"MICROPHONIC: in the early days of electronics, analog devices were made with vacuum tubes and performed everything from logic to output amplification. The first Theremins were made with vacuum tube technology-- it was all that was available. Vacuum tubes were everywhere and in everything. But they had a flaw: they were inconsistent to manufacture, expensive to maintain, took time to warm up, generated heat, and could burn out like a lightbulb. Eventually, the world went solid state. It was cheaper, easy to maintain, and lasted longer.
But something got lost. Inside of tube mechanics were red hot voltages. As it turned out, these voltages were also somehow musical to our ears. Once the world transitioned to solid state, people started to miss the "tube sound" which was simply imperfect in a perfect way.
"In 1986, Oberheim took the DNA of its flagship synths and squeezed it into a rack module... then removed every single knob.
That one decision is why the #Oberheim Matrix-6R still divides people today. It's also a synth that ended up in the racks of Orbital, Philip Glass, Tangerine Dream and many more. So which is it: a hidden gem or a headache?
Explorers, I powered mine up to find out. There's one thing everybody complains about on the #Matrix6R, and I've got a different take on it. Then I hooked it up to my Elektron Digitakt, went digging through the patches, and found a few sounds I didn't want to stop playing.
Stay for the jam at the end. That's where this #VintageSynth really shows what it's made of.
00:00 – A Mid-80s Exploration Begins
00:18 – The Affordable Oberheim: Meet the Matrix-6R
03:09 – Sequencing From the Elektron Digitakt
03:34 – No Knobs? Let's Talk About It
04:00 – Finding Your Way Through the Presets
04:26 – Editing a Patch From the Front Panel
05:40 – Where the Modulation Magic Lives
06:13 – Splitting the Keyboard
06:37 – The Sounds Begin
11:10 – Let's Jam
14:13 – Final Thoughts"
"We were beyond delighted that the legendary Suzanne Ciani paid a visit to our Glasgow showroom ahead of her performance as part of Sonica 2026. Luke and Tom spoke to her about being synonymous with Buchla, and her long career in electronic music - from building synths in California in the 1960s to collaborating with Actress and continuing to tour the world with her 200-series system. Big thanks to Su ‘SHHE’ Shaw and Jenn at Electric Shores for setting this up for us.
Get in touch with questions, feedback and suggestions via signalflow@signalsounds.com
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:28 On being synonymous with the Buchla
08:45 Working in quad and giving life to sound
13:19 How audiences have changed
16:33 Reacting against the male-dominated classical world
20:20 Collaborating with Actress and others
25:01 Buchla vs Serge
29:04 Setup for current live performances
32:15 Outro"
"SLOOP adds four-track looping to the M-VAVE FM-1, so I used it to build a complete loop from scratch. SLOOP turns the FM-1 into a four-track groovebox you play live: three synths and a drum machine with 16 sounds on the white keys, nine synthesis engines, 68 sounds, 37 drum kits, your own samples, a song mode you play with your hands, and more.
The SR-JV80-04 Vintage Synth is the definitive collection of vintage synth sounds.
This massive library includes synthesizer sounds from the Minimoog, Oberheim 2-Voice, Sequential Prophet 5, as well as most of the classic Roland synths.
User-installable expansion board for expandable Roland synths (see compatibility guide for details)
Adds 255 waveforms and 255 patches of classic synth sounds
Includes legendary Roland instruments like the Jupiter Series, SH-Series and Junos - plus Moog, Oberheim, Sequential and many others.
Using free Roland JV880 Emulator from here: https://github.com/giulioz/jv880_juce
& by downloading official OS (the idea of how to do it legally - in instructions inside the pack) you can open potential of all 19 SR-JV cards!
Whats inside the pack?
#Link on official Plugin emulator of Roland JV880
#Idea of how to download official OS with all expansions
#Detailed instructions of how to install on PC & MAC
#Preset Lists for JV & JD series
#Picture of every SR-JV physical card
By Nick Klimenko aka Chronos, a creator of 'Organica' for Waldorf Blofeld & 'WS Universe' for Korg Wavestation"
Jamming around the On the Run patch from Pink Floyd. Done originally with the wonderful EMS SYNTHI AKS, I took the freedom to make a kind of homage to this historic track, using mostly the Antonus 2600 + Antonus 3620 for make in real time what was done in multitracking. This is done as improvisation at the moment with no multitrack and no extra processing, only the 2600 spring reverb processing all, and not looking for replicate exactly or make perfect replication of the original theme. Looking for show the true pure sound of the analog system, the living behaviour of all, and the interaction that can be done with all parts in powerful synergy. While is of course different sound colour than the inimitable EMS synths, the 2600 have his own personality and also capable of make their own raw and raspy sound, different than mellow or sweet sounds used in other previous demos. Step Brother and pair of euro modules at SidecARP adds some animation at the modulations, but basically most is done with just the 2600+3620"
A Personal History Of Sound Scanner and Soniccouture have collaborated to develop a custom tool to utilise his huge personal tape archive, documenting an entire sonic life and career.
