"This time Brian Comnes will take us on a journey through crunchy tube labyrinths into a fiery halo of home-made distortion gear. We'll also get a close-up look at some of the technical and aesthetic differences between analog and digital distortions, climaxing in an earsplitting A-vs-D cage match."
"my Metasonix ts-21 clone, a smidgen of tube theory and project build experience then a somewhat clinical side by side comparison of tube versus digital wave bending the clone, the metasonix kv-100 assblaster, the frostwave sonic alienator and alesis bitrman - sawtooth waves never sounded so sweet. free beer too !!" :)
Update via brian in the comments: "this is the unit I am showcasing - pics from an Oct 2006 matrixsynth posting " click here for more.
Via Brian Comnes: "Here's a link to some tracks I made with daddio, a fan of yours, a synth buddy of mine and sometimes AH contributor...you even did 3 posts on him (aka tapewarm) . Anyway he lives about an hour up the road from me and we try to get together every 5 or 6 weeks and do something. Last night we got 2 tracks in 81506a and b. These are one take affairs, mistakes and all, with only a little EQ post recording. Last night I was using Live's Operator and Big Tick Angelina soft synths with my MIDI guitar, drums courtesy of Microtonic and Gene was peppering it up with a Kaoss Pad and Nord Rack 2.
The other 2 tracks (Daddio1A and 4) were from May and were our first collaboration we recorded - somewhere in there is an OB1, UltraProteus , Kaoss pad and miscellanea, again both are one takes.
I am definitely not looking for a post here.....I mean you do have standards....I just thought I'd grant your wish to hear something.... maybe next time Gene and I will snap some photos .... ..and be warned these are nothing like Stefan Trippler puts out, just a couple of old synth guys making up something on the spot.
Peace Brian
PS the handle sonomarinos is because I live in Marin County and Gene lives in Sonoma County"
Don't sell yourself short Brian. I like it. : ) BTW, I think you just made a bit of Matrixsynth history with the smallest image in a post ever, unless of course, you count my favicon post.
"OK so I got this PAIA kit 4 years ago - started it and then moved to Chicago where I did nothing on a bench for 3 years - now that I'm back on West Coast and have a workbench again I finished the job. This is a PAIA 9710 VCA/Mixer done up in a yellow box with 1/4in jacks. I built it so my Metasonix TM-3 VCO could have an envelope and VCA controller and thus be useful beyond just droning on.
Anyway there are 3 shots, open, closed and on the bench with the TM-3 , a Moog Freqbox, and a JKJ MIDI/CV controller. I find the TM-3 works great when it's FM'd by the Freqbox, it makes for a rather meaty sound that can be controlled by Volts/Oct setting from the JKJ. I can wire the TM-3 directly but have to switch to Hz/volt but the TM-3 is not very temperature stable, i.e pitch/tuning changes noticeably the longer you leave it on. That's no biggie but you can see why an R-60 controller has value in a Metasonix set up.
I hope to have some Soundcloud samples in a week or so, I'm still learning to play the TM-3 with a ribbon contoller - sort of the Trautonium from hell.
"The TS-22 Pentode Filterbank is an analog filter that utilizes four unique vacuum-tube bandpass filters. That provides you with four independently sweep-able and tune-able filters over a four-octave range. Capable of complex filtering, the TS-22 lets you sweep the lows, mids, highs, etc. independent of one another or you can latch them all in unison. Tweaking can be accomplished from the knobs on the unit or via external CV sources from other analog equipment. A round window at the center of the unit provides a view of the glowing tubes at work inside!
The TS-22's unique use of vacuum-tubes gives it a unique sound that is analog, clean and sometimes unpredictable. Also included is a vacuum-tube pentode voltage-controlled amplifier (VCA) to shape the effect of the filter on your sounds. Adjustable resonance that leads to self-oscillation for each filter is also a treat! CV inputs to control the filter sweeps and VCA allow easy integration with your existing analog synths! The TS-22 is not your typical filter, but its unique approach may do wonders for your synth sounds, loops, samples and/or human voices!
