stg/soundlabs Wave Folder

suitandtieguy.com
stgsoundlabs.com

knobcon update

An update via knobcon's organizer, Suit & Tie Guy

"The Hyatt has extended our booking window. you can now book a room at the 79 USD rate until the 31st.

also, we now officially have sponsors. they are Five12 and STG Soundlabs. there will be door prizes, drawn out of a hat by someone who is not me, of merchandise (software and synthesiser modules) from the sponsors."

thank you,
Suit & Tie Guy
suitandtieguy.com
stgsoundlabs.com

http://knobcon.com/

William meets the Moog One

Published on Oct 26, 2018 suitandtieguy

"My friend William McCarthy came over and spent some quality time with the Moog One. He made the sounds and then merged them into a split preset, and then recorded it with his iPhone and a Roland Go:Mixer. Drums are MPC-1000"

stg soundlabs moog format mixers now shipping

"The Mixer is a 5-input mixer with a transistor-based make-up gain stage and topology based on the model CP3 mixers from the modular electronic music systems built in Trumansburg NY by the RA Moog company. Its features are low noise, minimal slew, and massive asymmetric distortion on demand.

Each input has an input amount level, and there are three outputs. Two outputs are unattenuated positive and negative outputs, and the third is an attenuated output controlled by the sixth knob on the panel. Its normal operation is bipolar from negative to positive, but when the "negative kill" switch is engaged the attenuator works from null to full positive. In addition, channels four and five are normalised to positive five volts and negative six for CV offset or distortion "pulse width" effects.

As calibrated to factory standard, 2 o'clock on the dial is approximately unity gain, at 3 o'clock it begins to clip and then distortion presents itself above that input level (from 10V p-p input signals.) This is adjustable to the taste of the customer and if your application needs a predictable unity gain position for clean mixing applications it can be provided for you on request. (obviously if you want to live dangerously it can be calibrated in a more extreme fashion.)

The positive and negative outputs are not only necessary for control signals and other phase-sensitive applications. Because of the circuit topology of the gain amp the positive and negative outputs actually have different distortion characteristics. The negative output is more of a straight clipping, but the positive output has some interesting waveshaping to it which also means that when the output attenuator is in bipolar operation it is actually possible to isolate only the difference component between the two different types of distortion. This is a feature which was not available on the CP3 (or any other mixer that I'm aware of based on it, which until now have only been privately built for the most demanding of enthusiasts.)

You may ask "why on earth would you want such an old circuit? why go so far as to model the power rails of that old stuff for what anyone else would just throw a cheap dual opamp chip in there? are you nuts? the cheap dual opamp would give you another 10 volts of headroom and would bring your circuit cost to a tenth of what it is now!!"

The answer is of course, the sound. The sound of those old modular systems (the ones on albums like Tarkus, Rubycon, Mirage, Halo, Switched-On Rock ... those albums that make us want these sounds) wasn't just a matter of a certain lowpass filter which everyone and their brother has made a copy of. The sound started with simple animal-like unijunction-core featureless oscillators, was mixed in distortion-heavy mixers, filtered with the aforementioned filter (and other filters people never bother to copy), and then level-managed by a transistor-based VCA. one of those four stages is the mixer, and in my opinion it's more than a quarter of the sound.

Here is a meandering sound example with 2 Synthesizers.com Q106 VCOs into the Mixer, then the MOTM-490 LPF, and an STG Soundlabs VCA"

CP333 by suitandtieguy

More info and price at stg/soundlabs

The World's Biggest Trance Lead?

YouTube via suitandtieguy.

"In this video, I attempt to create the world's biggest trance lead using a Prophet-10 and the STG Soundlabs Radiophonic Accessory System under control of a x0xb0x. I'm not sure if i was successful, but it did sound pretty trancey. Other tools abused in this video include a CR-8000, Juno-6, Mackie mixer, Lexicon MPX-110, and Oktava MK-219 microphone. Modules available at stgsoundlabs.com"

MooSonics Vanilla Synthesizer First Encounter - Cory Flanigan vs Juggable Offense

video upload by suitandtieguy

"My good friend Cory Flanigan, a drummer who plays drums and electronics simultaneously, came over a few days after I finished the first properly and fully functional MooSonics Vanilla Synthesizer, a new basic American format modular synthesiser based on and restricted to the functions and timbre of 1970s Oberheim instruments, specifically the Two Voice, which Tom said was his favourite of everything he made. There is also an LFO module derived from the MS-20 and a control bus module that allows you to address all pitch and gate modules in the system from only one place, instead of having a dumb mess of cables and multiples. The Moog modular synthesisers worked this way, and I think it's the way things should be.

