Matrixsynth on CafePress

Update4: Mine came out horrid! The font is aqua instead of green. So... Don't order one unless you want the "limitted" first edition. Heh. : ) I'm waiting on a couple of orders to go through (which I actually will refund and let them keep the shirt, because I feel so bad), then I'm closing the shop. If you order one after this update, I WILL NOT refund and just assume you actually want one as is. I'll be looking locally at making shirts next, and I'll be doing a quality check on my end before announcing anything. Sorry about this, but do know I will take care of those who stepped out and bought one first. Here is what it looks like; click for a bigger shot.



Update3: Looks like the $5 off coupons are only good on orders of $20. I upped the mark-ups for my two $19.99 items a penny to $20.00 so we can use the coupons. Other option would have been to pick up a mini-button for $1.99 or that thong. : )

Update2: Looks like I received five $5 off coupon codes when I placed my order. If anyone wants one send me an email at matrixsynth[]hotmail.com. Please don't ask unless you are ready to buy though. Also if you do buy something and get five discounts for others, send them to yourself and post a comment here so others can save a little; I'm not sure if you can use them yourself.

Update: I need to stress that the font will NOT be as sharp as the title in this blog. It has more of a retro Outer Limits/X Files blurry look to it from simply blowing up the title. I think it looks pretty cool myself. Here is a link to what it will look like full size.
---
Yep, I did it. I've been wanting a black T with the Matrixsynth title and description above for a while now. I finally got around to checking out CafePress after seeing The Packrat Ts and shwag. I went for the whole shebang for the heck of it. Who am I to judge what others might be interested in. So if you want a Matrixsynth thong, go for it. I also have stamps. I'll be picking up a black T myself. BTW, I just grabbed the title of this blog, so if you do actually buy something please don't come after me if the quality sucks. As the used analog synth market sometimes goes, they are sold AS-IS, buyer beware. I'm honestly just doing this for the fun of it. The markup on each item btw, is one whole dollar. Woohoo! Anyway, I will post back when I get my black T and let you know what I think of it. The one thing I am a bit worried about is how the black border will look on the black shirt (see Update3 below, this might not be an issue after all). Also if I actually do sell more than 10 different items, I'll post back with the top ten sold. P.S. I wonder if I'm making history with the first synth related thong...

Update3: I went with the following printing option for my merchandise, so my concerns on black on black may not be an issue after all. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

"Direct Printing

With Direct Printing, we print direct-to-fabric with no transfers. The result is a matte image that moves with the garment because the ink is actually embedded in the fabric for ultimate wearable comfort. After a few washes, you will notice the great durability of Direct Printing. That means greater image staying power.

The benefits of Direct Printing
Great washability - no fading
No feel of ink on the fabric (the ink is in the fabric)
No cracking
No transfer lines"

Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene 7-13 Electronic Press Kit

Title link takes you to a fascinating video on JMJ dated 1996 on YouTube. JMJ talks about how this album is like a "replugged" rather than unplugged work for him in that he goes back to his analog roots. I love his analogy to "kneeding sounds" like clay. There's a bit of ARP 2600 sequencing going on as well as other vintage gear. Definitely drool worthy. Make sure to check out the other JMJ videos.

Synth in a Month

Title link takes you there. Some good samples on the Media page.



"During the month of January, 2006, I built an analog modular synthesizer from the ground up. At Oberlin, where I go to school, January is a time for students to work on individual projects of their choice. It has always been a dream of mine to build a modular synth, as I not only wanted one but also thought of it as sort of the "next step" after pedal building. I started on January 4th and ended on Febuary 4th (at 2 in the morning no less!), so it really did take a month to build.

This page contains specifications of my synth, information about the construction, and various soundclips and movies. While building the synth, I created a daily journal of my progress with pictures posted for each day (see "journal"). I am hoping that this can be a learning experience for more than just me-I know there are not many people out there that completely understand modular synths, and hopefully the media can help that. I also know that there are gaps in information regarding the construction of the modular synthesizer, so hopefully my pictures can help with that too. And most of all, hopefully I can give back to the Internet's synth DIY community that has greatly helped me along the way."

Via the Synth and Piano blog - added them to my blog roll on the right.

Keyboard Stand Art

Trip. I keep expecting to see a Storm Tropper or speeder bike. Via ben shannon illustrator.

Roland SH-2

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this post for sale.

MPC60 - Online Virtual MPC 60

Title link takes you there. Only one pad works. Enjoy. ; ) Via ben shannon illustrator.



