Rob Papen's Blue Synth

Rob Papen has made some amazing sound sets for various synthesizers. He is as good as it gets. It will be interesting to see how this new synth of his pans out. The demos on site sound fantastic.

Direct link to specs.

Little Blue Demons

Retrothing has an interesting post on why he hates blue LEDs. I love the picture of the blue LEDs in a row.

My vote for best statement on a blog:

"Right now I have two of the little demons glowing at me in the gloom. I swear I'm wasting half my time glancing at them." : )

MOTM/synthtech.com going down for the weekend

Update from Paul of synthtech:

"There is 1 point of confusion: when it comes back up, the shipping cart
will not be there at first. I expect to go on-line by Sept. 10th
when I have the new MOTM-995 .com to MOTM power connector boards ready
($29ea, cheap!)."

Via AH:

I'm upgrading my 'level of service' at my ISP over
the weekend. So the MOTM site will go down
(and hopefully, back up) over the weekend.

This is Phase 1 of a complete site overhaul. I'm
adding a shopping cart and links to PayPal for
making CEM chip buying easier (I can load the
inventory into MySQL and not have to root around
the storage closet every month).

Paul Schreiber
www.synthtech.com

Peavy Paradox - The Synth that Was Not

Click here for a site on the Peavy Paradox sub titled, "The Synth that Was Not." Well, this actually refers to it not being mass produced. The synth itself "WAS." But, there were only four of these produced. Click through for more including sound samples of this amazingly rare analog synth from Peavy of all companies. I remember when one of these came up for sale. I'm still kicking myself for not going after it. Note that the synth consisted of a 1U rack mount synth with the controller below being separate and not the synth itself.

Update: see this post for additional pics.

Bahn Sage

Here's a beauty. I remember when this started making its rounds. People were going nuts over it. Slowly more and more info came out only to find it was the biggest hoax in synth history. If you know of a bigger one please share. Thank you Elhardt for an amazing time and congrats on a master prank well done. You have made it into synth history. : ) BTW, this hoax had such an impact on the synth community that when the first pics of the Cwejman S1 appeared people were reluctant to believe it was real, thinking it was yet another one of Elhardt's pranks. A few people were admitedly a little surprised to find the Cwejman was real, including myself.

Alesis Aurora

The one thing I love about the synth world is that its just as much about the old as it is the new. Take for example the Alesis Aurora. Krhen took it upon himself to convert his Alesis Andromeda into this beauty of a synth alluding to the old analogs of yore. It has wood side panels and a full tilted front panel. Not sure about the ribbon controller, but the knobs definitely look more accessible. Click here for more pics and the story behind the Alesis Aurora.

Alesis Ion Prototype

Check out this Alesis Ion Prototype with yellow/green side panels and logo. These were the first shots of the Ion when introduced. Later they updated it with the red side panels that stuck with production. I wondered if there would be an option, but unfortunately there wasn't. Would have been cool if they came with a set of colored side panels you could swap out like skins for the synth. : ) No title link as this comes from my private collection of pics - not sure if there is a site out there with more on this. If you know of one, please feel free to share.

Bob Moog Obit on The Gaurdian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/obituary/0,12723,1555746,00.html

Wow, this was an interesting and good one. Bob's take on synthesizers and musicians:

"I was never worried that synthesisers would replace musicians," he told journalist Jason Gross in 1997. "First of all, you have to be a musician in order to make music with a synthesiser. And second, I never thought that analogue synthesiser sounds would ever be mistaken for traditional musical instruments. To me, the synthesiser was always a source of new sounds."

This reminds me of when I purchased my first synthesizer, the Matrix-6 in 1986. I was blown away by the capability of creating and playing previously unheard musical instruments. The focus wasn't on trying to recreate the sound of an existing instrument but rather on creating subleties in sound never heard before. That is what a synth was and still is to me. To synthesize sound and new musical instruments.

Oscillator Goodnes on GetLoFi

Check out GetLoFi for some good oscillator DIY posts including:

Practical Oscillator Circuits
Function Generator/Oscillator VCO
Sound Generator Chip list

CEM - Center for Electronic Music

"The Centre for Electronic Music in Amsterdam, is the oldest institute for electronic-and electro-acoustic music and research in the Netherlands.
Founded in 1957 (on the remains of a psycho-acoustic research laboratory of Philips), the CEM has become a modern, fully equipped recording-studio, where composers, musicians and researchers can work in an informal, non-commercial atmosphere. "

Synthesizers:

ARP 2500 synthesizer inc. sequencer
ARP 2600
Serge modular synthesizer
EMS VCS3
EMS Synthi A
EMS Synthi AKS
PPG 1002 + PPG 313/314 modular sequencer/ switch
Analogue Solutions AS8899 modular drumsynthesizer
Akai AX73
Yamaha TX81Z
kawai k4 (x2)

Samplers:

Akai S2000
Dynacord AKS