MATRIXSYNTH: Search results for ST Modular GIVE


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Showing posts sorted by date for query ST Modular GIVE. Sort by relevance Show all posts

Thursday, April 29, 2021

ST Modular - SLOPES (Slopes Mix-Output on a Mini-Screen)


video by Stefan Tretau

"This is just a short walk through some slopes of the mix output shown on a mini oscilloscope. It is supposed to demonstrate the different types of CV shapes you can create with SLOPES.
In order not to bother you with annoying bleeps throughout the video, I have included a little meditative track I recently made. Enjoy!"

ST Modular - SLOPES

video by Stefan Tretau

00:05​ AR Envelope
00:59​ Four Slopes
01:59​ Slow Fours Slopes
03:04​ Creating Kicks with SLOPES, FRANZ and GIVE II
04:22​ Slopes as FM Modulation Source
05:07​ Slopes´n Rings with external Clock

Thursday, December 05, 2019

Just a Minute - GIVE II VCO melodying


Published on Dec 5, 2019 Stefan Tretau

ST Modular GIVE II posts


Some info on the module via ST Modular

"Give II12 HP Classic Analog VCO with additional Frequency Divider and Waveform Mixing OptionsIt is not a substitution for GIVE I, but rather another version as it is based on the same core circuit. Actually both versions complement each other very well building a powerful complex oscillator.The VCO provides five outputs, the last four of them can be mixed with an integrated mixer: PULSE, SAW, TRIANGLE, 3x PULSE SUB & NOISEPatching a voltage/audio source into FM you can frequency modulate the oscillator. Incoming voltages can be attenuated with FM CV. In the middle of the module you will find the PWM potentiometer. Here you may change the pulse width of the pulse wave. The width may also be controlled via external voltage with the PWM jack and the PWM CV attenuator.Just like all other classic analog VCOs GIVE II also tracks one volt per octave with the help of the 1V/OCT input jack. Each wave can also be hardsynced by an external wave patched to the SYNC jack.In addition to the classic VCO functions GIVE II also provides an integrated frequency divider. The MIX output jack will not only supply the waveforms SAW, TRIANGLE and NOISE, but also provides up to 3 sub octaves derivated from the PULSE waveform. The volume of each suboctave may be adjusted with the potentiometer SUB 1-3. ORIG will adjust the volume of the original PULSE signal. Using the switch ORIG SQU you can flip the SQUARE waveform."

Saturday, April 06, 2019

ST Modular - FLITZEM DEFÖR Sequencer


Published on Apr 6, 2019 Stefan Tretau

ST Modular - FLITZEM DEFÖR & Westlicht PERFORMER

Published on Apr 6, 2019 Stefan Tretau

"18 minutes of random wiggling with the FLITZEM DEFÖR Sequencer being triggered from the Westlicht PERFORMER. The Oscialltors used are 2x Cyllene and 1x GIVE II.

Yes, there are some atonal and dissonant passages here, but thats part of the game when wiggling around. Any quantizer would solve that immediately (just didnt have one at hand)."

Sunday, March 31, 2019

ST Modular - Give 2, Give, TripleTom, Franz, Werner, Two Sides, FAY, Gene, EMOO


Published on Mar 31, 2019 Stefan Tretau

TripleTom - Kick
GIVE - Bassline
GIVE2 - Melody
Franz & Werner - filtering the Gives
Two Sides - Ducking the pad sound in background
Gene - Clock
FAY - VCA & DECAY for GIVE2
EMOO - MOOER Mod Factory for pitch shifting
SUM - Mixing

Among others supported by Robaux - SWT16, Plonk - Hats, Rings - Pad, ROT8 - Melody Sequence, Befaco - CVADSR

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

ST Modular - Deep Tech


Published on Mar 12, 2019 Stefan Tretau

"Some Techno with Give, Give II, Fay, Gene, Werner, Inaki, Toolbox, KAS, Clanches, Pae, Reverb and EuroKastle"

Monday, March 11, 2019

ST Modular - Random wiggling


Published on Mar 11, 2019 Stefan Tretau

"with Give, Give II, Gene, Werner, Inaki, Pae, Reverb, Clanches, Eurokastle, KAS, Catch, ToolBox, Fay. Forgot to calibrate and tune Give II properly though ;-)"

Friday, March 01, 2019

Control Presents La Synthèse Humaine - Workshop #3 "...All Under Voltage Control"


via CONTROL

"Control is pleased to present the first in a new workshops series covering the basics of synthesis, acoustics, and voltage control.

