MATRIXSYNTH: Thursday, November 16, 2006

Room Full of Little Phattys

Via Amos.

Title link takes you to more.

Update. Amos gave me the ok to grab the shots. They are mirrored here.

"# Original Roland knobs have been used, not the cheap plastic remolds supplied with the kit.
# Industry standard ALPHA panel mount pots (as used on the modern doepfer and analogue systems modular synthesizers) have been used, rather than the supplied pots that you are advised to GLUE (arghh!!!) in place (imagine servicing a synth 10 years down the line that has things GLUED in place???!!)
# Cliff 3.5mm jack sockets have been used, rather than the 2.5mm supplied, for easy interfacing with other gear (not to mention them being a much more visually elegant component)
# The CV and Gate sockets are as per Kenton's specification, giving cv / gate / filter / accent / slide."

Title link takes you to more info and images. Note this is AcidLab, not Acidlab.

Vintage Synth Ads

This one via Erick. Title link takes you the rest. The current list includes Akai, Oberheim, Casio, Roland, E-MU, Sequential, Korg, Siel, and Yamaha.

I didn't realize it had a guitar neck.

Plan B VCO's + MOTM Triple Resonator + Doepfer A149

YouTube via prototek.

Plan B + Doepfer + MOTM Sequence

YouTube via prototek.

Lobster Ailab Atari Punk Console

Black velvet. Big knob.

Title link takes you to the post on GetLoFi.

discoDSP

Vertigo

"Vertigo is an additive synth, able to import WAV and BMP files into two independent morphable additive engines with 256 partials each. It also has a dual filter and extensive array of effects. Full version contains 128 presets."

Phantom

"Phantom is a eight voices, four operators PM/FM synthesizer. It is able to import Yamaha DX100, DX27 and DX21 SysEx data."

Discovery

"8 oscillators Virtual Analog VSTi Synthesizer featuring 4 layers, 2X oversampling, unison edit, built-in arpeggiator, sync, FM, 8 filter types, panning modulation, stereo delay and gate effects. Imports Nord Lead 2 SysEx data."

via sequencer.de

Enhanced Memory ME-1 for Kawai K5000

Title link takes you to the site in German. For English click here.

via sequencer.de

Turd Polish Suite. Third Movement.

Click here for some amazing videos performed live by Tom Ellard of Severed Heads. I normally wouldn't post videos unless they showcased synths, but then I realized the videos are the synth. The clips are used as samples. You'll have to see the videos. Title link takes you there.

"Dedicated to commercial regional television, the Turd Polish Suite takes only the finest droppings and buffs them into shiny new popular culture. Twice before the lucky folk of Newcastle have endured this entertainment, now it is the good people of Wagga Wagga that got to tap their feet. Of course, the same shit is on TV all over the nation, and the same people seem to visit these festivals, so let's have one in Surry Hills next time eh?

How this was done.
For each: record two hours of regional TV. Grab bits, find a nice loop. Grab other bits and chop them to match up, slide the loop back and forward while it runs to find the cute spot. (Doing this in Sony Vegas is easy, fluid and fun. In Final Cut you will enter a world of pain.) Render out as WAV and MJPEG. Don't use anything else. Now get all the collected bits and put WAVs and AVI in a folder.

Now it's a question of VJing the loops and keeping time - you could use any number of software combos. I found that LIVE and ARKAOS worked here, but LIVE has a few limits that will guide me elsewhere next time.

All the stuff here was fired off in real time and there are glitches where my computer could not keep up. Ignore them. I VJ'ed on party night at Unsound 06 really fucking loud and made people laugh."

Via daddio. Again, I almost didn't put this one up as it's technically not synth, but then I realized... Hmm... Samples. I might be stretching this one, but it's worth it and I need to bookmark the page for later. So check out the videos and enjoy. Thanks daddio!

Toriton Plus: Water Surface as Music Controller II

YouTube via littlescale. Sent my way via Adam.

