MATRIXSYNTH: Search results for Axcel


Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Axcel. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Axcel. Sort by date Show all posts

Friday, December 23, 2005

Technos Acxel Resynthesizer


Technos Acxel Resynthesizer up on the bay. Title link takes you to the shots and I grabbed the text below, before it goes to *bay limbo. In via reader Rasmus. Thanks Rasmus!

"Only 39 Axcels [sic] were ever made - and those who own an Acxel (ACoustic + X + ELement) hold on to them - proved by the fact that it is very, very rare that an Acxel is for sale. The last, and probably the only, time an Acxel was offered on Ebay were 2003. If I remember correctly, the starting bid was USD10,000 that time.

Imagine drawing waveforms, 128-stage envelopes, base pitches and amplitudes (the user interface allows editing of 32 base pitches/amplitudes at the same time, like an 32 track pitch and audio mixer, with a discreet “page” for each group of 32 oscillators, or ISC’s – Intelligent Synthesis Cells, as they are called in the Technos terminology), and other sound parameters with your finger - and have 256 intelligent, digital oscillators follow your every creative move in real-time. Imagine creating a monophonic sound with 256 oscillators, 8 multitibral voices with 32 oscillators each or any combination in sections of 32 oscillators.

Wednesday, March 05, 2014

The Technos Acxel Resynthesizer Overview Videos


Published on Mar 5, 2014 Kevin Kelley·2 videos

"This is the full length video demonstration for the Technos Acxel re-synthesizer from around 1988. There are two parts to this video"

Technos Acxel part 2


This one is in via Kevin Kelley who let me know he will be uploading some user demos in the future as well. Can't wait! The Acxell Resynthesizer has only been featured on the site a handful of times. It is a rare synthesizer sold between 1987 and 1990 according to Wikipedia. Their is a new Axcel2. You can find information on the main Axcel2 website here.

On the original Axcel via Wikipedia:
"The word Acxel is short for 'acoustical element' (as pixel is short for "picture element".)
The Acxel consists on 2 components: The "Grapher" (graphic console) and the "Solitary" (Rackmount containing the Synthesis and Analysis hardware). Standard - 256 Oscillators (8 voices), up to 1024 Oscillators (32 voices).
Instead of having an LCD or CRT screen, the Axcel has a bank of 2114 LEDs mounted behind finger-sized conductive sensors (a smaller number were also used on the Technos 16\pi synthesizer main panel). All data readouts, and a lot of data input, are processed using this innovative method.
The 16\pi is the Acxel ancestor (1984 - never in production, 4 unit delivered at that time), introducing the concept but limited to 64 Oscillators, including a keyboard.

The Acxel never found mainstream favour and was never a commercial success, due to its high cost, and relative difficulty of use. As a result of this, Acxels today are very rare (about 35 were sold from 1987 to 1990), obscure and expensive, and they never did replace traditional sampler as was their intention. Their legacy, however, lives on in modern-day resynthesizers such as VirSyn's Cube, Camel Audio's Cameleon 5000, and Image-Line's Harmor."

Be sure to see the Technos channel link below for previous posts.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Acxel Resynthesizer Samples


You'll find some samples of the original Acxel Resynthesizer and the Axcel 2 at the bottom of this electro-music.com thread.

For more info on the Axcel Resynthsizer, see iDarca Audio. Also see the labels below for previous posts featured here.

Monday, May 07, 2018

Perfect Circuit Systems: Glitch Series


Published on May 7, 2018 Perfect Circuit Audio

"In the 1980s, digital music technologies promised vast new sonic capabilities. So came the Yamaha DX-7’s digital FM, the Fairlight CMI’s sample-based workflow, the peculiar additive approach of the Technos Axcel, and the sequencing options afforded by computers and specialized hardware. A new world of sound was revealed, and many artists sought to find its boundaries: when they did, they found the inharmonic aliasing, abrasive sputters, grinding timbres, and mind-boggling rhythms that grew to define progressive digital music.

Perfect Circuit Audio’s Glitch Series is a family of Eurorack modular synthesizers for musicians who want to explore novel digital synthesis methods that revel in this aesthetic of malfunction. Featuring modules by Make Noise, Noise Engineering, The Harvestman/Industrial Music Electronics, and more, the Glitch Series places digital destruction under voltage control.

Check out the links below for more information on the Glitch Series as well as our other preconfigured modular systems!
Perfect Circuit Systems: https://www.perfectcircuitaudio.com/s...
Glitch Systems: https://www.perfectcircuitaudio.com/s..."

