The Bride Of Frankensynth - oooohhhh

Ok... so it's not really the Bride Of Frankensynth it's PINKY a synth made mostly from CGS modules built into a mannequinn... I was looking around for Halloween inspired music synth stuff and it was either this or the Soundcraft Ghost :)

Pinky


To carry on with the Halloween theme... you can find a lot of craptastic spoooooky samples HERE. There's the typcial creaky door, evil laugh, moans, groans and female screeeeaaaams!!!

If you're not into Halloween cheese you can find much better horror and scary/eerie themed free samples over at the Freesound Project. Thunderstorms, ambiences, soundscapes with name like tension and taut. Very good stuff.

Ok one last Halloween theme and that's it for this year. Screaming Lord Sutch singing Jack the Ripper recorded by Joe Meek one of the first sound engineers to use the studio as a musical instrument.

Screaming Lord Sutch - Jack the Ripper

From: ADAMKKKKK

New Minimal-Mixes 4 free // Richie Hawtin // Sven Väth...

Thanks to Jen over on electro-music forum for pointing out the Minmal Mixe blog. The latest one up there is from Richie Hawtin @ the Anti Pop Music Festival (download). It's a pretty good blog with mixes going back to December '06.

Sound Stories - Luke Clancy

This is a good one from RTE Radio 1. Luke Clancy returns with a new nine-part series of Sound Stories, exploring our experience of sound, from the ever-rising tide of ambient sound in our streets to experiments in modern music. This is the 3rd series of Sound Stories and all three series 2005-07 are available for free download. There are episodes on sound in games, films, experimental composers... Get them HERE :)

sent my way thanks to 'Noise Hacker'

Robin Rimbaud aka SCANNER

Part 1


Part 2

Scanner UK artist Robin Rimbaud has been making experimental electronic music for the last 15 years. The name Scanner comes from his use of a radio wave scanner as one of his main instruments. The scanner picks-up mobile phone conversations, police/airport/hospital communications which which manipulates and mixes with his music live. He also uses recordings of electronic sounds particular to an area, such as the walk now signal/police siren, to make a sonic map of specific locations.

I remember an article in The Wire where Stockhausen was given music from a few contemporary electronic producers and asked what he thought of them. If I remember rightly he was fairly disparaging of Aphex Twins and Autcheres music saying it was repetitive music to be played in discotechques. He was more positive about Scanners music saying it was very experimental and used sounds that were not typical to music.

sent to me by 'Noise Hacker'

The PRAT Sampler - 1916

The PRAT Sampler, that is the Phono, Repeating, Audio, Track, Sampler, was found in the form of blueprint drawings, original instruction manual, and some company/personal papers of Edwin J Baird, dated back to 1916.

Baird's innovation was not well documented, or immediately further developed, but did indeed lay the foundations - and was the precursor to all modern day multi-track audio recording.

The PRAT Sampler was of course a four track wax cylinder recording and sampling machine; developed for writers and composers, allowing them to create new music, loops and compositions without the need for a full band. This domestic looking artifact comprised an input horn, a length of musical pipe, a rotating shaft, four repeater arms and sound boxes, one recording arm and an output horn. Ediwn J Baird was surely a visionary, his invention a true treasure for us to find and resurect to its former glory.

you can watch a short film HERE.

sent to my by 'Noise Hacker'

Oscilloscope-Art by Ray Sweeten

Ray Sweeten uses oscilloscopes in a real-time performance setting to maximum effect. Pulsating figure-of-eight glyphs freak-out to the harsh drone of a scuzzy saw tooth wave in the intense 'Altercations'. Just turn off the lights, go full screen and enjoy the weirdness :)

http://www.raysweeten.com - thanks to jk-20 on the analogue heaven forum

All I can say is WOW it's like 2001 in monochrome :)

Harry Partch and the Sorcerer's Tone

"Harry Partch is a fictional composer in a series of books by J. K. Rowling who has so far released six albums out of a planned series of seven. Partch, whose parents died in a freak accordion accident, attracted attention from the musical world when he was born with a strange clef-shaped birthmark on his face. He was encouraged to take up composition at an early age, quickly finding that his powers exceeded those of his peers.

