Virus TIOS 4.5 public beta has landed

"2011-April-01, Recklinghausen, Germany. Access Music released a public beta version of OS 4.5 for the entire Virus TI series including the Virus TI Snow. TIOS 4.5 brings several new types of chorus effect to the Virus TI series, ranging from faithful models of renowned vintage chorus and tremolo effects, to the brand new Hyper Chorus. It also adds a authentic rotary speaker simulation and several new mod matrix sources have been implemented.

Vintage Chorus
The Vintage Chorus is an emulation of the 70’s chorus technology based on a technique known as bucket brigades, which can be considered a predecessor of today’s digital sampling technology. The Vintage Chorus covers not only the exact sound of the famous Chorus Ensemble but also many other derivatives of that era which were based on the same basic circuitry, most notably that of the built-in chorus of the Juno 60.

Hyper Chorus
The Hyper Chorus is a six- voice chorus with up to three delay lines each for the left and right side. Despite this, it is staggeringly simple to use, as it is usually only necessary to adjust only the Depth parameter to achieve a huge and warm sound.

Air Chorus
The Air Chorus is a subtle kind of chorus, as it doesn’t mix the direct sound to the processed signal. Instead, it modulates the pitch of the left and right side of the signal independently from each other. The resulting chorus sound happens in the air between both speakers, where both signals add together.

Rotary Speaker
The Rotary Speaker chorus type is an faithful recreation of the sound made by the legendary Leslie speaker. Best known for the wonderful effect it has on the sound of the Hammond organ. The Leslie speaker modulates the sound by rotating both the bass speaker drum and the tweeter horn inside a cabinet - but, crucially, they are rotated at different speeds from each other. The result is a complex example of the Doppler effect, and the way it affects the sound is magical. It’s basically like a vibrato, tremolo and chorus in one. The Leslie speaker also works surprisingly well with both electric and acoustic pianos - the result is a very distinctive sound, instantly recognisable from many iconic recordings.

New Mod Source: Analog Key
Many of us have owned a vintage analog synth at some time or another, and most of those that have will be only too aware of their tendency to become increasingly unpredictable in their behaviour. Unstable tuning and inconsistent key-tracking are just two typical symptoms of this. The funny thing is, these characterful in- stabilities can be just as inspiring as they are infuriating - it is often these little quirks that help a sound stand out in the mix. In TIOS 4.5, Access Music have provided a way to introduce some of these quirks into the Virus TI, by way of the Analog Key modulation sources. The idea is to deliberately skew the key tracking in such a way as to create inconsistency across the keyboard, but in a repeatable way. So, by this method, you can make it so that certain keys are always off pitch by a certain amount, or are duller or brighter than the keys on either side, for instance.

A public beta version of OS4.5 is available for download as of today. The download is free for existing Virus TI users. Point your browser to: http://www.virus.info/start/"

IKEA launches 3-tier kbd/synth stand "SYNTO"

"Introduction price in Sweden : 303 SEK"

via Synth Ollie

Vermona Announce Retroverb Lancet & VSR-3

via Vermona
"CRASH! The Retroverb Lancet is a lot smaller than its predecessor but don’t judge it by its size. It got a lot of improvements like the multimode filter, the overdrive, the versatile LFO and the envelope follower … and a few things more.
The Retroverb Lancet will hit the market in June 2011."

"With the VSR-3 – vintage spring reverb and the Retroverb Lancet we will show two new spring reverb units at the Musikmesse in Frankfurt next week.

The VSR-3 is straightforward and solid and adds the beloved spring reverb sound to any input signal you feed it with. It’s available shortly after the Musikmesse."

BugBrand PT Delay - Overview Demo

YouTube Uploaded by BugBrand on Apr 1, 2011

"Running through the functionality of the new PT Delay Box.

For further details check the Sound Devices section of www.bugbrand.co.uk

[Sorry about the audio quality in the 2nd half - I had to use the direct camera sound so things are quite noisy - the are high quality audio samples on the website]"

BugBrand PT Delay Demo - with TR606 & Mono/Poly

Uploaded by BugBrand on Mar 31, 2011

"A little live demo of the new PT Delay box.

