Casio VL1 - Da Da Da Meets DM

Title link takes you to a post on VSE by DX covering Depeche Mode's Everything Counts with the Casio VLTone. Enjoy, or not. : )


Image via sequencer.de

GetLoFi Builds a 4 OSC Synth with Atari Joystick

"Yet another variation on the 4093 oscillator design, this one uses 4 directions of the stick for patching the outputs from off to on." Title link takes you to more details, images and video.

Mort Garson

In via j. Title link takes you to a post on Post Punk Junk on Mort Garson with mp3s. Some interesting stuff. "Standing alonside the pioneering greats of ’60s electronic music such as Jean-Jacques Perry and Walter/Wendy Carlos, Mort Garson let forth a stream of concept albums in the late ’60s through the mid-’70s that always tickle me." Thanks J!

seesselberg synthetik 1

In via PhilT. "thought you might be interested : http://insectandindividual.blogspot.com/ is hosting mp3s of a long deleted 73 album by seesselberg called synthetik 1. it's "electronic experimentation on homemade synthesizers" and sounds pretty good, if a little tentative. you have to use rapidshare to get it so follow all the prompts carefully for free downloading. it's got a pic as well.
regards,
philT"

Prevoius posts on seesselberg including this video mentioned by dream chimney in the comments.

Korg MS20 - New Flickr Shot

Shot by 0++0

Buchla Responds

There was a two part review of the new Buchla 200e in the December 2005 and January 2006 issues of Sound on Sound. There was a bit of buzz about them as the first of two was not very favorable, specifically regarding the build quality. I'm still waiting for these articles to come up on the non subscription SOS site. Well, it looks like Don Buchla responded to the review and his comments are available online. Title link takes you there. Enjoy.


"Hopefully, I leave your kind and tolerant but inquisitive and deserving readers with a slightly better sense of what we're all about. Reliability is of the highest concern to us, and we intend to continue making instruments of unimpeachable quality. We do our best to build fine instruments at fair prices, but we promise to avoid the cheap. Fame, fortune and financial success are of secondary importance, and we'll happily flail about in "the backwaters of the music industry" for a long time to come." Don Buchla on SOS.

Meet the Femto-Moog

Title link takes you there. : )

Sampler anti-aliasing and pitch-shifting comparison

Interesting page testing a number of samplers. Samples, results and more listed. They also have an interesting analogy of audio aliasing and film (see below). Title link takes you there. Via the mighty Moogulator blog.



"It's easiest to describe aliasing in terms of a visual sampling system we all know and love - —movies. If you've ever watched a western and seen the wheel of a rolling wagon appear to be going backwards, you've witnessed aliasing. The movie's frame rate isn't adequate to describe the rotational frequency of the wheel, and our eyes are deceived by the misinformation!"

BeauSoleil - Prison Made Modular

Fascinating. Title link takes you to the full story. Charles Manson ties below.

"BeauSoleil got his first hands-on exposure to electronic music during the recording of the soundtrack. "I needed to enhance the sound palette of the basic rock instrumentation we'd used. I read Polyphony magazine [which later became Electronic Musician] and a couple of books by Craig Anderton to learn how to build my own circuits and instruments. From there, I graduated to building modules from scratch using parts from electronics surplus houses, and I used the modules to create new sounds." Thereafter, he studied audio electronics for several years in a prison vocational electronics program. This learning phase gave him the opportunity to develop skills he has put to good use ever since as a synth programmer and engineer. In 1984, he persuaded Jerry Kovarsky of Casio to loan him a CZ-1 synth in exchange for developing sounds for the instrument. (Kovarsky is now with Korg.) This was BeauSoleil's first experience with digital programming, but because the instrument was based on an analog architecture, he was able to complete several volumes of sounds. He is also a guitar player, so Casio later provided him with a PG-380, a MIDI guitar synth that he still uses as a stand-alone instrument. Actual programming of the PG-380 had to be done on Casio's rack-mounted VZ-10, from which patches were transferred on a data card. This programming experience and his connections at Casio later led to programming gigs with Ensoniq for the KT-76 synth, Kawai for the K4 synth, and Kurzweil for the K2000."

Update via the comments:
"Robert Beausoleil was also a member of the Manson Family before his imprisonment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Beausoleil"

From Wikipedia:
"He met Charlie Manson in Topanga Canyon in 1966 and later went on to be one of the group who killed Hinman, allegedly for defaulting in a drugs deal. Accompanying Beausoleil that night were Susan Atkins and Mary Brunner, both later involved in other murders."

