Packrat's Juno-106

Playlist:

Packrat's Juno-106 - Part 1 Published on Mar 27, 2013

"I don't normally do repairs for others, but this is a very special case: In this playlist I service and recondition the actual Juno-106 that was the inspiration for one of my fave Packrat comic strips by the infamous artist David C. Lovelace of UMOP dot COM fame.

Don't worry. This is the only time on the Syntegrator channel that I will read a comic out loud to you complete with character voices. That said, it's nice to know those two years I spent at acting school in my youth finally came in handy for something... ;-)"

Packrat's Juno-106 - Part 2 Published on Mar 27, 2013
"A quick once-over of this fairly pristine unit. The reverence shown by Packrat to his 'True Love' definitely applied to the real synthesizer behind the comic strip!"

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An Interview with Peter Grenader on The ZZYZX Society

The following is an interview with Peter Grenader of Electro-Acoustic Research (formally Plan b). The focus of the interview is mainly on his involvement with The ZZYZX Society, however you will find plenty of insight into gear, including some of what Peter is working on next. I want to give Peter a huge thanks for taking the time out for this.

1. To start, what is the ZZYZX Society?

"The zZyzx Society is a group of like-minded half-crazy avant-garde musicians/composers who at one time or another fell down the same sonic rabbit hole.

Discussions about this began in 2011. Jill Fraser and I tried to get something together, and the circle of people then included Richard Lainhart. Unfortunately, he passed away when we were right in the middle of talking about possibilities. This is actually when I sketched out one of my two pieces that we are currently performing: Organasm. It settled down until Jill and I ran into one another at Mort Subotnick's live performance at Redcat a couple of years ago. We saw a fire in each other's eyes - a need to return to something that we had both evolved from.

Jill and I are ancient friends. We met at CalArts in - God.... 1977. We actually performed together once with composer Gordon Mumma at CalArts and worked extensively together on Mort Subotnick's NEA project, The Game Room, in 1978. Matter of fact, the photo Mort used for the Electronic Works Vol. 1 was taken when we were doing The Game Room - Jill is the blonde and I'm the guy holding the patchord in the foreground.

What really set the wheels in motion though was a recent dinner we had for Thighpaulsandra when he visited Los Angeles a few months ago. Thigh had been speaking about wanting to do another series of performances together since we both did the AnalogLive gig at Redcat in 2007. Jill was already well into the planning stages, although it wasn't clear who would be involved at that time though oddly enough - everyone who will be was there - Jill, Chas Smith, Thighpaulsandra and myself. When Thigh left for his return trip home - the last thing he said to me was a suggestion to get some gigs going - that it will never start unless there's a date, and when you guys get a set under your belt and are comfortable with what it evolves into, that he would come out and gig with us - and that's exactly what we are doing. Well, we'e actually focusing on tracking a CD, but I'll get into that more in a bit."

2. Can you give us a little background on each member? When the world of electronic music started for each and what they've done over the years?

That's where humility sets in - with the notion that musicians of this caliber would consider me a contributor. Why? Let's start with Jill: after earning her masters in composition at CalArts studying with Mort Subotnick and Mel Powell - her first stop was where I landed: Serge's infamous Hollywood synth production facility on Western Ave. She didn't stay there long, however, because she was hired to compose electronic music by Jack Nitzsche for Paul Schrader's film, Hardcore. This began a 25 year career composing both electronic and acoustic scores for hundreds of TV commercials for huge national campaigns: BMW, Honda, Porsche, Nissan, Mitsubishi, HP, NBC, KFC, Carl's Jr., and Apple among others, and in the process won 3 Clios. She also toured with Buffy St. Marie and auditioned for The Sex Pistols - no joke.

Chas will be the only one among us who people will be speaking about in 100 years. He's also from the CalArts electronic music composition master's program and spent his early days with modulars. Until recently he owned a 12 panel serge system he had had for 30+. His legacy will be the remarkable Harry Partch-esque tuned percussion instruments he crafts. He's shifted to metals exclusively which forge these amazing soundscapes, which would take immense work to generate electronically, yet just pour out of these sculptures. Along with collaborations with Harold Budd he's been released many times as a solo artist on Cold Blue Records, MCA, and others, music for Zimmer's Man of Steal score (they actually did a special feature on Chas for that film), as well as the first two Saw films with Charlie Clouser, for Shawshank Redemption, The Horse Whispser... the list goes on.


Man Of Steel Soundtrack - Sculptural Percussion - Hans Zimmer Published on Aug 27, 2013 WaterTower Music

[Behind the Scenes creating the unique sculptural percussion sounds for the MOS Soundtrack
i-Tunes: http://smarturl.it/mos.i
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/MOSdlx_Amazon]

Not sure what planet you'd need to be on not to know where Thighaulsandra's been. Like the rest of us here, his interest in electronic music is lifelong. Stockhausen and Cage were early influences and while you clearly realize his worth in the rock idiom, his experimental roots are unavoidable. Golden Communion - which has garnered stunning reviews in Europe - gives both Gabriel and NIN a run for their money, but you also hear Stockhausen in there and in the string introduction to the title track - Elliot Carter. He began his music career on the other side of the board - as a studio engineer, and this is where he met Julian Cope, who in time introduced him to John Balance - which led to 10 very productive years as a member of Coil - during which TPS began releasing his own solo work. He is a conservatory trained pianist blessed with the birth defect of incredible ability. After Coil he was off to Spritualized for I think three years?

As for me, I am the underachiever. After CalArts and a few small film scores, and a oddly enough a planetarium show for the Griffith Observatory, I put everything down for 25 years. In the early 2000's I found music again and had really good success in the academic electronic music festival circuit. I won the Periodic Festival in Barcelona and was selected for one of the evening performances at the SEAMUS National Conference, which doesn't sound like much, but I was probably the single first-time applicant to land that right. There were 30 or so festivals in the US after that over the next two years including the AnalogLive emsemble performance at Redcat at the Disney Hall in LA with Thighpaulsandra, Chas, Gary Chang, Richard Devine and Alessandro Cortini. The start of Plan B shifted my center to manufacturing, although I was signed, and did a CD for Coda Recordings in 2013 entitled Secret Life.

What I appreciate, especially working with Jill, but it's true of all these guys... our combined experience is such that we finish each other's musical sentences. It's astonishing. Three guys in a garage band and you expect them to vamp off their combined rock tradition, right? But electronic music, are you kidding me? Jill and I started rehearsing with a piece of mine called Benghazi, which is based entirely on a single diatribe of Glenn Beck whining about the attack in Libya. The first day we did what I would call informed noodling. When we started the second day she said she had worked out some other processed bits, and they were phenomenal. It brought the concept into much higher space and with no direct guidance outside of asking for other samples from the source file so not to loose Beck's context narrative. She just got it, completely.

zZyzx Society live in Joshua Tree: BENGHAZI



3. What sort of gear will each member bring to the project? Is there a preference for any?

I can't say for Thigh, dunno yet but he's got an arsenal at his studio in Wales. Jill is primarily using a Push via Ableton and a single Serge panel designed specifically for live performance made for her by Dmitri Sfc. I can name what Chas uses, but it won't mean much as outside of a rack of loopers everything he plays he's made. So for the record it's the Rite, the Replicant and his incredible steel guitar Guitarzilla. I am primarily using my modular - eight rows of it I crammed into two road cases, and then a Roli keyboard using Equator for now, and plans for a proper sampler as the ROli software wreaks Kickstarter deadline. It's fine as a closed synth, but while they say you can import your own samples - you really can't. I had to contact them, and they wrote the code so I could add one specific sample, but are not wiling to help me do more. The keyboard itself however is incredible.

