Seth Elgart's Music vs. Sound

Title link takes you to Seth Elgart's website. I recently posted Jim Aikin's thoughts on Melody Over Texture. This came from a thread on SynthSights on the topic of the musician and the synthesist and the topic of sound and texture driving a piece of music vs. the musician driving the melody and composition. Seth put up a couple of examples of Music vs. Sound. In one track, Fifty Five, he gets lost in textures from the Waldorf Q, he states that Q drives the composition itself (BTW, this is a good demo of the Waldorf Q 's swirly textures). He states, "It more or less wrote itself. I didn't have much to do with it really. I just played it." In another track, Celebrate Life, Seth critically composes and drives the music. It's interesting when you think about how you create music. I lean more towards the sound leading me - it seems more like an interaction between me and the synth. Two things immidiately come to mind when I think about this, one, Bob Moog's magical description of how you feel sound and the instrument - how you connect to it in an almost metaphysical way; and two, this video of Jean Michel Jarre where he talks about leaving room for the music to drive itself. How do you play?

The ORT Synthesizer

Title link takes you to Tim Wade's blog on the ORT Synthesizer. Thanks Tim!

"This is a new blog about the ORT sythesizer that i have been building for about 25 years. Why is it called ORT you may ask? Well about 9 years ago it was sitting on the cupboard at a place i was working at and a collegue placed a label that was the last three letters of "Hyundai Sport" on one of the panels. It from that day on became known as the ORT. I started building it around 1979 or so during my last two years at High School. It has gone in fits and bursts since then. There was a bit if a hyatis between 84 and 2004 while little happened to it. My American Aunt bought me 4 Curtis Electromusic integrated circuits that actually kicked the entire project off. She bought me a set of dual VCA/VCO/VCF/VcADSR. The VCO was the first module built closely followed by VCF and then a selection of modules from the electronics magazine Elektor. Since the ORT has staged a renaisance in the last year or so two new modules have made an apperance. A MIDI to CV module that I have designed myself and a Spring Reverberation module that is based upon a design from the ETI synthesizer from the mid 70's. It is planned to go through each module one at a time and explain the issues with it and how well it worked etc. I then plan to kick off and ORT2 project that will introduce a new set of modules that are so audacious in conception they will take the Analog Sythesis comunity by storm... well probably not as we will be doing well to get that far... but maybe we will."

Aleis Fusion Price Drop

Looks like the Fusion 6HD is down to $999, and the 8HD to $1499. Title link takes you to my favorite synth shop for mainstream gear, Novamusik.

CS80 Motherload on YouTube

Title link takes you to a post on VSE where I found a motherload of YouTube videos featuring the Yamaha CS80 - the credit goes to Micke for finding and listing these. It was a trip back in time seeing the Chariots of Fire video. I didn't realize there was an ARP 2500 featured throughout and this glimpse of a Korg PS3300. The ARP Odyssey lead by Billie Curie of Ultravox in Sleepwalk is worth noting as well; it's an amazing lead. Video links below.

Vangelis - Note the ARP 2500 in the background


Update: looks like the original link I had for Chariots of Fire got pulled, so here is another version currently up on YouTube:
Vangelis ( Chariots of Fire )


Ultravox - Sleepwalk (1980)
ELO - Here is the News (1981)
John Foxx - Underpass (1980)
John Foxx - No-One Driving (1980)

Update: Regarding the Korg modular, "That looks pretty much like a PS3300 as it doesn´t have the two vertical rows of tuning pots down the left-hand side of the 3200. I think Vangelis actually had a 3300, and during the session with Neuronium I believe they also used Huygen´s 3200 alongside the 3300, ARP 2500, and other stuff like Prophet 5 etc. What strikes me even more is the mystery synth on the backside photo of the original "In London" EP by Neuronium and Vangelis... it looks like a Mini Moog but I´m not sure it´s one." Stephen Parsick.

Audities Foundation

"March 1, 2006

Today the Beta Version of the new Audities Foundation/Studio website has gone live. there are still several items in the works that will be added soon. We decided to post this as it is rather then wait due to the amount of work and time that will be involved to get it totally completed .. in fact I doubt it will ever be totally complete as the collection is constantly growing and evolving.

