3 Monowaves - Prototype, Beta (1 of 5) and Production (1 of only 25 made)

via Vaco Loco

"Here’s something you don’t see everyday, 3 x Monowave altogether. What also makes this special is that there is the original Prototype (bottom), a beta unit (1 of 5) and a production (1 of 25) unit al together."

The Monowave had two oscillators with 256 waveforms each. 127 of them were from the classic PPG wave synthesizers. It had two additional sub-oscillators and a Moog ladder filter clone. You can find more info on here and of course the Monowave label below.

Update via Qwave in the comments: "And here is another triple MonoWave rack: http://till-kopper.de/monowave-rack.jpg
That's mine. I love the sound of it."

VACO LOCO ZIRA

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

"The 7-Bit Sound NAND Drone Synth is ballistic Lo-Fi synth box that packs a heavy punch, with 4 internal gated oscillators

NAND Drone synth is easy to use and is controlled in the following ways:

· The First knob controls oscillation frequency of the number 1 oscillator that is gated to the number 2 oscillator

· The Second knob controls oscillation frequency, by turning the First switch we open or close the gate.

· The Third knob controls oscillation frequency of number 3 oscillator that is gated to number 4 output oscillator which is also gated to the number 2 oscillator

· The second switch controls the gate between number 3 and number 4 oscillator.

The Vaco Loco Zira came out of an idea to see how small a fully equipped and versatile synth could be built.

The Zira features Two oscillators, each with 48 waveforms that were favourites from the Monowave. A sub oscillator, linked to oscillator one. The Sub oscillator has a level control, oscillators one and two can be switched on or off. Note offset for Patch +/- two octaves, second oscillator has note detune of +/- two octaves and fine tune. Hard Sync of oscillator two to oscillator one's pitch.

The Zira is based on the Korg NJM2069AD Filter/VCA chip. This 4-pole low pass filter is the same filter chip used in the Poly800, DW8000, DW6000 and DSS-1

Zira comes fully assembled in a clear acrylic housing, and is a very limited edition release, never to be seen again once stocks are sold out.

Features:
· Two oscillators, each with 48 waveforms
· One Sub oscillator
· Hard Sync of oscillators
· Two ADSRs, one VCF, one VCA
· One LFO
· Multiple routing options
· 64 patch memories
· MIDI updatable firmware

Specifications:
· 2 Oscs: Each with 48 waveforms, I picked 48 of my favourites from the Monowave. A sub oscillator, linked to oscillator one. The Sub oscillator has a level control, oscillators one and two can be switched on or off.

Note offset for Patch +/- two octaves, second oscillator has note detune of +/- two octaves and fine tune.

Hard Sync of oscillator two to oscillator one's pitch.

· VCF: The Korg NJM2069AD is used in the prototypes for the filter. This 4-pole low pass filter is the same filter chip used in the Poly800, DW8000, DW6000 and DSS-1

· VCA: Very high signal to noise ratio and incredibly clean sounding, again, the prototype uses the NJM2069AD.

· EG's: One for Filter and one for VCA, both are ADSR type. They have Linear attack and exponential decay and release curves.

These go from very quick (~3mS) to a many seconds for each stage (~48 Seconds).

· LFO: The LFO has 4 wave forms, Sinewave, sawtooth, square and random. the LFO is routable to oscillator pitch, filter cut off and filter resonance.

A delay parameter allows the LFO to come "fade in" with an adjustable delay.

It also has a key sync mode, when on the LFO is forced to reset when a new key is pressed and when the LFO cycle has finished it rests at that value.

· Display: The display uses four 7 segment displays, the same as GorF and Tron.

· MIDI: MIDI CC for each parameter, receipt of Patch change (64 patches).

· I/O: The Connections could not be simpler, power in (6 to 12V DC), MIDI in and Audio out.

Video Demos:"


YouTube Published on Apr 16, 2012 by VacolocoSynth

"A quick run through of Zira and it's features."

Zira Demonstration

Published on Apr 16, 2012 by VacolocoSynth

"A quick run through of Zira and it's features."

