MATRIXSYNTH

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Yamaha DX1

via this auction

50" x 26" x 9", 115 lbs
"So, what's actually in a DX 1?

It's a 32 voice FM synth based on the DX 7 voice structure. It adds the ability to have split and dual modes (two 16 voices synths). Physically, the DX 1 has a great feeling wooden keyboard with velocity, after touch and individual key after touch (a rarity for any synth). It also has the standard pitch bend and modulation wheels, plenty of connections in the back for pedals and footswitches, MIDI In/Out/Thru, and both 1/4" and balanced XLR outputs. On the front under the wheels are connections for headphones and a breath controller input. There are also two cartridge slots for additional sounds/storage.

I believe Yamaha spent extra time and money on the output stage of this synth. It sounds much better than any DX-7 or DX-7 II. Hook up the XLRs to your mixing board and stand back. There's a certain 'bigness' that comes through and you can hear it even if couldn't see the synth playing it. Having the weighted keys and responsiveness of velocity and individual after touch means that you'll get lost playing this thing. It takes you to another world and time just stands still.

Oh yeah, there's also the little matter of ALL THE DISPLAY INFORMATION! Forget trying to build a ship in a bottle. The front panel of the DX 1 makes it a joy to actually program and edit FM patches. All the algorithms are displayed and the selected one is displayed in the LED boxes next to the chart. The feedback operator, algorithm number, detune, and frequency are also displayed. The envelope rates and levels have their own display section, as well as information about the output level and other generally useful data.

There's also lots of dedicated buttons and a handy chart for accessing various functions in the menus. All in all, this synth is an absolute breeze to use and to get around."

ROLAND BASS GUITAR SYNTHESIZER GR-33B

images at this auction

MFX24 24 BIT F/X circuit bent effects

via this auction
You might remember the MFX24 from this video. Currently there only appears to be one for sale, but here's a link to the seller's listings in case more get added over time.

"The MFX-24 is a compact portable effects processor that has been designed with the circuit bending and electronica culture in mind, with a retro design, straight forward interface design and small form factor makes it the perfect companion for your gigs.

Don't be fooled by it size! It has a full blown 24 bits processing engine with 15 amazing presets like reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, phaser,tremolo, Pitch shifter...it also acts like a synthesizer with a sine wave generator that can create an extremely low powerful bass and also a random lfo generator!

3 independent controllers for real time manipulation, control 3 different aspects of the selected preset for unique sounding effects in real time!

BIGHEAD_ELECTRONICS is proud to bring you this homebrew product, designed and built in my home garage(Steve Jobs style!!)"

Techno Klee

YouTube via synthdood
"EM Klee, SSM2040 filter, three XR2206 VCO's, TH VCA-1, BOSS DR-110, two MOTM EG's, Space Echo RE-201, Lexicon MPX-100 (reverb), Mackie 1604VLZ, Canon HV30."

Voltage Controlled 3-Pole State Variable Filter

"This is an interesting twist on the traditional 2-pole state variable filter, as used in many Oberheims and other analogue synths. Based on an Analog Devices SSM2164 quad VCA"

see neil's webbly world for more details including ordering info. Samples to come.

BEDRUM - DRUM MACHINE for the iPhone

"A classic Drum Machine
for iPhone & iPod Touch
Now available at iTunes App Store!

Features:
* Easy and quick to use interface
* Choose between 4 different drumsets
* 16 step programmable pattern sequenser

Developed by:
Magnus Larsson - interface
design & sound
Nick Rudolfsky - code"

BEDRUM
You can get BEDRUM here:

Some Music Using the Gakken SX-150

via John Levin
"I finally got it together to make a piece with the Gakken SX-150. My basic idea was to treat the Gakken the same way I treat my Arp Odyssey: run it through a Line 6 DL-4 in looper mode, with a long repeat time, to emulate tape delay with feedback. Much of the work I do with the Odyssey involves modulating consonant intervals in the filter with a combination of envelopes, sample and hold and the LFO."

