It's Independence Week and while I had intended for this to go out on the 4th itself, I put a bit more work into something special for you which delayed it a few days. I hope that's okay with you.
I wanted to give everyone a status update on how things were going over here and also offer a couple of specials to celebrate. Out of respect for the dozen or so people who have been patient and trusting of me I'm going to let you know how things are going and then share a few cool deals.
The MFB Dominion Club features two VCOs plus sub oscillators, a digital sound source and a noise generator. Additionally, there are Xor and sync stages. The synthesis section is followed by a -24 dB multimode filter with self-oscillation. The modulation department is composed of two ADSR envelopes and two LFOs with one-shot and reset options. Furthermore, the Dominion Club comes equipped with an Arpeggiator and a sequencer. The latter offers two modes of operation plus motion recording. Oscillators, LFOs and filter possess morphing capabilities. All contained in a compact module format."
"What do rising sea-levels sound like? How might we listen to the temperature of the oceans? What rhythms can we hear in the increased frequency of intense hurricanes/cylones? Can we imagine mounting CO2 emissions as a crescendo of dissonance?
This piece uses a data sonification module (Loud Numbers) to translate spreadsheets of climate-change data into MIDI cc values. An interface (CV.OCD) then converts the MIDI to voltages to control my modular system. ADDAC’s Swell Physics’ CV inputs for swell size, agitation, offset, etc. are ideal for modelling the complex, unpredictable effect of rising sea levels, sea temperatures, and storm intensity, on ocean waves. Meanwhile, Disting EX’s 'spectral freeze' algorithm is processing ocean-related songs.
Despite the fixed data on the spreadsheets, this patch generates different sonic results each time it is played – thanks to the chaotic behavior of Swell Physics. I am planning a longer, ~30 minutes version for a public performance, with video visualization/projection of the data.
Category 3+ storms: Tropical Meteorology Project, Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State University (calculated from National Hurricane Center, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center), https://tropical.atmos.colostate.edu/...
Global Average Absolute Sea Level Change, 1880-2023: United States Environmental Protection Agency (data soures: CSIRO, NOAA), https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicator...
"M0SS-101 is a virtual analog monosynth built for a pure, hands-on subtractive synthesis, packed into a compact, rugged guitar pedal enclosure.
With 26 buttons and a single encoder, M0SS-101 gives you intuitive access to a deep 42-parameter virtual analog synthesis engine. Press a button to select a parameter, turn the encoder to modify it, and monitor your signal flow via the LED system.
Using a MIDI controller, you can map any parameter via simple MIDI learn, making it easy to integrate into your setup. Up to 17 presets can be saved and recalled for quick access to your favourite sounds.
The 26 RGB LEDs use colour and brightness to represent signal flow, modulation paths, settings and selections. A separate row of 11 LEDs at the bottom gives you instant visual feedback on the currently selected parameter.
I aim to offer an affordable, compact, and versatile instrument, without sacrificing features, ergonomics, or most importantly, fun. I hope you'll enjoy playing this synth as much as I have :'-)"
"First up Erica Synths sent me the Echolocator. That's particularly good of them because I know and I'm sure they know that I would have bought it anyway. After all, I'm the man who bought the Zen delay three times. For delay pedals in general I'm up to about 25 delays bought in the past few years and about 22 sold :D
Here I use the Echolocator with the DB-01, Acidbox III, LXR-02, Tecsun PL-660 radio and the US War Department training film number 471 on triodes and tubes.
No presets are used on any of the examples, it's all live twiddling. The idea throughout is to show the range of real time 'playing' with the delay. Just like the Nightverb I haven't used the presets or programmed any myself, it's so fast to dial in the sound you want it seems better to match things exactly to whatever you happen to be playing. The only thing I think is missing (at least I can't see it) is a WYSIWYG mode where the machine instantly reverts to the current knob positions. The only 'second layer' functions you need to remember are BACK+FREEZE to mute the delay, and BACK+TAP TEMPO to sync to an incoming clock.
Despite the length of this video I've only touched on some of the interesting effects. For example adjusting the compressor makes a huge difference to the feedback; whether the filter is in series or in the feedback loop; playing with the freeze function, and modulation with pitch shifting. So more on all that in later videos. If there's anything in particular you think I should cover please let me know.
