Kawai K3m Rackmount Digital/Analog Hybrid with RC-2 Memory Cartridge

via this auction

The auction states the K3R is a wavetable synth, but it actually isn't. The oscillators have digital waveforms you can select from but they are not wavetables. It does have SSM 2044 analog filters (see this post). It is a nice sounding synth.

"It has 32 waveforms, some of which are samples of acoustic instruments like piano and percussion as well as some unique waveforms. By combining two of these waveforms you can create unique new sounds or add a twist to a traditional sound. Since there are only 32 of these waveforms, the K3 also features a programmable digital waveform where you can tweak the harmonic content of a waveform allowing for added flexibility and range of sounds."

Fender Rhodes Chroma Expander

via this auction

via the description:
"I bought this Chroma Expander in either 1986 or 1987 directly from Fender to use as a backup and programming synth when I was working with Josef Zawinul in all technical capacities. As you can see from the pictures, I added forced air cooling (a fan) to the rear panel and cut an air intake hole on the bottom of the synth adjacent to the power transformer location. I did this mod to all of Joe's Expander's and he had already had it done to his Chroma's. European Jazz Festivals in the summer were not forgiving to his analog synth gear. The fan will run at the same speed regardless of the Mains Voltage selected. Even though we never took this unit on the road with us, it had to be ready to travel just in case.

I have completely rebuilt the power supply. C3 is now 50,000ufd 16VDC rated allowing me to remove the OverVoltage Crowbar circuit and all Series Pass elements have been replaced as well as the rectifiers and electrolytic capacitors. The capacitors have been replaced with 105 degree Panasonic FC or Nichicon types with higher microfarad values. The Dual Channel Voice Card Motherboard has been upgraded as well. The batteries have been replaced with rechargable Li-ion types and the battery holder was replaced as well.

The Midi Converter is from my friend Ken Ypparila at Syntech and is installed internally. I will include a copy of the manual I made back in the day. The midi jacks are not labeled, however, I used patch-bay wiring convention of Send upper and Receive lower...

Shipping will be expensive. Roughly 60 lb.'s and because of double boxing the packaging will be 50 inches X 20 inches X 15 inches. "

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Audio To Synth converter on Breadboard

YouTube Uploaded by hesed23 on Apr 8, 2011

"New test.....

Convert audio in this case guitar in to a synth sound with variable PW, triangle LFO speed and depth.
It sound also amazing with voice thru mic or piezo... :)"

Raymond Scott techno w/Cyclebox + Sound of Shadows

YouTube Uploaded by s0LVentCIty on Apr 8, 2011

"Hi my name is Solvent and this is my 3rd Eurorack modular system video. Today I've made some Raymond Scott techno, with the help of my newly arrived Cylonix Cyclebox and Flight of Harmony Sound of Shadows. I haven't really got a clue how to use the Cylonix yet, but I thought this sounded good, so I pressed record. Drums and everything else are being triggered/sequenced from the MFB Urzwerg."

ether^ra CELLFRAC

YouTube Uploaded by potterpaint2000 on Apr 8, 2011

"a Serge Creature/Seq A improv w/delay. http://etherra.blogspot.com/"

Tutorial: track event editing in BeatStudio

YouTube Uploaded by FrontierDesignGroup on Apr 8, 2011

"http://fdgm.us/BeatStudioBuy - BeatStudio now available at a special introductory price!

Laying down a couple simple tracks and then using the editor to add more instruments and flesh out the song."

Frontier Design Group
iPads on eBay
iPod Touch on eBay

Triassic-Alnitak

YouTube Uploaded by Kobolnova on Apr 8, 2011

"The Triassic is a geologic period that extended from about 250 to 200 Mya (million years ago). As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic. Both the start and end of the Triassic are marked by major extinction events.
So sorry i upload this again,i made a mistake:it should be named Triassic and not Jurassic, and also the Pinnacle studio 14 made some clicking and distorted sound in previous video when i tried to merging the both versions,this is the NEW video,with the right title and with no merge and with not one audio problem:AND both full versions(1and 2)are in full 1080p quality for the first time!
The lead voice of both full versions is the sound of the incredible Creamware Minimax(the only tru and very good MOOG Minimoog model D emulation)the padsound comes from the Roland XP-50 and the bass and noise from the analoge Roland JX-8P
The music comes from my heart,from my soul;i do not need sheet music,music is the language of emotion and from the heart!
The Triassic-Alnitak music-video is composed,performed and live performed here by Alnitak(Bert Anjewierden)c2010/2011
To you J.L and azzarbprime:i want to thank you for your support in me and i want to thank for your trust in me,your are one of my best friends! :)"

