ET3 Therevox

images via this auction
"Therevox Electro-Theremin
Model ET-3

About the Electro Theremin / Tannerin: This is the Ultra-Rare Instrument heard on The Beach Boys "Pet Sounds", "Good Vibrations", and "Wild Honey". Never mass produced, it has the beautifully eerie sound of the theremin, but much easier to play! Similar to the Ondes Martenot and Analogue System's French Connection (but with the sound built-in).

Further reading:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro-theremin
* http://www.electrotheremin.com/PTE-TPage.html
* http://www.keyboardmuseum.com/pre60/1950/electrot.html

About this Electro-Theremin:
Completely re-created by Therevox to have an evenly-spaced keyboard!!! This makes it much easier to play. The oscillator in this is incredibly stable and creates a pure sine wave. I tuned it and turned it off for a few days, only to turn it back on in perfect tune! I love it but I must pay some bills so it's my loss and your gain! Only 14 were built in the last year and Therevox says they will not build anymore for 3-5 years. The only thing I couldn't test is the skew voltage control, because I don't have a proper control for it. The skew knob works fine, though. I felt I should mention it so buy with that in mind. Otherwise everything is tested and guaranteed to work upon arrival. Includes manual and AC adapter.

Features:
* Evenly-spaced keyboard
* Volume control knob or gate button
* Ultra Stable Oscillator
* Sine, Triangle, Saw waves
* Sync in/out
* CV out
* Gate out
* Linear FM CV in and knob control
* Exp FM CV in and knob control
* Skew CV and knob control
* Light-weight

Sound clips (played on the ET-1)": http://www.therevox.com/

Yamaha CS10

images via this auction
"Sections as follows:

External
External / Noise switch
Triggerlevel

VCO
Pitch selection 64' to 2'
LFO Mod
PW / PWM Mod

Mixer
Noise / External level
Triangle level
Square level

VCF
Filter Pass select
LFO Mod
Cut off freq
Resonance
Initial Level
Attack Level
Attack Time
Delay Time
Release Time
Normal / X5 select
Trigger select

VCF
Hold / EQ select
Attack Time
Delay Time
Sustain Time
Release Time
LFO Mod
Normal / X5 select

Output
Volume level

Expression
Portamento level
Pitch bend"

KORG Polysix

images via this auction

"The Polysix was release in 1981 as an answer to Rolands cheap Juno range but in my opinion the KORG Polysix was a far nicer synthesizer, let me explain.

The Polysix featured 6 voltage controlled oscillators making the sound much warmer compared to the crude digital controlled oscillators of the Juno 60/106. You can really hear that on brass patches as this synth sounds so much more "vintage" then the similarly priced Juno 60, or even the later high end Jupiter 6. Each VCO also features a sub-oscillator which can be pitched down 1 and 2 octaves to add that extra low end bass.

The filter is a 24 db/octave based on the earlier SSM chipsets. These are considered more 'ballsier' then the later more popular CURTIS ships found in the Prophet 5's MKIIIs, Oberheim OB8's, Elka Synthex, Rhodes Chromas, Moog Memorymoogs (and just about everything else). Many synth collectors favour the earlier P5 MKII and OB-X's purely on the bases of the SSM chipset... and here it is in the Polysix. Really, this filter sounds lovely and adds so much to this simple single oscillator synth.

The Polysix also had what can only be described as the first on-board effects unit found in any polysynth at that time. The signal can be routed through a chorus unit, a phaser and the world famous Polysix ensemble effect. All these effects are analogue and sound absolutely fantastic... so much so that KORG made these effects in to a separate VST when they created their digital version of the Polysix. These effects make this unit sound huge... actually, put the mighty Elka Synthex next to a Polysix and there's not much in it in my opinion... especially when you consider the huge price difference... which really shows how great this little synth sounds!

On top of all the great sound making features there are some really fantastic extra functions.

Firstly the Polysix has an autotune function which really makes this synth very stable... compared to the manual digital tuning of the memorymoog this little synth starts up and is in tune in less then a minute (I know, the memorymoog has 18 VCOs to tune up instead of 6)... but at the same time it doesn't sound too perfect because of those analogue effects... just a perfect retro analogue sound.

