MATRIXSYNTH

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

General Purpose MIDI Controllers Update

Just a follow-up to this post. There's a lengthy update to the thread here for anyone interested.

Updates include:
The Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard
"Another customization that you may want to tweak is the keyboard mapping. The default layout maps about two and half octaves for the QWERTY alphanumeric keyboard, but there are some more definitions in the data directory, adapted for other international layouts. You can even define your own mapping using a dialog box available in the Edit->Keyboard map menu. There are also options to load and save the maps as XML files. The last loaded map will be remembered the next time you start VMPK. In fact, all your preferences, selected MIDI bank and program, and the controller values will be saved on exit, and restored when you restart VMPK the next time."

The Scala Home Page
"Scala is a powerful software tool for experimentation with musical tunings, such as just intonation scales, equal and historical temperaments, microtonal and macrotonal scales, and non-Western scales. It supports scale creation, editing, comparison, analysis, storage, tuning of electronic instruments, and MIDI file generation and tuning conversion. All this is integrated into a single application with a wide variety of mathematical routines and scale creation methods. Scala is ideal for the exploration of tunings and becoming familiar with the concepts involved. In addition, a very large library of scales is freely available for Scala and can be used for analysis or music creation."

And Microtonal Synthesis, home of the Wavemakers modular synthesizer.

navs.modular.lab Patch of the Day - Bugfest and Electro Harmonix Stereo Poly Chorus

Bugfest here
(bananalogue, cwejman, doepfer, livewire, plan b)

Chorus here
(processing various analogue sources - Jomox SunSyn, Cwejman, Livewire and Plan B mods).

LEO Update

Just in case you missed it, see the update to this post.

GorF PCB

more info and larger shot on Vacoloco Ramblings

I, Parasite @ Club Europa

flickr by parasitk

full size

"I, Parasite live in Brooklyn, NY @ Club Europa 02.15.2009"

frac rack modular

Testing tintinnabulome


YouTube via StarfireMX
"Just an test of a couple bugs in some software."

NAMM: Ed Rhone Reaper Demo at Winter NAMM 2009


YouTube via OpenLabsInc
"Open Labs technical writer James Ed Rhone Jr. demonstrates how Reaper recording software can incorporate virtual and live instruments simultaneously at the Winter NAMM Show, 2009. Ed Rhone has been Open Labs technical writer and tour support for over three years. When he's not working for Open Labs, Rhone sings and plays guitar for his band Murder Earth."

brutal blinky killer on a rampage


YouTube via horchacha
"134.2 volt power supply
12 NE-2 Neon Lamps
Some Pots and Switches
Some resistors and capacitors
Some wood and masonite

dave wright
www.notbreathing.com"

MOONMODULAR M525 reversible attenuator


YouTube via moonmodular
"We use 3 different CV- sources via M591 matrix router: one LFO ramp and one LFO rectangle and one M511c"

Studio, Feb 2009


flickr by solarisstudios

full size

Note the Crumar Stratus and the yellow and black synth above it. I've posted that one before but I forget what it is. Anyone remember?

Update via Heath: "The one above the Stratus is a Korg 900PS" You can find some prior posts including video on the KORG 900PS here.

EMS SYNTHI 100 for Auction


via this auction

BIN of 45,000.00 GBP or roughly 63,964.41 USD according to XE.com
Details:
"For sale the legendary EMS SYNTHI 100 modular in great condition and fully functional - one of the biggest and rarest synths ever built, 33 units ever built - including many original accessories and non-working parts of the ultra-rare COMPUTER SYNTHI !

The Synthi 100 was entirely serviced, finished in January.
The unit is an early one. That is, the filters are diode based (like the VCS3) and not OTA based, therefore they are by far the best sounding of the 2 "revisions".
Probably the richest, creamiest HP I have ever heard.
Says who ? says me and James Walker (http://www.synthrepairservices.com/), one of the best specialists worldwide in this matter.

