Stephen Jones performing at the New Wave Modular Synthesizer meeting of the PNW AES .

YouTube via watchelectronicmusic of http://electronicmusic.com/ (click for interviews for the event).
"Stephen Jones [Red Martian] performs a classical work on a Mattson Mini Modular synthesizer system at the February 17th, 2010 meet of the Pacific Northwest section of the AES."
Be sure to see the PNWAES label below for more.

The New Wave of Modular Synthesizers - PNW AES Event Tonight

This is just a reminder that the PNW AES Modular synth meet is tonight. If you are in the PNW area feel free to drop by. Full details and directions are currently up here. For the archives, and to see all posts for the event including interview links, images, and video see the new PNWAES label.

The following people will be at the event showing their gear:
James Husted - Synthwerks
Scott Jaeger - The Harvestman
George Mattson - Mattson Mini Modular
Scott Stites - Division 6
flight - flight of harmony
Stephen Jones - Red Martian / Synthwood

Thank You Rain

YouTube via redmartian

"Music by RED MARTIAN. More information at
http://redmartian.com

Recorded using an Acidlab Miami, PMS Syntar and Mattson Mini Modular."

Note Stephen Jones of Red Martian will be performing at the PNW AES meet this coming Wednesday. See this post and this post. Georg Mattson, creator of the Syntar and the Mattson Mini Modular will be presenting.

Stephen Jones of Red Martian to Perform Live at PNW AES Meeting

Stephen Jones of Red Martian will be performing seven tracks at the upcoming AES Synth Meeting previously posted here. In case you missed it, George Mattson of Mattson Mini Modular, James Husted of Synthwerks, Kevin O'Neill of Flight of Harmony, Scott Rise of Division 6, and Sebastian Jaeger of The Harvestman will be presenting. If you are in the Pacific Northwest, don't miss this event.

Some previously posted videos of Stephen Jones:

GEKIGANGER - THE TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEY OF THE FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR PART II from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR SYNTH DEMO SIX SE IO M'ACCORGO from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

Click here and scroll for more videos of and from Stephen Jones.

Pacific Northwest Modular Manufacturers to Present in PNW Division of AES

via the Pacific Northwest Section of the Audio Engineering Society:

"Meet the Seattle Area Modular Manufacturers

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 7:30PM
Microsoft Studios
4420 148th Ave NE, Redmond WA 98052, Building 127

Our February meeting features some of the rising stars of the new wave of Modular Synthesis giving demonstrations of some innovative new products as well as showing off some of the more tried and trusted, but never completely predictable, modular delights. This will be a great opportunity to play catch-up for those of you who may be new to the world of modular synthesizers - a world of infinitely variable possibilities that started in the early 70s when modular synthesis was pretty much the only way to go. If you're old enough, think back to the Buchla, Moog 900-series, and the ARP 2600 synthesizers. If not...

In the beginning, there were several separate modules, each responsible for a specific aspect of sound creation: Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCOs), Voltage Controlled Filters (VCFs) and Voltage Controlled Amplifiers (VCAs). It wasn't too long afterwards that Low Frequency Oscillators (LFOs), Sequencers/Arpeggiators, and Envelope Generators joined the party, creating a broad range of wonderful synthesized sounds. The flexibility of such a system was tremendous - primarily because the modules were connected together by patch cords, encouraging sound exploration and design. That flexibility came at a cost - complexity and price. The modular synths of the day were well out of range of all but the most serious musicians and academia. In addition, the different manufacturers had proprietary sizes and interfaces for their equipment.

This complexity led to an integration of functionality - the standard modules and patches that create sounds were put together and pre-patched, with control mainly of the parameters of the components, but not their order/configuration... These units incrementally came down in price until the pendulum swung furthest in the mid to late 80s. Here we had synthesizers whose human interface consisted of a couple of 7 segment LEDs and a data slider. The majority of the "patches" (named for the earlier use of patch cables to build a sound) were pre-set and canned. Much of the joy the synthesist derived from creating and manipulating their own sounds in real time evaporated. On the other hand, for live performance, a synthesizer with presets was really the only practical solution, because there was no way for a modular synthesizer to change patches quickly during performance.

Fortunately, with lead of several visionaries in the field, modular synthesis has been revived and the costs have dropped enough to become accessible to the general audience. There are new modular standards that provide opportunities for many manufacturers to make modules that interoperate seamlessly and inexpensively. On February 17th, we'll meet several of those manufacturers. Come and learn the history, state of the art, and future trends in modular synthesis.