Partch studied tuning in London, where he found that he was able to magically split the octave into 43 parts whereas composers of lesser stature could only muster 12. Using these powers, his baton, and instruments he himself created, Partch works tirelessly to defeat the evil Lord Equaltemperamort, when he's not getting into mischief with his pals and sneaking out to satisfy his Jelly Belly cravings." - uncyclopedia.org

Seraph over on the electro-musician forum found this little treat. For those that might not know Harry Partch is an experimental American composer and instrument designer. You can watch a BBC documentary on him HERE.

Stefan Paul Goetsch - Free MP3 Album

Here's a free mp3 album sent to me by Stefan Paul Goetsch called "Openings" Download it HERE (100 MP zip, 256K MP3 HiQuality Encoding).

It's a haunting mix of ambience, electro-acoustic, experimental music and in some tracks spoken word. Stefan calls it "Dramatically structured digital-acoustics" . As far as I can make out Stefan made some or most of this music for various theater pieces.

" Currently, you can catch me live with the THE DANCE INC. at these places:
07.Nov.2007 Knust + CLIENT Hamburg
08.Nov.2007 Columbia Club + CLIENT Berlin
09.Nov.2007 Römer Bremen
10.Nov.2007 Centrum + CLIENT Erfurt
11.Nov.2007 Yard Club / Kantine + CLIENT Köln
12.Nov.2007 Ampere + CLIENT München
13.Nov.2007 Chelsea Wien
15.Nov.2007 Conne Island + SAALSCHUTZ Leipzig
16.Nov.2007 Zum TeufelHeidelberg
17.Nov.2007 Mariaberg Rorschach (CH)"

Sent my way thanks to Stefan Paul Goetsch.

Steelphon S900 synthesizer demo

Part 1 (wave, filter & LFO demo)


Part 2 (Resonance and Noise games)

The Steelphon is an Italian analogue synth made around 1973. You can find out more about all the Itialian synths at Vintage Synths Made In Italy.

thanks to aemmezero

The Octamasher

The Octamasher is an extension of ideas around DJ Cotrollerism. Controllerism is an idea by DJ's to use DJ and MIDI controllers to make electronic music live. The Octamasher is made up of 8 simple MIDI controllers each with it's own speaker all hooked up to one computer. Different samples and effects are controlled by each keyboard.


I must admit this looks very simple and easy to achieve. 1 laptop, 1 multi-out soundcard, 1 multi-in MIDI card, 8 small MIDI controllers, 8 speakers, lots of cables... I think I have most of that... hmmmm :)

Vax-77 Foldable Keyboard

This is the Vax-77 Foldable Keyboard from Infinite Response. It was designed to fit into the overhead compartment on a plane.... although I'm not sure if anybody at Infinite Response has flow on Ryan Air lately... you're not even allowed bring on a small bottle of water for your child so I imagine a keyboard is well out. Still the thing is obviously made for the traveling musician and a good touch is that the power supply is auto sensing meaning it can be powered by either 220 0r 110 volts.

Oink! Pirate Bay Sequel BOiNK

As you probably know Oink.CD was taken down after a Police raid last week. A flat on Teesside and several properties in Amsterdam were raided as part of an Interpol investigation into the members-only website OiNK. When you went to Oink.cd you got a brief note about how they were taken down and by whom. Well after the initial shock Oink has changed its front page and now it gives a link to a google search page "what-to-use-instead-of-oink-waffleswaffleswaffles". There is a long list of torrent and mp3 sites.

BBC Report of the actual raid.

From: baploinkadoink

Oink Hostingprovider loses 30,000 euro's

From: tomroes

My own personal view is that this is a pointless battle between these collection agencies and the public. I and many like me refuse to pay for music on a per unit basis. It is just not going to happen ever again. I will always have a choice not to pay per unit and I will always take that option. There needs to be a "Feels Like Free" option whether it based on subscription, advertising, promotion.... I don't care but I will not pay per unit.

To qualify my refusal to pay for mp3's let me first explain my experience of downloading mp3's. A couple of years ago I used Napster, Edonkey, AudioGalaxy and all the other mp3 downloading services. During that time I also amassed a pretty large collection of vynil and CD's. I used the Internet services almost like a library to shift through thousands of mp3's to find out what I liked in music and then I ordered it online. Then I got broadband and it started to become a little ridiculous.

