New Waldorf 2 Pole Filter & Moog Theremini

via Create Digital Music

"Waldorf’s mystery knob is the filter control from a big filter in a box.
That’s right, Waldorf is introducing a 2-pole filter. And one heck of a 2-pole filter it is:
Filter with cutoff and resonance, but also a Drive setting, Rectify, and switchable between low-pass, band-pass, and high-pass
LFO with Depth and Speed
LFO set to Fast, Slow, and (hilariously) Gemütlich (kinda hard to translate, actually easy-going and slower than slow)
Envelope controls: Attack/Decay/Hold, threshold, a source (hard to tell what that does), and trigger.
And it takes CV for envelope, cutoff, and gate, with jack plugs for input and output."

"Then there’s Moog, who are introducing, as rumored, a new Theremin. And this isn’t just any Theremin: it’s a Theremin that can assist you in keeping things in tune, all whilst looking like a space-age egg from Woody Allen’s Sleeper.
It’s a Theremin with presets. Crazy presets.
It’s a digital instrument with Theremin-style controls. (Readers who speculated, you guessed right.) It’ll upset purists, perhaps, but this is rather cool: it’s based on the unique-sounding Animoog sound engine.
The synth is digital, but the input is analog: classic heterodyning style, then digitized as control signal for the engine. Onboard MIDI, CV output (presumably pre-digitization, in fact), and USB. But that engine gives you more different ways to play.
Yes, there’s a display, scale and root controls, a Presets knob, plus built-in delay. There’s a built-in speaker and headphone jack, as well, for convenience.
Price: US$299 estimated is what we heard on the floor..."

Full post with additional details at CDM here.

Update Image & details via Moog Music, also via radiate sky in the comments:

"The Theremini is a re-imagination of one of the oldest electronic musical instrument in history, and Bob Moog’s first love – the theremin. Its design fuses the experience of performing with an instrument you don’t actually touch, with a powerful sound engine derived from Moog’s award winning synthesizer, Animoog. The Theremini guarantees immediate success to any player at any skill level, while providing new ways to experiment with music, education, and gestural control.

Assistive pitch correction allows each player to adjust the instruments level of playing difficulty. At the maximum position, the Theremini will play every note in a selected scale perfectly, making it impossible to play a wrong note. As this control is decreased, more expressive control of pitch becomes possible. When set to minimum, the Theremini will perform as a traditional theremin with analog heterodyning oscillator and absolutely no pitch assistance.

A built in tuner supplies real-time visual feedback of each note as it is played, as well as its proximity to perfection. This is useful for correcting a users playing position, or to educate younger players about pitch and scales.

The presets section allows you to select from 32 wave or wavetable-based patches, store a selected scale & root note, set and recall a specified playing range, and specify per-patch settings for the included stereo delay.

Recessed in the top of the Theremini is a compact speaker perfect for private rehearsal and quick setup anywhere. Silent rehearsal is also possible via front panel headphone jack. Simply plug in ear-buds or headphones and the built in speaker becomes silent.

For live performance and gestural control, the rear panel features two line level audio outputs, a pitch CV output with selectable range, and a mini USB jack for MIDI I/O and connectivity.

FEATURES

• Pitch correction w/ selectable scales and root note

• Built in tuner allows you to learn pitch and scales

• 32 Wavetable based presets

• Built in speaker

• Headphone output

• Two 1/4" audio outputs

• Single Pitch CV output w/ selectable range

• User selectable scale and root note (stored per preset)

• User selectable range: highest note and lowest note (stored per preset)

• Adjustable Stereo Ping-Pong Delay

• Removable pitch antenna - built in storage compartment on bottom-side

• Built in 3/8” Mic stand and Camera stand adaptor

• High quality rubberized feet

FRONT PANEL

LCD SCREEN: 128 X 64 pixel LCD with white backlight.

HEADPHONE JACK: 1/8” (3.5mm) TRS headphone jack. Inserting a headphone plug will disable the internal speaker

VOLUME KNOB: Controls headphone volume and built in speaker volume.

PITCH BIAS KNOB: Determines the amount of pitch correction from 0% to 100%

SCALE BUTTON: Select from a list of built in scales

ROOT BUTTON: Select the root note to be used by the scale

SETUP BUTTON: Provides access the setup and calibration functions - also acts as a shift key.

DELAY LENGTH BUTTON: Selects the length of delay: SHORT, MEDIUM, LONG, or OFF

DELAY AMOUNT KNOB: Controls the amount of delay mixed with the dry signal.

PRESET KNOB: Selects the preset played from a built in list of 32 presets

REAR PANEL

LEFT OUTPUT: Line Level ¼” unbalanced TS

RIGHT OUTPUT:Line Level ¼” unbalanced TS

CV OUTPUT: ¼” TS – 0-5V or 0-10V selectable

USB: MiniB USB2.0 High Speed for USB MIDI

KENSINGTON LOCK SLOT

POWER SWITCH: Push ON / Push OFF

POWER JACK: 12VDC/1.2A from 100–240VAC external supply(included)

DIMENSIONS:22.75”L x 6.5”D x 15”H w/antenna (4”H without)

WEIGHT: 3lbs"

Udpate2: NAMM floor video:

Guitar Center New from NAMM - Moog Theremini

Published on Jan 23, 2014 Guitar Center·1,139 videos

"Moog makes some wild sounds with their new take on the Theremin, the Theremini, at the 2014 NAMM Show.
For more New from NAMM products, visit http://bit.ly/1d05EW3"

Performance // Chordal Ambient Tape Delay Patch // Instruōctional Patching

video upload by Instruō

Tutorial video here

"This is a performance recording of a patch I created while I was supposed to be prepping for the Tágh overview video.
It grew and became too fun a patch not to make a video of.
I deep dive on the patch techniques and break it down in detail in dedicated video.
The full Instruōctional Patching video will be live on Dec 30th at 4PM (GMT)

Core Techniques:
• Harmonic chord progression using Harmonàig/Saïch
• Cascaded pitch shifting delay
• Sub-harmonic waveshaping with through-zero frequency modulation
• Rhythmic textural "bird noise" by oscillator cross-modulation

This is quite a dense patch with a lot of subtle modulation and some interesting waveshaping techniques involved.
Fundamentally it is a patch using 3 parallel voices as audio sources which are mixed via multiple crossfaders.

