Visit Roland

I just saw this over on Matrixsynth, you can now go and explore Roland Corporation's R&D facility in Hamamatsu. Inside is their private synth museum, which I just walked around!

Chipmunks & Giants

Misfits

I saw this over on Matrixsynth and thought it was worth making into a PDF and posting here for posterity

Originally the article was scanned by Dave Noyze here

Misfits by Zack Dagoba

Full Metal Fairlight

I saw this over on Matrixsynth - a post about Vivian Kubrick, who made the music for FMJ on her Fairlight. I really love the sound and feel of her music, gonna have to find more of it - check it out:

New Machines

This is how you do it. Via matrixsynth. Check out the Roland CMU800 at 9.55. WANT!

Ebay Of The Day

Check this out, Martin Hannett's actual very own International 4600 Synthesiser. It sold pretty quickly...

"Martin Hannett's ( Joy Division producer and many Manchester and Factory bands producer, he played synths on many Factory records) actual International 4600 analog patchable synth . Not much needed to restore as cosmetically it is all there and the keyboard was triggering synth sounds recently, but sold as complete restoration project. comes with Martin Hannett's build and instruction manual from 1977/78/79/80 and copy of his patch notes. A much tattier one of these recently sold non working for around £1000 without it having any Martin Hannett ownership.so its a snip at £1400 with all the Hannett related historyThis one has metal protective edging. If you are in the UK would still ship in foam and a crate or you can collect. Will ship anywhere in the word but would crate it up to ship"
Via Matrixsynth


UPDATE: And now they have listed Hannett's Transcendant synth and Revox tape machine! at £6K its not cheap though

"Working Transcendent analog synth 1978/79(with documentation) used and owned by Martin Hannett ( he owned two of these) Transcendents were actually used on Joy Division, Durutti Column and lots of Factory and Manchester band recordings and Hannett often had one in the control room as well as the band having one in the studio area. This includes his instruction manual and handwritten mods he did to the synth. We know the Transcendent was used as a straight synth sound and also used to feed triggers from sound sources into it on many Hannett recordings. There are several photos of Hannett using Transcendents around 78/79. Also included is one of four of Hannett's Revox mastering machines that he would take one to studios to make copies of his mixes each day and he had them at home too to listen to his studio work on his home hi fi system. This Hannett RevoxB77 powers up but needs attention. these are important Hannett and Joy Division related artefacts and will climb in value as fascination with Martin Hannett continues to grow"

Board

Via Matrixsynth

Moog Girls

Also saw this over on matrixsynth, via the Moog Music Inc FB page. Its a great pic of an as yet unidentified Moog Girl from the 1960s

Which strongly reminded me of this pic that I took of Hannah a while ago:

Sheer Endless

I wonder what sort of music he is playing for her?

Via Matrixsynth / synthmuseum.de

Best In Show

Remember when I won the I Dream of Wires photo of the week contest? Well guess what after the 30 weeks of winners they have chosen my pic as the overall winner! See here on Matrixsynth for more info. So they are going to make it into a postcard along with 4 others! Cool!

Ebay of the Day

You can buy part of the Hubble Space Telescope from NASA today... (saw this on matrixsynth - even though its not a synth - it looks like it should be a synth)

Roland Racing

I couldn't resist this one. Roland-sponsored racing car from 1980. WANT!

Via matrixsynth

Future Music Now

I almost forgot! I am featured in this months Future Music magazine - theres an interview and a 40 minute video with me explaining some of my modular systems, and the studio is on the cover! As I am in america this issue isn't out yet so I haven't seen the magazine yet! But I did download the excellent iPad version. So if you like modular synths and/or me you should have a look NOW


via matrixsynth

Muller Corner

Heres a wonderful film of how to make interesting electronic music with old machines. "Mr Müller (former assistant of Karl Heinz Stockhausen) performing on sine wave generator, fm radio and 3 tape machines - one used to gate the sound input and 2 used to make echo and reverb and overdub. At the reconstructed original WDR studio für electronische Musik in Cologne Germany. Thanks to Hubert Steins. Part of Opekta residency and Boutique events" Via matrixsynth

Wrist Action

Want! I know it's a fake, but the concept is valid. Via Matrixsynth

Free Modular

Check out this online modular synth. Its really cool. Its just like owning your own vintage modular synthesiser system except you don't have to sell your car before you can use it. The best thing is that you can enter your own sequencer data in the MML format (in the text field under the synth) and it plays it, then you can change the sounds as it plays. Its VERY powerful actually

What you need to do is change the MML sequence code straight away because their one is horrible, so use something like this to get an idea:

t250 dfgfdcde

Into The 80s!

Via Matrixsynth

Big In Japan

I know that universities often have amazing vintage modular synthesisers hidden away in cloakrooms and cupboards behind piles of broken overhead projectors and blackboards. But check out the big stuff belonging to the Department of Musicology at Tokyo University of the Arts. They have a spectacular array of systems to choose from - a Moog IIIP, three Buchla 100 cabinets, six Roland 100Ms, a Roland System 700, an ARP 2500 plus two wings and a lot more

This is the how to book time in the studio:

"Recording studio, in the case of qualifying competitions and the big audition, and then early to reserve your space, please check it very crowded. One-time use as a general rule is 1 hour. That the same person many times to book a short period of time can not be. In addition, when you cancel without permission, you may want to refuse the recording of the family for a while that person belongs"

Is it run by Yoda?

Anyway, here is a video of an open day they had in 2008, and below that a recent clip of the studio itself being played live as one big modular mega-system. Nice work KX! Via Matrixsynth

Hand-Held Positioner Called A Mouse

I saw this over on matrixsynth, a very early (1971) video animation system. This machine is sort of responsible for all that horrible CGI that you see in hollywood films these days

Davy Jones

RIP...




Via Matrixsynth