Two videos: one, two.
gear used:
TB-303
TR-505
TR-707
AN200
A4000 sampler
TBS DRM2 minisyncussion
Alesis Philtre modfx
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Computer Controlled Live
Two videos: one, two.
gear used:
TB-303
TR-505
TR-707
AN200
A4000 sampler
TBS DRM2 minisyncussion
Alesis Philtre modfx
Synthesizer Modifications
Title link takes you to Synthesizer Modifications. Scroll down when you get there for a list of modification and images.BTW, before you go modding away consider the following comments on AH:
via Martjin:
"Let's hope that the kit I got slipped through AS quality control somehow, otherwise I'd say that these kits aren't worth the money. Nevertheless the CP and HH mods are very interesting, but the Tom mods are very uninspiring."
Via Ryan:
"I'll second the pondering AS quality control. i had a tr808 with kenton midi and the AS tonal mod. the tonal mod imho destroyed the 808's sound. the 808 sounds perfect as is. you don't have to mess with it. once you mess with it, it starts sounding all sorts of cheap ;("
Via Jason:
"i'll "third" that: i would highly advise against Analogue Solutions for tonal modifications (they are not done with musicality or usefulness in mind), and in general i think their quality control standards are very low. not only that, but if you try to complain about the low quality, customer service is terrible: "the customer is always wrong" might be an appropriate slogan. too bad, because their products and services sound great "on paper", and sometimes they get it right... but not often enough IMO."
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
studiotoolz
"We're building this to make a list of quality freeware and opensource programs for Apple Macintosh OSX computers. We'd like to mainly focus on Max/MSP standalones/patches and other hard to find experimental audio applications but we also have some selected VSTi, AU plugins and other cool and useful music making software. Make your own noise!"
Title link takes you there.
Fleshtones
Click here an interesting video psouper. The video consists of pixelated porn driving a piano. Acording to Philip Sanderson, "the app was put together using max/msp/jitter. Its provisionally called Instant Kitten." Background on the piece via Philip:
"At last a use for all those unwanted adult movies now using the wonders of max/msp/jitter you can turn them into pixelated lyrical piano music. At least that is what psouper has done with an updated "light organ" image to accompaniment synthesizer.
The concept of a correlation between sound and vision goes back to antiquity. One starry night on the island of Samos Pythagoras stood contemplating the skies, to him he very rhythm and motion of heavenly bodies in their orbits appeared to him as if governed by a cosmic harmony, a carefully choreographed sequence, the music of the spheres.
Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci produced sophisticated spectacles for court festivals that fused music and colour. In 1760 Father Castel constructed an Ocular Harpsichord or as he described it a " harpsichord for the eyes". Castel's machine was a normal harpsichord above which were 60 small windows, each with different coloured-glass and a small curtain. Each time the player depressed a particular key, the relevant curtain would rise to show a burst of colour.
In the next two hundred years many new instruments for combining light and sound were built. The British painter A. Wallace Rimington developed a Colour Organ which provided a moving light accompaniment to the 1916 New York premiere of Scriabin's symphony Prometheus: A Poem of Fire. Scriabin had scored not only the music but also the precise colours he wanted to accompany particular passages.
Such colour music forms the conceptual starting point for Fleshtones, a piece for extreme pixelated porn and auto generated accompaniment. Footage from webcams and other online sites is broken down into a simple tableau of colour bands, at times rather like the paint charts one might find in a DIY store. Given the subject matter this palette is either predominately pink or coffee coloured thus producing a sequence of flickering fleshtones. Using the wonders of max/msp/jitter these Fleshtones are turned into lyrical piano music that rises in falls in response and exact correspondence to the onscreen movement. The motion of earthly bodies thus is transformed into something of beauty, harmony and contemplation."
Casio SK Site
Title link takes you to group site dedicated to the Casio SK line of keyboards including pics, mods and more. Notes on the SK-5 and SK-8 from Ryan (Plutoniq9)
- 4 sample slots opposed to the (1) on the SK-1
- Samples saved when powering off, SK-1 loses memory due to DRAM.
