Poly sequence without sequencer on KORG R3 synthesizer

video upload by Jake

"A song combining several sequences on a KORG R3 synthesizer without sequencer thanks to the Motion Sequencer

The R3 is a bi-timbral synthesizer.

Although it does not have a sequencer per se, it has the "motion sequence" function.

If motion sequencing allows you to automate a parameter over 16 steps, it can be dedicated to the pitch of the notes.

We thus have 2 sequences for the same patch, each controlling its own tone.

On timbre 1, in order to make the sequence more complex, I allocated each of the 2 filters to its own oscillator. Thus on timbre 1 the slow variations of LFO 1 control filter 1 in positive and 2 in negative.

LFO 2 is synchronized to the motion sequencer in the form of a sawtooth wave to simulate a filter envelope trigged to the note

On tone 2, LFO 1 in the form of a square wave at slow speed allows the sequence to be transposed to the seventh at 0.75 hZ.

LFO 2 has the same function as on timbre 1

Recorded in one take without any external effects"

SoundsDivine 'Altered States' - Korg Opsix

video upload by SoundsDivine111

"Preview of the presets from the 'Altered States' soundset for the Korg Opsix synthesizer.
https://soundsdivine.com/product/opsi...

#korg #opsix #synthesizer

00:00 Intro
00:10 Ride The Wave
00:45 Amphetamine Rush
01:25 Divine Resonance
01:38 Akemie's Castle
02:00 Aural Cascade 1
02:23 Mellow Metronomy
03:00 Moments In Love 1
03:35 5MeO-DMT
04:10 Destiny Echoes 1
04:48 Timeless Echoes 2
05:18 Zion Waves
05:50 Falling Harmonics 2
06:27 The Fifth Element
06:50 Equinox Phase 1
07:19 Modular Reflections
07:40 New Age Wave 1
08:15 Seventh Heaven
08:54 Wonderworld 1
09:21 Spectral Resonator 1
09:59 Wonderworld 2
10:31 Akemie's Castle
11:11 DMT Rising
11:49 Virtuous Ring 2
12:25 The Art Of Noise"

The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music - Number 11 Coming to the UK, October 2023

A brief history of The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music

video upload by The Seventh Wave

Wolfgang Flür (Ex-Kraftwerk) + Banco de Gaia + Nathan Fake + Pye Corner Audio + GLOK [Andy Bell - Oasis/Ride]

The Seventh Wave
Festival of Electronic Music: Number Eleven

A member of Kraftwerk during the group’s golden era, Wolfgang Flür was the band’s electronic percussionist from 1973 to 1987.

The Seventh Wave’s Eleventh Electronic Music Festival starts its journey at the iconic The Water Rats venue in London before setting sail to The Castle & Falcon (one of the most exciting venues in Birmingham) where it will be delivering a plethora of electronic delights over three nights.

In October of 2023 the eleventh ‘The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music’ takes place across four days. For a relatively small festival The Seventh Wave continues to get some of the biggest names in electronic music.

This time around you can feast your eyes (and ears!) on some of the most cutting edge artists in electronic music today.

On Thursday’s and Friday’s events Wolfgang Flür will be the main attraction, with sterling support coming from Peter Duggal (who collaborates with Wolfgang in addition to being an outstanding performer in his own right). Birmingham also has Graham Chapman-Fox who brings his post-utopian electronic music project (Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan) to the second city for the first time.

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Wolfgang Flür became the third member of Kraftwerk in 1973. He was a member of the group from their international breakthrough with the album Autobahn (1974) and remained as they experimented with proto techno on albums such as Trans-Europe Express (1977) and Computer World (1981). This is a very rare opportunity to see Wolfgang Flür live. Even better still, the Birmingham show has the added bonus of a talk/Q&A with the opportunity for 50 lucky people to be given the chance to listen to tales of Kraftwerk in an intimate bar room setting before the gig starts in earnest.

On Saturday evening, it is in effect a double headlining performance. Banco de Gaia’s debut LP 'Maya' received a Mercury Music Prize nomination and Nathan Fake’s interest in electronic music came from acts like Aphex Twin & Orbital but he takes those influences as a starting point and has moved them on and added to them exponentially.

Last but not least, the Sunday evening is another double headlining show. Pye Corner Audio (a highly respected and regarded British electronic music project by Martin Jenkins) performs after Andy Bell of RIDE and OASIS who is taking his electronic project (GLOK) for a spin this October.

