MATRIXSYNTH

SimSam sample-rate-cruncher toy

YouTube via 4mspedals
"Unveiled at the beginner's class at Handmade Music Austin #4 (Jan 2010), the SimSam is a "sample-rate cruncher" that's glitchy as all get-out, but only costs about $8 in parts (including pcb and battery snap). It's an effect with an input and output jack; and it's a noise-maker since a jumper shorts the output back into the input when nothing is plugged into the input jack. We built 28 SimSam's in a couple hours at the workshop... heh heh.. thats a lot of messed up sounds...

The SimSam was designed by Dann Green of 4ms Pedals, and its part of the whole Andromeda thing, even though it doesnt have infrared."

Kegel - Folktek Micro-Feedback Wave: Looped & Live

YouTube via arthurpainter. Folktek on Ebay
"This is essentially a record of a first encounter with my latest Folktek instrument: the Micro-Feedback Wave. I started by looping a phrase on my Korg Kaoss Pad. The resulting sound was then manipulated on the MFW, as you can see and hear. Again, thanks Arius and Ben."

XHALE - IN2 YOUR MIND ''HD''

YouTube via XHALE303. "synth art" begins at 2:03 with the TB-303. Various synths featured: Roland TB-303, KORG Poly-61, KORG Polysix, Moog Voyager, KORG Triton, Akai MPC?, etc... Access Virus C, Roland MC-303, Yamaha AN1x and more come in later.
"ARTIST: XHALE
SONG: IN2 YOUR MIND
GEAR: MPC4000, JP8080, KAWAI K4R
MADE IN 2009
3D ANIMATIONS: SKETCHUP7 & MOVIEMAKER"

Richard Devine's Newly Modded Acid Rig

modified 303 and 606

http://www.richard-devine.com/

NAMM: Winter NAMM 2010 Pictures via Big City Music

You can find a link to the set on the Big City Music blog here.

Pictured:
Analogue Systems modular with The French Connection Ondes Martenot style controller.
Metasonix D-1000 Vacuum-Tube Drum Machine

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.