Frederick and Friends - New Flickr Shot

NAMM: Street Boxx and Rockers Mints

Title link takes you to a hillarious video by the Sonic State crew on what looks like the NAMM 2006 after party. There's a couple of plugs including the Street Box SB-246 (a repackaged Zoom Rhythm Trak they claim to be "Hip-Hop's first real beat machine. For the streets......By the streets"), and Rockers Mints. Enjoy. Man I miss LA at times. That's sparkle. : )

Blacet Sound Clips

Update: Title link was pointing to one of the MP3. It's now updated and points to the forum post. Sorry about that.

Title link takes you to a post on HC with some impressive sound clips. Below are the current samples. Make sure to check back for more over time.

"One is some FM craziness using the filter in self-oscillation to modulate a sine wave from the VCO, with the filter frequency modulated by the LFO. The other is a simple saw-tooth bassline, with some standard filter sweeping."

http://home.comcast.net/~r3cogniz3r/BlacetSineFM.mp3
http://home.comcast.net/~r3cogniz3r/BlacetSweep.mp3


"Here is a quick loop I whipped up. The drums are Battery, the lead sound is Vanguard, the bass is the modular. It's a simple pulse-wave patch with PWM."

http://home.comcast.net/~r3cogniz3r/BlacetShortLoop.mp3

Blacet/Wiard/Doepfer Live - The Picture is Dead

I posted about The Picture is Dead back on Nov. 26. Some truly bizarre and interesting music reminiscent of the old 4AD and Fac bands. Well, they will be playing live in the DC area on the 25th of January, and they will be performing with their Blacet, Wiard, and Doepfer modular; you don't get to see that every day. More info below. Title link takes you to their site with a couple of mp3s.



"This message is to inform you that THE PICTURE IS DEAD will be performing at DC9 on Wednesday the 25th of January at 9 PM. The band members are BRYAN CORNELL, SAM SERAFY, PATRICK TIMONY, and JAMES WOLF. To hear what we sound like, visit www.pictureisdead.com or www.myspace.com/thepictureisdead. The band will play along with projected images by PAT PADUA. Joining us will be the bands SPANORB (aka DJ Panic) and JAKUTA AND CARL.

DC9
1940 9th Street, NW, (9th & Florida)
Washington, DC
http://www.dcnine.com

Hope to see you there!"

Synths Make the Sunday Paper

In the UK that is. Note this is in a Newspaper, not a music publication. Pretty cool. Title link takes you to more via Chris Strellis.

Kraftwerk Pocket Calculator Video on DVD Born

Title link takes you there.

Korg Radias on Sequencer.de

Title link takes you to Moogulator's page on the Korg Radias including several screenshots of the editor.

Silky T and the Juno G - Video up on Roland

Title link takes you there. Tired of the standard techno demos? Well here you go.



To get to the video, click the little video icon on the bottom left of the juno image.

KORE Portability?

Title link takes you to a good post about KORE on CDM. The one thing that stood out to me was the following:

"Portability: Because KORE will store all this patch information and performance and control settings, you'll be able to take your whole KORE setup anywhere you want -- move from Logic to Live, SONAR to Fruity Loops, from your Mac to your PC, from your studio tower to your stage laptop, whatever. Of course, you'll have to have the same plug-ins on both systems, but at least you won't have to manually move over plug-ins."

This along with seamless integration of your plug-ins seems one step closer to soft synths bridging that final gap with dedicated hardware synths. I just prefer the directness of hardware, but you can't deny the apeal of having a hundred different synths under one hood; this just might be the solution.

Knobs on The Packrat

January's strip of The Packrat is out. Title link takes you to The Packrat page.

Marvin Jones Website - NAMM Memorial, Paia History and Much More

Title link takes you to Marvin Jones website. I arrived to what looked like a simple, lean website. I then began to explore and found much more than meets the eye. I found the history of Paia, Marvin worked there and became lifelong friends with founder John Simonton. I found some humorous ads from Paia including this great shot of Marvin dressed as Santa.



I found some great shots of NAMM 2006 including these two Buchlas.