You can find more info including another track featuring the ARP Odyssey on John's Things that go him in the night.

Moog CDX, White Elephant

via this auction
Googlish:
"Absolutely rare Moog synthesizer with built organ for sale. The cult instrument comes from the 70's and bears the name CDX or 'White Elephant'."

Additional translation via Florian who sent this in:
"Found in the rehearsal room. For sale is an absolutely rare Moog organ with builtin synthesizer. The instrument is from the seventies and is named Cdx or 'White Elephant'. Unfortunately I[*] did not find the stand for it. The organ works basically[**], but I could not test all functions, because I have not deep enough knowledge. May it is necessary to fix something. This thing is definitely an eye-catcher, because it looks that futuristic. The organ sounds like The Doors."

Waldorf Blofeld Display

nice shot via ciprian on the Waldorf list.

Vintage Synths Vol 1 - Moog Minimoog

YouTube via triumphthruxton.
"Vintage Synths Vol 1 - Moog Minimoog
German synth historian Matthias Becker produced a CD series back in 1990 with tracks made with one synth only. The CDs were named "Synthesizers Von Gestern Vol 1/2/3". This track was composed by Klaus Stülen at Originalton West Studio / Köln."
Note you can find more info including how to order the Synthesizers Von Gestern CDs in this post.
You can find prior posts featuring tracks and more info in general here.

Video title updated: Vintage Synth Demo - Moog Minimoog

RJDJ - Amazing iPhone App

YouTube via jetdaisuke
"http://webdog.be/archives/0...
iPhoneの音楽アプリ「RJDJ」の紹介です。マイクから拾った日常の生活音がすばらしい音楽へと早変わりです。"
"iPhone music applications "RJDJ" referral. Mike was拾from everyday life and a quick change to the sound of the music is wonderful."

The power of 3xOsc

YouTube via Reaper1984
"Some people think that you need to own all those expensive VST plugins like Nexus, V-station, Vanguard, Predator, too make good sounds.
That is not true.
FL Studios builtin synthesizer 3xOsc is a good example of what i'm talking about."

Novation Nova 2 | demo (1 of 2) by syntezatory.prv.pl

YouTube via Jexus

"2000 Novation Nova II (24 voices / 6 part multitimbral). All sounds programmed by WC Olo Garb. Video editing by WC Olo Garb. ||| Syntezatory.prv.pl Videos: showing you not what a synthesizer can do, but what a man can do with a synthesizer."

Ohm Force Group Buy

"Why an Ohm Force group buy?
If you want to expand your FX possibilities ahead of all the classic plug-ins out there - and definetively avoid cheesy sounds - Ohm Force is probably as far as you can get in term of sound processing, sonic manipulation possibilities and damaging influence for your neighborghood. Used both by the hyped pro and the freakiest hairless experimental musicians, this FX line is the reference you need about creative plug-ins or cat-featuring GUI. So the ProTooler Ohm Force group buy is the perfect opportunity to get all these killer plugins for a..... killer price.
How it works

How it works?

The group buy starts the October 13th 2008 and will end at November 9th 2008.

The idea of a Group Buy is simple: the more people commit to get plugins or bundles, the bigger the discount - as far as 50% off ! At the end of the offer customers are contacted and buy it at the final price. There is also a little twist: Happy First Week*! People commiting the first week gain definitely two level over the one that is displayed. The Happy First Week* starts October 13th and ends October 20th."

black is DIY Silver is Doepfer

flickr by rabato

full size

CASIO CZ-1 (velocity & touch sensitive)

flickr by Neil Vance

full size

"The CZ flagship."

LPG01

flickr by fonitronik
(click for more)

full size

"populated prototype PCB of Buchla 292c LPG. authorized PCB run by thomas white."

Toad synth Theme Song

YouTube via bluelantern320.
"This is why the synth is called toad, it can make amphibian sounds and croke."

