Sequential Circuits Split-Eight

images via this auction
"The Split-Eight has a gritty and raw sound with a lot of character that suits many styles of music. Bass sounds are tremendous. Has Poly Modulation just like the Prophet 5 giving it some unique and unusual tonal variations. The filters are warm with some beautiful high-frequency spectral movement when resonnance pushed to the edge.
• Eight Analog Oscillators - Saw, Tri, Pulse
• Pitch, Pulse Width, and Poly Modulation
• Eight 24db Curtis Low Pass Filters with Resonnance
• ADSR Filter Envelope
• DADSR Amplifier Envelope
• LFO with Square, Triangle Waveforms
• Wicked Fat Unison Mode
• Built-in Analog Stereo Chorus
• Five Octave Keyboard (not velocity sensitive)
• Split/Doubled Keyboard Voice Assignment
• Program Linking
• Separate A/B/Mix Audio Outputs
• Built-in Grounded Power AC Power Cable
• Newly Replaced Storage Backup Battery"

The Multi-Trak, Six-Trak, MAX, and Split-Eight as share the same synth engine.

Studio Electronics Code 8

images via this auction

Note the binary background.

"Studio Electronics Code 8 OD. It's the ultimate true analog synthesizer, like having eight discrete monophonic synths from the 70's/80's era (you know, the sound EVERYONE looks for?) built into a rack unit. With all that sound, the instrument is amazingly flexible, and those 8 huge voices can be stacked, merged, split up, or run multi-timbrally, any way you want. Built in Moog and Oberheim-style analog filters (you can choose between them for EACh VOICE!)... really nice design with easy to use front panel. Studio Electronics took their worshipped Omega 8 synth, and put a bunch of extras into it. The new "OD" models give you classic analog amp overdrive for each voice. The analog experts at Studio Electronics took their classic Omega Engine and couple of fresh ideas to come out with the NEW C O D E Synthesizer. Two new great features on the CODE Synth are the sinewave generators and the new filter control section. New Sinewave Generator features. Each voice now has a sinewave on oscillator 1 expanding the sound possibilities of the synth. One of the key new features on the C O D E is the Filter Control section, which allows you to sweep through all the filter types in real time with complete MIDI control. The switches in the Filter Control section give momentary control of assignable parameters. The Filter Control Section
· Sweep through all the filter types in real time.
· Increase or decrease the filter frequency.
· Increase the envelope amount.
· Increase the resonance amount.
· Filter ENV Delay.
· Invert the filter envelope.
· "CUT" Filter Decay.
· Works on the CODE synth engine or external input. The 8 voice version is configured as a 8 input or quad filterbank. 
Bank 3 "The Riot" bank included (a $139 value!) Bank 4 All New "Cadix" bank included (a $189 value!)"

live setup

flickr by mtritter

full size

Orpheus Music to Shut Down

Sad news in the blogosphere today. Orpheus Music has just put up a post announcing that "This blog has attracted the attention of an 'unwanted party' and, as a consequence (to save me from any potential trouble), will be closed and deleted in the next couple of days."
If you haven't checked out Orpheus Music, do so while you can. You will find tons of classic synthesizer based albums of times past. The post does not go into detail as to why. So sad that all of this information will be lost.

HardSID 4U

"The HardSID 4U is the most powerful SID synthesizer since the legendary C64!

* USB connection (compatible with both 2.0 & 1.1)
* Isochronous USB endpoint for low-latency audio
* VSTi interface with 8000Hz update rate on all SID registers (free)
* Wave-in VSTi pin for routing 8000Hz signals to any registers (example: playing other VSTi's sound on the volume register)
* Full automation of all VSTi parameters
* Superior sound quality (..it is a HardSID!)
* Support for up to four SID chips (6581/8580/6582 in any combination)
* Updateable firmware over USB
* Microsoft Vista compatible (drivers for Win2000/XP/Vista)

..and if you're a C64 fan

* Cycle-accurate playback of your favorite SID tunes
* Digitized sound + high-speed playback with low CPU utilization
* Seamless playback of .sid tunes while you work on your PC by providing a huge playback buffer for non-VSTi applications"

http://www.hardsid.com/

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KP3 as a MIDI Controller

YouTube via Denkitribe. Sent my way via fischek.
"Ableton Live with KORG KAOSS PAD KP3.

Stage6 version: http://stage6.divx.com/content/show/1...

In "EXT CTRL" mode, KP3 acts as a MIDI controller. It has eight virtual sliders, fourteen keys, one slider and volume. These controllers are assignable to any MIDI notes or CCs using KP3-Editor (PC software).

KP3 is not just a multi effector; It is also a MIDI controller with nice LED illumination :) I think KP3 is one of most cost-effective gears in the current market."

The Chemical Brothers Win Grammys and Their Modular Setup

Image via The Chemical Brothers website. I found this under Good Things, where you will also see Matrixsynth listed. Yeah I like to think this site is a good thing. :)

Pictured: ARP 2600, Roland System 700 Modular, Doepfer, Plan b, Cwejman, Livewire Modular

And the real reason for this post? The Chemical Brothers won both Best Electronic/Dance Album and Best Dance Recording in this years 2008 Grammys. Congrats guys! Very, very cool. You can see who they were up against here.

The Album: We Are The Night
on Amazon





The Recording: Do It Again
on Amazon






Do It Again - The Chemical Brothers


Chemical Brothers - Salmon Dance - Just had to through this one in.

Update via Mike Brown of Livewire:
"just thought I'd pass along some info regarding the chems... oddly enough, that photo they have on their site of their modular setup is considerably out-of-date... they actually have a much, MUCH bigger modular system now...

the system was designed by shawn cleary & myself and is a multi-format system with MOTM/modcan, frac & eurorack... it stands about 5 feet tall by nearly 4 feet wide if I remember correctly... the cabinet was constructed out of black walnut by flames brennan (who also fabricated the NIN case)...
the hardware & power distribution were built by mat mitchell & me. should also mention that a *bunch* of other people helped... andrew & antonio at analogue haven, steve r, nuryah ben-el & ken reeves to name a few.

I've been waiting for them to post photos of it... but haven't seen any so far. also, I heard from mat that they were using it on-stage during their last tour, but haven't seen pics of that either..."

Analogue Systems rs95 oscillator tracking demonstration

YouTube via bigcitymusic
"Here is a demo of the Analogue Systems rs95 analog oscillator played along with the rs370 digital oscillator (for reference). This test shows the amazing accuracy of the scaling on the rs95 oscillator."

Vivian plays keyboards?

flickr by * YUKO_M

full size

via CatSynth.com

Anyone know what synth that is? I thought it was a Yamaha S08, but the buttons and data wheel are different.

Update via Väinö in the comments: "Pretty sure it's a Yamaha S90, not the ES model but an older one: link"

How a VCO Works

Sequence 15 has a post up on how a VCO works. If you are interested, you can check it out here.

"So synth circuit designers, starting with Moog and Buchla in the early 1960s, long ago turned to "artificial" oscillator circuits that do not rely on natural resonance. Rather, they rely on an analog implementation of a mathematical function that can be made to increase and decrease proportionally to the control voltage. A second consideration is that a useful synth VCO is expected to output several different waveforms, so that the synth player has harmonic starting points for creating a given sound. Rather than create a separate VCO circuit for each desired waveform, it is far more cost-effective to design a VCO "core" that generates a waveform from which the other desired waveforms can be derived."