MATRIXSYNTH: Monday, May 25, 2009


Monday, May 25, 2009

Gristleizer Up for Auction


via this auction

Note this is the one from this previous post with an audio demo.

auction details:
"Up for sale is a fully licensed and authorized Gristleizer built by Smashing Guitars/ Endangered Audio out of Asheville, North Carolina, which was available in limited amounts at select dates during the 2009 Throbbing Gristle tour. This particular unit was purchased the first night they were made available at the first Chicago show last month at the Logan Square Auditorium, and was one of 7someodd made available for sale. I purchased this, along with a snazzy tee shirt, upon arriving at the venue. I cradled and babied it throughout the performance of In The Shadow Of The Sun. In between sets, i took it through the meet and greet/signing line, and Chris, Peter, Gen, & Cosey were all kind enough to sign it as well. I even asked Gen to sign around the AC adapter input, because the jack is kind of male and kind of female :) It went straight into the car for the remainder of the evening's festivities, and upon arriving home, directly into my non-smoking home/studio, where it has been kept in pristine condition, seeing little use except to post an audio demo for the Muff Wiggler synthesizer (and cat) forum (Hi guys!) and http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/

Why am i selling it? After some long hard thought, i've decided i need to expand my modular synth more than i need a Gristleizer. Additionally, i'm handy with a soldering iron, so i guess i can always build one later and mount it in the modular. Still, the decision to sell this has not come lightly, and i ask whoever buys it, please give it a good home.

Now, about the Gristleizer itself: It's a device that mangles audio. It features a VCA and a VCF (toggle switch between the two modes) with an LFO for modulation. You have knobs for the LFO's Speed, Depth, and 4 different waveforms to select from (Rising Saw, Falling Saw, Triangle, and Square) and a Bias control that...well...i havent really figured out what it does, fully. It certainly overdrives the everliving shit out of whatever you run into it, anyway. It also has a level knob, and 2 switches...one for VCF/VCA, and one for Bypass. The back panel is very simple...one 1/4" in, one 1/4" out, and the AC adapter input. However, when speaking to Charles from Smashing Guitars the night i bought it, the PCB has pads for Control Voltage, so you can modify it to use with your analog synths, and the back panel has plenty of room for mods. I believe it also has adjustable trimpots inside as well, although i have not opened it to poke around...i'll leave that to you. Additionally, you can run this off of batteries as well, HOWEVER, you must NOT plug the AC in with batteries in as well. Get it? Let me repeat. Use EITHER batteries OR AC, NOT BOTH! The AC adapter is included.

And one thing i noticed that is perfectly normal is the LFO's LED stays lit for a moment after you power down."

Synthi and Blippoo

via mono-poly's modular blog where you'll find two self playing patches.

hack2009052204


YouTube via yaxu
"Possibly better quality here: http://yaxu.org/haskell-hack/"

Oberheim Stretch-DX

via this auction
"The DX Programmable Digital Drum Machine from Oberheim fills the professional musician's need for an afford able. easy to use, state- of- the- art drum computer. Based upon the modular Oberheim DMX Drum Machine, the DX offers the sound and features of the DMX in a less expensive, more integrated package . The DX is not a drum synthesizer; it is a complex microcomputer system programmed with digital studio recordings of real drums. It doesn't sound like a rhythm box. it sounds like a drummer. Not only does the DX sound like a drummer, it can play like a real drum mer; with rolls, flams, odd time signatures, uneven phrases, changing tempos, or even off the beat. Up to 2200 notes can be stored in the DX, recorded in any of 100 Sequences of any length or time signature. Drum sequences can be recorded in real time or one note at a time. Any of the 18 individual drums (including crash cymbal) or individual notes can be recorded, erased, and then re-recorded until the drum beat is exactly right. The sequences can be combined to form up to 50 songs. Each song can contain up to 255 sequences, arranged in any order, to form a complete composition. Tempo and Time Signature are programmable for each sequence, and with the DX's extensive editing capability, a song's structure can be changed quickly and easily. The DX has several Quantize modes, which correct your rhythm to any beat between l/4 notes and 1/32 note triplets, or turn the Quantize off for the human feel. In addition, there is a Swing mode which will give rhythms the uneven feel that is used so often in jazz and other music.

