attackingdrone - Custom Oberheim Modular drone

Remember this shot from this post? Below is a drone of the custom Oberheim SEM modular by Dennis.



download here
Also see this post.

AMAZONA.de and the ELKA Synthex

Title link takes you to AMAZONA.ed's ELKA Synthex Page in German. There are some nice pics and samples. You can find a Google translated version in Enlish here. Be sure to click on the keys link on the left when you get there for more synths, new and vintage.

Live in the studio 1989

YouTube via studio35d. Via the Matrixsynth forum.

"Browsing through my archive of old material, I stumbled upon this interesting video. It was filmed somewhere in 1989 and 1990 by Robbert Schuller. Here you see me improvising with the Sequential Pro-One, Elka Synthex and Korg DSS-1. I have tried to correct the color and lightning digitally, as the Hi8 camera had some problems with low lightning apparently. No further editing has been made to the video. Other instruments that were present, but not used during the take are: Yamaha CS20M, Korg DDD1, Roland TR808, Korg Mono/Poly, Riha Adagio organ :-)"

cv control of boss microrack effects

scan via electro-music.com via synth ollie.

ULTRAVOX - THE THIN WALL - TOTP

YouTube via transceive. via sequencer.de.

Inner Circus - original synth prog rock

YouTube via hamsterdunce.
"Here's a snappy little tune in a not very dance-able 11/8. I stuck a few more solos in there than there really should be. If you like this kind of nefarious note-noodling you'll love my Parallax CDs on umop.com/parallax.htm"

Moog Opus3 Demo

YouTube via legionhwp.
"Demo of Moog Opus3 organ/strings analog synthesizer. From: http://www.HelpWantedProductions.com.

Electronika EM-25

Title link takes you to shots via this auction. The auction appears to be via the great Ruskeys site. If you haven't checked out Ruskeys yet, do it.

Details:
"SOVIET CCCP RARE VINTAGE ANALOG SYNTHESIZER IS LOOKED LIKE ROLAND JUNO! VERY HARD-TO-FIND NOW, IN VERY GOOD CONDITION! EM-25 HAS VERY IMPRESSIVE SOUND - WARM FAT STRINGS, SOLID ORGAN, VINTAGE BRASS, SMOOTH LEADS AND POWER FX SOUNDS...INSTRUMENT CAN BE SYNCHRONIZED FROM EXTERNAL SOURCES (CV MONO/POLY)

DESCRIPTION: EM-25 is 49-note (C-C) polyphonic string / brass / organ keyboard. Control of string and organ envelopes. Brass section has ADSR, LFO with vibrato delay and rate control, filter with awesome resonance. Single or multiple triggering of envelope. Sliders ranged along the panel behind the keyboard, with three integral-LED switches in centre. Roland-like modulation wheel, keyboard splittable. Made in the Moscow electronic factory.

EM-25 HAS 6 MAIN SECTIONS OF CONTROL:

POWER - on/off switch
STRINGS - attack, sustain, global sustain mode on/off; registers 16", 8", 4" - left, 8", 4" - right
ORGAN - registers 16", 8", 4", 2"/ 8", 4", 2"
SELECTOR - strings; organ; brass on/off
BRASS - vibrato; 16", 8", 4"/ 8", 4"; LFO rate, delay; filter ADSR, multi trig on/off, filter LFO deptch, mod, cut off, resonance
TRANSPOSER - detune, slide time, interval, octave, main volume, pitch wheel

CONNECTIONS - phones; stereo out, mono (0dB, -20dB), ext control in - mono, poly; pedal (for volume & pitch shift)

Demos via ruskeys.net:
sound1 - sweep pad
sound2 - layered strings
sound3 - cosmo FX
link to scanned manual/schemes"

EMS VCS3

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Details:
"Beautiful vintage Electronic Music Studios VCS3 synthesizer. This is a pretty early one in amazing condition. Very minimal cosmetic wear and works like a charm. Has a complete sent of pins. I bought replacement silver caps for the knobs that are missing them that will be included in the sale. There is one modifiaction that was done in the 70's by the university that purchased it or by EMS for the University. It is a pitch inverter which I have not played around with."

