Daydream - In The Night

This one work safe. Hmm... Or maybe not. If you ruin your reputation caught dancing and singing along to this, it's not my fault. "O-o-o-o-ok?" YouTube via trivan. Sent my way via Jexus. Features Akai AX80.

I MONSTER Daydream In Blue

WARNING!!!: Not work safe. A bit of female nudity. You consent you are over 18 if you click on the image or title link. Yeah... YouTube via varrod. Sent my way via Kris. Features a bit of EMS Synthi, Korg MS20, Suzuki Omnichord and a string synth. If you know what the string synth is feel free to comment. Synths come in at the very beginning and about 2 minutes in.




Update: the original was pulled, here it is again:

The Kinetic Sound Prism

Just a shot pulled from this auction. for a 7 page catalog of the Prism.

The OB-Mx Story

Click here for a sordid tale of the Gibson Oberheim OB-Mx. If you haven't read this before, make the time to do so. It's an interesting bit of synth history.

"D.N. "Lynx" Crowe and Don Buchla were called in to salvage the OB-Mx very late in the game. They weren't told the whole story of the project to that date; they gradually uncovered the archeological and forensic evidence in the drawings and code. Some details still aren't known, but thanks to the process of Discovery in several civil suits, including depositions of many of the people mentioned here, enough is known to show the mismanagement, fraud, and incompetence that doomed G-WIZ, the OB-Mx, and ultimately OpCode and any other hi-tech company that is fooled into trying to work with Gibson Guitar and its Technohick CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz. Everything spelled out in this narrative is either from my own memories of the time, or from depositions and exhibits already in evidence in the case."

Pictured are two shots of the prototype OB-Mx via Analog Synth Service


Update: OB-Mx Preservation Page.

PNW 06: James Talks About His Roland CMU-800

James Gallant talks about his Roland CMU-800 at this year's Pacific Northwest Synthesizer Meeting. Videos of the CMU-800 playing coming this week. Note the CMU-800 has eight channels of CV and gate.

ARP Odyssey Keys

No title link. Just one shot via this auction. Check out those keys! Kind of like the bottom row of my teeth. I'd say this ARP needs braces but then I had braces as a kid. Hmm... Why don't they last? via brian comnes.

Arp Odyssey Model 2800 Analog Synthesizer

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Details: "Serial # 283076 3 octave, 37 keys. This is the 'black with gold printing' model, which dates it from 74-75--one of the earliest Odyssey models available, second only to the 'whiteface' model."

via brian comnes.

Custom Copper Case

flickr by abneypark.

Impressive.

EMS Synthi 100

And it's back on the bay. Previously posted here, however it looks like there are actually a couple of new shots. Title link takes you to all shots pulled via this auction. Some one buy this so I can see what my affiliate chunk on 60k would be. : ) I'll even let you know how much it was. BTW, if someone actually can afford to shell out 60k for this, umm... make sure to check it out first.

via one of the anonymous in the comments of this post.

Axiom 25 Wood Pimped

Soloandata added some wood to this Axiom 25. Title link takes you to a couple of shots pulled via this CDM thread.

Update: Post up on CDM.

EH MicroSynth

flickr by Breakfast for Dinner

Modular Moog

flickr by Joel Abbott.

Title link takes you to more shots apparently taken at AES.

Roy at Modular Moog

flickr by Joel Abbott.

Anyone know what he's messing with? Underside of a keyboard?

The Waldorf Edition

Image via Tomman.de.

via La Orange Factory

Minimoog #066

Via Josh

"Mini (#066) with pitch and modwheel modification (color changing pitch ...green to blue to purple and pulsating mod wheel)"

Title link takes you to more shots.

Shadow XTk and Andromeda A6 Prototype

You are looking at only one of two Shadow XTks in the world and an Adromeda A6 prototype. Click here for more shots.

via Josh

Fenix Modular

Title link takes you to some shots of Josh's Fenix Modular. He actually posted this unit for sale on Analog Heaven. Here's a link to the post if you are intersted.

Song For Duets

Title link takes you to a track by Mark of the DSI PEK (Poly Evolver Keyboard) and the Jomox XBase09SE.

