Korg Radias Sample

Title link takes you a 5.68M sample of six minutes and twelve seconds of the Radias. It's a good demo, showcasing individual patches rather than the typical dance track samples.

EFFEXON - New Flickr Shots

flickr by unyo303. Title link takes you to more.

CEM3340-3 - New Flickr Set

flickr by flowthrough. Title link takes you to more. Unfortunately there are too small to read. : (

Update via Jack Astro in the comments: "Here are a few I have found on PDF."

Korg MS10 - New Flickr Shot

flickr by jjohanne.

01:02:03 04/05/06

Play a note when it happens. : )

MIDI Sword Keytar

Music Thing has a post up on the MIDI Sword Keytar spotted on the *bay. Title link takes you to the post. Sweet. Hmm... Why does this make me think of Retarded Animal Babies...

MIDIbox SID

Title link takes you to more on the MIDIbox SID including more designs, samples and info. The MIDIbox SID is based on the Commodore 64 and it's sound chip, the SID.

Morka natt - Hundarna fran soder

Title link takes you to a cool video featuring what sounds like a SID chip (Elektron, MIDIBox SID, HardSID). Via this post on HC.

GMedia Radio Webcast

Interesting. GMedia has an audio webcast up featuring some pieces with GMedia products and coverage of the Musicmesse. Pretty cool idea. Title link takes you there.

Waldorf Will Continue the microQ and Possibly Others

Not only is Waldorf back, but they will continue with some of their previous products. Only the microQ was specifically mentioned. Title link takes you to the post on the German Keys magazine. Babblefished to English below. (whale village = Waldorf : )

"Now it is completely official: The Synthesizer manufacturer whale village was formed new. The key editorship spoke with Stefan Stenzel, franc cutter and Joachim Flor about one of the sensations of the Frankfurt music fair of this year. Beside the continuation and far coil of some established products (for example microQ) there is to be also new, innovative products in the future. We in the next expenditure for key (06/06) on the reestablishment to report in detail and in detail. "

EAR - Livewire & Plan B on One Blue Monkey

Title link takes you there. Video under date under title. Worth noting in the video is mention of the first Steiner-Parker re-incarnation modules that EAR is working on with Nyle Steiner of the Steiner-Parker Synthacon fame. The two modules are the FrequenSteiner filter and the Subdivider.

The final audio capture in the video is pretty funny as well. Oops. : )

Note: Vladimir tells me the server is a little slow as of the time of this posting. I noticed it, but now it's coming up fine on my end.

More on EAR

The Old Crap In The Living Room - New Flickr Shot

flickr by polaranta.

Studio Pics

Title link takes you to a thread with more on Sonic State's the-gas-station.

Yamaha SY20

Trip. Never seen one of these before. The SY20 is an analog mono synth that came out in 1982. Another via the mighty Moogulator. Title link takes you to more shots on Attractive Dillies!

More Musikmesse Shots

Title link takes you to more Musikmesse 2006 shots on Jörg's Synthesizer Site. Nice Curetronic's modular to the left. Via Moogulator.

Alesis Fusion Updates on Synthwire

Title link takes you to some updates via Carbon111 worth checking out.



Direct Links:
Fusion Signal Path
Upgrading from an Alesis Fusion 6HD to 8HD
Alesis Fusion - One Week In ;)

Yamaha's First Affordable FM Keyboard

The Piano and Synth blog has a post up on the Yamaha CE-20. The post includes their official 1982 press release. The CE20 was a preset only FM keyboard by Yamaha. It predates the DX7 which came out in 1983 according to this Yamaha timeline. Title link takes you to the post on The Piano and Synth blog.

Heathens! - New Flickr Shot

flickr by schmilblick. Thought the caption was pretty funny.



"Whats a LCD doing in an analogue machine? There should be only knobs and switches!"

Polyfonken - New Flickr Set

flickr by polyfonken. Title link takes you there.

18 Oscillator Done Box on Get LoFi

"The synth contains banks of 6 oscillators with 2 acting as LFOs and a ring mod-like effect that is achieved with a summing the signals and also feeding them back into the oscillators." Title link takes you to the post with more shots and video link.

Synthi A - New Flickr Shot

flickr by msk. Took me a second to relize it was upside down. : )

Korg SB-100

Korg Bass Synthesizer. Title link takes you to a couple of shots and a long sample of various sounds. Via Benjamin Ward of Korg Kornukopia on AH.

