Abstrakt Avalon MOD ENV sidechain tips and tricks

video upload by manmade madman

"The MOD ENV on the Avalon can be super useful as a sidechain for 4 on the floor music. In this use, it will duck the audio on the steps that its triggers.
The MOD ENV is a simple Attack/Decay envelope which you can use on the filter or VCA. You need to adjust the Attack/Decay according to the tempo, and you can get syncopated things going on which aren't possible on a standard Roland TB-303.
Near the end of the video, it can also become a "reverse" sound as it sweeps in slower than the normal attack."

What is The Vanilla Synthesizer? It's Ready, That's What

via the STG Soundlabs/muSonics Electronic Newsletter:

Is it The Vanilla Synthesizer or the muSonics TVS?

I started working on this project a year and a half ago.

Originally my thought process was to make a new American format synthesiser that could be sold as modules, kits, and bare boards. I was concerned about the future of the format, and I felt a new line of basic modules and infrastructure at a variety of price points was important. I still do.

STG Soundlabs was a failure because I made things that ultimately the eurorack market simply did not want. Yes, I sold some, and will continue to maintain the line as best as I can, but it's very hard to find photos of eurorack installations with STG Soundlabs modules in them, but rare to find a nice big man-sized synthesiser without my modules in it.

Another thing I wanted to do was teach myself how to do my own engineering. It didn't start that way, but it became that way. I'd been a hardware product developer since 2005 but never actually laid out a circuit board. That is no longer true, and I've done things beyond this project that I haven't even talked about.

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Korg SDD-1200 Dual Digital Delay from 1986

video upload by manmade madman

"Can delays have "a sound"? I'm not sure!

This is a rare beast: the Korg SDD-1200 was one of the last Digital Delay units in the Korg lineup from the 80's. It's a true "dual" architecture in that you can use each unit (A/B) as a totally independent delay. Or you can use them together, like I am here, to make some awesome sounding stereo effects from flange, chorus, vibrato, and typical delays.
There are multiple inputs/outputs on the back that let you wire it in unique ways. I have this setup in cross-modulation, where the A output is feeding the B feedback input for some great ping-pong like delays.
Here I made a little pattern on the MC-101, turning off built in effects so that all you hear is the effects from the SDD-1200

Pros:
•True independent signal paths for use as two mono delays
•12-bit processing and reduced fidelity, sits nicely in the frequency spectrum.
•Easy to get stereo effects with 2 LFO's that can be sync'd, or not.
•No presets = you have to dial in the sound!
•100% feedback sounds great, and better slowed down.
•Cheap (until this video!)

Cons:
•Changing delay times clears the buffer at each increment.
•Difficult to use dual-concentric knobs in tandem with each other.
•No presets for weak minded individuals!
•Somewhat rare."

New muSonics VANILLA 5U Modular Synthesizer Based on the Oberheim SEM w/ KORG MS20 LFO

Overview video upload by manmade madman

"This is an introduction to the Vanilla modular synthesizer by muSonics.
The Vanilla synthesizer is a wholly contained modular synthesizer in 5u/Moog Unit and is inspired by the original Oberheim SEM and Two Voice models. As shown, it has normalled CV/Gate, two oscillators, a multimode SEM filter, two Attack/Decay/Sustain envelopes each with built in VCA's, and an output mixer. There are many points of overdrive and distortion in the signal path, which I think is a great thing.

You can think of this as a modular 'best of' modular Oberheim SEM!

Come see it LIVE and in person at #KnobCon2023

#musonics #modularsynth #oberheim #analogsynth"

Ursa Major Space Station SST-206 overview demo ((Worlds first??))

video upload by manmade madman

"This is a demo of the amazing Ursa Major Space Station SST-206, an exact replica of the 3 rack unit Space Station SST-282 from 1978. It was released in back in 2004 with the exact same algorithms, features, and functionality, but with an upgraded 140MHz Motorola DSP as a passion project from Chris Moore at his company named Seven Woods Audio. He also included modern versions of the algorithms, as well as a new Room algorithm that is incredibly realistic.
This demo includes a few sets of drums and then a random saxophone running thru the Ursa Major. I tried to show all the algorithms and 'audition delay patterns' along with knob movements and dialing in craziness.

To my ears, this is exactly what it says it is: a 1:1 Ursa Major Space Station in a modern convenient size with tons of hands-on control."

First 20 minutes with Oberheim OB-X8 (no talking)

video upload by manmade madman

"Day 1: I wanted to make a video of my first impressions of a synthesizer... what happens when I walk up to something I'm not familiar with? No reading the manual, no outside help or distractions, just raw wandering around with it, trying every knob and listening to what each does. I realize my distorted and dirty sound design preferences aren't everyone else's, but I haven't heard the demo that I wanted to hear out of this synth, so I made it myself.
The OB-X8 is a synth I've waited a LONG time for, and so I have some pre-formed bias towards it, but what happens when I get it out of the box, set it up, and just hit record?
This is that video.

