"This is a very basic analog synth, designed by David Cockerell who designed all the coolest EH stuff & also worked on the EMS synths. It has a very growly, distinctive filter! Played from the 'keys' it's good-sounding & very straightforward (no envelope!) but spend a bit of time with it, mess around with the sliders while you're playing & you'll be surprised at the 'hidden' sounds you can get.
All but 3 of the slider caps are original & intact. The other 3 are missing but this is purely cosmetic and can be replaced quite easily! The cardboard back has a little wear around the sockets, & the battery clips show no sign of any leaks or corrosion at all.
There's a particularly nice PWM bass sound, very reminiscent of the riff of Being Boiled (Human League), which would have been a Korg 700s, I think?
I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with the SENS setting. There is a Piezo mic stuck underneath the touchpad, which I'm guessing might re-trigger the filter if you tap the keys? Looking at Youtube, there are videos that claim to show it working but I'm not convinced. As far as I can tell, the Sens setting seems to have no effect on filter or triggering or anything..
Works from 2x 9v batteries & has an internal speaker. I think this sounds great with batteries and through the speaker. However to do it justice, you need to connect it to your sound system. Add a few external effects and it can sound great in your mix. There is a 1/4" Output socket & a 1/8" socket for a PSU. I have never used this with a PSU..."
Church of the Friendly Ghost presents the fifth annual NMASS (New Media Art and Sound Summit) from Thursday, June 13th until Saturday, June 15th, 2013! Concerts! Art Installations! Film screenings! Workshops!
Your contribution to this campaign underwrites the production of NMASS, paying for things such as artist travel, accommodation, equipment rentals, sound engineering, and venue costs. Your support is an investment in a creative summit that contributes to the unique cultural identity of our great city! 100% of admissions proceeds are paid to our featured guest artists and performers. NMASS and COTFG are completely volunteer-run. You can support this campaign even if you're not in Austin or can't attend the festival in person!
This year our festival will feature an entire day of programming and workshops based around modular synthesizers, an evening of cocktails and experimental film, a documentary film brunch and a sample of the most intriguing performers on the local, national and international new music, fringe and electronic scene. Three days all for a reasonable ticket price of $35! This is how the line up is shaping out so far:
Eurorack synth module building workshop with Super Synthesis and Delptronics* Modular synth meet and greet / show and tell, Thomas Fang, Daze of Heaven, Douglas Ferguson, Rick Reed, Atlanta-based sound designer and IDM wizard Richard Devine with visuals by SYMBOL. Experimental Response Cinema will present the films of Dallas artist Michael Morris and a program of local experimental filmakers, Chicago's Coppice will perform new material for prepared pump organ and tape procceses, Nick Hennies in a vibraphone and bass duo, The Austin premier of the film Conlon Nancarrow: Virtuoso of the Player Piano, Red Ox vs. Cinders, master of cassette tape destruction Jason Zeh, Argentinean electronic musician Nicolas Melmann will be presenting a live sound and video performance, a new installation by Sean O'neill and Clay Odom. Plus more artists and events are being added every day!
The day by day schedule is not fully laid out yet, but here's a sketch:
Thursday, June 13th
An evening of cocktails and experimental film projection and performance with artist Michael Morris and the film makers from the Experimental Response Cinema
Friday, June 14th
I/O Music Technology presents a modular synthesizer workshop, meet and greet, and modular synth performances: Thomas Fang, Daze of Heaven, Douglas Ferguson, Rick Reed, Richard Devine. These will be followed by an evening performance by Nicolas Melmann.
Saturday, June 15th
An afternoon brunch with a screening of the documentary Conlon Nancarrow: Virtuoso of the Player Piano, followed by performances by Nick Hennies, Red Ox vs. Cinders, Jason Zeh, Coppice and many more to be added soon!
*Friday's modular synthesizer workshop! Participants can choose to build one of several module kits offered by Delptronics and Super Synthesis, designed for the Eurorack format. There will be a fee for PCBs, panels, and components, but soldering stations and supplies will be provided, along with hands-on instruction, and you'll leave with a working synth module. Fee, available kits and RSVP information coming soon!
Church of the Friendly Ghost is a 100% volunteer-run nonprofit cultural arts organization headquartered in Austin, and founded in 2003. We operate under the sponsorship of Salvage Vanguard Theater, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with support from the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin, and the Texas Commission on the Arts. All contributions, other than ticket purchases, are federal tax deductible. Tax exempt status information available on request.
The full 3 day festival pass is just $35.00!
You can purchase that right here, right now by backing us at that level!"
"Rare chance to get hold of one of these, in great shape & fully working!*
This is a very basic analog synth, designed by David Cockerell who designed all the coolest EH stuff & also worked on the EMS synths, of course. It has a very growly, distinctive filter! Played from the 'keys' it's good-sounding & very straightforward (no envelope!) but spend a bit of time with it, mess around with the sliders while you're playing & you'll be surprised at the 'hidden' sounds you can get.
In very good shape, & I have cleaned the slider pots. If you check the clips on Youtube, you will notice they all sound awful. I think this needs to be played as much on the sliders as the keyboard, to manually open up the filter etc. Sliders were full of crackle & stiff to move, are now smooth & crackle-free. All the slider caps are original & intact, except the tip for the On/ Off switch which is missing- purely cosmetic! The cardboard back has a little wear around the sockets, & the battery clips in perfect condition, no sign of any leaks or corrosion at all.
There's a particularly nice PWM bass sound, very reminiscent of the riff of Being Boiled (Human League), which would have been a Korg 700s, I think?
*I'm not entirely sure what the deal is with the SENS setting. There is a Piezo mic stuck underneath the touchpad, which I'm guessing might re-trigger the filter if you tap the keys(?) Again, looking at Youtube, there are videos that claim to show it working, but I'm not convinced.. as far as I can tell, the Sens setting seems to have no effect on filter or triggering or anything..