OP-X

Reaktor based Oberheim OB-X soft synth. Title link takes you there. Via VSE.



Update2: Via the comments:
"Anonymous said...
I hope they sue the guy, he's been spamming his wares on just about every thread of every forum.. gr...

10:29 AM
Hamilton Lovecraft said...
Yeah, what anonymous said -- these guys spammed all over the KVR fora recently. Don't give 'em any press."

Update: Via Wiglaf in the comments: "Keep reading that thread, the person who made that could be in some trouble." The risk is Gibson coming after them for the likeness of the Oberheim name. Gibson owns it. Thanks Wiglaf, I might have missed the updates - only so much time in the day feeding this site along with everything else. : )

Some choice snips from the thread:
"spookyman, I would take Bitexion's advice and tell your friend to either make it free or remove all references to Oberheim.

Why? ... well for the reasons already given, but also because I too have first-hand experience with such issues. Look at the last 2 softsynths mentioned in my sig. I am part of a developing team called Voltkitchen, we released these 2 emulations last year and we almost immediately received cease and desist e-mails from Arturia, as well as a less-nasty but inquiring e-mail from Moog Music.

However, Arturia's threats did not amount to anything because our product does not copy anything from their software. Arturia are just another company making emulations, not the original hardware (and they don't own the Moog or Arp name). So they had no case. But they were VERY nasty and threatening toward us for the obvious reasons (market share being taken away).

With Moog Music, their concern was not the softsynth itself but the "use" of the Moog legacy in the graphical layout and general appearance. I know calling it MiniMogue was a little bit of a sly side-step, but at least they were okay about it in the end after conversing with them via e-mail. Since Moog Music makes hardware (Voyager, etc.), they weren't concerned at all about market share, there's no comparison between a hardware real-analog Voyager and our free software.

However, Gibson is a HUGE company and might not be so nice. They've been known to throw lawsuits around like confetti. Tell your friend to be VERY careful."

Followed by:
"heheee.... thanks for your work on MinimogueVA! I work for Moog and own a Voyager, and guess what? I love MinimogueVA and use it on tracks side-by-side with the Voyager. It really sounds good. Not better and certainly there are many areas where they don't overlap... but I am not interested in comparing A to B as much as I am into really good sound... and MmVA is one of incredibly few VSTi's that really sounds good to my ears. The fact that it can even keep up in a mix with the V'ger and my Jupiter is quite telling. Keep up the good work... "

The Lambdoma

Title link takes you there.

"The Lambdoma Matrix is attributed to the philosopher Pythagoras (500 bc) who spent over twenty years as an Egyptian initiate. The concept of the Lambdoma Matrix in the present age is relatively unknown, and is not cited in most dictionaries. On the surface, it appears to be nothing more than a mathematical multiplication and division table. On a closer look however, it bears a one-to-one relationship to musical intervals in a very specific harmonic series. Because of its numerical framework of ratios, it can be translated into frequencies of audible sound. The Lambdoma bears relationships to aromatics, chemistry, crystallography, cybernetics, art, music, geometry, all of which may be explored by those interested in the above disciplines. The Lambdoma bears mathematical relationships to Issac Newton, the Diophantine equations and the Farey series, as well as in the present century to Georg Cantor."

"My dream was to realize the application of my theories in the health and musical domains. Recently I have accomplished a breakthrough in making the lambdoma a oncrete instrument of healing and auditory pleasure. With the help of engineers, software programmers, musicians, and electronics manufacturers this dream has materialized in the Pythagorean Lambdoma Harmonic Keyboard (PLHK). Based on early prototypes of this revolutionary instrument we have demonstrated its unique effects on human well-being and musico-spiritual evolution. Articles and testimonials from well-known authors on sound healing, microtonal composers, and university professors are available upon request. "

OBX-a Soundscapes

More by Heath Finnie. Should have known. This peices reminds me a bit of the dreamy soundscapes you'd expect from a Yamaha CS80. Title link takes you there. Beautiful stuff.

Not Breathing

I previously posted about the Sedona Custom Synth on the Not Breathing site. I just purused the site again and thought I'd put up a post on the site in general. There a sections on DIY, Circuit Bending, Noise Makers, Drum Machines and more. Definitely worth checking out. Title link takes you there.

