NAMM: Final Pics via fdiskc

The final pics from Brandon Daniel of fdiskc are up here.

Pictured:
Waldorf Zarenbourg
ZVex Effects Invento box

NOT NAMM: AtomoSynth Medussa

via AtomoSynth
AtomoSynth on Ebay

"The Medussa synth features:
one analog square and saw waveform VCO (voltage controled oscillator) with a huge pitch range, from subsonic to ultrasonic sound.

Glide module to add a portamento effect to the VCO.

One Low-pass vactrol based VCF (voltage controled filter)with cutoff and resonance controls and whith a decay knob which controls the cutoff parameter.

The Medussa features a 16 step analog-style sequencer.

Non-volatile internal memory to storage 3 sessions of 4 patterns each (while playing you can swith between the patterns in real time).

LCD blue back-ligthed display (very useful on dark stages).

5 buttons and pitch knob to control the sequencer (play/stop, cursor + and -, Ok and back buttons for intuitive control)

1/4 inch audio output, and a MIDI input to sync the Medussa with any midi device that sends midi clock signals, the Medussa can be synchronized at 1/4, 1/2, 1 and 2 times the tempo of the master clock midi device.

The instrument is ligthed with one ultra bright led that illuminates the panel layout and one ultra bright led to indicate the step that is being played, also very usefull (and nice) in dark stages.

The Medussa is packed in a cool laser cut clear acrilic case that shows all the hand made analog circuitry."

NOT NAMM: FunkBox Drum Machine iphone app demo

YouTube via syntheticbits

"Demo of the FunkBox Drum Machine iphone app from Synthetic Bits. FunkBox is a pocket-sized emulation of classic vintage beatboxes, along with all their dirt and quirks. Grab a Funkbox and get busy making yourself some funky beats. Available now from the Apple iTunes iphone app store!"

on iTunes here:


Official Press Release:

"Sometime late last night the FunkBox Drum Machine dropped on the iTunes App Store, bringing some much needed fun and funk to grateful humans across the planet Earth. The latest release from iPhone developers Synthetic Bits, this app brings all the sound, feel and features of a vintage drum machine to your iPhone, without letting the slick iPhone interface detract from the quirky charm of the original boxes blinky lights, clicky buttons, and sticky sliders.

"Putting in all the most useful parts of a classic beatbox was important, but what we really wanted to do was capture the real feel of using these things. They aren't cut and dry and precise - they are quirky, they're dusty, they're funky." says Art Kerns of Synthetic Bits. "Mostly we tried to make something that people could have fun just playing around with, because it can have all the features in the world, but if it isn't fun you'll never actually use it."

The idea for FunkBox came while Art was working on recording a retro-styled electronica album (Submodern's 2009 release "Slowburn") where he used an assortment of old vintage drum machines from the 70's and 80's. Rather than mousing around with the latest drum plugins, or triggering samples from within a modern digital audio sequencer, he sat down and recorded all the beats for the album using those original dusty, finicky, and funky decades-old beat boxes, giving him a new appreciation for their quirky interfaces, classic sounds, and limited but inspiring feature sets. Synthetic Bits' goal in making the FunkBox app was to create something similarly fun, funky, and easy to use.

"It's cool because you don't have to be an electronic musician to enjoy this thing," explains Synthetic Bits' co-founder Chris Kerns. "I didn't have any experience with drum machines and still had a lot of fun messing with the different beats and boxes in there, even if I didn't understand what everything did at first. And then when you're ready, you can also get a little deeper and really tweak things."

