MATRIXSYNTH

at 8/07/2006 09:54:00 AM

"The modifications are my usual 'Oakley mods'. The first new knob on the left you see is the filter FM depth control. This allows the cut-off frequency to be modulated by the VCO. The switch to its right selects the waveform used by the filter FM. It can be selected from either sawtooth or the sub oscillator.

The second switch on the left is the filter mode. You can select from 'smooth', which is the default SH-101 output, and 'fizz', which is almost like band pass.

The second knob is the triangle wave output from the VCO. The switch to its right selects whether the output from this pot goes to the VCF or the VCA.

Sound samples:

Simple sequence from the SH-101's internal sequencer with various real time tweaks. You will hear the filter FM control being tweaked whilst waveform source is changed. Listen out for the sudden change in tone as the filter mode is changed from normal to the fizz. Also, hear the sound deepen as the triangle wave is added to the VCA's input. External effects are reverb only. 2.09MB. SH-101a.mp3

Solo sound with filter FM and triangle wave being fed direct to the VCA. The VCF is being swept with the SH-101's ADSR which allows the pulse wave to come up in volume behind the triangle wave. 528KB SH-101b.mp3"

Title link takes you to the source. BTW, this one is for sale in the UK. Samples saved here for posterity.

at 8/07/2006 12:40:00 AM

Mod by Amos of Moog Music. Note this is his personal mod and has nothing to do with Moog Music. Just noting the players for the archives. Title link takes you to more shots and the post on ladyada's tea party. Details and one shot saved for posterity.

"List of mods:

Internal:

bass boost mod; carefully-selected transistors in key places (not a mod, but a good idea);adjustable amount of resonance boost on accent (trim pot on underside of mainboard). Also increased env. amount range, goes down to zero and up to 3x normal maximum amount.

I/O mods: CV outputs from the sequencer for Pitch and Gate (same as stock, now with 1/4" jacks), also Accent and Slide gate-CVs. CV Inputs for Gate, Accent, Slide, Pitch, and Filter Cutoff. New audio I/O is on a 1/4" stereo jack providing VCO out/VCF in, for a pre-filter effects loop or clean external audio into the filter/VCA. See my thread in x0xm0dz for more details. VCF input goes well with the "gate always-on" switch I added.

Panel/control mods:

Devilfish-esque VCO-to-Filter overdrive;
Accent duration control knob.
VCO->VCF FM, has FM amount knob and FM waveform selector switch;
Resonance Boost switch, with trimmer for setting boost amount
Gate always on switch - VCA wide open with infinite sustain. Good for bubbling liquid legato lines or external filter processing. Filter falls to minimum unless you are using my envelope mutator, or hit the:
Momentary Gate-Retrigger button; this fires off the main envelope generator when pressed, so you can inject some variety into always-on lines or just goose the sequence when you want.
momentary Accent-on button, similar principle as above, fire an Accent on demand.

Envelope Mutator - my own little street-style RC envelope circuit, takes in a +5V pulse and bleeds it to ground thru a variable resistance. This is then applied to filter cutoff, where it interacts with all the other filter mods to create delicious new flavors of groove. The source is selectable between Gate (all notes trigger the env mutator), Accent, and Slide triggers via a miniature 3pos. rotary switch; there is a mutation on/off switch, a Mutation Duration knob, variable between ~5 milliseconds and 5 seconds, and I am about to add a Mutation Amount knob for added subtlety. Right now it is either off or full-on.

I think that's about it... still to be done are the momentary switches when the parts get here, and drilling the panel for the controls. The jack panel isn't perfectly machined but I might fine-tune it... or leave it looking a little DIY, which it certainly is. It should be finished up sometime next week! Sound samples when I get a chance. It sounds.... mighty good.

edit: here is a half-arsed sound sample... unfortunately the envelope mutator is not fully installed w/level control so it gets out of hand... also no momentary buttons yet so the legato/drone sections are not what they will be soon. But, bandwidth is cheap these days, so here's 10 mins of impromptu tweaking on stuff.

