Slim Phatty/ Little Phatty Interaction

YouTube via experimentalsynth | January 26, 2011 | 0 likes, 0 dislikes

"experimentalsynth.com data sample #387 - explores the use of the Pitch CV output of a Little Phatty (with CV Output Mod) to control the Filter Cutoff Frequency of a Slim Phatty.

Data capture method: Android phone

www.experimentalsynth.com is the laboratory of Chris Stack. His musical and technological endeavors have involved activities as varied as Marketing Manager for Moog Music, Belly Dance Musician, Printed Circuit Designer for Bob Moog and industrial computer applications (including a Space Shuttle experiment) and ambient piano creations."

Bob Moog Theremin Demo & Performance

Published on Oct 22, 2015 experimentalsynth

"Many years before going to work for Moog Music as marketing manager I was a printed circuit board designer. I met Bob Moog in Asheville and wound up doing the PCB design work on his Multi-Touch Keyboard project. Around this time, Bob hosted a presentation called 'New Vistas 91', a look at some then current happenings in avant garde electronic music.

Bob was gracious enough to let me record the presentation on my then new Video 8 camera. The tape was lost for decades, but recently found and digitized. Unfortunately the audio and video quality is not great, but I feel this is very interesting from a historical perspective, and I offer it as such.

Enjoy,

Chris Stack"

http://www.experimentalsynth.com

Moog Apollo Solo - Erik Norlander

Published on May 9, 2014

"Bob Moog Foundation benefit, Isis music Hall, Asheville NC - Learn more at www.experimentalsynth.com"

Vintage Moog Modular Sequence - Erik Norlander

Published on May 9, 2014 Chris Stack·81 videos

"Bob Moog Foundation benefit, Isis music Hall, Asheville NC - Learn more at www.experimentalsynth.com"

A 1964 Letter from Jon Hassell on Bob Moog

via Chris Stack of EXPERIMENTALSYNTH.COM

"Jon Hassell just shared with me a very interesting and historic letter. Very timely too, with tomorrow being Bob Moog’s Birthday celebration…

16nov64
Letter to Jon Hassell
Electronic Music - The Early Years

I had a very interesting experience about one week ago. A gentleman, Mr. Robert Moog, who claims to know of you, visited Washington and demonstrated a compact electronic studio. He claims to be the only man in the country building and designing equipment solely for the creation of electronic music. He was tremendously impressed with your proposals. [For - among other things - applying the principles of electronic music manipulation to the video domain.] He stated that he would be able to provide much of the equipment called for in those proposals at the same quality or better at considerably less cost.

He also demonstrated equipment (in a crude state of development) which could provide great flexibility with extremely simple manipulation involved, almost to the point of being able to improvise an electronic composition - to be recorded or not. He is going to send me descriptive material and quotations, copies of which I will either forward to you or hold for your interest and considerations.

Lloyd Ultan
Head, Music Department
American University
Washington D. C. 20016"

http://www.jonhassell.com/

For some perspective on the date see the Moog Legacy Timeline. This would have been right after AES when Bob Moog showed his system for the first time.

"1964

Bob Moog demonstrates hand-made Moog Modular prototypes at the Audio Engineering Society convention and begins taking orders."

At the MOOG Factory

Via Steven:
"Recently while on tour my group Life In Balance visited the Moog factory in Asheville NC. Besides the gigs this visit was just a real highlight for me. The people at the Moog factory were very warm and gave freely of their time. Later Chris Stack, Linda and Cyril Lance from Moog came to our gig then Cyril joined us for an after show beer or two. How wonderful is that!

Thanks for a great Blog I visit it a few times a day.
Steve Sciulli Life In Balance
http://www.lifeinbalancemusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/soundhealer

Steve with the Voyager and the EWI4000s both going through a Powerbook running Live6"

Bottom shot is the MOOG Voyager Prototype.

Musikmesse: Moog MF-106TC

"Moog Unveils Long Awaited and Much Anticipated MF-106TC Analog Time Compressor

-Shipping April 1, 2009-

The history of invention and innovation is replete with instances of accidental successes: Chewing gum was a bad batch of tire rubber. Penicillin came from mold growing on abandoned plates of bacteria. And we all know about Benjamin Franklin and lightning rods.

