VELOCITY SYNTH MEET Coming to Seattle October 5th

Details here: https://www.velocityseattle.com

Exhibitors

4ms 4mscompany.com

4ms Company offers alternatives to traditional instruments with our poly-rhythmic clock modules that create evolving complex mathematical beat patterns, a resonator that can cast pop music into micro-tonal keys, a multi-channel wavetable oscillator, a routing matrix that's played like an instrument, and many more innovative devices. Rather than replicate concepts from the past, we strive to turn unique ideas into playable musical tools that expand the possibilities of music. We also offer Do-It-Yourself kits, and many of our designs are open-source.

Acid Rain Technology acidraintechnology.com

Acid Rain Technology is a manufacturer of music hardware out of Seattle, WA. We believe hardware instruments enable a unique connection between human and machine, and seek to improve this interaction through interface design for maximum playability.

After Later Audio afterlateraudio.com

After Later Audio is a boutique audio company located in Seattle, Washington. We make high quality Eurorack modules at accessible prices and we pride ourselves on responsive customer service. You can find our products for sale on our website, at various synth shops (Patchwerks, London Modular, Chuck Levin’s, and Modular 8), and on all of the major ecommerce sites.

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Rare Dewanatron Swarmatron FM Modulation Analog Ribbon Synthesizer

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

via this auction

"For your consideration is a very rare Swarmatron 8 Oscillator FM Modulation Analog Ribbon Synthesizer. It is in excellent physical, and 100% operational condition. Please refer to the specs and description below. Payment via paypal to include $ 85.00 shipping in the Continental U.S. within 48 hours of auction end. Overseas or International shipping is set at $ 250.00

This is a synth like no other, eschewing conventional controls, nomenclature and even an ordinary on/off switch. Is it destined to become a cult classic?

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"Siberiada" cover - performed on FAEMI1M soviet synth

Published on Sep 1, 2019 techno comrade / seek sound

author: Edward Artemiev

Shasta Cults - Configurations - Buchla 700 Release

Shasta Cults - Configurations - Available Sept 13, 2019 Published on Jul 30, 2019

"pre-orders available now via: imprec.com

A ship sinks beneath the silver mirror of the sea-top, temple gongs ring through an empty valley, industrial machinery sputters, heaves, lurches forward, stops, falls apart… These sound events may be the most acute musical referents of Shasta Cults, the music project of Canadian synthesizer technician Richard Smith. Using obsolete electronics, Shasta Cults pursues the true sound of the instrument, freed from the tyranny of emulation, no strings/woodwinds/piano presets. Shasta Cults' compositions seek out unchartered territories where sustained drones may swell, build, or evaporate; where timbres collide, amplitudes fluctuate, sounds emerge, raw, primeval, new hybrids form from the collisions of electricity and frequency. There may be stretches of silence punctuated by bell-ish tones from futures unheard; a sequence of notes may verge upon melody before mutating into ugly moans, the sonic equivalent of funhouse mirrors. But the end result is far more than chance operation, sporadic sound fields, or indeterminate academic exercise. Instead, Shasta Cults brings us back to nature, back to the possibilities inherent in nature, to the truth of evolution, stitching both musical tones, and the sounds of 21st century living into a form which is as real, as imponderable, and as ungovernable as our own memories.

Recorded in 2017, employing the processes of non-linear waveshaping, frequency modulation and feedback, Configurations consists of eight programs captured live to multitrack using a rare, fully functional Buchla 700 digital-hybrid instrument designed in the late 1980s. Whereas previously released works made with the 700 almost always consist in simple manipulations of the single factory preset, this album delves deep into the instrument's rich sonic vocabulary to offer the listener a more elaborate demonstration of the system's capabilities.

Presented here in limited quantities this release is intended as a high fidelity audio archive of this obscure musical artifact."

All Buchla 700 and effects.. a 266 controlling filter cutoff on one track.

