KORG MS20

images via this auction
Details:
"This MS-20 is of the earlier KORG 35 filter chip design, rather than the latter daughter board revision, which probably dates it to the late 70s, meaning that its probably just about coming up to its 30th birthday!

In 30 years some electronic components age. This isn't one of those 'snake oil - this tb303 sounds better than that tb303' lines, its just factual information. Any synth of this sort of age should have had, for example, its internal memory backup batteries replaced long ago (not an issue on ms20s obviously, but a common fault on early 80s synths), and its smoothing caps renewed (the smoothing caps 'smooth out' the ripple in the power supplies AC-DC conversion)

The power supply regulators can also be changed for fresh modern replacements, and then, beyond this, if you're feeling enthusiastic, the other electrolytic capacitors (the cylindrical ones you see all over the place) to stop any 'bleeding' of noise / signal etc. through the power lines, amongst other things. Further caps that are prone to ageing are tantalums, so these should be replaced also.

None of these components are particularly valuable, but the labour involved in changing them can be significant.

Beyond this level of service, the basic stuff also has to be done. All the pots should be cleaned, and then lubrication re-applied to ensure noise free operation. The keyboard contacts should be accessed (by disassembly) and these cleaned (the ms-20 derives pitch information from a resistor chain keyboard, and faulty contacts can affect note pitching as well as gating), and, importantly on the ms20, the jacks cleaned.

Jack cleaning is especially important on the ms20, as a lot of the signals are normalised through this panel, and faults here can result in considerably more irritation than the usual 'crackling' output jack.

This MS20 has therefore had :
# Every electrolytic cap replaced
# Every tantalum cap replaced
# Every pot cleaned and lubricated
# Ever jack socket cleaned
# Every key contact cleaned"

Walkman Project Music Pieces

YouTube via WalkmanProject. via Failed Muso where you can find a little more info on the ad. It is interestingly being touted as the first monophonic ad.
"Quality ad for the new range of Walkman products by Sony. Take 128 musicians, give them all only one note to play and you get a complete tune. Sony are trying to bring this to life with an online project getting people to play just one part of the track, then mixing them together to create 'complete' versions performed by four artists in different places."

Spot the synths.

syntezatory.prv.pl - Yamaha DX 7

YouTube via Jexus.

"1983 Yamaha DX7. Brought to you by WC Olo Garb. The sounds have been programmed by WC Olo Garb./// Syntezatory.prv.pl Videos: showing you not what a synthesizer can do, but what a man can do with a synthesizer."

Industrial Revolution 1 on Roland D50

YouTube via fischek.
"Finally found my own Roland D50 and thought I could record Ind. Rev. 1 on an original patch (Kokubo Strings)."

Music Machines

I noticed this image of the Arp 1045 on the Matrixsynth Forum. It was posted by dlmorley. I asked him were he got the image and he pointed me to Music Machines. Music Machines (hyperreal.org) was one of the first general synth sites I visited when I first started browsing the web in 1995 or so. Be sure to check out the site if you haven already. It might actually be the oldest general synth site. It launched in 1994, predating Sonic State (1995), Synthzone (1996), Harmony Central (1997) and Vintage Synth Explorer (2001). I launched my old Matrixsynth site as a personal portal for everything synth back in 1997. If anyone knows of an earlier site than Music Machines, please comment or shoot me an email.

"Welcome to music machines, home of musical electronica on the web. Music machines offers images, software, schematics, and lots of tips and comments from electronic musicians all over the Internet. Synthesizers, effects, drum machines, recording equipment -- anything people plug in, turn on, and turn up for music-making is welcome. "

The MOOG Strikes Bach

One of the many MOOG albums following Switched on Bach.

via daddio of tapewarm.

Update via Suit & Tie Guy in the comments:
"that's Hans Wurman. apparently he made a follow-up album which was never released.

there were alot of records which "followed" S-OB, but as far as quality goes the only two that come close are this one and Switched-On Nashville.