4. What is the collaboration and recording process like? Do you record together or do you pass compositions back and forth for each person to work with separately?

Recording wasn't in the original plan, but that's changed and with Chas moving to Grass Valley - and Thighpaulsandra in Wales it's just like my FB relationship status: complicated. Jill and I are going to lay basic tracks starting in two weeks. So we'll be sending multitrack to both Chas and Thigh, who will be adding to them, then returning the new stack to whomever wrote the piece to do the final mix. The process is identical for Chas and Thighpaulsandra with their works There is talk of a release deal. So... with only one gig under our belts at FUTUREWURLD in Joshua Tree, which was really well received , but still...now we're shifting to recording the four pieces we performed with small gigs during that process, although, all in much more detail than we could manifest live with our hand count. Jill's got one which is actually four individual pieces, I've got Benghazi and Organasm and Chas has Perimeter. Thighpaulsandra is in the middle of one for us now and we're discussing the possibility of rendering Subotnick's Sidewinder.

5. What do you have in your modular system when playing with ZZYZX Society?

At first I brought almost everything. I could basically empty my main cabinet into the two road cases and on top of that I brought the two side cases, but I knew this wouldn't last. After a couple of days of rehearsal when we worked on the two pieces that were modular extensive I identified what was overkill and I limited my modular system to the two road cases (see image). It's eight rows of 88hp.

In the empty space I've now installed an Animodule Midi Gate, which is a brilliant idea and one I was planning on for EAR - but the best man won on that, more power to them for that. With it in that space will be two custom modules consisting of two Sparkfun Wave Trigger boards and a little unity gain mixer. Each of the Wave Triggers will be driven by the Midi Gate. I can use individual keys on my Roli to fire of independent events. Each of these WAVE modules allow for eight polyphonic samples to be played by either the depression of a momentary switch or a gate signal with each group of eight stored on a microSD card which can be loaded on the fly. I see this as an intelligent way of performing with a modular in a live scenario. It's basically what Mort is doing now - assembling the overall sonic contour by playing prerecorded samples as required with a couple of live voices over everything. Very effective and something Mort has been talking since the days I was working with him. It took 30 years for technology to catch up with him. In my instance, I will be playing events I prerecorded on the modular.

6. Does working on music like the ZZYZX Society influence your designs, or do you keep the two worlds separate?

It's had a huge impact on this. Immediately I started thinking about a group of modules called "the live set" which would be a series of devices which would make live performance easier for a modular artist. I don't want to give anything away outside of saying the guy that developed the Wave Trigger for Sparkfun lives a few blocks from me (wink). I've also had a couple of meetings with Vince De Franco, who produces the Mandela Electric Drums whom I met through Danny Carey. If what we're discussing becomes a finished product, it will be a paradigm shift for realization of live electronic music.

7. What's next for you? You were the man behind Plan B, your designs were featured in Subconscious Communications' modules, and you are back with Electro-Acoustic Research. You recently announced the Model 41 Steiner 4P filter. Do you plan to bring back any older designs like the Milton or will you be focusing on new designs only?

The EAR modules will be a combination of new things and legacy re-releases, but none of the old ones will be brought to market now without significant improvements. Not because they were broken before, but because I see no reason to revisit something without making changes. If you go to ear-synth.com the next product up is the Model 12 Mark II. It's two M12's in one package, both fitted with the IFM Sync function found on the M41. There are all manners of interconnection possibilities as well, so that two two can be used independently, or in either serial or parallel operation off all output taps of a single signal. If you sweep to the 'Future' page there's also the Model 24 Heisenberg Mark II, which adds a new quantized output to the stepped random and three new inter-modulation/triggering options. The Model 10 Mark II could not be more different than the original. Now two voltage controllable DASR envelope generators (Delay, Attack, Sustain TIME and Release). I have also mapped out a concept for an upgraded Model 15 Complex VCO which will make it the VERY Complex VCO lol. There are as well three new modules all ready to go.

I have been working on the relaunch for four years - since cEvin and I did the Subcon license on the 15 and 37. I've been working towards it continually. The first three products are completely done with a couple of revisions of hand built SMT prototypes behind them - ready to go - I just need to email the data off to Darkplace when it's time and product will appear a couple of months after that. If you watch Thighpaulsandra's excellent Model 41 demo video - next to the M41 you will see the Model 12 Mark II mounted in his system and that's one thing I did differently this time - I skipped the breadboard stage. I now go directly to SMT PCBs with Metalphoto faceplates. This addresses all sorts of potential calamities. It forces me to concentrate on the design stage and weeds out all manufacturing hiccups before they hit the Darkplace assembly line because if there are problems there - they aren't going to pay for that - I am. As my dad used to say when he was quoting new jobs.... "I don't do this for practice".

This brings me to something I want to close on. My father went through the Plan B collapse with me. He knew how hard I had worked to get where I did and he knew all too well what I forfeited. He was a tough love guy and at times unnecessarily hard on me about it. But in the end, I did it and he knew before he passed away. I was ready for the Model 41 a year and a half ago. Darkplace had already quoted it. It could have launched then and would have had he not died. There were delays from his death that the family needed to settle. But as far dad... I built most of the prototypes on his kitchen table because the light was so much better there than on my bench at home. He saw me working on them. He saw the Darkplace quotes. The last thing he said to me was 'I love you'.  Right before that - he congratulated me on getting the company back on it's feet and that I found a way to do it all on my own, and he told me how proud he was of me. After he said this, I left the hospital for the day and he died that evening at 3 in the morning. Nothing was worth the six years I went through and the problems I caused people, nothing makes my father's death bearable - but that moment came real. real close.

NYZ DRN4 DECLASSIFIED

Exclusive mix on SoundCloud:


And a track from the release on Bandcamp:


Tracklist:

1. NYZ_FMMGKSQ_43t
2. ISR_16x16_WCM
3. CSN [excerpt 2 mono]
4. SWI_r170_16x32x32_B
5. SWI_FM1#16
6. NYZ-1_1#08_A [finite downsized]
7.CSN1 [excerpt 1 mono]

Be sure to see the MATRIXSYNTH exclusive further below!

FM EXPLORATIONS AND MICROTONAL DRONES FROM NYZ (AKA DAVE NOYZE, DAVID BURRASTON, NOYZELAB, BRYEN TELKO)

This is the first release by NYZ and is a superb musical collection of research areas classified to internal Noyzelab operations. Not even .MEDS label were informed of the secret processes underlying its creation, excepting that we know it involved Frequency Modulation (FM) synthesis! We have not been given any information regarding when this work was recorded, but we suspect the material spans at least a decade of David's FM algorithm research on numerous synthesizers, as well his own custom built ear deceiving gear...