FunkBox brings everything you need to make your own dirty, funky beats on your iPhone, anywhere you go. A variety of preset beat patterns, tempo adjustments on the fly, classic drum box sounds, a live mixer, and for those who want to really get in there a classic x0x style drum programming grid. Beat heads everywhere can use the Funkbox to drop dirty beats sampled from Synthetic Bits personal collection of coveted vintage drum machines: the Roland TR-808, Roland TR-909, Roland TR-606, Roland CR-78, Maestro Rhythm King MRK-2 (the drum machine that Sly Stone nicknamed "the Funkbox"), and Korg ER-1. Yep, all the classic beatboxes that were used on all your favorite old school electro, techno, hip hop and synthpop tracks, and that are still being heavily used and namedropped to this day by artists like Beck ("Bangin' like an 808..."), Outkast ("I know y'all wanted that 808..."), the Beastie Boys ("...nothing sounds quite like an 808!"), and others.

"I was just trolling around the iTunes App Store this morning, and realized something was different," observed Chris. "Do you smell that? I think someone just brought the funk."

The FunkBox Drum Machine is available for download in the "music" section of the iTunes App Store today."

DIY RING CHAOS SYNTH

via this auction

"The Ring Chaos synth includes two squarewave vcos and a basic ringmodulator. It can be used with midi2cv devices, cv-keyboards, sequencers, audio outputs of drumcomputer, laptops, etc."

Additional details and samples here.

Boomintrigger

New Health Club video added to this post.

Bebot.mpg

YouTube via minsky57. Roland JD-800, KORG Polysix.

Jean-Jacques Perrey & Dana Countryman in NYC, 1st October 2008 (Part Two)

Part 2 added to this post.

NOT NAMM: Image Line Drumatrix

"The Drumatrix [now Drumaxx] percussion modelling instrument gives you total control over 10 physically modelled drums that can be routed to independent outputs for external effects processing.

Great, but why should you care when the internet is awash with fantastic sounding drum samples? In two words, expressive realism. Once a drum sound is recorded, the performance and modulation options are limited to filtering, volume or similar 1-dimensional filtering effects. When a single drum sample is triggered in a roll you get the familiar 'machine-gun' effect, it just sounds artificial. Multi-sampled, multi-layered drums can overcome this limitation but need multi-megabyte or even Gigabyte! drum libraries, and even then, you are still limited to the sounds originally recorded.

Drumatrix is not based on samples or even commonly used 'synthesis' techniques, where oscillators are mixed and the result is 'electronic'. Drumatrix is a truly 'modelled' drum, and not just a single drum, Drumatrix can model bass drums, hi-hats, snares, realistic and yes electronic sounds too. But what about the traditional 'Achilles' heel' of synthesis, cymbals? We have left the best until last, Drumatrix models cymbals & metallic 'ethnic' percussion instruments with ease.

At the core of Drumatrix is a model of the drum-head. Here the vibrating membrane is represented in a mesh of inter-connected of points, each given physical properties, mass, inertia, stiffness, damping and all that good physics stuff. For the musician, this means Drumatrix can model the drum-head with multiple parameters such as material, thickness, tension and even shape. More importantly the parameters can be modulated in real-time as a function of velocity or external controls. The drum body is also modelled, in terms of material, size, vibration damping and shape. All this gives you multi-dimensional performance possibilities, a Matrix of variables providing the almost infinite complexity & subtlety of hitting a real drum.

Key features:
10 Physically modelled drum pads.

Multi-output for individual effects processing on each pad.

Huge range of modelling possibilities covering sounds from cymbals to kettle-drums.

Velocity modulation matrix for detailed expressiveness.

Integrated Stepsequencer with trigger-key playback.

Integrated effects.

Single-pad version 'Drumpad' available for tight integration with FL Studio Stepsequencer

Drumbot jam

Drumbot jam from Michael Una on Vimeo.

"My new drumbots banging out a few rhythms. The beats are programmed in Ableton live, then sent via MIDI to a Highlyliquid MD24 kit, which converts MIDI to voltage. The voltage then feeds some relays and transistors to power the solenoids."

Moog Realistic MG-1 Restoration

flickr set by Pablo Penas
(click for more)

Click on the images for larger shots. The switches and sliders in the middle shot look like little garden / plant boxes.