La Synthèse Humaine has been designed to give the musician, sound designer, hobbyist, and enthusiast a basic working understanding of modular synthesizers - how they work, how modules interact, and how to create new sounds with them. Upon leaving this course we hope to give you the basic intuition you need to create any sound you can imagine (and, most importantly, the ones you can’t) with only a couple of modules.

The workshop series is split into three sections and will take place on Tuesday nights over the course of three classes:

I - Waveforms and Oscillations (Feb. 12th)
II - Processing and Modulation (Feb. 26th)
III - ...All Under Voltage Control (March 12th)

In the third and final session of the workshop - … ALL UNDER VOLTAGE CONTROL - we will discuss the basic principles and sources of control voltage in the modular system. First we cover the basic concepts of voltage processing: offsets, attenuation, inversion, rectification, integration, quantization, and multiplication. Through the all-important slew generator we will look at envelope generators, envelope followers, comparators, and all manner of control voltage generation, then we will dive into control voltage sources - both kinesthetic (i.e. keyboards) and programmed (i.e. sequencers).

Adding this to your cart and processing your purchase reserves you one seat in Workshop #3 "Modulation And Processing."

We would like this class to be accessible to all regardless of income - as such we suggest a donation anywhere from $5 to $35 based on what you feel you would like to contribute.

This lecture will take place on Tuesday, February 26th from 7:00-9:00pm at Control, Brooklyn, NY. Control is located at 416 Lorimer St., #1R in Brooklyn, NY. Please see our about page for more details.

Leading the course will be Control's Chris Miller who holds a master's degree in signal processing from NYU and performs live somewhat often with an array of modular and non-modular synthesizers."

Wednesday, January 02, 2019

ST Modular - GIVE II Oscillator


Published on Jan 2, 2019 Stefan Tretau

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

ST Modular - GIVE VCO Waveshaper


Published on Nov 13, 2018 Stefan Tretau

Wednesday, November 07, 2018

ST Modular - Cyllene, GIVE & KAS with Franz, Werner, Reverb, Delay...


Published on Nov 7, 2018 Stefan Tretau

"...Gene, Iñaki, Catch, Feed, Fay and SUM ;-)"

Friday, June 22, 2018

Synthesis Technology - Live From Control 03.21.2018


Published on Jun 22, 2018 CTRL MOD

"Paul Schreiber of Synthesis Technology visits Control (Brooklyn, NY) on the last city snowstorm of 2018. Nearly cancelled, Paul pulled through 2+ feet of snow to give a riveting discussion of the dos and don'ts of Eurorack modular design and production. Note: video ends after five minute break, before Paul's very special (+ secret) prize giveaway finale. Thanks to all who made it out to Control that day!

Control specializes in Eurorack Modular, vintage traditional and unusual eccentric electronic devices both analog and digital. Please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Online Orders:
(929) 277-7956
11-6pm — Mon-Fri
orders@ctrl-mod.com

Storefront:
(347) 699-2875
12-8pm — Everyday
info@ctrl-mod.com

Visit Us!
416 Lorimer St #1R
Brooklyn, NY 11206 USA
CTRL-MOD.COM"

Sunday, May 20, 2018

ST Modular


Published on May 19, 2018 Stefan Tretau

New maker on the site. This is the first post to feature ST Modular.

Playlist:
1. ST Modular - Cyllene VCO #2
2. ST Modular - Cyllene VCO #1
Prototype Analog VCO with integrated frequency divider. Using a second Cyllene as LFO.
3. ST Modular - Prototype Noises
4. ST Modular - Triple Tom´s Melody
5. ST Modular - Stomping Beat
6. ST Modular - Triple Tom Techno
7. ST Modular - A case full of Prototypes
8. ST Modular - EURO KASTLE 1.5
This is a DIY Eurorack Version of the BASTL Instruments KASTLE 1.5
9. ST Modular - DIY PT2399 Delay
10. ST Modular - Feed as EFX send
11. ST Modular - VCO GIVE Sound Snipplets
12. ST Modular - Filter "FRANZ" & Delay
13. ST Modular - LFOT
LFOT(ouch) is a self designed Low Frequency Oscillator with optional High Range Frequency and Touch Control Function.