FAEMI-1M filter demonstration / демонстрация работы фильтра ФАЭМИ-1М

Published on May 13, 2019 techno comrade / seek sound

"Does FAEMI-1M can make sounds like mighty polivoks? Let's try to get some.

short delay as external effect"

That's some woofer blowin' bass.

KORG Introduces New Volca Nubass Vacuum Tube Synthesizer

Published on May 8, 2019 Korg

Priced at $199.99

"The KORG volca nubass is a groundbreaking bass synth implemented with KORG’s new-generation vacuum tube: NuTube. This modernized technology is implemented into the oscillator, sub oscillator and drive circuits; creating incredibly warm tones and rich distortions that only a tube can provide. This unique form of sound generation, along with nubass’ low-pass ladder filter, delivers countless timbral possibilities.

Compact, battery powered with built-in speakers included, the new volca nubass has everything the modern musician needs to take their music to the next level."

Playlist:
KORG’s volca nubass delivers huge bass via a real vacuum tube
Korg Volca Nubass - Overview with Nick Kwas | Kraft Music
Korg Volca NuBass | Reverb




"A powerful bass synth with a sound source based around a vacuum tube oscillator.

The acid bass machine with the pinnacle of modulation and distortion.

Even today, when digital technology allows electronic musical instruments to simulate any sound imaginable, people seek the warm harmonics and distortion produced by analog vacuum tubes. This distinctive sound has a quality beyond words that sets it apart, and cannot be captured by a response curve; it's the unmistakable sound of tubes.

The volca nubass is the first analog synth to be equipped with a Nutube new-generation vacuum tube in its oscillator. Vacuum tube plus analog means that the sound is warm, thick, and rich. The familiar transistor ladder filter gives it the character of a classic bass machine, along with overdrive, and huge-sounding distortion.

An acid bass machine for a new generation combines classic sound with the power of modern synthesizer design. It's the volca nubass.

The fusion of a newly developed vacuum tube oscillator with a classic ladder filter

A vacuum tube oscillator circuit forms the heart of volca nubass, utilizing groundbreaking Nutube technology

The Nutube is equipped with two vacuum tubes; one is used in the oscillator to generate a sawtooth wave or square wave. The other vacuum tube is used in the drive circuit of the sub oscillator, adding depth and warmth one octave below the oscillator. This oscillator and sub oscillator provide a circuit structure that brings out the harmonic character that only a real vacuum tube could provide.

A transistor ladder low-pass filter that produces a distinctive sound

The low-pass filter defines the sound of this bass machine; it uses a transistor ladder design found on classic analog bass synths. This filter is uniquely dynamic in the way it affects a sound more than just ranging from bright-to-dark. Its wide range of timbral possibilities makes it ideal for a broad variety of dance music; you can use it to create the distinctive modulation that can be heard in acid house, or increase the resonance to bring out a sharp character that's appropriate for techno.
Analog driver circuit

nubass is equipped with overdrive that uses an analog circuit reminiscent of a classic stompbox. Turning the knob toward the right compresses the volume while causing mild distortion, adding thickness to your bass sounds. The tone knob also lets you adjust the crispness of the high-frequency range.

volca sequencer makes performing and composing simple and intuitive

A 16-step sequencer that lets you automate parameters

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TOM1501 sounds - filter on bass

Published on May 7, 2019 techno comrade / seek sound

Soviet strings synthesizer "TOM1501" (made in 1985)
Some external delay and reverb

Советский синтезатор-стрингс ТОМ-1501 (Тульское объединение "Мелодия")
Внешние эффекты дилэя и реверберации

AEMIT Presents Innovative Eurorack Modules for the Discerning Synthesist

AEMIT ~ Some Sound Snippets from Aemit modular on Vimeo.
AEMIT - Formant tests with System 7.5

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'Alice In Asylum' jam#03 - the voice of Alice (3:47)

Published on Feb 15, 2019 techno comrade / seek sound

! 3:47
starring alice-1387 soviet analog synthesizer

Introducing Moog Sirin | Analog Messenger of Joy

Published on Jan 24, 2019 Moog Music Inc

"Seclude yourself and let the music sweep you away. Seek to become newly aware of yourself, the world of nature around you, the people near you. And If you feel it, express yourself.