I downloaded thousands of albums. I shared hardrives with friends and got thousands more. Unlike when I used the mp3 downloading sites as a library I now just had thousands of mp3 albums and almost no personal involvement with them. I'd say I listened to maybe less than 1% of what I collected. I eventually got to the point where I just stopped downloading. I didn't want all of these mp3's taking up room on my harddrive. Instead now I use either Last.FM a free internet radio service or I download mixes from the producers of these tracks from places like Rinse.FM. I also started going to artists myspace profiles to listen to mp3's. I never download music now and neither do I break any laws ( that I know of). This method ensures I actually listen to the music I download and also that I have to actively participate in music rather than just download what ever takes my fancy.

The market has changed radically. There is now a global shop in everyones laptop but the music industry is trying desperately to hold onto a means of distribution more than 80 years old. Other industries have died out, weakened or adapted in the face of technological advance but when it comes to the music industry they hire teams of lawyers to try and retard the progress of technology. I went onto Mininova this morning and had a look at their statistics:

Total torrents in database	533,637
Total torrent downloads:	2,978,477,867
Total seeds:	5,852,403
Total leechers:	2,153,667,037
Total number of trackers:	5,677
Total searches today	807,083

Is the music industry going to take 2,978,477,867 downloaders to court. I don't think so. Oink is closed down for one week and already Pirate Bay is talking about resurrecting it with a different IP address BOiNK. It's a losing battle for the music industry and the people that are losing are musicians and music fans. A new way based on modern cultural practices needs to be invested in. Artists like Radiohead, Prince and smaller artists who use mp3's as a means of promotion understand that it is time for a change. However these are individual acts by individual musicians trying to make sense of a very confused situation.

Alesis Andromeda A6

" What can I say... ?" - thanks to refract

AudioEase Speakerphone Demo

A short demo of the new Speakerphone from AudioEase watch it HERE. Speakerphone is really unbelievable. It basically allows you to completely design spaces. It makes what can be slow time consuming work look enjoyable and simple. Take a sound, run it through a speaker of some kind, put it in a room, distort or modulate it and then add some ambience's such as people talking, traffic noise etc... you can basically design any situation you like. "So Speakerphone is a tremendous amount of speaker samples, and 5Gb of ambience's and then there's rooms and there's all sorts of modules to tweak them."A complete sound designers tool. Speakerphone like the fantastic Altiverb, also from AudioEase uses convolution technology. It looks great, sounds great and... I wish I could afford it :(

Dave Wilson - New England Synth Museum

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

"In the quiet town of Nashua, New Hampshire lies the New England Synthesizer Museum. Curator Dave Wilson collects and repairs sythesizers and has worked various duties including proofreading and development for some of the world's most renowned synth makers. The museum is open to the public, contact him at www.synthmuseum.com/nesm for appointments. Synth donations are accepted."

It's a great interview with someone who has been around synths for a long time. At the end he talks about the Buchla synths and mentions my favourite of the Suzanne Ciani Logos made on the Buchla - Coca-Cola Pop and Pour... just gives me a chance to link to it.. it's very cool.

thanks to brainwashed.com

Jean Michel Jarre's Studio

A pic of the studio used by Jean Michel Jarre to record a new 5.1 DVD 'Oxygene - Live In Your Living Room'. You can click on the pic to make it fullscreen.

thanks to Robi over on electro-music - you can read more about the new CD/DVD package if you follow the link.

HOWTO: Build A Steampunk Oscilloscope

A steampunk oscilloscope built by Andrew Smith from parts found in a junk box. "Although not intended to be fully functional it does actually work." It's looks so cute... if you have the DIY skills you can read an article over on electronicsweekly detailing the build, components used and a schematic.

"I discovered that I had a really cute little 7cm CRT in the loft, together with several other valves of different types, and it seemed a good idea to make something decorative with them. For me, a lot of the charm of this piece resides in the unconventional layout and design, using a polished wooden box instead of the more usual metal chassis."

via boingboing

Polyfusion Modular VCO tracking

Not really an exciting musical video but just showing how accurate the Polyfusion's VCO's are. They have a 10 octave range and track incredibly well. At some point I patch one VCO to another to do some FM and even then, they remain totally in tune (except for when I put one VCO too low by mistake)
Try this on most analogues and it just doesn't work!
Also, they sound massive. Probably not via YouTube, but standing in front of it is quite an experience. - thanks to buchla300

That's 3 killer vintage modular video from buchla300 in one week... Make sure and check out his account for the Buchla 200 and the Arp 2500 clips - drool :)

Sequential Circuits Pro-One "sync-sounds" by RetroSound

SCI Pro-One: short sync-sound demo

more info: www.retrosound.de

Some classic sync sounds form a classic synth. If you don't know what sync is have a look HERE.

