Yamaha MM6 Mini Mo

As in mini Motif of course. Reminds me of the Yamaha CS2X.







Technical specifications
Key sounds from the Motif line of synthesizers
Real Time Knobs for controlling filter and EG
Built-in grooves
Performance Mode
Cubase LE software included

Specs and image via gearjunkies.

Ctenophonic ~ This Bend - Casio SK-1 Track

Title link takes you to Ctenophonic ~ This Bend where you'll find a good gritty Casio SK-1 track. I'm guessing the butter helps it go down.

DJ Jaz in the Studio

flickr by Sander van Zoest.
So that's why Waldorf went with the big red knob.

Title link takes you to more. Some good knob rock climbing shots for the squirmish. ; )

Kymaworks - Richard Lainhart

"These recordings are taken from a live radio performance on April 7 2006 at WDFH in Ossining, NY, hosted by Treavor Hastings. On the different versions of "Cranes Fly West," I play electric lap steel guitar processed by Kyma. On "One Word" I play the Kyma with MIDI faders. "The Tiger's Dream" is for Haken Audio Continuum and Kyma."

Title link takes you there. Be sure to track back to the root for more including a section on Caroline Meyers.

Previous Kyma posts

Sequential Circuits Prophet 600

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction. Do check out the shots of this one. I've never seen one this clean before.

Details:
# Includes power cord and CD with manuals, schematics, sysex patches, tape dumps and more
# Serial Number 842
# Revision 6.0.8 ROM (upgraded to latest)
# First MIDI synthesizer
# All switches, potentiometers and key contacts meticulously cleaned
# Switches and pots work with ease and feel like new
# Rubber key contacts fully cleaned, deoxided and rubber conditioned
# Newly made wood sides by SYNTHWOOD.COM
# New stainless steel screws installed
# The Buy It Now price is $1000, but I will review ALL offers.
# Shipping in the USA is $35, airmail to Europe is $110

Synthwood Minimoog Case

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Synthwood

Update via the comments: "Just a note that this is actually our 'template'. We've currently got a maple and a black walnut that are being made and once those are finished the pictures will look much better."

Watch me play Minimoog with my Wiener

YouTube via 123synthland.

M-Audio MIDI Controller?

"Dit zou een "midi" controller zijn voor het programma Torq van M-audio maar je zal er ook programma's als ableton mee kunnen aansturen."

Can anyone translate this or know what this is? I see MIDI controller, Torq, M-audio, and Ableton. I did a quick search on Torg and M-Audio and I get this. I didn't seen anything on the m-audio product page that looks exactly like this, but I've been known to miss the obvious in the past.

Whatever it is, I like the lights. Via synthforum.nl.

Update: It's M-Audio. It was also up on Music Thing. I'm still catching up for the day folks... Also via Synthbaron in the comments: "Engrish to American English translation:

"This is a MIDI controller for the Torq program from M-audio. It can also be used with Ableton Live"

"Nothing has been announced besides this picture. It looks like it will be indroduced in January at NAMM""

Vintage Planet

Title link takes you to Vintage Planet, "your last resort for parts, manuals, books, sounds and more..." It's also home to synthforum.nl.

Hmm... I recognize this image. : )

The Packrat

Solorb's Pro-One Page

Title link takes you to Solorb's Sequential Circuits Pro One page with images and mods. I knew about the mushrooms and Buddha but not the "Tibetan writing for the mantra: Om Mani Padme Hum" on the PCB. Pretty cool.

Acidlab Bombass

YouTube via electronicvibes

"Improvisation for showing to you Bombass Acidlab played by my Future Retro Mobius. No samples only synthesis, with Monomachine, Machinedrum, Raveolution309 and Bombass"

Previous Bombass posts
Previous Future Retro Mobius posts
Previous Monomachine posts
Previous Machinedrum posts
Previous Rave-o-lution posts

Mobius sequencer demo

YouTube via electronicvibes.

Previous Bombass posts
Previous Future Retro Mobius posts

Clear DSI Modwheels for your Pro One

If you remember this post, Stephen of Synthwood mentioned that Dave Smith would be providing clear Modwheel and case enclosures for Synthwood to use in their custom Pro One wood cases. Well, it looks like they are in! Here's a link to one up for auction.

Previous Synthwood posts

midnight modular

YouTube via Cray56.