Works from 2x 9v batteries, & has an internal speaker. I think this sounds great with batteries, through the speaker! There is a 1/4" Output socket & a 1/8" socket for a PSU **I have never used this with a PSU.. being EH you'd imagine it's 18v+, & I have a suitable PSU for my Electric Mistress, but I have a feeling this may be 9vAC. The only pic I've seen of a PSU with this (on Matrixsynth) was EH-branded & 9v- tricky to find any info on this! My advice- be careful & stick to batteries!!**"
"This really prevents iOS from being a serious platform for software instruments, despite its merits of having a touch interface and amazing sounding apps. Please comment if you have a solution!"
If anyone has a chance to look into this, feel free to comment or shoot me an email. Obvious things to consider are the app you are testing with, the MIDI interface being used, the iPad & OS versions, and any apps running in the background.
Update 1: discchord wrote in to let us know he ran a few tests. As I suspected it appears to depend on the setup and the device.
"Earlier iPhones were not nearly as beefy as iPads, so developers tried to support them as best they could with crazy high buffers that are easier on the CPU, but slower to react...
Considering how much of a mess my MIDI chain is, I think it is safe to say that a wired MIDI connection is reliable on iOS. Any faults come down to software that isn't designed to cope, or possibly an even worse MIDI setup than mine. Though I honestly can't imagine how that could be; I bought the Uno because it was the cheapest USB-MIDI interface I could buy locally!"
You can find the full results here. Be sure to see the previously linked post there for some initial tests as well.
Update 2: some notes on the results via David Lackey on this Facebook thread. It's worth noting David is the man behind Innerclock Systems and of course a bit of an expert behind timing and syncing gear.
"Again at the risk of sticking my neck in it - I just opened up that 240 BPM Wired 16th File [Quoted as 'There is slightly more wandering here, but still not enough that you'd notice. Take a listen for yourself.'] in Sound Forge and placed accurate markers on the events. At a perfect (no jitter) 240 BPM there should be exactly 3000 samples between each 16th audio event when recorded at 48kHz right. Here are the numbers:
2782/3358/2850/3286/2769/3335/2806/2774/3344 etc etc These variations amount to regular push-pull in tempo by more than 40 BPM PER EVENT in most cases I measured. I don't know about most people here but 40 BPM drift between 16ths is VERY NOTICABLE to my ears at any tempo.
....and I've just realized - those Discchord tests dont really tell you much about iOS Midi stability at all - take them with a large grain of salt - the 16th Midi Events they used are generated real-time by Live and USB Midi Interface - the Jitter probably has as much to do with the source events as the receiving iOS application.
You can see clearly that highly subjective and poorly researched statements like this: 'I hope this puts to rest the notion that MIDI Jitter prevents iOS from being a serious platform for software instruments.' need substantial qualification and backup before they can be taken seriously. For these tests to show true iOS application Midi Jitter we would need to see the jitter contained in the source Midi Events themselves first - or at least use a reliable hardware Midi Sequencer with proven event and tempo stability like an MPC-3000 as the Midi Event Source rather than DAW/USB/Driver generated Midi which is notoriously prone to slop and jitter anyway.
I'll run the same tests on Magellan/iPad2/iOS6 tonight but use MPC-3000/16ths as the Midi Event Source and post the results at 60/120 and 240 BPM."
Update 3: David Lackey of Innerclock ran some litmus tests. See this post for details.
Update 4: It looks like the iPad did fairly well with MIDI OUT depending on the app. Via David Lackey on the Facebook thread:
"Just had time last night to test outgoing Midi Event stability from two Apps - Magellan and Little Midi Machine - identical 16th note patterns using identical Roland UM-1G Core Midi Interface - you can see by the numbers that that Core Midi is certainly capable if the coding is up to the task. Little Midi Machine shows no more than 6 samples of jitter between 16th generated Note Events at 120 BPM. Magellan is still up there in the 500 plus samples jitter.
Update 5 via Rob Fielding of Mugician, Geo Synth, & Cantor in the comments:
"This is probably not "MIDI" latency, but audio latency. The issue of iOS using oversized audio buffers is something that a minority of us iOS app devs (me especially) have been screaming about for years, especially just before Geo Synthesizer was released. Controller apps are crippled by this phenomenon at the moment, though the situation improved a lot last year. If the buffer is 512 at 44.1khz, then that's a 10ms buffer. If it's that large, then you will get jitter lower bound as a random variable from 0 to 10ms of latency no matter how fast everything else is. And in practice, there is always more overhead coming from elsewhere, including the hardware scanning for fingers to turn into touches, OS overhead, and MIDI packet sending, etc. I use 256 sized buffers (Mugician, Geo, Cantor), but I don't take MIDI in; so I experience this issue with almost all of the other iOS synths I run MIDI into. The apps that use a buffer size of 512 or higher are generally unplayable with Geo Synthesizer because you can play it so fast; you can really feel the difference between 512 (10ms) and 256 (5ms) buffers, though overhead makes total jitter almost 30ms. But the +/-10ms is enough to throw off rhythm.
and btw... iOS defaults to 1024 sized buffers but can usually go to 256 or 128 (good). Android on the other hand is a joke. Most Android apps have hundreds of seconds of latency (like 8192 buffers and even higher...yikes!) just due to audio buffer sizes, which means that hardware performance increases can never make a dent in the problem. Samsung Galaxy Nexus can get down to 512 I hear, which is almost to where it needs to be. It really needs to be 64, but 128 is doable for some synths, and no synths should settle for more than 256. I think AudioBus requires you to do 256. (But that's a whole new issue, because you are probably effectively chaining together audio buffer lengths when you pass from one app to another.)"