Stripped back to the basics, Scanner: Library is a bold experiment in the power of layering sound. With such a diverse and characterful archive to draw upon, it was imperative that the interface would tread lightly.
Three modules with basic envelopes + filters, a delay unit and some custom reverbs. This setup gives over 10 million possible combinations of sounds gathered over a 40 year career.
Fragments, Loops & Possibilities Scanner: Library features 401 original recordings + a library of 200 presets to get you started. Robin designed over 100 presets himself.
Most of the audio was recovered from cassette tapes, and features the famous police scanner recordings, electronic improvisations, location audio, analogue experiments and all manner of sonic ephemera.
"BROOKLYN, NY — The Brooklyn Synth & Pedal Expo, perhaps the biggest East Coast event dedicated to electric and electronic gear for musicians with over 100 brands on display, returns to Greenpoint on October 17–18, transforming a 7,000-square-foot warehouse into an immersive playground for music creators.
Presented in partnership with the legendary synth store Three Wave Music and local up-and-coming guitar shop Tonewolf, the Expo offers a strictly in-the-headphones experience — letting attendees demo the latest synthesizers, effects pedals, and modular gear from over 100 brands in a noise-friendly environment.
Nestled in one of Brooklyn's most vibrant musical corridors, the show is expected to draw more about 2,000 visitors, a mix of musicians, producers, and gear enthusiasts.
"Intro to Synthesis" Workshops This year, the Expo expands beyond its large exhibition floor with a new lineup of educational workshops focused on synthesis — from hands-on patch-building sessions to deep dives into modular workflows, led by working artists and builders. A schedule of the workshops will be announced soon.
"In this video, I’m taking a look at the ASM Leviasynth, an algorithmic synthesizer and exploring why it might be one of the perfect modern synths for creating classic EBM sounds!"
"A quick NO TALKING sound demo of Blue Giant by The Usual Suspects, the new simulator of the legendary Novation Supernova II.
Blue Giant recreates the original hardware using DSP56300-series DSP emulation and the original Novation ROM. Like the Supernova II, it offers an 8-part multitimbral architecture, up to 24 voices, three oscillators per voice, multimode filters, extensive modulation, arpeggiators and the original multi-effects system.
In this video I’m simply browsing through a selection of sounds and presets — no talking, just Blue Giant in action.
More info about Blue Giant / The Usual Suspects:
https://theusualsuspects.io/
The Supernova II was one of the iconic virtual-analog synths of the early 2000s, and Blue Giant finally brings its distinctive sound into the DAW."
"A hands-on walkthrough of my free Roland D-110 Editor Librarian, a browser-based Web MIDI tool I developed to make the D-110 much easier to manage and edit from a modern computer. https://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/TDL...
In the video I show how the editor reads the D-110's tones, patches, rhythm setup and system settings, then saves everything into a reusable library. I also go through tone editing, partial mute/solo style workflow, PCM sample selection, synthesis partials, envelopes, filters, patch editing, multi-timbral setups, SysEx import and why the D-110 can be more flexible than a D-50 when you want layered parts and MIDI-channel based arrangements.
The editor runs locally in the browser, uses Web MIDI, and does not send your synth data to the cloud. It is part of my free editor/librarian tools for bringing classic synths back into a modern workflow.
Timestamps 00:00 Why I am building modern editors for vintage synths 00:47 Introducing the free Roland D-110 editor 01:17 Web MIDI setup and reading tones 01:48 Reading patches, rhythm and system settings 02:23 Saving and reopening a master library 02:47 Loading presets and sending sounds to the buffer 03:14 D-110 architecture, partials and PCM/synthesis structures 04:17 Editing PCM samples and synthesis partials 05:09 Filters, envelopes and shaping the sound 06:16 Saving edited tones back to the synth 06:39 Editing multi-timbral patches and MIDI channels 07:39 Layering D-110 sounds in a way the D-50 cannot 08:25 Why editing from the front panel is fiddly 09:21 Importing SysEx and expanding the library 10:06 Managing patches, running locally and wrap-up"
Another first to be featured on the site, the GODWIN MPS88
00:00 Setting up and Plugging in 01:24 Specifications and Introduction 02:22 Auto Accompaniment Section 04:26 The Mystery Explained / Musical Interlude 05:27 Drum Machine 08:09 Upper Manual Sounds 10:40 Musical Interlude 11:29 Monophonic Synth 12:55 A Brief History of Godwin Auto Comp Machines 13:24 Lower Manual 16:25 Last Musical Interlude
After our videos on the predecessors Godwin CD1 and CD2 we felt we had to continue all the way to the finish line of Godwins output of amazing and rare, combination instruments. The GODWIN MPS 88 was most likely the last instrument to come out of the factory and BOY is it something special! It doesn't look like any other Italian instrument that we've laid eyes on, and the majority of the sounds are unique to this machine.