With the main unit come many original accessories :
- original double keyboard
- original wooden keyboard cover
- original cable from keyboard to unit
- 2 wooden covers to protect each matrix from dust
- original manual for the Synthi 100 : "Handbook for Synthi 100"
- Female and male plugs for optional CV/gate or MIDI remote control
- Large quantity of pins :
91 blue
69 white
48 orange
6 reds
1 pin with cable to connect to coloured connectors to control pulsewidth of waveforms.
4 cables with pins at both ends which allow connecting between matrixes.
- special modification adding the possibility of controlling the oscillators' waveforms pulsewidth, not possible on stock Synthi 100s.
- A big pile of empty Synthi 100 patch sheets
- Ignition key
- original expansion card for analog cards repairs
- not original expansion card for digital cards repairs
(with these 2 last cards you can repair your unit forever, without them it would be a folly to buy this synth as the day it fails you cannot repair it anymore)

Also included with all this will come non-working parts of the ultra-rare COMPUTER SYNTHI.
Note that there has been only 3 ever built, 1 of them being the prototype, so this is more than rare, this is almost unique.
They are 3 parts of the Computer Synthi plus very extensive schematics for the Computer Synthi in a "HandBook for Synthi - Computer Synthi" big black book (in case you know someone very good at music electronics who wants to rebuild it). Here you will find more infos about this :
http://members.tripod.com/werdav/comsynth.htm
They seem to be the 2 upper panels :
* 1. Two, digital tape decks mounted at the top left of the front panel.
* 2. An alpha-numeric display, user push buttons, and a digital oscillator mounted at the top right of the front panel.
Plus the other rack under the alpha-numeric display+push buttons which is maybe the 3rd part described :
* 3. Analogue to digital converters and digital to analogue converters both with software, range and offset controls - mounted at the bottom right of the front panel."

Radias III by MG


YouTube via radiasmg. via the forum.
"All sound is made with Radias III excluded only the start and the final Bang. Radias III is a very good synthesizer for live performance, 24 oscillator 6 step sequencer , 9 mod sequencer 6 Lfo 9 Eg ecc. ecc."

Analog Shutdown - Muzik 4 Machines (d64)


YouTube via muzik4machines. MP3 here
"Korg ESX1: All Sequences/Drums
Yamaha TX81z: Reverby/Pumpy Sawtooth Bass (chain:TX81z-Boss V-Wha-Akai MFC42-Alesis Nanoverb-DBX266 ch1 (pump)-ch2 (Compression)-Mixer)
Roland MKS50: Hoover/Saw/Lead/Pumpy Synth (Chain MKS50-Boss SL20-DBX266-Zoom RFX2200-Mixer)
Redsound SoundBite Pro: Vocals/looping
Korg Kaoss pad 2: Tempo Delay
Korg Kaoss Pad 3: Loops, Looper(snare rolls), Grainshifter
Korg Kaossilator: Noise Sweeps (path: K01-Mini KP(Delay)-Mixer)
Korg ER1: Beatbox AND sidechain signal (Chain: left out-ProCo Turbo Rat-Boss V-Wha-Mixer)
DX200: Fm E-piano, pads, 303-esque sequences, etc (Chain: Left Out-Boss DD5 delay-Mixer)
Motu Midi Mixer 7s: My mixer, controlled by the BCF2000)
Kawai Midi Patchbay:Guess
DBX MC 6: Output Compressor
NOT used:
a computer, besides recording it"

Muzik 4 Machines - Electrocution (Electro Cushion)

Tristan Perich at the Stone with Ensemble Pamplemousse Compositions with 1-Bit Music

