Creating music with science

"Can an old electronic toy make melodies? JACOB ADELMAN finds a festival full of rewired gadgets used as instruments.
Hans Koch stood on stage with the disemboweled guts of a computer spread out on a table before him. He prodded the motherboard, floppy drive and modem with a pin and doused them with salt water. The components -- attached to a mixer and amplifier -- emitted bursts of noise that layered into a collage of static and feedback."

Title link takes you to more including a podcast.

Tristram Cary Interview on The Music Show

"Tristram Cary: Yes, that's right, and that's the master patch on the pin matrix of the VCS3. I mean we designed the VCS3, three of us in 1967 in direct competition with Bob Moag [sic, Moog], who was, poor chap's dead now, he had cancer, ten years younger than me. But we went over and saw Bob Moag [sic, Moog], I mean he was a great friend a very nice man. But his synthesizers were very expensive in England, so we said Well, we can - and I'll tell you what, there's a very interesting connection here because Don Banks, who was a good friend of mine in London, and I knew Don for 20 years before poor chap died of leukaemia [sic], he was doing films and stuff like me, and he came and saw us over in Putney, and said, Look, I'd love to get into electronic music, but I haven't got any knowledge, I can't build anything, can you make me something? My limit is 50 pounds, he said, can you make for 50 pounds a box of some sort which would be useful to a composer. So we got together, and we put it together, David put it together, and he was delighted. Don started using it straight away."

Title link takes you to the full interview. Via Rick. Also check out this post.

KORG Polysix Overlay

via one of the anonymous in the comments of this post:

"found this in the same site. curious?"

Yep... Anyone have any ideas?

Ga-Ga for Waldorf

Image via Till "Qwave" Kopper in the comments of this post. There is just something about this shot that makes me go Ga-Ga. In case you missed the update:

"... and it is my WAVE +16 (= 32 voice) shown here. A snapshot by someone taken during my last year's Planetarium concert of "EL-KA" (http://el-ka.synthmusic.info german only) in Bochum/Germany.
If you look to the yellow Waldorf Q in the back, you will notice the joy-stick someone added to my instrument.
Here is one from the other direction: link
You will see the other half of EL-KA there: HaJo Liese.
The CD recording is available at www.syngate.net and other EM music shops. And we will play at the Univercity of Eindhoven/The Netherlands next week's Saturday at the E-Day (http://e-day.groove.nl)

And by the way: I run the unofficial Waldorf WAVE pages located here:
link (german and english)

keep on turning these knobs

Till "Qwave" Kopper"

Wooden Box Synth

YouTube via fallingfragments. Via the comments of this post.

MOOG The Source

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Oxford Synthesizer Company OSCar

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Quasimidi Rave-O-Lution 309

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

309 Video

Roland SH-101

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.
Specifications:
* Type: Synth/ keyboard/
* Synthesis Type: Analog subtractive
* Polyphony:
o Max: 1
o Typical in use: 1
* Multi-timbral (number of parts): 1
* Oscillators per Voice :
o Min : 1
o Max : 3
* Controllers : GATE OUT/In and CV out/IN
* Drum Section :
o Number of Drum Kits : 0
o Number of Drum sounds : 0
* Keyboard :
o Number of Keys : 3 octaves
o Can send on simultaneous MIDI channels
* Memory :
o Patches : 0
o Performances : 0
* Inputs and Outputs :
o Number of Audio Outs (excluding Phones) : 1
o Number of Audio Ins : 2
o Number of MIDI Outs (excluding Thru) :
o Number of MIDI Ins :
* Upgrade Options : This is one of the most easily modifiable analog synths. Analogue Solutions sells kits for making it MIDI, giving you INPUTS to the filter or making it COMPLETELY MODULAR(everything can be crosspatched with other CV-gear).

Celebration of Max Mathews and 50 Years of Computer Music

Image via wikipedia. Anyone catch the following? I found out a little late.

Update: check the comments for one more date on April 30 in San Francisco.

"Date: Wed, Apr 18 2007 1:46pm
From: "Computer History Museum"

CCRMA and CHM Present

A Celebration of Max Mathews and 50 Years of Computer Music

Fifty years ago, in 1957, at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Max Mathews demonstrated that the digital computer can be used as a fantastic new musical instrument. He created a revolutionary software platform destined to form the basis of all contemporary digital musical systems.

His audacious ideas were driven by the belief that any sound that the human ear can hear can be produced by a computer. Mathews' mastery of this new instrument revealed new musical horizons and sparked a burgeoning curiosity into the very nature of sound. His comprehension and elaboration made five decades of art and research ossible, laying the groundwork for generations of electronic musicians to synthesize, record, and play music. Today at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) as a Professor Emeritus he continues not only to educate students and colleagues, but also to guide and inspire with his constant inventiveness and pure musical pleasure.

Join us in honoring Max for an afternoon of sound, celebration and discovery of his ideas,works, music, and writings.

WHEN
SUNDAY, April 29, 2007
4 p.m. Pre-concert talk
Jon Appleton, John Chowning, Evelyne Gayou, Max Mathews, Jean-Claude Risset
5 p.m. ìInfluences: A Tribute Concertî
Jon Appleton, Gerald Bennett, Chris Chafe, Evelyne Gayou, Max Mathews,
Dexter Morrill, Jean-Claude Risset
6:00 p.m. Reception

WHERE
Computer History Museum
Hahn Auditorium
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043
www.computerhistory.org/about/directions/

REGISTRATION
Free.
To register or for more information on the event, please visit the Museum's
Website at http://www.computerhistory.org/max_guest_04292007 or Call (650) 810-1005."

via loscha.