You'll find all the information we've managed to unearth in the video but a quick roundup would look like this.
The instrument consists of mainly 6 instrument sections with individual volumes divided between two manuals - all playable simultaneously.
1. DRUM MACHINE - sample based sounds 2. AUTO ACCOMPANIMENT section (bass, chords and arpeggiator) 3. 2 x PARAPHONIC PRESETS (upper / lower orchestra) 4. SOLO PRESETS (monophonic synth) 5. 2 X ORGAN FLUTES (organ footages) 6. 2 X STRINGS / CHOIR
There are only minor modulation possibilities available but the spring reverb is nice and deep and the Chorus and Leslie effects are great too, although they might deserve a closer look by our tech since we're not sure they function properly.
If you're into rare Italian synths and drum machines you can subscribe to our channel and please check out our other videos of rare gems, but you might also enjoy the V.A.I. website, an encyclopedia of Italian Vintage Synths and Drum Machines:
"The more Juno, the more Juno that you don't know...
In this video we explore a triumphant trio of peak vintage synth design from Roland, jamming and sharing sounds from the Juno-6, Juno-60, and Juno-106.
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Perfect Circuit is an independent electronic instrument shop with an online store at https://www.perfectcircuit.com/ and a Burbank, California showroom at 2405 Empire Ave. We're open seven days a week, 12-8 PM, and our entire inventory is available to try out in person. Get your hands on the most excellent analog and digital synthesizers, effect pedals, Eurorack modular synths, drum machines, recording gear, and more!
"Darkglass just added a full monophonic synthesizer to the Anagram, and this might be the bass synth I’ve been waiting for.
In this video, I dig into the new Axioma synth block, build sounds from scratch, test its tracking and arpeggiator, run through all 12 templates, and put it up against the MXR Bass Synth and my Moog Subsequent 25.
Is Axioma the new benchmark for bass synths? Does it replace the MXR? And how close can a bass guitar actually get to the real thing?
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:24 What is Axioma?
2:12 Oscillators, Filters & Arpeggiator
3:44 Tracking a Synth From Bass
10:57 12 Axioma Templates
14:27 Building Sounds With Anagram Effects
15:39 Axioma vs MXR Bass Synth vs Moog Subsequent 25
16:33 Final Verdict: Does It Replace Them?"
"Can the Arturia MiniFreak recreate the character of six classic synths? With the V5 update and custom wavetables, I’m bringing tones from the *Minimoog, Prophet-5, Juno-106, Jupiter-8, Korg DW-8000 and Oberheim OB-X into the MiniFreak.
There’s more to an oscillator than a perfect saw or square wave. We’ll hear how different source waveforms affect the sound, explore the Juno’s bass bump, and combine pulse, saw and sub waves for some properly vintage tones.
Along the way, I demonstrate importing wavetables, compare classic oscillator flavours and explain why holding back on modulation and effects can help capture that vintage character.
These aren’t exact emulations—the filters and envelopes still play their part—but there’s plenty of character to explore.
The vintage sound packs are available for MiniFreak and Serum on my website. For more patches, samples and tutorials, join me on Patreon.
CHAPTERS
0:00 Six classic synths inside the MiniFreak
1:30 DW-8000 wavetables explained
2:36 DW-8000 patches
4:11 OB-X8 bank
6:23 PWM shootout: Juno vs Oberheim vs Prophet
7:20 Juno-106 high-pass modes
9:02 Prophet-5 PWM
12:03 Jupiter-8 bank
13:58 How to keep sounds vintage"
"The legendary Moog Taurus Bass Pedals played a huge role in the powerful low-end sound of progressive rock — and Genesis used that sound in some truly iconic songs.
In this video, we take a closer look at the Moog Taurus bass pedal and its role in the Genesis and the Phil Collins, Steve Hackett solo works, exploring those deep, massive bass frequencies that became a signature of progressive rock.
From the classic Genesis era to the unmistakable sound of the Taurus pedals, we'll look at how these legendary analog bass pedals were used and why the Moog Taurus became such an important instrument in rock music.
If you're a fan of progressive rock, Moog synthesizers, analog synths, bass pedals or classic 1970s rock sounds, this video is for you.
