Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Vintage Synth Desktop Wallpaper
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Richard Lainhart to Play Moogfest 2007
What's more, I'll be bringing my new Buchla 200e/Continuum (http://www.otownmedia.com/he/buchla.htm) system to the land of the Moog for the first time.
Performers include Thomas Dolby, T Lavitz, Don Preston, Adam Holzman, Gershon Kingsley, Herb Deutsch, and many other pioneers and practitioners of the art of Moog synthesis, so it should be an evening of diverse and exciting music. I hope to see you there."
Be sure to check out these posts.
TBS-303
Click here for a couple more shots via this auction.
"(this website has real audio files of the SYNTH)
- Internally the analog circuits are identical to Rolands original design
(same component types, topology, 18dB/oct resonance filter etc.) There are
no IC's used to simplify the design!
- The Mark II version has a revised MIDI interface for better control and
for example user selectable MIDI channel.
- The TBS303 is on purpose build in a desktop type housing to make real
time control by hand, better (just like the original!)"
Switched-ON Rock
Some liner stuff:
The amazing thing about all the sounds is not that they are done one voice at a time, but rather one finger at a time. The silly machine only plays one note at a time and the temptation play a chord must be overcome... you only get the lowest note if you press more than one key. Improvisation is difficult but far from impossible if you redefine the problem."
Title link takes you to a free download stream of the album on Wiel's Time Capsule.
Plan B Model 11 - Prototype Demo and First Image
REwire_-_My_Evil_Twin.mp3
SID Synth
"This is a hand made Analog Synth with SID 6581 as the sound engine. It has a 2x16 Blue LCD, blue LED power and midi in
indicator There are (6) Big Black Buttons to select menu functions. There are midi in and outs on this unit.
_it has blue and red LED's
-this version has artwork on front panel
-All internal wiring is CAT5 and hot glued down at the solder locations to survive a very long lifespan
-the front and back panels are very thick clear and Transparent Blue plexiglass.
-12v AC power adapter is included (WALLWART)
-a HEATSINK is on the SID6581 for cooling and heat management.
-It can be edited via CC midi messaging.
Here is the myspace link to here a demo of what it is capable of: It was mixed down in CUBASESX
All songs are 100% SID only, the first song only has VOCODED INTRO."
Audio Damage Liquid Now Available
A normal flanger, at least in today's world, is just a delay line set to a very short time with some feedback. In "analog" pedals this is done with a bucket-brigade delay chip, and in DSP-based effects like digital pedals and plug-ins, it is one of the easiest effects to create. However, the original flanging effect was created by running two tape machines with the same material in sync, then varying the speed of one of them (sometimes by actually applying pressure to the flange of the tape reel with a finger) to cause some rather extreme and odd comb filtering.
Made popular by George Martin (and used heavily on John Lennon's vocals on many tracks from Revolver on) and Phil Spector (who used it on, well, just about everything), it is a classic effect that was difficult to achieve in software. Until now."
Title link takes you there.
DSI Prophet '08 SE
MAM RS3 Resonator
Click here for shots via this auction.
"Three bandpass filters, controlled by various modulations. Includes original box (not shown) and power supply. Front and rear inputs; input jack for external modulation. Stereo outs. This makes an excellent 'secret sauce' tool for absolutely all gear when run on an fx bus, or straight from your synth/pedals/etc."
Next SuperBass 4.4
"100% analog. Imho the best 303 emulation, but it also goes beyond that with extras like sub oscillator and distortion. Also has filter input in the back, which allows you to play a sounds through the sweet filter section of the unit. Knobs send MIDI, unit responds to CC data. Has autoslide legato on/off for those TB 303 lines."
Waldorf XTk
Note the Q Phoenix under the XTk and of course the XTk logo. There is also an Alesis A6 in one of the shots.
via Mr. Array.
picsynthv2
click here for the full size shot.
