Anyware Instruments

Just ran accross this site searchin for more on the SEMtex. They make a couple of analog filter modules and step sequencer pictured below. Title link take you to their site with more pics and sound. I've also added them to my MFG link on matrixsynth.com.

Step Sequencer

Megapole Filter

Megapole Lite

SEMtex - New Analog Synth

Update in via the comments:

"here's the URL for the anyware Semtex:
www.anyware-instruments.com

I did some new tracks and demos recently, you can find it in the anyware section of sequencer.de

hope that one is of interest.."

Title link now takes you to the Anyware-Instruments site.

In via Vintage Synth Forums. Click through for more pics. Now off to see if they have a website...

Key points from the thread:
2 VCOs + 2 Suboscs incl. FM, Ringmod and Sync, 1 Multimode Filter with CV controlled morphing, 2 VCAs, 3 Envelopes (very very fast), 2 LFOs (very fast, too, CV controlled, syncable), 48 jacks for patching, MIDI with 4 CVs and 6 Gates (usable for other Synths, too, even for MS20 and the like)...

Cost: 1200 Euros. It´s new, it hits the market right now. Production has just begun.

1/4" jacks, with a very good feel to them. The knobs are excellent quality, too. The whole thing is very sturdy and heavy. It is available as 19", as Desktop, whatever you like.

There are two special pots for the filter, one morphs from Low to High Pass, one morphs from notch to bandpass. With these two combined, you can achieve a LOT of different filter characteristics.

Well, about a year from the first idea to the final unit.

It started as "Oberheim SEM clone", but was developed much further then.

Bob Moog Charitable Foundation

Just realized I didn't get to posting this. via http://moogmusic.com/?cat_id=84

"Family announces charitable foundation

Bob's family has announced the formation of The Bob Moog Foundation for the advancement of electronic music.

Many of his long time collaborators, including musicians, engineers and educators have agreed to sit on its executive board including David Borden, Wendy Carlos, Joel Chadabe, John Eaton, David Mash, and Rick Wakeman. For more information about this contact Bob's son, Matthew Moog, by email - mattmoog@yahoo.com."

And for those that would prefer a lighter good bye, this one just came in from the Suit & Tie Guy on AH. Perfect. : )

to quote the Slashdot poster: "So long and thanks for all the bass."

rest in peace, Doctor Moog.

RIP Bob Moog

Update: I just heard back from the author of the track I wanted to post. This link will take you to it. Four tracks of minimoog. A tribute to Bob Mood from David Brans via AH. Enjoy.

Well, the dust seems to be settling for the day. The boards and mailing lists were buzzing with kind words, thanks, and cherished memories of Dr. Robert A. Moog. I've spent the last couple of days reading, listening, watching and sharing. Someone on the AH list said something perfectly. Different people deal with loss in different ways. That was like a breath of fresh air to me. I (and I like to believe others) sometimes have a tendancy to second guess myself and how I may be perceived in my handling of such things. I sometimes feel guilt as to who am I to even comment on such a thing. I say two things to this, one, show others respect in this time of grief, and two, don't ever sell yourself short. If you feel and you care, do so. The pain and grief may pale in comparison to those closest to him, but if it is there, it is there, don't dismiss that. And don't disrespect others by selling that short. People deal with things differently. The amazing thing is this diversity is in Bob Moog's instruments. He always claimed to be a toolmaker not a musician. He spent time with musicians and took their feedback into the design of his instruments. He understood that, and most importantly he understood and cherished the uniqueness of each individual playing one of his instruments. I really wanted to link to a piece of music posted on AH, but I promised the author I would not post unless I had his permission. I haven't heard back so I will not post it until I do. I respect that. But I do want to share a song that brought tears to my eyes this Saturday. I was driving up to Bellingham with my wife and daughter and she played The Captain by Kasey Chambers. I couldn't help but think of Bob and what he meant to so many.

...
Well I have handed all my efforts in
I searched here for my second wind
Is there someone here to let me in I asked
So I slammed the doors they slammed at me
I found the place I'm meant to be
I figured out my destiny at last
You be the Captain
And I'll be no-one
And you can carry me away if you want to
And you can lay low
Just like your father and if
I tread upon your feet you just say so
'Cos you're The Captain, I am no-one,
I tend to feel as though I owe one to you, to you
Did I forget to thank you for the ride
I hadn't tried I tend to runaway and hide
You be the Captain
And I'll be no-one
And you can carry me away if you want to
And you can lay low
Just like your father and if
I tread upon your feet you just say so
'Cos you're The Captain, I am no-one,
I tend to feel as though I owe one to you, to you
You're the captain and I am no-one
and I owe one to you


We are all going to miss you greatly Bob. Not only did you bring music to our world, but you brought great diversity. You were a bit of everything to everyone. Nothing will ever change that. Thank you.

