MATRIXSYNTH

Friday, November 17, 2006

Customize Sampled and Synthesized Keyboard Sounds

"Korg USA sound-design wizard Jack Hotop teaches you how to customize sampled and synthesized keyboard sounds"

Title link takes you to to the video.

Roland MC-202

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

This is what a synth typically looks like to me while I'm actually playing music. Sharper shots after the hop.

Stylophone Demonstrations via Loscha

This one via Loscha

"I was cleaning up yesterday, I found my Stylophone 7" demonstration record. Recorded it as 96k mp3s and slapped it up on a very very basic page. A friend has a stylophone for me, but, I haven't gotten it from him yet. When I do, I'll attempt to make a schematic - because I haven't seen one online.

Jaycar Electronics - an Australian electronics company has a Stylophone-like kit you can built - as does Dick Smith Electronics. None of them are as good as the Dr Bohm Hobbytron. The Dr Bohm isn't the same as a real stylophone, though. A real stylophone has a BJT based oscillator, where as the Dr Bohm (and the Jaycar and DSE kits) are all 555 based.

Rolf Harris was quite famous in Australia, and more so, I think, in the UK. He was from Bassendean - a pretty dreary suburb in Perth (where the sadly defunct Casio featuring band Turnstyle were from). He had a kids TV Show in the 70s. He recently painted the most up to date official portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.

An inside picture of one here.

My LP recording is here.

The "Vibrato" on a Stylophone actually lengthens one side of the rectangle wave, not both sides, so, it is Vibrato, but, it is also Pulse Width Modulation. My friend Robin Whittle found this out when he hooked his stylophone up to his oscilloscope.

--
www.loscha.com"

Image via Nick Law via Flickr, via Creative Commons.

Morgana

"Morgana is an authentic representation of a vintage digital sampler, designed to be musical rather than accurate. Morgana doesn't try to boast the most impressive spec sheet, or the most transparent sound. By returning to a simpler architecture, Morgana actually transcends the limitations of typical software samplers, creating an experience that sounds and feels like an actual instrument--one that is inspiring and with a sound all its own."

Looks like the Mirage to me. Title link takes you to the product page, but check out this post on SIGHUP for an excellent review. This reminds me, I need to add SIGHUP to my blogroll.

"It isn't a specific emulation, mind you, as they've decided to make it functionally less limited, while remaining functionally similar. And it sounds dirty, dirty, dirty. It hasn't hit a feature freeze yet, so stuff will inevitably change, but here's a quick run down of some of its greatness:"

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Room Full of Little Phattys

Via Amos.

Title link takes you to more.

Update. Amos gave me the ok to grab the shots. They are mirrored here.

Custom AcidLab TB-303

"# Original Roland knobs have been used, not the cheap plastic remolds supplied with the kit.
# Industry standard ALPHA panel mount pots (as used on the modern doepfer and analogue systems modular synthesizers) have been used, rather than the supplied pots that you are advised to GLUE (arghh!!!) in place (imagine servicing a synth 10 years down the line that has things GLUED in place???!!)
# Cliff 3.5mm jack sockets have been used, rather than the 2.5mm supplied, for easy interfacing with other gear (not to mention them being a much more visually elegant component)
# The CV and Gate sockets are as per Kenton's specification, giving cv / gate / filter / accent / slide."

Title link takes you to more info and images. Note this is AcidLab, not Acidlab.