Dave's Customsynth.uk Roland JX-3P

Click here for more shots of Dave's Customsynth.uk white Roland JX-3P. There are some really good shots in this set, so do check them out.

A little Red, White, and Blue for the day. And of course you can't forget the Green. : )

CustomSynth

Rick Wakeman Solo Moogfest 70's

YouTube via loonytunes1234. Another great vid via Loonytunes.
"Rick Wakemans Famous Solo Spot From The Early 70's Lovely Moogs"

Circuit bent Sk-1 in progress...

YouTube via salamanderanagram. Via the Matrixsynth Forum.
"My first SK-1! Not finished wiring the whole thing up yet but i couldn't resist playing with it a little in it's present state."

Update via salamanderanagram: "the thing on top purports to be a "C.R. Bridge and Signal Tracer", superior instruments model 76. i have no idea what it was for but i got it free and broken at a yard sale."

K.R. Jackson live, pt. 1

YouTube via krjackson204. "Live at Goodvibes, Kutztown, PA. 9/12/06. Part 1 of 3." Title link takes you to more including Parts 2 and 3. Note: synths come in focus about 1 minute in. Although part of me was annoyed at the background talking, it became kind of interesting as part of the experience as a whole. Kind of like a real world take of John Cage's 4'33". Interestingly people stopped talking at around 4'33" Do watch this one through. It's pretty cool.

via Ken:
"The show at GoodVibes involves a Minimoog(through a Boss looper at times/Memory Man), and Yamaha SK-20, and everything goes through a Space Echo at the last step :) The Test Pattern show features a Korg MS-20 doing horrible(in a good way!) filter oscillations, and it goes through an Echoplex to build up the ambient cloud...the Minimoog provides the 3 VCO lead and audio-range filter mod at the end. Enjoy! Feel free to check out other examples of my material on my page.

Later!
-Ken

TB-303 Clone Contest

Via Ben of mus-ok.

"I read the post about the Acidlab Bassline Impressions and remembered this site which has audio and spec comparisons of:

Roland 303
Syntecno TeeBee Mark III
Future Retro Revolution
MAM MB 33 mkII
Acidlab Bassline
Future Retro 777
ML-303 v3.0 Acidcode
AS TB-X TB-303
Oakley TM3030

All the synths are playing the same line. Its pretty amazing how different they all sound. Not sure if thats a bad thing though..."

Title link takes you there. Thanks Ben!

Side note: the xoxbox is also listed as the Adafruit xoxbox. I know lady ada makes it, but I think this is the first time I heard of it with an Adafrut brand.

Old Tech - Hammond Novachord Site

Remember the Novachord?

Title link takes you to the Old Tech Novachord site where you will find everything you wanted to know about how this amazing instrument works.

Colin Fraser's Synth Site

Title link takes you to Colin Fraser's excellent Synth Site. I remember Colin from various lists and oddly I realize I haven't put up a post on his site yet. I've posted on his TR-909 Mod Page and his MidiBass 303 page, but not directly on his site. So... Here it is. BTW, the image in this post is of an early Minimoog VCO board from his site. There was some discussion on AH regarding where to draw the line with discrete. This is definitely discrete.

TD in Bordeaux

Have fun guessing the synths. : )

Image via this link.

Gordon Brown - Acid House King

YouTube via sharkinthepark.
"Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain and TB-303 ninja shows the nation what he can do on the little silver box."

Tony Blair was sent tons of guitars while in office, maybe Gordon Brown will be sent a ton of synths!

MMV Cut-out - The Virtual Virtual Analog

Build your own Arturia MMV. Title link takes you to the pdf, also mirrored here.
More cut-outs on SDIYCUT.

Keytar Love

As the image says, "You're Doing it Wrong". BTW this is a Lync LN1000 and it's up for auction along with a ton of other keytars.
via Suit & Tie Guy

Phatty Oscillators

flickr by gattobus.

And...

Have a safe and happy 4th!

Acidlab Bassline Impressions

Ryan Lunenfeld sent the following to AH. With some of the comments coming in on this post, I thought it would be interesting to post his first impressions of the synth. I asked him if I could post it here and he gave me the thumbs up. Thanks Ryan!

