MATRIXSYNTH

at 7/29/2006 08:32:00 PM

Matrixsynth by bringmeup

Matrixsynth by gamagoblin.

at 7/29/2006 08:28:00 PM

Steview Wonder. via Tim Peters.

at 7/29/2006 01:23:00 PM

via the comments of this post.

at 7/29/2006 12:59:00 PM

Update via the comments:
TONTO's Expanding Head Band
Updates via AH: Malcolm Cecil says:
"TONTO's Expanding Head Band will be performing live at the Big Chill Festival on Saturday, August 5th at 9:30 PM the Sanctuary stage. The festival is a 3 day affair held at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire, about 2 1/2 hrs drive north west of London. The closest big town is Gloucester. They are expecting 33,000 people to show up - 5,000 will spend the whole 3 days camping there. More detailed info on how to get there is on www.eastnorcastle.com and the full festival info is available at: link.

TONTO will not actually be there - way too big and expensive to ship for a one hour performance - I am creating a "Virtual TONTO" and will play live over pre recorded backing tracks with a specially prepared visual show with hundreds of pics of TONTO and Poli Cecil's art pieces.

The TONTO CD with an additional never before released track will be available at the festival. Those who can't attend but want the CD can email me mcecil[]hvc.rr.com"

Malcolm Cecil in regards to this recording:
"It is unauthorized.

I have mixed emotions about it. Its like seeing your mother in law drive over the edge of a cliff :-) in your brand new uninsured Rolls Royce :-( I am gratified that more than 1100 people have downloaded it in 9 months and that half of the people who found it download it. On the other hand I am just about to re-release the CD with an additional never before released track to coincide with TONTO's live performance at the Big Chill in England on August 5th. TONTO will not actually be there - way too big and expensive to ship for a one hour performance - but I am creating a "Virtual TONTO" and will play live over pre recorded backing tracks with a specially prepared visual show with hundreds of pics of TONTO and Poli's (Mrs. Cecil's) art pieces."

Original Post:
"If you are too young to remember those halcyon days, back when all computers were water cooled, and the Future was Now, then you probably do not even know what a multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer is.

TONTO is an acronym for "The Original New Timbral Orchestra": the world's first (and still the largest) multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer, designed and constructed by Malcolm Cecil. As an analog synthesizer, TONTO was capable of creating virtually any sound. Its warm, fat bass sounds were particularly noteworthy and still cannot be recreated by the current breed of MIDI digital synthesizers and samplers. (See more at link)

With Robert Margoleff, Malcolm produced two LPs - "Zero Time" and "It's About Time" - as "TONTO's Expanding Head Band". I think that "Zero Time" is the best. While I have had the vinyl since forever, the CD is out of print.

I was lucky and persistent enough to find a chap with a copy of the remastered compilation CD, "TONTO Rides Again", and he burned me a copy. I took this and ripped it to WAV with Winamp Pro. Then, I converted to FLAC with dBpowerAMP."

Title link takes you there.

at 7/29/2006 12:46:00 PM

: ) Too funny. Thanks Inverseroom! via the comments of this post

at 7/29/2006 10:53:00 AM

This one in via Desmond Huffy. Click image for bigger shot.

"Ok, so I was just going to send in a pic and see if we could start a little fun thing where people take a pic of "matrixsynth" on their synth displays, but then it kinda went a bit logo-ish.

In any case, I was bored, so I hope you like it ;)

Thanks for past and future weird synth blog entries..."

I am absolutely speechless. I *love* it! THANK YOU Desmond!!!

at 7/29/2006 10:47:00 AM

Warning: click on the play button to launch. If you click on the title link or on the image around the play button you will end up on YouTube with a title to the video that will spoil the surprise. What's the surprise? Check out who the lead singer of the Exotic Birds is while you watch it. There is a bit on Thomas Dolby in the biginning as well. Funny how they continuosly refer to the synthesizer as a "musical computer."

via Tim Peters.

at 7/29/2006 10:29:00 AM

Doctor Bombay. "An electronic pop version of the 1968 Herb Albert classic done with vintage synths"

Synths spotted: Yamaha CS60, Moog Polymoog, ARP Quadra, Oberheim Four Voice, ARP Odyssey. I definitely missed a couple so if you spot something I missed post it in the comments. Anyone know what that second keyboard is and the one that looks a bit like a Moog Minitmoog but not quite?

