be at Synth DIY UK 2013 on Saturday the 27th of July. This’ll give you a chance to have some hands on time with Zira, GorF and maybe a sneak preview of things in the making.

The event is free so why not come along and meet some of the UK Synth makers!

More details on the facebook events page https://www.facebook.com/events/160198740805131/ and the diy.synth.net page – http://diy.synth.net/uk/"

And via Paul Maddox of Vacolo on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge:

"Quick reminder about Synth DIY UK 2013, we're still after some raffle prizes so if you feel like helping raise money for our charity (Drake Music - https://www.facebook.com/drakemusicorg/) then donate something and/or come along and buy a raffle ticket or 10 :)  https://www.facebook.com/events/160198740805131/"

Vacoloco JuJu First Samples

via Vacoloco:

"JuJu is finally making sounds, after weeks of hassle and prep…

This is still early days, and the samples are very quiet so I had to bump up the gain to get them recorded (hence the background noise), but they’re there and sounding really good.

Sounds are on Synth.net here -

http://synth.net/m/sounds/browse/album/JuJu/owner/VacoLoco"

NOT NAMM: Vacoloco Defender

via Vacoloco Ramblings
"The board will handle 192 LEDs, 192 Switches and 32 analogue inputs. Here’s a picture of the PCB in Eagle, boards have been ordered"

Vacoloco is also working on the QiX project. "For those who don’t know what it is, it’s a hybrid CPU and DSP on a board. A bit like the Sound-Art Chameleon, but on Steroids."

Vacoloco Zira Demo - See You

via VacoLoco on Synth.net

"Well, I’ve got the LFO routing in now, just the LFO delay to sort and some debugging.

I’ve also managed to get the two missing tracks into the Zira Demo, so it’s now complete. The missing tracks were the “ppg vocal” and the “wobbly bell”, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did recording it."

Synth DIY UK 2010 by Vacoloco

You'll find the full post with a link to the gallery on Vacoloco here.

Mini rig Jam (20110407)

YouTube Uploaded by VacolocoSynth on Apr 15, 2011

"I'm using 2 x GorF sequencers, 1 of which is driving the Meeblip and the other my Shruti-1. There's also 1 x Tron Drum pattern Programmer driving, via MIDI, the MFB-522 drum brain. Third GorF is ready to be hooked up to Zira when it's completed.

Tron - http://www.vacoloco.net/synths/tron/
GorF - http://www.vacoloco.net/synths/gorf/

Recorded on my mobile phone (sorry for the poor quality, but I don't own a cam-corder)."

SledgeHammer Theme (Zira / JuJu Demo)

"Cover of the Theme tune for 'Sledgehammer' by Danny Elfman.
Zira is doing all the synth parts (multi-tracked)
JuJu is doing the drums!
www.VacoLoco.net"

via Paul Maddox on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

"Don't forget Zira is available now, but only whilst stocks last (I only have a limited number of the VCF chips) from http://www.vacoloco.net/order.shtml"

Vacoloco GorF-XL Beta test Unit

via Vacoloco

"Want to beta test GorF-XL? I have one GorF-XL beta unit left, if you’re interested contact me, you’ll need a Doepfer power bus with +12v, +5v and -12v power rails. You’ll also be expected to help write the user guide and contribute to finding bugs. There is a cost, but it’s basically the cost of the parts and postage."

via Paul Maddox on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

New VacoLoco Aurora Hardware Polysynth Filter Test Demos

VacoLoco Aurora Filter Tests 20121204
"Various tests for the VCF in Aurora (my poly synth project), the whine is from the oscilloscope and my phone that was sat next to it whilst recording

0:00 - 4 Pole filter sweep
0:30 - a little resonance
1:00 - more resonance
1:30 - full resonance (not quite enough yet)
1:44 - Bandpass mode
2:13 - 1 Pole mode
2:44 - 4 pole mode again, with a little over drive
3:14 - a bit more over drive
3:43 - Full over drive"

via Paul Maddox on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge.  Some details on the synth captured here.

Modulus Music - Rebirth of a Classic Synth Company by Paul Maddox

via Greg Cole on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

"Hey guys, show some support to Paul Maddox for the rebirth of his synth company Modulus Music. Paul's the man behind the Monowave wavetable synth and the awesome little VacoLoco boxes. Excited to see what he's working on!"

The Modulus name was in use by Paul Maddox with the Monowave as seen back in 2007 in this post.

Paul initially announced the new company on March 7th in The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge as well.