The following are some images and details via these auctions. You can find more at the auction.

"Introducing the next chapter in Underground Electronics: The Toad Monophonic Synthesizer.
Made with the highest quality CNC PCB manufacturing, hand selected parts, and lexan front panel. Almost 90% of the controls have no wires, all onboard tight fit electronics-lightning fast very accurate response off the BOURNS high quality Pots.This project was created for my musical purposes and my higher requirements. It had to perform ILL! and be very unique. It came out so good, I am attempting to populate the world with toads! at a very resonable price level." via the forum.

Reason for Guitar Synthe .3 補足：参考動画

YouTube via SyntheProgrammerKATO
"http://kato-masaharu.asablo.jp/blog/2008/10/14/3819113"

Monday, October 13, 2008

Steiner Parker Synthacon with analog "151 sequencer"

YouTube via b3nsf. See this post for the previous videos.
"I just got the sequencer 151 back from my tech, working great now with both channels, one controlling pitch, the other cutoff frequency... The Steiner Parker Synthacon sounds friggin awesome like usual... the sound!!!"

Korg DS-10 Boxart versions

flickr by Racum

full size

We're All Alone - Yamaha FX1 Track

via Jason in the comments of this post on Jimmy and the Yamaha FX1. BTW, if you haven't seen that post yet, do it, it's a pretty cool bit of history. That said:

"Add another FX1 to the list of found. This one was purchased new to be, of all things, a church organ! My father was a Yamaha dealer at the time and he was offered the chance to "test" a new model of the Electone series. It was actually purchased in 1982 (yep, before it was released). The serial number on it was "XXX" and there was nothing on the organ indicating it was an FX1. I always thought it was kind of strange Yamaha would send something like this to such a small town to be tested. Anyway, the organ is now gone after being struck by lightning in 1989. It sat out in an alley exposed to the elements for 7 years before it was finally hauled off to the dump. I tried to stop that, but I was only 15 when it was drug off, so I didn't have a choice.
I'll always remember that organ as being the "Star Trek" organ. The kids of the church would just sit at it and change the settings to make the sliders move on their own. Anyone else think it looked like a console out of Star Trek TNG? haha
btw, here's a link to an MP3 file of a demonstration of the organ playing."

drums through doepfer modular along with juno-60

YouTube via analogueak
"AUDIO PATH (hi hat and snare): drum mic, compressor, external input, audio divider, filter, wave shape r, waveform processor, reverberation, mixer, rec-
DRUM TRIGGER PATH (bass drum sound): mounted to bass drum, envelope generator, oscillator, filter, amp, mixer, re c
AUDIO AS TRIGGER PATH (bass line): external input gate out, clock divider, trigger sequencer, oscillator, filter, amp, mixer, re c
random voltage is modulating various parameters.
and a Juno on top."

POLIVOKS

images at this auction
"The Polyvox is a duophonic analog synthesizer, with a 49-note (F-E) keyboard. It was made and sold in Russia (then USSR). It features two VCOs, a noise generator, one LFO, a filter (low-pass and bandpass), and two ADSR envelope generators. VCO1 can be cross-modulated by VCO2. Each ADSR can be switched to auto-trigger, each with independent rates.The sound is quite rich and somewhat harsh and aggressive. This is more of a space-synth. You can be sure that you will have never heard the sounds this one can produce. It sounds like these old Yamaha CS-30's, but then fat filters like in Moogs. Polyvox comes with a lockable hard shock resistant aluminum case covered with plastic, also there are two plastic compartments attached to the inside." see the seller's other items for more.
sounds
Panel translation in english

Formanta

images at this auction

"Formanta mini soviet extremely rare guitar-like digital-analog poly synth!!!! It looks like moog liberation or similar... It was manufactured in same formanta polivoks factory, this model are from the latest formanta synths line as kvintet, maestro, formanta p-432, it has 32 very unique and powerfull preset sounds, 8 voices polyphony, unison mode, modulation control and other functions.