The primary voice is the harmonic aspect which utilises a Saïch controlled by a Harmonàig to define the chord progression basis of the composition.
The Harmonàig can either be controlled via CV for preprogrammed/randomly self generated progressions, or can be manually played in Performance Mode.
When a new Root note is defined, the GATE output controls the Cèis ADSR which triggers a cascade of events that influence the patch.
The Cèis envelope output (acting as an AR) sounds the chords through a VCA which routs to the Lúbadh, which is configured as a tape delay.

Various gate and trigger signals from the Cèis clock two S&H modules as well as toggling signal routing for variations in parameters such as interval offsets on the Saïch (which introduces tension tones to the chords), input mix of the Saïch voice between the Lúbadh's decks and varies the index ratio of the Cš-L's complex voice.


There is a parallel bass voice which follows the root of the Harmonàig chord progression and is triggered by the primary voice's ADSR envelope (Cèis).
The tone is produced by the trigger output striking/pinging the I-ō47 filter which is tuned to match the Root of the Harmonàig voice. The percussive tone from the Band Pass output is waveshaped via a tanh[3] channel to restrict its amplitude and add a bit of saturation to the timbre. This signal then modulates a neóni configured in TZFM configuration to act as a waveshaper over the tone.

The High Pass output is converted to an aggressive unipolar positive square wave signal via the AND gate of the eãs. This signal is used in parallel to the TZFM waveshaping to soft sync the neóni at the audio rate of the Root note frequency.
This clock signal patched to the soft sync input is toggled on and off via a latching switch (tàin) controlled by the release stage gate output of the Cèis.
The result when the soft sync is engaged is a sub-harmonic introduced to the voice.
As the voice is triggered at each segment change of the ADSR this gives a longer rhymic meter that nicely matches the harmonic rhythm of the composition.


Finally, there is a generative textural voice which sits in the higher frequency bandwidth to serve as a chaotic percussive element somewhere between hi-hats and bird noises. This comes from a self modulated Cš-L.
The sine wave of oscillator B is used as the sound source. The resulting tone is gated through a VCA by the OR logic result of oscillator A's PWM voice (inverted at the eãs ~ gate) and the clock pulse of the Lúbadh's left deck.
The Lùbadh clock is the stable element in this gating signal as the Cš-L is fundamentally unstable due to extreme cross-modulation.

The cross-modulation is exponential on both oscillators and the wavefolder of oscillator B is used to modulate oscillator A which is in LFO range.
The wavefold depth of oscillator B is modulated in addition to the FM depth via the INDEX control.


For final seasoning, an øchd is used to add additional movement to the patch keeping things more dynamic. Vibrato is added to the Saïch voice using the first LFO from the øchd tunes to ~4-5Hz. This vibrato naturally softens the the voice as it is reverberated and echoed in the Lúbadh."

Instruō Chordal Ambient Tape Delay Patch // Instruōctional Patching

video upload by Instruō

Performance video here

"Core Techniques:
• Harmonic chord progression using Harmonàig/Saïch
• Cascaded pitch shifting delay
• Sub-harmonic waveshaping with through-zero frequency modulation
• Rhythmic textural "bird noise" by oscillator cross-modulation

This is quite a dense patch with a lot of subtle modulation and some interesting waveshaping techniques involved. Fundamentally it is a patch using 3 parallel voices as audio sources which are mixed via multiple crossfaders.

The primary voice is the harmonic aspect which utilises a Saïch controlled by a Harmonàig to define the chord progression basis of the composition.
The Harmonàig can either be controlled via CV for preprogrammed/randomly self generated progressions, or can be manually played in Performance Mode.
When a new Root note is defined, the GATE output controls the Cèis ADSR which triggers a cascade of events that influence the patch.
The Cèis envelope output (acting as an AR) sounds the chords through a VCA which routs to the Lúbadh, which is configured as a tape delay.

Various gate and trigger signals from the Cèis clock two S&H modules as well as toggling signal routing for variations in parameters such as interval offsets on the Saïch (which introduces tension tones to the chords), input mix of the Saïch voice between the Lúbadh's decks and varies the index ratio of the Cš-L's complex voice.

There is a parallel bass voice which follows the root of the Harmonàig chord progression and is triggered by the primary voice's ADSR envelope (Cèis).
The tone is produced by the trigger output striking/pinging the I-ō47 filter which is tuned to match the Root of the Harmonàig voice. The percussive tone from the Band Pass output is waveshaped via a tanh[3] channel to restrict its amplitude and add a bit of saturation to the timbre. This signal then modulates a neóni configured in TZFM configuration to act as a waveshaper over the tone.

The High Pass output is converted to an aggressive unipolar positive square wave signal via the AND gate of the eãs. This signal is used in parallel to the TZFM waveshaping to soft sync the neóni at the audio rate of the Root note frequency. This clock signal patched to the soft sync input is toggled on and off via a latching switch (tàin) controlled by the release stage gate output of the Cèis.
The result when the soft sync is engaged is a sub-harmonic introduced to the voice.
As the voice is triggered at each segment change of the ADSR this gives a longer rhymic meter that nicely matches the harmonic rhythm of the composition.

Finally, there is a generative textural voice which sits in the higher frequency bandwidth to serve as a chaotic percussive element somewhere between hi-hats and bird noises. This comes from a self modulated Cš-L. The sine wave of oscillator B is used as the sound source. The resulting tone is gated through a VCA by the OR logic result of oscillator A's PWM voice (inverted at the eãs ~ gate) and the clock pulse of the Lúbadh's left deck. The Lùbadh clock is the stable element in this gating signal as the Cš-L is fundamentally unstable due to extreme cross-modulation.