All artists will be accompanied by ‘visuals’ and a special mention goes to Innerstrings (who works with Ulrich Schnauss among other) and he will be providing ‘live visuals’ for GLOK.

Tickets can be purchased for the individual paid events from Skiddle at

https://www.skiddle.com/groups/theseventhwave/

Also see eBook published by the The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music

eBook published by the The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music

"In November of 2016 the inaugural ‘The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music’ took place across four days and across three venues. A numbering system was used as a statement of intent - there is the intention that this will continue. It will grow, it will develop.. this is the start of something.

The stellar ‘live’ line-up included highly influential ambient industrialists :zoviet*france:, revered ‘Kraut-rock’ and electronica collective Gnod, Ex-Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flür (responsible for inventing the group's electric drums used throughout the 1970’s), DJ Rusty Egan of Visage fame (put simply, without Rusty Egan there would be no Steve Strange) and Richard Barbieri (currently with Porcupine Tree but he cut his teeth as the highly respected synth player for new wave pioneers Japan in the 1980’s).

One of the highlights of the 'first' festival was an all-day conference with keynote speeches from Wolfgang Flür (Ex-Kraftwerk), Andy McCluskey (of multi-million selling synth pop exponents OMD) and DJ Rusty Egan (whose Blitz Club started the New Romantic movement).

Between 2016 and 2022, The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music has worked with Thomas Dolby, Martyn Ware, Fiat Lux, Tim Bowness, Ulrich Schnauss, Thorsten Quaeschning, Banco de Gaia, Test Dept, The Black Dog, Ultramarine and many, many more.. the details of this unique musical experience which traverses the inner and outer reaches of electronic music have been documented in an eBook running to a total of 249 pages.

For a mere £7.99 you not only get the eBook but have the option to access a companion publication ('Sounds of The Seventh Wave' : Music, Video and Audio from the Festival) for 'free'

Full details of both publications can be found here:

https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-seventh-wave-festival-of-electronic-music/id6445570213?ls=1

SynQuaNon Guitar Interface Eurorack Modules & More - SuperBooth 2022 Demo

video upload by SynQuaNon

"Here's a 2-minute collection of short demos using the SynQuaNon Eurorack analog polyphonic effects modules:

0:00 Hexaphonic AutoWah Filter with pedal control
0:29 Hexaphonic Funky AutoWah Filter with Hexaphonic Fuzz
1:01 Hexaphonic VCA Sequencer-controlled Arpeggios
1:34 Hexaphonic VCF Sequencer-controlled Arpeggios with Hexaphonic Fuzz
1:46 Hexaphonic VCF and VCA controlled in tandem by Sequencer

Did you notice that the SynQuaNon modules have virtually no patch cables connected and yet are in the audio chain? That's because they are interconnected at the back of the modules using SynQuaNon hexaphonic Audio and CV bus cables! This allows for a clutter-free front panel for easy user access and control adjustment - for more information, see the SynQuaNon Blog:

https://www.synquanon.com/post/why-ha..."

A list of their current modules via https://www.synquanon.com:

13-Pin Input Breakout

Roland/BOSS GK guitar interface for hexaphonic or polyphonic processing

Overview:
The 13-Pin Input Breakout module receives signals from a Roland GK-3 compatible guitar and converts them to modular levels using low-noise audio op-amps.
​
Gain options include 10x (20dB), 30x (30dB), or 100x (40dB).
​
Gain controls allow you to adjust the gain from zero to full-scale in the amplified string outputs.
​
Amplifier boards are easily replaceable with different gain versions. Check the shop for replacement boards.
​
The module provides power to the electronics in your GK-3 compatible guitar.
​
Hand-assembled in the USA.
Important Note:
This module has been tested successfully with Roland GK-3, GK-2A, Graph Tech Hexpander, and RMC Poly-Drive pickup systems.
​
Roland GK-2A pickups (including those on the Fender GC-1) require a special version of this module. Please indicate if you intend to use a Roland-ready or GC-1 Stratocaster with this module at the time of your order and we will supply the special version.

Features:
Outputs for each signal in the 13-pin GK-3 interface (audio/CV).
Access to direct signals from each string and the passive pickup.
Selectable gain range (1x or 10x, 30x, 100x) for each string and the passive pickup output on back of the module.
Adjustable gain or attenuation to zero within each selected gain range.
Metal film resistors for close channel gain matching.
Pairs well with 13-Pin Output Breakout , Hex VU Meter, Hex Fuzz, Hex VCF, Hex VCA, and Hex EF-Gate-Trigger.
Ideal for guitar multi-channel, single-string, or hexaphonic effects processing.

