RA Sessions: Legowelt

Published on Sep 11, 2017 Resident Advisor

"The Dutch artist performs a freaky extended live session.

This whole lo-fi, straight-to-tape, DIY aesthetic that’s so popular these days? Danny Wolfers invented it. OK, that’s an exaggeration. But it’s true that the Dutch artist has embodied these characteristics for longer than some of this style’s recent adopters have been alive. Wolfers gets additional respect for never wavering from these core tenets of his artistry. He’s popular, to be sure. He plays live all over the world, and he releases records on big labels like Clone and L.I.E.S. But he still clearly values unfiltered creativity above anything else.

Head over to his website. There’s a section for the Ableton plug-ins he makes and gives away. There’s a bit for his zine, Shadow Wolf Cyberzine. He writes reviews of old synthesizers, and has a section called Obseuriosa where you can download his weird, sample-based experiments. Then see his Discogs page. He has over 30 aliases, and he’s released two albums already this year. He called the first, A Vampire Goes West, “amateur space jazz meets professional ambient.” He described the second, Unfolding The Future With Amateur Space Jazz, as “a lo-fi minimal [wave-ish] version of cosmic space jazz and anything closely related to it... from spiritual soul, G-funk, Ethiopian jazz to ambient and everything in between.” (He wrote and illustrated a 24-page graphic novel for that one.) To summarise all of this in a few words, Wolfers is the real deal.

His RA Session is longest we’ve released so far, which was probably to be expected. He turned up to our London office last month with a trunk full of gear and, roughly speaking, performed five tracks. The first two are versions of forthcoming material, and from around 16 minutes onwards we get Wolfers in full-blown improv mode.

Visit the RA feature page: https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/3064

Director - Sophie Misrahi
Producer/editor - Guy Clarke
Camera - Sophie Misrahi, Guy Clarke, Patrick Nation
Sound Engineer - Jesal Chohan-Padia (Sound Services)"

MarcMarc TD Cross Generator - The only unit in existence

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"Some years ago the Dutch artist and engineer MarcMarc designed and built by hand a sound device / synthesizer which was a complete breakthough in the scene of electronic music, synthesizers and unusual sound generators: the TD Cross Generator. As it offered so many new and unusual features, completely analogue design, am impressive sound quality and a price hardly anybody could afford (about $25'000.-), the Internet community was all over it. There are several sites that have listed the item in a very complementious way like "The Most Beautiful Thing Ever. MarcMarc TD Cross Generator". You can still find some of them when searching for "TD cross generator".

By a very lucky coincidence (such things aren't bought by an order from you favorite music gear retailer) I was able to aquire it - I could honestly hardly believe it. Yes, there was a learning curve but believe it or not, MarcMarc wrote a dedicated manual for this very device! You find it easily when searching for "marc marc cross generator manual". This shows how much passion and dedication the artist put into this device. The manual describes every section, feature and control.

Soon I mastered the unit and was able to put it in good use for several experimental music projects. The connectivity open worlds of possibilities and allows for further interfacing with other equiment - be it modular systems, guitar FX pedals, external filter etc. The cross modulations which gave the unit its name are incredibly cool and inspiring!

As such a unique device derserves, I used it in my studio only, it was never used live. Applying most care, I used it with filtered current only (Equitech) and took care to keep it clean.

After using it for years, I decided it's time to pass it on to the next lucky owner. I got in touch with MarcMarc to confirm this with him, get his ok and ensure a smooth transition and future maintenance. He's a very nice, kind and handsome guy.

So here it is now, the one and only MarcMarc TD Cross Generator in existence goes to its next owner. Chances are that institutions may aquire it (and hopefully actively use it) since it's not only an ingenious musical instrument, but also a piece of art and one of the pinnacles of conception and implementation of analog electronics for music purposes. This unit might be a unique completion of an existing collection of MarcMarc art"

More Info on The Many Colors of the Synton Syrinx

If you recall from this post, only a handful of Syrinx's are titanium purple. Peter Kersten wrote in with some info on the different colors of the Syrinx on the AH list. Posted here with permission: "The official info I got from Marc Paping (one of the guys behind Synton) was that they made the frontpanel in batches of 4. According to him there are only 4 or 8 Titanium versions. He was the one mentioned that titanium could possibly be a flaw and was not intended.

Back in the 90's I was very active with vintage gear and bought alot of Syrinxes (I was a shopowner, specialized in vintage gear). Most of them were black. The first one I ever saw was pink! So I know for sure at least one is pink. There are red, white and blue ones. Also orange and someone said there was a green one. Also some alu versions (clear paint) are mentioned. The coloured versions were batches of 20 I was told.

I kept a blue and a titanium one in my collection. Here are pics of them
Don't take the site too serious ;-)

As for the titanversion for sale at Vemia: I know that the guy is trying to sell for a long time now. First seen on a Dutch auctionsite. Price asked 6500 Euro. It appeared on Ebay several times too. This is the same person all the time. The highest price I saw, was for a blue one sold at 4500 Euro on ebay a few years ago.

By the way: Happy 2010 everyone :-)"

Be sure to see Peter's website for more including other synths.

Click here for all posts featuring the Syrinx. You will find videos and images including more colors.
From this previous post on the colors:
"The reason for the colours was that we did an introduction at a fair in Holland (Firato) and that's why we made a red, white and blue and orange version (the dutch colours). From the orange and the white version are made (what i remember) only few. The white version is like the doepfer frontpanel (not real white).

What i remember there are no purple, yellow or other colours of the syrinx produced by Synton.