I got it set up and put it through a couple of IK Multimedia pedals, the X-Time and X-Space, because I can't stand listening to naked instruments. It was also nice to spend more time with the pedals, some of the tweaks are Cory and some are me poking around them.

Controlling the synth is a 2 octave MIDI controller with an internal arpeggiator driving a Roland SBX-1 as a MIDI-to-CV converter.

He played with it for a half hour and I decided to hit the record button, he finished at literally 4:20 AM, about an hour and a half later.

I wanted to post the audio because I thought listening to someone who was not a "modular synthesist" but did actually know synthesisers (Cory spent years making sounds with the Korg Wavestation and Radias, Currently has TWO Wavestates) would do with a thing upon first meeting it.

I didn't edit this except for fades at the beginning and end. I just wanted to present it as something you could listen to, in whole or part, as a reference for what my new instrument sounds like.

Bubba Ayoub AKA Juggable Offense made 90 minutes of video art while listening to it so I could merge them and put it on U-Toob. It beats paying Soundcloud nine bucks a month but you will have to skip through some text-to-speech ads for total snake oil products (YouTube is fine with misinformation if you pay them enough money, it seems.)

It would be cool to do this with more people, putting a new instrument in front of them and seeing what they do with it as a first encounter with new technology.

I know what this thing is supposed to do and what it should sound like from my own perspective, but I'm more interested in hearing what other people do with it.

Also leave a comment if you would be interested in a livestream where I just play with this thing and have the oscilloscope handy to answer questions or make certain kinds of patches."

See the MooSonics label below for more.

Springhill Suites Gallup - Room Review

Published on Jan 31, 2019 suitandtieguy

A small knob for those of you in the UK.

"A dramatic interpretation of what staying at Marriott's excellent Springhill Suites in aesthetic Gallup NM actually feels like.

Camera and concept by Jill Gautreaux. Bag by Blake's Lotaburger."

STG Envelope Generator CV demo (brought to you by TASCAM)

Published on Mar 8, 2018 suitandtieguy

"Just wanted to do a quick demo of only one function of the world's most advanced envelope generator and try out my new demo recording setup of iPod Touch and an iXR audio interface TASCAM was nice enough to give me."

See this post for additional details on STG Soundlabs "World's Most Advanced Envelope Generator".

Wave Folder Demonstration - Sine

YouTube via suitandtieguy
"A demonstration of the processing offered by the STG Soundlabs Wave Folder.
http://stgsoundlabs.com/pro..."

Radiophonic Ones - A Simple Drone

Published on Feb 22, 2019 suitandtieguy

"Two .VCO prototypes droning against one another, through a .MIX and a Sea Devils Filter. The only adjustments made are to octave, semitone, drift amount, and filter FM amount from the looping EG.

At a certain point I bring in some delay from an Eventide but it starts out totally dry.

The .VCO is available to order at a discount, shipping in the summer, at http://stgsoundlabs.com/products/vco_..."

STG: At Home at the Piano Bar Vol 1

Published on Nov 20, 2016 suitandtieguy

"Just finished a custom 16MU synthesiser for someone and decided to make a video with it before I ship it off to the patient and decent guy who bought it. It was also a good way to use some new toys I've got recently. This isn't a song per se, I'm just keeping myself from getting bored for 3 minutes. Maybe you'll enjoy it.

Modular is totally dry and controlled from a sequence I programmed on the Arturia Keystep. The modular patch is pretty basic, a Synthetic Sound Labs VCO in unison with a 3 octave square spread made by a Mankato Filter as sine VCO feeding the Pulse Matrix. All four sources feed a Mixer then the Sea Devils Filter. VCA is the Digital Attenuators. Envelopes are Synthesizers.com.

The piano is a Yamaha CP70 preamped by a 1990s BSS mic pre/eq, fed into a Hammond USA Leslie "cream" pedal then a Yamaha REV500. Drums are a factory preset on a BeatBuddy pedal processed with an Electrix FilterFactory. If you've got a BeatBuddy, I can't recommend a FilterFactory more for processing. They sound fantastic together.

I've got a nice way to record video with direct audio now so this will happen more often."