Details:

"OK here goes - a little demo (audio only) of the XBase09SE and PEK in action. Three tracks of XBase: kick, with a little analog Ashly SC-66 EQ; swishy snare, with a little LFO and analog EQ (more Ashly); and rim/clap, with analog echo (tube echoplex). Drum sounds were group-compressed with analog comps (Ashly CL50's). Two tracks of PEK: a pad of analog osc's in random VCA mode, sync'd to XBase clock; and a saw/pulse lead with some LFO on a sync'd osc. I'm still just dipping my toes in, so there's not a whole lot that goes on dynamically, but I just thought these were cool sounds and patterns that others might find inspirational as well. Happy noodling..."

My midi tama ts306

"This is an old tama ts306 drum synth brain. Originally intended for use with a set of electronic drum triggers, it had no midi, only trigger inputs. Thanks to the wonder of modern DIY electronic kits (thanks Paul Maddox and Laurie Biddulph!) I have installed a midi conversion kit. This is me playing it from my Korg electribe ER1. Also, some extra squawks from a bird we were birdsitting at the time."

Not actually mine, just the name of the video via Brandon Daniel of fdiskc. YouTube via bdufdiskc.

Anonymous Posting

I have received a number of complaints about anonymous posters slamming others. As any given person can post multiple times under anonymous, it's hard to tell whether the comments are coming from one disgruntled person or many. The one thing I do know is I don't see the complaints come in as often on lists like the Analog Heaven mailing list. Why? Probably because your name/alias is tied to the comment.

Moving forward I will be removing anonymous comments that are blatent slams on others. However, I will leave anonymous comments on for the more constructive stuff that comes in, so if you have something useful to contribute, and wish to anonymously, please do.

Scottish Made Powerhouse Drum Machine

Click here for shots pulled from this auction.

Details:
"Here is something you won't see too often - a vintage SCOTTISH MADE POWERHOUSE DRUM MACHINE, made by a company called Bandmaster L.T.D./G.R. International, it looks to be from the 70's and is covered in what looks like Vox Vinhyde, as used on Vox AC-30 guitar amps, this is the only drum machine I know of that uses 8-track tapes!, it comes with 8 tapes, each of which have about 4 different beats on them, the tapes have labels showing a blond European babe boogieing with a guy playing drums behind her, there is a knob on the unit that controls tempo, i.e. it slows down or speeds up the tape, there are a couple pushbuttons for adjusting the sound and a couple that don't seem to do anything that I'm aware of, there is also a balance control since this is a stereo unit, on the back are a pair of RCA output jacks for left and right to hook-up to a stereo and a 1/4" phone output jack, there is s unmarked slide switch on the front panel that doesn't seem to do anything, on the back are a couple footswitch jacks, the machine comes with a dual pedal board that plugs in back, one pedal is a temporary pause/cut-off of sound and the other advances the tape program from one track to the next, I'm not sure if the footswitched are original equipment or not, I tried all the tapes and noticed some played better than others, might be the machine needs to be used some more, 8-track tapes have always been funky and these are no different, the program lights occasionally don't light, again, the machine may just need some "exercise", the tempo, balance and volume controls all are working, the machine is in nice shape cosmetically."

via Mike Ford

Juno-106 on SoNiCbRaT

Looks like SoNiCbRaT added a Roland Juno-106 to his studio. Title link takes you to his studio gallery were you'll find more shots of the 106 and much more, previously posted here.

Click here for his notes on the 106.

Update via cornutt in the comments:
"You absolutely can use MIDI to change banks and patches. To map the bank and patch numbers to MIDI program change numbers, do this:

1. From the two digits displayed (the bank and patch numbers), subtract 1 from each.

2. Multiply the bank number by 8 and add the patch number.

3. If the patch is from bank group B, add 64.

Make sure the rear panel MIDI function switch is in position II or III, or the 106 won't respond to the program change message.

I've heard some people say the 106 sounds thin compared to the J6 and J60. My response is that people who say that haven't spent enough time working with it. I have noticed that some people tend to use the chorus as a crutch, and don't spend enough time trying to get a good basic sound before they add the chorus.