Our own musical mad scientists (who never fear failure and are constantly experimenting, tinkering and tweaking) have recently had their own kite-flying experience, and the result is the amazing and logic-defying MF-106TC, Analog Time Compressor.

"We accidentally reversed the clock phasing in the time generation on our MF-104Z Analog Delay, and discovered that it can actually work in reverse, compressing the time stream instead of expanding it. Much to our amazement and delight we began hearing sounds up to 1000 milliseconds before we played them,” said Amos Gaynes, Moog Temporal Engineer.

Gaynes said that the Analog Time Compressor circuit on the MF-106TC can eliminate digital latency in real time, or sound like you're playing faster than you really are. The Analog Time Compressor’s unique Slap-Forward delay effect sounds even better than Slap-Back, according to Gaynes.

“The MF-106TC has hundreds of unique applications,” said Moog Marketing Manager Chris Stack. “Used on the Pitch Preview output of our new Etherwave Plus Theremin, you not only hear your note before the audience does; you actually hear it before you play it.”

Consumer Product Safety Warning: Customers should not attempt to reverse the clock phasing of the time generation circuit on their MF-104Z delay to mimic the capabilities of the MF-106TC Analog Time Compressor. Without the factory-installed flux capacitor added, a standard MF-104Z will be seriously damaged."

More info here. Be sure to click on the image when you get there.

DSI Pro 2 Parameter Sequencing

Published on Jan 11, 2015 Chris Stack

"On the Dave Smith Instruments Pro 2, I disabled track 1 note sequencing and am just sequencing patch parameters, primarily filter cutoff, while long slow LFOs bring in additional filter resonance and crank up the feedback amount."

Dave Smith Pro 2s on eBay

Introducing Jambé Drum Controller & Synthesis

Jambé - A Quick Look - NAMM 2016 Published on Jan 23, 2016

This one was sent my way via Chris Stack.

"Learn more and pre-order at getjambe.com - Daniel Berkman jamming on Jambé during NAMM 2016. Jambé, a new versatile and expressive electronic percussion instrument was previewed last year at Winter NAMM, and in a series of sneak peaks for leading members of the Los Angeles music industry community. Jambé returns to NAMM in 2016 unveiling a vastly more powerful sound engine and an online store ready to take pre-orders.

Percussionists, producers and music tech aficionados alike were incredibly enthusiastic about Jambé and the qualities that make it unique - portability, extensibility, and the deep expressive possibilities of advanced high-resolution pressure sensor technology. After in-depth consultation with top players, the decision was made to rebuild the software from the ground up to better enable Jambé to exploit the full potential of its hardware.

The result is an incredibly powerful sound engine architecture dubbed Sample Powered Matrix synthesis or SPX. The software was created with the idea that a single hand or stick strike on a Jambé pad maps to an incredibly powerful individual voice, each with advanced expression and sound design features including:

Expanded Gestural Interpretation - normal percussive strike detection and MPE (Multi-touch Polyphonic Expression) style performance techniques, with sounds triggered or modified while a pad is held.

Extensive Synthesis Tools - 2 LFOs, 3 envelopes, 2 tracking generators, and 2 ring modulators per voice. Over 30 modulation sources and over 40 modulation destinations.

Natural Sonic Variations - 3 sample lists per voice with up to 8 samples per list.

Sample List Modes - sequentially trigger the samples in a list, allowing stroke variations or sequential patterns. Crossfade between samples using a modulation matrix and trigger samples simultaneously for chords.

Gestural Crossfade Between Sample Lists - creates effects like a closed slap or dead stroke without tying up multiple pads for an open and closed slap.

Massive Polyphony – with the ability to use number of voices playing as a modifier for more natural sound layering.

Unique Features - use the number of voices sounding as a modulation parameter. Enables sculpting the sound as more voices play. Perfect for adding special character to rolls, etc.

