BLUE ZTVCO DRY DEMO & Surrounding Controversy

YouTube Uploaded by bluelantern320 on Jan 3, 2012

Update 10/4/2013: I heard from Ian Fritz and the controversy is over. Blue Lantern no longer offers the ZTVCO. That said, BL posts will resume.

This one, which seems to be a reoccurring theme with Blue Lantern, comes with a good dose of controversy. You might recall from a few years ago BL got into a bit of heat selling MIDIBox SIDs on eBay. MIDIBox explicitly forbids the commercial resale of MIDIBox SIDs. Blue Lantern stopped and went into producing affordable eurorack based modules and systems.

This latest controversy surrounds the source of design for the new BLUE ZTVCO. You might recall from the comments in this previous post, the design of that prototype module appeared to be a copy of Ian Fritz's Teezer (TZFM Saw VCO debuted Sep'08) design. Ian Fritz's modules are available via The Bride Chamber and Elby Designs.

In short:

1. Is the BLUE ZTVCO based on Ian Fritz's design?
2. If so, to what extent?
3. If so, is it legal?
4. If so, is it fair and does it matter?

The answer to 1 and 2 will not be known until someone gets a hand on the ZTVCO and reverse engineers it. I asked BL if he would be willing to provide the schematics to put the issue to rest and he replied no. He said people can reverse engineer it when it it's available and he is sure someone will. The answer to 3 is quite possibly so. There is currently a good thread on the subject on the electro-music.com forum here. The answer to 4 depends on you. My personal opinion is that it is not fair and it definitely does matter. Whether legal or not, I view it as stealing. These designs do not come out of thin air. They take time and talent and sometimes years to produce. You will see some insight on this in regards to Ian's Teezer design from him directly below. When someone makes their designs available, credit should be given.

The following is a response from Blue Lantern in regards to the claims made against him. The most important thing to read out of his points below is "3. This is not a clone, this vco is a beast in it's own cage."

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The PIERDUINO

Italian | Googlish
DIY kit with:
"SYNTH software preinstalled:
ANABEAT Box: Analog Battery kick, snare, hi-hat, rimshot TR-808 style pattern, for MIDI CC control of all parameters (pitch, cutoff, etc..)
Effem Synth Floor: Vaclav frequency modulation type, for MIDI CC control of all parameters (pitch, cutoff, etc..)
PEW Space Sound emulation Space Drum Electro Harmonix, which makes the drum box PIIIUUUUUUU."

via The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

Highlights From The L.A. Monomeet

"THE LA MONOMEET, Presented by INTERFACE LA

THE ARTISTS:
Joe Newlin
ioflow
Ro
Sidebrain
No Sir E
Merbert Moover
Flip Mu
Altitude Sickness
Anenon
Alfred Darlington
Tehn

It was cool to be able to see these guys performing up close. There was such a variety of styles and methods. I tried my best to condense the nights performances into a short single compilation.

I hope you enjoy!

The Monome is an open source hardware controller that does pretty much whatever you will it to do. monome.org/

Interface LA is a collective of Los Angeles artists devoted to cultivating the growing digital art community in Los Angeles - finger ninjas, data moshers and hackers alike.

Check out their tumblr for their latest events. interface-la.tumblr.com/"

OPERATOR Synth Comic

Spot the synth. You might remember it from this video.

OPERATOR's EP on Kikstarter first posted on MATRIXSYNTH-P, has one hour to go! He is literally at $1439 of $1500 pledged.  Will he make it?!
Take a look!

RC CIRCUIT BENT MANTRA MACHINE AMBIENT LFO DRONE SYNTHESISER

YouTube Uploaded by djwidow420 on Jan 3, 2012
Resonance Circuits on eBay
"MODIFIED TIBETAN PRAYER MACHINE WITH ADDED LFO CIRCUITRY"

DER OTO

YouTube Uploaded by OTOMACHINES on Jan 3, 2012

"Der OTO is the new firmware upgrade that turns your Biscuit into a 2 oscillators monosynth with an integrated 16 steps sequencer."

http://www.otomachines.com/

Fuse TV at Moogfest 2011

YouTube Uploaded by moogfest on Jan 3, 2012

"'Hoppus On Music' gets Moogy! Check out the Moogfest 2011 recap courtesy of Fuse TV."

Update: Synth Trivia: STG Wave Folder at 2:15.

1977 E-Mu Modular Scans

flickr By Chris Kann
(click for more)

ZiLaiHong - osc6 "FaZhenLiu" / ZLH-01

flickr By Meng Qi

"www.mengqimusic.com

6 oscs;
2 modulation switches (1+3->2 / 4+6->5);
6 pitch knobs;
1 power impedance knob.

Can be harmonic or noisy, very versatile, easy to play and fits every setup."

FON31 - Sendai Japan Relief

via Force of Nature
"On March 11th 2011, an 8.9 level eathquake struck Sendai Japan. The quake triggered a tsunami and massive damage to crictial nuclear facilities and evacuations along Japan's Pacific coast and in at least 20 countries, including the entire Pacific coast of North America and South America. The earthquake created extremely destructive tsunami waves of up to 10 meters (33 ft) that struck Japan minutes after the quake, with smaller waves after several hours in many other countries. In Japan, the waves are reported to have travelled up to 10 km (6 mi) inland and the death toll continues to rise.

The Sendai Japan release series on Force of Nature is the latest addition to the Natural Disaster Series which is focused on raising money to support the victims of this event. Sendai Japan will comprise mutiple compilations which are curated by leading artists and label owners and sold on Forced Distro. ALL sales will be donated to the JPRI Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund."

Releases include:
SENDAI Japan Series 4 - Curated by Dennis Verschoor
SENDAI Japan Series 3 - Curated by Bauke van der Wal
SENDAI Japan Series 2 - Curated by Miguel de Sousa
SENDAI Japan Series 1 - Curated by Kate Turgoose

http://www.forceofnature.cc/disaster/japan/