Panel functions:
preset select knobs - banks 0-3, sounds 0-7
unison mode -on/off
fine tuning +/- 1 semitone
vibrato - depth, freq level
main volume level

on the grip - 2 sustain, vibrato, solo knobs, glissando controller (slide pitch shifter)"

samples at the auction or here

Breakaway Vocalizer 1000 Voice Synthesizer

via this auction

"These units are great for bizzare instrumentation, hacking/circuit bending, and kids. If you don't know how it works, basically you sing into the mic and it generates corresponding synthesized sounds- you can pick the sound. It also allows you to accompany a bunch of built in songs and rhythms. A total trip."

Update via Musicwise in the comments: "I have one of these and the real value in the Breakaway is realtime Audio to MIDI. You have to power it up with the yellow button pressed and it will then output anything you sing into it as MIDI. You can bend or even switch octaves as you play. I use it to capture vocals as MIDI or to perform sax solos with Saxlab and for writing intricate bass lines. Fantastic box!"

arp odyssey 2813

images at this auction

Dutch Space Mission- 3rd set @ E-Live

YouTube via filbyhyde22. follow-up to this post.
"part of the opening of the 3rd and last set recorded at E-live in Eindhoven on 11-10-08."

2 cool videos from Different Skies 2008

"We'd like to thank everyone for their support and their patience; after some
delay, two videos are available now for viewing on the Different Skies site.

http://www.differentskies.com/DS2008/differentskies2e.html

These are links to movies streamed from vimeo.com that should work without a
password.

One video is a short piece by Jeff Kunzelman called "The Process" which is
more artistic/atmospheric than outright informational; it interleaves footage
of music being made at Arcosanti with shots of the surrounding environment and
some footage of our reaction to the sudden rainstorm that inundated the stage
and drove us all to shelter the day before the concert. (The soundtrack is an
unedited live improv session from one of the nighttime "all star jams", btw.)

This video is of particular interest to music historians because it
conclusively documents that at least once in our 20-year musical association,
Nick Rothwell gave me musical direction and I took it without arguing. It also
shows off how Jim Combs looks in a burnoose, and showcases Jeannie Allen's
expertise at catching skinks running loose in the backstage lounge.

The other video is the long-awaited Different Skies 2008 "gear porn" video.
These videos, wherein the participants in DS describe precisely what they're
using for that year's show, have been very popular since their inception some
years past. Giles Reaves and Greg Hurley have done them before, and they've
been very extensive and detailed... this year's version, by Nick Rothwell, is
(we believe) the most comprehensive one yet, covering absolutely everything
used at DS 2008 (and showing the results of the aforementioned rainstorm at
one juncture in the film).

Audio from the concerts and from the improv "all star jams" is forthcoming;
it's in the edit and assembly process. In the meantime, we hope that DS fans
and armchair participants around the world will enjoy setting aside a chunk of
time to watch these movies and enjoy a little taste of what the festival is
like.

My apologies for the crossposting; please feel free to pass these links around
to anyone you feel might be interested, especially since so many people seem
to really get off on the gear-porn movies.

Best regards,

mike"

via Cikira

Sea Devils Filter filled the 44th space - Synthesizers.com

YouTube via angelometz
"I finally completed my 44 spaces! This patch features the Sea Devis Filter by STG Soundlabs, and the dotcom clipper/rectifier."