Moog Movie Site

Some just find the right words. From the Moog Movie site:

Bob Moog (1934-2005)
You live in our music and in our hearts.
Rest in peace...

Analog Days

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/pinana/index.html

Putting this up more for my own reference to get later.

"Tracing the development of the Moog synthesizer from its initial conception to its ascension to stardom in Switched-On Bach, from its contribution to the San Francisco psychedelic sound, to its wholesale adoption by the worlds of film and advertising, Analog Days conveys the excitement, uncertainties, and unexpected consequences of a new technology that would provide the soundtrack for a critical chapter of our cultural history."

Update from AH (make sure to read the comments section for more). Personally I still plan to get it. There may be some mistakes but overall it should be a good read:
"It's also said to contain a lot of B.S. with attributions to people
who simply didn't do certain things the author says they did.

For one, Dan Wyman who ran SoundArts in L.A. in the 70s, and who
WROTE the Moog modular manual, was quite ticked-off when he read the
book and saw so many historical inaccuracies."

Wonderful, now what? ; )

Synthtopia on Moog

Click here for the post.

The first Minis

via Till Kopper

Check out this shot of the Minimoog Model A, B, C and finally D that became the standard. There is also a custom double mini in there. I had to do a double take. Funny. Title link takes you to bigger picture on Till Kopper's site.

Minimoog Voyager Prototype - Winter NAMM 2000

In via AH. Click here for Bob introducing the Minimoog Voyager prototype at the Winter 2000 NAMM show. I forgot aobut this one, but remember it when it came out. Note the lack of touch pad control surface, the bank of switches in the lower center, and full laden knobs accross the surface.

Update: It was a non functioning display unit.

Bob Moog, Lydia Kavina and William Olsen

http://www.cyndustries.com/bobmoog.htm

In via AH and Synth Sights. Lydia Kavina is Leon Theremin's neice.

Create Digital Music on Remembering Moog

Make sure to check out Create Digital Music for their coverage on Bob Moog. The have a link up to an audioMIDI interview of Bob Moog and the Voyager and much more. In the video he calls out that the Minimoog Voyager is exactly the same as a Minimoog Model D plus enhancements. You always hear about this, but there is a certain validity added to it when actually hearing it from the man himself.

Reboot Stereophonic

Update: From Steve-O in the comments section:
"i just got a copy of this -- double album -- if you like early kraftwerk, you will like this big time"

Update: Direct link to Reboot Stereophonic for release dates and more. This one is supposed to come out November 2005. Interesting thing is they call it Gershon Kingsley's Jewish Moog instead. Wonder if this is a different album.

Via Boing Boing. Meant to post this earlier today but got caught up in everything else. Reboot Stereophic is "a new non-profit record label reissuing (stay with me here) classic space age bachelor pad Jewish music." Brilliant. : )

NPR - Music Visionary Robert Moog

Another NPR piece on Bob Moog's passing. Title link takes you to NPR's All Things Considered with Music Visionary Robert Moog by Elizabeth Blair. This is different than the earlier NPR post.

New York Times on Bob Moog

Click here for a New York Times article on Bob Moog's passing. It's good and different than the generic AP News article making it's rounds. If you get the sign up screen, do it (it's easier than it looks), free and simple (cookie based).

"It was the theremin, in fact, that got Mr. Moog interested in electronic music as a child in the 1940's. In 1949, when he was 14, he built a theremin from plans he found in a magazine, Electronics World. He tinkered with the instrument until he produced a design of his own in 1953, and in 1954 he published an article on the theremin in "Radio and Television News" and started the R. A. Moog Company, which sold his own theremins and theremin kits. "

Carolina Eyck

Who says you can't mix an electronic instrument with the orchestra. Click here for Carolina Eyck's homepage. Click here for an amazing performance on the theremin by Caronia with orchestra.

Great shot below when she was just a kid with Bob Moog.

Aliens

Groovy Moog madness. Now that's what I'm talking about. Click here for an AVI. Check Aliens Project for more.