Kaossilator

You might remember I posted a clip about the new Korg Kaossilator... well it was put on YouTube before the official release so it was taken down pretty quickly. Here another one... It looks pretty cool more detailed than the last clip. Great live tool.

Dynamic Phrase Synthesizer.
The next innovation in the highly acclaimed line of Korg DJ tools has arrived!

The KAOSSILATOR is a new pocket sized instrument that packs Korg's world renowned synth sound along with innovative performance features into an ultra-compact unit. Anyone can instantly play musical phrases by simply tapping or sliding their finger across the KAOSSILATOR's touch pad -- no previous skills required! The KAOSSILATOR is a portable, travel friendly device that runs on batteries, so you can have fun creating music anywhere your life takes you, with seemingly endless possibilities.

thanks to rc10t3

Live Performance in the Age of Super Computing

Robert Henke has written a very good acticle on Live Performance in the Age of Super Computing. As the designer of Ableton and a gigging musician with Monolake he is well versed in the issues surrounding live electronic performance. It's well worth the read.

He lays out many of the problems associated with live laptop performance. The associated disconnection from the audience. The fact that live no longer really means live. The complexity of the music versus the ability of a single performer. The inability of the audience to really tell exactly what the performer is doing... if anything at all. The seeming inactivity of the performer. Anybody who has used a laptop live is aware of the problems.

He looks at the development of electronic performance to see exactly how we got to this situation. He also looks at some of the attempts over the year to inject live back into the performance. Worth a look HERE.

via livepa

Worlds Sexiest Turntables

There's a good post over on synthopia about the worlds sexiest turntable. Of course the Technics SL1200 is there. The one pictured above is the SME Model 30 Turntable. At $36'000 for the turntable and another $4'000 for the tonearm it isn't for the casual record listener. Exactly who the hell it is for I don't know but it's definitely not for your average mutton eared techie.

Dn'B Bass Tutorial on Roland SH-201

If you like your basslines big and aggressive (which I do :)) then this tutorial should be right up your street. A tutorial on how to create 2 of the most popular bass sounds in Drum N'Bass... The Neurofunk Bass and the Reece Bass. If you don't have the Roland SH-201 pretty much any synth, hard or soft, with a bandpass filter can get these bass sounds.

Thanks very much to OldSchoolJungle for posting this tutorial.

ARP 2500 Modular Synth

Another one from Buchla 300 David Morley this time with the Arp 2500. As you probably know the Arp 2500 is the synth that communicated with the aliens in Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind... I've tried to communicate with the aliens on my little Doepfer but so far... squat :)
The clips kind of kicks off around the 3 minute mark.

"I was checking the ARP 2500, so decided to video whilst noodling.
Will make something better later...
AMAZING synth. Funky, fat, flexible." - buchla300

Buchla 200 Modular Synth

Buchla 200 analogue modular in action
The touch keyboard is working as one 16 note sequencer while the smaller 5 x 4 sequencer makes the other sequence. - thanks to buchla300 for this very sweet sequence.

You can find out a little more at David Morley.com... have a look at his studio which is very nice indeed with its VCS3 and Macbeth M5 to name a few. Also you can listen to a few clips from his albums Ghosts on his Myspace account.

MLR & Monome 256

The monome 256 in action. Somehow the 256 slipped by me. I knew about the 64 and 128 but not the 256. If you don't know what the Monome is maybe THIS clip will help. Basically it's a multi-purpose controller primarily used for controlling audio applications. It is more often used with specialised Max/Msp patches but you can use a program called MAPD to use it to control most sequencers like Ableton, Logic etc.

The reason you have to use a special program to control regular sequencers is because the Monome doesn't use MIDI. Instead it uses a protocol called OSC or Open Sound Control. OSC is hoped by many in academia to succeed MIDI. It's advantages are it's faster 10+mb/sec as opposed to MIDI's 31.25kb/sec (so that's about 300 times faster), it's more stable with better syncing, and most importantly it was specifically designed to communicate between between computers and synthesizers/controllers over a network. MIDI was designed for keyboard to keyboard communication - OSC is designed for networked synth, computer, controller communication. Whereas the message types in MIDI are things like note on/off, pitchbend etc... OSC has a much wider palette of possible message types.


conway's life from tehn on Vimeo.
In this clip they show conway’s game of life running in chuck (it took minutes to adapt the old 40h code, and we’re working on adapting multi-dimensional versions of our other patches). Conways game of life is an example of Cellular Automata or programs that can evolve from generation to generation. Some people are trying to use Cellular Automata to make music that evolves naturally. You can see in the clip he sets up an initial state by pressing the buttons then after about 30 seconds it's off on it own doing it's own thing. I suppose it's just an example the type of thing the Monome is able to do.

