Yamaha CS-15

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Audiothingies Micromonsta

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Yamaha TX7 w/ New Display

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"The legendary DX7 in a compact desktop package! Previous owner serviced the battery and some caps on the main board. I put a fresh OLED screen in a solid shimmering blue. Unit is a tank and has been excellently taken care of over the years and is ready for its next adventure. I have loaded a custom bank onto the device that has a mix of classic sounds and some sleepers worth using. The internet is full of thousands of patches so the sonic possibilities are the endless."

How To Draw a Mushroom With a Modular Synth

video by Bastl Instruments

"Draw a Mushroom with your modular synth! Fast and Eazy!"

UDO Super 6 Dry

video by Tarek Mansur

"UDO SUPER 6 DRY, trying out this super amazing synth without any external FX. I hope you like the sounds of this synth! It truly is magical."

HAINBACH's new software instrument with @Spitfire Audio​ made from vintage test equipment

video by HAINBACH

"In which I show what you can do with 'Landfill Totems', my new software instrument library with @Spitfire Audio​. From ambient to house and techno, to scoring, this instrument based on obsolete vintage test equipment covers a lot of ground. Available now for 29$/EUR in AU, VST2/3 and AAX format.

00:00​ Intro
00:16​ Sound Demos
01:19​ Music Demos
02:26​ Scoring a Documentary
04:50​ Scoring an AR app
05:40​ In other hands
08:13​ Instruments used
08:50​ Dev interview
12:39​ The album
13:53​ How much?
14:20​ Hardware jam


Get it here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-...​ (12.5% of all sales go to @WasteAid​, UK non-profit charity dedicated to sharing waste management and recycling skills around the world, fighting poverty, plastic pollution and climate change.)

Album: https://hainbach.bandcamp.com/album/l...​ (ships from UK)"

Patch Notes: Alex Epton

video by FACTmagazine

"Alex Epton is a multifaceted producer and composer (also known as XXXChange), whose in-house role at XL Recordings has seen him work with FKA twigs, Arca and Jamie xx.. IN 2019 he collaborated with cellist Lucinda Chua on the soundtrack for the documentary film 3OHA.

Epton’s own personal studio practice focuses heavily on hardware, including modular synthesis and tape loops. In this episode of Patch Notes, recorded ahead of the release of his new EP The Episodic Buffer Vol 2, he creates an experimental piece with a selection of Verbos Electronics modules and touchplate controller together with manipulated vocals.

“Iʼm not using any fancy loop length randomization here on this patch although thereʼs some clips of that implementation on my Instagram,” Epton says. “Also the Verbos Electronics YouYube page has a well explained example of how to set that up.”

“The basic set up here is: Row A – CV out hits voltage scaling then into a quantiser locking it to an arbitrary major scale then into the v/oct input on oscillator A. Row B – CV out hits voltage scaling then into a quantiser, chromatic this time, then into the v/oct input on oscillator B.”

“Each channel of control voyage processor has an input for additional voltage to be added to the sequencer control voltage. This is our first transpose input. Here both sequences are transposed by the master variable CV out on the touch plate keyboard.”

“Thereʼs a second transpose input for oscillator B on the secondary CV in on that oscillator. You can see in the video itʼs got tape on it because the attenuvertor knob that scales this input is super sensitive and prone to accidental nudging. This second layer of CV transposition Iʼm using to drop oscillator Bʼs pitch to make some tension harmonies agains the main sequence. These tension notes are linked to three individual gate outputs on the touch plate keyboard. Those are summed together before they hit the attenuvertor.”

“So with this set up Iʼm happy to have only eight steps because thereʼs a lot of variety that can still be achieved. Also some interesting chromaticism can happen in the harmony when the one CV stream is quantised chromatic VS locked to a scale. A few individual gate outs on the top of the sequencer are summed together to trigger the drum that comes in midway through.”

“Thatʼs pretty much it. I used a tape loop of some manipulated vocals to get some extra atmosphere / randomness going – something to react to. That loop is manipulated through the rooms. Everything comes together at ye olde Sony 8 channel mixer. And recorded into a UA Apollo twin. Also the synth outputs are feeding an oscilloscope in X/Y config.”