According to one reviewer of David's previous musical output he "gleefully disrupts just about every standard convention of musical form you could think of, including those of so-called experimental musics."

Other reviewers have written that :
"His music is a bizarre, yet compelling journey investigating the outer realms of music generated on ancient & contemporary machines." "It's strikingly original audio that doesn't really sound like anything else I can think of." "Utterly sublime. So there you go, a life-affirming slab of mind-altering sound to reawaken you to the terrifying possibilities of creation."

"absolutely wreaks havoc" wrote Keith Fullerton Whitman on reviewing David's last release T. H. Cycle cassette on Important Records/Cassauna .

Cassette releases April 1, 2016

All Audio by David Burraston
Design Tom Knapp

----

MATRIXSYNTH recently asked NYZ why he put together this new album of FM synthesis based explorations, and whether he would discuss some of the process behind it. The declassified information below has been put together by NYZ especially for a MATRIXSYNTH exclusive.

***BEGIN NYZ DRN4 DECLASSIFICATION REPORT***

DC REPORT STATUS: PARTIAL DECLASSIFICATION ONLY
PARTIAL DC STATUS: INCOMPLETE CELLULAR BINARY SPACETIME
PARTIAL DC LEVEL: SEMI-PICTORIAL_TEXTUAL_HIGHLIGHTS
FUTURE DC STATUS: _PENDING

The main reasons for making this album were an interest in FM synthesis in both analogue modular and MIDI/digital mediums. I had worked with digital FM synthesis since getting a Yamaha TX81Z when they came out back in 1987 (which I still have, along with another backup machine with a very hummy mains transformer which bleeds onto the outs). How me and another synth friend used to cry with drunken laughter at preset D11 Hole in 1... :) But after initially wondering whether I had just wasted about 350 UK pounds on an utter piece of shit... I quickly warmed to its better presets, and its very different approach to synthesis yielded enough interesting results early on for it not to get outed.

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Vintage 80's DK Digital Keyboards Synergy Synthesizer DKII+

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

Update: the seller wrote in to let us know it has been fixed and is now working great.

Original description prior to the update:

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Jimmy and the Yamaha FX1

You are looking at the Yamaha FX1. The FX1 was a three manual FM based synthesizer under the Electone organ moniker, similar in look but not synthesis as the coveted analog GX1. GX1, FX1, get it? I have searched for images of the FX1 on the net and have come up empty.

Well.... Jimmy managed to run accross my site and informed me that he actually has one. To give you an idea of how rare the FX1 is, according to this Sound on Sound article there is only one in existence in the UK. The SOS article does not have an image of one. Think about that. This is about as rare as it gets folks. From the SOS article: "Lest you think that (other than the DX1) all FM synthesizers were small, neat affairs, let me tell you about the FX1. This was a huge three-manual beast very much in the mould of the GX1, but based entirely on FM synthesis. If you've never heard of it, I'm not surprised. Costing £36,000 in 1986, there's only one working example in the UK, and not many more elsewhere." Well, we now know there is at least one more working sample out there. Title link takes you to more shots sent my way via Jimmy. I need to stress how thankful I am that Jimmy took the time out to take pictures and share some of his story with me (during our conversations he stated that he would takes some shots and send them to when he had time. To my surprise that ended up being much sooner than later). I decided to include a bit of his story as well, as I found it fascinating. It also gives you a bit of this particular synthesizers' history and gives it context.

The following are excerpts from an email exchange I had with Jimmy:

"I do a single - organ, piano, sing, comedy, etc. One of the last night club entertainers left, I guess. I've been doing essentially the same type of show for the last forty-five years. I'm 65, but I'm going on 30. I definitely don't act my age, on or off stage. I still play a B-3 Hammond with two Leslie speakers. The B-3 I'm playing is the one I started playing in 1960, when I started in the night club business. I only play three nights a week. I really don't want to work more than that. I'm married and have raised two sons. I've met most of the musical stars through the years and have maintained a friendship with most of them."

"Back to the FX1, I tried to get it fixed one time (I spilled a coke into a small section to the left of the lower keyboard). Yamaha company said that they could replace the boards if I sent them to them one at a time. I really didn't know what was wrong with the organ at the time, so I sent one circuit board at a time and Yamaha replaced them, one at a time. Yamaha didn't even have a prototype of the FX1 in their repair facility so that they could compare the one I had with one in their shop. Sending parts to them really didn't solve the problem, because they didn't have a prototype in which to insert my parts to note a problem. I hadn't realized that the spilled drink was the problem. I brought the organ here from Florida and within a week, the repairman had diagnosed the problem and repaired it like new. It really is a workhorse piece of equipment. It will probably be around long after I'm gone."

"I wonder how many of these FX1s are left. I was told that there weren't too many of them to begin with. I'm not sure, but I had been told that there were twelve of them in the USA. I was told that Stevie Wonder owned one when they first came out. He has to have used it in studio. There was a train wreck (I believe) where all but a couple of them were destroyed. It was going from California to New York. Mine was one which survived the wreck. There is a corner of the keyboard where the edge is slightly bent. This supposedly happened in the accident. I don't know if this is true, Matrix, but that is what I was told (after I bought the organ!)"

"You asked how the FX1 plays, etc. It is a wild piece of history. It is the most powerful sound because of the huge external speakers. The speakers can be turned up so loud, that the sound can be deafening. I never really turned it up to max, but it is scary. The speakers are on wheels and they match the organ, which is an off-white. The organ as well as the speakers and the bench are extremely heavy - extremely. I thought that the B-3 Hammond was heavy. The organ itself weighs probably 300 pounds. The bench, alone, has to weigh 80 pounds. In order to get to the guts of the organ, you have to unscrew aload of screws and the whole front lifts up in two sections. The inside looks like the most complicated thing you've ever seen. It has six (I think) large circuit boards which pop out. It was way ahead of its time! When you change registrations, all of the sliders automatically move to the desired preset settings. It is quite amazing."

"You [Matrix] are a pretty crazy person [indeed ; )]. Very interesting that you have that site! I am really a collector of everything, so I guess I just never got rid of keyboards when I used them through the years. I also have a mini-moog that I've had for twenty five years. I'm not a great synthesizer player - I used the mini-moog for effects in my show. I should really use it for effects today. I'm trying to get informed enough to sample it down to my Kurzweil sampler. You see, on the job, there isn't a lot of time to play synthesizers, changing stops to be interesting, plus keep everyone's interest as a singer and comic. I'm a very busy guy on the stage. It's a very little one-man show that relies on personality as well as technical ability. I'm sort of the entertainer's entertainer. Andy Williams, Ray Stevens, Pet Clark, and the like, come out and watch me after their shows. Not much use for them with the type of shows here. They are playing pretty straight stuff. The town used to be known for country, but it is changing by the year. There are Beatles shows and good old Rock and Roll shows. Synthesizers are quite scarce in the shows. A bunch of my friends are into them, though, and have them at home. I am from the school of Earl Grant, Shay Torrent, Buddy Cole, Lenny Dee, Ethel Smith, Jimmy Smith, and the like. Most of them were personal friends. Petula Clark came in to see me on Saturday night. She sat in with me and sang a couple of old standards. It's a gas, because, I'm sort of a retro act. Although I have had some of these keyboards throughout the years, I am really not proficient in using them with any great knowledge of wave lengths, etc. I've been friends with a lot of the great players, and they think I'm a monster in my own way, but I've always been crazed with the way they play. I probably have thirty old keyboards - none of them are the ones mentioned in your blog - they are simple, usable keyboards that I've picked up in pawn shops, etc. I don't know if you knew who they were, but years ago, Joe Mooney, Del Statton, and Jocko Pastorius (and his dad, Jack) were good friends. Jocko was a mega monster on keyboards, as well as the bass. We were friends from the time he was 13. His dad was a good buddy. Jocko was the freak of all freaks. He would sit, as a kid, and watch me kick footpedals, without even looking up at the keyboards. I'm rattling on. I just wanted to fill you in."