Finally, if you notice a slight difference in the video color and position between takes it's because I had to change cameras halfway through.
0:00 Basic synth 3:09 Sparse drums 5:28 Beam me up 6:07 Filter options 8:39 Blippy drums 12:38 Freezy drums 13:34 Long feedback synth 15:11 Drum jam 16:34 Shortwave 18:36 Human voice
"Sound Department apresenta PATCHES – o novo quadro do Selo, que traz performances ao vivo com sintetizadores, gravadas no icônico Museu do Sintetizador. Descubra artistas inovadores da cena eletrônica e experimental em cada episódio.
No episódio de estreia, Arthur Joly conduz uma imersão sonora única, explorando texturas, timbres e as infinitas possibilidades que os sintetizadores oferecem.
"I can feel it coming in the air tonight. If you always loved the drum machine intro, this is how you get that iconic sound. Also, think Blondies Heart of Glass.
This beautiful CR-78 has just been fully checked and serviced by a former Roland technician who established Roland's first service department in Ontario, Canada. It’s now ready to go to a new home.
All push buttons, potentiometers, and sliders were cleaned and lubricated. All move without introducing any noise or static into the signal chain. Input and output jacks were all cleaned and checked. All voices work and sound as they should - analog sexy. The programming section is fully operational and ready for you to program your own rhythms.
As for the condition, the pictures tell the story. The front panel is pristine – no scratches, marks or oxidization. The wood case is also in amazing condition and has the original rubber feet. (The 2 metal identification plates still have the protective plastic film on them!)
This CR-78 is a 220-volt unit. I use a step-up transformer for use on 110 volts (see pics). The step-up transformer will be included."
"The Pro-2 has been around a long time. I recently re-acquired one locally from a friend at a great price. The first time I had it I don't think I ever tried anything like this, but it makes total sense so it was time to give it a shot.
Simply put, I wanted to beef up the Pro 2's sound by supplementing its 4 digital oscillators with 4 meaty analog Eurorack VCOs. There are videos out there of this sort of thing, but only in monophonic mode, which is simple and straightforward to achieve. I wanted to give the Pro-2 two oscillators per note in paraphonic mode, for analog polysynth-esque chords.
The key to doing this is to recreate the Pro-2's per note articulation that it emulates by internally controlling the level of each oscillator's output at the DSP level, with a digital envelope per note that is the same shape as the one used for the actual VCA. The Pro-2 sort of behaves as if it has 4 VCAs, one for each note.
The best way to emulate that in Eurorack is to simply use real VCAs and envelopes for each note. So start with one VCO, run it into a VCA, and then control that VCA with an envelope, making sure that envelope's shape resembles the shape of the amp envelope on the Pro-2. Repeat the process 4 times, one for each VCO that will be paired with a Pro-2 oscillator. I used all analog modules for this. Roland System-500 oscillators, VCAs, and envelopes, Wavefonix CEM 3340 VCOs, Arcus Audio Dual VCAs, and a Doepfer dual envelope module. The output of each VCA is then mixed in a 4-to-1 mixer module, paying special attention to the levels of each oscillator, and then fed into a final VCA used specifically to attenuate the signal before passing it off to the external audio input of the Pro-2. It's of course difficult to match the shape of all 4 envelopes exactly, but there's no need to be too precise. I suppose I could have made things a little easier by using the Disting Ex's quad envelope. Then I could have dialed them all in exactly the same. All good though.
The NiftyKeyz is a paraphonic/polyphonic ready eurorack case/keyboard that has 4 CV/Gate outputs. Each subsequent key held down simply goes out the next CV/Gate output in sequence. So you can play for note chords, provided you have all the modules to do that. It also has MIDI I/O, so here the Pro-2 is being controlled via MIDI, despite it being the "main synth", whereas the Eurorack modules are supplementary. I would have preferred using the Pro-2's keyboard for this, but the NiftyKeyz has a puzzling limitation in the MIDI department. Essentially you cannot play it polyphonically from another keyboard without doing some sort of crazy MIDI channel mapping in between. I get why they do the 1 note per channel thing and it's indeed useful at times, but give us the option to use just one channel and behave as if we were simply playing its own keys. End side rant.
