Roland SH-101 trick - filter FM and AM

Via Andreas on Sonic State's the-gas-station. Title link takes you to thread with samples.



www.steinholtz.dk/snd/sh101_FilterFm.mp3
www.steinholtz.dk/snd/sh101_Am_FilterFm.mp3

Update: Another tip from Mike in the comments section below:

"As my SH doesn't have midi yet and i don't have
a CV/gate sequencer either , i feed the trigger outs of my Tr 808 into the clock in. In combination with the internal Sequencer of the 101 you can sync the pattern of the SH to the 808 clock and get very inspiring sequences, as each step programmed makes the Sh's Sequence to move to the next note, so depending on the pattern (i always use the Accent for this)you have programmed, you get nice and uneven sequences. This method works
for syncing the Arpegiator to the clock too."

Eurythmics Goes Old School

Via Music Thing.



From Arjan Writes music blog:
"The video for the new single has been shot by photographer Matthew Rolston. His visual concept was to create a homage to the early Eurythmics days with both Lennox and Steward in suit around vintage synthesizers (just like in "Sweet Dream"). Click here for an exclusive photo from the video shoot. Listen to a 10 second snippet of the song just to get a feel for it."

Pacific Northwest Synth Meeting - New Flickr Shots

Title link takes you to tpaddockya's set.

Benj sp's Korg Microkorg Flickr Set

Wow. Some amazing shots. I had a hard time picking one for this post. Title link takes you to more.

This one is my new desktop wallpaper.

The Novachord Restoration Project

Via MC of AH. CMS is restoring a Hammond Novachord. Title link takes you to a page on the restoration project. There are also some examples of what the Novachord sounded like. The Novachord was Hammond's first electronic instrument released in 1939. It was a polyphonic electronic organ that predated the Hammond Solovox. For more info on the history of the Hammond Novacord, see 120 Years.

Switched On Bach - New Flickr Shots

Wendy Carlos' Switched on Bach. The album that started it all. Title link takes you to two Flickr shots, one of the back and one of the front. The interesting note is that the album int the shots is "factory sealed." Pretty cool, but I remember that old plastic album covering sometimes had a tendancy to shrink and warp the sleeve. This one looks good though. Anywho, enough with the jibba jabba...

New Polyevolver Demo From Stefan Trippler

Right click and save title link.

New Korg Manuals Uploaded

Benjamin Ward has uploaded the following Korg manuals. Title link takes you there.

Korg Synthesizer 770 owners manual
Korg Synthesizer 770 settings manual
Korg Synthesizer 770 service manual
Korg ES-50 Lambda one owners manual.

Guitar Synth

Luca Capozzi sent this awesome site to me. I thought it wasn't on topic enough to post until I got to the lessons section. Then I realized, hey, it's sample playback using my computer keyboard to play. Good enough of an excuse for me to post this. Title link takes you there. Enjoy. : )

Pacman

Fun little tune posted here.

Akai AX60 Acid

In via Vintage Synth Explorer. Title link takes you to the location of a track title "Whitney on Acid." The synths are all AX60 overdubbed via 4 track. If you ever wanted to hear the raw, distinct distortion of an AX60, listen to this track. People often compare the Juno 106 to the Akai AX60. There is nothing remeniscent of a Juno in this track. The Juno 106 sounds glossy and refined while the AX60 sounds much more untamed and raw. It really comes out towards the end of the track.

Zom Zoms Synth P*rn on Flickr

Title link takes you there.

EMU Modular from set

MiniKorg - New Flickr Shot

Yamaha EX42

Yamaha EX42 on the 'bay. Title link takes you to pics saved for posterity.

Pacific Northwest Synthesizer Meeting

Click here some shots and short video from this year's Pacific Northwest Synthesizer meeting at the Renton Technical College in Washington State. I had a great time while I was there, but I had to leave early to go to my daughter's 2 year b-day party. Enjoy the shots. : )

Yamaha GX1 for Auction

One of the Holy Grails of the Synth world is currently up for auction. Title link takes you there. Pinballs Wanted will take you to a page dedicated to this synth. David Rogoff on AH stated "Well, here's the king..." and posted the link. The King says it best. I can see 70s Elvis wailing away on this, white cape, rinestones and sweat. : )

Image Cave - Synth P*rn

via Image Cave, home to some increadibly immaculate analog goodies. Some of the cleanest synths I've seen, including this Crumar Spirit co-designed by Bob Moog.

For more on the Crumar Spirit, see Big City Music's description.

Tape Sequencers

There is a post up on Electro Music featuring what looks like analog tape machines to sequencers. Trip. Click through title link for more.

Analog Industries Gear P*rn Friday

Crikees! That's one hell of a cabinet!

