Akai AX80

flickr by Mike Peacock2005.

Title link takes you to more.

European Modular Event 2007

Via this electro-music.com thread:

"This is the official announcement for the European Modular Event 2007, the successor to the Nord Modular Events from the past. The Event also encompasses the European part of the "electro-music.com 2007 Event".

The Event will be held in a beautiful chateau in the Belgium Ardennes, from July 31 to August 6. For a full week the chateau will be transformed into a sonic heaven for electronic musicians; meaning a place where you can jam and improvise from dawn to dusk and dusk to dawn with like-minded musicians.

The main theme of the Event is sharing our music: sharing musical ideas, techniques and knowledge to inspire each other. It is the perfect place and time to meet the fellow musicians you communicate with on e.g. electro-music.com and other forums and email lists. It is possible to present your work, do a performance or build an installation by yourself or together with others, present or attend a short workshop on some subject, etc. Details and program will be worked out in the next months. The organizers would like to keep the program open for a lot of ad hoc jamming and improvisation."

Nice location.

Synthesizer Restorations

"Welcome to my pages on Vintage synthesizer restoration. On these pages I aim to have information on synthesizer restoration, links to parts, manuals, schematics and so on. I have been reading electronics sporadically since way back in the 90´s and I always was the kid who fixed my neighbors TV set or VCR. So naturally I started to open up my synthesizers as well and started investigating how these machines worked and what parts they used and so on. My interest in restoring these machines does not stop at getting them back to life, I also like to cosmetically enhance these instruments either back to their original state or to do some custom work on them."

Title link takes you there.

Roland CR-78 pictured.

Japanese Harmony Synth 100

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction. I ran the auction text via Google translation and it came out to be the Harmony Synth 100. If you know more about the synth or can read the auction details, please feel free to comment and I will update the post.

This one sent my way via hino.

Sync-Shift Mark II MIDI Clock Din Sync Converter Delay/Lag Offset Correction

Well that's about as convoluted as it gets. I believe this is my first title link wrap! Remember the Innerclock Sync Shift? Title link takes you to shots of one pulled via this auction. This one via polyconnect.

"Features:
'Gridlock' Midi Clock to Din Sync Conversion with ultra-low, constant conversion lag time so your initial conversion offset remains fixed and tight.

'Brick Wall' Midi Input Filter - because the Midi Specification gives no priority to Midi Clock messages we felt that in order to get the best possible I/O sync integrity we had to make sure that all midi message other than strict Midi Clock were well and truly ignored.

Innerclock Sync-Shift Mark 1 real-time Din Sync offset/lag correction lets you compensate for common hardware and software Midi Clock and Din Sync start lag time issues plus it has two full bars of Shift available so you can easily syncopate sync slave devices or software against the master.

Rotary push-pull Shift 'Fine Tune' lets you rush or drag the slave against the groove in real-time with no loss of sync. Go from hard 16th swing to phase locked grid quantize and back again all in one bar and in real-time!

'Gridlock' Din Sync to Midi Clock Conversion - same ultra-low, constant conversion lag time but reverse engineered to provide Din Sync to Midi Clock.

Modular/Discreet design - no CPU personality disorders. We could have done all three jobs on one chip with a shared instruction set but we didn't. From experience - especially where synchronisation is concerned - sharing hardware resources is a bad idea. Each of the three core components that makes up the Mark II Sync Shift has its own dedicated IC and code. This means they work great in isolation and there is no loss in performance when you connect them together.

The Mark II Sync Shift is really three separate, ultra high quality devices in one compact package where the whole truly is greater than the sum of the parts.

Hands-On. Five pots - four switched and one free turning - work collectively to provide up to two full bars of Sync offset. The top three switched pots set Quarter divisions, Sixteenth divisions and Individual Clocks respectively. The bottom left rotary switch is for Bypass, Real-Time Shift and Shift Lock. The last free turning pot provides the real-time push/pull sync fine tuning between master and slave.

All three internal components have individual rear facing Midi/Din sockets for discreet I/O.

Use the Midi Clock to Din Sync conversion on its own or simply route the converted Din Sync signal back into the Mark II for real time lag correction and syncopation of your Din Sync Slave device. Now take the Shifted Din Sync signal back in to the Din to Midi Clock converter to apply the exact same real-time lag/offset correction and syncopation method to any of your Midi Clock slave devices.

The Sync Shift Mark II provides a simple, accurate, hands-on way to make all your gear lock the way it should - Hardware or Software, Master or Slave, Midi Clock or Din Sync/+5v.

Check some reviews here."

Synthesizers.com Q123 Standard

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

"'Standard' module. Great for offsetting CV in perfect octaves (1V) and semitones (1/12 V)."

Roland SRE-555

Roland SRE-555 Chorus Echo. Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction, including a shot of the inside and the block diagram.

via brian comnes.

Cyndustries ZO Sequence

Title link takes you to an MP3 sent my way via Josh.

Space Time Modulator

Title link takes you to Space Time Modulator, a blog on patchable electronic training labs via Nick Kent.

"I've been noticing this category of gear always brings up some curiosity - it certainly did for me - and some debate as to how useful it is for processing audio and CV.

I've read some generalized comments and the occasional short thread in a couple of forums including AH over the past couple years. I've also looked at the now fragmentary Dan Slater web page that's on archive.org without the diagrams.

So I'm wondering if there are any other sites or forums with useful discussion or info? I have a blog going with some photos not harvested off some other page. I'll try to add more details as time permits.

If you have something like these, especially if it's the same model as one of mine, please do add some comments. I'm sure others would find it useful. Maybe if people are interested, maybe someone else or I might make a better forum or wiki or something?

nick kent"

L.A. Style - James Brown Is Dead [1991] 2006

YouTube via mauriciokalil.

RIP James Brown. You will be missed. There was a certain something about the man. As a good friend of mine, who also passed, would always say, "You're so fucking suave." A bit of a David Lynch, Blue Velvet reference. Apologies for being late on this one. I heard the news on Christmas day as well, but held off as this site is only about synths. Then it occurred to me that James Brown is probably one of the most sampled sounds in "synth music." As for this track, it was one of the tracks that was played at nearly every rave I went to during that time, and it's a classic example of the Roland Alpha Juno Hoover sound. Oddly, I don't think I hear a James Brown sample in it. There's a bit of him dancing in the middle of the video but that's it. If you know of a JB sample in the track feel free to comment.

For those of you in New York, James Brown's body will be shown one last time at the Apollo theater [via]:

"James Brown's body is being flown to New York City, where the legendary showman will be put on public display at the Apollo Theater this Thursday.

'It would almost be unthinkable for a man who lived such a sensational life to go away quietly," the Rev. Al Sharpton said in an interview from Georgia, where he was making funeral arrangements with Brown's children.

Sharpton said the public Apollo viewing will be followed by a private ceremony Friday in Brown's hometown, Augusta, Ga., and another public ceremony, officiated by Sharpton, a day later at the James Brown Arena there.

'His greatest thrill was always the lines around the Apollo Theater," Sharpton said of the Harlem landmark. "I felt that James Brown in all the years we talked would have wanted one last opportunity to let the people say goodbye to him and he to the people.'

In other Brown news, director Spike Lee has signed on to direct a film about the Godfather of Soul."

And... Here we go. Thank you James Brown.