-=x0x Tw34Ks=-"

at 8/07/2006 12:05:00 AM

Roland Juno-D

at 8/06/2006 10:13:00 AM

Gorgeous. Via Ross:

"Just thought I'd drop you a photo of my Serge made up in a VCS3 style cabinet. My dad made it over a month I learnt quite a bit along the way, the biggest mistake is to not give enough space between the bottom section and the top, as you have to factor in stacking banana plugs. I should have made the gap a little bit bigger, but can always swap the TKB Touch keyboard up two modules:-)

What is strange is that I am using the Serge now in a different way just because of the cabinet? :-)

The next step is to have 2 more panels in another cabinet on top featuring Livewire, Plan B and Doepfer all banana jacked. Oh and then there is my VICMOD Modular synth which I am building with our group, so the future is looking modular."

at 8/06/2006 10:09:00 AM

"C64 Orchestra approached two of the most experienced C64-users from the 1980s, Rob Hubbard and Jeroen Tel. The current work of these two Commodore 64 musicians intend their compositions to be exploited with the aid of a classical orchestra. The compositions that they are going to play:
Rob Hubbard's compositions:
Monty on the Run, One Man And His Droid, Commando, International Karate, Master of Magic.
Jeroen Tel's:
Cybernoid II, Hawkeye, Myth, Supremacy, Iron Lord.
Midway 2006 will see this production premiered."

Great documentary. via Tim Peters. Thanks Tim!

at 8/06/2006 09:38:00 AM

Thought this shot was kind of funny. The Synclavier isn't exactly the sort of synth I think about taking with me out to play on my lap in the woods. I guess if someone is bold enough to bring that out along with the computer, there could be a power generator sitting just outside that shot.

Via Failed Muso where you can find more shots. As for a soft synth, he also found this intersting blurb on the Synclavier site:

"I am researching the possibility of creating a Synclavier® "plug-in" for several hardware platforms that would recreate the "Synclavier® Sound" by accurately modeling the actual operation of the original Synclavier® hardware. I am convinced that, by utilizing 96/192 Khz 24-bit technology, such a plug-in could faithfully reproduce the sound of a variable sampling rate digital audio system. This project will take between 12 and 24 months."

at 8/06/2006 01:20:00 AM

Bread, wine and a "303." I could go for that. Click image for the full shot. The caption on Acidcode reads, "... a little more than just a discontinued DIY project ;)" followed by a link to ladyada and the x0xb0x.

Update: according to Moogulator of sequencer.de there is no direct relation to the x0xb0x other than they are both clones of the Roland TB-303. The ML-303 was made in Germany. Not sure where ladyada is.

""here's a link [on sequencer.de] to the user manual for the ML-303 BassLine."

Via Awakened_Yeti in the comments of this post.

at 8/06/2006 01:06:00 AM

Photo cell theremin. It picks up light changes in the room.
Title link takes you to XLPCTheremin.com.

Shot, samples and discription pulled from this auction.

sample1
sample2
sample3

"THE NEW AND IMPROVED (MORE LOW TO HIGH RANGE) LARGE PHOTO CELL INSTALLED ON TOP OF THE THEREMIN WILL PICK-UP ANY EXISTING LITE IN THE ROOM, AND TRANSFORM IT INTO SOUNDS THAT ARE OUT OF THIS WORLD.THE THEREMIN REACTS TO ALL TYPES OF LITE, INCLUDING FLASHLITE, LASER POINTER, TV, OR ANY OTHER LITE SOURCE.BY SIMPLY WAVING YOUR HAND OVER THE PHOTO CELL SIDE TO SIDE, UP AND DOWN YOU ARE ABLE TO CHANGE PITCH, AND VOLUME.TO GET THE SOUND EFFECTS YOU HAVE TO CONNECT TO AN AMP.(ALL MY XLPC THEREMINS ARE BUILT TO BE USED WITH AN AMP.). CONNECT EFFECTS PEDALS (DELAY - DISTORTION - PHASE SHIFTER - ETC.) TO THE THEREMIN CUSTOMIZE AND EXPERIMENT, LET YOUR IMAGINATION GO. GREAT FOR DJ's, IN THE STUDIO OR LIVE ON STAGE.JUST CLICK ON THE LIGHT SWITCH FOR ADDED ATTENTION. ADD MY XLPC THEREMIN TO YOUR SET-UP AND EVERYONES HEAD WILL TURN!!!

The XLPC Theremin includes:

8 ohm Speaker (very small - low volume)
Red On/Off Switch
Silver Pitch Volume Knob
Extra Large Photo-Cell (New and Improved)
1/4" Output Jack (Amp. Cable not included)
1 AA Battery (mounted outside the base for easy access)
Soft Plastic Green Alien Head Lamp "

at 8/06/2006 01:05:00 AM

Step chords: steps may carry individual chords, in addition to the "legacy" track chord system.

