WEIRD GEAR: Pulsar-23 (Andrew Huang Edition)

video upload by ANDREW HUANG

"Honored to be partnering with Soma and Perfect Circuit on the Andrew Huang Edition of Pulsar-23! More info: https://link.perfectcircuit.com/t/v1/..."

Note the Embodme Erae Touch controller.


We're pleased to present the new Pulsar-23 Andrew Huang Edition: a vibrant yellow version of the one-of-a-kind, organismic semi-modular drum machine made in collaboration between SOMA and the producer and YouTuber himself. SOMA's Pulsar-23 has become a go-to instrument for subverting the expectations of what a drum machine can or should do, attracting the interest of curious musicians looking for something a little bit different out of their drum synthesizer. With this version finished in a vibrant yellow personally chosen by Andrew Huang, the Pulsar-23 has become a favorite part of Andrew's studio due to its open-ended patching structure and rejection of standard drum machine tropes. The results may not always be what you expect, but like many other SOMA devices, Pulsar-23 creates a seemingly organic connection between the musician and instrument, tapping into the deeper parts of your subconscious mind to rely on instinct and reaction rather than conscious decision-making.

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First Look - Soma Pulsar Utilities - Modular Add On

video upload by sonicstate

"During our visit to Soma Sound Machines in Warsaw, as well as the factory tour and look at the Terra production unit, we also had the chance to see the new Pulsar-23 Utilities - a stand alone device with triggers, attenuators and a variety of amplifiers designed to just add gain or to add character by using some unique and antiquated amplifier technologies.

It is designed as a companion to the Pulsar-23 Drum Machine - which is possibly one of the most unusual drum machines you'll come across, but could be equally useful as a general box of utilities in modular world, though it still uses the crocodile clips and post system of the Pulsar-23. Available in a few months we're told."

5 MELODIC BEATS on SOMA PULSAR 23

video upload by kapillarkraft

"The only sound source is the Soma Pulsar 23
with a little sequencing help from Make Noise Pressure Points or Elektron Machinedrum UW.
Have fun watching."

SOMA Synths Terra - First Look at the Production Unit & Factory Tour

video upload by sonicstate

"We were invited to visit Soma Sound Machines at their Warsaw factory and while we were there were shown the pre production model of the Terra - the unique and very sensitive instrument . Terra features twelve extremely sensitive nodes (cant think of what else to call them!) for playing pitches, plus five for modifying the timbre, there are also 7 modifier knobs which globally effect the sound with two being dependent on the algorithm used.

Despite the wooden case, Terra is a digital sound source and has multiple models which are played rather like instruments, each model has 64 variations. As usual, its a rather off the wall concept, but thats what makes Soma the way it is. In practice, its incredibly sensitive and flexible - reminds us of the Eagan Matrix instruments found in the Haken Continuum or the Osmose.

The Terra will be in production very soon and making its way into the stores."

You can find additional Terra posts here.

VISIT: SOMA Sound Machines Factory in Warsaw

video upload by

"A couple of weeks back we were invited to visit the Soma Sound Machines factory in Warsaw, Poland. As well as a look at the first production models of the expressive Terra instrument, we got a look around their place.
PCBs and components are delivered here, the Through Hole hand soldered components are put onto the boards, any SMD (surface mount design) parts are sent off to the machine, units are tested put into the cases and shipped to distributors and customers. Lyra 8 , Kosmos, Pulsar-23 and Ether are made here and pretty soon the new Terra will be too.

Its actually a pretty cottage style industry, surprisingly small but also very efficient."

New Soma Synths ILLUMINATOR (First Experiment)

video upload by Richard Devine



"ILLUMINATOR is an eight channel converter that turns Eurorack and analog CV signals into a voltage that drives LEDs and LED strips, creating a unique light show in sync with your live performance. CV signals coming from your music gear are already pulsating with the different parts and sounds of your track, so there is no need for any kind of programming or light operator.

You can focus on playing your set and let ILLUMINATOR take care of the rest, creating a dynamic visual show that follows your tracks down to every note and beat!

No presets, no memory-just your music driving the lights. Create intense strobe-like effects by connecting rapid hi-hats from your analogue drums, or use slow external LFOs for a moody ambience during your ambient sessions.

ILLUMINATOR is compatible with standard 12V LED strips that are affordable and widely available. LED strips are flexible and typically come with adhesive on the back, so it’s easy to attach them to any objects and surfaces, including irregular and unusual ones. It can be your Eurorack case, synth stands, walls of the venue, furniture and even your body! This way you can create a unique light show that would otherwise require an expensive (and unwieldy!) lighting setup. Everything you need for your ILLUMINATOR show easily fits into a small backpack for just a couple of hundred euros.

ILLUMINATOR can also run an art installation, as LED strips are far from its only application. It can drive anything that accepts DC 12V with a current up to 0.5A. You can hook up anything from motors, electromagnets to old-fashioned filament bulbs. It’s the perfect beating heart for your weird mechanical steampunk orchestra. Your imagination is the limit!