If you want some virtual drum machines that actually work, go here and scroll down.

MAM SQ 16 Shots

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. Not the best shots, but it is a nice looking piece of gear. Nice wood.



For more on the Music And More SQ 16 and other MAM products, see the MAM site. The SQ 16 is currently out of production.

The Maximum Cheesecore Ultimate Casio VL-1 Super Site

Title link takes you to everything you'd want to know about the Casio VL-1, including how to edit it by entering various combinations of numbers. I remember playing around with one. The effects I got out of it reminded me of circuit bending a bit in that I was just randomly entering stuff to see what came out. Wish I had one.

Blacet Design Contest Results In

Well, the results are in. The grand prize of a $100 Blacet gift certificate went to KH's "Phase Spread Module". There wasn't a shot of it, so no image for this post.

Here are the details:
"The bottom jack is the input of an audio signal. The pot space is called "phase spread", and it controls the spread of phase shift in the 4 output jacks. Fully counter clockwise, all out 4 outputs are in phase. Fully clockwise, bottom #1 is in phase, next up is #2 at 90 degrees out, #3 at 180, #4 (top) back in phase at 360 degrees. Variable in-between. The outputs could be put through a mixer for filtering effects." Title link takes you to more.

Sonoric Instruments

Interesting. Title link takes you there. There are samples and some images. Note the site is still under construction and is missing a bit of content. This is your first look at what might be coming from them.



Update: According to this post on Sonic State, the Sonoric synths might actually be based on the Anadigm chipset. You might remember this post on Anadigm using the Andromeda A6 in there graphics as well as this one on Retro Thing speculating how Anadigm chips could be used in a low cost Polymoog.

Some notes from the thread:
"It's a synth that was built with a analog modular synth in mind for the first time, controlled digitally by software on a PC. In time, he realized that for start it would be better to have "scenes", rather than making it completly modular. I don't think he droped the idea, but right now he will make some default "scenes", this means that if you need for example Korg MS10 or 20 architecture you can have it. Or maybe Arp 2600, or Minimoog, or anything...I don't know what it would be, really. Of course it will not sound exactly like the original, but at least it will sound analog, not like a digital emulation. As you can easily hear on the website it's really fat. Or phat;) The cool thing is that the character of the filter can be changed from software.

The oscillators and multimode filters are analogue, the modulations digital (lfo's, env's). You can have a lot of filters and oscillators. 16 if I remember well. "

The Vermona Mephisto

This one via Mr. Array in the comments of this post. Another synth that could have been. I wanted one of these bad. Gorgeous analog synth that was going to have motorized knobs. I say chuck the motorized knobs and release it for less. I can just see my daughter trying to hold one if its knobs in place while flipping through presets. Ouch... BTW, just realized Mr. Array has his own blog! Guys, you need to let me know about these things. I've added it to my blog roll on the right.



* 6 Stimmen
* 3 Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCO)
* 1 Envelope Generator - Oscillators
* 2 Low Frequency Oscillators (LFO)
* 2 Envelope Generators
* Voltage Controlled Filter (VCF)
* Voltage Controlled Amplifier (VCA)
* Ringmodulator
* Noise Generator (pink/white)
* Sample & Hold
* Glide (Keyboard, S&H)
* Input für externe Signale
* 61 anschlagsdynamische Tasten
* 36 Motorpotis
* frei zuweisbare Wheels
* 100 Speicherplätze

http://www.vermona.de/htm/Mephisto%20-%20Features.htm

MIKMO DIY and Circuit Bending

Title link takes you there. Click on Synth DIY, followed by the links below for more, including how to make front panels and PCBs. Via GetLoFi.



"This is what the synth consists of so far :
* One +/- 12 V powersupply.
* Two VCO's.
* One Dual VCA.
* One ADSR envelope generator.
* One LFO.
* One state variable VCF.
* One sample and hold generator.
* One dual white / dual pink noise generator.
* One 1 in 4 out CV attenuator / distributor module.
* One 3 channel audio mixer.
* One dual ring modulator.
* One Steiner filter (almost finished, just need front panel).
* Two four position multi jacks, sharing frontpanel with the ringmodulators. "

Quasimidi Nucleus

Title link takes you to the source of the Nucleus shot below. I remember when the Nucleus buzz came out. People, including me, were drooling at the thought of this synth hitting the market. It was never released, and shortly after, the Polymorph was. It's still not clear whether the Nucleus was a Polymorph with keys, more, or something completely different. If you know, feel free to comment. In searching for more info I ran across SYNRISE's page on Quasimidi. It's worth checking out. They also list a QM-One and a Photon prototype Raven, along with the other Quasimidi synths.

