MATRIXSYNTH: Tuesday, July 17, 2007


Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Moogfest 2006 Live DVD

"Featuring an incredible array of the world’s leading keyboardists, Moogfest, the annual festival celebrating the groundbreaking achievements of maverick inventor Robert Moog and his namesake synthesizer, captures the spirit of the instruments that altered the course of modern music for all time and have since become an integral part of our musical culture.

The Moogfest 2006 Live DVD documents this historic musical summit.

Filmed live at New York’s famed B.B. King Blues Club in Times Square, this DVD features performances from some of electronic music's greatest practitioners including:

Keith Emerson (The Nice, ELP)
Jan Hammer (The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jeff Beck)
Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater)
Bernie Worrell (P-Funk)
Roger O’Donnell (The Cure)
The Mahavishnu Project
DJ Logic

For more information, click here.

Price: $19.95"

Little Phatty Editor Librarian

"Attention all Little Phatty owners, here’s a great accessory for storing, editing, mutating, morphing, and creating presets. The Little Phatty Editor Librarian now available for use on both Mac and Windows platforms.

The Little Phatty Editor Librarian is designed to be the ultimate tool for organizing and creating presets for both the Little Phatty Tribute and Stage Editions. Through a MIDI connection from the Little Phatty to a computer, this program can receive single presets or an entire bank of presets from the Little Phatty - as well as replace individual presets or an entire bank. Once the presets are transmitted to the LP Editor Librarian, all preset parameters can be displayed in a graphical user interface, including edit functions like Pot Mapping and Filter Poles.

The settings of the front panel controls can be displayed with several resolutions, including: 7 bit, 8 bit and high resolution (16-bit), to allow super-precise sound editing. The program can also be used to learn the inner details of the factory presets. Using the LP Editor Librarian, presets can be organized to create custom preset banks – a terrific feature for musicians preparing for their next gig! In addition, a Preset Genetics function is available to create new presets by morphing or mutating two presets together.

You can also play the Little Phatty remotely from the computer keyboard. A Little Phatty OS update function is incorporated, too, simplifying Little Phatty OS updates.

You can demo the Little Phatty Editor Librarian software by downloading it from the Moog Music website.

For more information and to download a demo, click here.

Price: $69.00"

And the LP OS Update:
"As part of Moog Music's philosophy of Lavish Product Support, we are pleased to announce the release of OS v1.03c for the Little Phatty Stage and Tribute Editions. OS v1.03c introduces several new features to the Little Phatty. The Master Menu order has changed to incorporate these new features in a streamlined and logical fashion.

Some of the new features and enhancements are...

PRESET STORAGE

The preset save routine has been improved. As always, to save a preset you press the ENTER/STORE button while in Panel Mode. You will see two lines on the Little Phatty display. The top line shows the location where the preset will be saved, and the name of the preset which is currently saved in that location. No more overwriting your favorite presets by mistake!

MIDI CC

The Modulation Wheel and Filter Cutoff parameters now send and receive high-resolution 14-bit Midi CC messages. This allows for finer control and more smooth-sounding changes, whether you are using the LP as a MIDI controller or controlling the LP via MIDI from your sequencer.

ADVANCED PRESET

Has a new KEYB PRIORITY setting - default is GLOB (global), which inherits the Global Keyboard Priority set on the KEYBD PRIORITY menu. You can now choose to set a different keyboard priority which is saved per patch.

MIDI SETUP

MIDI functions have been consolidated to one menu, and some tasty new features have been added.

MIDI SETUP contains the following items: ALL NOTES OFF, LOCAL CONTROL, MIDI MERGE, POLY

The new features are Midi Merge and Poly. If Midi Merge is ON, the LP will echo all MIDI received at its MIDI IN port to the MIDI OUT port, merged with any Midi data which is generated by the LP. This allows you to pass Midi data THRU the LP, which was not formerly possible.

The Poly menu is used to set up multiple Moog synths as a polyphonic synth stack. MIDI control numbers are consistent between the Voyager and Little Phatty, so any parameter changes such as pitch bend and mod wheel, filter cutoff and so on, should affect all voices simultaneously.

For more information and to download the new OS, visit the software sections of the Little Phatty Stage and Little Phatty Tribute pages on the Moog Music website."

