120 Years

Obsolete.com's 120 Years, 1870 to 1990. A great site documenting key dates in the history of electronic instruments.

Begins with The Musical Telegraph Elisha Grey USA 1876

GetLoFi's 3 VCO Opto Sequencer

Title link takes you to more. LED patch cables! Cwazy. : )

Everything You Always Wanted to Hear on the Moog - New Flickr Shot

Click through for bigger shot. Wonder when this came out and what it sounded like.

Deep Synthesis Roland Alpha Juno Page Added

Sealed added a Roland Alpha Juno Page to his site. As usual it's good with links to resources, images, images and MP3. Check it out.

Korg Poly61 Shot

Via WC Olo Garb again. I just love this shot of the Korg Poly61.

WC Olo Garb

Great synth site via Deep Synthesis Journal. Check out the gear list for some oddities including the Polish APS Analog Drum Machines I posted on below, an Electro Harmonix vocoder including a great mp3 of it, and something called an Amstrad Fidelity CKX-100 Computerphonic that closely resembles an EMU EMax II. More models inlcuding shots and mp3s via title link.

Amstrad Fidelity CKX-100

APS Mini Rhythm MR 3201 & Auto Rhythm

Don't see these everyday. Two Polish analog drum machines. Title link takes you to main gear list of site. Scrool down to drum machines for these.

APS Mini Rhythm MR 3201 MP3 Sounds pretty tight.

"32 rhythms Polish analog drum machine from the Communist era. Has 6 knobs: bass, snare and hihat volume, global tempo, fine tempo, main volume. Goes together with a foot switch that has 2 buttons: start/stop and intro/fill-in. These buttons are also on the main unit and are activated when the foot switch is unplugged."

APS Auto Rhythm - MP3

"The same as APS Mini, but more functions. 32 rhythms, 8 instruments [3 in Mini], volume of each instrument adjustable. Also the brightness of the snare can be modified. Apart from the standard [and indispensable] buttons start/stop and intro/fillin there's a 'delay stop' button, which, if pressed, stops the machine after a few seconds. Two LEDs, the green one for beat down and the red one for quarter note. Whereas I love the analog sound of APS Mini, the Auto samples seem to sound a bit rigid."

Korg Microcontrol - New Flickr Shot

Warm shot of the Microntrol.

Casio VZ1

Title link takes you to a site on the Casio VZ1 including some samples. Found it on Vintage Synth Explorer. Vintage Synth link will take you a discussion on the synth.

The Redsound Elevata that wasn't

Redsound Elevata Darkstar Keyboard mock-up. I beleive this was taken at a tradeshow, either the Musikmesse or NAMM. It never made it to production. Title link takes you to a couple of more shots.

Creamware Minimax AB Demo MP3

Via Vintage Synth Explorer. Right click title link and save.

Roland TR-808 - 'bay shots

Some Roland TR-808 shots from the 'bay. More via title link.

I love the warmth of this shot.

Future Retro Revolution - 'bay Shots

Carbon111's Future Retro Revolution is on the 'bay. Some amazing shots saved for posterity. Title link takes you to more.

MicroKorg - New Flickr Shots

Kord MicroKorg shot on Flickr. Gorgeous shots.

5 OSC Box

Via GetLoFi.

Sound Lab Slide Interface

Via Electro-Music. Interface created by Uncle-Krunkus to control his Sound Lab. Title link takes you to post with more.

Moog Clock

Saw this via Create Digital Music.

Cirucuit Bending the Suzuki Omnichord

Title says it all. Click through for more including pictures and samples. Someone on AH said it actually sounded like a Buchla. : ) From the samples I heard of the Buchla it kind of does. There is a certain percussive crispness there I've heard on some Buchla samples.

Andromeda A6 Track

From F.A.S Truhan III via AH. Right click and save locally. I'm amazed at the variety of characters the A6 can pull off. Amazing. Run track btw, and only 10M.

"My friend Ron West was gracious enough to host this on his FTP site for a little while. For those curious, this serves as a pretty good opportunity to hear alot of stuff the Andromeda 6 can do, especially since I'm making it do alot of things I keep hearing tons of people swear it can't. For the gear whores: If it sounds analogue, it's an Andromeda 6, this does most of the sounds. Exceptions: Drums are a Roland R-8mkII. During the 'anime theme song' bridge, there is a Casio CZ-3000 pad mixed in with the two A6 pads, and the wave sequencing in the same section is a Korg MS-2000. At the end, the uber-electro percussion joining the R-8 drums is a Korg ER-1. MS-2000 handles the vocoder action, and the superhuge string sound at the very end layered with the A6 'horns' is an ARP Quadra. Enjoy. Or not. Fair warning, if you don't like your acid lines super nasty, steer clear or you might hurt your fragile aesthetic sensibilities ; )"

Akai EWI4000S Video on Sonic State

Title Link takes you there.