The first half is tweaking around with the inputs from Roland TR606 and Korg Mono/Poly.

In the 2nd half I remove the Korg and then turn the 606 up so that it drives into the soft-clipping on the input.

For further details of the PT Delay, check the Sound Devices section of www.bugbrand.co.uk

[I recorded the audio separately from the vid-cam and sync'd them together when editing]"

Update via the BugBrand newsletter:

BugBrand News - Business BDay / PTDelay Day / Toggle Time

"Morning All,

Firstly, this is 100% *not* an April Fool!
April 1st is the anniversary of when I officially launched BugBrand - today is the 6th birthday.
And to mark the occasion I am launching something new which I am pretty excited about!

Also at the end there is mention of a wonderful Radiophonic Workshop event happening this weekend in Bristol + some associated Bug-Modular sounds.

** NEW -> The PT Delay**
http://www.bugbrand.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=103
Introducing a supremely characterful and tactile new Delay Processor based around the infamous PT2399 chip.

This is the culmination of my ongoing works with the wonderful PT Digital Delay chip - yes, the core is digital, but all the surroundings are pure analogue and they've been carefully tweaked to open up a unique variety of sonic fun.

The main features:
- two independent Delay Time settings (65mS to 2.5 Sec) with unique Toggle Time button to switch between them
- Delay Input level control with Punch In button to allow dub-style processing bursts
- Hi/Lo EQ post-delay for extreme sound shaping
- two inputs, versatile output mixing and Send/Return feedback loop
- soft-clipping stages for satisfying overload saturation
- quite an eye catching design!

Lots of demo sounds and a couple of videos now online on the website.

This will be a regular production item with batches appearing every month or two.

**Radiophonic Workshop Weekend**
This weekend at the Cube Cinema, Bristol - http://www.cubecinema.com/cgi-bin/diary/programme.pl#5656
An amazing line-up of talks, films and live performances + a kids 'What is Sound?' workshop on the Sunday.

A couple of months ago I asked BugModular users around the world to come up with Radiophonic-inspired interlude pieces and the results will be playing over the weekend.
You can also check the pieces online via the MW-forum: http://muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28584

Daren Ager took the challenge to even higher levels, making a whole album of tracks that he's now released them for digital download to support the Japan Disaster Relief fund.
http://darenager.bandcamp.com/album/bug-phonic
13 tracks for only £1.25 (though you can also donate more if you'd like)"

Rhodes Chroma Expander Performance Manual

On the excellent Rhodes Chroma site.

"This is a fairly obscure piece of documentation that, for me (Chris [21030691]) at least, came to light only a dozen years after the site began. Many thanks to Eric W. Mattei [16330105+] who brought the manual to my attention, transcribed his copy, and helped put this section together. The original manual had no graphics, and those included in this section have been adapted from the (Chroma) Performance Manual."

Dave Smith Instruments Mopho

flickr By Matt Hunsberger
(click for more)

Mopho synth art

"Love this synth. I sold this in January and bought the keyboard version.

Buy as a print here: www.society6.com/studio/teleflux/Dave_Smith_Instruments_M..."

Altbengal.

flickr By tedjames
(click for more)

follow-up to this post on Hector. I'm guessing Hector is the cat's name and Altbengal is the type. Cool pic regardless.

via CatSynth

New Korg Hardware Analog Coming to Musikmesse?

Update: pics posted here
via Ryan:
"So I just got an iPad and one of the first apps I bought was the korg ims20 app. This morning I started it up and there was a teaser message from Korg. I took a pic, it's attached."

I just checked iElectribe and it has the teaser screen as well. I wonder if this is the first product teaser ever announced in the synth world exclusively on the iPad.

KORG iMS-20 - KORG INC.
KORG iELECTRIBE - KORG INC.
iPads on eBay


Update:

New Korg MONOTRIBE! "Multi-track rhythm and drum machine" Real Analog? or April Fools?

