MATRIXSYNTH: Friday, October 9, 2009

Friday, October 09, 2009

Yamaha DX 100 Ebay Listing

YouTube via CellCycle89
"Here is a descriptive video of my Yamaha DX 100 synthesizer that I have for sale on ebay right now."
Yamaha DX100s on Ebay

Chemedra

YouTube via Andreas45678966. "Moog Modular v Ambient"

Rachmaninoff: Theremin "How Fair This Spot"

YouTube via copperleaves
"This is a transcription for theremin of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff's beautiful song, Opus 21 #7, "Zdes Xorosho" (How Fair This Spot).

According to the New York Times, Rachmaninoff attended a demonstration of the theremin in 1930, given by its inventor, Leon Theremin (a fellow Russian), at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Apparently there was a woman in the audience who leapt to her feet after the first number applauding and shouting "Bravo! Bravo!" Rachmaninoff who, according to the article, was sitting behind her, loudly exclaimed, "Sit down Madame! You Exaggerate!"

At the time, the instrument was unknown and there were no musicians, other than its inventor, who were competent to play it.

Although Rachmaninoff never wrote anything for the theremin, one of his compositions, VOCALISE, has become one of the standard transcription compositions for the instrument. In regard to this song, HOW FAIR THIS SPOT, written for piano and voice in 1901, I found the following information on the internet:

'Rachmaninoff and his wife were on their honeymoon when he composed the work, which, not surprisingly, he also dedicated to her. Moreover, he had recently recovered from a depression caused by the disastrous 1897 premiere of his Symphony No. 1, which undermined his confidence and ability to compose until the appearance in 1901 of his ever-popular Piano Concerto No. 2. This was obviously a blissful time in his life, then, true to his nature, Rachmaninoff was moved to write music here about romance and passion, leaving out the sunshine and merriment he must also have felt. The song features one of the composer's most soaring, beautiful vocal melodies that would not have been out of place in a slow movement of one of his concertos or symphonies. The accompaniment is appropriately subdued and just as romantic as the vocal line. The text, by G. Galina, describes a pastoral scene where young lovers have come to be alone with nature and themselves. This lovely song typically has a duration of just over two minutes.'"

Circuit Bend Modular Sythesiser Casio Sk1 Circuit by ddc

YOuTube via dasfx33
"24 patch and phototheremin circuit bend monster synthesiser Casio Sk1
all circuits made by ddc
I choose special points on the board only this witch made nice noisy and glitch loops and controllable sounds and conections on modular board."

Arduinome 128

YouTube via StarfireMX
"My Arduinome 128 I'm building, it's almost done, just some adjustments and what not."

mini space rockers

YouTube via EA78751
"http://ericarcher.net/devices/mini-sp...

Mini Space Rockers is a pushbutton analog drum with four transistors; You choose three capacitors to customize pitch and envelope. Its nice hot output level is guaranteed to distort any guitar amp more than Stevie Ray.

It is designed as an intro-to-soldering project for Handmade Music Austin. The unit in the video is a prototype; 'real' PCBs will be used in the workshop."

Wonderwall Cover

YouTube via Zworx16
"I played the song "Wonderwall" (Oasis) on my flute

The accompaniment was recorded and played on the Radias.
Hope you like my Version!"

Ciat-lonbarde Cocolase

YouTube via opsysbug

Fairlight at AES 2009 - Interview with Tino Fibaek

YouTube via FairlightAudio. "Fairlight at AES 2009 - Interview with Tino Fibaek"

Yamaha rx 11 Roland tr 808 Roland sh 101 Roland Juno 6 Korg kms 30

YouTube via cosmohelectrastudio
"Yamaha rx 1, Roland tr 808, Roland sh 101, Roland Juno 6, Korg kms 30, playing together.
Too short but my memory card was full !"

Dewanatron Dual Primate Console

via the Big City Music blog

"Don't forget about the Spaceland show on 10/13.
Dewanatron is also performing

Wednesday, October 14, 8pm

Dewanatron at The Silent Movie Theater in Los Angeles
Brian and Leon Dewan will accompany a program of silent short horror movies at the Cinefamily Silent Movie Theater.
Tickets: $12

611 N Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323-655-2510"

In another lifetime, I worked just down the street from this at 412 N. Fairfax.

