Xenodrive on synth, drums, drone and SFX (no talk)

video upload by Richard DeHove

"First up: Erica Synths sent me the Xenodrive, so my thanks to the kind crew in Latvia. And did you know Latvia and Tasmania are almost identical in size? Not sure that fact will prove useful to you, but who knows.

The Xenodrive joins the Echolocator and Nightverb in Erica Synths' desktop range. Older members include the DB-01, LXR-02 and AcidboxIII. The Zen delay eats at a different table because of its slightly different case size. Perhaps we can speculate on what's next? I'm thinking of a sampler-looper thing. Thoughts?

Back to the alien-green Xenodrive. But before we get there it's interesting that alien stuff is associated with the colour green. If you read fairy tales in their original form then you'll know green was always the colour of witches and other evil folk.

So the Xeno: Stereo dirt, drive, waveshaping, distortion and tube screaming. Dial in just a touch or destroy everything. Lots of knobs plus presets. It's a rare beast.

Aggressive effects can lead to aggressive knob twiddling spinning from zero to ten looking for the big changes. Sometimes it's true: the parameter might be linear from not much to lots. I find the Darkglass B3K works like that: There's not much true variation as you wind up the knobs, you simply get more. But that's not how many parameters work here. If you rotate wildly from 1 to 10 you'll miss all the flavors. That's especially true of the rotate parameter, the drive tone, and the X and Y waves. With all these you'll find variations with tiny movements.

Another parameter I really appreciated was the noise gate threshold - one of the few things that doesn't get a dedicated knob. Dirt and distortion pedals are notoriously noisy so a noise gate at the end of the chain can save you from lingering hiss. You can hear this in the first drum demo here. It begins with long tails and then I wind back the gate. Fun also to use it as a hard release rather than just a noise killer.

I tried to give a variety of scenarios in this demo. My unexpected favorite was how good it was at simulating the details of shortwave heterodyne noise.

0:00 Synth demo
2:45 Drum demo 1
7:48 Throbbing Gristle
9:30 Shortwave
11:55 Drum demo 2
15:26 Feedback drone
17:19 Cheese demo
19:00 Drum demo 3

Many thanks to my kind patrons who keep this channel ad-free
My website: https://richarddehove.com/"

This switch UNLOCKS your Donner MEDO

video upload by Floyd Steinberg

"I don't know why this is not the factory default, really. #donner #medo #donnermedo #midicontroller #synth #groovebox Music demo begins at 05:58

Maks' MIDI forwarder: https://maks.github.io/webmidirouter/

HÄLP ZIS CHANNEL
https://www.patreon.com/floyd_steinberg
https://floydsteinberg.gumroad.com/
https://floydsteinberg.bandcamp.com/"

Moog Musonics Sonic V Synthesizer

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

via this eBay listing

"We got this unit from its original owner. It was very well taken care of over the years and came to us in great working order for a non-refurbished vintage piece - everything works, there might be slight crackle from dirty contacts here and there, and some controls might not move as smoothly as we'd like, but its pretty surprising how well it functions. We normally do full rebuilds of these that includes lots of servicing, cleaning inside and out, and future-proofing before we resell them, but this work takes a long time and costs us a lot. Since we already have another example in stock that's received our meticulous refurb job but that hasn't sold yet (use our site's search feature for sonic v to find it), we figured we'd offer this one as-is for less for now. If the other one sells first, we will likely give this one the full treatment and up the price once it's done.

The original wooden frame surrounding the front panel on the stock sonic V is thin and protrudes and has been broken in other examples we have seen. This one's frame broke a long time ago, so the original owner had a woodworker redo that section. As you can see, the newer wood is slightly lighter in color. When this unit was photographed, the bottom right corner of this section was a bit loose, but we have since glued it back in place, in case you noticed it looking slightly lifted in the photos. It's now fine. The control panel to the left of the keyboard was replaced long ago with a third party panel."

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Dreadbox Artemis Polyphonic Analog Synthesizer Module

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via this listing

Additional Perfect Circuit listings

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Dave Smith Instruments Prophet 08 PE Analog Keyboard Synthesizer SN 01994

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via this listing

Additional Perfect Circuit listings

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Dave Smith Instruments Pro-2 Paraphonic Hybrid Synthesizer

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via this listing

Additional Perfect Circuit listings

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Octave Cat SRM II SN G1078 w/ Original Box

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via this Reverb listing

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Roland SH7 SN 670163

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via this Reverb listing

"Roland SH-7 (late ’70s), classic 2-VCO analog mono synth with ring mod, sync, sample & hold, noise, resonant VCF and multi-wave LFO."

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Yamaha SK-30 w/ Tubbutec Midi SN 3210

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via this Reverb listing

"well preserved SK-30 with Tubbutec midi kit

($800 pro installation + €200 kit courtesy Patchwork Labs Brooklyn)

for more info on all midi functionality of the €200 KAC-62100 kit check the Tubbutec site"

via Tubbutec:

"TM62100 adds MIDI and additional features to SK15, SK20, SK30 and SK50D synthesizers. It is a direct replacement for the Yamaha YM62100 / YM621 key assigner and can also be used to replace defective original ICs – even when midi is not required. The original behaviour is fully maintained.

TM62100 might also work in organs such as Yamaha D85, please read these notes.

Features:

MIDI input and output on several channels with optional soft-through
Independent midi control of upper keyboard, lower keyboard and pedal sections
Full tonal range in split mode
Midi filter cutoff and resonance control
Additional filter LFO
Midi sustain control
Midi portamento control
Midi aftertouch
Note priority for the pedal/BASS section: Lowest/Last/Highest note
Built in configuration menu can set midi channels and other parameters.
Non-destructive installation can be reverted to original"

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Michigan Synth Works Xena SMR4

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via this Reverb listing

"Awesome synth. A remake of the Mutable Instruments Ambika. This version has the classic SMR4 filters. Comes with original box and power supply."

You can find demos of Xena in previous posts here.

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