New Gear Shots

Title link takes you to some nice new gear shots including the Jomox Xbase999, Sherman Filterbank rack, Analog Solutions 4 voice, Metasonix TM6 and Wretch. Via this post on VSE and AH. Enjoy.

Jomox Xbase999


Sherman Filterbank Rack


Jomox MResonator (also on Analog Industries)

Chamberlin Rhythmate Tape Loop Drum Macine

Here's and old school drum machine for ya. The Chamberlin Rhythmate. Title link takes you to a couple of shots saved from the *bay. Details from the auction below. Sent to me via underface. Thanks underface!



"You are bidding on a Chamberlin Rhythmate 30. It is a tape loop drum machine. Chamberlin originated the tape loop idea before the Mellotron Co. These are quite RARE! There were just over 10 manufactured along with the one you see. This model is heralded as the first drum machine ever! Read the links below for more history and background. My Chamberlin is in great working order. The exterior is in good shape other than a small piece of the covering which has chipped off of the left bottom corner (visible in the frontal pic) I had the unit serviced this past year for cleaning. It is impeccable for a unit like this. It has 14 tape loops with a sliding head that allows you to play different tracks on each piece of tape, or a blending in between of them. It contains a volume and a pitch/speed control and also has a seperate amplifier with bass, treble, and volume controls and an input jack for a guitar, mic. or other instrument. The tape loops are of real acoustic jazz drum kits playing different style beats with some additives to tracks such as bongos, clave, castanets, etc. It sounds amazing. I have used it on 2 records myself! With the speed control you can cover all the bases. This is like selling my left arm but, I have fallen short of fortune recently and must part ways with it. This is going to make a great Christmas present for someone. Own a functional and rare piece of musical history. Good Luck and Merry Christmas to all you bidders. Please give it a good home. (see links below) http://www.mellotron.com/chamanu.htm http://www.roth-handle.nu/instruments/drummachines_chamberlin.htm http://www.broadwaymusicco.com/beatbox3.htm http://www.hollowsun.com/vintage/chamberlin/ http://www.haddock.org/directory/?i=12425"

CS80 Access Virus Ti Demo from Jose Sogo Flores

Jose Sogo Flores just sent me a demo of the Acess Virus Ti covering that CS80 Vangelis sound. It's interesting that this is actually coming from the Acess Virus Ti. Title link takes you there - look for the demo with Vangelis in the title. Thanks Jose!

Technos Acxel Resynthesizer

Technos Acxel Resynthesizer up on the bay. Title link takes you to the shots and I grabbed the text below, before it goes to *bay limbo. In via reader Rasmus. Thanks Rasmus!

"Only 39 Axcels [sic] were ever made - and those who own an Acxel (ACoustic + X + ELement) hold on to them - proved by the fact that it is very, very rare that an Acxel is for sale. The last, and probably the only, time an Acxel was offered on Ebay were 2003. If I remember correctly, the starting bid was USD10,000 that time.

Imagine drawing waveforms, 128-stage envelopes, base pitches and amplitudes (the user interface allows editing of 32 base pitches/amplitudes at the same time, like an 32 track pitch and audio mixer, with a discreet “page” for each group of 32 oscillators, or ISC’s – Intelligent Synthesis Cells, as they are called in the Technos terminology), and other sound parameters with your finger - and have 256 intelligent, digital oscillators follow your every creative move in real-time. Imagine creating a monophonic sound with 256 oscillators, 8 multitibral voices with 32 oscillators each or any combination in sections of 32 oscillators.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Red Roland SH-101 Shots

Some drool worthy shots of a red Roland SH-101 on VSE. Title link takes you to the post with more.

Signal Arts Sequencer

Interesting. I haven't seen this sequencer before. It supports 24 banks of 8 sequences of 8 steps with real time control. Title link takes you to the specs page. Below are some of it's main features.

