wire to the ear

Do you remember this post about the new Leipzig rack mount synthesizer from Analog Solutions? Well first off that synth is now shipping and some tasty audio samples are online including this one:

According to the Analog Solutions website there will be a keyboard version coming soon. If you prepay you can choose your own limited edition color. I’ll take mine in white and pink with blue leds.

LEIPZIG-k … coming soon. Keyboard Leipzig with extra functions, like 2nd LFO, LCD editing (of MIDI setup), CV/Gate/CV2 inputs & outputs on rear panel, and more! (Above) is first prototype metalwork, the wooden side panels are missing! Production model will be BLACK, but if you prepay you I might give you a choice of limited edition coloured editions! Contact me if you are interested. Expect the price to be around £799 exc. VAT and delivery. - www.analoguesolutions.com

I am beginning to wonder if there are now more new hardware synths being manufactured new than ever before. Of course I want them all.

Wire to the Ear takes you to Jomox. from wiretotheear on Vimeo.

Last week I decided to buy a Jomox Mbase 01. It’s a 100% analog kick drum module. It gives you kicks that range from a small click to complete bass insanity. It can convincing do any 909 or 808 kick drums plus many more variations. Honestly it’s the best kick drum I ever heard. I will be doing another post with samples and a full review. Take it from someone who performs live every weekend: having a killer perfect kick drum is vital!

My first go to place for all things analog boutique is Schnieder’s Buero and since I already have a Vermona DRM1 MKIII on order with them I thought I would just add the Mbase onto the order. Unfortunately they said they were out of MBase’s and didn’t know when new ones were coming in. Next I walked over to Sound & Drumland and they told me it would be about a month. A month? Come on man! I have money there must be a way right?

So I did what any American born capitalist would do and emailed the manufacturer direct. Just a few minutes later Jürgen Michaelis the owner and producer of all the Jomox products emailed me back saying he had one left and I could pick it up from him. I knew if I was going to Jomox I had to bring my camera.

I got on my bicycle (it’s the best way to get around Berlin) and made my way to Neukolin to Jomox headquarters. What I did not expect was Jürgen being so open and friendly. He could see I was seriously interested in what was going on and he put aside a good hour of his day to show me his workshop and toys. I’m very pleased to be able to show you the video above.

Do you see that Mbase 01 he signed? That one is mine!

Here are a few bullet points I picked up from my conversation with Jurgen Michaelis:

• He once worked at Sound & Drumland.
• He repaired Roland TR-909s at a place called Xtended which still exists.
• Because he did repairs for the Roland drum machine he had access to the papers and could design his own machines (the Xbase line) when Roland decided not to compete in the Analog space.
• Roland has never shown any ill will to the Jomox line.
• He personally took a trip to Taiwan to find a manufacturing plant for Jomox products.
• He hand tests every Jomox product still.
• The metal work comes from within Germany.
• He doesn’t listen to much electronic music (I did give him my album though!).
• He is thinking about moving to America someday.
• He did tell me what he is working on next but I can’t tell you (sorry!).

Besides the video I took a few still photos. Check them out: click here

I’ve mentioned the Berlin synthesizer shop Schneider’s Buero a few times on this blog. In fact I posted a photo set from the amazing store: click here. It’s run by Andreas Schneider who could not be a nicer or more enthusiastic synth head. The store is just down the street from me and just last week I ordered a Vermona DRM1 MKIII from them. So I am delighted to discover there is a documentary in the works about the shop! It looks like its going to be really great with interviews with people like Daniel Miller (Mute Records), Ken Macbeth and Anthony Rother.

‘Totally Wired’ explores one man’s electric evangelism, and the interface he has built to connect analogue instrument inventors with their end-users. The film features an informed selection of inventors and artists alike, including Dieter Doepfer, Junior Boys, Ken MacBeth, Anthony Rother, Jessica Rylan, Daniel Miller, Wowa Cwejmann, Per Salzwedel, Ricardo Villalobos, Magda, Marc Houle and many more. - totallywired.tumblr.com

Keep an eye out on their official blog for more news: totallywired.tumblr.com

I’ve been stuck in the studio catching up on several remixes and songs for my next album. I would never forget about my blog readers so while I was there today I shot three videos of my Roland SH3 in action.

The Roland SH3 was produced in 1974. It is more rare than the SH3A which was put into the market after Moog sued Roland for the original SH3’s filter design. This is one reason the Roland SH3 sounds so incredible. Rumor has it that less than 100 of these were ever made.

You can hear pure Roland SH3 accompanied by an Electrocomp-101 in two of my songs: Room of Posers and Sex Machine.