Happy Valentine's Day - New Flickr Shot

This one via Brandon Daniel. Make sure to check out the rest of the shots in the set for some vintage goodness. That's a Korg OASYS btw. Thanks Brandon!

A Synth Valentine Day

No title link. Just an image I found. Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Don't forget to give your synth a hug today. ; ) Matrixsynth title in Red to honor the day today.

Keytar V1 Video on One Blue Monkey

Title link takes you there. Finally get to see one in action. Video link under data under title.

Creamware Modular Site

Title link takes you to a really nice Creamware Modular Site. It's laid out with a top nav like the software, so you can easily review all modules available in the Creamware system. Via Moogulator.

Pro One - New Flickr Shot

Mmm... Beatles.



Shot by loosejoints

Korg Radias - New Flickr Shot

Shot by eyefulimages

More Synth on Retro Thing

Philip Taysom's Extreme Home Synthesis Studio is featured. Title link takes you there.

Roland TR-909 through ARP 2600 Sound Clip

Another via Heath Finnie. Title link takes you to the post on VSE.

Multi-Touch Interaction Research

This one is making its rounds. Title link takes you there. Impressive indeed.

Wiard 300G

G as in Gold. Nice. Title link takes you to a few more shots. Sent my way via Matt. Thanks Matt!

G2 Audio Controlling a Korg MS10

Title link takes you to a post on electro-music.com sent my way via Luca Capozzi. There are a couple of videos by Axiom (Luca) tracking a Korg MS10 with the audio out of a Clavia G2. Crazy. : ) Thanks Luca!

Merleon Cedraeon - Elecktroplankton Compositions

Title link takes you to Merleon Cedraeon with a set of compositions made with Elecktroplankton. Enjoy.

The Meyermoog

Now this is something I bet a lot of us think of doing. Jason and Bob Meyer took a Creamware ASB Minimax, an M-Audio Keystation 49e, some wood, and built their own poly Minimoog, complete with a hinged control panel. I've always wanted to do this with a stack of Waldorf Pulses. Pretty cool. Title link takes you to more shots. The details of the project from Jason are below. Thanks Jason!



"i just thought i'd share with you the fake moog that i built. it's built from the new-ish creamware minimax asb and an m-audio keystation 49e. the keystation was gutted and the lower five keys were removed. both the keystation and the minimax can use the same ac adaptor, so i hard-wired them both to the same ac adaptor which is wired to a PC style power plug port. the ac adaptor and all the power wiring is hidden in one of the small compartments that are connected to the sides of the minimax to make it the correct width for the keyboard. now it uses a standard PC style power cable instead of the cruddy wall-wart. i soldered a midi cable directly to the internals of both units, to not have to bother with a midi-cable. my dad cut all the wood for the case for me (out of oak), from plans i drew up using the original dimensions of the minimoog. i assembled and stained it a dark walnut color. the top panel is hinged just like the original. i'm still working on a left-hand controller with wheels, so there is a temporary controller in it's place with knobs for pitch and modulation. though i definitely plan on replacing them with wheels, having knobs instead is kind of growing on me. the minimax asb was $800, the keystation was something i already had, but can be bought new for $100. the wood and other supplies were about $100, and it took about two weeks of a couple hours every night to build it. so about $1,000 for a polyphonic minimoog that won't ever need adjusting and that i don't have to be afraid to take out of the house.

thanks for a cool blog, i hope you find this interesting!

-jason meyer"

Definitely interesting! Thanks Jason.

The BRONTOLOGIC

Another interesting piece. Details below by Stephen of parsick.com. Title link takes you to Codex flores, what appears to be the home of the BRONTOLOGIC. Thanks Stephen!

Unfortunately I couldn't find a bigger shot. Update: bigger pic below.


"The Brontologic was designed by a certain Werner Lambertz who had originally made a fortune selling jeans trousers (of all things...) in Germany in the 1970s. The first instrument was presented around 1979/1980. Lambertz´ idea was to design a musical computer that automatically produced good music, without any faults that musicians would create. Later, Kurt "Pyrolator" Dahlke of Germany´s proto electro band Der Plan (The Plan) wanted another machine like that as he felt this was something he could push the limits with, thus he started building a second Brontologic, assisted by Lambertz, in around 1980/81.

