DJ Digital Josh - Synths and Sampler

YouTube via digitaljosh
Instruments Used:
01. Roland JP-8080
02. Korg ESX
03. Roland XV-5050
04. Yamaha RM1X
Samples taken from:
01. Disciple - A Gamble
02. J.C.P. aka John Barlow & Colton Matney - Fearless
03. Reza-Rec - Anytime

Boss DR-202 Dr. Groove Demo 04-27-07

YouTube via digitaljosh
"Boss DR-202 Dr. Groove Demo 04-27-07
I like to buy drum machines on ebay and record samples of all the sounds. I guess it keeps me busy. :) I've done about 5 different ones so far. Please don't ask for the samples. You'll have to make your own."
via modularsounds.com where you'll find a review.

Big Ideas (don't get any)

YouTube via r2builder
be sure to see Bohemian Rhapsody and Funky Town!
"Video by James Houston
jim@1030.co.uk
1030.co.uk
--------

I graduated from the Glasgow School of Art's graphic design course. This was my final project.

Radiohead held an online contest to remix "Nude" from their album - "In Rainbows" This was quite a difficult task for everybody that entered, as Nude is in 6/8 timing, and 63bpm. Most music that's played in clubs is around 120bpm and usually 4/4 timing. It's pretty difficult to seamlessly mix a waltz beat into a DJ set.

This resulted in lots of generic entries consisting of a typical 4/4 beat, but with arbitrary clips from "Nude" thrown in so that they qualified for the contest.

Thom Yorke joked at the ridiculousness of it in an interview for NPR radio, hinting that they set the competition to find out how people would approach such a challenging task.

I decided to take the piss a bit, as the contest seemed to be in that spirit.

Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.

It doesn't sound great, as it's not supposed to.

I missed the contest deadline, so I'm offering it here for you to enjoy.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Guitars (rhythm & lead)
Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer - Drums
HP Scanjet 3c - Bass Guitar
Hard Drive array - Act as a collection of bad speakers - Vocals & FX"

Jam Jar demo + jam! and Chicken Box Synth Demo

Jam Jar demo + jam! from The Amazing Rolo on Vimeo.
You might remember the jar from this Light and Sound Devices post.
"The Jam Jar is a small light-responsive digital synthesizer made out of a couple of dollars worth of parts and housed in a jam jar. In this video I show it off and make some music with it using Ableton Live and a guitar.

check out my other projects:
theamazingrolo.net
wiiloopmachine.com"


Chicken Box Synth Demo from The Amazing Rolo on Vimeo.
"Playing around with a new synth I've just made as part of the research for my "Don't Talk Back" project. The three knobs do things to change the sound in ways I don't really understand. The button generates the sound. The jar contains a homemade 1W amplifier."

Handmade Music 4-16-09

YouTube via makemagazine. via The Voice of Saturn
"Projects and performances seen at the monthly Handmade Music event - a science fair / party of strange, new DIY musical creations held at 3rd Ward, Brooklyn."

Kawai K5M Repair on Sequence 15

more images and the post on Sequence 15

inside a Kawai K5M

"The half on the left, laying flat, is the front panel. The right half is the rear half."

sid_2_leather1

flickr by mesak
(click for more)

Leather SID

full size

ROLAND ANNOUNCES JUNO-G VERSION 2.0

"Los Angeles, CA, April 27, 2009 — Roland Corporation, U.S. is proud to announce the release of a major system upgrade for the JUNO-G Workstation Keyboard, adding Fantom-series audio sampling functionality that you can use alongside all the other powerful JUNO-G features.

The Version 2.0 software upgrade is a free and easy download. In minutes, you’ll be sampling, chopping, and sequencing your new sounds. Included in the JUNO-G Version 2.0 upgrade are these new features:

* Sample audio from external sources or import audio phrases from the removable flash memory.
* Samples can be assigned to trigger from the JUNO-G’s function buttons or the JUNO-G’s keyboard.
* Velocity and note number can be assigned individually for each sample.
* Adjust Start, End and Loop points using the JUNO-G’s front panel control knobs.
* Advanced sampling editing such as Truncate, Normalize, Emphases, Sample Chop and Combine are included.
* Samples can automatically match BPM in real-time to changes made to the tempo of your song.

To download JUNO-G Version 2.0 software upgrade, please visit: LINK"

DIY Sequencers and a Minimoog Music

YouTube via nathanielscott
"I am trying to figure out a good ways to use my two DIY eight step sequencers and a multi-frequency clock in conjunction with a good synth (like the minimoog used in this video) to make musical real-time music. This session was OK but I would like to develop a system of switching between sequencers to vary the patterns even more than I do in this vid. BTW, if you don't like the music at least fast forward to 7:39 and listen to the fat patch I dial in at the end.

I would like to once again thank the Reuseum in Boise for providing the parts for the sequencers!"

Kurzweil K250 Complete Sound Library

via this auction via gpoltrock in the comments of this post
"complete set of original disks for the famous, groundbreaking Kurzweil K250 keyboard as used by Stevie Wonder, Paul Schaffer, Kenny Rogers and others. There are 12 boxes of 10 disks each. 120 disks that include a great variety of sounds: piano, guitar, choir, drums, bells, harpsichord, ethnic, sound effects and more. Eleven of the boxes include documentation on the sounds and install process.

Of course, you have to have a Kurzweil K250 of RMX to use these and I offer these disks not really expecting much interest as the K250 sold for around $11,000 in the early 80s. 4000 were manufactured and there are probably few around in working order. Not being familiar with the instrument’s operation, I wonder if an old Macintosh computer is needed, too. The documentation states:

'The sound library is a growing collection of Kurzweil sounds on Macintosh disks accessible to you for playing in your K250 or RMX through QLS and the sound modeling program.'

The QLS might be a faster sound loading system for the 250... using the Mac instead of the floppy on the keyboard. It then lists the procedure on how to load a Kurzweil sound library disk using QLS. (Quick Load System)."