MATRIXSYNTH

SUNSHINE JONES - A LOVE LETTER TO THE TR-808

Published on May 23, 2019 Sunshine Jones

"A Love Letter to the mighty Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer.
Covering a brief re cap of what we already know, and discussing the cultural significance, and lasting inspiration this instrument has had on the world, and music in general, the basics of XOX style programming, a general overview of the drum machine, and a discussion and comparison of the various clones and replicants which are currently available including the System 80 880, The Roland Boutique TR-08, the Roland Aira TR-8, the e-Licktronic Yocto, the Acid Lab MIAMI, and even the TR-606.

Note: I am an electronic musician, a designer, and a huge fan of synthesizers and drum machines. I am not an authority, nor am I a historian. These love letters (I should think that it goes without saying) are Op Ed (opinion based editorial) and thus they are filled with hyperbole, artistic license and some degree of speaking categorically to get the point across. This is not the first word, or anywhere near the last word on the story I'm telling. It's just a love letter.

Photographed, written, filmed, scored, programed, narrated and directed by Sunshine Jones.
©2019 The Urgency Of Change
Special thanks to Jeff of System 80 - Minisystem, Brandon Rodgers, Bijan Mirashi, Kevin Siegenthaler, Jason Williams, Jenö Lock, EO, and Frankie Knuckles!

I have made a limited edition T-shirt print of the technical drawing made for use in this love letter - a hand drawn pencil and ink illustration with type set in photoshop. 100 shirts are available. See more at theurgencyofchange.com to get yours. Once these 100 are gone, that is the end. There will be no others."

Modular vid #295

Published on May 23, 2019 Phisynth

"Crazy sounds from Scrotum Lab's Orgone Accumulator & Tresses (MI Braids), driven by grilles (MI Grids) & DDSR"

ArduTouch: Dronetic synthesizer demo

Published on May 23, 2019 mitch altman

"ArduTouch music synthesizer kit
Dronetic synthesizer demo video -- all 7 presets.
This ArduTouch synthesizer makes drones. Beautiful ones, spacey ones, and noisy ones.
There are 7 presets. Double-tap the right button and touch a "white" key to choose one. Borea (C) Crystal (D) Eire (E) Faroe (F) Oslo (G) Riven (A) Cerebus (B)"

LEL UDS , after repair.play midi

Published on May 23, 2019 Alexey Taber

Akai AX80 synthesizer Demo. No FX

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

Live From Sequential HQ, San Francisco

Started streaming 52 minutes ago Fault Radio

"Multistreaming with https://restream.io/

Fault Radio live from Sequential HQ in San Francisco for International Synthesizer Day

Ose interviewing Dave Smith from his office,
followed by a live performance by Synthwizard Carson Day."

Prophet Rev2 Analog Synth - LFO parameter assignments Part 2

Published on May 23, 2019 Synth & Sundry

"A quick video about routing the LFO to oscillator parameters on the Dave Smith Instruments Prophet Rev2 synth. Trying out different LFO routings to get different sounds while playing this analog polysynth.
The LFO routing implementation on the Prophet Rev 2 is definitely intuitive and right up there with what I've seen. Especially, when you consider the large amount of possible destination parameters, it invites experimentation no matter your experience with analog subtractive synthesis."

Synth & Sundry Prophet Rev2 videos

Mayer Electronic Music Instruments Polyphonic Eurorack Modules (Sneak Preview)

Published on May 23, 2019 Synthtopia

"At Superbooth 2019, Mayer Electronic Music Instruments introduced a new line of polyphonic Eurorack modules.

We talked with designer Horst Mayer, who gave us a sneak preview of the new line of modules."

See the Mayer label below.

::vtol:: rotor

::vtol:: rotor from ::vtol:: on Vimeo.

- arduino uno (atmega328 custom diy boards)
- sony d2
- custom electronics
- dc motor
- spin fv1 dsp + joystick controller

via ::vtol::

"Ever since childhood I have viewed compact discs as the embodiment of futurism: ideal shape, mirrored surface, and a crystal-clear sound. And I also loved how they would malfunction. Scratches, scuffs, read errors – at a time when I still knew nothing about IDM and glitch music, I tried to engineer a repeat of these sounds, but felt like I was chasing ghosts. And then all of a sudden discs went out of fashion and were forgotten.

As a rule players would only reproduce the sound in play mode. In all other modes, even though the laser continues to read the information on the surface, the sound would zone out. This was done to ensure that the player did not play the errors and did not emit any sound on a pause, the scratch marks, etc.

Recently I stumbled upon a description of one the processors of old Sony CD players, including instructions on how to modify the player so that it continues to emit sounds in any operating mode. Experimentation was not long in coming: I ordered several old Sony D2 and D20 and started my preparations. As the thirty-year old electronics would literally fall apart in my hands, I assembled one operable device from three players. After replacing all the capacitors, I was struck by the sound quality of this player – state of the art MP3 players don’t even come close. The new device is capable of playing any compact discs with profound scratch marks, makes a sound during rewind, on pause and also during the stoppage/start-up of a disc. Furthermore, I added an intercept function for the motors responsible for the movement of the laser head and the rotation of the disc. I also added to the device a digital processor with joystick for evocative manipulations of the sounds obtained from the player. Another option was an additional revolving optical disc. As well as the visual impact, owing to the emergent induction it is capable of influencing at high speed the motor of the CD, which results in fascinating data read errors.

Taken altogether, this made it possible to create a robust instrument for the deconstruction of existing music and also manipulations with discs specially recorded for the experiments. And that is how compact discs suddenly became an extremely topical format for me once more.

Inspired by Nicolas Colins projects.

CLICK FOR MORE »