A quick note: This review is long. You can jump to sections that interest you vs. reading it straight through if you prefer. This review focuses primarily on the synth engine for one single patch on the Venom. The Venom supports Multi mode with up to four multitimbral parts. Not only can you layer sound programs but you can set global parameters for the set. Be sure to see the Multi mode section of "Tips and Tricks via Taiho Yamada" at the end of this post. Taiho is the Lead Project Manager of the Venom and served as my contact during the review. I want to thank Taiho for his help and enthusiastic generosity. He is a true synthesist and the Venom is his baby.
Synth connections: Taiho previously worked at Alesis on the Andromeda A6. The DSP developer of the Venom worked on Radikal Technologies' Spectralis and the Accelerator. People that contributed to the presets via sound design include Richard Devine, Francis Preve, Mark Ovenden (Avid's AIR Instruments, ProTools VIs), Joerg Huettner (Waldorf, Access, Alesis), and of course Taiho Yamada.
*Don't miss the "Q&A with Taiho" section towards the end of the review. Also keep an eye out for "Taiho's Tips and Tricks" throughout the review in grey. You can find the consolidated list below the Q&A section.
Dave of http://umop.com/ (The Packrat, Parallax, Retarded Animal Babies, and much more) sent this one (from Toothpaste for Dinner) to me and Eric Barbour of Metasonix. It's a funny comic and the connection to Metasonix and tubes is obvious. Eric replied with the following and gave me the OK to post it, so here it is. It also reminds me of the analog vs. digital debate. In my opinion sound is sound and it's all what you make of it. It's as simple as it gets - everyone likes what they like.
"Okay guys....yeah, it's funny.
Um, do I try to claim 'warmer sweeter tone' or 'vintage sound' for my products? Forgive me for ranting, but I keep having to make these points.
There have been long and often-incoherent lectures on 'tube tone' over the last 40-plus years. Speaking personally, I've long suspected this 'tube tone' crap to be based on people's vague memories of early tube hifi and radio equipment--which usually had poor frequency response and high second- harmonic distortion, either due to poor design or an attempt to keep the item below a certain retail price.
Please let me talk about my personal observations of 'tube tone'. I've heard tube amps that were as accurate as any solid-state amp you can think of (we are talking about high-end home audio, not guitar amps or pro audio, because that's the area where "tube tone" is the biggest hypefest).
And I've heard modern tube amps that were so shrill and ugly sounding, they made me think they were badly-designed transistor amps. I've also seen, used, and repaired a long long list of vintage hifi, radios, and guitar amps. They were all over the place in sound quality, though generally pre-WWII and cheap gear had that soft, indistinct 'vintage-stereotype' sound. Plus, I've heard transistor amps that were so damn good, they made me wonder why so much ink was wasted on blubbering about 'tube tone'.
My considered opinion: people who mumble about 'tube tone' are full of shit, and/or simply regurgitating catch-phrases they've been hearing for years. There are good tube amps and there are bad tube amps. Simply being a tube amp does not guarantee anything except a marketing handle that can be used to wheedle the clueless rabble into paying too much money for it.
At the CES ten years ago, I heard a brand-new, very costly ($8000) stereo tube hifi amp that was claimed to be 'the ultimate in high-end tone'. It was so shrill, lacking in bass, distorted, and otherwise ugly-sounding, it drove people out of the room. Even so, it ended up on the cover of major high-end magazines. (Later I was told by other people in the business that the company founder had severe high-frequency hearing loss, and was literally unable to discern that the amp sounded bad to most people. Nor was he willing to admit as much. He wound up telling the designer what to do, based on his own ears. Because he was an egotistical fool, who refused to acknowledge that his hearing was bad.) I'd tell you his name but it was an embarrassing incident and better forgotten. That firm went bankrupt recently, as his sales 'went off a cliff', and I'm not sure he deserves the extra abuse.
This also goes a long way toward explaining why I don't make tube hifi gear, hopefully. High-end audio is more like a freak show than a 'market'. It's full of arrogant over-50 man-boys who are obsessed with 'accuracy', yet usually have no idea what that means.
Guitar amps are starting to be similar to high-end in the sheer snobbery and idiocy. I've heard tube simulation devices, like the Line 6 products, that are as close to sounding like real vintage tube gear as one could possibly want. There are now quite a few tube amp simulators, made by various firms, that are basically as 'perfect' as can be. I've also heard 'real vintage style' tube amps, usually invented by idiots who wanted to take advantage of the 'tube tone fad', that sounded like broken transistor amps.
Yet guitarists keep demanding tube amps. And nowadays, they are paying extremely stiff prices for real tube amps with major brands like Marshall or Vox or Fender. Have you priced a Marshall JCM2000 amp head lately? Right now, despite a massive global recession, this 'standard for heavy rock' will cost you about $3000, with an 'official' Marshall speaker cab. Marshall and Vox belong to Korg, which is deliberately using these old brandnames to sell high-priced product to people who still think those firms are the same as they were in the 1960s. They aren't......the amps don't even sound like the old ones, mainly due to the poor quality of the tubes being made today. But it doesn't matter. They, like Gibson, Fender, and many other old brandnames that were around at the dawn of rock & roll, are simply trading on nostalgic warm tone feelings for bygone days.
It's why I find people who complain about Metasonix's 'high prices' to be pathetic. Those same people are often willing to pay $4000 for a modern reissue Gibson guitar, or $2500 for a 30-year-old TB303, or $75,000 for a Fairchild 670 limiter, because those things 'have the magic'. Whatever the hell that means.
My 'marketing', such as it is, doesn't focus on 'warm vintage tube tone'. Because it's not a real thing, it's a buzzword. Metasonix sounds different from everything else on the market and that's all I try to claim. It's the most 'real analog' possible--class A tube circuits. They might sound warm and soft, they might sound like a broken vacuum cleaner being shoved up your ass. It's more a question of the circuit design and the user's choices.
