Retronyms iPad Synth: Patch Editor

YouTube via retronyms — June 01, 2010 — "A brief look at the patch editor upgrade for iPad Synth. http://retronyms.com/synth"

Retronyms on iTunes
iPads on Ebay

mental metal

YouTube via scaffbeat — June 01, 2010 —
"Tags: Malekko Noisering modular"

ANimALOGICA 2 Bologna Synth Meeting - Synthesizers.com

YouTube via NoctivagaMusica — June 01, 2010 — "ANimALOGICA 2 Bologna Synth Meeting Meeting on Synthesizers.com 1.11.2010"

PPG "Der Kleine" - The First PPG

via Jan. The following audio is of Wolfgang Palm's first PPG called "der Kleine." According to Jan, only 5 were produced. A former owner of "Der Kleine" was Amon Dul II.

Jan: "'Der kleine' was built prior to the 1002/1020 ( those circuits are based on the 'Kleine') I am currently discussing with W.Palm on how to fix all the sites to include this synthesizer."





Update via ahiv93 in the comments:
"Here's a link to a pic via sequencer.de http://www.sequencer.de/blog/?p=2256"

Arturia Origin Firmware 1.2.1 Demos

You can find more pics and a review on cl516 here.

Arturia Origin Firmware 1.2.1 Demos by Calvin Cardioid

Hans Zimmer Scoring The Dark Night

In case you missed it, see this post on Hans Zimmer scoring The Dark Night. The original video in that post was taken down. A new one has been added.

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."