Plan B Cases and Plan B Goes to College

via the Plan B list:

"Along with the Synthbox Spacecase solution, Plan B will be releasing a desktop system of their own. The yet-unnamed chassis is a desktop unit which consists of three 25 1/4 inch rows and a total capacity of 630 HP (roughly 5 1/2 standard Eurorack rows). An optional top-mounted expander will provide an additional 25 1/4 inches of mounting space. The system will be powered by a single ultra low-noise DC power supply with an external transformer so that VCOs and other temporature-sensitive devices may be mounted anywhere. Further noise-floor safeguards come from a specialized motherboard configured with direct routing of all ground signals (no daisy-chaining).

The top and bottom rows will have an additional 1.75 inches (1 RU) of vertical capacity each, which will be used for mult strips, an extensive I/O patchbay for routing from and to the case itself and in time, touch keyboards for driving the Model 21 Sequencer."

Also:
"We're pleased to announce two Plan B college installations currently in production - one at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. and the second at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA. While the Evergreen instrument takes more of a large scale 'frankensynth' configuration, consisting of other manufacture's products along with ours, the installation at CalArts will consist entirely of Plan B goods and the first to be shipped in our new case which will available for purchase in the fall of 2007. More info will be posted on these systems as it is available."

My Wife Rocks!

I wasn't planning on posting anything regarding my birthday today, but after an excellent lunch (Pho and some stir fry) we headed back home for presents! I got one of those Radio Shack 200 in 1 electronic kits which I've been wanting for some time now. Gotta start somewhere... and it just looks like some fun to be had building sirens and crap. After the gifts and cards she puts a blind fold on me and tells me not to peek. Her and my daughter come back singing happy birthday with this! I could not believe it. A Matrix birthday cake, green on black with my first and favorite synth, the Oberheim Matrix-6. So awesome... She has been 100% behind me, the blog and my synth habit since day one. They are out there guys. : )

I love my wife!

I of course took a ton of shots of the cake for posterity's sake. You can find them here.

And no, she does not call me Matrix on a regular basis. : )

John Foxx - Theres No One Driving Top of the Pops

YouTube via Elektrapunk. Via sequencer.de where you will find one more vid.
So are those Yamaha CS60s or CS80s? I see the ribbon so the CS50 is out. I don't see the two rows of patch bank buttons on the CS80, so I'm guessing they are CS60s.

The Frankenbox

"The Frankenbox is essentially an all-in-one synthesizer built for making distorted screeches, growls, and other awful noises. It includes two oscillators, a built in microphone, two audio inputs, a voltage controlled amplifier with ringmod capabilities, a voltage controlled lowpass filter, an LFO, and a sequencer. One oscillator includes a photocell and the other can be modulated by the LFO and the sequencer. There is a joystick that allows for frequency modulation of the oscillators. Each component was specifically designed with the intention of creating loud, rumbling sounds with crackling distortion over the top. The entire box, down the knobs, case, and LED color, was created exactly as requested. With 41 knobs and hundreds of ways to make the device interact with itself, an almost infinite number of sounds is possible."

Title link takes you to more devices including samples of The Frankenbox and others. Via Colin of Experimentalists Anonymous Custom Electronic Devices.

An Early Dave Smith

This is actually the cover to a DVD titled "Dave Smith: Synthesizer Pioneer." Title link takes you to more info on the Dave Smith Instruments site.

via sequencer.de.

The New Reason

As you all probably know by now, the new version of Reason is out, featuring Thor. Title link takes you there.

Guess the Synth

Title link takes you to more info and images. Click on the Gallery link on the bottom of the page when you get there. There are some great shots. I purposely went with the "wtf-is-that" teaser shot for the post. Don't click unless you want the answer immediately.

via Synthcat who spotted it on the planetz forums.

Jean Laurendeau and the Ondes Martenot

YouTube via unidaddy. Another great vid found by AudioLemon.
BTW, I just added AudioLemon to my Blogroll on the right.
For a current approximation of the keyboard with ring check out the Analogue Systems French Connection.

Yamaha CS-40M

YouTube via analoguecrazy4. via AudioLemon.