256 YAY

At $1'400 the Monome 256 isn't an impulse buy still some people seem very happy... like spmaspma showing off her new powered 256. Compared to the unpowered 64 it does look very sweet.

Arse Elektronika 2007

A CNET report from the Arse Elektronika sex and technology conference held in San Francisco this weekend. One of the attractions is the Moaning Lisa a pleasure mannequin wired for sound. She's packed full touch sensors, potentiometers, and light sensors that work together to detect the manual stimulation of love. Most interesting for us is that the whole thing is controlled by a Max/Msp patch. Very nice.

Also on show is an ipod vibrator. It analyses the music coming out of the ipod and vibrates in response. Apparently it "loves Gabba and hates Breakcore." :) - via cnet.

Teisco 60F Synthesizer

A few youtube clips of the Teisco 6F but the video quality is a bit poor so I thought I'd post a picture as well so as you could have a proper look.
Part 1

Part 2

"First I'd Just like to say thank you to Hugh, the guy who sold me this fantastic synth! I've been playing it scince it arrived almost non-stop!
And I'd also like to say this is the first Video of a Teisco 60f synthesizer on youtube! Horay!
Also I filmed it as the sun was setting so that in the begining you can see the synth better but by the end you can see the awesome little lights better!"
- thanks to JingleJoe

you can find out a little more about Teisco synthesizers HERE. Thats where I got the pic.

Brainwaves Controlling Piano

A guy controlling a piano with his brain. It looks a bit like science fiction but it's not as fancy as it looks. The EEG (sci-fi helmet) scans the brain for brainwave frequencies. The result is then feed into a computer with a generative music program or a program that makes music with rules. The user determines some of the rules.

For example there are two basic music types. One based on Eric Satie and one based on Beethoven. If the user calms down and produces brainwaves with a frequency lower than 12Hz then it's Eric Satie. Brainwave frequencies above 13Hz generate Beethoven type music. Also the user can change the tempo making the sequence play slower or faster.

originally found in: http://cmr.soc.plymouth.ac.uk/index.html

get a PDF explaining it HERE.

thanks to glermsoares

DEAF Festival 2007

It's DEAF festival time again. This is the 6th year of the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival. Every year they focus on club and experimental electronic music. There are nights out, seminars and even a few street performances. The DEAF festival usually comes with a theme and this year is no different. The theme this year seems to be cultural and racial collaboration. "Our national un-preparedness for many of the changes affected by the recent economic boom has resulted in further serious cultural challenges to what had previously been quite an isolated and inward-looking nation." This year they are trying to go some way to addressing this situation by promoting artists from all around the world instead of the usual Ireland, UK, France, Germany.

To get a taste of what the DEAF festival is about they have kindly hosted selections of audio from the last 5 years. Live shows, DJ mixes, special one-offs... worth a LISTEN.

This years DEAF Festival runs from THURSDAY 25th to MONDAY 29th October 2007. You can check out the schedule HERE.

I Was a Hacker for the MPAA

There's a good interview over on the WIRED with Robert Anderson. Robert Anderson is the hired hacker the MPAA (Motion Pictures Association of America) used to break into the popular file sharing agent Torrentspy. Once in there he poked around to see what he could find and set-up a hack that would relay private emails directly to him.

The article is worth reading. They wined and dined him, promised him riches if he "...saved Hollywood". Then they got what they wanted and ignored him like the drunken uncle at a party. Since then he has moved on and although proud of his hack suggests he feels a little guilty about the tactics.

The picture above is the MPAA Pyramid of Internet Piracy... to me it looks like a very efficient system.

Graphite sequencer

A very cool sequencer by Caleb Coppock:

Graphite conducts electricity. Two wires brush against the surface of a paper disk as it spins. The wires are connected to a simple electronic tone generator. When a line of graphite is drawn across the disk, connecting two wires, a tone is heard. The quality of the line affects the sound. For example, if the line is thick, allowing more current to pass over it, the pitch changes to a lower tone.