Flowthrough Studio Shots - New Flickr Set

flickr by flowthrough. Title link takes you to the set.

Korg - New Flickr Shot

flickr by phaturanium.

Cwejman Modular Shots on Moogulator

Title link takes you to some drool worthy shots.

psychedelickitchen - DIY

Via Moogulator. Title link takes you to the post.



5xvco
2xvcf (moog 24db & wasp)
2xenv
Lfo
Noize
Ringmod
Switchable mod matrix
Semi modular patching
Fm
Distortion
Sync
Pwm

10 cv-in , waveform direct out, lfo out
49knobs, 13 switches

Midi to 2xcv/1xgate interface

AHNE 2006

Just a reminder, AHNE is coming April 29th. Title link takes you to more info.

Lemur 2006 Video on Sonic State

Title link takes you there. The Lemur now supports MIDI. The video shows interaction with Ableton Live and Absynth. Impressive. I was thinking the origami might be a cheap alternative, but unless the origami supports a multi-touch inteface, the Lemur kills it for this application. Here's a link to more on the Lemur.

Korg MS-20 Black Devil Edition

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. Keyboardless MS-20 with 8 channel MIDI-CV/Gate interface.

First Music Video Featuring the Little Phatty

Titlle link takes you there. I have no idea how these guys kept a hold of it, but there you go. : )

Dirty Synth P*rn - New Flickr Shot

flickr by polyfonken.

Pearl Fightman FM-8

Don't know much about this unit other than I believe it is analog. It came up on Ah, with someone asking for more info. If you know more please post in the comments and I'll update this post.

Update via Ross, the person who sent this to the AH list and the owner of one:

"It sounds analog and not quite like anything else analog that I've
heard. Better than a cheesy drum machine but not pristine analog like
a Tr-808. It sounds sort of like very early Kraftwerk type drums
(autobahn or earlier); noisy and minimal."

via

Moog 1120 Drum Controller

Title link takes you to a couple of shots pulled from this auction. Via John Gellings.



Details from auction (I have no idea if this is correct):

"Rare Moog 1130 drum controller. hook it up to your minimoog & use it as a signal source. think of the synth drum break in 'frankenstein'. made by Moog, built into a Ludwig 8" tom. very cool."

Guess the Synth on Trippler.net

Title link takes you there.

Evolver Bass By Stefan Trippler

Some Evolver bass sounds by Stefan Trippler.

http://www.trippler.net/files/mp3/evolverbasses.mp3
http://www.trippler.net/keys/meksounds/01DualPathPWMSeq.mp3
http://www.trippler.net/keys/meksounds/03Noise.mp3
http://www.trippler.net/keys/meksounds/08AnalogueArpSeq.mp3

The Nahb Egas

Title link takes you to the full print.



Bahn Sage
: )

Waldorf is Back!

Title link takes you there. The message is in German, babblefished below into English. The English site just states coming soon... And... Stefan Stenzel is back!!! Too cool.



"Is it that? What is to at the rumors around the German Synthesizer legend...? Now, here some unspektakulaere facts are to provide for little light. Yes, it does which in the Waldorfer Laendchen... the rights became by that whale village SL, represented by Joachim Flor and Kurt Wangard, acquired. The new whale village Music GmbH is in the establishment phase and Stefan Stenzel and franc cutter as well as Michael of Garnier and Wilfried Eckl will enter. Who is that now again? Joachim Flor is the head and Macher the new whale village Music GmbH Joachim was already in the establishment phase the whale villages Electronics on board and contributed considerably to their success. Kurt (Lu) Wangard, accompanied the whale village Electronics as Office manager by all heights and depths and is completely wild to see lighting up the old battle ship in the gloss of the modern times. Stefan Stenzel, Mastermind and former director/conductor of the research and development department, as well as the franc cutter, one of the initial members the whale villages Electronics, responsibly for hardware and production management, engaged themselves also during the dark days for the whale village municipality. Now the two guarantors for continuity and innovation work again with commitment and high pressure on new projects for the rope-fresh whale village Music. For fresh wind provide Michael of Garnier and Wilfried Eckl, which throw their bundled know-how for selling and marketing into the scale pan. In the next weeks still further partners will on board come and the team will complete, which was written ambitious goals on the flag. Curiously? Well so! "

HCGPF on Analog Industries

And it's a synth one. : ) Title link takes you there. Yowsa.

