MATRIXSYNTH

Movement MCDU1 In The Garden

flickr set By Waveterm
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"A rather unusual sight."

Indeed.

"The very rare Movement Computer Systems MCDU1 Drum machine"

20110801 - 200e self 13 (feat. pendulum/ratchet)

20110801 - 200e self 13 (feat. pendulum/ratchet) from zweitesystem on Vimeo.

"self-playing patch on a buchla 200e driven by the pendulum/ratchet.

another version here: soundcloud.com/zweitesystem/20110801-13"

20110801 - 200e self 13 by zweitesystem

Another Massive Automaton Morning

YouTube Uploaded by resonantfilterblog on Aug 15, 2011

"Drum beat using Reaktor's Massive ensemble with two tracks of field recordings all sent thru Audio Damage's Automaton with a touch of reverb."

Roland TR-606 Analog Drum Machine w/ Case, Manual + AC

via this auction

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Roland MKS-80 Super Jupiter with MPG-80 Programmer

via this auction

"This unit has the Version 4.0 software, and the serial number is higher than 511799, therefore it is the later version with Roland VCO chips, not CEM (they all have Roland Filter chips). Debate rages as to which sound better - I can't comment as I haven't A/B'd two units, but I do know that the later version corrects distortion that could occur at higher resonance settings in Unison mode, and at high Crossmod settings.

Comes with DIN cable to join the 2 units. Note that the MPG-80 does not have rack mount ears."

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Roland Jupiter 6 With Europa upgrade

via this auction

"This also comes with the Europa midi upgrade from synthcom. this was professionally installed by Steve Jones in Sydney.

The Jupiter 6 was Roland's first synth to don the then brand new MIDI protocol, and because of this the implementation was very crude and pretty much useless. a few years ago a company in the US went about rewriting the OP code for this particular instrument and produced an upgrade in the form of a new processor that basically completed what Roland started. With this upgrade installed, you get all the sounds, functionality and coolness of a 1980's analogue synth, but with all the convenience and compatibility of a modern synth."

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Yamaha AN1x

via this auction

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Yamaha EZ-EG MIDI Guitar Keytar Ztar

via this auction

"Marketed as "Learning Guitars", the Yamaha EZ-EG and EZ-AG are secretly a powerful instrument for controlling softsynths!
Besides their normal MIDI messages, these guitars also send out SysEx for each fret pressed and released. This allows us to create our own performance modes not originally found in the EZ-EG instruments.For those of you interested in pursuing alternate midi controllers...

Last year Yamaha released their "EZ" series of "learning guitars" -- guitar shaped devices with a fretboard full of backlit keys (to aid in learning chords) instead of strings. While these are marketed as learning guitars, their midi controller capabilies have been generally overlooked (even by Yamaha's own marketing dept). To the best of my ability, I will try to clear that up here.

First off, the good news. This thing sends out a reliable and relatively expressive stream of midi data! Your host sequencer will recieve exactly what you played, with accurate velocity, no extraneous pitch-bends and no tracking delay. Hallelujah!

There are 72 very light action "keys", laid out in a fretboard pattern (12 frets x 6 rows). They depress very easily and light when pressed (handy for cleaning up your playing technique). All keys send midi note-ons ( 28-88 ) and are triggered by both fretting the notes and strumming the triggers (a set of bars on the body, laid out in six-string pattern).

Hidden gem #1: fretting notes (no strum) sends out a very low velocity (vel=14) note-on. This sounds remarkably realistic using the onboard guitar patches, but is worth far more when used with synths or VSTi's. By varying your synths' velocity sensitivity you can add some expressive elements to your performances. Best of all, by lowering or eliminating velocity sensitivity you can play synths simply by fretting notes (no strum necessary). This greatly reduces stray notes, and is a feature found on Starr Labs midi controllers.

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