Waveshape is sawtooth for all oscillators. There's a little additional modulation going both to and from the Pro-2 and the rack with delayed LFOs, along with small amounts of "slop", so the digital oscillators aren't completely stiff.
Anyway, there it is, 2 oscillator per voice I mean note poly-paraphony on the Pro-2.
Oh, forgot to mention the Pro-2's headphone output is running into the Happy Nerding FX Aid Pro for that amazing lush reverb that's blended in. Other than that there's no other effects or processing."
🌌 The soundset is inspired by sci-fi movies, soundtracks, dystopian stories, urban landscapes, noise ambient albums, experimental modern art and sound design.
🧿 Perfect for genres like Dark, Noise, Ambient, New Age, Cinematic, IDM, Electronica, Dub, Deep, Techno, Industrial, Minimal, Psy, Trance, Garage, Progressive, Dubstep, 2-Step, Experimental, Breaks, D'n'B, etc.
These timbres also work well for movie soundtracks, games, apps, digital art, sound art lives, VR landscapes - anywhere a dark atmosphere is needed. 🔮 Craft an entire ambient or cinematic track with just a few (or just one!) performances. Or, create a couple of albums with the entire soundset.
🎛 Each Performance features 4 Layers that can be mixed using the Vector Envelope joystick. Explore each layer individually or blend them for unique combinations. 🕹 The Vector Envelope joystick is, by default, in the middle position - all layers are mixed equally. You can also disable some layers by double-clicking on layers' (A, B, C, D) buttons.
🟤 ModWheel opens all layers' filters, enhancing the brightness of the sound.
The presets follow a unified (with some exceptions) mapping system for the 8 Mod Knobs/Macros:
"The Solina's raw sound is not like your standard synth so it tends to react differently to effects. I tried lots of different effects and picked the most interesting to show here. First up was the Erica Synth AcidBox III which, surprisingly, was an excellent match. Using the AcidBox with full resonance was fun and would sound even better with stereo delay but I wanted to keep things to just one effect at a time here. Perhaps the AcidBox works so well because of the lack of controls on the Solina - suddenly the Solina gets an LFO, filter, resonance, input drive and envelope follower.
The phaser test with the EHX SmallStone, Phaser 95 and PH-1r I also found very interesting. For me the Ph-1r had the richest sound and the SmallStone was identical to the onboard phaser.
In the drive, disortion and dirt department the Glove and B3K had their moments while the Geiger Counter ranged from mild to total destruction and some bit crushing at the end.
I also included a short demo with the Boss Slicer, but that thing requires several hours discussion just by itself.
Where I'm playing a chord with one note I'm actually triggering a Cthulu chord player in the DAW. Most chords are taken from a custom import of the main string line from Bruckner's 7th.
0:00 AcidBox III
2:08 Boss Ph-1r phaser
2:35 MXR Phase 95
3:04 EHX SmallStone
3:43 Boss Slicer SL-2
4:14 EHX The Glove
5:20 Darkglass B3K
6:17 WMD Geiger Counter
"Some great analog sound from one of the last vintage analogs. It's the Akai VX-90 from year 1986, a synth with true VCOs. All sounds are from the VX-90. Some external effects were also used but mainly on the delay department.
Effects:
Korg SDD-1200 (delay, chorus)
Roland SDE-2000, delay
Roland RS-505, chorus
MXR Phase 100
TC-Electronic DVR2, VSS3 (Reverb)
"Drawing from the earliest days of polyphonic synthesizers, Sound Bank ‘79 for the GForce Oddity 3 finds its inspiration in synthesizer music found in documentaries and library music from the late 70’s and early 80’s.
A bank comprised of 30 patches for instant inspiration. The goal was to highlight the raw analog tone and organic behavior of this instrument, primarily working within the constraints of the original ARP Odyssey, adding polyphony where it enhanced the patch. It would be wrong to view this as another basic vintage mono synth - this instrument has a feature set that can create unique and beautiful tones. With the updated enhancements and options like the 3 historic filter revisions, the possibilities are vast and the tone is excellent.
Link: polydata.bigcartel.com
After payment, you will receive the file in your email within 24 hours. Recorded with no external processing - what you hear is all from the plug-in.
