One is a keytar. One is a master controller with touch faders and real MIDI and — control voltage, for working with analog gear. Seriously. The keyboard controller market may have faded into a dull, gray blur of nearly-identical models, but under the Alesis and Akai monikers, there’s some fresh-looking variety. Love it or hate it, these are not the same keyboards you’ll get from anybody else at the moment.

I got to meet with Alesis/Akai/Numark today at the NAMM Press Preview, get my hands on a prototype of their new Vortex keytar, and talk about what they’re doing. And I have to say, I’m impressed. (I didn’t get hands on the second model, the MAX49, but will visit their booth in the next couple of days.) Finally, we get the return of the MIDI DIN port for working with a wider range of hardware, without sacrificing USB. One model even does CV for analog equipment. And both can supply their own power so you can use them with iOS. And they at least are interesting enough to have an opinion about them – even if you hate them.

Here’s a look at each of them and what why they’ll be on our radar when they ship later this year.

Alesis Vortex Keytar

First off, let me say it, once and for all: I don’t think there’s anything dorky about a keytar, other than the name. Us keyboardists are plenty capable of being dorky on our own, but don’t blame the instrument.

What keytars are – or strap-on keyboards, if you can say that without smirking – is eminently practical for one-handed playing. For two-handed playing or more conventional piano or organ parts, of course, you’re better off without them. But the keytar lets you move around, play expressive solos, and also free up your hands if you’re using other machines, as in electronic music. Unfortunately, the options out there have been overly large, making them too unweildly for many people to play, and overly expensive, pricing them out of a lot of their market. I’ve played and advocated the Rock Band game controller because it’s lightweight, inexpensive, and nicely made, and it even has a MIDI jack. I actually hear one Harmonix veteran is now at Alesis, so that may be no coincidence. (The Vortex even has a touch strip on its neck.)

The Vortex, though, looks like the first really balanced keytar controller in the market … well, ever. Features:

• MIDI DIN and USB MIDI
• Velocity-sensitive pads in addition to the keys
• 37 velocity-sensitive keys (good number for a keytar), plus channel aftertouch (heck, yes)
• MIDI-assignable accelerometer. And this is cool – it’s not on all the time; you make a quick sweep of the neck to enable the accelerometer in a clever gesture control.
• MIDI-assignable touch strip, but also a full pitch bend wheel underneath your thumb (I rather prefer the latter, but it’s nice to have a choice).
• Assignable slider under your thumb, mapped by default to volume.
• Dedicated sustain button, plus octave selection, transport, and patch select.

With all due respect to Roland, this appears to fix effectively all of my complaints about the Roland keytars at a fraction of the price.

And you can add a strap via standard guitar strap pegs.

The best part:
Q2-2012
MSRP US$399
Estimated street US$249

http://www.alesis.com/vortex

Akai Pro MAX49: Touch Faders, CV

I’ve all but begged manufacturers to explore what an advanced or high-end MIDI controller would look like. The MAX49 likely won’t please everyone, but it’s one compelling-looking answer. Features:

• 49 semi-weighted keys, with channel aftertouch
• 12 MPC pads, backlit, four banks each
• 8 LED touch faders in place of physical faders, four banks each
• Control Voltage and analog Gate outputs for use with analog and vintage gear
• Arpeggiator with latch
• Step sequencer
• MPC swing, Note Repeat, Full Level, navigation – and yeah, I use this stuff, even if the software can do the same
  USB MIDI, MIDI DIN, connect to anything
• Control surface mappings plus full Mackie Control and HUI support – and, sorry, but for all the fancier solutions, sometimes that’s the easiest way to control a variety of software like Ableton Live, Reason, and the other DAWs

So, basically, all the features you want. My only questions are what it looks like in person and how the action feels, particularly those touch faders, as that can be tricky to pull off.

But the features are just perfect. It’s about time to bring back aftertouch and to connect with actual MIDI gear. Adding CV is a delicious addition. And honestly, features like being able to switch on an arpeggiator are far more useful and appealing to average musicians than the hard-to-configure, often-gimmicky automatic control features on many of the keyboards out there. So I’ve got my fingers crossed that the build quality and usability here are good — and that some of Akai’s rivals start taking on similar features. It’s bizarre to be applauding adding features from the 80s and 70s, but some recent progress has been steps backward, not forward.

Q2 2012
MSRP US$699
Estimated street $499

http://www.akaipro.com/max49

There are other new Alesis keyboards out this week, but the Akai MAX49 pretty much steals their thunder.

More Vortex Photos

Back to the Vortex, since I got to snap some shots this morning in Anaheim.

Discuss.

Modular music making is a throwback to the early days of electronic music, in which a spaghetti of patch cords is the price of open-ended sound creation. Fairly or unfairly, it has often been viewed as the domain of the eccentric wealthy musician. You needed cash, endless patience, and lots of space – well, unless you happened to be lucky enough to pick up a vintage modular as people were getting rid of them.