LFOT as Clock Source (0:00 - 1:36)
LFOT into VCO FM (1:37 - 3:04)
LFOT Audio Rate (3:05 - 4:36)
LFOT into Filter CV (4:37 - end)
14. ST Modular - KNEAD MIXER with KNEAD EXPANDER
15. ST Modular - "CATCH" Stepped Random Generator and Sample and Hold
16. ST Modular - Feed
Feed is a self designed module which would be best descripted as a voltage controlled aux send module with an integrated EQ.
17. ST Modular - Clanches & Triple Tom
Both are self-designes modules. Triple Tom is a three voice tom/kick generator and Clanches is...well...a clocked Branches.
18. ST Modular - TripleTom and Switched Multiple
This is a self designed Drum Module prototype offering three Tom/Kick voices including a Tilt Eq and a summing Mixer. Additionally each voice has a single out and its presence may controlled by control voltage.
The Switched Multiple is also a self designed module. It combines and mutes CV signals in many ways.
19. ST Modular - Fay & Clanches
Fay is a self designed Fader, VCA and Decay Envelope combined in one module. Its es being triggered by Clanches. The CEM VCO and DixieII are both mixed through the fader and then being controlled by the VCA and interal Decay.
20. ST Modular - FRANZ OTA Filter
This is a self designed Eurorack filter module with an internal LFO and 3 channel mixer
21. ST Modular - "GIVE" Analog VCO - Self-Made analog VCO with waveshaping option.
22. ST Modular - Avail LFO and Mixer 1U Tile
This is a self designed Module prototype. It is an LFO with Sine, Square and Pulse Out. Pulse width my be adjusted via trimmer. It also offers a 3 channel mixer.


Sunday, June 26, 2016

An Interview with Peter Grenader on The ZZYZX Society


The following is an interview with Peter Grenader of Electro-Acoustic Research (formally Plan b). The focus of the interview is mainly on his involvement with The ZZYZX Society, however you will find plenty of insight into gear, including some of what Peter is working on next. I want to give Peter a huge thanks for taking the time out for this.

1. To start, what is the ZZYZX Society?

"The zZyzx Society is a group of like-minded half-crazy avant-garde musicians/composers who at one time or another fell down the same sonic rabbit hole.

Discussions about this began in 2011. Jill Fraser and I tried to get something together, and the circle of people then included Richard Lainhart. Unfortunately, he passed away when we were right in the middle of talking about possibilities. This is actually when I sketched out one of my two pieces that we are currently performing: Organasm. It settled down until Jill and I ran into one another at Mort Subotnick's live performance at Redcat a couple of years ago. We saw a fire in each other's eyes - a need to return to something that we had both evolved from.

Jill and I are ancient friends. We met at CalArts in - God.... 1977. We actually performed together once with composer Gordon Mumma at CalArts and worked extensively together on Mort Subotnick's NEA project, The Game Room, in 1978. Matter of fact, the photo Mort used for the Electronic Works Vol. 1 was taken when we were doing The Game Room - Jill is the blonde and I'm the guy holding the patchord in the foreground.

What really set the wheels in motion though was a recent dinner we had for Thighpaulsandra when he visited Los Angeles a few months ago. Thigh had been speaking about wanting to do another series of performances together since we both did the AnalogLive gig at Redcat in 2007. Jill was already well into the planning stages, although it wasn't clear who would be involved at that time though oddly enough - everyone who will be was there - Jill, Chas Smith, Thighpaulsandra and myself. When Thigh left for his return trip home - the last thing he said to me was a suggestion to get some gigs going - that it will never start unless there's a date, and when you guys get a set under your belt and are comfortable with what it evolves into, that he would come out and gig with us - and that's exactly what we are doing. Well, we'e actually focusing on tracking a CD, but I'll get into that more in a bit."

2. Can you give us a little background on each member? When the world of electronic music started for each and what they've done over the years?

That's where humility sets in - with the notion that musicians of this caliber would consider me a contributor. Why? Let's start with Jill: after earning her masters in composition at CalArts studying with Mort Subotnick and Mel Powell - her first stop was where I landed: Serge's infamous Hollywood synth production facility on Western Ave. She didn't stay there long, however, because she was hired to compose electronic music by Jack Nitzsche for Paul Schrader's film, Hardcore. This began a 25 year career composing both electronic and acoustic scores for hundreds of TV commercials for huge national campaigns: BMW, Honda, Porsche, Nissan, Mitsubishi, HP, NBC, KFC, Carl's Jr., and Apple among others, and in the process won 3 Clios. She also toured with Buffy St. Marie and auditioned for The Sex Pistols - no joke.


