Omega 8 as a Drum Machine – Quick Behind the Scenes from Calvin on Vimeo.
Calvin is showing off his great looking Studio Electronics Omega 8 analog polyphonic synth again. This time he teams his orange box up with a Culture Vulture valve distortion unit. For all his audio samples and a full run though of what he did head over to: http://cl516.blogspot.com/
“Well, long gone are my TR-909, TR-808, Machinedrum, Xbase09, MFB-502, and I haven’t picked up those D16 plugins yet. So I decided, why not use the Omega 8?” – cl516.blogspot.com
For more info: www.studioelectronics.com
This entry was written by , posted on October 6, 2009 at 7:44 am, filed under hardware, synthesizer and tagged analog, Calvin Cardiod, Culture Vulture, drum machine, hardware, Omega 8, Studio Electronics. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Novamusik is selling a special version of the Moog Voyager called the “NE”. I think it’s the best looking version of the best looking synth out there. They come in several colors with white-washed cabinets, matching backlighting, matching colored rocker switches and matching capped jack panels. I like the Electric NE above and in a close second the Solar NE below. You can see the other colors at the Novamusik site: click here
They will get you for $3,295. How many weeks pay gets you one? For more info: www.moogmusic.com
This entry was written by , posted on September 19, 2009 at 6:36 am, filed under hardware, synthesizer and tagged analog, colors, hardware, Minimoog, moog, Moog Voyager, Novamusik, synthesizer. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9bsSA-OzH4
Here’s an interesting way to show off the portability of a product. Have you ever heard of “Parkour” or the people who do it often called “traceur’s”? Stephane Vigroux make it look easier than it seems. Wikipedia: “Parkour (sometimes also abbreviated to PK) or l’art du déplacement[1] (English: the art of movement) is a discipline that appeared first in France, more similar to a martial art than to a sport, focused on moving from one point to another as smoothly, efficiently and quickly as possible using the abilities of the human body.”.
I used to run all over the mountain near my house growing up. Would that count? In the end it all leads us to the small Native Instruments audio interface for DJ’s the Audio 2 DJ. It seems to fit the bill nicely if your mixing solely off a laptop.
“Renowned traceur Stephane Vigroux demonstrates the portability of the new Audio 2 DJ interface by free-running through London. A film by Julie Angel” – www.native-instruments.com
For more info: www.native-instruments.com
This entry was written by , posted on August 15, 2009 at 5:41 am, filed under hardware and tagged Audio 2 DJ, dee jay, dj, hardware, interface, native instruments, Stephane Vigroux, traceur. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
If you want a true analog multi-voice multritimbral synthesizer your options have been limited and expensive. Today Dave Smith Instruments drops the price of entry into this field to $799. The new Tetra is essential 4 DSI Mophos in a black box.
“Tetra is our next-generation analog poly synth. Tetra takes the award-winning sound and features of Mopho, multiplies them by four, and packs them in a box less than half an inch larger! Tetra has multiple personalities. It is a four-voice, analog poly synth, a sort of “mini Prophet.” It’s a four-part, multitimbral synth with separate outputs, essentially four Mophos in one very compact box. And it’s a voice expander for other Tetras or the Prophet ’08.” – www.davesmithinstruments.com
You can check out the Tetra operation manual: click here
For more info: www.davesmithinstruments.com
This entry was written by , posted on August 6, 2009 at 7:19 am, filed under hardware, synthesizer and tagged analog, Dave Smith Instruments, hardware, Mopho, synthesizer, Tetra. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
The Studio Electronics Omega 8 is one of those pure analog synths that makes you go wow when you hear one in person. I spent a lot of time with an “O8″ at Schneiders Buero in Berlin. I think it’s up there with a real MiniMoog and Macbeth M5 as far as it’s “WANT!” factor.
“Sound: absolute dream. 8 discrete voices. Analog and fat, yet tight and precise and articulate. None of that “carelessly eating up too much sonic space” stuff. It gets to the point and delivers sonic oomph very efficiently. I’ve yet to perform the auto-tune on it so far. I give it enough time to warm up, and all 8 voices are well-behaved. Sounds alive.” – Calvin Cardioid
Calvin Cardioid has posted a very nice set up samples on his blog cl516 and over on his SoundCloud page.
I think the Calvin’s color choice is excellent. Check out more photos on his blog: http://cl516.blogspot.com/
For more info: www.studioelectronics.com
This entry was written by , posted on August 3, 2009 at 5:54 pm, filed under hardware, synthesizer and tagged analog, Calvin Cardiod, hardware, Omega 8, Studio Electronics, synthesizer. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Voice of Saturn Synth with vactrol cv mod from Travis Thatcher on Vimeo.
Here’s a mod to tame your Voice of Saturn synth a bit. Hey I want green LEDs and yellow switches on my VOS!