Old Veterans Home

Now that the Little Phatty is out...



Brian Comnes sent this in, both the link to the shot on Analog Industries and the joke. Thought it was pretty funny. Thanks Brian. : ) The strangest thing is I didn't put this shot up back when Chris first posted it on Jan 30 of this year. I meant to get back to the shot, but never did. Funny how that works...

Moog Phatty on Audio Fanzine

Title link takes you to videos and audio. It's in French. Enter ass for the username and assburg for the password. No I didn't come up with that. Courtesy of ex action figure on this VSE post.

JB's Giant Modular - New Flickr Shot

flickr by antfactor.



Update via the comments:

"In case you didn't know, that's a Polyfusion.
There's some photos on my site somewhere of the same system."

Update via anonymouse in the comments:

"actually, it's MOSTLY Polyfusion - but don't be fooled - LOTS of other modules, synths, and some custom designed/built goodies."

USB DSP Drive Based Synths?

Update via David in the comments:

"TI just introduced a $20 microcontroller development kit in a usb drive that's probably up to the task. Check out the TI site for more info:"

http://www.ti.com/ez430
"It’s easy to rev up your application in minutes with the new eZ430-F2013, the world’s smallest complete development tool for only $20! The tool provides all hardware and software needed to evaluate the MSP430 MCU or complete an entire F20xx project. The F20xx combines 16 MIPS performance, less than 1 microamp standby current, with your choice of analog converters - from a comparator, fast 10-bit ADC to 16-bit sigma-delta with integrated PGA - all in a package as tiny as 4x4 mm. Designing with the world’s lowest power MCU just got even easier."


That's a mouth full, say it 10 times really fast. : ) So, what you are looking at is a 512M USB drive. No DSP. This post is about what it might be like if we had DSP based USB drives. So... I copied over VSThost, a free VST Host app and a few soft synth dlls on my USB drive, and now I can take my soft synths on the road. This is kind of cool, but only kind of.

What would be really cool is if this were a DSP based drive so I could just plug it into a midi controller and play; with no PC, monitor or other. What would be even cooler is if my midi device automatically mapped it's controls according to the synth I was using. What would be even better? If soft synth developers and hardware manufacturers turned all of this into a standard.

Think of that. No OS dependencies that could mean the demise of most softsynths. For example, the Waldorf PPG Wave 2.v will not install on Windows XP. And... hardware based soft synths - you'd finally be able to run your soft synths like actual hardware synths. Another interesting thing is you'd have a wide variety of hardware controllers to chose from. Feel like a small portable device for the road or the couch, no problem, just plug in your USB device and go. MPC style controller, X0X, full weighted keys, knobs, sliders, you name it. You can't do that with hardware VAs.

Thanks goes to Doktor Future's and Jimmy's comments in this post on the Terratec Area 61.

WENDY CARLOS INTERVIEW / May,1979 PLAYBOY MAGAZINE

Two shots pulled from this auction.



If only the scans were bigger...

I am made from the wires of my synthesizer

Tons of updates on Bleepsandbloops including shots, samples and thoughts. Title link takes you there.


The Q107 Filter

Synesthesia and the Mandala

"Essentially, the mandala detects where and how hard you hit it and translates that information into sound and sound controllers for your playing pleasure and exploration. " The mandala comes with it's own brain drum containing sounds and it can be used as a MIDI controller for other gear as well. Via meeglosh in the comments of this post.

thank you, stereolab - New Flickr Shot

flickr by tromasbronot.

About the Little Phatty

In case you missed it, the following touches on how the new Moog Little Phatty was born. Note that Axel Hartmann, designer of the user interface for many Waldorf products, the Andromeda A6 and of course the designer of the Hartmann Neuron, was involved. It's fascinating to realize that the physical design of the Little Phatty has ties to Waldorf, the A6, and the Hartmann Neuron.

"Mike talks about the conception of the Little Phatty.

