Update on Matrixsynth Ts

This is what they were supposed to look like:



This is what mine looks like:



Horrid! I'll be closing the shop, refunding the couple of people that bought one and letting them keep this little bit of Synth history. : ) Sorry about this. I'll be looking locally at shirts next. BTW, I'll be closing the shop as soon as the orders are done and I receive confirmation from those that ordered them, so technically you can still order shirts, but if you do, I will NOT refund on new orders because I simply can't afford to. So PLEASE DO NOT order unless you actually want one of these soon to be rare collector items! Heh, sorry, had to to. : ) Apologies to the two that ordered. I sent each of you an email so I can reimburse you. If you do not get that email, send me an email.

Casio CZ1000 Featured on Gnostic Rocket

Specs, shots, samples and part of a cat. Title link takes you there.





A book on synthesis by Casio. Trip.

The "Can't-Resist-A-Sizer"

The Eaton-Moog Multiple-Touch-Sensitive Keyboard. It has two rows of keys.

Update: Found a video link on The Ledger.

What if this is Moog's new announcement? Probably not, but who knows... ; )

Note: The sound of it reminds me of the Novachord Restoration Project.

Title link takes you to the full article on the Lost Eaton-Moog Synth Keyboard.

Note that Eaton will be performing in New York on March 19:
"Eaton's works will be featured in a concert at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 19, at St. Stephen's Church, 120 West 69th St. in New York. The event is a collaboration of the New York Composers Circle and ModernWorks. The suggested donation is $15."

Some bits pulled from the article:
"It's called the Eaton-Moog Multiple-Touch-Sensitive Keyboard, a name only an engineer could love. That's fine with Eaton. He and Moog (rhymes with "vogue") spent four decades honing a tool for virtuosos, not a toy."

"It's very difficult to play. But an instrument should be difficult to play. That's the only way to master musical materials, by overcoming these difficulties," says Eaton, 70, surrounded in his cramped attic studio by upright pianos, ancient computers and programs and scores from his 20 operas."

"What is unique -- and challenging -- about the Eaton-Moog keyboard is how many ways each key can be programmed to respond. How far you depress a key matters. The actual area covered by your finger changes the sound. Sliding your finger across a key's length or width can approximate, say, a vibrato effect on a violin string. How hard you push a depressed key matters, too."

"Eaton jokingly dubs this keyboard the "Can't-Resist-A-Sizer."

"How does it sound?
Think theremin -- from quavering soundtracks of cheesy sci-fi movies -- crossed with a baseball organ. Throw in some psychedelic chemicals, and you begin to get the idea."

Aphex Twin Sleevenotes on Yamaha CS-5

Nice! You'll ether love or hate this one. Music Thing always seems to find the best auction peices on VEMIA. This time, it's the sleeve notes for Aphex Twins' Selected Ambient Works Volume II inscribed on the bottom of the synth. According to the auction they were done by Richard James himself. Title link takes you to some more intersting tidbits in the post.

Lost Eaton-Moog Synth Keyboard

Interesting. Synthtopia has a post up on a Lost Eaton-Moog Synth Keyboard. They are asking if you know more about it, to contact them. I wonder how this compares to the Haken Continuum. I wonder if John Eaton knows about it.

"Composer John Eaton is waiting for someone to develop a "lost" instrument, the Eaton-Moog Multiple-Touch-Sensitive Keyboard. The keyboard design was a collaboration between Eaton and Robert Moog, and features keys with enhanced capabilities, enabling new methods of touch control of synthesizers.

The [device] is "the world's most sensitive musical instrument next to the human voice," according to Eaton. "Playing it is a kind of combination of playing a a very sensitive stringed instrument and playing a keyboard instrument."

The keys on the 49-note keybaord respond to five motions: the distance a key is depressed; the finger's front and back position and motion on each key; the finger's side-to-side position and motion on each key; the total area a flattened finger covers on each key; and pressure on a key after it is depressed fully.

