Thomas Dolby 1986 Interview on EM

click here for the interview. There is plenty of synth talk of course.

"I chose to use the largest part of the space for the control room, in order to accommodate my video equipment (a small Sony ¼-inch editing system, Fairlight CVI, and a large screen Barco projector over the mixing board) along with a large battery of electronic percussion (Emu SP12, Linn 9000, and assorted Simmons and PPG modules) and my new Fairlight Series III and Emulator II. I've never sold a keyboard, even my first two — a Micromoog and a Roland JP4 with which I recorded everything in 'She Blinded Me With Science.'"

I wonder if that is still the case.

Roland XP-80 demo

YouTube via StudioF. via Kitsunexus
"Demo of the Roland XP-80. These sounds do not represent the true power of the XP-80"

Handmade Music Night Images and Coverage

Remember this post? Click here for images and coverage of the event on CDM. via Paul.

Two More Modular Noodles via Appliancide

Click here for the link to them. Spot the cat.

"They are single pass recordings with all of the same limitations as the previous two tracks. They are called "how rude" and "falling up the stairs". Falling up the stairs is my favorite so far of the modular recordings that I've done.I also put up a couple of catsynth pictures there. I moved the other two modular tracks to soundclick but if anyone wants to hear them, they can listen to them directly from my blog at http://appliancide.blogspot.com. There you will find links to all of my modular noodles as well as a bunch of my old music, which is mostly soft-synth and sample based.

KORG X-911 Guitar Synth

images via this auction.

Korg Maxi-Korg K3 (800DV) Vintage Synthesizer 1975

images via this auction.
"This is a unique vintage 1975 Korg Maxi-Korg synthesizer - serial number 0594! This synth is also known as the Korg 800DV and Univox K3 but was sold in the US under the name Maxi-Korg K3. The power of the Maxi-Korg lay in the way it could create and play sounds. In essence, it was two Korg 700S synths in a single box, so you could treat it as two distinct synths, creating two different sounds, and then playing them independently. Some other mid-'70s synths allowed you to play two notes, but these used the same patch parameters for both. Only the Maxi-Korg could produce two sounds that you could play as a composite, or as two independent synths. Yet this was only half the story, because the 800DV allowed you to allocate the voices in a huge variety of ways. This made it possible to program more realistic, more expressive, or more off-the-wall sounds than was possible on other monosynths. The Maxi-Korg was, and remains, one of the most impressive, flexible and articulate synths ever built."

ARP 2800 Modular

images via this auction.
"one of a kind ARP 2800 analog modular synthesizer. This synth started out its life as an ARP odyssey MarkII (black and gold faced unit), which then had its keyboard removed, front panel hand brushed and refinished, custom durable (water proof) sticker artwork (which is reminiscent of the original artwork) created and applied, and then reassembled in a custom plywood modular cabinet. The back panel of the cabinet has space to tuck the attached power cord into. Also added are 1/4" jacks tapping off nearly all the signal outputs, and allowing you to insert any signal into the signal modulation selector switches. And also adding several 4x jack multiples. The unit works fine, but when the modifications were done, it disabled the use of the CV portamento control, and the octave range select switch. The synth can be controlled with standard 1V/Oct CV input and positive polarity gate signals. I think this unit also had a snappy envelope mod done to the ADSR envelope, as I always found the ARP envelopes not quite fast enough for my tastes."

Quasimidi Sirius

images via this auction.

* polyphony -- 28 voices
* multitimbral -- 7 parts - 3 synth,4 drums
* Patches -- 384, 16 vocoder settings
* drumkits -- 192 kick, 192 snares, 192 hi hats, 192 percussion sets each of 12 sounds.
* vocoder -- nine band with high and low pass filters
* patterns -- 242 - 142 preset, 100 user
* songs -- 16
* sequencer tracks -- seven
* effects -- Two processors with reverb, delay, chorus, and flange; global overblast effect.
* keyboard -- 49 keys, velocity sensitive
* inputs -- mic, carrier, analyse, footswitch
* outputs -- stereo out, headphone
* midi -- in,out,thru

Roland TB-303

images via this auction.

AudioCubes Demo at New Media Meeting, Sweden

YouTube via Percussa.
"Tobias von Hofsten (aka ONE) giving an overview of the Percussa AudioCubes at the recent New Media Meeting in Sweden."