S-ON is quite interesting as there's some Tomita-like vocal synthesis on "Folsum Prison Blues" which blows my mind ever time i drop the needle on that cut. if you ever come across it, digitally or on vinyl, don't hesitate to grab it.

apparenlty John Mitchell claimed to feel The Moog Strikes Bach was either peer or superior to S-OB. if you check the Synthesizers.com Yahoo! group archive you should find some posts regarding this."

MOOGChild

via daddio of tapewarm.

San Fransisco's Wave Organ

"At the eastern edge of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco, a tiny spit of land juts into the bay. If you walk out to the end, you can see San Francisco's skyline on one side and the Golden Gate Bridge on the other.

The view alone is worth a journey, but the little peninsula offers more than scenery. It's also the home of a San Francisco wonder, the Wave Organ."

"And the sound? It's like listening to the world's largest sea shell. It's like distant drums, muffled cymbals, quiet thunder. The variety is endless, and the sounds of the pipes are punctuated by the cries of gulls and the barks of sea lions. The sounds of ships' horns drift across the bay, and little waves slap against the stones."

click here for the full article. via daddio of Tapewarm.

Matrixsynth by Muff Wiggler

you can listen to the patch here. Sweet!

via Muff Wiggler

"The "image synth" being used is Coagula. It's free software, and really cool. You can check it out here.

Open Labs "MimiK" Keyboard Cloning Software, Part 2

Update: Part 1 added below. Also check out Redmatica's AutoSampler. via Mibrilane in the comments.

YouTube via OpenLabsInc. If you know synths you know this isn't quite true. What they talk about can be done with almost any sampler. Yes the starting point can be the same but it's where you go from there that makes all synths unique.

"MimiK™ keyboard cloning software is a simple and easy to use software.
Features:
1. Can be setup to automatically sample any MIDI capable sound devices that is connected to a NeKo or MiKo.
2. Can capture different velocity layers, after-touch layers and note off sounds.
3. MimiK can sample any key range, note length, up to 96K/32bits and in stereo (or mono).
4. Creates sample files for each note sampled (WAV or OGG).
5. Options for automatically fading and chopping samples.
6. Can sample entire banks or sets of banks at a time.
7. Exports an open human readable sample library file (SFZ). Sample libraries generated by MimiK can be played back by the free SFZ player. SFZ files can be converted using third party software to most other formats."

Update: Part 1

Linn 9000 Rack Sequencer

images via this auction. via Joel.

Linn 9000 minus the drum pads.

"This is basic memory version 5.17 software. Has 10,400. sequncer note capacity."

ARP 2600

images via this auction

MOOG Moogerfooger Rack

via this auction


MF-101 Low Pass Filter
MF-102 Ring Modulator
MF-103 12-Stage Phaser
MF-104z Analog Delay
MF-105 MuRF
MF-107 FreqBox
CP-251 Control Processor
VX-351 CV Expander

CLICK FOR MORE »

Blacet Mixer Processor

images via this auction

Blacet VCA Quad Mix

images via this auction

Analogue Systems RS130 Scale Generator

images via this auction
"This is a cool quantizer with the usual scales (major, minor) and a mode where you can enter your own scale. Has some nice trigger in/out features and 2 summed voltage inputs. This is cool because it allows you to run your V/Oct into one input to track keyboard, sequencer, etc and occasionally whack the second input with an envelope generator for some scale-swept pitch modulation. Another cool thing is to run a slew generator after the 1 V/Oct and before the PSG for scale generated glissando."

KORG DSS-1

images via this auction
You can use the slider to draw single cycle waveforms to use as oscillators on the DSS-1. Hit the appropriate button and wiggle the slider to create some on the fly oscillator waveforms.
Features:
12-bit sampler with fixed sampling rates of 16, 24, 32 and 48kHz
# maximum sampling times range from 16 seconds to 5.5 seconds at the top rate of 48kHz.
# lush analogue VCF switchable between 12 and 24dB
# eight notes of polyphony
# 61-key keyboard
# two oscillators per voice
# noise source
# two multi-stage envelopes
# resonant filter
# auto-bend
# twin digital delays
# oscillator sync
# unison mode