Specifications
Polyphony - Mono Input/Output
Oscillators - n/a
LFO - n/a
Filter - 4 vacuum-tube bandpass filters with resonance; staggered frequency ranges in one-octave increments, starting at 50 Hz; 1-octave range sweeping via knobs or external CV; Individual tuning controls for each filter from F to F.
VCA - built-in vacuum tube VCA to shape filters, usable with any external envelope generator via CV
Keyboard - None
Memory - None
Control - CV Input for filter sweep and VCA
Product review:
"WHAT A BEAST! Nothing like the FAT thick tube sound this thing pushes. Not like the newer TM-2 they are selling now. This is the real deal. Its not going to give you that pristine prissy glass sound of "liquid analogue"; its going to beat your face in! So, I cant say its the absolute most clean and clear filter out there, but for what it is designed for, it DEFINITELY does the trick! I've gotten some WILD stuff from this thing. Try sending squarepusher through this baby......OUCH"
"Built like a tank, solid rackmount unit. Could be used anywhere. Just dont throw it down a flight of stairs and you should be fine....it does have glass TUBES inside! LOTS OF TUBESSSSS!!!!!!"
"Excellent device. Does things NOTHING ELSE CAN DO. This is an ORIGINAL old school piece of gear! Because of the shitty market demand, people will only buy cheap little stomp-box devices. People dont appreciate the beauty of true vintage synthesizers anymore. This thing is UNIQUE and RARE!!! If you see one, GET IT!!! Hell, I'll buy another one off you. It took me two years of searching, finally a friend told me a local band had one for some reason. A bit pricey, but worth it. From what I understand, less than a dozen were made. It is a unique part synthesizer history---REALLY! If I lost this, I would probably kill someone. Then I would begin the long hike back to tube synth heaven--maybe in another 2 years I'd find a replacement....""
via brian comnes
Update via brian in the comments: "If I remember correctly , Eric only made a couple dozen of these ,and abandoned production mostly because the parts were so expensive ....if you have the balls (not afraid of 140 Volts) and tube project skills, the schematic is available online at http://www.cgs.synth.net/tube/ts22.html
Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.
via this auction
via the listing: "This is a rare prototype of the already rare Frostwave Resonator. When I first stumbled upon this I decided to contact Paul Perry, the man behind Frostwave, to try and get a little history on my new friend. He confirmed that this particular Resonator was indeed one of a kind. It was so early in production that he had not yet designed a housing for the Resonator, and just ended up using one of the original Funk.a.Duck housings. According to him, all internal wiring on this model is point to point, and with the purist in mind, this prototype is an exact copy of the MS20 filter section, part for part (this means no voltage control, sorry guys). This piece is fully functional, sold as is, with the orignal PSU, also kludged together by Paul Perry.
This is a very rare opportunity, and the closest thing to the MS20 sound without shelling out for an original MS. I've owned both this and the new Resonators, and this thing kills the newer ones. A lot can be said for point to point wiring, especially in high impedance circuit design."
This one in via brian comnes.
Update via Brian in the comments: "Note the linited I/O ports there's only two , the production versions had 4 CV inputs for cutoff and resonance for high and low filters"
via this auction. "Rich, warm, swirlling textures are created with 32 knobs, 47 buttons, and many many MIDI controllable cross modulations(pan, pulse width, osc sync, even "analog" FM. Bright, M1 size green display, with a simple user interface. 3 LFO's(triangle, forward and reverse sawtooth, and random, with a sample and hold feature for generating "computeresque" LFO sounds or a square LFO) Up to 6 oscillators (Triangle, Sawtooth, Pulse Width) per voice. Oberheim Filter(with adjustable resonance, hipass, lowpass, and bandpass), plus a "Mini-Moog" style 24 Db resonant low-pass filter. Signal to Noise ratio is EXCELLENT(better than some "super-clean" digital synths), around 88-92 db for most patches."
via brian comnes. Note brian is not the one selling this, so as always be careful.
