Rare Dynacord EC 280 vintage desktop echo box

via this auction
"ow, this really is a unique specimen. It's pretty large, it's old, it crackles and sometimes pops, but everything works and when you get her tuned right, you will be in vintage audio reverbecho heaven. I'm sure Boards of Canada have one of these in their studio. It lets you route signals in all sorts of odd ways (I've used just this and a mixer to pretty amazing affect!) and create the most detuned, odd, dreamy and sometimes downright dreadful audio you ever heard. Because its some sort of weird hybrid, its pretty unpredictable, apart from that theres one knob that always delivers the detuned weirdness! you can feed anything into this and get amazing results, it sounds especially good after a preamp and before ableton live on a guitar signal. It's old, so there is some case damage, but she's 75% cosmetic. functionally its hard to say because its difficult to know what everything is supposed to do, but it all does what you'd expect, so it's 99% functionally perfect in my opinion. it's just got a lead coming out the back, no batteries, no PSU hassle. it works on UK voltage. not sure what else to say apart from that this is a close to unique opportunity to acquire a legendary and very rare desktop reverb unit."

Roland TR-606 drum computer with Analogue Solutions mods

via this auction

"The unit has been upgraded by the legendary Analogue Solutions with their tone mod upgrade. This upgrade box allows for huge tonal control over every single drum sound on this unit. This upgrade is £150 fitted.
The unit also has the full Analog Solutions MIDI upgrade. This mod is £150 fitted and it allows you to sync your analog beast with your ableton live for amazing sounds and fun."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Sonigen Modular

"Sonigen Modular is a modular software synthesizer which offers you the freedom and flexibility of classic modular synthesis with high quality sound and efficient cpu usage.

At some point I will get a professional graphic designer to help with it, or if someone makes a decent skin for it I might switch to that. For the moment it's clear and functional, which is about as far as my artistic skills go.
Features:

Fully modular, you can add as many modules and patch cables as you want.

A fast and intuitive user interface. Layout is mostly automatic, cables indicate signal flow, and our (unique as far as I know) dynamic input handling reduces the need for extra mixer modules, and also reduces screen wastage from unused input terminals / knobs.

Modular voice and modular output effect processing both cleanly integrated in one window.

Everything is processed at full sample rate so there is no need to differentiate between audio signals and control signals. This makes it easier to use and also more flexible.

Just in time (JIT) assembly. Not only is the audio engine written entirely in assembler, but it is also dynamically assembled at runtime. This enables a whole class of optimizations that are otherwise impossible with pre-compiled binaries."

Windows demo version available at http://www.sonigen.com/.

Oberheim OB-X + PPG Wave 2.2 "Delusion"

YouTube Uploaded by retrosound72 on Mar 31, 2011

"vintage synth track by RetroSound

PPG Wave 2.2 Wavetable Synthesizer (1982)
Oberheim OB-X Analog Synthesizer (1979)
recording: multi-trak

the audio file and more:
http://soundcloud.com/retrosound/delusion"

Akai AX-60 demo2.wmv

YouTube Uploaded by ikworgek on Mar 31, 2011
part 1 here
"Akai AX-60 demo
All sounds (including drums) from the AX-60"

muron sniffer

YouTube Uploaded by horchacha on Mar 31, 2011

"new instrument
4 vcos, 2 lfos, vcf, vactrol vca, 8 step sequencer
for pitch, amp, low pass gate, 8 switches for vca/vcf emphasis all kinds
of crazy stupid crap 2 x 4011, 40106, 555, 324, lm386-4,
311, handfull of fets and transistors vactrols and wolves
chicken and fish

dave wright
www.notbreathing.com"

Virus TIOS 4.5 public beta has landed

"2011-April-01, Recklinghausen, Germany. Access Music released a public beta version of OS 4.5 for the entire Virus TI series including the Virus TI Snow. TIOS 4.5 brings several new types of chorus effect to the Virus TI series, ranging from faithful models of renowned vintage chorus and tremolo effects, to the brand new Hyper Chorus. It also adds a authentic rotary speaker simulation and several new mod matrix sources have been implemented.

Vintage Chorus
The Vintage Chorus is an emulation of the 70’s chorus technology based on a technique known as bucket brigades, which can be considered a predecessor of today’s digital sampling technology. The Vintage Chorus covers not only the exact sound of the famous Chorus Ensemble but also many other derivatives of that era which were based on the same basic circuitry, most notably that of the built-in chorus of the Juno 60.

Hyper Chorus
The Hyper Chorus is a six- voice chorus with up to three delay lines each for the left and right side. Despite this, it is staggeringly simple to use, as it is usually only necessary to adjust only the Depth parameter to achieve a huge and warm sound.

Air Chorus
The Air Chorus is a subtle kind of chorus, as it doesn’t mix the direct sound to the processed signal. Instead, it modulates the pitch of the left and right side of the signal independently from each other. The resulting chorus sound happens in the air between both speakers, where both signals add together.