Chas will be the only one among us who people will be speaking about in 100 years. He's also from the CalArts electronic music composition master's program and spent his early days with modulars. Until recently he owned a 12 panel serge system he had had for 30+. His legacy will be the remarkable Harry Partch-esque tuned percussion instruments he crafts. He's shifted to metals exclusively which forge these amazing soundscapes, which would take immense work to generate electronically, yet just pour out of these sculptures. Along with collaborations with Harold Budd he's been released many times as a solo artist on Cold Blue Records, MCA, and others, music for Zimmer's Man of Steal score (they actually did a special feature on Chas for that film), as well as the first two Saw films with Charlie Clouser, for Shawshank Redemption, The Horse Whispser... the list goes on.


Man Of Steel Soundtrack - Sculptural Percussion - Hans Zimmer Published on Aug 27, 2013 WaterTower Music

[Behind the Scenes creating the unique sculptural percussion sounds for the MOS Soundtrack
i-Tunes: http://smarturl.it/mos.i
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/MOSdlx_Amazon]


Not sure what planet you'd need to be on not to know where Thighaulsandra's been. Like the rest of us here, his interest in electronic music is lifelong. Stockhausen and Cage were early influences and while you clearly realize his worth in the rock idiom, his experimental roots are unavoidable. Golden Communion - which has garnered stunning reviews in Europe - gives both Gabriel and NIN a run for their money, but you also hear Stockhausen in there and in the string introduction to the title track - Elliot Carter. He began his music career on the other side of the board - as a studio engineer, and this is where he met Julian Cope, who in time introduced him to John Balance - which led to 10 very productive years as a member of Coil - during which TPS began releasing his own solo work. He is a conservatory trained pianist blessed with the birth defect of incredible ability. After Coil he was off to Spritualized for I think three years?

As for me, I am the underachiever. After CalArts and a few small film scores, and a oddly enough a planetarium show for the Griffith Observatory, I put everything down for 25 years. In the early 2000's I found music again and had really good success in the academic electronic music festival circuit. I won the Periodic Festival in Barcelona and was selected for one of the evening performances at the SEAMUS National Conference, which doesn't sound like much, but I was probably the single first-time applicant to land that right. There were 30 or so festivals in the US after that over the next two years including the AnalogLive emsemble performance at Redcat at the Disney Hall in LA with Thighpaulsandra, Chas, Gary Chang, Richard Devine and Alessandro Cortini. The start of Plan B shifted my center to manufacturing, although I was signed, and did a CD for Coda Recordings in 2013 entitled Secret Life.

What I appreciate, especially working with Jill, but it's true of all these guys... our combined experience is such that we finish each other's musical sentences. It's astonishing. Three guys in a garage band and you expect them to vamp off their combined rock tradition, right? But electronic music, are you kidding me? Jill and I started rehearsing with a piece of mine called Benghazi, which is based entirely on a single diatribe of Glenn Beck whining about the attack in Libya. The first day we did what I would call informed noodling. When we started the second day she said she had worked out some other processed bits, and they were phenomenal. It brought the concept into much higher space and with no direct guidance outside of asking for other samples from the source file so not to loose Beck's context narrative. She just got it, completely.

zZyzx Society live in Joshua Tree: BENGHAZI



3. What sort of gear will each member bring to the project? Is there a preference for any?

I can't say for Thigh, dunno yet but he's got an arsenal at his studio in Wales. Jill is primarily using a Push via Ableton and a single Serge panel designed specifically for live performance made for her by Dmitri Sfc. I can name what Chas uses, but it won't mean much as outside of a rack of loopers everything he plays he's made. So for the record it's the Rite, the Replicant and his incredible steel guitar Guitarzilla. I am primarily using my modular - eight rows of it I crammed into two road cases, and then a Roli keyboard using Equator for now, and plans for a proper sampler as the ROli software wreaks Kickstarter deadline. It's fine as a closed synth, but while they say you can import your own samples - you really can't. I had to contact them, and they wrote the code so I could add one specific sample, but are not wiling to help me do more. The keyboard itself however is incredible.

4. What is the collaboration and recording process like? Do you record together or do you pass compositions back and forth for each person to work with separately?