I hope you find this useful to see and hear if it might fit into your sound.
I'm sure it will inspire me to make a bunch of patches, like the Moog One and Prophet-10, and countless others before it. I'll make more musical content, if you like this and people ask for it.

This was recorded in stereo, but it is mostly mono because of the default voice panning which is set to mono. I didn't discover the 'page 2' Spread feature until after filming. There are some subtleties with the Vintage knob that might play into its stereo field.

No audio processing whatsoever, as demos should be™"

Moog Taurus III vs. Moog Minitaur --- is there a difference?

video upload by manmade madman

"There's a lack of good demos on the Moog Taurus 3 pedals, so here we go!
This one goes through the sounds to hear what its presets are, and then I spend just a few minutes programming the sounds. You can really hear the growl of the unique filter and the subharmonics it generates.
THEN
I take a look at an affordable alternative, the Moog Minitaur. Mostly, I program it live, talk a little bit about it and how great it is, especially for such a small form factor and price point.
Spoiler: It's so close in architecture and in sound that I think it's a reasonable replacement for the Taurus. Take a look at the all in one Minitaur demo I did over 10 years ago."

moog minitaur demo (by manmademadman)

video upload by manmade madman

"first day with the minitaur. loving it so far. very very raw and dirty. i havent yet compared it to my midimoog, but will soon.

This video is intended to show what it can do and the sounds its capable of. Realtime knob tweaking on some sounds, others are static and multitracked. I feel that gear specific demos that include other instruments, effects, or mastering and sweetening (eq, compression, reverb) don't allow people to REALLY hear what the instrument is doing. And this goes especially for people who insist on using the camera mic instead of simply recording the output into their computer.

So with that in mind, this is a multitracked thing done as fast as possible. Tracks are playing out of Cakewalk Sonar X1d, and minitaur is going straight into Speck Xtramix CXi, into RME Fireface 800@44.1/24 bit, encoded at H.264 with 384k audio.
then of course into YouTubes compression engine.

Hopefully as little as possible has been added or taken away."

Roland Jupiter-8 vs. System-8... Can you hear a difference?

video upload by manmade madman

00:00 Who Am I to make a video like this?
03:00 Roland Jupiter-8 quick intro
03:40 Roland System-8 quick intro

Comparison starts at 5:00.

Polivoks Pro (Reissue) full demo

video upload by manmade madman

"[[[ Поливокс ]]]
In 2017, the Polivoks Pro was announced and began shipping. This was a joint effort between Alexey Taber and Alex Pleninger, with supervision
from the original creator, Vladimir Kuzmin.
It was designed from the original schematics using NOS Soviet parts, and handmade.

Only 100 units were built.

This is a demo of my unit, which I feel is currently the best Polivoks version available. I am controlling it via CV/Gate from the SH-101.

There is no external processing whatsoever.

Normally I run the SH-101 thru the input of the Polivoks. During the video, the SH-101 volume was off. When no cable is inserted, the highest left knob controls input gain. Part way through the video, I remove the cable.

0:00:00 Intro!
0:01:50 raw oscillators in drone mode
0:03:11 LFO modulation
0:03:20 Pulse Width Modulation (only on OSC 2)
0:04:35 Portamento
0:05:25 White noise through filter
0:05:40 Bandpass filter
0:06:23 Looping envelopes
0:07:30 Sequenced
0:09:09 An Accordion?
0:11:30 FM from audio rate LFO
0:12:50 A thick bassline
0:13:30 something something bassline2
0:15:10 same thing, but make it triangle, cross mod FM
0:15:51 back to drone, Sample & Hold
0:17:35 make it squelchy
0:20:00 make it acid
0:21:38 Pull the input cable, showing internal feedback
0:22:58 finally, a new sequence
0:26:46 Looping envelopes
0:28:00 Lets turns everything on max!

While this is intentionally not a musical demo, it is an overview of most of the features. It should demonstrate to you what it could sound like and whether it fits your music. This is not for everyone, but I still feel this is the best version available today. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Previously in 2013, I made this demo with an original Polivoks: [posted here]

Later in 2015, I made this demo of the Harvestman/Industrial Music Electronics Polivoks Eurorack modules: [posted here]"

Nitzer Ebb's Belief bassline on Oberheim Xpander?

video by manmade madman

"A friend challenged me to recreate the sound from Nitzer Ebb's song Belief. Using an Oberheim Xpander and it's multiple filter types, how close did I get?"

Sequential "Vintage" mode feature on Oberheim OB-6 OS 1.6.4

manmade madman

"There seems to be many questions about the newly released OS 1.6.4 on Sequential's Prophet-6 and OB-6.

...WHAT DO IT DO??

