MATRIXSYNTH

The Story Of The BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the Oramics Optical Synthesizer

via Steve Marshall:

"I wrote a 12 page article about the history of the Radiophonic Workshop for the April 08 Sound On Sound and it's now free to read on-line.

As a result of that article being printed, Graham Wrench got in touch - he's the engineer who'd built the prototype Oramic synth for Daphne Oram in the 60's. The current Feb 09 SOS has my new article about Graham and his story. Here's a link, but only to a preview.

Ray White has just put up a new gallery of Radiophonic Workshop pics - some not seen before; http://whitefiles.org/rwg/"

Also see Steve Marshall's SURROUNDHEAD for scans from 70's Studio Sound magazines.

Above: "Daphne Oram with the wobbulator (centre of shot), 1958."

Left: "The unique Oramics synthesizer was controlled by drawing onto 35mm photographic film."

Prophet 5 Rev 2 Test

via Scott Metzger on AH:
"Just had a Kenton Kit installed on my Prophet. So happy with it now. Unison is very, very thick. Does anyone know about patches acting weird on it? Some old patches on it seem to not allow proper tweaking, but if I go to the default panel then overwrite the patch all is good, and I never have issue on that bank or patch. Was hoping someone could shed some light..

Oh, and here is a test I did if anyone wants to hear..

mp3 here

Using a Jomox 888, and a Geiger Counter for Bit distortion on the snare. If anyone gets a chance to pick that pedal up, you can grab it from AH. Very very cool pedal and it adds a nice tone to the Snare that is pretty week on the 888. I hope Jomox releases a new drum machine with a new snare. I think the Jomox would be the best drum machine hands down if it had more of a punch with the snare."

Tapestri for iPhone Now Available

You can find it here:

See this post for more info.

Pulse Feedback

Pulse Feedback from Ernst on Vimeo.
"Quick and raw footage of my oscilloscope getting input from a patch in my doepfer a100 system.

Patch is roughly:
Pseudo-Random Pulses made with 2 LFO's feeding into an A149-1 Source of Uncertainty.
Output (via mixer- see later) of which is filtered by an A128 fixed filterbank which is amplified afterwards by an A119 pre amp.
Output of that is fed back via an A130 mixer into the A128.
Feedback point is crucial for the sound! Actually this feedback functions as the resonance factor of the A128.

Other speciality of this patch is that I actually use the A149-1 as an audio source..."

NAMM: 2009 Winter NAMM Open Labs booth feat. Jimmy Nichols

YouTube via OpenLabsInc
"Renown keyboardist and composer Jimmy Nichols stopped by the Open Labs 2009 Winter NAMM booth to show the crowd why he loves his Open Labs gear. Nichols is currently the music arranger for Faith Hill, and has worked with Reba McEntire, Elton John, Kelly Clarkson and many others. He has been an Open Labs endorsed artist since 2006, and uses his NeKo in the studio and on the road. At this event, NAMM introduced their Gen5 products, that feature new innovations like Bump MP and Riff."

NAMM: WNAMM09:Akai EWI USB - Give Your Horn Some Wind

see the write-up on Sonic State.
And that's it for this round of Sonic State posts. Be sure to see their News feed for more not posted here.

NAMM: WNAMM09: Wallander WIVI Orchestral Synthesizer

see the write-up on Sonic State
Note the Waldorf Blofeld keyboard as the controller.

NAMM: WNAMM09: Yamaha Tyros 3 Demo

See the write-up on Sonic State

NAMM: Bob Moog Foundation Executive Director’s Report from NAMM ‘09

"Bob Moog Archives on Display, NAMM Museum of Making Music Exhibit, a Sneak Preview at the Moogseum and much, much more!

Winter NAMM, held in Anaheim, CA each mid- January, is always a blast for the Bob Moog Foundation. There we meet up with old friends, make great industry contacts and generally spread the word about the Foundation’s progress. This year we had much to report! As you all know, we have been working steadily to preserve and protect Bob’s imperiled archives over the past year and a half. Our goal has always been to share these archives through exhibits, and eventually through out own museum."

see the full post with more images at the Bob Moog Foundation blog.