CLICK FOR MORE »

The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music: Number Ten Set for November

Details via Chris MacAdams of The Seventh Wave:

The Seventh Wave
Festival of Electronic Music: Number Ten

Members of Gary Numan’s ‘Tubeway Army’ (Dramatis) return to the live arena!

Tenth Electronic Music Festival comes to Birmingham and once again it includes an all-day free electronic music event featuring talks, demonstrations, interactive sessions, synth manufacturer attendance, a room for attendees to set up and show off their synth gear and a number of free live performances!

In March of 2020 the ninth ‘The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music’ took place across three days – this was just before the UK went into its first National Covid-19 lockdown.

In November of 2021 the event returns and the tenth ‘The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music’ takes place across three days.

For a relatively small festival The Seventh Wave continues to get some of the biggest names in electronic and progressive music. This time around you can feast your eyes (and ears!) on no less than three electronic/synth-pop legends.

On Friday evening, the headliner is Ian Boddy and Nigel Mullaney. Ian Boddy (DiN Record Label Owner) is one of the founding fathers of the electronic music scene in the United Kingdom. Nigel has worked regularly alongside Ian and releases electronic music on the DiN label, home of top artists such as Node, Markus Reuter, Chris Carter and much more.

On Saturday evening, the headliner is Fiat Lux — from the Latin for “let there be light”. Formed in 1982 and hailing from Wakefield in Yorkshire, England, they pioneered a unique sonic stamp, the influence of which is still felt today. Their pioneering blend was full of lush synthesizer textures, acoustic and electric keyboards, and studio effects – all anchored by Steve Wright’s emotive vocals with multi-instrumentalist David Crickmore providing guitar, bass, and keys.

On Sunday, it is the turn of Dramatis who are an English synth-pop band who were formed in the early 1980s. Chris Payne, Rrussell Bell, Cedric Sharpley, and Denis Haines were all originally members of Gary Numan's backing band. They formed Dramatis following Numan's announced retirement in April 1981.Chris Payne and Rrussell Bell are recording again as Dramatis and released 'A Torment of Angels' just before Covid reared its ugly head ….. this is a very rare opportunity to see Dramatis live (with the added bonus of a Q&A).

Tickets can be purchased for the individual paid events from Skiddle at https://www.skiddle.com/groups/theseventhwave/ and for the free event which runs from 10.00 am until 5.00 pm people can just turn up on the day, stay for a few minutes, or get hooked and end up of staying all day!"

The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music: Number Nine w/ Members of Tangerine Dream

via The Seventh Wave

"Tangerine Dream to play Birmingham …… almost!!!

Ninth Electronic Music Festival comes to Birmingham and once again it includes an all-day free electronic music event featuring talks, demonstrations, interactive sessions, synth manufacturer attendance, a room for attendees to set up and show off their synth gear and a number of free live performances!

The festival once again sees the addition of a ‘raffle’ to the all-day free event in aid of Drake Music who are the leaders in music, disability and technology.

In March of 2020 the ninth ‘The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music’ takes place across three days. For a relatively small festival The Seventh Wave continues to get some of the biggest names in electronic and progressive music.
This time around you can feast your eyes (and ears!) on no less than three either current or former members of global electronic giants Tangerine Dream.

On Friday evening, the headliner is Ulrich Schnauss, who as well as being a distinguished solo performer in his own right is a ‘modern day’ member of Tangerine Dream. Ulrich will be playing a rare live set alongside the founder of Engineers, Mark Peters. On the same bill you also get psychedelic electronic rock behemoth’s Teeth Of The Sea.

On Saturday evening, the headliner is Tangerine Dream ‘bandleader’ Thorsten Quaeschning who will also play a set alongside Ulrich Schnauss in which they will perform tracks from the ground breaking “Synthwaves” album as well as material from their new album. If that wasn’t enough, there will also be a very rare solo alto flute and loops ambient set by Theo Travis of Soft Machine/Gong/King Crimson.

On Sunday, Mark Jenkins performs “50 Years of Tangerine Dream” where the instrumentation will literally go from “metal stick” to “cash register” to modern day “Synths” in an all-encompassing show.

To cap it all, the Festival finishes with Steve Jollife (who played in one of the earliest incarnations of Tangerine Dream) and he will be performing the Tangerine Dream album Cyclone ‘in-full’.

Tickets can be purchased for the individual paid events from Skiddle at
https://www.skiddle.com/groups/theseventhwave/ and for the free event which runs from 10.00 am until 5.00 pm people can just turn up on the day, stay for a few minutes, or get hooked and end up of staying all day!"