Via ross healy:
"Livewire Vulcan and Dual Cyclo, Plan B Complex VCO, Dual Processor,Heisen Gen, Doepfer Spring Reverb, Doepfer Extreme Filter, Serge Mixer, Serge TKB"

Klaus Schulze

YouTube via boty81. Sent my way via Yves Usson of yusynth.

Clavia ddrum Racks

Title link takes you to a few shots sent my way via Eric Frampton. You can read more on the ddrum and other earlier products here.

NUSofting

Title link takes you to NUSofting, home to a number of soft synths including some a bit more esoteric like HarpTime, a Harp simulator, and Peti, a harmonium / accordion simulator. There's also your bread and butter synths, effects and more.

microkorg pcb macro shot

flickr by amatecha

TAMA DS200

No title link, just this one shot via this auction.

I haven't seen one of these before. According to the auction, this is a "2 channel oscillator DS 200 Analog Drum Synth." If you know more feel free to comment.

Previous TAMA posts

Update via the comments:
"I own one. It has 2 oscillators, which can be triggered by an audio signal via the front jacks (there are no jacks of any kind on the back). The unit is supposed to replicate a kick drum, and it comes reasonably close, in a 1970's washed out fashion. It does not kick hard, but it does have a ridiculously long decay setting. It also makes those disco bloops and bleeps you've heard so much of. Where this thing really shines though, is in making noise. It has a long 'sweep' knob, coupled with a 'tone' and 'decay' knob that can make a sound go from growl to scream in a very guttural way. If your familiar with Wolf Eyes, they use it on just about every track."

Roland System 100m-191-J

No title link. Just this one shot via this auction.

I haven't heard the System 100m referred to as the 100m-191-J. Anyone know what the 191-J is?

Note this is another item from the Stephen St. Croix liquidation.

Other items here.

Update via the comments: "well, took a 1981 roland catalog and it seems they only mention the 191J (as 5 modules rack, the 190 being the 3 modules ...)"

Oberheim OB-SX

Click here for some pics via this auction.

Note this has the blue pinstripes. There was an earlier version with gray like the OB-X.

I've heard both that you can and cannot swap OB-SX boards with the OB-Xa. If you know, feel free to comment. The OB-SX was basically a preset OB-Xa with minor editing capabilities. Going left to right you have: Volume (knob), Auto Tune (button), Hold (button), Chord (button), Unison (button), Portamento (knob), LFO Rate (knob), OSC 2 Detune (knob), Filter Frequency (knob), Amp/Filter Attack (knob), Filter Decay (knob), Amplifier Release (knob), Pitch Bend/Mod Lever: OSC 2 Only (Switch), Narrow/Broad (Switch), Up/Down Octave (switch).

Waldorf Microwave XT

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Seiko DS-250 Additive Synth

Remember Dave's Seiko DS-250? Looks like there is one up for this auction.

No title link. Just the two shots. If you are considering picking this up, do check out Dave's DS-250 page. I'm using the term "Synth" lightly.

That's a Yamaha DD55 in the background.

Oberheim OB-Xa

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

MOOG Sonic Six

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Details:
"This is a very rare Moog Sonic Six synthesizer. It's the only one I've ever seen thats completely functional (even the speaker) and also has all it's knobs, slider caps and switch covers. I also have a copy of the service manual incase you would ever need it. This is one of the later models that have the Moog filter. Also has an audio input so that you can run things through that great filter. Duophonic synth. Two LFO's (which can be combined), Two Oscillators, Ring Modulator, White and Pink noise, Contour generator (with bypass) and a mixer section. I accept paypal and shipping will be $40. Feel free to ask any questions! Pretty good cosmetic shape too considering it's 33 years old!

Two LFO's (Syncable or individual), Two Oscillators, Ring Modulator (with the ability to use external audio as one of the carriers), White and Pink Noise, Envelope Bypass for drones, built in speaker, portamento, Duo-phonic, The ability to do other keyboard scaling... Can sound very Minimoog like as well.

From the web [if anyone knows where this is from let me know and I'll update the post]:

The Sonic Six is an old, simple, and rather interesting machine. It's an outgrowth of Moog's expansion in the early seventies, when it took over a smaller company called Musonics, which made a synth called the Sonic V. Moog took the Sonic V design, updated it with more Moog-like features and released it as the attache-case-mounted Sonic VI.

It is an early duophonic portable synthesizer. It has some modulation capabilities not found in other small Moog models, and the sound...due to the odd filter design...actually has more in common with something like the Oberheim SEM modules* (That is true of the early Sonic Six's, before Moog put in the classic Moog filter into the sonic 6. This one has the classic Moog filter). However, rather simple VCA envelope and VCF filter sections make this an easy synth for any user.

Not commonly seen, they were actually rather durable devices and used ones generally (if proper care was taken of them) are found in good working order. It was designed for home use so it is light and portable and has a built in amplifier and speaker. It's a budget Moog synth that is probably more obscure than useful these days. But it has been used by Freddy Fresh, Stereolab and Spectrum/EAR."

Sequential Circuits Pro One x 4

Dayamn... This one is up for auction. in Germany.

via sequencer.de

Korg Triton Extreme Piano

YouTube via Proximasolaris. Via Music Thing.

Roland TR-808

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.


Another item from the Stephen St. Croix liquidation.

Other items here.

Orban Stereo Synthesizer Model 245 E

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction. There aren't any details on the synth's capabilities in the auction. If you know more feel free to comment. I'll surf the web after I'm caught up with my posts.

Another item from the Stephen St. Croix liquidation.

Other items here.

Update via the comments:
"patent
I have one, it's pretty cool, just Simple phase notching. Like the stereo spread plug that comes with logic"


Also I found the following info off of an old auction after searching:
"Here's a very well cared for Orban Stereo Synthesizer model 245 E. Takes a line-level mono input and synthesizes a stereo output.

Orbans are/were known for great sound quality and build quality. This one is from a studio that went all digital. The studio's loss is your gain! Nice analog 'warmth' to it. Well cared for in a rack it's entire life. Works flawlessly. Controls include:

Stereo / Mono switch
Dimension Low
Dimension High
Seperation
Gain"

Also found a current auction. for this advert:

Oberheim Mini Sequencer

No title link. Just the shot via this auction.

Another item from the Stephen St. Croix liquidation.

Other items here

Oberheim Synth Amp

Trip, never saw one of these before. Love the OB-1 styple knobs. Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction. This is part of the Stephen St. Croix liquidation. You can see the other items here. More posts coming up. I'll only be grabbing the synth related stuff for posterity so be sure to check the rest out as well.

Some details
"This Auction is for one Oberheim Studio amplifier. It was owned and maintained by the late Stephen St. Croix. This man took the very best care, if not better care, of every thing he touched, and for the most part is in great shape, having been used. www.stephenstcroixgear.com for more insight on Stephen St. Croix IMPORTANT NOTE TO BUYERS! I am selling these items for the estate of the late Stephen St. Croix, who had a huge amount of musical and studio gear. All of it will be listed for sale on eBay. Please check back every week for additional listings of approximately 12 items per week."

The Hellers - Creative Freakout

Found this one on the always awesome Retro Thing. Title link takes you to wfmu.org. When you get there, do a find for "Hellers" and you will get to the album. There is an mp3 icon on the top right where you can download the retro show.

Do check out Retro Thing for more "Free Retro Music Every Day in 2007!"

Blue Cat Audio Remote Control

Virtual Knob Box

"Blue Cat's Remote Control is a set of plug-ins which let you control and monitor in real time several MIDI controllable plug-ins or devices from a single customizable user interface: the GUI of your favorite VST or DirectX plug-in does not satisfy you? Your favorite hardware device is too complicated to control? Your project contains hundreds of plug-ins and you would like to control them all from a single user interface? This product was designed for you!

The package includes 3 plug-ins: Remote Control 16, 32 and 64, which have the ability to manage up to 16, 32 or 64 parameters. You can assign a MIDI channel and CC number to each controller, customize its response curve. You can as well choose a skin that suits your needs for every instance of the remote control (several skins are included in the package, see the Screenshots), or create your own (see the Skins section): this is the best way to create your own user interface to control your entire Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) the way you have chosen."

Title link takes you there.

5 MOOGs and a Wannabe

No title link. Eric Frampton sent this shot in along with the title.

That's one hell of a Wannabe. : )

Scrotum Smasher

Metasonix TM-7 Ultra Distortion Scrotum Smasher












Previous Metasonix posts

Wiard Borg Filter 300

via this auction.