"This Saturday, February 21st, three new and recent compositions by Tristan Perich for ensemble with 1-bit music will be performed at the Stone (curated this month by Shannon Fields). The recital marks the premiere of a new work composed for Ensemble Pamplemousse, his first composition exploring white noise as a basis for sound. Computationally, pure oscillation and total randomness occupy opposite ends of the information spectrum, yet both are found in the foundations of sound and pattern, and this new body of work on white noise explores this domain. Two other pieces involve pure tones: one for three violas, the other featuring Perich on piano.
- 1/4 Revolution
For three violas and three-channel 1-bit music
Performed by Nadia Sirota, Elizabeth Weisser and Andrea Hemmenway
- Intersticials
For flute, violin, cello, percussion and three-channel 1-bit noise
Performed by Ensemble Pamplemousse: Natacha Diels, Kiku Enomoto, John Popham, Andrew Greenwald
- Five Architectures
For solo piano and four-channel 1-bit music
Performed by Tristan Perich
Tristan Perich at the Stone
February 21, 2009, at 8PM sharp
At The Stone
North-west corner of 2nd Street and Avenue C, New York City (map)
Kind Regards,
Tristan Perich
- tristanperich.com
- 1bitmusic.com"

Jumpy - A quick song on the Korg DS-10


This is why you come to MATRIXSYNTH.
'I just got the Korg DS-10, which is a "game" that turns your nintendo DS into a synthesizer. I thought I would share my first little creation, and jump around like an ass too. Enjoy, internets."

Buchla Modular Synthesizer

flickr by the HPB

(click for more)

full size

"SFSU Electronic Music Lab 1987 (under the direction of Dr. Herb Bielawa). This rig contains parts of the original San Francisco Tape Music Center Buchla 100 series modular synthesizer, including an 8 stage sequencer, a rack of Moog filters (HP, LP and BP) and a rack of house-made modules ("guerilla modules"). Not seen is the 16 step Buchla "keyboard" which was (remarkably for when it was built) pressure sensitive and each key was independently tunable. A great rig."

Music HDR

flickr by zall164
(click for more)

full size

Stevie Wonder 80´s Setup

flickr by Pablo Gregor

full size

Bruno Spoerri - Iischalte (Switched-on Switzerland) (1974)

on 36 15 MOOG

MIDI clock control of Q960 sequencer


YouTube via davidryle
"To control the clock timing for synchronizing to Cubase, this patch was created on my Synthesizers.com modular."

LIVE JAM AT S-CAT 009


YouTube via PHONICPOTION. Note S-CAT/PHONICPOTION also bends quite a bit of gear. You can usually find his work on Ebay. You can also check out his YouTube channel for more, or of course search on PHONICPOTION or S-CAT on the top left of this site to see what I've posted of his before.

LIVE JAM AT S-CAT 010

juno106no1(3 replacement chips)


YouTube via abertronic.
"chip test and demo of ebay item up for auction."
Not sure if this one is listed yet. Juno-106 on Ebay
If possible always test your synths before you buy, especially Juno-106s. Be sure to test with and without the Sub Oscillator as the subosc can cover-up a faulting chip. This happened to me once.

juno106 no2 test (2 replacement chips)

FabFilter Volcano Demonstration Wins Science Fair


YouTube via gearwire
"Apparently, Bill Holland's mother never taught him that he shouldn't play around with volcanoes, because Bill is experimenting with FabFilter Volcano like he's some kind of scientologist in this video.

See more on Gearwire.com.
Category: Music"

Yamaha GX1 on Sequentix.com


Sequentix.com has a page up on the GX1. You can find it here. Currently there are only images including some of the inside and the separate programming interface. Note that Sequentix makes the P3 Sequencer and the MIDIBass 303 retrofit.


Note the bottom shot is one individual voice board with encased modules for each filter, VCA and VCO. I'm not sure how many cards are in the GX1, but if you click through you will see an image showing them lined up. I counted 50 cards, but some appear to be different than others.

The LEO at the Museum of Making Music


via Jeff of
http://www.museumofmakingmusic.org/

"The LEO is substantial to say the least. It was developed by a guy named Don Lewis from the San Francisco area, and basically consists of a Hammond B-3, 4 Oberheim SEM's, 2 ARP 2600 modular units, 2 patch bays, Roland RE-201 and DC-50 for effects and a Revo speaker box w/ controller. Everything is encased in 1" thick acrylic and should never be moved by less than 6 people. It is, simultaneously, a work of exceptional ingenuity and unmitigated, cumbersome construction. It is, without question, the most obvious reason for the creation of MIDI." :)


Note the Museum of Making Music will be hosting a Moog exhibit (Moogseum) with The Bob Moog Foundation beginning September 2009. You can find previous posts on the Moogseum here.


