Roland G-505 Guitar Synthesizer Controller, GR-300 Polyphonic Guitar Synth

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.


via this listing

"Up for sale, a 1980s Roland G-505 Guitar Synthesizer Controller and GR-300 Polyphonic Guitar Synthesizer [SN 090427] in 100% original condition and in perfect working order, complete with the original 24-pin cable. First introduced in 1980 as a follow-up to the GR-500, the GR-300 is perhaps best known for its usage by Pat Metheny; produced at the venerable Fujigen factory in Japan, this versatile guitar synth can deliver a huge range of decidedly unique sounds, with a hexaphonic fuzz circuit, VCO synth, and combinations of the two. This GR-300 comes complete with the G-505 Guitar Controller, taking its design cues from a Strat with a sleek ash body, one-piece maple neck, and a trio of single coil pickups alongside the synth pickup.

The G-505 Guitar Controller guitar has plenty of natural sparkle and shimmer, and the Roland PU-134S pickups deliver a bevy of Strat-style tonalities via the five-way selector switch. Weighing 8lbs 12oz, the G-505 has been professionally setup here at Mike & Mike’s Guitar Bar with 10-46 strings, low action, and spot-on intonation.

The maple neck has a slender C-shaped profile carve with good shoulders, gaining appreciably more heft and roundness in the upper registers, measuring .810” deep at the 1st fret and 1.015” at the 12th. The fretboard exhibits light finger wear through the gloss, and the slender fretwire ostensibly benefits from a level and crown in this guitar’s lifetime, showing virtually no wear. This Roland plays cleanly up the 25 1/2“ scale with a straight neck and a responsive, optimally-adjusted truss rod, and the nut measures 1.650” (42mm) in width. The headstock features a bullet truss rod nut and gold “GR” logo, and the Gotoh tuning machines function reliably. The back of the headstock retains the silver foil serialized sticker.

The electronics on the guitar controller are untouched, with a control scheme including Master Volume, Guitar Tone, Guitar/EG Balance (Blend), VCF Cutoff Frequency, VCR Resonance, and LFO (Vibrato) Depth knobs. Additionally, the three-position Mode toggle enables on-the-fly switches between Hexaphonic Fuzz only (Mode 1), Fuzz and VCO synth tandem (Mode 2) and Synth only (mode 3). The controls are capped by the original sextet of knobs with ridged grips for easy adjustments, and the three-ply white pickguard rounds out the plastics.

Cosmetic wear on the gloss Metallic Blue finish includes a number of nicks and dings on the body as a whole, most prominent along the lower bout perimeter, with some finish chipping adjacent to the output jacks, and some very subtle texturing in the finish on the top. The neck profile retains its smooth gloss, with a handful of shallow marks that have no impact on playability.

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TFoM2022 | official digest video |

video upload by Tokyo Festival of Modular

"Tokyo Festival of Modular 2022
“New Breath”

2022.04.17. 12:00-22:00
場所 : Contact Tokyo

TFoM2022 出演TFoM2022 出演者

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Alisa 1377 soviet synthesizer and Ritmobox drumsynth tracks

video upload by Gusein G

"This EP has been recorded using only a midied Alisa 1377 soviet synthesizer and AVP Synth Ritmobox analog drumsynth for all the drums/percussion/blip parts: www.avpsynth.com

1 - Sketch one 00:00
2 - Sketch two 04:00
3 - Sketch three 07:18
4 - Sketch four 11:43
5 - Sketch five 14:21
6 - Sketch six 17:35
7 - Sketch seven 20:23
8 - Sketch eight 23:28

Drawings by: Ayten Malikova https://www.instagram.com/kovalenko_malikova_ayten

You can get the tracks in WAV on my bandcamp page (name your price):
https://altavox.bandcamp.com

Thanks for your support, it keeps me to continue on doing what i do.
G"

TFoM2022 | official digest video

video upload by Tokyo Festival of Modular

Tokyo Festival of Modular 2022
“New Breath”

2022.04.17. 12:00-22:00
場所 : Contact Tokyo

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Novation AFX Station • Lightbath Patches + Overlays Demo

Lightbath

"I'm honored to be one of five sound designers selected by Novation and Richard D. James to create Patches + Overlays for the new AFX Station synth. I'm in good company with the others being Richard Devine, Noyzelab, Perplex On and ol' pal, r beny.

