The Alchemists of Sound

"ALCHEMISTS OF SOUND
Saturday 28 May 2005 8.30pm-9.30pm; 3.15am-4.15am

"The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create 'new kinds of sounds'. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.

There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds."

Title link takes you to more info.

Bamboo Spaceship

Title link takes you to another shot and some mp3s. Roxy Music meets Japan, 80s synth pop. Jason Proctor on synths.

Update via BariaBlog in the comments:

"oh my god! what we do as youths comes back to haunt us doesn't it!

Jason and I were doing this stuff inthe early eighties and believe it or not we are still at it - across oceans and time we still have a mad desire to make a racket.

Watch out for invasion of the fat traingle players in future - the other half of the spaceship!"

TB-303's Unique Characteristics

Title link takes you there.

Fat Controller Driving a Monowave

Click here for a demo of the Frostwave Fat Controller driving a Modulus Electronics Monowave. The track is Sequence 1. A Virus Indigo provides textures and a Multimoog provides lead. Via Seth Elgart on AH.

Analogue Jeff

Title link takes you to JeffreyKoepper.com, home of Analogue Jeff's website. I've seen Analog Jeff on AH a number of times, and I've been meaning to check out his site for some time but haven't gotten around to it. You'll find a nice set of synth pics and some samples of his work. Hey, where's the cat?! : )

Korg EMX-1 - New Flickr Shot

flickr by JSRockit.

Electro Kraft Space Synth - New Flickr Shot

flickr by JSRockit.

"Very cool synth based on the chip from the original arcade game Space Invaders. You can control the parameters via the Tandy joystick."

Update via the comments:
"Here is a video from the guy who makes them:

spacesynth.MOV"

One Hell of a Dongle

Check out this post on Digital Music Mag.

Hmm... Yeah, I'm with him, this would definitely suck. However, if there are dependencies on the hardware for DSP, that would make sense, but something tells me that's not the case. I haven't done much research on Kore. The Korg Legacy is a great example of doing it right. You can play the soft synths with or without the controller connected.

Aurora AR1

Marcus Couto on AH recently posted this asking if anyone knew more about it and if anyone actually owns one. If you know anything please comment. Title link takes you to Synth-Restore who carries it. There are demos on site. Details pulled from the doc linked on this page.

MODEL type: AURORA AR1
VCO 1 : saw,pulse,triangle waveform, adjustable pulse width, octave shift.
VCO 2: saw,square,triangle waveform, adjustable interval (pitch), octave shift, sub oscillator.
VCO 3: saw,square,triangle waveform, adjustable interval (pitch), octave shift, sub oscillator.
(main tuning from front panel control)

LFO: (can be used as another vco at hi-frequencies, for ring mod type effects) routing to VCO's, Pulse width, VCF, VCO & VCF.
Individual tri,sq,saw, random waveforms (any combination can be used) Manual depth, plus mod. wheel amount.
VCF 12db type (gives more raw sounding edge, similar to Oberheim, early ARP Odyssey)
High or low pass type (switchable) cutoff, resonance, keyboard tracking, ADSR amount, modulation from vco 3 also.
ENVELOPE GENERATOR. ADSR type (attack,decay,sustain,release) routed to VCF, and VCA. Auto trigger switch

PERFORMANCE CONTROLS: VCA keyboard gate mode, portamento (glide), white noise level, main output volume.
INTERFACE. Main output,headphones out, CV input, GATE input, VCF external control, external audio input.
POWER: IEC (kettle-plug) power input (external power switch/fuse holder) 220-240 volts.
37 note keyboard.
Aluminium data plate, with serial/model number
UK price £549
Turnaround time 4 weeks.
£200 deposit required (non returnable)"

BTW, if you heard the name Aurora in regards to synths but can't place it and know it's not this Aurora, it could be the Alesis Aurora you were thinking about.

Update via the comments:
" have had the AR1 for quite a while now and have used the synth on many recordings for solo projects under Brendan Pollard and Rogue Element.
She is extremely versatile, moog sounding but with careful manipulation even ARP. Fantastic for sound effects, leads, basses, etc.
Our studio is 90% analogue and she was definitely a worthy addition to our collection,
Cheers
Brendan www.rogue-element.uk.com"

Sequential Circuits Programmer 700 and Much More

Title link takes you to a huge auction list of some rare items including this Sequential Circuits Programmer 700.

I forgot about this unit. The 700 was basically a CV controler with patch storage, essentially allowing you to store patched for whatever you were controlling it with.

Details from the auction (Google translated from German): "Sales mean in the best way received and fully functioning Sequential Circuits Programmer Model 700. So far I was white the first storable Programmer as condition alone equipment. One can store the following control voltages: Volume days 1/2/3 (with insertable external tension) Envelope 1/2 along in each case Amount, Delay and ADSR (with second one can also still connect external tension). Everything with the pertinent outputs/input in 6,3mm Kline and mini handle. Further inputs for program programmweiterschaltung, gate, SWITCH trigger (Moog) and normal Trgger. Still additionally two sockets on the back were inserted, were times firmly attached at an upper home 2-Voice. In the best way suitably for modular systems. 8 banks with in each case 8 program memories are available."

Update: Synth shots saved here.