Like today’s musicians, Jambé lives in a connected world. Need a new sound for a last-minute gig? Professionally designed instruments can be purchased through your the iOS device. Working with DAWs or other sound modules? MIDI Output allows connection to a world of other musical gear. Play with your hands or sticks? Jambé supports both. Jambé will ship in the 2nd quarter of 2016 and is now available for pre-ordering online. The first 200 customers on the store at getjambe.com can place their Jambé pre-order to secure a place in line, and also receive a $200 discount!

About SensorPoint, Inc: This advanced yet elegant design is made possible by the rich industry and musical experience of the Jambé team. John Worthington created and implemented the Macintosh MIDI Manager. He was project leader for Apple QuickTime and one of the creators of the AIFF file format. Mark Bain was a pioneer in the use of MPEG technologies for media authoring and delivery for Hollywood studios, and was directly involved with the introduction of DVD authoring and HD media players. He has designed multiple new OEM products involving advanced semiconductor sensors, Apple’s iPad, electronic compasses, and computerized lighting controls."

A Fascinating Look Back at Fate with Bob Moog

Chris Stack of EXPERIMENTALSYNTH.COM has a fascinating post up reflecting on some of his experiences related to Bob Moog. I don't want to give any of it away so just click through and read from start to finish. After you do (spoiler alert!) check out this post and this post. Note these posts are not part of the story, nor fateful in the set of events, but they are related and interesting for those that might not have known.

Jambé - NAMM Jams

Published on Feb 3, 2016 getJambe

"We took Jambé to the 2016 Winter NAMM show to see how people liked its sound, feel and portability. The response was overwhelmingly positive from hand-percussionists and stick players alike. Now available for preorder, with a $200 discount at getjambe.com"

This one in via Chris Stack.

Billy Cardine: Looking Forward, Looking Back & The Moog Lap Steel

Playlist:
Billy Cardine: Looking Forward, Looking Back
Improvisation for Moog Lap Steel, Synthesizers & Effects
Billy Cardine on the Moog Lap Steel & the MakeNoise René (previously posted)
The Moog Lap Steel (previously posted)
The Moog Lap Steel [2nd vid]

"Moog Lap Steel powers groundbreaking EP exploring uncharted expanses of Ameritronica

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (September, 2011) Mix cutting-edge electronic vibration control technology with an instrument born on a train track, put it in the hands of musical omnivore Billy Cardine and the result is music with one foot in the past, one foot in the future and both ears wide open. Refining a lifetime of musical influences and liberating them with a combination of string and studio wizardry, his new EP Looking Forward, Looking Back shines a light on a musical future true to its roots yet constantly growing and evolving.

To know where you’re going though, you have to know where you’ve been…

The story goes that the lap steel guitar was invented in the 1880s by seven-year-old Joseph Kekuku as he walked along a Hawaiian railroad and experimented with playing his guitar using a metal bolt he found. By the 1930s, Hawaiian music had become one of the first waves of American interest in exotic “world music” and the lap steel became the first stringed instrument to be electrified, predating Les Paul’s first electric guitar. Also in the ‘30s, the Sacred Steel tradition was born in African-American House of God churches, fueled by the low cost and highly expressive nature of this new instrument. From there it spread to many far-flung homes, including Indian classical music and American country and bluegrass, the genres in which it and its musical progeny, the dobro and pedal steel guitar are most closely associated.

Fast-forward to the present… While a spin across the radio dial today results in very little country music featuring the lap steel, the instrument has been embraced by a number of innovative players pushing musical boundaries, including U2 producer Daniel Lanois and Wilco guitarist Nels Cline.

The lap steel guitar itself is now even more suited to “boundary pushing” with the introduction of The Moog Lap Steel, an instrument that brings state-of-the-art control technology to the instrument born on a 19th century Hawaiian train track. It incorporates the same electronics that earned The Moog Guitar numerous industry accolades including Guitar Player Magazine's Reader's Choice Award, Electronic Musician Magazine's Editor's Choice Award, NAMM "Best In Show" honors, a “Best of What’s New Award” from Popular Science magazine and a Mix Foundation TEC Award.