A musical analysis of Oxygene 2 - JMJ - Part 2/3 : "light cover" by Thierry Lebon

Uploaded by tlnet37 on Apr 8, 2011
Part 1 posted here
"- download the mp3 file here : http://goo.gl/gaxar -

How to make a soft version of Oxygene 2 with minimal equipment : only 2 synths !
All is hand and by ear played .This is a very "light" cover ! I recorded 10 audio tracks with Presonus Studio One, but without automation and I have to add 2 tracks for noises with the Roland SH-101.
I only use Rythmus (by ElektroStudio), Alesis Fusion 8 HD, Roland SH-101, Electro-Harmonix Small Stone (Phaser) and Memory Boy (Tape Delay).
I'm beginner, and not a musician, so ... sorry for bad hand playing and tempo not respected sometimes !

Cheers from Thierry ! next step : Equinoxe & Rendez-vous ..."

New Synthwerks Modules - FSR-2P, SP-1P & FSR-1T

via Synthwerks
"The Synthwerks FSR-2P

Dual Passive Force Sensing Resistor Module

The FSR-2P has two 1.5" square FSR force sensors that are wired directly to two sets of 1/8" jacks. There are no active electronics in the module. The module can pass both audio (AC) and control voltage (DC) signals with output levels proportional to the force applied to the associated pads. With no force applied the FSR appears to the circuit as an 1 Meg resistor (approximately). The Jacks and FSRs are mounted to a 14 HP reversible panel. The panel graphics are so that the panel can be rotated so the user can choose left-handed or Right handed operation.

The FSR-2P is 14HP in width and has a MSRP of $75.(US)"


"The Synthwerks SP-1P Single Passive Slidepot Module

The SP-1P has a single 60mm throw high quality slide pot with its taps wired to a set of 1/8" jacks. There are no active electronics in the module. The module can pass both AC and DC signals with output levels proportional to the position of the slider. The Jacks and slide pot are mounted to a 8 HP reversable panel. The panel graphics are so that the panel can be rotated to choose if the jacks are above (desktop) or below (cabinet) the slide pot.

The SP-1P is 8HP in width and has a MSRP of $75.(US)"

"The Synthwerks FSR-1T Force Sensing Resistor Module with Toggle Switch/Gate

The FSR-1T is a single channel FSR module, based on the FSR-1N, but has a large square Force Sensing Resistor sensor that translates the pressure the performer applies to its sensing pads into a user adjustable scaleable control voltage, and an adjustable threshold dependent gate signal. The FSR-1T also adds a section with an electronic bi-directional switch that toggles one input/output between two other inputs/outputs (A & B) or visa versa. This toggle action is driven from the standard gate out from the FSR’s gate out. An internal jumper can choose whether the switch operates in toggle (on-off-on) or momentary modes. The electronic switch is bi-directional and able to pass DC and AC voltages. The IN/OUT jack is normalize to a +V and its output at A & B in toggle mode, will act as a toggling gate at one half the frequency of the standard Gate out. LEDs indicate the active state of all gate outputs.

The FSR-1T is 10HP in width and has a MSRP of $195 (US)"

You can find discussion on Muff's here and here.

TheHarvestman: Double Andore

flickr By Analogue Haven

"Finally, a photo of a finished module, here is the Double Andore. This also means that it will be available soon. A run of Piston Hondas are just now finishing up with their factory assembly meaning those same production machines can start building the Double Andore. We expect stock sometime in May.

