Mystery Modular

Lester Barnes posted this on AH asking if anyone on the list knows what it is. If you do, please share. Title link takes you to more shots.



"From what I've worked out the thing has 6 VCOs with various features, 3
VCA, Noise/S+H, 3EGs with toggles for speed, 2 filters: one is Low pass or band pass with subtle cutoff slope and doesn't self oscillate with reso at max the other is a multimode but without Resonance. It also has a 3 input sum mixer, VC Reverb, VC Echo - with 3 separate echo return times and controls. VC Vowel Filter - Bloody Lovely, Equalizer, inverter Divider, Counter clock. It has a two manual keyboard each with a joystick and the cabinet has two separate keyboard control sections as well as a basic CPU ? There seems to be an input for 'GUIT' guitar ? and a din input marked 'Micro 15'

Patches are made on a 60 x 60 patch matrix and there are ten output faders as destinations on the row E - 5 for Left and 5 for Right -

The most unusual thing and the thing I haven't sussed out yet is the functions of the Sequencer: Its a 3 x 10 analogue sequencer. rows A+B are clocked together but row C can travel at any subdivision of the upper rows clock speed. As you'll see in Picture 3 on the link, at the far right of the cabinet are 4 groups of 4 controls - each group has a Left and Right control and two dials above - - in picture 4 you'll see another 10x10 patch matrix which has something to do with the 10 stages of the the sequencer and L+R outputs of each of these groups of four dial named GC,CY, CC,B and 58 - putting a patch pin into column 4 row 1 produces a beep clocked every time the sequencer passes stage 4 but altering the the voltage on that stage of the sequencer has no effect on the beep. One of the unknown controls above the L+R of GC alters the gate time of the beep - the other seems to alter the pitch - I have no idea what this is for. Row CY has a multi-step dial and toggles .. . ?"

Roland TB-303 Bass Line Chrodwheel

Now this is something I've never seen before. A chordwheel for the TB-303. Title link takes you to the acution for this. Image and text saved below for when the auction dissapears. Click the image for a larger version.



"The ULTIMATE TB-303 rarity!!

I've not seen one of these for sale on ebay before. This particular one stayed behind when the original Roland TB-303 Bass Line (bought for around £100 from London Rock shop) was sold on in 1985 for £50! It has spent the last 20 years packed away in some music equipment documents.

This is the one to have to complete your set.

The top rarity, rarer than the TB-303 pattern data sheets that Roland issued at the time.

Go for it!"

Korg EX-mas Shot and Sample

Thought this was a nice X-mas shot of a Korg EX-800 (desktop Poly-800) up for sale. Title link takes you to an mp3 posted in the auction. As usual, I have no affiliation, just like the shot.

Carbon111 on Analog Industries Gear P*rn Friday

Title link takes you to Analog Industries post. Cool to see Carbon111 featured.

Synth Books

No title link. With the recent book posts for Essential Retro and Real World Digital Audio, I thought I should put up a list of synth books. A friend of mine joined the Amazon affiliate program and started putting up book ads in posts where he reviewed the particular book. I actually liked the look of the ads because they include a small snapshot of the book. So, I figure why not. I joined and added a few of my favorites to the right pane (just scroll down and look for the books on the right). I also found one I hadn't heard of before called "Quick Guide to Analog Synthesis." Anyone know if this one is any good?

BTW, if you know of any others I should add to the list on the right, please post them in the comments below and I'll put them up. I checked Amazon for A-Z of Analog Synthesis but surprisingly it wasn't there. BTW, I don't want to limit the list to just ads, so if you have any links for synth books not on Amazon or other, send them my way. I just think it would be cool to have a list of all synth books on the right. And yes the Amazon ones are ads, no trickery there on my part. And obviously, if you are interested in picking up one or more of these books, feel free to support my site by ordering through one of these links. : )

Update via Peter Forrest in the comments below : )
"Hi all - very nice to be a toilet stalwart! I'm Peter Forrest, writer of the A-Z books. Sorry, but Amazon demanded such a ridiculous price to stock my books that I won't do it through them. Luckily you can buy them direct through me if you want :o) The easiest way is to email me at pforrest@vemia.co.uk, and I'll send you the details. I also still have some copies of the Synthesizer Museum books (and videos if anyone wants a nice retro original vintage 90s etc. etc. version of Bob Moog's speech and a bunch of incredible synths)."

Homebrew Sequencer - Galoppierende Zuversicht

Pic of a homebrew sequencer (and possible synth?) used by styro2000 of the swiss group galoppierende zuversicht. Sent my way by Philip Sherburne. Title link takes you to the galoppierende zuversicht site. Click here for a live set.

GenoQ Octopus Ready to Order

Looks like the GenoQ Octopus is ready to order. Title link takes you to their news page with more info. I previously posted on the GenoQ Octopus back in August. The Octopus looks to be an amazingly feature rich pattern generator/sequencer, focused on ease of use (little to no "sub menus") and live performance. For more, make sure to check out other sections of the site including the Story-Board pdf.

Bad Wolf TV

Kenny Balys sent a link to a couple of videos, "Eternity" and "Deja Voodoo" to AH. I finally got around to checking them out. Brilliant. Spoiler below shot. Check them out in this order: "Eternity" then "Deja Voodoo." Each is about 60M.



Spoiler:
Starting with "Eternity" my first impression was this is mediocre but pretty refreshing. Made me want to travel and gave me that sense of taking a cold shower, but a bit deeper than that; it reminded me of my self induced repression, reminded me of my college days when things were so much more crisp and life was simply magic, and how things aren't quite like that anymore. Things still are magical, but scars kind of leave their marks the older you get. Then it hit me. This is much deeper than the surface. The video quality reminded me of the videos I used to make in college. There is a certain depth to that. Coincidence? Who knows, but it brought me back. "Deja Voodoo" was a complete contrast; pulled me out of the wonder and into the scars, back to reality. What's interesting is the two paired reminded me of my rave days but in the opposite order. You'd start off at a rave that had the vibe of "Deja Voodoo" but end with the vibe of "Eternity." But life seems to go in the opposite direction, or does it? Maybe it just goes in waves. Anywho... Don't know if this effect was on purpose or not, but, brilliant stuff; nice contrast between the videos. The interesting thing is "Eternity" was more deja voodoo to me in reminding me of the past; reminded me a bit of Dif Jus actually. So, anyone know the significance of 099 or the fly that shows up in both videos?

Gear list comments from Kenny:

"The tracks were done with ATC-1 on bass, Moog Voyager,
Jupiter 6, TR808/909/606 CR8000 DR-55, Jomox Xbase-09 and lots
of Doepfer A-100. Also have some MFB in there from
Schneider's Buero at Alexanderplatz, Berlin.

Electrix Filter Factory and the Warpfactory used to add
shimmer and life to top end of certain sounds.
Dimension-D chorus for some pads and counter melodies.

We mixed analogue on a SSL 4048 board with a bank of Neve
pre-amps."

Airport81 - New Yoko - Yamaha CS60 over Atari 2600

Title link takes you to MySpace site for Airport81. I previously posted on their track The Buddy System. Looks like they have a couple of more tracks up including "New Yoko" which features just the Yamaha CS60 over an Atari 2600 for beats. Pretty interesting track. Via this post on Sonic State's the-gas-station.

Sonar Axe

Theremin like MIDI guitar controller. Yep... Via GetLoFi, which mentions something about having to wear goggles and rubber gloves? Hmm... Better keep the alcohol away from this one; unless, of course, you like the smell of burnt rubber. Looks like two massive sodering irons to me.