The cross-modulation is exponential on both oscillators and the wavefolder of oscillator B is used to modulate oscillator A which is in LFO range.
The wavefold depth of oscillator B is modulated in addition to the FM depth via the INDEX control.

For final seasoning, an øchd is used to add additional movement to the patch keeping things more dynamic. Vibrato is added to the Saïch voice using the first LFO from the øchd tunes to ~4-5Hz. This vibrato naturally softens the the voice as it is reverberated and echoed in the Lúbadh."

Synth Demos by Lost Clouds

If ou are viewing this post from the front page you will see a more link directly below. Click it before you start to get to the list of videos plus descriptions for each. You can use the controls at the bottom of the player to skip around. You can find Lost Clouds music at https://lostcl0uds.bandcamp.com

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Similis - Chords

video upload by DecadeBridge

"Similis is a lofi synthesiser that has 6 different presets.

This is an example of the 'chord' preset.
The first control sets the root note of the chord. The second selects 1 of the 10 chords available (5 major variations and 5 minor). The third control sets the volume of the notes that make up the chord except the root. Each of these controls has a CV input.
Here the root note is controlled by the keystep pitch. The VCA is being gated by the keysteps gate out. The volume of the chord notes are controlled using the mod wheel."

https://decadebridge.etsy.com/



"Similis is a lofi chip tune synthesiser that uses basic waveforms to generate it's sound.

Features:-
6 different settings (TYPE) from stacked oscillators to chords to self sequencing.
The setting selection can also be stepped using a trigger/gate signal for some odd patch skipping.

Each control can also has a CV input for connecting external gear.

Settings 1-3 deal with stacked oscillators.
3 oscillators with independent pitch. Sine, Saw and Triangle waves.
3 stacked oscillators. The first sets the root note and the other two are detuned plus and minus from the root.
The two detuned oscillators can be faded in.
Chords. The first oscillator sets the root note. The second control sets the chord (5 major chord variations and 5 minor) The amount of voices in the chord can be altered using switch C. The chord notes can be faded in to give a swell effect.
Settings 4-6. Simple sequencing.
The last three patches are random sequencers. The first is free running. Select between, chromatic, major and minor scales. The range and rate of the sequence can be altered and a second oscillator can also be brought into the sound.
The last two patches substitute the rate control as a mix for other voices. A short trigger signal is needed to tell Similis to choose a new random note/s within it’s selected scale.

The output is run through a 3 position passive LPF which turns into a Low pass gate when the VCA switch is down and a CV signal is connected to the VCA input."

Aeolian harmonic patch in stereo, with wavefolding and TZFM // Instruōctional Patching

video upload by Instruō

"Core Techniques:
• Harmonic chord progression using Harmonàig
• Audio rate XOR voice combination
• Rhythmic modulation
• Wavefolding
• Through-zero frequency modulation

I explore quite a few techniques in this patch. The foundation is a minor chord progression built around a diad patched in stereo (root left and 3rd right).
I wanted to use similar timbres for the voices producing root and 3rd. The root comes from the wavefolder output of a Neóni which is modulated by a rhythmic LFO.
The 3rd is a TZFM pair pitched from the Tš-L modulating a second Neóni. The index ratio is modulated by a second rhythmic LFO.

Self patching an øchd produces the rhythmic LFO signals that become the natual tempo and feel of the patch. I play the progression manually from the Harmonàig as the rhythms are not rigidly locked.

The 5th output of the Harmonàig controls a Tòna from which the square wave output is combined with the root Neóni's squarewave via the XOR comparator on the eãs.
XOR processing of square waves is mathematically the same as ring-modulation/4-quadrant multiplication of the two square wave signals.
Sidebands are produced resulting in a richer more complex tone. As the chord voicings mostly form a perfect 5th interval between root and 5th, the resulting signal remains tonally stable. Slight detuning of the 5th allowing for beating to broaden the timbre.

I low-pass filter this new voice and share it equally between left and right to form a common mono signal for the patch.


The gate from the Harmonàig triggers an ADSR from the Cèis. TRIG mode is engaged to force completion of the attack phase.
This envelope modulates two aspects of the same signal.
The top voice of a Cš-L acts as an LFO. This LFO frequency is controlled by the envelope while the signal's depth is simultaniously controlled by the same envelope.
The processed LFO controls the cutoff frequency of the I-ō47 which is low-pass filtering the XOR signal.
When a note is played on the Harmonàig the filter cutoff will "wobble" with a dynamic rate and depth."

Introducing Beetlecrab.audio - Makers of Vector and Tempera

via Beetlecrab.audio

Dear friends,

as hot summer months are slowly passing by, our Prague workshop has been pretty busy working on all axes. Since there's now two products to care for, there's more things to do, more PCB wiring and more code to siphon through, but there's a silver lining in that when we're too deep in one thing and need some respite, there's always something to do on the other :)

We are Beetlecrab.audio

Another thing we're slowly dealing with is the inscrutable situation about our branding, which we have gotten ourselves into. Vector, VectorSynth Tempera, TemperaSynth Vector, Vectora Synth Temper. It's a mess. To get out of all this confusion we decided to adopt an umbrella for both existing and new upcoming projects: beetlecrab.audio. We couldn't quite figure out a suitable name but many of you started using this, so let's go with it. For now the website is a simple crossroad and will be improved over time. Both Vector and Tempera newsletters will be merged into one at some point, so if you're subscribed to both you may have received this email twice. Please ignore the other.

Now to the actual news. There's two parts here -- an update about how Tempera production is going, and announcement of the new Vector v2.9.1 firmware update. Let's start with -

Tempera Production Update

New upgrades

There's a few changes made to the hardware that we're comfortable sharing, now that they are verified. First, a great quality of life improvement: the TRS MIDI sockets are compatible both with Type A and Type B wiring ! This means that you don't have to worry and fiddle with unmarked adapters -- both types will work.