Step chords can be strummed, and strumming may also apply to velocity, pitch, and length.

Step repeats: you can set a step to multi-trigger.

Step events: steps may be programmed to trigger a track event, modifying any track attribute

MIDI IN recording: note and controller data records onto tracks, polyphonically (in the case of notes).

Undo capability for editing.

Grid scale: basically an intrument-wide scale setting, in addition to the page-wide scale settings.

at 8/06/2006 01:02:00 AM

at 8/06/2006 01:00:00 AM

I like it! : ) Thanks Frédéric.

at 8/05/2006 10:18:00 AM

Anyone know more about the ML-303?

blinkenlights by elektr4 featuring an ML-303 Bassline

CLICK FOR MORE »

at 8/05/2006 10:13:00 AM

Below are videos of the unit performing via YouTube. Title link takes you to the post on sequencer.de with more. The mod itself is from XRom.

The mod itself. More on XRom.

at 8/05/2006 10:11:00 AM

Another from the DIY crowd. Check out that pin matrix in the center. Title link takes you to the post on sequencer.de.

at 8/05/2006 03:42:00 AM

Via Stephen on AH:

"I've always thought the Pro-One's case was flimsy and cheap. Well, of course it was designed to be, but I thought it would be cool if the Pro-One looked more like a Prophet 5. It took 5 iterations, but it looks like my father has come up with something that looks quite cool.

He used the wheel box from my keyboardless Prophet T8 (which he also built new pieces for in black walnut). He used Red Mahogany, though we had originally tried to get a slab of expensive Koa. Anyway, I hope you enjoy how it turned out as much as I do: link"

Absolutely Gorgeous. Thanks Stephen! Title link takes you to more shots.

at 8/05/2006 02:46:00 AM

So was it the Jupiter 6 or the JX3P? I was always under the impression that it was the JX3P, shown at NAMM in 1983, hooked up to the Sequential Circuits Prophet 600. On Dave Smith Instrument's Museum page it states that the JX3P was the synth hooked up to the Prophet 600. "First shipped in December 1982, it was successfully connected to a Roland JX-3P at the January 1983 NAMM show, the first time two MIDI instruments were joined. Look what has happened since!" BTW, as many of you already know, the Prophet 600 is credited as the first synth with MIDI introduced by Dave Smith, the man behind the MIDI spec in 1981. You can read more about MIDI and it's history on wikipedia.

I recently read an article on the Juno 6, 60 and 106 in the July '06 issue of Keyboard Magazine. In it Mr. K of Roland is quoted as saying the Jupiter 6 was the first Roland synth with MIDI and it was the Jupiter 6 shown connected to the Prophet 600 at NAMM.

So I shot an email off to Analog Heaven (AH). Someone there must know. A few interesting replies came in. According to the Keyboard Museum Roland Timeline, the Jupiter 6 came out in 1982 and the JX3P came out in 1983. If this is correct, not only did the Jupiter 6 predate the JX3P, but it would have had to come out in December shortly after the Prophet 600, unless there was an original version without MIDI. If anyone knows, feel free to comment. Someone that joined Roland later that year believes it was the JX3P that came first and was hooked up to the Prophet 600, and one of the employees he worked with claimed to have the JX3P that was shown at NAMM. Finally the shot in this post was sent in. Looking at both synths it is clear that the synth on the right is the Prophet 600 and the one center is the Jupiter 6. The shot is from this Mix Online Article. The caption reads, "Dave Smith (in plaid) demos a Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 controlling a Roland Jupiter-6 at the 1983 NAMM show." So I'm left thinking it was the Jupiter 6, unless of course both were shown at Winter NAMM that year and both were hooked up during the show. And then there was always Summer NAMM.

If anyone out there knows conclusively, please comment.

at 8/05/2006 02:34:00 AM

Title link takes you to shots posted on a new Yahoo! group for Cynthia's Zeroscillator, pronounced "zeeroscillator." Yes you have to join to see the shots. I pulled one for the post. It kind of reminded me of the bat signal. Come to think of it the Zeroscillator kind of reminds me of Batman. Hmm... Not so sure I should be sharing these things...

