MATRIXSYNTH

Friday, July 21, 2006

Animal Synth P*rn

Ok, get your head out of the gutter. CDM has a refreshing post up on Adorable Animals with Synthesizers, and Matrixsynth got a mention! Some cool shots and a good read to start the weekend. Title link takes you there. Thanks Peter! Oh, and you might notice, dogs! Check out the puppy named synthesizer after the hop. Someone get me a shot of Elhardt. : o

Liteworks

Title link takes you to a free download of Liteworks, a new album by Mike Mayfield. Lots of analog - kit list below. What's interesting is Mike did this in Texas while in exile from New Orleans due to Katrina.

Make sure to check out the rest of Backporch Revolution. Via Alec: "The Katrina connection is that Mike (like all of us on the label) being New Orleans residents were forced to evacuate and live in exile for a number of months. Mike used that time to make music, hence this project. We're also about to release a compilation CD of all our N.O. bands; see this link."

Kit List for Liteworks:
Moog Prodigy
Roland Juno-60
Roland SVC-350 vocoder
Ace Tone organ
Kimball Swinger organ
Thumb Piano
Ace Tone Rhythm Ace
Korg Rhythm 55
Roland CR78 Compurhythm
Various Electro Harmonix pedals
Akai MPC 2000
Tambourine and shakers

6 AM - Wanderland

Remember this shot by Rui Peixoto? Rui posted this killer triphop track on AH showcasing Modcan (basses and leads), Absynth, Battery and some drum loops. Check it out. It's not only a great showcase for these synths, it's a great track. Title link takes you to his site, Wanderland.net.

ALISA-1377

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. via Brian Comnes.

Details (apologies for the uppercase, but I don't have the time to edit this):
"ALISA-1377 - RARE SOVIET-ERA MONOPHONE ANALOG VINTAGE SYNTH BUILT IN 1983 BY LUBERETSKY PLANT IN THE SOVIET UNION!

HERE DESCRIPTIONS FROM THE BOOK "VINTAGE SYNTH'S A-Z" BY PETER FORREST: Alisa 1377 - 44-note (F-C) 1-VCO monosynth. Designed as a standard monosynth, but also a source of "non-standardelectrical signals for scientific and educational needs". VCO has controls for waveform, FM, mod amount, PWM, harmonics, portamento, tuning, and octave switching. Simple vibrato LFO; VCF; ADSR. Switching is generally done with push-buttons.
IT IS BUILT LIKE A ROCK OF THICK STEEL AND SIDEPANELS ARE REAL WOOD. THE SOUND OF THIS LITTLE BEAST IS BRAIN DAMAGING!!! CRYSTAL CRISP WITH INCREDIBLE LOWS. YOU CAN FIND SOME EXAMPLES HERE.
No midi, no CV/Gate are installed. US customers will need a step-up power converter (this machine operates at 220V/50-60Hz). THE SET INCLUDES: ALISA-1377 SYNTHESIZER, POWER CORD, 5-DIN TO 1/4 JACK ADAPTER. "

"PANEL KNOBS:
- VIBRATO GENERATOR - FREQ, 1/10HZ SWITCH, GEN ON/OFF, WAVEFORMS (SAW, SQUARE)
- TONE GENERATOR - TUNING, OCTAVE SHIFT +1/+2, WAVEFORMS (TRIANGLE, SAW, SQUARE, PULSE - CAN WORKS SIMULTANEOUSLY!), PORTAMENTO, FM, PWM, HARMONICS
- FILTER - TUNING (WAVES SYNC), RESONANCE, VIBRATO (LFO), ADSR ON/OFF
- CONTOUR (AMP) - ADSR, FILTER ADSR
- OUT - MAIN LEVEL, OUT ON/OFF
- CONNECTIONS - LINE OUT, PHONES (REAR PANEL)
Dimensions - 700X360X150MM
Weight - 9 kgs"

Warning on YouTube

Just in case you plan to upload that next big hit...

"Before you upload that video of your 19-person indie rocker reggae band, for instance, you may want to read the fine print. YouTube's "new" Terms & Conditions allow them to sell whatever you uploaded however they want"

Click through for the full story. Then click here for more.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Arak and Legion

Legion sent me this funny video of his cats going at it. I noticed one of his cats looked like a black bombay. My cat JD is also a black cat and he's hasn't been doing too well lately. I mentioned the video reminded me of a younger more energetic JD to Legion and he said he knows the feeling. He lost his main bud, Arak. I asked him if I could ask a few questions as my wife and I were weighing options with JD. Legion was cool enough to oblige and I thank him for that. The picture in this post is a shot of legion and Arak. This post goes out to the pets that tolerate our habits. : ) Cheers Arak, and thanks Legion.

The SMS Yeti

There are some interesting updates on the SMS 2000 in the comments of this post as well as this HC thread. Entertaining stuff if you don't take all of this too seriously. I don't. Apparently all shots of the SMS 2000 have been saved with Photoshop 5 and have the same RGB profile as an image recently posted by Elhardt. Smoking gun?

Yeti shot by pizzamon. Good work pizzamon. : )

Another good one by mgd below.

JMJ Revolutions Performed by Carlos Feijão on YouTube

Sakata DPM48

Shots and details pulled from this auction.

"Very nice condition cool sounding 80's drum machine with volume sliders, lots of knobs and individual outputs. It comes with its original box. A rare item, it sounds retro and dirty...looks oldschool, it has no optical damage whatsoever. The sequence module is included with this auction. Sync this to a analog synth and you are in electro heaven"

If anyone knows more about this drum machine, please post in the comments. This one in via Rasmus A. Nyaaker.

Update via Roberto in the comments: More on the Sakata DPM48.

Update via hinotori mortal in the comments:

"hi
i am the proud owner of 2 of the DPM-48 drum machines.
they were originally made by SAKATA a company which, to my knowledge, only ever produced this machine. . . its design and name were then bought out by HAMMOND, and hammond produced this machine for a short time. . . before they decided their leap into the world of drummachines was a waste. . .largely due to the painfully high price that hammond were marketing them at.... . the machine was then marketed by JUGGBOX.
they are EPROM based drum machines and are incredibly incredibly difficult to use without a manual .
i have a copy of the manual in japanese. . and this helps a little. . but if anyone has the manual in english please let me know . . . :)

the only person i have heard of using this machine was prince .

it has an amazing sound to it, if you love the LINNDRUM / DMX / DRUMULATOR . .
very punchy lo resolution hip hop sounds .

i have another version of this machine loaded with the "electronic drum set"

as there is little information about this machine anywhere, im unsure as to wether the "electronic" version was actually produced by JUGGBOX or by yet another company . .

it is easily synced to my tr606, having a din sync in and out i chain them together in serial .

there is currently a midified version of this machine on an auction site in japan going for around 500 GBP.

!!!!!!!

i will put images of my DPM48s onto my flickr account for those whoare interested.

if you want the DPM sounds without the hardware then they are included in NOSTALGIA . in the "rare beat boxes" section . . . of course ;) "