This is an explanation in sound instead of words!

The new VINTAGE knob function imports the same randomness from the Sequential Prophet-5 and Prophet-10 Rev 4's VINTAGE knob. It imparts some randomness into the VCO's, VCF's, VCA's, envelope stages, and more.

In some opinions, this makes synths breathe and come alive with sonic character and act as if they were made 50 years ago!

In my opinion, this deserves a technical award, as it really makes these newly manufactured synths sound imperfect, less static and clinical and therefore sonically pleasing to the ear."

You can find a Prophet-6 demo of the new vintage mode here, and the news first posted here.

Sequential Prophet-10 rev 4.1... first 40 patches by manmade madman

manmade madman

"These are the first 40 patches I made during the first week of owning the Prophet-10 rev 4.1 from Sequential. As you can hear, I've wandered into everything from brassy FM patches to some thunderous noisy sample-like sounds. These took me a few hours tweaking a listening, reviewing, then tweaking some more.
If you know my work from Kurzweil K2xxx and Moog One, these are right in line with the same edge of dirty, distorted, and noisy-- yet musical to my ears."

Sequential Prophet-10 rev 4 first impressions from INIT patch. No talking!

manmade madman

"I received my Sequential Prophet-10 rev 4 (caps removed) yesterday, and within an hour, I made this video. I wanted to see what sounds I could get to on my first impression. This is how I judge a synthesizer.

There's a shortage of videos for the new Prophet showing patch creation and raw unprocessed sound. Most videos have been a scroll thru of presets and playing classic songs and riffs. Not this one! IMHO, that doesn't show off what a synthesizer is capable of. So in this one, I hit the INIT and just wander around from there, covering as many features as possible while listening to the raw output. Based on other videos, I was skeptical, but the results were surprising.

Like all my videos, there is only the raw unprocessed sound, straight from the mono output into my Speck mixer at unity and into the RME soundcard.

If you live in Denver, you can rent this very Prophet-10 from me at DenverSynth.com"

Moog One run through of patches (no talking)

Published on Oct 12, 2019 manmade madman

"This is my second Moog One Demo video. I feel there are a shortage of videos showcasing programming of new aggressive sounds that might appear in the users tracks. Here, I go from Z backwards. The latest Moog One OS highlights updates in panning, stereo wideness, Eventide effects, Oscillator sharpness, and other features. I have tried to make sounds I would use, so these could end up in a song later on.
At the end, I INIT a patch and start programming something. This is such an inspiring synthesizer!

Throwing back to my Sound Subscriptions origins, I'll be selling these sounds soon, so hit me up if you want them!"

Moog One demo by MANMADEMADMAN (no talking)

Published on Dec 30, 2018 manmade madman

"This is a non-musical demo of the custom patches I've made since getting the Moog One three weeks ago. I feel that there is a lack of demo's for this synthesizer catering towards the darker electronic sounds, programmed intentionally with distortion, dirt and grit. Every sound you hear is intentional, and I made by hand. I am scrolling through most of the patches which are sorted alphabetically. Some patches use the internal effects, including the Eventide reverbs. There are many places in the signal path where you must be careful of gain staging, as it easily overloads.

No external processing has been added, as all gear demo's should be!

Shoutout and a nod to @NineInchNails and @NitzerEbb for the patches where I badly recreate their respective songs."

Verbos Electronics Amp and Tone Controller Demo Videos by manmade madman

Verbos Electronics Amp and Tone Controller sawtooth input

Published on Dec 23, 2015 manmade madman

"This is a functional demo of the Verbos Electronics Amp and Tone Controller (ATC). Here I've run a simple sawtooth waveform into it, at fist dry, then through the ATC.
You can clearly hear the ATC going to work on the sawtooth."

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Verbos Electronics Scan & Pan Demos

Published on Nov 28, 2015 manmade madman

"This is a video demo of the Verbos Electronics Scan & Pan. A utility module that can breathe stereo life into a mundane modular patch."

Verbos Electronics Scan & Pan demo 2


"In this example, I'll show modulations of all sorts including Scan, panning, and depth."

Verbos Electronics Multi-Envelope overview demonstrations

Published on Nov 28, 2015 manmade madman

"This video is intended to show an overview of the Multi-Envelope and its shapes and abilities. This is the basic overview."

Verbos Electronics Multi-Envelope overview demonstration 2


"This video shows the envelopes looping to create audio and waveforms."

Verbos Electronics Multi-Envelope overview demonstration 3


"This video shows the envelopes modulating the pitch of the oscillator and filter."

MONOLITH makes Muzak

Published on Nov 9, 2015 manmade madman

"This is what happens when a little Muzak comes out."

Love it when the saturation comes in at 3:23 and 5:15. Pic for reference:

MONOLITH makes a driving track

Published on Nov 7, 2015 manmade madman

"All sounds are 100% Monolith."