You can watch a video HERE.

via make.com

Van Halen Synth Riff - Live Cock-Up

From a Van Halen concert in Greensboro, North Carolina. The main synth riff is coming from a digital playback device that has been set to play back at a 48K sample rate instead of the normal 44.1K. That means the main synth riff is playing back a little faster and at a key that is somewhere in between 2 semi-tones. The resulting musical chaos is the guitar player desperately and unsuccesfully trying to find the non existant fret. Haha... it sounds like a cat getting strangled.

Remember kids always ask a grown-up before changing sample rates :)

via RW370

Sequential Circuits Pro-One Synthesizer by Retrosound

First impressions of my new SCI Pro-One

famous users:
Yazoo (Upstairs At Eric's album), New Order, Soft Cell, Howard Jones, Marillion and many more

more info: www.retrosound.de

FM Spasmoharmodium

Another one from ashfordaisyak. You might remember his last one Noise-Ode to the Neptune Audio Mixer one of my favourite youtube vids.

"A late night mini-spazz on the spasmoharmodium around the harmonic series.

It is beneficial to one's harmonic awareness to observe the harmonic series at least once a week, but problematically, this magic series of notes is rarely seen or paid any heed.

The device is a homemade MIDI cracklebox which interfaces with a MaxMSP patch which creates FM tones in harmonicity's thrall. Well... I hope the colours improve things. (more) "

Stockhausen Helicopter

For those that might not know this is a short clip from Karlheinz Stockhausens 1995 Helicopter String Quartet. I reckon this is about as techno as it gets. The instrumentation in the piece calls for:

4 helicopters with pilots

4 sound technicians

4 television transmitters,

4 x 3 sound transmitters

auditorium with 4 columns of televisions and

4 columns of loudspeakers

sound projectionist with mixing console/ moderator (ad lib.)

The duration is circa 32 minutes.

Stockhausen said the idea came to him in a dream (where else). He had been commissioned to compose a string quartet but considering he is an electronic composer and has not composed string quartets, symphonies, sonatas, piano concertos, violin concertos etc for 50 years he thought he'd do something different.

Both the violins and the helicopters are miked for sound and the result is mixed on the ground. The audience listen to the mix through the speaker stacks whilst watching on TV stacks.

Funniest for me is that the pilots had their own score and were directed to follow various patterns. I can imagine there baffled faces as violins and cello's bashed out in the back of the helicopter while they desperately tried to follow the patterns of squiggly lines on a page.

It is astounding enough that he ever got the piece performed and on January 19, 2001 Stockhausen was awarded the German Music Edition Prize in the category of "Scores of Works of the 20th century" for the score of the HELICOPTER STRING QUARTET.

Impressively techno - next gig I do I'm going try and bring 4 helicopters as well - decks, ableton, 4 helicopters and a kaoss pad :)

The clip is downloadable HERE thanks to grrgamel for posting it.

Wilhelm Scream - Clip Compilation

The Wilhelm Scream is probably the most famous sound effect of all time. A single scream, recorded for the 1951 film "Distant Drums," has been used in everything from The Wild Bunch (1969) to Transformer (2007). You can read more about the Wilhelm Scream including a huge list of it's various uses HERE.

If you don't like reading you can check out this short documentary on the history of the Wilhelm Scream.

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via http://das.blogsport.de/

Moog Little Phatty and Jordan Rudess

Part 1 FreqBox & CP251


Part 2 Filter Techniques

Jordan Rudess going through a few tricks on the Moog LP.

SSL Shed of your Dreams

Is this a romantic getaway for two? Is it a drinking den for you and your mates? Is a place to hide from the kids????

No it's an SSL studio in a shed!

"Previously limited to individuals with multi-million dollar budgets, the recording studio existed only in the dreams of many people. Now, the SSL Shed of your Dreams can be in your backyard for under $250,000. The Shed is a private place where you can realise your creative ambitions - accessible 24/7." - LINK

It does look very tasty. I recommend one if these if you are either a) loaded, b) have recently come through an acrimonous divorce or c) are having a midlife crisis and wondering whats it all about... then why not get an SSL Studio In Shed :)

sent my way via Stefan.

f.ctrl - MIDI Controller Demo2

http://setosai.s262.xrea.com/f.ctrl/
Sending a Control Change message in response to the objects movement.

