Sketch by Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk

Remember this drawing from this post? Turns out the drawing was actually by Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk for Dirk, not the other way around. Pretty cool. Make sure to check out the previous post for a stitch by Herrn Schneider's daughter with a bald Florian. Funny.

Update via Moogulator in the comments: "Dirk sold Florian the ARP as a SHOP, so it was "an ARP of others", not really Dirks but a Synthesizerstudio Bonn [the name of the synth shop] one.. Hope that makes it clearer.. ;) "

Buchla 200e Night Strafe

Remember the 200e By Night? Title link takes you to a video by Todd. Wow. You have to see and hear this. "Everything but the lead was done in one pass on the 200e, the lead is a JP-8."

Thanks Todd!

YMO Day Tripper Live on YouTube

This one sent my way via Pete. Thanks Pete!

Tangerine Dream's Christopher Franke's Modular

via Nick

"please find in a attachment a picture, which is part of a research I do for the 80's modular rack equipment of Tangerine Dream's Christopher Franke. The most elements about the rack's contents I found in an 1981 article of UK magazine 'Electronics & Music Maker'. Part of it, as you will see in the picture -upper corner, was a compination of two revolutinary drum modules (using EPROM samples, were custom made for Franke) and an sequencer module (the "rhythm robot") This drum amchine can be heard in "Exit" (1981) and mostly in "White eagle"(1982)albums. Would be helpful if readers and viewers could help intentifying the unknown parts of this thing, which is essentially the 1980 hardware equal of "Reason"!
Thank you very much - Nick"

Thank you! If you can help, feel free to post in the comments.

Update: Make sure to check out the comments. Some fascinating stuff coming in.

Ryuichi Sakamoto + SKETCH SHOW - War and Peace (Live 2004) on YouTube

YMO in 2004. The caption reads:
"HUMAN AUDIO SPONGE LIVE
sonarsoundtokyo2004
Yukihiro Takahashi,Haruomi Hosono,Keigo Oyamada and Ryuichi Sakamoto visual: Ryoichi Kurokawa 10th October,2004 at Yebisu Garden Hall,Tokyo"

Via wikipedia: "The principal members were Haruomi Hosono (bass), Yukihiro Takahashi (drums) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (keyboards)."

matrixsynth2 - New Flickr Shot

flickr by cray5656, who gave us this wonderful set.

Funny. : ) Thanks cray5656! Now I just need one of those mirror effects where you see the site within the site, within the site,...

Wonder what Matrixsynth1 was. Hmm....

Update: here's the post where this was taken from.

New Moroco Synth Coming?

via Ken MacBeth

"I am currently prototyping the moroco stereo synthesizer- it is the moroco and more- twice the height in rackspace too…"

Sequencer.de found the the above on his forum. The image to the left is the old Moroco taken from MacBeth Studio Systems.

Title link takes you to the post on sequencer.de.

I'm starting to visualize walls of MacBeth - M5s, Morocos, M3Xs...

Moogmania

Nice shot. Note that's all new Moog - Voyager, Moogerfoogers and control expanders. And a Future Retro Mobius thrown in for good measure. Not sure what that is sitting on top of the speaker on the lower left. It looks like a Roland MC-202 at first glance but it can't be with two rows of keys. Also not sure what sitting in the middle of the right rack beneath the control expanders. If you know feel free to comment.

Shot pulled from this sequencer.de post.

david_kristian-moog - New Flickr Shot

flickr by gentle bakemono

Moog Source

The Bob Moog Foundation Newsletter #1

"On August 21, 2005 my father died. He was a great and gentle man who left his mark on the world forever. During the past year my family and I have discussed many ways in which we could carry on his work and his legacy.

We have decided to establish the Bob Moog Memorial Foundation for Electronic Music, with a few carefully chosen objectives, each tied to his life and work.