The Double Andore is a dual A-D envelope generator and 2-channel VCA with digital curve shaping and VCA law selection. More details via our website"

"dual a-d envelope generator and 2-channel vca with digital curve shaping and vca law selection. double andore is to function as your synthesizer's keystone and its meridian.

double andore features a symmetrical control layout with two identical sides. the top section of each half is an a-d envelope generator. a trigger input is provided, along with "freeze" and "mirror" gate inputs. the former holds the envelope at its current position, and the latter inverts the position of the envelope within its voltage range. the envelope signal passes through a digital curve shaper whose selected curve is numerically displayed. normally, each half of the module has its shape selection apply to both the attack and delay phases of its envelope, but you can enable an alternate mode where the left and right shape select controls instead select different curves for attack and decay. two banks of envelopes are available.

the envelopes can behave in three ways. ad mode runs through its phase upon receipt of a trigger or gate. ahd mode holds the envelope at its maximum value if there is still a gate present at the end of the attack phase. lfo mode freely cycles back and forth between attack and decay phases with no trigger necessary. all three modes will retrigger to the beginning of the attack phase if another trigger event is applied. each envelope features one cv input which can be assigned to any of the following parameters: attack time, decay time, and curve shape. negative voltages are valid input and will correctly add or subtract from the manual voltage of the assigned parameter(s). each envelope has three outputs with led indicators: the 0-8v envelope voltage, and trigger signals that fire at the end of both attack and decay phases.

the lower part of each half is a dc-coupled vca. the envelope output is normalled to the vca control input, and can be overridden by patching into the ctl jack. the gain law of each vca is switchable between linear and exponential. the exponential mode can distort if excess audio or control input is given, and its sensitivity can be adjusted by an internal trimmer. by holding down the law selection button for two seconds, you can enable cross-modulation from the opposite vca channel.

the center section of the module features mixers for both envelopes and vcas. the envelope mixer is a maximum circuit that outputs only the highest voltage from the two envelopes, with a balance control to adjust the strength of each input. the vca mixer simply mixes the output of both amplifiers with no additional controls necessary.

miscellaneous information:
envelope voltage range: 0-8v
10v trigger outputs
envelope time ranges from 30 seconds per cycle to 3khz
2 banks of 16 envelope shapes each
envelope curves writable with "wave256" software (interpolated to a greater resolution within the module)
+/-12v doepfer-style power connector
panel size: 21hp
current draw: 225ma

for more info, please click here to visit the website of the harvestman."

Seventh

Seventh by alienrobotdance
"A Tr 707 jam I reworked into a track.

Lot's of juno 60 and JX3P in this song."

Trash_Audio & Xart Synth Meet 9 Pics by Ma-chew

flickr set by Ma-chew

sfSoundRadio: Live Broadcast of Alvin Lucier's "Music on a Long Thin Wire"

This one in via Brian Comnes:

"APRIL 8-12 2011
sfSoundRadio presents a continuous broadcast of

Alvin Lucier's "Music on a Long Thin Wire" (1977)

duplicating the historic 5-day radio broadcast from a shopping center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1979.

Realization by Tom Duff, from his backyard in Berkeley, CA.


http://200.35.148.107:8000/listen.pls (to listen iTunes, etc)
http://sfsound.org/radio.html (to listen in web browser - or follow instructions to listen on IPhone)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Lucier
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_On_A_Long_Thin_Wire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Duff"

via wikipedia:

"Music On A Long Thin Wire is a musical piece by Alvin Lucier conceived in 1977.

In his own words (1992): 'Music on a Long Thin Wire is constructed as follows: the wire is extended across a large room, clamped to tables at both ends. The ends of the wire are connected to the loudspeaker terminals of a power amplifier placed under one of the tables. A sine wave oscillator is connected to the amplifier. A magnet straddles the wire at one end. Wooden bridges are inserted under the wire at both ends to which contact microphones are imbedded, routed to the stereo sound system. The microphones pick up the vibrations that the wire imparts to the bridges and are sent through the playback system. By varying the frequency and loudness of the oscillator, a rich variety of slides, frequency shifts, audible beats and other sonic phenomena may be produced.'

