MATRIXSYNTH

My Wife Rocks!

I wasn't planning on posting anything regarding my birthday today, but after an excellent lunch (Pho and some stir fry) we headed back home for presents! I got one of those Radio Shack 200 in 1 electronic kits which I've been wanting for some time now. Gotta start somewhere... and it just looks like some fun to be had building sirens and crap. After the gifts and cards she puts a blind fold on me and tells me not to peek. Her and my daughter come back singing happy birthday with this! I could not believe it. A Matrix birthday cake, green on black with my first and favorite synth, the Oberheim Matrix-6. So awesome... She has been 100% behind me, the blog and my synth habit since day one. They are out there guys. : )

I love my wife!

I of course took a ton of shots of the cake for posterity's sake. You can find them here.

And no, she does not call me Matrix on a regular basis. : )

John Foxx - Theres No One Driving Top of the Pops

YouTube via Elektrapunk. Via sequencer.de where you will find one more vid.
So are those Yamaha CS60s or CS80s? I see the ribbon so the CS50 is out. I don't see the two rows of patch bank buttons on the CS80, so I'm guessing they are CS60s.

The Frankenbox

"The Frankenbox is essentially an all-in-one synthesizer built for making distorted screeches, growls, and other awful noises. It includes two oscillators, a built in microphone, two audio inputs, a voltage controlled amplifier with ringmod capabilities, a voltage controlled lowpass filter, an LFO, and a sequencer. One oscillator includes a photocell and the other can be modulated by the LFO and the sequencer. There is a joystick that allows for frequency modulation of the oscillators. Each component was specifically designed with the intention of creating loud, rumbling sounds with crackling distortion over the top. The entire box, down the knobs, case, and LED color, was created exactly as requested. With 41 knobs and hundreds of ways to make the device interact with itself, an almost infinite number of sounds is possible."

Title link takes you to more devices including samples of The Frankenbox and others. Via Colin of Experimentalists Anonymous Custom Electronic Devices.

An Early Dave Smith

This is actually the cover to a DVD titled "Dave Smith: Synthesizer Pioneer." Title link takes you to more info on the Dave Smith Instruments site.

via sequencer.de.

The New Reason

As you all probably know by now, the new version of Reason is out, featuring Thor. Title link takes you there.

Guess the Synth

Title link takes you to more info and images. Click on the Gallery link on the bottom of the page when you get there. There are some great shots. I purposely went with the "wtf-is-that" teaser shot for the post. Don't click unless you want the answer immediately.

via Synthcat who spotted it on the planetz forums.

Jean Laurendeau and the Ondes Martenot

YouTube via unidaddy. Another great vid found by AudioLemon.
BTW, I just added AudioLemon to my Blogroll on the right.
For a current approximation of the keyboard with ring check out the Analogue Systems French Connection.

Yamaha CS-40M

YouTube via analoguecrazy4. via AudioLemon.

KORG Synthe-Bass

via this auction.
Details:
"This is a vintage analog synthesizer released around 1975 (Around the time of the Mini and Maxi Korgs). It's got 5 waveform choices a huge Sine, a buzzy Square, Fat Triangle, More buzzy Square, and then a Phaser setting that makes a sound that is similar to an old Moog Prodigy. It also has a "traveller" (filter cutoff). It is a very small and light Synth/ keyboard (17 keys) that puts out great analog bass tones"

Update: There was also a pedal version that looks like it could work as a desktop unit which you can see in this post.

Update via the comments: "RE: the update: the synthpedal isn't a pedal version, it lacks the VCO and more. The synthepedal is just a env follower VCF, an amazing filter but not a bass synth"