Nucleus

Update via erminio in the comments back in 2006: "There's a Nucleus posted on ebay... the owner says there are only 3 pieces in the world. And it seems in good shape too!!! Hope it will serve you m8s"

However, via acemonvw in 2014 in the comments: "The Quasimidi Nucleus was planned as a Polymorph with more voices and a keyboard. What you see at that picture isn't a prototype - it's just the dummy. The Nucleus never reached the prototype level. The project was cancelled shortly after the musicmesse in Frankfurt, where the Nucleus was presented under glass. Does anyone remember the photon? Nearly the same story but a little bit earlier."

Polymorph

RCA Synthesizer MK II

via Analog Industries where you'll find a sample link.

Via 120 Years: "The RCA Synthesiser was invented by the electronic engineers Harry Olsen and Hebert Belar, employed at RCA's Princeton Laboratories, as a way of electronically generating popular music. Although it never fulfilled its inventors expectations it's novel features were an inspiration for a number of electronic composers during the 1950's."

Exotic Moog - New Flickr Shot

Shot by kevinfmason.



Exotic Moog by Martin Denny
Track Listing:
Cast Your Fate To The Wind
Let It Be Me
Quiet Village
I Talk To The Trees
The Enchanted Sea
Midnight Cowboy
Deulah
Let Go
Love Me Tonight
Was It Really Love
A Taste Of Honey
Yellow Bird

Synth DIY UK

"Synth-DIY UK 2006 is to be held on July 29th at Robinson College in Cambridge, the same great venue as we've used since 2003." Title link takes you there. Makes sure to click on the year links on the top right for the p*rn.

Jane Child's Fairlight Series III

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. Some details saved below. Via Kevin Kelley of Audio Playground.



Includes:

Monitor
Keyboard
Fairlight Unit
CPU/Processor for Fairlight Unit
Stylus
Replacement Stylus & Stylus Pad
Optical Drive
Tape drive
SCSI CDRW Drive
32MB RAM
4GB Internal HD
3 Cables for Fairlight (as pictured below)
Custom fit Road Cases for EVERYTHING!!!!!!

2 User Manual Boxes that include the following:
•Reference Manual
•Tutorial Manual
•Fairlight Service Manual Binder (with blueprints)
•Command Summary
•CAPS - Midi Sequencer For Series III
•Cue List Timecode Sequencer For SoundFX
•Software Revision 5.4 Command Summary
•Series 111 STUDIO (Describes a lot of history behind the Fairlight)
•Rhythm Sequencer for Series III

Libraries:
Master Sampler Collection Rev 1.2 Strings
Prosonus Mono Library
Brass Reeds & Strings
Prosonus
EBN Sounds 2
Prosonus Disk Two
Fairlight EBN
Fairlight Sound Library
Fairlight Sound Library
MS Co Rev 1.2 Composite Strings & Drums/Percussion
Prosonus Disk One


Software Disquettes Include:

Electric Sound & Picture Revision Keydisk
Fairlight CMI Revision 9.34R Software SYS K2
Fairlight CMI Revision 9.34R Software USER K1
Fairlight CMI Revision 9.34R Software 0S9 K0
Fairlight Revision 8.30R Software SYS K2
Fairlight Revision 8.30R Software USER K1
Fairlight Revision 8.30R Software OS9 K0

Update via the comments: "Not that anyone cares, but I doubt that's Jane Child's Fairlight - the cases say M.S.P. (Maximum Sequential Potential) on them, which was Ned Liben's studio in NYC. Liben was "EBN" of the 80's synth duo EBN/OZN. Also, some of his sounds are listed as included with the auction."

Haven't Found The Perfect Sequencer?

Maybe this will help. A sweaty towel owned by none other than Keith Emerson! Wear it while you play for that extra perspiration, I mean inspiration, or take it to your local cloning lab and grow your own Keith Emerson. Details from the auction below (the seller sniffed it).



Via the auction:
"Keith Emerson's Towel
From Black Moon Tour
Here's a weird one. I was digging through my old boxes at my parents house and found my old concert t-shirts and this blue and white striped bath towel in a bag. It didn't take long for me to remember why I saved this towel in a ziplock bag - it was Keith Emerson's towel he used during the ELP concert I saw at Stanhope, NJ back in the summer of 1992.