KORG Synthe-Bass

via this auction.
Details:
"This is a vintage analog synthesizer released around 1975 (Around the time of the Mini and Maxi Korgs). It's got 5 waveform choices a huge Sine, a buzzy Square, Fat Triangle, More buzzy Square, and then a Phaser setting that makes a sound that is similar to an old Moog Prodigy. It also has a "traveller" (filter cutoff). It is a very small and light Synth/ keyboard (17 keys) that puts out great analog bass tones"


Update: There was also a pedal version that looks like it could work as a desktop unit which you can see in this post.

Update via the comments: "RE: the update: the synthpedal isn't a pedal version, it lacks the VCO and more. The synthepedal is just a env follower VCF, an amazing filter but not a bass synth"

Emulator II

Title link takes you to a great Emulator II site I found via this auction (posted on Matrixsynth-b).

KORG Micro Preset M500 SP

Click here for shots via this auction.

Update: Some interesting bits on the M500 just in via The Most Underrated Synth post.
"It has one oscillator, 2 2-pole resonant LP filters (one for the synth preset, one for the brass preset), and four fixed (organ-style) filters. The 2 filters have VCAs built in, and each of the fixed filter circuits had its own VCA and (fixed) envelope generator. The brass voice and synth voice also had their own envelopes. The envelope attack and release controls affected the synth and brass VCA and VCF.

They could afford 6 VCAs because, for a fixed-voice, fixed-envelope monosynth, they could get away with one-transistor VCAs and RC (NO active component) envelopes, and the VCF/VCA chip I imagine was used in other synths as well.

OMD used this synth a lot on their first few albums. You can recognize it easily in their stuff before they got into samplers, which you can also recognize (Dazzle Ships onwards)"

ARP Quartet

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Vintage Drum Machines

The following are all part of this lot for auction. The named links for each takes you to the individual auction.

KORG RHYTHM 55B
Shots saved here.

CAMEO
Shots saved here.

UNIVOX SR55
Shots saved here.

Hammond Auto-Vari 64
Shots saved here.

OLSEN XX-100
Shots saved here.

Side-Kick-er and Rythm Master
Shots saved here.

More vintage drum machines. And then there was this.

CLICK FOR MORE »

PPG

Click here for additional pics via intercorni.

There are some nice shots of the insides as well.

Pictured:
PPG PRK - blue
PPG 360 Wave Computer - black

the squarewave parade - SOFTCORE

resonant bandpass filter and dual distortion

"this is a new original analog design ( though inspired by the single bands of the korg P3100 filter ) with a few different things going on. the signal path flows like this - buffer - very high gain preamp with switchable clipping distortion - resonant bandpass filter with variable resonance that can self oscillate at higher frequencies and has an adjustable and switchable frequency range - variable heavy breakup distortion - and a violet ( or blue - i ran out ) level indicating led"

Title link takes you there.

"also Ty of dispyz.com has an enormous data recovery bill on the way due to a head crash ( 3 years of work gone ) so he is "regrettably" selling off his Amnesio SL-0.131 prototype. he said just original cost and free shipping i think. you can get in touch with him via email at: dispyz (at) dispyz.com or through his MySpace site he will probably also be posting this in the forum so you can ask him questions if you want ( its like new ) but be nice because he’s using a borrowed PSP the get online, crazy. just thought i would give him a much needed hand and see if anyone is interested. the 131 has 2 lo-bit looping samplers and a passive analog ring modulator ( its a mingrod minus the octave up) all in one box."

WintherStormer - Woodwork

Remember WintherStormer? Their new CD, Woodwork, officially comes out tomorrow. It features Terje's custom modular pictured in the previous post. Title link takes you to Terje's site where you will find more images, info and samples.

10-band Panned Equalizer in Csound

via thumbuki in the comments of this post:

"I built a 10-band equalizer in Csound where each band is panned individually, using phase offset lfos similar to the quadrature function generator.