No one else had the guts to make tube synthesizer circuits, and to this day, if you ask a mainstream synth builder if they can design a tube synth circuit, they claim it is physically impossible or horribly impractical and costly. (Dieter Doepfer immediately comes to mind, because I've personally seen him tell people exactly that. And based on his marketability standards, he's right. Tubes are hell to deal with--costly, flaky, difficult to source, wasteful of power.)"
Pictured to the left is Professor William Hoskins (via). What you see there is not the mystery Moog, but his Moog modular system. This post is about another Moog synth, one most likely based on the Sonic VI. If you have any information on what this synth might be after reading this, please feel free to leave a comment or contact me directly. My contact info is on the bottom right of the site. I have already contacted Michelle Moog-Koussa and Brian Kehew author of Kaleidoscope Eyes A Day in the Life of Sgt. Pepper, as well as Trevor Pinch, author of Analog Days [Amazon hardcover & paperback, preview on Google books], and featured in this exclusive post. I also contacted James Husted of Synthwerks, George Mattson of Mattson Mini Modular, Steven Jones of Synthwood, and Carbon111, all of whom know their synth history. None were familiar with what the synth might be.
The story: I was recently contacted by a Paul Rego with the following:
"I've been searching the Internet for over a year now and have not been able find a specific synth. Since you seem to know and work with every type of synth known, I thought I'd ask you...
Around 1973 - 1974, I took private synthesizer lessons at Jacksonville University (Florida). The instructor was Professor William Hoskins and the synth was a custom Studio Moog assembled by Professor Hoskins.
One day, Professor Hoskins showed me his personal, portable synthesizer. He brought out what looked like a brown suitcase. When he opened it, I saw a Moog Sonic VI.
This is nothing new. I've seen lots of images of this synth on the Internet. The one aspect of this particular synth, that I cannot find anywhere, is that it had a touch-sensitive keyboard. The keyboard was made of plastic and had a gray / brown color. Outlining the keys (showing the location of the 'white' and 'black' keys) was an almost medium blue color (about an eighth-inch thick). (He and I tinkered with this synth for about a half-hour to an hour.)
Professor Hoskins passed away several years ago, so I can't ask him about it. I did contact his family but they don't remember anything about this synth.
I do remember Professor Hoskins telling me that he and Bob Moog had 'gone to school together'. I think he was referring to electronics school but I never asked him more about it. I thought I had read somewhere that Professor Hoskins and Bob Moog had briefly worked together on a Sonic VI prototype but I don't know if that's true. (Even if what I saw was a prototype, someone has to own it now and should be proud enough of it to post some photos somewhere.)
I thought the background story might help in your own research on this.
Basically, I'd just like to know if this synth ever existed or am I just not remembering it correctly.
Thank you for your time and attention."
My first obvious guess considering the blue was the Buchla Music Easel or separate Buchla touchplate keyboard modded into the case of a Sonic VI. I sent Paul a couple of links to various images.
Paul replied: "the synth I saw didn't look like the Buchla Easel. Good call though.
The 'blue', which outlined the keys on the Sonic VI I saw was a bit lighter in color than the blue in your photos and maybe had a bit of green in it (closer to turquoise). There was no red or other color on the keyboard (that I can remember) and the entire keyboard seemed to be one piece of plastic with only the blue / green outlines separating the 'keys'.
I also read a story recently about the time when Musonics bought Moog and had a synth ('Sonic V'?) of their own, at that time, but I haven't research this too much yet. One thought I had was the synth I saw was something from Musonics but was never officially released (until it had the 'Moog' name placed on it). I'm pretty sure the synth I saw had the 'Moog' logo and the word 'Sonic VI'. (Not 100% sure but it seems clear in my memory.)"
I also sent Paul images of the EMS Synthi AKS. Paul replied it was the closest, but definitely not it.
I contacted Michelle Moog-Koussa and Brian Kehew to see if they knew of anything. Michelle replied: "...I can tell you that we have several of William Hoskins reel-to-reel tapes in the archives, so there was obviously a significant professional relationship between he and Bob.
I don't ever remember reading anything about the Sonic VI, but maybe Brian does. One thing I can tell you for sure is that Dad began working with John Eaton in 1970 on the Multi-Touch Sensitive keyboard [left via]. The main component of the MTS was the touch-sensitive keyboard, of course. It's not out of the realm of possibility that Dad would have used his work with John to push boundaries on another project."
Brian replied: "Bob didn't design or build the original Sonic V (from Musonics before they bought Moog) that was Gene Zumchak: The Sonic V did have a brown wood style. It's even unlikely Bob did much on the Sonic Six as it was the same thing with a new outer case.
The Sonic VI was the version Moog made in 1972 and later, in a plastic suitcase version. Many of these were made vs the very few Sonic V's. So one might think they saw a Sonic VI when it was the V (same front panel and features). But the brown suitcase and colored keys and touch sensitive thing are ALL unusual. I know a little about Prof Hoskins from the paperwork of the past, but no mention of this synth. Definitely unusual to have keys like that anywhere, anytime!" Followed by: "And there IS touch (velocity) sensitivity on Wendy Carlos' synth by 1971 for Clockwork Orange, but it's used under the normal keyboard. THIS velocity was very possible, but would not make the keys look different. Again - maybe a Sonic V was retrofitted with a cooler keyboard later in the 80s, but why not do so on a BETTER synth!?" :)
On a separate thread, Trevor Pinch got back to me with the following: "Bill Hoskins was important in that he was one of the first people David VanKouvering approached about minimoog reiail sales etc. I have a good album of his somewhere! I think he may have been Bob's favorite composer for a while.
I have no idea about the touch key board but I'm in touch with Gene Zumchak the guy who designed the Sonic Six, so I'll ask him. (I guess you know the joke that the Sonic Six was known by Moog engineers as the Chronic Sick!)
Actually its story might be kinda interesting - Zummy (as he is known) told me that it was made with 741 op amps and in many ways was more advanced than the minimoog.
Maybe it has had an unfair press. I never heard one or saw one for real."