You can play in normal Poly mode or make all 6 VCOs play in unison for a huge fat monosynth sound... best of all there is a chord hold function which is wicked... hold down any combination of notes and press the chord memory button and then the synth will play that combination of notes for every root note you play... great for playing jazzy 4ths.

The arpeggiator is stolen directly of the KORG Mono/Poly which gives you the standard up, down, up/down over 1 or 2 octaves or the full range of the keyboard... quite retro sounding.

Lastly, there's 32 patch spaces for your sounds and a cassette tape interface for exporting or re-installing your sounds... I would plug this directly into my Mac and record the white noise signal and then just use QT player to play it out again... works a treat so at least that feature isn't redundant even if tape cassette players are!"

ANALOGUE SYSTEMS SYSTEM 3

images via this auction

click this one for the full size shot.

Oakley Super Ladder 3 VCF

images via this auction

OMS-404 SUPERLADDER-3

"Diode Ladder filter, similar to the filter you would find in the Roland TB-303"

Yamaha CS60

images via this auction

Vesta Kaza midi to cv converter

images via this auction
"Vesta Kaza midi to cv converter that was originally made to accompany a sampler by the same company. It funtions as a standard 1v/oct midi to cv converter, but it only works over 3 octaves. Which would be perfect if you had a compact keyboard controller, or triggering a bass mono synth line, or if you were triggering a freqbox (which only has a 3 octave triggering range, at best. ) Operation is very simple, by setting the desired highest note on your keyboard or sequencer, it will convert all midi notes 3 octaves below set point. limited range, but where are you going to find a converter at this price? I have been using this with a little phatty, and a freqbox, and works just like it should! i put a cooler knob on the tuning pot, but the original purple one will ship with it!"

Moog Rogue

images via this auction

XLR8R TV Episode 70: Eliot Lipp

XLR8R TV Episode 70: Eliot Lipp from XLR8RTV on Vimeo.
"Brooklyn-based electro-hip-hop specialist Eliot Lipp has lots of reasons to stay inside: his amazing collection of analog gear, for one. In this episode, we pry him out of his studio and get him to talk about his new album, The Outside, as well as indulge in some bottom-of-the-barrel crate-digging and ice cream—but not without a good, old-fashioned in-studio synth nerd-out first."

Bathysphere Studio

flickr by Bathysphere Recordings
(click for the set)

Have fun synth spotting

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Workspace
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Plan-B ELF Wave Splicer and ASR Demos

Sent my way via REwire.
Also posted on Muff's Modules & More.

WAVE SPLICER DEMO
I put two waveforms into the WS and used envelopes and LFO's to mod the splice point. The splice uses the front half of one wave and the back half of the other to make a new waveform. The open sound has me manually turning the spice point. You hear a high sine then over to the saw and the mayhem in between. Mixing detuned or high and low waveforms makes the harshest sounds. The sweet spot of splice point itself can get real ring mod sounding and many of my sounds take advantage of that. Also two synced PWM pulses in each input plus an LFO to the splice point does a damn good AFG imitation.

ANALOG SHIFT REGISTER DEMO
For this demo I sent the outputs of the ASR to 3 oscillators set to same tuned saws. The speed of the clock you apply shifts the incoming CV to all three outputs at that clock rate. Using keyboard CV you can have each osc delay it's note change by clock speed. If you use clock at fast speed it will make the three oscs 10 times thicker sounding than if they were played normally and mixed. Also used LFO to dive the notes down and random to go all over the place. The end of the demo has the ASR send an env signal to two filters, one on left and one on right,. You hear the delay of one to the other.

I highly recommend both modules."

The Model 40 Headphone PreAmp

via Plan B

"The Model 40 Headphone PreAmp.

An ELF series 5532A-based Pre.

Alternate lives as an amplification stage for main system output or guitar pedals"

You can find more info on the Model 40 Headphone PreAmp product page.