Introducing Sirin: Analog Messenger of Joy, a new instrument for creative expression that oscillates in the higher octaves of experience.

Sirin is a limited-edition synthesizer module created in celebration of the Moog House of Electronicus and based on the legendary Moog Taurus sound engine. Presented in the familiar compact form of the Moog Minitaur, Sirin is the first instrument in Moog’s Taurus family of bass synthesizers designed to generate pitches far above middle C, with an extended frequency range that reaches notes up to D8.

In this video, Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso, Made Of Oak) explores the power of sound using Sirin and DFAM analog synthesizers. Sanborn weaves multiplexed patterns of sound waves--translating the thoughts and feelings of the collective individual into a shared musical experience.

With the exception of the DFAM’s percussive analog backbeat, all sounds in this video came from Sirin. Nick Sanborn uses the free downloadable Sirin Editor Librarian software to automate and recall parameter settings as he layers multiple monophonic tracks from Sirin.

A limited production run of 2500 Sirin will be produced by the employee-owners at the Moog Factory in Asheville, NC--after which no more will be available. Sirin is available for order right now at www.mooghouseofelectronicus.com (US Only--For international orders, please reach out to the Authorized Moog Distributor in your region)."

Features
• Brushed stainless steel chassis
• Two modified Moog Taurus analog oscillators with Hard Sync
• Moog Taurus Ladder Filter (20Hz - 20kHz)
• Two lightning-fast ADSR envelopes
• Multi-wave LFO w/ MIDI sync
• Glide with selectable type
• Up to 128 onboard presets
• Extensive hidden functionality accessible via front panel and MIDI
• Free Editor / Librarian standalone and plugin software
• Handcrafted by Moog’s Employee-owners in Asheville, NC

Specs
SOUND ENGINE: Analog
PRESETS: 128
POLYPHONY: Monophonic (Can be poly-chained)
NOTE RANGE: E0 - D8
SOUND SOURCES: 2 Oscillators with Saw and Square waveforms
VCO 2 FREQ: +/- 12 Semitones
HARD SYNC: On / Off
GLIDE: Selectable LCR, LCT, EXP - Legato On / Off
FILTER: 20Hz - 20KHz Ladder Filter
MODULATION SOURCES: Triangle, Square, Saw, Ramp, Sample & Hold, and Filter EG
MODULATION DESTINATIONS: Oscillator Pitch, Oscillator 2 Pitch only, and Filter Cutoff
LFO PANEL FEATURES: Rate, VCO LFO Amount, and VCF LFO Amount
ENVELOPES: 2x ADSR Envelopes w/ Legato On, Legato Off, and EG Reset
EXTERNAL AUDIO INPUT: ¼” TS
AUDIO OUTPUT: ¼” TS
HEADPHONE OUTPUT: ⅛” TRS
MIDI I/O: DIN In, and MIDI I/O over USB
ASSIGNABLE CV / GATE INPUTS: Filter CV (Fixed Dest.), Pitch CV (Default), Volume CV (Default), Gate (Default)
CV TO MIDI CONVERSION: Yes
WEIGHT: 2.8lbs
DIMS: 3.1”H x 8.6”W x 5.2”D
INCLUDED POWER SUPPLY: 100-250VAC, 50-60Hz, +12VDC"

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Moog Model D App - NuEVI & Wind Synth Collection - Mark Steiner

Published on Jan 22, 2019 Mark Steiner

"This collection of 120 sounds are optimized for breath control keyboards and instruments, and especially for the NuEVI made by Berglund Instruments.

Please, email me at monkeydrums@hotmail.com to order. Cost is $95.

After searching a great many apps and plugins, I have found Moog's official "Minimoog Model D App for iPad" to be the VERY best analog modeling app or plugin for breath control. The attacks are just incredible and the sound is gorgeous.

