John L Rice wrote in to let us know today is the late Gert Jalass' birthday. I met Gert a few times at NAMM, and John would often man the Moon Modular Booth. Gert was a great, kind soul. I miss his smile; I miss his presence.
John mentioned the Moon Modular website has had a few updates since his passing. The About and History pages are worth a look.
Some good news for Moon Modular fans via SYNTH-WERK:
“After long and intensive meetings, discussions and formal obligations we can say today that Moon Modular is now a SYNTH-WERK company. We will continue the legacy of our friend Gert Jalass and will start the work on modules in the near future. We miss you Gert but your legend will live on...”
This one is in via John L Rice who noted: "Also on the 5th they announced a 5U module version pf their Bode Barberpole Phaser and yesterday announced their final version of their keyboard controller." The SW 955-CONTACT picured below.
"The sad news of Gert's passing put me out of sorts and I ended up looking through old pictures and decided to make a very short and quick remembrance video out of them. Rest in peace Gert, and condolences to all of his friends and family. Feel free to share comments and stories relating to Gert in the comments section below if you like.
The simple sequence is a Moon Modular 569 Quad Sequential Voltage Source running two identical voices each consisting of a MOTM-300 VCO, 1/4 of a MOTM-380 quad LFO, 1/2 of a Moon 517 VCF, 1/2 of a Oakley dual VCA and 1/5 of a Club Of The Knobs poly EG. Also used: Expressive-E Osmose keyboard, Mellotron M4000D Rack, Roland A-88 controller, Strymon BigSky and Timeline pedals, Lexicon MX400 rack."
Some sad news sent my way via John L Rice who helped man the Moon Modular booth at NAMM every year. Gert Jalass, the man behind Moon Modular has passed away. I met Gert serveral times at NAMM and he was always a pleasure to talk to. He always welcomed me with a smile. He was genuinely passionate about synthesisers and the synth community. I haven't been able to make events lately and was looking forward to seeing him again. I'm so saddened that I won't be able to. I am sincerely going to miss him.
"We have often walked past the Moon Modular booth at Superbooth and thought we need to make sure we go back and check out the 5u properly so this year we made sure to check them out and give them our full attention. Firstly we checked out two delay units and then we got a look an monster of a programmable modulation matrix." With Gert Jalass.
"At Superbooth 2019, we talked with developer Gert Jalass of Moon Modular, who gave us an update on his line of large-format MU synth modules.
Moon introduced the latest member of their cabinet line, a new Moog-style Tolex portable cabinet that swaps the traditional 'CP' row for a row of Eurorack modules."
"Demo of the Moon Modular System-X, a unique 5U analog modular synth + interview with Gert Jalass, Moon Modular's Head of Commercial Operations.
On a trip to Los Angeles I stopped by the Noisebug synth store in Pomona, CA for a tour. During my visit, Gert Jalass from Moon Modular (www.moonmodular.com) happened to drop by the shop. Moon Modular is a boutique analog modular synth company started by the (late) Udo Hanten, Albin Meskes and Gert Jalass.
Gert was kind enough to do a brief interview and demo of the System-X analog modular synthesizer. The System-X is a one-of-a kind, all-in-one 5U modular analog synth created to commemorate Moon Modular's 10th anniversary.
This brief interview with Gert covers a bit about Moon Modular, some of their 5U modular synth modules, and features a deep-dive synth demo of the System-X and its sounds using oscillators, filters, sequencer, quantizer, noise, LFOs and more.
"An in-depth store & synth studio tour of Noisebug in Pomona, California -- including the Noisebug synthesizer showroom, modular synths, and synthesizer music event / performance space.
Join me on this journey into Noisebug's storefront location with Blake Griffith, General Manager & musician. Noisebug is owned by Chuck Oken, Jr. and the current space was the original Analogue Haven location, which was started in 2005.
Blake was kind enough to provide me with a Noisebug synthesizer studio and store tour, and gives great commentary and insight into the history of the store, various analog, digital and modular synthesizers, and the synth industry as a whole.
Noisebug stocks keyboards, synthesizers, drum machines, electronic percussion and desktop modules from all over the world. They specialize in Multi-Format Modular Synthesizers, including Moog Format (MU), Buchla Format, Eurorack, Serge, 5U and beyond.
