"History of "The Key": The key was developed by Lonestar Technologies, a company based in Hicksville New York. It was marketed as an "Interactive Musical Instrument" and came out in 1994 with an MSRP of $400 and above. For the time, the technology was ground breaking, and included design help from rock & roll guitar legend Randy Jackson. "The Key" has a far out design and in itself is a guitar synthesizer, where the frets are key like and strings are "veins". What made the instrument so appealing was the fact it was MIDI compatible and expansion units called "SONGPAC" catridges could be purchased. "SONGPAC" catridges included licensed songs (i.e. Stone Temple Pilots - Vaseline cartridge included in the auction) which allowed "The Key" user to play along (rather easily) with their favorite songs. You could "CD Sync" the instrument when you had the CD of one of the songs included on the "SONGPAC", playing in sync with your favorite song. There was also an option where you could play along with your favorite music videos that were specially encoded for "The Key" through your VCR or LaserDisc player. Believe it or not, "The Key" also had networking capabilities. Through a 4 wire telephone cord, you could connect two units together and send information. WOW!
Unfortunately, the technology was ahead of its time. "The Key" did not sell many units, maybe due to its hefty price. It went the way of the LaserDisc. However, "The Key" was the predecessor for the ever popular "Guitar Hero", which has now become the medium for interactive musical entertainment.
Using "The Key": Though "The Key" was initially introduced to the public as high tech home entertainment, the capabilites of the instrument were far superior. With the ability of MIDI, you can use "The Key" as 'keytar'. I have personally used the instrument in live performances before, and you will achieve very unique and distinct leads through the instrument. As a synthesizer alone, it has a great sound. The built in speaker does not do the tones you can achieve justice, and you can record some great riffs through the Out line. Something really awesome a friend of mine was able to achieve was using "The Key" as a MIDI controller to a vocoder, creating something similar to a 'talkbox' effect as heard on Daft Punk - Discovery.
The unit runs on a 9V AC adaptor or 6 D Cell batteries. It also includes connectors where you can attach your guitar strap.
These guitar synths rarely appear for sale anywhere. Today it has become a collectors item."
via this auction "(Taken from an old advertisement) When you want to heat up the beat with electronics, get Drumfire. It's the only add-on mixer/synthesizer for drums. Drumfire works with any drum set, even practice pads. Its five piezoelectric transducers attach easily to your drum head or rim. Each tranducer lets you set a separate, chngeable electronic drum sound. A kick sound with punch, hand claps, synth sounds, and more. In fact, Drumfire gives you an almost limitless variety of synthesized drum voices. All for about one third the cost of an electronic drum set!
Drumfire gives you the best of both worlds- advanced electronics that enhance your acoustic drum sound. When you like it hot, play with fire. DRUMFIRE.
The Drumfire mixer/synthesizer has 5 separate channels to let you pre-set 5 different electric drum voices....synth sounds, hand claps, super kick, gunfire and more.
Each channel has 8 controls to let you find just the sound you want: SENSITIVITY: controls pickup sensitivity OSCILLATOR DECAY: controls decay time of oscillator sound NOISE DECAY: controls decay time of the noise sound SWEEP: alters oscillator frequency. PITCH: changes oscillator pitch BALANCE: controls balance between oscillator and noise level VOLUME: controls output PAN: a right or left balance control, also allows dual output on rigth and left jacks
Each channel has an input jack for the pickup, and an output jack for individual outputs to a P.A., mixer or amp. There's also a master volume level control, a left channel and a right channel."
"Now available for pre-order at http://www.optigan.com/shoptigan/inde... is our brand new Optigan disc: SURF ROCK! When we've reached 15 pre-orders, we'll go to press with the limited run of 25 discs.
Surf's up! It's time to wax the board and catch a wave! Optigan.com is proud to present Surf Rock , featuring the vintage sounds of the 1960's surf scene. For this music program disc, we've gone into the recording studio with a couple of SoCal's best surf rockers.
Reverb enthusiast Matt Quilter is one-half of the guitar assault from the award-winning Reventlos http://www.reventlos.com/ whose quirky instro albums alternately intrigue and horrify surf music purists. In addition to his duties on guitar, he co-produced the documentary feature Pounding Surf! http://www.surfdrums.com/surfdrums.html an insider's look at the SoCal surf music scene from 1961 to the present day. For the Optigan session, he chose from his arsenal a Fender Stratocaster played through a blond Fender Tremolux and Reverb unit, both from 1963.
Lee "Kix" rarely strays from playing Death-Surf / Afro-Billy music with the Reventlos. However in days past he has recorded with world famous instrumental guitar gods, The Ventures. As a veteran of many Linn Drum sessions, Kix is no stranger to having his drums sampled for posterity. The Optigan session was recorded with vintage 1960's Oaklawn Camco drums, 20x14 bass drum and 14x5.5 metal snare. T he 12x8 and 14x10 toms used in the session were obtained when Kix was a Los Angeles Camco endorsee in the mid-70's.