Recording wasn't in the original plan, but that's changed and with Chas moving to Grass Valley - and Thighpaulsandra in Wales it's just like my FB relationship status: complicated. Jill and I are going to lay basic tracks starting in two weeks. So we'll be sending multitrack to both Chas and Thigh, who will be adding to them, then returning the new stack to whomever wrote the piece to do the final mix. The process is identical for Chas and Thighpaulsandra with their works There is talk of a release deal. So... with only one gig under our belts at FUTUREWURLD in Joshua Tree, which was really well received , but still...now we're shifting to recording the four pieces we performed with small gigs during that process, although, all in much more detail than we could manifest live with our hand count. Jill's got one which is actually four individual pieces, I've got Benghazi and Organasm and Chas has Perimeter. Thighpaulsandra is in the middle of one for us now and we're discussing the possibility of rendering Subotnick's Sidewinder.

5. What do you have in your modular system when playing with ZZYZX Society?

At first I brought almost everything. I could basically empty my main cabinet into the two road cases and on top of that I brought the two side cases, but I knew this wouldn't last. After a couple of days of rehearsal when we worked on the two pieces that were modular extensive I identified what was overkill and I limited my modular system to the two road cases (see image). It's eight rows of 88hp.

In the empty space I've now installed an Animodule Midi Gate, which is a brilliant idea and one I was planning on for EAR - but the best man won on that, more power to them for that. With it in that space will be two custom modules consisting of two Sparkfun Wave Trigger boards and a little unity gain mixer. Each of the Wave Triggers will be driven by the Midi Gate. I can use individual keys on my Roli to fire of independent events. Each of these WAVE modules allow for eight polyphonic samples to be played by either the depression of a momentary switch or a gate signal with each group of eight stored on a microSD card which can be loaded on the fly. I see this as an intelligent way of performing with a modular in a live scenario. It's basically what Mort is doing now - assembling the overall sonic contour by playing prerecorded samples as required with a couple of live voices over everything. Very effective and something Mort has been talking since the days I was working with him. It took 30 years for technology to catch up with him. In my instance, I will be playing events I prerecorded on the modular.

6. Does working on music like the ZZYZX Society influence your designs, or do you keep the two worlds separate?

It's had a huge impact on this. Immediately I started thinking about a group of modules called "the live set" which would be a series of devices which would make live performance easier for a modular artist. I don't want to give anything away outside of saying the guy that developed the Wave Trigger for Sparkfun lives a few blocks from me (wink). I've also had a couple of meetings with Vince De Franco, who produces the Mandela Electric Drums whom I met through Danny Carey. If what we're discussing becomes a finished product, it will be a paradigm shift for realization of live electronic music.

7. What's next for you? You were the man behind Plan B, your designs were featured in Subconscious Communications' modules, and you are back with Electro-Acoustic Research. You recently announced the Model 41 Steiner 4P filter. Do you plan to bring back any older designs like the Milton or will you be focusing on new designs only?

The EAR modules will be a combination of new things and legacy re-releases, but none of the old ones will be brought to market now without significant improvements. Not because they were broken before, but because I see no reason to revisit something without making changes. If you go to ear-synth.com the next product up is the Model 12 Mark II. It's two M12's in one package, both fitted with the IFM Sync function found on the M41. There are all manners of interconnection possibilities as well, so that two two can be used independently, or in either serial or parallel operation off all output taps of a single signal. If you sweep to the 'Future' page there's also the Model 24 Heisenberg Mark II, which adds a new quantized output to the stepped random and three new inter-modulation/triggering options. The Model 10 Mark II could not be more different than the original. Now two voltage controllable DASR envelope generators (Delay, Attack, Sustain TIME and Release). I have also mapped out a concept for an upgraded Model 15 Complex VCO which will make it the VERY Complex VCO lol. There are as well three new modules all ready to go.

I have been working on the relaunch for four years - since cEvin and I did the Subcon license on the 15 and 37. I've been working towards it continually. The first three products are completely done with a couple of revisions of hand built SMT prototypes behind them - ready to go - I just need to email the data off to Darkplace when it's time and product will appear a couple of months after that. If you watch Thighpaulsandra's excellent Model 41 demo video - next to the M41 you will see the Model 12 Mark II mounted in his system and that's one thing I did differently this time - I skipped the breadboard stage. I now go directly to SMT PCBs with Metalphoto faceplates. This addresses all sorts of potential calamities. It forces me to concentrate on the design stage and weeds out all manufacturing hiccups before they hit the Darkplace assembly line because if there are problems there - they aren't going to pay for that - I am. As my dad used to say when he was quoting new jobs.... "I don't do this for practice".