James Husted sent me the image of Professor Hoskins at the top of this post. I sent it to Paul to see if maybe it brought back any memories that might help.
He replied: "The custom Moog modular in that photo is the same one I took lessons on. However, this is an early photo and when I saw that Moog modular, Professor Hoskins had already added a top layer to that cabinet — which included a Moog sequencer. (I have a photo of it, that I took around 1990, but the top part of the photo, showing the upper section, is cut off.)
The reason you didn't see Professor Hoskins' 'Sonic VI' is... I'm guessing that he didn't bring it to the university very often. When I saw it, I was at his home. He had invited me over one Saturday afternoon to see HIS custom Moog modular. It was in his garage, which he had made-over into a nice studio. It also had a two-manual organ, at least two reel-to-reel tape decks and LOTS of recording tape. Later, during that same session, he said 'There's something else I want to show you. Come inside.' We went into the living room and I sat on the couch. He said 'I'll be right back.' After about a minute, he came back carrying a brown 'suitcase'. He set it on the coffee table in front of me and sat down on the couch. He opened it up and... Whoa! I had never seen one of these and it was the first time I had seen a Ring Modulator!
---
I remember seeing Professor Hoskins play his Sonic VI during a live performance of his album 'Galactic Fantasy / Eastern Reflections'. The Jacksonville University orchestra played most of his composition but at one point his Sonic VI was brought out and he played it while at center stage. I could see it clearly from my seat but, of course, I could only see the back of it, which simply looked like the back of a brown suitcase.
---
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Since I think this is important, I thought I'd try to recreate the 'Sonic VI' I think I saw. I 'Photoshopped' a production Sonic VI and attached it to this message. It's the best image of what I think I saw.
Modifying the image forced my memory to go into more detail. Here's what I'm fairly certain of:
• The outer color of the "suitcase" was almost dark brown.
• The outer shape was more square than the production Sonic VI.
• The thickness of the top and bottom sections was thicker than the production Sonic VI model.
• The keyboard was made of slightly textured plastic, otherwise completely flat, was brown / gray in color and had a vibrant blue outline between the keys. (I'm not 100% sure if the "black" keys were outlined or solid blue.)
• The background color of the back panel and the area surrounding the keyboard was almost dark brown. It looked like it was made out of either pressed cardboard or thin wood. It really reminded me more of the thin 'wood' used in old, tube televisions and radios (during the 1960s).
What I'm not 'fairly sure' of:
• I can't remember if it had a Mod Wheel.
• I think there was more space between the modules.
• I think it had two speakers (placed on the left and right side of the back panel). Each might have been the size of the center speaker-grill in my photo.
• I can't remember if there were any connectors, switches or knobs on the keyboard section."
Update: via Aaron aka theglyph in the comments: "Holy shit! That's the guy from JU. There was an electronics repair/pawn shop here in Jacksonville called Active Electronics that had a bunch of synths back in 90's. The owner had a sign in the store explicitly stating that the synths were not for sale and that customers were not allowed to walk up and look at them or touch them. I walked in day and walked close enough to notice that the MiniMoogs had very low serial #'s. It wasn't until I read Analog Days that I found out that the earliest Mini were sold here in Jacksonville. There so much more to this story that I don't know where to begin but I can say that I did an obscure Moog at the store that I've never seen photographed since and I simply thought I was loosing my mind recollecting it. WOW!
Cheers,
theglyph"
Update: Above, Brian originally mentioned Bill Hemsath as the person that designed the Sonic V. He meant to say Gene Zumchak. This has been updated.
Updates: via Dorothy in the comments:
"HI, as a Hoskins kid, I watched Dad perform on the synthesizer and I know we had the Sonic but I thought it was a "V". Dad had several custom modules built for him by Bob Moog. They were friends but didn't go to school together -- Dad went to Trumansburg NY to work with Bob on the synthesizer that they got for Jacksonville University (in 1969, I think). I will have to go digging in the Will Hoskins letters that I have. Those of you who knew Dad know that he was very meticulous about writing up the components that he bought and what they were for.
Late in Dad's life, when he was basically letting go of most composing effort except for revising existing scores, Bob helped Dad find a collector (in Germany, as I recall), who bought all of Dad's big home synthesizer. I think some of the smaller units were in the hands of Steve Smith, who was Dad's right-hand man at the JU studio for some years. Whatever happened to them, I don't think Dad would have cared as long as someone was using them to create music. He wouldn't have collected synthesizers as museum pieces, he actively used everything he got from Moog until he was ready to let it go."
Followed by: "BTW, that last time I spoke to Bob Moog was after Dad died, when Bob came to Rochester NY http://www.esm.rochester.edu/news/?id=132 which is near where I live now. Bob spoke very fondly of working with Dad, because Dad cared as much about the science of music synthesis as any composer Bob knew. Dad did some work with him on modulators and other components for JU and the Hoskins home studio."
Followed by: "Hoskins synth photo --not a Sonic -- in news article 1970 [link]"
Update 6/6/2010:
Some more interesting bits of Moog history:
Trevor Pinch checked with Gene Zumchak who had the following to say:
"I am not aware of a touch sensitive keyboard on the Sonic V or 6. It did have a two-note keyboard and the highest key pressed and lowest pressed could be routed to Osc 1 and Osc 2.
They removed the keyswitch bus and superimposed a highpitch (100KHz?) tone on the voltage string. This might have been the source of a whine that some users complained about that wasn't present in the Sonic V."
via Josh Brandt: 'Okay, I did hear back from David Mash [VP of IT at Berklee and friend of Bob Moog], who says that the story he was telling me several years ago was about a keyboard Bob was building for John Eaton. I asked about the story he'd told me and if the pictures you posted could be of the instrument he'd been talking about, and he said:
"The story I was no doubt telling was definitely about the keyboard Bob built for John Eaton [middle pic above]. Bob was going to show us the completed instrument (which my friends Jeff Tripp and Paul Derocco helped complete), but we never got to see it due to the way the conversation turned over dinner. I did see the instrument several times during the design/build stages and again later after it was complete.