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Supporters of MATRIXSYNTH get %10 off at Perfect Circuit Audio!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Jacques Chabot and the Acxel Resynthesizer

http://www.myspace.com/jacqueschabot

"In the course of the second phase, I acquired an Acxel resynthesizer, which at last enabled me to make the most of the composition and interpretation method I had designed with less performing equipment. In some ways, my new album “Des musiques de fous” is both continuity and a culmination as regards this method. It also marks the starting point of a third phase, “Les installations instantanées” that should result in at least a new album in 2009.

COMPOSITION AND INTERPRETATION: TECHNICAL NOTES

I have been using an extraordinary device for several years: an Acxel resynthesizer. This musical instrument serves as a synthesizer with subtractive synthesis and additive synthesis as well as a resynthesizer, and has an unparalleled capacity (256 independent oscillators that are programmable in real time). Québec engineer Pierre Guilmette created it. About ten or so working Acxels can still be found worldwide.

Thanks to this device, I developed an interpretation technique that enables me, each time I play a piece, to add improvisations to it while keeping its “essence” intact. The Acxel is so powerful that I no longer need sequencers and I merely use the keyboard as an “On-Off” trigger. After I play some notes, I activate the sustain mode and interpret the music by “sculpting” the sounds on the Acxel’s touch screen. Each sound therefore becomes a complete music that can hold several melodic or noise-like themes. In addition, in order to increase tenfold the power of the device, I sample the sounds that do not need to be modified in real time.

I developed this composition and interpretation method some 13 years ago. However, putting it into practice before owning the Acxel was far more limited."

More info on the Acxel at: Technos axcel

Saturday, April 14, 2007

The First Synth to....

Update: The new home for this list is now here. You can add to the list there or comment here and I will update both lists. Note that the complete list however will be there as I do not plan on updating this list with updates made there. That would be too much work and would compete with me being able to put up new posts here. Can't let that happen. : ) Related but separate from that list also see https://120years.net. That said...

If you are going to add to the list in the comments, use the same format.

Year - Manufacturer - Model - First at
1837 - C.G. Page (Salem. Mass) - first to produce electronically generated sound (not necessarily associated with a musical instrument). After inventing the Volta in 1800 (an early battery), in 1837 Page was doing experiments with coils and realized when certain coils were attached to a batter they omitted a ringing sound. While he initially thought the ring came from the electrical current was interrupted (battery disconnected), what was actually taking place was the induction through the coils was causing them to vibrate. via Peter Grenader
1885 - Person and Ernst Lorenz -'Elektrisches Musikinstrument' - the first musical instrument designed to produce electrically generated sound. It used electronic vibrations to drive an electromagnet that were connected to resonating boards, which translated these vibrations to sound. via Peter Grenader
1897 - Taddaeus Cahills - Telharmonium - electromechanical instrument.
1936 - Oskar Sala - Mixturtrautonium - first synth using Subharmonic synthesis
1939 - Homer Dudley invents the Parallel Bandpass Vocoder (VODER) - A manually key operated speech synthesizer
1940 - Homer Dudley invents the The Voder speech synthesizer - A device which used the human voice and an artificial voice to produce a composite
Both were researched as a way to transmit speech over copper wires (id est, telephone lines)
1948 - Hugh LeCaine - Electronic Sackbut - First voltage-controlled synthesizer
1948 - Dr. Raymond Scott - Wall of Sound - First polyphonic Sequencing Worstation (electromechanical) and the Electronum - first sequencer.
1950 - CSIR - Mk 1 - The first known use of a digital computer for the purpose playing music
1956 - Louie and Bebe Barron - Produced the first all-electronic musical score for a major motion picture - MGM's 'Forbidden Planet'
1957 - Max V. Mathews at Bell Labs - MUSIC - the first digital synthesizer. Technically, it was a computer program, though it set the stage for every digital synthesizer that proceeded it. See Laurie Spiegel with one here.
1963/64 - Buchla - model 100 modular - 1st "modern" modular synth
1967 - Moog - Moog modular synthesizer I, II & III - 1st commercial modular synth.
1969 - EMS - Synthi VCS-3 - first non-modular mini-synth
1970 - MOOG - Minimoog - 1st Mono Synth with keys (non-modular)
1971 - Tonus/Arp - Soloist - 1st preset mono synth
1971 - John Chowning - developed FM synthesis using the MUSIC-IV language (source), a direct descendent of Mathew's MUSIC program. FM synthesis was later licensed by Yamaha, and used in popular synths such as the DX-7.
1972 - Triadex Muse - first digital synth
""is the first digital musical instrument and was produced in 1972. It was
designed by Edward Fredkin and Marvin Minsky at MIT. It is an algorithmic
music generator: it uses digital logic circuits to produce a sequence of
notes based on the settings of various parameters. It has four small sliders
in that control Volume, Tempo, Pitch, and Fine Pitch. It is not known how
many were made, but they are considered extremely rare.
The Muse is the subject of U. S. Patent 3610801"
1973 - Coupland Digital Music Synthesizer - First Digital (Triadex beat it?) Update via Peter Grenader: "No time to read through all these posts to see if it's come up yet, but the Coupland was vaporwear...it never existed. I met Mark Vail, who's now a friend, by writing him a letter informing him that his story about the Coupland in his Vintage Synthesizers book (GREAT book) which mentioned it's only recorded showing was at the AES show in LA in 1978 was a farce. I was there - at their booth and their suite in the Hilton where the instrument was said to be. I was there on the first day, I was there on the last day. The only thing they had was a small model - about six inches across, sitting on a table. The booth was amazing - this radial orb multiple people could sit in, with a cover that came over each person which played what I remembered was a very impressive demo which swirled around four speakers inside the box. I, and everyone else, were blown away. They kept saying...'it will be here tomorrow, it'll be here tomorrow'...so I showed up the last day just to see it, figuring by the then it would have arrived...it didn't. I did see the frst Synthclavier at that show however. Their suite was across the hall from the Coupland folk. That completely kicked the crap out of everything else shown that year."
1973 - Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer - NED - Synclavier prototype - first digital synth
1974 - Roland - SH-3A - first commercial additive synth
1974 - RMI - Harmonic Synthesizer - first commercial additive synth
1975 - Buchla 502 - six voice polyphonic with minicomputer and ability to save patches to tape drive. Development on the 500 series began in 1969.
1975 - Oberheim FVS - four voice polyphonic with Polyphonic Synthesizer Programmer. Not sure if the Buchla 502 or FVS was released first.
1976 - PPG - PPG 1003 sonic carrier - 1st programmable mono/duo synth with patch memory (this, along with the model 1020, might have been the 1st synths to use DCO's as well)
1977 - Yamaha - CS50/CS60/CS80 - first single enclosure polyphonic keyboard synthesizers with the CS80 to be the first synth with poly aftertouch
1977 (late) - Oberheim - OB-1 - 1st commercial programmable mono synth with patch memory
1978 (late) - PPG - Wavecomputer 360 - 1st wavetable synth
1978 - Sequential Circuits - microprocessor control the SCI prophet 10 (briefly) and the P-5 --- again based on existing E-mu tech stuff
1979 - NED - Synclavier - First FM
1979 - Fairlight CMI - First Sampler, First Workstation
1980 - Performance Music Systems - Syntar - First self contained keytar
1982 - Sequential Circuits - Prophet 600 / First Midi Synthesizer (though some argue the Prophet 5 rev 3.2 is pre-MIDI MIDI)
1983 - Yamaha - DX7 - Digital takes over, FM goes mainstream
1983 - OSC - OSCar - First real-time additive with analog filters
1984 - Sequential Circuits - SixTrak - first multitimbral
1985 - Casio - CZ-101 - First battery-powered all digital mini-synth
1987 - Kawai K5 and Technos Axcel - first additive synths
1989 - E-Mu Systems - Proteus - First dedicated ROMpler
1992 - Seer Systems - first host-based software synthesizer in 1992
1994 - Yamaha - VL1 - first physical modelling synth
1995 - Clavia - Nord Lead - 1st Virtual Analog
1996 - Rubberduck - still not the first softsynth but came before Seer Systems Reality.
1996 - Steinberg - VST - Ok not a synth but enabled a lot to be written as plug-ins and used simultaneously
1997 - Seer Systems - Reality - First Modular Soft Synth
2002 - Hartmann Neuron - first neuronal synth
2912 - KalQuestoTron - the first genetically engineered synth. Each cell is an oscillator, filter, and neural sequencer. Can be delivered via injection to always play 'hold music' in your head.

I thought it might be fun to have a "first synth to..." post. There's been a lot of buzz over Sonic State's Top 20 Synths of All Time with good reason. What exactly is a "top synth?" Is it it's influence on the music scene? It's rarity and lust appeal? The number of synths sold? According to Sonic State their list was the result of Sonic State reader's voting for their favorite synths. Blame the voters if you don't like what you see. Based on what has come up on the list so far, the E-Mu Proteus and Roland JV-1080 for example as well as the Roland Jupiter 8 not even making the top ten, I'm guessing a bit of it has to do with the vote and... possibly the most influential/ground breaking synths for their time. The JV1080 and Proteus? Not super sexy in this day and age, but what they offered in their time? Who knows. It's obviously subjective. But there is something that isn't. The most influential synths of all time not because they were super sexy or utilitarian, but because they offered something that was not previously available.

I thought what might be interesting to create a list of the first synths to feature a particular technology or feature. For example what was the fist synth to bring FM to the table? Was it the DX7 or a predecessor? What was the first digital synth and when? The first additive synth? I have a good idea and could probably look it all up, but that wouldn't be any fun, so.... You tell me. I am going to make this an open post that will live over time. You get to participate by putting an entry in the comments. I will update the list and when I do I will change the time stamp of the post to keep it current. That said, for the archives, this post went up with a time stamp of 4/11/07 7:20 PM PST. I'll start the list (btw, do correct me on the MOOG, what model should we be talking about here? The A, B, C or D or all of them?).

Year - Manufacturer - Model - First at
1970 - MOOG - Minimoog - 1st Mono Synth with keys (non-modular)
1978 - Sequential Circuits - Prophet 5 - 1st Programmable Polyphonic Analog
... List continues above.

Update 3/34/12: Also see the first synthesizers to offer patch storage here.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

iDARCA Audio Updates


iDARCA Audio

updates include a forum, rare pics, and history of the original acxel 1

You might remember from this post that a new Acxel resynthesizer, the Acxel II, is coming.

You can find more info on the history of this rare and unique synthesizer as well as the new Axcel II on the iDARCA Audio website.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

NSynth Super - An Open Source Hardware Neural Synthesizer From Google


Published on Mar 13, 2018 Google

[Update: You can now find an order form on Auxren's website here for assembled PCBs minus the case.

Update2 via Koryo Williamson in the comments: "I'll post STEP and STL files for cases that more resemble the active UI version. Xometry, Protolabs, DIY 3D print and such."

Update3: Just a side not for those interested: the neural synthesis brings the Hartmann Neuron to mind, and the resynthesis aspect brings the Technos Axcel and the Axcel2 to mind.]

Playlist for the videos above:
1. Making music with NSynth Super
London-based producer Hector Plimmer, explores new sounds generated by the NSynth machine learning algorithm - using NSynth Super an open source experimental instrument.
2. Making music using new sounds generated with machine learning [featuring Robotspeak]
NSynth Super is an open source experimental instrument. It gives musicians the ability to explore completely new sounds generated by the NSynth machine learning algorithm.

Note NSynth was first mentioned in this post with Andrew Huang.

"NSynth Super is part of an ongoing experiment by Magenta: a research project within Google that explores how machine learning tools can help artists create art and music in new ways.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Acxel II

Remember the Technos Acxel Resynthesizer (pictured)? I just read this post on Music Thing. Apparently the creator of the Acxel, Pierre Guilmette, is working on a new version. Check out Music Thing for a letter from Pierre.

You can find his website, iDarca Audio here. You'll find a bit of info on resynthesis and some audio samples.

Update some more info on the Acxel:

"Don Garbutt writes: Freaky, obsure, expensive, unique, weighs a lot, robust construction (lots of VLSI chips inside). This machine is impossible to find, although I have one. Lucky me!!! Graphical interface is totally intuitive, and tell me if you know of any other machines that are resynthesis- based, as this is , if you care to use it in this fashion. Digital filter emulation (oscillator # filter) is unequaled.

Saturday, December 05, 2020

Technos Axcel - vidéo de démonstration


MuStudio

Super rare resynthesis synthesizer. See this post for demos from the creator and this post for demos from Perfect Circuit. See the Acxel label for additional posts.

Description for the video above (Googlish below): "Cette vidéo a été retrouvée dans les archives de Michel Geiss, j'estime qu'elle a été enregistrée vers 1988-89.

La qualité n'est pas extraordinaire car la vidéo était enregistrée sur une cassette VHS au format NTSC et elle commençait à présenter de signes de fatigue, je l'ai numérisée moi-même.

Mais le plus important, c'est la rareté d'un tel document. En plus, c'est suffisamment rare et exceptionnel qu'il soit en langue française - québecoise."

Googlish:

"This video was found in the archives of Michel Geiss, I believe it was recorded around 1988-89.

The quality is not extraordinary as the video was recorded on a VHS tape in NTSC format and it was starting to show signs of fatigue, I digitized it myself.

But the most important is the rarity of such a document. In addition, it is sufficiently rare and exceptional that it is in French - Quebecois language. "
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