The design lends to some great controls as well, as you can assign multiple destinations for midi CC's. There are also little tricks to find, such as smoothly cross fading different wave shapes with breath and other controls. Very expressive!

You can modulate effects, and you can even crossfade from modulating between LFO and OSC 3. That's where things can start sounding quite modular.

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'Alice In Asylum' jam#01 - psychedelic analog-electronic sound

Published on Jan 21, 2019 seek sound

"starring alice-1387 soviet analog synthesizer"

Todd Barton on BBC Sounds + Multum in Parvo Release

Excerpts of Todd Barton's performance at the Unsound Festival in Krakow is up on BBC Sounds.

"A rebroadcast of excerpts from my performance of Music and Poetry of the Kesh at the Unsound Festival in Krakow last month with a wonderful ensemble of Polish musicians. Here's the link which will be active for a month.

And the first excerpt on the broadcast is from my new solo Buchla Music Easel album, Multum in Parvo with cover art by Ursula Barton! [embed below]

Much more to come in 2019! Gigs in Belgium, NYC and Santa Barbara. New Album releases too.

Happy Holidays!
Best wishes,
Todd"

"If you’re anything like me, then one of your favourite albums of 2018 was Music and Poetry of The Kesh, released on the Freedom To Spend label. Recorded over two years in the mid-1980s, Music and Poetry of The Kesh in truth was never really designed as an ‘album’ as such. It was a cassette bundled with early editions of the legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home novel.

The novel described the art, culture, language and ethnography of a fictional tribe of indigenous inhabitants of North California, 500 years from now. On the tape, Le Guin and her friend and collaborator, composer and sound artist Todd Barton, created a detailed, vivid musical identity for these people - the Kesh.

Listened to in 2018, the sounds of Music and Poetry of The Kesh feel simultaneously ancient and futuristic. Todd designed and built new instruments to realise the Kesh’s music, which were woven among synthesisers and field recordings from the Kesh’s native Napa Valley.

It’s a stunning, singular piece of work, but the story doesn’t end there. Anyone intrigued by Music and Poetry of the Kesh would be well advised to dig further into Todd Barton’s work, starting with Multum in Parvo - a brand new piece Todd composed using the Epoch Modular Benjolin and Buchla Music Easel.

“Don Buchla created a musical instrument that he said had no ‘preconceived ideas,’” Todd recently told the Listen to This website. “He wanted people to figure out how they wanted to interface with it. You see that with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Alessandro Cortini—they’re bringing their own voice to the palette. For my part, I’m obsessed with sound, with the ‘Buchla Paradigm.’

“His approach to synthesis, which was so different from Moog on the East coast, is immediately evident to anyone who has ever touched a Buchla instrument. If you listen to a Buchla, it will start rewiring your synapses.”

Todd honed his craft composing for acoustic instruments - string quartets, small ensembles and orchestras. In the 1970s he was drawn to emergent synthesiser technologies because of their abilities to access tones ‘between’ the standard 12 notes of the Western musical scale, and to have the power to craft music out of glitches and unique sonic gestures that are unplayable on acoustic instruments.

Multum in Parvo is reflective of this approach - it has a definite and logical flow as a composition, but its content is abstract sound sculpted out of pure energy, something only analogue synthesis can offer.

Sometimes sparse, sometimes bristling and jumping with detail, Multum... provides a genuinely multidimensional experience. Listen to it in the dark on your best headphones, you experience your brain moving slowly through a black space where an orchestra of strange, electro-microorganisms seem to swarm, murmurate and disperse, adding their distinct flutters, whispers and calls to an immersive electronic symphony.

Like the classic Forbidden Planet soundtrack, which Todd was inspired by, or indeed Music and Poetry of the Kesh - Multum in Parvo seems to function as part of some unique sonic ecology, according to its own rules, in its own universe and somewhere just beyond time.