Next, we were still a bit unhappy with the powder coat finish of the metal case. It's difficult to get right: each attempt at different color and paint structure takes a lot of time to test and verify because at least a piece of metal needs to be painted and sent to us for examination, and it takes even longer because of course the metal case manufacturer doesn't have all the paints in stock, and sometimes they have to buy a whole bottle just to use a few drops. A sample palette exists but as we already learned with Vector, these give some idea but in the end look nothing like what you think on the actual metal, on the bends, crevices and so on.

Having said all that, I think we found and verified a finish that we're really happy with . It's less glossy and has a finer and more granular (hah) structure. It's very nice to the touch and I think looks much better. See for yourself, how the light interacts with the old vs new powder coat on top. Noticeable are also the beautifully laser etched graphics. (Tempera in old finish, plate on top in new finish. The light is angled in such a way to highlight the grain, the new finish is in fact even blacker than the old.)

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FARFISA SYNTORCHESTRA (Frequently misspelled Synthorchestra)

via this auction
"The Syntorchestra has four polyphonic (Poli) voices and nine monophonic (Mono) voices. The issues are as follows:
* Poli Piano voice: some notes don’t sound.
* Switches for three of the nine solo voices (Trumpet, Trombone and Tuba) don’t engage their respective voices.
* Poli Voice Cancel functions, but Mono Voice Cancel does not, though you can still cut the voice by lowering its volume control.
* Mono voice can be heard faintly even after keys are released.

In addition, the AC cable sheath is pulling back at the plug (covered for now with electrical tape).

If you’d like to learn more about the Syntorchestra and its functions, as well as better understand this particular example of the synth, read on.

Basic Layout
The Syntorchestra (hereafter the Synt) has a Poli (poly) section and a Mono section. Both can be played individually or simultaneously, and the sounds of each can be layered. The Synt’s back panel has an output jack for the Poli section and another jack that outputs the Poli and the Mono sections together. Other back-panel controls include a DIN jack for a foot pedal (obviously an old foot pedal), a high/low-output switch, a trim control for the Poli pitch and a track control for the Mono synth to adjust the intervals between notes over the range of the keyboard. (The tracking is fine but not great.)

Top Panel Controls
Most of the Synt’s controls are for the Mono synth. The control panel (to the left of the keyboard) has individual Volume and Brilliance controls for the Poli and Mono sections. Next to these is the Vibrato section, which consists of a rate slider and pushbuttons to engage the effect on the Poli and/or Mono voices, plus a Delay button to delay the effect by a preset amount of time. The Vibrato is subtle, not aggressive, which seems to work best considering that the effect’s depth is preset.

The next two sections are entirely for the Mono. The first section includes two Envelope controls – Soffiato (attack) and Decay. By design these cannot be used simultaneously; a switch to the far right on the panel below the keyboard lets you choose which of the two you want to use. It’s an odd thing, since most envelope controls let you use attack and decay together to shape the envelope. Farfisa decided otherwise.

To the right of the Envelope’s controls is the Pitch section, which consists of Portamento, Pitch and a nifty control that lets you set the Monosynth’s interval to the root, or minor 3rd, 5th or 6th. For example, if you’re playing a C on the Poli synth, you can make the Mono synth sound at either the root (C); one and a half steps lower, at A (minor 3rd); three and a half steps lower, at F (minor 5th); or four steps lower, at E (minor 6th). The Mono has high-note priority, so if you play, say, a C chord voiced C-E-G on the Poli, the Mono will sound a G when the Interval control is set at the root, an E with the interval set to the minor 3rd, and so on and so on.

All the control panel functions work. They are a little bit noisy when you move them, and just a little stiff, too, but not much -- certainly not like those you’ll find on old Moogs and Arps. The one thing that’s easy to forget is that the Soffiato and Decay controls are dependent on the front-panel selector switch. You may think one of them isn’t working until you remember to place the switch in the appropriate position.

Front Panel Controls (located below the keyboard)
This is where you choose sounds and engage a few other features.

First, the sounds. The Poli has four: Trombone, Trumpet, Piano and Viola. The Trombone, Trumpet and Viola voices work fine. As mentioned above, the Piano voice has several notes that don’t sound at all.

The Mono synth has nine sounds, a few of which don’t work. Functioning sounds: Violin, Piccolo, Flute, Bass Flute, Alto Sax and Baritone Sax. The three nonfunctioning sounds: Trumpet, Trombone and Tuba (all three are side by side, so the issue may have something to do with the wiring in this spot). In addition, the Mono section voice can be heard faintly in the background after the keys are released.

Functions on the front panel include two Portamento controls: one engages the effect, and the other is a spring-loaded flipper that lets you engage the effect at will and then springs back into the off position when you remove your finger. Both of these work. There are two controls that let you instantly cancel out the Poli or Mono section without having to pull down the volume control. The Poli cancel works; the Mono cancel does not, but as stated above, you can still cut the voice by lowering the Mono’s volume. Finally, to the far right are controls for Wha-Wha and the aforementioned Envelope function selector (Soffiato or Decay). Both controls work."

click this image to see the detailed overlay.

Apple Patents New Synthesizer Method

Title link takes you to the patent. Via Chip Collection.

Some details:
"Music synthesizer generate audio tones. Many synthesizers generate their tones by using one or more oscillators. It is very common to use several oscillators in a single synthesizer voice but with at least one oscillator detuned. That is to say, that oscillator is oscillating at a slightly different frequency to at least one other oscillator. As a consequence of interference, this results in a periodically changing resulting signal due to the varying phase difference between them.

When there are two slightly detuned sine waves, the resulting signal is perceived as a single sine wave with a sinusoidal amplitude modulation varying with frequency. The frequency of this amplitude modulation is called the "beat frequency".

