In glorious hot pink hair, the maker who brought us the orginal x0xb0x, Limor Fried, aka ladyada of Adafruit Industries.
Vote for her for Entrepeneur of 2012 here. Go ladyada! Worth noting is she directly employs 25 people according to the contest, but she also indirectly contributes to all the x0xb0x makers out there.
via Boing Boing where Xeni Jardin has a great write-up on him. No synths, but you can appreciate how he spins the turntables to effectively synthesize sound, rhythm and textures. It is about synthesis and life.
"In 1927, Al Jolson spoke those words in The Jazz Singer, marking the end of the silent film age. (Of course, that film also featured Jolson in blackface which unfortunately was common at the time."
Left reminds me of a Doepfer eurorack. The second pic below reminds me of colored banana jack DIY modules. The one below it reminds me of the Sal-Mar. Serge below it and finally the $40,000 Holland SM2000 Eurorack Modular Synthesizer bottom. Tagging them in the labels below just for reference.
"Here's a collection of NASA sounds from historic spaceflights and current missions. You can hear the roar of a space shuttle launch or Neil Armstrong's "One small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" every time you get a phone call. Or, you can hear the memorable words "Houston, we've had a problem," every time you make an error on your computer. We have included both MP3 and M4R (iPhone) sound files to download."
"I received several old issues of Cracked Magazine over the holidays and I couldn’t help noticing how one humor piece, predicting life in the 21st Century, was surprisingly accurate."
1. The Amiga Demoscene Mixtape Vol. 1 - mixed by DJ Arvy (The Old-School Classics Edition)
"A non-stop DJ Continous Mix featuring some of the greatest and most popular Soundtracks from the early 90s Old School Amiga Demos.
Playlist:
0:05 "Deep Space" by Greg (from "Odyssey" by Alcatraz, 1992)
0:45 "Stardust Memories" by Jester (from "World of Commodore" by Sanity, 1992)
4:15 "Part6" by Greg (from "Odyssey" by Alcatraz, 1992)
6:35 "Hyperbased" by Firefox & Tip (from "Enigma" by Phenomena, 1991)
11:19 "Checknobankh" by Laxity (from "Desert Dream" by Kefrens, 1993)
14:25 "Elysium" by Jester (from "Elysium" by Sanity, 1991)
17:50 "Vite and Plack" by Virgill (from "Interference" by Sanity, 1993)
21:41 "Part3" by Greg (from "Odyssey" by Alcatraz, 1992)
23:21 "Overload" by Firefox & Tip (from "Voyage" by Razor 1911, 1991)
29:30 "Nagual Dance" by Jugi (from "Paradigma" by Complex, 1993)
33:35 "Demomodul#3" by Laxity (from "Desert Dream" by Kefrens, 1993)
37:55 "Cyberride" by Jester (from "Extension" by Pygmy Projects, 1993)
42:16 "A nice Day for a Walk" by Julius / Mad Freak (from "3D Demo II" by Anarchy, 1992)
"Excerpts from the album. Now available at Experimedia.net. LP version. Previously-unreleased electronic music from original The Mothers Of Invention keyboardist, Don Preston. 'We're coming to the beginning of a new era wherein the development of the inner-self is the most important thing. We have to train ourselves so that we can improvise on anything: a bird, a sock, a fuming beaker. This, too, can be music. Anything can be music.' --Don Preston, extracts from Uncle Meat, 1969, The Mothers Of Invention One could hardly not see in Don Preston a key musician within Frank Zappa's oeuvre. He is not only that, but his presence has marked The Mothers' major records from 1966 to 1974. His touch was already there before the arrival of Ian Underwood, and it continued after Ian left. You all remember 'King Kong' (its magnificence as interpreted by Dom DeWild) from the second Uncle Meat suite. A certain form of jubilation emanates from this track, thanks to Preston's fluid style and lightly astringent tone on the Moog synthesizer -- that instrument never sounded quite like that before or after. This might have to do with his double training, his twin interests, since he had been simultaneously working with Gil Evans and listening intensely to Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Tod Dockstader. Immersed in jazz music, he was imagining secret ties with the nascent electronic music. In the mid-'60s, Preston started developing an electronic instrument, using a home-made synthesizer and a series of oscillators and filters. Out of this instrument came 'Electronic Music' (1967), his first piece. Two years later, he became a close friend of Robert Moog, and their discussions gave birth to a number of applications in relation with the flexibility of the instrument. Nowadays, you can't mention the Mini-Moog without thinking of Preston. Bob Moog himself said about his solo in "Waka/Jawaka": "That's impossible. You can't do that on a Moog." Filters, Oscillators & Envelopes features the other side, the hidden side of Don Preston: the composer of purely electronic music. Released by: sub rosa Release/catalogue number: sr334lp Release date: Apr 12, 2012"
Don Preston and Dr. Patrick Gleeson where scheduled to be live at Analogue Haven in 2007. I don't believe I ever saw pics or video of the events. At least I'm not quickly finding any. If anyone knows, feel free to comment or shoot me an email.
Three music apps in this video presented by Smule co-founder Dr. Ge Wang.