Confirmed guests include:

* George Mattson, Mattson Modular www.mattsonminimodular.com
* James Husted, Synthwerks www.synthwerks.com
* Kevin O'Neill, Flight Of Harmony www.flightofharmony.com
* Scott Rise, Division 6 www.division-6.com
* Sebastian Jaeger, The Harvestman www.theharvestman.org
* Performance by Stephen Jones member of Red Martian http://redmartian.com

Interviews with the featured guests and more information about the new wave of modular synthesis can be found on electronicmusic.com

Steve Turnidge
AES PNW 2009-2010 Section Chair"

Mattson Mini Modular Meets Tom Oberheim SEMs

GEKIGANGER - THE TRANSFORMATIVE JOURNEY OF THE FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR PART II from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

"Here is the first tier without the wing cabinets right after I set it up. Below it are 3 new Tom Oberheim SEMs and I am using a CS-30 (modified) below that all four being triggered from the MMM Utility 1 module. The wings are basically the original production 1 case modified for external power. Once the MMM sequencer is in production I plan to put the 3 I have on order in the left wing cabinet."
Part 1 here
http://mattsonminimodular.com/
http://tomoberheim.com/
http://gekiganger.org/

Pacific Northwest Synth 2009 - Red Martian

YouTube via matrixsynth.

This is my video of Red Martian's performance. More details here.
http://redmartian.com
http://mattsonminimodular.com - MMM and Syntar
http://www.division-6.com - Midified Skulls
http://acidlab.de - Miami

Note this is the last of my videos from the PNW Synth Gathering this year.
click here to see all posts in the series.

Cowboy and the Vocoder and the MMM

A tribute to the dog Cowboy who passed away.

YouTube via redmartian. Note this is via redmartian and not AnalogVocoder1 (click for the reference).

"A song written for a dog who likes to listen to the sound the Roland SVC-350 vocoder. This song features the MMM as well as a Sequential Circuits Drum Traks and a Roland Jupiter-6.

Here are the lyrics:

Do you know Cowboy
and the SVC-350?
Do you know Cowboy
and the Roland Vocoder?

Hey there Cowboy
I see you there
Lazy gazing
Gazing lazy
Whos my sweet boy?
You know its you.
I like to vocode and you do too.

No Poly-800 to drive the SVC
So I use an MMM as my carrier wave
No Poly-800 but Cowboy doesn't mind.
We all know its the Roland SVC-350 vocoder time.

Audio version can be found here:
http://redmartian.com/napster/Red_Mar..."

And the first track from this post:


FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR DEMO NUMBER FOUR from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

"Here is a fourth demo which features a LP and HP triangle wave arpeggiation nearly through out and a quick EG three oscillator bass. The drum kit is the same as in the other demos with no pitch changes or other processing, just dry sounds out of the VCA. There are two leads one is just two oscillators (saw) and the second has a square and a saw with the saw slight modulated by an LFO with high resonance on the filter.

The bass and arpeggiation were played and quantized in logic. The leads were recorded as played."

Pacific Northwest Synth 2009 - Jeff Sandys aka a1g0rhythm

YouTube via matrixsynth.

I missed the speakers name on this one. If anyone knows, please let me know and I will update the post and video.

http://laptop.org/en/ - One Laptop Per Child project - OLPC http://www.solid-state-logic.com/Spec... X-ORCISM exorcism synth VST
JPL audio

BTW, this marks the last video I have of the event aside from my recording of the Red Martian performance which I will put up later. Apologies to those I missed, but both my video camera and regular camera ran out of space. click here for all PNW 2009 coverage.

Update via Jeff in the comments: "More info about the OLPC TamTam sound activities: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/TamTam"

Pacific Northwest Synth 2009 - Stephen aka Red Martian

YouTube via matrixsynth.

see this performance for reference.

http://redmartian.com
http://mattsonminimodular.com - MMM and PMS Syntar
http://synthwood.com
http://acidlab.de

Don't miss the Syntar neck controller.
Some more info on a modern update will be coming up in George Mattson's talk.
Note, during the reference to the track Cowboy, I mistakenly stated the original cowboy videos were from Vocoderman, it's actually VoiceEncoder. You can see more of his videos previously posted here. Apologies to VoiceEncoder.

click here for all PNW 2009 coverage.

Pacific Northwest Synth 2009 - Red Martian Performance

SYNTAR MMM and MIAMI LIVE SYNTHESIZER PERFORMANCE PNW SYNTH DIY 2009

YouTube via redmartian http://redmartian.com/.

Watch the skulls in the background.
"Here is a live performance of the MMM demo number four featuring the stack of MMMs behind, the Syntar (the father of the MMM) and the new AcidLab MIAMI in MIDI mode. The bass line, arpeggio and drums were sequenced in Logic. The Skulls were triggered via Logic (the percussion tracks) using Division-6's MIDIFY."

