Dougcl and the Buchla 200e at the PNW Synth Gathering 2010

YouTube via matrixsynth | July 26, 2010

http://buchla.com/

Note Doug is setting up the upcoming PDX Synth meet posted here. Remember, you can click on the pnw2010 label below for all posts in the series.

Update: another video after the presentations.

The great void

YouTube via attorks | July 27, 2010

"This afternoon I was watching two videos on the MATRIXSYNTH website were John Bowen demonstrates his Solaris prototype on the PNW Synth Gathering 2010 [link]. Seems like a very powerful machine but it is not likely that I can afford one. After seeing that I thought, my Waldorf Q Keyboard can't do all that but it can do some. So I ended up programming this sound and sequence which I liked a lot and I decided to video it. Connected the MIDI out of the Q to the Doepfer MAQ16/3 to be able to add synchronized sequences from the MAQ16/3 and the Synthesizers.com Q960. Row 1 of the MAQ16/3 has a double-time 8-step sequence driving the self-built Modular. The gate output of row 3 of the MAQ16/3 shifts the Q960 which has sequences on row 1 and 3 driving the Synthesizers.com Modular. I use the A, B, C and D slots of the Clavia Nord Lead 1 to vary the sounds of the solo's. Slot D contains a kind of FM'ed strings sound. The Roland XP-80 also does a solo voice.
This video show the first 10 minutes of a 30 minute video. You can see/hear/download the video and music from my website soon."

John Bowen and the Solaris at the PNW Synth Gathering 2010

YouTube via matrixsynth | July 26, 2010

http://johnbowen.com/

"John Bowen goes over his Solaris synth at the Pacific Northwest Synthesizer Gathering 2010."



Note: I unfortunately arrived late and missed some of John's presentation. These and the upcoming videos for the event are meant to give those that could not make it, a sense of what the Pacific Northwest Synth Gathering was like. None of the presentations are scripted, at least I don't think they are. :) Just a group of like-minded individuals getting together to appreciate everything synth. More videos will follow. Many will be edited. Be sure to see the pnw2010 label below for more including pics of the event.

PNW Synth Gathering 2010 by Juliana Jaeger

more pics on Facebook here.

PNW Synth Gathering 2010 Pics

flickr set by matrixsynth (click here for a full screen slideshow - 127 photos)

It was a great event this year. Speakers included John Bowen with the Solaris, Dougcl with a Buchla 200e, Aaron of Analog Bytes with the Atari Pokey module, Carbon111 with the Yamaha VL1, David Skinner with new modules from Synthesizers.com and the Korg MicroSampler, Scott Jaeger of The Harvestman, Scott Rise of Division 6, John L Rice and his massive modular, George Mattson of Mattson Mini Modular, Sonja of flight of harmony, James Husted of Synthwerks, Computer Controlled with the Bitchen Sync and other gear, Jeff Sanys with the OLPC, Lorne with various noise makers, and Dana Countryman with the Ondioline and his DIY pitch controller based on the Ondes Martenot.

This was also the last PNW Gathering to be hosted at the Renton Technical College by our gracious host John Marshall. Carbon111 and Laura picked up the cake below for him.

Videos of each talk will follow through the week. I took 23.7 G of pics and video. Big thanks to John L Rice for his 16 G memory card! And Jarett for loaning me his PC to move pics and vids off my memory card.

PNW Synth Gathering this Saturday

Just a reminder. See this post for details. See the PNW Synth Gathering label below for videos and pics from previous years' events.

Pacific Northwest Synthesizer Meeting - July

via host John Marshall on the AH and SDIY lists:

"We are scheduled for July 24, 2010

Doors open at 9:00AM

Meeting from 10:00AM to 3:00PM or so

Renton Technical College
Room C-111 (Technology Resource Center)
3000 NE 4th St
Renton, WA 98056

Pizza at about Noon

Show and Tell

Performances

And, apparently lots of birthdays in July. Mine is July 18th (65th). Cake? Ice Cream?
This will be the last Synth meeting at Renton Technical College.
-----------------------------------------
It will be up to someone else to setup these meetings in the future. I have talked with the people from the American Museum of Radio and Electricity in Bellingham. They would be willing to host a meeting and they have adequate space however there will be costs involved. If you have not been to the museum, go! You will not be disappointed.

