MATRIXSYNTH

Patrick Moraz on Oberheim Matrix-12, SCI Prophet-10 and Prophet-5

YouTube via Analogger. In case you missed it in this post, the synth jam starts after the Minimoog signing.
"This segment opens backstage at a benefit concert in Orlando for "Give Kids The World." Rick Wakeman and Patrick are autographing my Minimoog. That's where I first met Moraz.

Patrick and I became friends and spent some time during the five days he was in town. One night my wife and I took him to Amigos restaurant in Altamonte Springs. A group of people recognized Patrick and came over to the table. He was gracious and charming as he answered questions, told stories, and had everybody in stitches with his infectious "Amadeus" laugh. I took him aside and said, "Look...we're about two minutes from my house. How about we invite these people back and you could perform?" Even though it was around midnight he shouted, "That would be fantastic!" He improvised for almost an hour...much of it on my Oberheim Matrix-12. The people loved it!

Patrick spent the night and about seven in the morning my wife and I are jolted out of bed by the sound of Patrick wailing on my Prophet-5. I called a friend of mine, Mark Glinsky, who was a big Moraz fan and told him to come over right away. He asked why? I held the phone towards a monitor and said, "You hear that? Its Patrick Moraz and he's in my studio!" Patrick continued to discuss musical ideas he was working on and play bits and pieces. That afternoon we attended the Van Halen soundcheck since my station was broadcasting live from a skybox in the Orlando Arena. The Van Halen adventure is documented in Part-3."

The Con Brio Rises!

via Brian Kehew of The MOOG Cookbook. Only two Conbrio ADS 200s were ever made. See the links in Brian's message below for more info on this rare digital synth from the past.

"Hi guys - this is a quickie announcement - we're rushing to prepare an exhibit for this year's annual (and final) "VINTAGE COMPUTER FAIR"!

Why? This Con Brio synthesizer I've had for a decade is finally going to make noise in public again. Just this week we heard it for the first time - maybe the first one of these has been used in 20+ years...

http://www.synthmuseum.com/conbrio/conads20001.html

http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/10/my-favorite-retro-synth-conbrio-ads.html

It's been a legendary beast - mostly because of how it looks (of course). But until this week, we didn't know it was really GOOD. As a slightly outside observer, it was truly amazing - the design and interface are superb - you can fly on this thing and work very quickly. They implemented the synthesis with some REALLY tricky methods, as well as writing their own disc drive code, things like that. It sounds like other digital synths of the era - but with much better fidelity, its basic tone is pretty great. I am now gonna try and reunite the designers (one of them is coming along for the show and may give a talk). I will probably soon do a detailed web page showing some of the clever ideas and history. ANd my goal is to lend it out to some people, who can take it for a month and do ONE piece on it - so I can make some kind of "ALL Con Brio" CD so people can finally hear it. I don't think it's ever been on a commercial record release...

The FAIR and the MUSEUM: Sat/Sun 10-6 pm!! Exhibits from 2-6pm!

http://www.vintage.org/2007/main/

So - if you're interested in coming by (Mountain View, CA) I'll be there with it. PLEASE pass on the info to your techie-geek friends who may also appreciate this or a roomfull (museum nearby) of vintage computers; Altair, Digital Equipment Corp., Timex, Commodore, early Apple, etc."

Update via Brian in the comments:
"Well, I would think so too, but that's not true exactly. The three guys who did the Con Brio are serious computer experts; the one seen at the show makes his living manufacturing THE fastest RAM you can buy today. He says the way the Con Brio works (which is not a microprocessor counting to create "oscillators") would still be hard on a typical modern computer. If it were done by a microprocessor running numbers, yes, a modern computer would have it beat, but the speed of the Com Brio lies in the "dumb logic" way the waveforms are done, which allows it to be driven a light-speed type rates - "doing the math" with a microprocessor is harder and takes more power. They were far ahead of their time and finding unique solutions to the problems they had.

You mention the comparison between the 16 oscillators and Bill's 136 - actually the Con Brio does run 16 oscillators on each voice/key; TIMES its sixteen voices, so this is actually 256 simultaneous "oscillators" running.

On the 6 different configurations on a DX7 being adequate for what sounds are needed; to do the simple Hammond organ patch with "all drawbars out" is impossible with that limited set - and that's just 8 sine waves, no overtones per harmonic: the 6-operator setup won't do it. There is capability there with so many configurations - and how it's used is up to the user. Same for the Minimoog - Moog engineers felt that more than 3 oscillators made very little difference in the sound. Serious modular synthesists would disagree.

Not to mention - analog hardware. ALL digi synths have it for output - and the choices made there by designers can drastically affect the tone of the output - otherwise all CD players would sound the same playing the same Pink Floyd record, and we know they don't! Yet another reason a Nord Modular doesn't sound like a Doepfer or Buchla... You "can do it" in software, but it will not sound the same."

Polyfusion Sound-A-Round

image via the VEMIA Auction now running.

Polyfusion Sound-A-Round Quad Panner DP-1.

The Welsh Minimoog Model E

image via the VEMIA Auction now running.

You can read a little more on the Welsh Model E here. It was produced by Alex Winter in the UK after he obtained the rights to the MOOG name.

mpc electronic analogue drums

YouTube via Iglobalhead. Sent my way via richard.
"fantastic analogue sounds from mpc electronics rare 1980's drum synth modules"
Note the manufacturer is MPC (see the MORE tag below), not Akai.

ARP 2500

via Steve of Life in Balance:

"For some unknown reason I found this photo very interesting. I came across it while surfing synth stuff. Can anyone ID the woman. I think we know what the synth is."

ARP 2500 of course.
Also anyone know the source of the image?

Update via Mark in the comments: "That is the great Eliane Radigue." I ran a quick search and found this site which has more info on her as well as this shot.

Update via John Levin in the comments: "You can get her CDs from the Lovely Music label, www.lovely.com"

Eliane Radigue trailer from Anaïs Prosaïc on Vimeo.

Mimì and SidStation

via CatSynth.com via polynominal.com.

BTW, I think Mimi is the most featured Catsynth - I gave here her a tag.

S900 Steelphon synthesizer

YouTube via aemmezero.

"Resonance and Noise games"

Steelphon S900 synthesizer demo1

"Wave, lfo & filter demo"

xenakis @ lab30

YouTube via twingaburg. via Nusonica.

"http://xenakis.3-n.de/ This video was shot at the Augsburg Media art festival lab.30 Xenakis is a multi-user instrument to stochastically create music with a tangible interface. You can control the played instruments, their rhythmic and notes by moving physical objects on a luminous table surface. The instrument has been developed by students of Software Engineering at the University of Augsburg, Germany." Similar to reactable. See labels below for MORE.