New Boot Loader

Uploaded by VacolocoSynth on Feb 23, 2012

"Quick demonstration of the new, faster and more reliable, boot loader. This demo shows an update for Zira, but the same boot loader will be used for all new projects from this point forward."

Vaco Loco Zira Now Available

via Paul Maddox of Vaco Loco

"My first synth since the Monowave, Zira is now available to buy (http://VacoLoco.net/order.shtml). It comes fully assembled and in a perspex case, you just need to supply MIDI, power (9V-12V DC @300mA) and a Stereo 3.5mm Jack. The just plug it into your mixer and off you go!

Think of Zira as a pocket sized monowave. Zira has the following features

* Two oscillators, each with 48 wave forms, a sub oscillator and hard sync
* Analogue Lowpass 24dB/Oct filter. Zira uses the NJM2069AD (New old Stock) chips to give a stunning warm and rich filter sound.
* The VCA is part of the NJM2069AD and is a low noise, high quality VCA.
* Two ADSRs, one for the VCF and one for the VCA
* LFO with 4 waveforms, with delay, single shot mode and four routing destinations.
* All parameters editable via MIDI CC
* 64 Patch memories

I only have a very limited supply of NJM2069s, so grab them whilst you can as Zira won’t be available in this format again. You can purchase one from here.

Multi-tracked demo of Zira playing Depeche Modes 'See You'"

All synth sounds except the drums.

VacoLoco · See You (Zira Demo)

Loved by Ghosts - Sonic Hysteria - Mass DIY

YouTube Uploaded by lovedbyghosts on Jun 7, 2011

"Crazy animation made by the band in an attic with almost no money."

via Loved by Ghosts

SoundCloud
YouTube
Facebook

"We are a new band called "Loved by Ghosts" which uses almost entirely DIY synthesizers that we built ourselves.

In "Sonic Hysteria", you would certainly recognize the midibox SID while the bass is Monomachine.

In “Girl Go” the bass line is Avr-X Synthesizer, various FX is midibox FM and the lead Oberheim OB-12.

In the other songs - that we will be posting soon - we use: ASM-2, Mutable Instruments Shruthi-1, Pixie (Wasp clone), Monowave(X), MFOS Soundlab, SUB-COMMANDER Guitar Synth, Weird Sound Generator, Drone Lab V2, AVR synth, Gorf Sequencer.
For guitar and voice we use various filters from the web (wasp filter clone, steiner, lm13700 filter, ssm2044, polivoks), fx's built with boards from Jürgen Haible (Frequency Shifter FS-1A, Triple Chorus, Krautrock Phaser and 20-pole Phaser), many vintage Russian fx units, and many electro-Harmonix stompboxes.
All of them are sequenced from an Elektron Monomachine (we love it !!!) and an Electribe sampler is used for drums, created with the same synths.
You will recognize some of them in the pictures. More to come on our Facebook page.

We want to thank you… Thorsten Klose, Laurie Biddulph, Paul Maddox, Ray Wilson, Jürgen Haible, Johan Severinsson and Jonas Karlsson, Olivier Gillet, Peter Edwards, Jarek Ziembicki and to MATRIXSYNTH. Without your projects,our music would be empty.
And special thanks to our pet Speakjet, Wof, Wof.
If you enjoyed our music, follow us on Facebook, YouTube and SoundCloud, there's a lot more to come."

Vaco Loco MonoWave II

"The MonoWave II is a complete change for me in that it's a 100% DSP based synth. My reason for this is that it allows me to experiment with features and the sound of the synth without having to rebuild circuits from scratch.

The MonoWave II is a free download for anyone who uses the Sound Art Chameleon. It was designed with the same goals in mind as the original Monowave, a unique sounding monosynth with unique sonic abilities.

I'm new to DSP and this is my first project, so I've decided to make it a freebie. You can get the latest version, along with a patch dump, in the downloads section. You can also find the source code, including DSP assembly language, here. Please feel free to use it, but I would request that you keep a link to the modulus webpage and also SoundArt webpages in the files."

Samples here

You can find more info on the original MonoWave here. In short it was a mono synth with Moog style filters and the PPG waveshapes for the Oscillators.

As always see the labels below for what's gone up in the past.