Today, we invite you to join us. Please visit our new website www.moogfoundation.org

Sincerely,

Michelle Moog-Koussa
Director, The Bob Moog Foundation

Our Goals

The Foundation has set forth the following as its initial objectives:

Endowed Scholarships
The Bob Moog Memorial Museum
Outreach Programs for Disadvantaged Students
Special Events for Electronic Music
Read more...

MoogCasts | Documentary Podcast

We're developing a documentary series that features artists playing Moog Music instruments.

This first episode features Perpetual Groove, a rock n' roll band, with every member playing at least one Moog.

What's a podcast? That's on the site, too.

Listen now...

Supporting the Foundation

We have vision. We have determination. To carry out our intentions to honor Bob’s legacy, we need money.

Please consider making a contribution to our Foundation. You may choose to give now, or make a pledge to give over time. Every contribution counts.

We also need you to spread the word--forward this email to friends, colleagues, and anyone interested in the work and legacy of Dr. Bob Moog.

Support the Foundation..."

MOS-LAB Modular on YouTube

Remember the MOS-LAB Moog Modular Clone?
Here's a video sent my way via Yves of Yusynth. Audio begins at :38. "My good friend Seb Mooumon who DIYed a clone of a Moog modular has just put a demo video on youtube of its system with the COTK sequencers." MOS-LAB

cray5656's Flickr Set

Sent my way via cray5656. Title link takes you there. These are some nice shots.

YMO Live on YouTube

YMO Technopolis Live on YouTube


YMO - 1000 Knives (Live) via hardy2006us.


Two Live YMO videos. I previously posted Technopolis and Rydeen here. I managed to upload Technopolis to YouTube, but for Rydeen I imediately got the vilation of terms message after upload. Guessing it's on a blacklist? Anyway, here's Technopolis and 1000 Knives. I have one more coming sent my way via Pete; I'm waiting for his permission to put it up on YouTube. As soon as I do, I'll put up a post.

Maestro Ring Modulator - New Flickr Shot

I missed this one when putting up this post - it comes from the same flickr set by ruk777. I just saw it on Sendling. The caption reads:
"to my knowledge, this is the first ring Modulator ever created. It was part of the 'Analog synthesizer' module that Bob Moog, Tom Oberheim and the folks at ARP worked on in the 70s. That is basically where all the early Maestro "pedals" came from. This piece is super rare,and though it is missing its foot pedal, it would command a lot of dough on Ebay"

If you know the truth behind this either way, feel free to comment.

Via Pinkus in the comments: "this is true. late moog worked for maestro...making the big mtal tank looking pedals with the contols on the side (phaser, distortion filter...ect)"

Via Tommy Dog in the comments: "Tom Oberheim was building these during the late 60's, he had done the first Phaser pedal for Maestro which was owned by Gibson / Norlin.

Norlin bought Moog later in the 70's and there were some product devolopment shared by Moog and Maestro (who farmed out many pedal designs to others)."

Via David in the comments:
"I doubt it's the first ring modulator. Harald Bode developed a ring modulator for Moog (the Bode Ring Modulator Model 6401 and Bode Dual Ring Modulator Model 6402) in 1963. Check out the Bode page on Obsolete.com.

According to the Moog Archives there's a Bode Dual about 1000' from me right now."

Update via dmxkrew: "If you're interested in those early maestro pedals, oberheim effect pedals etc, I read this interesting book by tom hughes: link"

SYSTEM SYNTHESE on YouTube

via Frederic. YouTube by dftdsr.

synthi aks in action on YouTube

Update: Looks like I put this up in may already. My first double post. Oh well...
Not bad with 3585 posts to date.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


YouTube via cores303

Kraftwerk Drawing and Stitch

Moogulator of sequencer.de sent me the following drawing by Florian Schneirder of Kraftwerk. Florian drew it for Dirk as a thank you gesture for selling Florian his ARP Odyssey. Title link takes you to the post on sequencer.de which also includes a Kraftwerk stitch by Herrn Schneider's daughter. Cool stuff.

Update, Moogulator gave me the ok to post the stitch shot as well, so here it is. Thanks Moogulator!