However, Lucier admits a long thin wire is only used to impress, a short thin wire would have worked as well if not better, and he discovered that the best way to produce variation in the sonic phenomena was to pick a setting and leave the setup alone. He praised David Rosenboom for his ability to pick interesting settings.

It has been exhibited:

1979, Winrock Shopping Center, Albuquerque, and broadcast uninterrupted on KUNM-FM for five days and nights
1980, Landmark Center, Saint Paul
1988, Gallery of the Center for the Arts at Wesleyan, Middletown, CT"

audioMIDI.com Presents The M-Audio Venom, Part Two

YouTube Uploaded by audiomidicom on Apr 8, 2011

"Synth expert Mitchell Sigman talks about M-Audio's new Venom virtual analog synth with integrated audio interface. Get Venom at www.audioMIDI.com!"

Part 1 here

Altair-4 The SciFi Sounds Lab DemoVideo

YouTube Uploaded by HGFSynthesizer on Apr 8, 2011

"Altair 4 - The SciFi Sounds Lab
is for spacey & wobbly stuff, drones and scapes i.e SciFi FX-sounds, and it is quite good at doing bell like sounds too.

The movie Forbidden Planet from 1956 being the first movie with a complete electronic soundtrack (by Louis and Bebe Barron) using sounds that could have been done with this plug.
"This instrument does do a lot of the things the Barron's did with their circuitry albeit a lot easier".
"It makes sciFi sounds & noises and everybody will reminiscent to a old soundlaboratory of the 50/60ties".
Anyway Altair 4 puts it to a modern level.

Hence the name of this plugin Altair 4 as this is the Forbidden Planet in the movie ;-)"

"Regeneration" making.....「再生」：メーキング

YouTube Uploaded by btpro on Apr 8, 2011
Mellotron and Crumar Stratus come in at 7:12. See this post for the complete track.

"Making scene of 'Regeneration'.

Originally released from Columbia Record as "Juma/Legend".
"Juma/Legend" is SF story written by Wakako Mizuki.
She won a lot of prizes.


アルバム「樹魔・伝説」から「再生」の制作過程です。
オリジナルバージョンはコロムビアレコードから発売されていました。"

Yamaha Cs15 Vintage Duosynth

via this auction

Yamaha TX16W Sampler Typhoon

via this auction

"YAMAHA TX16W Digital Sampler / MIDI Sound Module... Typhoon operating system is installed."

You can see a video of another TX16W with Typhoon OS here.

via wikipedia and NuEdge Development: "Typhoon is a replacement operating system for the Yamaha TX16W sampling synthesizer. The first version was released back in 1994 and it quickly became the obvious choice of operating system for the TX16W community. For years they had struggled with a slow and clumsy sampler. With the introduction of Typhoon OS these days were blown away for good. Not only did Typhoon improve the stability and speed of the TX16W; it also provided features that were comparable to or even surpassed those found on the top samplers at that time.

The main benefits of using Typhoon compared to the original Yamaha operating system are:

Typhoon is easy. The user interface is well structured and extremely consistent which makes learning and using Typhoon a breeze.
Typhoon is fast. For instance, the startup time is merely 20 seconds. All menus are loaded into system memory so access to different functions is always instant.
Typhoon is small. Compared to the Yamaha OS, Typhoon requires almost 500kb less in waveform memory. This is in effect one third of the 1.5Mb that the TX16W is equipped with as standard.
Audio file compression to save time and space (30 to 60% savings).
Automatic loop finder, pitch tracker and wave trimmer.
Destructive editing (death of the edit buffers).
Dynamic voice allocation (with priority possibilities).
Eight free modulators per channel with 14 sources and 12 destinations.
Incremental saving allows you to save only modified data.
Intelligent file system (handles multiple versions of a file, keeps track of where files are stored etc...).
Monophonic portamento mode and several other new playing modes.
New 25 kHz sampling rate.
New voice architecture with groupable parameters and much more.
Object oriented management of items (create, rename, copy, swap and delete).
Pre-triggered sampling threshold (prevents loss of transients).
Reads and writes AIFF format files (accepted by most sample editors).
Resample utility for any sampling rate between 3 and 50 kHz.
Stereo mode with pan parameter (requires two channels).
Stereo waves treated as a single wave.
Two independent LFOs and two four-stage envelopes per channel.
Up to 250 performances, 250 voices and 250 waves in memory.
Up to four times faster loading and saving.

