Can a Polyevolver sound like a Yamaha CS80?

One thing I noticed listening to the demos on carbon111's Polyevolver site is how much the Polyevolver actually sounds similar to the Yamaha CS80 to me in his examples. I particularly noticed it in the warm pad demo . I thought it was just me, but somone else pointed out that the soft lead demo sounded a bit like this CS80 demo. It's interesting; the CS80 filter has that swarming bee quality to it, missing in the Polyevolver, and it sounds a bit fuller in these samples, but that certain organic quality is there.

More OB-Mx Samples (via zengomi)

http://zengomi.com/music/4-vox%20rag.mp3

Just in from zengomi. Bass and lead on this track are the OB-Mx. Nice track.

Great Polyevolver Site

Carbon111 has put up a nice Polyevolver site containing some softer demos of the Polyevolver as well as programming tips, waveshape charts, and wallpaper. Click through for more.

MPC - no not that one.

This turned up on AH via Cikira. It's not an Akai MPC model. MPC stands for Music Percussion Computer. It was manufactured in England as a drum kit, sequencer, mixer and computer according to Synthony. It also had a Timex Sinclair 1000 personal computer interface. More after the hop.

Photos from rrooyyccee

Some amazing synth shots from rrooyyccee on Flickr. This actually came in from royce via AH. This one with the green oscilliscope running in the background is my favorite. Gorgeous.

Korg Poly-800 Moog Slayer Mod

Just saw this on the Vintage Synth Museum boards. It's a DIY mod for the Poly 800 that adds knobs and increases the range of the filter. From the site:
"This thing can do dangerous sounds, like the speaker-blowing (and ear-blowing!) sounds of old modular synths. It's really sick.... In addition to the usual disclaimers (if you break it, it's your problem, not mine!), I'd like to also point out that I will not be responsible for blown speakers, amps & ear-drums." Hard to beleive but it did score high marks from some who have tried it.

Update: I was trying to figure out what looked off about the picture below other than the mod. I didn't think the Poly 800 had volume and speed pots of the same design of the Polysix and I don't remember a tune pot, then I realized, duh, the picture is the EX-800, the Poly-800 desktop unit.

J and Moog - Flickr shot

Synth shot in via Flickr.

Update: unfortunately the image is gone.

Psych-Tone Melody Synthesizer

Someone posted a link to this on AH regarding the Muse. From the manual:

"This is a new and unusual approach to music synthesis. The sounds it produces are modern - to say the very least - and the operation is extraordinarily simple. Technically, this is a 'psuedo random sequence generator' operating as a tune computer with tempo, voicing selection, tone shaping, and pause gates."

Jomox XBase999

For all us 808 and 909 style dum machine lovers, the XBase999 is slated to come out this Fall or Winter. I haven't had the luck to play with a Jomox yet, but all I ever hear is how great they are. This one looks pretty promising. Click here for specs and more info.

Triadex Muse - (Link to VSTi of Muse)

It's funny how some things come in waves. I was reading the new issue of Future Music magazine and the "Back to the Future" feature item is the Triadex Muse. It's a rare and interesting piece of gear known as the first digital musical instrument. It came out in 1971. It's basically a sequencer with built in speakers and tone module. I thought how cool it would be if you could midi it up and use it to control other synths. Well, I catch up on email and there's a thread from Cikira on AH on just that. The owner of the Muse below converts the output to MIDI. Also, there is a software simulation of the Muse that transmits midi. Pretty cool.

From the email thread, "We agreed that a good word for these things is "inscrutable". It's tough to figure out how the sliders interrelate, but sure enough you get repeating, evolving patterns, and as it plays you start to identify recurring motifs. Its internal speaker puts out a decent level, and it does a little light show that reflects what it's doing, only it doesn't really help you figure it out. "

http://www.trovar.com/muse/muse.html