The Model 37 ELF LFO

via Plan B

"The Model 37 ELF LFO

Broad range, 4HP wide triangle core VC LFO

Phase accurate Hard Sync input

Freq range of 1 cycle/30 seconds to 9Khz makes it the perfect audio band utility VCO

VC Input scaled to 1V/oct when attenuator fully CW.

Triangle, Ramp, Square and Pulse outputs"

You can find more info on the Model 37 ELF LFO product page.

Little Boots

YouTube via PureGrooveTV. via Kwerk. Titles and descriptions for each video:

1. Little Boots 1st ever gig @ Pure Groove

"for the full video and loads more videos, free downloads and the best new music around please come on over to http://www.puregroove.co.uk"

2. little boots READY FOR THE FUN!!! hot chip tenorion cover

"ok are you ready for the FUN?!? here is cover of hot chip's ready for the floor, its not exactly perfect but best i can do on the amazing tenorion!!! i turned the light off so u can see a bit better... and so u can't see my hair... i don't even wanna talk about it........

also can i just say the words were on the computer that's why i keep looking at the screen... like a berk

send me requests for next week... no one requested this i just wanted to make all the bleeps! LOLCONFERENCE!"

3. little boots MEDDLE bedroom version - acoustic on piano, tenorion and stylophone oo la la

"bonjour friends here is a bedroom version of my new song MEDDLE which is actually gonna be released properly... oooooo wow i hear you say.... on 7 inch vinyl in August with some super cool remixes hurray.... anyway here's a naf version i did at home with some of my gadgets, pretty messy as usual, sorry its not my fault... blame gold cat...."

4. Little Boots - Meddle [New Single 2008]

"A new single from the absolutely fablous Little Booys entitled Meddle. SHOULD BE HUGE IF THERE IS ANY JUSTINCE IN THE WORLD."

Microkorg organ presets

YouTube via Nismology5
"Running through all the digital organs on the microkorg."

Younnat - Socket's sampler

YouTube via younnat. via ThisIsNotALabel.com
"Live at Planetarium [Kharkov, Ukraine]
2008 www.younnat.com"

A Visit to Thighpaulsandra's Aeriel Studios Pt 1

YouTube via matrixysnth

This is the first video from my visit to Thighpaulsandra's Aeriel Studios. This one is piano only and it is what you see when you first enter the studio. During my visit, I asked Thighpaulsandra how he usually plays and he said he likes run acoustic instruments through his modulars and synths. I didn't have the chance to record any of this technique as I didn't discover this until later, and we had plenty of other things to explore and discuss. As this video is only piano, I thought I'd balance it with a video I put up in a prior post on Analog Live! that features some modular gear and Thighpaulsandra on piano about 3:40 minutes in. Do watch it, it's rather beautiful. As I mentioned in my previous post on Aeriel Studios, you can click on the label below to bring up all of the posts on my visit.

http://thighpaulsandra.com/ http://www.myspace.com/thighpaulsandra

Analoglive Rehearsals

Jane Child - Don't wanna fall in love

YouTube via oliverkano. This one sent in via ISO50. I swore I put this up before but couldn't find it. Jane Child has come up a number times for her use of the Fairlight.

Ketron Arranger Modules in use by expert accordion player

YouTube via KetronWeb

Moog Liberation Pin

via this auction
"This is a tie pin. Read the description carefully as people bid on these pins thinking they are real instruments which they are not!" :)

"These are high quality metal tie pin reproductions of the original equipment - not cheap plastic toys repros!

The dimensions are 1 1/4" long by 1/4" high."

Oberheim OB-X pin here

Blacet Filthy Filtre

via this auction

"details from BLACET.COM:
Start with the highly useful, open sounding classic State Variable Filter Design.
Low Pass, Band Pass, High Pass, Notch and All Pass (phase shift) responses all simultaneously available.
Add very agressive Voltage Controlled Q with two "Filthy" settings.
Add Voltage Controlled Mode selection with "switching" or "morphing" transitions.
Add a handy bipolar Modulation Attenuator with switchable destination.
Finish the design with our high quality, low noise OTAs providing exponential frequency control and linear Q control.
The result is the perfect "must have" compliment to our "Final Filtre".

