MATRIXSYNTH

SUIKO-ST50 Japanese Exotic KOTO Synth

via this auction.

Click on the image for a larger shot. Be sure to see the SUIKO label below for other models. The seller also has some others up for auction.

auction details:
"SUIKO-ST50 is extremely rare and most strange japanese electronic musical instruments
it was originally made for japanese traditinal music circa. 1990.
SUIKO-ST50 was a expensive and most full functional product of SUIKO series

SUIKO-ST50 was very expensive and made very limited quantities those days
originaly made for the very small circle of the people who seriously studying japanese traditional music
and never sold at ordinary musical instruments market
so i'ts very hard to find even in Japan nowadays...
this is your first and last chance to get this vintage bizarre gem!

it has 2 rows of button keyboard
this keyboard specially designed for playing glissando easily like koto(japanese harp)
front row of the keyboard is japanese scale,so just playing randomly you can easily get exotic japanese melody!
it has internal stereo speakers and stereo output jack,phone jack,pedal jack,AC jack

there are various switchs for special japanese tuning, sustain,octave shift,vibrate,bend,mono/poly switch etc
trill switch easily simulates unique trill playing on Koto(japanese harp) two bend lever are available,pitch and sound level
most strange function is auto chord button(left below 4 button)
hold one keyboard and touch this button it automaticaly generates special exotic japanese style chord
it's not same as western theory but it from various japanese moods of poetic minds,really exotic!
and it also has auto play/rec function,you can record and play your performance
and play another instruments over your recording sound

many sounds are selectable,mainly japanese traditional instruments like shyakuhachi(japanese bamboo flute),koto(japanese harp) to oboe,strings,chorus etc..
in drums mode it become exotic rhythm section full of japanese traditional drums and percussion
so you can play all these percussion by tapping keyboard

sounds are very realistic,warm and strange!,unique original japanese sounds
even chorus or strings sound has dark vintage sound color like mellotron

I recommends SUIKO-ST50 for the artist who tired of western electronic instruments and seeking for fresh and bizzare sounds
and also recommends those who seriously studying japanese traditional music

Item is MINT condition and fully working.
comes with japanese manual(copy),and simple english guidance(each switch name &function etc) by myself
using 6 batteries or DC9V adaptor(not included)"

KORG MS-2000R

via this auction

Multivox Firstman SQ-01 Mini Music Lab SYNTHESIZER

via this auction

Some interesting shots of the unit showing it's perspective size. Note the warped surface, the jacks on the curved front of the unit. The bottom two knob shots remind of a mix between the KORG ER-1, MOOG The Source and an orange on black ARPs. Also note Multivox made them and it's not just Firstman, but Firstman International. I sometimes forget this.

Details from the auction:

"MULTIVOX SQ-01 Mini Music Lab analog synthesizer circa 1981. It works on 8AA batteries and sounds great.

Here's info from the manual
"The MULTIVOX SQ-01 Mini Music Lab SEQUENCE SYNTHESIZER is a monophonic multi-sound producing source (a synthesizer) and a digital recording device ( a computer memory storage sequencer) in one compact control box. The SQ-01 Mini Music Lab is to music what the calculator is to math. A.C. or 12 Volt D.C. power and memory storage backup help make the SQ-01 mini Music Lab a complete self contained unit, allowing the composer/performer to create sounds and compositions anywhere and record them for immediate musical background to compose and playback compositions flawlessly."

"The SQ-01 Mini Music Lab allows standard musical notation to be transferred to simple graphic notation that instructs the programmer/performer to enter a pitch and the length of time that pitch will be held. The music is recorded and stored into any one or all of sixteen possible channels for a possible 1024 note capacity. The seven octave range oscillator, pulse and sawtooth waveform generator, 24 dB low pass filter and envelope controls interact for the infinite sound creation we have come to expect from the finest and most sophisticated synthesizers. Optional BS-01 Bass Pedal controllers provide a unique automatic controllable bass pedal synthesizer that can transpose complete bass patterns of your creation."

'The SQ-01 Mini Music Lab can be interfaced and synchronized with other labs and synthesizers for full Mini Lab ensembles and infinite creative potential.'"

BEHRINGER's China Factory

YouTube via BEHRINGERCC.
"A video describing BEHRINGER's China factory."
Also see the Electro Harmonix factory tour.

Why I post what I post...

You never know what people will find useful or interesting. You may not be interested in the Philips PCM 100, but this person was.