Update: Ok, just look at them below. They have Batman written all over them. hmm... conspiracy...

at 8/05/2006 02:27:00 AM

flickr by weepingrocksins.

Tom gives you pink panties, I give you a plaid synth skirt. Somehow I think I just won the synth geek award of the century.

at 8/04/2006 10:26:00 AM

Title link takes you there.

Fully voltage controllable random events with independent Stepped and Smooth functions

Computer-generated random source replicates MM5837 noise chip at 16bit

Accepts external sampling voltage and clocks -or- generates it's own random voltage and musical timings

Multifunctional: Smooth/Stepped Random, Noise Source, Slew Limiter, S+H

Update via the man behind Plan B, Peter Grenader, himself:

"The Model 24 Heisenberg Generator is a dual random voltage processor - one side producing smooth (as Ezra Buchla put it - wiggly) random voltage, the other side doing stepped random. It runs off it's own random source, or can be used to process external signals, meaning it can operate as a VC Sample and Hold or Slew Generator. I slipped this one into production when no one was looking, - there was no advance notification. PCBs and faceplates are already on order, most of the parts are already here. Shipping to our dealers will commence in about a month's time.

The M24 uses an Amtel 2051 micro-controller to generate its triggers and internal gate signals (which in some cases are processed into noise in the same manner as the extinct MM5837 noise chip). There are specific reasons why I elected to use a microP for these functions. Details are on the EAR site.

As a further note, shipments of the Model 10 Polyphonic Envelope ($185 retail) and Model 14 Dual Processor ($225 retail) will commence next week.

There are three other products coming in short time. One is long overdue - the four channel stereo mixer/panner. The Model 16 Spectral Mutliplexer is next. The other one has not yet been announced and I'm going to keep it under my belt for a bit longer. All I can mention is it's an Evil Twin.

Evil twin of what will remain a mystery...for now!

peace,

- P"

at 8/04/2006 10:11:00 AM

Title link takes you to Sealed's new Roland U-110 page with info and samples. It sounds a bit like a Korg Wavestation to me.

at 8/04/2006 01:33:00 AM

Title link takes you to The Free Information Society Audio Electronic Circuit Schematics page. Synths are on the list.

via Dave

at 8/04/2006 01:08:00 AM

flickr by analoghell.

Title link takes you to the set.

"Memorymoog, Jupiter 8 and Waldorf Wave"

Update: The shot belongs to the Turnkey flickr set, so I'm guessing that is where it's from. Can anyone confirm? I heard Turnkey had a room filled with vintage gear but I didn't realize it looked this nice. I also heard most of the gear came from The Museum of Synthesizer Technology and Turnkey has indeed sold most of it off: link to a previous post on the Museum and Turnkey.

Update via GRONDO 2001 in the comments:
"This huge collection used to be there at the bottom floor, but it's been gone for the last 3 years. They used to offer some time in this 'lab' when you bought a hardware sampler, otherwise you couldn't access it. When they got rid of it, they didn't say anything, it was just gone one day, and today it's just another show room."

Update via anonymous in the comments:
"On a number of occasions they would shoot interviews there - anyone who remembers the C4 series "The Shape of Things That Hum" would remember Nick Rhodes being interviewed in there from the Fairlight episode... "

at 8/04/2006 12:04:00 AM

For those of you wanting to hear some Buchla. Title link takes to more info including a sample.

"In 1971 Phillip Werren released a 4 Lp box through Simon Fraser University of his early Electronic Work which was recorded at S.F.U., McGill University & Radio Warzawa, Poland. Only 100 copies where ever made. A few years ago I discovered this record and was completly blown away. The Lp has heavy elements of tape collage, Modular Synthisis, voice, and experimental thought. Some of the pieces where conceived by psychedelic and occult influences. Much of the record was done with a Buchla System 100,the first of their modular synthesizers. I tracked down Phil in Toronto where's he's been living a number of years. Phil taught music composition and theory at York University in Toronto from 1977 to 1997,where he headed York's Electronic Music Studio."

via Paul Sop.

at 8/04/2006 12:03:00 AM

shots via this auction.

at 8/04/2006 12:03:00 AM

Title link takes you to a bunch of tiny little synth pictures. via this VSE post. Apologies for this one. I just like tiny little synths.

at 8/04/2006 12:02:00 AM

Title link takes you to 4 tracks of Yamaha DX100 via Shepitology.

at 8/04/2006 12:01:00 AM

If you are on the look out for doepfer.

