MATRIXSYNTH

Aries Modular Track

Title link takes you to the track by kkissinger on electro-music.com. If you like Switched On Bach by Wendy Carlos, you should like this. BTW, if the post on electro-music dissapears over time, post a comment and I post a back-up. Not sure how long they keep their posts.

Moog Tribute by Simon James aka Corky Burger on CDM

Title link takes you to the post and mp3 on CDM. Track list: Walter Carlos, Spring, Columbia Records Richard Hayman, The Windmills of Your Mind, Command records Walter Carlos, Sinfonia to Cantata no 29, CBS Tomita, The Earth – A Hollow Vessel, RCA Gershon Kingsley, Did You Ever Take a Journey, Audio Fideltiy Records Chris Swanson, Snow, n/a Dick Hyman, The Minotaur, Command Circulus, My Body is Made of Sunlight, Rise Above Records C&K Vocal, Generace, Supraphon Emerson Lake and Palmer, Lucky Man, Island The Moog Machine, Aquarius/Let the Sunshine in, CBS Marty Gold, Day Tripper, AVCO Embassy Hugo Montenegro, You Got it Bad Girl, BMG Clara Rockmore, Swan, n/a Walter Carlos, Winter, Columbia Records Dick Hyman, The Moog and Me, Command records Devo, Mongoloid, Warner Herbie Hancock, Earth Beat, CBS Klaus Schulze, Mind Phaser, Bomb Records

Weltklang Electronic Music

Title link takes you there. Scroll down the left column when you get there for more shots. Nice PPG in this shot.

via sequencer.de

The $500 Buchla

Title link takes you to a bit of Buchla history.
Excerpt:
"In contrast to Moog's industrial stance, the rather counter-cultural design philosophy of DONALD BUCHLA and his voltage-controlled synthesizers can partially be attributed to the geographic locale and cultural circumstances of their genesis. In 1961 San Francisco was beginning to emerge as a major cultural center with several vanguard composers organizing concerts and other performance events. MORTON SUBOTNICK was starting his career in electronic music experimentation, as were PAULINE OLIVEROS, RAMON SENDER and TERRY RILEY. A primitive studio had been started at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music by Sender where he and Oliveros had begun a series of experimental music concerts. In 1962 this equipment and other resources from electronic surplus sources were pooled together by Sender and Subotnick to form the San Francisco Tape Music Center which was later moved to Mills College in 1966.

Because of the severe limitations of the equipment, Subotnick and Sender sought out the help of a competent engineer in 1962 to realize a design they had concocted for an optically based sound generating instrument. After a few failures at hiring an engineer they met DONALD BUCHLA who realized their design but subsequently convinced them that this was the wrong approach for solving their equipment needs. Their subsequent discussions resulted in the concept of a modular system. Subotnick describes their idea in the following terms:

'Our idea was to build the black box that would be a palette for composers in their homes. It would be their studio. The idea was to design it so that it was like an analog computer. It was not a musical instrument but it was modular...It was a collection of modules of voltage-controlled envelope generators and it had sequencers in it right off the bat...It was a collection of modules that you would put together. There were no two systems the same until CBS bought it...Our goal was that it should be under $400 for the entire instrument and we came every close. That's why the original instrument I fundraised for was under $500.'

Buchla's design approach differed markedly from Moog. Right from the start Buchla rejected the idea of a "synthesizer" and has resisted the word ever since. He never wanted to "synthesize" familiar sounds but rather emphasized new timbral possibilities. He stressed the complexity that could arise out of randomness and was intrigued with the design of new control devices other than the standard keyboard. pp39-40"

Anyone else thinking Starkey? Coincidentally the recent Starkey went for $541 on the bay. Yeah, I know I'm stretching it...

via Peter Grenader on AH.

Xpantastic ! - New Oberheim XPander Group

It's XPantastic! Like the name? : ) Title link takes you to the new Yahoo! Group. If you have an XPander or Matrix-12 or are interested in them, feel free to join. I have no affiliation with the list. I just know the old Xpansions list seems to have dissapeared and somone created this one. BTW, if you know what happened to the Xpansions list, please comment. I think I'm subbed to it, but I'm no longer sure. : ) I haven't received an email in probably over a year, so... Not sure if I unsubbed and forgot or if it just died.