Here's the snippet of code that creates the phase offset lfos:

klfo1 table ( klfo + 0.0 ) * ilength, iwave, 0, 0, 1
klfo2 table ( klfo + 0.1 ) * ilength, iwave, 0, 0, 1
klfo3 table ( klfo + 0.2 ) * ilength, iwave, 0, 0, 1
...
klfoA table ( klfo + 0.9 ) * ilength, iwave, 0, 0, 1

The floating point numbers set the phase for each lfo. Phase is normalized to a range of 0 to 1, so a value of 0.1 equals 36 degrees and 0.5 equals 180 degrees.

The full code can be found here, in instr 112."

You can read more about it on thumbuki and the CSound Blog.

Hohner Electronium

Click here for shots via this auction.

Details (Google translated from German):

"The Hohner Electronium pi is an old key board from the year 1950 that the concept almost resembles a Clavioline. The basic sound of both instruments is however very different, since the tone generator of the Electronium pi produces a saw tooth wave shape, while it is with the Clavioline a square wave form. Roughly expenditure-press sounds the Elektronium pi rather like a trumpet and the Clavioline rather like a clarinet. The equipment is developed complete in tube technology and offers from tubes admitted sound. One can call these only extremely alive, warmly and nobly. It is one of the instruments, with which the well-known composer Karl Heinz stick living invented and justified the electronic music in the year 1954 in Cologne Studio of the WDR."

This was sent in via Ivan of Squeezytunes. You can read more about it here.

Big Train Keith Emerson Sketch

YouTube via grebmops

Previously via loonytunes1234. Yes!!! I heard about this a while back and have been periodically checking YouTube for it. Looks like Loonytunes-Life The Universe And Everything put it up. Awesome. BTW, if you like this, be sure to check out Big Train's cover of Roxy Music's Virginia Plain here, then search YouTube for Big Train in general.

Roland TB-303 Bassline Synthesizer 3x2 FT Oil Painting

If you can't afford the $2275 or $3150 303, you could always get this. I think I'd prefer the cake. Seriously though, this wouldn't look bad in a studio, minus the Baby Watch The Star, of course. Well maybe just the little guy minus the words...

Ensoniq TS10 TS12 Tutorial

via this auction.

It's a manual. Anyone know if this was separate from the user's manual, or just some creative marketing for the manual?

Casio CK-500

flickr by polaranta.

I love these crazy boom boxes plus keyboard.

korg

flickr by prudencio fonseca.

Korg MS20

Rhodes Chroma

Title link takes you to shots via this auction. BTW, if anyone reading this picks it up, be sure to check out the excellent Rhodes Chroma site and join the group. It really is a great resource and worthwhile group to join.

Note the Chroma doesn't have any knobs but it has an editing slider and each button you see serves as a parameter selection in edit mode. Like the MOOG Source, you select the parameter you want to edit with one button and you then use the slider to edit. The only real challenge is understanding what the two digit led is displaying for each paramater. For things like cutoff and env settings this is easy enough, but for mod routings you might need the manual handy when first learning the synth. The manual is available at the Rhodes Chroma site.

Duckon 2007 Singing Tesla Coil

video upload by kmelwing

"This is a solid-state Tesla coil. The primary runs at its resonant frequency in the 41 KHz range, and is modulated from the control unit in order to generate the tones you hear.

What's not immediately obvious in this video is how loud this is. Many people were covering their ears, dogs were barking. In the sections where the crowd is cheering and the coils is starting and stopping, you can hear the the crowd is drowned out by the coil when it's firing."

via HarriL. And then there was this.

TickTock

Chris put up a new Buchla 200e noodle titled TickTock. Title link takes you to the track, where you will also find previous 200e tracks by Chris.

BTW, if you want to see his setup pictured here live, he will have it at the Garden of Memory show this Thursday. Update via wavedeform in the comments: Here's a link to a write up in the SF Chronicle about the show.

Thomas Henry Voltage Controlled Quadrature Function Generator

Title link takes you there.
Some snips:
"To have a quadrature waveform, you really need at least two waves. The first wave could be said to be at 0 degrees, and the second wave could be said to be in quadrature with that wave - in other words, the quadrature waveform is 90 degrees out of phase to the zero degree waveform. The frequency of both waves is the same - it's the offset in phase between the two waves that defines the function.