The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music #7 w/ Delia Derbyshire Collaborator David Vorhaus

David Vorhaus Analogue Electronic Music 1979 Published on Sep 13, 2009 JeffreyPlaide

Update: Festival info further below. Thought I would start with a couple of videos featuring David Vorhaus.

"In this historical video excerpt, David Vorhaus talks about two of his analogue inventions - the MANIAC analogue sequencer, and the Kaleidophon from 1979.

The MANIAC (Multiphasic Analog Inter-Active Chromataphonic (sequencer)) was an analogue sequencer having variable step lengths, and the ability to split sequences into several smaller groupings giving considerable sonic potentiality. Addition and subtraction of events was possible, as well as the possibility to chromatically correct the output during performance. David could program his MANIAC sequencer to play a background rhythm or combination of musical events, to then improvise over the top with another instrument or synthesizer.

The Kaleidophon was a double-bass-like instrument using four velocity-sensitive ribbon controllers instead of strings. The instrument is played entirely using the left hand, leaving the right hand free to manipulate the sound via a number of controllers and a joystick.

David speaks about the processes of making electronic music, and the developments that such possibilities can provide for the imaginative electronic musician. This excerpt is taken from the BBC 1979 documentary entitled "The New Sound of Music" hosted by Michael Rodd."

WHITE NOISE Electric Storm in Hell [not quite Full Album]

Published on Mar 9, 2013 musick2138

"The Seventh Wave presents

White Noise - a Fifty Years Celebration of An Electric Storm & Other Sonic Adventures

Voyd - live set / White Noise - live set / White Noise - talk and q&a

Friday 14 June 2019 Doors 6.30 pm.

Curfew 10.00 pm.

The Blue Orange Theatre, 118 Great Hampton Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham B18 6AD.

White Noise - An Electric Storm - Review

When White Noise's debut album, An Electric Storm, landed on Island Records in 1969, it must have sounded like nothing else. Packaged in a striking black and white sleeve that pictured a spark of lightning streaking across a black sky, this was an album that - quite rightly as it turned out - resembled as much a scientific experiment as any conventional musical document.

White Noise came into being when David Vorhaus, an American electronics student with a passion for experimental sound and classical music attended a lecture by Delia Derbyshire, a sound scientist at the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop whose claim to fame was writing the original Doctor Who theme tune. With the help of fellow Radiophonic Workshop composer Brian Hodgeson, Vorhaus and Derbyshire hunkered down at Kaleidophon Studios in Camden to pen an album that reconciled pop music with the experimental avant-garde. The result is a set of eerie, delightful songs that, for all their surface simplicity, shimmer with vestigial synthesiser swells, strange echoes, disembodied voices, and distant music-box trills.

Outside of a few equally adventurous '60s releases - the debut album from US psychedelic pioneers The United States Of America, for instance - this is pretty much uncharted territory, particularly for a major label release. On ''My Game Of Loving'', a dozen multi-tracked voices built to a panting orgasm, while the closing ''Black Mass An Electric Storm In Hell'' ushers the record to a freeform close in a clatter of freeform drums, cavernous echo and chilling, animalistic screams. Perhaps unsurprisingly, An Electric Storm would struggle to find an audience on its release, and in the following years, great leaps in synthesiser technology somewhat diminished White Noise's experimental achievements. One thing that would remain timeless, however, were the songs themselves. An Electric Storm would later become a key inspiration on bands like Add (N) To X and Broadcast, synthesiser explorers who picked through these primitive, vestigial sound experiments, took careful notes, and eventually, set out to craft their own futuristic pop lullabies.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/pq9x/

The other two dates of the festival feature:

Banco de Gaia (Toby Marks) - he will once again be accompanied by Patrick Dunn on visuals (Patrick produces visual content for Tangerine Dream!!!).

The Black Dog is a British electronic music group, founded by Ken Downie along with Ed Handley and Andy Turner. The group are considered pioneers who, along with acts like Autechre, Aphex Twin, LFO et al came to define the UK techno movement in the early 1990's.