Basically, it was a sequencer which had several counters running in parallel, synced to a master clock. It was capable of producing up to six (I think) sequences at the same time, all running at different rates, having different numbers of steps, and all could be set up to different cycling modes independent from each other. I never quite figured how pitches were determined as it had no pots for adjusting voltages, just half a million of banana patch sockets. I guess each patch point in a horizontal row represented one pitch while the sequencer progressed vertically from the top to the bottom (though I have no evidence for that). It allowed the user to interact with the sequencer patterns, have one play backwards, have another stop at a certain point, or have yet another one shift its start and end points continously during playback. When fully patched up, it looked like "Spaghetti Bolognese" as Dahlke once pointed out. As an external controller the operator used some thing called "DIGitarre", made of stainless steel tubing and shaped vaguely guitar-like with loads of switches which allowed control over certain parameters of the Brontologic. Dahlke later admitted it was sort of bizarre to use this controller which clearly resembled the traditional rock´n´roll-type guitar while they were trying to get away from these overused r´n´r clichés.

In a 1993 interview with Germany´s KEYBOARDS magazine, Dahlke briefly explains the Brontologic. He used it to control his Korg MS-20 and later, he had an Emulator One interface built into it. Functionally, Dahlke compared the Brontologic with Buchla´s Thunder which allowed for similarly complex interactions with parameters and sequences on a MIDI level. I´m sorry I don´t have this issue available right now, maybe some fellow AHer could look it up for me (May 1993 issue, I think).

In my view, this device was sort of a comedy of errors. It must have been immensely expensive, and it was huge (about 2.5 metres square). It had an intimidating user interface, and it took ages to patch up. I think something along these lines could have been made in a simpler manner (like having a Serge Touch Keyboard Sequencer) but at that time Serges weren´t hugely popular in Germany. Neither were Buchlas. It seems to me that the Brontologic was best-suited for fractal-like sequencer patterns.

There is a nice track (180°) by Der Pyrolator on a compilation called "Verschwende Deine Jugend" (waste your youth) which sounds very much like a blueprint for the Node track "Alternator", all done on Korg MS-20 and Emulator One, most probably controlled by the Brontologic.

Sorry not to have more info,

Stephen."

Update via marcel: "on http://gesellschaftsinseln.de/punkbuch/fotos_78.html you'll find one bigger pic of the bronto, and much more old punk pixs

site is made from the author of "verschwende deine jugend", a book about punk and new wave in germany, juergen teibel"

Update via pyrolator in the comments:
"I found this article, not all of it is correct, but nevertheless thank you for talking about it. The Brontologik2 is now standing in a museum and I decided to write it in Max/Msp with a few further modifications, which was called the bronotlogik3. About two years ago I saw the monome and the potential to be the perfect controller for the brontologik4, which is written for the monome256.
More informations:
http://brontologik.blogspot.com/
http://docs.monome.org/doku.php?id=app:brontologik4

best wishes
pyrolator "

some vids:

brontologik4 for monome 256 (quick walkthrough) from pyrolator on Vimeo.

"brontologik4 for monome 256

a composing system

6 layer sending midi data (pitch, velocity and 2 controller)
1 layer starting clips in ableton live
8 variations each layer
8 modes (for each layer) to manipulate and arrange pitch, velocity, controller, scales, transpose, key, pattern length, randomness and probability of playing.
load and save single pattern or complete data

This is the first public-beta now.
This is Donationware and will be availible at:
brontologik.blogspot.com/"

CLICK FOR MORE »

The SALMAR CONSTRUCTION

Interesting piece. Title link takes you to more. "In 1969, Salvatore Martirano along with a group of engineers and musicians at the University of Illinois began work on the design and construction of a musical electronic instrument. The instrument, named the SAL-MAR CONSTRUCTION, is a hybrid system in which TTL logical curcuits (small and medium scale integration) drive analog modules, such as voltage-controlled oscillators, amplifiers and filters.

The performer sits at a horizontal control panel of 291 lightable touch-sensitive switches (no moving parts). The two-state switches are used by a performer to dial sequences of numbers that are characterized by a variety of intervals and lengths. A sequence may then bypass, address, or be added to other sequences forming an interlocked tree of control and data according to a performer's choice. The unique characteristic of the switch is that it can be driven both manually and logically, which allows human/machine interaction. The most innovative feature of the human/machine interface is that it allows the user to switch from control of macro to micro parameters of the information output. This is analogous to a zoom lens on a camera."

Digital Performer 5

Title link takes you to a pdf of the full press release with more detail.