0:00 - Intro
1:04 - History of Noisebug
2:16 - Record collection
3:22 - Grooveboxes, effects pedals, pocket operators
4:23 - Showroom floor - Arturia Drumbrute Impact, Lyra-8, Dreadbox Medusa
6:56 - Moog Mother 32, Elektron Digitakt & Digitone
7:50 - Dreadbox Erebus
8:18 - Passion for synthesizers & modular
10:57 - Exclusive modular partnerships - Moon Modular, Suit & Tie Guy Eurorack, Free State FX, Buchla
12:20 - Elby Designs Pixie
12:54 - Analogue Solutions Vostok (Deluxe)
13:55 - Jomox Alpha Base
14:10 - Vermona DRM1
14:22 - Nord Piano 3, Nord Lead A1
14:40 - Sequential Prophet X
14:51 - Yamaha MODX
16:10 - Kurzweil PC3K7
16:48 - Korg Arp Odyssey, Moog Sub 37, Moog Sub Phatty
17:14 - DSI Rev 2, Korg Prologue, Arturia Matrixbrute
17:32 - Studiologic Sledge, Roland System-8
18:35 - Modular loft
19:12 - Roland System 500, Elby Serge
19:30 - Analogue Systems Apprentice
20:14 - Eurorack
20:37 - GRP A2
21:11 - Doepfer A100 Eurorack system
21:22 - Waldorf KB37
21:36 - 5U large format modular - Free State FX, Analog Craftsman, Synthetic Sound Labs, Noise Engineering, STG,
22:07 - Moon Modular 10-year Anniversary "System X"
23:04 - Gert Jalass (Moon Modular founder/owner)
23:36 - Moon Modular 5U system
23:42 - Buchla 200e
24:14 - Intermission
25:03 - Performance space intro
25:27 - Noisebug synth performance space
25:47 - Moog One
26:00 - Chuck's personal synth collection - Theravox, Serge modular TTSH, Arp 2600 clone, GRP A4, Waldorf Q+, Waldorf XTK, Roland V-Synth
26:35 - 5U large format modular systems
26:44 - How artists can perform at Noisebug
28:07 - Blake's music
29:00 - NAMM 2019 - Haken ContinuuMini, Le Bois de Luthier
30:53 - Moog One
32:18 - Shipping/Warehouse area
32:26 - Online business
32:58 - Famous artists
34:18 - Synth industry trends & future outlook
You can find the first trailer here. Ambient Waves is an electronic music festival taking place in München (Munich), Germany May 23 - 25. As you can see via the list in the video, and the details below, the event will feature some well known modular manufacturers and musicians.
The following is the description for the video in German followed by a Googlish translation for the archives:
“Ambient Waves“ ist ein modernes „Update“ der in den 70er Jahren in Deutschland entstandenen Musikrichtung "Kosmische Musik", die hauptsächlich mit elektronischen Musikinstrumenten (Synthesizer) gespielt wurde.
Vorbilder für diese Bezeichnung, die es in ähnlicher Form auch in anderen Ländern gab (Spacerock) dürften vor allem Science-Fiction-Filme gewesen sein.
Titel aus dem Bereich der Kunstmusik haben dazu beigetragen, die Musik von Klaus Schulze, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Temple und vor allem Tangerine Dream mit Vokabular aus der Physik zu belegen.
( Quelle Rocklexikon )
Eines der Highlights des Festivals ist deshalb die Teilnahme von Thorsten Quaeschning ( Tangerine Dream ), der am 24.05. solo spielen wird.
"The First Short Attack Remix.The MindScape_Concert took place in the Capitol Cinema in Zeil, Germany. Weltklang: Richard Aicher & Andreas Merz. Special Guests: Gerhard Mayrhofer ( Synth-Werk) & Gert Jalass ( Moon-Modular )"
"The Beginning of the Mindscape Concert by Weltklang at Capitol-Theatre, Zeil. Starting up with a beautiful slow and silent old school live improvisation by Weltklang (Richard Aicher & Andreas Merz) together with Gerhard Mayrhofer (Synth-Werk) and Gert Jalass (Moon-Modular).
VideoClips by Marie Brandenburg, Benno Fredmueller, Richard Aicher and Andreas Merz."
"At Superbooth 2018, we talked with designer Gert Jalass about his latest 5U module designs - and a new all-in-one system, created to celebrate Moon Modular's 10th anniversary."
"The super cool and very kind Gert Jalass shows us the new Moon Modular products, double filter, and a quick demo of the sound. Very impressed! It was great get to meet you, and JLR and the other members of the crew!"
"A quick overview of the new M569LE expander module. (and after the over view some random noodling) I'm quite pleased and proud of this module since I was very involved with the initial design concept (feature set and panel layout) but Gert and his team at The Lunar Experience did all the "heavy lifting" with the actual circuit design and nice panel graphics etc. :-)
Additionally here's a little audio test peice of music I did using the 569 in 4x8 mode and all 4 channels of the 569LE engaged:"
John mentioned the Moon Modular website has had a few updates since his passing. The About and History pages are worth a look.