Hans Zimmer

EMS Synthi 100

Interesting thread on the EMS Synthi 100 on Vintage Synth Explorer. Two interesting tidbits that got me to post this. One in the History page of the EMS Site it lists Belgrade in The Users section. Optimus prime on the thread followed up and it turns out they have a Synthi 100. Two, the Synthi 100 is featured on Meat Beat Manifesto's later work including some shots of it in a DVD called "Tino Vision." I will definitely have to check that out.

Ray Kurzweil

Seems like Kurzweil has been making the rounds lately. Aside from Kurweil Music Systems he is one the most prolific inventors of our century. Click here for a CNet article on him.

Fairlight CMI

Retro Thing has a good post up on the Fairlight CMI. Very cool. Enjoy.

Synthesizers.com 44-Space System for Sale

Yowsa! Click here for more including some beautiful shots. I saved the shots here, as I'm guessing they will eventually come down off the site.

"What can one say about .com? It's the modular Bob Moog himself regarded as the contemporary modular "that got it right." I think that appraisal is a bit fairer to .com than to some other makes I also admire, but there it is from the big man. Various owners who are conversant in electronics report amazement at the bomb-proof quality of the circuitry, wiring, and construction. It really is built for the long haul, as John Mitchell used to trumpet on AH."

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New Synth Shots and Progsounds Synth Forum from Luca Capozzi

Luca Capoza from Italy sent this my way. Click here for his forum, Progsounds and Zioaxiom will take you to his Flickr set. There is an articles section on Progsounds available to registered users. Thanks Luca!

Alesis MMT8 Sequencer

Two shots of the MMT8 including one of the inside sent my way via Andre Vezina. I remember when these were considered "IT" for sequencing. They were the standard and considered the best; so much so I remember there being classes on how to use them in an audio engineering program. I always wanted one at the time, but couldn't afford one. Amazing how simple it looks. I love this shot without the original face plate. Very industrial, which was appropriate for it's time. Thanks Andre! Click hear for his site including more pictures and music all made with the MMT8. Listening to Quartz now. Good stuff.

"After many years of utilisation, the switch board of the Alesis MMT-8 was in bad condition. I did'nt want to get rid of it simply because in my case, this is the perfect tool and I know it by heart.So I decided to fix real switchs directly on the circuit board. After one day of working, the result became an hideous polymorph thing with all fonctions working perfectly.

Maybe one day I will decide to make a more fashion panel."

I say keep it the way it is! It looks better to me. : )

Synth Shots from Josue Arias

EMS Synthi pic in from Josue Arias. Thanks again, Josue!

Driscoll Modular

Update: Some comments with additional info from Ken below. Click on comments at the end of this post.

Wow. Josue Arias sent this to me. You can put this on the list of the rarest of the rare. I'm not one to benchmark rarity against, but I've never seen or even heard of one of these before. The only thing that comes up on Google is this site with a brief reference of the Driscoll. The Analog Heaven archives come up dry as well.

Josue refers to the Driscoll as a Driscoll/Serge modular. He states, "the 'serge' part is just because the similar modules in it (Slope generators, Random voltages, cv processors, Analog shift register,...) and because my system even have a serge 5 stage sequencing programmer!, but driscoll designed the same functions than the serge modular using another electronic aproach and design, so is not a clone(!)"

The Driscoll was built in the 70s by Australian composer/designer/engineer Julian Driscoll. Josue, believes the original Driscoll was a 10-12 panel system.

As for the sound?
"The sound for this synth is incredible, its really "organic", it sound like creatures more than electronics : ) I have it next to my 4 panel serge and I really like the driscoll sound a lot more."

http://www.cyndustries.com/bugmusic/17.mp3

"All the water drops/woodblocks/marimba/rithms, comes from the driscoll. I think it show the organic qualities. I`m ataching you a couple of photos but they are from my old studio"

Wow. Thanks for sharing this Josue.

Update:
Josue gave me the ok to post the following thread. Thanks Josue!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I`ve found some of the conversaions I had with australian composer
Warren Burt, He used the Driscoll and even it have a CD now for sale
made with it!:

"Hello Mr. Burt,

I`m Josue Arias, a musician and sound engineer from Madrid(SPAIN)
I just got the old Segemodular tape from 1983, and I`ve found you have
a nice piece there called "You want, maybe, something a little intense
diatonic?"

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Korg MS-20 - New Flickr Shots

Awesome shots of the Korg MS-20 via Flickr.

Modded Roland TR-606

Update: More on Analogue Haven. Mod doc here.

