Simmons SDS6

Recently saw a picture of this and wondered what it was. It's a Simmons SDS6 drum pattern programer with 8 rows of 32 steps. Unfortunately no midi. Click here for more pics as well as other Simmons gear. Great Simmons site. Thanks to GG for link.

DSI Evolver OS 3.0 Update

http://www.davesmithinstruments.com/support/rev2-0.html

From the PDF:
Evolver Version 3.0 Update
The following changes have been made to the Evolver as part of the update. In general the changes were
made to make the it compatible with the Poly Evolver Keyboard.
1) A number of MIDI CCs have been added (see list at bottom of page); these are active for MIDI input
only; only the sysex parameters are transmitted.
2) Auto-sequence implemented; for some trigger modes, such as MIDI gated, the sequencer will
automatically turn on when the program is selected. This means you no longer have to first hit the Start
button for programs with these modes when playing from a keyboard.
3) LFO sync feature has been added; just turn the LFO amount over 100, and LFO sync will be on.
4) There is a quick reset of the Main parameters; just hit row 1 and 4 buttons at the same time, and the
Main parameters will be re-initialized.
5) Two MIDI clock modes, Ext In Step and Key Step, have been moved from Main parameters to
Program parameters, so there are now two additional Trigger Modes available.

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Yamaha VL1 and VL70-m Guitar Samples

Some good Yamaha VL1 and Guitar Samples in via the-gas-station.

VL1 guitar.

VL70-m guitar.

Nice track.

Hans Zimmer and Wife advice

In via Music Thing. Click through to read. Too funny!

Buchla Music Easel for sale

You don't see these come up for sale too often. Guido Welsch of Guidotoons is selling is Easel pictured below along with a Wiard modular. He is only accepting serious offers only, so don't inquire unless you are serious. These things are highly coveted and usually go for quite the pretty penny, and this one is in pristine shape.

Bergman Tubon & Klavinette

The Tubon (to his right) is a sort of tube shaped keytar manufactured in 1966 with contrabass, saxaphone, electric bass and woodwind. No one had any information or pictures on it until the following popped up from Mikael Lindgren. The Klavinette is also featured.

Here's a picture of the Bergman Tubon and the Klavinette organ:

"As a matter of fact, the 'Tubon' was made in Sweden starting in 1966 by a company named Joh Mustad AB. This early strap-on keyboard is shaped like an oblong tube with a 2 1/2 octave keyboard at one end and controls for the voicings (Contrabass, Saxophone, electric bass, woodwind) at the other end. It ran on batteries and came with a built-in speaker.

Joh Mustad AB were probably most known for the Bergman Klavitron (circa 1964), a small 2-manual spinet organ utilizing vacuum-tube technology. They also came out with a couple of cool portable tube-organs like the Bergman Klavitron and Klavinette, in 1965 and 1966 respectively.

P.S. the Tubon, the Klavitron and the Klavinette were used by numerous Swedish (and Finnish) rock & pop acts during the mid to late sixties."

Update via Frederic in the comments: "Check out the tubon up close! The first keytar?"

Update via Anonymous in the comments: "http://vstforum.clubcubase.net/viewtopic.php?t=17787"

Be sure to see the comments below for more updates.

[Note: this post originally linked to http://hem.bredband.net/linmik/Bergman_Tubon_&_Klavinette.jpg which appears to no longer be online]

See Kraftwerk with the Tubon here

Update some pics of the Klavitron via the comments, via this listing:

"Joh Mustad AB Klavitron (type: IE-40 C), portable tube organ 60s [SN 691]

Swedish made electric tube/valve organ from the 60s in great condition. Portable with a cover that can hold the legs, original tele cable and the music stand.

All original tubes are working and it tunes up nicely.

Same manufacturer as the Tubon keytar but this has full polyphony a optically actuated volume knee bar and a lot more sound options.

It is like a museum piece but with a great sound."

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Bob

I almost didn't post this. Someone on AH posted for help on a Moog Micromoog. Mark Pulver replied back with two links, one of which was this. Click through for the link and a bigger picture. Read the last cursive paragraph - the bill. Whenever I hear about Bob Moog or see him in film, I hear two things, one his passion for bridging the gap between technology and the human condition through musical instruments, and two his sense of humor. That "bill" just reaffirms what a great person Bob is to me. Mark, you are one lucky man. I wish I had the good fortune to have met him.

Yamaha JP8000

The Korg Oasys post got me thinking of the different virtual analog and physical models that trickle their way down through different versions of a given manufacturer's products. I remember big debates on how the Prophecy sounds more alive than a Z1 and how the Z1 will disappoint if you are expecting a poly-Prophecy. I remember painstakingly trying to recreate the Prophecy's Prophetic Steps on a Z1 thinking man, I can't wait to hear this polyphonically. I painstakingly went through each parameter side by side, only to finally give up in frustration. The parameters were different enough that I just couldn't get there. Then I remember a bit of hoopla that came out with the Yamaha AN1X release in the UK. The UK Yamaha site had a bunch of goodies including, get this, a JP8000 preset bank for the AN1X. Rumor has it that Roland asked Yamaha to pull them because of how good they were. I happened to A/B them and I simply could not believe my ears. For the majority of presets, (I'd lean towards 95%), the patches were identical. And I don't mean similar or close like the Nord Lead Prophet 5 preset bank. This was spot on. But then there is always the interface... Starting with the exact same patch you can't help but go in completely different directions because of the differences. Still, I bow before the AN1X programmers that pulled it off. Maybe they can program a polyphonic Prophetic Steps on the Z1 for me. Simply amazing. Click here for a Sound on Sound review of the AN1X.

Update on Korg Oasys Post

Wow! Peter Kirn, Editor-in-Chief of create digital music dropped by to comment on my Korg Oasys post. I'm very flattered as it is one of my favorite blogs. Click through to read his comments. He points to an article on the Oasys in Keyboard Magazine, and he mentions an article he is working on the Oasys for O'Reilly. I look forward to reading it. Very cool. Thanks Peter! BTW, I'm assuming it's this O'Reilly. For you computer geeks out there (me included), I wonder what animal would grace his article. : ) All bow to the camel...

Lemur-like Rear projection control

This in via pixelsumo. Check out the video. It's not a Lemur, but if you think about it... Imagine a virtual modular in your wall where you can interchange modules on the fly and have tactile control over everything. One of these days we'll have our touch screen wall displays with the quality of a Lemur (with a remote tablet to boot so you can fiddle away on your recliner), but between now and then I wouldn't mind one of these.

Multi-touch interface.