Synare Drum Synth

via this auction.

Details:
"Star Synare Percussion Module. I am told that this is a prototype of the PS1 because the pads are not mounted up front as on the production model. This unit has a strange connector on the back of the box to make the external trigger pad connections. Inside the unit is a circuit board that looks to be hand soldered and a hand written diagram beside the connectors to show the different trigger pad connections. I don't know if this unit is functional as far as sound output. I plugged in headphones and played with all of the pots and never heard anything. I do however, see that the LFO led blinks at different rates when I adjust that pot."

Two Oberheim SEMS (4 Oscs) Demo

Title link takes you to the mp3 via REwire in the comments of this post.

The Tubbie Box - Circuit Bent Contraption

YouTube via carpeteria.

"Here's a new kind of box, this time made from the guts of an interactive red Teletubbie doll. The light box is originally from the doll's stomach, ripped out, rehoused, and glitched out. Lots of interesting switches that mess up the noises which already sounded weird to begin with. Enjoy."

BugBrand Stylus Keyboard & Fracrak case

YouTube via BugBrand.

"This is modular porta-power! A 3.5 octave stylus keyboard outputting standard 1v/oct CVs, gate, trigger etc - housed in a case that can hold 7 Fracrak sized modules. Plus some footcontrols thrown in too! Keyboard built with schems from Music From Outer Space.

This is the first tests - not everything is quite finalized yet but its working pretty darn good already!
More details & videos coming soon...

www.bugbrand.co.uk"

BugBrand Weevil07 Prototype

YouTube via BugBrand.

"Hey! New Weevil Prototype trying out some new ideas.... CNC Engraved Frontpanel - tinned pcb frontpanel with 9 touchpoints and engravings around controls Twin ringmod oscillators with pitching / range / pulse width / low power Resonant 2-pole low pass filter - gnarly when resonant Compact size - the production model will be bigger - this is a bit too cramped! Note - this is a prototype only - check www.bugbrand.co.uk to see production development sometime soon..."

BugBrand Dual Pattern Generator

YouTube via BugBrand.

"New sequencing module - pretty experimental.!.

Check the electronics page of www.bugbrand.co.uk for schematic.

You input gate signals to select the step (A through D) - this is binary counting (ie Bit0 and Bit1 -- 00, 01, 10, 11 - does that make sense?!) and the two Bit inputs each have two gate inputs that are OR'd together. Probably losing you now to tech-sleep!

Whatever,,, the Bit inputs select the step and there are two independent preset columns - each step having a range of 0 to +5v.

So, one of my modular techniques is to take a regular clock signal and divide it many ways - - 2,3,5,7,9,13,137 etc... Combine these back together and you get a regular pulse but confused with some cross-rhythms and morphing. FIre the BitInputs from four different clock divisions and the SeqStep will jump between the different steps.

Nice lights too!
Sorry about the wobbly-cam effect!"

Wurlitzer SideMan - 1950s Tube Drum Machine

YouTube via peahix.

"The Wurlitzer SideMan was arguably the world's first drum machine. It depends on whether you count the Chamberlin Rhythmate, which was introduced some years earlier, but featured tape loops instead of electronically generated drum sounds. In any event, the SideMan is definitely the first "beat box." I just picked this one up for $50. It's got all its guts exposed so you can see how it works."

Circuit Bent Boss DS-2 Turbo Distortion

video upload by zioaxiom

Via Luca Capozzi via the Matrixsynth forum.

Update: Circuit Bent Boss DS-2 Tutorial

Blindly Patching for Light

This is pretty hilarious. Title link takes you to the full post on Muff Wiggler including an mp3.

"Check this out, I'm CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY sleep deprived and quite unsane at the moment, and i did something stupid

i got the idea to totally waste a shitload of time instead of sleeping, and patch up my modular so that every LED was lit, to take some pictures."

Awesome. Title link takes you there.

The Most Underrated Synths

Update: also check out this post for Sonic State's podcast on the list.

JB thought it would be fun to come up with an underrated synth list in the same vein as The first synth to post. I think this might be a pretty cool idea. I think all synths have something to offer and it would be interesting to see what people come up with. So here is how it will work. Put a synth you chose in the comments with 1 to 3 main points on why you think it's underrated and I'll update the list in this post. Make sure to follow the format below, or it doesn't go up. I need to be able to just copy and paste it in. You can discuss away in the comments, but only the list will get updated in the body of the post. Note the reasons can be a combination of what was cool about the synth in your opinion and what you believe kept it from gaining higher status. And yes, you can cheat by combining small things like I did below. I'll make this a sticky post on the right of the site as well so we can check it out and add to it over time as other posts go up. That said. I'll start with two. The most underrated synth in my book of course starts with:

The Oberheim Matrix-6
1. The modulation capabilities for the price - ramp and tracking generators, release velocity, matrix modulations, etc.
2. It is completely overshadowed by it's bigger brother the Matrix-12.
3. It is a CEM based DCO analog and categorized as one of the lesser sounding poly analogs along with it. It's true to an extent but I still like it's sound and it is the source of name of my alias and this site. : ) My first synth.

The Rhodes/ARP Chroma
1. It's just as incredible sounding as the more popular analog poly monsters like the Roland Jupiter-8, SCI Prophet 5, Oberheim OB-Xa, Memorymoog and so on, but for some reason it never seems to get the same recognition. I found one for US $950 in prestine condition from a shop that usually overprices gear.
2. It has a weighted keyboard and mod settings to die for. It's one of the most expressive and best sounding synths I have ever played. Definitely in a class of it's own.

Elka Synthex
1. the Elka synthex was much underrated too because of its brand. It's a fantastic synth anyway.

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