Their upcoming Magic Piano [see this post], and Ocarina [albeit the iPhone version].
Realize this is behind doors at an Apple store for a private screening for ABC news about the iPad in general, and the one showing the demos is the creator of probably the most popular music (synth based) apps for the iPhone. Smule sent in videos to post here on MATRIXSYNTH before their fist apps took off.
The first app, or rather book I plan to pick up? It's not a synth, it's this. Be sure to see Boing Boing's review on the iPad here and the 3:47 mark in the video below [the Marvel comics app will probably be second - see 3:37 below - I've always wanted to re-read X-Man 94 on]. Also be sure to see this post and poll when the iPad was first announced. It's an interesting look back and it will just get more interesting over time.
"PCMag's Tim Gideon takes an in-depth look at Apple's first tablet, the iPad, prior to the April 3rd launch. Check out iWork, Maps, iBooks, and other apps and read the full review at pcmag.com"
"In 1980 Stanley Kubrick released his masterpiece of modern horror, The Shining. Over 30 years later we are still struggling to understand its hidden meanings. Rodney Ascher's film Room 237 is an exploration of the truths concealed in The Shining.
Kubrick's film was scored in large part with pre existing classical recordings, but the score for Room 237 has taken as its inspiration the elegant but quirky film music that accompanied low budget horror movies in the 1970s. Composers Jonathan Snipes and William Hutson utilize a combination of vintage and contemporary analogue synthesizers, as well as acoustic instruments to create an atmosphere that is at once both haunting and funky.
Musicians:
Jonathan Snipes - Synthesizers, Pianos, Vocoder, Percussion
William Hutson - Synthesizers, Percussion
David Rothbaum - Guitars & Bass
Nick Murray - Drums
Maryclare Brzytwa - Flute
Bear McCreary - Clavinet
Cristina Bercovitz - Vocal Effects
"Let's get physical: MR-808 is the first drum robot that reproduces the drum sounds of the 80s - in the real world.
The robot installation MR-808 is a replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine TR-808 – with robots playing the drum sounds! I (Moritz Simon Geist) have been playing electronic music for several years now, and at some place I was bored of the electronic music production process. With binary logic, everything is possible.
So I decided to go back to the roots of sound generation – the physical sound generation – but combine it with the electronic music structure we like so much.
I liked the idea so much, that I couldn’t stop building my own drum robots, and ended up replacing all the electronic sounds of a whole drum computer, placed in a 3,3 x 1,7m² case. I am very proud to present the “MR-808” – a mechanic replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine TR-808!
Read on: http://sonicrobots.com/mr808-eng/
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MR-808 - mechanic sound robot (all drums, miced)
A mechanic relay controlled via arduino (bass sound)
Gameboy - Arduinoboy hardware (8 bit chiptune sound)
Everything was programmed in Ableton, only equing and compression has been applied.
---
Filmography: David Campesino
Music: Moritz Simon Geist"
"Let's get physical: SCIENCE FICTION CHILDREN perform "Rise Of The Toys"
The Track features the MR-808: the first drum robot that reproduces the drum sounds of the 80s - in the real world! The robot installation MR-808 is a replica of the famous 1980s electronic drum machine TR-808 with robots playing the drum sounds.
Read on:
www.sonicrobots.com/mr808-eng/ -- Technique
www.sciencefictionchildren.com -- Band
---
Cinematography:
David Campesino
Philipp Baumgarten
Rise Of The Toys
Written by Science Fiction Children
Band:
Art Hustle
Moritz Simon Geist
Dr. Valentine
Katharina Hoffmann
Performed at Sputnik 2.0,
Dresden 2012
Only reverb, equing and compression has been applied to the tracks."
"An intriguing combination of programmers, artists, and philosophers, these creators embrace a process that delegates essential decisions to computers, data sets, or even random variables. This allows important metaphors to arise in their work, calling attention to the relationship between humans and the computers that surround us, the mountains of information we generate, and the powerful impact that technology has on our relationships with each other.
"Soldering is not some rarified art. It does take a little bit of patience and some practice, but mainly, it's a question of having the proper tools to do it right, carefully following a few simple steps, and steering clear of a few common pitfalls."
Title link takes you there. Saw this one on Boing Boing.
No, it's not. : ( Every now and then I see something I feel compelled to post, even if it isn't a synth, just because it would make for an amazing synth/interface. Well, this thing just popped up on Boing Boing. Man that would be fun. If only it produced some earth rattling bass, LFO filter sweeps, ripping FM... OMG... I think I actaully am a geek. My wife called me one when I asked her to add the Different Skies DVD to my xmas list. She just doesn't understand... : ) Look at that thing!!!
Via Boing Boing. Apparently Brian Eno puchased a few of these. If anyone finds any samples, please share.
"Fm 3 is opening a new special series of Staalplaat. The Buddha Machine is a small soundbox made in China which comes with an integrated speaker, a volume control, minijack-out and and a switch to choose between 9 different loops which are stored on a small chip and can be directly plaid by this mini soundsystem. A number of other artists will continue this series soon. Limited to 300 copies."