“The Voice of Saturn synthesizer with added vactrol based cv-mod for better range of control.” – Travis Thatcher
For more info: www.curiousinventor.com
Related post: The Voice of Saturn Synthesizer & Sequencer
This entry was written by , posted on July 30, 2009 at 5:13 am, filed under hardware, synthesizer and tagged Curious Inventer, hardware, modification, synthesizer, Travis Thatcher, Voice of Saturn. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Long before the hipster Microkorg hit Williamsburg there was the Korg 700s Minikorg. It was one of Korg’s first synths and to this day it’s one of my favorites. Every time I hear one of its raspy detuned aggressive sounds it makes my brain jump to it’s evil side. Daniel Miller used a 700 to create one of my all time favorite records TVOD/Warm Letherette by The Normal (iTunes link). Daniel soon went on to found Mute Records and sign Depeche Mode.
“It has three ring modulators for some strange sounds and noises. Sometimes a decent bass sound for techno music can be achieved using the MiniKorg’s hi-pass and low-pass filters. The two oscillators can be de-tuned and they offer triangle, sawtooth and square waveforms. There are some strange analog effects built-in as well such as portamento, a rudimentary repeat-delay, auto-bend (bender), vibrato and Chorus and Noise waveforms.” – vintagesynth.org
You can find the Korg 700s MiniKorg on eBay from time to time for a decent price. It’s on my wishlist!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbCHQyEJL7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8thf7TpZYs
photo credit: drsquidd
This entry was written by , posted on July 7, 2009 at 4:47 am, filed under hardware, synthesizer and tagged 700s, hardware, Korg, Korg 700, Microkorg, synthesizer, synthpunk, The Normal. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
I love the sound of spring reverbs. The Ekdahl Moisturizer is a pre-amp (with 100 x gain), spring reverb with wet/dry slider and a filter. There are two absolutely brilliant things about this unit. First, the springs are exposed for you to smash. Second, the Ekdahl Moisterizer is only $300. Needless to say I put my order in for one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g86o5FkwiM
“Basically, the Ekdahl Moisturizer is a spring reverb where the springs are exposed so they can be played/hit/fiddled with. As well as being capable of creating sound in itself, you can of course also play sound through the springs like a regular spring reverb – this makes for happy-fun-time finger-modulation of the reverb on whatever audio that’s going through it. On top of this there’s an analog multimode filter that can be used to attenuate or exaggerate certain frequencies in the sound, this is real handy while playing the springs as you can – for instance – cut all the highs and just make thunderous doomy sounds or do the opposite; cut all the lows and make that ear piercing high frequency special love. Also, it incorporates an LFO that’s internally routable to the filter and that also has some external routing-stuff. The Ekdahl Moisturizer has tons of CV / Expression pedal options on the back for even more hillarious moments. The Moisturizer is a mono unit. ” – sdiy.org
The “E.M’s” designer Karl says he’s a bit backlogged so I’ll have to wait until September for my unit so if you want one you better get on the list. Be sure to also check out “Bob’s atomic experiment” on their website for some old USA style industrial music. For more videos and audio samples of the Ekdahl Moisterizer: http://www.sdiy.org
This entry was written by , posted on June 16, 2009 at 3:35 am, filed under hardware and tagged Ekdahl Moisturizer, filter, hardware, LFO, reverb, spring reverb. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Loud Objects “Noise Toy” x2 from Pete Shambler on Vimeo.
Loud Objects is a group born of Columbia students, composers, programmers and an architect. You can get their noise making kits from Make Magazine and they played live in the US, Europe and Japan.
My boss recently gave me a Loud Objects “Noise Toy” kit as a gift. When paired with the one we’ve already got at our place, they make a glorious sound. – theshamblers.blogspot.com
For more info: www.loudobjects.com myspace.com/loudobjects
This entry was written by , posted on April 7, 2009 at 5:04 am, filed under hardware, synthesizer and tagged hardware, Loud Objects, Make Magazine, Noise Toy, synthesizer. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
Alex Delfont and Shaun Crook make some interesting audio hardware for synth heads. The toys they have for sale called Delfy Originals are reasonably priced from 35-135 British Pounds. Here’s a few videos of what they have to offer:
Delfy Creations SS-1 from Delfy Creations on Vimeo.
Delfy Creations SSVC-1 from Delfy Creations on Vimeo.
Delfy Creations Square Stepper from Delfy Creations on Vimeo.
I love unique stuff like this. It seems in line with some of what Curious Inventor, Atomosynth and some others non-giant music tech corporations are doing. So out of the the stuff Delfy offers what do you like the best?
For more info: delfycreations.com or myspace.com/delfycreations
This entry was written by , posted on March 18, 2009 at 5:33 am, filed under hardware, synthesizer and tagged Alex Delfont, Delfy Creations, hardware, London, Shaun Crook, synthesizer. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink and follow any comments with the RSS feed for this post.
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