• 24 Banks


• of 8 Sequences


• of 8 Steps


• of 7 Parameters


• And Multiple Virtual Sequences


• Per-Step Note, Pitch, Velocity, Controller


• Per-Step Duration and Note Duration


• Per-Step Slew Rate


• A Full-Featured Three Channel Polyphonic MIDI to CV Converter

New Korg Delta Page

New Korg Delta Page on Sealed's Deep Synthesis site. Tons of samples and info. Title link takes you there.

MicroKorg on Jupiter 4 Shot

Love the color in this shot of a Korg MicroKorg on Roland Jupiter 4. Via premieklovn on VSE. Title link takes you to the post.

The Optigan Cat and Christmas Album - New Flickr Shot

Title link takes you to Mellotrongirl's Flickr set including a Mellotron, Optigan, Korg MicroKorg and more. The Optigan is similar to a Mellotron, but uses optical disks instead of tape. Check out optigan.com for more.

Mmmmmm.... Cat fur and bottles of sticky stuff. No Mellotrongirl! Noooo! : )


An Optigan Christmas

Phat Santa

Damn. Via Create Digital Music. Title link takes you there.

ASMx-Genie, the Teisco S-110F, and Elby-Designs

Ready for another convoluted post? Here goes... I saw this thread on VSE by piRoN posting some 3DS Max models of his ASM2 design. Go to the thread for another shot.

piRoN's ASM2 Model


So, what's an ASM2. At first I wondered if it was an Analog Solutions or Analog Systems kit, but a little search brought me to the ASMx-Genie page (title link) with the following bit on it:

"The ASM1-Genie is a semi-patched synthesiser offering the user the benefits of a ready-patched normalised synthesiser that is ready-to-run the moment the power is turned on with the benefits of patching options that allow the user to customise the module interconnections for a greater variety of sounds. The ASM1-Genie, in its normalised mode, closely follows the Teisco S-110F although the ASM1-Genie does not include a Ring Modulator or Sample & Hold circuit. Any of the normalised connections may be overriden through the patch connectors and in this mode of operation the ASM1-Genie more resembles a modular synthesiser."

Teisco S-110F? Interesting. The Teisco S-110F falls into the exotic synth list for me. Never seen one in person and don't think I have ever even heard one, but I like the way they look. BTW, if anyone knows where to find samples, please feel free to comment. You can find more info on the Teisco S-110F on the one and only Teisco Synthesizers Webpage.

Teisco S-110F


So three links, two shots, two modular synth manufacturers, a few synths and some nice 3D modeling counts as a pretty convoluted post, right? No? Ok, make sure to also check out Laurie Biddulph's Elby-Designs, home of the Teisco site, the ASMx site and more. : )

Update: Some samples of the S-110F on Bluesynths via the comments below.

Future Retro 777 Shots

Title link takes you to some nice shots sent my way via Ales Toevs. BTW, check out his site for some really nice mp3s of the 777 and more. Thanks Alex!

Blacet Bar Graph

Interesting module from Blacet. Via Synthtopia News.

"The BG is a 20 element LED bar graph display module. It's designed to take some of the mystery out of what is going on with control voltages and audio levels in your modular setup.

The BG 2520 covers -10V to +10V from DC to audio. A "multiple" of three jacks allows signals to be monitored at the same time that they are being used elswhere in the system."

Pro-One Modifications Page

Title link takes you to a page on some nice mods for the SCI Pro-One. There are more shots, details and some pretty impressive samples. Make sure to check them out.



Modification Summary:

• Replaced the white noise source with a new circuit that provides white, pink, red, and infra-red noise. A rotary switch selects the noise colour.


• The new noise source can act as a modulation source in addition to its role as an audio signal. A pot sets the noise level fed to the buses. A rotary switch selects whether the noise signal feeds the Direct or Wheel modulation buses.


• Added a Sample & Hold circuit. The new noise source is the signal input to the Sample & Hold. The LFO square wave is the clock. The Sample & Hold output can be used as a modulation source.


• The pulse width of the LFO signal can be adjusted from 0% to 100% with a pot.


• The LFO signal can be inverted. A rotary switch selects LFO non-inverted, LFO inverted, or Sample & Hold as a modulation source.