For further information email theseventhwave@btinternet.com

Tickets available at https://www.skiddle.com/groups/theseventhwave/"

Days of Light

Published on Apr 14, 2019 davidryle

"Modular synth piece. Large format 5U and Eurorack.
Starting off with the Q-Bit Chord generated round. Mutable Instruments Marbles sending it a pitch c/v. The Root run direct to the mix and the htree intervals sent through a Synthetic Sound Labs Seqwencer IV sequential vca. The next few sounds fading in and out are the MI Rings and Piston Honda. Both controlled from Marbles.
Finally the main melodic content is pitch directed by Instruo Harmonaig to the 5U. The Harmonaig is pitch controlled from a Q60 step sequencer from Synthesizers.com and a pair of STG Soundlabs Voltage Mini Stores for transposing and voicing.
The pitch data from the Harmonaig sends a root pitch to a Q106 vco and FSFX built MI Braids. The Q106 is fed through a modular build of the Behringer DD400 digital delay and the Braids is timbre modulated by an Oakley VCADSR.
The three other interval c/v's are sent to three more Q106's. The third interval is split into two rhythm patterns gated by a Moon Modular M563 trigger sequencer, STG Soundlabs Trigger Min Store and various LFO's from Mega Ohm Audio. The filter is an Oakley SVF (band pass). The second tap is into a Modcan 73B delay and direct to mix.
The fifth interval is through a Q107 resonant state variable in band pass with 1v/oct tracking for a sine wave output and send through a Strymon Blue Sky pedal. Slew is from the Harmonaig.
The seventh interval is routed through a Q150 transistor ladder low pass filter.
Other delays and reverbs are from a pair of Lexicon MX200's and a T.C. Electronic D-Two delay. Recorded direct to Cubase in one pass. Video from my iPhone and edited in Final Cut Pro.

Thank you for listening!"

The Seventh Wave - Sixth Electronic Music Festival comes to Birmingham 16 March 2019

WMSN promo one from Chris Wave on Vimeo.

"The Seventh Wave
Festival of Electronic Music: Number Six

Sixth Electronic Music Festival comes to Birmingham and once again it includes an all-day free electronic music event featuring talks, demonstrations, interactive sessions, synth manufacturer attendance, a room for attendees to set up and show off their synth gear and a number of free live performances!

This year sees the addition of a ‘raffle’ to the all-day free event in aid of Drake Music who are the leaders in music, disability and technology.

In March of 2019 the sixth ‘The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music’ takes place across three days. For a relatively small festival The Seventh Wave continues to get some of the biggest names in electronic and progressive music.

This time around you can feast your eyes (and ears!) on Richard Barbieri (Ex-Rain Tree Crow and Porcupine Tree) who, let’s not forget, is also one of the original members of Japan and Ulrich Schnauss, who as well as being a distinguished solo performer in his own right is a ‘modern day’ member of electronic giants Tangerine Dream. To cap it all, the Festival finishes with Steve Jollife (who played in one of the earliest incarnations of Tangerine Dream) and he will be performing the Tangerine Dream album Cyclone ‘in-full’.

Tickets can be purchased for the individual paid events from Skiddle and for the free event which runs from 10.00 am until 5.00 pm people can just turn up on the day, stay for a few minutes, or get hooked and end up of staying all day!"

CLICK FOR MORE »

The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music: Number Five

"Fifth Electronic Music Festival comes to Birmingham and this time around it includes an all-day free electronic music event featuring talks, demonstrations, interactive sessions, synth manufacturer attendance, a room for attendees to set up and show off their synth gear and a number of free live performances!

In March of 2018 the fifth ‘The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music’ takes place across three days. For a relatively small festival The Seventh Wave continues to get some of the biggest names in electronic and progressive music.

This time around you can feast your eyes (and ears!) on Wolfgang Flur (Ex-Kraftwerk) who, let’s not forget, is one of the original members of Kraftwerk and Ulrich Schnauss, who as well as being a distinguished solo performer in his own right is a ‘modern day’ member of electronic giants Tangerine Dream. To cap it all, the Festival finishes with Ian Boddy (DiN Record Label Owner) who is one of the founding fathers of the electronic music scene in the United Kingdom.

Tickets can be purchased for the individual paid events from Skiddle and for the free event which runs from 10.00 am until 5.00 pm people can just turn up on the day, stay for a few minutes, or get hooked and end up of staying all day!"

The QU-Bit Nebulae Alternate Instrument Walkthru by LavLab

Published on Dec 27, 2016 HostileSlothRecords

"Not for the casual observer/listener....
A brief sampling of several of the alternate instruments
available for use on the QU-Bit Nebulae.
More on those here:
http://www.qubitelectronix.com/nebul-..."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Seventh Wave of Electronic Music Festival comes to Birmingham

"In November of 2016 the inaugural ‘The Seventh Wave Festival of Electronic Music’ takes place across four days and across three venues in Birmingham.