Figure 1 [top two] illustrates this offset - notice how the lower triangle waveform crosses the center line 90 degrees "behind" the upper triangle wave.

It's easy enough to get two waves at the same frequency and one hundred eighty degrees out of phase - that only requires simple inversion - the 180 degree waveform is merely the exact opposite of the 0 degree waveform. But, to get an offset of 90 degrees, well, that takes some doing....

Applications for the VCQFG
Thomas' mention of the use of the VCQFG with his SuperSeque design above is just one of a plethora of applications. Consider that, with this module, you have access to four triangle waveforms that are at the same frequency, but have rise and fall segments offset symetrically over time."

Oberheim OB-SX Voic Board

ac posted this image on AH. I asked him if it would be ok to put up a post here as a follow up to this post (and those linked in it), touching on the differences between the OB-X, OB-SX, and the OB-Xa. He gave the thumbs up. Thanks ac. This is a really nice shot of the board. Click on it to see the detail. You will see the following chips.

2 x CEM3340 VCO
2 x CEM3310 VC Envelop
1 x CEM3320 VC Filter

You can read more about the actual chips here.

Blacet Wiard Livewire Frac Rack Modular

Click here for shots via this auction, include hires version sent my way via the seller.

Details:
Blacet: Binary Zone, Filthy Filtre, Micro LFO, MiniWave & two frac racks w/ power supplys and power leads.
Wiard: Joystick, Joystick Axis Generator, NoiseRing.
Livewire: Frequensteiner.
The Miniwave comes with 4 eproms, they are: Miniwave Eprom A, Miniwave Socket Rocket, GR-new-256 & GR-PPG/P-VS.

Roland SH-101

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Update: This one probably should have gone up on Matrixsynth-b. The image looked a bit better to me on first look. Something about the reflections and the case. Anywhoo... If you like synth shots, know there's more on Matrixsynth-b.

As always, check out the comments.

Sequential Circuits Prophet T8

Title link takes you to shots via this auction. Not the biggest shots, but you don't see these often. If you are considering this or any other action I post, ALWAYS be sure to read the auction details in full. I only post the bits that interest me here and I DO NOT police auctions. Always check the comments to see what others say.

Details:
"This was the flagship of the SCI line and their last (and greatest analog synthesizer). Apparently, there were only 500 units produced before the project was shelved due to competition from the much cheaper Yamaha DX-7. I am the second owner of this synth. It has been gently used in my smoke-free studio.

Brief specs:
- 8 voices
- 2 VCO's per voice
- Classic SCI Poly-Mod section
- MIDI control of various parameters through velocity and/or pressure modulation
- Semi-weighted keys
- Velocity and aftertouch (The Prophet T8 was renowned for its pioneering system of aftertouch)
- Single, Split, an Double modes- The T8 can be played as a single synth (one patch), two separate synths (upper and lower patches), or two patches can be played at once"

JoMoX Xbase 999

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Buchla 259 Vintage Modular Oscillator

YouTube via REwire.

REwireMusic.com.

"Rare 1970's Modular Oscillator running through a Plan-B Vactrol Filter and Gate. There are Vactrols (components that mate LED's with audio for natural acoustic tones) in the Osc so this makes a close to vintage complete Buchla sound. The Osc sounds like nothing else I've heard with it's waveshaping and altering of harmonic structure of the waveform. There's a Modulation OSC that also can pitch same as Main but I use it here for FM, AM and Timbre Shaping. Used here also are my Doepfer LFO, Plan-B Random, ASys Envelope, Modcan Sequencer and Asys Delay/Sampler."

Intro" + "L.F.O." using (only) an Electribe MX

Track sent my way via David Kristian aka Gentle Bakemono after seeing this post:
"Intro" + "L.F.O." using (only) an Electribe MX. You'll notice there are no processed vocals or Speak & Spell parts simply due to the fact that the U.S. version of the Speak and Spell L-F-Oh's don't sound as nice." MP3 mirrored here

Nord Modular

What is off about this Nord Modular? Click here to find out. : )

Novation Nova

via this auction.