Be sure to check out the other two Roland SH3 videos I put up here:
http://www.vimeo.com/user442527

Last night I went to the infamous and quite beautiful nightclub Berghain in Berlin to see the Tenori-on launch event. I’ve been highly interested in the Tenori-on since I first read about it almost a year ago. The device is right up my alley: a sequencer, white leds, and it’s made for live performance. So what did I think when I finally got to see it in person?

When I walked into Berghain they had kiosks hooked up with several Tenori-on available to use. Right away I was shocked at how bright the white leds bling out at you. You instantly get that “wow this is futuristic” feeling.

Upstairs in the main room it was crowded as I suspected it would be. I mean come on this is Berlin where even the women are sequencer freaks! Lots of people wearing Ableton shirts and the stage had four Macbooks ready to accompany the Tenoris. This was my kind of geekfest!

We heard three live acts before the inventor of the Tenori, Toshio Iwai would talk. The first two acts were ho hum. I was mesmerized by the Tenori but the music and technique of the first performers was not interesting. The third act Sutekh from San Fransisco blew me away! I never really heard of this guy before but most of my friends did. He played all noise and he had the Tenoris led display going crazy. It was quite evil and machine like. I cant explain what he was doing but the Tenori-on’s display reminded me of the scene in 2001 A Space Odyssey when they travel through the worm hole. Inside the visuals he was doing two things at once and they seemed to be going at different speeds. I even think he played a game of pong! Without the visual aspect would I have like the music so much?

Finally it was time for Tenori Toshio to speak. He gave a really incredible powerpoint style talk. He detailed how he got the idea to create the Tenori-on. He showed the early software he programmed, including a game that was never released for the Super Nintendo system. He showed his art installations all which had elements of the Tenori-on. Finally he took us by video to Yamaha and the factory where the Tenori-on is created. He ended with a video of a robot who polishes the metal on the Tenori. I was laughing pretty hard when I realized the robot was talking to itself as it finished tasks.

There was a full night of performances after Toshio Iwai spoke. I will have some interviews from some of those artists on Wire to the Ear soon. You will find it pretty interesting how they were invited to perform for this tour and what they received as payment!

To see the full set of photos from this event: click here

Qoob.tv is an Italian video website that partners with MTV Europe. It has it’s own internet shows and networks and it also allows users to upload content. One of the gems on the site is an in house show called Tech Stuff. They have produced ten excellent electronic music related videos.

Some of the subjects covered so far include a visit to Jomox in Berlin, Sherman Filter, Moog Music, Analog Synthesis, Theremins and more. The videos are all well produced and worth a visit.

Tech Stuff is a documentary of 10 x 4 mins episodes on the techniques, the artists and the most bizarre instruments which have made the history of electronic music. Why is it that bands such as Chemical Brothers and Daft Punk use equipment from more than 30 years ago? What are Theremin, Moog and generative music? How does a filter work? How is sound digitalised? Who were Robert Moog and Lev Termen? Did electronic music already exist in the 1920s? How is a vinyl record pressed? And what about the future? These and many more questions find their answer in Tech Stuff, with rare footage, performance excerpts and interviews made to appease the needs of the International sound enthusiasts. - Tech Stuff, qoob.tv

Here is the 5 minute Jomox video interview with founder Jürgen Michaelis. In the video he mentions they still have a shop open in Berlin. I’m going to have to make a trip over there as soon!

Spectrasonics has been creating a series of videos for it’s upcoming super soft synth Omnisphere. The latest video is quiet excellent. Eric Persing knows how to get you excited about a product. The video takes a time line tour of arpeggiators in vintage synths. You get to see a Moog Modular, Roland Jupiter 4, Jupiter 8, Juno 60, Sequential Circuits Prophet VS, Roland JP-800 and Access Virus all “arping” away.

I like the implementation of the step sequencer/arpeggiator in Omniphere too. The “oh nice” moment comes when he drops a Jazz midi groove template into Omnisphere and the arpeggiator locks to it. The Omnisphere arpeggiator also has a swing parameter which is vital in today’s electronic music.

To see the video click on “Continue Reading…” because it’s a Quicktime I didn’t want to have it slow down the main page of this site (it autoloads). Read “Superb arpeggiator history video from Spectrasonics.”

ADACHI Tomomi is a Japanese poet, performer, composer and installation artist. He writes music for a “punk style choir called the “Adachi Tomomi Royal Chorus”. He also makes synthesizers and Theremins out of Tupperware!