MOOG MICROMOOG with New Power Supply

via this auction
"The MICROMOOG is a monophonic analog synthesizer produced by Moog from 1975-1979. Designed by Robert Moog and Jim Scott as a scaled-down version of the MINIMOOG. Incredibly, it has several features that the MINIMOOG doesn't (far more extensive modulation routing, ribbon controller, accessory power, & more). What does the MINIMOOG have that the MICROMOOG doesn't? Three VCO's. But in actuality, since the MINIMOOG doesn't have an LFO, one usually uses two of its VCO's for voice generation, and the third as a LFO for modulation.

Well, the MICROMOOG has an LFO, and a VCO with a doubling circuit, which controllably adds an octave or two below the main VCO pitch. Result? The sound of two VCO's and an LFO. Just like the MINIMOOG. There have been those who claim the MICRO doesn't sound as fat on low frequencies. The mod was installed that supposedly improves this. It's bogus, at least on this particular instrument. This instrument sounds very rich and full, and was directly, side-by-side, compared to a MINI. There's a very, very slight *difference* but neither is *superior* so the mod was removed and this instrument was restored to original.


Take a look at the condition of this extraordinary instrument from 1978 (near the end of production, so it is one of the more stable instruments)...

Time-Calibrated Envelope (Contour) Controls. BOTH positive and negative contour on the VCF. VERY WELL PLANNED switches afford an unusual amount of control. Notice the "Open System Inputs / Outputs" legend.

Here's where one sees great differences between the approaches of ARP and MOOG. MOOG is *musically useful* in addition to being extremely experimentally oriented - witness the calibrated, instantly accessible 5 OCTAVE range controls. The ability to instantly convert the VCO into an extremely WIDE RANGE oscillator, sweeping the entirety of audible frequencies, and then some. Then there's the MOOG exclusive WAVEFORMS (that cross between a sawtooth and square, which is modulatable).

SECOND ROW: First there's that LFO (Low Frequency Oscillator) for incredibly rich slow sweeps, all the way up to musical vibrato, and beyond. And there's the GLIDE (also known as PORTAMENTO) control, for that eerie, human-voice-like quality that is unmistakable.

BUT the BEST is that MODULATION section! Take a look at all the routings! SAMPLE AND HOLD (NOT on MINIMOOG) and more.

BELOW you see the original wimpy power supply. Regulation is with barely heat-sunk TO-220s. Very marginal. AC line variations, spikes, temperature, continued operation, etc. can result in undesired voltage instability. This is the weak link in a MICROMOOG.

THE REMEDY: an Electronic Music Engineer with 40 years experience expertly removed the original supply and replaced it with what you see below. A VAST IMPROVEMENT in several ways. Look at the difference in the size of the filter capacitors - cleaner DC improves the MICROMOOG's sound and consistency in several ways. LOOK at the TO-3 sized REGULATORS. Huge difference in current capability, and thus increased stability, over the wimpy original TO 220s. The DUAL TO-3s are attached to a MASSIVE HEAT SINK under the board. No stress on an already very conservative design. Also the prone-to-failure, almost impossible to find IC in the original design was replaced with TWO independent regulators with TRIMMER POTENTIOMETERs affording adjustment for variations in circuit componentry over time. You're set for a much longer time than the original design.

OUTPUTS - a normal -10dbM, and a VERY STRONG +12 dbM. S-trigger (MOOG's system - convertible), Scalable KEYBOARD CV Out, and BIPOLAR ACCESSORY OUTPUT (originally marked as only being capable of a wimpy 50ma. With the IMPROVED power supply, it is safe to draw at least 200ma from this socket).

Direct AUDIO INPUT so you can use the FILTERS, etc. MODULATION Control Voltage Input, AND SEPERATE VCO and VCF CV inputs. S-Trigger for gating events.

BIRTH CERTIFICATE. 6/5/78. Or 5-25, if the upper initials are the actual birth, and the lower is inspection. That, I don't know. But we do know she's 33 years old.

REAR PANEL has numerous ACCESS PORTS for calibration and adjustments. Some of these you really don't want to touch unless you know what you're doing. Others, such as the "EMPHASIS" tuning, allows changing the character of the instrument's voice quite a bit.

CLICK FOR MORE »

New STG Soundlabs Wave Slicer/.SLC Audio Demo

Published on Nov 8, 2019 suitandtieguy

"A brief demonstration of the forthcoming STG Soundlabs Wave Slicer/.SLC module. This video focuses on single oscillator applications but there will be future videos about multi-oscillator and other audio applications, control voltage, and even video synthesis applications.