Rattle on. : ) Again, I want to thank Jimmy immensely for taking the time out to share this with us. Folks, if you have any questions for Jimmy please feel free to post a comment and I'll make sure he gets it. Thank you more than words can say Jimmy. Wow!

Update: link to the manuals via hugo:
FX1E_1.pdf
FX1E_2.pdf
FX1E_3.pdf
FX1E_4.pdf
FX1E_5.pdf

Update via Jimmy in the comments: "The FX1 I have has a mini-disc recorder/playback unit attached to the underside near the right knee which can replay as though it were live. I think you can see it in the picture. Not bad for the time! I also have a second recorder. - J"

Update via the comments: More shots and info here

Update: be sure to check out the comments for more. The following via Jason:
"Add another FX1 to the list of found. This one was purchased new to be, of all things, a church organ! My father was a Yamaha dealer at the time and he was offered the chance to "test" a new model of the Electone series. It was actually purchased in 1982 (yep, before it was released). The serial number on it was "XXX" and there was nothing on the organ indicating it was an FX1. I always thought it was kind of strange Yamaha would send something like this to such a small town to be tested. Anyway, the organ is now gone after being struck by lightning in 1989. It sat out in an alley exposed to the elements for 7 years before it was finally hauled off to the dump. I tried to stop that, but I was only 15 when it was drug off, so I didn't have a choice.
I'll always remember that organ as being the "Star Trek" organ. The kids of the church would just sit at it and change the settings to make the sliders move on their own. Anyone else think it looked like a console out of Star Trek TNG? haha
btw, here's a link to an MP3 file of a demonstration of the organ playing."

Update via Andrew in the comments: "Yamaha made a promotional album for the FX-1 in 1983, you can grab it here"

Update via Rockstardave in the comments: "I did a write up on my FS-500, very similar to the FX-1, with some pictures and such:

http://freeorgansusa.blogspot.com/2010/03/yamaha-electone-fs-500.html

Come have a look at my "new" baby."

Towards Automatic Music

Published on Sep 24, 2016 karl welty

"The designs are based on cold cathode gas discharge tubes (neon NE-2's and XC-18's).

The XC-18 “amplifier/oscillator” is a three terminal trigger tube circuit based around the topology of a transistor common emitter amplifier. It has a master drive knob, a bias knob, provisions for self oscillation and the components of an NE-2 LFO. Both LFO and self oscillation functions are on switches.

I was surprised to discover that it “triggered” from external input synchronously. Waveforms of frequency X would cause it to oscillate at that, or harmonically related frequencies. This characteristic is threshold adjustable using the drive and bias potentiometers. It could gate on and off based on the incoming signal. I could control it from a previously built neon module, I could run it from the audio output of a laptop.

Previous experiments with counting circuits and attempts at gating had yielded some interesting projects, but all of them had functioned in a subtractive fashion. An LFO would modulate an oscillator by stealing some of its voltage causing it to drop in pitch, if used as a gate the oscillator would ramp up to its note. I had yet to create an additive control voltage source whose output could be adjusted, and have a variety of steps of differing voltage. I'd been aware of a project schematic I'd pondered a year or so ago, from a 1959 electronics magazine. It had baffled me then but seemed worth another look. The voltage divider after the lamp is really part of the big secret. A portion of the drive voltage goes to ground keeping the lamps counting in a stable pattern (based on input conditions) and the other portion drives a CV bus which feeds the transistor oscillator. Since all of my previous attempts had been serial I chose to give this parallel idea a try.

Building up the logic portion of the board and testing showed that such a device could output a stepped varying voltage of between about +2vdc and +14vdc. Previous builds with neon oscillators had shown that such a low swing (compared to the +130vdc lamp supply) barely tickles a neon relaxation oscillator... perhaps a major second, maybe a third, but even then only at lower frequencies. It was clear why the project schematic had a transistor tone generator. I chose to veer from my pure neon path for the sake of an experiment, as I knew that the XC-18 module would function if driven by a solid-state master oscillator... I had a bag of MilSpec LM-118h opamps, seemed good fodder for a test. Found a simple circuit and built a prototype, found another interesting vco circuit and wasted a week or so, learned the thing I'd already built was infact a vco awaiting CV, tried it... and yup, it changed pitch with CV input. I made some mods to the circuit to widen its range. It was time to start pulling all the sub-assemblies together.

The original 1959 project was intended as a bench toy. A device which would create a series of pitched patterns which would cycle and alternate over time. The capacitor section can be re-drawn in the shape of a six pointed star and any given lamp “point” has three caps leading to its rail. It is not a standard sequential counting circuit. The wide range of the resistor values in the original were intended to further throw off its timing and behaviour. Its a primitive computer based on a state table comprised of capacitors feeding lamps, the resistors determine the voltage on a lamp leg and/or the amount allowed to ground through two paths... one of which passes past a transistor vco and causes it to alternate in pitch.

In my re-design (instead of fixed resistors) I added a on-off-pad switch to each lamp leg and an input pot. They are fed via a bus from a master pot with an associated med-lo-hi switch. Widely varying voltages can be fed to any combination of the six lamp legs, which can emphasize their duration in a pattern or otherwise alter the manner the lamps fire. After the lamp is a 470k/51k voltage divider each leg of which also has a 1N4148 diode in series. The 470k path buses to ground allowing the lamp to function more normally. The 51k path goes to another on-off-pad switch and associated pot, bused to a master pot and med-lo-hi switch and sent to a 1/4” jack on the panel. The control voltage output of any given lamp leg is a function of is combined input drive and cv mixer output settings. They are interactive and adjusting the device can take a bit of patience. The variations available are vast.

I substituted my opamp based oscillator for the transistor variant shown in the original. It has a CV input 1/4” jack, tuning and range scaling pots, a volume pot and 1/4” output jack. It generates a sharkfin squarewave and is rather pleasant in its own right. The waveform works quite well for triggering the XC-18 module."

YAMAHA EX1 FOR SALE POLYSYNTH ELP VIDEO

YouTube Published on Jun 14, 2012 by MarkJenkinsMusic

Update: according to Wikipedia the EX-42 was the stage model of the GX1, not the EX1.

