MATRIXSYNTH

Osmos (for iPhone) Now Avaialable

YouTube via HemisphereGames | July 27, 2010

"http://www.hemispheregames.com A little hands-on sneak-peak of Osmos on the iPhone"

The iTunes download button below takes you to Hemisphere Games where you'll find both the iPad and iPhone versions of Osmos. The iPhone version "feature[s] full Retina display and iOS 4.0 support, along with all the familiar features from the iPad version: addictive, physics-based gameplay, fluid multitouch controls, lush, flowing visuals, and a chill, ambient electronic soundtrack. ...priced at (the low, iPhone-market style) $2.99."

This is one great way to decompress and just chill out. Great game. I have the iPad version and just downloaded the iPhone version for when I don't have my iPad with me.

Guitar Pickup Simulator

This one in via Tom Whitwell of Music Thing. BTW, you can now follow him on Twitter.

"My latest DIY thing - good for plugging synths into stompboxes and guitar amps.

Simple passive circuit in a 1590a box.

Circuit comes from this article by Jack Orman: www.muzique.com/lab/pickups.htm

It's half a 10k audio transformer (a Triad TY-141P), a standard guitar volume/tone circuit with orange drop .1uf cap, then a 10ohm carbon comp cap and a 470pf cap to simulate a long cable run.

Basically, it rolls off some top end, but also makes the impedance of whatever source you plug it into a bit more like a guitar pickup.

So, synths sound better through stompboxes, particularly finickity fuzz boxes. It's also a bit like a DI box...

The switch selects no/half/full transformer coils. A bit like single coil v humbucker pickups."

flickr by Tom.Whitwell

Roland to Announce New Products Sept. 1st & Traveling Exhibit

"ROLAND TO REVEAL FALL 2010 PRODUCT LINEUP

Los Angeles, CA, August 3, 2010 — Roland Corporation U.S. is pleased to announce an exclusive online launch event, Roland Connect.

On September 1, 2010, all worldwide joint ventures of Roland Corporation will simultaneously announce a new and innovative lineup of musical products via a unique web exhibition at http://www.RolandConnect.com. This coordinated effort across all branches of Roland Corporation, with headquarters in Hamamatsu, Japan, is meant to promote worldwide brand awareness and cohesion across the entire company.

The web exhibition is currently staged at http://www.RolandConnect.com. On September 1, RolandConnect.com will be transformed into an interactive, engaging experience for musicians seeking to learn about the latest Roland products."

and...

"ROLAND AND THE GRAMMY® MUSEUM LAUNCH “INSTRUMENTS OF ART” TRAVELING EXHIBIT

Los Angeles, CA, August 5, 2010—Roland U.S. and The GRAMMY Museum are proud to announce Instruments of Art, a traveling exhibit debuting at Westfield Palm Desert, a popular shopping destination in the Coachella Valley. The one-of-a-kind, 1,000 square-foot exhibit features an interactive display of Roland’s state-of-the-art electronic musical instruments, alongside 33 never-before-displayed photographs of artist performances at The GRAMMY Museum.

The interactive portion of Instruments of Art recreates Roland LIVE, a permanent exhibit at The GRAMMY Museum in downtown Los Angeles. In both locations, visitors can try their hand at playing a variety of Roland’s innovative electronic instruments, inviting them to explore and think critically about how today’s music is crafted. Instruments on display at Westfield Palm Desert include the Lucina AX-09 Shoulder Synthesizer, the HPD-10 HandSonic® Percussion Pad, HD-1 V-Drums® Lite, SP-404SX Sampler, as well as BOSS® guitar effects and BOSS VE-20 Vocal Performer.

The photographs on display depict some of the most memorable performances to grace The GRAMMY Museum’s 200-seat sound stage, including noteworthy artists like Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson, Annie Lennox, Smokey Robinson, the Jonas Brothers, and Tom Morello.

Open to the public and free of charge, Instruments of Art will be on display at Westfield Palm Desert through August 15, 2010. After that, the exhibit travels to other Westfield Mall locations throughout Southern California.

For more information, visit www.RolandUS.com/Westfield."

Alex Chechile portable rig: Nuclear Football

flickr set by alexchechile
(click for more)

You might remember this one from these posts (scroll).

via Analogue Haven's flickr feed.

Insides of an Elka EK-22

flickr by robo_lasers

"One of the voices on this Elka is bad. I thought it was the CEM 3396 chips but not really as it turns out. Still trying to figure out the cause."

