Synth Cave / Studio Tour - Updated September 2018

Published on Sep 11, 2018 Matt Greer Music

"An updated walk through of my synthesizer collection, production space and studio.

I have a broad collection of both vintage and modern synthesizers, drum machines, samplers, effects and more. There's everything from high-end instruments to small battery powered portables.
Including:

- Moog
- Roland
- Korg
- Yamaha
- Teenage Engineering
- Elektron
- Novation
- etc.

If you dig the music and want to grab one of the very limited cassette tape releases, hit me up here:
https://robotsagainstchildren.bandcam...

Otherwise it is available on Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, Amazon Music, pretty much anywhere digitial music is distributed."

KnobCon 7 (2018) part 16 - Detroit Underground & the DU-INO: The Ultimate Eurorack Arduino Shield

Published on Sep 11, 2018 SynthMania

"Aaron shows their latest Arduino based diy module "shield", the DUIno"

Details via Kickstarter:

"What is DU-INO?

In a nutshell? It's whatever you want it to be, in 14 HP.

If you're feeling verbose, call DU-INO a compact programmable digital-analog function platform. With 14 total configurable I/O, using precision ADC and DAC circuits and an analog computer, a vast array of functions are possible. A graphical OLED display and various tactile inputs offer a rich user interface.

It’s essentially the ultimate Eurorack Arduino shield. Supplying your own Arduino (or other shield-compatible microcontroller board), you can select from our growing library of functions, or use our full-featured open source Arduino library to write your own!

Just a few of the myriad A to Z functions to which the DU-INO hardware and software lends itself include arpeggiators, 8-bit oscillators, clock sources and modulators, delays, envelope generators, function generators, glitch effects, harmonic generators, inverters, jack routers, key shifters, LFOs, MIDI interfaces, noise sources, oscilloscopes, parameter storage, quantizers, randomizers, sequencers, transports, utilities of all sorts, VCAs, waveshapers... well, I made it to W!

And, did I mention that they can talk to each other (and other expansion modules) over I2C?"

Additional Demos:

CLICK FOR MORE »

New Search Box Under Posts

Just an FYI, I added a new search box under posts to make it easier to search for more on the site. Often you will find something you might want to search on for additional posts, but you might not want to, or even think of, going back up to the top right of the site. This should make it easier. The new search box will also act as a clear delineator between individual posts. Sometimes shorter posts without images can be easily missed. The search box should help you realize there is a new post there. Note, the search box on the top right of the site will remain as well.

Give it a try below. Search for Knobcon, a particular synth or brand, or topic. You can also use the site labels below posts to bring up everything for the given label. Note search results now come up in the order posted - latest post on top. This can be particularly useful in researching what synths have recently been listed for. Search on the "synth name auction" minus the quotes, and all auction posts for that synth will come up in the order posted. You can then click on the auction links to see what they were listed for (disclaimer: they are affiliate links - if you purchase something it helps support the site). If you are looking for a more popular or relevant post, for example press releases or big news items, use the "sort by relevance" link on top of the results. Also try different combinations of words to drill down.

Knobcon 2018 Stereo Walkthrough

Published on Sep 11, 2018 Paul Schilling

"Gives you a sense of what it was like."

See the Knobcon label below for more.

SATURATED SINE WAVES

SATURATED SINE WAVES from Station 252 on Vimeo.

"Dynamic sine wave saturation and filtering.

Sine wave from Z3000 oscillator running through Z2040 low pass filter / vca, both modulated by Z4000 voltage controlled ADSR envelope. Doepfer A-143-9 sine wave LFO modulates the deviater control on the envelope. Ginkosynthese TTLFO modulates the amount of modulation applied to the filter frequency.

A bit of delay from the Z-DSP added from time to time as well as some frequency modulation applied from a second Z3000 (sine)"

Vintage Yamaha SY-2 Synthesizer

Note: links to listings are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Vintage Yamaha synthesizer in good working order. Everything works as it should with all knobs present. Legs screw on and off as they should. Power cord is in good working order with no frays or tears. I plugged headphones into the jack to test it and it sounds great with a clean sound with no static. It was very fun to play! This is an awesome vintage piece of equipment with some scratches from use which does not interfere at all with any workings of this unit."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Yamaha FM Essential & The Yamaha MX49 - Demo for the iPad

Published on Sep 11, 2018 thesoundtestroom

Making Techno with Music Robots

Published on Sep 10, 2018 Moritz Simon Geist

Links:
https://moritzsimongeist.bandcamp.com/album/the-material-turn
http://sonicrobots.com

Details:
"After playing Mutek, CTM and Moogfest, and years of fabrications, tweaks, tests – winning also Visual Music Award 2017 and Initiative Music 2017/18 – robotics engineer and media artist Moritz Simon Geist releases world’s first techno album entirely played by real robots!

Produced by Mouse On Mars' Andi Thoma and due out in November, 'Robotic Electronic Music' is Moritz' debut album, to explore and pioneer the sounds of the more than ever robotized society of nowadays.

'Robotic Electronic Music' is pure mechanical music: precise, pneumatic patterns repeat themselves exploring the sound of mechanics, but none of its beats is like the other.

The album is being preceded by an EP due out in October, inaugurating Sonic Robots Records
(distributed by Kompakt), a label all about automations, mechanics and... techno."

Making Techno with Robots - Behind the Scenes!

Published on Sep 10, 2018 Moritz Simon Geist

"New sounds from the future! Here I explain, which robots I used for the Techno robots video. Everything you hear and see comes from robots. No syntheziser, samplers or CGI added! We want to show a futuristic way of creating music - without synthezisers, but with robots in the real world!