Update: for those pressed on time, don't miss the slide out programmer at 20:14, the inside with the front panel removed/hinged up at 22:22, and the horizontal vibrato at 13:00 for the small keyboard. 13:47 reminded me of Beastie Boys Intergalactic.

"YAMAHA EX1 POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZER FOR SALE.

My Yamaha EX1 is now for sale. In extremely good playing order, it's located in central UK. Buyer will collect and will need a large van ideally with tail lift.

The Yamaha EX1 is the theatre version of the GX1 as played by Keith Emerson (with Emerson Lake & Palmer on 'Fanfare for the Common Man'), by Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Abba, Ekseption and more recently by Hans Zimmer. It's thought that maybe a dozen GX1's and 40 EX1's were manufactured.

While the GX1 was fully programmable (with difficulty) and featured a pitch bend strip, the EX1 is easily programmed for three overall patches using a slide-out front panel, and has polyphonic glide and, on the solo keyboard, a unique side-to-side movement for modulation.

The EX1 features two fully polyphonic keyboards (with organ tabs and polyphonic analog synthesizer sounds) which can be slaved together, a top keyboard monophonic analog synthesizer which can be slaved to the upper organ manual, and a monophonic analog synthesizer bass played from the included pedals, or slaved to the lower keyboard. Also included is an analog drum machine, auto chord accompaniment section, and arpeggiator.

Included with this EX1 is the original double width pearl white matching bench, and the user manual. I never took delivery of the matching speakers which are enormous - there are various audio outputs to use Leslie-type rotary speakers, or such effects can simply be added by digital fx units.

Playing condition is exactly as shown in the video, shot in mid-June 2012, and while there are very very minor questions the instrument is basically in full working order. One or two keys are intermittent on some but not all sounds, but are by no means dead and probably just in need of a clean, a couple of panel light bulbs are dead, and it's possible one of the several modulation shapes on the solo synth is non-functional - but then again, it's possible I may have misunderstood some functions, and it's certain that most controls need to be DOWN rather than UP as you'd expect for full level.

To collect the synth you'll need a large and ideally tail-lift van able to reach central UK. The bass pedals, bench and bench legs are all separately boxed. Please do not ask me about shipping of any kind - it's not possible.

Substantial offers please including details of your arrangements for collection. Obviously no dubious payment methods such as Western Union or PayPal will even be considered.

Another good EX1 demo starts here [embed below]

www.markjenkins.co"

Yamaha EX-1 Mega synth / organ tutorial by Miguel Kertsman! (part 1)

Uploaded by MiguelKertsman on Nov 28, 2011

"Composer and Keyboardist Miguel Kertsman demonstrates / explains the legendary Yamaha EX-1 Electone Organ / Synth in this detailed three-part tutorial, including live performances and improvisations!"

More videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/MiguelKertsman/videos

John Paul Jones Yamaha GX-1 with Programmer Up for Auction?

via this auction

"Here's your once-in-a-lifetime chance to own one of the most famous keyboards in rock-'n'-roll history: the storied Yamaha GX-1 synthesizer owned by John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin), then Keith Emerson (Emerson, Lake & Palmer/Powell [ELP]), then Hans Zimmer (film composer). Seller acquired it directly from Hans Zimmer in 2003 (authenticated). Yamaha's original retail/list price for the GX-1 was US$60,000.

Provenance: John Paul Jones acquired it circa 1977/78 and used it on Led Zeppelin's album "In Through The Out Door." It was featured on tracks "In The Evening," "All My Love," "Carouselambra" and "I'm Gonna Crawl." On "All My Love," Jones performs a nice string arrangement, and the horn solo demonstrates the GX-1's expressive vibrato capabilities. On the final Led Zeppelin tours, Jones used the GX-1 as his primary keyboard, performing string, organ, clavinet and bass/synth. parts (see photo #3: Jones performing on GX-1 at the Knebworth, UK shows in '79 [top pic in this post]; the last time the original foursome performed together before John Bonham's death). Jones called the GX-1 "a joy," which replaced his repair-prone Mellotron.

Keith Emerson acquired the GX-1 from Jones in the mid-'80s as a spare for Emerson's original GX-1 (used with ELP in the late '70s). Emerson cannibalized some of his original GX-1 for the benefit of this unit. He used this GX-1 most prominently on the "Emerson, Lake & Powell" album & tour in the late '80s, and in the music video of the title track of ELP's "Black Moon" reunion album in the early '90s (see photos #4 & #5 [2nd pic in this post]; keyboard on top of GX-1 not included). "Emerson, Lake & Powell" tracks featuring this GX-1 include "Touch & Go" and his synth. rendition of Holst's "Mars: Bringer Of War." Emerson sold the GX-1 to renowned film composer Hans Zimmer in the mid-'90s, who sampled various sounds on it (see photo #6 [3rd pic in this post]: GX-1 in Zimmer's studio; Moog modular not included). The GX-1 was also used for recording sessions by musicians including Erik Norlander on his "Threshold" album. (Note: Keith Emerson's Wikipedia entry is incorrect: his original GX-1 [painted black] was sold to a European collector, and this unit was sold to Zimmer, then to the Seller)

This auction is for the: keyboard/console (including programmable cartridges; see photo #9), separate ultra-rare Programmer Module (see photo #11), and original Anvil-style case (used by Jones, Emerson, Zimmer and the Seller). Sale does NOT include: the GX-1's bench/pedal section, two TX-II speakers, and the programmable cartridges for the Pedal section only (which were not included when Seller acquired it).

It works, but after playing it for a while, it sometimes makes a noise and must be turned off and then turned back on. Being sold "as is." Seller can refer Buyer to several qualified GX-1 technicians. [Minor] tuning/calibrating will probably be required after shipment. Copies of any manuals (User/Technical/Service/etc.), brochures and other GX-1 information Seller has will be included. Has balanced outputs (see labeled photo #12), which may be custom. John Paul Jones had the switches/LED panel added (over the Electone logo area), which may be disconnected (appear to have no effect anymore)...

Here's some miscellaneous information:
- only about 27-30 GX-1's were ever manufactured and/or sold (unit's Serial Number is 0076)
- the most powerful polyphonic synthesizer in history at the time
- 3 keyboards (2 standard manuals; 1 solo manual); volume pedal; retractable knee vibrato controller
- unheard of levels of touch control (touch/velocity-sensitive, polyphonic aftertouch, etc.)
- approx. outer dimensions of keyboard console 63"(L) x 31"(W) x 46"(H)
- top area (where other keyboards can be placed) is about 60"(L) x 10"(W)
- weight in Anvil-style road case is about/over 1,000 pounds
- was the basis for Yamaha's popular CS-80/etc. synthesizers"
SN 5076

via John

See this post for a close-up of the programmer.

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Curtis CEM3340 VCO Chips Re-Issued

The Curtis CEM3340 VCO has been reissued by Curtis Electromusic. Note the Rev G in the image. That is the new chip. This is pretty big news. If the info below is correct you will be able to order a single chip for $15, or less in bulk.

