Zebra 2

I first saw the Zebra 2 on Moogulator's site. I glossed over it as another soft synth and never got back to it. Now it's up on Create Digital Music. I finally made time to take a look and it does look interesting. It actually looks a bit like Ableton Live, which is a good thing. What's great about Ableton Live is it's ease of use. It looks like Zebra 2 has a bit in this in that it packs a powerful synth hidden behind an elegant and simple to use UI. What's interesting is their concept of "The Grid" and a "wireless modular synthesizer." Not sure how much of this is the UI vs. the synth mechanics itself, but it does look interesting. You be the judge. Title link takes you to there.



"In terms of synthesis you'll hardly find anything that you can't do. In many hybrid approaches different synthesis concepts live side by side - in Zebra everything integrates seamlessly. This is owed to Zebra's renowned concept of modularity, called The Grid. Use an oscillator to build wavetables in an additive fashion, mangle these with some phase distortion effect, send that through a comb filter that in turn frequency modulates a sine oscillator. Sounds too harsh? - Put a warm sounding lowpass filter behind it! "

P*rn for Synth Geeks - New Flickr Shot

Juno 60 in bed

A Juno 60 pic via another cl post for sale.

Hold onto that Synthi! - TapeLab.org

Title link takes you to TapeLab.org. Another one of those amazing sites where I wonder how the heck did I miss this until now. They have an EMS Synthi 100 Modular and more. Like the shot below? There's tons more after the hop including samples. Had a really hard time picking one for this post actually. Keith Seaman sent this one my way. Thank you Keith! P.S. This is MBM/Jack Dangers site.

Electronic Musician Spotlights

Title link takes you to Electronic Musician's Spotlights page. EM Spotlights are articles on featured people. There's a bit of synth content worth checking out including analog conent on Steve Roach and Wendy Carlos. Via Peter Grenader of Buzzclick Music on AH.


The list includes:

Steve Roach
Wendy Carlos
Negativland
Malcolm Burn (String Cheese Incident)
Yoko Ono
Pierre Shaeffer & Pierre Henry - pioneers in sampling
Toby Marks (Banco de Gaia)
Tim Pagnotta
Roger McGuinn
Laurie Anderson
John Cage
Phillip Glass

Juno 106 & RM1X shots

Nice shots of a Roland Juno 106 and Yamaha RM1X on autumn leaves. Pulled from the title link post on these for sale. Via alextoevs on AH.

Fame - More Synth Shots

I previously posted about the movie Fame and some synth spotting in it. Well, reader Tony decided to watch it again after reading the post. He sent me two more brilliant synth pics from the movie. Wow! Now I have to see it again. I keep putting odd movies on my Blockbuster list for reasons like this, they show up in the mail and my wife wonders what the heck I am thinking. Oh well, I have to see the following shot in the movie, so she's outta luck. : ) Title link takes you to a bigger shot of the below and another. Amazing. Thanks Tony!

DSI and QY in Bed - Literally - New Flickr Shot

Update via JJ in the comments:

"Say! That's me! I've never been blogged before. Thanks!

At the following URL is a LJ post that contains a couple of audio samples of the QY through the Evolver:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sarendipatree/119571" Hmm... Currently getting a 404 for this. Oh well...

I almost didn't post this shot as there just wasn't enough "synth skin" in the pic, but I decided what the heck. The human side of what a synth and music brings to the table is worth posting. There is just something really nice about this shot. She's smiling, they look comfy, and he's playing away on that Yamaha QY and DSI Evolver. Cool headboard and wallpaper as well. : )

SEMtex Review on Sequencer.de

Update: Don't miss that Felix the Cat sticker in the shot. : )

I previously posted on a SEMTex review back on 10/28/05. Title link takes you to another review posted by Moogulator on Sequencer.de. The review includes a bit of history on how the synth went from an idea discussed on Synthesizerforum.de to reality.

Alien's Project Toy of the Month

If you haven't checked out the Alien's Project site yet, you own it to yourself to do so. It's a sci-fi themed synth site extravaganza. Tons of synth pics, samples, videos you name it. One thing I just discovered is that they have a Sounds page titled Toy of the Month. Each month they feature a given synth and post samples, info and a pic. Very, very fun way to spend some time exploring synths. The site design is quirky and kitschy in the best sense. Like Archie mcPhee's meets Rob Zombie. Title link takes you to the Toy of the Month page. Make sure to track back to the main Alien's Project site as well. Enjoy. Update: I originally implied the Moogulator designed the site. He actually coded it. The disign is by Bernie himself.