Akai VX200 on DVDBORN

Another synth that never was on DVDBORN. Title link takes you there including a bigger shot.

Another Synthi-E on the Bay

Another EMS Synthi-E on the bay. Title link takes you to three shots saved for posterity.

IKARON

DSP based modular synth. Title link takes you to the list of modules. Click on the Product link on top to get back to the main page. It looks like it was PCI card that ran on 98/2000/XP. Looking at the order page it appears it is out of production. I grabbed most of the site here in case it disappears. Via Moogulator.

VinylVideo! - Video to Audio LP Sampling

Now this is interesting. GetLoFi has a post up on VinylVideo. A device that lets you record video to audio LPs. You can then either play back the video through the device or play it as audio. Is it real? I have no idea, but it is entertaining. : ) Title link takes you to GetLoFi's post with a couple of images of the device in use. After that click on the VinylVideo link to get to the site which has samples and a somewhat creepy infomercial - reminded me of those videos in Lost for any Lost fans out there.

Future Retro XS Protype Expander

Via the Future Retro site. Anyone know more about this?

"01:19-22:2006 We invite all those attending the
winter NAMM show January 19-22 to stop by
the Analogue Haven booth #1787 in Hall E
and the Sweet Noise booth #6735 in Hall A
where we will be displaying all our current products
and the debut of our new analog XS prototype expander."

Just a nice shot of the Revolution from the site - not the XS

The Jupiter 8 Resource Center

Title link takes you to the Roland Jupiter 8 Resouce Center, a site filled with history, pictures, reviews, manuals, patches, samples and links. The FAQ section has some good bits. Enjoy.

What Analog Synth Are You?

Title link takes you to a questionnaire that will tell you what analog synth you are. Via AH.

Me

The Minitron

I was going through the hoard of gear shots on the title link above and ran into The Minitron.



"Built in the 1970s by Norm Lederman"

"The Minitron consists of 48 keys in a slideout keyboard (which stashes away for shipping). Each has its own individual attack, release, and volume controls. These controls operate six broadcast cartridge tape drives, each having eight tracks. Thus, each of the tracks on a cart contains the tape loop for one key."

Bieke Goes Nuts

Title link takes you to a hoard of gear p*rn posts on Harmony Central. And I thought I posted a lot... Note this thread started on Friday 1/6/05. Enjoy. : ) Via Music Thing.

Purple Synthesizers.com

Moog Taurus II Shots

Title link takes you to more shots pulled from this auction.

Roland History

Title link takes you to Roland's development history page that lists out products they consider to be firsts. The GR-500, released in 1977, is listed as the first guitar synth in the world. The ARP Avatar also came out in 1977. The SH-1000, released in 1973 was the first synthesizer manufactured in Japan.



Update via Kaden in the comments:
"heh? Walter Sears was producing boutique guitar synths in about 1973 (as I recall, Steve Howe from Yes had one with an elbow controller), which led to the 360 Systems guitar synth in (I think) 1976. There was a band called Symphonic Slam that made a *huge* deal out of having one. Sounded kinda Arpish, with appalling pitch tracking."

Grey Latronic Notron Mk1

Title link takes you to more shots pulled from this auction. Via trobly1000. Thanks trobly1000!

Antti Houvalainen - ASynth and More

I recently posted on the Non-Linear Digital Implementation of the Moog Ladder Filter. There were a couple of comments including the following by polardark:

"Antti Houvalainen who authored this paper has also made the free VSTi softsynth ASynth which uses this moog filter, as well as a modelled MS20 filter and an Oberheim Xpander filter. The same filter is also used for Basement Arts Frantic VST filter effect. Both well worth trying out, in my opinion... "

So I went looking and found ASynth on KVR. I clicked on the download link and ended up on Antti's VST plugin page, with samples and downloads. Title link takes you there. Thanks to polardark for taking the time to comment.

Elain Radigue

Title link takes you to a composer profile on Elain Radigue. Via Music Thing.

Oakley Sound TB3030

Title link takes you to more shots, info and samples. Via Music Thing.