• Added a triangle wave for oscillator A. A pot allows manually mixing between the triangle and sawtooth waves.


• Filter resonance can now be used as a modulation destination. A rotary switch selects from either the Direct or Wheel modulation buses as a source.


• The filter envelope can be inverted. Inverted and non-inverted envelopes can be applied to filter frequency and the Direct or Wheel modulation buses via two slide switches.


• The filter frequency signal from the Kenton MIDI interface can be assigned to the Direct modulation bus. A pot sets the signal level fed to the bus.

The circuitry fits on one tiny Rat Shack board. The pots, rotary switches, and slide switches are mounted on the plastic casing between the main panel and the keyboard.

Minimoog Gear P*rn

Title link takes you to a nice Minimoog Gear P*rn thread on VSE. Includes shots of the Moog Mini A, Mini B, Mini C and Mini D. Note the first shots in the thread are from the Moog Archives site, but there are some after that. What's interesting are a couple of shots from Micke of Sun Ra using the Model B prototype (it was never released to production). Also note the Sequential Circuits looking outlines around the different editing sections. After the hop make sure to note the Mini C and Mini D shots with slider for pitch and mod controllers instead of wheels.

Moog Archives Mini B Shot


Sun Ra Mini B

R.A. Moog Bode Frequency Shifter

Moog Bode Frequency shifter on the bay. Title link takes you to shots saved for posterity.



"Serial number 1001. According to www.moogarchives.com, this unit was originally purchased by Walter Sear in 1968. We acquired it through a VEMIA auction in 1998.

Overall condition is excellent, and all the electrolytic capacitors were replaced two years ago."

OSXTools

Update: Via the comments, "Stephan Bernsee wasn't a Hartmann programmer btw. he's the founder and former CTO of Prosoniq (http://www.prosoniq.com)"

And from Stephan Bernsee himself, on Moogulator:
"I used to work for Prosoniq who licensed the Neuron synthesis technology to Hartmann) and the company OSXTools has no affiliation with Hartmann, nor will it be a successor of that company or provide any support for the Hartmann range of products.

I thought this might be useful information - btw. you can find a very active forum for user-to-user support for the Hartmann range of products at http://www.surroundsfx.com/forum/ "

Title link takes you to OSXTools, a new company by Stephen Bernsee. New products will come in 2006. Note the design style in the image to the left. I can't wait to see what they bring to the table.

"OSXTools' founder and CTO, Stephan Bernsee, is the creator of many innovative products you may know or use, such as the (now discontinued) sonicWORX audio editing software, the Prosoniq range of plug ins including the OrangeVocoder, Prosoniq morph and Magenta and the basic technology behind the Hartmann Music synthesizer. He has developed the Timefactory time stretching products for Prosoniq which are used in almost all of todays major software products such as Cubase, Nuendo, Cakewalk, Pyramix and many more. He has recently developed a new time stretching/pitch shifting technology called DIRAC, now used to guarantee unprecedented quality DSP processing in the Smoke and Fire products of Discreet/Autodesk and upcoming products from other companies."

Via Moogulator's machinesound.

5 Voice Silver Omega 8 Shots

Liked the following groovy shot of the Omega 8 manual and silver Omega 8. Title link takes you to a bigger shot of the below and the rest from this auction. Some blurry, but so is life at times. ; )

Roland SH-101 Shots

Roland SH-101 in "pristine museum quality" via this post on VSE. Title link takes you to the shots saved for posterity. At first I thought there was a smudge on the synth and wondered about the "pristine museum quality," but then I realised it was the cammera.

More Spectralis Samples

Title link takes you to a VSE post with a link to some Spectralis samples by Zamise.

Korg Electribe MX - New Flickr Shot

Cool shot.

Gameboy Synced Sequencer

CDM has a post up on a DIY Gameboy Synced Sequencer. Title link takes you there.

Update: Looks like it's on GetLoFi along with another shot, as well.