And... I realized that Marvin Jones has had a year I simply cannot fathom. The following are shots from this years NAMM Memorial. Morris "Morrie" Jones below, is Marvin Jones father. Title link takes you to his site with much more.

Moog 900 Series Demo Record

Title link takes you there, including MP3. Via Henry Birdseye on AH.



"When I was a kid, starting in 7th or 8th grade, I was rabid about finding info about synthesizers. When I wrote the R. A. Moog company in 1968, I got a pile of literature and this 10" vinyl record. I haven't heard it in some 35 years, and for a relic, it's in pretty good shape. An odd thing about this... the labels are reversed. The side 1 label (shown) is on the side with excerpts from "Switched-on Bach," and vice versa."

MEK Video Up on Sonic State

Title link takes you there. Watch this video. Some juicy tidbits including Dave Smith stating that the Curtis filter chip is the same filter as used in the Pro One, Prophet 5 and Prophet VS. He states that the evolver series is what the Prophet series would look like twenty years later. He also notes that Doug Curtis is a good friend and is making the chips exclusively for him.

Moog Tribute Project

Title link takes you to the Moog Tribute Project, a site put up by James R. Coplin to host musical tributes to Bob Moog. From James R. Coplin: "I don't want this to come across as some sort of a contest; I'm not making editorial decisions etc. Many people I've talked to feel the need and desire to express something they feel about Moog's impact on their music and so I've volunteered the hosting space for it. I thought that music would be the best tribute to him as words, memorials, foundations, etc. are fundamentally disconnected with the work and gifts he gave us as musicians and artists. It's more of a musical guest book of sorts I suppose in that sense."

If you would like to submit your own tribute, James R. Coplin is still accepting them.

More NAMM Shots from Brandon Daniel

Title link takes you there. Same set under NAMM, Winter, 2006, just more shots.

Buchla 222e Multi-dimensional Kinesthetic Input Port

Analog Systems NAMM 2006 - New Flickr Shot

Title link takes you to a bigger shot.

Ferrapsylix Mindblock

Right click title link and save (13M) for a little ditty by Troy Sheets featuring:
"Real analog bass (Moog MG-1), real analog 303 emulation (x0xb0x), all
other synths are waldorf Q." More on http://www.ferrapsylix.com/.

ARP Quadra Shots

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction.

NAMM 2006 via Pigpen Digital

Title link takes you to the set. Via Moose of Pigpen Digital.

Notice On Matrixsynth.com

For anyone that used my old site, I've moved it to http://www.matrixsynth.com/old. Matrixsynth.com will now redirect to this site moving forward, as here is where I spend all of my time and this is Matrixsynth. My old site was mainly my personal portal to all other synth sites, and home to a few pages on my first synths (the nostalgia link). And of course there were some shots of my cats and Aleister the Water Dragon. I started Matrixsynth.com in October of 1997. This feels like the end of an era for me as I am basically laying the old site to rest, but it will live on.

A PunkdISCO Wedding

Title link takes you to the track and the story. Synths featured: Moog Voyager and Korg MS-20.

GMedia Flashes a Boob on Sonic State

Nice! Man I love Sonic State. In the latest issue of Keyboard Magazine there's a small bit asking why no one has come out with an Oberheim soft synth yet. Well.... Looks like this might be it. : ) Title link takes you to a clip on Sonic State where GMedia accidentally flashes the SOB pictured below. GMedia rules. I have their impOSCar and Oddity, both great and affordable soft synths.

The Analog Collection

Title link takes you to Reflex Audio's The Analog Collection. What's impressive about this collection in addition to the list of synths, surprisingly, is the price at a mere $29. That and it's from James of Retro Thing. Reflex Audio is also responsible for the Sonia Xi and HardSid Quattro PCI.



