MATRIXSYNTH

at 4/10/2006 12:04:00 AM

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. Note the address on the back of the unit. I decided to look it up just out of curiosity as I grew up in Hollywood. Turns out it's this house. I'm guessing it was Roger Linn's pad back then. If anyone knows feel free to comment. I'm left wondering how many other gear makers do this and why Linn would do this. Kind of interesting....

at 4/10/2006 12:03:00 AM

Title link takes you there. Some nice shots under the gallery. Synthoma is located in Barcelona. Via Moogulator. I love Bob Moog's shirt in this shot. Green. : )

at 4/09/2006 03:05:00 AM

New track on Gnostic Rocket featuring some circuit bent toys, the Springboard Dub (pictured) and a toy xylophone. Title link takes you there.

at 4/09/2006 02:48:00 AM

Title link takes you to a 7.57M demo of the Waldorf XTk that is out of this world. Via this HC post. The mp3 is hosted on Tuomas Poikonen's Quandace.

at 4/09/2006 02:47:00 AM

Title link takes you there. Make sure to click on the pictures link for some gorgeous studio shots.

Access Indigo 2

at 4/09/2006 02:46:00 AM

Uploaded on Mar 20, 2006 AutomaticGainsay

"Here are some analog synthesizers so that you may know them when you experience them again.
The score is provided by Automatic Gainsay.
Special bonus points for anyone who can name all the synthesizers featured. : )"

BTW, anyone know what the synth in this shot is, and what the heck is the Hawaii Effect? : ) [Update: here it is!]

Update via the comments:

"Actually, it is a Wersi Bass synthesizer, but it is the KIT version. I bought it on eBay. It doesn't work very well, but I'm going to have a Wersi expert look at it.
Thanks for the nice comments about the video..."

You're welcome. : )

at 4/09/2006 02:45:00 AM

I couldn't find a shot of a 101 on PunkDisco, so here a Future Retro 777 instead. Trippy shot.

Title link takes you to the PunkDisco music page. The third track, Letting Go, showcases the Roland SH-101.

"Not a proper track but rather a few hours of messing around to demo a sh101 (the main synth/bassline)

All sequenced from the 101 with no synchronisation. The 101 variation is just pushing the bender to modulate the VCO and VCF a bit. Audio recorded straight into Ableton Live which then took care of sync'ing. http://www.punkdisco.co.uk/Music.htm Letting Go (3rd track down)

I had to list it 3rd down as fello punkdISCO, Leah, hates the track for a few irrational reasons; the main one being that she was not involved.. Besides, its not a track - its a sh101 demo..

Drums = Airbase
Bells and whistles = Evolver

hugs,

Paul"

at 4/09/2006 02:44:00 AM

Another courtesy of Micke on VSE. Title link takes you to the post with links.

Genesis ABACAB

at 4/09/2006 02:43:00 AM

Title link takes you to the post on Moogulator.

at 4/08/2006 08:24:00 AM

And it's a synth one. Memorymoog, Jupiter-8, DX1, OB-Mx, Matrix-12 and more. Title link takes you there.

at 4/08/2006 03:23:00 AM

Giorgio Moroder.

at 4/08/2006 03:08:00 AM

Our friends, one and two are back. Looks like they made NME.

at 4/08/2006 03:07:00 AM

flickr by MUTE MATT. Title link takes you to the set.

at 4/08/2006 03:06:00 AM

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

at 4/08/2006 03:05:00 AM

flickr by Ricket.

at 4/07/2006 10:35:00 AM

Interesting. Looks like Microsoft will come out with their version of GarageBand.

"Microsoft is still pushing full-steam-ahead with a music-making program, code-named "Monaco," according to Microsoft partners who requested anonymity. Monaco would be very similar to Apple's GarageBand application, but would be optimized to take advantage of Windows Vista and the Aero user interface."

at 4/07/2006 08:07:00 AM

Title link takes you there. Via Synthtopia.

at 4/07/2006 01:06:00 AM

flickr by kedasc. Check out this custom case. Title takes you to the set.

at 4/07/2006 01:05:00 AM

Title link takes you to the Polivoks Filter Clone site by Marc Bareille.

James R. Coplin built one and recorded this 261k MP3 of the clone. Check it out. It's a wicked sounding filter.

James on the filter:
"I just got done putting a Polivoks filter together on a breadboard and thought some folks might like to hear how it sounds. The filter is from Marc Bareille's adaptation and sounds like drinking vodka through broken lips and teeth must feel! A big thanks to Marc for all his help. I will be posting full details of the project with some additional adaptations that Marc told me about to use some hard to get parts. I'm thinking I need about 4 of these in my rig." "The thing has *no* caps in the filter and has a very strange resonance characteristic as a side effect. At extreme settings instead of producing a sine wave, it makes a squarish wave and eventual kind of craps out as you can hear.

The patch was just three saws running in and then out through a vca. There was *no* distortion added or sync on the osc. All that grunge is from the filter itself. I wouldn't want one as my only filter but I got to tell you, this thing is wonderful. I'm not exaggerating when I say I'm building 4 of them for my rig. Processing drums with these is lovely."

at 4/07/2006 01:04:00 AM

flickr by Zebra Pares.

at 4/07/2006 01:02:00 AM

Nice shot of an SH-1000 pulled from this VSE post.

at 4/07/2006 01:01:00 AM

Brian Comnes sent me the following shot of his x0xb0x #150 before he put the lid on. He bought it from Simfonik - note the message that will be sitting on the inside. Also note the serial number on what looks like a key ring charm. Like a secrete decoder ring. : )

at 4/07/2006 01:00:00 AM

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

at 4/06/2006 11:22:00 AM

Title link takes you to some shots and pdfs on Analogue Haven. Note how thin these are.

at 4/06/2006 01:19:00 AM

Title link takes you to more shots pulled from this auction. Something about synth shots in nature. And of course... Green.

at 4/06/2006 12:39:00 AM

Michael Weeks sent me a couple of links to shots of Josh Adam's studio. The first link takes you to Josh's website, Neopolitan Labs (make sure to check out the gallery). I asked Michael if Josh had any association with Metasonix considering the number of modules he owns. He said no, but Eric Barbour of Metasonix did pay him a visit. The shots here are from that visit. (Direct links for when the posts are no longer current: one, two, three).

