MATRIXSYNTH

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Roland Jupiter-4 and CSQ-100 Sequencer

KORG Lambda ES-50

images via this auction

"- It has "Percussive" and "Ensemble" sections, with individual volume sliders. If the "Chorus Phase" butons for both are off, the go out the left and right channels separately. Putting on Chorus Phase "stereoizes" the sound, each can be set separately. There is also a mono mix out and a stereo headphone out.

- There are 2 tuneable oscillators, each can be tuned separately over quite a wide range so you can get nice phasing happening there, from subtle to pretty intense. Total tune varies both at the same time up or down.

- The accent section is straight forward, you can add key-click to the electric piano sound, and the brass "fC" is like variable treble filter to the brass sound. The tone section is simple brightness adjustments for the Ensemble and Percussive sections.

- There is also an octave switch, self-explanatory. I will also mention the joystick, left-and right are a spring-loaded pitch-bend control, and up and down mess with the chorus phase width.

- The Percussive section has a sustain switch, and toggles for Electric Piano, Clavi, Piano, and Harmonics (additional tonal sound many octaves higher). All sounds can be played individually or combined for thick, rich layering. The decay dial affects the 4 sounds, while the tremolo dial works on the sounds when the Tremolo switch is also on.

- The Ensemble section has Brass and Organ sounds, and Chorus (a little like a vocal choir), Strings 1, Strings 2 (an octave higher), and an Attack/Release switch and knobs, which affect the Chorus and Strings sounds only. All sounds layerable. For example if you play the Brass and Chorus with A/R set, the brass will have its usual A/R envelope while the Chorus one will be different, as you set it so it sounds like two keyboards.

Has some kind of natural sounding reverb after you let up the keys, not sure how they did that but it sounds good. Gets turned off when the Attack/Release toggle is on.

I tried putting all 9 sounds on at once, it's really wild, rich, deep and stereo. Lots of possibilities! The last thing I did with it was a 30 minute long jam to try out everything, glad I recorded it

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Here's a guy who really likes his Lambda ES50 synth, has nice description, pics and audio mp3 samples.

SonicState has a good overview, and the user reviews are mostly 5 out of 5"

Workspace and Environment: Richard Lainhart

click here for the full post on trash_audio.

"Favorite Hardware
Right now, it's the Buchla 200e, although I'd really have to include the Haken Continuum as a part of the whole system. The 200e is an extraordinary instrument in its own right, but I think it's the addition of the Continuum that really takes it to an entirely new level of expression and control. So I'd have to say both are my current favorites, in equal parts."

Plan B Heisenberg Generator

flickr by thumbuki

full size

Monday, January 07, 2008

More Stuff

Fighting P3 - Live sequencing in studio

"all the sequences modifications were done on the fly). Everything was recorded directly into Live 7 in MIDI format."

# Oberheim Xpander - lead
# Oberheim Xpander - bass 1
# Waldorf MicroWave XT - bass 2
# EXS24 samples - pads
# EXS24 samples - drums

via and more info on Hielo Patagonia Sounds

bizzy

"DSI Evolver, Korg ER1, Kjaerhus Spectra softsynth , OB3 , sequenced in Live 7"
via Baghead

Tube Noise Generator

images via this auction via wattson.

"This is a tube noise generator, radio frequency, mute, audio frequency, LF, and ASA is some sort of other noise that im not sure what it is, you cn make some really cool hats and crashes with this thing, the VU meter tells you how many volts you are sending out and you can control that by output knob. the rear of the unit has a 1/4 line level out and a rca line level out. i took detailed pics of the inside, the way the noise is generated there is a tube placed between two magnets its a really neat circuit."
More of a bit of test equipment, but interesting nonetheless.

More info on these here.

"A device that produces electrical noise for use in electrical measurements. Electrical noise generators are commonly employed to measure the noise figure or noise temperature of radio receivers. They are also used in various other tests in radar and communications systems. Celestial noise sources are used to calibrate large antennas."

Update: here's a video of the unit by Shagghie previously posted here.

SunSyn meets Magneto-Tube Random Noise Gen!

Sonic State: Inside Synthesis 003 - Modular Basics

Inside Synthesis 003 - Modular Basics
Introduction to Modular Synthesis
via Sonic State where you can find more info on this video.
This video features the prototype Mattson Mini Modular.

Till Kopper's Workspace

Get ready to drool. The following is a set of images sent my way via Till Kopper. Absolutely impressive. You might remember Till Kopper from these previous posts. Be sure to scroll as the link is a search on "Kopper" and will bring up this post.

You can listen to and see more of what Till does with this gear on his website. Be sure to click the images or the full size shots. Also I think I got all the synth labels. : ) If I missed any post a comment.

Overview from the staircase.
The wooden rack right of the WAVE contains:
Moog Prodigy (my first real synth)
Access MicroWave controller
ART Multi FX unit
Waldorf waveSlave
Waldorf microWave
Waldorf waveSlave (another one)
Waldorf microQ keyboard
Behringer mixer
Ibanez DM2000 delay
Waldorf Midibay-15
(see the other pictures for the rest of the gear shown here)

foreground: Moog Voyager
left keyboard stand:
Jen Sx1000
Waldorf XTk30 (lent away, therefor not shown here)
Manikin Electronics Memotron

between the keyboard stands:
Korg Micro Preset 500
Korg Poly Ensemble PE-1000
Korg Poly Ensemble S PE-2000
Monikin Electronics Schrittmacher
Behringer sub-mixer
3 Modulus MonoWaves (2 beta units)
Waldorf rackAttack
right keyboardstand
Minimoog (with Lintronic Midi and beechwood cabinet) Waldorf WAVE +16
Q32 with
Prototype Waldorf Blofeld atop

The wall of string keyboards (left column from top to bottom):
Wersi Voice FX atop
Farfisa Syntorchestra
Hohner String Vox atop
Logan String Melody
ARP Quartet
ELKA Rhapsody 610
(right column from top to bottom)
Crumar Performer

Vermona PianoStrings (from former East German) Hohner String Performer Crumar Multiman S Wersi Stage Performer Mk1 SII (additiv synth with a single SSM filter and Wersi Voice FX build in) Spot the Waldorf Pulse, Waldorf 4Pole, Waldorf EQ-27. AceTone (= early Roland) Rhythm Ace 2L and Tascam HD recorder

ELKA Solist 505 atop
ELKA X705 organ (with bass foot keys and pedal

Notshown on these pictures:
Eminent 310 unique
broken Hohner ADAM
Schimmel piano
Boss DR-220E
Keio (= early Korg) MiniPops 3
Casio VL-1
Dübreq Stylophone
EEH DS500 (does not boot anymore, need new battery?)
2 ELKA Rhapsodies 610 as spare parts
Waldorf WAVE (the spare WAVE) lent away to a friend

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