ADACHI’s self-made instruments are consists of simple electronic circuit, almost case built in Tupperware. They never can make precise pitch, but have good sound and noise, easy to operate and carry and worked by battery. Of course the funny and pretty looks are important aspects. - www.adachitomomi.com

via Gizmodo

Musikmesse is one of the best music gear trade shows. It takes place in Frankfurt Germany this week. There are many websites covering Musikmesse down to the very last detail. I’d like to only list here what I personally think are the most interesting new products. So without further ado here is Wire to the Ear’s MusikMesse 2008 hot picks:

Korg DS-10. This is a Korg MS-10 synthesizer for the Nintendo DS! This is a fully sanctioned product from Korg itself. You use the DS’s touch screens to control parameters. There is a sequencer and you can sync several units together via WiFi. I am really looking forward to getting this and using it live! link

Melodyne Direct Note Access. This has to be on top of the list because it’s a revolution in the audio tech world. This fall when the next version of Melodyne is released you will be able to edit individual notes inside polyphonic sounds! There is no doubt about it, what Celemony has done is amazing. To grasp this concept head over to Celemony and watch the videos on their site. link

MFB Synth 3. Manfred Fricke from Berlin (MFB… get it?) has a new synth ready for 2008. I really like the MFB stuff because it’s affordable and sounds good. These units are a lot smaller than you think. You could throw everything MFB makes into a backpack easy and head to a gig. The new Synth 3 will make sound without you patching any cables into it. But of course the fun starts with wires! 3VCOs, full analog, 37 patch points, midi and CV for only 580 euros! link

Rob Papen RG. Dutch sound designer turned software developer Rob Papen makes really useful synths. I find myself turned to Blue quite often. His new release looks interesting and my guess is it will find it’s home in an unintended market. What do I mean? Well it’s a virtual rhythm guitar plug-in matched with Rob’s synth engine and sequencers. So will rock n rollers be using it? I doubt it, my guess is whatever sounds this thing churns out will be in dance clubs by October. link

Solid State Logic Matrix Superanalogue Mixer. When you think of 16 Channel mixers of the 8-bus type the you think of Mackie or Soundcraft maybe? Imagine a small sized console from SSL? Each channel strip would represent a boutique quality strip. You know the class-A vintage looking things you lust over? Now imagine that small SSL with a digital output for about $25k. Come on your car costs more than that right? This is the kind of gear monthly payments were made for. link

The Nord Lead Anniversary Model Ltd. Edition. The Nordlead really made me believe that software could emulate hardware in a convincing way. To top it off the Nordlead was built like a tank and had a wicked cool stone mod wheel and wood pitch bender. There’s nothing new feature wise on the Anniversary Model. It is essentially a Nordlead 2x but those reverse keys are pretty. There will be only 299 of these so run to Sweden now and get yours before it’s to late. link

OrangeVocoder 10th Anniversary. What? Anniversary edition software? Sure why not. I must have used Prosoniq’s vocoder on twenty songs or more over the years. The new version finally brings us an Audio Units, new sound modes, voiced/unvoiced detection linked with a noise synthesizer, a filterbank freeze option and a HF passthru mode. link

So what are your Musikmesse picks? Anything hot you think I missed? The show’s not over so by Monday I think I will update this post a little.

There’s a new synthesizer thats coming in May 2008 called the Rozzbox One V2. The thing thats got me personally impressed is the fact that it actually sounds different than 99% of what’s out there already. That says a lot in the over saturated synth (soft or hard) market.

It’s polyphonic with 5 voices, which is enough to make chords. It sells for under 10k because it’s using digital oscillators. But these sound sources are matched with digital, analog and oh yeah baby a tube filter! When you hear “tube” and “synthesizer” you probably remember the Metasonix Wretch. But to me the Rozzbox has put it’s tube to a better use because unlike the Wretch the Rozzbox can be easily musical. I like complete noise but I also my mayhem paired with some musical sensibility.

The oscillators have 16 waveforms to choose from. There is an FM engine, ring modulator, noise source, bit reducer, sample rate reducer, modulation matrix, digital hard cliping, “Hacker Mode” which introduces artificial aliasing, and a “Chaos Mode” for the digital filter. Oh man.

Need things moving? The Rozzbox has 2 LFOs, wave tracking, 2 ADSR envelopes, envelope follower and 4 sequencers each with there own settings. It’s hardware (yay) and so it has Midi, 5 individual outputs, an interesting blue graphic screen and 56 knobs and sliders!

Maybe you could compare it to a Dave Smith’s Poly Evolver Rack? The audio and video samples of the Rozzbox have me happy. Head over to the official Rozzbox website to hear some audio: www.rozzbox.de

For videos check Big City Music which is selling the Rozzbox has some cool videos up: click here