The London Synthesis Orchestra

Matthew Hodson sent me a link to his site, The London Synthesis Orchestra.

"After examining the different composing techniques of the likes of Cage and Stockhause, Matt Hodson devised several pieces of music to be played and recorded that were a 'nod' to both of these pioneers, using the inspiration behind 'chance' recordings and 'IChing', steering away from rigid structure, melody, and performance with a greater desire for influence and interpretation from the performers."

Sounds like my kind of sound exploration. There are some samples on the Sound page - listening to a nice evolving drone on the Synthetic Landscapes page while I type this; it sounds like the OSCar (pictured below). There's just something about drones that are soothing to me. Title link takes you to the site. Make sure to check out the about page for more info and the visual page for some more shots.

Variphon

Analog Industries has a post up on the Variphon. I haven't seen one of these before. According to the Variphon site, the instrument appears to be an anolog synth with a low pass, high pass and band pass filter with pulse wave oscillators. Title link takes you to the site with more info, shots and samples.



"The Variophon is a monophonical electronical musical wind instrument, invented by Jobst Peter Fricke, Wolfgang Voigt and Jürgen Schmitz at 1975 at the Acoustical Department of the Musicological Institute of the University of Cologne. At the beginning it has been built up by the firm Ernest Martin KG."

Update via Clifford in the comments: "Talk Talk (Mark Hollis) used this extensively on the fantastic albums "Spirit Of Eden" and "Laughing Stock"- they said they were terribly unreliable- solo at 4min on After The Flood is a Variphon in all it's malfuntioning glory- wish I could buy one!"

Remembering Robert Moog - Binghamton NY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Remembering Robert Moog...

creator of musical instruments that changed the world.

An exhibit of rare Moog photographs, memorabilia, and historic instruments from the MoogArchives.com collection. First Friday Gallery Night, January 6, 2006, at Christ Church, 10 Henry Street, Binghamton.

As a teenager in 1954, Robert Moog built a few electronic musical instruments at his Long Island home. The instruments caught on and soon Moog's hobby turned into a small business that eventually paid his way through graduate school at Cornell University. By 1964 Moog had set up shop in Trumansburg and it was that year that he created the Moog Synthesizer. The rest is history.

On August 21, 2005, after a half-century of designing and producing innovative musical instruments, Robert Moog passed away.

The exhibit, by former Moog employee and creator of MoogArchives.com,
Roger Luther, will be on display January 6 at the historic Christ Church, 10
Henry Street, Binghamton (across from the Lost Dog Cafe).

To learn more about Moog visit http://MoogArchives.com . For more information on the exhibit send an e-mail to rluther [@] moogarchives.com

Cyndustries Zeroscillator - New MOTM Format Shot

New MOTM format shot of the Zeroscillator sent my way via Cynthia. Title link takes you to the main Cynthia site (it looks great btw - mmmm gear lust).

Click for bigger image

New Cwejman Site Coming

Title link takes you there. Via Shawn Cleary of Analogue Haven on AH.

"The new site is http://www.cwejman.biz
It should be finished within a few days.

FWIW the new Eurorack format module prototypes will be
shown at NAMM.

January 19th-22nd
Company: Analogue Haven
Booth: 1787
Location: Hall E

Thank you,

Shawn Cleary
www.analoguehaven.com"

Moogulator's EMS Page

Just recently visited the EMS page on sequencer.de and thought I'd put up a post. If you haven't checked it out do so. There's tons of info and some really nice shots. Title link takes you there.

More Essential Synth Books - Peter Forrest

The "A-Z of Analogue Synthesizers" books by Peter Forrest are hands down two of the most highly regarded synth publications out there. I have a copy of each myself and they are absolutely essential in my opinion. Highly, highly recommended if you are into synths. They read like an encyclopia/catalog of synthesisers. There's a load of detail on each synth including specs and images. I sent an email to Peter Forrest asking if he had a recommended link to put up for the image on the right pane below. He ended up sending me a few nice scans of the books and another book, which I do not yet have, (but heard good things about), "Analogue Heaven, the Museum of Synthesizer Technology." Title link takes you to those shots. These are great books to curl up in your favorite spot and just flip through. Sometimes a book is just better than a computer screen.