Multum in Parvo is available on CD with artwork by the artist Ursula Barton - Todd’s daughter, named after his great friend and collaborator. It is also available on cassette with Blue Tapes artwork as ‘blue twenty-eight’.

Praise for Todd Barton:

"Multum In Parvo creates a very real imaginary place, and then it weaves that imaginary place into exactly where you are right now. I’ve listened to Multum In Parvo a dozen times or more and I’ve never heard the same album twice, because I change and my mood changes but also because incidental noises in my body and my surroundings – from sighs to car horns to distant giggles – all seem to be on very friendly terms with Todd Barton and his Buchla." - The Quietus

“Listen outdoors and the creek water you hear in Le Guin and Barton’s songs may sync up to the muddy river you’re passing; listen during a city’s winter and the percussive rhythm and bell-like tones will commune with your apartment radiator. These are sounds that seek to speak from then and beyond, to right now.” - Pitchfork
credits
released October 5, 2018

Improvised soundscapes by Todd Barton
on the Buchla Music Easel and Epoch Hordijk Benjolin

Cover art by Ursula Barton (ursulabarton.com)"

Tone Science Module No​.​2 Elements and Particles (DiN​:​TS02)

"Tone Science sub-label, from DiN records, continues to explore the world of modular synth music.

DiN was initially set up in 1999 by well known UK synthesist Ian Boddy to bridge the gap between the analogue music of his heritage and the emerging digital possibilities of the future. This label has always forged its own independent path and to date has released 56 physical CD albums as well as 21 download only releases.

Even after being involved in music since the late 1970’s Boddy has continued to explore new sonic territories and in 2016 he released what was probably his most experimental album in “Tone Science” (DiN48). This album comprised five long, slowly evolving self playing compositions realised entirely on his vast arsenal of modular synthesisers. Boddy’s love of the analogue sound has been well documented not only through his own releases but many sound and sample libraries. These instruments all but disappeared in the 1990’s but recent years has seen an unprecedented growth in interest in this form of synthesiser with a proliferation of both module manufacturers and performers using these highly flexible and personal systems.

Thus, inspired by his “Tone Science” release, Boddy has set up this sub-label to feature artists and performers working in the field of modular synthesis. The first release “Module No.1 Structure and Forces” was released in March 2018 and has garnered a lot of critical acclaim. This second compilation “Module No.2 Elements and Particles”, like its predecessor, features nine artists from different musical backgrounds with the common thread being that all the tracks were composed entirely with a modular synth system.

The album opens and closes with the ambient soundscapes of two tracks by Todd Barton and
 r beny. Barton is a world renowned exponent of Buchla modular systems as well as the Music Easel employed on this track. Austin Cairns (aka r beny) has a penchant for lo-fi looped synth atmospheres which combined, in this case, with a field recording creates a haunting, evocative piece. The next three pieces by Bluetech, Parallel Worlds and Paul Nagle build up rhythmic and sequenced elements with a fascinating amount of detail that modular systems are so good at. They also all use various methods to produce a poly-rhythmic, fractal feel as patterns shift and change throughout their tracks. The middle of the album then sees a fascinating experimental ambient interlude by Dave Bessell (a member of the synth group Node) using waveguide physical modelling in the analogue domain. The second half of the album has a rawer, more gritty feel with Richard Quirk building up a crescendo of wonderful textures in his track “Radar Hill”. This is followed by Hainbach using the exotic Ciat-Lonbarde series of hand built instruments to produce, in his words, a piece of “pure electronic music”. Nathan Moody then brings proceedings to a climax with a gnarly, muscular track using a Buchla modular system before the blissful ending piece “Marine Layer” closes out the 60 minute sonic journey the listener has just travelled.

Boddy has curated both the artists and tracks on this album to flow in a musical way and not just be a collection of equipment heavy demos. Though fascinating and always cool to look at, it is important not to get lost in the gear for gear’s sake syndrome. Having said that this album features Eurorack, Serge, Buchla & Ciat-Lonbarde modular systems and the nine tracks show how varied and flexible these instruments can be.