"PIC-microcontroller based digital synth/sequencer/filterbox with Wasp filter"
Update via ScarKord in the comments: "Quick bit of Googling came up with this link... Here's what they say about it... ...powered by a 9V-battery and the size is 11x5x3 cm Controls:Five pots (tempo/duration, data, cutoff, resonance and volume) and seven buttons (play, rec, stop, pattern, step forward, step backwards and rest) Status is indicated by an bi-colour LED (rec, play, stop, external trig mode, end of pattern) Four jacks are located on the back of the unit (external trig in, external audio in, filter cutoff and output) Four different sequences of 16 steps are stored in the internal Eeprom of the PIC18F84. The sounds are PWM-based 8-bit sounds with both tones and different pitched noise."
Monday, August 27, 2007
Daniel Hansson RIP
Update: when I first heard the news I was speechless. What do you say when something this tragic happens. He was too young. I put the post up with just the words above. I've received a couple of emails from readers stating I should put up a post. I'm guessing they missed the original post. Because of this I'm updating this post to make it a bit more visible, so others do not miss this terrible news. I decided to make this the last post of the day. I've lost people extremely close to me in the last few years and it is a painful, personal, and traumatic experience. Words cannot express how sorry I am for those that were close to Daniel Hansson and all who are saddened by this loss.
Yamaha TG-33 Demo by smackos
THeff's Model 2 Klee
"THeff has built the only Model 2 Klee I've ever seen other than what I have on breadboard. The guy built the thing on perfboard - one board! It's a Model 2, which differs a bit from the electro-music Klee Sequencer PCB project, but the difference is pretty minor. His thread is here.
A couple of pics of the sequencer here and here [pictured].
And some samples he's posted in the thread (he's picked up on it pretty quickly - programming a Klee is definitely a different process than programming a standard step sequencer):
1st_klee_demo_210
happy_klee_718
leave_it_to_kleever_330"
Update: I asked Scott for a little more info on the Klee. Here is what he had to say about it:
"the Klee is something I pretty much cooked up in this thread:
It's a lot of reading, though =0). Earlier this summer, Andy Sharp, Tom Fenn and I cooked up a scheme to produce PCBs of the project and sell them at a small profit, which we're donating to the electro-music forum for operating expenses, and to go towards a new server (a bit late on that one, judging from the recent crash there).
I've got a fairly complete (but not totally complete) draft of the Klee theory here:
http://electro-music.com/forum/download.php?id=8646
It's from this thread:
http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19278The doc explains what the Klee is and does and how it differs from a "normal" sequencer. It's a draft with a couple of minor typos, and I haven't yet gotten into the last part of the functionality - the interval switch."
Cyborg System 100 in da House
via Aliens Project. BTW, it looks like the Aliens Project now has a blog. Excellent. via sequencer.de.
Rendez Vous 2 Jean Michel Jarre Cover
YouTube via fischek.
"I've used the sampled Elka Synthex patch (SF2 format) and FL Studio for creating and looping the rhythm."
MemPot v1.0, potentiometer with a memory
MemPot was developed by Dan Blackburn and me as a control interface for circuit bent instruments and sound generators. MemPot is a built around PIC 16F819 microcontroller that reads analog resistances, records them to memory and plays them back via digital potentiometer DS1267 chip. The memory buffer size and the playback speed can be adjusted."
Title link takes you there. Previous posts.
SuperVirus
Solar3D software proudly presents SuperVirus Version 2.0! There are a lot of new features available in this version...
* Browse for categories of Single programs
* Jump to bank- buttons with DirectSelect menu
* Background dependency check for Multi programs
* 999 clipboards for Single programs
* complete support for A, B, C, Classic, RackXL
* complete Multi program support
* unlimited Undo/Redo for incomming Sysex messages if you edit directly at the Virus hardware controls
* Big face lifting"
Title link takes you there. There is a 30 day trial download. via sequencer.de.
Hints of New Things from Zebranalogic
The second post is New MIDI design which mentions, "In order to complete our blocks for a new audio machine we are designing a more complete MIDI circuit. Part of the process is the system simulation. In the picture we can see the capture of the values of Status byte, note, velocity and note off, all are the same in this test because we are entering the values with a PC keyboard ...we are working a lot to design a bigger machine with more details and best options..."
