Tiptop Audio - Z-DSP

YouTube via thedeepelement
"www.trashaudio.com Gur of Tiptop Audio sent me his very own Z-DSP to show off at the Trash_Audio synth meet and while I have it in my grasp, a lot of time is being spent with the Z-DSP and with permission I am making a video of some of those moments. The sound of this module fits into my setup perfectly and while it does beautiful delays and reverbs, I can only imagine what the future holds for the open source programming."

via Gur on TRASH_Audio:
"The Z-DSP will be supplied with the Dragonfly Delay card. There are several more cards in development, it is theoretically endless as the Z-DSP is an audio microcomputer that like any computer all it needs is different softwares to perform an infinite array of features. Right now the cards I'm developing are reverbs, more types of delays, CV processing, LFOs, DCOs and a few others. I just finished testing a digital ring modulation and it sounds very different from analog. The next card to be available is the Bat Filter, a collection of 8 VCDF (VC digital filters), its a killer set of filters!
There is also a programmer that will be available. It is a USB device that goes into the card slot of the Z-DSP and there is a PC code development environment that connects to it. This programmer allow users to either write their own programs, share with others, or download some free algorithms that are available online. This programmer will be sold separately and will require signing a NDA that is made to protect the IP of both TTA and the user against anyone who might want to take advantage of the 'open source' approach to copy algorithms from the cards and use them for commercial use."

canon EOS 500d - first steps

YouTube via SCHAAFJOERG Jörg Schaaf
" I recently bought a canon EOS 500d (Rebel T1i). Just received it two days ago and started some video shootings. I hope, that gives you an impression how nice the quality of the videomode is - and believe me or not - the photoshooting is even better. All scenes have been filmed through a cheap EF 50mm, f1,8 lense. This lense sells for under 100 euro on ebay. I think it is a good starting point for indoor videos.

I choosed the 720p/30fs mode - that gives better results in my opinion than the 1080p mode with 20 f/s.

Come on canon - give us full control over aperture and iso settings and I am just satisfied. Even some cheap bridge cameras already offer that.

The book I am reading is the german "Das Profi-Handbuch zur Canon EOS 500d" book - it contains some good tips and hints for better videos and workarounds for current firmware restrictions.

The music has been recorded on a Radikal Technologies,Inc Spectralis 2 synthesizer straight from the main audio outputs."

Thingmamgoop 2 Droid Army

flickr by Dr. Bleep
via the Bleep Labs blog:
"X-mas orders are full! Thanks to everyone who made the Thingamagoop 2 pre-launch a success.

You can still make an order for Thingamagoop 2 but all orders placed after November 21st will ship the second week of January.
If you’d like to be notified of any changes, email drbleep@bleeplabs.com to get on the mailing list or follow the Bleep Labs twitter.

You can also purchase our fine wares in stores worldwide."

Cool Son: BarbieWire Live @ Box Salon

YouTube via BarbieWireMusic
"BarbieWire performs Cool Son live at the Box Salon in Toronto on October 21st, 2009. Cinematography by the marvelous Mark Ellam. Special thanks to Zen Film Labs, Louise Bak, and Robin McKenna."

Synare Ad

flickr by darklorddisco

Legendary Arp Odyssey Lumina with Phil Cirocco / CMS LED Sliders

via this auction

You might recognize this one from this post. ARP Odyssey Lumina modded by Phil Cirocco of CMS

"It may sound hyperbolic, but, I sincerely believe this to be the finest Arp Odyssey on earth.

This Odyssey sat in Phil Cirocco's personal collection, selected by him as the ideal candidate for the nearly obscene LED-slider retrofit, the first ever done, and it is, indeed, beautiful.

A white face Odyssey, it is already among the best. However, Phil took it as far as one can. This is the very same ARP 2800 shown on Phil's site here:

http://www.discretesynthesizers.com/arptronics/arp2800.htm

Upgrades...

The most obvious upgrade to this Odyssey is with the sliders. Every slider has been replaced with a new sort of slider which contains color-coded LEDs appropriate to the Odyssey heritage. These sliders feel incredible, they move beautifully and sit where they're left... it is an entirely different experience using an Odyssey with sliders this clean and precise. It is truly a player's synth, now.

There are some lovely touches with this upgrade: the LFO slider blinks at the LFO rate, as do both envelope slider LED sets, brightening and darkening in time with the envelope. Beautiful.

The CMS audio path and filter upgrades have also been applied. Filter cutoff range is lifted from a mere 11khz to 28khz. The audio path upgrade cleans the entire signal path, the bass clarity is absolutely terrifying, to neighbors, pets and your recording tools.

The power supply has been rebuilt to last another twenty years.

Other upgrades: the turbo switch has been added for incredibly fast envelope response and there are input jacks for CV and gate control of the instrument (shown in the photographs to the right) - wonderful for use with analog sequencers and MIDI to CV converters of all kinds."

Synton Fenix

via this auction
"incredibly rare Synton Fenix modular synthesizer. I believe that 75 of these were made, prized by their owners and rarely found for sale. Designed by the (in)famous Synton team in Holland, this is easily one of the most flexible and comprehensive modular synthesizers ever designed. They kept this instrument interesting throughout - each oscillator, LFO, envelope and so forth are very different. The noise source is incredibly flexible, the ring modular isn't vanilla at all and there are plenty of thoughtful little tricks throughout which surface as you spend time with the machine.

The Encore Expressionist is, in my opinion, the nicest MIDI to CV converter around. It provides eight CV outputs and eight trigger/gate outputs. These outputs can be used for notes, bound to MIDI CCs, grouped up for polyphony, assigned to additional LFOs which the Expressionist provides via software, with a very, very easy to understand interface. The workflow of this device is very nice, it stays out of the way, and can be used to interface with all sorts of devices aside from the Fenix. It even understands S-Trig for Moog devices!"

Cyndustries / Modcan A Milton Sequencer

via this auction

"16 x 4 *Powerful* Analog Sequencer for Modcan A
Hen's teeth to find today, for auction is a Cyndustries-brand Milton sequencer in Modcan A format.

This Milton is of the revision with CV inputs for sweeping through sequencer stage."

Sold For: 0 bids

Access Microwave I Programmer

via this auction

"rare Access Music programmer for the Waldorf Microwave I."

Signal Arts MAPS Sequencer

via this auction

"The MAPS is a killer 8 step analog sequencer. It handles 16 banks of 8 sequences, able to run multiple concurrent sequences, chaining sequences to other sequences, modulating sequences by each other, and sending the sequencer output to any of three cv+gate pairs as well as up to 32 channels of MIDI.

Sequences can run at different speeds from each other, sync'd to external trigger, external clock, each with different step lengths. Each step can send modulation data, of course!

Sequences can also be triggered to play from the buttons on the front. Very playable!

It's a bit of a swiss army knife in that it can speak both MIDI and CV at the same time. The CV can talk to anything: S-Trig for Moog, V/Oct as well as the Korg Hz/Oct standard."