Rotary Speaker
The Rotary Speaker chorus type is an faithful recreation of the sound made by the legendary Leslie speaker. Best known for the wonderful effect it has on the sound of the Hammond organ. The Leslie speaker modulates the sound by rotating both the bass speaker drum and the tweeter horn inside a cabinet - but, crucially, they are rotated at different speeds from each other. The result is a complex example of the Doppler effect, and the way it affects the sound is magical. It’s basically like a vibrato, tremolo and chorus in one. The Leslie speaker also works surprisingly well with both electric and acoustic pianos - the result is a very distinctive sound, instantly recognisable from many iconic recordings.

New Mod Source: Analog Key
Many of us have owned a vintage analog synth at some time or another, and most of those that have will be only too aware of their tendency to become increasingly unpredictable in their behaviour. Unstable tuning and inconsistent key-tracking are just two typical symptoms of this. The funny thing is, these characterful in- stabilities can be just as inspiring as they are infuriating - it is often these little quirks that help a sound stand out in the mix. In TIOS 4.5, Access Music have provided a way to introduce some of these quirks into the Virus TI, by way of the Analog Key modulation sources. The idea is to deliberately skew the key tracking in such a way as to create inconsistency across the keyboard, but in a repeatable way. So, by this method, you can make it so that certain keys are always off pitch by a certain amount, or are duller or brighter than the keys on either side, for instance.

A public beta version of OS4.5 is available for download as of today. The download is free for existing Virus TI users. Point your browser to: http://www.virus.info/start/"

IKEA launches 3-tier kbd/synth stand "SYNTO"

"Introduction price in Sweden : 303 SEK"

via Synth Ollie

Vermona Announce Retroverb Lancet & VSR-3

via Vermona
"CRASH! The Retroverb Lancet is a lot smaller than its predecessor but don’t judge it by its size. It got a lot of improvements like the multimode filter, the overdrive, the versatile LFO and the envelope follower … and a few things more.
The Retroverb Lancet will hit the market in June 2011."

"With the VSR-3 – vintage spring reverb and the Retroverb Lancet we will show two new spring reverb units at the Musikmesse in Frankfurt next week.

The VSR-3 is straightforward and solid and adds the beloved spring reverb sound to any input signal you feed it with. It’s available shortly after the Musikmesse."

BugBrand PT Delay - Overview Demo

YouTube Uploaded by BugBrand on Apr 1, 2011

"Running through the functionality of the new PT Delay Box.

For further details check the Sound Devices section of www.bugbrand.co.uk

[Sorry about the audio quality in the 2nd half - I had to use the direct camera sound so things are quite noisy - the are high quality audio samples on the website]"

BugBrand PT Delay Demo - with TR606 & Mono/Poly

Uploaded by BugBrand on Mar 31, 2011

"A little live demo of the new PT Delay box.

The first half is tweaking around with the inputs from Roland TR606 and Korg Mono/Poly.

In the 2nd half I remove the Korg and then turn the 606 up so that it drives into the soft-clipping on the input.

For further details of the PT Delay, check the Sound Devices section of www.bugbrand.co.uk

[I recorded the audio separately from the vid-cam and sync'd them together when editing]"

Update via the BugBrand newsletter:

BugBrand News - Business BDay / PTDelay Day / Toggle Time

"Morning All,

Firstly, this is 100% *not* an April Fool!
April 1st is the anniversary of when I officially launched BugBrand - today is the 6th birthday.
And to mark the occasion I am launching something new which I am pretty excited about!

Also at the end there is mention of a wonderful Radiophonic Workshop event happening this weekend in Bristol + some associated Bug-Modular sounds.

** NEW -> The PT Delay**
http://www.bugbrand.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=103
Introducing a supremely characterful and tactile new Delay Processor based around the infamous PT2399 chip.

This is the culmination of my ongoing works with the wonderful PT Digital Delay chip - yes, the core is digital, but all the surroundings are pure analogue and they've been carefully tweaked to open up a unique variety of sonic fun.

The main features:
- two independent Delay Time settings (65mS to 2.5 Sec) with unique Toggle Time button to switch between them
- Delay Input level control with Punch In button to allow dub-style processing bursts
- Hi/Lo EQ post-delay for extreme sound shaping
- two inputs, versatile output mixing and Send/Return feedback loop
- soft-clipping stages for satisfying overload saturation
- quite an eye catching design!

Lots of demo sounds and a couple of videos now online on the website.

This will be a regular production item with batches appearing every month or two.

**Radiophonic Workshop Weekend**
This weekend at the Cube Cinema, Bristol - http://www.cubecinema.com/cgi-bin/diary/programme.pl#5656
An amazing line-up of talks, films and live performances + a kids 'What is Sound?' workshop on the Sunday.

A couple of months ago I asked BugModular users around the world to come up with Radiophonic-inspired interlude pieces and the results will be playing over the weekend.
You can also check the pieces online via the MW-forum: http://muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28584

Daren Ager took the challenge to even higher levels, making a whole album of tracks that he's now released them for digital download to support the Japan Disaster Relief fund.
http://darenager.bandcamp.com/album/bug-phonic
13 tracks for only £1.25 (though you can also donate more if you'd like)"