"hey i just recieved an acidlab bassline, and having not really seen any reviews on here of it i thought i'd let my brain leak a little...

the construction of the unit is great, all metal, and very light. i was suprised how light. i think maybe the exact size of a tb303 ;] nice feeling knobs, no real resistance, which i like usually, but with the tweaking on this, no real need;]

on the sound, i think its the first 303ish type synth that actually has the square wave down the best. it's not 100 percent perfect, but the closest i've heard. and having the square wave my personal favorite, i'm happy with that ;]

the filter is great, and can really squeel.

the bass on this thing is great;] i haven't heard this much bass out of a synth in a while, amazing...

the sequencer is gerat too, i think it is rather hard to get to like a real 303, and this leads to very interesting sequences. due to thek nob to change notes, i make more around the same note sequences, cuz i get lazy, and i forget hwat i do, so it gets randomish heh;-]

also having everything just with switches makes things lots easier; ]

great synth, i dont know what else really to say about it, cept i wish there was a filter on it, and the outputs were quarter inch doh and that it could run on batteries...

but apart from that a great synth; ] it really seems like klaus makes these synths out of love and cares about them ; ]"

Alpha Juno-2

flickr by gattobus.

One last shot. Be sure to check out the rest. There are some really nice ones in the set.

Roland Juno-106

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

NE566

via this auction.

Details:
"Want to know more about the NE566?
Actually, the NE566 can be made to sweep a continuous 1000:1 frequency span with just one fixed timing capacitor. Imagine, continuous linear tuning 20 Hz - 20 KHz or 1 KHz - 1 MHz without switching. A simple op-amp circuit provides the precise voltage control necessary. You set the range with the selection of the timing capacitor.

In our lab tests, we used a 0.047µF timing capacitor to achieve a sweep from 23 Hz to 49.5 KHz. That's an amazing 2150:1 ratio! Waveform symmetry does degrade at the very low end however, so if that is critical, a 500:1 or a 100:1 ratio may be more acceptable.

Even at a 500:1 ratio, only two timing capacitors (one hardwired, one switched) will allow you to sweep across the range of the NE566 from 4 Hz - 2000 Hz and then 2 KHz to the 1000 KHz, FMAX. Frequency is inversely proportional to the capacitance. Use the 0.047µF as a reference. Double it to halve the frequency, halve it to double the frequency, etc. Voltage, tolerances and circuit layout affect results so you cannot predict exactly what capacitor values to use for your desired range. We can only get you started with the schematic. After that, you'll just have to experiment. Not hard at all.

E-Mail us for the schematic.

The NE566 is also found in many of the vintage pinball machines such as Asteroids to make those familiar warbling "UFO" sounds.

Another use for this chip is as a transmitter for a high quality, low distortion Remote FM Speaker System described in AN-146 (132K PDF).

Finally, for you musicians, an excellent book, "Making Music with the 566" by synth guru Thomas Henry shows how to do tricks with the NE566 that even the manufacturer didn't know it could do. We highly recommend it. Google the title to find it.

Typical Applications:
General uses: Communications, Test, Music.
# VCO - Linear / Exponential
# FM Modulation
# FSK Generator
# PLL (Phase Lock Loop)
# Pinball Machine "UFO" Sound
# Clock Generator
# Pulse Width Modulation
# Triangle / Square Wave Function Gen
# Tunable Noise Generator (music)
# 455 KHz IF Sweep Oscillator

If you recognize the utility of '555 timer, you'll be WOW-ed by the versatility of this scarce, Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) / Function Generator.

Only 3 external parts are needed to create a linear voltage-controlled oscillator with both triangle and square wave outputs. [Example below shows Pin 5 with a reference voltage supplied by a resistive divider, but the source can come from anywhere, provided it is within the specification limits.] Add the simple Sinewave Shaper #1 or #2 (Click here) for a complete generator on a budget.

Operating V+ is 10 to 24 VDC. Single or dual supplies. Positive or negative ground.

Apply a variable DC voltage to the '566 control pin (5), and you can easily sweep a full linear 10:1* decade, frequency tuning range with a single timing Resistor / Capacitor pair. Switch in other R1 / C1 combinations to make a very simple, multiple decade function generator up to 1 MHz. That's twice the FMAX of the NE555!

