Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Tsutomu Katoh and the History of Korg
Title link takes you to Part 1 of an excellent three part series by Gordon Reid on the history of Korg and its founder, Tsutomu Katoh. Part 1 starts in the early 1960s with the DoncaMatic rhythm machines and ends with the DW Series in 1986. Here are links to Part 2, Part 3. Fascinating reads if you haven't read them before.Their first synth? The Minikorg 700
Image via Sequencer.de's Korg page.
Via SOS:
"Whether by luck or genius, Katoh and his team produced something truly innovative. Taking many of the concepts from the 1970 organ prototype, they broke numerous unwritten rules that decreed that synths should have multiple oscillators, self-oscillating filters, and variable parameters for all the functions on the panel. Instead, the 700 offered oscillator settings such as 'chorus I' and 'chorus II' (which produced rich, swirling tones), and its strange percussion/singing controls created envelopes quite unlike those of the competition. But the little synth's greatest strength was its 'Traveler', a low-pass/high-pass filter section that proved to be extremely intuitive and manageable. Sure, there were limitations, but to concentrate on these was to miss the point entirely. The 700 was stable, it was affordable and, most important of all, it sounded great, eventually numbering players as respected as Kitaro and Vangelis among its users."
Korg Professional Laboratory Systems
Click here for a full sized image of the ad to the left on Korg Kornukopia. The ad is for the Korg PS3100 and PS3300 fully polyphonic analog modulars. Yep, fully polyphonic. Each offered full polyphony at a stagering 48 voices - you could press every key down and they would all play. They used divide down circuitry for the oscillators but each note triggered its own dynamic filter, envelope and VCA. The PS3100 featured 32 patch points and the PS3300 featured over 60. The PS3300 was in essence three PS3100s in one.
Read the ad for more followed by this Sound on Sound article on 40 years of Korg by Gordon Reid. Do a find for PS3100 to jump to it's section when you get there.
R@F's TR-909 Page
Home to miscellaneous info on the TR-909 including a mug shot of Atsushi Hoshiai, a list of hardware changes, some schematics and more.
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.
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."
Monday, April 03, 2006
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. "
"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
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 ;)
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.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
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!"
"Whats a LCD doing in an analogue machine? There should be only knobs and switches!"
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.
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.
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
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
Saturday, April 01, 2006
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. : )
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."
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."
Friday, March 31, 2006
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! "
"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! "
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...
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."
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.
"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.
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
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.
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MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH
© Matrixsynth - All posts are presented here for informative, historical and educative purposes as applicable within fair use.
MATRIXSYNTH is supported by affiliate links that use cookies to track clickthroughs and sales. See the privacy policy for details.
MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH
