MOOG The Source

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Oxford Synthesizer Company OSCar

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Quasimidi Rave-O-Lution 309

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

309 Video

Roland SH-101

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.
Specifications:
* Type: Synth/ keyboard/
* Synthesis Type: Analog subtractive
* Polyphony:
o Max: 1
o Typical in use: 1
* Multi-timbral (number of parts): 1
* Oscillators per Voice :
o Min : 1
o Max : 3
* Controllers : GATE OUT/In and CV out/IN
* Drum Section :
o Number of Drum Kits : 0
o Number of Drum sounds : 0
* Keyboard :
o Number of Keys : 3 octaves
o Can send on simultaneous MIDI channels
* Memory :
o Patches : 0
o Performances : 0
* Inputs and Outputs :
o Number of Audio Outs (excluding Phones) : 1
o Number of Audio Ins : 2
o Number of MIDI Outs (excluding Thru) :
o Number of MIDI Ins :
* Upgrade Options : This is one of the most easily modifiable analog synths. Analogue Solutions sells kits for making it MIDI, giving you INPUTS to the filter or making it COMPLETELY MODULAR(everything can be crosspatched with other CV-gear).

Celebration of Max Mathews and 50 Years of Computer Music

Image via wikipedia. Anyone catch the following? I found out a little late.

Update: check the comments for one more date on April 30 in San Francisco.

"Date: Wed, Apr 18 2007 1:46pm
From: "Computer History Museum"

CCRMA and CHM Present

A Celebration of Max Mathews and 50 Years of Computer Music

Fifty years ago, in 1957, at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Max Mathews demonstrated that the digital computer can be used as a fantastic new musical instrument. He created a revolutionary software platform destined to form the basis of all contemporary digital musical systems.

His audacious ideas were driven by the belief that any sound that the human ear can hear can be produced by a computer. Mathews' mastery of this new instrument revealed new musical horizons and sparked a burgeoning curiosity into the very nature of sound. His comprehension and elaboration made five decades of art and research ossible, laying the groundwork for generations of electronic musicians to synthesize, record, and play music. Today at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) as a Professor Emeritus he continues not only to educate students and colleagues, but also to guide and inspire with his constant inventiveness and pure musical pleasure.

Join us in honoring Max for an afternoon of sound, celebration and discovery of his ideas,works, music, and writings.

WHEN
SUNDAY, April 29, 2007
4 p.m. Pre-concert talk
Jon Appleton, John Chowning, Evelyne Gayou, Max Mathews, Jean-Claude Risset
5 p.m. ìInfluences: A Tribute Concertî
Jon Appleton, Gerald Bennett, Chris Chafe, Evelyne Gayou, Max Mathews,
Dexter Morrill, Jean-Claude Risset
6:00 p.m. Reception

WHERE
Computer History Museum
Hahn Auditorium
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043
www.computerhistory.org/about/directions/

REGISTRATION
Free.
To register or for more information on the event, please visit the Museum's
Website at http://www.computerhistory.org/max_guest_04292007 or Call (650) 810-1005."

via loscha.

The KORG MS-911

Another via Perry.

"This is a Korg X-911 that I have re-built to a modular synth. The original X-911 Guitar Synth actually contains much more than is obvious on the front pane"

Title link takes you to more detail.

Prophet5.org - New Prophet 5 Forum

Title link takes you there. The forum was set up by Stephen Jones of Sevcom and Synthwood. Note Stephen also recently set up Roland-Jupiter.org, previously posted here.

EMS Synthi AKS

Title link takes you to a couple more shots via this auction.

Update: Apparently this is the same one as my previous post. Doh! This is a good shot, so I'll just leave it up... : ) BTW, I've been up since 1:00 AM PST and it is now 8:23 PM PST. I had a 7:00 AM eastern flight from Hartford Connecticut back to Seattle. I got up at 4:00 AM EST which is 1:00 AM PST, so that's my excuse...

moogtouch1

flickr by sgodt.

MOOG Micromoog

The Synthi Micro

"This is a sort of clone of the EMS Synthi A. Well, not a clone really, since it has none of the electronics like the EMS, nor has it the complete amount of functions. It is also smaller then the original. I wanted a synth that could do the typical effect sounds that the Synthi A is known for. At first, I designed an even smaller synth, with a minimum of modules and functions, and no pin matrix. But after a while I realized this design would be far too limited, and I also wanted the routing capability of a matrix. So this is what it turned out to be. I used a lot of stuff that I happened to have laying around in the junc box; like the 10x10 pin matrix, a small reverb tank, CEM3340:s etc."

Title link takes you to the specs. Via Perry. Update: mp3s are now at the bottom of the page. You have to use the inside scroll bar to scroll down. There are also some really nice images.

Solar photosynth

YouTube via jonjb2a.

"Synthstick circuit with resistor replacing potentiometer. Circuit powered by three solar cells. Instrument has no moving parts; "played" in manner similar to that of theremin or tannerin, regardless of vast differences between it and the other instruments."

Solar powered?

via sendling

A Thingamagoop tried to look tough.

flickr by Dr. Bleep of Bleep Labs.

Thingamagoop in a cave...

waldorf-synth

flickr by erftmedien

The Waldorf Wave to be exact.

Update via Till "Qwave" Kopper in the comments:
"... and it is my WAVE +16 (= 32 voice) shown here. A snapshot by someone taken during my last year's Planetarium concert of "EL-KA" (http://el-ka.synthmusic.info german only) in Bochum/Germany.
If you look to the yellow Waldorf Q in the back, you will notice the joy-stick someone added to my instrument.
Here is one from the other direction:
http://el-ka.synthmusic.info/el-ka_bochum_2006.jpg
You will see the other half of EL-KA there: HaJo Liese.
The CD recording is available at www.syngate.net and other EM music shops. And we will play at the Univercity of Eindhoven/The Netherlands next week's Saturday at the E-Day (http://e-day.groove.nl)

And by the way: I run the unofficial Waldorf WAVE pages located here:
http://unofficial.waldorf-wave.de (german and english)

keep on turning these knobs

Till "Qwave" Kopper"

KORG Poly61 Scans

Title link takes you to some scans of the KORG Poly61. Interestingly, the Poly61 had a discrete filter. I always assumed it was either an SSM or CEM filter, but I never had reason to look it up.

via Florian on AH.

Update: be sure to check out the comments for more info on the filter.

Putney Dogs

via DK:

"Something I made with MS Paint (and a famous kitsch painting) back in 1996."

Synton Syrinx

Click here for shots pulled via this auction. Interestingly this is the second one up for auction this month. They are extremely rare. Via the previous auction:
"There are 300 Syrinxes on this planet. 3 of them are white, 20 of them are blue, 20 of them are red and the rest is black. 2 BPFs and a LPF all with cut/peak control at the same time. also strange bending sensor and modulator. HARDWARE: 2 CEM3310 EG 2 CEM3340 VCO 2 CEM3350 Dual VCF 1 CEM3360 Dual VCA."

This one sent my way via the seller.

atlatl - MOTM noise

Title link takes you there. You'll find more shots and audio. Funny note: this appears to be the source of the cat image in this post.
MOTM modules:
1x300
2x420
1x110
1x320
1x110
+2x 800 which aren't even used in this new demo

Starkey Hearing Laboratory Analog Modular Synthesizer

Title link takes you to more shots via this auction. Be sure to check them out. There are some great shots including a drawing of one, and a University of Illinois face plate.

Details:
"This machine was manufactured in 1972. The HSL-II has 3 sine wave generators, a square and saw wave fuzz generator (awesome!), and a pink and white noise generator. These can be seen clearly on the far left of the HSL-II. The signal path flows from left to right and is patchable with mini-banana cables (included in the auction). There are 3 filters which allow patching through hi/lo/mid pass sections. There is a phase inverter, limiter, frequency counter (with a classic red LED display) , 4 attenuators (volume), 2 mixer sections, a VU meter, and a few mystery functions that affect the sound but that I am not qualified to describe. there is also a gate sequencer, so you can basically set two different lengths of tones to trigger as you desire. The sequencer is weird and rudimentary, but functions perfectly.

Below are some long recordings of the HSL-II into a Deltalab Effectron Jr. digital delay. I ran this into a decent DJ mixer and into apple's Garageband. I clipped up the audio to make it a little shorter and give you an idea of a portion of the range that you can achieve with the HSL-II.

HSL-II sample one

Sound plays at beginning and towards the end - dead air in the middle

HSL-II sample two - plays fine

You cannot control the pitch from an external controller as of now. They were not designed for that. You can control the frequency manually, which in turn affects the perceived pitch, and believe me, with all 4 or 5 sound sources going through some delay and reverb, you have a wicked modular synth, sample source, drone machine....Silver Apples meets Aphex meets Eno.

I spoke with a synthe technologiste who thought that there would likely be a way to add c/v control to the sound source circuits...I have included a close up of a single sine sound source...it is the one circuit photo that has had the color altered and sharpened to give someone some idea what they are dealing with if they are so inclined to pursue the c/v route. Alas, there are no schematics and I have searched high and low on the internets.

The cabinet is absolutely VCS3-esque. There are a few areas of flaky veneer about the edges, as can be seen in the photos.

Also...you can run audio through the filters and even do some sort of weird sonic destruction by patching the fuzz output into the same input as the audio source. There are many many routing capabilities. These machines have provided me with plenty of inspiration. I will be moving soon, so please look out for all sorts of audio related stuff."

MP3s backed up here.

The one via Must! who is the seller.

IMG_0156

flickr by pzlonvent.

Effector 13 - Meow

One more on sendling.

Sound Lab Modifications by Pehr

SoundLab mod by Pehr.

1. Fine tuners for the oscillators.
2. Frequency modulation amount.
3. FM on/off.
4. FM AC/DC.
5. Connects the incoming CV to OSC1 to the CV in of OSC2 (so I can play with my MCV4 that only has one note CV output).
6. Aaron Crams' ring modulator (without buffer amps), made from only the extra OTA and a few other components.
7. Attenuations towards ground or -9V for the EG, LFO and FM outputs.
8. LFO COF-range HI/LO, sets the value of R31 to 100k (HI) or 200k (LO, original).
9. COF-CV input for modulation wheel CV from my MCV4. Do not use the 9V zener mod on this one or you'll not be able to turn the COF low enough anymore.
10. Extra CV inputs with the 9V zener protection mod. The other CV-inputs and the gate inputs also has the protection mod. And of course I use the 1V/Oct mod.
11. Audio input to filter.

via electro-music.com. via sendling.

Buchla B-Sides via Chris Muir

As most of you know, I've been putting up Chris Muir's new Buchla 200e tracks as they come in. Each track get's added to Chris's 200e Noodles page. Well, it turns out Chris has more that's he's put on a B-sides page for the time being, while he thinks about what he wants to do with them. Until then, I say enjoy. Title link takes you to them.

MOOG Station

via Voltage Controlled

"Just picked up a Frostwave Resonator - what an awesome filter. It really gives the Voyager a unique sound. Basically I have things connected (most of the time) as follows: Voyager right out loops back into its mix-in for distortion effect. Voyager left out to ZVex Fuzz Factory to MF-102 Ring Mod to Frostwave Resonator to Deluxe Memory Man to mixer. It's all in mono but even so there is something really special about the sound this setup produces. I also have a Moog pedal plugged into the Voyager filter input. I tend to use the LFO on the MF-102 to manipulate the LPF frequency on the Resonator which gives it some nice movement - this is attenuated via the VX-351 for more control. I optionally use the same LFO or the one from the Voyager (via the VX-351) to control the HPF frequency on the Resonator - also attenuated. The Resonator also allows you to control (via CV) the LPF and HPF resonance which makes it a great addition to any analog setup. So anyway...there it is...note the empty space to the left of the Memory Man...hmmm... :-)"

Update: "MP3

The bass sound is the frostwave HPF frequency being modulated by the LFO on the MF-102 with the Resonance set just right.

The "distorted nuclear alarm" sound is the Voyager (Um...either Funk It or Chick's ROM Warrior...I forget...slightly tweaked) running through the Frostwave at the same time as the bass sound is being generated.

Drums are a loop from Ableton Live. Rhodes is the Nord Electro 2. Whole thing run through a quick and dirty Izotope Ozone preset."

Akai AX80

Click here for shots via this auction. "This is a vintage AKAI AX80 programmable polyphonic (analog) synthesizer, the first keyboard manufactured by AKAI (1984-87). It has a 5-octave, 61 note velocity- sensitive keyboard; 8 voice with 2 DCO per voice, 96 memory locations (32 pre-set, 64 user-writable). Other features include pitch bend, modulation, hold and chord memory."

Check out the OSC graph. Click the image for a bigger shot.

Sound Destruction Unit Videos

first sample


second sample

YouTubes via farnea. Via maxfarnea in the comments of this post.

Modular synth PCBs

flickr by Equaliser.

"Oakley PSU and Dizzy, a couple of Ray Wilson VCOs, a VC-LFO, a ADSR, the Dual-VCA, and Marc Bareille's Polivoks filter clone."

Cirocco Modular Synthesizers

Modular system by Phil Cirocco. Title link takes you there. These are available now. Be sure to check out these previous CMS posts. CMS specializes in ARP repair and restoration and Phil fully restored a Hammond Novachord, a polyphonic synthesizer by Hammond from 1939. There are samples on the Novachord Restoration Project site.

Access Virus TI Polar Demo

Title link takes you to the demo on Gearwire. This one is all demo, no talking.

Delayed Korg MS-20

YouTube via Newueel.

The Ultimate Keytar

Who needs a Syntar when you can have this! Click here for more shots via this auction.

Details:
"This is a vintage 80's toy called Hit Guitar. The neck piece straps to your hand allowing you to play a twelve note scale! The guitar part straps to your belt. This strange devise is hard to find and should be circuit bent with a pitch pot so you can tune it fat and low! However it does have a tone knob on it which is actually a tune knob. You can bend the pitch up or down and when you let go of it the note you're playing will snap back to it's original pitch. This has an analog chip in it and will make an excellent stage instrument if it falls in the right hands...I'm only selling this cause I'm swimming in heaps of gear I've collected and something must go! It works well (I played a few farewell solos today) but the battery cover is missing. Snap this gem to bend up if you like it!"

BTW, if you know anything about the "analog chip" feel free to comment. I'm guessing it's not actually analog, but who knows...

Studio Electronics SE-1

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Inside an Oberheim OB-Mx

"This Oberheim OB-Mx rackmount analog synth was purchased new in 1995 and was played by Rick Wakeman on the YES album "Keys to Ascension" (I was a recording engineer on the project). It has three (3) voice expansion cards, and has been in a controlled storage environment since 1996. Front panel, knobs, LCD, output jacks, etc. are in excellent condition. The memory backup battery expired some time ago, and as a result, all internal presets are lost/scrambled. I do not have a users manual or any documentation. ROM version is 1.04."

Title link takes you to shots of the inside via this auction.

Roland System 100m

Title link takes you to more shots via this auction.

-112 2 VCO’S (SERIAL No. 102075)
-121 2 VCF’S (SERIAL No 941053)
-130 2 VCA’S (SERIAL No 790378)
-140 ENV AND LFO (SERIAL No 364316)
-150 LFO. (SERIAL No 102075)
-181 MODULAR KEYBOARD

AY-3-8910A Synth Sound Efx Chip

"This is a AY-3-8910A Synth Sound Efx Chip used in a LOT of old school coin-op video games. It is NOS (New-Old Stock), and comes with all documentation and Datasheets. It is a pretty wild chip - 3 oscillators, 1 noise generator, envelope controls, and 3 mixers, all under CPU control. (it is a register-based chip)."

via this auction and this auction.

PAiA 4700 Modular

via this auction

THIS SYSTEM INCLUDES:
2 piece folding Paia cabinet
4720 oscillator
4720 oscillator
4720 oscillator
4710 balanced modulator
4710 balanced modulator
4711 mixer 4/2
4730 vcf (multimode filter)
4730 vcf (multimode filter)
4740 envelope generator
4712 reverb
4750 control oscillator noise
envelope follower
8780 equally tempered d/a converter
8781 quash
4771 regulated power
4761 wing
4761 wing

Ensoniq Voice-80

via this auction.

Details:
"Rare ENSONIQ ESQ VOICE-80 Vol. 5 Cartridge. Plug this cartridge into an ENSONIQ ESQ-1 Synthesizer/ Workstation.

80 varied sounds in 8 banks. Pianos, basses, percussion, vox, layered, etc.

A1: DGPNO2, BRCSYN, DG-BR1, KEBASS, TWOBEL, PSYNTO, PLKVOX, SLOBEL, SQRSWP, BEN

A2: DGWHO?, SQREEJ, BRAUN, BASTE 2, HIPLSE, BRTSTR, MUSVOX, TUBES, STARK, METLSD

A3: CLAV 2, DRORG2, LOG S1, SEQ 3, CWBEL2, STRBEL, LOWAHH, STARS3, PLUCK, SPLSH1

A4: ALPHA1, SYNPNO, RESPRO, PAPRBS, TMBALE, JSTRING, SENTRY, DG, WIZZLE, CARDBD,

B1: PARIS1, FUNK, RLBRSS, P BASS, BARREL, GEGEE, SING, VOXBEL, AMBO, FALOUT

B2: HRPS14, HARMN, BLUE, METB52, PERCUS, HELIO2, FLUTE4, VOXHAL, PRMPNO, BNG 1

B3: GRIST2, BENDVX, MONOLG, FGRBAS, GISNR2, TODD’S, TRFLT1, QUEST, GEGEE2, SPLUCK

B4: DGLADY, TWEAK, MINIM3, PBASS2, GTDSNS, STRK 2, DIGBSN, RIPPLE, TOQ, PULSAR"

Custom White JX-3P

A couple of shots via Custom Synth UK. Note the usually external PG-200 control box is built in.

Update via custom synth in the comments:
"Hi this mod can also be supplied in a kit form if interested in doing the mods yourself , it also has the midi upgrade jeff : ) www.customsynth.co.uk
p.s. you can also have an output for the controller if you wish"

Roland SH-3

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Details:
"Roland infringed on Moog's filter design and was forced to cease production of this model very early resulting in very few being made. They then released the much more common SH 3 A with a different filter design.Consequently the SH 3 has become a very collectable and rare synth."

Via Johan

Vectrex Melody Master

Anyone remember the Vectrex pictured below? I wanted one of these bad as a kid but never could afford one. I never knew there was a light pen for it, let alone a music program. Title link takes you to more info on this program and the Vectrex in general. Check out the games section.

via André.

Polivoks Demo

Title link takes you to an MP3 of the Polivoks sent my way via Mr. Array.

"I noticed that some of the comments on the recent Polivoks post were asking for more sound examples. A few years back, I downloaded this Polivoks demo MP3 from the Moog Music forums. I forgot who made this, but I'm sure you'll enjoy it. It's quite catchy!"

Thanks Mr. Array! If anyone knows where this demo is from, feel free to comment.

Morton Subotnick's Until Spring Revisited

Part One


Part Two

YouTube via loopcycle. Sent my way via Peter Grenader.

Until Spring Revisited
San Francisco, CA
April 6th, 2007
Recombinant Media Labs
Performers: Morton Subotnick, Miguel Frasconi,

Analogue Sound Synthesizers

Title link takes you to Analogue Sound Synthesizers, home to a number of synth oddities including the Practical Electronics Sound Synthesizer pictured and the Dewtron.

"This is G.D.Shaw's prototype Practical Electronics Sound Synthesizer, as pictured in the Feb 1973 Practical Electronics (PE) Magazine."

While there also be sure to check out the Minisonic2, previously posted here.

Via Rick

"Some great old synth ics, including the mighty Dewtron which I had never heard of. Typical British design with a patch panel (though it seems to be a dual-pin patch panel rather than the simple ones used by EMS and ETI)."

Los Angeles Sonic Odyssey Featuring Barry Schrader's Lost Atlantis

"On Friday, April 27, three movements from Lost Atlantis will be presented in their original quadraphonic (4-channel) format as part of the 2007 Los Angeles Sonic Odyssey. The concert will take place at 8:00 P.M. at the The Neighborhood Unitarian Church at 301 N. Orange Grove Blvd. in Pasadena, CA. 91103. For more information, you can click here, or phone 877-358-5813. The sections of Lost Atlantis presented on this program will be: Introduction: The Pillars of Hercules - The Great Harbor; The Temple of Poseidon - The Dance of the Gods; The Destruction of Atlantis - Epilogue: "...and Atlantis Shall Rise." This concert will present a rare opportunity to hear this music as originally composed and with excellent multichannel sound projection."

Lost Atlantis was originally composed with the Buchla Electric Music Box, the Buchla 200. I've listened to it and it is an amazing sonic journey into electro-acoustical sonic landscapes. It is available off of Barry Schrader's Website and I have a permanent link on the right side of this site under the Synth CDs section. You can find reviews for the album at the bottom of Barry's site.

What's not clear regarding the event above is how this will be presented. Will it be an orchestra, a playing of the original recordings or the actual Buchla 200. I can't imagine trying to recreate this live on an original Buchla. If anyone knows, please comment.

Yamaha ED10 Analog Drum Pad

Title link takes you to a new page with info and samples on Sealed's Deep Synthesis page. It's great to see another update to the site.

Previous Sealed posts

Soviet Analog Synthesizer - The Polivoks

YouTube via williamenroh, via this VSE Thread. MP3 of the intro song here. Sent my way via Mr. Array.

Inside an Oberheim Xpander

via this auction.

Title link takes you to more shots of the outside.

Analog Solutions Oberkorn Silver Edition

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Details:
"This is a Mk1 Oberkorn that includes the midi trigger converter, current models omit this feature to save cost. I made a custom front panel in silver to replace the rather grim black panel it came with as standard, and replaced all of the led's with nice icy blue ones, and fitted double led's at positions 1, 5, 9, and 13. I also fitted led's to show the state of gates a,b,c,x and y at each step. These enhancements make what is already a great sequencer into something even better and truly unique."

The Oberkorn is an excellent, feature-laden sequencer that offers way more than anything else in its price range. However, I'd recommend using it with a voltage quantizer (I've been using a Doepfer quantizer) if you're going to be using it to control pitch as there is a little bit of interaction between the rows. There is an excellent review of this sequencer at link."

via John.

Vox Gong - Buchla 200e Demo

Title link takes you to another demo of the Buchla 200e, Vox Gong, by Chris Muir. The link is just under this image when you get there. Make sure to check out the other demos on site if you haven't already.

Semifluid Graphical LCD Oscilloscope

"Using the PIC18F2550 GLCD Text Test as a basis for further experimentation, I put together a simple and accurate graphical oscilloscope using a PIC18F2550 microcontroller and a AGM1264F graphical LCD. The oscilloscope measures the average voltage, the maximum voltage, the minimum voltage, the peak-to-peak voltage, and the zero-crossing frequency for a DC signal over 100 samples. The oscilloscope has a built in edge trigger function that can be set to capture on rise or fall (or disabled altogether). The time scale for the display is variable and can be easily redefined using the changeTimeDivision function. Likewise, the voltage range can be change to 0-5V, 0-2.5V, and 0-1.25V. The main limitations of this oscilloscope include relatively slow acquisition time and sampling rate (~60kHz) and the fact that the inputs are limited by the constraints of the internal ADC. However, it is a very nice display and I highly suggest you view the videos to see it in action."

Title link takes you there.

Analog returns to TapeOpCon

Via Peter Grenader:

"Electro-Acoustic Research has been invited to return to Tape Op Magazine's annual TapeOpCon convention at the Hilton El Conquistador Resort in Tucson from June 8 to June 10. Plan B Products will again be on display and awaiting your enquiring tweaks. And due to it's popularity in 2006, another Analog Synthesis symposium is scheduled, this year with Alessandro Cortini of Nine Inch Nails, Dave Wright of Not Breathing and EAR's Peter Grenader. Equipment will include the EAR Performance System, Dave Wright's monster modular, a Buchla 200e and a huge array of Plan B products. The panel discussion will be held at the El Conquistador Resort on Sunday from 10 to 12 which will include live demo's, a performance, an open discussion on the renaissance of analog synthesis and plenty of audience hands-on ops. Make sure to arrive early as seats filled up quickly in 2006.

For more info on TapeOpCon, go here"