MATRIXSYNTH

circuitbenders.co.uk Circuit Bent AKAI S01 with 'Bend Bus' Switching Matrix

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via this auction

Audio demos at the auction and further below.

"For over a decade we have been creating and supplying aural havoc with rewired childrens toys, modified drum machines, abused samplers and audio insanity machines. Our instuments have featured in both DJ magazine and Future Music cover CD and we have supplied and modified custom machines for:

The Chemical Brothers, Factory Floor, Pedigree Cuts, Raiden (renegade hardware / Off Key records), The Plump DJ's, Jacknife Lee, Bloc Party, Twisted Records (Hallucinogen, Shpongle, OTT, Younger Brother etc), Howie Miura (Island / Def Jam), matrix22 (12 Inch Thumpers, Brick records), Groove Criminals, Sweet Noise, Noise Inc and many many more.

TODAYS VICTIM: AKAI S01 SAMPLE GRINDER

The fact that the Akai S01 exists at all is fairly baffling fact as to all intents and purposes it was obsolete before it was even released. A 16 bit mono sampler with 1MB of memory as standard expandable to a massive 2MB maximum, sampling at a maximum bandwidth of 32khz, with no storage options other than a floppy drive, with only one output and only a 3 figure numerical display to edit with. Even the rather odd addition of 2 MIDI in's doesn't save it from being a rather cofusing addition to the Akai range. EMU and Ensoniq must have been pissing themselves laughing when Akai released the S01 for £999 in 1993 (yes you did read that right - £999), but the S01 has the last laugh as our mods have taken its sound mangling possibilities way beyond any other rackmount sampler ever produced.

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12 Days of Modular 2012-Day 11-Phase Locked Loop

Published on Dec 11, 2012 by raulsworldofsynths

"Day 11: A look at a Phase Locked Loop.Video series of 12 different scenes from the Modular World of Raul's World of Synths.Sound and Video by Raul Pena.©Raul Pena 2012"

All parts here.

Bleep Labs Christmas

http://bleeplabs.com

Modular Forest

"synthesis technologies E350 morphing terrarium controlled by the 4ms SCM and breakout. breakout modulated by the make noise wogglebug and tiptop z8000. field recording from a swamp in flaggler county florida at night. captured using the neumann RSM-191 and sound devices 722."

Drawing of the Eminent 310/Solina String Ensemble Factory in the 1970s

via Ernst Hill on
The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge
"The Eminent 310/Solina String Ensemble factory in the Netherlands during the seventies. Drawing printed on the back of the warranty certificate."

"If you call Eminent today and ask them about the 310 etc they will hang up the phone and say "go away with that Jarre Devils music..."
True or not? You be the judge.

How to make a nice TB-303 square on the Elektron analog Four

Published on Dec 11, 2012

"A quick how-to for making the transistor pulse just like a 303 square wave, I checked these on my oscilloscope and with these settings it looks (and sounds) exactly the same as the square wave on my 303. Of course the A4 is not just about emulating old synths, but it can be fun to do anyway, enjoy."

Elektron on eBay

Novation MiniNova

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Be sure to see the seller's other items for more.

"The MiniNova 37-Mini-Key Compact Synthesizer by Novation has the same sound engine as the larger model, UltraNova. It includes 256 onboard sounds that you can tweak with five knobs, or totally warp with eight "animate" buttons. It has polyphony up to 18 voices with as many as five synth effects on each sound. MiniNova also has onboard VocalTune and classic vocoder effects, so you can recreate iconic vocal sounds from hip hop, urban and electronic music.

MiniNova has a powerful sound engine for a micro synth. In addition to its 256 onboard sounds, it has space to save 128 of your own sounds. You can quickly search for patches by selecting the style, or the type of sound. MiniNova has 14 conventional waveforms to choose from, 36 wavetables and 20 digital waveforms. Each of the 3 oscillators has density/detune, virtual sync, and an additional low-pass filter called "hardness." There are 14 filter types, 6 envelope generators, 3 LFOs and 20 modulation slots where you can link synth modules together. MiniNova can also add up to 5 effects to each sound; including distortion, reverb, chorus/phase, delay, compressor, EQ and Novation's unique gator effect.

MiniNova includes a gooseneck microphone, taking its vocal effects one step further. In addition to VocalTune and the 12-band vocoder, the mic input can be routed through the effects engine. The onboard 1/4" input can do the same with an instrument.."

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