MATRIXSYNTH

A Janko Musical Keyboard Project

Click here for another Janko DIY project. The following is a short blurb from the site: "Have you ever thought about why the keys are arranged the way they are on a piano? The piano keyboard is extremely well established and few people question if its a good or bad keyboard layout. It has taken quite some time for me to realize that the piano keyboard really couldn't be an ingenious device. From a historical viewpoint the key arrangement on the piano is actually a remodification of some really old designs that were used in the renaissance period. The Janko keyboard is named after its inventor Paul von Janko which was a hungarian matematician. Indeed I could spend all day and night just talking about the theory and background of the piano keyboard versus the so called Janko keyboard and I believe this wikipedia article explains it pretty good."

The site mentions the only manufacturer of Janko keyboards is a Japanese company called Chromatone. Although similar to the C-Thru Axis controllers it is different. I did a little digging and according to this site: "C Thru Music's harmonic table and the Shape of Music's Melodic Table are both based on Tonnetz by Euler and Riemann(http://www.thummer.com/blog/2007/06/eulers-tonnetz.html , http://members.cox.net/dysartp/traditionalTonnetz.html)." Be sure to see this thread for more info on alternate keyboard controllers. Also see the labels below for prior posts here on MATRIXSYNTH.

Memorymoog Multisamples on a Waldorf Blofeld

via Boele of SCD:

"Well, here is a little example of the usage of a Memorymoog multisample in the Blofeld. Bare recording.

I combined the sample (sort of bellish bass) with a VA pulse waveshape from the Blofeld, added all kinds of modulation on that pulse waveshape, FM-ing one of the sample oscillators a little, added some noise, delay etc. etc.

http://www.synthmusic.info/mpdries/mm.mp3

Now one can argue if this sound isn't possible without the Moog's multisample which in fact is quite a basic one. I say no :-) At least not without a lot of extra programming. The characteristics of the Memorymoog's low end and overall EQ can't be simulated well on the Blofeld. Plus the randomness of pitch and other things of the Moog's samples.

Another important thing with multisamples from other instruments: the level-curve from a whole keyboard range is not easy (if not impossible) to simulate on the Blofeld.

Boele"

Reason 4.0 CV/Gate Controlling an Oberheim S.E.M.

YouTube via PeffTV. volta
"http://www.peff.com/journal/2009/06/1... Reason CV signals converted to audio signals via the THOR Polysonic Synthesizer, will send a DC voltage through the Mark of the Unicorn 896 HD audio interface. In this manner Reason 4.0 can be used to control a variety of analog synthesizers that comply to the traditional CV/Gate voltage protocols. I tested this configuration with the ARP2600, which also works very well."