The stellar ‘live’ line-up includes highly influential ambient industrialists :zoviet*france:, revered ‘Kraut-rock’ and electronica collective Gnod, Ex-Kraftwerk member Wolfgang Flur (responsible for inventing the group's electric drums used throughout the 1970s), DJ Rusty Egan of Visage fame (put simply, with-out Rusty Egan there would be no Steve Strange) and Richard Barbieri (currently of Porcupine Tree but he cut his teeth as the highly respected synth player for new wave pioneers Japan in the 1980’s).

One of the high-lights of the festival will be an all-day conference with key note speeches from Wolfgang Flur (Ex-Kraftwerk), Andy McCluskey (of multi-million selling synth pop exponents OMD) and DJ Rusty Egan (whose Blitz Club started the New Romantic movement).

Tickets can be purchased for individual events from both theticketsellers and Skiddle from:
https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk
http://www.skiddle.com/"

Additional info: https://theseventhwaveblog.wordpress.com/

Suzanne Ciani: A Life in Waves Documentary on Kickstarter

On Kickstarter here.

"A Life in Waves is a feature-length documentary film that explores the life and innovations of electronic music pioneer, Suzanne Ciani.

If you watched television, went to the movies, or listened to the radio in the 80s and 90s, you've probably heard Suzanne Ciani's work, whether you knew it or not. Suzanne is a five-time Grammy award nominated composer, electronic music pioneer, and neo-classical recording artist whose work has been featured in countless commercials, video games, and feature films. A self-taught pianist with classical music training from The Longy School of Music and Wellesley College, Suzanne discovered electronic music in the late 60s and quickly became immersed in the male-dominated worlds of sound synthesis and computer music. Differentiating herself from contemporaries like Brian Eno, Giorigio Moroder, and Klaus Schulze, Suzanne created sensual, feminine sounds that pulsed and flowed, with textures more akin to ocean waves than to the dark atmosphere common in early electronic music. With her instrument of choice, the Buchla modular synthesizer, Suzanne revolutionized the advertising industry, and her sounds were featured in spots for General Electric, ABC, and AT&T, amongst many others. Perhaps her most famous piece, the Coca-Cola "Pop n' Pour" sound effect, was featured in hundreds of Coca-Cola commercials throughout the 70s and 80s. In the 90s, Suzanne transitioned from synthesizers back to the piano and formed her own record label, Seventh Wave. Over the course of her 30+ year career, she's released 15 solo albums, including "Seven Waves," "The Velocity of Love," "Turning," the Grammy Award nominated "Neverland," and most recently, the electronic retrospective, "Lixiviation." She's been recognized as Keyboard Magazine's "New Age Keyboardist of the Year," provided the voice and sounds for Bally's groundbreaking "Xenon" pinball machine, played concerts all over the globe, and carved out a niche as one of the most creatively successful female composers in the world..."

Happy Birthday Suzanne Ciani!

Today is Suzanne Ciani's Birthday! Thought I'd put up a playlist of some of her work and appearances. Those of you that have been coming to MATRIXSYNTH over the years, will recognize some of these.  There's a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 in the first Letterman clip, however she is primarily known for her work with Buchla.  Be sure to see the 8th video of her live at Lincoln Center, previously posted here.  That was from this April!  Needless to say Suzanne Ciani is a HUGE inspiration to all of us that are diehard about synths.

Happy Birthday Suzanne Ciani!

Playlist:
1. Ciani on Letterman Show
2. 3-2-1 Contact "Noisy/Quiet: Music" (1980)
3. Omni-Suzanne Ciani
4. GE Dishwasher Production Session
5 - 7. Fifth Wave Recording Session Parts 1 - 3
8. Suzanne Ciani Live at Lincoln Center
9. 1980 Xenon pinball by Bally - gameplay multicamera edit - "Xenon pinball was manufactured by Bally in 1980 and 11,000 units were produced. The voices and music used in the game were created by electronic music composer Suzanne Ciani. Game design by Greg Kmiec and art by Paul Faris."

Pic to the left via Suzanne Ciani's official website.