But something has happened: modules have become more practical and accessible. Like any music technology, they can become a rabbit hole into which time and money fall and no music escapes. But also like any music technology, there are ways of bending these tools to your will, applying fiscal and creative discipline to make them musically productive.

Enter the “desktop modular” revolution. Modules are cheaper and more usable. It’s easier than ever to assemble a rig of modular that coexists with your digital gear, be it MIDI hardware or computers. That means just a select set of modules within your budget (and available physical space) could find a place. And modules are more innovative and fun than they’ve been in the past, too. They merge digital and analog tech – just as this site has loved doing (despite our name) over the years.

And just as suddenly, that spaghetti entree starts to look delicious.

I can’t say I’ve personally found room for this kind of gear, but I’ve enjoyed watching the evolution of new equipment. And over the past few months, I’ve witnessed a bumper crop of terrific new modules. It’s time to survey some of that fertile landscape, as 2011 winds to a close. Here are a few of my favorites, sure to inspire other nominees from readers. And I imagine this adds fresh cause to venture into the basement stalls of the Winter NAMM music manufacturer trade show in Anaheim next month, where these sorts of less-mainstream devices flourish.

Notably, these modules all work with the ‘small’ Eurorack (A100) format. German maker Doepfer Musikelektronik popularized this format, and it has since taken off. In fact, that puzzled quite a few readers when Moog’s re-entry in modular eschewed that format. (That may be their loss.) But Moog ladder filters aside, there has been plenty of action in the Eurorack space.

Utility: Kenton MIDI-to-CV and More

Kenton’s Modular Solo is about as nice a utility knife as you could add to a modular rig, for integrating lots of different gear. Plug it in via ribbon cable, and you get:

• MIDI in and out
• SYNC 24 (“DIN SYNC” – think 808 and 606 drum machine sync)
• CV analog and gate output
• Two clock outs, four aux outs (think assigning MIDI to filter cutoff, etc., says Kenton)
• And an LFO – triangle, saw up and down, square, S&H pulse width with several fixed widths

£195.00, though all the extras there easily could make it worth it.

Utility: Expert Sleepers ES-4 Modules

Expert Sleepers’ ES-4 is the latest of their modules, turning a standard S/PDIF signal into five channels of control voltage. Coupled with their Silent Way software, you can also use it for MIDI, only with sample-accurate timing. That makes it a sample-accurate MIDI interface, if you like. (See video at top for a MIDI demo.) You can turn three of those five outputs into any signal you like – gate, envelope, LFO, and so on.

Where do you get that S/PDIF output? Well, lots of audio interfaces have them, and many computers – including recent MacBooks – do, as well.

There’s also an ES-4 Gate Expander add-on for additional 8 on/off gates, triggers, clocks, and so on. The unit is £151, or £64 for the Gate Expander, not including VAT.

http://www.expert-sleepers.co.uk/es4.html

More demos:

Sound Sculpting: ADE-10 Reactive Shaper

Justin Owen of Abstract Data sends us this creation. It’s an all-analog waveshaper, wavefolder, feedback unit, with audio to LFO range. That means you can use it as an LFO or design sounds or manipulate synth pads or … any number of things. In fact, it’s nice enough that I could see using it alone, sort of Moogerfooger / stomp style. This is the same nice gentleman who created the Kicker, a synth focused on bass drums.

Loads of sound samples on SoundCloud, in addition to the video tutorial and demo above. It’s yours for £135.00, which I think is quite a bargain.

http://www.abstractdata.biz/ade10/

ADE-10 Reactive Shaper Eurorack Module (2011) by abstractjuz

Synthesis: Monotron in a Eurorack

A bit more left-field, but you can even get Korg’s simple-but-fun Monotron synth in a Eurorack module. Skip ahead in the video below to hear it in action. (Well, unless you prefer field recording crinkly wrapping sounds, in which case the unboxing portion of the video will be your favorite. Toddlers, dogs, and gear lovers agree: unboxing is the best part.)

US$249 puts the Monotron in a rack format. Of course, there, you can do quite a lot more with the Monotron than you can with the original, with both full CV and MIDI control and very, very nice knobs, in place of the awful-feeling (though stunningly inexpensive) controls on the original. All together, that makes a very playable, very fine synth.

http://erthenvar.com/store/monotrone, as seen on Synthtopia

Synthesis: Triangle Core Oscillators

Just when you think you can’t innovate in something as simple as an oscillator — you can.

Synthesist Danjel van Tijn sends news of the Dixie VCO, which, named for its creator, reimagines how to do a triangle oscillator:

It is a triangle core oscillator in Eurorack format that utilises a brand new method of implementing a triangle core oscillator using a design by professor David G. Dixon.