Update via Moogulator in the comments:

"ps: note, that on that stitch florian has no hair, so his daugther knows her father ;)"

Too funny.

Georg Mahr

Title link takes you to Georg Mahr's website, home to a number of gear shots and general synth info.

via Yves.

Update via sendling in the comments:

"see also here ;-)

MSQ51 Sequencer by Georg Mahr"

Doepfer modular_cat_6 - New Flickr Shot

flickr by Syntax Terror. Title link takes you to one more.

Korg Trident Demo

Title link takes you to the post on sequencer.de.

vacuum tubes! - New Flickr Shot

flickr by andrewyang. Trip. I didn't know these were Electro Harmonix and made in Russia.

Update via zerozeroisland in the comments:
"Yes, it's pretty odd. E-H founder Mike Matthews bought a Russian vacuum tube factory back in the 90's, i assume so he could insure a steady supply of tubes for his products.

But he's been having a hell of a time holding on to it. apparently, corrupt Russian businessmen and officials have been trying to take over his factory. it's a pretty fascinating story; you can read more about it here & here "

C64, Monome and MAX/MSP

via C64Music!

Jean Jacques Perrey and Dana Countryman Live - Seattle

Remember this post? Well, I managed to make it to the kick off show in Seattle tonight, or rather last night. It was a very FUN show. Filled with quirky bits of music and musings by Jean-Jacques Perrey. Definitely recommend seeing them if you get a chance. Title link takes you to a ton of shots and some short video/audio clips I took with my old digital camera. Apologies for the poor quality.

One of the coolest things about the show was Jean-Jacques' antics during the performances, from pretending to ride a horse to air guitar. Classic, funny stuff. He said his goal was to make others happy and to bring a smile to our faces - to have FUN. I'd say he more than succeeded. What was also fascinating was the stories he'd tell before each piece. I don't want to ruin it for anyone that might make the upcoming shows, so let's just say there was a fascinating story about Salvadore Dali and one about Disneyland. As for gear, Jean played the Ondioline (that brown box in front of him), what looked like a Moog dual manual organ, a couple of synths and a few Moogerfoogers. Dana primarily played a Yamaha DX7 and every now and then he broke out with the Synthesizers.com modular. Oh, and his little elephant mascot joined the show as well. : )

You can read more about Jean Jacques Perrey here, and Dana Countryman here.

P.S. I also had the pleasure of meeting and sharing a table with Blake of Hotels. They use a Casio CZ-3000 and JP8000 in their set up. I just checked out their site and MySpace page. Good stuff.

Update:
OK - SPOILER (do not read this if you are going to the show and want the effect of hearing this story for the first time - this is the story about Salvidore Dali):
Jean talked about how Salvadore Dali asked him what he was working on next. Jean said he was working on 'Flight of the Bumble Bee.' Dali said, hmm.. that's not that special. Jean said, well I'm doing it with live bees! Dali said, oh I must hear this. Jean recorded the buzz of live bees and other bugs. He then sliced the tapes and mapped it to the full range of a keyboard. It took him 46 hours to set this up. He then played it for Dali. Dali was blown away and said he must play it for him again. He said Dali said Mignificent! It was a fascinating intimate story and I really am not doing it justice. You just picture them sitting together and Jean playing this for Dali. Amazing. You can read more on the tape process in this excerpt of his biography.

Oberheim Voltage Controlled Filter - New Flickr Shot

flickr by ruk777. Trip. Never saw one of these before.

Caption for the archives:
"This was my very first 'pedal' back in 1986. Again, this was one piece of the analog synthesizers Oberheim and others were inventing back in the '70s. There are two effects in this box. One is a very cool sounding envelope filter. VERY touch sensative. It also has a "random arppegiator", or "sample filter hold". This circuit was stolen by Z-Vex for his "Ooh-Wah" and "Seek-Wah" pedals. It basically takes the note and throws it around to different tones, if that makes sense. You can control the speed."