For more info on ordering send email to pforrest@vemia.co.uk.

Electroniscape - Exercises in Synthesis

Title link takes you to Ron Berry's Electroniscape. It's a wonderful site with a section on "Synthesiser adventures" and "Acoustic Modeling." The section on synthesizer adventures is a mini history page on synthesis with snapshots of various modulars. The section on acoustic modeling covers the use of analog modulars in creating real world instruments. The image below is taken from this section. If you want to learn more about honing your programing skills, this is a great resource. Check out this sample of creating a plucked string. What's great about this sample is you can hear it evolve as it is programmed. Models covered include plucked strings, bass guitar, gongs, bells, etc, trumpet, saxophone, clarinet and flute, other sounds. Link via Eric on AH.

Green Buchla Thunder

Update: fixed title link to bigger shot. Sorry about that. : )

One of four made. Umm... That would probably be my choice of color, you think? : ) Another via echo7even of The Electric Music Box. Title link takes you to a larger shot. Make sure to check out The Electric Music Box for more Buchla. Thanks echo7even!



More on the Buchla Thunder.
"THUNDER IS A SPECIALIZED MIDI CONTROLLER that senses various aspects of the touch of hands on its playing surface, and transmits the resultant gestural information via MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) to responsive electronic instrumentation."

Minimoog Voyager - New Flickr Shot

Nice shot of the Minmoog Voyager.

Mike Ford's Creations on GetLoFi

Wow. Some interesting gadgets via Mike Ford on GetLoFi. I think these beat the hippo in the prior post.

Synthopotomus - New Flickr Shot

Yep... Title of that schematic in the shot says, "Your First Wacky Electronic Noise Maker Thingy."

Update: Source of the schematic via the comments:
http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/analogsynth/YOUR_FIRST_SYNTH/YOUR_FIRST_SYNTH.html

Online Rhythmicon

Title link takes you to The Online Rythmicon. Via Alex Dorfman. Interesting. Thanks Alex!



"The Rhythmicon was a musical keyboard instrument built in 1931 by Leon Theremin at the request of composer/theorist Henry Cowell. Each key of the Rhythmicon played a repeated tone, proportional in pitch and rhythm to the overtone series (the second key played twice as high and twice as fast as the first key. The third key played three times higher and repeated three times faster then the first key, etc.)"

You can also find more on the Ryhthmicon on 120 Years.

Roland Jupiter 4 Samples

Title link takes you to a post by premieklovn on VSE with some really nice Jupiter 4 samples. Enjoy.

Elhardt on Synthesis

Elhardt. Some of you may recognize the name. For those of you that do, it might conjure up a number of reactions, some good some bad. : ) He has been the source of a number of controversies and one grand spectacle in the synth world - the Bahn Sage. The Bahn Sage was probably the biggest synth spoof ever. I remember spending weeks with others trying to find more on this mystery synth. A photo showed up on the net and it quickly spread, followed by more, and finally a brochure that had people whipping out their Photoshop skills to analyze in detail. In the end it was a fake; a brilliant hoax.

Now Elhardt has be showcasing his amazing programming skills by conjuring up some of the most realistic acoustic examples of real life instruments with an Alesis ION, Andromeda A6, and MOTM modular. Is it real or is it another hoax like the Sage? Who knows. I'm inclined to believe these samples are real given the attention to detail with the Bahn Sage, and replications of real world instruments by synthesists such as Wendy Carlos in the past, but you never know, do you. His samples are pretty awe inspiring (check out the links to some of my previous posts below for some examples, specifically the realistic drum set).

Another controversial perspective on synthesis from Elhardt? Knobs are not performance controllers. They are used to edit and create sounds. That's it. If you want to control sounds while playing, use the dedicated performance controllers on the synth like the mod wheels and keyboard. : ) I like to play outside of the box myself. Regardless I am impressed by Elhardt, and I do appreciate his dedication to synthesis.