# 12 dB State Variable design
# Voltage control of frequency and Q
# Two position Q switch: "Filthy: X10, X100"
# +/- CV mod attenuator with switchable destination: Freq or Q
# VC mode select: switch or morph (LP, BP, HP, All Pass)!
# Plus separate mode outs: LP, BP, HP, Notch"

Shy Child & Stella McCartney @ Fashion Rocks 2007

YouTube via tumblefoot. via this auction for a red Roland AX-1.

images and details via the auction:

"These were made in small numbers early 90's. This is the Roland AX-1 keytar master midi controller made in Italy.
#Can send on simultaneous MIDI channels
#Responds to : velocity
#Sounds can be split by : keyboard

That means this master controller keyboard can send information to several different sound modules and be controlled from split ends of the keyboard. This straps right on like a guitar, and has functions for your left hand to do like the expression bar(really cool!!), or remote sequencer activator/octave/sound exchange. This runs off of a AA battery pack, and connects to your equipment with a single midi cable. Check out this rad synth rock band called Shy Child that uses a similar Roland keytar." video above

Messing with KORG DS-10 Synthesiser

YouTube via aMacTV. DS-10 on Ebay
"OK, nothing complex here at all because making music is not my thing. This is messing around with the Lionball theme music, which is a map from an old shareware game called Avara on the Mac."

Early Synthmonger VCO tests

YouTube via synthmonger
"I'm too tired to work on it right now but not tired enough to make a quick video demo of my vco.

Ideally, I am going for a vco with a huge range, temperature compensation, to work as a great audio and control source while maintaining a low cost.

Due to the amount of options the main portion will be on 42HP eurorack. Later I will add other panels that will act as adapters to get even more out of this -they can also be used by external sources so they won't be proprietary.

I'm coming close to finishing and hopefully it will be completed this week! ;D"

Yamaha CS1x Demo by Failed Muso - Pt.4

YouTube via FailedMuso.

All four parts here and of course check out Failed Muso.

"The final part of my run through of some of my favourite sounds from the Yamaha CS1x. Come back soon for more demos of my favourite instruments. "

ViewRight

flickr by Waveterm
(click for the full set - there are some amazing shots in this one)

full size

You might recognize LJ LAB 2008 from this post back in 2006.

ViewLeft

flickr by Waveterm
(click for the full set - there are some amazing shots in this one)

full size

You might recognize LJ LAB 2008 from this post back in 2006.

Sherwood Two

Sherwood Two from Michael Walthius on Vimeo.
DSI Prophet '08 comes in at 2:08
"Original composition featuring piano, acoustic guitar, electric bass, and drums (Yamaha Motif), and synth leads (DSI Prophet '08 and Virus TI)."

Machinedrum Ghost Snare Hits

YouTube via vcovcfvca
"Using an LFO to make semi-random ghost snare hits adding life to an otherwise static pattern."

Kaossilator - Looping Tips - DnB

YouTube via 00gavin. Audio comes in around :20. See 00gavin's Videos for more.
"Programs S.71 & S.75 have their own looping built in. "dLY" mode is a lot of fun, too, with a 16-beat loop length and beat breaking."

RAC's Andre Allen Anjos

via Emery:

"This blog post about RAC's Andre Allen Anjos has some great Juno 60 images as well as an awesome mix. Check it out!"

This image kind of reminded me of the Devo synth band in "Heavy Metal"

Roland Juno-60

chirp

via Conor

"African love bird chilling on my Arp 2600..."

Intua BeatMaker: Bang Your Beats On Justin Long-Style

YouTube via gearwire
"In this video, Jason Donnelly takes a look at the functions on this app, which give you pads, a step sequencer and a ton of samples to play with.

Bono is contractually obligated to record the next U2 album entirely on an iPhone. I just thought I'd throw that out there."

Anyone confirm this last statement?

You can get BeatMaker here:

MOON Trigger Sequencer M563

YouTube via moonmodular
"Audio only. One 960 and one 563 is used for this track. (plus polyphonic chords)"

KORG DS-10 GATTOBUS DEMO

YouTube via gattobus
"Little demo of this truly incredible piece of software for Nintendo DS. It sounds amazing! So at last I can play a synth also when I go to the toilet..."

