Casio VL-1

flickr by gattobus

DSI Tetra in the background.

peff monologue refill now available

"The Monologue Refill is a monophonic analogue synthesizer library for the Reason 4.0 NN-XT sampler. The sets include the standard sawtooth, square, triangle waves. Also included are a fixed rate pulse width modulation set, and hard sync sawtooth set. Other sources include, detuned pulses, frequency modulated oscillators, tuned oscillator layers, white noise, and sine wave samples from a self-oscillating resonant filter."

Full details and download at peff.com.

See the video here.

Music From Outer Space Multi Function Module

via the MFOS site. http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/
Note I spotted these on the electro-music.com forum regarding a poll. My guess is the poll was on which design to go with.

DIY Modular from neandrewthal

via the electro-music 2009 Build Pictures thread where you will find more.

"I haven't posted much in this thread because I hardly got anything done in the first 8 months and then scrambled to complete as much as possible when the school year ended. Everything in the top cabinet is from 2009. I hope to finish it in 2010."

Update: video added below


YouTube via neandrewthal. sounds like a cat at 2:12.
"Two patches, One clock" "A little melody and a whiny drone thing sing together."

New Synth DIY Project from dioioib

via this electro-music.com thread where you'll find progress updates.

The initial post from dioioib:
"I have been working on a development board for the last few months on and off which will use a pic32 as the core, integrates a 32bit dac and has headers for LCD, 64button matrix ( Monome / Tenorion ), one general I/O, microSD slot, Midi In/Out, and USB. It will include off board RAM and EEPROM. The project is almost ready for prototype.

Inventor and I were talking in the chat and he mentioned that the eChuck forum might be the right place to post this. I have been thinking of integrating a DSP into the board as well. Although I have not decided on which one at this time, I am open to dsPic, Analog Devices ADSP, or others. I would like to know what everyone thinks would be the most convenient, and flexible. Think dream Synth / Virtual Modular.

Here is an image of the board thus far its just a 3D mock-up, but I have a lot of room to work with. Unfortunately I don't believe I can make the board the same size as the existing eChuck board, due to the USB, microSD, and Midi Headers. But let me know what you think.

So would the community be interested in something like this and secondly do you have any questions, desires, or concerns?"

Note if you comment interest here, be sure to comment in the electro-music.com thread as well. That's where dioioib is tracking things. I post here for historical/FYI purposes.

Algorithm plus Algorithm

YouTube via EA78751
"Two algorithmic synthesizers performing musical duty at high speed. On the right is the 4ms Pedals Autonomous Bassline Generator. On the left is something new.

They're synchronized with IR Sync. IR sync is just a 940nm LED flashing 16th notes, and a phototransistor/opamp receiver. Feel free to use it, the schematic is here:
http://ericarcher.net/devices/ir-net"

RIP Maryanne Amacher

via Wikipedia
"She worked extensively with the physiological (not psychoacoustic) phenomenon called otoacoustic emission, in which the ears themselves act as sound generating devices. Amacher composed several "ear dances" designed to stimulate clear "third" tones coming from the listener's ears. The subtitle of her first Tzadik Records album Sound Characters (Making the Third Ear) references these "ear tones".

'When played at the right sound level, which is quite high and exciting, the tones in this music will cause your ears to act as neurophonic instruments that emit sounds that will seem to be issuing directly from your head ... (my audiences) discover they are producing a tonal dimension of the music which interacts melodically, rhythmically, and spatially with the tones in the room. Tones 'dance' in the immediate space of their body, around them like a sonic wrap, cascade inside ears, and out to space in front of their eyes ... Do not be alarmed! Your ears are not behaving strange or being damaged! ... these virtual tones are a natural and very real physical aspect of auditory perception, similar to the fusing of two images resulting in a third three dimensional image in binocular perception ... I want to release this music which is produced by the listener ...'"

Amacher & Moore 1/2

YouTube via castelolx. "clip from 'daytrip maryanne'"

The following is an excerpt from this obit by Alvin Curran:
"Maybe it was at the N.Y.U. electronic music studio in an old movie house on Fourth Street in the late 1960s. Mort Subotnick invited her; she slept in a kind of mop closet with her precious tapes, magnetic, bubbly, bizarre, but hard-wired to things I was just beginning to intuit.

Or was it 1970, when she piled into Frederic Rzewski’s mother’s car, all bundled up, aviator cap and all, along with Serge Tcherepnin and Anthony Braxton to whiz off from the Upper West Side on a brief Musica Elettronica Viva early spring tour of Midwestern colleges? These were long hauls on Interstate 80, wet roads, stoned passengers, utopian destinations, laughing singing rapping hyping. Nothing mattered it seemed, except that the youthful skins we were all wrapped in should bestow us eternal life and that the world out there should be waiting for the revolution we were about to deliver from the contents of the trunk of this vintage car."

Maryanne Amacher


Maryanne Amacher on Wikipedia
http://www.maryanneamacher.org
This one in via Brian Comnes.

Update via Michael Trigilio in the comments:
"Truly an inspiration - - I worked briefly with her while a graduate student. My collaborative radio project, Neighborhood Public Radio, is doing a piece in homage to Maryanne called HOLD YOUR PHONE UP for a show at the contemporary museum in Baltimore - - - anyone can call 1-888-361-4NPR and we'll process the sounds we hear (in honor of her seminal City Links projects)."

orange sunshine tribute by properboy

YouTube via theproperboy
"this is the first in a series of tribute pedals based on circuits that i dig. these are not clones but "remixes" of the original design with a leaning towards noise and sonic destruction. each pedal will have point to point wiring and one-off graphic and true bypass. just like the original orange sunshine there are no knobs, your instruments controls effect how much fuzz/oscillation is present."

Pink Floyd's Zoo Story Poster

Floyd 77

MOOG Minimoog (2)
SOLINA String Ensemble (ARP)
FARFISA Compact Duo
HAMMOND B3
HOHNER Clavinet D6
Wurlitzer 200

From the Animals Tour (Europe 77)

via Brian Kehew

Update via Micke in the comments: "I'm suspecting this photo was taken during the Wish You Were Here Tour in '75, because I'm pretty sure Rick Wright didn't use the Wurly nor the Farfisa compact duo on the '77 "Animals" tour."

MOOG - A Quilt by Jan Myers

"Myers-Newbury herself revealed that the origin of the name is from the Moog synthesizer, an electronic keyboard instrument invented by Dr. Robert Moog in the 1960s. She says, "I recall that Moog synthesizers had vertical bands of colored lights (white and red, mostly) that run up and down as the music changed. Maybe I am imagining this.... but that's what I remember."

more details here. via Brian Kehew