Details:
""Novation has basically re-packaged the SuperNova into a desktop performance module and dubbed it the Nova. It uses analog Sound Modeling (ASM) to create stunningly clean but analog-like sounds. "3 completely independent oscillators, a variable noise source and 2 ring modulators per voice. This combined with the Nova's 16 voice polyphony means that there are 36 Oscillators, 24 Ring Modulators and 12 Noise sources available at once. All these waveforms can be combined in the Mixer section allowing the creation of very fat and complex timbres." There's also over 130 modulation routings. There are two inputs for filtering external sounds, a 40 band vocoder and 42 simultaneous effects including Vocoder, Distortion, Comb Filter, Chorus, Phaser, Flanger, Delay, Reverb, Panning, Tremolo and EQ. "

See:
* www.vintagesynth.com/novation/nova.shtml
* www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep99/articles/novation.htm
* www.soundonsound.com/sos/Aug01/articles/novaosv4.asp
* remixmag.com/mag/remix_novation_nova_polyphonic/
* http://www.dancetech.com/aa_dt_new/hardware/item.cfm?threadid=358&lang=0
* Novation Nova Factory Demo
* http://www.sonicstate.com/synth/novation_nova.cfm
* PDF Manual

Novation Nova Factory Demo

YouTube via thealien666.

(the above video is not my actual Nova but a YouTube users video of the factory demo)

* 16 Voices Polyphony.
* 3 Oscillators, 2 Ring Modulators and a Noise Generator per voice
* Up to 6 Oscillators can be generated with no loss in polyphony when the special Double Saw waveform is used.
* Comprehensive Modulation Matrix with 130 possible routings.
* 6 part Multitimbral.
* 12, 18 and 24 dB per octave Resonant filter configurable in Low Pass, High Pass and Band Pass modes,
* 9 Dual/Split filter types with modulatable frequency separation.
* All filters also feature an overdrive control, while Filter Bypass mode allows noise to be filtered independently – ideal for the creation of drum sounds.
* 2 LFOs capable of oscillating at Audio rates.
* Distortion, Comb Filter, EQ, Reverb, Chorus/Flanger/Phaser/Rotary Speaker, Delay and Panning effects for each Program.
* 42 Effects available simultaneously. 7 Effects for each of the 6 Parts of a Performance. Yes you can have a different Reverb on each part, a different Delay on each part, a different Chorus etc.
* 40 Band Vocoder that can run simultaneously with the Full Synth Engine (no reduction of polyphony etc).
* 6 assignable polyphonic outputs with 128 x Oversampling Delta Sigma DACs for each output. Stereo effects can be routed through a single channel without compromising quality, releasing more outputs.
* 2 Audio Inputs with 20 bit ADCs. Signals can be routed through the Synth Engine (Filters), Effects or both..
* 256 Programs in 2 banks.
* 128 Performances.
* Built in Arpeggiator with 384 Preset Polyphonic, Preset Monophonic and User Programmable Polyphonic and Monophonic Patterns. 6 Arpeggiators are available simultaneously in Performance mode.
* All knobs, switches and Parameters transmit MIDI Controllers and NRPNs. Knob pick-up eliminates unexpected surges or changes when switching between Programs.
* Flash upgradable operating system via MIDI, free as a MIDI file on our Web Site.
* Multi Voltage power supply."

I always wanted one of these but ended up with a K-Station instead. Anyone know how they compare?

Analog Solutions Black Coffee

via this auction.

Synton Syrinx Fraud?

Via Florian on AH:

"Hi

Just a warning: do not bid on ebay Item 190123605048 (Synton Syrinx)
Pictures are taken from vintagesynth.com and from just ended auction
290127272589 (this was a real auction from a known collector here in
Munich). Alert is sent to ebay.

Please no further discussion here in the list.

Florian"

I see 13 bids on it, hopefully it isn't one of you. I didn't post it previously but you never know. And for the record, I do not want to be in the habit of posting warnings. If you know who to contact on these, feel free to do so. I don't.

Vocoder Magic

YouTube via SynthFanKH.

"Seekers Vocoder Dissected"

If you don't get this, or even if you do, check out these posts. The gloves are a reference to the vids by 123synthland.

Afrika Bambaataa

Guess the Roland.

via this VSE thread.