Gary Numan In Conversation from Machine Music on Vimeo.

I’ve always thought Gary Numan was highly underrated. Go back today and listen through his albums and see if you don’t agree. Honest loud real analog synths and interesting vocals. They don’t make them like they used to.

“Gary Numan (born Gary Webb on 8 March 1958) is an English singer, composer, and musician, most widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” (with Tubeway Army) and “Cars”. One of the first musicians to use electronic synthesizers successfully in rock music, his signature sound consisted of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals. Commercially unsuccessful for many years of his career, Numan is nevertheless considered a pioneer of commercial electronic music. His use of themes from science fiction, and his combination of aggressive punk energy with electronics, have since been widely imitated.” – Wikipedia.org

The official Gary Numan homepage: http://www.numan.co.uk

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MStretchSynth Demo – Kevin Schlei (2010) from Kevin Schlei on Vimeo.

Here’s an interesting synthesizer based on a Macbook Pro’s Trackpad. I like futuristicish things and MStretchSynth surely fits that bill. If this interface gets tied to user generated samples it’s going to be great.

“‘MStretchSynth’ uses multi-point (multi-touch) data streams to create a synthesis instrument driven by the relationships between points. Instead of mapping touch positions (X and Y coordinates) directly to synthesis parameters, relationships such as angle, distance, and velocity compared to other points are used. ‘MStretchSynth’ uses angle, distance and total velocity between points to map to synthesis parameters pitch, amplitude and delay depth.” – Kevin Schlei

For more info: kevinschlei.com

via Synthtopia

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A very pretty ash wood and jade green backlit Minimoog Voyager playing some drum sounds. $3,000 for one short real analog and fast envelope drum zap? You bet! Ok yeah we can multitrack these days.

“If you want THE Moog sound, this is it. Period. This has Bob Moog’s legendary synthesizer design expertise in its circuits. Say no more. It sounds amazing, looks amazing, and feels amazing. There is no substitute.” – moogmusic.com

For more info: moogmusic.com

via Matrixsynth

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Novamusik hooks some Tenori’s up to a Vermona DRM-MKIII and a Doepfer A100 Mini System. I don’t love the song they create but this is the way to use Tenori-On’s! Click to 1:06 in the video to see the great action. Thanks Chuck!

“The guys of Nova Musik playing with some new toys that just came in… First thing we thought of? Can we hook these things up to the modular? The answer is yes, and much much more.” – novamusik.com

Do you want a set up like this too?

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TOPLAPapp and GRID from Oliver Chesler on Vimeo.

Here’s a video I make of two terrific iPhone Apps that make random digital sounds. TOPLAPapp (iTunes link) and Grid (iTunes link) are must haves for any noise nerds out there.

“TOPLAPapp is a sonic puzzle based around a virtual machine for sound synthesis. This machine only accepts a few valid instructions, and you control it by placing each command letter within a grid, along with setting some associated parameter sliders. The machine runs through the grid, following the instructions to create the output sounds, which are usually of a somewhat noisy character, hopefully interestingly so. The historical antecedents include instruction synthesis as pionneered at the Institute of Sonology in the 1970s, and the live coding movement, of modifying a running program as it acts.” – Nick Collins

For more info: Nick Collins and Kin

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Mr. Alias Pro is a broken screwed up synthesizer. Mr. Alias was designed that way and it’s a perfect soft synth for anyone into ciruit bending, noise or headaches. I actually think this synth is very useful when it comes to creating easy interesting intros or breaks. It has an Auto Randomizer so I am happy. Mac/PC, AU/VST plug-in or Standalone. It’s Donationware so any amount gets you the pro version.

Audio samples:
http://www.thepiz.org/mralias2/ProRandom.mp3
http://www.thepiz.org/mralias2/pro.mp3
http://www.thepiz.org/mralias2/1.mp3

“Mr. Alias Pro is a fully professional software synthesizer which exploits the properties of digital audio to achieve extremely bad sounds.” – thepiz.org

For more info: thepiz.org

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A customer of Schneiders Beuro in Berlin demos his wonderful Haken Continuum. I’ve played one of these before and it feels and sounds terrific. I really want one of these but at $5290 it’s not in the cards at least this year. If your looking for something in the same thought arena check out the Eowave Persephone: click here. Be sure to check out video 2 at around 56 seconds in!

“Designed by Dr. Lippold Haken and manufactured by Haken Audio, the Continuum Fingerboard is a Midi performance controller that allows unprecedented realtime musical control. With a greater pitch range than a traditional 88 note Midi keyboard, the Continuum offers realtime continuous control in three directions for every finger that is placed on the playing surface. Included internally is a custom designed synthesizer, specifically programmed to take advantage of the subtle and dramatic expressive musical possibilities of the Continuum. The Continuum is available in full-size (nearly 8 octaves) and half-size (nearly 4 octaves) versions.” – hakenaudio.com

For more info: hakenaudio.com

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“Demo of 2007 Waldorf Blofeld. All sounds & arpeggio lines programmed by WC Olo Garb. Video editing by WC Olo Garb. Stuff going on: M – Notes triggered by external midi device. S – At least one oscillator uses a factory sample, so this sound cannot be achieved on the desktop version without the license. The patches do not comprise any external/custom samples.” – Jexus

I love Jexus’s synth demo videos. I’m all in when it comes to Eastern European style. I’d even like to live in one of those warn out commie blocks. Weird I know but what can I say? Back to the Blofeld… I didn’t know it could sound that cool did you?

For more info on Jexus: syntezatory.prv.pl
Grab a Blofeld keyboard for $1200. For more info: waldorfmusic.de

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkm-2OuIOhI

Oh pretty thing there you are. Sweetwater has an exclusive on a special edition Moog Little Phatty Stage II. Besides it’s pretty rear it has a Control Voltage output modification pre-installed at the Moog factory. Analog sequencer bassline fun is on the menu. This thing has CV, Midi and USB! I’m glad the economy is in the tanker because these are $1500. Do you want one too?

“You can also connect it directly to a computer running the Little Phatty Editor/Librarian. MIDI Clock Sync allows you to synchronize the LFO and arpeggiator rate to your MIDI sequencer, drum machine or software. Sample and hold, triangle, square, sawtooth and ramp wave modulations can now be perfectly timed with your rhythm track. With the pre-installed CV Output module, you also get CV output for the gate (0V – +5V), pitch (1V per octave), volume envelope (0V – 5V), filter envelope (0V – 5V), and off of the mod bus at a variable voltage.” – sweetwater.com

For more info: sweetwater.com

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Ben Houston and Arius Blaze create very interesting musical instruments under the name Foltek. The garden reminds me of my recently acquired Ekdalh Moisterizer. If your looking for a studio toy that no one else has, something that can’t be downloaded or bought at Guitar Center Foltek should be considered. To see some of the Foltek works currently for sale: click here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsofGjQtGXw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlLFmeFjp2Y

“The sound very much reflects the asthetic – an electric garden with waves growing from the sound field they’re created from. The sound board and spouts of wire extending from it are picked up with high sensitivity and run through a series of effects intended to reflect the visual aspect of the whole. Every sprig of string has a unique sound and the Garden can be played as a percussion piece or soundscape generator. There is as much musical potential as there is a potential for strange sounds.” – folktek.com

For more info: folktek.com

via Synthtopia

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