Update: "The LEO is on permanent display here as well as a small selection of analog and digital synthesizers (Roland D-50, DX-7, Korg M-1). There are certain exhibits that are brought in on a temporary basis. The Moog Exhibit will be that kind of exhibit. But we also have 6 galleries of musical instruments dating all the way back to the late 1800s. All instruments are viewable to the public, but most are not playable. I will be consulting on a redesign of our Gallery 5 (The synth/80s room) after our current slide guitar exhibit is finished in April. I found out that our curator is housing several synths in an off-site warehouse including a WASP, a GNAT, and a SPIDER sequencer, a Synthi e, and a Korg Polysix just off the top of her head! So we're going to make the synth display shimmer in April."

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

live techno session on my QY70 ...I know its a little slow ;)


YouTube via LxAxRxS
"enjoy! plesae watch full length. THANX FOR WATCHING!"

Little Star


YouTube via notepool2
"Within 15 minutes of being introduced to this Opal Prototype, 11 year old Lisa McAllister learned this melody with chord accompanyment with no previous experience on any musical instrument."

monome sonome 1


YouTube via analoq
"I mapped a subset of the sonome layout used on the Axis64 and Opal keyboards onto my monome. I learned part of the minuet in G (played in C, sorry) to demonstrate. See this: http://www.theshapeofmusic.com/note_p...
The note arrangement was invented by Peter Davies who is here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/notepool2"

mnm arp drums


YouTube via vcovcfvca
"This simple 2 bar pattern contains a BBOX track that I manipulate with a 2 step arpeggiator set as follows: SPD x6, MODE KEY, PLAY TRUE, RNGE 2OCT 0JMP 0 and AMP, FLT and LFO trigs all enabled.

Note that the two arp steps are represented by the first two (red and/or green) trig lights that I manipulate throughout the track. When the first trig is green the original trigs are playing in time with the music. When the second trig is green the "arpeggiated trigs" are being played.

If you only play the second trig (and not the first) you basically get only the arpeggiated trigs which are "off" from the original beat by whatever amount based on your arp settings. This allows you to temporarily create a funky fill or break beat that tosses the downbeat into the air temporarily.

If you pull the first trig back in after 2 beats then the listener can easily get back on track and you can keep the groove going. If you let the second trig play alone longer, however, you make things all the more confusing for the listener as the downbeat gets lost.

I start out demoing with the music, then play the beats without the music so you can hear the offset more easily. It takes some practice but this is a cool, simple, effective way to add some life into your drum tracks without programming fills manually, etc."

AKAI MPC 4000 / Norteña del Sur / Nortec


YouTube via bostich1
"'Norteña del Sur', originally constructed with the AKAI MPC 4000 (Music Production Center)

www.myspace.com/tijuanasoundma chine

Bostich+Fussible/Tijuana Sound Machine / Nortec Collective"

MicroKorg Drone A84 & Space Echo


YouTube via Rothgar777

$1 Nanoloop MIDI Sync for Game Boy!


YouTube via littlescale
"$1 Nanoloop MIDI Sync for Game Boy! More info: http://little-scale.blogspo..."

Synth Collage

via Balastron

have fun spotting the gear

Monster.com | "Battle"


YouTube via AdFreakTwo. via ghostryderx.
"A TV commercial for Monster.com."

[iPhone Beats] ir-909


YouTube via siedgey
"Here's a 606/707/808/909 application in action - you program the beats in the familiar TR-style, there is 4 patterns for each kit and all parts can be muted / solo'd just by touching the screen.