Related application links for the NE566 by Thomas Henry:
ADV-Bass
Tunable Noise Generator (131K PDF)
Sinewave Shaper #3
UD-1 Drum Voice"

Electro Harmonix Space Drum

via this auction.

You can find an online version with samples here.

SIMMONS SDS9

via this auction

Details:
"Simmons then made the SDS-7. It now featured digital sounds, rubber pads, and a sophisocated module. Simmons then made the SDS-8, a cheaper model with no digital sounds. Their next big leap was the SDS-9. This had real-sounding drums, changeable shells, and a new pad surface. The surface had more rebound. It also allowed the use of E-PROMS for the snare, rimshot, and crossstick sounds. It even had a built-in delay effect. The SDS-9 was popular due to its acoustically sampled snare sound which made it virtually indistinguishable from an acoustic kit.


The official description:
The SDS9 is a 5-drum kit, comprising bass, snare and 3 tom-toms, triggering up to 40 complete “drum kits” (20 factory and 20 programmable presets).

Hitting a specific pad triggers the corresponding channel on the ‘electronics’. A microprocessor controls the dynamic (or volume) of each individual ‘hit’ giving a sensitivity to playing previously unheard of in electronic drums: a ‘real’ drum feel, in fact!

The Simmons SDS9 gives you the sounds, feel and control of acoustic drums plus all the sounds and advantages of electronic drums.

To add to all this ‘reality’, the small pads (snare and toms) have a floating head, the snare also has a rim shot/cross stick facility and the bass pad is piston loaded – giving you the feel and playability of acoustic drums.

The SDS9 electronically synthesises the sounds of each drum. The bass, snare and toms use different methods of synthesis – each the most appropriate for the sound and control you require. The bass is software generated directly by the computer. The snare/rim are digital samples of acoustic drums. The tom-toms are synthesised using analogue circuitry. The tom also have unique ‘second skin’ switch to match the sound and response of a double headed acoustic tom.

The program/store memory facility allows you to build up your own drum sounds. These programmed sounds can be saved to tape, giving you almost limitless capacity to store new sounds, or recall previously stored sounds.

There is also a sophisticated automatic trigger that allows sounds to be reviewed without hitting the pads, and a mode where the drums can be triggered by button tapping.

The SDS9 is the first drum kit that has a built in MIDI interface. This is completely assignable in terms of voice changes and note values. By using the MIDI interface you can directly interface with many available keyboard synthesisers and play their voices from the pads. You can also use MIDI real time recorders/sequencers to record your playing and then playback the SDS9 exactly as you played it.

Another interesting feature of the SDS9 is its built in programmable echo. This programmable effect can be used for single slap-back echo or for long repeating echoes to produce stunningly unique rhythmic-ic-ic patterns and eff-eff-ects-ects.

We have done a lot of work using the latest high technology and computer aided design tools to develop the SDS9 – a new instrument, using new voicing techniques and new materials to give you everything any acoustic kit has to offer and much more besides – the kit that’s destined to add a whole new dimension to your art."

Rare Stockhausen Interview - Electronic Music?

Title link takes you to a post on Audio Lemon featuring a rare Stockhausen interview. It is well worth watching. In the beginning of the video there is what looks like a keyboard (pictured here - note the time it comes in when you check it out). It doesn't appear again in the video. Does anyone know what it is? Also, this is probably blasphemy to even throw this out there, but I find it fascinating how he and other composers who primarily used traditional instruments are considered to be the pioneers of electronic music. I understand the music composed is very akin to music composed on electronic instruments, and of course many of these composers use electronic instruments, but is the music truly electronic in essence, and did they compose their music specifically as electronic pieces? The same goes for many electronic music events that oddly rarely feature the synthesizer. What do you all think? : )

The Augmented Sculpture Project

YouTube via Chebwa. Hopefully this will redeem the last post. A little... Not directly synth related, but I want one of these for my synths. I wonder what was used for the audio in this.

"Created by Pablo Valbuena, it mixes a "volumetric base that serves as support for a second level, a virtual projected layer that allows controlling the transformation and sequentiality of space-time."

More info and a higher quality video here.

Finger Drums

yep...