DSI Mopho Keyboard Analog Monophonic Synthesizer

via this auction

Roland JUNO 6 analog synth

via this auction

x0xb0x synthesizer with Atomic Mods (Aluminum Case)

via this auction
"Item : x0xb0x synthesizer with Atomic Mod
Color : Black
Case : Aluminum
Surface : Oxide Coating + Shot Blasting
Printing : Silkscreen Printing
Knobs : Aluminum x 12 / Plastic x 2
Power Adaptor : 220V or 110V AC 9V
Weight : 1.3 kg
Condition : NEW

The additional mods give you variable new sounds and extra fun :

*Bass Boost – Bass Cutoff by one Octave

*Env Mod Low – Turn Env amount to a lower range

*Env Mod x 3 – Env Mod extend to 3 x the range

*Increased Filter Low End – Lower cutoff range to a degree

*Resonance Boost – Boost up the resonance

*Resonance Accent Increase – Boost up the Resonance Accent

*Variable VCA Decay – A pot to control Variable Decay

*Filter Modulation (VCO) - select the saw or the square as the modulation source independant of the what you have selected for the VCO

*Filter Modulation (VCA) - Taking the signal from the VCA out (C38) as the modulation source

*Devilfish Filter Overdrive - Overdrive effect

(Above mods can be switch off independently and switch back to original x0xb0x setting)
*Muffler Like Distortion - The DevilFish has a post VCA soft-clip distortion called "The Muffler" that apparently retains bass response."

Crumar Performer vintage analog synth

via this auction

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Cluster Star Fox-8 & Cosmos Vibe-13

flickr By Efectos Cluster

Wall Paper
Fuzz with octave Up.

"Using the highest quality components available each pedal is built with the same attention to detail as the next."

MusikMesse 2011 - Moon Modular

YouTube Uploaded by accordoTV on Apr 8, 2011 http://lunar-experience.com/home.html

MusikMesse 2011 - Korg Monotribe

YouTube Uploaded by accordoTV on Apr 8, 2011

The main Monotribe post is here.

The Wisdom Of Wakeman - Minimonsta

YouTube Uploaded by GForceSoftwareTV on Apr 8, 2011

"Seminal Minimoog user Minimonsta GForceSoftware Minimoog Minimonsta:Melohman"
http://www.gforcesoftware.com/ins_minimonsta.php

MusikMesse 2011 - Haken Continuum

YouTube Uploaded by accordoTV on Apr 7, 2011

MusikMesse 2011 - Analog Systems

YouTube Uploaded by accordoTV on Apr 7, 2011
Analogue Systems
http://www.analoguesystems.co.uk/

Musikmesse 2011: Arturia Spark

YouTube Uploaded by baxshopnl on Apr 8, 2011

"http://www.bax-shop.tv | Bax TV doet verslag van de Musikmesse 2011 in Frankfurt. Arturia kondigde begin dit jaar de Spark drummachine aan. Op de Pro Light & Sound beurs toonde productmanager Romain Dejoie de Spark en legde uit wat de mogelijkheden van de hybride drummachine allemaal zijn."

MESSE11: Eowave Domino And More

040711

040711 from brownshoesonly on Vimeo.

brownshoesonly.com

Absynth 5 Overview with Brian Clevenger Part 1

YouTube Uploaded by thepluginguru on Apr 8, 2011

"Rate !! Subscribe !! Comment !! The creator of Absynth 5 joins me on an introduction to the way Absynth 5 works. This is Part 1 - Part 2 will be released early next week."