The Pig

Samples and more shots after hop. Via Moogulator.



""The Pig" is a very simple, little synth with 2 VCO's, 1 voltage controlled state var Filter, two Attack-Release Generators, VCA (of course), 2 LFO's (one of them with audio freq) and two 8-step sequencers.
The first sequencer modulates the two VCO's, the second one is for filter modulation.
After all, this little synth provides "slide" and a 8-step trigger sequencer for the latter function. Thus, as simple this machine is, it sounds astonishing complex, because of some little more features like cross modulation or LFO-modulation of the VCSFV with the audio-LFO."

Roland HS60 - New Flickr Shots

Title link takes you to a few more. The Roland HS60 is a Juno 106 with built in speakers.

Lightsabers

Title link takes you to some shots of the Korg MS2000 sent my way by David Tegerdine. All those knobs below look like a mini Jedi fight to me (yeah, I'm a dweeb). Thanks David!

Amdek RMK100 Nebula

Amdek Rhythm Machine on the bay. I have no affiliate with the sale, just haven't seen one of these before.



According to Fiercefish on AH
"I have one and would describe it as similar to a DR-55 in operation but between an 808 and 606 in sound, the bass drum in particular is excellent and can be adjusted via an internal trimpot for extended Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooom's, the snare is very 606 sounding but with a bit more bite and the hats are simply superb very sophisticated sounding. Mine has mods for trigger ins, trig outs, sync in, sync out, accent out and more planned, it integrates with my Blacet modular very well."

AIR on DVDBORN

Title link takes you there. Some amazing jam sessions to see.

Retro on Retro

Title link takes you to a post on the Future Retro Revolution on Retro Thing, alluding to the similarity in design to a pizza. The Pizza Box. Hmm... now why didn't I think of that...

Essential Retro Update

Looks like Retro Thing's James Gahame now has his Essential Retro book available via Amazon for a mere $19.95 US. James is a fellow synth addict and has dedicated an entire chapter to synths in the book. Very cool. Title link takes you there. See my previous post for more.

Guess The Moog - New Flickr Shot

Online Synth

Title link takes you to a simple subractive online synth. You edit it, press the synthesize button and a wav of the sound downloads. Via Music Thing.

Weblog Award Time!

1 day left. If you were waiting for the last minute to vote, now is it. Feed your habit. : ) Remember this blog is new and is on one topic only. Check out my Blogroll on right pane for my favorite sites worth voting for. You can vote for up to three for each category and four for Weblog of the Year.

"From now until 10:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (GMT-5) on Tuesday, January 10, 2005, anyone can nominate their favorite weblogs."

ElectroPlankton Released

Wow, it seems forever ago since I posted on the ElectroPlankton. Well according to Create Digital Music, the game will finally be available in the US. Hmm... Might be time to finally pick up that Nintendo DS.

Two Latronic Notron Sites

Title link takes you to the TecnoMage Latronic Notron Site. Note this is the same host for LIFE. Just like the way that sounds. ; ) The Latronic Notron is a rare and somewhat exotic step sequencer. You can find an overview of the Notron on SOS.



The second site worth checking out is the synthservices page, which has manuals for download and upgrade information if you were lucky enough to score one of these before they disappeared.

Roland Service Bulletins

Title link takes you to a number of Roland Service Bulletins hosted on Synthservices.com. Make sure to track back to the root of the site for more. BTW, if you're looking for M64C or M16C carts, it looks like he had a couple as of September 05.

The Crumar Spirit on Sound on Sound

The Crumar Spirit came up on the AH mailing list recently and non other than Gordon Reid posted a link the the SOS article on the Crumar Spirit. SOS is a great resource in that they post many of their reviews free of charge online.



"Nevertheless, Crumar singularly failed to make it into the big league, so when they announced the Spirit in 1983, nobody took any notice. The world's interest was only marginally more piqued when Crumar let it be known that Jim Scott (one of the co-designers of the Minimoog), Tom Rhea (another Moog employee best known for writing many of Moog's synthesizer manuals) and none other than Bob Moog himself had helped design it. And that's a shame, because, as you will see, the Spirit is one of the most complex, challenging, and -- above all -- powerful monosynths ever produced."

