Font Of Uncertainty

I am planning to make a few Buchla format modules but what has been driving me a bit crazy is trying to work out which fonts were used on the 100 series (1960s) and 200 series (1970s) modules. I have spent a lot of time on forums and google trying to work out what the beautiful sans-serif font he used was, and I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't exist anymore! It is NOT a standard typeface that is currently available as a downloadable computer-based font (such as helvetica, folio, universe, akzidenz) it would have been type-set by hand to Don's specifications. Anyway, I have found what I think is the closest thing possible on a computer and it is a typeface called "Grotesque No. 9 SH Bold Condensed Italic OT". I actually had to BUY IT WITH MONEY! which surprised me. Have a look at the screenshots below. The first is of the Buchla 259 dual oscillator from the 1970s with its lovely blue typography. Below that is my test. In black is my attempt using Grotesque No. 9. I had to change the letter spacing and weight on to match it up. It's pretty close though isn't it?

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

GT

Here is a remix me and Foxxy did of Gazelle Twin's song Changeling What you are hearing synth-wise is Moog Modular and Linn LM1 and Lexicon 224 and Arp Odyssey

Stick Men

Had a mega-day today working with Sefa on things. Quite a lot of people came in to help. Amongst them were the drummer and guitarist from Bo Ningen. They make doom-rock, maybe better than anyone else? My friend Mike left his Fender Twin amp here ages ago because it was broken but it fixed itself - which was lucky because it sounded amazing today when Kohhei was using it:

Pic Of The Week

My modulars have won the IDOW / Matrixsynth pic of the week contest again. This time the picture was taken by Neil Fellowes (see the full gallery here). Nice one GTK!

Gina's Brain

Look at lovely Gina and her brain! And a VCS3 synthesiser. This was just on BBC2 - its Mark Lawson's look at TV in 1973 featuring James Burke's pioneering science show...

Serge In Green

Here is a patch on the Serge Modular. I sent the output to the oscilloscope and it makes a lovely green accompaniment. The patch uses two VCOs, one LPF (with CV of slope - look it up!) and three VC Phasers. Also a ton of VC modulation and two sequencers

Rainbow

In Britain, April traditionally sees the start of the rainy season, which usually lasts until the end of March. I took this picture from my office window just now

Park Life

I mentioned in this post the other day about a walk on Hampstead Heath and how nice it was up there. Well I found a house for sale that overlooks it, its really amazing isn't it?

Click below to read the blurb

Word of the Week #34