The following is her current bio via Wikipedia:

"In 1974 she formed her own company, Ciani/Musica, and, using a Buchla Analog Modular Synthesizer, composed scores for television commercials for corporations such as Coca-Cola, Merrill Lynch, AT&T and General Electric. Besides music, her specialty was reproducing sound effects on the synthesizer, that recording engineers had found difficult to record properly; the sound of a bottle of Coca-Cola being opened and poured was one of Ciani's most widely recognized works, and was used in a series of radio and television commercials in the late 1970s. She is also responsible for "logo" sounds pertaining to Energizer and ABC.[2] Such was the demand for her services, that at one point she was doing up to 50 sessions a week. Her sound effects also appeared in video games (the pinball game Xenon featured her voice[3]). Such audio logos as the Coca-Cola pop and pour along with video game sound effects and more appear on the 2012 album Lixiviation (Finders Keepers) along with the only currently available excerpts from her 1975 Buchla Concert.[4]

In 1977, Ciani provided the sound effects for Meco's disco version of the Star Wars soundtrack, which was certified platinum. She added the signature electronic "swoosh" to Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band. At the time, Ciani thought the work was just a "song about spaceships".[5] Ciani scored the Lily Tomlin movie The Incredible Shrinking Woman, distinguishing her as the first solo female composer of a major Hollywood film; Lloyd Williams's 1975 experimental film Rainbow's Children; and a 1986 documentary about Mother Teresa, as well the TV daytime serial ("soap opera") One Life to Live. She also composed and perhaps best known for the 1976 Columbia Pictures and Columbia Pictures Television theme jingles. She has toured throughout the United States, Italy, Spain, and Asia.

In 1982 Ciani began to record albums in the new-age genre, characterized by a mix of electronic and traditional instruments. Her first album, Seven Waves was first released in 1982 in Japan, and was later released in her native US in 1984 through Atlantic Records. Her 1986 album The Velocity of Love, released by RCA Records, featured Ciani's best known song, the title track. In 1987 she signed to the Private Music label, which released a number of albums from 1988 to 1992, including re-issues of her first two albums. Although emphasizing electronic music in her recordings, her solo piano album Pianissimo, from 1990, became her best-selling album. Ciani ended her contract with Private Music with the compilation The Private Music of Suzanne Ciani, in 1992.

In the 1990s Ciani founded her own music label, Seventh Wave, from which she has released all her subsequent albums, which have been more classically oriented than her previous recordings. 1994's Dream Suite was recorded in Moscow with the Young Russia Orchestra, and was Grammy-nominated. 1999's Turning featured her first composition with lyrics, in the title track, sung by Taiwanese artist Chyi Yu.

In early 2006, Ciani's Silver Ship won in The 5th Annual Independent Music Awards for Best New Age Album.[6] Ciani was also an inaugural member of the Independent Music Awards' judging panel to support independent artists.[7]

Five of Ciani's albums have been nominated for Grammy awards."

IDOW & MATRIXSYNTH Modular Pic of the Week - Week 26 Contest Winner!

"Our twenty-seventh winner of the Modular Pic of the Week contest goes to Atomic Shadow (photo credit Rod Mitchell), for his 'Lab b/w.'

Atomic Shadow uses a variety of vintage and modern electronic equipment to craft unique sonic sculptures and broadcast them directly from yesterday's world of tomorrow.

For more info on Atomic Shadow, check out his record label's website: http://www.hollowsunrecords.co.uk

We'd like to give a big thanks and congratulations to Atomic Shadow for his submission!

This is the 27th 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."

Disclaimer: If you look closely you might notice something. It looks like a modular system, but there isn't a single traditional module or modular in the shot. The rules of the contest state "- Modular synthesizer hardware only. Semi-modular synth hardware is also acceptable as long as there is evidence of some cross-patching." Great shot aside, why did we opt to put this up? This system consists of sound generators that pre-dated the first modular synthesizers. It gives you a glimpse at what a pre-modular modular system might look like with modern gear. When asked why he submitted this shot when there is clearly no modular in it, Atomic Shadow replied: "I just thought I would send it in because I use it like a modular and it consists of oscillators, filters, and effects that allow me to chop and gate the oscillators and process them in various ways. I have 4 tube driven sine oscillators, one of which also makes a square wave and two solid state sine/square oscillators. By patching them together with various effects and guitar pedals I am able to pitch shift, harmonize and modulate things. The tape machines are my sequencers and the JP8080 mostly gets used as a noise generator.

The rig is similar to any electronic music lab from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The proto- modular."

