Modular synth: Monolith2 custom cabinet

flickr By Jon Sonnenberg

Click through for the mouse overs for each module and more pics.

"I don't really know much about this synth except that the modules that I have working sound great and are mostly made up of discrete parts. I bought this off of a coworker when I was working at a music store several years ago. Originally, there was a different case, with speakers and a copper touch-plate keyboard and the word "Monolith 2". The inside was a nightmare of spaghetti wiring. I decided to tackle one thing at a time and first rebuilt the cabinet and added the multiples at the bottom. Someday, I would like to get the keyboard working."

A bit ARP 2500 inspired in design mixed with some steampunk. The top row reminds me of a specific type of graphic design, but I don't know the name.

M-Audio Venom Sound Design Tips and Tricks – Oscillators

"Tip 1 – Recreating analog oscillator behavior

The first thing that comes to mind is how the frequency of an analog oscillator drifts over time. It slowly meanders in a seemingly random fashion as the circuit reacts to small variations in temperature and other factors. To quickly add some of this behavior to a Venom sound, turn up the Drift parameter using the oscillator section of the Vyzex editor."

via the M-Audio Venom blog where you'll find the full post including:

Tip 2 – Using the Waveshaper to generate PWM
Tip 3 – Unusual uses for drum sounds
Tip 4 – Using Oscillators 2 and 3 as LFOs
Tip 5 – Frequency modulation of Noise

Vintage Casio Casiotone 403 Organ, Analog Drum Machine & Synthesizer

YouTube Uploaded by trashbaggage on Jan 6, 2012

as promised

YouTube Uploaded by noystoise on Jan 6, 2012

"quick update video before work
sound is coming from my computer speaker because my other camera is dead...
more to come very soon."

Buchla 200e: 266e Sample and Hold Sequence

YouTube Uploaded by djangosfire on Jan 6, 2012

"Experimenting with the 266e Source of Uncertainty's "Stored Random Voltage " lower section. A 261e is used to clock the "sequence". The 266e grabs "notes" from a 281e falling transient (that is pulsed by the 261e). SO - as the tempo/frequency of the 261e changes . . so do the "notes" created.

The 258v VCO's are the target of the sequence. Using a 255 Control Voltage Processor to attenuate the 281e transient into the 266e - allows for sequence note modifications on the fly . . . the 261e clock is passed through the 255, and is used to balance the stereo imaging.

Lot's of manual knob twiddling - more experimenting - fun stuff!!!"

customScales1 - Cellular.m4v

YouTube Uploaded by rrr00bb on Jan 6, 2012

"Initial user interface for custom scales. Using 53ET based Pythagorean scales, with low quartertone put temporarily in just to show how it works. Legato and polyphony behavior are controllable now. This is ThumbJam being controlled, but SampleWiz does this correctly, and Arctic may have this working reasonably well in private beta builds as well."


iPads on eBay
iPod Touch on eBay

The NAMM Sleeper Synth?

See the update in this post.  DO NOT MISS THIS.

Early Moog Modular Filter Bank Identified

See the top red update from Brian Kehew dated 1/6/12 in this post.

Mystery Arp Module Identified

See the update here.

GRAHAM MASSEY on Synths & the 808 State Sound

YouTube Uploaded by TerryFuckwitt on Jun 16, 2008

"808 State is an English electronic music outfit formed in 1988 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the "state of mind" shared by the members. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson.
This is their music video Cubik from 1990"

via A Guy Called Gerald, article via DJMag

"At some point the Roland 101, 202, 303, 808 and 909 machines became a set of kit that would all connect together happily and became affordable due to all the new midi/digital technology, making analogue a dirty word....

The sampler opened up a huge sound world to us and would be the key instrument in terms of giving a track an identity. For instance, the chords on 'Pacific State' were created by sampling a chord from a Juno 106 keyboard layered with a d50 string sound with a bit of filtering in the Casio FZ1 sampler. The bird sound on that record was an Akai sample demonstration disc of the Canadian Loon. "'Cubik' was again a multi sample stacked up with sounds from a Waldorf microwave and a Chase Bit 99 digital keyboard played by a Casio Midi guitar, which we had just got that day."

Click through for more.