Brian Comnes sent in a few shots including this Matrixsynth shot of a Technics WSA1. Title link takes you to the rest including a Redsound Elevata, Oberheim Matrix-6, and the Technics WSA1, all on Matrixsynth green felt. ; )
Cool shot sent my way via brian comnes. Brian payed a visit to Metosonix with daddio this weekend. While there he took this shot and talked shop with Eric Barbour. One thing that came up was the lack of Metasonix videos out there on YouTube and the like. He has tons of audio sent his way, but not video. If you own a Metasonix product and a have a video recorder handy, take a vid and send it my way or directly to Metasonix.
"I had fun with the Metasonix filter that I won at the Nor Cal AH get together. Big ups to Mr.s Metasonix and Brian Comnes. Some mp3s and pics here. Brian actually won the item first and declined the prize, making it possible for my name to be drawn next instead. Now THAT'S the kind of host legends are made of."
This is really good stuff. The pics link is under the disco ball when you get there. There's a grooving cat in the set. Thanks daddio!
Update: I sometimes assume that anyone that comes to this site knows who Dave Smith is. I know I wasn't born knowing, so if you don't, in short, he was the founder of Sequential Circuits, maker of the Prophet 5 (the first full programmable polyphonic analog synth with patch memories), the Prophet VS, Prophet T8, Pro One and more. He now has a little company called Dave Smith Instruments, where you will find the Evolver and Poly Evolver line of synths. Oh, one more thing: he was the guy that brought us MIDI. Yeah, that guy. Wow. I am not worthy, I am not worthy... : )
BTW, if you came across this post directly, check out this previous post for shots of the event. Also check out this post of John Bowen talking about his time at Sequential Circuits.
Title link takes you to the samples via Brian Comnes:
"Here are some Jomox M-Resonator MP3 samples I made. Three from KORG EA-1 presets (No booing please) and two from my x0xb0x. If I had more time I would have made them a little better, but they are what they are. All 5 start out 100% dry and then the M-Resonator bypass is turned off becoming 100% wet.
I really like this effect pedal overall, it is much more subtle than say a Metasonix sledge hammer. I am using it in a send/return loop in my main rig so it never gets beyond 50% wet and given the way it works having some original signal in the mix is probably a good idea. You can hear on the samples that while twiddling you can easily filter out the whole signal so it is better as a send effect for that reason. It really does fatten up drum synths in a great way. I couldn't recreate a sound I had last night, but it will definitely generate bass artifacts that will pop your sub voice coils if they are wimpy. WHUMP!!
This thing is very sensitive, little movements have a BIG impact not always positive. It is really easy to find pure trash, or pure whistling resonance, it even clucks like a chicken in places, but there are a lot of sweet spots on the boundaries , the trick is finding therm again after you have moved another knob. Take a look at the signal flow in the screen shot I took from the manual, and you can see it takes a while to get your head around what is going to happen next.
The only real bitch I have is that the paint is dark blue and the lettering is black so it IMPOSSIBLE to read the knobs except under bright lights.. I work with a black and white printout cut from the manual. Someday I'll just have it memorized.
"Antares, the folks who brought you the ever famous "Cher-effect" with Autotune have apparently dropped their Kantos product. It is nowhere to be found on their site.
This is one weird softsynth and it has my all time favorite user interface, a copy of which is below for your posterity files. I see it and I think of Will Smith in the Martian cruiser in Men in Black.
Kantos used audio in as the driver for a 2 oscillator synth and a whole lot of other sound shaper/benders, the characteristics of the sound in could be used as a mod matrix for any and all of the parameters in the tool. Needless to say it produced weird stuff. On my more cynical days I would take George W. Bush sound clips on the Iraq war and turn those into break beats. If i can find one I'll send it later. I also use it to take my guitar to strange strange places.