My two brothers and I got to the show many hours early and I was lucky enough to get to stand against the wall in the front of the stage. I remember it being a very good show and that they played the classic song "Pirates". Keith used the towel the whole show to wipe his head and neck and threw in into the audience after the show was over. My entrepreneurial brother who was standing behind me actually caught the towel out of the air and then sold it to me for $15 on the ride home. (Nice brother, huh?)

After getting home, I placed the towel into a plastic ziplock bag and I NEVER washed it. (Pretty gross, I know) It has stayed in the bag ever since. It doesn't smell though- I sniffed it to check.

Well anyway, I'm not much of an ELP fan anymore, so I'm selling this piece of music memorabilia starting at the $15 price I paid for it 14 long years ago. You are welcome to use it as a bath towel, use it to cover your mini moog, hang it on your wall for inspiration, or somehow possibly extract Keith Emerson's DNA from it and make super keyboardist babies in the future! : )"

Frack Multis

Just liked this shot for some reason.



Title link takes you to some for sale by Steve Maietta.

Kawai K3m Schematics

Title link takes you to a 5M zip posted on AH by Plutoniq9. Note these are for the K3m, not the K3. Scan by Fredrik Zetterling.

Admin Note: Updating Flickr Posts

Update: I haven't seen any new posts in Bloglines, so maybe this won't be bad at all. I wonder if there is a point where updates just don't show up anymore. So if you don't see them, this might be why.

No title link. If you are subscribled to my RSS feed with any of the popular readers, you might notice a bunch of Flickr posts being updated. I'm going through each and updating them with "Shot by xxxxx" where xxxxx is the name of the author on Flickr. I just finished February and will work through the rest of the archives over time. Right now I need a little break. It's amazing how many synth shots have come in via Flickr since I started this blog. Anywho... Apologies for the noise - beleive me, this isn't much fun for me either. Just ignore them or enjoy them all over again. : ) I'm also commenting in Flickr to let people know I am posting and linking to their shots. If you are one of them, please know that this is not me attempting to spam you. I originally did not comment for that reason, but then realized I should be letting people know when I link to them and post one of their shots. I'd want to know.

miniMusic BeatPad driving a Voyager and 909

Update2: Moogulator put up a post on this. The funny thing is that I completely missed the irony in the shot - a mighty knob ladden Voyager being driven by a tiny pda. Too funny. Thanks Moogulator!

Update: I should note that everything in the samples is being triggered by BeatPad - I am not using the 909 sequencer. Also you can sync to BeatPad, so I could have the 909 running its own sequence, synced to BeatPad and have BeatPad sequencing another synth though the 909 via the 909 MIDI through.

I just posted about the miniMusic MixPad. That post actually came about when I was setting up this post. I was playing around with BeatPad driving a Minimoog Voyager and a Roland TR-909 and I thought I'd put up a couple of samples and a link to miniMusic. When I checked out their site I found the new software. That aside... Title link takes you to a couple of samples and shots. Note that these samples are a bit long, daft and don't fully showcase what BeatPad is capable of. I was just dinking around. BeatPad has a super intuitive UI. There is one page for your main lead and one for your drum machine (pictured above - click the shot to see the individual parts). You can mute and solo different sounds on the drum grid and you can mute either the entire lead or drum section. In the lead section you can mute notes, adjust the length of the pattern , gate time, velocity, transposition and tie notes all on the fly. It's a blast to tweak things live. There are four things I wish it had - support for driving multiple lead sequences driving different MIDI channels at the same time (basically multi-track live sequencing), the ability to sequence MIDI CC independent of notes for things like filter, resonance and other modulations, the ability to save sequences, and the ability to flip back to saved or "sanp-shot" sequences. To clarify when you edit one of the 64 sequences available, the edits remain when you close out, so in that sense they are saved, but once you edit one there is no way to go back. I beleive you are supposed to just use a new track, but when you have multiple tracks previosly saved it can be painful remembering each track. Hmm... Add a fifth item - the ability to name your sequences for saving. Regardless BeatPad is pretty amazing - there is just something super intuitive in using a stylus to control your sequences. Believe it or not, it beats the pants off of a bulky knob box. I'm still in disbelief that a Pocket PC MIDI device/cable for external sequencing has not yet hit the market.

What's up with that?

miniMusic MixPad and More

I previously posted about updates to MiniMusic's Beatpad. Well it looks like they have more software coming including MixPad, a full featured MIDI file player/recorder/editor. Title link takes you to the miniMusic site.