Tangerine Dream - Ricochet live

YouTube via schafael. Interesting caption for the vid: "excerpt from live 1975 (famous fake)" Anyone know what the "famous fake" is in regards to? If you liked this vid also check out this.

Post Updates

In case you missed it, be sure to check out the following updates:

New Dry Samples of the Formant Kit Modular and links to scanned books with all the circuits

Navs' Modular Lab - The Clash of the VCOs! - New 24bit AIFFs (clicks removed)

Scroll when you get to each and look for Update in red. Don't miss these.

music to play in the dark

flickr by cray5656.

Click here for the full sized shot.

Another synth in the dark, this one via ghostdog in the comments of this post.

Guess the synths.

Quasimidi 309

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Details:
"It has the audio expansion which turns the 309 into a powerful production machine due to its capability to seperate the parts to their own outs. It has the drum expansion and the synth expansion. It also has the latest os 3.00a.

I've made with the 309, you can visit my myspace page: Listen to the song called (mini). The drums are the 309 and the synth parts are a polymorph. Believe it or not, I recorded this live and did not add effects or process it in any way. The 309 allows you to assign patterns to the 18 buttons (pads) on the sequencer, so you can set up a song and move through it live by pressing each pad as you progress. This is how I made this song. Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't doubt the 309, it's not only alot of fun, but extremely powerful and versatile if you dig into it. These are pictures of the actual 309. The readouts show the os version, and the expansions, (I/O) = In/Out, (D) = Drum, (S) = Synth. Beautiful."

15-front

flickr by GermanDragon.

MOOG Model 15

click here for the full sized shot.

Alex Mauer - Vegavox

YouTube via balansamba. Via Music Thing.
"Video from Alex Mauer's Vegavox album, exported from Nestopia (NES emulator) - available soon on a real NES cart, for more info: http://www.myspace.com/alexmauer"

Audio Damage Dr. Device Demos are Up

Remember Dr. Device? Demos are now up on the product page. Title link takes you there - just scroll down when you get there.

Modular Synth In Darkness

flickr by essex sound lab.

"Primarily synthesizers.com modules, plus Cyndustries Zeroscillators and Suit & Tie Guy modules."

Title link takes you to the set.

AudioRealism Drum Machine (ADM)

Remember the AudioRealism Drum Machine? Looks like it's had a bit of a face lift.

Details:
" Booming bassdrums, saucy cymbals and crispy snares can be used to describe the sound of drum machines from the early 80's. ADM contains three classic vintage drum machines from that era rolled into one, combined with a 32-step internal sequencer and pattern controlled fx (PCF). Get all your patterns into ADM via the Import Rebirth function or directly from your old 909 via sysex (we will provide a free tool for dumping sysex).

Sounds

ADM contains 25 drum generators, each one carefully modeled after the classics' analog circuits and 4 PCM players, for a total of 34 sounds (some generators have two sounds). Certain sounds have been extended with extra parameters, like the tuning and attack of the 606 bassdrum. The accents effect on bridged-T oscillators that make up the bassdrum and tom-tom sounds has been closely simulated and the hihats and cymbals sound and react very close to the originals.

The complete list of sounds is as follows: BD808, BD909, BD606, SD808, SD909, SD606, LT808, MT808, HT808, LC808, MC808, HC808, LT909, MT909, HT909, LT606, HT606, RS808, CL808, RS909, MA808, CP808, CP909, CB808, CRASH909*, OH606, OH808, OH909*, CH606, CH808, CH909*, CY606, CY808, RIDE909*."

Formant Modular Through Dynacord Demo

Update: You can find some pics of the modular posted here.

Title link takes you to an awesome demo of the Formant Modular via Georg. Right click the link and save it locally, and then play it. You can follow the timeline below that way.

