Waldorf Blofeld

Pic of the Blofeld being upgraded to the latest OS, via Giulio.

That would be Friedrich Nietzche. He's graced the Blofeld screen since the beginning.

Soniccouture Novachord Sample Set

via Soniccouture (videos here)
"It is a little known fact, but the worlds first commercially available synthesizer was designed by the Hammond Organ Company in 1938 and put into full production from 1938 to 1942. The Novachord is a gargantuan, entirely tube based, 72 note polyphonic synthesizer with oscillators, filters, VCAs, envelope generators and even frequency dividers.

The first instrument was delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on Jan. 30, 1940 as a birthday present, but despite this auspicious start, the 500 lb instrument struggled commercially...

We sampled every one of the 72 notes on this beast - 50 times over. As well as full patches, we also separately sampled each Novachord 'tone' - the stops, or filter channels - so that we could model a 'Virtual Novachord' in Kontakt.

This comprehensive core sample library is used to maximum effect in creating two separate instrument concepts - The Dual layer NovaSynth and the 1939 / 2039 NovaSynth."

via Gregtronic. According to Greg, this sample set is from Phil Cirocco's Novachord while Hollow Sun's is from another Novachord in the UK.

Also see the Novachord label below for more. Note Hollow Sun also has a sample set and there is a Novachord instrument for Kontakt.

Line 6 Midi Mobilizer - A Quick View

YouTube via gearjunkies — June 01, 2010 — "A quick view of the Line 6 Midi Mobilizer for the iPhone or iPod Touch. Made by Gearjunkies Team member Marc."

Bent Fest

via Motherboard
"It was an average Saturday at the DUMBO, Brooklyn outlet of Mikey’s Hook Up, a computer retailer and repair specialist. Well-groomed arty-types came in, alone, in couples, with lattes in hand, all there to admire the shiny wares or bring in their dead laptop for repair. The air was quiet, calm, tinged with some nail biting concern about lost files, perhaps, but mainly confident. In other words, no sign of the kind of melee happening in the art space just across the street, where the Bent Festival, the annual circus of the art of “circuit bending,” was happening. Bent Festival celebrates DIY audio and hacking culture around the world. There, scattered impromptu groups of hardware hackers were tearing their gadgets apart, literally, in an attempt to do their own kind of fixing. Their only assistance came from men in worn t-shirts and beards whose advice consisted mainly of how to solder circuits together and the best way to break open plastic cases. To open one piece of electronics, someone resorted to simply throwing it at the floor, again and again, until its tiny tinny speaker started making death groans. (Later, he would add a new, louder speaker, and make it make stranger sounds.) Steve Jobs would have been scandalized.

The gadgets in question weren’t the sleek new phones and laptops being serviced across the street, but mainly plastic kids’ toys from the 1980s, built in China cheaply and at breakneck speed. Just as quickly had they been forgotten and trashed, which partly explained their presence, in various states of disassembly, on the workbenches. But apart from being cheap and easy to hack (the smaller and sleeker gadgets have become, the harder they have become to break apart), these all had another thing going for them: they made beeping sounds. If you’re really lucky, some of them, like the Speak ‘n’ Spell, even talk.

Crack open a toy walkie-talkie or a generic mini keyboard, rip off the coverings (sometimes there’s even scotch tape inside!), press a button, and simply lick a finger and touch a circuit: a short will cause the beep to become a bleeooooop, or a danger to become a dddddreeerrrrrrrrr. Wire an output to the speaker wire, plug in an amp, and you’ve got an outer-space music box fit for an intense audio-visual extravaganza.

While beginners and more expert circuit benders tinkered in workshops, small bands of musicians were huddled in the corners, preparing their homemade instruments for an all-out exposition of exploded instruments. At one point near the end of the night, a musician called Computer at Sea (and introduced as “the handsomer Dan Deacon,” though that would only barely approximate his sound), began his set by excitedly rallying the audience the only way that would have made sense: inviting them up to play his instruments. My hand shot up before he was finished asking, and soon it was on a keyboard, on a Simon Says knockoff, and there were all the other hands surrounding the table’s electronic feast, bathing in the torrent of sound and light and energy of our own creation. It wasn’t just the most fun I’d had at a concert in a while; it was the best kind of fun.

