Casio CZ-101

images via
this auction

Yamaha DX7 Voice ROMs/Soundsets

images via two auctions:


VRC 104 Percussion Group

VRC 105 Sound Effect Group

More packaging details. The VRC 105 has the red strip while the VRC 104 has yellow. The geek in me is curious what the others were and what other colors were used. Yep.... I'm going to have to start one of those "you know you are a synth geek if..." threads.

I wonder what "image" sounds like.

For the full set of ROMs see this post.

Yamaha GX1

click here for an amazing flickr set of a Yamaha GX1 up for auction on VEMIA. Yamaha tone board pictured below. In the flickr set, click on any image followed by the All Sizes link to see it full size.

Yamaha AN200 Demo

I finally got around to listening to the Yamaha AN200 demo linked to in this previous post. The demo mp3 is being hosted on a file share site here. It took forever for me to download on a cable connection so I thought I'd put it up on Twango for others to enjoy without the wait. It is probably the most diverse demo of a synth I have heard to date. At first I questioned the auction's claims to the AN1X being designed to emulate the TB-303, Prophet-5 and Minimoog, but you can clearly hear the emulations and more in this demo. Hit play and check out the other posts for the day. This marks number 40! Must... take... a... break...

mp3 demo here

wire to the ear Free TimewARP Soundset

click here for the post with samples.
"My absolute favorite soft synth is a recreation of the ARP 2600 from Way Out Where. It’s called the Timewarp 2600 and it screams, bleeps, grinds and explodes. No other plug-in I own has such detuned madness happening inside it. Today I give you my first free sound set for the Timewarp 2600. If you don’t own this synth you owe it to yourself to head over to Way Out Where’s website and try the demo."

via Oliver Chesler (The Horrorist) of Things to Come Records.

KORG KOASS PAD KP3 OS 2.0

Looks like OS 2.0 is up on the JP KORG site. Nothing on the US site as of this post. via sequencer.de:

- Polyphonic Sample Edit Mode
- New Sample Playback Trigger Gating Options
- New Loop Type Option

Update via Sean in the comments: "english language download at link"

side view

flickr by nakedintruder

full size

"side view of fully assembled 'mystery module'" coming from The Harvestman.

mystery module

Patching Pub

flickr by PatchingPub

click here for the full size shot.

The Electronic Arts Foundation

"The Electronic Arts Foundation was started by Tom Rhea, David VanKoevering, and Les Trubey (my father) to promote electronic music and preserve historical electronic musical instruments.

What follows is the text of an article written by Tom Rhea in 1976 for Contemporary Keyboard magazine. Reprints of this article were included in an info package with each synthesizer sold.

Tom Rhea is the president of the Electronic Arts Foundation, has done extensive work as an electronic music clinician, and has served as a synthesizer consultant to keyboard players such as CK Advisory Board member Keith Emerson. Rhea has a Ph.D. in music from the George Peabody College, in Nashville, Tennessee, with The Evolution Of Electronic Musical Instruments In The United States as his dissertation topic. Tom is also a member of MENC (Music Educators National Conference) and the Audio Engineering Society, and has written instruction manuals for Moog Music's performance oriented synthesizer line."

link to full article

Reissued: Gakken Denshi EX Electronic Experimenter's Kit

"The kit includes instructions for 150 different projects. The text is Japanese only, but there are illustrations of each project to help you put them together, although the final result may come as a complete surprise. The projects include several radios, a lie detector, motorcycle and gun sound effects, wireless microphone and a variety of logic circuits [AND, OR, NOT, NAND and NOR]."

Someone needs to come out with an audio/synth centric version of one of these. regardless, this does look pretty cool. I have a Radio Shack Electronics Learning lab with a bread board and well written project guide. I highly recommend these things if you want to learn the basics and just have a fun toy to play with.

You can find more info on the Gakken on Retro Thing.