Korg Mono/Poly

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Sequential Circuits Pro-8

Title link takes you to shots pulled from this auction. There's a box in the set.

Details:
"The Sequential Circuits Pro-8 is a very rare analogue synth. It was sold as the Split-8 and only a few Pro-8s were produced and were actually considered to be only a rumor. It is a very rare synth indeed.

It is an 8 voice bi-timbral analogue and sonically very similar to the Sixtrak and Multitrak. The voices can be layered, split or used in Unision mode for absolutely incredible 8 oscillator stacked basses and leads!! This is a very rare and cool machine."

Yamaha CS15

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Reminds me of this shot.

Yamaha CS10

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Korg Prophecy

Title link takes you to shots pulled via this auction.

Details:
"The Prophecy uses 7 different types of oscillators, giving it great flexibility in the kinds of sounds it can make. You can combine any 2 oscillators at a time, except for the physical models, which use all the available CPU power for 1 osc.

Standard Osc: Used for making classic analog style sounds. The waveshapes are Sawtooth, Pulse (square), and Ramp (triangle). Unlike almost all true analog synths, the Prophecy can do pulse-width modulation on all of these waveshapes, not just the Pulse wave. This allows you to add extra harmonics and change the tone color over time.

Comb Filter Osc: Mixes a saw, square, or triangle wave with white noise, and then runs it through a lowpass filter that has adjustable feedback. Great for making resonant, metallic, or whistling sounds.

VPM Osc: Variable Phase Modulation, which is almost identical to FM, or Frequency Modulation. One oscillator is used to modulate the pitch of a second osc. Then it goes through a waveshaper that adds harmonics, and there is an adjustable amount of feedback.

Modulation Osc: Used as a second osc after one of the other types listed above. It does ring modulation, cross modulation, or oscillator sync. These were the best ways to make hard-edged, metallic sounds on classic analog synths.

Brass Osc: Physical models of trumpets, trombones, and horns. Allows you to tweak the sound by setting the air pressure, breath noise, lip position and vibration, and the tone and resonance of the bell at the open end of the instrument.

Reed Osc: Physical models of saxophones, flutes, recorders, glass bottles, and whatnot. You can set air pressure, breath noise, and the resonance of the reed.

Pluck Osc: Physical models of plucked string sounds such as electric bass. You can adjust the attack, pluck noise, string position, vibration, inharmonicity, decay, and release.

Each oscillator goes through its own waveshaper, and there is adjustable feedback.
You can also add a suboscillator and white noise to further thicken the sound.

There are 2 resonant filters, which can be set to Lowpass, Highpass, Bandpass, and
Band Reject (notch).

The effects processor does Distortion, Wah, EQ, Delay, Reverb, Chorus/Flange and Pan.
All of these effects are always on, so you can use them all at once in a big chain.

A .PDF version of the manual is available here."

EDP Gnat

No title link. Just two shots via this auction.

Details:
"EDP (Electronic Dream Plant) Gnat synths are single oscillator versions of the Wasp - but are far, far rarer beasties (you ever seen one before ?). They do however to my ears sound much better - something clearer, funkier - and generally mo` booty about them - you hit it right you`ll cut the sky open! Singing leads aside - it`s also beautiful when put through an echo - you want pure blissed out analogue ambience - this`s the Momma! In fairly good cosmetic condition, and v. good, all origional working order (speaker doesn`t work - no great loss believe me!) - some pots may need cleaning to get the best from him - as he`s never been serviced (the origional screw grommets are still all in place). Regular jack output on the side, as well as a power supply input and din connection socket for linking EDP gear together. A very lovely and extremely rare bit of kit! Now go Forth and make Atmospheres Shudder!

Folks! Bit of a mistake - the internal speaker is actually working - but you have to take the jack from the output (duh!). Forgot to mention the absolutely Ass Wobblin` Funk Machine Bottom end this thing has - put him into a bass rig - you got Mighty Funk Minxy - take your breath away!"