Update via Qwave in the comments:
"I can clear up a thing, because I own three MonoWaves: it does not produce wavetables. But it contains all the waveshapes the PPG waves used to make up the wavetables by interpolation. So it does sound like a PPG from the oscillator side. But the filter is a pure and legal (written permission by Bob Moog!) Moog filter.
http://www.till-kopper.de/monowave.html
Scroll down for the english (sort of) version.
Here is my MonoWave rack:
http://www.till-kopper.de/monowave-rack-small.jpg

keep on turning these knobs"

Till"

Update via Lord Avon in the comments:
"It's worth noting that you can control the wavenumbers via MIDI CC, so if you sequence it you can get psuedo wavetable effects, like this demo from Paul Nagle ;-
http://www.vacoloco.net/synths/monowave/sounds/MonoWaving_Seq.mp3"

GorF and Defender

via Vaco Loco where you will find more info.

"Gorf is a simple 8 step sequencer. It isn't as clever or complex as the Sequentix P3 nor as expensive as certain other sequencers.

I was bored one sunday, and wanted to build a simple sequencer I could use to test Defender and other synths I was building."

snip on Defender: "Defender is my current project, and as such, is a work in progress, so please, don't ask for schematics, code or if you can buy it.

The synth is broken down into three parts,

1. The Voice Card, which holds the filter, oscillators, EGs and LFOs
2. Controller Card, which handles midi, voice assignment and patch storage
3. Front Panel card, which handles the rotary encoders, pitch wheels, etc, etc"


Update via Lord Avon in the comments:

Video demo of GorF (playing Monowave II skin on the SoundArt Chameleon)

YouTube via VacolocoSynth

sounds for Defender ;- http://www.vacoloco.net/synths/defender/sounds.shtml

I'll add more soon, using GorF to control it.

Paul"

Video details:
"GorF is a minimal step sequencer.
I built it to help testing my synth designs.

It sends MIDI notes and velocity on a user selectable Midi channel along with two MIDI CC's (user selectable) and of course has variable sequence length.

You can turn steps on and off using the buttons, but I forgot to show this feature. When I do the next video I'll be sure to show this feature.

It's still in the early stages of development, and has one or two little bugs in it.

The sound is coming from the MonowaveII sound skin.

www.VacoLoco.net"

GorF (Ver 0.15)

SDIY UK 2008 via Vocano Ramblings aka Paul Maddox

post and images here. 

 Paul Maddox is the man behind the MonoWave.

Hermann Seibs Hauptseite

click here for Herman Seibs Huptseite Synthesizer sub-site. You will find the following listed along with images and information on each:

Emax
Emulator III
Fairlight CMI IIx
Wavestation
PS-3100 [pictured here]
PPG System
Microwave
Microwave XTk
Waldorf Wave
SH-101
MonoWave
Verweise

Can't read German? Here it is in Googlish.

Monowave

images via this auction

"This is a TRULY UNIQUE synth in keyboard history... perhaps THE only rackmounted version of the famous PPG Wave 2.2, only 50 of these were made by Paul Maddox, one of the leading experts on PPG in the UK. Feel free to read more here. This synth was a limited custom (built to order) and only 50 were ever made, this is #16."
Update: you can find more info on the monowave on the Elby-Designs Monowave page as well as via the Monowave label below.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Vaco Loco

Click here for Paul Maddox's Vaco Loco. You'll find tons of synth content including info on the Defender, Monowave, Monowave II, Phoenix, PolyDAC and Midi2SDS, some of which have been featured here before (btw, the Search box up top and to the right are your friend).

Modulus Electronics Monowave

via this auction

Via the official MonoWave site:

"The Monowave was the brainchild of UK electronics designer, Paul Maddox. Paul has been designing and building synths for years as well as releasing his own unique music realised on his impressive modular creations. Paul wanted to build a synth the roots of which lay in the PPG. Originally intended as a monophonic bass synth, the Monowave has uses beyond that. The Monowave is a wavetable synthesiser with 256 waves available for each of the two oscillators. Each oscillator also has a sub-oscillator. The filter is a copy of the Moog filter, there are separate envelope generators for the filter and amplifier, and a simple LFO. The panel is very 'retro' and 'traditional' with knobs for every function and a simple display. Internally, the circuitry is all analogue (except for the digital circuitry used in the oscillators)... no wimpy DSP thank you very much - this is a 'real' synth!!