The CEM3340 was responsible for the main VCO used in quite a few classic synths including the Oberheim OB-Xa, OB-Sx & OB-8, the Voyetra 8, Roland SH-101, MC-202, Jupiter-6, and early model MKS-80, The Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 Rev 3, Prophet-10, Prophet-600, Pro-One, and Prophet T8, Moog Memorymoog, Banana Polysynth, Crumar Spirit, Digisound 80 VCO modules, the Synton Syrinx, Steiner Parker EVI, Doepfer's A-111-1 High End VCO and more.

Image by David Rudolph Smith.

I saw mention that Dave Smith might have been involved with the re-issue. This would make sense as Dave Smith was close to Doug Curtis and DSI uses a later revision of Curtis chips in many DSI synths, however, I checked with DSI and they let me know: “DSI wasn’t involved in the reissue and if anyone would like to find out more about it, they should contact susanonchip@covad.net directly.” More info including price follows.

"Founded in 1979, Curtis Electromusic Specialties created a line of signal processing chips for electronic musical instruments and accessories.

Curtis Electromusic currently offers the sought after CEM3340 VCO, a rework of the original design."

And via johnny83 on the Muff Wiggler Forum including contact info, price, and availability.

"Dear all, I've been speaking with onchip for the last 3 months and they have already produced a new batch of CEM 3340. They are available for $15 each! We have tested them and they are revision G and pass our tests on the original Curtis test boards and also various synths we tried them in.

The person to contact is susanonchip@covad.net, she has been remarkably helpful and can process your order. Please be aware that revision G has meant the following:

"After reviewing the prior specifications I did decide to change the minimum VCC spec. The old VCC min. was +10V and the new VCC min. is +11V. This is based on my own bench experience with several versions of the device. Many devices will work with a VCC of +10V and others won’t. Devices that won’t work at +10V should easily work at +11V or higher. This is the only specification that we’ve changed" John Borg (Onchip Engineer)

Additionally they have no plans to release the 3310, 3320 and 3360 yet but I think if they see the success of the 3340 it may be apparent the market needs them. I am in communication with them and will continue to push for the other chips to be brought back but to be honest the release of the 3340 is great news as that was the most common curtis chip used.

Here are the price breaks for anyone wanting to get more than a handful:
1 - 499 = $ 15.00
500 - 999 = 12.82
1000 - 4999 = 9.64
5000+ = 7.46

Postage is in addition to this.

I hope you enjoy and spread the word!!"

Update: I don't have official confirmation but I heard they are also re-issuing the CEM3320 filter.  Do a search on 3320 on wikipedia here to see what synths it was used on.

Update2:

New vs. Old Curtis CEM3340 Rev G Comparison

Published on Jul 4, 2016 Gregory Cox

"This video is a demonstration of the newly manufactured Curtis Electromusic CEM3340 oscillator IC. A comparison is achieved using the Oberheim OB-8 with half of its 3340s replaced and setting the keyboard in dual mode. Voices 1-4 are the original CEM3340s and 5-8 are the Revision Gs. By assigning the same sound to both splits in dual mode, a comparison can be made by fading between both sounds using the program balance knob.

The signal chain is OB-8 / Neutrik patch bay / Apogee Symphony / Headphone Output / Canon 5D mkiii mic input."

This one in via Soviet Space Child.

1976 THOMAS 2001 ORGAN ELECTRONIC RETRO SPACE AGE KEYBOARD SYNTHESIZER

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

Tijuana preset. Note the 1377695 under the ACCOMP PRESET VOLUME. Curious if that's the SN.

"Item Details

For sale is this vintage 1976 Thomas 2001 organ. With it's incredibly iconic space age design, a model name with an unmistakable reference to Kubrick's Space Odyssey, and enough backlit gadgetry to be confused for a Soviet-era space capsule, it's quite clear why the famous The Standard hotel in Downtown Los Angeles has their entire entrance dedicated to their very own Thomas 2001 organ. With an obvious Panton-era physical presence and Saarinen style curves, this is the perfect instrument for a retro-inspired decor or interior. Incredibly attractive and almost subtle, this organ will undoubtedly be the conversation piece in any environment.

This particular example works perfectly, and includes; the original bench, the original smoked glass sheet music stand, and even the original owner's/maintenance manual."

Update: some additional info via Steve Cain on The MATRIXSYNTH Lounge

"I love mine, if you look closely it not only has the Tijuana preset, but the Speak Easy section that synchs with the rhythm section. There are some that come with a module called 'Band Master' [pictured below], one of the earliest programmable and commercially available drum machines...mine does not...

They weigh a freaking ton and are put together in the oddest way, I work with an organ installer (his part time job) and it took him an hour to get the pedals off of it.

Those black rectangles are module bays, one for the drum machine, one for a tape deck and no idea what went in the 3rd.

BTW, the serial # is under the top lid, usually on the back wall of the main compartment on the inside. If you are lucky, the wiring diagrams are still stapled to the underside if the top key deck, you have to lift it up and set the kickstand to find it. Those #s on the sliders I think are part #s

One last note, at the time of manufacture, Thomas was the company assembling Moog synths, while not the Combo organ with the Satellite for the top deck, it does have some of the mid 70s Moog flavor to some of the sounds."

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Evaton Technologies Announces the "RF Nomad: Atomic Shadow Edition" 5U Synth Module

via Evaton Technologies:

"About a year ago, Atomic Shadow (Rod Mitchell) contacted me and asked if I'd be interested in doing a 5U version of the RF Nomad voltage-controlled shortwave receiver module. He then pointed me to his music, and I was blown away. The RF Nomad would be a perfect fit, and so a single one-off prototype of the RF Nomad was hand-made into a 5U format, and christened "RF Nomad: Atomic Shadow Edition."

That module now resides in the Command Center, and is part of Atomic Shadow's secret lair.

( RF Nomad: Atomic Shadow Edition, operated by its namesake, in the Command Center. )

The RF Nomad: Atomic Shadow Edition (RFN:ASE) is going to be made into a short production run, the number of which is to be determined by interest expressed on the Evaton Technologies 5U signup form. If you are interested in purchasing the RFN:ASE when it becomes available, or you know someone who might be interested, please have them sign up. http://www.evatontechnologies.com/5u-signup

Current Status
At present, several things are under development - An adapter board is being designed to allow a Eurorack version of the RF Nomad printed circuit board to be used in 5U format. This will be a high quality PCB with both Dot Com and MOTM power connectors available, and circuitry to correct the voltage levels as required by the Eurorack circuit. (This is how the original prototype was made, and has been in service at Atomic Shadow's Command Center for the past year.)

Also, a mechanical dimensioned drawing of the faceplate is underway, to be fabricated using the popular Metalphoto™ process. Artwork will be very similar to that shown in the attached photo of the prototype, and will include the "Atomic Shadow Edition" logo at the top of the panel!

The original prototype RFN:ASE used genuine vintage 1970's knobs. While I have located a possible source for those exact knobs, the lead times are horrible. I have found some similar knobs which are readily available and are also quite attractive.

Here is that similar knob, shown installed on a Synthesizers.com Q109, for scale:

A test bench is needed in order to perform final QA testing on the RFN:ASE, and so this little beauty was constructed this weekend. Note the empty slot, reserved for the RF Nomad: Atomic Shadow Edition!