The AFX Station is a Bass Station II with a facelift that makes it easier to use the AFX Mode Overlays that are part of the new firmware. Plus, the thing looks great, now. More pro, less toy imo. It's a powerful synth that reminds me a lot of my Roland SH-101, but with patch-saving capabilities and some gnarly distortion and drive.

My patches parody a few choice sounds like BoC's Roygbiv and One Very Important Thought and some of the dirty sounds used by Tobacco and Black Moth Super Rainbow as well as a bunch of 'classic' Lightbath sounds and even a few jokes.

Lightbath Patches

082 - Audubon
083 - B3 Marimba
084 - Bass Racer
085 - Dandy Gum
086 - Formantable
087 - Gravity Error
088 - ImportantThought
089 - Mosquitohead
090 - Pluckbath
091 - Roy G. Biv
092 - SH-Gregorian
093 - The Fourth Below
094 - Threefold
095 - Tobacco Blessing
096 - Warm Chillbath

Lightbath Overlays

o5 - Gyil
o6 - Glitch
o7 - Flute"

Novation → https://novationmusic.com/en/synths/a..."

You can find additional Novation AFX Station posts here.

Roland Jupiter-8

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"This is apparently a two-owner, never-gigged unit, only used in no-smoking environments, with condition as seen in photos. There's no smell of smoke or mildew or anything.

I bought this about four years ago at Tokyo's famous vintage service/retail shop, Five-G in Harajuku. Last week I tried to get them to do a point inspection but they just about refused, taking pride in how they set it up the first time. "If there's a problem bring it in, otherwise there's no need for a checkup so soon after the last one," they said. (If you buy it and want to pay extra for the checkup and are OK with the delay, I'm happy to arrange it. I'm absolutely positive the checkup won't find anything, though, and if it does I'll pay the repair out of the purchase price.)"

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myVolts visits Five G Synthesizer shop in Tokyo Japan - minilogue sounds

Published on Nov 4, 2019 myVolts

"What a spaceship! Walls and walls of #modularsynth.
#audio is #korg #minilogue beside #oscilloscope.
Lots of #prophetsynth action. #buchlamusiceasel on display, along with a lot of vintage gear.
Staff are super friendly, knowledge and they love #Ripcordusb!

Also on show from #teenageengineering #op1 and #opz #pocketoperators
lots of #doepfer . so much #analogue and #modular you wouldn't believe!"

myVolts on Amazon

meeblip thru5: MIDI splitter kit

via meeblip

"We're giving it away with all geode sales (and throwing in free standard shipping) in a special intro sale for 48 hours. It's Black Friday in October, basically."

thru5 is an affordable kit that’s invaluable in your studio. It's a 5-port MIDI splitter (thru box) that copies MIDI messages received at the MIDI IN and passes them to the five MIDI OUTs. Each output is processed through a low-latency active circuit.

The thru5 kit comes with all the tricky components pre-installed. You simply solder the MIDI and USB jacks. No cables are included - use your own, or get them in our shop.

Features:

This is an easy-to-build kit; some through-hole soldering required

Passes MIDI data from the MIDI IN to five MIDI OUT jacks

Low latency hardware MIDI pass-through

Runs on 5V Power from a computer USB port or USB wall wart (power only, does not pass data)

Opto-isolated MIDI IN to eliminate ground loops

Individual active signal processing for each MIDI OUT

Size: 125 x 40 x 25 mm (4.9" x 1.6" x 1"), weight: 72 g (2.5 oz)

Don't forget cables - get a four pack of MIDI cables for just US$19.95.

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Synthesizer Shops of Japan - FiveG in Tokyo

Published on Oct 12, 2019 Nikki Synth

"Part 2 of our Synthesizer Shops of Japan series. We take a look at the famous Five G in Harujuku, Tokyo! Legendary for its enormous selection of New and Used, Vintage and Modern, Keyboard and Modular based Synthesizers!"

Nikki Synth Synthesizer Shops of Japan

FIVE G Legendary Synth Shop,Tokyo Visit

Published on Sep 30, 2019 sonicstate

"They say when in Tokyo, you need to visit Five G - its the legendary synth shop in the Harajuku district (famous for teen fashion).