And yes, the chorus is a bit hissy, but no more so than any other analog BBD delay device. A somewhat more severe problem is that the chorus, when combined with high-resonance filter settings, can sometimes cause rather extreme and unpredictable level excursions. Keep a compressor or limiter on the output and be happy.

I bought a J106 new in 1984. I still have it and use it frequently. And although I've created hundreds of patches on it, I still don't think I've used all of its potential."

PNW06: Jeff Sandys Demos the Paia Gnome

video upload by

More via the 2006 Pacific Northwest Synth Meeting.

Swiss Jam Session

Title link takes you to videos and audio of this years Swiss synth gathering on sequencer.de.

Looks like NASAs control room.

Correction via Moogulator in the comments: "it's actually the ESA ;)" Too funny! : )

Access Matrix 1000 Programmer

You don't see these too often. Before the Virus A, Access used to make hardware knob boxes for the Oberheim Matrix 1000 and the Waldorf Microwave. Guess which one this is? : ) Title link takes you to more shots pulled via this auction.
If anyone gets this thing, post back in the comments with how it works as a real time controller.

via brian comnes.

Update via Till "Qwave" Kopper in the comments:
"The Matrix Controller did also work for the Matrix 6 and the Matrix 6 rack version. I used to own a Matrix 6 and this controller. It was working as fine as editing is possible on non rotary encoders. So be prepared for some parameter jumps when moving a knob.
I remember the filter cutoff knob was transmitted somehow by SysEx. And it took a while for the synth to act to it. So it was impossible to use the controller for real time filter sweeps.
I can't remember what you had to do to tell the Programmer if you are working on a Matrix 6 (keyb. or rack version) or a Matrix 1000. There was a certain bottom combination needed.
You could lock the knobs in order not to change (=jump) a sound into nirvana while playing. This lock modus was also the default when turing the unit on.
I own now the MicroWave version for my MicroWave plus WaveSlave. Works fine !
But it is not better then good new controller boxes. But it does look way better then those plastic ones of today."

"The modulation matrix is not handled at all.

Back in time the company was named Access Midi Tools, they even showed a prototype at Frankfurt of the PG-X in 1996, a universal hardware programmer, at the TSI/Waldorf booth. This never made it into production, to much units to support, look what happened to Polyframe/SoundDiver.

Have a look here for more info (German only).

There is a Review at SOS about both Programmers:

I have them both, just for the cool look ;-) There are some little issues with the Matrix one (not just on mine, it is a generic issue) on the sustain of the filter envelope, I allways planned to check if the programmer is sending stupid data or if the M1000 is causing the fault.

As Till pointed out, there is some steppyness with the Matrix, but this is just the slow reception in the synth.

It is quite fine with the MicroWave, which is able to eat lots of SysEx without any problem.

Georg."

Update via cornutt in the comments:
"I am the author of M1000X, the Matrix 6/6R/1000 patch editor for OSX. So I'm pretty familiar with the MIDI implementations of these boxes. Here's what I have found out about them:

The Matrix-6/6R MIDI implementation was only about half finished, and it has a critical bug. The two biggest problems with it are:

1. Some of the parameters allow both positive and negative numbers, but the M6 won't accept a negative value in a MIDI single parameter message. So, if any paraemter needs to be set to a negative value, the entire patch has to be sent to the box. And the M6 doesn't allow the patch-load message to write to the edit buffer; it has to be written directly to the patch memory. Not only is this slow, but it also means that the edit can't be undone (unless the external editor remembers it).

2. The M6 has no MIDI mesages for updating the routing matrix. As in the case above, the only way to do it is to write the entire patch to patch memory.

They fixed a lot of the MIDI problems on the Matrix-1000. It supports all legal values in MIDI single parameter messages. There is no reason why an M1000 can't do a real-time filter sweep if the external editor handles it properly. The only thing that was botched on the M1000 is that it does not remember patch names. That was probably done because the M1000 itself can't display them, but IHMO it still should have stored them in order to support external editors, and also patch interchange with the M6.

