MATRIXSYNTH

M4M - The making of "Can of Worms" + 1st performance (whacking a pattern on the ESX1)

YouTube via muzik4machines
"MP3: http://muzik4machines.com/muzik/4/mac...
Jump to 3:16 for just the song
another on the fly whacking of a pattern on the ESX, timecoded (took about 25 minutes to prepare it, then played it for about 5 minutes, edited out the boring bits(note copy, octaves, etc)"

General Music No More

http://www.generalmusic.com

via AH: GeneralMusic declared bankruptcy laying off 75 workers

Their official website appears to just have you see here on the left. It's sad to see any synth company go under. Condolences to all at General Music.

Update via antonio on the AH list: "I received a couple of requests about Generalmusic history and in the meantime I received an email from Roberto of VIEI yahoo group (italian synth and organs) that I'm translating (kind of :D )here:
Generalmusic moved first steps thanks to an accordion built in 1890 in the Antonio Galanti artisan laboratory with the help of 3 sons a company was created: the award-winning factory Galanti accordions. After accordions they started crafting classical and electric guitars (much
later). In 1959 the 3 brothers founded in Mondaino the General Electro Music (GEM) company. At the start they worked for other companies like Baldwin, Thomas, Vox with no internal brand.
In 1966 they created the first branded GEM instrument: the "Minigem", a portable electronic organ. It was a big success and they decided to expand creating other 2 companies the "Intercontinetal Electronics" and in San Marino, "Titanic Music". In Marignano, where is the current (closed) factory, they created the "Laboratorio Elettroacustico Musicale" (LEM) specialized in amplifiers. In 1987 GEM acuires the ELKA brand and 1994 changes the name in GeneralMusic (GEM, LEM and ELKA). Other brands acquired during those years are pianos Schulze Pollmann, (plant Fermigliano) and church organs Ahlborn in 1992. During the 80s and 90s the company had about 450 workers. Many analog keyboards were created under the GEM brand: Pk4900 a Gem synth, the Instapiano, Instastring and many others (I guess Peter Forrest would be more precise than me!).

now seems really the end of the story...

thanks (to Roberto)

antonio"

Keyfax 2

via this auction. Note this is a VEMIA listing.

"Extremely rare - not surprising as it was published nearly 23 years ago and not re-printed... A comprehensive guide to keyboards and synthesizers from the 70s up until 1986, 240 pages, and, at 7 x 10 inches, larger format than, for instance, the A-Z books. By far the best of the Keyfax editions if you like old analogue stuff. Loads of reviews of analogue classics, as well as some of the interesting old digital stuff of the era such as Fairlights, Synclaviers, and Yamahas. The next revision (Keyfax 3) loses quite a few of the most interesting and obscure synths, while the previous one came out before a lot of the late analogue classics, so this one is definitely the one to go for. (This edition unfortunately loses a few compared with the first edition, including the Polymoog - but J.C. so hated that synth after being given one for a gig when he'd asked to hire a Prophet 5, that there's not much loss.)"

Stephen Parsick's Cambrium

"'cambrium - music for protozoa' was music for a planetarium programme which was composed and conceived in the second half of 2008. The original idea was to record an album which was based entirely on the sounds created on only an ARP 2600 synthesiser with matching sequencers, utilising extensive analogue and digital processing, loop devices, and various treatments. To me, it was like making electronic music the way an old-fashioned pioneer of the genre would have in the 1950s or 1960s, just using a very basic synthesiser, a couple of tape recorders, a splicing block, and whatever outboard gear the studio had available."
You can listen to four of the tracks on site.

Siel DK- 70 Synthesizer with Moogslayer Modification

YouTube via hilltree
"Moogslayer modification schematics on my site www.groenewoudnet.nl"
Note you usually hear the moog slayer mod in reference to the KORG Poly-800.

Ensoniq ESQ-1 programming 1

YouTube via lesingemonotone
"Reprogramming the 1st preset-piano on the Ensoniq ESQ-1 into something more appropriate. The ESQ-1 is certainly on of the easiest synths to program despite its' lack of dedicated knobs."

Predictive Music Synthesizer - Plays all possible digital sounds without a computer

YouTube via VironCybernet
"Unlike the "Pandora's Box" Synthesizer, which is more melodious but exponentially redundant, this axiomatically rather than theoretically generates all binary strings at a break-even point. Starting at zero and counting until it reaches a state that would fill all of a computer's memory with bits that are all ones, it is guaranteed to generate all possible binary strings in order, including programs and data, but here applied only to the digital sound of all of those strings. It sequentially outputs each digit of Champernowne's Constant using logic. Discovered in 1927 by David Champernowne and Alan Turing, the CC is known to contain all possible digital data and is obviously prior art to all possible digital sounds. Which means, no new digital sound was ever invented nor recorded nor ever will be. Although this demo doesn't sound very good, math is known which has actually been used to find music by calculating and playing a specific series of digits of this number. The number's intrinsic sound has musical characteristics that are not easy to hear in this video, with rhythm more prominent than melody. A small knob is turned to adjust the very high sampling rate, the prominent buzzing sound is actually the rate at which this circuit is playing unique sounds (as each string of digits, which is each a unique whole number counted in order) in fast-forward. I think most people would agree that this demonstration does not play any good music in this video, but nonetheless it is a matter of fact that the process in progress does generate all possible digital music by definition. Inspired by the millenium music copyright controversy, this method of generating sound seems turn the idea of digital copyrights into complete nonsense, since it needs no memory nor copies to extract all possible data from a number already known to contain the entire infinite set of it."

Computer Motherboard Fractal with Sound

YouTube via VironCybernet. see Viron Cybernet's YouTube channel for more.
"Hundreds of fractals have been discovered and tested for musical qualities. This one resembles an infinite plane of circuit board and in the process of displaying it, each pixel plotted is also output to the speaker at the same time. This one was discovered and labeled XAX(23,13). Another, XAA(23,13) differs by only one logical function operator and looks like an alien hieroglyphic font. These were discovered, ot designed. Any resemblance of the fractal to an electronic circuit board is entirely unexpected."

Gingerbread Man Fractal with Sound

"Experiment. The gingerbread man fractal is demonstrated both visually and with audio output. The sound of this fractal obviously lacks any pleasant musical qualities. Hundreds of fractals have been discovered and tested for musical characteristics like this."