-When adding midi (i.e Highly Liquid's midi retrofit), the SK-5 & SK-8 can trigger all four samples via midi, so you can use it as a crude lo-fi drum sampler.
- Reverse mode.....always cool for xperimental sounds.
The SK-5 & SK-8 are very very close to one another, I still haven't tested
it yet, but i think a ROM swap could be made between the two. Although they
are the focus of the group, discussion on all SK keyboards is welcome. The
files section has detailed modifiations for the sk-5 & SK-8, real
modifications...not circuit bending.
Bob Moog on Vocal Sounds - New Flickr Shot
flickr by bdu. Looks like bdu is on another roll. Title link takes you to more shots. When you get there, click on the all sizes link above the shot to see a bigger, readable image.
J.S. BACH: FUGUE IN G (Gigue)
Title link takes you to a video of the piece performed with synths and pedal board. Pretty amazing. The top synth is a Korg DSS-1; not sure what the bottom one is.
MOTU Enthno Promo Movie
Remember the MOTU Ethno? Title link takes you to a 46.9M promotional video with music performed by Mathew Davidson. This one is really well done, both the music, and presentation of features.
Moog MuRF - New Flickr Set
flickr by Meng Qi. Title link takes you to more. This shot is my new wallpaper.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Wavemakers - New Shots and New Samples Up
You can find them here. When you get there, click on the music knob for new samples and click on the photos knob for new shots.
Dubsounds
Title link takes you to Dubsounds. Along with a section on the Moog Polymoog including history, resources, restoration, owners directory, and the polymoog owner's club, there are member studio shots, samples, a forum and more. Via Jordon Gibson.
Access Virus TI Racked
Title link takes you there. Via Mr. Array way back in the comments of this post. I thought I put this up already, but I can't find it, so here it goes. 
Note the new ins and outs on the bottom surface which becomes the back when racked.
The Freesound Project
Title link takes you to The Freesound Project, home of a ton of free samples. When you get there try a search on anything on the top right. Results will come back with sounds that match what you are searching. All of the samples are free to use via the Creative Commons license. Pretty cool. There is also Google maps integration where you can actually see where some of the samples, like trains come from, but I couldn't figure out how to trigger the sample when browsing the map. I'll need to try it again. Saw this via CDM.
Roland, Yamaha and Casio Manuals
Monday, May 15, 2006
The First MIDI Butt Controller
Well, aside from shakin' it in front of a theremin I guess. The Animazoo Gypsy 2.
"Enormous Capture Area -- Capture motion data wherever you need to – indoors or out."
Title link takes you there.
Numan with Billy on YouTube
This one in via Jordan Gibson. These are great. It amazes me to think this is all live, no MIDI, no sequencers and no computers. And... all analog."By the way, I just saw your comments on Billie Currie playing with Ultravox and his involvement with the Numan band (Cars video etc).
Not sure if you've linked to this before or not, but here are the two tracks Numan did on The Old Grey Whistle Test back then, featuring Billie on Odyssey once again. Good Moog Porn too ;) link
Cheers,
Jordan"
BTW, that's Billy Currie in the background.
Penny & Giles MM16 MIDI controller
Title link takes you to a couple of more shots pulled from this auction.Details:
Penny & Giles MM16 MIDI MANAGER ( 6 unit 19" rack )
These units were designed for the pro studio. They are quite rare because of their expense: originally over £1500 I think.
The unit is quite easy to program with 16 x P&G backlit endless moving belt faders, buttons (momentary or toggle on/off), rotary encoder wheel and LCD screen.
The MM16 is designed to provide accessibility to the myriad parameters that exist within even a modest MIDI set-up.
There are two basic modes of operation, Workstation Mode and MM16 Mode.
Workstation Mode:
...allows the user to exercise control over the various Digital Audio Workstations
...by generating and receiving MIDI commands...
MM16 Mode:
In this, the MM16 is a general-purpose MIDI controller with all of the control elements programmable by the user...