The other thing that strikes me abou the Access box is that it doesn't appear to have nearly enough controls to edit all of the parameters that a Matrix-6 or 1000 patch supports, even leaving out the routing matrix. Where, for example, are the knobs for adjusting the tracking generator break points, or the buttons for setting the zillions of possible envelope modes? Anyway, thanks for publishing this; it was an interesting look back into history. And I hope my comments were helpful."

PNW06: David Skinner Demo's his Synthesizers.com Modular

Ok, here's the first of a few videos I will be putting up on this year's Pacific Northwest Synth Meeting since my first post. I will preface the title of the posts with PNW06 so you know these are from the event. These two are of David Skinner showing his Synthesizers.com modular. P.S. That's not me asking the questions. : ) I'm just filming.

Note (4/19/2011): the following was originally on Google Video. I couldn't find the post here on MATRIXYSNTH, so I am adding it to this pot. See the pnw2006 label for more.

Double Exposure

flickr by davetron5000.

Update: Great story via mikeford in the comments:
"a number of years ago my power supply went out on my etherwave theremin, so I called the big briar company to see about ordering a new one. usually, two really nice ladys answer the phone. However that morning I call up and a mans voice answeres. I proceed to inquire about my replacement and paused.."are the ladies out today?"
No the oldermans voice answers, "they are running alittle late." a silence of about 6 seconds on my end and I realise I am talking to Dr. MOOG HIMSELF! I an trying to think of somthing to ask, and the realistic moog comes up in my mind and the good doc tells me the whole history of the modle, especially the story about the felt around the sliders that turns to goop after so manny years and how to cleen it up. He "says" look, if you have any problems with that, just ship it to me and i will take care of cleaning it upit, no charge." WOW!!May god rest his soul! "

Dual Sequential Circuits Multi-Trak

"To do this, two Multi-Traks were used, one with a bad keyboard. The aluminum case was cut on one of the cases and its top was piggy backed on to the multi-trak with a good keyboard. The master controls the slave via midi which includes sequencer control. Still has 16 individual voice outputs and four 'mixed' outputs. A custom cable was made to join outputs into a single mono or stereo output for both synthesizers."

Title link takes you to more shots on Synthwood.

Synthwoodspecializes in:
Synthesizer Woodworking
Specializing in replacement wood parts for Classic Analogue Synthesizers
Custom design for modular synth cabinets, cases, side or end bells and conversions and modifications
Beautiful and exotic woods: Koa, Mahogany, Black Walnut, English Chestnut, Maple and more
Tasteful finishes (French polish, Linseed Oiling and blends)
Tapered black stainless finishing screws included

Synthwood Custom Prophet T8

"A little history: This was the last Prophet T8 made by Sequential Circuits. There was no wooden keyboard made for it and it was either given or sold to an SCI employee.

Later the case was taken to a machine shop where the front end was rip sawed off and the wheels were placed inside of the case. It was necessary to keep the wheels plugged in so that the modulation section would work properly. If you have a T8 with a keyboard that is far beyond repair, this can be done for you."

Title link takes you to more shots on Synthwood. Reminds me a bit of the Rhodes Chroma Expander.

Synthwood specializes in:
Synthesizer Woodworking
Specializing in replacement wood parts for Classic Analogue Synthesizers
Custom design for modular synth cabinets, cases, side or end bells and conversions and modifications
Beautiful and exotic woods: Koa, Mahogany, Black Walnut, English Chestnut, Maple and more
Tasteful finishes (French polish, Linseed Oiling and blends)
Tapered black stainless finishing screws included

Update via Stephen in the comments:
"I've got an update for this. John Bowen confirmed that my T-8 was used on the bench at Sequential and that Stanley Jungleib ended up with it during the Yamaha liquidation. Stanley sold it to person in the Bay Area who then sold it to a friend of mine in 1989. I had known about the 'keyboardless T-8' since 1992 and eventually coaxed my friend into selling it to me just last year. My father finished the case earlier this spring and I updated the ROMs to rev 3.8 (they were 3.7)."

Red Martian

One of the people I met at this year's PNW meeting was Stephen Jones. You might recognize the name from this post on the custom wood case for the Sequential Circuts Pro One. You can find more info on the case and other custom work on Synthwood. I actually need to put a couple of posts on the custom T8 and Multi-traks there.