Vintage Synthesizers

flickr by ▬ nelson ▬
(click for more)

"...Hiding in the closet."

full size

Moog Minimoog
Oxford Synthesizer Company OSCar
Roland JX-3P

Dutch Space Mission @ E-live

YouTube via filbyhyde22
"the second part of the first set recorded live in Eindhoven at E-live on 11-10-08. Dutch Space Mission is a collaboration between the artists Phrozenlight and Von Haulshoven"
via the forum:
radias
an1x
nord rack 3
jp 8080
ks-rack
m vs1
motif xs rack
two maq`s

Palm Sounds Live May 2008

YouTube via PalmSounds

"Some excerpts from my live show earlier this year. I've finally got around to editing them into something that can be watched. Find out more about mobile music making here:
http://the-palm-sound.blogspot.com/"
Tags: Palm Treo Tungsten Bhajis Loops Buzzer Kaos Pad Kaossilator SunVox iPod NinerPaint PDA

Magic Smoke Electronics Thomas Henry 21st Century LFO

via Tim Servo on this electro-music.com thread:
AS21C "Super LFO" PCBs available
"Call it the "Super LFO," call it the "TH-301," call it the "Cucamonga," call it the "LFO with the three page schematic from Thomas Henry's AS21C book," call it anything you like, but we finally have some available!

With some assistance from the ever-talented Dave Brown, we've finished shaking down the first run of PCBs for the TH-301 "Cucamonga" LFO. This is a nifty little unit with some interesting features:
*VC frequency
*Selectable Sine, Tri, Saw or Ramp output
*Gate and Trigger outputs
*Sync Input
*Built in Lag function for delayed vibrato and other similar effects
*Built in Delay (acts like a gate delay) to delay the onset of the "Lag" function
*Delay time period can be started by a keyboard gate (or other similar signal) or by an NC footswitch
*LED frequency indicator, since we all like blinky lights!

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND: These boards are Rev01. As such, they need a few tweaks for things that will be fixed on a later rev. You'll need to do two cuts, add two jumpers, and add a couple of parts. I would NOT recommend this for a first project. You really should have built a few things before this, and have an oscilloscope for tweaking the waveform trims. Still, if you've been wanting a very full-featured LFO, this just might do the trick for you. The LFO schematic in AS21C really is a three pager, so this is something you'll definitely want a PCB for. To my knowlege, Scott Stites is the only person brave enough to have attempted this circuit on a breadboard (more likely two or more breadboards). Note that you'll need an 8038 function gen chip, LM555 timer, 3080 OTA, TL074 quad op amp, 1458 dual op amp and CD4016 analog switch chips for this board.

The normal selling price for the TH-301 LFO board will be $20, but we have about ten of the Rev01 boards and since they need the tweaks mentioned above, we're selling them for $12 each. Shipping will be $3.50 in North America, and $5.50 to UK/EU/Aus. If you're interested, PayPal funds to <see the thread>. If you need more info, either shout out here, or send us a message at the magsmoke Gmail address.

Again, I have to give a huge THANK YOU to Dave Brown for helping with this. I've got other Magic Smoke projects in the pipeline, we've just reissued two Thomas Henry books (with another on the way), and our day jobs keep John and I hopping, so there is NO way we could have gotten the TH-301 out the door this soon without some extra assistance. Dave was a great help, and as always, has made a nifty web page with some details and o-scope screen shots:
http://modularsynthesis.com/magicsmoke/as21c-lfo/lfo.htm

Other AS21C boards will follow, but I wanted to get the most complicated PCB finished first. I should have a TH-301 "Cucamonga" with a quickie DIY face panel at the AH Nor Cal show on the 25th if you want to come check it out (and you happen to be in northern California).

Cheers!
Tim (happens to be in northern California) Servo"

Dübreq iStylophone 2008 - iStylophone Trilogy

Classic (front)
Bass (back left)
and Treble (back right)

more images

Coming from The Very Cool Software Company

"Welcome to The Very Cool Software Company web site. Very Cool Software is a new London, UK based company that specializes in developing and bringing to market music and games software applications for the Apple Mac OS X operating system and the Apple iPhone, iPod and iPod Touch platforms.

Very Cool Software is coming soon..."