Availability and Pricing
The RF Nomad: Atomic Shadow is expected to be available this winter. Pricing is yet TBD, but as a ballpark, probably around $250-275, depending on final costs.

In addition to the module, a length of antenna coax cable will be included, and a small, but high quality receiving antenna. The antenna connection will be made via a standard SO-239 socket on the front of the module, which means that the RFN:ASE will be compatible with commerically-available shortwave / ham radio receiving antennas and accessories.

http://www.evatontechnologies.com/5u-signup"

Update: RF Nomad Testing 1,2,3... by Atomic Shadow:


"This track was composed entirely from sounds generated by the RF Nomad module from Evaton Technologies. EQ, reverb and delay were added during mixing. The RF Nomad is a voltage controlled shortwave radio module. The tuning frequency can be swept with an LFO or other voltage sources to produce unique textures. Many thanks to Russ Hoffman for agreeing to produce this (so far), one of a kind, MU sized version."
previously posted here.

On The Bench - Rhodes Chroma

via http://redshift-consulting.com

Previous On The Bench posts:

Oberheim OB-Sx On The Bench
On The Bench (Jupiter-8)

Update: check out the comments of the post for the story behind this one.

Extremely Rare 3 Manual LOWREY G-7000 Organ Synthesizer

via this auction
"This organ sold new for about $32,000

Auction includes Organ, Pedalboard, Nice Padded Bench, Owners Manual, Two "Style" cartridges [Variety 1 & Contempo 2] plus Two Lowrey Song books as pictured.

The organ has beautiful full sound with flutes and string sounds that Lowery organs are famous for via traditional organ stop tabs that are lighted plus a plethora of synthesized orchestral voices via lighted push buttons. The organ has a gorgeous, room-filling sound, from a host of built-in speakers including a very realistic Leslie rotating speaker simulator. Features GALORE!!

~THINK OF THIS ORGAN AS A GIANT PRESET SYNTHESIZER MONSTER!~

Built in Rhythms and auto accompaniment features makes this organ a breeze to play and learn on. Split-voicing function on lower keyboard gives you even more performance options - like having a phantom 4th keyboard/manual. Designed for both the beginner and advanced organist. Excellent for advanced players as well as the organ can be played as a typical organ without automatic features as well. This thing looks real cool when light up in a dimly lit room - My wife says it looks like a futuristic jukebox on steroids! Cabinet is in good condition with typical scratch/dents here-and-there and slight surface marring on left-side. Has tambour, wooden roll-top for when the organ is not being used. Lights and indicators on the back rail push-button control panel are working and lighted LCD display is in good condition and easy-to-read. Alesis Reverb. Lighted graphic mixer for balancing the organ voices /sounds to your liking. I brought this organ from an older gentleman's estate for conversion to a virtual theatre pipe organ and MIDI controller for external MIDI synthesizer modules because of the three full sized keyboards and pedalboard and its MIDI capabilities but decided to go in another direction. All functions on the organ were working fine when purchased but now the upper keyboard doesn't work as it should which I suspect was the result of moving the organ [movers placed it on its back when it was transported]. I don't have a local organ tech but have been in touch with a few organ techs on-line who said that the problem is most likely due to a loose circuit board that got disturbed during the move [not guaranteed that this is the problem, just a suggestion]. As it wasn't a concern of mine, I didn't pursue repairing the sound function as I was intending using it for its MIDI capabilities and creating a HUGE MONSTER Synthesizer & Virtual Pipe Organ. [However, if you want to use this organ with the internal voices, I wanted you to be aware of this and that the upper keyboard section will need attention].

The organ is heavy - about 300-350 +/- lbs."

via the Lowrey story pdf on Lowrey.com:
"1989 - Lowrey has brought forth the G-7000, the largest regular production home organ in the world, featuring three 61-note keyboards and 25 console pedals. The G-7000 represents the culmination of the Genius Series and uses the full compliment of Lowrey easy-play features. Digital Genius voicing is introduced, by far the most authentic- sounding musical voices available."

Yamaha Electone EX-42 Vintage Analog Synthesizer Organ Keyboard

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

Update: See the comments of this post for more info on the EX-42.  It's not a GX-1.

However: according to the list of Yamaha products on Wikipedia: "EX-42 (1970–1977, stage model, design origin of GX-1)"

"Yamaha Electone EX-42 Vintage Analog Synthesizer Organ Keyboard

with two (2) original Yamaha R-60B rotating tone cabinets (KILLS LESLIES!)

For your consideration is a Yamaha EX-42. This polyphonic analog synthesizer is one of the rarest, most complex, and most expensive synthesizers ever built. Yamaha's flagship synthesizer/organ precursor to the ultra rare Yamaha GX-1, this beautiful instrument packs all the sonic possibilities of a standard organ and polyphonic synthesizer into one gigantic and unique package. When released in 1970, the EX-42 had a $32,000 price tag. That's $182,000 today when adjusted for inflation, making it the second most expensive synth (in today's dollars) that Yamaha ever made. It is rumored that less than 200 were built. Don't miss your chance to get this extremely rare and incredible-sounding synthesizer for much, much less!

Even better, this listing includes the two extremely rare (2) Yamaha R-60B tone cabinets that originally came with this unit. You can see one Yamaha R-60B on the right side of the second picture and two in the third picture. The Yamaha R-60B kills any Leslie! It has three (3) vertically rotating speakers that are switchable on/off at the players option. The soundfields that this 200W tone cabinet creates are absolutely unreal.

This synth is in great condition. All the knobs and sliders that we have tested work perfectly, though we have not tested all of the functions on this synthesizer. Thus, it is sold as-is.

This auction also includes the synthesizer and bass pedals, but the matching bench is not included, as the owner prior to the previous owner wanted to keep it.

The features of this synthesizer are much too extensive to list here. There are a few videos on YouTube that fully detail all of the capabilities of the EX-42. Just search for "Yamaha EX-42" and prepare to be amazed. Make sure to look for the R-60B in action too!

This is a very large instrument - 45" high x 60" wide x 32" deep and nearly 500 lbs! - and can only be shipped via freight. The $590 shipping cost is just an estimate. Within the Continental U.S., transportation costs (freight or mover) will vary depending on proximity to Los Angeles, and typically takes more than one week to schedule and deliver. International shipments will be considerably more expensive and will take around two weeks to schedule and deliver..."

Update via Z in the comments: "The photo of the EX-42 in the crate was stolen from my Photobucket page. I took that photo 2 years ago when I sold a EX-42
http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x30/zudio/For%20Sale/?action=view&current=DSC_9036.jpg"

Madrona Labs Soundplanes Available with Educational Software Pricing

via Madrona Labs

"Soundplanes are available!

I always try to refine the Soundplane design and production process, and I can say that the third run of Soundplanes has turned out to be the best one yet. I allowed for a 10% failure rate of finished main circuit boards, building 30 complete boards and only selling 27. Happily, we had a 0% failure rate and every board has tested OK. So, I have an extra instrument to offer right now and a couple more special builds waiting in the wings.