Samples include the ARP Odyssey, Chroma Polaris, Elka Synthex, EML ElectroComp 101, Kawai K3, Korg MS-20, Moog MemoryMoog, Moog Minimoog, Oberheim Matrix 12, Oberheim OB-1, Oberheim SEM, Oberheim Xpander, Roland Juno 106, Roland Jupiter 8, Roland MC 202, Roland MKS-80, Roland SH-7, Roland TB 303, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Sequential Circuits Prophet 600, Sequential Circuits Six-Trak, Waldorf Microwave, Yamaha CS-5, and Yamaha CS-50.

Korg Radias Video up on Sonic State

Title link takes you there.

The MonoVoice SID Based Synth

3 oscillator monophonic synth with a register editor software and a simple 8-step sequencer. Title link takes you to more on C64Music!.

JWM Electronics Thunderchild SZ3540 - New Flickr Shot

According to this post, "back in 1976 Jeff Wayne released War of the Worlds, upon which allegedly featured a specially built synthesizer called the Thunderchild SZ3540."

Caption from the Flickr Shot
"...there lay thunderchild."

in a garage in an undisclosed location somewhere in the uk lies THE synth that made all those wonderful sounds. I'm always into the very latest sounds coming from the new wave electronica scene, but War of the Worlds always holds a special place in my heart. And it was a wonderful moment meeting Thunderchild.

And of course, now you all know where the name comes from..."

More on Thunderchild in War of The Worlds.

Korg Karma - New Flickr Shot

Nice black and white of the Karma. Title link takes you to a color shot.

JD990 Samples

Two samples (links below image) of the Roland JD990 via this thread on HC.

JD800 - the keyboard version of the JD990


http://www.babic.com/SYN/JD990-BladeOfGlass.mp3
http://www.babic.com/SYN/JD990-Patches.mp3

Corky Burger's Flickr Sets

Title link takes you to one. Note the other sets on the right.

Roland SH-201 - No LCD and Zero Menus?

James of Retro Thing has an interesting point on the new Roland SH-201 - there are no menus and there is no LCD. Everything is right there out front. I had to do a double take to believe it, but he's right. But then what if it has hidden menus only accessible via pressing different combinations of buttons. Eeek! Hopefully not. I'm more curious as to how it will sound compared to the SH-32 and JP8000. Will it cover both or lean towards one more than the other.

Akai EWI400S VA Wind Instrument

Title link takes you there. The VA synth is built in. Wireless MIDI. Think about that. : )




"The EWI4000S has many of the long sought after controls and functions that are necessary for expressive performance. These benefits have been proven by its predecessors, but the EWI offers these features at a much lower price. There are several improvements to the design as well, such as having a built-in sound module, direct MIDI IN and Out, and other updated operating functions. These functions make playing the EWI4000 easier than any other electronic wind instrument.

With the sound module and the instrument all in one product, players no longer need to be tethered to a module. By using MIDI and audio wireless transceivers, EWI4000S players can move freely on the stage as they are playing. The user can easily switch between programs on the EWI4000S directly with a dedicated Program selection button, or use the note keys to select stored patches."

Native Instruments KORE

Title link takes you there.




"KORE can host any VST and AudioUnit instrument and effect. It runs stand-alone or as a plug-in within all major sequencers. KoreSounds can consist of multiple instruments and effects and can be transferred seamlessly between songs, systems and studios."

Korg Radias Hands-on via CDM

Title link takes you there.

Korg Radias on Sonic State and MP3s are up on Korg

Nice close up of the Korg Radias on Sonic State. Title link takes you to their news article on the Radias. I can't wait for their videos to come in. Also MP3s are up on Korg.

Ultra 303

Click here for more info.

"ultra303 is a cpu replacement project for the tb 303 and the ml 303 clone...
which means the old cpu is desoldered and replaced by a new one... a cpu replacement adds new features to your tb 303 and makes things easier to handle it and beside this it turns your tb 303 into a state of the art synth.
the new firmware has still an internal sequencer with the "same" behavoir but with lcd display, midi implementation, saving, reading and editing your patterns via a midi interface on pc.

the entire editing on the 303 is lcd based. you can see the current note that one after and before and you can browse thru your pattern going steps back and some more features which were impossible with the old cpu
of course the firmware is realtime editing...means you don't need to stop the pattern replay during editing."