EML 101

Title link takes you to some nice shots of an EML 101 and sample on VSE.

Elka Synthex Shots

Another Elka Synthex up for auction. Seems like a few of these have come up lately. As always I have no affiliation with the auction, just posting the shots.

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The Sleepdrone

Interesting drone box from King Capitol featuring four VCOs and optical sensors for theremin like control of pitch. Click here more info including some samples; I found some to be more interesting than others. Via GetLoFi.

Formanta Percussion Synth

Martin sent me a link to this auction for a Formanta/Rokton Percussion synth. Title link takes you to more shots. Info on the machine pulled from the auction below. Thanks Martin!

"FORMANTA
A PERCUSSION SYNTHESIZER

VERY RARE SOVIET-ERA ANALOGUE DRUM SYNTH WITH BUILT IN PRESET DRUM MACHINE!
WAS MADE IN RUSSIA, THEN USSR, BY FORMANTA POLIVOKS FACTORY IN 1987!
EXCELLENT MINT CONDITION. WORKS PERFECTLY. ALL PARTS ARE ORIGINAL.

FORMANTA PERCUSSION SYNTH (OTHER NAME ROKTON PERCUSSION SYNTH) - RARE SOCIALIST VERSION OF ROLAND TR-909 AND OTHER MOST POPULAR VINTAGE DRUM MACHINES FROM 80'S. IT SOUNDS BETTER THAN MANY CLASSICAL DRUM MACHINES AND THIS MACHINE IS ALSO MUCH MORE RARE. THE DRUM SYNTH PROVIDES IMPRESSIVE ANALOG SOUNDS! IT IS CONVENIENT FOR MODELING OF SMOOTH KICKS, CLASSIC ELECTRO TOMS, OLD SCHOOL AND TECHNO SNARES, SINE WAVES. ETC. IT WAS MANUFACTURED IN 80'S by FORMANTA, A SOVIET MILLITARY RADIO PLANT AT KACHKANAR CITY, NEAR SVERDLOVSK CITY. The same one wich manufactured now legendary POLIVOKS synth. It is built like a rock, pure military technology. The body is solid and the knobs feel nice. There is an original soviet factory structure - i.e. method of synthesis, knob resistors, parts, connections, voltage etc. It runs on 220V AC (US customers will need an adaptor).

FORMANTA PERCUSSION SYNTH has 5 independent channels with a complete spectrum of synthesis (sensitivity, filter, pitch, balance tone/noise, decay etc) and two channels for cymbals. There is a built-in PRESET rhythm machine with 16 preset patterns; basic control functions and various styles, which can use any edited or factory sounds. It can also produce any preset style and live triggered sounds simultaneously. The module has a standard 1/4 jacks for triggers connection, pedals input and line-outs. Each of seven FORMANTA drum channels inputs can be triggered from individual outputs of the drum machines such TR 707, TR 626 or similar!

Dimensions - 440x450x165 mm
including packing materials I would guess about 9 kgs total weight"

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Get Your Smut Here

So I just heard about slut-o-meter. You enter a query term and it calculates the difference between the number of pages that come up for the term vs. the number that comes up under Google SafeSearch. Matrixsynth scores a whopping 15.9%. Hmm... Must be all that synth p*rn.

I ran my blogroll (right pane) and got the following for my blogging buddies (guys, get your smut up)! : ) I was actually expecting Analog Industries to come up on top, with all the expletives, but surprisingly it didn't. What's up with that? Anywho... Mildly entertaining for about ten minutes, so have fun. : ) Synth content? Rate your favorite synths and synth sites, of course! Hmm.. I wonder what's the smuttiest synth out there...

Blogroll in smut order:
SparkleTrain - 20.39%
Matrixsynth - 15.9%
Retro Thing - 13.09%
Synthwire - 12.9%
Analog Industries - 9.38%
GetLoFi - 7.23%
Machinesound - 5.26%
Synthosium - 5.06%
Music Thing - 2.73%
Create Digital Music - 1.19%

Update: Looks like I'm smuttier than a Roland TB-303 (6.43%). Ok, this is embarrassing; I'm not finding any synth site with a higher smut rating than mine. If anyone finds one, let me know. Not sure if this is something to be proud of.

More New Gear

More new gear shots from Shawn Cleary of Analogue Haven. Dual Sherman Filter Bank Rack picutured below. More gear links below.



Via AH:

"hello,

Cwejman have sent further details about their new
modules. Info here:
http://www.analoguehaven.com/new/cwejman/
(these are big files). A few of these will be shown at
NAMM.

Doepfer have uploaded info for their newest modules
here:
http://www.doepfer.de/a100n_e.htm
The first 5 should be shown at NAMM: BBD module
(delay/flanger/karplus strong), universal vactrol
module, thru-zero quadrature vco, switched capacitor
filter and a version of the a-100 tkb-style sequencer
that is near to the production version. BTW there are
more mp3s for the BBD module on the A-100 usergroup at
http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/Doepfer_a100/ ,
in the last post by Ingo.

Also I have uploaded one more photo of a "dual"
Sherman Filterbank 2 Rack:
http://www.analoguehaven.com/new/sherman/sherman_rack_big.jpg

Thanks,

Shawn Cleary
www.analoguehaven.com"

Synthmas Presents

And I'm back. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. I thought I'd put up a post on the synth goodies I got for xmas this year. Belated xmas presents on my list are James Grahame's Essential Retro, Peter Forests revised A-Z Books and the Analogue Heaven Synthesizer Museum book, and finally the Moog DVD.

Different Skies Arcs & Angles DVD
Synth centered music performance that happened this year. I put up a few posts including this one when I heard about it. I can't wait to check out this performance.


Learning Music With Synthesizers
Cool book about sound synthesis authored by David Friend and Alan R. Pearlman of ARP as well as Thomas D. Piggott. Not sure if Piggott was part of ARP; if you know feel free to comment. The book came out in 1974 and uses the ARP Odyssey as an example to demonstrate creating different types of sounds.


Synthesizer Basics
Haven't had a chance to flip through this one yet, but it looks good. Features Bob Moog, Roger Powell, Tom Rhea and Steve Porcaro. Volume 1 put out by Keyboard Magazine back in 1984.



Analog Days
This one is coming in the mail. I posted on this earlier as well. I can't wait to read this one as it will be more about the history of synthesis and should be a great read.


Real World Digital Audio
I also received a copy of Peter Kirn's Real World Digital Audio. I'm hearing it's a great book and just looking through the chapters I'm looking forward to it.


Oh, and of course there was this amazing surprise. : )

A Packrat Christmas

Saw this shot over on Moogulator's blog. Check out the Packrat site for more. Now that's a Christmas tree. : )

Christmas Present

So, I was going through online withdrawals and decided to sneak a peek, today on Christmas day. And what did I find? A wonderful Christmas present sitting under my happy holiday post tree, just for me. This shot absolutely made my day. Thanks to whoever took the time to post this in the comments of my last post. This is just way too cool. I am literally floored. Thank you! : )

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone. Don't forget to queeze in some synth time. ; )



Above is a shot of my MicroKorg and xmas tree.