Details
- Q+ Arpeggiator is driving via Midi CV/Gate the Formant
- Formant into Dynacord TAM 21
- Dyncard DRP20 used with Warm Gate Preset

Formant Drums

0:00 - no patch cords
0:13 - Feedback Loop with the RFM (Resonant Filter Module)
0:26 - Noise into the 24 dB filter
0:39 - Decay tweaks for filter and amp envelope
1:00 - tweaking the RFM settings
1:25 - Full LFO action on the TAM 21
1:35 - Stepping through TAM 21 modes
2:00 - Killer Resonance of the TAM 21
2:39 - Envelope Follower on Resonance
3:00 - TAM 21 off
3:05 - DRP20 off

Update via Georg:
"It is the Formant as introduced in the magazine Elektor in 1977/78 designed by C. Chapman. My Formant was built from Kits of a company called ICA, which sold those kits in Germany. It is not the Formant Pro or MSS2000."

More Updates via swissdoc (Georg) in the comments:
"Those kits are not available anymore, you may find a used system though. The original VCO Design was uA726 based, a chip which is not produced anymore.

Check this links, the latter has the scanned books with all the circuits:
http://www.analoghell.com/studio/forsale/formant/
http://rubidium.dyndns.org/cag/

The soundcharacter of the formant.dynacord demo is quite much from the TAM 21, a BBD based analog flanger plus the RFM module of the Formant, which is a 3 band parametric equalizer."

and

"Some more sound examples from the Formant, this time directly taken from the output, no further processing.

The VCOs - First showing off the 5 different waveforms of one VCO (sin/tri/sqr/saw/spaced saw) then activating more and more waveforms on the 3 VCOs until all 15 are active

PWM - 3 VCOs with square waves, then gradually ativating PWM for all VCOs by the 3 LFOs, then tweaking 12 dB filter settings and the envelope

12 dB Filter LP/HP/BP - Running the VCOs through the 12 dB Filter in the various modes while tweaking envelope intensity, filter frequency and resonance.

FM - The VCOs are set up in a circular FM configuration, 1->2, 2->3, 3->1 with maximum intensity, then various waveforms are switched on and off on the 3 VCOs

Georg."

LolCatSynth "contest" on CatSynth.com

He's baaaack...

For those interested, title link takes you to a caption the cat synth contest on CatSynth.com.

Commitment by PXP

YouTube via Sharpblue (click for more).
"Track 8 from our'Calcium Waves' CD originally released in 1998, from a concept that took Andy and myself two years to complete. This track was originally started of life as a demo recorded and sequenced entirely on an Ensoniq SQ80, sounds which are prominent throughout the track. This track also features some lovely analog sounds from the Yamaha CS40M the baby brother of the CS80.

Music by PXP (Andrew Russell, Mark Keen)
©1998 PXP Music MCPS

I hope you like it. Again no video just the iTunes visualiser"

ARP Odyssey

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

Moog Synth Synthesizer Keyboard Piano Pin

via this auction. Details:
"Never used - Moog Synth Synthesizer Keyboard Piano Pin - NEW - NEW pin. Still in plastic.

Note - This is a tie pin. Read the description carefully as people bid on these pins thinking they are real instruments which they are not! Your bid is a binding contract and I do not have the time to cancel your bids nor will I. If you bid, you understand what this item is. Period!

These are high quality metal tie pin reproductions of the original equipment - not cheap plastic toys repros!

The dimensions are 1 1/4" long by 1/4" high.

Bidding starts @ .99. Good luck - please e-mail with any questions??? PS - these pins sell for $4.95 and up. Shipping and handling will be a flat rate of $3.79 within the US. Outside US? Add $2.00 for shipping.

Read what my buyers say about my pins and my service :

More than I expected..this is made of metal, not plastic! Fantastic piece. Thanx! - nyytehawk"

Crumar CPB-2 Analog Bass Pedals

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.
Details:
"Here's a very cool early 80s analog bass synth, similar to the Moog Taurus pedals. This one doesn't actually have the Crumar brand name on it, but it's the same unit as was marketed by Crumar. Made in Italy. It produces a basic analog synth bass sound, and has the essential controls for shaping the sound- see pics. It's in good condition and works, though the contacts need cleaning because sometimes it retriggers itself a bit erratically. It's in good cosmetic condition too, with only minor scuffs/scrapes and some dust. Comes with the original schematics, though there's a small chunk of paper missing from that. This is a heavy/sturdy synth, built like a tank!"

Todd Rundgrens Utopia - The Seven Rays

YouTube via rundgrenfan. Can anyone id the keyboards/synths in this one?

