Decibel Festival

For those of you in the Northwest during September 22-25, make sure to check out the Decibel Festival. It will be held in Seattle's Capital Hill district. Great location with quirky, shops, food, booze and plenty of coffee. My coffe recommendation is Espresso Vivace. Just get a hazelnut or other flavor of choice latte there and see for yourself. For the best Pho, check out the little hole in the wall called Asia Express. Super cheap and damn good Pho and other dishes.

Ionic Performer - Synthi AKS clone

Many know the EMS Synthi AKS as THE synth used in Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The low bass sequence loop in "On The Run" is the Synthi. The Synthi AKS is one of the most coveted, rare and expensive analogs of yore. Few know of the Ionic Performer. The title link will take you to a great site on the synth with pictures, samples, and some great email threads on the history and relation to the Synthi. From the site:

"Somewhere in my collection of EMS material I have a lurid photo of the Ionic Performer you mention. I remember attending a NAMM show in Chicago in the early seventies where Ionic Industries had a small booth and were exhibiting the Performer. You are correct that it was a repackaged VCS3 with an integral keyboard. Instead of the pin matrix it had rows of rectangular push-button switches - like an early ryhthm box. What really struck me about it was the publicity leaflet which brazenly announced 'No skill required' in its operation, before expanding further on this theme. It still had the familiar vernier dials for tuning the oscillators. I spoke to Steve Mayer on the stand but no Alfred. Dealings with Ionic were soon curtailed and from about 1972 the US side of the business was handled by Dr. Everett Hafner and his company EMSA from Amherst, Mass."

Pic of Synthi AKS from an Engadget post (absolute beauty):


Pic of Ionic Performer from Ionic site:


There is also a VSTi of the synth on the Ionic site:

Sealed's Deep Synthesis Page - Samples

I refered to this page in my post below, but I figure it warrants a separate post to make sure you don't miss it. This is a great page full of samples of various synths.

Kawai K1 Samples

Got this from a thread on Vintage Synth Explorer discussing the K3 vs. the K4. Wow. I never realized the K1 sounded this good. I previously dismissed it as just a low end rompler. I really like the way it sounds. Make sure to check out the rest of Sealed's Deep Synthesis Page for more samples of other synths.

JX-3P Soft Synth

Found this in the Vintage Synth forums. Looks good. Will need to compare it to the real deal when I get a chance.

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/1592.html

Synthtopia

Just discovered this site. It's amazingly good. Extremely rich in content. Definitely worth checking out.

Dotcom Moog 960 Sequencer Clone

http://www.unisynth.com/user/Q960%20Short%20demo%201.wmv

Link takes you to a wmv of the sequencer. Definitely a good piece of synth porn and worth watching.

EAR - Electro Acoustic Research

In via AH:

July 29 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
contact: Steve Rightnour
EAR
323 988 9677
877 300 2228 (US)
steve@steverightnour.net
http://www.ear-group.com

Announcing Electro Acoustic Research

LOS ANGELES -

Electro-Acoustic Research (EAR) is a consortium of modular synth
designers based in southern California.
EAR will be the distributor and customer service arm for modular synth
product manufacturers including Plan B, Livewire and Oakley Sound.

EAR is excited to re-release Legacy modules by Tony Allgood and
Synthasystem designs by Nyle Steiner.
Future plans include releasing all product in both Eurorack and MOTM
format and a full line of cabinets and custom enclosures both live
performance and studio installations.

To mark this occasion, each manufacturer is announcing the release of
the following modules:

Livewire -

Dual Cyclotron
FrequenSteiner (authorized exclusive re-release of the SYNTHASYSTEM
multimode filter)

Oakley Sound -

Wavefolder
ADSR/VCA
Octal Resonator
State Variable Filter

(EAR is the the exclusive licensed manfacturer for Oakley Sound in
Eurorack and MOTM formats)

Plan B -

Model 12 State Variable Vactrol Filter
Model 13 Dual Timbral Gates
Model 17 Event Timer

Estimated availability for the EAR line of products is Fall 2005.

Visit the EAR website for details!
http://www.ear-group.net

*models available in MOTM format with components too large for
adaptation will not be available in Eurorack format

Polymoog w/ Blue LEDs

Some pics of a super clean Polymoog with blue LEDs in via AH. I can hear the lead synth string to Numan's Cars in my head now. I've never seen a Polymoog that clean before. Beatiful synth.

http://www.minimoog.plus.com/polymoog.htm

Ministry for sale...

Via Music Thing. Ministry is selling off a couple of Fairlights. You can see some Revolting Cocks and Ministry scribblings on the gear with plenty-o duct tape. I'm usually a gear purist meaning the defacing of gear is sacrelidge to me, but something about that gear pumping out Ministry and RevCock seems appropriate. Although the Fairlights were basically samplers meaning they can sound like whatever you want, they have always been shrouded in elegance. These have the look of coming out of that shroud and being able to produce some major damage. Would have been great to see these in the studio back then. I remember seeing Ministry and Revolting Cocks a few times live. I wonder if I saw these on stage as well.