(click for more)

Snazzy FX: Mini-Ark, Tracer City and Wow and Flutter

via Kayzer on Harmony Central

"I picked these babys up on Friday from Thilo who is running the German Pedal shop effektboutique, props to this guy for getting me the Snazzy Landmines from the very first batch! Its probably the heaviest New Pedal Day of my life since these Boxes are Gigantic and Heavy as f**k! They are very well made and will properly withstand a 3rd world war…

The Mini Ark is an analog harmoniser, synth style pedal that adds up to 3 harmonies to your guitar signal, variouse vibrato shapes and noisy soundscapes, infinite hold of harmonies via infinity switch (while still be able to play over the hold note), sustain mode holds the note you are playing until you play a new one that will be hold and so on… The Mini Ark also has a CV out, that means you can connect it to the CV in of other pedals and control these. That’s a pretty sick feature and I will get a demo of this up as soon as possible… The Tracking is quite nice and the sound is very thick n chewy…!

The WOW and Flutter could be described as Envelope Pitch Vibrato Delay! It can be used as a normal delay or delay with a nice amount of modulation but where the pedal really shines are sick twisted down pitched repeats depending on how hard you pick… While playing some nice delayed and slightly picked stuff you can change your picking style and hit the strings a bit harder and stop the chord to achieve down pitched vibrato repeat insanity!

The Tracer City is probably the Pedal with the most knobs and switches I ve ever seen in my whole live. I will come up with a demo of this beast later since time was short and I focused on doing demos for the other 2 pedals! Feel free to subscribe to my youtube to dont miss these upcoming clips...

Dan Snazzle watched my videos and asked me about sharing his thoughts and additional infos with you. Here we go:

Quote:
"'Hi this is Dan with some answers to questions

1. The wow and flutter is a digital delay that is analog voiced. You can set it to do very basic normal delay.

2. The mini-ark can work for fast input signals (nintendo sounds, drum beats, etc) BUT you have to set the gate/sustain switch to GATE and mess with the INPUT SENS control. (all sources act a bit differently) and put the magical selector into preset one.

Also, you want to turn the HOLD knob to zero in those cases. The knob labelled HOLD is a normal octave down that is taken BEFORE the Octave and Interval switches. So it is much dirtier and is great for having an octave once you kick in the infinite turn on but often just adds grunge to the input (which is sometimes a great thing and sometimes makes it harder to get clean tracking)

I noticed in Dennis's videos that it was turned up. There is nothing wrong with turning it up BUT you get a much different sound when you turn it down. I also like to mess with using mainly dirty input and just a hair of octave and interval. There are so many ways you can change your sound buy just using the mixer section.

Also, depending on how high you set the octaves, you get a much more "normal" sound that responds differently. Presets 2-8 are meant for vibrato and will not track as quickly since they arent meant to.

thanks so much guys!!! and thanks dennis for the great videos!

dan'"

see this post for the videos

via Analogue Haven's flickr feed.

"Three new pedals from Snazzy FX have arrived! For more details: www.analoguehaven.com/snazzyfx/."

CLICK FOR MORE »

Roland SH-101 & Kenton Pro Solo & 'Punisher' Skull Badge

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

Koass Pad 3 Jamming "Bizaroid" (Electronica/ Acid Jazz)

Yamaha TG33 - preset demos 1

YouTube via RanKirlian | August 05, 2010

"Yamaha TG33, desktop version of the Yamaha SY22, focus into vector synthesis while having FM synthesis too. The result is a nice and rare machine with lo-fi waveforms mixed with FM timbres, great to create ambient and new age complex pads and nice metallic, bell and pecussive sounds for industrial, noise and dark ambient.

This demo shows some TG33 presets with a little joystick edition. Reverb come on the recording process to DAW."

Live Analog Synth Jam w/ an Analogue Sequencer: ObieRack!

video upload by rezfilter | August 04, 2010

"LIVE! (Direct Audio Recording) *Wear Headphones*

Nothing mixed, just raw analog synths chained together the 'old-fashioned' way.

Playing w/ the new customized Studio Electronics ObieRack + a few other fun analog toys. Analogue Solutions Oberkorn is the analog sequencer here running all three analog synths simultaneously: Roland 100m, Sequential Circuits Pro One, and SE ObieRack. Oberkorn is also controlling filters on the ObieRack. The ObieRack is patched out extensively in the back (16 patch points) to interface w/ other modular gear - note the custom gray faceplate on the Oberheim SEMs. Lovely."