MATRIXSYNTH

W. Palm 'Der kleine'

click here for the flickr set by janvanvolt.

W. Palm as in Wolfgang Palm of PPG

YouTube via inducejack. via a new blog, Chicago Jack (check it out).
"SUPER FOUL 707 JACK WITH REVOLUTION 303 emulation accompanied with a random arpeggio from the infamous pss 480 triggered electribe style."

MOOG CEMS X-Y Controllers

currently up for auction on VEMIA.
"RA Moog X-Y controllers all in a row. These five, serial numbers 1002-5 and 1008, are part of the CEMS custom Moog system. Joel Chadabe and the other guys who used the system would set up elaborate interacting sequences with the eight 960/962s, delays, VC mixers etc., and then tweak them with these joysticks."
follow up to this post. To see all VEMIA posts to date, click here.

RMI Harmonic Synthesizer

currently up for auction on VEMIA.

RMI KC - Keyboard Computer Synthesizer

currently up for auction on VEMIA.

79 - put it on wax. (Kaoss pad sampling + Electribe EMX-1)

YouTube via atishmeh.
"Going crazy w/ the Kaoss pad and some Beastie Boys samples..."

NB4 Square wave Synth Oscillator By Oceanus

YouTube via xd515 (click for more).
"Here is Noise box 4. A dual processor controlled super squarewave synthesizer"

Circuit Bent Modular Casio SK-1

images via this auction. via Xavier. Note the auction is over. Don't miss the video below.

"Internal Signal Routing
The SK-1 has 4 voices and percussion. Each voice is made up from an audio signal and an envelope control signal, which are combined to give the end voice. This module allows you to switch on or off any of the 4 voice audio paths, any of the 4 envelope control signals and the percussion. The patch panel then lets you have for instance, voice 2 under the envelope control for voice 4. You can then patch the percussion audio into the envelope control for one of the voices, which gives sustain effects or patch it into the audio signal and it gates the percussion with the keys, so the percussion sounds only while a certain voice is active. You can even swap the audio and envelope control signals over, which gives a buzzing / click type noise when you press a key.

Audio Filters / Level
This module modifies the filters where the envelope control signal and the audio signal are combined to make the end voice. The knob is in 2 stages where it controls the level of the audio signal, but keep turning it and it then affects the filter. The control will take the tone and ‘squash’ it so for instance the bass line in the demo song, rather than a contiuous note turns into a blip, or stacatto effect. Very hard to describe but appears in the video at 2:28 sounds a bit like it is playing backwards. There is a knob for each of the 4 channels, and another knob for patching. The patch knob connects to 2 patch points, the idea is that one side connects to anywhere on the signal routing module, and the other goes off to the main patch panel allowing all the digital signals to be combined with the audio ones. In the video it is applied to the bass line and removed at 2:09 which gave it a ‘metalic’ twang, but that just depends where you plug the patch cables in.

Outputs
This module brings all the 4 voices and percussion sounds and a video signal to the outside world. The SK-1 has lots of low pass filters / anti-aliasing filters inside before the final sound reaches the speaker / rear connector jack. The connectors on the top are pure unfiltered audio, which sound much brighter and if you are lucky enough to have a good mixing desk you can add your own EQ / FX to each voice. Likewise Casio have heavily attenuated the bass audio in the accompiamnents but now you just take it at any level you want from channel 3.

Pitch and Video
This module gives overall pitch control for the SK-1 and deals with video generation. The pitch control raises the pitch and has it’s own on / off control. The video control is on/off and contrast, plus a patch input. If you patch a signal from the main patch panel, it combines it with the video ouput giving a range of displays. It also alters the sound when patched in, as the data signals are now going through video circuitry it creates glitchy patterns, weird notes etc.

Patch Panel
This is the core for all SK-1 circuit bends, a lot of bent SK-1’s have a load of switches attached, the switches all connect to the RAM and ROM inside the keyboard to alter the sound. Here there are no switches, it is up to you to patch a wire across or use the bend sequencer. The patch panel has 25 connection and it mirrors the RAM and ROM address bus and data bus, plus a few other signals. You can link 2 or 3 points out directly, wire them across to the signal routing patch panel or sequence them.

Bend Sequencer
This allows you to automate the patch panel. When switched on, each LED lights in turn, and the patch connector below each LED becomes active. If you connect any of these to the patch panel, when the LED lights up it energises the patch panel switching the bend on and off. Depending on how many of the 10 auto bends and where you put them, you can have gentle modulations to the sound ( at the end of the clip there are some block chords with a gentle auto bend applied ), or severe random noise mayhem. Sadly I can only have 10 minutes on youtube and I no where near demonstrated what this is capable of, I just fiddled with it a bit!

Modular Casio SK-1 Circuit Bent by Oceanus

YouTube via xd515.
"Here is a Casio SK-1 comprehensively bent into a fully modular synthesizer. Includes bend sequencer, whole control of all internal audio and envelope control routing, video output, each audio channel output, percussion output. Sadly in a 10 minute video you can only show a fraction of what this can do :-("

New Order Synth List

Nord Wave Now Officially Shipping

via Clavia. Follow up to this post. It looks like the Nord Wave is now shipping.

"The Nord Wave is built on a legacy of making virtual analog synthesizers for almost 15 years. Virtual means “not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so”. Nord synthesizers are digital, but behave, feel and sound like analog synthesizers. An analog oscillator is limited to generating a few basic waveforms, and though we can add LFOs, EGs, and different filter types to make the patch more complex, the foundation of the sound is limited to what the oscillator can produce. Think of it like a highway - you don’t get more lanes by adding lots of access ramps. On the Nord Wave we have not only added a fast lane, but rebuilt the entire highway into a roller coaster. The magic is in the Wave’s oscillators, which produce far more than standard analog waveforms. This is a concept we have been working on since the first Nord Lead synthesizer introduced in 1995, and currently includes: - Traditional analog waveforms such as Square, Triangle, Saw and Sine; -

Frequency Modulation, or FM-synthesis, generating very complex and metallic waveforms; - Wavetables: single cycle waveforms with large variations in tonal character; - Sampled waves: Sampled acoustic instruments turned into wavetables with the attack portion of the sample intact; - User replaceable samples: standard .wav-files used as oscillator sources in a virtual analog environment; Filters are great for shaping your sound. We have included not only the basic filter types, but some really interesting multimode filters as well, including a Comb filter and formant filter. The ultimate form of sound-shaping, though, is Morphing: the ability to assign multiple sound parameters, each with custom ranges, to a single performance controller, such as the modulation wheel or a control pedal. It is a very intuitive and extremely powerful feature (just the way we like it), and will change not only your playing but also your approach to sound design. Featuring the ability to use any type of sampled waveforms, the Nord Wave is a sample player and an analog synthesizer in one - and anything in between. Like driving a Ferrari Enzo on the open Autobahn, tangible response and brilliant sound just can’t be described in words - you just have to experience it. More information at the Product pages."