Introducing: USB Audio & MIDI Interfaces (UM/UA Series

YouTube via CakewalkSoftware
"Cakewalk introduces a new line of USB Audio & MIDI interfaces. These compact, affordable products are PC and MAC compatible- designed to connect one or more instruments, MIDI devices, and other equipment to a computer."

steiner vcf

YouTube via bluelantern320
"STEINER VCF CLONE DEMONSTRATION. IN THIS PARTICULAR PROTOTYPE I HAD TO CHANGE THE REZ POT TO A 1K, THAT IS WHAT THE ODD LONELY KNOB IS FOR ON THE RIGHT. FUTURE RUNS OF THIS WONDERFUL VCF WILL HAVE THIS CORRECTION IMPLIMENTED TO MATCH THE REST OF THE KNOBS."

ARM FPGA Audio board

"This is a development system for audio applications of FPGAs and Microcontrollers. It provides the following features:

* NXP LPC2144 ARM Microcontroller with 128kB Flash, 16kB SRAM, USB, 2 ADCs, DAC, etc.
o Pin-compatible with LPC2146/LPC2148 for more SRAM and Flash
* MicroSD Flash card socket for on-board program, FPGA bitstream and data table storage.
* Xilinx XC3S250EVQ100-4 FPGA with ~250kgate capacity, 12 multipliers, 216kb RAM and 66 I/O
o Pin-compatible with XC3S500EVQ100-4 or -5 for more gates, BRAM, multipliers and speed
* ISSI IS61WV25616 SRAM with 4Mb (256k x 16) and 10ns access time.
o Pin-compatible with IS61WV51216 8Mb (512k x 16) for 2x capacity.
* Cirrus Logic CS4270 stereo audio CODEC with up to 200kHz / 24-bit sampling.
* 24.576MHz Oscillator
o Optional VCXO and simple PLL for sychronization to external sources.
* USB 2.2 full-speed port in Mini-B format.
* MIDI physical interface.
* Hitachi-standard character LCD drive signals.
* Off board analog/digital expansion port with 8 MCU I/O.
o Up to 6x 10-bit ADC inputs.
o 1x 10-bit DAC output.
o Up to 8x GPIO (4 with pullups for switches / encoders)
o 2nd UART
o Up to 3 PWM
* One Digilent-compatible 6-pin peripheral module connector for direct FPGA interfacing.
* JTAG ports for MCU and FPGA development and debugging
* USB or external 5V power.
* SMA Clock In/Out
* Uncommitted FPGA testpoints

I envision this being used for development of unique digital synthesis systems based on a hybrid of 32-bit ARM MCU acting as a powerful command interpreter and realtime scheduler, along with the FPGA/SRAM/CODEC which combine to provide a powerful audio synthesis and effects engine.

Potential applications include:
* MIDI-controlled digital synthesis
* Delay effects (more than 5 seconds of storage at 48kHz)
* Real-time spectral analysis with Xilinx FFT cores
* AES/EBU and SP/DIF interfacing (via Digilent port and VCXO)
* Vocoders
* Granular Synthesis
* etc"

schematics and more at ARM FPGA Audio. Be sure to see the FPGA label below for other projects.

NAMM: Jordan Rudess with DS-10!!!

via the KORG DS10 blog

"Jordan Rudess with DS-10 at NAMM show 2009

Thousand thanks, Mr.Jordan!!!

Actually, I’m dissapointed that DS-10 sales in the U.S. and Europe haven’t been as good as in Japan,but this pic is so uplifting !
And if you play DS-10 on your live stage performance, it will be super-uplifting!!!!"

Therevox ET-3

via this auction

"Cool Therevox ET-3 ET3 tabletop instrument. This is a modern recreation of the tannerin used originally by the Beach Boys to recreate the Theremin part from "Good Vibrations" live. This was built in a limited run of 13 last year by Mike Beauchamp. These are no longer available. This works great and sounds really cool. It has some more complex functions available as well as the basic saw and sine waves tones. Its an excellent stand alone instrument or as a controller for Modular synth stuff or CV inputs. It is similar in form and function to the Eowave Persephone and the French Connection controller, which is a copy of an Ondes Martenot. For more info, see the now retired therevox website: http://therevox.com/index.php" Also see the Therevox label below for prior posts.

CLICK FOR MORE »

NAMM: WNAMM09: Akai MPK25 Once Over

via Sonic State

Be sure to check out Sonic State's News section for more NAMM coverage. I'm only putting up the synth vids here, so you are missing the other gear and written articles.

NAMM: WNAMM09 Arturia Mini Moog 2 Demo

via Sonic State

NAMM: WNAMM09: Spectrasonics Omnisphere Upgrade Demo

via Sonic State

Clock Divider PCB front/reverse

flickr by fonitronik
(click for more)

full size

"the PCBs arrived today from PCB house. www.fonitronik.de"

Drum machine Orgy, May 28/03

flickr by d3c0n5truct
(click for more)

full size

Anyone know where this event was?

Update via Konketsu in the comments: "analogassailant is correct. We had this happen in Vancouver at a community space called "Here on Earth" that was located in the industrial section of East Vancouver, and it was organized by several members of a now defunct electronic music collective called "The Black Hole Club". I found these and other pictures while I was cleaning up one of my hard drives, and I thought that I would upload it so I could share it on http://www.livepa.org/board and I didn't expect it to show up here.

We had somewhere around 30 machines show up and the idea was to get them all synced up to one clock source. Sort of a "hey, can we do this?" exercise more than a musical or recording one. It did work, but as you can imagine the sound was godawful and given the number of machines there obviously was a lot of slop in the timing. The hard part was actually getting a clock that each of the machines could recognize; there were a number of pre-MIDI boxes that had a wide variety of differing clock requirements so it was no small feat getting everything to talk to one another.

Before we did this, we had to define what a "drum machine" was, and we settled on a definition like "a stand alone hardware device that is capable of generating simultaneous and polyphonic sounds that are primarily percussive in nature and is capable of playing back those sounds in a preset or user-defined pattern, and is intended for use as a backing rhythm track source alone", or something to that effect which excluded MPC's, sequenced monosynths/modulars and workstations/grooveboxes.

Like I said before, it was really a try-it-and-see type thing, rather than a musical or recording exercise, as well as a great excuse to get together, geek out on drum machines and drink beer. Good times!

Thanks for posting it."