MBSEQ V3 Session 3 on YouTube

via sequencer.de

Synth - New Flickr Shot

flickr by ChristianU.

Kraftwerk Live on "Chorus" French TV Show Oct 1st 1978

Title link takes you to more. via Frederic. Yeah, I think Kraftwerk beat Numan on the robot thing.

electronic devices digital interface (EdDi) on YouTube

Glitch Station - 2 * 25 dtype inputs
midi in - midi thru
16 midi to switch interface
light organ interface - 3 photo cell link
3 momentary push switches
3 hold switches
5 variable resistors
eddi is used to interface electronic devices such as kids toys - cheap keyboards - video signals - mechanical devices - anything that switches

shown linked to casio sk1

via Frederic. Title link takes you to more.

Buchla 200e By Night

Recently posted by Todd in the Buchla 200e group.

Pinky on YouTube

Remember Pinky? Here's a video sent my way via Frederic.

Moog Drum

No title link. Just a shot pulled from this auction. It appears to have been pulled from Analog Hell.

Update via analoghell in the comments: "yep, i have some stuff for auction see here."

Tangerine Dream Live on Barock 3 in 1976 on YouTube

via Frederic

Update via the comments:
REgardging the synth in the opening shot above the mellotron.
"The synth is a PPG monosynth - a 1002 or 1020 I think. There was a post on this blog about it a few months ago.

Lots more vintage TD on Youtube, it all seems to be from the same German TV program. Just search for 'Tangerine Dream Signale'."

TR-808 MIDI Interface

Title link takes you there.

"The TR-808 MIDI retrofit enables your Roland TR-808 to be synchronized with other MIDI devices and work like polyphonic velocity sensitive MIDI drum expander. More over all original features of the TR-808 are not changed.

Features:

-Sequencer of TR-808 can be synchronized by internal tempo generator or by MIDI clock.
-Start / Stop (transport functions) can be controlled by panel button or by "Start", "Stop" and "Continue" MIDI transport commands or both ways simultaneously.
-Tone generators of TR-808 can be triggered by internal sequencer, by MIDI notes or both ways simultaneously.
-Response of tone generators to "Velocity" of Note-On MIDI commands is fully dynamic.
-79 MIDI notes (12 to 90) are acceptable. It can be assigned to each of them independently:
- any of TR-808 tone generator (or none generator)
- basic signal level and dynamic range (resolution up to 126 steps) of assigned tone generator
- CM/GM/GS/XG drum map is factory predefined.
- Number of MIDI channel for MIDI commands receiving is programmable by user, channel 10 is factory predefined.
- MIDI interface can be turned off, TR-808 then works exactly as without installed interface.
- Easy and non-destructive installation into TR-808.

MC-202 - New Flickr Shots

flickr by Jyoti Mishra. Click here for more shots of the Roland MC-202.

MFOS VCO (self built) - New Flickr Shot

flickr by janvanvolt. Title link takes you to one more shot of the inside.

Pong on the MPC1000

Nice. Title link takes you to the post on Music Thing.

Via the forum this was found on:
"Rumors are now that Wakai is negotiating with Nintendo to get The Legend Of Zelda (NES version) on the mpc2500 to boost sales. Nothing official as usual."

M3X - New Flickr Shots

flickr GeschnittenBrot. Title link takes you to more shots of the MacBeth M3X.

Synthi VCS3 Sample

Title link takes you to a sample of the Synthi VCS3 by REwire on the VSE fourm. Details saved here for when the thread goes into limbo:

"My Synthi VCS3 has been hard to play in tune since I got it but recently I did an overhaul on cleaning, lubing and internal pot adjusting it and wow, suddenly it all came togther in tune - all 3 oscillators holding pitch together.

Unlike my "Bit By Bit" tune with a modular patch that allowed 5 oscs to be panned separately, these three are crammed together into the same filter and mono output. The effect is a war of oscs, beating against each other for supremacy.

This is a one minute solo piece with first one osc, then two, then three all playing the same thing: 840K mp3

When VA's can do this I'll submit."

mp3 saved here for posterity.