"Eric visited Josh's new studio being built in San Francisco, with analog synths everywhere and a literal army of Metasonix boxen (including NINE Agonizers, four Butt Probes, and at least two of everything else. And now, sixteen TM-6s.)

He says the photos only show a small fraction of it, much of the gear is still packed or being used by Josh's partner. Apparently, Josh hates software synths, even though he's a programmer."

at 4/06/2006 12:25:00 AM

Jason Nazarof sent in the following shot of his studio. Click on the image for a bigger shot. Title link takes you to Jason's MySpace site where you can hear this gear being put to use. Really good stuff.

Gear in shot:
Roland D-50
Nord Lead 2
Novation X-Station
Access Virus TI
M-Audio O2
PC Running Nuendo
Mbox

at 4/06/2006 12:24:00 AM

Title link takes you to Nuxx's gallery on his x0xb0x design. In the Album:Finished set there are images of the finished x0xb0x along with a Paia Fatman. Absolutely gorgeous design. Sent my way via Brian Comnes.

at 4/06/2006 12:23:00 AM

Title link takes you to Chris Strellis' Korg Poly 800 Slayer Mod page. He's added samples and video worth checking out (a little Coldplay going on).

at 4/06/2006 12:22:00 AM

at 4/06/2006 12:21:00 AM

Click here for more shots by Heath Finnie.

at 4/05/2006 08:59:00 PM

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. Details saved below for posterity. Via Music Thing.

Details from auction:
"This is very rare opportunity to own Boss Effecter Pedal (Bass Synthesizer SYB-3 pedal) shaped watch in as new condition. I have replaced the battery prior to listing this auction.

This watch never been used and it is about 6 years old. This was given to me by supplier in Japan for Promotion / Campaign. Please note that you cannot buy this watch and they only produced one hundred of them (well that is what I got told) for the promotion.

This will make perfect gift for someone musical / guitarists / bass players or why not you show your musical side in the fashion.

Comes with an original case."

at 4/05/2006 08:43:00 PM

In case you missed it, title link takes you there. My favorite question?

"About those big blue buttons: Are they soft and rubbery, or hard? [10 years of journalism, and this is where I've ended up]: They're soft, and they feel great!!"

Too funny Tom. : )

at 4/05/2006 10:22:00 AM

Title link takes you there.

at 4/05/2006 09:41:00 AM

Title link takes you to a monster video of the Musikmesse's Superbuth on Sonic State. Amazing analog gear fest.

Features, Doepfer, LiveWire, Macbeth, MFB, Curetronic, Vermona, Sherman, Metasonix, Studio Electronics, JoMoX, Sequentix, Semblance, and more.

Watch the video and realize the power of Vinyl and on big red Mungo Sync button.

at 4/05/2006 09:00:00 AM

Title link takes you to a couple more shots on the EAR site - scroll all the way down when you get there, they are the last few pics.

at 4/05/2006 08:40:00 AM

"BLUE 1.5 is now released with an unique and powerfull arpeggiator, 5 new FX's, 5 HipHop/RnB banks, 3 DnB Session banks (with Sola of Giana-Brotherz) and many other new presets. Listen to the new demo-songs or try the demoversion. " Title link takes you there.

at 4/05/2006 01:13:00 AM

Title link takes you there. Video under date under title. The site is still a little slow for me, but it come up fine after refreshing.

The video features their sampling and delay modules as well as their touch sensitive keyboard.

at 4/05/2006 01:03:00 AM

flickr by lukatoyboy.

at 4/05/2006 12:53:00 AM

fickr by Heath Finnie. Title link takes you to the set.

at 4/05/2006 12:52:00 AM

"BallDroppings is an addicting and noisy play-toy. It can also be seen as an emergence game. Alternatively this software can be taken seriously as an audio-visual performance instrument. Balls fall from the top of the screen and bounce off the lines you are drawing with the mouse. The balls make a percussive and melodic sound, whose pitch depends on how fast the ball is moving when it hits the line. This delightful application allows experimentation with sound and vision which will compound and intrigue you. Whether you are an adult or child, scientific brainbox or avid gamer. It doesn't have a plot, no heroine, no villain. It has no guns or alien beings. It is simply time to get creative, and those who are creative will love this. --Gosfish Games "

Addicting... You can have multiple instances running at the same time for some interesting sequences. Title link takes you to the site with download. The download is a single exe that runs the app directoy - no install. Now if you could only use it as a MIDI trigger... Via Joe McMahon on SynthSights.

at 4/05/2006 12:51:00 AM

Title link takes you there. Unfortunately I hear they are no longer made. Update: looks like there will be a new one - see the comments in this post.

at 4/05/2006 12:50:00 AM

Title link takes you to a couple more shots on Moogulator's Synthesizer Forum.

Check out the modded WASP.

at 4/05/2006 12:05:00 AM

flickr by Knuckledragger. Title link takes you to more.

Virus and Doepfer.

at 4/04/2006 09:12:00 AM

Title link takes you there.

Jörg at the Radikal Spectralis

at 4/04/2006 08:57:00 AM

flickr by JSRockit.

at 4/04/2006 12:11:00 AM

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."

at 4/04/2006 12:10:00 AM

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.