ZeroPoint on Synthwire

Title link takes you to a post on Synthwire on ZeroPoint, an artist with some interesting homebrew gear. Pictured here is two square wave oscillator. You can find more after the hop.

BTW, if do not regularly check out Synthwire, you might want to start checking back more often. Some recent entries include "A warning to those buying ASys modules in the US," "Free 10 Minute Classic Electronic Track" [gas0095 - this is really, really good stuff], and "Maintenance" [MOOG 960 sequencer chips]. BTW, if you want to post on Synthwire, shoot me an email and I'll add you. Title link takes you there.

More Fairlight on DVDBORN

Title link takes you to a post on DVDBORN with a number of videos featuring the Fairlight and a few resource links. Above is Revolting Cocks - TV Mind (Live sept'87). You can see the Fairlight monitor in the keyboard rig. I saw them live in 1990 . I don't remember seeing the Fairlight, but then again, my memory of that time is pretty fuzzy. : )

The ATARI Hotz MIDI Translator

Click here for the ATARI Hotz MIDI Translator page on the Atari Museum site [BTW, do check out the rest of the site for more retro Atari goodness]. You can find two more images of the Hotz MIDI Translator on Sendling.

If you look at the image in this post you will see the translator on the left. Note how much thinner it is than the unit on the right with the ATARI logo. If anyone knows what the unit on the right is, please feel free to comment.

Update: Check out the comments for more links. The unit with the ATARI logo is the same as the other. It's just the back, and it's tilted up for a flat surface.

PAiA Programmable Drum Set

Click here for images via this auction

Some of the Details pulled:
"From the manual:

'"While most electronic rhythm units offer only a limited choice of pre-determined rhythm patterns, the PAIA Programmable Drum Set allows the user to tailor the pattern, time signature and drum sounds to each application. Among the unique features provided by the unit are touch sensitive electronic controls and the provision for an independently structured bridge rhythm."

From an interview with John Simonton (founder of PAIA)
"'That's been credited as the first programmable drum machine, and it may be. For about a year, it was dominant, because there weren't any other programmable drum sets."

Larry Fast (Synergy) wrote:

"1978 I built one of John's Programmable Drum machines from a PAiA kit. As far as I know, that was the first ever drum box that the user could program patterns into and store them in battery backed up RAM. I showed it to Peter Gabriel who loved the concept. Marvin Jones put together another one for Peter to keep. That became the basis for all of the electronic drums on PG#3 (Games Without Frontiers, Biko and many others). From that came the LinnDrum a few years later. Thanks John, for single-handedly changing how we make records."

My comments:

You can program drum patterns, and store them. This was a new beginning for electronic drums and sequencing.

I built this unit from a kit in 1980.

I have been an electronics hobbyist and musician for over 40 years. When I first saw this unit, I knew I had to have one. I saw it as an opportunity to learn about touch switches, drum patterns, analog sound sources (oscillators, white noise generators), and digital logic. I also imagined using the logic control circuit to trigger other analog sound sources. The term sequencing had yet to be used on drum machines because prior to this unit the previous electronic drum machines only played fixed patterns. I built some other sound sources, but never integrated them into this unit. I preferred the internal sounds. This drum synth has a unique sound."

Kurzweil VA 1 Video, Samples and More

Title link takes you to a Kurzweil VA 1 site sent my way via Roger. You'll find video, mp3s, images and more. I found the videos best played by downloading all of them and then loading them all up to play one after the other as one piece. The VA 1 prototype was shown at Frankfurt back in 2004. It was never released, and most of us just assumed Kurzweil canceled the project, however earlier this year there was a rumor that it might be coming this year. If anyone knows anything about it, please feel free to comment. I'm curious as to how many prototypes were made and if any are floating around out there.

Roland V-Synth "Matrixsynth Edition"

Another via Bee Jay. Damn, that's nice. Click image or title link for the full effect.

ARP OMNI-2 "Matrix Edition"

Via Ethan Callender. Title link takes you to more shots. I like it! : )

Thanks Ethan!

Quasimidi The Raven

Click here for images pulled via this auction.

Circuit Bent Kaoss Pad

Note the switches. Title link takes you to more shots of Jesse's circuit bent Korg Kaoss Pad.

Doepfer Universal AD/DA module

"The picture shows the first prototype of the universal AD/DA module. In principle this module is nothing a clocked AD/processor/memory/DA chain. AD means Analog-to-Digital converter, i.e. the analog voltage (audio or control voltage) is converted into a digital format with 12 bit resolution. The digital signal is processed or delayed by a microcontroller with a large memory and then converted back into the analog voltage by an Digital-to-Analog converter. The prototype has two AD inputs (with attenuator), two clock inputs, 2 pairs of LEDs, and two DA outputs as for certain functions (e.g. voltage controlled bit crusher or waveshaper) two voltages are necessary. The mode is selected by means of 8 buttons and a LC display.

Examples for processing (without using the delay memory): bit crusher, bit exchanger, audio and CV waveshaper, Hz/V-to-V/Oct converter and vice versa, and many more. In principle everything that can be realized by calculating the AD output using certain rules and then converting the result into a voltage by the DA converter.

Examples for processing (with delay memory): clocked audio/CV delay with adjustable memory length between 128 (e.g. for flanger or Karplus/Strong) up to one million (for long audio delays many seconds or even minutes), digital sequencer (i.e. recording/storing/plaing back a CV).

The clock input is used to trigger AD/DA conversion. For audio signal processing the clock has to be in the audio range or beyond (e.g. from a VCO or high speed VCO). For CV processing the clock can be slower.

The final module(s) will probably look different. The prototype is used as a kind of defelopment tool to find out which function are useful. As soon as we made our first experiences and have found out what is possible we will probably start a poll in the A-100 Yahoo group how many different modules with which kind of controls should be released after all. The prototype will be probably shown at the NAMM booth of Analogue Haven in January."

via sequencer.de