sent my way thanks to setosai

Julius Goldberg's 1929 RCA Theremin

When Leon Theremin, the inventor of the theremin, came to America in 1927, he brought with him his assistant and business partner, Julius Goldberg. The RCA theremin you see in this video belonged to Mr. Goldberg, and he made several modifications to it over the years. He had custom "lightning bolt" antennas made for it but as you will see at the beginning of the video, I do not like using the jagged pitch antenna, and replace it with a standard RCA antenna before beginning to play. Goldberg also preferred a tone color that is closer to brass and reed instruments and altered the voltages that feed the vacuum tubes so his theremin would sound more trumpet-like than the standard RCA's. I believe he made these changes because he performed regularly in New York City in the early 30's and he may have thought the instrument had more audio/visual impact with his modifications. Up until the early 1980's this theremin remained the property of Julius Goldberg's widow who lived near Poughkeepsie, New York.

The song I am playing is HYMNE A L'AMOUR (one of French singer Edith Piaf's biggest hits) written by composer Marguerite Monnot.

thanks to copperleaves

150mb Free Brush Kit sample library

The 150mb Drum kit features mixable direct and ambient microphones, Drum roll emulation via the Roll Control KSP script, multiple velocity layers and articulations. The kit was recorded at Peter Gabriels Real World Studios in Bath, England.

Brush kit is available in Kontakt 2 + 3, Battery 2 + 3 format, and is taken from the larger VA Drums drum library.Sonic Couture have released a 150mb .

Get the free brush kit HERE. They also have a few other free bits that might be worth a look at.

via sonicstate.com

Sonar-Module By ElectroKraft.com

An experimental MIDI controller that uses an ultasound sensor to prooduce notes, similar to the way a Theremin operates by moving your hand above the unit.

Made by ElectroKraft.com

Audio d-touch Drum Machine

A tangible interface for music composition and performance.Designed and implemented in 2002/2003 while in the Media Engineering group at the University of York.
See also http://web.media.mit.edu/~enrico/research/research.php?projectTitle=Audio%20d-touch

You might remember some of the posts I've had on Musical Paper if not follow THIS link to see a few more. Although this isn't exactly musical paper I think it qualifies. It uses simple everyday objects like paper and wooden blocks and the technology isn't forced upon the user.

de la mancha Manic Sampler (Free)

It's free, it's based on probability and it sounds pretty good. If you're feeling uninspired, if you like the thought of probability in music or you just want to mess about and come up with a few interesting loops then maybe download Manic from de la mancha.

Manic is an 8 slot random sample player where you decide the samples, but manic decides when to play them. Samples are triggered according to their probability, on a tempo sync pattern. Also allows for randomising of volume, pitch, pan, delay, reverse and swing. You decide how much, but not when. You can loop the sequence, change sequence seed with midi keys and quantise the pitch randomising for a more melodic sequence. Works well for random glitchy percussion, instant melodic sequences of multisamples or total chaos.

There are 3 different versions of Manic to choose from:

Download full version (12.5 MB) this contains the plugin, 25 presets and 246 samples
or
Download lite version (1.1 MB) this contains the same plugin, but only 1 preset and 8 samples
or
Download mult-out version (1.3 MB) this contains a multi-out version* with all 25 presets, but no samples. You will need to download the full version if you want to hear the preset samples

You can listen to a demo HERE.

RSF kobol synthesizer

The RSF Kobol a relatively rare French synth from about 1978. Thanks to polyvoks for posting it. You can find out a bit more about the Kobol on the official RSF website HERE.

TR-606 DRUMATIX Drum Machine

TR-606 drum machine.
i took video + closeup pictures and did a straigth audio recording from tr-606 main out to the computer sound card with no effects + i also added the furureretro revolution(with delay);)
enjoy

tr-606 and revolution sequences by
latinsizer

www.myspace.com/latinsizer

more info about tr-606 at vintagesynth.com


A cool little box! So primitive and cute! The 606 was the percussion side-kick to the TB-303. It even looks like the 303. It stores up to 32 patterns and 8 songs. The 606 allows switching between Pattern Play and Write mode while running - making the 606 the only drumcomputer in the X0X series that can be edited while performing and switching patterns. It is also possible to link up to 4 consecutive patterns in Pattern Play mode. There is only a mono audio output, however there are mods from Kenton Electronics and Analog Solutions that will add individual outputs for each drum tone.