Yamaha MOTIF XS: General Features

YouTube via mikefox1974. Interesting view of the interface and graphics.

afro-kun-minimoog

flickr by stifles planet

full size

"afro-kun is tuning my minimoog tunes."

Livewire Meets The Matrix

No not MATRIXSYNTH, the movie. Click on the second shot below and read the message. There are a couple of other references as well. You can find them along with some notes and audio on the AFG on this noisesource post.

For those that don't know, matrix and MATRIXSYNTH come from Matrix-6, my first synth, not the movie. I launched the old MATRIXSYNTH.COM back in October of '97 before the movies. The original site was actually much the same in concept as this site - a place to gather links to everything synth.

Update: a few more AFG easter eggs are up on noisesource.

Yamaha CS60 box

via this auction

"a box made from a CS60 synthesizer. Cherry wood- very nicely made by Jeff @ CustomSynth here in the UK."

CLICK FOR MORE »

MATRIXSYNTH Visits Thighpaulsandra's Aeriel Studios

Click here for images of my recent visit to Thighpaulsandra's Aeriel Studios.

I want to thank both Thighpaulsandra and Peter Forrest for the great company. You can find more info on Thighpaulsandra on his official website (check out his discography) as well as his MySpace page. He recently performed in Analog Live! Peter Forrest is the author of the A-Z of Analog Synthesizers as well as the man behind the auction site Vemia (Spheremusic.co.uk). You might remember Vemia from these posts.
Over the next few days I will be putting up some videos of the visit. Mostly synth talk of us or rather Peter and Thighpaulsandra noodling around while I taped. Nothing too elaborate, but it should bring you into the visit. I created an Ariel Studios label below for this set of posts so once they are all up you can go back and review them all at once if you like.

On the synth front we have:
Two Synton Fenix Modulars
Two ARP 2600s
Two Oberheim SEMs with patch points
A Red Synton Syrinx
EMS Synthi and Putney
Two Serge Modulars (one old and one new)
Plan B, Cynthia, Doepfer Modular
Moog Voyager
Roland SH-5
Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 and Prophet-5
and more...

click here and scroll for all posts featuring Thighpaulsandra.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Korg MS-20 Patching Clinic Party Club

flickr by zonkout
(click for more)

full size


YouTube via ZonkOut
"Five MS-20's passing the SQ-10's trigger signal, but delaying it slightly each time (using EG1)."

Music Week: Day 1: Korg DS-10 synthesizer for Nintendo DS

YouTube via Jed05
"Music Week kicks off! Day 1! Korg DS-10 was just released in Japan, and is a Korg synthesizer emulator for Nintendo DS. It is entirely in English, not that there is a lot to read. Pretty cool application, watch out for songs being uploaded in the future from me :)"

KORG MS20 ESP PARTY!!

YouTube via mopipi2. "W0OW0O0WOW0O!"

MID-IF for SX-150

YouTube via MMTAKEDA55. "Adding MIDI-IF for SX-150 experiments"
The SX-150 recently came as a DIY kit in Gekken magazine.
There are a number of these up for auction on Ebay.

Yamaha CS1x Demo by Failed Muso - Pt.3

YouTube via FailedMuso
"Part 3 of my run through of some of my favourite sounds from the Yamaha CS1x. Come back soon for further parts in this and other series."

Octave CAT

images via this auction

"This is the SRM (series revision model) which was a further improvement on the original CAT and was made from 1978 on."

1974 Moog Price List

via this auction

Note the seller has more up here.

Vintage Synthesizer Modules

images via this auction
"This is a kit project from an electronics magazine in the 70's. The article was written by Don Lancaster, and the components were supplied by SouthWest Technical Products (SWTP). The modules have been professionally assembled, and are complete. What needs to be added is a power supply and a keyboard. This should appeal to those who are electronically inclined, and have an appreciation for 70's analog synth technologies and their sound. What remains to be done is quite simple, and straightforward. A copy of the article with instructions is included."

Roland SH-2000

images via this auction