For this post, however, I want to focus on Stephen's band Red Martian. If you like Severed Heads, you will like Red Martian. I asked Stephen what his music was like and what bands influenced him. Not only is he influenced by Severed Heads, but one of their tracks was actually remixed by them. Pretty cool. BTW, you know my policy on only posting music if it showcases a given synth. Well the track "Behind the Mask" features a Prophet 5. Details:

"On behind the mask casey recorded his drums with live bass and keyboard. I then went back and tapped out a gate track along with his human tempo and used that to trigger the backing sequence. All of the synthesizer sounds were done on the Prophet 5. I got the mono lead sounds by killing voices and playing it it unison. "no moogs here". The vocals were done with a SVC-350 vocoder along with the Prophet 5."

Check out their MySpace page to get to the track directly and check out their main site for more. This is good stuff.

PNW06 via David Skinner

Title link takes you to shots of this year's Pacific Northwest Synth Meeting via David Skinner.

Rev1 Prophet 5, Rev3.3 Prophet 5, and Creamware ASB Pro-12 pictured.

Zeit Desktop Sequencer

Remember the Zeit Sequencer? Here's another tabletop version via sequencer.de. Infection Music are the makers of the Zeit.

Moog Taurus Pedals

Title link takes you to some nice shots pulled from this auction.

Moog Taurus Demos

YouTube via william19139. Sent my way via Frederic.

Note the video mentions it's up for auction. I checked and there are currently two up on the bay; not sure which is his. one, two. Update via Synthbaron in the comments: "the 2nd auction has the YouTube links in it."

The Korg 900PS Preset Monosynth

Via Benjamin Ward of Korganalog.net:

"The 900PS is a quite basic but interesting monosynth that came out around 1976. I took some photos the summer before last when I was thinking of flogging it (but I later changed my mind - I am a hoarder too which doesn't help!)

It does contain some nice early Korg quirkiness, such as the harmonics controls (I suppose Korg were going for the organ market with this one), go travelling with the Traveler (cut off frequency slider) and of course the metal modulation bar that runs the length of the keyboard and can be used to control vibrato, pitch bend, loudness, repeat effects and portamento (all at the same time if you wish!) As far as CV/gate is concerned I would have thought that its easy to mod but you would have to ask a boffin."

Inside the Elektron Turbo Midi TM-1

Title link takes you to more also mirrored here.

via Allerian.

Chasing the light

flickr via altemark. Title link takes you to one more.

Future Retro Revolution

PNW Synth Meeting 2006 Images and Video

Uploaded on Oct 22, 2006 matrixsynth

This year's Pacific Northwest Synth Meeting was a blast. I want to thank John Marshall of Sound-Photo for organizing the event and for the pizza. Good stuff! I really enjoyed the pace of the event this year. It was pretty laid back, and I met a lot of great people. Even some that read Matrixsynth! : ) The meeting started at 10:00 AM. I was about half an hour late. When I got there people were just hanging out, talking and playing synths. Once everyone was settled in, we did a show and tell where each person talked a little about themselves and what they brought. Halfway through we stopped for pizza and after pizza, we continued on. All of the talks were great. There were a few funny moments and surprises including some Sequential Circuits history from John Bowen. This year I took a ton of video and unfortunately neglected the camera a bit. The title link of this post will take you to the shots I did take. As for the video, I took over 3 gigs worth, so they will go up over time. This first video is a pan of everyone at the event. You can hear the synths talking to each other in the background. : ) BTW, I want to say thank you to everyone I met. All great people in my book. As for those of you that want the synth content, the vids are coming. I'll be posting all of them over the next few days, and I'll make sure to call out they are from PNW 2006. There is one caveat though: the max file size for YouTube is currently 100M, so some of the larger videos will have to wait. Note that not long ago the limit was 50M, so hopefully it won't be too long.

Plan B Model 24 Samples

Via Peter Grenader on the Plan B list:

"All this talk, so where's the bacon? I've posted some sound samples of the M24 doing it's thing. Go here and scroll to Sound Samples. the Model 24 will be shipping in two weeks.

enjoy.