"hello,

We (Analogue Haven) are having our summer Doepfer sale again. All new Doepfer gear purchased up until midnight on Saturday, August the 12th will be discounted by 10%.

This sale applies to all new gear that Doepfer manufactures: a-100 modules, systems and patch cables, midi controllers, sequencers, oem/diy products etc. Please see our front page "news" section for details: link.

About 98% of Doepfer gear is in-stock and our web carts are updated so we should be able to fill most orders quickly. : ) That includes all 7 types of the new BBD module:picture, and the new Universal Vactrol module: picture.

Also lots of other new gear has been released the past 2 months, some modular and some not. I don't want to cross the line into spamming too much so check our front page for details (most of it is there) or email us at the general account. :)

Thank you,

Shawn Cleary
www.analoguehaven.com"

via AH.

at 8/04/2006 12:00:00 AM

Marion MSR-2

at 8/03/2006 01:53:00 PM

Great example of the Korg Kaoss Pad used for sampling tweaks.
Title link takes you to more videos on Music Thing.

at 8/03/2006 12:57:00 PM

Via Paul Sop:

"Bruce Duncan of Modcan completed a prototype of a CV sampler (vs. audio sampler). MP3's and discussions are in the Modcan Yahoo Group. He hopes to release it before the end of the year. He's been inundated with feature requests, CV delay, granulation, looping, etc... not withstanding, so if you have any specific needs for CV delay control, post to the Modcan Yahoo group so he knows your interest and can plan for it.

link"

Update from Paul Sop:
"Here is a URL to a pic I took from the file area of the group:

http://www.paulsop.com/gear/modcan/cv_recorder.jpg

Here are 2 good mp3's (some examples are not so good):

cv_recorder_chained1.mp3
cv_recorder_Drumloop.mp3

The second one uses low-freq sampling of a drum loop. Bruce's CV sampler is not for audio (he's making one of those too), but it can be used for some really nice crunchy trance like low-freq effects too.

He also has examples using it as an LFO:
cv_recorder_LFO.mp3
cv_recorder_LFO2.mp3

The neat thing is, if you slow down the play back rate, the CV-Sampler becomes a sequencer. You could feed its output into a quantizer, and well, there you go!"

Awesome. Thanks Paul!

at 8/03/2006 12:54:00 PM

Tweak that knob, this one too
Knew that sound, this one's new
Play a chord, E minor
Play some notes, then some more

Go, go, sequencers, go
Let me drift on your flow
Journey starts up the sky
Spread my wings, have to fly

Activate my fingers
Modulate my filters
VCO my hero
And nothing on zero

Night is light with music
Round and round synthetic
Journey starts up the sky
Spread my wings, have to fly

Bravo Frederic. I love synth poems. We need more of them.

at 8/03/2006 12:23:00 PM

Update: I heard back from synthwise. I caught them midflight, so this was somewhat of a misunderstanding. They have added links to my posts and credit. I will remove the comments regarding the site from my posts. My feeds however will remain partial. If you feel strongly about this, feel free to comment.

Original Post:
I have unfortunately discovered that another site is plagiarizing my posts word for word and are not giving me credit or links back to this site. I'm guessing that they are scrubbing my RSS feed along with a bunch of other sites and the whole process is automated. Because of this I will be updating my feed to a partial feed. What does this mean? For people subbed to this site with RSS or blog readers, you will only get a portion of the post. To get the full post you will need to click through to the main site. For people that come directly to the main site, this will have zero impact on you. I have also started adding "This post plagiarized on Synthwise. Find the original post on Matrixsynth" to each of my posts for the time being. Synthwise is the site ripping me and others off. I will not link to them. I set the message to black font so it does not show up on this site, but if you have an RSS reader you will see these messages. Please just ignore them.

BTW, it is unacceptable to copy any of my posts without written permission from me. Putting up Your own post with a courtesy link back to my post and site is fine as it let's your readers know about my site and where you got the topic of your post from. I do it and all the other bloggers do it.

cheers,
matrix

at 8/03/2006 11:45:00 AM

Via AH:

"from LA Weekly:

FRIDAY, August 4

Can't get enough Moog in your life? Today is for you. Downtown's Grand Performances kicks off at noon with Moog Mania, a concert featuring 'Moog magician' Arlan Schierbaum, dream-funk percussionist Marcus Joseph and their Mojo Triage, who bring more varieties of the synthesizer than Eskimos have words for 'snow' Later in the evening, everyone returns from the postconcert Moog study groups for a film on the Moogster himself, Robert Moog. Dress as your favorite member of Yes. California Plaza, 300 S. Grand Ave., downtown; Fri., Aug. 4, noon (concert) & 8 p.m. (film); free. (213) 687-2159."