COWBOY (RIP) AND THE ROLAND VOCODER LIVE AT PNW SYNTH DIY 2009 FEATURING THE SYNTAR, MIAMI AND MMM

"This is dedicated to that old dog COWBOY who used to listen to his master's vocoder. The bass and some melody are handled by the MMMs behind. The Syntar is the carrier wave for the Roland SVC-350 vocoder. The Syntar also plays a sort of melody. The MIAMI is sequenced in MIDI mode from Logic. At the Pacific Northwest Synth DIY 2009"

Be sure to see this prior post for reference and lyrics. The third video is the studio recording of this track.
See demo number four in this post for the first track.

click here for all PNW 2009 coverage.

Pacific Northwest Synth 2009 - photos via Computer Controlled

PNW Synth Meeting 2009 flickr set here or on Facebook here.

Pictured: Stephen of Synthwood and red martian on Syntar and MMM, and Scott of Division 6 maker of Midify. Bottom: Midified skull and MMM.

event comments in this post

click here for all PNW 2009 coverage.

An Ichabod Halloween

Just had to post this shot one more time. Click the image for the full size glory.
Click here for a spooky track featuring Ichabod by Red Martian.
http://mattsonminimodular.com

Mattson Mini Modular Performances by Red Martian

You can find three new recordings of the Mattson Mini Modular by Red Martian here. Full details for each track are provided. Don't miss these.

MMM

http://mattsonminimodular.com

Red Martian MMM Demo MP3s

You can find the MP3s for the Mattson Mini Modular demos by Red Martian here.
Comments disabled in this post to keep them with the video demo post.

FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR SYNTH DEMO MINUET IN A MINOR

YouTube via redmartian
Update: I originally had the VIMEO version up, but it wouldn't play, so here's the YouTube one.

"This piece showed up as being by anonymous in Apollo's Banquet (1670) but is actually by Henry Purcell. A sounds/noises made by the MMM production model number one. The pictures are mostly taken from the 2007 PNW Synth DIY with the original MMM Pre-Production Prototype. Last photo is of Seattle at dusk on Saint Patrick's day."

Note this is demo number eight of the Mattson Mini Modular by Red Martian. I thought I'd put up demos one through seven for reference and a look back in time. Some of these originally went up as YouTube videos so the quality here is better. The following is in order starting with the first.

FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR 07A-0001 SYNTHESIZER from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

"Here is the first production model Mattson Mini Modular analogue synthesizer serial number 07A-0001.

All sounds in this recording were produced on the MMM using the production run modules.

The percussion sounds were sampled and arranged on an Akai MPC-1000. The bass line was sequenced in Logic and the saw leads were recorded as performed.

The bass and lead sounds are produced using three oscillators in tune with various setting differences. The Jim Patchell filter is run with both LP and BP outputs run into stereo VCAs.

The only effect used is reverb from a t.c. electronic M-One."

CLICK FOR MORE »

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER THREE

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER THREE from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

"This features percussion sampled off of the Solaris using an MPC-1000. I did not alter those sounds to try to leave them as pure as possible. The flanging/phase shifting is actually the excellent Comb filter on the Solaris itself."

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER FOUR

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER FOUR from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

"The opening of this demo is John's own original demo that he did for the Prophet-5 in 1978. This tune uses the same Solaris generated drum kit from number three as well as more use of that excellent Comb Filter as well as Vector Synthesis using a realization of one of the Prophet VS factory patches."

Previously posted...

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER TWO

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER TWO from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

"This is the second 'All Solaris' demonstration made up of 5 separate tracks sequenced and played manually. The pseudo Deep Note was done using two virtual CEM VCOs with about 5-6 seconds of exponential glide and a virtual SSM filter. The long resonant filter sweeping is done on the SSM model."

Demo 1

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER TWO

JOHN BOWEN SOLARIS SYNTHESIZER PROTOTYPE DEMO NUMBER TWO from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.
http://johnbowen.com Watch the screenshots. It's great to see manufacturers come together like this.
Update: Solaris demo 1 here.

UCHU SENKAN YAMATO SEQUENTIAL SIXTRAK SYNTHESIZER

UCHU SENKAN YAMATO SEQUENTIAL SIXTRAK SYNTHESIZER from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.
"Arranged on the Sequential Circuits Sixtrak and recorded onto cassette 18 years ago. The sequencer is very limited on the Sixtrak, however, its good for prototyping tunes."

T8 on EUROPA at JUPITER - analogue synthesizer live improvisation

T8 on EUROPA at JUPITER - analogue synthesizer live improvisation from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.
"Featuring a Sequential Circuits Prophet T-8 and Roland Jupiter 6"

FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR SYNTH DEMO SIX SE IO M'ACCORGO

FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR SYNTH DEMO SIX SE IO M'ACCORGO from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.
"One of the most beautiful pieces of lute music - on the MMM."