- P"

Update via Peter in the comments:
"For the record:

1) The M24 IS NOT BASED ON BUCHLA'S DESIGNS other than their function. It's microprocessor based.It's not based on anyone's design, the circuit is completely unique inside. Have a look at the block diagram on the M24 page of the EAR site, you'll see what I'm talking bout.

2) The M12 iis NOT a clone of anything. Buchla's filter is state variable, but a completely different architecture. Mine has four modes, Don's has one...they both use Vactrols, as does Dieter's Stweiner Filter. If you feel you must credit me for 'borrowing', then credit Don Lancaster - because the M12 came from reading his filter cookbook that I borrowed from Mike Brown. That's the only borrowing that went into that one.

3) The M13 is close to the Buchla 292 - but there are some significant changes in play there, namely an added opamp feedback which greatly improved it's functionality for non-Buchla signal levels."

"On 'clones'

Adaptations are nothing new. The point has been made about the many many Moog Ladder clones, but let's not overlook the Wiard Wogglebug and the Buchla 266 as well as the Wiard Borg and the Buchla 292, Banalogue's full product line, the Livewire and Cynthia Steiner filters, The Cynthia and Doepfer Wasp, The Livewire Bissell Gen, the list goes on and on.

And while the Model 13 is the only circuit adaptation in our line, so is the Cynthia Lowpass Gate (I know because I designed that circuit) and the Wiard Borg, although I don't see comments about either of these.

Add to the mix that well over 60% of the new analog instruments being released today are based on circuits published in Electronotes. The only function in the entire Plan B line that can be found in Electronotes is the sine shaper in the Model 15, but that was only an Electronotes reprint of a circuit originally published in an article Electronics Magazine in the mid-sixties and was done so as an appnote - meaning they intended for people to use it, that's why it was there.

More on this, the M24 is functionally similar to the Buchla 266 as it produces a stepped and smooth random state (and a bunch of toehr stuff).Well, so does the Wogglebug, the Doepfer A149-1(half of the 266 anyway), The Doepfer A-118 (the other half), the Serge Random Voltage Gen...but we all went about it differently and we all included unique features not in the original. Clearly a 'how would I make something that has this function among others' as opposed to 'how to I make a 266 clone' approach on all counts.

For the record however, I personally asked Buchla and Associates if they would have a problem with this and their reply was no, 'everyone needs a wiggley voltage'."

Die 16 Bestn Aus Den Hitparaden '77!

This one is in via André:

"Perhaps I can top the "Yamaha Superstar" cover. It's from a german lp and a guy called Edgar Schlepper. The record itself is really poor, but he used both the GX-1 and EX-1."

Click here for an mp3 of this most awesome recording. A little ABBA. A little Chicago. All done on a Yamaha GX1 and EX1. Who could ask for more. Enjoy. : )

Make sure to check out Anre's site for more.

Moog T at Urban Outfittes

Uban Outfitters is a chain like The Gap. There was one on Capitol Hill in Seattle. Note the 1934-2005. The synth pictures is a Memorymoog btw, not the Minimoog. Anyone know more about this T? Who's producing it? Why the Memorymoog was chosen?

Update: And another.

Oberheim Four Voice System

Click here for shots of Heath Finnie's Oberheim FVS. BTW the unit is for sale in the Boston area, local pick up only. If you are interested you can reach heah at hfinnie at gmail.com.

Tokyo Heartbeatn

Ok, I'm stretching it with this one as I like my posts to be specifically about synths, but I thought some of you might find this interesting. I found it very interesting. Filing this one under samples. More on the Roland R-09.

Via Cyril:
"Two weeks ago i was in Tokyo, i have recorded street sound with my brand new
Edirol R-09. On my blog you will find a compilation called "Tokyo Heartbeat -
September 2006". Raw recording : just me walking in Tokyo with R-09 in one
hand, a fade in&out by track and that's all. Tracks recorded with R-09 stereo
mic at 24bit/44khz, and converted to MP3-192 kbps."