On the'bay. Wow. It almost looks photoshopped to me. Hrmmmmm... If it wasn't on auction, I don't know if I'd believe it. Nice though. : )

From the auction:

If you think this is just another TR606 with a couple of tweaks then you are wrong..!! This is the most modded TR606 on the planet and it has to be seen and heard to be believed. It has had the following upgrades and mods:-
All switches have been replaced with new parts (They get unreliable with age, this acts and feels like new)

All Led's have been replaced with blue Leds, and Led's have been added to each voice too, so you can see as well as hear which drum is sounding.

It has a full Analogue Solutions tonal mod (costs £140 inc vat), this adds the following extra controls:-

BD; Tune1, Tune2. SD; Tune, Snappy, Noise Decay. LT/HT; Tune, Sweep. CY; Mix (between 2 sound sources), Decay. HH; Tune (affects CY too), OH Decay.

It has individual trigger outs for each voice and longer gate outs too (with selectable voltage), these were added so that it will drive Analogue Solutions and similar Drum modules.

It has individual outputs for each voice in addition to main output.

It has trigger buttons for each voice added, so that individual sounds can be auditioned without the drum machine running.

It has a fine tempo control added for emmm fine control of tempo..!!

Both the internal clock and accent are available as external triggers so that they can drive envelope gates for filters, VCA's, frequency shifters etc on modular synths.

It has Midi clock input added so it can be slaved to an external sequencer or Cubase, Logic etc.

It has a large capacity Lithium memory backup battery added so that you don't have to worry about loosing patterns if the batterys go flat - this should last about 10 years.

The drum volume controls and the dinsync socket have been moved from the TR606 panel to the expander panel to make them more intuitive.

It has a built in power supply with a 230v IEC connector, mains lead is included.

It has a high quality 12 channel stereo mixer with pan controls added, use this with internal voices via patchcords or use it with external triggered drum modules.

It has an 8 way multiple included too (ideal if using this 606 as part of a Doepfer modular setup).

It is in perfect working order and comes with a bound copy of the TR606 manual. It does NOT include the original vinyl carrying case because it's now too big to fit into it..!!

The panel itself is standard 6U size so it will fit into a rack, however it includes a custom made wooden case with rack rails so it can be free standing too.

EMS Putney Sample

Right click here and save. This came in via chaircrusher aka Kent Williams on AH. I asked him if I could post it and he gave the ok. Thank you Kent! This is an amazing showcase of the EMS Putney.

"I just got an Electribe ES-1 sampling drum machine on Ebay, and this is my first 'test' track with it. I ran the EMS Putney mono into the ES-1, and messed around a bit generating noises and sampling them.

I then recorded a couple of takes of the ES-1 with Putney sounds sequenced, messing a bit with effects, I also recorded the Putney live, and some more conventional drum sounds. Then I did some editing and processing in Acid.

The loop at the beginning is the ER-1 in 'beatslice' mode on a Putney sound.

I need to figure out how to maybe get things a little more varied, and less 'in your face' all the time, but it was a fun exercise, and should give you a really good idea of what a Putney can sound like."

Kurzweil Borg

Via Gizmodo. No VA1 for us, instead...

A Borg

Tokyo Synthesizer Hunt - New Flickr Shots

Wow. Huge set of shots in via bdu on Flickr.

The shot below looks like something from one of my synth dreams.

If I wake up I wonder if this post will be there.... : )

Moog on the Moon

Jonathan Lutz posted this on AH. Looks interesting. If anyone knows more or can actually make this in Philly, please feel free to comment.

"The Franklin Institute presents this spectacular analog synthesizer show featuring an out-of-this-world visual journey on the Fels Planetarium dome. Includes tribute to the late Bob Moog, inventor of the famous Moog Synthesizer."

Update via AH:
"Mark Jenkins is flying in tonight from the UK. 2/3 of my band Xeroid Entity (I'm unavailable Saturday night) will be at the concert. Orbital Decay from Quakertown, who have played many times on my radio program (Galactic Travels, WDIY, Allentown) as well as on Star's End (WXPN, Philadelphia) and at the Soundscapes and the Gatherings concert series, will be there. All three bands played at the fantastic new Electro-music festival last June. (See http://electro-music.com for details.)It's a Moog tribute concert in a planetarium.

1. There will be analog synths.
2. It's being held in a planetarium.
3. The musicians are top shelf.

Conclusion: If that isn't enough to get you to go to this, then you must be living in Timbuktu. ;-)

Cheers,

Bill Fox - http://soundscapes.us"

Miniorgan - Realistic Concertmate Rhythm Box

Trip. Never saw this before. Title pretty much says it all. It's a rhythm box made in 1981. Not sure if it's analog and/or whether it uses any design or components from another manufacturer like the Realistic MG-1 did with Moog. Click here for more on Miniorgan.com, a site worth checking out in its entirety and on it's own.

Hammond 102200 Synthesizer

Haven't seen one of these in a while. Shots pulled from this aution so they are not lost. More info in this Vintage Synth post.

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