Electro Harmonix HOG
"The Electro-Harmonix HOG is a totally polyphonic guitar synthesizer, giving the user complete control of up to 10 interval pitches. Musicians can unveil an entirely new tone potential with anything from extreme sub bass to powerful multi-octave chords, including fifth and third intervals. Dedicated Filtering and envelope control, with numerous setup options, make the HOG a must-have performance instrument. And NO special pickup is required and NO glitches are created.
Features include:
#10 intervals of pitch can be mixed by using 10 surface faders, which may then be played polyphonically with perfect tracking:
· 1 octaves down · 1 octave + a perfect fifth
· 2 octaves down · 2 octaves up
· Original pitch · 2 octaves up + a major third
· One Fifth up · 3 octaves up
· 1 octave up · 4 octaves up
#Six unique expression modes are accessible via the Exp button, expression pedal*and MIDI. Octave bends, step bends, volume control, user defined Wah-Wah, Filter control, plus two unique freeze modes: With Freeze Gliss, an expression pedal freezes a chord while letting you play over it having your frozen notes gliss to meet your new notes. The Freeze Volume freezes a chord allowing you to control its volume, with an expression pedal, as you play on top of it.
#An external “whammy” pedal and a momentary surface mounted Exp button, allow for real-time access and manipulation of all of the above expression modes. A new level of performance interaction.
#Dual Envelope generators that work with both the higher and lower frequency ranges. Allows unique contours of attack and release in two different harmonic regions.
#12 dB per octave 2-pole low pass filter and resonance controls manipulate the tone while also being a critical element within the expression modes.
#Surface Foot access for True Bypass, expression control and envelope engagement.
#Store performance presets when you use the optional external Electro-Harmonix foot controller. 9LDC-500 power supply included"
Sunday, August 26, 2007
243 Programmable Pulser
YouTube via verbos2000.
"My custom programmable pulser module for Buchla systems."
Previous Posts
Also:
Buchla MARF in action
Luther Rochester playing his Buchla Music Easel at AHMW 2007
YouTube via therealretrosynth.
"Luther Rochester generates some nice organic tones on his Buchla Music Easel at AHMW 2007."
Dance like a star
YouTube via analoguecrazy4.
"Here is my cover of an old Human League demo 'Dance like a star'. This demo was made in late 1977 and was never released. The synth the Human League used on this demo was the Minikorg 700S." Guess the synths used here. Hint in the labels.
Korg MS-20 demonstration
YouTube via VintSynth.
"A Korg MS-20 showing that after thirty years she's still worth every knob, in a simple bass sequence together with a Roland D-50 in the VintSynth Studio in Almere, the Netherlands."
Prophet Synthesizer Model 1000 Manual
"Fresh, full black and white copy of original operations manual in 8-1/2 x 11 format."
Update via the comments: This is the Rev 1 manual up for auction. If you know how different the Rev 1 to the Rev 3 manual is, feel free to comment.
Update via Stephen in the comments:
"The rev1 and rev3 manuals are completely different. The rev 1 manual is made up of mostly patch sheets which use a different template than the later patch sheets. The later manuals, including the Prophet-10 manual, contain excellent descriptions of the digital/analogue hybrid synthesizer.
On the synths, rev1s could be modified with a rom/timing circuit update which stablized tuning (which became part of the rev2 design) as well as a cassette dump interface. Both of my rev1s have these two field mods. Neither the rev1, rev nor the first rev3 had a 'live' control panel in preset mode without the user hitting an 'edit' button. Live editing actually didn't occur until the rev 3.1 (not the rev 3.0). If you want to call the sequencer interface 'integrated midi' then that would be the rev 3.2. Dave and John call the sequencer interface spec 'Pre-MIDI MIDI'. The MIDI retrofit for the rev 3.2 and 3.3 (as well as the rev 3 Prophet-10) is basically a daughter card which can either be interconnected to the rom socket via a ribbon cable or by using socket with extra long solder tails. The rev 3.1 and earlier revs could not use this field mod. (Kenton has a solution).
