MATRIXSYNTH

The First MIDI Butt Controller

Well, aside from shakin' it in front of a theremin I guess.

The Animazoo Gypsy 2.

"Enormous Capture Area -- Capture motion data wherever you need to – indoors or out."

Title link takes you there.

Numan with Billy on YouTube

This one in via Jordan Gibson. These are great. It amazes me to think this is all live, no MIDI, no sequencers and no computers. And... all analog.

"By the way, I just saw your comments on Billie Currie playing with Ultravox and his involvement with the Numan band (Cars video etc).

Not sure if you've linked to this before or not, but here are the two tracks Numan did on The Old Grey Whistle Test back then, featuring Billie on Odyssey once again. Good Moog Porn too ;) link

Cheers,
Jordan"

BTW, that's Billy Currie in the background.

Penny & Giles MM16 MIDI controller

Title link takes you to a couple of more shots pulled from this auction.

Details:

Penny & Giles MM16 MIDI MANAGER ( 6 unit 19" rack )

These units were designed for the pro studio. They are quite rare because of their expense: originally over £1500 I think.

The unit is quite easy to program with 16 x P&G backlit endless moving belt faders, buttons (momentary or toggle on/off), rotary encoder wheel and LCD screen.

The MM16 is designed to provide accessibility to the myriad parameters that exist within even a modest MIDI set-up.

There are two basic modes of operation, Workstation Mode and MM16 Mode.

Workstation Mode:
...allows the user to exercise control over the various Digital Audio Workstations
...by generating and receiving MIDI commands...

MM16 Mode:
In this, the MM16 is a general-purpose MIDI controller with all of the control elements programmable by the user...
16 programmable P&G backlit endless belt faders,
16 programmable (toggle/momentary) illuminated button switches.
2 footswitch jack inputs
16 MIDI DIN sockets;
MIDI Merge IN and THRU
6 Main MIDI OUT
MIDI Control IN and THRU
6 Aux MIDI OUT
Control buttons for external sequencer;
START, CONT, STOP plus Rew, FF, Start, Stop and Rec
Rotary encoder, buttons for the accessing and editing the 64 stored programmes

Via Music Thing.

The Synth Pistols on YouTube

Ultravox was one of my favorite bands growing up in the 80s. They are actually one of the bands that inspired me into getting a synth. Why is the title of the post The Synth Pistols? Well, Malcolm McLaren originally asked lead singer Midge Ure (Ultravox) to front The Sex Pistols, but he turned it down. John Lydon stepped in and the rest is history. Makes you wonder how things could have turned out. It's also fascinating to think Malcom McLaren was responsible for Buffalo Gals. Back then these genres of music never seemed to mix.

Here's a video of Rich Kids, Midge Ure's band prior to Ultravox featuring Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. No synths, just some context.

Now for some "live" synth goodness:

Sleepwalk (some dry humping synth action by Billy Currie)
Vienna (I think Midge might have been the only straight man to dress like that)

And of course some Electroclash before Electroclash - Fade to Grey by Visage. Move over Fischerspooner, Visage "taught the killing game first." Visage was another side project of Midge's along with Steve Strange on vocals (he's the guy in the video). Midge didn't sing much in Visage although you can hear him in the background on some tracks, particularly at the end of "In the Year 2525." Another bit of trivia: Billy Currie of Ultravox (THE synth player of Ultravox) actually played with Gary Numan during the transition from John Foxx to Midge Ure fronting Ultravox. Billy is actually in the video for Numan's Cars. You can find more history on Ultravox here.

Title link takes you to an Ultravox search on YouTube.

Udpate via Fred in the comments:

"Never mind the Midge Ure Ultravox, go for the real thing - the John Foxx Ultravox. 'Ha Ha Ha' (their 2nd album, 1977) is very 70's London punk with lots of wild ARP Odessy and great guitar playing by Sevie Shears who afterwards disappeared from history. 'Systems of Romance' (3rd album, 1978) is one of those records that not very many people bought but everyone who did started a band - very influential to later cyber punk and electro-industrial artists. Recorded by Conny Plank at his studio. This is rock music by killer robots - cold, hard and relentless. The first three songs are like the shock wave from an atomic bomb. One of my favorite records ever. The harsh futuristic vibe coming off this record is unsurpassed to this day (I'm still searching) and seems more prophetic than ever. John Foxxs' first album 'Metamatic' (1980) is also great and highly recomended to Kraftwerk Fans. I used to wander around Vancouver with these albums blasting out of my Toshiba ghetto blaster back in the day."

I never got around to fully checking out John Foxx's Ultravox. I just check Yahoo! Unlimited but they don't have it yet. However the do have John Foxx's Dislocated released just last year in 2005. I'm listening to it as I type this and... it's really friggin good. Hope he does more like this soon.

BTW, title link takes you to all Ultravox on YouTube including John Foxx.

Bent 2006 on YouTube

Title link takes you there. Definitely check this one out. Hmm... I haven't dived into circuit bending just yet, but something tells me it's about to happen soon. It just looks like an affordable and fun hobby. BTW, for more on Circuit Bending in general, check out GetLoFi. It's where I found this video.

Modular Synthesizer Alternate Controllers on YouTube

Get ready to drool. Title link takes you to a clip of Dan Levey's studio and demos of alternate controllers. The Synthi is out of control. Also love Dan's smirk at the end. Yep, he knows what he has. Thanks Dan. I think. : )

Electromancer ARP Pro-Soloist Track

"This track is done totally on the arp pro-soloist. I was going to add other stuff,percussion etc.,but i set out to do a track with just the pro-soloist so left it alone."

Title link takes you there. Click on the little speaker icon or floppy icon when you get there. Via Jordon Gibson.

Image via Synthony.

MidiMiniAfy Studio Electronics ATC-1

"This page is an attempt of tryin' to show how to perform the MIDIMINIAFY modification of a Studio Electronics (from here called SE) ATC-1 synthesizer for the NOVICE. The modification adds a pure sinewave and a discrete moog VCA to the analogue synthesizer."

Title link takes you there.

Update via [d] in the comments:

"Hum...when speaking of synths, one is never too far away from a friggin' cat reference: 'Also - think about what you're wearing and throw the cat out of the house. Cats are walking static electricity bombs.'"

Funny, I missed that. Sure enough this is at the bottom of the directions. Make sure to check out the comments for more.