Details (note the misprint):

"One thing that makes this one real cool is it is miss marked "GR-342" it is SUPPOSED to say GR-352. Grant said it was one of the first few built. Taken from Wiard website: The newest module in the Wiard system is the Borg Filter . The Borg uses a completly new filter design using “Vactrol”-based electronics. There are two seperate filters in this module -- each implemented as a 2-pole multi-mode. They can be linked as a 4-pole, or used as two independent filters. The Vactrol circuitry provides a certain amount of slew, giving the filter a very woody and warm tone. The Borg also contains two LFOs (Low Frequency Oscillators). Low frequency might be a misnomer, since the oscillators will track to a 15 Khz audio rate. These two oscillators can be used for filter modulation, or for clocking of a Sequantizer, vibrato on a Classic VCO and wave sequencing of a Waveform City. This is another example of the excellent design work done by Grant and the Wiard team. Where did the Borg name come from? + Buchla Model 292 Low-pass Gate Korg MS-20 High and Low-Pass Filters The Borg Filter module contains: Two seperate Borg filter (Controls - Freq, Peak, Type, Mod) Two low frequency oscillators (Controls - Speed) A jack multiple"

via diablo guapo. Previous Wiard posts

Yamaha CS01

One day I will find one of these at a garage/tag sale...

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Check out this description:
"VINTAGE YAMAHA CS-01 CS01 ANALOG SYSNTHESIZER SYNTH .POWER UP BUT SELLING AS/IS I DONT KNOW HOW TO USE IT . WHEN I PLAY A KEY IT JUST KEEP BUZZING I DONT KNOW WHY .PLEASE LOOK AT PIC FOR MORE INFO."

Someone is about to either get really lucky or really disappointed. It reminds me of a Sequential Circuits I picked up from the Local Guitar Center a few years back for $125 because of a stuck note. I opened it up, bent the j-wire back into position and was good to go. They said their tech couldn't figure it out. : )

Previous CS01 posts

Yamaha TX 816

Another you don't see too often. A Yamaha TX816 full loaded. That's eight DX7s in a rack.

No title link. Just the two shots pulled via this auction.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Roland TR-606

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Siel DK 600

Note: links to listings are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
This little beasty needs a bath. I don't see these come up often. Check out the non standard pedal connectors. Anyone know more about them? Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Update via kdog in the comments:
"I owned one of these back in 1985. 2 DCO's and VCF's..Stays in tune well. Never tried connecting to the 5 Pin Din sockets for the VCA and VCF. It's the same board as the Sequential Circuits Velocity 6.. Watch out though if the battery leaks... it will eat tracks on the processor board..."

You can find more info on the DK 600 including the SCI Velocity 6 on the Siel Synthesizers Website. The Velocity 6 is in the DK 600 section.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Whitney Houston Unloads

Title link takes you to the auction.

Via Music Thing.

Geartek Corporation Wiggwaffe

More circuit bendy stuff. Title link takes you to more. Warning: naked woman if you back track to the root of the site.

another via sendling.

Man From Uranus at Interzone part three

Jen SX1000 and theremin.

YouTube via manfromuranus. Via sendling. Title link takes you to the rest on sendling.

ITOX Expanding Dragon PCI Host

Need a host for that Korg OASYS PCI card? Title link takes you there.

"Enter the >>ITOX Expanding Dragon, a 1U rackmount PC with full-length PCI slots, available until recently on eBay for $100 a pop. The boxes apparently work fine as OasysPCI hosts (under Windows 98SE, naturally); the only problem with them is that, being designed as servers, they have multiple noisy fans. Other folks on the OasysPCI list (notably Scott Harris) have made progress with alternative power supplies and utilities to control fan speed."

New Zebra 2 Filter Module Sample

Title link takes you to a sample of a new Zebra 2 Filter module posted by creator Urs Heckmann on this BigBlueLounge thread. I decided to go with the R2 image in the thread as there are no screens yet, and the reference below.

Some notes via Urs in the thread:
"Last year I had coincidentally discovered a way to create a filter with a really good sounding self-oscillation when a new scientific paper on Moog filter simulation came up. Latter was a great source of information, but it would still not work like I wanted, especially in terms of cpu hunger and tuning.