Recently Elhardt sent an email to AH on his perspective on synthesis. I asked him if it would be ok for me to post it and he said yes. Enjoy. Or not. : )

Elhardt on Synthesis:

"Following are all the reasons I like to do realistic emulations of reality.

1) There is nothing interesting about playing samples. Everbody is doing that. Buy a $200 Casio and it does it. The skill of synthesis is completely missing. An artist paints a landscape, he doesn't just snap a photo of it. Sample libraries make everybody sound the same. If everybody synthesized their own acoustic sounds, everybody would have a different style.

2) Sample libraries are so insanely huge and can't even be fully used in real-time. I'd have to spend weeks sifting through 35 Gig of string samples and articulations and go through days of intense sequencer/midi programming to get them to play in a realistic manner. I'd have to use them from a computer with bug-ridden software. Major sample libraries are never complete, and constant updates suck money from you for the rest of your life. It's all going in the wrong direction.

3) I want instruments that play like physically modeled instruments. I just call up one patch and play it expressively in real-time. Simple. I also want to do instruments I can't buy samples of, or create brandnew instruments never heard before.

4) BTW, I have a lot of sample libraries, and some of the instruments suck, sometimes it's just a few notes that suck, sometimes the attacks are too slow and they can't be played fast, there are mistakes made (like clicking noises in garritans trombones, or a mono sample within stereo samples and so on), there's the repetative nature of hearing the sample recording played everytime the note is played, and so on.

5) Synthesis died in the 80's, before anybody ever pushed it to its limits. That is unsatisfying to me. When I first heard Tomita, I thought he was synthesizing virtually everything. Through the years, I found out he was using real instruments, mellotrons, and other acoustic methods in places. I want to do what he didn't. When I do a CD, I want to say I created all those sounds. As synthesists, aren't we supposed to show those snobby acoustic musicians we don't need them or their sounds?

6) Acoustic sounds are complex and hard to synthesize. It demonstrates extreme skill, knowledge of sound, and totoal control over a synthesizer to accomplish the advanced and difficult programming to acheive some of those sounds. It requires coming up with new techniques and tricks which are challenging and have never been done before. We've been hearing awful string patches, corny brass patches, cheesy drum patches for decades now. I want to push subtractive synthesis to its limits to see what it can really do, even if it were for no other reason than to say, "see", it really can be done.

7) Doing spacey synth pads and sequenced bass lines and that stuff is all nice and good, and I create many patches like those myself. But those things are relatively easy to accomplish. They don't force you into extreme patches of a 100 modules or into using a 42 band filter bank and spending weeks to acheive something nobody else can seem to do. You can't do this stuff on a Minimoog or OB-8. So as Matthew pointed out, it's mostly unexplored terrain. And doing something for the first time is more motivating to me than doing things already done.

BTW, my latest Nord violin I believe sounds better than the Synful one over certain ranges of notes. After I make two more passes through the 42 band filter bank refining it, I think I may have a better sounding violin over the entire range. Though it still won't play as smoothy. I'm also back to working on my additive string synth for the winter. The one I started working on before Synful hit the market and took some of the wind out of my sail."

Some previous posts on Elhardt:

http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/08/bahn-sage.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/12/alesis-ion-ralistic-drum-kit.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-ion-demos-by-kenneth-elhardt.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-andromeda-a6-and-motm-demos-by.html
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2005/11/alesis-andromeda-a6-samples-by-kenneth.html

TB-303 Package

No title link. I recently posted on the Roland TB-303 Bass Line Chordwheel. echo7even of The Electric Music Box sent the following shot of a TB-303 and all accessories. You can see the chordwheel in the shot. Sounds like he got a killer deal on this package as well. One man's garbage is another's prize. Lucky man.



"HI Matrix,

I just posted a comment about the 303 Chordwheel.. I have all the 303 Accessories.. the guy I bought it from bought it in 1983, brought it home,, HATED it and stashed it in his closet.. I found out about it several years ago but just bought it from him recently.. pretty much brand new.

attached is a pic. the pattern sheets I got arent pictured. he found them in his stack of old synth brochures.