Different Skies Feed

Via Synth Sights:

"The concert is Saturday night ... 7:30 PM (Arizona's on Mountain
Standard Time, right? which is GMT-0700)

They were (successfully) testing a live web stream earlier this
evening ... I assume it'll be up for the concert. Check
www.differentskies.com ...

Doug"

MacBeth M5 in Stereo

Thought this was funny. In via AH. Title link takes you to bigger shot on Analogue Haven.

A horse and his AX-60

Don't remember where I got these shots, but I love 'em. If you know please comment. Title link takes you to a slightly bigger shot of the below and two more. Beautiful horse. And not a bad Akai AX-60. : ) horse

Some DIY PDFs and JPGs - Buchla, ARP, RSF

In via AH. Mark Verbo's site for schemos.

Includes:
RSF Kobol Expander Waveshaper
RSF Kobol Expander Sawtooth Oscillator
Buchla "Timbre" Waveshaper
Buchla Lopass Gate
Buchla 258 style oscillator
ARP Odyssey 2 quadrant modulator
Buchla Source of Uncertainty
Buchla Bandpass Filter
Three position toggle switch
Vactrol Crossfader

1984 PPG New Wave Ad

This PPG Wave ad popped up in my random image viewer. Title link takes you to bigger shot.

How to Make Arp Strings

Mark Smart posted this on AH. Super simple walkthrough with samples for each step. Really nicely done. Title link takes you there.

Different Skies Video Coverage

I posted about the Different Skies gathering yesterday. Well... I just got the ok from Jim Combs to post this link to some video coverage. Right click and save. Title link takes you to the Different Skies website which also has a video link. I can't wait to check it out. Enjoy. : )

Note: The file is 20 minutes and 320M. : ]

Six Machines That Changed The Music World - Wired

Via Cynthia via AH. Thanks Cynthia!


The list according to Wired:

• Roland TB-303


• Roland TR-808


• Technics SL-1200 Turntable


• Nordlead 1


• Amek System 9098 Equalizer


• Akai S950 Sampler

Intwesting. Off to go read the article on why. Interesting that the Minimoog didn't make the list.

EMU 2200 VCO

This popped up in my randomn image viewer. It's an EMU 2200 VCO. Notice the Eų in the title. Title link takes you to a bigger shot.

Nintendo Music Keyboard 1984 Prototype

Via Create Digital Music. Wow. Never knew this even existed. Title link takes you to more info and more shots.

Roland - New Flickr Shots

Click through for more. Funny how thin the Juno-60 looks in this shot.

Korg 800DV - New Flickr Shots

Click through for more shots.

MIT Ionosphere - Sounds of the Atmosphere

Via Engadget via digg. Building 54 at MIT has been turned into a giant speaker. : ) Click through title link for more. Funny that it's building 54 as in studio 54.

Another SoundLab Custom Design

I posted about the SoundLab on 8/30. Here is another design that cropped up on electro-music.com. Pretty nice design especially with Halloween just around the corner. : ) Title link takes you to more.

Kosmophone - Space Age Midi Controller - literally...

Sent to me by Charles Vestal. Thanks Charles! Click through for more info, shots and samples. Amazing.

That silver cylinder in the rack is the Kosmophone.


"The Kosmophone is a gamma-ray spectrometer operating in the range of about 3 to 7 million electron-volts (MeV) controlling a MIDI music synthesizer.

This octave of the electromagnetic spectrum, about a million times higher frequency than the octave our eyes respond to, contains very little energy that originates in our solar system. Almost all of the energy in this band is a result of unbelievably energetic radiation coming from the far reaches of the universe, 'Cosmic Rays'. Fortunately, they tend not to make it all the way through the approximately 100 miles of air over our heads. As they smash their way through the atmosphere the collisions produce energetic emissions and it is these secondary emissions the Kosmophone responds to. The energy level of each detected event is measured and that information is sent to the MIDI control port of a music synthesizer. The 'cosmic data' is not altered or supplemented in any way and would be presumed to be completely random.

The measured distribution of energy values is indeed very uniform and the rate does not vary from local day to night. Apparently the normal output of our sun contains no significant gamma rays (which is a very good thing for us!) but they are produced in bursts during solar flares. "

Update via the comments:
"Many thanks for your interest and kind words, but please note the silvery cylinder at the bottom of the rack is just the detector; a 3" Teledyne Isotopes 4Pi-well-type NaI scintillator previously owned by a government weapons laboratory. The 1RU panel above it is the Pulse Height Analyzer and of course above that the synth and power amp."