Paul has now released the MonoWave as GPL and has given me permission to release the PCB and a Component Kit for those that unfortunately missed the first, limited run. I have decided to upgrade the main microcontroller to the newer ATMEGA32 which will allow developers to further extend the capabilitites of the design should they wish."

You can also find a write up on Vaco Loco.

Aurora at SDIY 2005

Looks like the Aurora made an appearance at SDIY 2005. That's Paul Maddox of Modulus Electronics and the Monowave playing it. Some notes on sound according to two that have actually played it: according to Chris Strellis "It was OK - a bit confusing routing some of the modulation sources to destinations. Definately Moogy sounding and probably worth the money. It was for sale then at something like £400. I passed on it." According to dmxkrew, "just saw your post on the aurora, it's hand built by adrian who runs SRS in bedford, UK, which is where my mum lives so I usually go there when i need something fixing. adrian is a nice guy and good at fixing stuff, he let me have a play on the synth when it wasn't quite finished, sounded great, the design owes a lot to the SCI pro one in my opinion." At the price under 600 Euro, I'm thinking this might actually be a great little monosynth. More on the Aurora here.

Update via the comments of this post: " have had the AR1 for quite a while now and have used the synth on many recordings for solo projects under Brendan Pollard and Rogue Element.
She is extremely versatile, moog sounding but with careful manipulation even ARP. Fantastic for sound effects, leads, basses, etc.
Our studio is 90% analogue and she was definitely a worthy addition to our collection,
Cheers
Brendan www.rogue-element.uk.com"

Fat Controller Driving a Monowave

Click here for a demo of the Frostwave Fat Controller driving a Modulus Electronics Monowave. The track is Sequence 1. A Virus Indigo provides textures and a Multimoog provides lead. Via Seth Elgart on AH.

SynthSpins! on SynthSights

I'm happy to announce that the SynthSights audio blog, SynthSpins! is here.

SynthSights is a mailing list for people that use synthesizers to make music. The interesting spin on the list is that "it's not about the gear." It's a great list with a myriad of discussions on technique, style and well, just about anything as long as it's not about gear.

Not too long ago Jim Aikin, former senior editor of Keyboard magazine, joined the list and asked people what they did to get their music heard. The usual range of replies came back from playing shows to hosting websites with their music. I thought, hmm... This is all great but what will keep people coming back and... what do we all have in common? Then it clicked. Why not have a Synth Sights audio blog or podcast. Members could submit their music with links to their websites and people could subscribe and hear what people on the list are doing. I threw out the idea, people discussed the idea and ultimately we decided to do it. Four of us got together to work on it.

The moderator and owner of the list Cikira directed us, Doug Wyatt of Sonosphere developed the interface and feed for the audio blog, and Paul Maddox of Modulus Electronics, home of the MonoWave, and host of the SynthSights website, revamped the look and feel of the site. Me? I just kind of sat around and said, "uh-huh, yeah, cool... gotta go post something on Matrixsynth!" : ) Well, in truth I did some of the verbiage.

Title link takes you there. When you get there, click on the "Listen to us" link on the left to get to the SynthSpins! audio blog. I've also added it to my blog roll on the right. BTW, don't forget to check out the member pages for some mass gear p*rn.

Modulus Electronics Monowave

Another rarity in the synth world; only 25 made. The Monowave contains 256 waveforms including 127 from the classic PPG Wave range of synths. It's filter, envelopes and VCA are analog. Click through title link for more including tons of samples. The Monowave was created by Paul Maddox. Make sure to check out his Monowave II for the Sound Art Chameleon, his Modular work, and joint products.



Update: Or you could always build your own. : )

Update via Paul Maddox in the comments:
"New URL for my synth projects -
Http://www.vacoloco.net/synths/

For the 'kit' -
http://www.elby-designs.com/monowave/monowave-about.htm"