The keyboard was simply a controller and not a synth, so definitely not the portable synth the blog is referring to. I know Brian, and was involved briefly with him and a bit more with Michelle Moog on the NAMM Museum exhibit, and they used a couple of my photos for the exhibit. They're great people and working hard to preserve Bob's legacy.'"
Update via WmJHeart in the comments:
"Thanks Matrix, for hosting this page. I own a copy of Will's Galactic Fantasy & Eastern Reflections (my personal favorite) recording on vinyl. But I also discovered and listened to the entire album on YouTube recently! Here:"
Galactic Fantasy - Eastern Reflections (1979)[Full Album]
video upload by
Published on Jul 12, 2017 TheHomecoming
"Rare electronic/synth/moog private pressing LP
TITLE 'Galactic Fantasy - Eastern Reflections'
William Hoskins, "Galactic Fantasy, Eastern Reflections" [CP-158]
TRACK 01 AUDIO TITLE "Overture : Stars Are Suns" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO TITLE "Intermezzo : Interplanetary Communique" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 06:39
TRACK 03 AUDIO TITLE "Star Nocturne" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 08:11
TRACK 04 AUDIO TITLE "Scherzo : Comets" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 16:35
TRACK 05 AUDIO TITLE "Beyond Beyond" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 18:54
TRACK 06 AUDIO TITLE "Prolog : Theme and Variation" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 23:40
TRACK 07 AUDIO TITLE "Lower Heterophonie" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 27:55
TRACK 08 AUDIO TITLE "Song : Open Skies" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 31:22
TRACK 09 AUDIO TITLE "Drum Chime" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 35:28
TRACK 10 AUDIO TITLE "Upper Heterophonie" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 39:41
TRACK 11 AUDIO TITLE "Epilog : Processional" PERFORMER "William Hoskins" INDEX 01 41:30
A1
Overture: Stars Are Suns
A2
Intermezzo: Interplanetary Communique
A3
Star Nocturne
A4
Scherzo: Comets
A5
Beyond Beyond: An Entropy Study
A6
Eastern Reflections
Eastern Reflections
B1
Prolog: Theme and Variation
B2
Lower Heterophonie
B3
Song: Open Skies
B4
Drum Chime
B5
Upper Heterophonie
B6
Epilog: Processional
Criminally under-rated set of Early American Moog Modular Synthesizer Music - the sole release by composer William Hoskins, the 'Director of Electronic Music and Composer-in-Residence at Jacksonville University in Florida.' Issued in 1979 by the Harriman, NY-based Spectrum - a 'Division of UNI-PRO Recordings, Inc.' the LP consists of a pair of discrete pieces, with each taking up a side of its own."
Update via Kimberly S Beasley in the comments:
"Hello, everyone. I am the current chair of the Department of Music at Jacksonville University and I have the original Sonic VI manuals and one of Hoskin's Moogs....happy to share photos tomorrow."
Kimberly sent in the images with the following:
"This has been in the possession of our Professor Emeritus Dr. William Schirmer as it was given to him by Hoskins. Hoskins' granddaughter Dorothy is also aware of the instrument. We also have a large collection of manuscripts of Hoskins.
There is also a mini-Moog we just refurbished in our recording studio."
You can see WM. Hoskins written on the top right of the manual. Note "Home Copy" on the blue cover. It's kind of neat to think of him perusing through the manual in the comfort of his home.
"Concernig the O.S. VERSION:
- Following Internet searches, I believe these are the latest OS versions:
MSR (mainframe) Version 1.09 / ASM (synthesizer module) Version 1.13
- As you can see, the mainframe of the actual item has OS 1.09; can´t really tell the ASM version at this point
---------- ----------
Some facts/rumors about the MSR-2:
- It has Audio-In, so you can process external audio signals thru the envelope/filter et al.
- The Marion MSR-2 is known for having the 'Oberheim sound' packaged inside a compact single-space rackmount module with modern digital reliability and MIDI implementation.
- Despite its rather harmless and simple appearance, the MSR-2 allows for some fairly complex but intuitive programming. The filters, envelopes, LFOs and other parameters are very analog-like in their sound and editing methods.
- The module is 16-part multitimbral.
8 voices and HROs (high resolution oscillators) used in here, midi control, the rest is quite like the Matrix 6, this mainframe can hold up to 2 complete ASMs (16 voices) and a main graphic EQ. planned: sample player, wavetable synth, FX, FM?.. - Module never came up.. has triangle to saw morphing.
"A little event I do every month here in Georgia...
City Skies 08 Electronic Music Event Nov 8, 2008, Decatur, GA
The next City Skies 08 event will be held on Saturday, November 8, 2008, with an afternoon Master class workshop with Richard Lainhart (Multi-Dimensional Control for Realtime Analog Synthesis Performance using Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum Fingerboard controller) from 2pm-4pm and performances starting at 8pm. We showcase the region's best electronic musicians at our favorite venue, Kavarna.
Confirmed performers on November 8 include Richard Lainhart (from New York), Collaboration with Sounds (from South Carolina), and Bribing The Buddha (from Atlanta). Shows kick off at 8pm.
The Richard Lainhart workshop for the November show promises to be quite amazing. Please tell your friends about it. Attendance will be limited:
Multi-Dimensional Control for Realtime Analog Synthesis Performance
The promise of electronic music has been, from the beginning, to provide the composer with the means to create his or her own unique sounds and musics without the need for intermediaries like performers and technicians. And the problem with electronic music has been, from the beginning, to endow synthesized sound with the same organic expressivity found in acoustic instruments and natural sound while making synthesizers viable performance instruments in their own right.