Moog FreqBox


YouTube via chachijones.
"Watch Chachi and Alan from Robotspeak put the Moog FreqBox through its paces. First, Chachi tries it out with a Roland TB 303 Bassline synth. Then Alan runs his guitar through it. If you like what you hear, you can order yours at Robotspeak.com."

HATSKI: HOW TO ACID HOUSE WRANGLE KNOB EXPLOSION WIGGLE


YouTube via nevenen.
"track title: hatski. mc202+606+metric shitload of fx track download"

Goblin Box Demo

Goblin Box Demo

"The Goblin Box is roughly based on the concept of a theremin, utilizing light sensors instead of radio waves. Two coarse tune knobs allow for a wide variety of sound, from simple tones to static chaos. This video shows it being used alone, then processed through a filter + delay."

Goblin Box Demo #2

YouTube via nevenen.

Optigan Vocal Choir (Vox Humana Disc)


YouTube via RedRoomNW.
"Super-rare Vox Humana disc on the 1970's Matell Optigan optical organ. Features cello sounds, pipe organ and sampled real human voices. This is the same sample used on the orchestron that kraftwerk used for many famous tracks, including Radioactivity, Show Room Dummies, etc..."

Decibel Festival 2007

"The 4th Annual Decibel International Festival of Electronic Music Performance, Visual Art and New Media will be happening September 20th through the 23rd in Seattle. This year's program will be featuring artists from 9 countries in 14 showcases across 7 venues, each of which will be outfitted with custom sound and video. In keeping with the tradition of the festival, you can expect to experience a broad range of cutting-edge electronic music based performances, featuring international talent of the highest caliber."

Title link takes you there.

James Joyce Wallpaper

Title link takes you to more including more info on Music Thing.

Xpander Shootout - USA vs. Japan

Via Matt
"I had an xpander here for service last week, a Japanese version like mine. At the same time, a friend brought over his US made version, and for no other reason than nerdy synth-geek gratification, we racked the three up together as in the photos. While we had them all together we thought we would test the Japan made models vs the US made model. There has been much speculation in recent times as to the comparitive quality of the different units.
So the test was a very simple one, we loaded Kid Nepro preset banks on each machine via sysex, daisy chained midi through them and A/Bd the output from each unit.. The result was immediately very obvious.. no difference in sound whatsover. We tested various patches.. pads, percussive sounds, bass sounds, fx etc.. there was no difference in envelope times, tone, brightness, thickness or fatness, resonance or anything else. We were rather surprised how identical the units sounded considering the board layouts are quite different. I expected some difference in the sound between the units, but there was none, to our ears anyway. So there you go. It could of course be said that other units may sound different to the three we had racked up.. We didnt do any recording or any scientific testing.
Some other xpander trivia, aside from what I have read before.. the US version has nicer wood sides, the jacks on the rear of the US version are black as opposed to silver in the Japan versions. The rotary encoders on the US version click louder and do not roll as smoothly/softly as the Japan version encoders.
Lastly it is written in Xpander folklore that the Japanese power supply is of poor quality and made from cheese. After very careful scrutiny I can say that the Japanese power supplies were not of poor quality, but I can confirm however that the power supply in the Japanese version is indeed made from cheese.. very tasty.. "

Roar Studio

via catsynth.com.

Forat

No new news here, I just realized that although I've put posts up featuring Forat gear, I've never put one up on the site itself. For those of you not familiar with Forat, from the history page on the site: "Since 1982, Bruce and Ben Forat have provided the entertainment community with first-class music electronics. Since 1986 they have provided service, parts, and modifications to all Linn Electronics products. They revamped the original line including the LinnDrum, LM-1, and LinnSequencer and introduced the world to the F-9000." Title link takes you there.

DIY M NES CONTROL


YouTube via donaconfuse.
"Mister DIY M NES CONTROL is cool. by Anagram. asquelo(at)yahoo(dot)fr"

via Axel
"the DIY M nes CONTROL is my creation
PAD NINTENDO NES WITH MIDI IMPLANTATION"

MISTER E's VINTAGE TAPE DELAY ECHO BOX


YouTube via AMOKIAN. via AudioLemon.
Guess the synth.