Billy Cardine is an Americana/Bluegrass phenomenon who has performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Ryman Auditorium and Bonnaroo. He is a member of the renowned Americana band Acoustic Syndicate and leader of the new music ensemble The Billy Sea. He also studied in India and will perform at the 2011 Bangaluru International Arts Festival with chitravina master Ravikiran. Billy was instrumental in the development of the Moog Lap Steel and played an early prototype for its debut at Moogfest 2010.

“In one of those moments of wonderful synchronicity, I met Billy about the same time I finished the first Moog lap steel prototype which I had dubbed “The Monster” said Moog Music’s Chief Engineer, Cyril Lance. “Billy and I got together and the first music he made on this crude instrument was stunning. It was immediately clear that not only was Billy perfect for this instrument, but the instrument was perfect for Billy. This began an extremely rewarding collaboration that resulted in the current Moog Lap Steel.”

Combining the unique expressive qualities of the lap steel with the innovations of the Moog Guitar results in an instrument with unlimited sonic potential. Like the Moog Guitar, it is in not a guitar synthesizer, but features an onboard Moog filter (with control voltage input) that places it firmly in the Moog family tree and allows for some amazing creative connectivity with devices ranging from theremins to massive modular synthesizers.

"For me the Moog Lap Steel represents the invention I've worked on for so many years finally taking flight on its own.” said Moog Guitar inventor Paul Vo. “Cyril Lance had the inspiration that really drove this project home. He expertly placed the same vibration control technology that I developed for the Moog Guitar into this beautifully crafted instrument, co-designed by luthier Wes Lambe. I mostly just watched. Now Billy Cardine, virtuoso of the lap steel and dobro, brings it all together and takes it to heights of musical expression that completely amaze me. I am a very grateful spectator!"

“Looking Forward, Looking Back”, the historic first EP of music for the Moog Lap Steel, is the creation of a composer and player at the height of his powers in control of an instrument that extends those powers like no other innovation since it was first electrified.

The EP kicks off with the opening track “Moolodious” whose soaring melodies and pulsating beats sweep the listener along so thoroughly that it is easy to miss the technology behind the magic. While the Moog Lap Steel plays long anthemic notes that seem to defy the laws of physics, its big brother The Moog Guitar cranks out rhythms that, although created using advanced modular synthesis techniques (routing beat-synced control voltage signals from ProTools to The Moog Guitar’s onboard analog filter), are still very much the product of strings, a pick and a guitarist’s callused fingertips… in this case, the fingertips of Moog’s Cyril Lance.

“Jet Li”, the second track moves from Americana to Asiana. Inspired by the fluid movements of martial artist Jet Li, it starts with the low rumble of Moog Taurus Bass Pedals and a unique melody created with a two-handed phrasing technique impossible on an instrument without the precise sustaining abilities of The Moog Lap Steel. This may be the first recording in history in which a lap steel gets mistaken for an erhu.

The title track “Looking Forward, Looking Back” takes the Moog Lap Steel and Moog Guitar in a new direction. As it unfolds, the Lap Steel’s timbre is more reminiscent of a dobro while the Moog Guitar takes on a surreal, funky banjo-like role. When the long, sustained-note melody comes in, being played on the same instrument with the same strings creates a pleasing timbral cohesiveness.

“Stacks”, the most electronic of the tracks, showcases the instrument at play with its other Moog siblings. Built on an analog filtered drum beat, the Moog Lap Steel intertwines with the sounds of the Moog Guitar and Slim Phatty synthesizer while a Little Phatty synth generates a beat-synced control voltage making the Lap Steel’s filter dance in time with the rhythm. Meanwhile other keyboards and vocal processors fill out a soundscape proving that analog and digital can get along quite nicely.

The closing track, “The Curious Boo” was written on the original Moog prototype and combines sacred steel feel with an Indian approach to slide guitar phrasing. A Moog MF-102 ring modulator adds a unique metallic edge to these fluid lines.