Six New Instrument Plug-ins:

BassLine™ is a one oscillator, two-waveform monophonic bass synth that lets users quickly dial up that perfect analog bass sound. With a streamlined design consisting of two waveforms (saw and square), one low-pass filter with cutoff and resonance, simple decay envelopes for the filter and amplifier and several additional classic analog synth features, BassLine is an easy and enjoyable instrument that delivers great analog bass sounds with just a few turns of its dials.

PolySynth™ is a polyphonic synth with a distinct look that harkens back to the classic Roland Juno 106. PolySynth is capable of a much wider variety of sounds than BassLine, thanks to its digital controlled oscillator (DCO), which can be adjusted with varying amounts of de-tune, triangle wave, sawtooth, rectangle (square) wave, sub-oscillator 1 & 2 and noise. The single LFO can modulate pitch (for vibrato), pulse width (for the square wave and sub-oscillators) or filter depth (for the classic "wah" effect, among others). The resonant low-pass filter is equipped with frequency and resonance controls, key tracking, velocity control and an ADSR envelope, which can also be applied as an overall envelope for each note. Chorus and distortion provide plenty of punch for the thickest of pads and searing lead lines.

Modulo™ significantly raises the subtractive synthesis stakes by providing two oscillators plus noise, 58 available digital waveforms for each oscillator (including sine, square, saw, rectangle, etc.), oscillator phase and symmetry modulation, two LFOs, a resonant multimode filter, three envelopes (for the amplifier, filter and general purpose modulation) and a 5x7 modulation matrix, which supplies five sources applied to up to seven possible destinations. With built-in bank and patch management features and dozens of clearly organized presets, Modulo provides users with accessible yet limitless possibilities for analog synth sounds.

Nanosampler™ allows users to drag and drop any sample (up to five seconds long) from anywhere in DP (or from the Mac OS X Finder) into its graphic sample display and then set a start time, end time, loop (if desired) and crossfade. A multimode filter, amplifier envelope, filter envelope and LFO provide all of the essential features needed for basic sampler programming. True to its name, Nanosynth is highly CPU-efficient and the user can open as many instances of it as they need during a project to play back an infinite variety of sampler sounds.

Model 12™ is a twelve-part drum module. Hundreds of supplied drum sounds and dozens of drum kits can be quickly loaded into its twelve drum parts, which can be individually programmed with controls for pitch (formant corrected or conventional pitch shifting), time stretch, duration (decay or gate), volume & pan, two sends, and a resonant multimode filter with drive. Modulation of many of these controls is available by dragging controls in the virtual LCD display at the top of the window. Drum tracks are now easier to program than ever before.

Proton™ is the sixth and final instrument plug-in included with DP5. Proton is a two-operator frequency modulation (FM) synthesizer that delivers classic, bright, shimmering and expressive FM synth sounds that serve as a perfect compliment to the rest of DP5's new instrument lineup. The pioneering Yamaha DX7 delivered a wide range of sounds using only sine waves with six operators. Proton delivers an equally broad palette of sounds with a streamlined 2-op architecture driven by a simple wavetable knob, instead of the added overhead and complexity of additional operators. As such, Proton may be the most easily programmable FM synth ever created. A real-time display in the center of the window shows the user the spectral content or periodic waveform being generated by the current settings. Additional controls include an FM LFO, modulation pitch envelope, FM amount envelope and overall ADSR envelope.

Impact of Safety Regulations on the Sale of Vintage Synths

Interesting. Remember that post on Japan banning the sale of vintage synths due to a law prohibiting the sale of older electronic equipment that does not meet current safety regulations? Well it looks like there is a similar law in the UK. Not sure how long this law has been in effect and the impact it has on the sale of vintage gear. If you know, feel free to share.

Via Tony of Oakley Sound on AH:
"Now there is a law that prevents any unsafe object being sold in the UK.
Some old synths and many 1960s amplifiers would not pass current UK
safety legislation. Thus to sell these items for the customer to use in
a powered up state would probably be illegal or, at least, in breach of
one's liability insurance.

For example it is is very rare to see charity shops selling electrical
goods because the staff do not usually have the training to the test
these items to ensure their safety.

It is quite common to see items that have failed safety tests to be
rendered inoperable. This usually means taping off the mains inlet or
removing the mains plug. This should include stuff being dumped into
landfill since there is a likelihood that the items could get back into
the public domain.

Of course, tape may be removed and plugs rewired, but this then is the
new owner's decision and not the shop where you bought it from. The
shop, maybe this includes private individuals too, must then always
ensure that the buyer is aware that the unit is not to be powered up as
it is.