My guess it is it did not sell well and hence the withdrawal.
For those who want grab some history, those wonderful Wisconsin folks at www.novamusik.com are having a blow out sale for $49. Warning: It has that BS online challenge response authentication so it is limited pretty much to one computer and I worry for how long they will support that, 'cause I get a new computer about every 18 months
"Audio Mulch is bar none my favorite sound toy for traveling on business.....it is totally self contained, so it is even smaller than dragging a Mono Evolver in the brief case , plus you can do it on the plane ride, while any hardware companions have to wait til the hotel room. Audio Mulch is much like a "soft modular" in that you put objects on a work surface, you patch them with connectors and away you go, it has a Cycling74/Max kind of feel but is much higher up the food chain. What is really fun is that VST plugins are supported so I push FruityLoops and Microtonic on the work surface and then the real fun starts. I haven't tried it yet but you can route external audio too. If there is an negative side is that there is no MIDI out to control outboard devices, but then that is what Ableton Live is for. If you travel and like the concept of modulars as opposed to just tweeking soft synth, this is the best $80 you can spend
This patch is based on a transcription of an Mbira (Zimbabwean thumb piano) melody composed in the 1800's. (transcription from "Making Music"; Claire Jones; Academic Books, Zimbabwe; 1992).
The original piece apparently imitates the sound of wagon wheels (!) and is based on a typical African 12 beat cycle. I created this patch to see how a complex African melody would be translated by Audiomulch.
This particular version is in fact designed to be played on a Karimba (a smaller version of the Mbira), so I used the frequencies of the approximate piano note equivalents of the Karimba keys, slightly detuned where necessary. I first worked out all of the frequencies and then assigned them to specific 'fingers'.
The melody: *Melody structure - I created the melody played by each finger by automating the frequency presets of 4 TestGens. -To create the 12 beat structure, I divided each bar into 12 by snapping to 1/8th triplets.
*Melody sound - As a side effect of the rapid volume & frequency modulation of the TestGen, a 'knocking' sound is generated. This contributes to the rhythmic (unbalanced wheel!) feel. - A side chain consisting of Shapers and EQ fattens up the straight TestGen sound.
Percussion: *Percussion sounds - I used DLGranulator to quantise and filter single tones genererated by Arpeggiators. [I got this idea from someone on the AM forum - sorry can't remember who :( ]
*Percussion rhythm: - I created a typical African 3 over 2 beat feel by quantising separate beats with 1/4 note (2 beats) and 1/4 note triplet (3 beats) divisions."
Just a shot of the Siel DK600 sent my way via Brian Comnes. I always wanted one of these for some reason. Brian also pulled the following from the sale details. "The DK-600 is Siel's unique Italian take on the mid-eighties programmable polysynth with MIDI implementation (badged as the Opera-6 in the UK). Just like the Juno-106 and Poly-61 of the time, the Siel is a 6 voice synthesizer with straight forward programming, simple effects and digitally controlled analog oscillators (DCO's). However, the Siel, having dual oscillators per voice sounds thicker than the Juno or Matrix because it's got 12 oscillators! And because they're DCO's, you know they'll always remain stable and in-tune even though they are analog in nature.
The DK-600 has many other nice features such as complete MIDI implementation. There are 3 LFO's for extreme modulation. Both the filter and amplifier have standard ADSR envelope sections. And like similar synths, all the sliders and buttons are intuitively placed on the front panel for hands-on real-time programming."
Sounds thicker because it has 12 oscillators? Um... Yeah... It's still only two per voice. The Matrix also has 12, two per voice, and the 106 has a sub osc, although you can't detune the sub osc.
Title link takes you to three shots sent my way via Brian Comnes.
"Here are 3 shots
The 1934 Clough Brengle beat frequency oscilator by itself, note the the WBEN Shop label, WBEN is Buffalo NY radio , kinda cool tattoo.