Update:

Absynth 5 Overview with Brian Clevenger Part 2

Uploaded by thepluginguru on Apr 9, 2011

"Rate !! Subscribe !! Comment !! The 2nd part of my overview of Absynth 5. So awesome that Brian Clevenger - the creator of Absynth joined me for this video."

Musikmesse 2011: Roland Jupiter 80 Synthesizer - New Demos

YouTube Uploaded by gear4music1 on Apr 8, 2011

"Gear4music.com get an overview of the new Roland Jupiter 80 synthesizer at Musikmesse 2011."

Roland Jupiter 80 Fantastic STUNNING sounds!!!

Uploaded by DonSolaris on Apr 8, 2011

"FANTASTIC SOUNDS of the latest Roland. The Jupiter 80 STUNNING!!!!!!"

The main Jupiter-80 post is here.

Using Livid Controllers with MLRV

YouTube Uploaded by lividTV on Apr 8, 2011

"I made this quick demo to show how to connect MLRV to the block or Ohm64. This is just the basics, I did this because people were seeming to have a hard time setting it up. It's a lot of fun when you get it going and the setup is actually super simple."

Another Schmidt All Analog Poly Video

See the 4/7 Update in this post.

SynthTronica - iPad sings Silent Night

YouTube Uploaded by letgoandlisten on Dec 10, 2010

"The Christmas classic, Silent Night, is sung by an iPad using SynthTronica. Getting the timing just right is harder than it looks, but it was fun to play..."

I'm finally getting around to checking this synth out. You might remember it from this previous post. As you can tell from the video above, it's a spectral formant synthesizer and vocoder which produces vocal like synthetic sounds. It comes with 92 preset sounds, you can process incoming audio, and you can import your own samples. Note you can play it like a stand alone synth vs just processing vocals and audio as in the two videos in this post. What's interesting is you can import clips of music, rhythms, etc, so you can get some interesting patterns going vs. your standard ADSR shaped sounds. You can adjust the start and end times of the formant sample/loop, and there is a multi-touch pad for controlling the 11 independent filters (check out the first video in the previous post). Everything does have that formant vocal sound to it, but that's the point. See the screens in the prior post to get an idea of the parameters available for editing. Also worth noting is the alternate keyboard layouts and scaling as pictured above.


Jordan Rudess presents Synthtronica

Uploaded by JCRUDESS on Mar 5, 2011

"Very cool new IPad app Entitled Synthtronica. I like it!! Great fun with vocoding."

SynthTronica - Leisuresonic
iPads on eBay

MM 2011 - Acid

YouTube Uploaded by accordoTV on Apr 7, 2011

MidiMe for iPad: a midi controller that records gestures

YouTube Uploaded by mvpadrini on Apr 7, 2011

"Very nice music app for iPad! Send up to 8 different MIDI parameters using 4 XY pads. Midi automation recording gestures.

More about Music Apps at MusicApps.com.br

App musical muito legal para iPad! Envie até 8 parâmetros MIDI usando 4 pads XY. Automação MIDI com a gravação de gestos.

Mais sobre apps musicais no www.musicapps.com.br"

MidiMe - Burgerkone
iPads on eBay

MOX6／MOX8.mp4

YouTube Uploaded by musicmasterjp on Apr 7, 2011

"ドイツ・フランクフルトで開催のMusikmesse 2011 (2011/4/6〜9)でヤマハから「MOX6／MOX8」がリリースされた（発売は5月16日を予定）。「MOX6／MOX8」はMOTIF XSのサウンドエンジンを継承しつつ手頃な価格を実現したミドルクラスのシンセサイザーだ。"

Univox Mini-Korg 700 Mono Synthesizer

via this auction

"Serial number 1644 stamped on back plate."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Roland SBX-1000 MIDI Cueing Box Sequencer

via this auction

"This MIDI Controller has the ability to store 16 tracks with midi i/o, gpi out, and audio trig in."

Binson Echorec system

via this auction

"This is a massive Binson Echorec system of the kind used by many UK bands including David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. It comprises a P.A. 602 premixer echo; P.A. 602-M premixer echo; P.O. 601-M power supply; and PE 603-M Echorec."