Others have suggested holding the meeting on Vancouver Island, a good idea. Perhaps the people at Sound Quest could help out."

click on the PNW Synth Gathering label below for coverage on prior year events.

Synth-DIY Southern California - April 3, 2010

YouTube via thisfear — April 03, 2010 — "A rough drive-by shooting at the Synth-DIY analog/digital synthesizer gathering in Sante Fe Springs, CA. See the Synth-DIY mailing list and the Analogue-Heaven mailing list for more info. If you see yourself here, (a) sorry for the vid quality, (b) please make a comment so others can find you."

Update: Two pics of Jim Patchell's modular via George Mattson. Note these images are from the PNW SDIY gathering a few years ago. steelydang in the comments asked what modular it was so I thought I'd update the post with these images.

Pacific Northwest Synth 2009 - Red Martian

YouTube via matrixsynth.

This is my video of Red Martian's performance. More details here.
http://redmartian.com
http://mattsonminimodular.com - MMM and Syntar
http://www.division-6.com - Midified Skulls
http://acidlab.de - Miami

Note this is the last of my videos from the PNW Synth Gathering this year.
click here to see all posts in the series.

Cowboy and the Vocoder and the MMM

A tribute to the dog Cowboy who passed away.

YouTube via redmartian. Note this is via redmartian and not AnalogVocoder1 (click for the reference).

"A song written for a dog who likes to listen to the sound the Roland SVC-350 vocoder. This song features the MMM as well as a Sequential Circuits Drum Traks and a Roland Jupiter-6.

Here are the lyrics:

Do you know Cowboy
and the SVC-350?
Do you know Cowboy
and the Roland Vocoder?

Hey there Cowboy
I see you there
Lazy gazing
Gazing lazy
Whos my sweet boy?
You know its you.
I like to vocode and you do too.

No Poly-800 to drive the SVC
So I use an MMM as my carrier wave
No Poly-800 but Cowboy doesn't mind.
We all know its the Roland SVC-350 vocoder time.

Audio version can be found here:
http://redmartian.com/napster/Red_Mar..."

And the first track from this post:


FIRST PRODUCTION MATTSON MINI MODULAR DEMO NUMBER FOUR from RED MARTIAN on Vimeo.

"Here is a fourth demo which features a LP and HP triangle wave arpeggiation nearly through out and a quick EG three oscillator bass. The drum kit is the same as in the other demos with no pitch changes or other processing, just dry sounds out of the VCA. There are two leads one is just two oscillators (saw) and the second has a square and a saw with the saw slight modulated by an LFO with high resonance on the filter.

The bass and arpeggiation were played and quantized in logic. The leads were recorded as played."

SYNTHWERKS

You might recall mention of Synthwerks in the following two posts from the recent PNW Synth Gathering: one, two. They are working on getting their website up and running with more detail. Until then the following along with the image on the left will give you an idea on some of what they will be working on.

"Synthwerks will be focusing initially on making alternate controllers and modules for processing/modifying CVs. We will make some other modules that will be aimed at filling the gaps we find in the available offerings by other companies or to compliment modules they make. Some will just be for fun. In other words you probably won't see a standard VCO or LPF with a Synthwerks logo on it. Those who are on FaceBook, you will find a Synthwerks page there, and you are encouraged to comment on the modules and make suggestions for ones you may want. If interest is high enough, our modules may be offered in kit form. Stay tuned...

Synthwerks
thesynthwerks *at* gmail.com"

Update: modules posted here
via fluxmonk in the comments "some concept pictures available on their facebook page"

PNW Synthesizer Meeting Reminder

The next Annual PNW Synthesizer Meeting:

Saturday, October 31st
10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, doors open at 9:00 AM

Renton Technical College
Building C, Room 110
3000 NE 4th St
Renton, WA 98056

Theme this year: Halloween Sounds/Music

click on the PNW Synth Gathering label below for images and video from prior years' events.

Initial Test Of Moon Modular M569 Sequencer

YouTube via JohnLRice
"Sorry for not uploading any vids lately! Too busy with . . . stuff. I finally got to the point where I needed to build proper power supplies for my upper racks because I got some new modules! :-) All my synths have been undergoing rearrangement/rework lately and I haven't been able to use them. I'm trying to get a lot done before the PNW Synth Gathering on the 31st but I just couldn't resist playing around a bit with my new Moon M569 sequencer! It has so much great potential for doing interesting sequencing it's really exciting! There will be more demos and music videos in the following months for sure!