Herb Deutsch passed away yesterday. He was born on Feb 9th, 1932, making him 90 at the time of his passing. If you come to this site you know who he is. You can find pages of posts featuring him here. He was constantly active in the synth community, from it's birth as the co-inventor of the Moog Synthesizer with Bob Moog, to this day. I thought I would share the recent GIANTS video featuring him above from February this year.
When the greats pass away, I like to capture images and bios at the time of their passing. To the left is Herb Deutsch's current Facebook profile image. Directly below that is the last update of his posted on December 7. Below that is an image from the Wikipia page for him with the text that immediately follows. Finally, below that are some images of him from the early days from Moog Music's Herb Deutsch Looks Back on the Early Days of Electronic Music tribute.
He and Morton Subotnick likely had the greatest influences on the design of synthesisers as we know them. Herb brought us the tonal influence via the keyboard as the direct interface for a synthsizer and Subotnick brought us atonal sound exploration akin to tape manipulation.
"Herbert A. Deutsch (February, 1932 - 9 December 2022[1]) was an American composer, inventor, and educator. Currently professor emeritus of electronic music and composition at Hofstra University, he is best known for co-inventing the Moog Synthesizer with Bob Moog in 1964.
Deutsch died on 9 December 2022.[2]
Herbert A. Deutsch (February, 1932 - 9 December 2022[1]) was an American composer, inventor, and educator. Currently professor emeritus of electronic music and composition at Hofstra University, he is best known for co-inventing the Moog Synthesizer with Bob Moog in 1964.
Early life and education
Deutsch was born in 1932 in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York. At the age of four, he first realized he had a musical gift. Through his childhood, he studied music and began composing at a young age. Deutsch attended the Manhattan School of Music, earning his B.A. and M.A. there.
Work with Moog
Deutsch had assembled a theremin based on Moog's design in 1962 and in November, 1963 he introduced himself to Moog at a music-education conference in Rochester, NY.[3] In 1964 Moog and Deutsch started investigating the possibilities of a new instrument to aid composers.[4] Deutsch has been credited with the keyboard interface of the Moog.[4] He composed the first piece ever for the Moog ("Jazz Images - A Worksong and Blues"[3]) and performed early Moog concerts at The Town Hall and The Museum of Modern Art in New York (1969's Jazz in the Garden [5]).[6] The prototype Moog synthesizer, developed by Bob Moog and Herbert Deutsch in 1964, is part of the collections of The Henry Ford museum.[7]
Career
Deutsch was a dedicated educator. In the early 1970s he taught at St. Agnes High School in Rockville Centre, New York. He has taught at Hofstra University for over 50 years and was twice the chair of the music department. Deutsch co-founded the Long Island Composers Alliance in 1972, and worked with music foundation NYSSMA. In 1994 he proposed its Electronic Music Composition Showcase.[8]
"On October 12, 1964, Bob Moog unveiled the first modular voltage-controlled synthesizer, an instrument that forever changed the course of modern music.
It began quietly, in 1964, when Bob Moog designed a new electronic instrument to composer Herb Deutsch's request. Herb wanted something to create complex and experimental sounds, tones not easily found from other instruments or with studio trickery. What Bob designed was not wholly new, it sprung from a powerful new combination of existing ideas. The concepts, when combined with some elegant design choices, made a very powerful and revolutionary new system. The new ideas found in the Moog synthesizer took several years to catch on, and it is likely even the first users had little idea what range the new instrument could truly offer."
In case you missed it in this post, Roger Linn noted Dave Smith was "an avid athelete, cyclist and triathlete. He actually participated in the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon in his younger years..."
@birdkids reminded me of an article on the development of the Prophet VS archived on the WaybackMachine. In it, Chris Meyer mentions Dave was in Hawaii prepping for the tournament during that time. I thought it was interesting and worth sharing. I captured it below.
"Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 07:55:41 -0800 From: Xrystal MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: Birth of the Prophet VS
I thought the following might be of interest to you. Xrystal _____________________________________________________________________
The Birth of the Prophet VS
By Chris Meyer, ex-employee of Sequential Circuits
It all started somewhere in 1985. We were still working on the Prophet 2000 sampler, and as resident historian (in other words, I had the most magazines and manuals) another engineer was asking me to explain how various instruments performed crossfades. I had finished discussing the Fairlight, and had moved on the PPG - explaining its wavetables, and the ability for it to scan a group of waves first in one direction and then back again, While I was scrawling this back and forth motion in my notebook, suddenly a little twinge went off in the back of my head, and myhand drew the next line arcing down the page.. and the concept of crossfading beween waves in two dimension, not just one, was born.
