Lo-Fi Orchestra - Mars from The Planets & More

videos upload by Simple DIY Electro Music Projects

"The Lo-Fi Orchestra brings you Mars from Holst's Planets Suite.

Full details of the Arduino Lo-Fi Orchestra here: https://diyelectromusic.wordpress.com...

Kevin
#LoFiOrchestra #LoFiPlanets
All music rights and copyright with original authors, composers, producers, artists, and so on."

Playlist:
Lo-Fi Orchestra - Mars from The Planets
Lo-Fi Orchestra Venus from The Planets
Lo-Fi Orchestra Mercury from The Planets
Lo-Fi Orchestra Jupiter from The Planets
Lo-Fi Orchestra Saturn from The Planets
Lo-Fi Orchestra Uranus from The Planets
Lo-Fi Orchestra Neptune from The Planets

RIP Stanley Lunetta

Stanley Lunetta passed away on March 3 this year.  The first I heard of it was via Chuck Stephens in the comments on Ray Wilson passing away, posted yesterday. Lunetta was known for his Lunetta CMOS synth used in a number of synth DIY projects. You can find a collection of his work featured here on MATRIXSYNTH.

On his passing via The Sacramento Bee:

"Percussionist, composer, sculptor and much-loved icon of the local music community Stanley Lunetta relentlessly explored avant garde music while maintaining a legendary career. He died March 3 from brain cancer in Sacramento.

Lunetta played drums for Music Circus, missing only two weeks of performances until his retirement in 2008 after 54 years. He also served as the music contractor who assembled orchestras for Music Circus from 1973 until his retirement. He also was the principal timpanist for the Sacramento Symphony Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, Sacramento Opera and Sacramento Choral Society and was an instructor of timpani and percussion at UC Davis and Chico State."

On Lunettas via MsModular:

"The Lunetta is an electronic instrument that uses primarily CMOS chips for gates, Boolean logic, and mathematical functions for sequenced sounds. A Lunetta is basically a simple rhythmic modular musical computer that makes abstract sounds in sometimes unpredictable ways. It is a beautiful experimental synthesizer.

Lunettas are most typically DIY instruments, although there are a few small boutique manufacturers that sell them. ElectroLobotomy for example sells a few simple Lunetta synthesizers on Etsy.

The most beautiful part of a Lunetta is that one can make one for themselves and experiment with its functionality and layout. The guide for making a Lunetta can be found here: Intro to Lunetta CMOS Synths. The introduction goes into Stanley Lunetta’s concept, and provides an introductory guide for making them. Every Lunetta though is made a bit differently, as they often reflect the makers preferences."

The image above is via electro-music.com. Stanley Lunetta's work was frequently discussed on the electro-music.com forums. I highly recommend doing a search on Lunetta there.

Updates via Chuck Stephens in the comments:

"Thanks for posting this. Stanley and Ray were huge! Their work showed me the direction to take when I started learning to build circuits. My lunetta synth has influences from both men, as well as Eric Archer, Forrest Mimms, Reed Ghazala, etc.- we stand on the shoulders of giants!

BTW- My lunetta cost less than $100 and has 36 modules (so far!). It's built into an old rifle case I found in a dumpster and the panels are cut from 4" square PVC fence posts from Home Depot. Steel nuts and bolts and alligator clip test leads handle patching duties. Save more- work less!"

Here's a noise piece from my lunetta synth:


Buster-Jangle by nepchune from chuck stephens on Vimeo.

"This is my Lunetta noise synth run through a Ross Time Machine digital delay. I love the sounds this thing makes. The video features Honey Boy the Cat doing what he does."

And here's a song from the same rig:


Confidence is High by nepchune from chuck stephens on Vimeo.

"This is 90-95% Lunetta with a tiny dab of Kaossilator and Korg R3 (the explosion sounds and the 'pip' on the fast part) and an Arduino based 'auduino' granular synth for the lead (say what you want about Arduino- this little granular synth sounds great and provides a nice 'live' element). The Lunetta part forms the basis of the song and it is completely unedited- this is how it came out of my machine. I used two of Eric Archer's Mini Space Rockers for the percussion sounds and they are completely Lunetta controlled. The drum sounds are routed through a Ross Time Machine digital delay and the spacey bass sound is created by routing my lunetta-integrated Atari Punk Console through a Korg Pandora guitar processor. The other 7 Lunetta voices are unprocessed. This track is the closest I've come to integrating my interest in generative music and my skills for arrangement and song writing. I set out to create a traditional song structure and sound and I'm really pleased with it. It shoes that a Lunetta isn't just a noise machine- although I love noise, too. I love what my Lunetta makes possible. Lightning in a bottle!"

BLUE ZTVCO DRY DEMO & Surrounding Controversy

YouTube Uploaded by bluelantern320 on Jan 3, 2012

Update 10/4/2013: I heard from Ian Fritz and the controversy is over. Blue Lantern no longer offers the ZTVCO. That said, BL posts will resume.

This one, which seems to be a reoccurring theme with Blue Lantern, comes with a good dose of controversy. You might recall from a few years ago BL got into a bit of heat selling MIDIBox SIDs on eBay. MIDIBox explicitly forbids the commercial resale of MIDIBox SIDs. Blue Lantern stopped and went into producing affordable eurorack based modules and systems.

This latest controversy surrounds the source of design for the new BLUE ZTVCO. You might recall from the comments in this previous post, the design of that prototype module appeared to be a copy of Ian Fritz's Teezer (TZFM Saw VCO debuted Sep'08) design. Ian Fritz's modules are available via The Bride Chamber and Elby Designs.

In short:

1. Is the BLUE ZTVCO based on Ian Fritz's design?
2. If so, to what extent?
3. If so, is it legal?
4. If so, is it fair and does it matter?

The answer to 1 and 2 will not be known until someone gets a hand on the ZTVCO and reverse engineers it. I asked BL if he would be willing to provide the schematics to put the issue to rest and he replied no. He said people can reverse engineer it when it it's available and he is sure someone will. The answer to 3 is quite possibly so. There is currently a good thread on the subject on the electro-music.com forum here. The answer to 4 depends on you. My personal opinion is that it is not fair and it definitely does matter. Whether legal or not, I view it as stealing. These designs do not come out of thin air. They take time and talent and sometimes years to produce. You will see some insight on this in regards to Ian's Teezer design from him directly below. When someone makes their designs available, credit should be given.

The following is a response from Blue Lantern in regards to the claims made against him. The most important thing to read out of his points below is "3. This is not a clone, this vco is a beast in it's own cage."

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Quad Bass ++ (Plus Lunetta)

YouTube via bchris1776

"I just got done building this drum machine - and this is one of the first patches I've done with it.
In the video I'm experimenting as I go -so you are watching my learning curve...

The Thomas Henry design "Bass ++" circuit is being sequenced by CMOS logic - Shift registers and counters to create the beats - and to provide control voltages through an R/2R ladder (a sort-of basic digital to analog converter) to change the pitch of the drums. I expect to be able to create very complex, not quite random beats with this in time... and of course simple beats are....simple.
The "Quad Bass ++" board is available through Electro-Music.com in the DIY forum.
More of my synth projects at www.sdiy.com/RFeng"

Synth Books

See the Synth Books label for more.
Also see the scans label for more synth documentation.


The A-X of Analogue Synthesizers by Peter Forest


Vintage Synthesizers by Mark Vail


Essential Retro by James Grahame

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