ILLUMINATOR accepts all types of CV signals in the range from 3 to 20 volts. Each of the eight channels contains an individual trimmer pot that defines the sensitivity of the channel. It not only adjusts the optimal input range for connected CV sources, but it can also set the brightness of each LED strip. The default factory setting for all trimmer pots is made for the range of 5V, compatible with most gear out of the box.

Applying bipolar CV is also possible, but the negative part of the signal will not light up the LEDs (everything below zero will be processed as zero).

CV signals can be connected to ILLUMINATOR using Eurorack mini-jacks or PULSAR-23-like pins and alligator clips. PSU DC IN and all outputs are standard DC sockets 5.5×2.1 mm center plus."

Sounds of SOMA

video upload by Vlad Kreimer

"SOMA users converge in a meeting of musicians on the shore of the East River in Brooklyn, NY to conduct a collaboration between sound, nature, man and machines.
Produced by @LordBlobbie

Players Left to Right:

Lyra-8
Kevin Emilio Pérez
Multidisciplinary Artist
www.kevinemilioperez.com
IG: @papo_cucaracha_vertedero_el3ro
https://papocucaracha.bandcamp.com/

Pulsar-23
THE MOON
www.MaxTheMoon.com
IG: @maxinthemoon

PIPE and Enner
Juice aka Ken Arii
IG: @Ariijuice_missile

PIPE and COSMOS
Lord Blobbie
IG/TikTok: @LordBlobbie
https://soundcloud.com/gospelswamp"

01.11.23 Soma Pulsar 23 impro

video upload by batchas

"Pulsar 23 without external effects.
One take, uncut.
Not very happy with the BD, I could have taken more time to prepare the patch. Next time then!"

Interactive manual for the Pulsar-23

via SOMA Laboratory

"Mastering the interface of a complex semi-modular synth with hundreds of controls and functions onboard is not an easy task even for the most seasoned producer. It’s too much to memorize, and continuously checking the user manual gets annoying and interferes with the creative process. Even with using the search function you still end up scrolling up and down dozens of pages and going back and forth to understand how related features interact, a process that is more fiddly than convenient.

Why does it have to be like that? Instrument manuals - even for complex machines - are still just plain linear text with a structure that doesn't reflect the actual interface or workflow of the product it describes. Despite all the technological advances of our digital age, user manuals are still based on the same principles of how information was organized and accessed in manuscripts from over 2,000 years ago.

It's high time someone changed this! SOMA Labs designed a new and more user-friendly approach to synthesizer manuals that we believe should become the new industry standard, offering unparalleled efficiency and immediate access to relevant information through a visual (touch) interface.

What really is a synth's interface? You can compare it to a territory, like a town or a forest, where we have various objects placed in space. If each control has just one function we can compare it with 2D space, if we have multifunctional controls or menus we can speak about a 3D space. How do you best describe a space to someone else? Of course, with a map! What should a 21st century map be like? Interactive!

SOMA is therefore proud to present its new interactive manual for the PULSAR-23 drum machine, SOMA's most complex synth to date. It consists of a map of the synth’s interface where each element is clickable.

Just click on any button, connector or knob and get its description along with highlighting elements that are connected to or depend on it with the immediate possibility to check what they do.

As PULSAR-23 is a semi-modular instrument, all patching points have suggestions about which other patch points you could connect them to (about 1,000 patching tips!).

So it's also a kind of light patching tutorial.

The concept of interactive manuals can be developed much deeper and better, and we therefore invite our industry colleagues to further develop and refine this approach to user manuals for musical instruments. Let’s make synth manuals more user-friendly, easy to learn and more efficient, lowering the learning curve for new musicians and freeing up users' minds for pure creativity!

Welcome to the world of PULSAR-23!"

Manipulating Melodies With IOLabs Flux - A Dark Christmas: Variations On The Jingle Bells Tune

video upload by Friendly Noise

"Flux is an incredible rhythm generating machine, but how good is Flux at making melodies? I have tried to answer this question in two videos. In this second part I’ll show how to manipulate melodies with Flux. Flux it not your traditional one note per step sequencer, but melodies are definitively programmable and more than just 'programmable'.

Everything you hear in the video is based on the notes of the first 4 bars of Jingle Bells.

Used in the video: Soma Pulsar 23, IOLabs Flux, 4ms Ensemble Oscillator, Spherical Sound Society Vortex Generator, Joranalogue Morph 4, and Strymon Nightsky.
Some EQ and compression were added in the DAW after recording.

Here is the first part: Making Melodies With IOLabs Flux - Is That Possible?"

10 BEATS on SOMA PULSAR 23

video upload by kapillarkraft

"This is a collection of 10 eclectic beats and grooves I made.
Only internal FX. In two of them the Korg SQ-1 is helping out on sequencing the lead line."

