Roland PV synth SPV-355

Three shots pulled from this auction. More on the SPV-355 on SOS:

"The SPV355 Pitch-to-Voltage Synthesizer was launched in those very days -- 1979, to be exact -- as part of the Roland Rack series of 19-inch studio–quality effects units, amplifiers and specialist preamps. The most famous of these are probably the Roland Vocoder and the Dimension D spatial chorus. The P/V Synth is a bit of a curiosity, because it seems to have been released on the one hand as a rackmounting analogue expander module (indeed, it's said to be one of the first rackmounting synths), but on the other as a budget alternative to the Roland GR–series guitar synthesizers. These synths were quite expensive, specialised instruments; the GR system consisted of a high-quality, specially adapted guitar connected via a 24-way cable to a floor unit containing a rudimentary, six-note polyphonic synth engine. The SPV355 alternative scored points as it didn't need any special interface hardware (pickups and so on) and you could, in theory, use any old guitar to play the synth. The 1979 Roland catalogue states: "The SPV355 P/V Synthesizer is specially designed for use with guitars", which is ironic, as this is probably the P/V Synth's least effective and most problematic mode -- more on this later.

Fortunately, the SPV335's uses were not confined to guitar synthesis, and for its time (and compact size), it was quite well specified: two VCOs, a sub-oscillator, VCF, VCA, envelope generator, two audio mixers, and a multitude of interface sockets. As with other Roland Rack units, the 355 is housed in a 2U steel case and weighs nearly 6kg, which makes it a pretty hefty beast to lug around. And as for build quality, well... the word 'tank' springs to mind, as does the phrase 'heavy duty'. They don't make 'em like that any more..."

via Simon

Kaoss Pad Guitar

Nice. Title link takes you to the post on Music Thing.

Klaus Schulze in concert in Paris in 1978

No title link. More exclusive shots sent in via Frederic. This set of Klaus Schulze in 1978. Frederic isn't sure where this performance was exactly. Note the shag carpet he's sitting on. Thanks Frederic!
Update via Mikael in the comments:

"This is most likely from the European tour in september or october 1978.
synth spotting:
- Moog modular IIIP w/optional double sequencer box unit.
- PPG modular + sequencers
-Arp Odyssey mk II (black face)
- Arp 2600 (orange & black)
- EMS-synthi
- Minimoog (x2)
- Polymoog
- Korg PS-3300

Mikael"

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Human League Biography

Saw this one on sequencer.de. Title link takes you to an interesting biography of the Human League. I didn't realize Adi Newton was part of the original lineup and left to for Clock DVA (note in the bio they refer to Clock DVA as Clock DNA. I'm guessing this is just a typo).

"Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were two computer operators in Sheffield who both shared an intense passion for German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk. Armed with a few months' savings, Ware was able to buy a modest monophonic synth (a Korg 770S) that had just become available on the commercial market at an affordable price. Despite having never played a single note, Marsh and Craig set themselves the task of understanding the art of sound synthesis and it wasn't long before their combined enthusiasm began to exceed the limits of the cheap synth."

"The very first Human League demo contained Being Boiled, Circus of Death & Toyota City all recorded in mono and it soon caught the attention of Bob Last who ran a small record label in Scotland called Fast Records.

Being Boiled was released in June 1978 after the League and Bob Last had agreed a deal over the phone. Although the single had a limited amount of copies pressed, the song succeeded in attracting the admiration of NME whilst guest reviewer Johnny Rotten described the group as 'trendy hippies'! Being Boiled was completely at odds with the prevailing punk movement of the time. The track was a stark slab of electro that would influence many artists in years to come, memorable also for its lyrics that linked the slaughter of silk worms with Buddhism."

"Disappointed by the lack of sales, Virgin reacted swiftly by cancelling the League's proposed UK tour in November asking the band to support the Talking Heads instead. Reluctantly, the group agreed releasing a press statement that revealed their plans for the upcoming performance. With tongue firmly in cheek, the League suggested that they wouldn't actually be on stage for the performances and that their place would be taken by backing tapes and a slide show hinting that they would occasionally view the show as members of the audience. David Byrne and co failed to see the funny side and the League were dropped from the support slot."

Update via the comments:
"Here's a really good site dedicated to the pre-Dare Human League"

Xpander

No title link. Shot of the Oberheim Xpander sent my way via one of the anonymous.

MC-4, Voyager, TB-303

No title link. Shot of a Roland MC-4, Moog Voyager Anniversary Edition, and a couple of TB-303s sent my way via one of the anonymous.

70' trilogy : Hammond, Melotron and Mini moog - New Flickr Shot

flickr by cortez77_fr.

Title link takes you to more shots of what looks like a prog rock concert featuring mika jarvinen. Note the keyboard player in the first shot is part of the band in the second shot. It's cool to see the knod to Moog at a show like this.

Parallel Worlds Studio

Nice. Title link takes you there.
Scroll when you get there for more.

via synthesizer-magazin.de

Rheem Key Bas - New Flickr Shot

flickr by night000vision000.

LE CYBERSONGOSSE

I recently saw this on sequencer.de. I wasn't sure if I put up a post on this before, however I was pretty sure I saw it on Music Thing and/or CDM. Sure enough I did. I sent an email to Tom and Peter and Peter was kind enough to reply with links to the posts. Here are the links to the posts on Music Thing and CDM.

Peter Kirn also sent the following:

"Check out these links for some amazing photos:
modeles
pedagogie.html

What I can't find -- and you'd probably need someone who has connections to IMEB for this -- is what happened to the public software release that was supposed to happen. There's nothing on the site, and the documentation of the project appears to be abandonware. (Hopefully that's just the site itself.) That'd be nice, as they redeveloped the software in Max/MSP."

If you know anything, please comment.

Update via Peter Grenader in the comments:

"If I'm not mistaken, this is a big midi controller designed to control patch parameters within software synthesis progrmas such as Csound and MaxP. This is what was explained to be a year or so.

Also, I believe Max was developed by Cycling 74, not the IMEB. Barry Vercoe I know developed Csound with IRCAM."

Update via the comments: "Actually, Max was developed by Opcode, who later added MSP. Then Cycling '74 bought it in 1999, and have been developing it ever since. What the post was actually saying is that the IMEB developed their own program using Max/MSP, not Max/MSP itself."

Update via Peter Kirn in the comments:

"Some historical corrections:

Csound was developed by Barry Vercoe while he was at MIT, not IRCAM. Csound is in turn indebted to Max Mathews' Music4 (and variants), as developed at Bell Labs from the late 50s through the 60s. Csound has grown a lot since its original version, however, through contributions by Dr. Vercoe and many others.

Max was not originally developed by Opcode; Max and the audio environment Max/FTS were the creation of Miller Puckette while he was at IRCAM (and I think IRCAM still holds some of the copyrights to that version of Max and its descendents). Max/MSP as we now know it did result from the Opcode variant of Max, that's true, though it has had an ongoing, bi-directional relationship with Max/FTS and later Pure Data, as developed by Miller Puckette, and has evolved through contributions of many people. Max Mathews is the namesake for the software Max, but supposedly specifically for an archaic reason having to do with scheduling (as well as, I'm sure, his admiration for Max Mathews' contributions to digital synthesis).

Back to the original question, I think people are right in that this is a hardware controller for a Max/MSP-based software patch. The modularity, having previously been in hardware, is now apparently in the software. The patch is promised to have been publicly released in the PDF docs for the instrument. So it's out there somewhere -- I just don't know where!"

Update: also see The Gmebaphone Concept and the Cybernéphone Instrument