YAMAHA DX7 II CENTENNIAL

via this auction.
"1988) CELEBRATION OF HUNDRED YEARS HISTORY OF YAMAHA
- Programmable 6-operator x 2 (A & B) 32-algorithm digital FM tone generator (improvements include enhanced MIDI support, stereo panning, 6 envelope generators and enhanced 16-bit circuitry)
- Independent 8-parameter envelope generator for each operator
- 64-voice internal RAM memory and 64-performance memory
- Split and Layer mode
- Microtonality

- Random patch shift allowing slight pitch changes
- Fractal scaling
- Cartridge slot for ROM and RAM cartridges - different type than the original DX-7 (64 voices capacity)
- 76-key velocity and after-touch sensitive keyboard
- 40 character two line backlit display
- 32-note polyphonic stereo output (2 x 16 voices)
- Sustain footswitch, portamento footswitch, volume and modulation controllers and breath controller inputs.
- Additional slider controller
- MIDI IN/OUT/THRU terminals
- A real rarity made for collectors - limited edition(100 ), all pieces were signed and numbered.
- The instrument has steel gray colour. Wheels, buttons and sliders are gold paint. The keys glow in the dark .
- Original price was $4.000, recent price is around $6.000"

Sent my way via Mr IWC

Virtual Aelita

Title link takes you to a free soft synth version of the Aelita. There is a sample comparison against the real thing. via the comments of this post.

Note you can also fine samples of the real thing here.

MOOG 901 Voltage Controlled Oscillator

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

"This is a Vintage Moog voltage controller oscillator 901 for a model 10/11? Moog synth. Date is difficult to see in picture but it appears to be Jul 22, 1969."

Note the Trumansburg sticker. This is where it all began.

Moog 921a Oscillator Driver

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

"This is a Vintage Moog Oscillator Driver 921A for a model 10/11? Moog synth."

MOOG White Noise Source

Title link takes you to shots via this auction.

"This is a Vintage Moog White Sound Source (white noise generator?) for a model 10/11? Moog synth. Date is difficult to see in picture but it appears to be Jul 22, 1969."

yamaha cs30


YouTube via vaskuryandex.

Radical technologies spectralis synthesizer


YouTube via vaskuryandex.

"The Spectralis is the first "GrooveBox", which combines the LIVE usability of the latest digital technology with the best elements of proven analog technology. We also have thrown in some other cool features which give the synthesizer much more flexibility than anything seen before. While traditional Sequencers are limited to playing back rhythm patterns and tone sequences, the step Sequencer of the SPECTRALIS makes possible highly complex sound creations which opens up completely new worlds of sound when used in connection with the programmable FIXED FILTER BANK. In addition to its outstanding analog sound possibilities the SPECTRALIS also provides DSP based sound creation, which takes care of all the ancillary needs for drumsounds and polyphonic voices. This sound creation is 48 voice and offers killer drum sounds, creamy pads and a lot of other goodies"

arp axxe


YouTube via vaskuryandex.

The Hartmann Hohner Adam


via sequencer.de. You can find more info on this synth on the Hohner ADAM page on sequencer.de. BTW, Moogulator recently added a number of items to the synth db on sequencer.de. You can see the full list here.

Update via swissdoc via the comments:
"More details here. Stefan Stenzel from Waldorf wrote the software for the ADAM."

Moog synthesizer collaborator Herbert Deutsch at IMAC

"One of the most radical shifts in music began in 1961 with a hobbyist magazine article on how to build a theremin and a jazz musician from Baldwin named Herbert Deutsch.

The theremin, an electronic device that generates sound using radio frequencies, had been around for a while, but Deutsch found the Electronics World article interesting enough to pick up the issue and follow the instructions. When he couldn't get his gizmo to work, he phoned the article's author, an engineer, who gladly mailed out an easy-to-assemble kit for $49.95.

Two years later, Deutsch spotted the engineer selling his kits at a music trade show upstate in Rochester, and the two fell into conversation. They discussed a relatively recent invention called the Mark II synthesizer, which made music by sucking up rolls of key-punched paper and etching the results with a lathe onto a shellac record. It was intriguing, but you couldn't exactly 'play' the thing like a piano or guitar, or even a theremin.

'Wouldn't it be exciting,' Deutsch told the engineer, if there were smaller synthesizers 'that a performer could own, or a composer could own? Something you could have in your home?'"

The engineer? Bob Moog of course. Title link takes you to the full article.
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