Moog Mania

I thought what would be more appropriate at this time than to celebrate what Bob Moog left us, by sharing some performances with his creations. Watch this guy go all out. Amazing. Second video here.

Where's the Mini?

Interesting note on the AP article on Bob Moog's passing. No mention of the minimoog. But the mititmoog gets a mention! : )

"He went on to attach his name to a long list of synthesizers developed over the years -- among them Micromoog, Minitmoog, Multimoog and Memorymoog."

Image from Vintage Synth Explorer

Bob Dancing

In via AH. Some shots taken at a NAMM loft party. That's Bob in the purple striped shirt.

NPR on Bob Moog

Title link take you to NPR announcing audio that will be available at 3:00PM Eastern. This in from Synth Sights:

"Just now heard a note on his passing on NPR's Performance Today,
accompanied by a piece from Wendy Carlos' Switched on Bach.

He will be missed.

Phil"

Associated Press on Bob Moog's passing

Good article on Bob. Some quotes:

"He's like an Einstein of music," Carlini said. "He sees it like, there's a thought, an idea in the air, and it passes through him. Passing through him, he's able to build these instruments."

"A lot of people today don't realize what this man brought to the masses," Carlini said. "He brought electronic music to the masses and changed the way we hear music."

"A deliberate man with brushed-back white hair and a breast pocket packed with pens, Moog drove an aging Toyota painted with a snail, vines and a fish blowing bubbles.

"When I drive that thing around, people smile at me," he said. "I really feel I'm enhancing the environment.""

Wikipedia on Bob Moog

Wikipedia has already been updated. Wikipedia on Synthesizers has the following on the history of the synthesizer. This is who we lost today:

"The first playable modern configurable music synthesizer was created by Robert Moog, who had been a student of Peter Mauzey, one of the engineers of the RCA Mark II. Moog designed the circuits used in his synthesizer while he was at Columbia-Princeton. The Moog synthesizer was first displayed at the Audio Engineering Society convention in 1964. Like the RCA Mark II, it required hours to set up the machine for a new sound, but it was smaller and more flexible. The Moog synthesizer was at first a curiosity, but by 1968 it had caused a sensation."

Bob has left us - August 21, 2005

Via Mark Pulver on AH:

Robert Moog took his last breath today, August 21, at 2 pm. We will be
paying tribute to his life with a Jewish funeral on Tuesday August 23rd
at 4 PM and a Memorial Celebration on Wednesday, August 24th at 12 PM.
The Memorial Celebration will be a time to pay your tribute in word and
song.

Details of the Memorial Celebration are:

MEMORIAL CELEBRATION: August 24, 12 NOON
The Orange Peel, Social Aid & Pleasure Club
101 Biltmore Ave
Asheville, NC
828 225-5851
www.theorangepeel.net



We love you Bob.

Thank you.

The Box

Brian Crabtree's The (presently untitled) Box. Interesting midi device. Check out this video of it in action. Click here for more info including pictures, sound and video.

Info from the site:

the (presently untitled) box.

alternative input paired with visual and audio feedback should theoretically eliminate the keyboard and mouse dance party.

a grid of buttons with internal lights. each system is independently interfaced via midi to an arbitrary computer program. what happens to the button data, or what lights turn on, is entirely dictated by software design. it is open.

fundamentally i use max/msp, though the box can easily communicate with supercollider, ableton live, reason, reaktor, and everything else which supports midi.

More Synth Shots

Roger Manning of the Moog Cookbook, Jellyfish and Imperial Drag recently had these on the bay. I pulled them up and saved them for posterity. Thanks to Martin for sending this my way.

Arp Quadra
Arp Odyssey Pics SN 0300
Moog Sonic Six
Moog Opus 3
Moog Source SN 4373 B

Moog Opus 3 Mods:
The pitch wheel was replaced with a custom-made clear wheel, lit by a Forest Green high intensity LED.

The LFO was modified to go both faster and slower than stock.
It can go so fast at maximum, that audio rate FM'ing is possible with the pitch or filter.
Its LED was changed to violet, as well.

Arp Odyssey style "gel cap" slider caps were added in the same Opus 3 color scheme.

Additional 1/4" input jacks have been added.