So we did. And its a real treasure cave - we were still awake after 26hours of travel, so frankly were amazed any of the footage came out, but we hope you enjoy.."

FIVE G

Casio VL-1 Processed to Modular Patch

Published on Apr 20, 2019 Fahmi M.

"Improv session / live jam used custom sound of VL-1 with VCV Rack.

Info:
The VL-1 was the first instrument of Casio's VL-Tone product line, and is sometimes referred to as the VL-Tone. It combined a calculator, a monophonic synthesizer, and sequencer. Released in June 1979, it was the first commercial digital synthesizer.

It has 29 calculator-button keys (G to B), a three-position octave switch, one programmable and five preset sounds, ten built-in rhythm patterns, an eight-character LCD, a 100-note sequencer, and a multi-function calculator mode. The VL-1 is notable for its kitsch value among electronic musicians due to its cheap construction and its unrealistic, uniquely low-fidelity sounds.

Its sounds were mostly composed of filtered squarewaves with varied pulse-widths. Its piano, violin, flute and guitar timbres were nearly unrecognizable abstractions of real instruments. It also featured a "fantasy" voice, and a programmable synthesizer which provided for choice of both oscillator waveform and ADSR envelope. It had a range of two and a half octaves. (Wikipedia)

VCV Rack now lets you run an entire simulated Eurorack on your computer – or interface with hardware modular. And you can get started without spending a cent, with add-on modules available by the day for free or inexpensively. Ted Pallas has been working with VCV since the beginning, and gives us a complete hands-on guide.

There’s always a reason people fall in love with modular music set-ups. For some, it’s having a consistent, tactile interface. For others, it’s about the way open-ended architectures let the user, rather than a manufacturer, determine the system’s limits. For me, the main attraction to modulars is access to tools that can run free from a rigid musical timeline, but still play a sequence. It means they let me dial in interesting poly-rhythmic parts without stress. (CDM)

More sounds:
ideologikal.bandcamp.com"

Tokyo Festival of Modular: cafe deluxe #3 cafe deluxe #3 official digest

Published on Jul 27, 2018 Tokyo Festival of Modular

撮影: 阿部勝規 築地孝典
編集: 阿部勝規


Modular synth showcase event!
- Makers' and Distributors' booths
- Live performances
- Used modules corner

イベント名 ：Cafe Deluxe #3
5月20日(日)　 16:00 - 22:00
会場SuperDeluxe, https://www.super-deluxe.com/


前売り券予約サイト（前売りはこちらのみ）：
https://www.super-deluxe.com/room/4477/

モジュラーシンセサイザーの魅力をじっくり掘り下げるTokyo Festival of Modular がお届けする、Cafe Deluxe 。開発者、ショップの展示ブース、一般の方々による中古モジュラー交換ブース、幅広いジャンルに及ぶモジュラーアーティストによる演奏で様々な角度からモジュラーシンセに触れ、知り、魅力に浸りましょう !!

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New Doepfer Eurorack Modules

"Module A-150-8 contains eight manually/voltage controlled switches. Each of the eight switches has a manual control button (Man.), a control voltage input (CV), a common Out / Input (O/I), and two In / Outputs (I/O1, I/O2). The switches are bi-directional, i.e. they can work in both directions, so can connect one input to either of two outputs, or either of two inputs to one output. Two LEDs show which in / output is active (i.e. which is connected to the common out / input). In addition the LEDs are used for the programming of the module:

For each unit the operating mode can be selected: Toggle or Level controlled. In Toggle mode the rising edge of the CV input or operating the manual control button changes the state of the switch. In Level mode the switch state is defined by the voltage applied to the CV input (low voltage = I/O1, high voltage = I/O2) or by the state of the manual control button (not pressed = I/O1, pressed = I/O2). The modes are programmed very easily: Operating the Toggle/Level button of the program section displays the current state of each switch with the LEDs: left LED on = Toggle mode, right LED on = Level mode. Operating the manual control button of the switch in question changes the toggle/level mode while the Toggle/Level button of the program section is operated. During the programming possibly patched CV signals have to be removed as the CV signals would interfere with the manual operating buttons during the programming process.