DIY electronics and Arduino Workshop Merz Akademie

"Electronics workshop at Merz Akademie.
Pictures and videos here: http://gieskes.nl/pix/
School site: http://merz-akademie.de/
Workshop by: http://gieskes.nl"

Image Scan Sequencer

YouTube via ggijs
"This is a scanner that can scan a image and play it back as midi notes. For more info go here: http://gieskes.nl/instruments/?file=i..."

Arduino Image Scanner

"Arduino based scanner.. it uses LDRs to scan.
http://gieskes.nl/instruments/?file=i..."

HSS

YouTube via ggijs
"http://gieskes.nl/instruments/?file=h...
Prototype 1 is used as a CV input and Audio input (at the same time) for Prototype 2."

Acid Machine

YouTube via ggijs
"A machine that makes tekno and other types of music..
http://gieskes.nl/instruments/?file=a..." Check out the link for more images and info. A short excerpt from the site:
"The sound the synth generates, is a 4 bit saw, or the same saw clipped to a square.
The 4 bit saw is made with a binary counter and a resistor ladder. A nice feature is that you can mix in the binary pins, making one octave jumping chords (like c1 + c2 + c3 or d1 + d2 + d3 and so on)."

ROLAND JX-1 SYNTH CONTROLLER CUSTOM GREEN

The customsynth.co.uk green Roland JX-1 featured in this prior post is currently up for auction here.

Klang Werks (assembled) back in stock

http://www.blacet.com/store2.html

(Note that quantities of this module are limited and this is the final run due to ICs going out of production.)

NOTE: I'm subbed to a few manufacturer news lists. Should I put up all emails I get from manufacturers or just the new product announcements?

Should I put up all emails I get from manufacturers or just the new product announcements? ( surveys)

Sequential Circuits Drumtraks

images at this auction

Sequential circuits drumtrax

YouTube via shyzen
"here is a vid of my drumtraks for my ebay auction. jasey_boy"
As of this post, I'm not seeing one for jasey_boy or one with the video embeded. Six-Traks on Ebay

MFX24 EFFECTS PROCESSOR

YouTube via human202
"The MFX-24 is a compact portable effects processor that has been designed with the circuit bending and electronica culture in mind, with a retro design, straight forward interface design and small form factor makes it the perfect companion for your gigs. Don't be fooled by it size! It has a full blown 24 bits processing engine with 15 amazing presets like reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, phaser,tremolo, Pitch shifter...it also acts like a synthesizer with a sine wave generator that can create an extremely low powerful bass and also a random lfo generator! Control 3 different aspects of the selected preset for unique sounding effects in real time!"

Anyone know where to get more info on this? Google didn't bring up much.

Karplus Funk

YouTube via boobtube356
"Karplus Strong synthesis with Doepfer A-188-1 512 BBD, A-131 VCA, and A-140 ADSR (foreground). Doepfer A-121 filter in low pass modulated my another A-140 (background). Percussion is Doepfer A-111 and A-117. Sequencing is A-152 and A-160/161. Entire patch is Doepfer!"

KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP with KORG DS-10

YouTube via jetdaisuke
"http://webdog.be/archives/0...
KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP
Playing with KORG DS-10
ニンテンドーDSソフト「KORG DS-10」と共に「KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP」を使ってみた"
Googlish:
"http://webdog.be/archives/0 ...
KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP
Playing with KORG DS-10
Nintendo DS software "KORG DS-10" with the "KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP" I use"

KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP コルグカオスパッドミニKP

"http://webdog.be/archives/081013_1434...
KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP
Playing with KORG DS-10
コルグDJエフェクター「カオスパッド」の小型軽量モデル「KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP」を購入。KAOSSILATORとかDS-10とかiPhoneと一緒に遊ぶと面白い！"
Googlish:
"http://webdog.be/archives/081013_1434 ...
KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP
Playing with KORG DS-10
Korg DJ effector "chaos pad" model of the small, lightweight "KORG KAOSS PAD mini-KP" buy. KAOSSILATOR or iPhone and DS-10 or a cord and fun to play!"