MATRIXSYNTH

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

satrae sant chugre

satrae sant chugre from abre ojos on Vimeo.

""would it be different if i was missing a leg? you would help me up the stairs wouldn't you?"

eighth in an ongoing series of live sound & visual improvisations using a modular synthesizer, dave smith evolver, nord micro modular and quartz composer on a macbook pro.

for more info visit abreojos.net" Note I've posted some of the videos in the past, however do check out http://abreojos.net/ for all eight videos in the way they were meant to be seen.

TSP's Safeplace Shaker

YouTube via 88budcar
"http://thesquarewaveparade.com/safepl...
Peep this thing! Rad."

Noatikl (or noatikl)

"Noatikl (or noatikl) is a powerful yet easy to use generative music tool that will help you generate new musical ideas.

It uses techniques developed over the last 17 years through our work on the award-winning Koan generative music system, techniques now used in the all-new and superior 'Noatikl'... Many years ago, Brian Eno popularised the term "generative music" to describe music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system."

Some notes via via brian c who sent this one in:
"Noatikl is a generative music tool , i.e. it generates a MIDI stream over several channels from a rule based set up. The rules can be very complex providing harmonic and scale structure , CC controllers, envelopes, pitch and tempo variations etc. The rules run up against a randomizer as well so this thing will never play the same thing twice, but is always musically coherent and usually interesting. For creating long ambient pieces it is ideal. I run the standalone version on an older laptop and send the MIDI out to my Ableton Live DAW and then redirect the notes received to whatever hardware or soft synth I choose to use. What the program does for me is remove the worry and focus over the playing a keyboard and allow me to focus on tweeking the synths on top of the music for the sound quality - sort of a virtual Eno-buddy to play with. I am such a shitty keyboard player, this really is liberating, of course you can also assign that control to the program too, but I like to knob twiddle. Prior to this I would use some MIDI sequence and then use Live's random tool, but there was never any guaranteee that the random parts would fit with each other. Noatikl assures that you have compatible notes. It's also way easier than MAX which is for really nerdy types. Of course you can also make it very atonal and dissonant if you send it those rules too. It is Mac and Windows flavored and there are standalone versions as well as plug-in versions. The only limitations that are irksome is that receives but does not send MIDI clock, so you have to synch it from inside LIVE if you want to run both. It also does not work well with Live as a plug in because Live does not support multiple MIDI -outs from a single VSTi, you have to route it out and back to MID-Yoke as a work around if you want the plug in version, I just use it standalone on an old laptop. Because it just sends MIDI it is not a CPU hog. And finally it's not a synth per se, but it allows you to set up a mix of 16 soft and outboard synths in Liveall at once and let them all work together on a piece ...awesome soundwall to say the least and the best part is it doesn't sound like a TB303 ACID cliche"

Update via the comments:
via Pete Cole:
"Hi! Many thanks for mentioning Noatikl.

Mixtikl (coming any week now) is a trans-platform music mixer, player and sound designer, that runs on Windows, Mac, and Win Mobile. It includes a built-in Noatikl player; listen to your generative music compositions on the move. :)

http://www.intermorphic.com/tools/mixtikl/index.html

HTH, Pete"

via Umcorps:
"Some audio and video demos here
http://www.vimeo.com/umcorps/"

Tutorial - note to midi CC conversion in noatikl from Umcorps on Vimeo.

"This short demo looks at how to use note to midi controller conversion to create a system of midi control that conforms to the musical compositional rules in noatikl."

DigiDrummer

"Features:
* Interface designed to work
with your fingers. Makes it easy
to play drums on your iPhone and
iPod Touch!
* 16-bit high quality samples
* 8 drum pads"

More info here.

via Palm Sounds where you will find more music apps for your handheld device.
You can get digidrummer here:

and digidrummer lite here:

New Optigan Disc Survey

vai optigan.com blogitan!