More often than not, there are two detuned oscillators producing more complex waveforms. Complex waveforms include waveforms in shapes which differ more or less from a perfect sine wave, e.g. a sawtooth or rectangular wave and can be decomposed into a sum of harmonic sine waves (the overtones or partial frequencies). The resulting interference from such complex waveforms is not a simple amplitude modulation but a complex timbre variation. This is because each pair of harmonic overtones has to be treated separately. However, the timbre variation when mixing two slightly detuned oscillators is still periodic with a beat frequency. Moreover, that beat frequency is equal to the difference between the two frequencies of the mixed detuned oscillators.

Synthesizer oscillators are usually tuned in a chromatic scale that consists of equal semitone intervals. An interval is defined by a certain frequency ratio between two tones. Twelve semitone interval steps result in an octave interval which is defined as a frequency ratio of 2:1. Hence, each semitone is the twelfth root of 2 or approximately 1.06. A semitone can be further divided into cents. A cent is one hundredth of a semitone. Thus, one cent is a 1200th root of 2 or approximately 1.0006.

In the prior art, synthesizer oscillators have been detuned by setting a certain detune interval which was usually measured in cents. Due to the fact that the detune interval defines the ratio between the detuned frequency and the nominal frequency, the frequency deviation itself is proportional to the nominal frequency. For example, if the nominal oscillator frequency was 1000 Hz, then applying a detune interval of 10 cent (approx. 1.006) would result in a detuned oscillator frequency of 1006 Hz and a beat frequency of 6 Hz. However, with the same detune interval of 10 cent at the next octave, the nominal frequency would be 2000 Hz with the detuned oscillator frequency of 2012 Hz and a beat frequency of 12 Hz. Accordingly, at a given detune interval the detuned oscillator has a frequency deviation which is proportional to its nominal frequency. Hence, when mixing detuned oscillators, the resulting signal has a beat frequency which varies with the pitch and doubles with each octave.

In order to accommodate for this beat frequency, a compromise is reached but often such audio tones have a beat frequency which is relatively too slow at lower tones and too high at higher tones.

An aim of the present invention is to provide a music synthesizer whereby sounds are generated with an optimum beat across a large range of tones. "

M-Audio Venom Review and Interview with Product Manager Taiho Yamada

A quick note: This review is long. You can jump to sections that interest you vs. reading it straight through if you prefer. This review focuses primarily on the synth engine for one single patch on the Venom. The Venom supports Multi mode with up to four multitimbral parts. Not only can you layer sound programs but you can set global parameters for the set. Be sure to see the Multi mode section of "Tips and Tricks via Taiho Yamada" at the end of this post. Taiho is the Lead Project Manager of the Venom and served as my contact during the review. I want to thank Taiho for his help and enthusiastic generosity. He is a true synthesist and the Venom is his baby.

Synth connections: Taiho previously worked at Alesis on the Andromeda A6. The DSP developer of the Venom worked on Radikal Technologies' Spectralis and the Accelerator. People that contributed to the presets via sound design include Richard Devine, Francis Preve, Mark Ovenden (Avid's AIR Instruments, ProTools VIs), Joerg Huettner (Waldorf, Access, Alesis), and of course Taiho Yamada.

*Don't miss the "Q&A with Taiho" section towards the end of the review. Also keep an eye out for "Taiho's Tips and Tricks" throughout the review in grey. You can find the consolidated list below the Q&A section.

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Synth Jams by Jay Hosking

Published on Jul 26, 2019 Jay Hosking

Spotted the first video in the playlist above on discchord.com. The Playlist contains 21 videos. You can use the player controls to skip around. Descriptions for each are below. All videos feature various gear so you should be able to get an idea of some of the capabilities of each featured. You can check out Jay Hosking's music at https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com/.

Note, more will likely get added over time. The following playlist is as of this post:

1. Jam w/ Vermona PERfourMER MkII, Elektron Analog Rytm MkII, OTO Bam, Styrmon Big Sky, Fugue Machine

A live, semi-improvised performance, all on hardware, and inspired by some pretty tough news that has me sentimental.

I loved the Elektron Analog Four MkII so much that I picked up the Analog Rytm MkII. My feelings on the Rytm are mixed. On the one hand, it's missing that spontaneity and spark of units like the Arturia DrumBrute Impact and Teenage Engineering OP-Z, with no readymade performance effects, roller bar, or global randomization, and a slower workflow. On the other hand, I really like its analogue sound engines, any unused tracks can be converted into impressive analogue mono synths, it does beautiful things to samples, and like all Elektron boxes it integrates the effects into the sequencer really nicely.

As for the Vermona PERfourMER MkII, I'd been pining over it for ages, and it was fun to finally tinker with it. The Perfourmer definitely excels in the mid- and high- range, and I love how the independent voices making really interesting voices for chords.

Vermona PERfourMER MkII + OTO Bam — Three synths (left chord note, right chord note, melody)
Vermona PERfourMER MkII + Strymon Big Sky — Bass chord note synth
Elektron Analog Rytm MkII — Drums, samples, sample melody, punchy bass
Fugue Machine (iOS) — Sequencing
IK Multimedia iRig Pro Duo — MIDI out from iOS

Written and performed within a 24-hour period, and uploaded as is, with only a little sidechain compression on the Perfourmer (to emphasize the sound that the Rytm was already making), and compression/limiting on the master.

https://jayhosking.bandcamp.com/

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AEMIT Presents Innovative Eurorack Modules for the Discerning Synthesist

AEMIT ~ Some Sound Snippets from Aemit modular on Vimeo.
AEMIT - Formant tests with System 7.5

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Squarp Instruments Hermod Eurorack Module Videos by Sunshine Jones

Published on Apr 14, 2018 Sunshine Jones

Playlist (descriptions for each below):
HERMOD CURSORY INVESTIGATION
HERMOD INPUT CONTROLLERS
SQUARP HEMOD - TRANSPOSE SEQUENCE
HERMOD TRANSPOSITION // TWO
OK, WELL WHAT ABOUT REAL TIME ANALOG SEQUENCE RECORDING?
3AM DANCEFLOOR MADNESS
HERMOD - SEQUENCING TIME
HERMOD // CHANGE SEQUENCE VIA CV
QUICK & DIRTY CV RECORDING