The first electronic instruments intended for performance, such as the Theremin and the Ondes Martenot, while providing the performer with highly nuanced pitch control, had limited sound-shaping control and could only play one note at a time. The first modular analog synthesizers, while offering polyphony - the ability to play multiple notes simultaneously - and unlimited sonic control, had limited expressive performance control and were completely impractical for live use.
There have been many attempts since then to integrate the unlimited potential of modular analog synthesis with practical performance capabilities, and to provide the electronic music composer/performer with the kind of expressive musical control available in advanced acoustic instruments. Among of the most successful and creative of these efforts are the Buchla 200e analog modular synthesizer and the Haken Continuum Fingerboard.
Buchla's 200e is the first modular analog synth with patch memory and the ability to re-route patchcords on the fly, making it an ideal instrument for performance, capable of both the highest and lowest levels of control. The Continuum is a unique multidimensional controller keyboard that senses direct finger movement in three dimensions (X, Y, and pressure) for each of up to 16 fingers, making it one of the most advanced performance controllers available today. Together, the 200e and the Continuum make for an electronic music performance system of unparalleled expressivity and sensitivity.
In his workshop, Richard will demonstrate the synthesis and control functions of the Buchla 200e with an emphasis on patch programming for maximum expressivity under Continuum control. The workshop will include a live performance focusing on the Continuum/Buchla 200e system's expressive control capabilities. Time permitting, workshop attendees will also have the opportunity to play the system themselves.
WORKSHOP BIO
Richard Lainhart is a composer, performer, and filmmaker based in New York. He studied composition and electronic music techniques with Joel Chadabe, a pioneer of electronic music and the designer of the Coordinated Electronic Music System (http://emfinstitute.emf.org/exhibits/cems.html and http://www.otownmedia.com/chadabe.jpg), at one time the largest integrated Moog synthesizer system in the world. From 1987-1990, Lainhart was the Technical Director for Intelligent Music, developers of innovative computer music software like M, Jam Factory, and UpBeat.
His compositions have been performed in the US, England, Sweden, Germany, Australia, and Japan. Recordings of his music have appeared on the Periodic Music, Vacant Lot, XI Records, ExOvo and Airglow Music labels and are distributed online via MusicZeit. As an active performer, Lainhart has appeared in public approximately 2000 times. Besides performing his own work, he has worked and performed with John Cage, David Tudor, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Phill Niblock, David Berhman, and Jordan Rudess, among many others. He has composed over 100 electronic and acoustic works, and has been making music for forty years.
Lainhart's animations and short films have been shown in festivals in the US, Canada, Germany, and Korea, and online at ResFest, The New Venue, The Bitscreen, and Streaming Cinema 2.0. His film "A Haiku Setting" won awards in several categories at the 2002 International Festival of Cinema and Technology in Toronto. In 2008, he was awarded a Film & Media grant by the New York State Council on the Arts for "No Other Time", full-length intermedia performance designed for a large reverberant space, combining live analog electronics with four-channel playback, and high-definition computer-animated film projection.
Richard Lainhart http://www.otownmedia.com http://www.downloadplatform.com/richard_lainhart http://www.vimeo.com/rlainhart http://www.airglowmusic.com
City Skies http://www.cityskies.com http://www.myspace.com/cityskiesfestival
Update: The new home for this list is now here. You can add to the list there or comment here and I will update both lists. Note that the complete list however will be there as I do not plan on updating this list with updates made there. That would be too much work and would compete with me being able to put up new posts here. Can't let that happen. : ) Related but separate from that list also see https://120years.net. That said...
If you are going to add to the list in the comments, use the same format.
Year - Manufacturer - Model - First at 1837 - C.G. Page (Salem. Mass) - first to produce electronically generated sound (not necessarily associated with a musical instrument). After inventing the Volta in 1800 (an early battery), in 1837 Page was doing experiments with coils and realized when certain coils were attached to a batter they omitted a ringing sound. While he initially thought the ring came from the electrical current was interrupted (battery disconnected), what was actually taking place was the induction through the coils was causing them to vibrate. via Peter Grenader 1885 - Person and Ernst Lorenz -'Elektrisches Musikinstrument' - the first musical instrument designed to produce electrically generated sound. It used electronic vibrations to drive an electromagnet that were connected to resonating boards, which translated these vibrations to sound. via Peter Grenader 1897 - Taddaeus Cahills - Telharmonium - electromechanical instrument. 1936 - Oskar Sala - Mixturtrautonium - first synth using Subharmonic synthesis 1939 - Homer Dudley invents the Parallel Bandpass Vocoder (VODER) - A manually key operated speech synthesizer 1940 - Homer Dudley invents the The Voder speech synthesizer - A device which used the human voice and an artificial voice to produce a composite Both were researched as a way to transmit speech over copper wires (id est, telephone lines) 1948 - Hugh LeCaine - Electronic Sackbut - First voltage-controlled synthesizer 1948 - Dr. Raymond Scott - Wall of Sound - First polyphonic Sequencing Worstation (electromechanical) and the Electronum - first sequencer. 1950 - CSIR - Mk 1 - The first known use of a digital computer for the purpose playing music 1956 - Louie and Bebe Barron - Produced the first all-electronic musical score for a major motion picture - MGM's 'Forbidden Planet' 1957 - Max V. Mathews at Bell Labs - MUSIC - the first digital synthesizer. Technically, it was a computer program, though it set the stage for every digital synthesizer that proceeded it. See Laurie Spiegel with one here. 1963/64 - Buchla - model 100 modular - 1st "modern" modular synth 1967 - Moog - Moog modular synthesizer I, II & III - 1st commercial modular synth. 