I am sure there are several little things that have gone unnoticed as the juggernaut that is this site went on, should you notice anything please forward the issues directly to me : echo7even@yahoo.com

It should also be noted that this site contains explicit gear porn and your diapers should be securely fastened.

enjoy

http://www.audities.org"

Indeed. Lot's of Buchla on site.

Yamaha CS30L Shots

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction.

Nice Space Heater

Another via Mattias. It's a wall of oscilloscopes. Title link takes you to a bigger shot. Also make sure to check out Mattias' site.

SynthModules.com and the PSIM-1

Title link takes you to the SynthModules site. The PSIM-1 is currently sold out. Details on the PSIM-1: "The heart of this module is a powerful miniature computer (microcontroller) that processes 100,000 instructions per second. It is programmed with your Windows based PC in a simple and easy to learn form of BASIC. Each of the four analog outputs can be programmed to output 1V/Octave CV-OUT as a pattern sequencer and complex event generator, or simply as a gate. This is just the beginning. Use any of its four analog outputs as a programmable LFO to gate your ADSR and set up extremely complex filter sweeps. Clock your Binary Zone with complex events. Imagine what you can do with your filters! Generate CV along with extremely complex sequences that are only limited by your imagination. Unlike most typical analog sequencers, you can change the timing of the spaces between notes and/or gates. Like I said, this is all just the beginning. Additional add-on modules will follow. Unlike a one-time programmable ROM, you can change the program anytime you wish by simply plugging in a cable and downloading the changes to your module. The program remains in memory even with the power off until the next time you want to change the program. Once programmed, you can disconnect your computer and use it as you would any other module. Want random gate and CV sequences? Here you go! Change a few lines of code and you have chaos at it's finest! "

Update via the comments: "Too bad the guy that sells these doesn't actually deliver them - dozens and dozens of people paid him in full for them over 2 years ago and he still hasn't delivered. Many are considering legal action. It's a great module, but I wouldn't recommend doing business with the guy. There's currently talk on the synthmodules yahoo group about creating a better DIY version of this... "

Lucky Cat - Fender Rhodes

Title link takes you to a larger shot of the below and a couple more. Via mdorfman4.

Alesis ION Filter Types

There has been some discussion on AH on the Alesis ION filter types. It's interesting that they are not listed in detail on the Alesis site. I thought I'd put up a post with the list so far. Title link takes you to a Sound on Sound review of the ION where the majority of the below came from. However, some new filters also listed below, were added since the SOS reveiw. Here's a link to the details on the OS updates to date.



'mg': a four-pole low-pass modelled on that of the most famous monophonic analogue synth ever made.
'ob': a two-pole low-pass closely resembling the one in a classic synth xpander... whoops, I mean expander module.
'ob': a two-pole band-pass.
'ob': a two-pole high-pass.
'rp': a four-pole low-pass modelled on the one in a popular semi-modular synth.
'tb': a three-pole low-pass (think 'little silver bass synth').
'jp': a four-pole low-pass (from an eight-voice synth noted for its coloured buttons amongst other things);
'Eight-pole low-pass': all the filters from here on were created for the Ion; this one gives a very steep cutoff.
'8ve dual band-pass': two two-pole band-pass filters spaced one octave apart.
'six-pole band-pass': like an exaggerated version of the 'ob' band-pass.
'phase warp': an analogue phaser effect based on eight all-pass filters in series.
'comb filter 1': multiple resonant peaks and notches which are not harmonically related.
'comb filter 2': as above, but the signal is additionally filtered to warm up the sound.
'vocal formant 1': three band-pass filters emulating 'ah' and 'oo' vowel sounds.
'vocal formant 2': as above, but 'oh' and 'ee' vowel sounds.
'vocal formant 3': a five-band formant filter.
'band limit': a two-pole high-pass filter and a two-pole low-pass filter in series, limiting the signal to everything between them; resonance adjusts bandwidth.

New Types:
'OP 4-Pole Highpass - This filter is based on our "MG" 4-pole lowpass filter model. It has a steeper cut-off and more extreme resonance than the "OB" highpass. Like the "MG", it will self-oscillate when the resonance is turned all the way up. It can thus be used as a fourth (or fifth) oscillator.
'Comb 3 - Based on a different design than Comb's 1 and 2, it has deeper notches and more pronounced resonance.
'Comb 4 - Similar to Comb3, but with negative feedback. This will oscillate and even clip when the resonance is turned up.