This video was shot in one take at STG Content Labs, using a television-style process including two cameras, an oscilloscope with direct video output, and a vision mixer. I set up the cameras and lighting, and Bubba Ayoub was technical director (the television term for the guy who operates the vision mixer.) This process is pretty exciting to me as I worked at a UHF ABC affiliate (WHOI-19) for two years back before I built synthesisers.

I finally feel like I'm 20 minutes into the future.

Jon Sonnenberg engineered this module, and you can find his Knobcon Number Six talk about wave replacement synthesis here:" [posted here]

Suit & Tie Guy at The Moog Sound Lab

via Moog Sound Lab on Facebook

"Yesterday [Tuesday] we received a visit from the one and only Suit & Tie Guy.

He set up his personal STG Soundlabs Modular Synthesizer in the Moog Sound Lab and connected the whole system to a variety of analog #Moog gear"

http://www.suitandtieguy.com

STG NAMM Demo Rig

via Suit Et Tie Guy on Facebook

"demo rig for a trade show in a couple of weeks."

Note the Detachment 3 Engineering Archangel sequencer.

http://suitandtieguy.com

STG Corn Maize

Published on Oct 21, 2017 suitandtieguy

"I have been wrestling with some personal issues in regards to loss and isolation, and one of the things which will help me out of this is generating more content, so I'm trying something new.

We used to use Soundcloud for short tracks but since it's obvious they took inspiration from Tyco and spent all their money on solid gold toilet seats they are useless and bankrupt now. I'll start throwing stuff here and echoing it elsewhere and when I get enough tracks put them on Bandcamp in an album. Seems like an appropriate approach for the current year.

I wasn't 'making a track' when I recorded this, I just wanted to test the SD recorder I installed in my live rig. I quickly made marimba and pad loops with the Yamaha Reface DX and the Boss RC-202 it feeds, and a bass line from the Hammond XK-1c and its RC-505 (I love those Boss loopers.) The drums are just whatever was on the "808" TR-8 when I pulled it up on the mixer. Then I wailed a bit over it with the Moog Sub37 on the factory preset 'STG Liberatn Lead 2003.' My master clock is the Roland SBX-1.

After a few minutes I hit stop, pulled the SD card out, and took it over to the studio computer to see how well it recorded. I had intended to just put the card back in the machine and reformat it but there was a good three minutes there and it seemed a shame to throw it in the bin.

The video is from an outing with my sister's children at the local orchard. They have a seasonal corn maze and in my fall fervour it seemed like a good idea to get the camera out. Sorry film nerds, I left the Steadicam at home!

Reverb note: a couple minutes in the reverb (Lexicon PCM-80) on the TR-8 gets way louder. I didn't reach over and adjust that, it was a defective cable. I pulled out the 8 year old moulded TRS cable and put a new Hosa in its place and it's fine now. Was kind of cool here though ..."

STG Bipolar Amplifier and Buffered Multiple

via Suit & Tie Guy
suitandtieguy.com
stgsoundlabs.com

About to be shipped to:
http://analoguehaven.com/

Slingin' slices for synth cash down at that Blaze place

Published on Dec 14, 2017 suitandtieguy

"My friend William McCarthy came over and was jamming this. I told him i thought it was good content and got the camera out."

STG Boat Rocker: Stress Test Patch

Published on Oct 26, 2019 suitandtieguy

"Decided to load up the latest Boat Rocker PSU prototype with plenty of modules and let it sweat for a week. It's doing great!

Prerelease pricing for the .VCO/Oscillator is still available!:
Eurorack .VCO: http://stgsoundlabs.com/products/vco_...
Moog format Oscillator: http://stgsoundlabs.com/products/vco_..."

Wub me wub me never let me go

Wub me wub me never let me go by Baghead What your volume levels at 11 seconds and 2:32 (high resonance) "this is a remix of STG's homage to Eric Barbour - but run through an Assblaster to give it a yellower sound - enjoy!!!!!!" The original [previously posted here]:

suitandtieguy · Eric Says Fuck You

"this started out as a demo of sequencer summing and the Synthesizers.com quantiser but turned into a track honouring the vacuum tube synthesisers made by the American company Metasonix, which were not used to make this piece, and their colourful inventor Eric Barbour. instruments: STG Soundlabs/Synthesizers.com modular, Juno-60, Eventide H3000SE, Korg ESX-1 with Oberheim DX samples and onboard reverb."