Alesis Micron FM Experimentation

YouTube via Gtechture.
"What you are hearing is Oscillator 1. The volume of OSC 2 and 3 are at 0%. They are being used to modulate the frequency of OSC 1. I have assigned "FM" Amount to knob x, "FM Type" to y and "Osc Sync" to z. I have only touched upon the FM capabilties of the micron. The end result of FM can be manipulated and is affected by an large quantity of parameters for each oscillator such as waveforms, waveshape, pitch."

minimoog demo 70's & 80's groove/breakdance basslines

YouTube via lewisjp8young.
"here's a basically played demo of some of my favourite basslines from my favourite 80's songs of all time. hope they bring back memories, and hope you can guess what songs they are. there is a little bit of improvisation going on."

Knob Tweakin'

YouTube via drjackohollious.
"A little ambient break and adding subtle fx with a kaoss pad and knob tweakin."

Blotouch

via Stefan on the Waldorf List.

How cool would that be. :)

Blofeld

Richard Lainhart - Tranzducer

Seth wrote in to let me know he made it to the Tranzducer show featuring Richard Lainhart. The following are his notes and a couple of shots of the show. Thanks Seth!

"Here's a couple of photos from the Richard Lainhart show at Tranzducer last Friday.

It was a really good show. Rui Pereria did an incredible piece with looping video and audio that was both intellectually and musically interesting. Short video loops with audio snippets that went with them, mutating and overlapping and constantly changing but at the same time all related somehow. Moldover did a genius piece combining recognizable song segments in Ableton Live, custom-made MIDI controllers and an fabulous sense of humor all mixed together to create a captivating and fun performance that was also quite powerful. I didn't know what he did before I saw the show, but if somebody told me "laptop performer" beforehand I would have been maybe mildly interested. However, after seeing his custom-modded Novation controller, his creativity and his energy, I can only say it was totally rock 'n' roll!

And then came Lainhart. I don't even know where to begin. He started slow and low with long slowly changing drones and they just built and built and built until the room was completely taken over by this enormous wall of sound that was moving and changing with sound and textures and rhythms all over the place. It was amazing.

It was also nothing like any of the other things I've seen him do either live with Jordan Rudess at Moogfest or on video. With Rudess he's providing textures, backgrounds, support, an anchor, and then there's Rudess doing his virtuoso thing. And YouTube videos just can't convey the power and intensity of what an actual live performance feels like.

Plus, at the end, Lainhart and Moldover did a totally improvised and unplanned piece together.
I honestly didn't think an Ableton rhythmic loop-meister and a Buchla sound sculptor would have very much in common to play together, but it was actually a perfect combination of rhythm and texture and it totally worked.

Anyway, about the photos, I really like the blue one as a photograph, but maybe the purple one is more representative of the show. I just thought I'd pass them on and put in my 2¢ on the show."

Klee Sequencer Circuit Theory of Operation

via Scott Stites on this electro-music.com thread.

"I thought it might be a good thing to begin compiling a circuit theory of operation here. When its complete, I'll compile it into a PDF. In the meantime, if you plan to read and study this, have a copy of your schematic handy. I'll start off with the Clock and Load functions, with Load being the first function described.
=============================

Load Function

U5, CD4013, performs the load function by controlling whether the shift register ICs are in the parallel or serial mode. For 99.99% of the time, the shift registers are in the serial mode.

..." See the thread for more.

TechStuff Video on Robert Moog

via Synthtopia.

OB8 Free run

YouTube via OB8rushes.
"Basic ARP patch for the OB8, free running with a little mod on the decay of the amp and filter envelopes."

Casio DG-10 on RetroThing

One of my favorite blogs, Retro Thing, has a post up on the Casio DG-10 Synth Guitar.

"Like the multitude of keyboards before it, the Casio DG-10 is all plastic (strings included), has a rubber fretboard, multiple instrument sounds, and drum rhythms. The strings don't need tuning as the guitar works on an interesting principle. Pressing on the frets of the rubber keyboard is what selects the notes. Strumming controls the amplitude. It's actually a clever system as it side-steps the expensive and unreliable pitch-to-MIDI circuitry of the day, and it still lets you perform slides and taps just like on a real electric guitar." click here for the full article.

Oberheim Matrix-6R Manual

click here for a pdf of the Oberheim Matrix-6R Users Manual on www.synthesizer.at. Note that this one takes a bit to load, so don't click on it unless you really want it, and if you do, you might want to save it (right click save as). Marking this post with Matrix-6 as well for anyone looking for the manual.