-r"

Roland SH-101 Remake - Holiday Synth Project

Interesting holiday project. Mush has decided to use some of this holiday time to create a new case for his SH-101. The case will be solid oak with a new face-plate. Title link takes you to the thread on VSE with more info and pics. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

The Ambient Ping - Analogue Oil Projectors and Synths

Interesting discussion going on AH regarding analogue oil projectors. David Evans posted a link to "The Ambient Ping." Some amazing visuals. Title link takes you there.

Mystery Modular

Lester Barnes posted this on AH asking if anyone on the list knows what it is. If you do, please share. Title link takes you to more shots.



"From what I've worked out the thing has 6 VCOs with various features, 3
VCA, Noise/S+H, 3EGs with toggles for speed, 2 filters: one is Low pass or band pass with subtle cutoff slope and doesn't self oscillate with reso at max the other is a multimode but without Resonance. It also has a 3 input sum mixer, VC Reverb, VC Echo - with 3 separate echo return times and controls. VC Vowel Filter - Bloody Lovely, Equalizer, inverter Divider, Counter clock. It has a two manual keyboard each with a joystick and the cabinet has two separate keyboard control sections as well as a basic CPU ? There seems to be an input for 'GUIT' guitar ? and a din input marked 'Micro 15'

Patches are made on a 60 x 60 patch matrix and there are ten output faders as destinations on the row E - 5 for Left and 5 for Right -

The most unusual thing and the thing I haven't sussed out yet is the functions of the Sequencer: Its a 3 x 10 analogue sequencer. rows A+B are clocked together but row C can travel at any subdivision of the upper rows clock speed. As you'll see in Picture 3 on the link, at the far right of the cabinet are 4 groups of 4 controls - each group has a Left and Right control and two dials above - - in picture 4 you'll see another 10x10 patch matrix which has something to do with the 10 stages of the the sequencer and L+R outputs of each of these groups of four dial named GC,CY, CC,B and 58 - putting a patch pin into column 4 row 1 produces a beep clocked every time the sequencer passes stage 4 but altering the the voltage on that stage of the sequencer has no effect on the beep. One of the unknown controls above the L+R of GC alters the gate time of the beep - the other seems to alter the pitch - I have no idea what this is for. Row CY has a multi-step dial and toggles .. . ?"

Roland TB-303 Bass Line Chrodwheel

Now this is something I've never seen before. A chordwheel for the TB-303. Title link takes you to the acution for this. Image and text saved below for when the auction dissapears. Click the image for a larger version.



"The ULTIMATE TB-303 rarity!!

I've not seen one of these for sale on ebay before. This particular one stayed behind when the original Roland TB-303 Bass Line (bought for around £100 from London Rock shop) was sold on in 1985 for £50! It has spent the last 20 years packed away in some music equipment documents.

This is the one to have to complete your set.

The top rarity, rarer than the TB-303 pattern data sheets that Roland issued at the time.

Go for it!"

Korg EX-mas Shot and Sample

Thought this was a nice X-mas shot of a Korg EX-800 (desktop Poly-800) up for sale. Title link takes you to an mp3 posted in the auction. As usual, I have no affiliation, just like the shot.

Carbon111 on Analog Industries Gear P*rn Friday

Title link takes you to Analog Industries post. Cool to see Carbon111 featured.

Synth Books

No title link. With the recent book posts for Essential Retro and Real World Digital Audio, I thought I should put up a list of synth books. A friend of mine joined the Amazon affiliate program and started putting up book ads in posts where he reviewed the particular book. I actually liked the look of the ads because they include a small snapshot of the book. So, I figure why not. I joined and added a few of my favorites to the right pane (just scroll down and look for the books on the right). I also found one I hadn't heard of before called "Quick Guide to Analog Synthesis." Anyone know if this one is any good?