🎧 Listen with headphones or a good sound system to really hear those deep Taurus frequencies!"
The song list:
0:06 Afterglow
0:47 I Don`t Care Anymore (P. Collins)
1:16 Dance On A Volcano
1:54 Squonk
2:22 Clocks (S. Hackett)
2:50 Los Endos
3:10 Musical Box
3:35 Mama
4:31 Entangled
4:56 Firth Of Fifth
5:20 I Know What I Like
5:42 Shadow Of The Hierophant (S. Hackett)
5:55 Suppers Ready
6:18 Tonight Tonight Tonight
"Demoing my first multi-part sequence on this new-to-me 3rd Wave, as well as sharing first impressions.
Relatively short but a bit rambly. Definitely more talking than synth sounds, so apologies in advance if you came mostly for sounds. More videos with less or no talking to come as I continue to get more familiar with this incredibly deep and amazing sounding synth."
"Maschine is alive and evolving. The latest update packs in a host of fresh features. To celebrate, we’re launching three special Expansions, including Thirty – a Native Instruments 30th birthday addition.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:30 New Paris Heat Expansion
00:55 Generate tab
02:45 Melody generation
04:21 Chord generation
05:43 Variation tab
07:33 New Rage Circuit Expansion
07:56 Euclidean generation
10:12 New Thirty Expansion
10:29 Note probability
11:53 Probability lock
12:25 Free update
12:47 Outro"
Update: press release follows:
A MAJOR UPDATE FOR MASCHINE 3
Maschine 3 is Native Instruments' beat-making and music production software, usable on its own or with Maschine hardware. It's built to keep musical ideas flowing at every step, letting producers lay down beats, sample, arrange, and perform with virtual instruments or their own sounds, solo or inside a DAW. Maschine 3.7 adds a set of creative sequencing tools designed to get producers out of a blank grid and into a groove faster than ever.
Key Update Features
RANDOM NOTE GENERATOR: Let Maschine write the notes. Set the odds and start from an idea instead of an empty grid.
"The Roland D-50 and Roland D-110 both come from Roland's late-80s Linear Arithmetic synthesis era, but do they actually sound the same? In this blind comparison I play similar D-50 and D-110 sounds side by side, including warm pads, Soundtrack, synth bells, electric pianos, synth brass, Fantasia/Fantasy style patches, and dual-layer sounds, then reveal which synth was which.
The D-50 is the classic performance synth behind so many iconic digital sounds, while the D-110 is the rackmount, multi-timbral workhorse built for MIDI studios. This test is about the real character of each instrument: the modulation, the shimmer, the effects, the PCM attack, and how close the D-110 can get to the D-50 in practice.
Note this appears to be the first post to feature the GODWIN CD2.
00:00 Setting Up 00:41 Introduction 01:28 UPPER MANUAL : organ tabs and polyphonic presets 04:13 Solo Synth 05:07 Debunking the Mystery 06:19 Drum Machine 08:26 Three Quick Improvisations 09:47 Lower Manual : organ tabs, solo synth routing and arpeggiator 11:18 Musical Interlude 12:42 Bonus Musical Interlude
"A fresh video entry in the category 'Rare as a unicorn on stilts' - this mystifying auto-accompaniment machine organ and synth from Italys' Godwin is the only one we've ever encountered.
These type of sound generators were controlled by foot pedals and electronic accordions, generally in the hands of one-man-bands providing light entertainment in places where people congregated, imbibed alcoholic liquids and sometimes even got up and danced. Remember those? Ski resorts, beach clubs, dance halls, restaurants and hotels, for drinks or dinner.
The CD2 (we're not sure what the abbreviation actually stands for but we're guessing Computer Drums) is actually more than sequenced bass lines and chords though. It's equipped with 2 separate preset- and organ sections and even a monophonic preset synth and the whole Shebang, unlike on many keyboards at the time, can be engaged simultaneously for massively wide and deep soundscapes. All those sounds need lots of circuitry safely housed in a military grade flight case. The GODWIN CD2 is well chunky, clocking in at a whopping 24 kilos.
The video explains most its specifications and includes a bit of history too but a summarisation would go something like this :
1. Sample Based Drum Machine with 16 Rhythms and 16 Drum Fills 2. Auto-Comp section with bass, chords and arpeggiator with 2 sounds 3. 2 x Organ Sections with 15 tabs total 4. 7 Polyphonic Preset Sounds 5. 7 Monophonic Synth Sounds 6. Various Chorus and Reverb Effects
If you're into rare Italian synths and drum machines you can subscribe to our channel and please check out our other videos of rare gems, but you might also enjoy the V.A.I. website, a photo book and encyclopedia Italian Vintage Synths and Drum Machines:
