Noisecollective Torino Synth Clinic 2009

YouTube via noisecollectivenet
"Estratto dalla Torino Synth Clinic organizzata da Noisecollective.net in collaborazione con Elbarrio e la rivista gratuita Audio Video Music. Come docente per questa edizione abbiamo avuto il piacere di avere con noi Pier Calderan. Durante la clinic i nostri iscritti hanno realizzato un oscillatore sinusoidale. In questo episodio Pier Calderan illustra il funzionamento dei condensatori."

Googlish:
"Retrieved from Torino Synth Clinic organized by Noisecollective.net in collaboration with Elbarrio and free magazine Sound & Music. As a teacher for this edition, we had the pleasure of having with us Calderan Pier. During the clinic our members have achieved a sinusoidal oscillator. In this episode Pier Calderan illustrates the operation of the capacitors."

Modded Minomoog with Bob Moog Signature

via this auction

Simmons SDS 400 electronic drum brain

via this auction

patch sheets

Yamaha CS-80 Vintage Analog Synth

via this auction
"Accessories: The synth comes with all of the following original accessories:
* Original owners manual in mint condition
* Original schematics and service manual in mint condition
* Original tuning procedure manual in mint condition
* Original chrome stand including all original parts in near mint condition (one of the bakelite knobs has a corner sheared off)
* Original plexiglass music rest in mint condition
* Original sustain/portamento footpedal in mint condition
* Original expression pedal in near mint condition (a small crack on the plastic on one side).
* Original CS-80 cover in excellent condition
* Kenton MIDI kit (new/uninstalled - still under the 3 month warranty).
* Original pleather bag in excellent condition (for holding all of the accessories)
* Original copy of Gary Leuenberger CS-80 patch soundsheets"

Kawai SX210 Analog Synthesizer

via this auction

CLICK FOR MORE »

ELEKTRON Sid Station

via this auction

THEREMIN - Analog Handheld Synth - New Design #003!!!

via this auction
"BLIP is Back and Better Than Ever!
Be the first on your block to own BLIP II, the new LABOZ Theresynth™! It's a handheld, analog synth that makes music from light. Unlike traditional instruments with strings and keys, the Theresynth™ has no boundaries - you play it in the air using light as your sound source. You'll get unlimited tones and octaves by combining the "speed" & "range" controls. The momentary trigger/on-off switch allows you to play individual notes. It's perfect for dramatic, live performances, recordings or just jamming on-the-go, via the built in speaker.

The Theresynth™ is battery-powered (1-9V), photocell theremin/synthesizer - hence the name Theresynth™. She has a 1/4" output, built-in speaker & spaced-out, analog sounds. They're handmade and built to last in a solid, aluminum, painted, "Electro Harmonix" case, with jumbo sci-fi knobs, wide-angle mirror, high-quality photocell, red momentary/latch trigger, purple & white wiring, clear rubber feet and red LED.

This model Theresynth (BLIP II - #003) is signed, dated and numbered inside. It's an amazing, little, musical device with lots of applications and has a few improvements over previous models, like the new output jack and different transistors, making it louder unamplified and with extended range particularly on the low end - it's very ballsy sounding! Visit CHAMBER OF SOUNDS for other options. You won't find the Theresynth™ anywhere else, as each is meticulously handmade here by me in Tucson, Arizona.

Laboz/Telestar musical instruments have been around since the mid 60's and I'm carrying on the family tradition with updated, unique, sometimes strange and always outer-worldly, handmade creations. I've sold my electronic devices to members of Depeche Mode, The Beastie Boys and many other creative musicians - they've been very happy with the results and you will be too. Check out my feedback and buy with confidence. Thanks for stopping by!"

DIY Sequencer

flickr by Sampsa Aronen

Buchla 260e Duophonic Pitch Class Generator

flickr by Yotsuba&!

AKS = Ass Kicking Sequencer

YouTube via stomachlining
"AKS sequence by STOMACHLINING recorded dry, no processors or effects, plus alittle joy sticking & 1 keyboard lead solo; along with some dancing in the streets. To hear Stomachlining & the band go to itunes."

starve circuit by properboy

YouTube via theproperboy
"www.properboy.com
this is a properboy dying battery simulator seen here draining voltage from a dwarfcraft rotyrbrain."

properboy feedback looper with bypass


atari punk console, drone synth with cv input


"www.properboy.com
running some vintage front 242 through my properboy pollute pedal. messing around with the feedback and input volume settings."

boss ds-1 modification by properboy

"boss ds-1 distortion with silicon transistor added to key points on circuit to cause self oscillation. hi and lo frequency switching. most mods try to mellow this distortion pedal out, this one causes it to go over the top and totally melt down your guitar!"

FM8 test

YouTube via elektronischesschaf

Chroma Polaris Color Themes and Ad Scans

Via the excellent Rhodes Chroma site. You can find the color themes here and the Ad scans here. Note this image has the "Halloween" orange color theme.

Update: some notes via Robb Witt on the Chroma list:
"Regarding the color schemes on all panels manufactured before the original Woburn team departed Fender….

While it’s generally true that there are probably 3 or 4 major “families” of color schemes, it’s absolutely true that the number and variety of panels that could potentially exist out there is a bit larger. As the guy who made all of them, with the exception of the Blue production Polaris panels, and some later blue/green versions for the Chromas that were possibly made in Hoopeston, I can state with authority that we were constantly “tweaking” both the colors themselves as well as the color layouts. We’d mix up a batch of “earth toned” ink and print up a half dozen panels… and then the next week do a different run to see if Shykun liked it more. I also dimly recall doing a couple of “special runs” for people at the shop (Mark Smith I think, and maybe Mike Shea) That was the benefit of having a full blown production shop at the dev facility. In general I think the story is something like this:

1 - The original layout was done (I think) by Warren Ames, who also designed the switch panel underlays. The colors on these were probably derived from the colors Arp was using on the Quadra, at least that’s the only blue/green color combination we used at Arp that I can think of. We probably made a minor adjustment or two to the panel labels before we went into pre-production. I’m pretty sure I manufactured the original display prototype that we used at Arp (all the original publicity photos), and am positive that I manufactured all the “first 50” panels, as well as those used for demos, in-house, spares, production, and the like. This is the layout that should, I think, be considered the standard “production” layout and color scheme. I am relatively sure that all panels using this scheme were manufactured at the Cummings Park R&D facility in Woburn that we set up when we exited Arp. The only reason I say “relatively” is that I heard a rumor years ago that after I left Fender (about the same time Phil, Bob Hartford, and a number of others left) the guys in Hoopeston decided to outsource making the panels for production. That may or may not have happened, I can’t say.

2- so-called “Halloween” units. (BTW, the first time I ever heard this term used was here. We never called them that at Fender, regardless of what Phil D. apparently reported). As has been noted elsewhere, we started fooling around with the Chroma color scheme while we were designing the Polaris in response to a request by John Shykun. After more or less settling on a color scheme for the Polaris, we decided we’d similarly “retrofit” the Chroma. So as Mark Smith has commented, the idea was to switch the Chroma production over to the new scheme when we released the Polaris. (I was gone by the time that finally happened, so can’t tell the story on how/why those plans were changed, as they obviously were). Once we decided to do that we tried to “fix” a couple of other problems that folks had reported with the original layout. So that’s the reason the position of the numbers in the parameter boxes was changed (moved up), and the descriptors changed from black on a colored ground to white on a black ground. (We’d been told, and duplicated via experiment, that under certain combinations of stagelighting the original labels more or less “vanished”. That obviously made programming on the fly even harder that it normally was, and it was easy enough to fix…). With the new layout in hand, as well as a new switch layout underneath (again courtesy of Warren Ames), any number of variously colored “non-standard” panels were fabricated. My fairly faulty memory says that Mark Smith and I both had Chroma’s with this color scheme, and I’m pretty sure I would have given any of the in-house tech’s who asked (Mike Shea for example) a set. Then of course there were our in-house demo units (Chroma and Expander), as well as Herbie Hancock’s units. We may also have sent some panels out to particularly “friendly” customers or shops. I’m not sure. I guess my point is that there could be a 3 or 4 more of these lurking around out there, as well as any number of replacement panels. (As for my old unit, which had no serial number… I’d love to know if it ever surfaced. I sold it in ’91 to someone in Colorado I think. A much regretted action.)

As far as the gold-toned set goes; Mark Smith might recall that I made a special “gold and black” switch panel for the 82 key “Grand” version of the Arp electric piano that we had. (The case had a top that opened to a sort of faux Steinway look. Boy I’d love to know where that ended up!). I don’t have a specific memory of doing the gold Chroma panels that Mark had, but it’s obviously something we would have easily done in our spare time. This group should not be astonished if another one-off color scheme crawls out of the woodwork at some point either.

Anyway, that’s what I know ‘bout that!

robb witt"

Button and a Dotcom Modular Bed

via James Price

"This is my mostly empty dotcom with my kitten, Button, inside."

Mi-Sex - Computer Games (1979)

YouTube via nzoz1979. synth spotting. Rev 2 Sequential Circuits Prophet-5.
"Music from Australia and New Zealand in the year 1979:

Mi-Sex's promo-video for the hit single 'Computer Games' taken from the 1979 album 'Graffiti Crimes'.


This single topped the Australian National Chart at number one during the summer of 1979.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MiSex"

Tonmeister

"Tonmeister is the perfect add-on for CLOCKWOrK, but can of course also be used alone. It forces MIDI notes to a given scale. Additionally it can generate chords for a single MIDI note.

Tonmeister is included free with CLOCKWOrK." previously posted

via WOK

David Bouchard - Sound Mites, Tangible Sound Interface 2007

YouTube via MediaArtTube
"Sound Mites explores how simple localized interactions between elements of a system can sometime result in unexpected complex patterns.
The work consists of a set of small tangible nodes that alter their behavior according to the nearby nodes, in an asynchronous fashion. Nodes have magnets on the bottom and are deployed on a flat metallic surface. Each node is equipped with a small speaker that generates a musical tone according to the state of its immediate neighbors and a simple set of rules. Nodes also provide visual feedback on their current state by means of colored lighting. Finally, the nodes sense touch through a thin metal rim and can toggle their state to reflect the interventions of viewers.

The nodes are fully independent from one another. Users can reconfigure the topology of the system in real-time by moving the nodes around and rearranging them, creating an ever-changing sound texture with unique qualities, revealed through the use of a large number of sound sources physically distributed in space.

My intent with this project is twofold. On one hand, I wish to explore how we can leverage emergent phenomenons to design more engaging audio/visual experiences. On the other, I hope that the direct manipulation of the nodes will help viewers get a better understanding and appreciation of emerging patterns within distributed systems.
Mor einfo: http://www.deadpixel.ca/projects/soun..."

NAMM: moonmodular@2010 NAMM Show, Hall A · Booth# 6108

YouTube via moonmodular
"Gear in use: Trigger Sequencer M563v2, the new Quad Quantizer M565v2 with the expander M565e and a LFO triangle wave. Sound source Oberheim Xpander."

Hypno Sequence

YouTube via theraywilsonshow
"This composition was made using my MFOS modular. The sequence was made with the MFOS 16 step sequencer. The drums were added by hand playing my Korg N1 jazz kit. The lead utilizes stereo panning and sync effects. The effects were added during mix down with SONAR Home Studio 6."

Acid Sun and Triad

YouTube via dyLAB0303
"2 year old track featuring tr707 and mc202 - out now on Acid All Stars via beatport exclusive grab it here
https://www.beatport.com/en..."


"backwards forwards and sideways - a ripping little acid track available for free on Acid Cuts 2 from http://www.swishco.co.uk/release.php?...

SWISHCOtheque - Acid cuts part two.
Hello acid friends. Here we bring you
part two of our acid cuts series, as you
can imagine its more 303 mental and melodic
goodness, if you enjoyed part one your gunna
love part two. Hit the download link and enjoy 13 tracks of wonderess acidness :)

Tracklisting and myspace contact info:

1.Volxsound.(www.myspace.com/volxsound)
2.Lastrapink.(www.myspace.com/lastrapink )
3.Chris Moss Acid.(www.myspace.com/chrismossacid)
4.robot for brains.(www.myspace.com/robotforbrains)
5.Volitune.(www.myspace.com/volitune)
6.Paul Blackford.(www.myspace.com/paulblackford )
7.Monolog X.(www.myspace.com/monologx)
8.SFVacid.(www.myspace.com/sfvacid)
9.DyLAB.(www.myspace.com/dylabs)
10.Impakt.(www.myspace.com/indal)
11.Acidburp.(www.myspace.com/acidburpmus ic)
12.Philops.(www.myspace.com/philopz)
13.Pan Expander.(www.myspace.com/panexpander)

Happy listening :)" more vids here

TB303 audio going into Boss SYB3 and OS2

YouTube via dyLAB0303
"demos of two boss pedals, a SYB3 going into a OS2 pedal being drive by audio signal from roland tb303"

TB303 CV going into Boss SYB3 and ODB3

"demos of two boss pedals, a SYB3 going into a ODB3 pedal being drive by CV signal from roland tb303"

How to program a tb303

YouTube via dyLAB0303
"I go through how to program a pattern into a tb303 and demonstrate various time options as well as playing various sonic elements of a tb303 devilfish mod"

Before The Flood

via Boele of SCD on the Waldorf list:

"Happy new year and enjoy

http://synthmusic.info/mpdries/Before%20The%20Flood.m4a
or
http://www.synthmusic.info/mpdries/Before%20The%20Flood.mp3

This is 4 Blofelds (except drums).

Boele"

Rare Titan Purple Synton Syrinx

via this auction

"Here is your chance to get your hands on one of the rarest and powerful monophonic analog synthesizer on the planet. There are only 300 made, most are black, 20 are red and blue, but this one have the most extraordinary colour of all, the titan/purple one.
Of these titan/purple one are only 8 (limited edition) ever made, so it is the rarest of all the syrinxes. Cosmeticly like new and in full working order, only been used in a smokefree homestudio. It comes to you with manual and custom made clear hardplastic dustcover (see pic). This is not only a musicinstrument, but also an investment. The reason is simple, its rare and unique and one of the most sought after analog vintage synths. It have 3 filters (two formantbandpass en one 24db lowpass) al work at the same time, all with their own frequency and resonance knobs. 4 possible routings , oscillators with 2 type of hardsync and softsync, and not forget the unique benderpad. This thing can scream, no other synth can make that killersound."

CLICK FOR MORE »

recording.

flickr by adam_kremer

"the monster goes rawrr recording. myspace.com/themonstergoesrawrr - by adam kremer."

Rhodes Chroma CPU Plus (CC+) Firmware Update Revision 213

Available on the excellent Rhodes Chroma site. The update features "support for transmission of Polyphonic Key Pressure via MIDI (if a pressure sensor is installed)"

monome greyscale 64 now available

available at monome.org

DOEPFER A-100 ANALOGUE MODULAR SYNTHESIZER

flickr set by mono80

"The Doepfer A-100 in my self-made cabinet. Below are a simple keyboard, also in self-made case (to fit the look).
The cabinet includes 22 modules:
A-110 VCO (3x), A-114 Ringmod., A-118 Noise/Random, A-119 Ext.In., A-120 VCF (24dB Lowpass), A-121 VCF (12dB multimode), A-124 VCF (Wasp clone), A-130 VCA (Lin.), A-131 VCA (Exp.), A-138 Mixer (Lin.), A-138 Mixer (Exp.), A-140 ADSR (2x), A-145 LFO (2x), A-148 S&H, A-170 Slew Limiter, A-180 Multiples, A-185 Bus-Access, A-190 MIDI Interface."

Illuminated Sounds monome apps for the Novation Lauchpad

Now available on Illuminated Sounds
Update: the code is Stretta's ported for the launchpad. Note Stretta's code is open source, and this is not.

Roland SH 101+ RE 150 + TR 606 + CR 8000 + Boss DR 550 + Korg KMS 30 + Yamaha RX 11

YouTube via cosmohelectrastudio
"All these machines playing together."

Roland SH 101 + Roland TR 606 + Boss DR 550 + Korg KMS 30

"SH 101 + TR 606 + DR 550 playing together + Yamaha RX 11 as Midi master (no sound).

Midi clock goes to tr 606 and Dr 550 via the Korg KMS 30, SH 101 arpeggio is clocked by the TR 606 trig out."

Casio Cleaning

YouTube via organfairy

"I got this little Casio MT-110 at a charity sale. It works fine but unfortunately somebody had put stickers on the keys which made them all sticky and gooey. On top of that the instrument was quite dusty and greasy - like if a kid had played it immediately after eating a jam sandwich (and yes, that is often the case with second hand toy keyboards). So I took it apart. Cleaned all the parts. And assembled it again.

Again the music is something I made in 1997. It is played on Roland SH-2000, Casio SA-1, Casio SA-3 with Boss OC-2 octaver, Kawai MS-20, and Yamaha PSS-12, and Roland CR-1000."

MIDI retrofit for CR-78 Part 5

YouTube via MusicMiK. follow-up to this post

"A bit tired on the first day of 2010, but enough to do some cleanup in the source tree and implement basic CR-78 hardware interfacing.

The hardware works as desired, the rest of this is just tricky firmware to have all the desired features enabled. Sync/Start/Stop still needs a bit improvement, but the way the machine works in detail is now analyzed and can be handled.

Currently implemented:

MIDI sync in and out
Triggers to/from MIDI, currently with not special handling for the Accent-trigger, which will be mapped to velocity later.

Still some things to change in the main logic to compensate some hardware strangeness of the CR-78 like the VCAs being shut down when the unit is stopped, so it always needs to run to get the triggers from MIDI routed to the hardware.
The handling of the switch between internal and MIDI control can also be improved using the start/stop button to switch off pure MIDI control and return to native machine clock.

Usual disclaimer: I will not build and sell kits and i will not implement your firmware wishes. This is your job, when the finished version of schematics/source go to http://www.mik-music.org/MIDItriggs"

Doepfer A100 GROOVE 6 New Year 2010

YouTube via unyo303. "Doepfer A100 + MPC500 + DrumStation"

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to the other side. I hope 2010 is a good one for all of us. Synth posts will be coming shortly, but before then I'd like to look back at the year for the site and share some of that with you. It would be impossible to dig through old posts and pick highlights as there are just too many, so instead I'll look at the number of posts that went up and other stats.

Last year a whopping total of 13006 posts went up! That's an average of 1083.83 posts a month and 35.63 posts a day. It's up from 10,090 posts in 2008. I haven't missed a single day posting in the entire year and plan to keep it that way. The total number of posts since the inception of the site on July 20, 2005, is 35,045.

For the year we had 2,565,300 Visits and 5,804,265 Pageviews. That would be 7028 visits and 15902 pageviews a day. That's quite a bit considering there aren't many subsections in the site. Everything new goes up on the front page. Aside from the homepage, what is the most popular thing on MATRIXSYNTH? Synth Babes at 37,629 hits. The most visited posts for the year? From Which the Gristleizer Came at 7573 hits followed by New SEM from Tom Oberheim at 6,112 and Schaltzentale - Incredible Steampunk Modular at 5,554. Since the inception of the site we had a total of 6,679,552 Visits and 13,310,057 Pageviews!


Total Visits:
2009: 2,565,300
2008: 2,010,102
2007: 1,383,340
2006: 513,060
2005: 207,750 (via AdSense)
Total: 6,679,552

Total Page Views:
2009: 5,804,265
2008: 3,865,863
2007: 2,519,689
2006: 912,490
2005: 207,750 (via AdSense)
Total: 13,310,057

As for world domination we are still short a few countries. North Korea is still avoiding me. Click on the map for the full size. Green means someone from that country visited MATRIXSYNTH! Google Analytics is off though. If you look at last year's map you'll see Niger is green while this year it is white.





The top visits are as follows:
1. United States 1,061,288
2. United Kingdom 228,943
3. Germany 164,705
4. Canada 147,475
5. France 123,881
6. Italy 87,409
7. Sweden 80,801
8. Netherlands 72,783
9. Japan 59,820
10. Belgium 51,663

And that's it folks. Enough with the numbers. Time to get back to posting synths. I want to end this with a HUGE THANK YOU!!! As I say every year, this site is not about me. It's about synths and what people (YOU and me) are doing with them. Years from now we will be able to look back on a little bit of synth history. Thank you for being part of that. I wish you all one hell of a new decade!

cheers,
matrix


Update: I've been thinking about what I'm most looking forward to in the new year on the synth front. For me it will be building out my eurorack modular and either the Apple tablet, a Windows tablet, or both! There's too much cool software out there that I don't use simply because I don't have a tablet. What are you looking most forward to on the synth front?