Non-Linear Digital Implementation of the Moog Ladder Filter

Title link takes you to pdf.

LIFE

Meet the Little Infinite Frequency Expander. Title link takes you there.



"LIFE is essentially a compact self-contained hand held inspirational tool for everybody interested in the creation of sound. It is difficult to describe the sounds that LIFE can produce, words such as… "organic", "unexpected", "ambient", "hypnotic", "subtle", "analogue", "fun", and other expletives have been used by musicians who have used the device , usually followed by "can I keep it ?" and "how much ?".

Fractal Blue Electric Blue Voyager

Trip, the stary black below is the actual finish.



"The Electric Blue Voyager is housed in a fractal blue solid ash cabinet. At first it looks black but as one draws near the fractal blue flecks pop out in an eye catching display."

RMI Harmonic Synthesizer

via this auction. Via Rasmus A. Nyaaker. Thanks Rasmus!

""The Harmonic Synthesizer - a precise approach to synthesis. You are given accurate control of waveforms by Digital harmonic Generators [2 digital oscillators with 16 sliders for producing frequencies 1x to 16x]. At your command are relative intensities of all overtones to beyond audibility! Each of the two digital harmonic generators produce an independent audio output for exotic contrasts in stereo. Preset waveforms can be selected or mixed with the generators for instant changes. Dynamic effects are created by voltage-controlled filters with low-pass, band-pass, and high-pass mixable outputs. [The envelope generator for the VCF is very strange on the Harmonic Synthesizer. It has a knob to select "Sweep Up", Sweep Down" and another knob for time.] Intricate melodic and rhythmic "sequencer" patterns are created by holding chords. Digital circuitry insures tuning stability and "drift-free" performance. The controls are rugged. The case is tough. RMI enjoys a history of building trouble-free instruments."----[from the RMI Harmonic Synthesizer's promotional brochure]"

Nice Panties

Via PunkdISCO on AH. Title link takes you to the striptease.



Roland TB-303 AcidLab
"Looking left to right the new functions are:

Overdrive nob - self explanatory
Decay nob - decay control for the VCA (the standard Decay nob is for the
Filter Env)
Resonance nob - additional res range control
Accent Switch - turns accents on for each step
Accent LED - self explanatory
Slide Switch - Not sure as does not currently work but presumably turns
slides on for each step
Slide LED - self explanatory
Bend Switch (3 pos) - Not sure but does some very cool audio bending. Can
get really hard/nice bass drum and snare sounds aswell as other musical
stuff
LED under the Bend Switch - gate LED
xMod Nob - Cross mod amount
xMod Switch (3 pos) - wave cross mod source with middle being off"

PPG Waveterm Library

I haven't been to the PPG site in a while. Title link takes you the Waveterm Library page containing direct conversions of the original Waveterm disks in WAV format. There is a link to download the complete archive or you can listen to them individually.

Korg MS Series in a Rack

Title link takes you to a post on Moogulator featuring one of the first shots he put up on his synth site. It's a racked MS20, MS50, and SQ10. Title link takes you to the post with links to more shots.

New Hartmann Neuron Software

Via tahome in the comments of this post:
"There's new software for the Neuron and NeuronVS by one of the former developers of the synthesis technology (Stephan Bernsee) at http://www.osxtools.com" Title link takes you there.

Synton 3000 Modular on the *Bay

Two shots pulled from the auction.

Close Up Synth Shots - Motherload

Carbon111 just belched a load of close-up synth shots on VSE and it looks like a bunch have followed. Title link takes you there. Enjoy. Make sure you are sitting down. : )

Drumcomuter MFB-502

Affordable little analog drum machine by MFB. Some samples after the hop. Also make sure to check out the MFB Msuikelektronik list for more of their instruments, including the MFB-POLYLITE a four voice version of their MFB-SYNTH LITE II, but with no knobs? BTW, Novamusik used to sell MFB in the states, but I no longer see them on their site. If anyone knows how to get them in the US, please comment.