All Robots were built by Moritz Simon Geist and the team of SONIC ROBOTS. This production was funded by the Initiative Musik and the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen.

Camera and Cut: Robert Arnold / Cuthead"

And the press release:

Moritz Simon Geist, media artist and robotic musician, publishes his first record. It is the world's first techno record played entirely by self-made futuristic robots.

All of the sounds on his records are played by robots: small motors that beat on metal, futuristic 3D-printed robo-kalimbas, salvaged parts from old hard drives that click and cut. It took Geist several years to build, tweak, test and play all his DIY robotic instruments.

His 'Sonic Robots' try to push the boundaries of the imaginable. He did so already in 2012 with his well-known oversized 808 robot – an iconic drum machine gotten real, 4 by 2 meter, filled with robotic parts which play the instruments live and in front of the audience.

Now, Moritz Simon Geist goes even further to discover the unknown and futuristic world of techno robotics. For this quest, he teamed up with the Berliner sound wizards from Mouse On Mars and dug deep in the history of mechanical music and experiments of early electronic music.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Tinami MD-1 Custom Midi Controller Now on Kickstarter

You might remember the Tinami MD-1 introduced at Sonar 2017. Tinami wrote in to let us know they are now on Kickstarter.

"Tinami is a small hardware startup specialized in gear for musicians, producers and live performers based in Germany and Ecuador.

We’ve been working for 2 years in our first product the MD-1: the first stylish, affordable and high quality custom MIDI controller in the market. The special thing about the MD-1 is that it will be custom-made for each user upon ordering it – so it will contain the features needed instead of unnecessary extras which are never used.

We’ve been working really hard in this project for 2 years and now we are proud to say that MD-1 is mostly done and we are very excited with the results.

In order to achieve MD-1 production we released a Kickstarter campaign today to reach 35000€ that will help us finish development, refine, test, debug and produce 200 units."

"The MD-1 is the first stylish, affordable and high quality custom MIDI controller on the market.

After studying the relationship of musicians, producers and live performers with their MIDI controllers for several months we have concluded that the next step on the MIDI devices is customization.

Why buy a midi controller mostly never use?

The special thing about the MD-1 is that it will be custom-made for each user upon ordering it – so it will contain the features needed instead of unnecessary extras which are never used.

Giving all of our users the chance to build their own custom MIDI controller gives us infinite possibilities of configurations and layouts. Unlike how complex it sounds, we wanted to make it really simple for you to design your controller.

1. Go to our website www.tinamilab.com

2. Do you need knobs? Knobs with buttons? Or maybe some faders? Design the layout that you need by simply dragging and dropping the components you prefer.

3. Place your order!

Simple, Just like that!"

New Software Brand 2GETHERAUDIO Launches with Choose Your Own Price & Charity Benefit

"NEW MUSIC SOFTWARE BRAND, 2GETHERAUDIO, LAUNCHES TWO NEW PLUGINS WHERE CUSTOMERS CHOOSE THEIR OWN PRICE, AND HALF GOES TO A SOCIAL CAUSE OF THEIR CHOICE.

2getheraudio releases RE4ORM virtual instrument and RE4ORM FX audio plugin under an industry-first model of Pay-What-You-Want and Half Goes to a Social Cause of Your Choice.

Boston, MA USA (September 10, 2018) — 2getheraudio™, announced today the immediate availability of two new software plugins under an industry-first model where customers pay what they want and half of the purchase price is donated to a charity or cause of their choice. The company’s mission is to bring more music into the world by empowering musicians to express themselves, and at the same time, help others in need. Allowing customers to select their own price and social cause allows everyone to get professional music making software, make more music, and participate in the act of giving back to the world.

'The idea stemmed from us wanting to build new state-of-the-art plugins and get them into as many musician’s hands as we could, but also wanting to join the growing movement where individuals and businesses, not governments, are helping to solve today’s social challenges”, says Jennifer Hruska, CEO of 2getheraudio, “Musicians and artists have always been at the forefront of social justice and change so this seemed like a perfect way to let everyone in our music technology community get new plugins and help others at the same time.'

The first two plugins from 2getheraudio, available now, are RE4ORM, a Free4orm Additive Synthesizer virtual instrument, and RE4ORM FX, an Audio Shape Remixer effects plugin. Both plugins bring an exciting new way to create sounds by drawing or warping waveform shapes with your mouse, an intuitive and easy approach with amazing sonic results.

In RE4ORM, users can draw and warp the shape of both the additive synth waveform and a multi-filter modulation LFO called the Free4orm Filter. In RE4ORM FX, users have access to eight Free4orm LFOs for modulating 20 different included audio effects. The Free4orm LFO is a much more creative way to add automation to your plugins. Even better, the factory included Free4orm shapes such as Fractals, Skyline, Crystals and Pulses are all synchronized to the DAW tempo with user selectable speeds leading to experimentation and sonic results you just can’t get any other way. Of course, users can create and save their own Free4orm shapes leading to endless possibilities for custom sound design.

RE4ORM and RE4ORM FX utilize the Qubiq Audio struQture™ (http://www.qubiqaudio.com/struqture) audio engine, a software platform that builds virtual instruments and effects plugins and features a fully modular architecture for combining multiple synthesis methods (sample playback, virtual analog, FM, additive and others), modulators, effects and players like arpeggiators. The struQture audio engine is used in plugins from Akai Professional, NOS Audio, Sonivox and others and is built and maintained by 2getheraudio engineers.

For more information, please visit: https://www.2getheraudio.com"