Tracklist :

01) Yamanote Line - 05:30
02) Akihabara - 02:24
03) Sega Club Arcade Center - 08:38
04) From Akihabara to Asakusabashi - 11:30
05) Pachislot - 6:56
06) A bar - 5:06
07) Kita Akabane by night - 01:40
08) A train to Tokyo Game Show - 11:16
09) Ukimafunado Tower - 28:37
10) At the Karaoke (Featuring Tanguy) - 1:43

History of Electronic Sound Manipulation - Harold Bode

Title link takes you to a 2.2M pdf of History of Electronic Sound Manipulation by Harold Bode, mirrored here.

"The history of electronic sound modification is as old as the history of electronic musical instruments and electronic sound transmission, recording, and reproduction. Means for modifying electrically generated sound have been known. since the late 19th century, when Thaddeus Cahill created his Telharmonium. With the advent of the electronic age, spurred first by the invention of the electron tube, and the more recent development of solid-state devices, an astounding variety of sound modifiers have been created for filtering, distorting, equalizing, amplitude and frequency modulating, Doppler effect and ring modulating, compressing, reverberating, repeating, flanging, phasing, pitch changing, chorusing, frequency shifting, analyzing, and resynthesizing natural and artificial sound. In this paper some highlights of historical development are reviewed, covering the time from 1896 to the present ."

EPU - Electronic Percussion Unit

Via jesper in the comments of this post:
"I guess this is the most famous piece I have in my studio as well as the piece that's been on the road the most. The knüttel EPU was originally designed in 1976 by Franz Knüttel who made this and other electronic instruments and controllers for legendary german band Tangerine Dream. There is only one EPU around and this used to belong to Chris Franke. I bought it as non-working on Ebay but to my big surprise it did work still after almost 30 years! I switched an IC and with the help from a friend I converted it to accept +5 volts trig and not just the +15 it wanted originally."

"Here's a sound link of how the EPU can sound. In time the EPU takes it's way through an Accessit Great British Spring (100 cm spring reverb). I made this for the mailing list SAS to show what the two units sounded like and could accomplish. I thought it fit this discussion well too..."


Title link takes you you jesper's page on the EPU with more info, images and samples.

Y2K International Loop Festival

Via brian comnes:

"This has been a busy week with the NoiseFest Saturday and Loop Festival Thursday.

Attached are some pics from the Y2K6 Live Looping Festival. Rainer Straschill's rig has the Korg Wavestation (gratuitous synth porn) He's from Germany see www.straschill.de for more) and I threw in some cool shots of him in action. Rick Walker (festival organizer and looper par excellence) is the guy in the white suit. - love that chain and cymbal stuff

The Thursday night event was their "experimental" night so the sounds had some common DNA with the noise folks. The big difference of course was the musicality and nuance, much more of that with the loopers than the noise crowd. I know you focus on synths in your blog, but in effect what these looper folks are doing is capturing waveforms on the fly and then sustaining and layering them with the looper gear, then modulating the results and keeping it all interesting in real time. Is that really fundamentally different than drifting through a sequence of waveforms driven by a Korg Wavestation?? This year the computers were way more prominent than Echoplexes compared to last years presentation. The coolest instrument there by far was the Zaxophone which is basically a fiberglass or bamboo stick (pinned to a piezo much like a one note kalimba) played with a bow and modulated by a block of wood. This thing was almost human sounding, ranging from kids chatttering to orgasmic moans. There's a picture of that too. Unfortunately the artist from Japan was not on the official program so I am sorry he is anonymous. (maybe rick can supply the name)"

Title link takes you to more shots. Previous post on the festival.

Reloop (SL)

"A how-to/promo video of Reloop, a groovebox-ish sample player in Second Life. Mind the volume, Fraps isn't on good terms with my soundcard. Music by me, etc etc"

YouTube via stellatre. BTW, check out this excellent Music Thing post for more on Second Life.

GHIELMETTI SCHALTMATRIX

Pin matrix modulation. Title link takes you to more.

via sequencer.de

My Girlfriend

flickr by tark.

It sometimes feels that way doesn't it? P.S., there's a cat after the hop.

The Youngest Synth Collector in the World

You are looking at the youngest synth collector in the world. Click image for a bigger shot. Title link takes you to her studio page.

via jesper.