1. VCF Audio input
2. VCF CV input
3. Chorus/Delay Audio input
4. Envelope/LFO delay Gate input

These inputs allow external sounds to be processed through the Moog filter and analog delay sections.
The filter can be swept or modulated externally now.
An analog sequencer controlling the filter while playing organ chords is amazing, btw. : )

Finally, a gate input (standard V-trig) allows the unit to be used as a triggerable unit for external processing.
The external gate will trigger the envelope generators and the LFO delay.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Elecktroplankton

I've been debating whether or not to get a Nintendo DS. After checking out the Electroplankton site, the debate is over. Electroplankton is from Toshio Iwai who also created the Tenori. Elecktroplankton is like a Nintendo DS theramin on steroids. Click through title link for the website with more info, sound and video. IGN has a good review as well.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Solton SM100

Another from Pinkus. The Solton SM100. This was a 12 DCO polysynth. More info at Synth Museum. Title link takes you to a bigger picture. I've never heard one before. I didn't realize Solton made full blown synths like this. In Pinkus' opinion this is one of the top 5 synths ever made. I've never heard one. It's interesting, when I think of Solton I think of auto-accompaniment systems. The color scheme completely reminds me of a Korg Poly 61. The resemblence is uncanny. I wonder if one influenced the design of the other.

Update: Some comments from Pinkus
"this and the keyboard version is the only analog they
made...it has dcos but 18 ssm chips! same ones in p5...it has a knob
thats labeled "brilliance" that is...should i say brilliant? it pushed
the filters hard and definitely goes to 11...the lowest setting makes
the sound significantly different from the highest...nothing like
resonance though...simply briliant
-pinkus bigblackarc on aim
"

Arp 2600 x3

Incredible black and white shot of three Arp 2600s in a row with Sequential Studio 440. The picture below does not do this shot justice. Click the pic to see it in full glory. Sent to me from Pinkus. Thank you Pinkus!

Oberheim OB-SX

Interesting thread on VSE on the Oberheim OB-SX including sample, pic and some intesting manufacturing history.

"Yep, that's an earlier version of the OB-SX, just like CTB says above.
This model was first shipped in Sept 1980 and remained in production until sometime in the first part of 1981 when it was replaced by the Mk II version which came in the same color-scheme as the OB-Xa.

The earliest production run of the OB-SX came with discrete VCA's whereas later ones were all-Curtis (like the OB-Xa). Note also that the OB-SX had only one 3320 filter (connected in the 2-pole fashion*) as opposed to the two filters found in the OB-Xa (one set to 2-pole, the other to 4-pole).

The serial number on the OB-X, OB-Xa, DMX, DSX and OB-SX consist of 6 digits; the first two (eg "81") represent the year of manufacture, the following two (eg "40") indicate in which week of that year it was built. I'm not quite sure about the last two digits, but I reckon that for example a unit having "01" at the end of its serial number would have been the first unit being built in that particular week. This serial number system is very convenient when you want to date a particular specimen. Later products like the DX, DX-1a (a later DX sporting midi) as well as the OB-8 used a similar serial no. system except, for some reason, the first digit "8" was replaced by the letter "B" (sometimes "C").

* so you won't get that big punch that the OB-Xa is known for.
"

The sound samples do sound amazing though.

More Flickr shots from Rrooyyccee

Looks like two more added to his set including this one tagged under synth, keyboard, midi, analog and moog:

Dan's Tower of Moog

Dan posted this image on AH in tribute to Bob Moog. Mini on mini. I like. : ) BTW, updates on Caring Bridge. Send your prayers and thoughts that he is well taken care of on the other side. Pray that those he leaves behind will make it through this. If you don't pray, send your love and good vibes.

Oasis used a Synthi?

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

Ebay auction on a Synthi used by Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs (Ex-Oasis)?

CLICK FOR MORE »

EMS Synthi-E on the Bay

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

via this auction

This one was sent to me by someone that goes by Ground Films. Man, what a beauty. Don't think I've seen one this nice before.

"Here is the EMS SYNTHI E (educational) synth! There were only 230 EVER MADE, many of which were DESTROYED. This one is MINT AND LOOKS LIKE IT WAS NEVER USED! EVERYTHING works perfect!"

CLICK FOR MORE »

More Synth Podcasting - Creot Radio

This one in via Vintage Synth Explorer. V22.0 Synthetic Creot features Spitznagel/SMX, pictured below. Good stuff.

Make Synths, Not War!

Via GetLoFi. This ought to make the DIY crowd happy. : )