16 programmable P&G backlit endless belt faders,
16 programmable (toggle/momentary) illuminated button switches.
2 footswitch jack inputs
16 MIDI DIN sockets;
MIDI Merge IN and THRU
6 Main MIDI OUT
MIDI Control IN and THRU
6 Aux MIDI OUT
Control buttons for external sequencer;
START, CONT, STOP plus Rew, FF, Start, Stop and Rec
Rotary encoder, buttons for the accessing and editing the 64 stored programmes
Via Music Thing.
The Synth Pistols on YouTube
Ultravox was one of my favorite bands growing up in the 80s. They are actually one of the bands that inspired me into getting a synth. Why is the title of the post The Synth Pistols? Well, Malcolm McLaren originally asked lead singer Midge Ure (Ultravox) to front The Sex Pistols, but he turned it down. John Lydon stepped in and the rest is history. Makes you wonder how things could have turned out. It's also fascinating to think Malcom McLaren was responsible for Buffalo Gals. Back then these genres of music never seemed to mix. Here's a video of Rich Kids, Midge Ure's band prior to Ultravox featuring Glen Matlock of the Sex Pistols. No synths, just some context.
Now for some "live" synth goodness:
Sleepwalk (some dry humping synth action by Billy Currie)
Vienna (I think Midge might have been the only straight man to dress like that)
And of course some Electroclash before Electroclash - Fade to Grey by Visage. Move over Fischerspooner, Visage "taught the killing game first." Visage was another side project of Midge's along with Steve Strange on vocals (he's the guy in the video). Midge didn't sing much in Visage although you can hear him in the background on some tracks, particularly at the end of "In the Year 2525." Another bit of trivia: Billy Currie of Ultravox (THE synth player of Ultravox) actually played with Gary Numan during the transition from John Foxx to Midge Ure fronting Ultravox. Billy is actually in the video for Numan's Cars. You can find more history on Ultravox here.
Title link takes you to an Ultravox search on YouTube.
Udpate via Fred in the comments:
"Never mind the Midge Ure Ultravox, go for the real thing - the John Foxx Ultravox. 'Ha Ha Ha' (their 2nd album, 1977) is very 70's London punk with lots of wild ARP Odessy and great guitar playing by Sevie Shears who afterwards disappeared from history. 'Systems of Romance' (3rd album, 1978) is one of those records that not very many people bought but everyone who did started a band - very influential to later cyber punk and electro-industrial artists. Recorded by Conny Plank at his studio. This is rock music by killer robots - cold, hard and relentless. The first three songs are like the shock wave from an atomic bomb. One of my favorite records ever. The harsh futuristic vibe coming off this record is unsurpassed to this day (I'm still searching) and seems more prophetic than ever. John Foxxs' first album 'Metamatic' (1980) is also great and highly recomended to Kraftwerk Fans. I used to wander around Vancouver with these albums blasting out of my Toshiba ghetto blaster back in the day."
I never got around to fully checking out John Foxx's Ultravox. I just check Yahoo! Unlimited but they don't have it yet. However the do have John Foxx's Dislocated released just last year in 2005. I'm listening to it as I type this and... it's really friggin good. Hope he does more like this soon.
BTW, title link takes you to all Ultravox on YouTube including John Foxx.
Bent 2006 on YouTube
Title link takes you there. Definitely check this one out. Hmm... I haven't dived into circuit bending just yet, but something tells me it's about to happen soon. It just looks like an affordable and fun hobby. BTW, for more on Circuit Bending in general, check out GetLoFi. It's where I found this video.
Modular Synthesizer Alternate Controllers on YouTube
Get ready to drool. Title link takes you to a clip of Dan Levey's studio and demos of alternate controllers. The Synthi is out of control. Also love Dan's smirk at the end. Yep, he knows what he has. Thanks Dan. I think. : )
Electromancer ARP Pro-Soloist Track
"This track is done totally on the arp pro-soloist. I was going to add other stuff,percussion etc.,but i set out to do a track with just the pro-soloist so left it alone."Title link takes you there. Click on the little speaker icon or floppy icon when you get there. Via Jordon Gibson.