“Tone Science Module No.2 Elements and Particles” continues the journey down the rabbit hole of possibilities and sound worlds inhabited by artists and musicians working in this ever fascinating and varied musical field.
credits
releases October 19, 2018

1. Todd Barton Floating World 8:41
This is an exploration of layering various timbres and textures, each having its own
diverse panning structure and speed. Performed on a Buchla Music Easel with a
TC Electronic Ditto x4 looper and TC T2 reverb.
toddbarton.com

2. Bluetech Magnetic Lullaby 6:36
Multitracked sequencers in long takes at different clock speeds to get a fractal layer of shifting melodies evolving at different rates with Strymon modulation at different times for complexity.
bluetechonline.com

3. Parallel Worlds Additive Procedure 5:56
Eurorack, Analogue Systems and Serge modular systems, using harmonics created via waveshaping/wavefolding & the Verbos Harmonic Oscillator & RS370/375 Polyphonic Harmonic Generator.
parallel-worlds-music.com

4. Paul Nagle Euneirophrenia 7:52
The peaceful state of mind after a pleasant dream. In this mellow polymetric excursion, Cirklon's CVIO juggles a Quadnic, NW1, Plonk, Rings and Plaits.
bogusfocus.com/pn/

5. Dave Bessell Overtone 6:37
Between two worlds, the technical and the theatre of the imagination, the apparently real and the obviously synthetic play hide and seek with your perception. Realised with an all analogue signal path, this is a study in waveguide physical modelling.
sites.google.com/site/davebessellmusic/home\

6. Richard Quirk Radar Hill 7:22
This track is taken from an ongoing collection of music based on abandoned radar stations. Created with an AJH Eurorack system along with a Voltage Multistage, Bark filter, Magneto delay, Radiomusic and a tube Echoplex.
richardquirkmusic.bandcamp.com

7. Hainbach Your Strange Glitter 5:02
Aiming for purity I focused entirely on the Ciat-Lonbarde Plumbutter, Sidrax and Cocoquantus. I wanted this piece to feel like “synthesizer music”, clear and shimmering, yet alien, not rooted in a real acoustic space.
hainbachmusik.com

8. Nathan Moody Prophet And Loss 5:02
This piece was created using a Buchla modular synthesizer (200 & 100 series modules) as a meditation on the false piety of tyrannical populists in the early 21st Century.
nathanmoody.bandcamp.com

9. r beny Marine Layer 7:02
Fog conjuring with Mutable Instruments Rings loops being processed by Orthogonal Devices ER-301, Mannequins Three Sisters, and Strymon Magneto.
rbeny.bandcamp.com


Total Time 60:24
license
all rights reserved"

Follow-up to:
Tone Science Module No.2 Elements and Particles Demo Mix
Todd Barton Autumn Tour & New Release

What can Alice-1387 synth? - (ep4) Noise and weather effects

Published on Sep 7, 2018 seek sound

"All the sound was recorded directly from the board.
Alice-1387 (Алиса-1387) is an analog synthesizer invented in USSR in 1982 and was produced until 1991"

All parts here.

What can Alice-1387 synth? - (ep3) Metal and Acid

Published on Sep 1, 2018 seek sound

seek sound

VST seek: "Synthetic". ExpSess#01 - trisine&supersaw bass

Published on Aug 31, 2018 seek sound

What can Alice-1387 synth? - (ep2)Small drumkit demo

Published on Aug 31, 2018 seek sound

"All presented sounds were created using vintage Alice1387 synth (USSR-1989)"

What can Alice-1387 synth? - Mighty Bass by Soviet Monster!

Published on Jun 10, 2018 seek sound

"Just pure sound recorded directly from the board

This analog synthesizer was made in USSR in the year 1983 and spent many years in conservation, so it seems to be in a good state"

Getting strange sounds using 'К176ЛА7' IC and some hand magic

Published on May 31, 2018 seek sound

"The original sound was recorded in wav and then processed with dynamically changed software effects"