Thanks for watching, rating and commenting!"

MATRIXSYNTH Swag & Hall of Fame!!!

MATRISYNTH Ts are $20 in the US and $25 outside the US. This includes the shipping cost, three MATRIXSYNTH cards and one magnet.  A set of three cards and one magnet, minus the T, is $5.

The T-Shirts are from Gorilla Screen Printing - highly recommended. If you get Ts done by them, let them know you found out about them here.

Paypal any amount to matrixsynth *at* gmail.com. Be sure to include the shipping address, size and whether you'd like long or short sleeves.

Below are some MATRIXSYNTH Ts and cards spotted in the wild. If you have them, send them in!

CLICK FOR MORE »

PNW Synth Gathering 2008 via George Mattson

flickr set via George Mattson of MMM (click the set link for more)

You'll find some shots of people presenting their gear.

PNW Synth DIY 2008

flickr set by matrixsynth. Click the pic to bring up the controls and flip through the pics. I actually ran out of space on my video camera, which led to me switching to my camera for video, which let to me running out of space. I took a ton of images and video, but not as much as I would have liked to. The turn out was big this year with MMM, flight of harmony, harvestman and John Bowen as far as manufacturers. Tons of cool gear and tons of cool people. Be sure to check out the images in this set. Jim Patchell was there with his DSM1, FPGA synth with a whopping 512 oscillators. Big thanks goes out to John Marshall for being a more than gracious host this year as usual. P.S. It looks like I reached the limit for labels (20) for Blogger.

CLICK FOR MORE »

AH Bay Area and PNW Synth Gatherings This Saturday

AH Bay Area Gathering Info
"There *will* be a raffle with the proceeds going to the Moog Foundation, and they have some goodies that they're sending out as raffle prizes. If you have anything you'd like to donate to a good cause, please bring it, I [Brandon] will have Moog Foundation thank you notes that can be filled out if you need proof of donation. Bring some cash for raffle tickets!

There will be a few new modules making their debut at this event, so don't miss it!"

It will be at:
TechShop
120 Independence Dr
Menlo Park, CA 94025
10AM-7PM

PNW Synth Gathering (Pacific Northwest in the Seattle Area)
"This year the meeting will be in the K-Quad, K203 and K204. Original post updated."

The Mattson Mini Modular (MMM) will make an appearance - a few systems will be there.

PNW Synth Gathering New Room

"This year the meeting will be in the K-Quad, K203 and K204." Original post updated.

Pacific Northwest Synth Gathering

via David W. Skinner on AH:

PNW Synth 2008

I just heard from John Marshall. The date and time are: October 25th, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM.

As before, it will be at Renton Technical College, 3000 NE 4th St., Renton, WA. But, it will no longer be in building "C". This year the meeting will be in the K-Quad, K203 and K204..

Great people, great synths, great pizza. Be there!

David W. Skinner"

click here to see some images and video of prior years' events.
Search tip: if you search on events plus a location, posts for events in that location should come up. In this case "PNW events", not "Seattle events", so if the first search doesn't work, try an alternative.

Mattson Mini Modular Perched on a Synthesizers.com Modular

The MMM Phoenix series on top of a Synthesizers.com modular at this year's PNW Synth Gathering. Image via Carbon111 in this VSE thread. Be sure to check out Carbon111's updated Syntar page now with the MMM. The modules on the MMM are all the same size whereas the synthesizers.com varies based on the modules. The dotcom uses 1/4" jacks and is based on the MOOG modular. The MMM uses 1/8" jacks and is based on the Syntar (more info on Carbon111's site).

click the image for the full size shot.

Note the MMM pictured is the base system at 12 modules. You can add an aditional 12 modules on the right for 24 modules total. The PSU and MIDI to CV take up two spaces in the default system and are used for the additional 12 modules. You can latch on additional cabinets and each system can be folded into a closed and protected modular suitcase for on the go.

You can find more info on the Mattson Mini Modular here and synthesizers.com here.

PNW Synth Gathering 07 Pics

click here for more shots of the event via brett.seattle.

click here for the full size shot.

Mattson Mini Modular pictured.