For those not familiar with the history of synthesis, before the advent of synthesizers as we know them today, including vintage modulars, people often used tape and oscillators to produce experimental electronic sounds and compositions. These tools led to the creation of the Buchla system, and to some extent the first Moog modular. There is some debate on the original purpose of each, and you may have heard of the East vs. West Coast paradigms on synthesis. In short, the Buchla on the West Coast was highly influenced by Mortin Subotnick who wanted a system to compliment his other tools for more atonal sound generation and exploration typical of musique concrete, while Moog on the East Coast was highly influenced by Herb Deutsch who lead to the use of the traditional keyboard as the interface into producing more tonal music. I recommend the book Analog Days for the history of some of this. There is some debate on the glamorization of the time and some have claimed factual inaccuracies, but it is well worth reading. For a list of more tonal focused electronic instruments throughout history see http://120years.net/. Regarding Buchla and atonal sound generation equipment prior to traditional synthesizers, here's a snip from Wikepedia: "The original Buchla Music Box was the brainchild of Don Buchla and came from a commission by composers Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnick. First built in 1963, this synthesizer was composed of several 'modules' that generated or modified a music event. Each box served a specific function: oscillator, filter, sample and hold, etc. This would have an effect on the pitch, timbre, amplitude and spatial location of the sound. The idea was to allow musicians and composers to create sounds suited to their own specifications. Previously, one had to utilize either discrete audio generators such as test oscillators or via musique concrète, recorded sounds from natural sources. Although it was a fresh and exciting idea and an excellent way to get new sounds, this was very time-consuming and arduous. The Buchla Box allowed musicians to bend and manipulate sound all in one device. This would lead to the many kinds of electronic instruments available today."

Atomic Shadow's system harkens back to these days and incorporates modern day synthesizers with it, all without traditional modular gear. It's a bit fascinating when you think about it.

Richard Lainhart Releases A New Album on Ex Ovo

February 26, 2008 — Richard Lainhart, award-winning composer, performer, and filmmaker, is pleased to announce that Ex Ovo, founded in January 2006 for the love of dulcet drone music, has issued a release of his CD White Night. The disc is also available in the States from CDeMUSIC .

An excerpt from White Night can be found at www.aalfang.de.

________________________________________
Ex Ovo writes: Back in 1974, one year before Brian Eno's first landmark in ambient music, a young musician from New York wrote down a fragment of beauty's hidden story with the minimal vocabulary of sine waves on the young black skin of a Moog synthesizer. The first release on CD features Richard Lainhart's masterpiece in its original 29-minutes-version. There's no single second to add, after this time everything is told though nothing has been said.


________________________________________
Richard talks about the work's origin:
" "White Night" was composed and recorded in the late fall of 1974 at the State University of New York at Albany in the Coordinated Electronic Music Studio (CEMS). CEMS was created by my composition teacher Joel Chadabe with design and custom fabrication by Robert Moog and was, at the time, the largest integrated Moog modular synthesizer studio in the world.

"The piece consists of a dense, continuous four-note chord, each note in the chord recorded in a separate pass to one track on a Scully 4-track studio recorder. Each track consists of a single sine wave oscillator which is frequency modulated by a group of eight additional sine wave oscillators. Those oscillators are all tuned to different tones, each harmonically related to the fundamental chord tone. The amplitude of each harmonic oscillator is continuously varied under the control of an individual sequencer, and each sequencer is free-running - that is, the sequencers are not synchronized to each other, but rather running in their own independent timebases.The result is a continuously-changing complex harmonic waveform which modulates the frequency of the chord tone oscillator, generating a continuously-changing complex timbre based on the fundamental pitch of the note.

"The center tone of "White Night" is 212 Hz, slightly higher than the G below Middle C. The other notes create a chord consisting of a perfect fifth below the center tone, a major seventh just below the center tone, and a major second above the center tone. "White Night" was composed without reference to the standard A-440 tuning system, as we had no such pitch reference in the studio; I just picked a center tone that felt right, and went from there. As such, "White Night" lives in its own pitch world.

"The title "White Night" came about so: it was late December in upstate New York when I was finishing the piece, and a blizzard passed through town the night of the final mix. As I sat in the glow of the sequencers and tape decks in the University studio listening to the final version, I looked out the window and saw a security light on a building opposite the studio illuminating the blowing snow as it drifted off the roof. All I could see was the snow swirling in the light against the blackness; a moving painting continually drawn, erased, and redrawn, always changing, but always the same. It may sound bleak, but it wasn't - it was beautiful. It seemed to me that the image of the dancing whiteness perfectly matched the sound of the piece, and so I called it "White Night" to commemorate that evening of wind and snow."
________________________________________
Ex Ovo shows that ambient music is alive and well. I applaud their good work spreading the word -- and the music -- worldwide. — Richard

'2008 marks my 40th year as a musician.'"