In addition it's possible to define master/slave groups. In such a group the upper unit (= master) controls also the state of the following switches provided that they are defined as slaves. Master/slave programming is also very simple: Operating the Master/Slave button of the program section displays the current state of each switch with the LEDs: left LED on = Master, right LED on = Slave. Operating the manual control button of the switch in question changes the master/slave mode while the Master/Slave button of the program section is operated. During the programming possibly patched CV signals have to be removed as the CV signals would interfere with the manual operating buttons during the programming process.
When all 8 units are defined as master all switches are independent from each other. If for example the sequence is MSSSMSMS the control unit of the first switch also controls the switches 2, 3 and 4. The control unit of switch 5 also controls the switch 6, and the control unit of switch 7 also controls the switch 8. The current states of the slave switches are overwritten by the state of the master switch.

Technical note: To protect the electronic switches in case of an unsuitable patch (e.g. connection of two outputs) a 1k protection resistor is inserted into the O/I line of each switch. If control voltages used for VCOs are switched this may cause a small voltage drop and lead to undesired audible detuning. For this application we recommend to insert a CV buffer between A-150-8 and the VCO(s), e.g. the Buffered Multiple A-180-3 or the Precision Adder A-185-2. Integrating the buffers into the module A-150-8 was not possible because this would ruin the bidirectionality of the switches."

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Five-G Tokyo Shop Visit

Published on Nov 19, 2017 Bonedo Synthesizers

"We've paid the legendary Five-G Shop in Tokyo a visit. Synth Heaven!"

Giving this one the synth museums label. It is a shop, but it might as well be a museum. You can find previous posts featuring Five-G here.

Opposite Earth by Jeff Snyder, electronic version

Published on Oct 25, 2017 Jeff Snyder

"Opposite Earth by Jeff Snyder [of Snyderphonics]

This is an animated notation piece for an open instrumentation. It was written for PLOrk in 2016 and is intended to be performed by a combination of acoustic and electronic musicians, but this is a version that just uses electronic sounds. The graphic score is realized in javascript and the synthesis is all created using WebAudio.
The conductor changes the image components live to guide the course of the piece. For instance, the conductor can add and remove rings (performers), planets (pitches), and ticks (percussive sounds) at will. The color of the lines conveys which of five scales is used. Moons are played by the same performers that are handling the planet they orbit around.

Thanks to Drew Wallace for additional javascript magic!

//
If you want to try out controlling the piece yourself, visit https://spiricom.github.io/sunspots/p...

It's controlled with the computer keyboard and the mouse position.
` (the top left key below escape) selects all rings.
numbers 1 through 8 select individual rings.
9 makes rings visible or invisible.
0 adds or removes moons.
- adds or removes ticks.
p adds or removes planets
the arrow keys add or remove the "play" lines.
s, d, f, g, and h set the color of the next line you add (and therefore the scale)
z through / set the division of the ticks.
mouse X position is the size of planets - maps to decay time of notes.
mouse Y position is the blue/red color at the upper left hand corner of the screen. It maps to timbre, dark to bright.

//
For an interesting collection of information about animated notation works, check out Ryan Ross Smith's animated notation website. http://www.animatednotation.com/"

Reon Driftboxes SE, J, and W

REON drift boxパフォーマンス Published on Mar 9, 2016

Note the video above is from March in 2016, so these are not technically new. Reon gear tends to be promoted via Japanese channels. As you can see their website is primarily in Japanese only.  They also do a bit of one off and customized gear. Check out the pink one!

Previously featured Reon driftboxes included the driftbox S, S ver II, R, Q, V, E, C, T, and G announced here, back in 2013. There were also modular versions and a Roland branded DriftBox R model announced in 2015. You can find demos and pics via the Reon label here.

BTW, the different spellings and capitalizations I'm using for Driftbox is on purpose. Roland branded it DriftBox with a capital D and B, and Reon interchanges between driftbox, all lowercase, and Driftbox with the capital D. I have also seen it as Drift Box.

That said, not featured here on MATRIXSYNTH before now, are the driftbox SE, J, and W. The following are some details Google translated from Reon.

driftbox SE 4 Voice-8 Paraphonic Synthesizer

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RA Sessions: Legowelt

Published on Sep 11, 2017 Resident Advisor

"The Dutch artist performs a freaky extended live session.