Both the rev1 and rev2 have a number of SSM chips, but I wouldn't say they have a gazillon. 10 VCO chips, 5 VCFs, 5 VCAs and 10 EGs. The individual EGs, which have to be trimmed, really help give the rev1 and rev2 its unruly (as opposed to unstable) character. Of course the SSM filters are also equally notorious for that reputation. But this comes well after the fact. If you look back, or if you were there, you know that the Prophet-5 became successful because:
1. You could play 5 notes of the same patch
2. You could store your patch
3. It was $4500
Within a few years it became unsuccessful because:
1. You could play 5 notes of the same patch
2. It had a wood case
3. It was expensive "
You can download and print out the Prophet-5 Rev 3 manual from here.
Roland Juno-60
Click here for shots via this auction. Don't miss the video.
"The Arpeggio function is one of the Juno-60's sweetest features. You can hit the hold button and tweak the arpeggio on the fly. On the back you have an arpeggio clock input to sync the arp rate to other devices that output gate or trigger. There is also a VCF control input which allows you to sweep the filter with a pedal or do rhythmic step modulations with an analog sequencer. There is also a handy tune knob on the back. You can hear how this very synth sounds. I did a short video on You Tube with it...I triggered the Juno-60 with a JSQ-60 sequencer...just a random nonsense pattern but it demonstrates the fattness of the filters."
Roland Juno 60 and JSQ-60 Sequencer YouTube via Analogger.
Oberheim OB-Xa
The Thomas Henry 8038 Audio Generator
"The Thomas Henry 8038 Audio Generator Page is up here. Its primary purpose is that of a bench generator. It's got a CV input so you can sweep the output. It could also be patched into your synth for synthy fun, though it's not designed to track keyboards. Schematics, parts list, PCB layout, parts placement, panel design, and drill pattern accompany the terse blow-by-blow commentary.
Cheers,
Scott"
Livewire Dual Cyclotron Demo
video upload by jamescigler
via felix inferious. "A demo and description of the Livewire Dual Cyclotron synth module. [Correction] During the video I mention that we're listing to the sine wave output of the Dalek Modulator...it was actually the square wave. :p"
drummachine-differentangle.JPG
Roland SH-5
"Roland SH5 - only for collectors - museum item.
No noisy outputs& inputs, she stays in tune, no scratchy pots, just SH5 Sound.
The case is also like new! (no scratches on it!)
Look at the pics...You can pick it up in our Studio. (Munich)
If you look for Memorymoog LAMM, Jupiter 8, so it will be here soon."
Visitors of Matrixsynth
The AKS On The Run
Update via the comments:
"I tried this a couple of different ways if anyone is interested.
1. The notes are E4 E3 G3 B3 A3 G3 A3 B3.
I programmed the notes into a Future Retro Mobius driving an Analogue Solutions Sub VCO and SY01 into a Sherman filterbank. It really opened this sequence up to a new dimension.
2. I also programmed the notes into FL Studio using the 3 OSC plugin added hihats with delay and it was practically an identical copy from the actual run on Dark Side of the Moon."
The Making of the genoQs Octopus
KORG Wavestation on Celiar Structures
Be sure to check out the rest of the site while there.
via sequencer.de.
The EVOS Modular is Coming
"Dennis contacted me yesterday:
'Mike,
I have no problem with you passing on what I discussed with you. I will be making some sort of announcement (sometime in early '08) about the web site and when the updated Evos Modular will be available.'....
The previous email:
'Mike,
Every few months, or so, I do some internet browsing, just to see what sort of things are going on in the synth world - especially concerning modular stuff. While doing so, I happened upon your post on the MATRIXSYNTH site (via AH).
It's always pleasing to me to know that people are still interested in my modular and also, that they seem to understand and appreciate what I was trying to accomplish. While I have no objections to the documentation being disseminated, I often have mixed feelings about this. Firstly, (and most importantly) because the system has gone through a number of refinements over the past few years and secondly, republishing them only perpetuates the grammatical and typographical errors which appeared in the originals. To rectify this situation, I am (slowly) compiling data on the latest version which will appear in an upcoming web site dedicated to my modular system. Eventually, I plan to include some historical information tracking the development of the various versions of the system through time.
...I have been making plans to release the new version of the modular early next year. It will be, initially, limited to a set of what I consider to be the most essential modules, with gradual additions over time.
I genuinely want to see the modular in the hands of people who might put it to good use...
Take care.
Dennis'
This is great news. Especially if it sounds like it looks."
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