MATRIXSYNTH

at 10/28/2005 10:29:00 AM

Update: Some great comments in from Mike (thanks Mike):
"i can confirm this. Looks like hartmann is nearly bancrupt. The story
is that the manufacturer of the nuke controllers for the Mini neuron sold unauthorised a batch
of 600 Neuron Vs to two big german music retailers (Music store Koeln) offering the Vs for
149 Euros!. (List price 699 Euros)
hartman posted that these models are not supported and won't get neither support nor the important modelmaker software available only on registration. Hartmann took legal steps on the sales.- check the hartmann forum and KVR for more infos- You could argue what made the manufacturer sell the stuff on their own. However, the sad thing at the end is that
this incidents might have broken the neck of a very innovative company that has taken the risk of releasing highly innovative synthesizers . it made me very sad to read a lot of posts
of people getting this amazing technology for nearly nothing and still bitching about missing support! , spitting on hartmans grave in public. This sucks ass! On the other side many users offered hartmann their support in paying the difference to
the retailprice to support the companies existence or pay for future software updates. If they are really insolvent, I hope hartman find a strong and forward thinking partner whos buys the intellectual property and takes it
where it belongs: into a proper
21st century electronic instrument beyond the usual virtual-analog-substractive-additive-FM-granular-wavetasble. i played with the neuron for 2 hours at the Musikmesse 2004 and was exremly pleased with the bizarre spectrums you could get out of this beauty.
Not to mention the great futuristic design. Only the pricepoint really kept me from getting one, so i was more than thrilled when they released the Mini neuron offering this amazing technology for a sort of affordable price throwing even a controller into the Vst package.
Well, the software suffered from a few bugs and update policy wasn't really the best, but still i think it was more than worth the price if you are into experimental electronics seeking an out of the ordinary instrument & sonic playground with a different interface concept and a refreshing approach on(re)synthesis. I just love the idea being able to create a synthesis model out of any audio source and use this as a sort of oscilator model for further tweaking.
What makes this instrument very special is the realtime acces with the joystic and that very tiny movements sometimes break the entire spectrum of a sound leaving you totally stunned what is going on. this is real audio sex. So get one while they last..and support your local synth manufacturer!!!!!! in ten years they wil be worth tons of money when using them with your time frozen vintage XP VST 2 system using an open source tweaked Logic5 PC clone. ;-) .. and i will be with you then.

Best,
Mike "

Title link takes you to Sonic State's notes on the Harmann rumors going around. They also included a link to their Winder NAMM05 Video coverage of Hartmann including demos of both the Neuron Keyboard and the Neuron VS. Amazing pads in the demo.

at 10/28/2005 08:41:00 AM

Interesting update via the post by elcraigo, the owner of the black 8 Voice. Also be sure check out the post for a nice shot of a white one.

"Here's the scoop on mine:
The metal work screened in black was an experiment by Tom Oberhiem to see what the units looked like; he didn't like the look, which is why they were never sold this way.
From what I recall, there might be (2) two voice units and a four voice unit built in black. There was not a regular eight voice in black, as there was not enough parts to do both a dual manual and a regular. There are (4) white dual manual units. The one before mine went to Oscar Peterson. The others are Tito' Jackson, Peter Wolf, and other unit's owner I don't recall.
I'm the original owner of the black unit. I built it myself from parts purchased from Oberhiem directly. There was an employee purchase plan, where you could buy the part kits (all the pieces pulled from stock, and organized). It's been a while, but I think it was 1978, I do have all the paper work and original documentation, somewhere. It took me (2) years to build it in my spare time. It's built mostly stock, except the power supply, which I beefed up and located a little different. The dual manual unit takes a very long time to calibrate and tune; getting both keyboards and all the SEMS tracking together can be a challenge."

Via VSE. Wow.

at 10/28/2005 08:29:00 AM

at 10/28/2005 12:50:00 AM

Via joerg721 on VSE. Title link takes you to review with samples.

at 10/28/2005 12:49:00 AM

Nice. Title link takes you to more.

at 10/27/2005 09:49:00 AM

EDP Wasp

DIY Drum Synth

at 10/27/2005 02:42:00 AM

Cool little computer on a pen. You can draw objects on anything and use it. Two things you can draw are a keyboard and a drum set. It has sampled sounds you can play for each. You can also draw a record button and start recording. To see it in action, click on the title link above and watch the intro. When the main kid says to click on more info below or to click on one of them for cool stuff, click on him and watch. Imagine synth manufactures releasing software for this. Picture a huge whiteboard and a dry erase marker, drawing modulars, step sequencers, anything. : ) Sent to me by Fernando Alves. Thanks Fernando!

at 10/27/2005 02:08:00 AM

I was reading this post on VSE and someone posted a few links to vacuum tube synths. Click here for an article on vacuum tube synthesis by none other than Eric Barbour, founder of probably the most widely known vacuum tube synth manufacturer, Metasonix. The article is a great read. I also found the following two sites on vacuum tube synthesis.

Papareil Synth Labs (make sure to check out the rest on this site).

The Electronic Peasant's vacuum Tube Synthesizer