MATRIXSYNTH

Korg MS-20

Roland SH-1000 Rare Vintage Analog Synth Book

via this auction

"This extremely rare Roland SH-1000 book is an excellent introduction to using and programming the classic analog synth - the Roland SH-1000. The book teaches you how to operate the SH-1000 in live performance with 27 musical pieces/examples which highlight the capabilities of the SH-1000 as a live performance synth.

It then with patch sheet diagrams it focuses on the synth controls of the SH-1000 and how to adjust the controls to create new patches.

This book is almost 35 years old"

Pigtronix MOTHERSHIP Analog Synthesizer

via this auction
"From Pigtronix:
Pigtronix Mothership is an analog synthesizer featuring VCO, Sub-Octave and the world’s first Intelligent Ring Modulator. Incredibly fast note recognition and enormous analog sound make this unique synthesizer ideal for use with guitar, bass, horns, vocals or any other musical instrument. No special pickup or interface is required.

At the heart of the Mothership is a newly designed note detection circuit that achieves high-speed and accurate pitch to voltage translation. The Mothership is a true analog mono-synth with a limitless array of tuning options between its voices. This pedal is capable of otherworldly tones that have never before been available in such a compact and easy to use format as well as some new sounds that reach into bizarre and uncharted musical territory. Are you ready to go there?

VCO - The main voice of the Pigtronix Mothership is a VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) that outputs either triangle or square waves. The VCO can be tuned anywhere from two octaves above the input signal to two octaves below the input signal and functions over the entire range of both 5 string bass and 6 string electric guitar. An adjustable portamento (glide) effect can be added to produce subtle slides from note to note or outrageous multi-octave glissando maneuvers. An expression pedal jack for Whammy control provides tunable pitch bending up to one octave using a standard TRS 20K Expression pedal. That’s right… ANALOG WHAMMY!

Sub-Octave – The Pigtronix octave down is massive; it will shake your house. The Sub Octave is always locked to the input signal, providing a warm and solid fundamental for whatever harmony you create with the other voices. A dedicated SUB Out jacks allows low frequencies from the Sub Octave and Ring Modulator to be sent to a separate bass amp for maximum booty.

Intelligent Ring Modulator – In designing the Mothership, Pigtronix has created something never before heard by mankind: the pitch tracking ring modulator. Tune this ring modulator to the sound you desire and it will follow every note you play, retaining the exact harmonic intervals between its output and the signal it is tracking. A “ring mod source,” switch lets the ring modulator follow either the input signal or the VCO signal, providing an immense array of analog textures and interactive harmony. The glide and whammy functions also apply to the intelligent ring modulator, letting the musician morph one harmony into another and then back again." box shot

The Voice of Saturn CEM Filter

Coming soon via The Voice of Saturn

TONEWHEELS trailer

TONEWHEELS trailer from macumbista on Vimeo.

"TONEWHEELS is an experiment in converting graphical imagery to sound, inspired by some of the pioneering 20th Century electronic music inventions. Transparent tonewheels with repeating patterns are spun over light-sensitive electronic circuitry to produce sound and light pulsations and textures. This all-analog set is performed entirely live without the use of computers, using only overhead projectors as light source, performance interface and audience display. In this way, TONEWHEELS aims to open up the "black box" of electronic music and video by exposing the working processes of the performance for the audience to see.

Derek Holzer: sounds, electronics
umatic.nl/tonewheels.html"

TONEWHEELS Cologne

TONEWHEELS Cologne from macumbista on Vimeo.
"First TONEWHEELS performance, August 25 2007 at the "Kunst & Musik mit dem Tageslichtprojektor" workshop, Molkerei Gallery Cologne, DE. Yes, I do bite the electronics and get a mouthful of 12V DC at the end!

Derek Holzer: sounds, electronics"

Neanderthal Electronics workshop, Tartu Estonia

Neanderthal Electronics workshop, Tartu Estonia from macumbista on Vimeo.
"More than 40,000 years ago, our Neanderthal ancestors invented the first music instruments from simple objects around them (bones and stones, sticks and skins...), without reference to any existing music history, and primarily for their own pleasure rather than that of others. Nowadays, we use complex audio hardware and software which make it "easier" to make music, so long as channel our creativity into such established and socially-accepted avenues as Western Classical or Minimal Techno. But some of us, deep in our hearts, still long for the Stone Age simplicity of pure noise!

In this four day workshop, which ran from 11-14 Feb 2009, ten Estonians with no previous electronics experience were shown how to use simple objects from our modern environment (resistors, capacitors, transistors, LEDs, integrated circuit chips...) to design and build their own personal, customized primitive noise synthesizers. They worked their asses off and enjoyed themselves immensely, and here are the results.

Please write to "derek" AT THE DOMAIN "umatic.nl" for more info about this workshop."

Copenhagen Noise Workshop

Copenhagen Noise Workshop from macumbista on Vimeo.
"From 2-6 February 2009, I worked with students from the Kunstakademiet in Copenhagen to create a series of personal noise devices. Here, the students and guests of the final presentation show how much pleasure you can get from your own noise!'

NAMM: WNAMM09: Plan B Model 30 Triple Digital VCO Subsystem

see Sonic State for the write-up. follow-up to this post.

General Purpose MIDI Controllers Update

Just a follow-up to this post. There's a lengthy update to the thread here for anyone interested.

Updates include:

The Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard
"Another customization that you may want to tweak is the keyboard mapping. The default layout maps about two and half octaves for the QWERTY alphanumeric keyboard, but there are some more definitions in the data directory, adapted for other international layouts. You can even define your own mapping using a dialog box available in the Edit->Keyboard map menu. There are also options to load and save the maps as XML files. The last loaded map will be remembered the next time you start VMPK. In fact, all your preferences, selected MIDI bank and program, and the controller values will be saved on exit, and restored when you restart VMPK the next time."

The Scala Home Page
"Scala is a powerful software tool for experimentation with musical tunings, such as just intonation scales, equal and historical temperaments, microtonal and macrotonal scales, and non-Western scales. It supports scale creation, editing, comparison, analysis, storage, tuning of electronic instruments, and MIDI file generation and tuning conversion. All this is integrated into a single application with a wide variety of mathematical routines and scale creation methods. Scala is ideal for the exploration of tunings and becoming familiar with the concepts involved. In addition, a very large library of scales is freely available for Scala and can be used for analysis or music creation."

And Microtonal Synthesis, home of the Wavemakers modular synthesizer.

navs.modular.lab Patch of the Day - Bugfest and Electro Harmonix Stereo Poly Chorus

Bugfest here
(bananalogue, cwejman, doepfer, livewire, plan b)

Chorus here
(processing various analogue sources - Jomox SunSyn, Cwejman, Livewire and Plan B mods).