The 606 has seven analog drum sounds which are simple, yet great! Kick, Snare, 2 toms, open hat, closed hat, cymbal, accent. The hi-hats are a very tinny electronic sound and its toms are great for soft tribal patterns. These seven sounds alone are still quite popular today, and the 606 has been used by Uberzone, Cirrus, Sneaker Pimps, Download, Aphex Twin, Astral Projection, Nine Inch Nails, Mr. Oizo, Jimi Tenor, Kid 606, OMD, Moby, Freddy Fresh, Autechre, Luke Vibert, and Union Jack.
(info extracted from vintagesynth.com)

Ensoniq Fizmo Demo

This is a short demo of Ensoniqs Fizmo. For those that might not know the Fizmo is a bit of an odd one. It uses 2nd generation Transwave synthesis. This basically mean it has a load of wavetables and you can use a controller to move between them to gnerate your final sound. It has a definete digital sound and can generate some very complex sounds. As a synth it is very well kitted out with a plenty of oscillators, a vocoder and an arpegiattor. HERE is a little more info on the Fizmo.

Demo is thanks to RanKirlian

Klee 2 Sequencer

"Short overview and demo of the Klee 2 sequencer for analog synthesizers. This is a DIY project and the video was shortened for YouTube...Enjoy!" - thanks to timsynth

Naphta Interview

There a good interview with Naphta over on weareie.com. For those that might not know Naphta is one of Irelands longest running Dn'B and Hardcore DJ's. I think his was the first Irish Dn'B Hardcore mixtape I heard. The interview is In anticipation of the release of Naphta's 'Long Time Burning' LP.

Read the interview HERE.
Check out Naptha's myspace HERE.

Audio Documentary about Vinyl

An Audio documentary about the wonders of vinyl called "To Have and to Hold" :) It was put together by Glasgow DJ Johnny Lyle - LISTEN TO IT.

via woebot

Ableton Live 7 (Beta Testing)

Ableton have announced Live 7 to be released before the end of 2007 just in time for the X-Mas Namm show. There are various improvements such as better memory management for large sampler files, new instruments like an electric piano and a physical modelling synth. Of all the new improvements for me the most important is the promise of 64 bit operation. I have been holding off buying a new computer until 64 bit software is ready and now it is :)

Get more details on the improvements over on synthtopia
Have a look to see if you can become a Beta Tester for Live 7 HERE

Hans Zimmers Modular :)

There's a post on VSE looking at some of the large the scale modulars. Mostly the typical like the Tonto and the big tarantula looking serge... I never saw this pic before though.... it's a part (oh my god) of Han Zimmers Modular set-up. Click on the pic to a bigger view.

"Sequenced Moogs" with TR606 and MS20

"Here you can hear my Minimoog and my Moog Prodigy, which both are controlled from the little nice softwaresequencer Seq-303. The Minimoog plays an 8-note-sequence and the Prodigy an 16-note-sequence, which both are repeating at the end. The MIDI-signal comes from my windows-computer into a Doepfer MSY-1 MIDI-to-Sync-Interface, which triggers my modified Roland TR606. From the MIDI-thru of the MSY-1 the MIDI-signal runs to another Doepfer-box, the MCV4 - a MIDI-to-CV/Gate-Interface, which controlls the Moog Prodigy. From this Interface the MIDI-signal went finally into the Lintronics-MIDI-Interface, which is build inside of the Minimoog. The soundeffects you can hear are a reverb-program from my Zoom RFX1000 and a delay-program from my Alesis Quadraverb." - thanks to moogfreak

Mattson Mini Modular MMM Debut @ PNW Synth DIY 2007

"This is a little montage of footage shot at the PNW Synth DIY in Renton, WA. The music was composed entirely on the MMM by William Horne of insidesynthesis.blogspot.com" - thanks to redmartian

Voynich Modified Analogue Yamaha CS-10 Synth

"An extra multiple waveshape oscillator is added to this monosynth for extra sonic power (more)" - thanks to Synthasy2000

Clavia Nord Wave - first sound samples

sample 1 - sample 2 - sample 3

Clavia have posted audio samples of their forthcoming Nord Wave. The big deal on the Nord Wave is that you can load in your own samples and use them as is or modulate them with all the nord waves synth parameters. The nord wave has virtual analogue oscillators, FM, wavetable and a small sampler. Also it'll be able to use oscillator modulation on any samples recorded to create unusual morphs.

details on the nord wave PDF