No title link.

at 8/03/2006 11:17:00 AM

flickr by ZoneNekros.

at 8/03/2006 02:51:00 AM

Title link takes you to a few tracks by The Guts. The track Way To Stop features 100% Moog Memorymoog for synths and Roland V-Synth with vocal designer card for vocoder. Other tracks feature Moog Memorymoog, Roland Vsynth, Akai MPC, Novation Supernova, Korg Polysix, and Oberheim 2 voice.
via First Last
Note on submissions: I only posts tracks that showcase a synth or two. The idea is you get to distinctly hear what the given synth/s sounds like. The focus of the post is on the synth. If you want to post tracks that feature more than two synths in general, please feel free to sign up and post on SYNTHWIRE.

at 8/03/2006 12:10:00 AM

flickr by felixinferious.

I love the color in this shot.

More Moogerfooger after the hop.

at 8/03/2006 12:09:00 AM

Via Ray of Music From Outer Space on the DIY list:

"Hi All

I have come up with some new stuff that you may want to check out..

A sample and hold with some cool features...

A VC-LFO also with some cool features...

My "Cornucopia Of Noise" (multi-noise & random gate generator) circuit is
just around the corner.

Cheers

Ray"

I so need to build a SoundLab.
Hmm... Maybe I should put the blog down for a bit. : )

at 8/03/2006 12:07:00 AM

flickr by devowski.

Looks like this one was inspired by the real thing:

"i am covered with this shit. ive been trying to think of new things to come. so far it has been successful mentally, but physically might be some ass bustin."

Feel better devowski. Nice work though. : )

at 8/03/2006 12:06:00 AM

Matrixsynth by underface (original image)

Matrixsynth by Shepitology

Matrixsynth by Frederic - Being and X-Men fan, I was surprised and happy to see this one. : )

Matrixsynth by Javier

Yamaha DX100

Waldorf Microwave XT

Waldorf Microwave PC Editor

Clavia Nord Modular

Kurzweil K2000S

Ensoniq ESQ-m

BTW, I want give a HUGE THANKS to everyone who took the time to create and submit these. There have been a total of 47 shots so far. I know how busy things can get, so the fact that you took the time out to one, create the patch/name, two, take a shot of it, and three, send it in is really flattering. I thank everyone privately in email, but I just wanted to say THANKS again in public. I said it in my one year anniversary post and I'll say it again, the contributions by the readers of this site really do add to it. Running the site by myself can be overwhelming with a day job and a family to take care of, so stuff like this really makes it worth it.

As for any of you that think these Matrixsynth by... posts are a bit too much, I will start putting up one post a day with all Matrixsynth by... shots. I'm also guessing over time the number that come in will naturally go down, but I do welcome people to feel free to send these in whenever they feel like it. It would be cool to see one come in a month after they stop. Thanks again. matrix

at 8/03/2006 12:05:00 AM

Thought you all might appreciate this one. Before I pass judgment, my cat JD loved chewing the few knobs on the Sequential Circuits Multi-Trak. Guess it helped him come up with some patches.

Title link takes you a few more shots while they are up on electro-music.com.

at 8/03/2006 12:00:00 AM

Thanks to Des and Tom of Music Thing for letting me put up their logos each for a day. Tom's was fun considering how horrible it looked on my site, tiny with a black background. No offense Tom, your logo looks awesome where it belongs, on Music Thing. : ) BTW, Tom originally sent it to me for a post, not the header. I asked him if I could put it up for fun and he agreed.

Des, I was very, very tempted to keep your logo. Nicely done, so thanks for that. I did miss my simple clean little header though. And the wife made me keep it. : ) For whatever reason she's grown fond of it and says it's the way it should be. It also looks good on a T-shirt for some reason. BTW, regarding Ts, I need to order a sample again from cafe press. Their colors on black Ts are supposedly brighter, but they are still in Beta last I heard, so it will still be a bit before I have them available. I tried spreadshirt and the green came out aqua, so that's a nogo as well.