"Something big is coming, Follow us for updates, pictures, sounds and videos as they happen.
https://www.facebook.com/ModulusMusic"

I was going to hold off for a post until products where announced, but decided to put something up now.  I can't wait to see what Paul comes up with next.  You can see the vacoloco channel below for his latest up to now.

GorF Schematics

via Paul Maddox on the SDIY list:

"Ladies and Gents,

I've uploaded the schematics for GorF, and explained some of the extra bits on there ;-
http://blog.vacoloco.com/?p=125

I've also designed and ordered a prototype PCB for GorF ;-
http://blog.vacoloco.com/?p=122

As much as I like Eagle, I find the the 100mm by 80mm board size limit really annoying. And yes there's the "non profit" version which gives 160mm by 100mm and whilst that would be fine for GorF the other projects I'm working on require a board length of around 240mm by 100mm. and I certainly can't afford the 1200UKP for the full version of the software. It's a crying shame there's nothing in between the 160mm and 'anysize' limits, in terms of cost (The standard version only offers 160mm by 100mm board size limit).

So this board is a little on the 'cramped' side of life. Can anyone recommend any other PCB tools that aren't silly money or have silly board size limits?

Paul"

Vacoloco Aurora Audio Tests

"Aurora Waveform test - 4 Oscillators playing with their waves being cycled through and the filter fully open."


"PWM test for Aurora, single oscillator with PWM
The all four oscillators with PWM"

via Vacoloco Ramblings

Something Big Coming From Vacoloco

via Vacoloco Ramblings

"Something big is coming, something long overdue and truly unique. Keep an eye on our facebook/twitter accounts for more updates as they happen"

Vacoloco Working on Aurora - New Polyphonic Hardware Synth

via Vacoloco

"So, What is Aurora?

Well, my band (Her Dark Embrace) recently went into the recording studio to record our EP. The Engineer was very into electronics and synths and we had some great chats. He asked the question “So, you play keyboards and you build synths, so why don’t you use your own?” Really good question I thought, I replied “Everything I play is chords/pads and I’ve only built monosynths, I’ve never built a polysynth.” to which he asked “why not?“, I had no answer.

So I thought about it and I’d had the basics of a monosynth design on the drawing board so to speak, so whilst on holiday I finished the design and when I returned ordered some PCBs

Over the last month I’ve begun building a single voice board, first an oscillator, then I ported the code from the oscillator chip in Zira and modified the code, so I have two oscillators with 56 waveforms a piece, with hard sync and adjustable mix..."

Mono synths on a single board stacked for polyphony much like the vintage synths of yore. The Oberheim OB series come to mind. Very, very cool.

Vacoloco Ziras Arrive

via Vacoloco:

"20 brand new, fully assembled, shiny Ziras. I just have to test them and set them up then they’ll go on line.

we’ve tried something new, we’ve got four Ziras in a transparent red perspex. These will be available on a first come first serve basis when they go on sale."

GorF and Defender

via Vaco Loco where you will find more info.

"Gorf is a simple 8 step sequencer. It isn't as clever or complex as the Sequentix P3 nor as expensive as certain other sequencers.

I was bored one sunday, and wanted to build a simple sequencer I could use to test Defender and other synths I was building."

snip on Defender: "Defender is my current project, and as such, is a work in progress, so please, don't ask for schematics, code or if you can buy it.

The synth is broken down into three parts,

1. The Voice Card, which holds the filter, oscillators, EGs and LFOs
2. Controller Card, which handles midi, voice assignment and patch storage
3. Front Panel card, which handles the rotary encoders, pitch wheels, etc, etc"


Update via Lord Avon in the comments:

Video demo of GorF (playing Monowave II skin on the SoundArt Chameleon)

YouTube via VacolocoSynth

sounds for Defender ;- http://www.vacoloco.net/synths/defender/sounds.shtml

I'll add more soon, using GorF to control it.

Paul"

Video details:
"GorF is a minimal step sequencer.
I built it to help testing my synth designs.

It sends MIDI notes and velocity on a user selectable Midi channel along with two MIDI CC's (user selectable) and of course has variable sequence length.

You can turn steps on and off using the buttons, but I forgot to show this feature. When I do the next video I'll be sure to show this feature.

It's still in the early stages of development, and has one or two little bugs in it.

The sound is coming from the MonowaveII sound skin.

www.VacoLoco.net"

GorF (Ver 0.15)

Vacoloco Zira Demo

via Vacoloco's Synth.net


"This is two of the tracks from the demo I'm building using Zira.

Currently just an analogue arpeggio and a PPG style "clunk", I'm sure you'll recognise the tune."