Image via Synthony.
MidiMiniAfy Studio Electronics ATC-1
"This page is an attempt of tryin' to show how to perform the MIDIMINIAFY modification of a Studio Electronics (from here called SE) ATC-1 synthesizer for the NOVICE. The modification adds a pure sinewave and a discrete moog VCA to the analogue synthesizer."
Title link takes you there.
Update via [d] in the comments:
"Hum...when speaking of synths, one is never too far away from a friggin' cat reference: 'Also - think about what you're wearing and throw the cat out of the house. Cats are walking static electricity bombs.'"
Funny, I missed that. Sure enough this is at the bottom of the directions. Make sure to check out the comments for more.
More Evolver Samples by Stefan Trippler
More Evolver by Stefan Trippler:
http://www.trippler.net/mek/curtissimo.mp3
http://www.trippler.net/mek/mekfive.mp3
http://www.trippler.net/mek/sundaysounds.mp3
http://www.trippler.net/mek/mekeve.mp3
Drums from Spectrasonics Stylus.
http://www.trippler.net/mek/curtissimo.mp3
http://www.trippler.net/mek/mekfive.mp3
http://www.trippler.net/mek/sundaysounds.mp3
http://www.trippler.net/mek/mekeve.mp3
Drums from Spectrasonics Stylus.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
New Lectures by Aaron Lanterman
You might remember this post. Aaron Lanterman has added the following lectures:
4/19 - Demo of SSM2040/Prophet 5-style emulation VCF; Waveshaping and
Chebychev Polynomials
4/24 - Additive Synthesis
4/26 - FM Synthesis
Title link takes you there.
4/19 - Demo of SSM2040/Prophet 5-style emulation VCF; Waveshaping and
Chebychev Polynomials
4/24 - Additive Synthesis
4/26 - FM Synthesis
Title link takes you there.
Hammond Synthesizer 102200
Title link takes you to one more shot. This looks like this 102200 with a white case rather than black. If anyone has more info on these and the original color of the case (just curious), please feel free to comment.
Update: Samples courtesy of pinkus via the comments.
"mp3 is without effects..strait into 002...no preamps or anything....sorry for my foolish keyboard playing...i was just fucking around."
Thanks pinkus!
The Source - New Flickr Shot
flickr by pinkbelt.
Interesting. I never realised it was "The" Source. Thought it was just the Moog Source. Ok, moving forward, it's the Moog The Source. And of course, don't forget it's Moog pronounced like Vogue, not like poo.
Saturday, May 13, 2006
Cybersonica 06
"Cybersonica and Encompass, in association with Phonica Records, present a two-week exhibition of contemporary sonic artworks. The exhibition showcases a range of sonic and audiovisual works which move beyond the ‘screen, keyboard, mouse scenario’ to explore new and exciting approaches to creative interactivity - responding to physical input, proximity, sound, kinetics, elapsed time and the surrounding environment. All the selected works are playful, engaging and accessible to all."
Cybersonica & Encompass Sonic Art Exhibition
Monday, 8th - Saturday, 20th May 2006
11.30am-7.30pm, Mon-Wed, 11.30am-8pm, Thurs-Sat
Phonica Records, 51 Poland Street, Soho, London W1F 7NG
Title link takes you to more.
vPipes
Midi Bagpipe Emulator."vPipes is an electronic Uilleann Pipes emulator (without regulators) affording the possibility of practising in a variety of situations which would prove to be impractical or impossible with a real set of pipes."
Title link takes you to more info.
via Music Thing.
Tom Moravansky's Sequencing Powerhouse
Check this wall out. Going from left to right then top down: Two Oberheim Cyclones, JL Cooper Synapse MIDI patchbay (16 in, 20 out), Grex MXF8 ("thealmost vaporware product from the Notron guy (Gerard Campbell)"), a GenoQs Octopus, Oberheim DMX, two Sequentix P3s. a LinnDrum, two Notron sequencers and a Linn LM-1. Here's one more shot.