"I recently found one of those philips pcm 100 composers but couldn't find a manual anywhere untill I crossed your blog via google. I was suprised to find out the foreign language is dutch, and since I'm from the Netherlands I speak and read it pretty well. So I wanted to thank you for posting it and letting you know what the actual language of the manual was. Not so suprisingly maybe since Philips is a dutch company.

Keep up the good work and thanks again!"

I love emails like this. It's also an interesting note about the manual. :)

Renaming the Keytar

Some in the comments of this post think we should rename the mighty keytar. Like it's too geeky or something. If you have anything better to call it, feel free to comment. I'll leave you with these classic keytastic videos while you ponder what could possibly relabel the classic keytar. Update: Polls added.

Brilliant Key Solo!

YouTube via t0asta. Vladima

Keytar - Song For Michael

YouTube via DrRyman. via the worst keytar videos ever on oobject

Songs From The Silver Box

Roger O'Donnell has a new release featuring the Moog Voyager. via Alka who is credited with additional drum and synth programming on the album. You can find the release on Amazon.

http://www.rogerodonnell.com/

Press Release:
"Anyone who fell in love with Roger O'Donnell's 2006 album, The Truth In Me, will most assuredly do the same with Songs From The Silver Box. In some respects, the template established by the earlier album remains in place for the second: the ten electronic songs are again performed almost solely with a single instrument, specifically the producer's beloved Moog Voyager; the album includes a mix of instrumental and vocal pieces (with his partner Erin Lang appearing once again on the new release); and as The Truth In Me ended with an extended composition (the fourteen-minute “...And So I Closed My Eyes”) so too does Songs From The Silver Box close with the thirteen-minute “Musique Pour Irakli.”

A key difference between the albums, however, is the presence of beats on the new album, a change that nudges O'Donnell's material closer to the refined melodic electronica associated with Boltfish artists such as Cheju , Mint, Milieu, and Joseph Auer. Though O'Donnell's material may (as reported) find its inspiration in the music of Autechre and Daedelus (among others), it evidences little of the alien severity of the former and the sample-based mayhem of the latter; O'Donnell's oft-pastoral settings, by comparison, are soothing and serene, and exude a warmth and humanity that sets his music apart from other genre practitioners.

The opening notes of “The Prince of Time” immediately identify the music as O'Donnell's when the Moog Voyager's warm sound is used to generate the song's kinetic bass and treble melodies. A few minutes into the piece, a midtempo funk pattern, the beats courtesy of Alka member Bryan Michael, makes its entrance, setting the stage for an extended synthesizer solo. Michael also programs the locomotive patterns that drive “If You Were Alone” and, interestingly, the pitter-pattering beats that appear in other pieces are likewise suggestive of “Trans-Europe Express” in their propulsive quality. Gentle pastel melodies dance over a repeating bass pattern in “Endlessly,” a song whose surface quietude tends to camouflage the emotion that slowly swells as it advances from one stage to the next, with lovely flourishes emerging ever-so-surreptitiously at the four-minute mark. Elsewhere, a beatific trip-hop lilt underscores the open-air splendour of “Changing” while “Always” brings a refreshing, free-floating spirit to the album.

On the vocal front, Lenka's siren-esque contribution to “In Your Hands Now” bolsters its already rapturous character, with the Australian singer's multi-tracked voice sinuously navigating a path over the rolling hills of the keyboard melodies and lightly skipping beat pattern. The first piece composed for the album, “Musique Pour Irakli,” originated when O'Donnell was commissioned to write and perform the music for an haute couture fashion collection in Paris for the Georgian designer Irakli. Swaying rhythms and intricate keyboard melodies suggest an elegant latticework of patterns and colours, while Lang's layered vocalizing offers intermittent sparkle. Her breathy singing also lends an appealing innocence to the melodically radiant “Tiny Pieces of You.” In its quiet way, the song is perhaps the album's most powerful, due in no small part to the fact that the intensity of feeling Lang and O'Donnell have for one another is so palpable.

O'Donnell's history will always precede him—how many others can say they played keyboards for the Psychedelic Furs and The Thompson Twins, and was a long-standing member of The Cure?—but such background is almost incidental in the case of the solo releases. They signify not just a new chapter in his career but an altogether separate volume, and anyone expecting songs remotely resembling The Cure's should look elsewhere. At this stage, O'Donnell has nothing to prove and could easily rest on his laurels, which makes the pleasures afforded by his wonderful solo material all the more satisfying."