This brings me to something I want to close on. My father went through the Plan B collapse with me. He knew how hard I had worked to get where I did and he knew all too well what I forfeited. He was a tough love guy and at times unnecessarily hard on me about it. But in the end, I did it and he knew before he passed away. I was ready for the Model 41 a year and a half ago. Darkplace had already quoted it. It could have launched then and would have had he not died. There were delays from his death that the family needed to settle. But as far dad... I built most of the prototypes on his kitchen table because the light was so much better there than on my bench at home. He saw me working on them. He saw the Darkplace quotes. The last thing he said to me was 'I love you'.  Right before that - he congratulated me on getting the company back on it's feet and that I found a way to do it all on my own, and he told me how proud he was of me. After he said this, I left the hospital for the day and he died that evening at 3 in the morning. Nothing was worth the six years I went through and the problems I caused people, nothing makes my father's death bearable - but that moment came real. real close.

Thursday, January 01, 2015

Happy New Year From MATRIXSYNTH! - A Look Back at 2014


Happy New Year everyone!

I want to start by thanking everyone that comes to MATRIXSYNTH and helps make it what it is - the readers, the supporters, and of course all the sponsors on the right.

THANK YOU and have a GREAT 2015!!!

This site is a labor of love and a ton of work. This site is ultimately meant to be an testament to everything synth in the making. We have over nine years of daily synth history captured here, 119,983 published posts. I can't wait to see what the future brings us in 2015!

That said, here are a few interesting bits from 2014 in the longest post of the year. ;)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

CONTROL New York - New Modular Shop and a Sponsor Shout Out!

http://www.ctrl-mod.com/
We have a new synth shop in Brooklyn New York and a new sponsor on MATRIXSYNTH! You'll find their banner on the right under the Dealers section of the site. The following is a blurb on what they have to offer.

"Just wanted to give you all the heads up that we will officially open our doors Wednesday June 20th / 11AM-8PM Tuesday-Sunday (Closed On Mondays). We are located at 416 Lorimer St in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, Ny.

And if you are out of town, our webpage should go live that day as well for your mail-order needs.

Along with some vintage electronics and very special selection of Vinyl and Tapes, you can expect to see stuff from:

Synthesis Technology (Full Line, including the new E355 LFO)
Manhattan Analog (Including the new CVP)
Make Noise (Echophon in the Demo Case)
Tip Top Audio (Stackables a plenty - plus more)
Erthenvar/Pulp Logic (Full line)
Monorocket
4ms
Pittsburgh (Including new LFO,Filter, and ADSR)
Knas (Moisturizer)
Doepfer
Intellijel
Malekko
Blue Lantern
Ad Infinitum
Trogotronic (coming)
Toppobrillo (coming)
Circuit Abbey (coming)
Division 6 (coming)

And more manufacturers being added as time progresses. We will be having a grand opening party in July which we will make another announcement about (with some special guests). If you have questions, please do not hesitate to get in touch. Until then please drop by and play at will!
_________________
CONTROL
Synthesizer & Electronic Sales
416 Lorimer St. #1R Brooklyn, NY 11206
Open: 11AM-8PM, Tues-Sun (Closed Mondays)
www.ctrl-mod.com
info@ctrl-mod.com
@C_T_R_L_"

Sunday, December 18, 2011

IDOW & MATRIXSYNTH Modular Pic of the Week - Week 8 Contest Winner!

"Our eighth winner of the Modular Pic of the Week contest goes to Hansi Güçlüer for 'Serge1.'

 Hansi records electronic music under the name St Catharina. "St Catharina is Stockholm's best kept secret."

Here's some of Cathy's work: http://www.youtube.com/user/komputerbrown

We'd like to give a big thanks and congratulations to Hansi Güçlüer for the submission! This is the 8th week of a 30-week contest, and we are looking forward to many more modular photo submissions, so please keep 'em coming! For details on how to submit and what you can win, see this post.

For more info on the upcoming 'I Dream of Wires' documentary, be sure to see the trailer and IndieGoGo fund raising campaign here.

