"This synthesizer is fast becoming a collectors item as it was Elektron's first product, and SID chips are almost impossible to find these days. Sounds are crisp and aggressive, and really cut through the mix. Please note that this SID suffers from a known sidstation issue (according to gearslutz) and crashes every 1-2 hours of continuous use due to voltage spikes causing the RAM to freak out. This bug is non-destructive, just means you need to save your patches to a midi sysex dump often to ensure you don't lose anything, reset the RAM (in the menus) and reupload your patches. I'm getting rid of this synth because I came across 8 SID chips and am going to try to build one of the big a$% mb-6582's."
"While exploring the Graphic VCO I stumbled upon this extraordinary drone sound coming from the sub. Modulating the wavetable matrix in two directions. I then added some gates to the main output, doubled it up on some drums and added a bit of Black VCO bass for good measure. Just a nice discovery. Check out my Graphic VCO review coming very soon."
Pond Tines is an advanced program using looped waterdrops together with Chamber Strings. The demo starts with looped waterdrop and modulated strings playing in octaves. The loop-point of the waterdrops is increased until they reach a natural pitch and Troels has a glass of water!"
"We played a slow beat on the Elektron Digitakt through the Earthquaker Devices Pyramids flanger and went through all of the different modes and many different settings on the Pyramids. The Pyramids has 8 modes including classic and through zero flanging, barber pole modes where the effect seems to go in one direction forever, and triggered modes where the input resets the barber pole. The last two modes are stepped with either a sequence or random steps. The Pyramids is stereo and has preset slots as well as an expression pedal input.
"The AtariVox+ is a self-contained speech/music synthesizer and memory card for the Atari 2600 and 7800, Vectrex, and other video game consoles with compatible controller ports.
The heart of the unit is the SpeakJet--an amazing chip with phonetic speech, preset sounds and a five channel music synthesizer. All of these are controlled by the console via a serial interface emulated through the driver software.
Similar to chips used in 80s speech synthesizers but with extended capabilities, the speech retains a nice retro quality, making it a perfect partner for classic consoles.
Also onboard the AtariVox+ is 32K of non-volatile memory which can be used as a memory card. The flash memory will retain data without power for 200+ years.
An allocation scheme has been devised so that no file is ever overwritten, allowing many different games to store data on just one unit.
Dip Switch Settings
The AtariVox+ contains a bank of dip switches that allow you to select which mode the AtariVox+ will operate in:
AtariVox - for the Atari 2600 and 7800 (default setting)
VecVoice - for compatibility with earlier Vectrex speech synthesis - mainly for the speech-hacked version of Berzerk (Verzerk) and Y.A.S.I.
VecVox - for the Vectrex."
The SpeakJet has been used in a number of synth projects including the Flame Talking Synth and the Polaxix Emy eurorack module. See the SpeakJet label below for more.
"Programming CLAVIA NORD MODULAR G2 again. Always finding something new in AFROEUROPEANEVE is an algorithmic composition. Not totally playing on its own. I am switching the variations 1-10 during the session."
"This fine specimen is in full working order. No aftermarket modifications (besides the knobs which were lost), the original fan is still in place. I opted to put a quieter one in my MKII. Few demos exist of this early FM synth but with some youtube searching you can find some terrible ones mostly.
Its alright cosmetically with no major breaks or problems. Yes there are dings to the corners and nicks on the surface but no more than to be expected for this type of age. I plan to list more photos tonight.
I have restored 3 of them and this is a mark 1. I have a mark 2 that offers the Kaypro II connectivity and I do not have a need for the mark 1 so with reluctance I am taking offers. There is an aftermarket kit available that lets you make a mark 1 a mark 2 but I didn't want to go down that road at this point.
Besides, its rarity and place in musical FM history are undeniable."
"Allen Strange wrote the book on modular synthesizers in the 1970s. Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls. Unfortunately since the expanded 1982 edition, it has never been reprinted, and in today’s landscape where more people have access to modular synths than ever before, very few have access to the knowledge contained within. This video series will explore patches both basic and advanced from Strange’s text. Even the simplest patches here yield kernels of knowledge that can be expanded upon in infinite ways. I have been heavily influenced by Strange since long before I became a modular synth educator. Please share this knowledge far and wide.
This patch is an interesting audio processing procedure from Allen Strange, utilizing two low pass filters. The result is a subtle increase in the intensity of the original sound.