So I spent the holidays on getting a Moog Little Phatty and tweaking the shit out of the new filter (dubbed XMF for Croos Modulation Filter). Yesterday it came to the point where

- cpu usage is moderate (2-3% for stereo operation on an 1.83 GHz MBP @44.1 kHz)
- self-oscillation (with no input) is in almost perfect tune and nearly constant level from 50Hz to 14+kHz
- any trick used in Littly Phatty presets would work on the XMF as well
- parameter ranges exceed that of the LP
- bandpass mode works (I gave up on highpass for now)

It's not a perfect emulation of the Moog ladder filter though. But it has all of the properties of an anlogue filter, starting from the juicyness up to the self oscillation that does *not* lock into the spectrum of the incoming signal. Latter is especially interesting. There is a range of resonance where the self oscillation would "wobble" between the actual filter frequency and the closest frequency in the spectrum of the input signal. I havn't heard this in digital filters so far but it's exactly how the Moog does it.

The R2-D2 solo at the end btw. is just the filter with full resonance and a little overload. ModWheel controls filter fm by an oscillator while PitchWheel controls cutoff over several octaves.

The first solo sound (thin, voicy) features filter fm with an oscillator tuned 4 octaves up. Sounds exactly like the LP, with the difference that it's stable & in tune over the whole keyboard range.

The ultra phat guitarish solo sound is not based on hard synced oscillators, it just plain detuned sawtooths run through the bandpass mode with lots of overload.

The pad sound is a couple of detuned sawtooth/pwm oscs run through the bandpass. An lfo modulates the frequency of the bandpass in opposite polarity for right/left side which creates the panning effect.

I think it's almost ready for release, but the SSE code has yet to be rewritten in AltiVec for G4/G5 (no big deal). I'm afraid though that it will probably not work on a G3, or it would consume close to 20% on a G3 when operating mono instead of stereo... and it's gotta be fine tuned & tested for samplerates other than 44.1 kHz...

Later,

Wink Urs"

Previous posts on Zebra 2

Update via Bee Jay in the comments:
Pic for you if you want: [link]



"This is one of the phattest filters I've heard since impOscar - and the bandpass mode is also superb."

Kawai K3m Filter Bank Mod

Title link takes you to more info, shots and instructions.

"Most of my synthesizers are boring DSP-based digital stuff that cannot be easily tampered with. However, one piece in my setup is at least partly analogue: the Kawai K3m. It has 6 voices, each with a dual DCO, a VCF and a VCA. It's rather obvious what part of the synthesizer is plain boring and what could actually be fun to abuse.

Since the K3m is controlled by a microprocessor (which, by definition, therefore is rather boring to mess around with) I saw no point in trying to make the K3m into a 6-channel LP-filterbank (since that would mean having to alter the software), but instead decided to turn it into a 1-channel 6-peak LP-filterbank."

This one via synth ollie, who's friend martin has done this mod.

cr8000 modification

flickr by rrooyyccee

Title link takes you to more including some details.

JoMoX MBase 01 on top.

EMT 250 and 251 Digital Reverb

Two shots pulled via this PSW Recording Forum thread. Title link takes you to one more.

Via David Kulka on the thread:
"Maybe I missed it, but has no one mentioned the EMT 250 or 251 on this thread??? Most old timers will remember these but for you young lads, this was one of the first digital reverbs. As you might imagine, the 250 caused quite a stir when introduced in 1976 for a mere $20,000. Plus freight.

A while back we had three of these in the shop -- an obvious photo opportunity -- so Greg took some high res digital shots. The unit on the left is the original 250, the two on the right are 251's. Forum member J.J. ended up buying the one with the big wheels.

There's an article on my website with much more info about these, for anyone who's interested.

Maybe we should do an other worldly-gear calendar? No rude comments boys, this is my WIFE! [Cute comment and image]

Lastly, here's some of the the insides of one -- I think this was the 250. EMT scraped the identification off of all the important IC's so the designs couldn't be copied, which makes servicing them a lot of fun. I finally got a set of the original 250 blueprints from Gotham so I know the secrets of that one now, but I'm still looking for the top-secret info on the 251.

Barry Blesser (past AES president and former Lexicon engineer) was part of the original design team. Here's an archived AES recording in which Barry makes some prescient comments about the industry and talks a little about the EMT project..."

ZO Wins EM 2007 Editors Choice

Looks like the Cyndustries Zero Oscillator picked up an EM 2007 Editors Choice.

Congrats Cynthia!

Prvious posts:
Cynthia
Cyndustries

MOOG Memorymoog

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

This one sent my way via Dave.