The Roman god Janus, for whom the month January was named, is depicted as having two heads, one looking into the past and the other into the future, making him the archetype of beginnings, transitions and gateways (and New Year’s parties). When listening to “Looking Forward, Looking Back”, it’s hard not to hear the music in a similar light… as a harbinger of new beginnings, transitions and gateways… as a new voice… as “Ameritronica”. It’s also hard not to hear it as just damn good music.

Looking Forward, Looking Back is available from Indidog Records through bandcamp at:

http://billycardine.bandcamp.com/album/looking-forward-looking-back



Visit billycardine.com for more information."

Via Chris Stack of experimentalsynth.com

David Guetta & Chris Willis ft Fergie & LMFAO - Gettin' Over You (Official videoclip)

YouTube via davidguetta — May 19, 2010 — "David Guetta & Chris Willis feat. Fergie & LMFAO
Directed by Rich Lee
'One Love' - New album - OUT NOW
(P) 2010 Gum Prod, licence exclusive EMI Music France
www.davidguetta.com"
some synth spotting via DeeJayIwan - don't stack your Rolands...

audioGraph for iOS

""An audio processing graph is a Core Foundation opaque type, AUGraph, that you use to construct and manage an audio unit processing chain. A graph can leverage the capabilities of multiple audio units and multiple render callback functions, allowing you to create nearly any audio processing solution you can imagine." - From Apple's "Audio Unit Hosting Guide For iOS"

AudioGraph is a superset of Apple's MixerHost application.

Features include:

* Mono and stereo mic/line input
* Audio effects including:
o Ring modulator
o FFT passthrough using Accelerate vDSP framework
o Real-time pitch shifting and detection using STFT
o Simple variable speed delay with using a ring buffer
o Recursive moving average filter with variable number of points
o Convolution example with variable filter cutoff frequency
* Stereo level meter
* Synthesizer example - sine wave with an envelope generator
* iOS 5 features (from Chris Adamson) including:
o MIDI sampler audio unit
o file player audio unit
o audio unit effects
* Runs on iPad, iPhone, and iPod-Touch
* Open source
* Music by Van Lawton
* Everything from MixerHost

Requirements:

* A device that runs iOS 5.x
* Headphones.

Instructions:

Launch the app and press Play.

Source code, documentation, support:

http://zerokidz.com/audiograph

Credits:

This project is derived from work by:

* Chris Adamson
* Stefan Bernsee
* Michael Tyson
* Stephen Smith
* Contributors to the Core-Audio mailing list
* Contributors to stack overflow.com
* Apple's iOS developer program,

Thank you.

Tom Zicarelli"

Currently free on iTunes:


iPads on eBay
iPod Touch on eBay

Interview with Hexfix93 of VAC

The following is an interview I just wrapped up with hexfix93 of Velvet Acid Christ. As you know, this site is about the gear, namely synths, and the gear that helps drive and enhance synths, but ultimately the focus is on synths.

I was chatting a bit with hexfix93 and asked him if he would be interested in a slightly different take on an interview, one focused on synths and their impact to his world. We all have our story regarding how our obsession with synths first started, how we see and approach synths and what they mean to us. I thought it would be interesting to hear his story. The following is the interview.

Before it begins, I want to thank hexfix93 for taking the time out for this. We all have a different approach and a different story when it comes to our synths. This is his. For more of his music check out VAC and don't miss Toxic Coma. Cheers, matrix.


1. What was your first synthesizer, how old were you when you picked it up, and why did you pick it up?

"It was some kind of old yamaha cheap thing. i got it for my atari st, so when i played games like leisure suit larry that the music wouldn't come from the wimpy fm built in sound, but a general midi synth instead. it really didn't sound all that great. i wasn’t really a keyboard player at this point.

The first synth i got as a keyboard player was a roland w30 sampler workstation. And we made like 3 records with that keyboard. i remember gary slaughter an x vac member, spilled orange vodka drink on it. and i had to take it apart and clean every part of it by hand slowly, it took weeks. it was a pure nightmare.