These five, fully independent controls send signals in digital streams of numbers to a computer, which routes the signals to affect any possible aspect of musical continuity desired--loudness; vibrato; tremolo; reverb; tone color or instrumental change; the speed, pitch, and any other application that can be dealt with by a modern sound synthesizer or sound-generating computer program.

The prototype now lives in Eaton's attic, according to an article in the NJ State Ledger."

Analog Japan

So what happens to these guys on April 1? Title link takes you to more gear p*rn.


Note: there were a couple of notes on AH about this outfit not returning emails after purchse, so be careful if you are tempted to buy from them.

Update just in from AH:
"I used to be listed as a reference on the analogjapan website (Looooooooong
story). I must have had at least 60 emails over a 3 or 4 year period from
people asking me if I knew how to get in touch with them after they had sent
them money but never received the goods. People who sent $1000 to as much as
$4000 US Dollars and after 9 months, not gotten the items. SCARY!!

PLEASE do yourself a favor and stay FAR away from analogjapan.
Don't say I didn't WARN you!!!"

Update via the comments:
"Reed said...
Eh, I bought something from them a couple years ago & it was a pretty hassle-free transaction, other than the fact that they didn't take Paypal. I paid & they delivered."

Upates on Mattias' Mellotron Site

I put up a post on Mattias' Mellotron site on November 14, 2005. He's added some samples and some shots including the somewhat maniacle and sweet shot below. New video clips include A: Chamberlin steel guitar, B: Mandolin Tremolo, C. Swinging flutes. Title link takes you there.

The Clock is Ticking in Japan

Update:
Looks like musical instruments might be exempt.
http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/shakai/20060314AT1G1401414032006.html
"The economic industrial ministry on the 14th, decided that the used electronic musical instrument and the photograph baking machine etc are designated as outside the object of electric supplies safe method. Including the used item, it shows safety, sale of the electric product which does not have the “PSE mark” is prohibited from April 1st. Assuming, that as for the electronic musical instrument and the photograph baking machine etc during electric leakage inspecting there is danger where the equipment breaks down, it makes outside the object, also after of the April continues and can transact in the old market."

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Title link takes you to an article on the impending date of April 1, 2006; the date when the sale of vintage synths will become illegal in Japan. Previously posted here.

"Hardest hit will be Japan’s vibrant trade in electrical instruments — a trade which has given thousands of young musicians their start in life, and without which, say furious veterans of the music industry, artistic expression will die.

The draconian law has been roundly attacked by Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Oscar-winning composer who has led a petition of 74,500 enraged musicians and tradesmen demanding that the law be toned down and the critical trade in old recording equipment, amplifiers and synthesisers continue.

Hideki Matsutake, another composer and chairman of the Japan Synthesizer Programmers Association said: “Most musicians start with very little money. The second-hand instrument is absolutely vital. This law will destroy the ambitions of young people and young musicians.”

A retailer will be allowed to pay to have items officially stamped with the PSE seal (like the British Kitemark). But the test can cost anywhere from £30 for a simple item such as a kettle to £300. Dealers will face up to a year in prison and a fine of about £500,000 if caught selling an un-tested vintage Les Paul guitar or a Space Invaders machine that has not passed its PSE. The Government’s abject failure to publicise the law has fuelled the public’s anger. Although it was passed in 2001 very few retailers of second-hand goods, let alone shoppers, knew until last week what it entailed."

Flux Radio

I previously posted on Flux Radio hosting a ratcheting example of the A6 and an EMS Synthi track. A Prophet 5 track with Emagic ES-1 Softsynth and Kawai MP9000 have been added. Title link takes you there.

Rapture on One Blue Monkey

Rapture Soft Synth with emphasis on wavetable synthesis. 6 parts with 200 oscillator types with up to 9 voices. Title link takes you to the video and details on One Blue Monkey. Video under date, under title.