This also applies to the UK repair service centres as well. No item
returned to the customer must be allowed to be powered up if it has
failed the safety test. Repairing home made stuff is a nightmare in this
respect.

Most items can be modified in such a way as to make them perfectly safe
without affecting the look and feel of the unit.

Tony

www.oakleysound.com"

Followed by:

"I can give one example in the Synth world. The Synthi AKS. It has an illegal [in the UK] mains plug on its front panel. Does one replace this with an IEC [or other arrangement] or leave it as it is? That is a question for the owner to decide."

MiKo Open Labs Video on One Blue Monkey

Title link takes you there. Video link under date, under title when you get there.

Studio and Modular P*rn Fest

No title link; all links below. People are posting their modular and studio shots on AH. Definitely drool worthy. I'll add to the list as they come in so be sure to check back. Below is a fantastic shot of the Waldorf Wave by Rikard. Make sure to check out this specific shot of the back of the Wave next. I didn't realize how thin their control panels were. Amazing.



Rikard Latvala: http://www.itsahit.com/rikard/studio2/
AH Bay Area Gathering: http://www.cubanpetemusic.com/gallery/AH-Bay-Area-Gathering
James R. Coplin: http://www.ticalun.net/music/Studio.aspx
Jason Proctor: http://www.redfish.net/red_fish_modular.jpg
daddio: http://www.tapewarm.com/pix
Cyndustries Gallery: http://www.cyndustries.com/gallery.cfm
Doug Terrebonne: http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f217/dougt55/mymodulars02-06.jpg
bbob: http://www.fluxmonkey.com/fluxinfo.htm
Scott Pfifer: http://www.bigsynth.com
Also linked by Scott Pfifer:
http://www.synthesizers.com/gallery.html
http://www.synthesizers.com/artists.html
Four Serge shots from Carbon111:
http://carbon111.com/serge.jpg
http://carbon111.com/rusty4.jpg
http://carbon111.com/photos/serge_close2.jpg
http://carbon111.com/photos/serge_close1.jpg

Update:
Jason Proctor: http://www.redfish.net/red_fish_modular_new.jpg

"the rack is a Middle Atlantic RL10-38 with accompanying cantilever
base extension and i can't recommend it enough. it solved all my
ergonomic issues and is damn stable and quality to boot (and there's
about 8U left over!). i got mine from Sacramento Audio Supplies and
the combo was $180 plus tax & ship. after selling all the puny little
racks it replaced, i should come out ahead!"

Daddio:
www.tapewarm.com/pix/doepfer.jpg
www.tapewarm.com/muzikfrommarz/id14.html
www.tapewarm.com/muzikfrommarz/id13.html
www.tapewarm.com/muzikfrommarz/fripper.html

JH PolyKorg Clone and The Secret Life of Trees

I previously posted about the JH Synthi Clone. Here's a JH-3200 PolyKorg Clone. Pretty amazing. While there, be sure to also check out "The Secret Life of Trees."

Oberheim Xpander Shots

Sent my way via Loscha of Edmaro. Title link takes you to high-res shots pulled from this auction. Thanks Loscha!

2 Voice Oberheim FVS

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this Craigslist post. The price at $1200 seems too good, but you never know. If found a pristine Yamaha CS60 on Craiglist for $375. For deals like this, I'd do local pickup only with checking it out first.

Korg EA-1 - New Flickr Set

Shot by joshua schnable

EMS Vocoder 3000

No title link. Shot below pulled from this auction. Compare it to the EMS Vocoder 2000.

Tritonian Sunset - New Flickr Shot

Shot by gentle bakemono

SoundPlant 26.1

Update via Inverse Room in the comments: "Let me put in my 2 cents on this program...it's awesome. I sometimes use it live in my improvisational electronica duo, The Bemus Point... at our web site, www.thebemuspoint.com, there's a live mp3 of us on which I have two instances of Soundplant running, one with timestretched video game sounds, the other with guitar and softsynth loops. Just scroll down to where it says 'Evaporated Metal Music.'"