See the IDOW label for all posts pertaining to the film including the weekly contest winners."

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Interview with Hexfix93 of VAC

The following is an interview I just wrapped up with hexfix93 of Velvet Acid Christ. As you know, this site is about the gear, namely synths, and the gear that helps drive and enhance synths, but ultimately the focus is on synths.

I was chatting a bit with hexfix93 and asked him if he would be interested in a slightly different take on an interview, one focused on synths and their impact to his world. We all have our story regarding how our obsession with synths first started, how we see and approach synths and what they mean to us. I thought it would be interesting to hear his story. The following is the interview.

Before it begins, I want to thank hexfix93 for taking the time out for this. We all have a different approach and a different story when it comes to our synths. This is his. For more of his music check out VAC and don't miss Toxic Coma. Cheers, matrix.


1. What was your first synthesizer, how old were you when you picked it up, and why did you pick it up?

"It was some kind of old yamaha cheap thing. i got it for my atari st, so when i played games like leisure suit larry that the music wouldn't come from the wimpy fm built in sound, but a general midi synth instead. it really didn't sound all that great. i wasn’t really a keyboard player at this point.

The first synth i got as a keyboard player was a roland w30 sampler workstation. And we made like 3 records with that keyboard. i remember gary slaughter an x vac member, spilled orange vodka drink on it. and i had to take it apart and clean every part of it by hand slowly, it took weeks. it was a pure nightmare.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Plan B News - Self Contained Plan B System Coming Next Year?

Via Peter Grenader on the Plan B list. Note the bold. : )

"All -

Now that a new year is upon us, I felt it was as good a time as any to give you an
update on things.

First things first...Namm:

We will be showing an all-Plan B system at the Namm show this year which will be fitted into one of Sean Price's super-hip Space Cases. There will be a little of everything in this system, including FIVE NEW MODULES (the Model 16 Spectral Processor, the long-awaited MILTON VENTI and three others which you don't (and won't!) know about until the show begins. My only hesitation on mentioning all this is the Model 16. The PCBs are currently on order. If they arrive in time for a fully functional unit to be assembled, then it will be on display at Namm. If not, the unit which will be presented will only have four of the 12 filters active. As limiting as they may sound, it will still make for one hell of a demo as even with but a third of it's matrix, the Spectral Processor justifies it's existence. Again,
we're hoping to have the boards in time for visitors to experience the full effect. If that doesn't happen however, it's not worth stressing over and the show must go on... and we've got a back up plan.

Milton news
Had to make some hard decisions recently regarding the functionality of the Milton. Our limiting factor was not our imagination or technical dexterity, but more space in which to utilize all that. The basic problem being that even at 84 HP wide, everything we had originally planned to cram into this unit was not fitting. To that end, we have removed the vertical sequencing from the base unit, using the space previously taken by the vertical pulse outs to fan the bank pots a bit further from one another. That alone was a paramount change as the previous spacing introduced serious ergonomic challenges. Further, the real estate previously used for the vertical clock in and vertical sequencing out jacks has been replaced by an internal clock and VC clock freq input. With this new configuration, one will be able to drive their Milton on it's own. The external clock input will remain and using that input will disconnect the unit's internal clock. Further cuts (or better put, postponements - see below) are the skip step buttons. They are also being removed from the base unit.

Fear not, there's something in the works - an add on module - which brings skip step,
vertical sequencing and some other new features into play, including full midi control. Basically put, we are not willing to sacrifice Milton's functionality due to 19 inch wide real estate limitations - we just have to design another interface to house those controls.

What's coming in 2007
I think it's been obvious over the last few months by our product development cycle that we're moving in the direction of a self-contained Plan B system. While this will be become more apparent once the new modules slated for the Namm Show are formally announced, I am willing to say that by the end of the year this will be a reality - Plan B will have a the necessary component selection to construct a modular system which will ellipse the functionality of the Synth, Steiner Synthasystem and ARP 2600. It promises to be be a big year in many ways.

Along those lines....we're moving

Finally, I wanted to let you guys in on some other news that has had the folks around the 10870 Camarillo St. address pretty damn excited (no one more than me, let me tell you). Over the past few months we have been scouting industrial space to take Plan B ops out of the cottage and into it's very own manufacturing facility. I see this going down sometime in the next couple of months. We will remain in the Los Angeles area for now....just no longer in my living room! More info on that as it's available.

- P"
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