Big warm hug to Stephen Teller, Doctor Bombay himself, for sending this one in.

Update via Stephen: "The second one is the Quadra. It's just reversed-like a negative. The lead sound flutey patch is an Arp Pro DGX. Maybe that's the one that looks like the minitmoog. I think you've got all the others."

at 7/29/2006 10:17:00 AM

Trip. Sherman.be has a cat in their banner. Title link takes you there.

via David Vanderborn of DVDBorn.

at 7/29/2006 02:14:00 AM

This one in via Magnus.

"Ralph Lundsten, 70 years old, started his electronic music studio in 1959. He lives in a pink house,a very pink house, in the Stockholm archipelago where he has his studio Andromeda. In the mid sixties he collaborated with a Finnish engineer, Erkki Kuriniemi, and built what probably was the worlds first polyhonic synthesizer with a sequencer. The Andromatic [pictured below]. It had 10 tone generators, some filters, and modulators. All analog. Erkki also built the Dimi-O in 1970 or 71. A synth with a tv camera where you played the music in the air,so to speak. This instruments made it possible to experiment vith interactive video techniques, e.g. allowing a dancer to create sound by his/her movements. He also built the Dimi-S. Dimi-S or "Sexophone" (Ralph Lundsten refers to this as the "Lovemachine") was a fun instrument for four players. Handcuffs and wires connected the players to the electronic unit, which measured the electrical resistance between all six pairs. When two people touched each other repeatedly, a sequence of musical tones were heard. With increasing skin moisture and contact area, the intensity of the music increased. All about the Andromatic and Dimi series here (pdf). Ralph Lundsten's site with pictures and VR panoramas of his house and studio here. Unfortunatley it is in Swedish but check the third and fourth link, Frankenburg, and Ralphs hus Andromeda studio. He still has the Andromatic in there as far as i can tell. Lower left in the left rack [pictured above]."

The Andromatic

Via the Andromatic and Demi Series pdf:

"In 1961 or 1962 I was invited by prof. Erik Tawaststjerna to develop the electronic music studio for the Institute of Musicology, University of Helsinki. Erik Tawaststjerna, the late professor of musicology, is perhaps best known for his extensive and definite biography of Jean Sibelius."

"I began to construct a modular synthesizer, after Moog brochures and transistor circuit manuals. It was to consist of a Generator Unit, a Filter Unit, and a Mixer, all built into a sound studio console. In it, I tried to experiment with every possible analog and digital sound processing circuit. Integrated circuits were not yet available (all early production went into military and space applications). But Philips made a set of epoxy encapsulated logic circuits, gates and flip-flops. These were used in the Generator Unit [pictured below], both in the audio range (square wave) and as digital control signals, all freely programmable with a 500-point pin crossbar matrix."

The Generator Unit

at 7/29/2006 02:09:00 AM

Ruby

Skitz

via Wirehead.

"Equipment pictured is a Prophet 600, Roland D-110, Korg EX-8000, Moog Liberation power supply (in rack), Ibanez DM-1000, Micromoog and Roland SP-808."

at 7/29/2006 02:08:00 AM

via sequencer.de. Roland, Korg and I beleive a Moog spotted.

http://sevcom.com

at 7/29/2006 02:07:00 AM

Found this shot on VSE, and the following blurb and shot below on Discogs. If you know anything more about her, feel free to comment.

"She is the wife of Antonio Bartoccetti (Antonius Rex and Jacula) and the mother of Anthony Bartoccetti,best known as Rexanthony.
During the 80's she was sponsored by Apple Computer,and made a music program for IBM USA."