Like the toys we were all playing, the music came in all shapes and sizes, in bright colors and from another world. The best part: the musicians, like everyone else, weren’t just pressing buttons to play music. They were making the buttons themselves."

Collin's Lab: Guitar pedal hacking with Arduino

YouTube via makemagazine — August 19, 2009 —

"Instead of chaining multiple guitar effects in search of a new sound, I decided to mod just one. Using an Arduino microcontroller board + digi-pot chip, I was able to add a variable gating effect to a fuzz pedal.

source code + more infos here:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009...

video, audio, & riffs by Collin Cunningham"
Features wavetables.

Moog Source Synth art (Sharpies)

flickr by TheSynthFreq
(click for more)

Roland JP-8 Jupiter-8 Vintage Analog Synthesizer w/MIDI

via this auction

Lo-d (Hitachi) Vintage Analogue Synthesizer HMS-30

via this auction

"I have never seen one of these synths before, and there is very little info on the internet about it. Seems to be a rarity. Made sometime around the start of the 80's by Lo-D, which seems to be an offshoot of Hitachi in Japan. Reasonably large and well built machine, with classic wooden panels from the vintage era.

Here's what i have observed:
it is FULLY POLYPHONIC. not 4 or 6 or 8 voice polyphonic, but 100% polyphonic. Every key produces a note.

Each voice consists of 2 layers:
a sustained wave for the body of the sound, and an enveloped wave for the dynamic attack of the sound. each of these layers has the following 8 controls:
filter cutoff, filter resonance, pan, volume, warble speed and depth, tremolo speed and depth.
('warble' is an LFO which modulates the filter cutoff.)

so, basically, you build the sound from 2 layers, which are mixed together. each layer has its own filter and modulation options, and can be panned, so you can make nice stereo by putting one part to the left and the other to the right.

There is a global LFO for vibrato on the pitch. Rate and Depth can be altered with knobs. Total pitch can also be quite significantly altered using a knob which sweeps from bass right up to very high tones.

As if that's not enough, there is also a built-in rhythm machine, which consists of various simple drum patterns and a simple analogue drum engine which makes some simple bass, kick, hihat sounds. Certainly not going to replace you

So, a quick roundup so far of what this baby contains:

5 LFO's (global pitch, plus tremolo and warble for each of the 2 layers), 2 VCF's, One VCA, and a drum machine.

For an early 80's machine, that stuff by itself is pretty cool, but it seems to have gone a fair bit further than that with a whole section of buttons for controlling and editing an inbuilt sequencer. The LED's on that section are sadly not lighting up anymore, so one can only wonder to the full capabilities of this synth. I'm guessing it would have been quite expensive with all these options. The build is also very nice. The keyboard volume seems to change at a point 2 octaves up the keyboard. I assume this is to keep the volume of bass a bit lower than the melody when playing."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Fundamental Technologies of the Synthesizer

via this auction
Review via Amazon:
"Although a little dated, this book offers both the novice and intermediate student of the synthesizer a great foundation for the basics of sound structure and synthesizer functionality. It utilizes clear, concise language that is not overly academic or boring. It is written in a friendly fashion that makes you feel that the author is talking to you as if he was standing right next to you. It is very relaxed.
It has been used at Modesto Junior College (I am a former student) as the primary textbook since 1995.

It covers all of the basic forms of synthesis as well as a chapter on the synthesizer's basic relationship with computers and a chapter on how to look for and purchase a synthesizer based on your needs and finances.

It also covers the fundamental principles of MIDI.

If you are wondering about how you are going to learn about your new syntheizer without taking a college course, this book is definately the way to go.

It is absolutely packed with an incredible amount of very useful information. Do not hesitate to purchase this book. It is well worth the money."

Also added to the Synth Books section.

x0xb0x

via this auction
"XB303 aka x0xb0x
somatic circuits custom version
http://somaticcircuits.com/xb303.html

http://www.ladyada.net/make/x0xb0x/"

"selected high beta transistors
audio grade polyester capacitors
1% metal film resistors with matched DAC
multi-turn trims for precise tuning
genuine NOS 2sc1583, 2sc2291, 2sk30A,
BA6610, LA4140 and AN6562.
complete with all the electronic voodoo"