The Syntar Turns 32

Today marks the 32 year anniversary of George Mattson's Performance Music Systems Syntar. You might recognize the name Mattson. George is the man behind Mattson Mini Modular. The Syntar, conceived in 1978, was the first all-enclosed keytar synthesizer. Before then keytars were just controllers. You can read all about the history of The Syntar on Carbon111.com here (you'll find a pic of Bob Moog playing Syntar prototype #1), and of course check out the Syntar label for posts that have gone up here. Below are two videos of Red Martian with the Syntar at the PNW 2009 synth gathering.



Pacific Northwest Synth 2009 - Red Martian
YouTube via matrixsynth | November 03, 2009


YouTube via matrixsynth.

Overview of the Syntar comes in around 1:55.

The Making of “Bob Moog Live” (Part 1 of 5)

via The Bob Moog Foundation where you'll find the full article.

"Leading up to our 'Bob Moog Live' CD Release Party on October 10, 2010 at the LAB, we are presenting a series of blogs written by Dan Lewis. Lewis is the only surviving member of the trio of Bob Moog, Mike Abbott and Dan Lewis who rehearsed and performed together for this recording. Dan will be performing and speaking at the release party.

'Bob Moog Live' is one of the very few recordings that exists of Bob Moog performing on the Minimoog..."

October Moog Issue of Keyboard Magazine

You might recall from this post, the cover and feature of October's issue of Keyboard Magazine is "The Minimoog at 40." It's worth noting there are a couple of other articles featured and currently online including "Bob Moog Lives" by Bob Moog's daughter, founder, and Executive Director of the Bob Moog Foundation; and "Beyond And Because of the MiniMoog" by Eric Norlander and Stephen Fortner. The latter features a number of synths "that shared similar design aspects, or whose makers got into the solo synth game after the market proved that Bob Moog was onto something." Below is one such synth.


Note this is not a Voyager, but the HELMTRONIC CHALLENGER
"Shown at this year’s Frankfurt Musikmesse, this aptly-named German boutique synth boasts four oscillators, two filters, and of course, a flip-up control panel."

Yamaha An1x control synth...the Blue beastie

YouTube via mik300z | October 04, 2010

"Only had it a week, but love it already:) The factory presets are totally 1997 dance scene so slowly going through and replacing them with my own. There is a monster of a machine lurking under the sheepish blue cover. These patches are my own edited ones apart from the step sequence part, a patch called "Alan". I'm not usually a tweaker but this thing screams at you to twist those control knobs. The An1x was one of the first analogue modelling synths, had great reviews at its launch and is still respected by musicians today. Nice to have a Yamaha in the studio:)"

ether^ra CAPTIVE IMMEDIACY

YouTube via potterpaint2000 | October 04, 2010

"an improv featuring the usual suspects with Tenori-on freakout! http://etherra.blogspot.com"

USB-Octomod - USB to CV Project

"The USB-Octomod is a USB device which allows generation of computer-controlled analog synthesizer control voltages in the range of approximately +/- 5V. Using a small open-source and cross-platform host application, the user is able to control the 8 output channels of the Octomod through a simple OSC interface. The OSC interface allows composers, musicians, etc. to control the Octomod from their software environment of choice."

You can find more details on the project on Greg Surges' site here. Be sure to check out his other projects as well.

DOEPFER DARK ENERGY Desktop Modular Analog Mono Synth

via this auction

Moog Micromoog Synthesizer Model 2090

via this auction

"This is a completely original Micromoog synthesizer. It was recently cleaned on September 15, 2010 and found to be in perfect working order by Echotone Music http://www.echotonemusic.net/ in Rochester, NY (see photo for receipt)."

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ANALOGUE SOLUTIONS RED SQUARE

via this auction

"2 VCO'S + 1 SUB-OSCILLATOR
1 NOISE GENERATOR
1 VC LP FILTER
RING MODULATOR
VC LFO
SAMPLE & HOLD
VCA
ADSR
3 X MULTIPLES
MIDI CV
AUDIO OUTPUT
EXTERNAL AUDIO INPUT
MIDI IN & MIDI THRU"

Hartmann Neuron VS Software Synth

via this auction

"Neuron VS is built around the same sound engine found in the Neuron Hardware Synthesizer and includes 2 Resynators, the Blender module, the Mod- and Slicer Module, a Silver Unit (Multimode Filter plus Time and Frequency Effect unit) and 7 ADSR Shapers.

Features:
* Neural synthesis engine (template driven Multi- Component Particle Transform Synthesis with realtime controllable synthesis model parameters, Artificial Neural Network controlled adaptive sound analysis for the parametric transformation of musical monophonic and polyphonic sounds)
* 2 Resynators, each with 3 Scape and 3 Sphere Levels, Stick recording and Playback function per parameter level
* 1 ADSR envelope per Resynator with definable depth per parameter level
* 1 amplifier envelope per Resynator (ADSR)
* 2 definable free envelopes (ADSR)
* Blender module for manipulating one timbre (from resynator 1) with the properties of another (resynator 2)
* 8 different blender types
* Modulation module Low frequency oscillator with 12 waveforms
* Slicer module for the generation of multidimensional, cyclic modulation with 12 waveforms
* Silver module with multimode filter (24dB lowpass, 12dB lowpass, 6dB lowpass, 6dB highpass, bandpass)
* 1 Silver (ADSR) Envelope
* Frequency FX Module with EQ / Compressor, Distortion, Ring Modulator, Decimator and SP Warp Effects
* Time FX Module with Stereo Spread, Left/Right Delay, Flanger, Phaser and Chorus Effects
* Over 250 Models included (Strings / Percussion / Pianos / Pads / Reed / Plugged / Basses / Drums / Solo Instruments / Bells / Brass / Voices EFX / Loops / Organs, etc.)
* Each Model can be manipulated with 12 Parameters (6 x Scape / 6 x Sphere Parameters) that have been detected when analyzing the original sound.
* 10 different Parameter sets - depending on the specific Model characteristics
* Over 300 Sounds included
* Nuke hardware controller with 4 freely definable encoder knobs, 1 stick controller, 1 select button / 3 LEDs (connects via the USB port of your computer)"