There are individual tuning controls for each voice on the rear panel and each of the six DX voices has its own output. so you can record them on separate tracks. or EQ them separately. There is also a 7 input stereo mixer to allow you to mix all of the drums into the stereo and mono outputs. The DX can run in synchronization with the Oberheim DSX Digital Polyphonic Sequencer and the other components of the Oberheim Music System as well as other sequencers. There is a programmable external trigger, so you can control the DX with sequencers, synthesizers. or even a drum kit. A battery maintains power to the memory when the DX is turned off. so that you don t lose your sequences when you turn off power. A cassette interface is provided which enables quick changes of all of the sequences and permanent data storage. original list price $1395.00

STRETCH expander for Oberheim DX drum machines. The Stretch adds the two things DX owners want most of all: more sounds and more features for older model DX drum machines. For those DX machines, features are added like variable clock, auto start, cue tempo, midi clock out & more. Each Stretch voice has its own buttons, tuning, output jack and level control for the mixed output of the DX. Zif sockets are included to make it easier to add new sounds, containing chip locations for 4 more rows. original list price $495.00"

Make: Tokyo Meeting 03


YouTube via MMTAKEDA55. synths come in at 1:19.
"2009/5/23-24
Make: Tokyo Meeting 03
beatnic.jp ブースにて"
You might recognize the devices used with the Gakken SX-150 from some of these videos.

Mystery - Bloc Bloc Bloc (OMD cover)


YouTube via mysteritmo
"A cover of OMD's Bloc Bloc Bloc. Inspired by Depeche Mode's first album "Speak & Spell" I gave myself the challenge to play only monophonically (no chords) - so the chord changes in the song are given by creating single melodic lines on top of each other. Instruments used: Novation K-Station; MicroKorg, Electribe ER-1 and Electribe ES-1. Songwriters: OMD (from the album Crush, 1986). Make sure to watch this video in HD."

Getting ready to take it out for a ride..

flickr by rue_the_whirl

full size

"I travel with this thing under my arm on busses for hours only to go round friends houses and make beats hahah I think I need something smaller like a MPC-500.. computers are just not the same
One day just one day I may also get a hair cut hahah I don't think I bothered since October hahh "

Akai MPC-2000XL

flickr by rue_the_whirl
(click for more)

full size

The festive Roland TR-707

flickr by rue_the_whirl

full size

"This thing is about as old as me..1985 Vintage Roland drum machine and pretty much the sound of early Chicago house music...this was the machine that made many great artists and classic songs..Just check out Armado's Land Of Confusion if you want to hear some raw 707 and 303, this was also Larry Heard also known as Mr Fingers' drum machine..
Took this last year round x-mass when I was using it a lot...need to sell it now as I hardly use it and need some other bits..also I might sell my Roland JX-3P too"

on Ebay and in these videos:



The 303 projects YouTube via vinyljunkie07
"The 303 is back in my good books with me...Using rebirth for the 303 sound running as slave to the MPC midi clock."

vinyljunkie07's QuickCapture Video - Fri 01 May 2009 13:23:28 PDT

YouTube via vinyljunkie07

NJW_2121

flickr by Nick Winterhalter
(click for more)

ARP 2600
Moog Vocoder
television

the gaping maw of modcan

via Steve

"Teaser for the new synth being assembled at http://modularland.com"

muse sports a buchla and more

via gerald:

"Some nice modular photos from muse's latest recording session here:

http://www.twitpic.com/photos/musewire

Funny how I find myself watching their live DVD HAARP, waiting for the few moments of 200e goodness."

http://www.myspace.com/muse

Note the E-Mu modular, MacBeth M5, ARP 2600 and Synton Fenix.

Oberheim Stretch-DX

via this auction


EMS VCS3 MK1 with DK1 vintage analog synthesizer

via this auction

"Mk1 EMS VCS3 Putney synthesizer. I'm also including a DK1 Cricklewood keyboard and cable."

Simple ribbon controller for V/Hz synth

via nicolas3141 on this electro-music.com thread: "Continuing my simple synth series. Design goals: simple and educational circuit, 9V battery powered. V/Hz with CV output of about 1-5V giving at least two octaves of reasonable linearity. Stripboard layout shown with no cuts required. If you have a 5 or 6V reference voltage already available you can use that instead of C1 and U1. If you are building it into your synth you can use the main power supply instead of the battery and you won't need the stereo socket with the power-on-when-plugged-in earthing arrangement. Multiple output sockets on this can be very handy in a modular synth.

Finding suitable tape is the hardest bit. I have tested quite a few video/audio/computer-backup tapes and found that pro-grade tapes from the 80s or earlier are the most likely to be suitable (amongst older pro-grade tapes I found I needed to test about a dozen tapes to find two or three suitable ones). Modern consumer grade VHS is not so likely to be suitable. I think you want somewhere between 10K and 100K per 10cm of tape. Most tapes are more like 1M or more over that distance which is too high to be useful. I have found one oddball that was about 3K per 10cm.

One thing to note is that the contact resistance can be quite high. For example if you get a reading of 100K over 10cm, 25K of that might be the probe to tape contact resistances. So 1cm would read about 30K. This doesn't usually matter too much with a three wire voltage divider type circuits like this, but will affect the linearity slightly.