Then 2 shots of it in my rig....output is being sent to an Alesis Bitrman then gated by the Korg ER-1, the bit reduction artifacts gets real interesting between 12Khz and 15Khz.
The rest of the rig is a DSI Evolver, Emu XL-1, Oberheim OB-3 and Ableton live.
Sorry no T-shirt or cat in the shot"
Shucks, no cat. ; ) BTW, Brian is referring to the Matrixsynth T (there are only three of us in the world with them at the moment; kinda cool in a way).
"The Thimbletron, as the name suggests, is constructed from 10 ordinary thimbles. Certain thimbles are comprised primarily of nickel (exactly 4 rows above thimbletronium on the new perioidic table of elements) which can be converted into thimbletronium using proprietary ECC methods."
"For ease of use, the thimbles are mounted on cotton gloves. Wires connect each thimble to a power source and digital interface. Properly wired, the thimbles produce emissions of thimbletronic energy which are then detected by custom equipment. This equipment originally interfaced with a standard laptop computer running Operation Re-Information's Back To Basics software, but since version 3.0 of the Thimbletron Native Instruments' Reaktor software has been used. The end result is a sound triggered from the laptop through thimble manipulation."
Too funny. Sent my way via Brian Comnes. Also check out this link. Thanks Brian!
Title link takes you to a post on Craigslist for the Moog Polymoog used in the Disneyland Electric Light Parade. Kind of interesting to me in that I grew up in Hollywood and used to go to Disneyland all the time. I remember pulling an all nighter there with all the goths during one of their special events (I looked the part, but I never was a goth!). : ) I actually had a black crow try to pick one of my hairs thinking it was branch. Another story for another time. I forget what the event was for, but I do remember passing out on a bench and having a great time. What's odd is I've probably heard this exact synth serveral times. This one via Brian Comnes. Thanks for the flashback Brian! : )
Brian Comnes sent this in, both the link to the shot on Analog Industries and the joke. Thought it was pretty funny. Thanks Brian. : ) The strangest thing is I didn't put this shot up back when Chris first posted it on Jan 30 of this year. I meant to get back to the shot, but never did. Funny how that works...
Brian Comnes sent me a link to Psicraft's Vyzor Editor for the Evolver. I'm familiar with the Sound Tower editor, but not this.
According to Brian, "Having a visual view of the EVO signal flow, especially for desk and rack versions is really great and the sequencer editor and wave shape editor only make it better. FWIW the Evo is a tough learning curve and this soft editor really helps you get your head around what is going on."
"Rob Hordijk explains his modular designs at the European Electro Music Event 2012 that took place at Mallorca - Spain."
Sad news in via an anonymous reader today, who spotted the following from Pedro Trotz on Mod Wiggler. Those of you that have been following the site should be familiar with Rob Hordijk's work through numerous posts on the site. Two of his most famous creations were the Benjolin and Blippoo Box.
"I am deeply saddened to announce that my friend and mentor, Robert Ernst Hordjik, passed away earlier today. He was an important part of my life and I am sure also of many others here. He will be greatly missed.
I first met him in the Chateau Sonore event he organized in Belgium, in July 2007. There, lots of similar souls shared our passion for electronic music and electronic instruments. There was a lot of G2 and modular talk, but also performances, instrument demos, concerts, rehearsals... That's when I first heard of the Blippoo, one of his first creations that made him famous.
A few years later he started his work on the modular system that has his name. I felt so grateful for his initiative in Belgium that I couldn't help but planning a follow-up, this time in Mallorca. This time, our meeting had a lot less participants but it was an even better opportunity to make friendships that will last for a lifetime. I believe that in this meeting, in a trip we made to the north coast of the island, between the mountains of the Serra de Tramontana and the Mediterranean Sea, is when Rob decided that he wanted to retire to Mallorca. I can't blame him. It was the middle of January and we were having a pic-nic on the side of a curvy road facing the sea and enjoying what we natives call "the little summer" which is something that happens from time to time in mid-winter when the sea suddenly calms and temperatures rise up to 20 degrees Celsius.
