John "PAiA" Simonton - RIP

Update: If you haven't already, check out the comments of this post for some other words.


This has been a bad year for the synth world indeed. I just read via AH that John "PAiA" Simonton has passed away after a battle with cancer. It's hard to find words that would do him justice. When you think of the great names behind synthesis, names like Bob Moog, Don Buchla, Tom Oberheim and Dave Smith immediately come to mind. You know them because they created the classic uber analog synths. They brought you the packaged analog classics. So what about PAiA? You know the name but you rarely see mention of PAiA systems pitting up against these other synths. So what makes PAiA so special? DIY. The PAiA Fatman was the first and only DIY synth I ever created. I am not a technician and before the Fatman maybe only worked with a soldering iron about twenty years ago in the Boy Scouts. Yes I was a Boy Scout in an urban jungle. Anyway, I created my Fatman and had a blast doing so, but when I finally was done it didn't work. I contacted PAiA and what did they do? They said no problem, had me ship it back, fixed it and returned it back to me free of charge, with an explanation of what I did wrong. Amazing customer service and an amazing experience. So what makes PAiA so special? They allow us to create synthesizers. When I say us I mean everyone, the experienced and the inexperienced DIYers. Think of that. Not simply buying a synth and playing it out of the box, but actually building one. There is just something magical about that, and many of us, myself included, have John "PAiA" Simonton to thank for that. Think of how many people got to experience this because of him. PAiA started in 1967 and are still around today. Simply amazing. Title link takes you to the main PAiA site. RIP John "PAiA" Simonton and thank you for my big, little Fatman. He's pumping out one fat bass.

Octave CAT Demo

Via phloem on the VSE Synth Forum. Title link takes you there.

Gentle Bakemono's Flickr Set

Title link takes you to the set. Buchla and EMS. Yowsa.

Rusty Insects

Title link takes you to Carbon111's Rusty Insects studio page. Rusty insects, get it? I didn't at first. : ) Very cool name for a synth studio. Also, make sure to track back to the root of Carbon111's site for more, including some music composed with these synths. His latest track uses the Yamaha VL-1 and is pretty impressive to say the least. An interesting note on the VL-1: until I was fortunate enough to see Carbon111 play his, I had no idea that the included breath controller actually triggered the voicing - some patches do not play when playing notes unless you actually apply the breath controller. For some reason I thought the breath controller was simply a modulation source. It's much. much more than that. You can hear how expressive it is in Carbon111's track, Long Shadows. Enjoy.


BTW, knowing Carbon111, that is a reflection on that Moog Prodigy's wood side panel, and NOT dust like I mistook on this poor synth. That Prodigy is immaculate.

Polymoog Shot

Just a nice close up shot of a Moog Polymoog sent to me by Heath. Also looks like his site has been updated since I was last there. Title link takes you there. Thanks Heath!

Rozzbox

I swear I posted this already, but I can't find it, so here it goes. Apologies if you saw it here already. Title link takes you to the L.L. Electronics Rozzbox site. Via Create Digital Music this time around.

Cykong Synth Site

Cool synth site sent to me by JB. There are some great pics of some intersting pieces including the two shots below of a 1U rack of a Moog Rogue and the Analog Soultions Synapse patch matrix. Make sure to check out the site for more. Thanks JB!

Triwave Picogenerator

Update: Another via Inverse Room in the comments. Cool, thanks Inverse Room.
"I just reviewed the Triwave for TapeOp...it's really a fun box, but people should try to build their own! 4ms gives out the schem and layout for free"



Title link takes you to an interesting little sound device. More info below and at the site. Via this Music Thing post on the Glasstone Tin Can.



"triwavepicogenerator contains two tone generators... and three variable speed
point slow eight cycles per second to two hundred cycles per secondlow frequencie oscillateurs that independently vary the pitch of each tone generator...

controls:
red, yellow, green speed (three low frequency oscillators)
red,yellow,green linnet depths
red,yellow,green gale depths of effect of each tone generator by each oscillator...
...control the center pitches (linnet, gale) of each tone generator
mix between volumes of each tone generator...
control the master volume
..each channel's tone switches between square and triangle wave audio outputs...
lfo range extends into audio frequencies for faux ring and veri-beat modulation"

AMF Educational Computer - New Flickr Shot

Cool little thing. It's not a synth, but an analog logic box. Title link takes you to a bigger shot. Some notes pulled from rrooyyccee via the site below.



"amf analog computer. the connection between bowling and analog computing escapes me. but it does work pretty well with music applications, providing mixing, attenuating, inverting, and integrating (lag). i'm not sure what else it can do but am experimenting with it."

How to Use an Oscilliscope

Interesting. Make: has a post up on how to use an oscilliscope. Title link takes you to the site they have linked.