I have some quarter inch tape from a computer backup cartridge and some half inch tape from professional TV betacam that both give me a reading of just under 100K per 10cm. Both work well with 25-30cm of tape as the ribbon, but the betacam tape seems to wear out much much faster. I stick the tape down with double sided sticky tape. Long and high resistance ribbon controllers are more likely to pick up hum and noise. C3 is there to quite that down, but does slow the response slightly. You may need to adjust the value of C3. Use the smallest value that still kills the noise.

You only need to find one tape that works and it will supply you and everyone you know with ribbon controllers for the rest of your life including regular replacements of the ribbon if necessary. So if there is anyone in Christchurch, New Zealand who needs some suitable tape, feel free to contact me.

Cheers,
Nicolas"

Be sure to see the electro-music.com thread for updates.

Synths in Den Haag Art Museum, Holland

via adrian

"I'm just back from den haag in holland (I was playing in the jazz festival), and, while visiting the art museum, I found some interesting stuff. there are some rooms about music, and instruments. There was a clavia G2, but also a sort of small synth made of 5 modules oscillator, filter, enveloppe, lfo, and effects. each module had a button, to trig the sound, and make people understand the use of each module (of course, vco switch trigged the pure vco sound, on filter module, it played only vco + filter .....). There also was some touch screen, where you could sequence some sounds, and you had choice among many sampled instruments.

I was really amazed to see Ondioline among these instruments (I doubt samples I heard where really coming from an ondioline, I could not recognize its special character). There also was among many other instruments, minimoog and philicorda samples"

Metasonix TM-1 Vacuum Tube Waveshaper Ring Modulator

via this auction

"This is one is serial number 21 and has a slight blurring to the silkscreen.(it came from the factory that way)"

via brian c

The Hammond That Never Was

The Laurens Hammond

"The company left the music market and was never afforded the opportunity to showcase the never to be famous Laurens Hammond. The instrument was to have been available in two styles, the 346 and the 350. These products would have topped the fine line of Hammond products available at the time of the demise of the company."

"Located in the upper right end block, Realistic timbre and authentic attack is achieved in the 13 computer-controlled synthesizer voices of the instrumentalist. Actual digital recordings of each instrument are reproduced authentically by a sophisticated digital playback system. The sounds can be activated one at a time and are playable from either the upper, lower or pedal keyboards. Separate volume and delayed vibrato features are available to the player." Click the link above for more images and info. via Organgrinder010

Touch Screen kit for playing music here with Usine


YouTube via tikitpok4Usine
"Just to show you how it's easy to install and use a touch screen kit , here to use with Usine . a music program from http://www.sensomusic.com/usine/
a little demo to show you the great possibilities to built your own graphic interface to play in live situation .
enjoy"

"Usine is a universal audio software especially designed for live or studio utilisation. Usine is made by musicians and audio engineers to respond to their specific problems in a lot of domains like live sampling, effect processing or sound design. Usine is a real musical instrument, flexible and powerful if you like to transform, resample the sound on stage (not only push the play button of your sequencer!), improvise and create unusual effect."

REON driftbox s -01-


YouTube via unyo303.

"made in japan"
Update: images here

Scarborough Fair arr. Gazdatronik


YouTube via Gazdatronik
"The audio quality is not so good. For better, visit:
http://www.garageband.com/song?|pe1|S...

Another song I have wanted to do since I was ten. Played from memory by hand, I tried to take this song from its simple English roots and turn it into a landscape. No live version-the production was far too intricate.

Yamaha TX81Z on ostinato
Roland JX-3P on staccato bass
Roland VP-330 choir
Korg DW-8000 as Polymoog harpsichord and Vangelis CS-80 lead
Oberheim Matrix 6 on reverb harmony
Behringer Virtualizer Pro and Alesis Wedge provide effects
Mackie 1202 on Blinking Lights
Emu 6400 as Playback Unit"

DIY laser turntable plays Morton Subotnick's "Silver Apples of the Moon"


YouTube via EA78751. Buchla
"An experiment. Actually, the turntable isn't modified at all. The laser pointer beam is focused by a cheap lens, and reflects off the spinning vinyl. The grooves modulate the beam, and the modulations are picked up with a photodiode. Nothing is touching the top side of the record.

http://ericarcher.net/devices/lite2sound

thanks for watching"

Let's Get Lofi 4 - DD10 + Pss-580 + DIY Distortion + DIY Mixer


YouTube via ChrisLody
"The Yamaha DD-10 has got to be one of the most Lofi programmable drum machine ever made. You can program 2 separate 2 bar patterns using 26 different drum sounds with 2 levels of velocity. I used a preset on this vid though as I was feeling a bit lazy. Amazingly it only cost me £2 from a carboot sale. Yeay.