Aaron's synthesizers

flickr by dereck von.

click here for the full sized shot.

Future Retro Turns 10 on 7.7.7

"Future Retro celebrates 10 years of business, 07:07:07. Discover the range of our work as we share photos and thoughts about the first decade of our creations."

Title link takes you there.

Acidlab Bassline 2.0 Feature List

Synthesis
- wellknown, acid experienced sound synthesis designed after a famous
role model... ;-)
- new, stabilized oszillator circuit
- new VCA-design with less noise

Sequencer (live sequencer!)
- sequencer must not be stopped for any operation
- 96 patterns organized in 12 banks
- 12 songs can contain 8 different patterns
- livesequencer for songs and with tap- and stepmode for patterns
- rollfunction to rotate patterns
- patternchaining for up to 8 patterns
- patternlength from 1 up to 16 steps
- up to 5(!) octaves sequencer range
- transposefunction in songmode

I/O
- Audio input that replaces the oscillator
- FM input to modulate the filter
- CV/gate and accent impulse out
- Audioout ("Männerklinke") and headphoneout


MIDI/SYNC
- Midiclock input
- DIN-Sync I/O
- Onboard Midiclock to DIN-Sync converter

Housing
- Massive (blue anodized as an option) aluminium housing

Click images for larger shots.

Arturia MOOG Modular V Patch and Demos

"These screen shots and description show how I used an instance of Arturia's Moog Modular V version 2.0 software synthesiser to produce an accompanyment to an audio recording of drumming. In the Sonar 3 screenshot you can see the waveform of the audio recording of drums. In the MMV screenshots you can see how I wired the patch. Accompanying the screenshots are notes to clarify connections not obvious in the pictures. At the bottom of this page are links to audio recordings produced by this Sonar/MMV combination."

Title link takes you there.

via brian comnes.

Kyma / Capybara 320

Three interesting shots via this auction. Title link takes you to the flickr set for them including another shot of the cmlabs Motormix in the details below.

Details:
" * Capybara 320 standard configuration (with 19" mounting set)
* cmlabs Motormix - an extremely comfortable fader box (motorised, parameter in display, automatic assignment to Kyma parameters,... retails for +/- $1000.- new)
* Firewire interface for connection to the computer
* Connection cable from Interface to Capybara
* The Book on programming (Kyma X revealed)
* Original Software (Kyma X)"

via Georg.

Navs' Modular Lab - The Clash of the VCOs!

Title link takes you to an audio test on the following VCOs:

"On test are Doepfer's A-111, Plan B's Model 15 & Analogue Systems' RS95e."

It looks like more tests are coming and there's also a free samples including FX and Drums.

Update: The share now contains 24bit AIFFs (clicks removed).

Robert Schroeder Miniaturized Studio

"The recording studio of Robert Schroeder as kit in the scale of 1:10 with all lighting effects and selfturning reflecting ball"

Title link takes you there.

A typical SoNday

flickr by Violator3. Title link takes you to the rest of the set.

"You can watch our first official videoclip HERE!
Sonofnoise.com"

Latest Modular Pics (Featuring Wiard!)

Title link takes you to more pics and details on Muff Wiggler.

surface

YouTube via TehGameItself. via AudioLemon.
"an 8 minute black and white movie shot on ilford 16mm with audio created on a Doepfer analog modular synth."

HarriL - Hour By Four (live)

video upload by HarriL

"HarriL - Hour By Four (live)
MP3 here: link
Ok, hello again. It's been a while since my last video, so I decided to make something so you know that I'm still alive here :) Guitar fed in to the ESX. Everything else is the EMX."

Get started with I-CubeX

YouTube via ICubeX. via AudioLemon where you can find more info.
"An introduction to I-CubeX sensor technology. This video walks you through the initial setup with an I-CubeX StarterPack, which now includes a microDig (not a miniDig), even smaller and faster!"

Acidlab Bassline 2

"A response from Acidlab:
Hallo John,
it will still take some time, untill I can deliver to U.S. I try to give the first prototypes to friends in germany for testing. As I present the new bassline in on my webpage, I will have some units on stock to sell. The price will be 550 Euro + shipping 32 Euro to U.S.
Best regards
Klaus"

via VSE via AudioLemon.