"MixPad is a full featured MIDI file player/recorder/editor. It will let you take any raw MIDI file with you on your Palm and play on any connected MIDI hardware. MixPad differs from any other Palm MIDI file applications with powerful graphic support for simple viewing and quick editing.

Ideal for real performance situations, MixPad uses the Palm hardware buttons for playback control, allows you to lock songs to prevent unintended changes, and gives you a powerful real-time mixer interface to control channel volumes, panning, and solos and mutes for every track during playback. The main display gives smooth scrolling of all MIDI data (including velocities and controller data in the lower window) and full zooming functionality. We are also building in a full range piano controller to play along with the current file or to add a new track to an existing file, and some slider controllers as well that can be assigned to any MIDI controller value (pitch bend, volume, vibrato, etc.).

We expect to release a Lite version of MixPad that works only as a player/viewer, and a full Pro version with complete recording and editing features enabled.
Available soon for $19.95 (Player) and $39.95 (Pro)"

Zebranalogic - Analog from Peru

Trip. Title link takes you to Zebranalogic, makers of effects, a modulator, oscillators, and a soon to be synthesizer. They are based out of Lima, Peru. I dig the clear cases. I hope they do this with the synth. If they do, I'll have to buy one for that reason alone. Samples on line. This one via the great GetLoFi.

Korg Delta - New Flickr Shots

New shots by cigplanet.

Nice Rack - New Flickr Shot

Shot by mikest.

Sekiden - New Flickr Set

Title link takes you to more. Roland SH-101 and Juno-60 in the set. Shot by "x is for people."

Animusic MIDImotion

Title link takes you to the Animusic website. They created proprietary software they call MIDImotion that "plays" 3D animation with MIDI sequences. Each instrument has a different 3D animation. When you play a piece of music, the animation plays in sync. Unfortunately at this point they have not released MIDImotion for others, but they are considering it. Check out the video samples online to get an idea of what it is.


"Animusic uses proprietary motion generation software called MIDImotionTM, to drive animation parameters within commercial packages." "But no matter what commercial software we use, the animation is always calculated procedurally with MIDImotion. This software is not currently available commercially, although it is likely that we will release a software product at some point in the future (many people have encouraged us to do so). Details will be posted here.

Without MIDImotion, animating instruments using traditional "keyframing" techniques would be prohibitively time-consuming and inaccurate. By combining motion generated by approximately 12 algorithms (each with 10 to 50 parameters), the instrument animation is automatically generated with sub-frame accuracy. If the music is changed, the animation is regenerated effortlessly.

Moogulator on MySpace

Title link takes you to Moogulator's MySpace site. Pretty cool. Moogulator runs a number of sites including Sequencer.de and the Machinesound.de blog amongst others. When I think of the top synth sites out there and especially in Germany, I think of Moogulator and Sequencer.de.

Klaus Schulze

Gorgeous shot of Klaus Schulze pulled from this Moogulator post. Title link takes you to a bigger shot.

Moog Modular Synth Manual

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. Crazy that this is listed at 170 Euros.

ORLA Piano, Drawbar Accordian

More accordian madness. This one along with some other links sent my way via ben shannon illustrator. Title link takes you to ORLA.

Yamaha CS80

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. Via Loscha.

Native Instruments Kore Video

Title link takes you to the video on Sonic State.

EML Synkey OVATION

via this auction. Details below.



"Rar, fancy: vintage EML Synkey vintage analog punch-card programmable synthesizer in recently adjusted; absolute top condition. It's the top rar: OVATION - version. Fully works and sounds incredible: The low-pass filter goes to high-pass filter and the band-pass in between and this is extremely effective. It has ringmodulator and some arpeggioator-like LFO-waveform varies due to the speed. It's unique and you can make some unpredictable polyphonic arpeggiations. Dealing with punch-card makes this machine very exotic! So maybe you bid on technically one of the best Synkey of the world! Pitty, it runs on American standard current 110 V , so there's a 220 V -adapter in need or comit me to do the modification for some extra (ca. 35-50EU depending on trafo)!"

"... these came out as early as in 1976, not 1978/79 as stated on most synth-sites out there. At least, this is what I was told by one of the founders/owners of the EML company - States Mikael. Thank you for the info! "

Update via the comments: "The Synkey service manual I have dates the individual drawings from about April 1974 to March 1975. 1976 therefore seems about right."