Monomachines SFX6 & Neuron

flickr by wetta.ch
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Buchla Ken Kesey

flickr by guiltysin
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According to the description this is at the Cantos Foundation museum in Calgary Alberta and is still working. It was designed for Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. Note the Ken Kesey's signature.

Update via rick in the comments: "This is the "Sound System" from the bus "Further"..it is made up for 3 stock buchla modules - 190 Dual Reverb, 170 Dual Mic preamp and the 106 6 channel mixer.. the last panel appears to be custom. it was connected to the amps in the bus and allowed the occupants to broadcast their acoustic performances of music, poetry etc. there are no tubes. I assume the transformers on the 170 are what are being referred to... don used transistor based technology on the 100... some ICs were incorporated later on but not on these particular modules."

skankulator demonstration

YouTube via horchacha. via Deviant Synth.
"6 oscs(cmos), 4 ring mods(cmos), passive vca(diodes), passive vcf(vactrol), decay generator, additional passive low pass filter (via rotary), 2 watt amp - some knobs n crap - a lunetta? the vca modulation is skankulation - i have a lil fet s&h between the 6th osc and the vca - no buffer not so good
dave wright
www.notbreathing.com"

Siftables Music Sequencer

Update: Ted Talks video. via Create Digital Music




Siftables Music Sequencer from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.
"This music sequencer allows you to drop samples into a looping track, add gesture-controlled effects and alter the sequence of samples in real time."

You can find more info and videos on David Merrill's Siftables page. Below is the set from Vimeo. The videos pretty much show what these can do. The following is a brief excerpt from the site. There's no mention if these will ever become available.

"Siftables are independent, compact devices with sensing, graphical display, and wireless communication capabilities. They can be physically manipulated as a group to interact with digital information and media. Siftables can be used to implement any number of gestural interaction languages and HCI applications."

Siftables word game

Siftables word game from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.
"The Scraboggle application is really straightforward - the siftables display letters. Arrange them into words!"

Siftables Equation Editor

Siftables Equation Editor from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.
"This siftables application shows a tangible way to learn about arithmetic and solve equations. It even supports subtraction! (Wow! - not shown here)."

Siftables pouring example

Siftables pouring example from Jeevan Kalanithi on Vimeo.
"This video showcases a siftables interaction in which the user can "pour" a color from a bucket siftable to another to tint the image. You can pour the color out of an image back into a bucket as well."

A Saint Valentine's Day theme

YouTube via attorks

"Happy Valentine's Day to you all. For this occasion a somewhat romantic theme. Row 1 of the Doepfer MAQ16/3 drives the Synthesizers.com Modular, row 2 the self built Modular and row 3 the Creamware MiniMax ASB. The solo's are performed by the AKAI AX80 with the P1 piano preset and the Korg 900PS wih the Voice and Clarinet presets. The cello like bass is performed by the Clavia Nord Lead 1."

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

circuit bent steinerphonacon: akai ewi and moon cycle delay pedal

video upload by spunkytoofers

"ewi3000m to a circuit bent delay pedal to a electro harmonix 2880 looper. moon cycle delay pedal is a new design by spunkytoofers that allows hands free control of a circuit bent delay device complete with assignable bend stomp switches and foot expression control along with lots of delay cycle locks and variations including sample and hold and synth tones. total moon cycle foot control free style"

M525 26

YouTube via moonmodular

303_bluie

YouTube via ripe909. this auction?
"303 for sale on ebay, just running through the buttons and knobs. Has blue LEDs"

Roland GR-33B

via this auction

Peter Forest's A-Z of Analogue Synthesisers

via this auction

This is just a glimpse of what's in there. An absolute must have for the synth enthusiast. My words, not the auction. Seriously the A-Z of Analogue Synthesizers is the desert island set of synth books. Highly recommended. Note they are listed in the Synth Books section.

"A complete two-volume set of the most comprehensive encyclopaedia of analogue synths and keyboards in the world - direct from the author.

The original A-M was produced in 1994, and then re-written and expanded in 1998. There are probably nearly twice as many words crammed in to the second edition as there were in the first. The second edition has 320 pages, 16 of which are full colour, while the original edition only had 240 pages. There's a whole lot of extra information about EMS, Moog, and many other manufacturers; a greatly improved index, and a new index to the musicians mentioned in the book. So if you're into, say, Tangerine Dream, you can find the 25 pages on which they're mentioned; Tim Blake, 8 pages; and even Tim Buckley on two.

The first edition was printed in a run of 2000, and 2000 copies of this revised edition were also printed. This second edition has been officially out of print for a year now, so is impossible to buy via any bookseller like Amazon. I thought I had run out of every single mint copy of the books, but today my wife was doing a bit of cleaning and pulled out a drawer, and discovered two packets of books underneath the drawer. We then looked in the other side of the chest of drawers and found two more packets, making 96 books in all. This particular book is one of the books that the printer printed as 'run-on' - when a printer is supposed to print 2000 they will always do a few more to be certain they have done enough, in case a few have blemishes. That means it has no official number in the limited edition, so I have numbered it out of 2096 and initialed the number. (But just to be more complicated.... we're disappointed to find that many of the books have some slight defects from their long time in non-perfect storage - mostly where one or two of the colour photo pages have stuck together in places - talk about synth porn..... - and you can see where they have had to be peeled apart. Usually on the page edges, not very serious, but there when you look for it. So this unblemished A-M is one of only very few still in existence - the rest will have to be sold as imperfect.)

The original N-Z was printed in 1996, in a run of 2000, and then the second revised edition (of 3000) was printed in 2003. It has 384 pages, including 16 in full colour. Please check the photos to see the sort of coverage you will get of rare, obscure instruments like the Syntons and Wavemakers or ultra-famous offerings like the Rolands and Yamahas.

The total number of words in these two books is probably over half a million. With hundreds of illustrations, charts, etc., the whole package provides a comprehensive guide to analogue synths, organs, electric pianos, theremins, etc., up to 1998 for ones beginning A-M, and 2003 for the N-Zs. The books have been well-reviewed in magazines all round the world, and enjoyed by some of the best-known names in electronic music, such as Fatboy Slim, Hans Zimmer, Herbie Hancock, and Adrian Utley of Portishead.

Who's selling: my name's Peter Forrest. I've been writing about synths, keyboards, effects and recording gear for nearly 20 years now, and I run an internet auction called VEMIA (Vintage Electric Musical Instrument Auctions) which specialises in synths, drum machines, effects, and so on. Please check my feedback to see that you can bid with confidence. Feel free to email me any questions."

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