Modular processing of Soma Lyra8 , Pulsar 23 , Wingpinger , Moog Dfam , Mother 32 & Moog Matriarch

video upload by Endless Arp's

Pulsar 23 by SOMA // Dirty and Atmospheric Patch Deconstruction and Demo

video upload by Starsky Carr

"A demo of the SOMA Pulsar 23 - taking a patch apart on the Pulsar 23 to demo how to build tracks using only the 4 voices for some nice and dirty atmospheric beats.

A much deeper dive with tips+tricks here:"

Pulsar 23 by Soma // 50 Tips Tricks and Ideas // Syncing with SH101 TR606 & deconstructing a track

"A deep dive into the Soma Pulsar23 analog drum machine. Deconstructing a track with plenty of patching ideas. Pairing with a vintage TR606 and SH101 s well as MIDI control and CV patching ideas."

Soma Pulsar 23 // 50 Tips Tricks and Ideas // Syncing with SH101 TR606 and deconstructing a track

video upload by Starsky Carr

"A deep dive into the Soma Pulsar23 analog drum machine. Deconstructing a track with plenty of patching ideas. Pairing with a vintage TR606 and SH101 s well as MIDI control and CV patching ideas.

Samples available here, https://drive.google.com/drive/folder...

All these plus sample taken via the distortion available via my Patreon: https://patreon.com/starskycarr"

SOMA Pulsar-23 + Meng Qi Wing Pinger // Synthetic Forest

video upload by Dexba

"I can feel it: it's the sensation of moving in the right direction with my setup and my musical scope.
I'm no producer, I think you already grasped that from my channel's general vibe, so what I really like to do is as little planning as possible and just follow the stream, the dialogue between me and the instruments.
And this is like... the goal! I can finally see the end of the tunnel, now I only have to work on the relationship with my gear, learn, practice, and improve.
This idea was born after stumbling upon some recordings of birds in a song from Pere Ubu, and I was pretty sure they were doable with a synthesizer too!
The Pulsar-23 by SOMA was the closest thing to a modular I had, so I went for that, but it wasn't without challenges, since there is only one LFO and the polarity/wave shape has no modulation control, so a simple task like alternating rhythmically up and down pitch synchronized with the gates got way more challenging than it sounds :) Wing Pinger is my new crush, no need to hide it, and even though (surprisingly enough) it doesn't pair well with the Hologram Microcosm, I really wanted to give more ambiance, a more washed feeling to the lonely upper filter playing. I think you'll see this setup again and again, so I hope you enjoy ✨"

Dirty Lofi Beats on the SOMA PULSAR 23

video upload by Starsky Carr

"The wonderfully gritty analog goodness of the Soma Pulsar 23 producing some lovely lofi beats.

G O R G E O U S"

Arturia KeyStep Pro + Pulsar 23 Modular Patch Building

video upload by allmyfriendsaresynths

"Experimenting with building a patch using my Eurorack modular synth, and the amazing Pulsar-23 drum 'machine' from Soma Lab. All controlled by the @Arturia KeyStep Pro, which is an awesome central bit of gear for a setup like this.

Big thanks to my fellow Glaswegians @Signal Sounds for sending over the Pulsar-23 for me to check out. You can find it on their site at https://www.signalsounds.com/soma-lab..."

3am - extra onions

video upload by justin3am

"Serge modular, Soma Pulsar-23, Lorre-Mill Double Knot, Mosstone.

An experiment with two camera angles. Bad color and lighting but a good learning experience."

Basimilus iteritas alter + Soma Pulsar 23 + Moog Matriarch , Modular jam

video upload by Endless Arp's

Party Ready Patterns With Bass Lines - A Happy Gathering of Flux, Metropolix and Pulsar 23

video upload by Friendly Noise

"The fourth collaboration between IOLabs Flux, the best trigger sequencer, and the Soma Pulsar 23 , arguably the most amazing if not the best drum machine ever made. The combination of sound quality, easy of use, open design, interconnectivity and interactivity makes the Soma a fantastic piece of musical gear, and which is more important, a real instrument to play with. The amount of control and flexibility that Flux puts in your hands can lead you to totally unexpected sonic landscapes, like you can see and heat in that video.
Barry at IOLabs and Vlad at Soma Instruments are real geniuses of our time.

Patch details are included in the video."

The most awaited video for the Pulsar 23!!! Normal Drum Sounds With IOLabs Flux!!!

video upload by Friendly Noise

"The second collaboration between IOLabs Flux, the best trigger sequencer, and the Soma Pulsar 23 , arguably the most amazing if not the best drum machine ever made. The combination of sound quality, easy of use, open design, interconnectivity and interactivity makes the Soma a fantastic piece of musical gear, and which is more important, a real instrument to play with. The amount of control and flexibility that Flux puts in your hands can lead you to totally unexpected sonic landscapes, like you can see and heat in that video.
Barry at IOLabs and Vlad at Soma Instruments are real geniuses of our time.

Video sections:
00:06 Pattern 01
01:39 Pattern 02
05:29 Pattern 03
11:12 Pattern 04"