My favourite part, though, is that you can alter the pitch / decay / attack / volume by holding a button and tilting the phone. I just can't get enough of making little beats on the bus... ;-)

Anyways, here's a little pattern I made just to show it off. It was kinda hard to play with the camera in front of it so apologies for the slight shitness of it. I have another app which has 2 synths and a drum kit which I will maybe show off soon! Before getting back to making proper tunes. Ahem."

You find IR-909 on iTunes here:
IR-909

CRUMAR Bit 01 Rack


via this auction

"The Bit-01 is a rackmount 6-voice programmable polyphonic analog synthesizer with digital control similar to the Bit One and Bit-99 keyboard synthesizers. The 2 computer controlled oscillators, 6 VCF resonant filters, 6 VCAs and 2 LFOs each per voice, easy hands-on editing and a layer/split function make this one phatt analog poly-synth! The MIDI implementation is useable but poor and there are 99 memory patches. The Bit-01 is well suited for studio use and in all forms of electronic music."


Baldwin Discoverer

via this auction
"The keyboard is 30 1/2 x 12 x 4 Inches and weighs about 21 pounds... The keyboard has a mostly metal case with plastic keys... The keyboard produces Harpsichord, Marimba and Vibes sounds. It also has a series of sliders that allow you to produce a "Solo" sound by moving the Flute 8', Flute 9', Oboe, Violin and Vibrato. There is also a rhythm/drum section and some of the functions can be recorded."

ENSONIQ ESQ-1

via this auction

"SPECIFICATIONS/FEATURES:
8-voices of analog
8-voices of digital
stores up to 24000 notes in 30 sequences
40 preset sounds
ring modulator
sequencer
oscillator-sync"



MFB Polylite

via this auction

"FOUR VOICE ANALOG Voltage Controlled SYNTH; you may read the full spec here... POLYLITE. The package is remarkably small and easy to use, there is a FREE EDITOR for full software control and another proprietary editor available from REKON AUDIO. THE INTEGRATION WITH MIDI IS VIRTUALLY SEAMLESS, so literally any midi controller may be used to give the necessary ' knobs & buttons ' to tweak. Use in conjunction with a SYNTHLITE 2 which is readily available from Analog Haven and you have FIVE VOICES, as the format is identical & provides all the tactile control needed."


Oberheim Two Voice

via this auction
"Oberheim Two Voice Polyphonic Synthesizer (Model TVS-1, Serial 259). It contains 2 Synthesizer Expander Modules each of which is electronically a complete synthesizer, an 8 position, 2 voice Quantized Mini-Sequencer with Sample and Hold, and a true 2 voice polyphonic, 37 note digital keyboard. This combination of electronic music modules allows the synthesizer user to control 2 completely independent synthesizer voices, and the 2 voice digital keyboard can be operated in either the polyphonic or monophonic mode. The synthesizer is in great condition and was purchased new in 1976" Note the synth is built into the case.


ROLAND The Synthesizer 2nd Edition 4 BOOKS

via this auction

Crumar Performer

via this auction
inside a performer
note the separate brass out
• Crumar Performer
◦ Polyphony – Fully polyphonic 49 voices
◦ Oscillators - 1 for Brass; 2 for Strings
◦ LFO - 1 with delay length, rate and depth controls
◦ Filter - Simple low-pass with resonance for Brass; 3-band Low/Mid/Hi equalizer for Strings
◦ VCA - Attack/Decay for Brass; Attack/Sustain for Strings
◦ Keyboard - 49 keys
◦ Control – CV/Gate
◦ Date Produced – 1979
• Power Cord
• Crumar Performer Service Manual complete with schematics and troubleshooting (electronic version)

Oberheim Xpander

via this auction

Minimoog and Clavia Nord Lead in background. They look like miniatures from this perspective.

Synth Lapel Pins

Minimoog via this auction
Prophet-5 via this auction





Aries Modular Synthesizer 5 octave keyboard

via this auction

Hmm... scratches head... There's no mention what or why that is in the bottom shot.

Yamaha TX816 FM Tone Generator

via this auction

"The TX816 has 8 TF1 modules, each of which can store 32 voices."

Essentially 8 DX7s in a rack.


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