Jen SX-1000 Synthetone Analog Synth

via this auction

Roland Juno-60 Polyphonic Synthesizer with Original Case

via this auction

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Alesis Andromeda - Osc FilterFM

CoolColJ · Alesis Andromeda - Osc FilterFM

"I had both oscillators turned off at the mixer, and the filter is up, but no resonance.
But a sound is still made when you route VCO1 to modulate Filter FM.
VCO1 modulated by the Sample and Hold, via a slow random LFO

:O"

nord electro3HP Musik Messe 2011 by Rock oN Report

YouTube Uploaded by RockoNCompany on Apr 7, 2011

"Nord Electro 3 HP Performance Keyboard Announced
Praise The Nord! Gigging keyboard players may have had their prayers answered today as Nord have launched a 73-key, hammer-action version of their acclaimed Nord Electro 3 performance keyboard. The snappily-titled "Nord Electro 3 Hammer Action Portable" (or HP for short) has the potential to offer performers everything they ever dreamed of in an instrument.

Fully-compatible with Nord's celebrated Nord Piano and Nord Sample Libraries, including Nord's perennially popular C1 organ with simulated rotary speaker effect, the Nord Electro HP takes what we thought of as essentially an organ with some stellar piano sounds and effectively transforms it into a portable, 73-key hammer-action stage piano boasting the same great sound engine.

You can select a dynamic curve to suit your playing style (there are four variations) and Nord have developed a new "Long Release" option that you can select for a smooth legato style. Other effects include a delay which has a stereo "Ping-Pong" mode. Nord say this last addition is down to "popular demand" so it should be an interesting feature.

One frustration live performers may have experienced with the original Electro 3 is that it only had 1 "Live Location" to save new sounds on-the-fly but Nord have increased this to 4. Responding to feedback from players Nord have also simplified the way different programmes are accessed.

There is no doubt that the Nord Electro HP is going to sound great but it is the portability that sets it apart from the current competition. The fact that it only has 73-keys and weighs just 11kg makes it much easier to transport to gigs so you don't have to compromise on the touch and feel of the keys in order to save on chiropractors' bills.

The Nord Electro HP is due to land towards the end of April 2011. At the time of writing, the price is to be confirmed."

reactable Musik Messe 2011 by Rock oN Report

YouTube Uploaded by RockoNCompany on Apr 7, 2011

"The revolutionary Reactable instrument hits the stage with its new incarnation: The Reactable Live! It brings all the possibilities of the original Reactable and makes it portable and easy to setup. The Live! version of the instrument allows you to touch and see the music while performing. The different sound generation and manipulation modules, which are real physical objects, permit infinite flexibility and control in musical expression. Exploring and using modern techniques of music production has never been easier or more exciting."

Reactable Systems SL
iPads on eBay
iPod Touch on eBay

CP 1919 v 1.2 for iPad

YouTube Uploaded by TheStrangeAgency on Apr 7, 2011

"New features coming to CP 1919, the fluid-controlled additive synth from The Strange Agency. A filter mode now allows more precise sculpting of the oscillator mix. Each of the 24 oscillators can now have its own volume. A fast-decay mode allows CP 1919 to be played like a harp. Touches have a thickness control, allowing for sharp or smooth oscillator excitation."

The Strange Agency LLC
iPads on eBay

Opus 1

YouTube Uploaded by rdbartlett on Apr 6, 2011

"Eric Peach playing his new Rich Decibels Kequencer. Build your own! Details: http://richdecibels.com/blog/?p=119"

Modularman Scarab T-Shirt - Black Light Bliss

My Modularman Scarab T-shirt came in the other day. The first thing I did was check it out under a UV/black light and man does this thing glow!!! If you want to get noticed in a club or party this T will do the job. Note the top two pics in this post are actually not in the UV lighting - that's just natural sunlight. The bottom two images are. It doesn't come out in the image well, but trust me it glows like a beacon. The reason I included them is to show that in black light the black of the T is jet black! Very, very cool.

The Ts are currently available on eBay here. You can find additional pics at the auction and in this previous post.

Click on the images for the full size shots.

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