Guitar and Bass played by Matt Quilter.
Drums played by William Lee "Kix".
Music arranged by Matt Quilter and William Lee "Kix".
Music produced, edited, and mastered by Pea Hicks.
Engineered and Mixed by Jon O'Brien. Recorded at The Music Box Studios, Garden Grove CA http://themusicboxstudios.com/
Disc creation software, disc production cover artwork and jacket layout by Robert Becker .
Cover artwork by Mark Crafford.
RHYTHMS: 4/4
LEFT HAND: Bass, guitar, and drums.
RIGHT HAND: Tremolo electric guitar.
SPECIAL EFFECTS SWITCHES: 1. Guitar Gliss, 2. Drums, 3. Tom-
Toms, 4. Snare Fill, 5. Guitar C Chord.
Be sure to check our other videos for a mini-documentary of the Surf Rock recording session!"
Making of the Optigan SURF ROCK Disc
"peahix — June 01, 2010 —
Here's a mini-documentary of the recording session for the Optigan SURF ROCK disc, shot and narrated by Pat Quilter, co-founder of QSC Audio Products http://www.qsc.com
Featured are Matt Quilter (Pat's brother) on bass/guitar and Lee Kix on drums. Matt and Lee are both members of The Reventlos http://www.reventlos.com. Also appearing are Pea Hicks (optigan guru), Robert Becker (new optigan disc guru) and Jon O'Brien (sound engineer).
Please see our other videos for a demo of the Optigan disc that resulted from these sessions, and visit http://www.optigan.com/shoptigan/inde... to order a copy of the disc."
YouTube via zackdagoba — June 02, 2010 — "me and steve dagostino setting up the synths at a rehearsal space in the roundhouse in camden in preparation for the john foxx gig on saturday. more on myblogitsfullofstars
YouTube via kenzie2029 — June 01, 2010 — "Home made diy synth from two getlofi 555 timer kits. Added sync, triangle square switch, volume, photo resister, RCA and 1/4"outputs, and some what of a lfo mode."
YouTube via retronyms — June 01, 2010 — "Playing around with Synth for iPad and a Korg Kaossilator. I was tweaking a custom patch with the new patch editor, and stumbled upon a cool rhythmic LFO sound that I thought could use some drums. http://retronyms.com/synth"
"Basically, it is a simple monophonic synthesizer with some presets which can be modified and a polyphonic section. These two sections can be also combined and slightly detuned (intervals are also possible) to sound like a 2-VCO monophonic synth."
via intellijel
"History of "The Key": The key was developed by Lonestar Technologies, a company based in Hicksville New York. It was marketed as an "Interactive Musical Instrument" and came out in 1994 with an MSRP of $400 and above. For the time, the technology was ground breaking, and included design help from rock & roll guitar legend Randy Jackson. "The Key" has a far out design and in itself is a guitar synthesizer, where the frets are key like and strings are "veins". What made the instrument so appealing was the fact it was MIDI compatible and expansion units called "SONGPAC" catridges could be purchased. "SONGPAC" catridges included licensed songs (i.e. Stone Temple Pilots - Vaseline cartridge included in the auction) which allowed "The Key" user to play along (rather easily) with their favorite songs. You could "CD Sync" the instrument when you had the CD of one of the songs included on the "SONGPAC", playing in sync with your favorite song. There was also an option where you could play along with your favorite music videos that were specially encoded for "The Key" through your VCR or LaserDisc player. Believe it or not, "The Key" also had networking capabilities. Through a 4 wire telephone cord, you could connect two units together and send information. WOW!
Unfortunately, the technology was ahead of its time. "The Key" did not sell many units, maybe due to its hefty price. It went the way of the LaserDisc. However, "The Key" was the predecessor for the ever popular "Guitar Hero", which has now become the medium for interactive musical entertainment.
Using "The Key": Though "The Key" was initially introduced to the public as high tech home entertainment, the capabilites of the instrument were far superior. With the ability of MIDI, you can use "The Key" as 'keytar'. I have personally used the instrument in live performances before, and you will achieve very unique and distinct leads through the instrument. As a synthesizer alone, it has a great sound. The built in speaker does not do the tones you can achieve justice, and you can record some great riffs through the Out line. Something really awesome a friend of mine was able to achieve was using "The Key" as a MIDI controller to a vocoder, creating something similar to a 'talkbox' effect as heard on Daft Punk - Discovery.
The unit runs on a 9V AC adaptor or 6 D Cell batteries. It also includes connectors where you can attach your guitar strap.
via this auction
Drumfire gives you the best of both worlds- advanced electronics that enhance your acoustic drum sound. When you like it hot, play with fire. DRUMFIRE.
PITCH: changes oscillator pitch
via this auction
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