Side note: Trianglecore would make a great genre name.

Professor Dixon co-designed the module and collaborated on its construction. In the video at top, you can see what those waveforms look like. Below, you can see how this might work in a musical context:

Melodic demo of the Dixie VCO. Two Dixies are used (only one at first) along with a Z8000 for sequencing, a uScale for quantizing, uStep for step sequencing and everything is filtered through the new Dr. Octature VCF/VCO.

The uScale is used to help demonstrate the extremely wide and accurate range of tracking of both VCOs. The sequence spans many octaves but the intervals of the two Dixies stay in tune.

PWM, LIN FM and Sync are all played with along with different combinations of waveforms to explore just some of the timbre possibilities.

And here’s what happens when you reverse sync:

We seem to lack purchase info on this particular module for now, but there are loads of other great modules from this Vancouver, Canada-based builder – and yes, they work with Max/MSP and computers, too, not just modules:

http://www.intellijel.com/

Roundup of Other Great Picks

Knowing I could never keep up with all that’s happening on the Eurorack scene, I asked Danjel aka Intellijel to give us some of his picks for some of the coolest modules. He obliged with a drool-worthy – and I dare say genuinely musical – list. Here are his favorites:

There is so much stuff! Eurorack has obviously tried to update or recreate most of the classic synthesis blocks from various manufacturers (Buchla, Moog, Roland etc. etc.) but the past couple of years very interesting developments have been made incoporating brand new designs not found anywhere else. Some of these are completely DSP based, some are hybrids and some like the Dixie VCO are %100 analog.

Other stuff I have put out that is unique (and actually has decent video) would include:

uScale: CV quantizer but it also does intelligent interval generation

Corgasmatron:
This is a dual multimode filter with the same transfer function as classic Korg MS20 but it is a completely new circuit design (nothing related to the original at all) using all modern components.

On the analoghaven page there is a list of about 40 manufacturers each with many modules:
http://www.analoguehaven.com/what/

The Muffwiggler.com forum is extremely active with all things to do with modular synthesis (and synths in general).

Stuff worth noting form other manufacturers (there is so much more from each of these groups):

Cylonix Cyclebox:
FPGA based extremely deep triple VCO with through zero FM and massive amount of synthesis and waveshaping options
http://www.cylonix.com/cyclebox.html

TipTop Audio matrix sequencer:
http://www.tiptopaudio.com/z8k.php?goto=features

Tiptop Audio Z-DSP (user programmable DSP fx processor)
http://www.tiptopaudio.com/zdsp.php?goto=features

Expert Sleepers ES-3 (all their products really) control your analog gear via a plugin in Ableton/DAW and their lightpipe/spdif/db25 connector
http://www.expert-sleepers.co.uk/es3.html

Kilpatrick Audio K4815 Pattern Generator
http://www.kilpatrickaudio.com/?p=K4815

Makenoise Phonogene: digital tape recorder re-visioned
http://www.makenoisemusic.com/Phonogene.html

Makenoise Rene: cartesian sequencer
http://www.makenoisemusic.com/RENE.html

Synthesis Technology Morphing Terrarium: morphing wavetable synthesis
http://www.analoguehaven.com/synthesistechnology/e350/

Synthesis Technology Deflector Shield: thru-zero frequency shifter, phaser and ring mod
http://www.analoguehaven.com/synthesistechnology/e560/

The Harvestman Double Andore: dual a-d envelope generator and 2-channel vca with digital curve shaping and vca law selection
http://www.theharvestman.org/2017.php

The Harvestman Bionic Lester: dual 12db/oct switched capacitor multimode filter with mode selction and clock disruption.
http://www.theharvestman.org/1873.php

Toppobrillo Sport Modulator: Dual VC Lag and CV processor
http://www.analoguehaven.com/toppobrillo/sportmodulator/

Thanks, Danjel! This looks fantastic – plenty to consider as inspiration.

It all makes me wish for a holiday on which some supernatural being, against all rules of material consumption and the conservation of physics, flies around the Earth leaving, for free, the things you desire as gifts. If someone can make this happen, let me know. Also, I’ll need the contract to a flat in which I can house said materializing goods. Until then, I’ll have to hack something together for free in Pd and run it on a netbook.

Dream On: Modular, The Movie, and the Planner

Modular remains such a cultural phenomenon, it has inspired its own movie project, as seen on IndieGogo (trailer above):

I Dream of Wires: The Modular Synthesizer Documentary

If we’ve sold you on this whole idea, Danjel also points us to this:

There is a pretty cool online interactive virtual modular for planning out a system
It contains pretty much every module available.

http://www.modularplanner.co.uk/

More analog…

By the way, if you appreciate this sort of analog coverage and would like a domain at which you can see it, you should complain to Trash Audio. They cheekily registered the createanalogmusic.com domain and redirected it to their site, and they haven’t responded to offers to buy it from them them. I suggest you flood their inbox with complaints until they aquiesce. Alternatively, perhaps you can think of a word that means analog but begins with the letter ‘D,’ as that’d fit nicely with the ‘CDM’ acronym. Or we could come up with something in another language – German, for instance.