"Soundplant 26.1 is a self-contained digital audio performance program that turns your computer keyboard into a fully customizable sample-triggering device. It allows the assignment of sound files of unlimited size to virtually any keyboard keys, with no external devices needed and no MIDI involved. It can be used as a drum pad, to add a live track to an already made song, to mix together tracks in realtime, to create music or loops from scratch, to quickly sketch sound designs, to give new life to old sounds, or as a performance, presentation, or installation tool. Because it is not a synthesizer and instead uses your own digital samples (it's a 'software sampler'), Soundplant is a virtually limitless electronic instrument. A simple graphic interface provides for drag-and-drop, point-and-click configuration of each key, including several options which control the way each sound is triggered, along with pitch, offsets, looping, volume, and panning. Sounds can be easily batch assigned across multiple keys at varying pitches and offsets, and keyboard configurations can be saved and loaded."

Title link takes you there.

Alesis Micron - New Flickr Set

This one sent my way via Jaysen. Title link takes you to the set. Thanks Jaysen!

ION Dusk

No title link.

Nite-Brite ION

No title link.

A100 at Midnight - New Flickr Set

Doepfer A100 Series

Shot by unyo303

WikiRecoording.org

Via E Jeff Enowski. Title link takes you there. Thanks Jeff!

"I've started up a wiki, based on the wikipedia engine, that is a free guide to audio recording. Its called WikiRecording.org. As is par for the course with a wiki, its under the same GNU license as Wikipedia and anyone can edit it. We have not only have technical information, but tutorials as well.

We've had some help from the people at TapeOp and some University professors who teach audio recording and now we have about 50 articles on the site (and it is still in its first week and a half of operations.)

We could really use some articles about all things Synth. I mean, "Moog" hasn't shown up on the site yet in anyway shape or form. That just seems wrong! I'm sure you're reader base would enjoy the site and with any-luck bring some expertise along with them. "

Have at it. : )

Aaron Lanterman Synth Lectures Online

Title link takes you there. I look forward to checking these out.



Lectures currently include the following:
1/9 - 40 Years of Music Synthesis, Part I (Moog/Buchla up to DX7)
1/11 - 40 years of Music Synthesis, Part II (DX7 and after)
1/18 - Op amp review, part I (resistive circuits)
1/25 - Overview of Music Technology Projects - guest lecture by Gil Weinberg
1/30 - Op amp review, part II (first-order RC circuits)
2/1 - Operational Transconductance Amplifiers (OTA) (with VCA example), Norton op amps
2/6 - Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCO): Sawtooth Core; visit to the ECE4006 labs
2/8 - Voltage Controlled Oscillators (VCO): Triangle Core; distribution of the MOTM kits

A Different Shade of Red - Clavia G2

Wow. Title link takes you to more. Also saved the shots here for posterity.



And no, these are obviously not real. : )

20% of Essential Retro

If you've been waiting on getting Essential Retro now might be a good time. Looks like you can get 20% off if you buy it from the official site and enter retrothing in the coupon code box. Title link takes you to the post on Retro Thing. BTW, I get nothing out of this. I just like supporting anyone that supports synths. : ) The cool thing about Retro Thing and the book is that James is reaching people that may not have otherwise been exposed to the world of synthesis. The book has one whole chapter dedicated on what we love, and James mixes in a bit of synth on his retro blog. Pretty cool and definitely worth supporting in my book.

Monster Modcan

Title link takes you there, including mp3 of this beast. Just ran into it checking out the Modcan site.

REALTHING - Hybrid (VSTi + Hardware Analog Synth)

I missed this one in this post. Title link takes you to the sknote website. Click on software when you get there for more including audio. Make sure to check out the rest of the site for more.



Features:

Hardware external analog box
Uses two audio board inputs and midi in/out
Two oscillators: analog waveforms, digital waveforms
Two filters: analog 24dB LP, digital multimode
Frequency modulation
Amplitude modulation
Amplitude, pitch, filter envelopes
Overdrive with pre and post-eq, "shape" control
Chorus/Flanger
Modulation matrix
Hardware pre-filter and post-filter insert paths
Easy interface

Cyndustries & Modcan Modular and Milton Sequencer

Title link takes you to the cyndustries site. The image below is Les Mizzell's Cyndustries and Modcan modular. The mix is about 40% Modcan and 60% Cyndustries. The Modcan A-Series format Milton sequencer was designed by Peter Grenader of EAR and Buzzclick Music, built by Cynthia. The Modcan A-Series format Milton sequencer is relatively rare, it's the large/wide panel on top.

Click for a bigger image.


Les is selling the Milton sequencer for $1500. He is also selling a Modcan 10A multimode filter for for $225. If you are interested you can contact him at lesmizz[]bellsouth.net.