Korg DW8000 in Original Box

Not the best shot in the world, and not exacty super spectacular, but check it out. Someone is selling a Korg DW8000 in it's original box. That styrofoam sure stays white. : )

Interview with Jean Jacques Perrey

Is that a sammich in his hand? Click here for more shots and links to the interview (links are on the left when you get there). Also, don't forget his first US tour; it starts this Sunday, that's tomorrow, in Seattle.

via Frederic

James Tenney RIP

"In American Music in the Twentieth Century, composer and music critic Kyle Gann wrote, .When John Cage, who studied with Schoenberg, was asked in 1989 whom he would study with if he were young today, he replied, 'James Tenney.''

A performer as well as a composer and theorist, Tenney was co-founder and conductor of the Tone Roads Chamber Ensemble in New York City (1963-70). He was a pioneer in the field of electronic and computer music, working with Max Mathews and others at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in the early 1960s to develop programs for computer sound-generation and composition. He has written works for a variety of media, both instrumental and electronic, many of them using alternative tuning systems.

Tenney is the author of articles on musical acoustics"

Title link takes you to James Tenney's bio. Via Peter Grenader on AH:
"I've just received word that an American music maverick and electronic music
poineer James Tenney has passed after a strident six month long battle with
cancer. He will be missed for his extraordinary contribution to 20th century
music, a career that spanned over over 50 years, and as one of the most
genuine and generous people in the field. A brief biography of Tenney can
be found at: link"

Midge Ure Talks MOOG on YouTube

Midge Ure of Ultravox. Love the accent and how he pronounces Moog. He talks about how they still used old synths at the time and at about 15 years old the Mini is somewhat of an antique. He states that you can't get synths like this anymore. Little did he know the Voyager would be coming. Pretty cool. The Minimoog provided the bass for Vienna. via Frederic. YouTube via playthatbeat.

Dave Wright Speak n' Math Vactrol Demo on YouTube

via Frederic. YouTube by DrRek.

modulation analog and modern on YouTube

Update: if the video below does not work, go here.



via Frederic. YouTube via mikbj.

Modular Synthersizer Attacks on YouTube

Embedding is disabled on this one, so you'll have to click through to get to the video.

via Frederic

Chrome by Feraillus

Remember this Elektron Monomachine track? Title link takes you to the full EP available for download (track links on the top right when you get there). Great showcase of the Monomachine and great tracks in general.

Behind MiniMusic's BeatPad

I absolutely love MiniMusic's BeatPad. You can see some of my previous posts on BeatPad here. Here's a post of BeatPad driving a Moog Voyager and Roland TR-909.

Simon Gatrall sent the following to AH. It's great to know where the design came from.

"I based the analog line portion on the EML 400, and the drum portion on an X0X style machine. I designed Beatpad and Minimusic did the coding/support/etc.

I have a prototype of the "analog" portion of the sequencer built in Max, but it doesn't have the same pattern storage tools or the start point changing.

Some day I'd like to reproduce or expand on the concept for a Mac based version.

I also ran a company called Swivel Systems which developed a General MIDI add on for earlier Palms, but I have to say that the concept of Beatpad was what got me started with the whole thing."

Cheers to Simon and MiniMusic for creating such a cool piece of software. Now we just need a Mac and PC version for the tablet. Title link takes you to MiniMusic.

Moogerfooger1 - New Flickr Shot

flickr by GeschnittenBrot.

M-Audio Unniversity

"Welcome to M-Audio University. M-Audio University offers free online classes and tutorials that help you get the most out of your M-Audio gear. Learn software and studio tips and tricks from the experts. Tuition is free with a simple registration. M-Audio University is pleased to present the following classes and tutorials at this time[Ableton Live, General Audio and Recording, Pro Tools M-Powered 7]. New materials are being added continually, so be sure to check back often."

Pretty cool. Title link takes you there.

Yamaha 4-Op Factory Patches

Title link takes you to the post on Failed Muso.