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Adventures in Synthesis: "I IV V" drone

Published on Feb 19, 2016 Chris Beckstrom

"More about this project:
www.chrisbeckstrom.com/portfolio/diy-mod­ular-synthesizer/

An exercise/improvisation with a drone. Some of the biggest and most epic sounds I've created with the modular yet. At times it sounds like a distorted guitar through a stack of amps, but it's just a bunch of square wave oscillators.

Patch notes:
The main sound is a square oscillator into a clock divider (generating multiple octaves) and then four of those octaves go into the four inputs of a sequential switch. The sequential switch is clocked by another oscillator that can go from audio rates all the way down to clicks (very slow).

When the sequential switch is clocked at audio rates it sounds sort of like frequency modulation, and depending on the clock speed you get various intervals and timbres. I don't really understand why this happens, but I discovered I could create various chord-type sounds by changing the clock speed.

The output of the sequential switch is mixed with one of the other divider outputs (very low suboctave) and a couple higher octave sounds going through semi-randomly-opened VCAs.

All that stuff gets a splash of delay, two channels into the mixer for some spring reverb, then into Bitwig running on Linux. I'd love to hear this on some really big speakers– on my little monitors it shakes the whole basement!"

CC+ Firmware Update for Rhodes Chroma

via David Clarke on the Rhodes Chroma list:

"Thank you all for your ongoing participation in the Chroma CPU Plus (CC+) project.

Firmware Release 217 (http://www.rhodeschroma.com/?id=cpuplusfirmware#217) has just been made available.

Based on user requests, the newly released version of firmware adds the following items:

* Native support for the SparkFun serial LCD controller
* Autotune failure information display [Set Split 40]
* User-defined MIDI velocity mapping
* Auto-send of patch parameters with a Program Change

Two elements are also changed in this release:

* Correction for the ‘reset’ issue noted here:
http://www.rhodeschroma.com/?id=2012&month=01#cpuplusfirmwarehiccup

* Update the MIDI Continuous Controller “Prog” Mode to allow automatic LCD decoding of patches from BCR2000, Enabler, iPad, etc.

Details and other notes are below:

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Rhodes Chroma w. MIDI, all upgrades, display, more

via this auction

"All of us synth doods know about the Chroma. Amazingly versatile architecture, the closest thing you can get to the ARP 2500 modular sound, beautiful weighted keyboard, and a nice flat top to stack other gear on as well.

Over the years, the Chroma has got some negative press due to some original design choices. Luckily, the Chroma is without a doubt the most supported vintage synth on the planet. Chris Ryan's www.rhodeschroma.com site has provided owners and potential owners help and support for many years. In addition, dedicated users and techs have come up with some essential upgrades over the years to make the Chroma even better.

This Chroma has all the updates plus more.

MIDI CC+ CPU board - replaces original CPU board (and leak-prone AA batteries) and adds full MIDI support.

SPSU - smaller, lighter, more stable universal power supply

CPS - polyphonic pressure sensor kit

In addition, using the interface provided by the CC+ board and latest OS, I added an LCD display to show you what you're editing!

Face it, one of the knocks against the Chroma is that the complexity of the synth engine is somewhat hidden by the very basic 2 segment LED displays and touch panel buttons. Programming it required you to keep the manual or at least the large parameter chart handy. No more!

Take a look at the display in the picture - you can see you are editing parameter 37 (LP/HP filter), the current value (LP), and all the modulations being applied to the parameter. Excellent!

So, at this point, you have a polyphonic pressure generating analog polysynth with an easy to use interface, stable power, and amazing MIDI capabilities. Where else can you find this? Maybe a Yamaha CS-80 with a MIDI retrofit. Good luck with that one though. More expensive, much heavier, and prone to breakdowns.

In addition, this Chroma has the dual footpedal, complete set of docs (I found the Performance manual after taking the pix), and 2 voice cards. At least one of the cards works (but doesn't pass auto-tune) and both cards are fully populated so you have backups of the CEMs and other stuff. There's a great tech in Canada (JL at Cantos) that fixes up cards for a reasonable price, so if you wanted working spares, you could send them off to him.

You won't find a Chroma with all these upgrades and extras anywhere else, so if you've been on the fence, now is the time to act."

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