The Episodic Buffer Vol 2 is released on May 7. Epton has also created an exploratory video game as a companion piece to the EP, in which you guide a six-limbed being through a psychedelic world.

Listen to ‘Games’, the first single from the EP here: https://alexepton.ffm.to/games​
Alex Epton on Bandcamp: https://alexepton.bandcamp.com​
Alex Epton on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexepton/​"

Spectrasonics Distorted Reality - a classic sample CD from 1995

video by SynthMania

A bit of Spectrasonics history.

"In this video we listen to demos of banks from the classic sample CD "Distorted Reality" by Spectrasonics, from 1995. Very successful sample CD back in the day, and still eminently usable in modern music production.

00:00​ Introduction
03:10​ Iceland 1
04:13​ Cricket Choir
04:56​ Solia
05:50​ Lost Horizon
06:40​ Creepy
07:39​ Taj Mahal 1
09:00​ Insomniac
09:22​ Bonham Burn
09:47​ Pigheaded
10:01​ White Trash
10:21​ Trip-Hoppin'
10:35​ Ring-Hopper
10:58​ Funk on Fire
11:19​ Hard Core 2
11:41​ Wild Ways
13:05​ Distressed
13:56​ Megapad
16:47​ Ethereal
19:36​ Conclusion"

1979 Yamaha CS20M - 15 patches demo

video by Valmont

"8 user memory slots (!!!), 2 VCOs + VCA Sine, Multimode VCF, 2 EG, 1 LFO (Up to 100Hz!), Portamento and a bunch of parallel modulations.
It shares almost all the same chips as found in all the CS Serie (From the tiny CS5 to the huge CS80). Inside you can find: IG00150 LFO, IG00151 VCA, IG00153 VCO (Pulse/Saw), IG00156 VCF (HP/BP/LP), IG00158 Waveshaper (Sine/Tri) and the IG00159 EG.
All these chips cost a fortune now, I hope none breaks (: It's not like CEMs/SSMs were you can find reeditions, these parts were specially made for the CS and there are not many anymore.
Tho my unit has a noisy VCA distortion, that's the high frequency buzz you can hear. I'll service it soon! Notice how straight and thin this synth sounds - it is extremely stable, and thanks its memories, it seems like the perfect synth for live gigs.
The filter reminds me of the Oberheim SEM, but it's less bright, as Yamaha's engineers set the max cutoff frequency to... 7500Hz. So we get the same behavior as in some Arp 2600 revisions: a restrained filter spectrum! Tho this doesn't make the synth bad at all ;)
I'll also add the fact that this synth is probably of the best build quality I have ever seen. Super heavy, big comfy controls. Inside everything is made very cleverly, top quality electronics. Yamaha also explained the whole synth circuits in the harware manual, I mean... They really described how the VCOs work, the memory encoding, etc... (http://www.midimanuals.com/manuals/ya...​)
And despite being 42 years old, it is stable as hell, just like a brand new synth from these days. Japanese engineers were really good... Too good maybe ;)

0:00​ - Fonk Bass
0:13​ - 2-Lead
0:24​ - Synth 1
0:33​ - Synth 2
0:42​ - Multimode Bass
0:54​ - Saw Lead
1:10​ - Resonance
1:21​ - Moog-Like 1
1:29​ - Moog-Like 2
1:37​ - SnH
1:51​ - BP Arp
1:57​ - LP Arp
2:07​ - PW Bass
2:19​ - Chord Lead
2:41​ - HP Lead"

“IOLabs Flux 28 - Ambient” by Friendly Noise

video by Friendly Noise

"IO Labs Flux, Roland System 500, Strymon Magneto, Noise Engineering Basimilus Iteritas Alter, Native Instruments Plaits, SSF Vortices, ALM Akemie’s Taiko, North Coast Synthesis MKS 007 Leapfrog filter, Mutable Instruments Branches, Intellijel Plonk, WMD Crucible."