The story 'The Syrinx was produced in many colors on demand for various folks" is not correct. We did this because we like to do this and we also got a good response at the fair in Holland and Frankfurt.'"

Formant (Part 1) on Synth.nl

Another project by Synth.nl
"I have been planning to build a Formant modular for a long time as well. I found all the documentation on the Internet and was already reading myself into this material. But I also saw that building these projects take a lot of time take keeps me from producing music. So I looked several times to buy a used set. But most of the times they just didn't fit my needs. Until very recently. I found a very nice set on a Dutch website. They guy that sells it even lived very close to me. At first I started bidding, but later I just mailed him what he asked for it and decided to go for it. I will pick it up on Monday if all goes well."
Note: Synth.nl also put up Part 5 of the ASM-2.

Syrinx Synthesizer

flickr by aredien

"One of only 300 in the world."

full size

I believe I have only seen the Blue, Red and Black Syrinx before. This one appears silver/metallic. Anyone know how many colors there were?

Update: Click here for more images sent in via the owner Uro.

Update: some info on the colors via an anonymous reader [be sure to see some corrections in the next update below this one]: "The Syrinx was produced in many colors on demand for various folks. Synton was not doing well when he Syrinx was released. It hit the market several years after monophonic analogs had become quite common in used kit shops, everyone had their favorites and were buying big digital. Many things were done to try and get the Syrinx sold... custom colors being a relatively easy solution. Other efforts included things like Electro Harmonix pedal integration (I've personally played a Syrinx which had a control interface for an EH Instant Replay pedal!).

I've seen personally black/dark gray, red, metallic like this one, blue, white, yellow and even purple! The most common I run into seem to be black/dark gray [someone on AH also reported orange and green - MUST... SEE... GREEN... ONE...].

I will try and ask Felix what the skinny is, if he can remember, I am in touch with him on occasion.

Feel free to reinterpret this information for the blog as you see fit."

If anyone out there has any images of the more rare colored Syrinx's leave a comment or contact me. I'd love to see them. Note I did check out the first couple of pages on Google image search and didn't find any.

BTW, click here for all posts mentioning the Syrinx.

Update via another anonymous reader that worked with Synton:
"The reason for the colours was that we did an introduction at a fair in Holland (Firato) and that's why we made a red, white and blue and orange version (the dutch colours). From the orange and the white version are made (what i remember) only few. The white version is like the doepfer frontpanel (not real white).

What i remember there are no purple, yellow or other colours of the syrinx produced by Synton.

The story " The Syrinx was produced in many colors on demand for various folks" is not correct. We did this because we like to do this and we also got a good response at the fair in Holland and Frankfurt."

Update 2/2/10 via Peter Kersten: "The official info I got from Marc Paping (one of the guys behind Synton) was that they made the frontpanel in batches of 4. According to him there are only 4 or 8 Titanium versions.
He was the one mentioned that titanium could possibly be a flaw and was not intended.

Back in the 90's I was very active with vintage gear and bought alot of Syrinxes (I was a shopowner, specialized in vintage gear). Most of them were black.
The first one I ever saw was pink! So I know for sure at least one is pink. There are red, white and blue ones. Also orange and someone said there was a green one.
Also some alu versions (clear paint) are mentioned. The coloured versions were batches of 20 I was told.

I kept a blue and a titanium one in my collection.
Here are pics of them http://www.home.zonnet.nl/synthiman/Syrinx.html
Don't take the site too serious ;-)

As for the titanversion for sale at Vemia: I know that the guy is trying to sell for a long time now. First seen on a Dutch auctionsite. Price asked 6500 Euro.
It appeared on Ebay several times too. This is the same person all the time.
The highest price I saw, was for a blue one sold at 4500 Euro on ebay a few years ago.

By the way: Happy 2010 everyone :-)"

Ray Manzarek - Vinyl Justice

video upload by THE DUTCH GUY

Re-Uploaded Jan 19, 2021

Sent my way via dr ben goldacre.

RIP Ray.

Roland AX7 Gone Russian

via Don Philippo of Heimatkapelle die Darmstädter Hübsch:

"My good friend Reinier Borst introduced me to the beauty of this Russian vintage
synth a few weeks ago. I've been planning to have my beloved AX7 customized for quite a while, but I could never come up with a proper theme until I ran into this Polivoks video.

Although the Soviets had keytars such as the Junost-21, I found the overall design of the Polivoks way more appealing.

To get an idea of what my pimped AX7 would look like, I did some Babelfishing and Photoshopping to come up with the 1982-Soviet-collage. Like the real Polivoks, I want all the print on the casing to be in Russian. At the moment I am getting in touch with some Russian fellow Roland Clan members to help me out translating all the text bits on my AX7's case (link, huge jpeg alert) into proper Russian, since I found out online translation services don't know diddley about keytars.

As for me: My name Don Philippo and I'm in a band called Heimatkapelle die Darmstädter Hübsch (see http://www.hubsch.nl or http://picasaweb.google.com/dphilippo if you don't speak Dutch). The guy who is gonna help me do the makeover is Ernst Fliek. He will (have one of his guys) do the paint job. Some kind of matte black would be nice, but we have to pick a color true to the original Polivoks yet. After that we will try and fit my Kenton Midistream wireless MIDI transmitter unit into the empty spaces inside the AX7 and connect it to the AX7's battery unit. Ernst's decal guy will then turn my AI-files into proper lettering, apply it tho the AX7's body and give it a heavy duty transparent coating.

The project is planned for this summer, although funding issues might push the project towards Christmas;-). I'll let you know of any progress."