Descriptions:

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HGSounds Kosmology FreeFall Sequencer Now Available

See this post for full videos.

via HGSounds (full description captured for the archives):

"FreeFall is a completely Free version of the powerful Kosmology Sequencing System, which uses 110 Sampled Instruments collected from current Kosmology and Kosmos products to offer a free entry point into the world of Kosmology. Kosmology provides 8 completely separate instances which can be switched in real-time via a specified set of Midi notes. Each instance uses 2 synths with independent Filters, has 7 sequencers with independent clock divides and step amounts as well as 48 assignable parameters. The workflow is enhanced by lots of useful options such as copying, pasting and randomizing and a single instance can be copied to all Instances or to a specific instance. The idea is that you set up the 8 instances and then play them as an instrument as you would with any synthesizer, they are even polyphonic.

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New Mutable Instruments Beads Texture Synthesiser Eurorack Module

Playlist:

1. Mutable Instruments Beads - exploration and tutorial by Tom Leclerc
2. Mutable Instruments Beads (no input) by Robin Rimbaud-Scanner

First play with the Mutable Instruments Beads texture synthesiser. And here's a wonderful surprise - if you leave both audio inputs unpatched, then after 10 seconds it begins to granulise a collection of stored raw waveforms taken from Mutable Instruments Plaits wavetable module. So here's a piece using Beads as the lead voice on this cinematic piece, with no other inputs. I added other instruments afterwards for rhythm and bass, and the singular pulse that holds throughout is from the Make Noise Mysteron. This is just an idea to show Beads in a very musical context

3. Heidi Concrète (featuring Mutable Instruments Beads) by Robin Rimbaud-Scanner

An experimental piece using Mutable Instruments Beads, the texture synthesiser, processing an audio file. No addition effects or processing were used. This is simply a live exploration of a single audio file with Beads. The original voice introduces and closes the piece so you can compare the two sonic worlds before and after Beads. The voice is taken from a scanned phone call in the early 1990s that features on my Delivery (1997) album.

4. A Little Beat with Mutable Instruments Beads (Wavetable Mode) by midcentury modular

This is Beads running in the internal wavetable mode (and a kick drum from plaits). I've got a gate going into freeze that acts as a mute when the kick comes in (sort-of side-chain like), and I'm also manually pressing it to mute and sustain the random sequence.

The pitches are not from an external cv source but generated internally with the peaky random distribution into the time knob. The pitch changes with this parameter seem to be somewhat harmonically related (though I'm not sure what specific scale) to the root set by the pitch parameter.

5. Overdriven Ambient Looping with Mutable Instruments Beads by midcentury modular

This video is some improvised choir sounds (from the Ableton Operator synth, played with a midi keyboard) ran into Mutable Instruments Beads in the delay/looper mode (with "sunny tape quality") Throughout, I add to the buffer by tapping out of freeze mode and back in. When the feedback is up, things stick around, so you can progressively add more and build up the buffer. I'm also experimenting with overdriving the input (by turning up the audio level going into beads from ableton with the top left 1U knob)

6. Mutable Instruments Beads (Scorched Cassette Mode) and Ciat-Lonbarde Plumbutter Deerhorn by midcentury modular

This patch is my attempt at using Beads to add some Cocoquantus-like magic to the Deerhorn. I think the downsampling, lower-bitrate and whatever other DSP tricks are happening in the Scorched Cassette mode are crerating a somewhat similar vibe to the 8-bit dolby loopers in the Coco, and I think this adds some really nice fizzy textures to the warm, raw-oscillator tone of the Deerhorn). Beads is also pitching down the two tones from Deerhorn to add a bit more melodic content.

There is some very subtle modulation coming from the orange out on Deerhorn, but it's not really doing a ton and could probably be left out and you wouldn't be able to tell much of a difference. There is some audio-rate modulation coming out of one of the white deerhorn outputs into the density input, which is modulating some of the AM stuff going on when density is high towards the end of the track.

No idea why the snapping gesture with the density knob caused the "knock on wood" sound, but I think it was a pretty cool accident!

7. Noisy Experimenting with Mutable Instrument Beads, Blades Ripples and Plaits

This patch (at least as much as I remember it...been a while since I made this) is Beads and Blades in a sort-of feedback loop. Blades is over-driven and self-oscillating, and the outs are sent to control seed and freeze on Beads (which is using the internal wavetable generator as audio input). After trying out various ones, I found these two control inputs on Beads the most interesting with audio rate signals. The outs of Beads are going into the audio inputs of blades. Both modules outs are multed out and into veils which is acting as a stereo mixer. Ripples (which is getting some noise into its cutoff modulation input from Plaits) is providing some audio rate modulation to some of the Veils channels.

"Beads is a reinvention of Mutable Instruments’ Clouds.

The concept is the same, live granular processing of an incoming audio signal, and the labels on the panel remain familiar.

The similarities stop here. The hardware and software have been redesigned from the ground up, with several goals in mind: a crisper and broader sound palette, more control, better playability, and direct access to exciting new features.

DOTTING THE I’S AND CROSSING THE T’S

Beads’ vastly improved specifications allow a higher audio quality, a longer buffer, the use of better interpolation and anti-aliasing algorithms, and key DSP blocks to run at a faster rate. Granular processing can now go to new territories, such as formants, wavetables, hard-sync-like sounds, or crispy noise.

The range of parameters, their response to the turn of a knob or a CV modulation have all been refined, for new possibilities such as reverse playback or percussive envelopes.

CONTROL, CHAOS AND CHARACTER

Control. To trigger or schedule grains, Beads provides new features to divide or randomize an external clock or trigger stream, spray bursts of grains in response to a gate, or get the grain rate to track a V/O CV or the frequency of an external oscillator.