I ran that through a distortion circuit based on Craig Andertons distortion circuit as forund in Handmade Electronic Music by Nicolas Collins. I added a touch point I found by accident which feeds the first inverter with the ouput of the second which sounds quite cool. It creates some great squealing and choppy sounds. Nice.

I programmed the Pss-580 with an editor with a nice bass sound.

I ran them both through a passive mixer which was also in Nicolas Collins book.

Yeay, great fun!"

Yamaha QY700 Sequencer/awm2 module


YouTube via hilltree
"Yamaha qy700 test
Music is a Edgar Froese -tangerine dream/stuntman midi impementation test.
Made and recorded at the Hilltree studio netherlands
More at www.groenewoudnet.nl"

Waldorf Blofeld Is Most Definitely Not A Salad


YouTube via gearwire
"For this demo, Bill Holland hooked up the "highly scientific" Waldorf Blofeld syhth to Ableton and let her rip. Its sleek German design puts all controls in their most logical locations, so you can reserve more brainpower for world domination."

Waldorf Blofeld Guises As Ableton Live Controller For Demo

"Bill Holland hooks up the Waldorf Blofeld to Ableton Live to get his old school hardware control on. What he comes up with sounds something like a circus of dolphin song and twittering mantids, which is just what you want on a hot club night. I mean, I do, anyway."

Mellotron for iPhone and iPod touch: Stairway to Heaven


YouTube via ManetronM400S
"Mellotron for iPhone and iPod touch in your pocket. Genuine sound sampled from Mellotron M400S (serial number 714) manufactured in the 70's."
You can find Manetron on iTunes here:
Manetron : Mellotron Simulator

Vintage Roland System 100 102 synth synthesizer modular


via this auction

"Vintage Roland 102 expander for Roland's system 100 modular synth."

One Knob To Rule Them All

flickr by Diego Stocco

"Diego Stocco The Conduit Shaping the Soundtrack LCO 3

I like to experiment with small electronic instruments, like the optical theremin. The pitch of this circuit responds to the intensity of external light, which makes it hard to play specific notes.
I wanted to find a better way to control not just the pitch but also the trigger of the sound in order to create rhythmic patterns. I used che chassis of an old device to host the circuit, connected a dimmer to control the intensity of a light bulb and a push-button switch to break the circuit, so I could control the note on/off. To fatten up the sound I connected it to a spring reverb, an hi-fi amp and two old speakers, recorded with a stereo microphone. The instrument needs to be be played in semi obscurity."

Update: some video via Diego:

Diego Stocco - LCO Light Controlled Oscillator from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.



"The LCO is an instrument I assembled when I was creating the score for "The Conduit". I used it as a starting point to create a variety of bass sounds, ambiences and strange noises.

The pitch of an optical theremin responds to the intensity of external light, which makes playing specific notes difficult. I wanted to find a better way to control not just the pitch but also the trigger of the sound in order to create rhythmic patterns. I used the chassis of an old device to host the circuit, connected a dimmer to control the intensity of a light bulb and a push-button switch to break the circuit, so I could control the note on/off. To fatten up the sound I connected it to a spring reverb, an hi-fi amp and two old speakers, recorded with a stereo microphone. The instrument needs to be be played in semi obscurity.

In this particular session I was also post-processing the sound of the LCO with modulated chains of comb-filtered delays and reverbs.

P.S. Careful with the volume, the sound gets pretty intense in the second half of the video."

SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS PRO-ONE ANALOG MONOSYNTH


YouTube via GCom67
"Short demo of the sound of the SCI Pro-One mono synth monster.
The only FX was Sonar 8's built in VST Lexicon reverb which is put across the whole finished track.
Seven mono tracks in all recorded in real time. I used the Pro-One's sequencer for the riff.
Thanks for listening.
The track is called 'Ambi-One'"

Tripper 1.1 iPhone app demo


YouTube via retsyx
"The Tripper 1.1 iPhone app introduces improved sound, graphics, performance and customizability. A limited functionality, lite version is also available to play with.."
Avialable on iTunes here:
Tripper

P1080609

flickr by mesak
(click for more)

Anyone know what this is?

Update: video via tm in the comments.

Moog filter clone from Huge Bass on Vimeo.


"hand made (from a diy kit?) moog filter clone from latvia.

cutoff pot crackling a bit. adsr functionality not quite correct.

when gate->adsr is switched off the gate input can be used as cv->cutoff amount.

waveform is dry sawtooth signal direct out from roland SH-7"

OS Nameplate

flickr by brotherloco
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