If you visit the web site, you can see Soundplane #0073, which is one of the darker-colored cherry instruments from the third run. It's for sale at $1,895, for immediate shipping. If you would like to order it, please reply with your intent to this email, and I'll send a money request to you via PayPal. And do please take note of the ordering info at http://madronalabs.com/soundplane about shipping and taxes, especially if you are outside the USA.

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Sci-Fi Guys

OK, first off I am stretching this one a little on synth content so consider yourself warned. Dave, creator of one of our favorite and only synth toons, The Packrat, sent me and a few others a link to an old toon he did called Sci-Fi Guys. I wanted to put up a post on it, so of course I asked if any of the toons featured any synths. Duh. Turns out they did for audio. The following are Dave's words on the toon followed by the synths. Note Randal of redshiftdigitalaudio and the On The Bench posts also worked on this.

"For about a year and a half, my old Sci-Fi Guys toons haven't been available online at all, after Camp Chaos shut down it's 'Other Shows' section. At a rate of about one per week, since May, I've uploaded them all to Newgrounds. The eleventh and final episode (the Christmas one) will get shoved up there in November sometime.

The title song for Sci-Fi Guys is called 'Ryu' off my Parallax CD 'visit the entropics.'

There are other very synthesized sound cues and transitions in the films also, taken directly from the album.

This music was sequenced by me at home, all on a rickety Korg 01/W, but the exported general MIDI files were painstakingly re-mapped & produced by Randel at redshiftdigitalaudio (the tech guy behind the "On the Bench" posts linked from your blog from time to time). A few overdubs, samples and leads were added later. Synths I definitely know that were used: Waldorf Pulse & Microwave, Clavia Nord rack, Korg MS2000R & Wavestation, a couple of Oberheim Matrix-6R's, Roland JD-800 & three JD-990's, and Yamaha VL1-m.

--D"

AM8075SE Athena VCF

AM8075SE Athena VCF Demo by AMSynths
via AMSynths
"Back in the 2004 I replicated the ARP 4075 VCF module using exactly the same design and sold a few PCB's to customers as the AM4075. I also licensed the design to Bananalogue, and you can still buy these modules on eBay all these years later. The licensing deal enabled me to buy a new PC and greatly speeded up my design work, which is all done in Eagle CAD. Whilst the filter sounded good, I wanted to improve and simplfy the design when I started up AMSynths. I also wanted to use slider potentiometers and introduce a HPF - the idea of a Special Edition version (SE) was born.

Athena The AM8075SE filter is the first module to be launched as part of a complete modular analog monosynth. VCO, VCA, ADSR etc will all follow. Athena is the greek god of inspiration.

The Special Edition At the end of 2011 I had a new prototype on the test bench, implemented with matched transistor pairs, reworked LM3900 power supply and cut out the rejection trimming circuit as this was no longer needed with matched transistors. Op Amp buffers before and after the filter core were added, as the one complaint from the original AM4075 was that it was rather quiet as it had no buffer circuits and worked best on 10V audio signals.

I added a 1-pole high pass filter based on the classic Roland OTA circuit rather than the awful design in the Odyssey. Slider potentiometers are used through out and after some adjustments to work on 12V power the VCF sounds fantastic! The matched arrays make a great improvement along with using high quality filter capacitors. The slider caps are the same as in the Odyssey Mark 1 and 2, and they will appear through out the Athena synthesizer (and yes I do have pink caps!).

The moudle went into production in July 2012 and the first batch sold out quickly. Further batches will be manufactured, as there are no rare parts to find.

AMSynths Panel The panel is professionally manufactured in 1.6mm thick alumnium in Germany with black lettering. The module is EuroRack sized and fully compatible with many other EuroRack modular synthesizer systems such as Doepfer."

Eowave News for Superbooth 2018

via Eowave

"Superbooth 18 starts in less than one week and we can't wait to show you our new prototypes and synths!

We will be at booth number O236, come by to say hi :)

More over we will introduce our new products on Friday the 4th, 3:20pm at the Cinema (o120).

"This year will be about the Quadrantid Swarm release - we are actually waiting for the final product to come back from production.

Saddly we won't have the final version with us during the Superbooth.

It will feature the addition of a new cv input for the control of the Spread parameter of the oscillator, and a switch between decay and release for the envelope.

Oscillator modes have changed too!

We will start shipping the QS during the month of June."

"The real new player in the game is SWING, a pretty simple but life changing module that is going to give life to your sequencer!

Swing is a voltage controlled clock delay with 3 modes. Your sequencers are going to love it."

CLICK FOR MORE »

The Serge Random Source Variable Slope VCF Part 1 - Building | Tutorial

Published on Jan 18, 2019 Under the Big Tree

Audio demo below.

"In this first of a two-part series on the Serge Random Source Variable Slope Voltage Controlled Filter, we build the module from the ground up. If you are interested in building this module as a DIY kit rather than purchasing it pre-built, then this is the video for you. We go through the entire build process, discussing soldering techniques, showing general tips and tricks, as well as aspects of this specific module. We get into testing the module, using oscilloscopes, function generators, and bench power supplies, and even what to do when something goes wrong.

If you want to hear the module in action and have a tutorial on how it works, then watch part two:

http://www.randomsource.net

Under the Big Tree is Nick Peck's YouTube channel, focused on music and sound design equipment and techniques, composition, production and performance of music, modular synthesizers and electronic music in general, and tabletop board games.

http://www.underthebigtree.com"

Update:

The Serge Random Source Variable Slope VCF Part 2 - Listening | Tutorial

Published on Jan 18, 2019 Under the Big Tree

"In this second of a two-part series on the Serge Random Source Variable Slope Voltage Controlled Filter, we listen to the fruits of our labors. We put a sawtooth wave and some white noise into the audio inputs, add some control voltages, and magic ensues! We go through every knob on the unit in detail, listening to the lowpass, bandpass, and highpass filter outputs.

By the time we are done, you may very well put this fantastic-sounding Eurorack module on your short list. Don't say I didn't warn you."

MOTM E350 Morphing Terrarium stereo samples

via Paul S on AH:
"Here are 2 "knob twiddling" samples of the upcoming Euro E350 Morphing Terrarium wavetable module. The module has 3 banks of 64 wavetable each (these demos use only Bank A, a sinewave harmonic bank). The 2 audio outputs are called XY MORPH and Z MORPH. The wavetables are arranged as a 8 x 8 matrix, and the X & Y MORPH CVs index into the wavetable, while the Z is a linear index from #1 to #64. The DSP then interpolates from 2 *adjacent* wavetables. In this manner, we get ~ 4100 different waveforms per bank.

The demo uses a LFO into the MORPH Z CV input (right audio). The XY audio (left channel) is just turning the 2 panel pots.

www.synthtech.com/demo/e350/e350_stereo1.mp3

www.synthtech.com/demo/e350/e350_stereo2.mp3

There are a few "dropouts" when I bumped the alligator clips on the cables and 1 "noise glitch" when I jiggled the power cable trying to keep my cat Moses from jumping on the bench to investigate all the racket.

Additional info is on the Euro forum at www.muffwiggler.com (panel mockups, etc). The modules will be sold via Analogue Haven and Schneidersburo in late Nov/early Dec.

Paul S."