Chaos. Each key parameter of a grain comes with its own attenurandomizer, which allows direct CV control, CV control of the randomization (spread) of this parameter, or internal randomization using some of Marbles’ algorithms.

Character. Beads provides four audio quality settings, which go well beyond buffer sample rate and bit-depth: they affect the clock of the converters, the amplitude limiting and saturation of the signal path, the tone of the reverb, and additional media-emulation effects. From a pristine digital device to a dirty cassette, through a mode reproducing some of Clouds’ characteristics.

MODES?

Beads can operate as a delay without the need to switch to a different mode: just ask it to play a never-ending grain. Its DENSITY, TIME and SEED controls are repurposed to allow various features such as tap-tempo, beat slicing, time-stretching, or comb-filtering at rates tracking V/O.

Without any audio input, Beads will granularize 8 internal banks of wavetables.

All parameters have a dedicated knob."

Korg Monologue, MicroFreak, Novation Circuit, Volca FM, NTS-1, Lone Rider

Korg Monologue, MicroFreak, Novation Circuit, Volca FM, NTS-1, Lone Rider part 1

Waveformer

"First part of a three-part jam, featuring the Korg Monologue, Arturia MicroFreak, Novation Circuit, Volca FM, and with Zoom MS-70CDR and Korg NTS-1 on effects.

My music on Bandcamp: http://waveformer42.bandcamp.com/

This jam was originally planned to be around 45 minues, with lots of different parts, and lots of different solos played live on the Monologue. All planned out over 3 sheets of paper with plenty of notes scribbled all over. I did record a 45 minute take, but wasn't happy with the performance so I decided to scrap it. And ... playing the whole thing live was kind of daunting, so I chickened out and decided to make this a three part jam with a common soundset and some common themes.

This is the first of the three planned parts.

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MATRIXSYNTH Turns 7!!!

Today marks the seven year anniversary of MATRIXSYNTH! The original matrixsynth.com actually launched way back in October of 1997 as MATRIX SYNTH. I never took it down, BTW. Click here to see it in all it's old school glory. If you thought there was too much green on this site, just check that baby out. BTW, check out the manufacturers list under MFG. I stopped updating it about the time I started this site in 2005. You can see what modular manufactures, and of course others were around back then. It's an interesting look back in time... Kind of why I started this version of the site actually. I'll get to that further below.

Last year I skipped the site stats and kept the anniversary post relatively short. I used to post stats for the site and a general blurb on what makes the site tick, but it began to feel redundant so I skipped it last year. Well, I kind of missed it, and I know some of you enjoy the stats thing, so I'm bringing it back. And CatSynth did it for their six year anniversary post yesterday, so there you have it. Actually I was planning on including stats before I read that post, but I do like CatSynth. The site has grown quite a bit and we have a ton of new readers who don't really know the background of MATRIXSYNTH so I thought I would share some of that as well. I've also had a few people ask me to do personal interviews. I always turn them down as I do my best to keep myself out of the site so I don't ruin it for anyone. It's kind of like the whole Wizard of Oz thing. Enjoy the Oz in MATRIXYSNTH, and don't let the wizard ruin it for you is my only advice. That said, I decided this year to reveal a little more about my synth history than I normally do. Don't worry though after this post that's it. This site is about the gear only. I see it as my job to bring it to you unbiased and get the heck out of the way. Seriously though, I really do my best to present what is out there free of bias for you to consume and form your own opinion. I do this for three reasons; one, out of respect for the person that created the content, two, so I don't accidentally prevent you from getting your own experience out of the post, and three, because of how much goes up on a daily basis - it saves you and me time.

But, in the anniversary and New Years posts I do tend to make up for my lack of words big time, so bear with me or just skip to what you like.

Before I begin with the stats I do want to give a big thanks to everyone that visits, supports and contributes to the site. THANK YOU!!! It really is a tremendous amount of work, so all the kind words and support make a huge difference. Every single post you see here is hand posted. There is no automation. The site takes roughly four to eight hours on average a day (closer to eight) and sometimes up to ten hours. This is every single day, including weekends. Out of the seven years running the site I have only missed one day (by accident - more on that below), and the only day I take off is Christmas day when I put up only one post, which surprisingly can be torture in not posting. The posts you see here are a combination of stuff I find out there on my own and stuff people send in, which is quite a bit. The site started as a hobby and has fortunately grown into a small business with the help of sponsors. Note sponsors are always on the right. In the history of the site there has never been a paid post on the main site, and if there ever is, I will be sure to call it out in the post. That said, THANK YOU SPONSORS! It's one thing if the work only consumed my time, but it in turn consumes my family's time, so every little bit helps. THANK YOU! You make the site possible!


First the stats!

We still haven't reached world domination. Everything you see with a shade of green is a visit to the site. Check out Africa! The few in white mean no visit came in. The top map is for the seven year history of the site and the bottom is for this last year. Click on each for the full size shots. As you can see they are pretty much the same. Still no hits from North Korea.

On the other hand we had 122 visits from Syria within the last year along with traffic from other war torn countries. Incredible! Please keep safe out there! You are in our hearts, thoughts and prayers.

The top 10 visits by country:

1. United States 982,943
2. United Kingdom 258,070
3. Germany 183,138
4. France 168,649
5. Canada 142,553
6. Italy 109,605
7. Japan 84,202
8. Sweden 76,948
9. Australia 73,881
10. Netherlands 72,680

And the overall stats:

Source: Google Analytics for the year (July 20, 2011 - July 20, 2012):

6,364,538 pageviews
2,838,084 visits
972,065 unique visitors.

Source: Site Meter for the life of the site:

32,734,610 pageviews (18,557 average per day)
15,658,114 visits (7,822 average per day)

Google Analytics (started April 5, 2006):
30,795,628 pageviews
14,313,210 visits
4,258,879 unique visitors.

