Featured Listings for June 2014

This post hosts all Featured listings that drop off the top of the site for the month. You'll find a link to previous months below. Many of these listings will obviously end in time and some will get re-listed (always check the listing). They will remain here as a record of what went up over time. For some, you can click on the image to see what they went for on eBay. Some expire from eBay and some expire from MATRIXSYNTH CLASSIFIEDS. This list only hosts some of the more interesting and unique items that have gone up over time, so be sure to check out the Auctions channel for everything else. You can of course search for any synth with "auction" in the search box on the top left of the site. If you click through the auction links you can see what items went for. You can also search by serial numbers to track the history of specific synths.



Featured Listings for May 2014

RIP Stephen Howell of Hollow Sun

We lost another. Some sad news in via Atomic Shadow:

"I learned this morning of the passing of my best friend, Stephen Howell. Many of you know of his work as Hollow Sun. He was a well respected sound designer who had worked for Peter Gabriel and many others. He was a long time fixture at Akai Professional where he designed the UI for many of their top products as well as producing the sample content.

Stephen was my mentor and gave me the nudge to take my music in to a totally abstract direction. Without him there would have been no Atomic Shadow project. I plan to write a bit more about him when I can think more clearly. I am closing down yesterday's world of tomorrow, at least for now.

We only produced one piece of music together. I always tried to get him to do more of his own music, but he said that making music did not pay the bills. He was correct of course. I cut together a video to go with it at the time. Please enjoy it and share it with anyone that you know who may have known Stephen, or had their musical experience made more alive by using one of his instruments."


Mid Century Electronica from Atomic Shadow on Vimeo.

"A short piece featuring my vintage, tube HP sine wave generators, tape loops and ring modulators with a photographic homage to the early pioneers of electronica.... Daphne Oram in twin set, the impish Delia Derbyshire of the early BBC Radiophonic Workshop, several tweedy boffins in their music labs, Karlheinz Stockhausen and so many others. A different age when innovation and ingenuity triumphed over the many technical limitations of the age.

Abstract music soundtrack re-mixed and produced by Stephen Howell of Hollow Sun using traditional techniques in a digital age."

You can find an interview with Stephen Howell on SoundBytes here.

"I was always huge fan of early electronica and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (Dr Who, Delia Derbyshire and all that as a six-year-old), Louis and Bebe Barron (who did the ‘electronic tonalities’ for the classic sci-fi movie ‘Forbidden Planet’) and loved the weird old gear they used to make/use, so Mario and I were able to design and create, using Kontakt, weird and wonderful things that flew in the face of, shall we say, more ‘conventional’ modern synths and sampler instruments..."

Indeed. Click here for all posts featuring Hollow Sun on MATRIXSYNTH. Each post is a tribute to his spirit. He will be sorely missed.

Update: Failed Muso has set up a condolence page here.

And on KVR here.

Update2:


Stephen Howell and the Subharchord from Ina Pillat on Vimeo.

"December 2011 at the Museum of Technology (Deutsches Technikmuseum) in Berlin. Stephen Howell takes recordings of the instrument. Per Platou, founder and leader of www.pnek.org, has invited him to create a sound library and helps him with the recordings. Inventor Gerd Steinke in conversation with Stephen Howell.

Photography: Jenny Barth
Sound: Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer
Director: Ina Pillat
Production: Norwegian Arts Council // Per Platou, Ina Pillat"

AR - quick jam

Published on May 31, 2014 gugabox·28 videos

"first jam with the Analog Rytm ... just scratching the surface of a great machine! :)"

D.S.I. Prophet 12: Creative envelope loop use

Published on May 31, 2014 hayeye·53 videos

"Using the envelope like an LFO on the Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 12 to perform generative sounds effects."

Dumb Songs Two Player Musical Hardware

Dumb Songs Jam from Joseph Moore on Vimeo.

"A Jam I did with Brendan Byrne to show off the capabilities of the Dumb Songs cabinet. Dumb Songs was my thesis project at Parsons MFADT program. It's an arcade cabinet that outputs MIDI notes and codes to be interpreted in Ableton Live."

Some additional info in via Joseph:

"Dumb Songs is a two player musical toy that uses physical arcade controllers to send MIDI notes and control signals to Ableton Live, creating a musical environment for two people. The look is inspired as much by Dr. Seuss, Pee-Wee's Playhouse and The Phantom Tollbooth, as my intent to use a messy, dilapidated, asymmetrical aesthetic to further convince potential players that it's supposed to be touched and played. (If it looks imperfect, people won't hesitate.)

The collaborative nature of the work is evident in the sound sculpting as well. The layout, design of controls, and configuration of software were all considered, not only for their own pure aesthetic qualities, but also in furtherance of fun and collaboration. Dumb Songs gives you a chance to be silly and make fun sounds with whoever happens to be around."