This whole lo-fi, straight-to-tape, DIY aesthetic that’s so popular these days? Danny Wolfers invented it. OK, that’s an exaggeration. But it’s true that the Dutch artist has embodied these characteristics for longer than some of this style’s recent adopters have been alive. Wolfers gets additional respect for never wavering from these core tenets of his artistry. He’s popular, to be sure. He plays live all over the world, and he releases records on big labels like Clone and L.I.E.S. But he still clearly values unfiltered creativity above anything else.

Head over to his website. There’s a section for the Ableton plug-ins he makes and gives away. There’s a bit for his zine, Shadow Wolf Cyberzine. He writes reviews of old synthesizers, and has a section called Obseuriosa where you can download his weird, sample-based experiments. Then see his Discogs page. He has over 30 aliases, and he’s released two albums already this year. He called the first, A Vampire Goes West, “amateur space jazz meets professional ambient.” He described the second, Unfolding The Future With Amateur Space Jazz, as “a lo-fi minimal [wave-ish] version of cosmic space jazz and anything closely related to it... from spiritual soul, G-funk, Ethiopian jazz to ambient and everything in between.” (He wrote and illustrated a 24-page graphic novel for that one.) To summarise all of this in a few words, Wolfers is the real deal.

His RA Session is longest we’ve released so far, which was probably to be expected. He turned up to our London office last month with a trunk full of gear and, roughly speaking, performed five tracks. The first two are versions of forthcoming material, and from around 16 minutes onwards we get Wolfers in full-blown improv mode.

Visit the RA feature page: https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/3064

Director - Sophie Misrahi
Producer/editor - Guy Clarke
Camera - Sophie Misrahi, Guy Clarke, Patrick Nation
Sound Engineer - Jesal Chohan-Padia (Sound Services)"

5G Tokyo 2015 Walkthrough

Published on Aug 22, 2017

"Wander around the vintage synth wonderland they call 5G and dream…"

The infamous Five G synth shop in Toyko. You can find some previous posts featuring Five G here.

KOMA's Field Kit launched on Kickstarter!

"After a year of development, testing and prototyping, KOMA Elektronik is proud to present the latest addition to the KOMA family: the KOMA Elektronik Field Kit! On Kickstarter now! The new KOMA Elektronik Field Kit is the perfect tool for everyone who would like to experiment with electroacoustic sound. Use everyday objects, amplify them and use them to make sound, like our heroes John Cage and David Tudor used to do!

The Field Kit is optimized to process signals from microphones, contact microphones, electromagnetic pickups and able to run DC motors and solenoids. On top of that it can receive radio signals and convert signals from switches and sensors into control voltage. The Field Kit boasts 7 separate functional blocks all focussed on receiving or generating all types of signals. They are designed to operate together as a coherent electroacoustic workstation or alternatively together with other pieces of music electronics with the ability to use control voltage signals:

Four Channel Mixer
Envelope Follower
DC Interface
Analog Switch Interface
Analog Sensor Interface
AM/FM/SW Radio
Low Frequency Oscillator
You can easily interface the Field Kit with a Eurorack modular system. At the backside of the PCB you will find a power connector you can use to power the unit from your system. The total panel width is 36HP. You can buy the Field Kit as a finished unit or build one yourself with the DIY Version."



"All audio has been recorded straight from the Field Kit, using a DC Motor, Solenoid Motor, a DC powered fan, Roland TR-8 and Berlin's local radio station Antenne Brandenburg as audio sources."

Additional details via Kickstarter.

"The KOMA Field Kit

The new KOMA Elektronik Field Kit is the perfect tool for everyone who would like to experiment with electroacoustic sound. Use everyday objects, amplify them and use them to make sound, like our heroes John Cage and David Tudor used to do!

The Field Kit is optimized to process signals from microphones, contact microphones, electromagnetic pickups and able to run DC motors and solenoids. On top of that it can receive radio signals and convert signals from switches and sensors into control voltage!

We have finished development of the Field Kit, are ready for production and we need your support to make it happen!

[Pictured:] The final Field Kit prototype, ready for production!

It's all about the things you connect to the The Field Kit! To get you started we decided to offer an Expansion Pack with a bunch of different sources that you can use and connect to create your own signature sounds.

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Dave Smith Instruments OB-6

Published on Sep 12, 2016 ED電音頻道 E.D.Music Channel

"*Special thanks to: Five G
Copyright: E.D.Music Co."