Korg M3 MPC Drum Bass Kit

YouTube via KidNepro
"A demo from our M3 Hit Factory sound collection - "MPC Drum & Bass" Drum Kit For Korg M3. Drum Kit contains 88 samples from our MPC sample libraries .

Beats from the combi titled "Ultimate MPC. No overdubbing or multi tracking was done on the track. Everything was played live into my DAW.

Music & Video - Steve Proto
©1984-2009 - Kid Nepro Productions
More info on all our M3 sounds at: www.kidnepro.com"

The Birotron

"Rick Wakeman of the band "Yes" invented and developed this instrument along with help from David Biro. Wakeman formed the company Birotronics, Ltd. which made just 35 Birotrons. Like the Mellotron, the Birotron "sampled" instruments and uses 8-track tapes for the various sounds. This was necessary before digital sampling became available. They were mainly used for strings, choirs, brass, and flutes; sounds not easily reproduced on the synthesizers of that era."

via 8-Track Heaven where you will find more info.

via John Van Eaton

Updates via the comments:
via Darren Landrum:
I seem to recall this one used tape loops, which contained continuous sounds. Shaping could then be added via an envelope generator. Great for sustaining sounds like strings, organ, and choir, but not so good for transient sounds like tubular bells. Of course, the Mellotron was most famous for the sustaining sounds, so maybe the Biro fellow was on to something. The only artist I can recall using the tubular bell tape for the Mellotron is Isao Tomita.

via Milo Johnson:
"The Birotron used 37 8-track tapes, one per key (with all of the attendant problems of 8-tracks) instead of strips of tape like the Mellotron and Chamberlin. Mellotron sounds last about eight seconds and then the tape has to rewind to play the note again. The Birotron used hand-crossfaded recordings to give "infinite" sustain, or at least until the 8-track clicked and changed direction. Rick was the money man and contributed some ideas for improving the instrument, but Dave had already developed it when he approached Rick for financing. It looks like fewer than 20 were ultimately produced and about half of them are accounted for. Dave didn't have one of his own instruments for many years until David Kean of Mellotron.com found and restored one and gave it to him. There is a Yahoo! Birotron Group moderated by Dave Biro, open membership so you can get the story straight from the horse's mouth."

MMM on Conan O'Brian

see it in the background?
Top cabinets moved to the sides.

video here

http://mattsonminimodular.com/

caught by Mark Pulver

Matrix Green MachineDrum For Sale

The MATRIXSYNTH Green Elektron MachineDrum from Shagghie featured in this post is for sale. Details on Elektron-Users.

DIY Oscilloscope

A few people asked where to get the DIY Oscilloscope. See the update in this post.

Analogue Renaissance

Analogue Renaissance
(click for more)

Pictured: TS-303 MK2 ACID SCREAMER
"Distortion effect designed for the TB-303. Where the original TS-303 was a variant of the infamous TS-808, with some adaptations to match the signal levels of the TB-303 and a few soundwise alterations, this MK2 version is a complete new design with possibilities never seen anywhere. From electronic design and mechanical construction point of view it is lightyears ahead of the previous one.

Features:
* 2 different operation modes: Distortion and overdrive
* Variable dynamics restoration: Every distortion effect has the same problem: Dynamics gets lost and everything sounds equally loud. Translated to the TB-303 this means that you lose accents. This dynamics restoration reconstructs the envelope of the original signal while maintaining the distorted sound. It can be gradually tuned from no restoration to the double of the original dynamic range.
* Frequency selective distortion: This gives the possibility to choose which part of the frequency spectrum gets the most distortion. Quite amazing how this enables to pick things out of the soup which were otherwise not audible.

A more detailed description of what and how can be read in the release notes:" [link]
(you'll also fine samples)

Note Analogue Renaissance brought us the Juno-106 80017A chip replacement. Click on the Analogue Renaissance label below for more.

Analogue Renaissance TS -303 : the acid screamer

You'll find the write-up and some samples on Acid Box Blues

Analogue Renaissance
(post on that coming up)

MATRIXSYNTH Synclavier

MATRIXSYNTH by eccentric.

Bottom shot:
"Mirage (found sitting exposed to the elements at a Los Angeles surplus place... bought for $15 dead, easily fixed) sitting atop Synclavier II (acquired for free from owner who no longer wanted it.) Ancient sonic wonderfulness, still useful."