I cannot think of a better transitional topic from my previous memo “Moog without Bob” to “Little Phatty”; Bob’s last project. He was very excited about the possibilities of this keyboard from our earliest discussions. I believe he felt that the technology and the team that we had (have) in place would finally enable him to bring a synth to thousands of musicians who were previously in no financial position to enjoy a Moog synth. I am very proud to say that is exactly what we are about to accomplish with the release of the Little Phatty.
As a starter, let me give you a bit of history about the development of the project. I am not exactly sure when the concept first entered Bob’s mind but I do have notes on it from early 2004 when we had a product planning meeting and Turnkey requested us to give this some consideration but I am sure he had thought about of it long before that. Then during the Summer of 2004 Steve and Bob really began the serious work of technical conception which resulted in Steve writing the initial technical spec in August, 2004. From there my memory gets a little fuzzy because 2005 was such a difficult year. What I do remember is that we sent off our first ideas to Axel Hartmann around October of 2004 and we met with him at the NAMM Show in 2005. (Axel Hartmann and his Design Box industrial design associates have been a long time collaborators of the company.) At NAMM and then subsequently at last year’s Messe, the first concepts of this keyboard began to take shape.

From there, Cyril Lance came on board. While he did not have the time he wanted with Bob, Cyril is an extremely talented engineer in his own right. This will be evident to those who discover the Little Phatty. The project team that worked on this design has come from the far corners of the world – Asheville, North Carolina where Moog is headquartered; Germany where Design Box is located; software from our consultants in California; and importantly our Chinese partners. Yes, our Chinese partners. No, we are not making this keyboard in China. It still will be made right along side the Voyager in Asheville but without the component level support from our Chinese partner we could never reached the low price point of this product.

So what about the name, Little Phatty? Taking a cue from Bob’s choice of the name “moogerfooger” for our line of effects modules, we adopted the moniker “Little Phatty” for our new synth because of its irreverent; tongue-in-cheek nature. At first it was just funny, but it grew on us as the personality of the synth developed. The Little Phatty name is a description of what we wanted this synth to be: smaller, less imposing, a chip off the old block as far as the sound character, and a price point people have a chance of reaching. It is a true Moog synth. It sounds really fat and ballsy. In this way we feel the name echoes the “minimoog”. Bob liked the name Little Phatty. He had a great sense of humor about these things. I know if he were still here we would be enjoying some great laughs, and I think he would really love the way the LP sounds. It definitely contains the sound that he created.

So that’s it. We hope you will buy one, enjoy it, and drop us a note about your experiences with this or any other Moog product.

As always, we appreciate every single one of you.

Warm Regards,


Mike Adams"

Korg Keyboard - New Flickr Shot

flickr by Ke Wynn.

Analog Dust - New Flickr Shot

flickr by violator3.



Me & a Yamaha CS10

Terratec Area 61 Expandable Keyboard System

Now this is interesting. The Terratec Area 61 is a MIDI controller with optional built in DSP boards that can host different synth engines. To start they will offer the Terratec Komplexer (basically a Waldorf uQ) and the WaveXtable (more below). In via Harmony Central News. Title link takes you to full release.



"TerraTec Producer will unveil a unique keyboard at the Frankfurt Musikmesse - AREA 61. Based on an unprecedented design, AREA 61 is an expandable keyboard system for studio and gigging musicians. It is a genuine musical instrument with freely selectable, integrated sound generators (optionally available DSP soundboards) that may also serve as a central control unit for all software sequencers and virtual instruments in computer-based music studios.

Sound Generation Options
In addition, keyboardists can equip AREA 61 with optionally available sound modules for use as a classic synthesizer, that is, without a computer. To this end, TerraTec Producer now offers KOMPLEXER, a synthesizer that runs as a VSTi plug-in and as a standalone DSP application. Comprising a real synthesizer based on the Waldorf μQ, it provides more than 400 parameters for shaping the perfect sound. And if this complexity seems a bit overwhelming at first, keyboardists can go to the Easy Edit page, choose from the many presets and easily manipulate their selections using eight Macro controls. Best of all, entire banks port from KOMPLEXER VST to AREA 61's on-board KOMPLEXER DSP. This means KOMPLEXER VST goes wherever the keyboard goes, without having to tote a computer.

Released last year, the WaveXtable module is a 128-voice, GM- and XG-compatible Waveboard offering more than 500 top-drawer sounds. Further modules are in the works. Users can employ other vendors' compatible Wavetable cards, making the AREA 61 a remarkably extendible instrument.

The integrated sound generator's analog output signal goes to the output mixer and may be auditioned with the 2.0 audio system's playback signal as well as over the input monitor. Recording the output signal via USB 2.0 is also an option. The AREA 61 Controller Keyboard will be available in stores in Q 3/ 2006 retailing for 749.00 USD (MSRP)."