YouTube Uploaded by VJFranzK on Apr 1, 2011

"Mystery! There's a new teaser screen when you start up KORG iElectribe or iMS20 - "Ready to tweak some real analog hardware?" yes, always! "Check out KORG.com and KORG.co.jp on April 6!" Meanwhile, the name "MONOTRIBE" has been trademarked by KORG in NY for a "multi-track rhythm and drum machine"! It seems likely that these are related - that this is the machine that we see in the photo! The controls resemble those on the recent Monotron and Kaossilator pro. Based on all of this, I would guess (or hope!) that this is an Electribe style drum machine, with a sequencer, MIDI and 1 or more mono analog voices to control! More info TBA. We've been waiting for a completely new Electribe for YEARS! let's hope."

MULTIVOX / ROLAND MX 3000 analog Synthesizer

via this auction
"Super rare MULTIVOX / ROLAND MX 3000 analog Synthesizer,
designed and build in cooperation between the two companies
this is one you might not see so soon again for sale ;)
looks very cool like old Roland synths with the rocker switches
very good for italo, disco, house, afx style and more

3 ( or better 4 ) sections:
bass synth , preset poly synth WITH FX and WITHOUT FX, solo synth
each section has it own filter and envelope (bass very basic editing)
bass basic but fat
ensemble and rotor fx for poly section (incredible strings)
different poly sounds can be combined
very powerful and round sounding solo synth, like a jupiter 4 voice on stereoids
fast lfos for far out sounds
each section hast it's own output
cv/gate for bass and solo synth"

via the comments of this post. Remember if you have an item up for auction feel free to send them in via the contact email link on the bottom right of the site. A post will go up here or on MATRIXSYNTH-B depending on the quality of the pics and rarity of the item.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Introducing the Moog Polyphonic Theremin

YouTube Uploaded by MoogMusicInc on Mar 31, 2011

"Introduced in 1928, the Theremin is one of the earliest and most widely known electronic instruments. Played artists that manipulate invisible energy fields around antennas which control the pitch and volume of the sound, Theremin music has distinguished hit records from such diverse artists as The Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin, Clara Rockmore and Linkin Park.

Today (April 1st), Moog Music designers carrying on the legacy of visionary founder, Robert Moog have announced the first major technical Theremin design advance in over 40 years. The PolyTheremin™ incorporates bleeding edge IsoDirectional Inductive Oscillator Technology, to isolate space around five individual pitch antennas thus enabling each to be played simultaneously (finger-by-finger) without interference from its companion antennas. This revolutionary concept breaks the long held belief that the Theremin could only be monophonic instrument.

The PolyTheremin ships with Dorit Chrysler's instructional video "Playing the PolyTheremin is Even Easier Than Playing a Monophonic Theremin."

Purchase the Etherwave PolyTheremin here: http://www.moogmusic.com/theremin/?section=product&product_id=21416

Learn more about Moog Music here: http://www.moogmusic.com

If you like this video you'll love Moog's Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/moogmusicinc"

Update: and the official press release:

"THE FIVE-FINGERED GAME CHANGER.

Today Moog finally reveal the product we have all been waiting for. No longer must a Thereminist be constrained by the shackles of monophony – literally, the sky, and by ‘sky’ we mean the amount of fingers on your hands, is the limit.

Today (April 1st), Moog Music engineers carrying on the legacy of visionary founder, Robert Moog, have announced the first major technical Theremin design advance in over 40 years.

The PolyTheremin™ incorporates bleeding edge IsoDirectional Inductive Oscillator Technology, to isolate space around five individual pitch antennas thus enabling each to be played simultaneously (finger-by-finger) without interference from its companion antennas. This revolutionary concept breaks the long held belief that the Theremin could only be monophonic instrument.

The PolyTheremin ships with Dorit Chrysler’s instructional video “Playing the PolyTheremin is Even Easier Than Playing a Monophonic Theremin.”

For full details, images and video, please visit:
http://www.moogmusic.com/theremin/?section=product&product_id=21416

Dealers: This product will initially be available in the Vishu™ Performer Edition, and has, in fact, actually already shipped to you and been bought by your customers. We’re pretty sure you mentioned being extremely happy with how it went and mentioned something to us about purchasing more.

Thanks for your attention. For questions, please get in touch."

Update:

Dorit Chrysler plays the PolyTheremin

flickr By Moog Music Inc