So of course I had to ask how the sequencers compared. Tom had the following to say:
"Octopus, P3, Notron are all different. I've only had the Octopus for a day, so what you're reading is initial impressions.
The Notron is still the only hardware sequencer I know of that decouples the note on time from the length of a step. Everyone else forces a note on to be less than or equal to a step size or else used some type of tied note notation to extend it.
Why do I care? Well, it's easy on the Notron to set one element to play 2 notes with long overlapping times and then to have the pitch or sustain modulated over the course of a sequence. Ideal for slow spacey things like old FSOL or Orb stuff or for NWW/Coil drone things.
The Notron is also one of the few (only?) hw sequencers to send out MIDI CC messages 'between the notes'. Everyone else spits out a MIDI CC value at each step. Notron sends out a seemingly continuous stream so that modulations really do sound and feel smooth and flowing. So you can have a track running at a slow tempo and still apply a smooth modulation with it. Other hw seqs would have a large, grainy steppiness to them at slow tempos.
The Octopus has a very easy interface for zooming into the step level and back out to the track view (10 tracks at once) or grid view (multiple pages of tracks). It's also very easy to check and change things like MIDI channel for each track (one button press and one knob turn). Still in development so the modulations and 'extras' are not as fleshed out yet as the Notron or P3. It does have some nice touches already and the UI really does make it fast to use.
The P3 reminds me of the Oberheim Cyclone with access to it's programming guts. :-) It's easy w. the P3 to create those self-modifying sequences that morph over time and change and shift with each pass. It's a very inward looking sequencer - it's focussed on modifying it's internal patterns and play structure.
The Notron is an outward sequencer - it is designed to spit out as much different MIDI info as possible and let the source deal with it as best as it can.
The Octopus is inbetween. Lots of parallel tracks possible (90 max), with some internal modification possible, not much extra MIDI spit out (other than the standard MIDI cc info per step)."
Via Tom of Synth Services. Thanks Tom!
More OB-Mx Samples Via Brian Kehew
Click here for another sample of the OB-Mx sent my way via Brian Kehew of The Moog Cookbook. It's the 4M mp3. The other is the sample he previously sent in. "Here are some of my sounds, they kinda show off what the synth does well. It's aggressive without losing the "muscle" of the sound; a real DIRTY sound when you want it. It has nice complexity and definitely sounds analog. I think it's unfairly treated by some people, although there are others like me that are in love with it. The filters sound great, and the complexity - from the Matrix-style routings - gives it a lot of options if you're a programming nut.
I think it got too much attention for being connected to Don Buchla - he did very little on the synth, and it's NOT like a Buchla really. But you have to give them credit - at the time this came out NOBODY was making analog synths. I thought it was such a bold (and commercially ahead-of-it's time, or behind-it's-time!) idea. Sure was expensive though. For a short time, about three years ago, unused voice cards were turning up - they all sold fast as people stacked up their synth. Mine now has all twelve voices."
OB-Mx shot via Sequencer.de.
The Psych-Tone
Click here for a Popular Electronics article on the Psych-Tone.
Details from the auction:
"very similiar to the Triadex Muse this is a simpler odd creation from Popular Electronics, Feb 1971- issue is included with notes. weird synth. seems to be working, the attack , sustain, decay, controls don't seem to have much, if any effect, and is sold as is, as described. This thing is lots of fun, crazy patterns, you can freeze the pattern so it stutters. A very nice and fun piece and seems well put together, one slider cap is missing. more info on the psych tone here"
Tax-5 Chip Music
"I made an awesome Techno/Rave styled Track just with a Gameboy Advance, Gameboy red and Help from a Jp8000.. Its called: Play it loud (Advanced Mix)"
Title link takes you there. It's the first track when you get there.
Via Tax-5 on this VSE Post.
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© 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