1969 - EMS - Synthi VCS-3 - first non-modular mini-synth 1970 - MOOG - Minimoog - 1st Mono Synth with keys (non-modular) 1971 - Tonus/Arp - Soloist - 1st preset mono synth 1971 - John Chowning - developed FM synthesis using the MUSIC-IV language (source), a direct descendent of Mathew's MUSIC program. FM synthesis was later licensed by Yamaha, and used in popular synths such as the DX-7. 1972 - Triadex Muse - first digital synth ""is the first digital musical instrument and was produced in 1972. It was designed by Edward Fredkin and Marvin Minsky at MIT. It is an algorithmic music generator: it uses digital logic circuits to produce a sequence of notes based on the settings of various parameters. It has four small sliders in that control Volume, Tempo, Pitch, and Fine Pitch. It is not known how many were made, but they are considered extremely rare. The Muse is the subject of U. S. Patent 3610801" 1973 - Coupland Digital Music Synthesizer - First Digital (Triadex beat it?) Update via Peter Grenader: "No time to read through all these posts to see if it's come up yet, but the Coupland was vaporwear...it never existed. I met Mark Vail, who's now a friend, by writing him a letter informing him that his story about the Coupland in his Vintage Synthesizers book (GREAT book) which mentioned it's only recorded showing was at the AES show in LA in 1978 was a farce. I was there - at their booth and their suite in the Hilton where the instrument was said to be. I was there on the first day, I was there on the last day. The only thing they had was a small model - about six inches across, sitting on a table. The booth was amazing - this radial orb multiple people could sit in, with a cover that came over each person which played what I remembered was a very impressive demo which swirled around four speakers inside the box. I, and everyone else, were blown away. They kept saying...'it will be here tomorrow, it'll be here tomorrow'...so I showed up the last day just to see it, figuring by the then it would have arrived...it didn't. I did see the frst Synthclavier at that show however. Their suite was across the hall from the Coupland folk. That completely kicked the crap out of everything else shown that year." 1973 - Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer - NED - Synclavier prototype - first digital synth 1974 - Roland - SH-3A - first commercial additive synth 1974 - RMI - Harmonic Synthesizer - first commercial additive synth
1975 - Buchla 502 - six voice polyphonic with minicomputer and ability to save patches to tape drive. Development on the 500 series began in 1969.
1975 - Oberheim FVS - four voice polyphonic with Polyphonic Synthesizer Programmer. Not sure if the Buchla 502 or FVS was released first.
1976 - PPG - PPG 1003 sonic carrier - 1st programmable mono/duo synth with patch memory (this, along with the model 1020, might have been the 1st synths to use DCO's as well) 1977 - Yamaha - CS50/CS60/CS80 - first single enclosure polyphonic keyboard synthesizers with the CS80 to be the first synth with poly aftertouch 1977 (late) - Oberheim - OB-1 - 1st commercial programmable mono synth with patch memory 1978 (late) - PPG - Wavecomputer 360 - 1st wavetable synth 1978 - Sequential Circuits - microprocessor control the SCI prophet 10 (briefly) and the P-5 --- again based on existing E-mu tech stuff 1979 - NED - Synclavier - First FM 1979 - Fairlight CMI - First Sampler, First Workstation 1980 - Performance Music Systems - Syntar - First self contained keytar 1982 - Sequential Circuits - Prophet 600 / First Midi Synthesizer (though some argue the Prophet 5 rev 3.2 is pre-MIDI MIDI) 1983 - Yamaha - DX7 - Digital takes over, FM goes mainstream 1983 - OSC - OSCar - First real-time additive with analog filters 1984 - Sequential Circuits - SixTrak - first multitimbral 1985 - Casio - CZ-101 - First battery-powered all digital mini-synth 1987 - Kawai K5 and Technos Axcel - first additive synths 1989 - E-Mu Systems - Proteus - First dedicated ROMpler 1992 - Seer Systems - first host-based software synthesizer in 1992 1994 - Yamaha - VL1 - first physical modelling synth 1995 - Clavia - Nord Lead - 1st Virtual Analog 1996 - Rubberduck - still not the first softsynth but came before Seer Systems Reality. 1996 - Steinberg - VST - Ok not a synth but enabled a lot to be written as plug-ins and used simultaneously 1997 - Seer Systems - Reality - First Modular Soft Synth 2002 - Hartmann Neuron - first neuronal synth 2912 - KalQuestoTron - the first genetically engineered synth. Each cell is an oscillator, filter, and neural sequencer. Can be delivered via injection to always play 'hold music' in your head.
I thought it might be fun to have a "first synth to..." post. There's been a lot of buzz over Sonic State's Top 20 Synths of All Time with good reason. What exactly is a "top synth?" Is it it's influence on the music scene? It's rarity and lust appeal? The number of synths sold? According to Sonic State their list was the result of Sonic State reader's voting for their favorite synths. Blame the voters if you don't like what you see. Based on what has come up on the list so far, the E-Mu Proteus and Roland JV-1080 for example as well as the Roland Jupiter 8 not even making the top ten, I'm guessing a bit of it has to do with the vote and... possibly the most influential/ground breaking synths for their time. The JV1080 and Proteus? Not super sexy in this day and age, but what they offered in their time? Who knows. It's obviously subjective. But there is something that isn't. The most influential synths of all time not because they were super sexy or utilitarian, but because they offered something that was not previously available.
I thought what might be interesting to create a list of the first synths to feature a particular technology or feature. For example what was the fist synth to bring FM to the table? Was it the DX7 or a predecessor? What was the first digital synth and when? The first additive synth? I have a good idea and could probably look it all up, but that wouldn't be any fun, so.... You tell me. I am going to make this an open post that will live over time. You get to participate by putting an entry in the comments. I will update the list and when I do I will change the time stamp of the post to keep it current. That said, for the archives, this post went up with a time stamp of 4/11/07 7:20 PM PST. I'll start the list (btw, do correct me on the MOOG, what model should we be talking about here? The A, B, C or D or all of them?).
Year - Manufacturer - Model - First at 1970 - MOOG - Minimoog - 1st Mono Synth with keys (non-modular) 1978 - Sequential Circuits - Prophet 5 - 1st Programmable Polyphonic Analog ... List continues above.