"We now have the ability to create new discs for the Optigan, Orchestron and Talentmaker from scratch, using any sounds we (or you) like. We intend to offer these new discs to the public, but the production costs are quite high, which necessitates our need to obtain a more accurate understanding of what you, the Optigan disc buying public, might want in terms of content and pricing."

You can find the survey here.

ASys Modular Arpeggiator

YouTube via bigcitymusic
"Here's a fun little patch. We're sequencing the Analogue Systems rs95 oscillator with the rs200. The rs95 is fed into the rs110 Multimode filter, using the low pass out. On the rs95 there's a 'CV-Vary' input, which we have set to 1v/oct. Plug in your keyboard controller here. You can use a sequencer to arpeggiate whatever note you're playing on the keyboard. Sweet."

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Fairlight Series III MFX Hard Disk Recording System

images via this auction
"Fairlight Series III MFX 3 Hard Disk recording system. Its a 24 channel analog and digital, 16 bit system.
Though it was built in the early 90s (approx 1992) its quality, reliability and famous ease of editing means these units are still in use in major studios all over the world. This is an extremely rare system.. and cost around $80,000 new. It was recently decomissioned from a high end film/tv post production facility here in Melbourne.

This one is MFX 3, operating system 12.3.27.
OS 12 was the last revision that was CMI capable, meaning that with the correct cards you can turn this into a CMI machine. Many of the CMI system cards are already present, but the channel, CMI I/O, and WRAM cards are not. The console/keyboard can switch between MFX and CMI mode when the correct software and hardware is installed, as shown in the photos. I had plans to do this, but don't have the time or know how to track down the relevant cards/software and set up the system. For a person with relevant Fairlight experience this could make a seriously powerful CMI machine, or companion/expansion to a Series III CMI.

Included is:
Series III Card Cage
MFX I/O Unit
MFX Console/Keyboard
External SCSI Hard Drive
2x digital Tape Storage Devices
All interconnecting cables.

Installed cards are:
6 x ESPDCC Rev 1.5 (for a total of 24 digital and analog I/O)
ESP96K
ESPSYN Rev 2.10
Q133 Rev 9.2
Q209 Rev 8.1
Q356 Rev 2A
ESPCG3 Colour Graphics.
Q007 REv 1A.1
CMI41 Rev 2.4
CMI28 Rev 5.1
ESPTS1 Rev 3.2T

Please see this page for reference"

Yamaha DX1

via this auction

50" x 26" x 9", 115 lbs
"So, what's actually in a DX 1?

It's a 32 voice FM synth based on the DX 7 voice structure. It adds the ability to have split and dual modes (two 16 voices synths). Physically, the DX 1 has a great feeling wooden keyboard with velocity, after touch and individual key after touch (a rarity for any synth). It also has the standard pitch bend and modulation wheels, plenty of connections in the back for pedals and footswitches, MIDI In/Out/Thru, and both 1/4" and balanced XLR outputs. On the front under the wheels are connections for headphones and a breath controller input. There are also two cartridge slots for additional sounds/storage.

I believe Yamaha spent extra time and money on the output stage of this synth. It sounds much better than any DX-7 or DX-7 II. Hook up the XLRs to your mixing board and stand back. There's a certain 'bigness' that comes through and you can hear it even if couldn't see the synth playing it. Having the weighted keys and responsiveness of velocity and individual after touch means that you'll get lost playing this thing. It takes you to another world and time just stands still.

Oh yeah, there's also the little matter of ALL THE DISPLAY INFORMATION! Forget trying to build a ship in a bottle. The front panel of the DX 1 makes it a joy to actually program and edit FM patches. All the algorithms are displayed and the selected one is displayed in the LED boxes next to the chart. The feedback operator, algorithm number, detune, and frequency are also displayed. The envelope rates and levels have their own display section, as well as information about the output level and other generally useful data.

There's also lots of dedicated buttons and a handy chart for accessing various functions in the menus. All in all, this synth is an absolute breeze to use and to get around."