· 7 analogue instruments
· integrated 16 step sequencer
· 26 controls for Attack, Decay, Pitch and more
· Kick and Snare each programmable with two different pitches
· Tom programmable with three different pitches
· Memory locations for 72 rhythms and 8 songs

Allerian's Red Poly 800

Title link takes you to a bigger shot. Via Allerian in the comments section of this post.

Wendy Carlos - Jack Robinson Collection

Click here for some amazing shots of Wendy Carlos.

"[Wendy] Carlos, musician and composer, is one of the great innovators in electronic and synthesized music. He is pictured here from a session in December, 1969. Carlos was the innovator behind 'Switched on Bach' and with Rachel Elkind they were composers on Stanley Kubrick's 'A Clockwork Orange', and 'The Shining'."

Update via the comments:
http://www.wendycarlos.com/faqs.html
http://fatbaron.com/carlos.html

Photos from the Remembering Bob Moog Exhibit

Title link takes you to pictures of the Rememering Bob Moog Exhibit in Binghampton, NY, last night, Jan 6.

Moog Synthesizer - Henry Ford Museum, Michigan

Apparently the Henry Ford Museum in Grosse Point, Michigan has the early Moog pictured below listed in their collection. Title link takes you to their Musical Instrument Collection page wher you can see it. If anyone has seen it in person please feel free to comment. Update: Just heard someone saw it on display in the Detroit airport. I remember hearing about a Moog in O'Hare; I wonder if the two were mixed up and it was actually in Detroit? If anyone knows, please comment.

Update: Word is this piece is in the Detroit airport.



Wood and Metal Made by Robert Moog
1964-1965 United States
Depth 19-1/4"; Width 36-5/8"; Height 8 -1/4"

PPG 1003 Sonic Carrier

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction for a PPG 1003 Sonic Carrier. Talk about a rare piece. Info pulled from the auction below. Via Kevin of Audio Playground. Thanks Kevin!



[To be clear, I am not the seller]
"a rare synthesizer produced in 6 or maximum 7 pieces in the world. This is the PPG 1003 soniccarrier, famous beceause used from Klaus SHulze with his PPG 300 system , and from Tangerine Dream. The 1003 is a analog 2 VCO controlled in a digital way by PUSHBUTTONS for to have + or - values . But the Sound is totally analog like the PPG 300 system. This synthesizer was also possible to remove from its case and put in a PPG300 system like was in Shulze's system. The synth is a monophonic 2 VCO with a memory section for to store programs. Was the first one that was able to store (we was in 1976). The cosmetics conditions of my 1003 are very good, but of course is used because this one was s/n 002 and was the one used in the SHOW in 1976 and 77. But the frontal panel is perfect.The synths works perfect but the memory section not always store, but this was the normal working way of the 1003 since the beginning. The 1003 is big, weight 20 ks, and is not eaasy to ship. The 1003 was a prototype and yuo know that all PPG producta ARE wanderfull and crazy at the same time. The unit ha salso the CV ,GATE and FILTER for to give you the way of to drive the 1003 with every device like interface or modular system."

Poly 800 mkII Page

Click here for a Korg Poly 800 mkII page sent to me by Devin (Drexon Field). There are some nice shots up and one trippy demo of the Poly 800 running through a couple of Alesis FX boxes. If you track back to http://www.drexonfield.com/, you will find links to Music, Video, Review, Studio Gear and Links. Well worth checking out. Thanks Devin!

Oberheim Xpander Site

Title link takes you to a nice Oberheim Xpander site. Make sure to check the "Xpander inside" link to see the differences between the US and Japanese(?) versions. Also check out the KRAAKDOOS (Crackle Box) and the Orange page. ;) BTW, if you have an Xpander and are wondering what version you have but you do not want to open the box, the US version has its lettering over the jacks in the back while the Japanese version has it below. Or... Aeonian on AH posted that his has "SAKATA SHOKAI LTD "Made in Japan" on the serial badge"