Note unique visitors can be a bit misleading as I believe it's based on the individual browser and cookies vs. IP Address or individual, so for people checking in on multiple devices and even multiple browsers on the same machine, each one counts as a unique visitor. The numbers are likely lower.

Unfortunately I do not see a top posts for the last year in Blogger so we will have to go with the top posts for all time:

New Schmidt Analog Synth Debuts at the Musikmesse
Apr 5, 2011, 22 comments 13,412 Pageviews

RIP Mr. Tsutomu Katoh - Founder of KORG
Mar 15, 2011, 6 comments 12,542 Pageviews

New Tom Oberheim SON OF 4 VOICE
Jan 25, 2011, 10 comments 7,811 Pageviews

M-Audio Venom Review and Interview with Product Manager Taiho Yamada
Mar 23, 2011, 6 comments 7,186 Pageviews

New KORG Monotribe In the Flesh
Apr 4, 2011, 26 comments 7,149 Pageviews

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New Destiny + Buchla Easel Cards

This one is in via Meska.

Details via Destiny+

Dual function source & utilities.
Function frequency A, Function frequency B, Fm in A, Fm in B, Fm cv A, Fm cv B, Sine out A, Sine out B, S&H out A, S&H out B, S&H in A, S&H in B, S&H clock in A, S&H clock in B, S&H output lag A., S&H output lag B, White noise, Pink noise, Square out A, Square out B.

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Superbooth 2019: Frapp Tools USTA 4 Track Sequencer

Published on May 10, 2019 sonicstate

Certain eurorack modules would look great as mini desktop modules. This would be one of them. Add MIDI and 16 track multitrack sequencing for each MIDI channel.

"usta / ˈusta / s.f. [probably from an ancient Germanic form, cfr. German Nüster, English nostril] – the trail left by the pray. Idiom., more common: ‘good sense’, ‘wisdom’. Idiom. a usta ‘by heart’. The ‘Usta’ sequencer follows both of those meaning: literally, it gives your patch a trail to follow; more broadly, it offers you a way to approach your composition ‘by heart’, without too much planning.
USTA is a 4×4 tracks sequencer for voltages and gates with variable stage duration, designed to quickly see and edit multiple voltage relationships in real time.

“Variable stage duration” means that every single stage duration can be individually set in relation to the clock, instead of being constrained to a one-to-one ratio (i.e. one stage per every clock impulse).

“4×4 tracks” means that every stage can store and generate up to four separate voltages (two CVs and two gates), and that up to four independent stage sequences can be arranged into as many different tracks.

Its architecture is based on an array of 16 ‘Stages’ which form a ‘Pattern’; 16 patterns form a ‘Track’, and four tracks form a ‘Project’. Within each track, each stage can provide two gates and two CVs, and a wide set of options is available to define and modify the value of each output (‘Layers’) and the way it is played (‘Colors’).

Every Stage is related to a dedicated stepped encoder for quick and intuitive editing, and all the 16 encoders are arranged in an oval layout with a circular playhead. Every encoder is surrounded by a ring of 16 LEDs and a RGB led, to provide a visual feedback of the current setting of that step basing on the layer you are working on (like raw CV, quantized CV, length, gate…) and the way it should play depending on the RGB color.

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New Folktek Conduit Eurorack Module

Published on May 6, 2016 Sir Folktek

Playlist:
Folktek Conduit eurorack module (video1)
"Conduit working with Folktek's Matter. Simple sequence via Octone, triggering via Varigate4. Processing two of the three Conduit signal paths toward the end. Utilizing the Folktek 'Resist' module for Matter triggering as well as Conduit oscillation."

Folktek Conduit eurorack module (video2)
"Conduit working with Folktek's Matter. Simple sequence via Octone, triggering via Varigate4. Utilizing the Folktek 'Resist' module for Matter triggering as well as Conduit oscillation."

Folktek Conduit eurorack module (video3)
"Conduit working with Folktek's Matter. Simple sequence via Octone, triggering via Varigate4. Utilizing the Folktek 'Resist' module for Matter triggering as well as Conduit oscillation.

Folktek Conduit eurorack module (video4)
"Conduit getting random. Single oscillation processing with Folktek's Matter. Some random LFO stuff. Processing with a light amount of reverb. Utilizing the Folktek 'Resist' module for Conduit oscillation."

Conduit was also released as a desktop synth. You can filter through previous posts here for more info and demos.

via Folktek

"*note that due to an error in manufacturing, the mounting holes have had to be routed - the oblong holes are slightly longer than standard.

Conduit is a delay, filter, and 9 point harmonic oscillation module which creates three independent signal paths that can be inter-mixed how you like. It's also capable of jumping directly into the circuitry of Matter for processing. The root circuitry is based on the conduit desktop piece which is no longer in production.

Delay

At it's root Conduit is a delay with a warm, analog sound which is clean at tight times and tending toward something disgusting and noisy and slower times. External audio or internal oscillation can be processed by the delay. When multiple oscillation points are mixed, the delay feedback gets distorted and noisy. As a delay it serves best as a source of texture.

Filter

The Delay travels into a state-variable filter with fixed resonance. A clean signal passing by the delay will still be filtered. The filter has a vactrol-based cv in to control the cutoff. So this filter receiving voltage control is very wormy in nature. It's best to multiply and mix a signal going into Conduit if it's to be used for processing - giving you the filtered and unfiltered version.

Oscillation

The purpose of this module is not simply as a delay or a filter - these are just components to a greater whole. With Conduit, aspects of the giant delay IC processing are accessed as a series of sound sources - harmonic oscillations based on the clocking of the delay. Therefore, delay time is the same as master pitch for these oscillations (also represented by "time cv"). There are a total of 8 harmonic oscillations and one noise source. All 9 points representing audio level harmonic oscillations are represented by a 9x4 female header so that each of these points or multiple points can be used as a sound source. Using Resist alongside allows one to control the level of the oscillation.

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