MATRIXSYNTH

BeatMachine Fun!

YouTube via siedgey
"Hi guys,

There was a feature on the Youtube front page today of a video of a guy using "BeatMachine". It's a smart piece of software that uses your webcam to make a virtual drum machine on pretty much anything!

I set it up in about 15 mins for a laugh, it's pretty good fun! With a bit of fiddling you could import your own samples into it too.

This is a video of the first thing I did with it, sorry it's pretty dull but it shows what you can do with a large amount of geekiness and a small amount of time. :)

Simon

Original Site: http://mw.boo.pl/beatmachine/

Google Translated Site: http://translate.google.com/translate..."

Jen SX1000 Black and White

Black via this auction
With white overlays via this auction

"The Jen SX1000 was released in 1977 for £210 and was described as "A fine box for mucking around with, or for learning about Synthesis. A first class first time buy"
It was eventually discontinued in 1982.

It has a short 37 note C to C keyboard and 24 pragramming controls with which you can make your own crazy sounds, or program in some of the suggested sounds on the 7 printed sheets that sit over the controlls. The settings you can make from these sheets are as follows.
Brass 1 and 2, Hammond Organ 1 and 2, Human Voice 1 and 2, Violin, Cello, Synthesizer, Electric Drum, Piano and Flute. There is also a blank sheet which you can record your own settings."

"The SX-1000, also called the "Synthetone", is a monophonic synthesizer with a 3-octave, 37-note keyboard and a black front panel. It makes huge / fat, analogue lead and bass sounds."

Update via Till "Qwave" Kopper in the comments:
"There are no white ones. The white thing you see is a paper wit punched-out knobs to mark your own setting or the preprinted factory ones. The factories had two sounds on one card: one marked red, the other blue. You can see the red and blue names on the picture of the white one just above the keys in the middle of the keyboard range.
Just have a look at the white ones auction's rear: you can see the paper not lying perfectly flat on the front panel.

So there are no white Jen Synthetone SX 1000 known to exist, although so many claim to see one. But all pictures of white ones show these papers.

I got a Jen SX 1000 with these paper cards. A real nice beginners synth. And the filter of it is a 24 dB filter. Some people always tell it is 12 dB. Just listen to it or have a look at the schematics here.

keep on turning these knobs

Till "Qwave" Kopper"

Roland RS-09 String Synth

images via this auction

Ensoniq Mirage DSK

images via this auction

"Ensoniq Mirage DSK Vintage 8-bit Sampler Keyboard in excellent condition. Comes with startup manual, MAS-OS 3.2 disk, couple sound disks, and power cord."

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KETRON XD3

via this auction

"The XD3 is a Synth Sound Module, Drum Machine & Arranger Workstation.

Live Performer with a lot of flexibility for Midi. Perfect for the Midi Accordionist, Midi Guitarist or those wishing to expand their current line-up.

The XD3 offers all you'll need in a mid-range keyboard module with exciting features like Drum Remix, Live Drums, Midifile player and the capability to create your own styles (or load in new ones). Add on the optional Pattern expansion memory card (for even more style space), vocalizer (to add human back-ground voices to what you sing), video card (to display lyrics or screen information onto an external computer monitor) and you're 'loaded' XD3 is now able to challenge some of the higher-end module of today's market. Made in Italy with pride!"

Visit www.KetronUSA.com for Ketron info.

AD Kombinat Now Available...

"rom mild tone-shaping or adding a bit of grit to full-on total waveform destruction, Kombinat is a complete toolbox of sonic warfare. This plugin is, in our opinion, the single most annihilating effect available today.

With seven different options in each of the three distortion engines (plus pass-through), Kombinat is capable of sophisticated and unique sounds. Want to add a ring mod to the low end, a mild saturation to the mids, and a bit-reduction algorithm to the high end? No problem. Want to run your signal through three sine-warps in series? This is your box.

Kombinat's signal structure allows for a fairly broad palette of sounds, as each segment of the overall effect is a versatile tool in its own right. The Isolator is a full "DJ-style" band-killer EQ; this leads to the three distortion engines, which may be used in multi-band mode for subtle surgery, or in series mode for complete signal destruction. The engines go in to a four-pole lowpass filter of our own design, and then in to a compressor which we have configured for one-knob operation.

Taken as a whole, Kombinat is a tweaker's paradise, yet designed so that it is easy to just grab one of the 64 presets and touch it up a bit to suit the source material."

More info including samples on the Audio Damage website.

The exponential converter (also known as antilog amplifier)

MusicMiK who has brought us these excellent videos on his synthesizer DIY projects wrote in to let us know that he has created a page on the exponential converter. You can find that page and more here.

"The nature often has a logarithmic or exponential behaviour, this also applies to the human reception of volume levels and frequencies. So for the human ear, musical intervals like octaves feel like linear, but in fact are exponential. One octave is the double frequency, two octaves are four times the frequency and so on. As it is easier to handle the control of pitch in a linear way (for example using a resistor divider chain in the keyboard to convert a constant current flowing through the resistors to a linear voltage depending on the key pressed), there must be something to convert the linear control to the exponential output, like the frequency of a VCO.

This is the job of the exponential converter, which is a term commonly used in electronic music instruments, whereas the term used in other technical areas usually is antilog amplifier, as it does the opposite of a logarithmic amplifier."