"3 Soundscapes made with The Division Department 01/IV drum synthesizer in drone mode.
Sounds 1-3 from the 01/IV are going through the string inputs of the Roland VG-8 Guitar Synthesizer FX.
The VG-8 is modified with inputs for line signals.
Sound 4 from the 01/IV is without any additional effect.
"The Division Department 01/IV drum synthesizer sequenced by an Elektron Digitone.
There are 2 different patterns recorded.
I used also some effects (Chorus, Delay, Reverb, Overdrive) from the Digitone.
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"What's nice about our OSCILLATION stunner (according to Tim) "is that the waveforms are DC-coupled [components connected directly together without any coupling capacitors], so they keep their shape even at sub-Hz speeds. The outputs are also buffered, so the amplitude is independent of the load they are driving. The waveform levels on some modern eurorack OSCs are often all different, and they vary depending if they go into the mixer or directly to the filter!" Coupling the circuitry without capacitors in-line gives the go-ahead for the full spectrum of frequencies to do their thing, and ensures near identical response over the years—audiophile, transistor-protecting signal path stuff here. You should see these beauts on the scope: a Class-A ballet of balance and proportion, only drawing modest current, rather evenly from plus and minus."
Here is my next little song made for my Polyend Tracker series. This time, except for the constant presence of the Medusa, the Tracker is also accompanied by the Virus TI and some live keyboard playing with a sound from the Atom library by Audio Modern. In this track, I had a good chance to test the Tracker as a MIDI sequencer too, including both notes and CC messages, and the whole process is pretty straight forward. I have also upgraded the Trackers firmware to 1.1 which now features a reverb along with the delay. So there are more possibilities now for atmospheric tracks and better production overall.
After a few more Tracker Sessions I 'll probably start to also upload some walkthroughs (or tips&tricks etc). Let me know if you would be interested in something like that or if you have any other ideas. The Medusa sound design series will continue too but the song videos help me in that department because they give me ideas for new, "real world" patches.
It took a while to upload a new video but I recently did a small upgrade in video gear too. I 've got a very nice Olympus Em-10 MK3 and some lights, so I made sure to take a lot of shots in this video to get the hang of them 😄. Hopefully, there will be a noticeable upgrade in picture quality in my next videos too, so stay tuned!
Thanks for watching and feel free to leave your comments or questions!
"We are going to focus on the fundamentals of sound theory and exploring minimal modular setup that participants built as part of this series before the lockdown (VCO - Tromso, VCF - Cinnamon and step sequencer - Popcorn and semimodular synth - Kastle).
Lecture by Václav Peloušek (Toyota Vangelis) https://band.link/carC7
Lecture for Modul@rnice workshop series is organised by Projekt Atol Institute, with financial support from the Slovenian Ministry of Culture and the Department of Culture of the City of Ljubljana."
"The Division Department 01/IV is a distinctly open-ended drum synth, providing a clean slate for creating all sorts of analog percussion tones. With no on-board sequencing, 01/IV is more about classic percussive sound design, leaving the control choices up to the user, playable via the per-channel trigger buttons or external MIDI control.
Unlike many drum synths, 01/IV features four identical channels. Where other instruments might make distinctions between the purpose of each channel (kick, snare, etc.), 01/IV instead provides access to raw synthesis elements to allow users to sculpt their own tones, be they familiar or completely alien. Each voice provides a choice of sound source (triangle, saw, noise, hi-hat noise), filter type (lowpass, bandpass, highpass), and modulation controls, providing access to everything from classic analog drum tones to inter-voice FM.
By providing this open-ended approach to sound design on each of its four channels, the 01/IV can seamlessly morph from percussive to melodic roles, from intense FM to clean, rubbery toms, from understated rhythms to in-your-face blasts. And best of all, the one-knob-per-function interface and built-in trigger buttons make this a pleasure to play, encouraging real-time exploration in a way uncommon for modern drum machines.