We had a Benjolin workshop, we talked a lot about his design philosophy, and I was happy to record the first series of videos about his modular System. The ones you can find in my Youtube channel. After that series of videos I asked him to build a modular for me and soon enough he came back to Mallorca to deliver it in person.
During this visits I introduced him to Biyi and they automatically made a great connection. Biyi went a few times to The Hague to assist him in the building of Blippoos and modular systems. He even built his own under Rob's supervision. We all three had the idea to start a company in Mallorca where Rob would make the designs, Biyi build the stuff and I would take care of the business side of things. It was all set-up. As soon as his obligations in the Netherlands were fulfilled he would come to Mallorca. The moment arrived but almost at the same time his illness and COVID made things extra difficult.
In one of our talks he said to me that the Benjolin, the Blippoo and the Modular System were his dearest creations and that he was honored to have made so many people happy with them. Let's honor his memory by using them and making the most beautiful sound imaginable.
Born in 1958, self described "synthesizer designer and builder,[3]" Rob Hordijk began learning electronics from around age 12 after developing a fascination with the glowing tubes in stereo amplifiers.[1][4] When he was 14 his father who had noticed young Rob's interest gave him a subscription to an electronics course, which lead to an examination for a ham radio license.
Trained as a designer and not a musician, Rob came from an arts background, studying as a sculptor and jeweler in the 1970s. He approached electronic music in a similar spirit to abstract painting, inspired by the ambient works of Brian Eno, and Luigi Russolo's Intonarumori instruments; where attempts were made to blur the boundaries between music and art:[1]
"In those days I was quite interested in the idea of sound as a material to be sculpted, in the same way you can sculpt wood and metal. [...] You can make mechanical objects that make all sorts of sounds, or you can make electronic objects that make all sorts of sounds. but what I like about the electronic objects is that you don't see what makes the sound. [...] It opens the way to sort of make it a bit mysterious."[1]
In the early 1980s as various integrated circuits, micro-controllers, and processors became available to hobbyists, Rob began buying things such as the early Curtis chips and RCA 1802 based SuperElf processor board out of curiosity more than professional ambition.[1][5] Later switching to an Apple ][+ and the Mountain Hardware Music System, for which he developed a Forth language version that could do all sorts of stuff with the Mountain cards, like KarplusStrong-type plucked string sounds and pitch shifting.[5] His first introduction to a DSP was to the DMX1000 around 1984. In 1986 he switched to Atari ST and an Akai S900.[5] These days he is a Clavia Nord Modular G2 aficionado.[5]
"I am not really a gear freak. But I do believe in mastering synthesis techniques, in making synthesis a second nature, so to be able to fully concentrate on the creative processes."[5]
After finishing art school, Rob also completed 11 years of study in Information Technology, learning about design methods and inventory control.[1] As well as his own instruments Rob worked on the Nord Modular G2 including contributing many patches to the Nord Modular online community, and wrote a comprehensive unofficial manual of the instrument. He has produced music for environments, buildings, film, and dance performances, but is yet to produce an official release on a label.[5] As of 2022 Rob has announced his retirement and will no longer be taking orders.[6]
Design Philosophy Rob's personal definition of a modular synthesizer is more to do with modulation than modularity; referring to functional modules as 'sections'. Everything is supposed to be able to modulate or effect everything else. All levels within the system are optomised for comparability with one another.[1]
"my Metasonix ts-21 clone, a smidgen of tube theory and project build experience then a somewhat clinical side by side comparison of tube versus digital wave bending the clone, the metasonix kv-100 assblaster, the frostwave sonic alienator and alesis bitrman - sawtooth waves never sounded so sweet. free beer too !!" :)