BTW, if you know of any others I should add to the list on the right, please post them in the comments below and I'll put them up. I checked Amazon for A-Z of Analog Synthesis but surprisingly it wasn't there. BTW, I don't want to limit the list to just ads, so if you have any links for synth books not on Amazon or other, send them my way. I just think it would be cool to have a list of all synth books on the right. And yes the Amazon ones are ads, no trickery there on my part. And obviously, if you are interested in picking up one or more of these books, feel free to support my site by ordering through one of these links. : )

Update via Peter Forrest in the comments below : )
"Hi all - very nice to be a toilet stalwart! I'm Peter Forrest, writer of the A-Z books. Sorry, but Amazon demanded such a ridiculous price to stock my books that I won't do it through them. Luckily you can buy them direct through me if you want :o) The easiest way is to email me at pforrest@vemia.co.uk, and I'll send you the details. I also still have some copies of the Synthesizer Museum books (and videos if anyone wants a nice retro original vintage 90s etc. etc. version of Bob Moog's speech and a bunch of incredible synths)."

Homebrew Sequencer - Galoppierende Zuversicht

Pic of a homebrew sequencer (and possible synth?) used by styro2000 of the swiss group galoppierende zuversicht. Sent my way by Philip Sherburne. Title link takes you to the galoppierende zuversicht site. Click here for a live set.

GenoQ Octopus Ready to Order

Looks like the GenoQ Octopus is ready to order. Title link takes you to their news page with more info. I previously posted on the GenoQ Octopus back in August. The Octopus looks to be an amazingly feature rich pattern generator/sequencer, focused on ease of use (little to no "sub menus") and live performance. For more, make sure to check out other sections of the site including the Story-Board pdf.

Bad Wolf TV

Kenny Balys sent a link to a couple of videos, "Eternity" and "Deja Voodoo" to AH. I finally got around to checking them out. Brilliant. Spoiler below shot. Check them out in this order: "Eternity" then "Deja Voodoo." Each is about 60M.



Spoiler:
Starting with "Eternity" my first impression was this is mediocre but pretty refreshing. Made me want to travel and gave me that sense of taking a cold shower, but a bit deeper than that; it reminded me of my self induced repression, reminded me of my college days when things were so much more crisp and life was simply magic, and how things aren't quite like that anymore. Things still are magical, but scars kind of leave their marks the older you get. Then it hit me. This is much deeper than the surface. The video quality reminded me of the videos I used to make in college. There is a certain depth to that. Coincidence? Who knows, but it brought me back. "Deja Voodoo" was a complete contrast; pulled me out of the wonder and into the scars, back to reality. What's interesting is the two paired reminded me of my rave days but in the opposite order. You'd start off at a rave that had the vibe of "Deja Voodoo" but end with the vibe of "Eternity." But life seems to go in the opposite direction, or does it? Maybe it just goes in waves. Anywho... Don't know if this effect was on purpose or not, but, brilliant stuff; nice contrast between the videos. The interesting thing is "Eternity" was more deja voodoo to me in reminding me of the past; reminded me a bit of Dif Jus actually. So, anyone know the significance of 099 or the fly that shows up in both videos?

Gear list comments from Kenny:

"The tracks were done with ATC-1 on bass, Moog Voyager,
Jupiter 6, TR808/909/606 CR8000 DR-55, Jomox Xbase-09 and lots
of Doepfer A-100. Also have some MFB in there from
Schneider's Buero at Alexanderplatz, Berlin.

Electrix Filter Factory and the Warpfactory used to add
shimmer and life to top end of certain sounds.
Dimension-D chorus for some pads and counter melodies.

We mixed analogue on a SSL 4048 board with a bank of Neve
pre-amps."

Airport81 - New Yoko - Yamaha CS60 over Atari 2600

Title link takes you to MySpace site for Airport81. I previously posted on their track The Buddy System. Looks like they have a couple of more tracks up including "New Yoko" which features just the Yamaha CS60 over an Atari 2600 for beats. Pretty interesting track. Via this post on Sonic State's the-gas-station.