I’ve registered createanalogmusic.de for now; I’ll point it at something later this week. And as for how we can get back at TRASH_AUDIO — I’m open to suggestions. Can’t crash their NAMM party; I’ll be on a flight back to Berlin. (Seriously, that crew held a great synth meetup in LA in September I was lucky enough to catch – at least briefly.)

We’ll continue to happily bring you judgment-free electronic music making on a variety of platforms, from the Apple II to a discarded, broken cell phone to analog circuitry you wired up yourself, because that’s how we roll.

Global availability of music may not have silenced the usual gripes about musical quality and diversity, even if they should. But the Web is providing a place for people to share music with other music-making enthusiasts, sharing the craft of constructing it with the relish of chefs talking over drinks at the end of a long day.

Anyway, that’s my excuse for mentioning fellow blogger, music software developer and musician Chris Randall, again. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the meticulously-concocted sounds of his new micronaut EP, Particulate. Ticking away leisurely, with thick alphaSyntauri pads set against cool, understated metrical rhythms, it’s the as though the machines themselves are enjoying a calm weekend afternoon.

On the Analog Industries blog, more description

Chris admits something I’ve been hearing increasingly in whispers among producers from a wide variety of genres – he’s getting away from the DAW. The dominant computer software model, even in more restrained incarnations like Ableton Live, still involves an overwhelming set of tools and sequencing apparatus that can get you away from, you know, actually playing your machines like instruments. Instead, Chris uses “good old-fashioned playing,” and gating from analog outputs from an Apple IIe-based sequencer. It’s nothing new (quite literally so, as the gear is from the 80s), but it’s a discipline to which I hear many producers return again and again. (I got to read them talking about it in the 80s and 90s, too, as I edited old Keyboard stories for an upcoming book – sometimes you have to turn the sequencers off and focus on really playing the machines. Think that bit in Star Wars with the flight computer.)

The gear:
Roland CMU-800R + Apple IIe (kids, ask your parents)

alphaSyntauri, also based on the Apple II

Korg 770, which has the best vintagesynth.com description ever: “Aside from being very old, there isn’t much else to say about the 770.” Assuming I take care of myself and survive to be a senior, this is I hope what I can someday make my epitaph.

Korg MS20, about which much could be said

Euro-Rack modular

Korg Monotribe

iPad running Curtis (granular app) + Alesis iO Dock

Lexicon M300 (now-discontinued hardware reverb), and ValhallaRoom and Chris’ own Eos, as reverb

I love the polish of the EP, but it’s also revealing to watch Chris tinker with his rack of gear, as in this more recent image:

By the way, for my part, I’m also enjoying not sequencing materials. If you don’t want to go to tape, you can take the same approach in any software. Hanging out with King Britt in his studio, he tracked live playing and CV-gated sequences into Ableton Live; I’ve taken to using Propellerhead Reason (formerly Record) for the same purpose. (Hint: that absence of MIDI output? It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.)

All of this is relevant, as there’s a big Synth Meet tomorrow in Los Angeles put on by those connoisseurs of analog, the blog (and sometimes-artists’-collective TRASH_AUDIO. And certainly the idea of investing in all this shiny is, eventually, to actually make something resembling music with it. Chris, look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Also, fans of alphaSyntauri — I’ve been watching this growing, open group on Facebook devoted to that instrument:
The Alpha Syntauri Group

They point to a big load of documentation someone has collected.

Now I’m nervous, because typically when I ramble on about something like this, commenters get angry. It’s a Friday. Don’t hurt me. Go listen, and if you don’t like it, it’s a Big, Wide Internet. In fact, go make something.

The Bleep Labs 198X, a mini analog synth co-designed with the band Neon Indian, is now here. It’s a pocketable three-oscillator synth – all triangle oscillators – that in addition to three knobs and light sensors lets you plug in control voltage or other devices and sensors in order to modulate its sound. That makes for some good, bleepy, party-clearingly noisy fun.

And then there’s the Neon Indian-produced promo video, which is … insane. So there’s that.

The synth itself you get as part of a $50 package that also includes vinyl, a CD, a t-shirt, and a poster. Hopefully you’re a Neon Indian fan.

If you’d like a slightly less-psychedelic look at what this synth does, Bleep Labs have produced some more down-to-earth samples and videos. Behold:

Instructions…

With a modular …

On SoundCloud …

PAL198X by Dr. Bleep

And one more from Johnny, combining a modular …

And if this all looks a little familiar, it’s because the Neon Indian custom synth is a new, improved, expanded instrument based on Bleep Lab’s Pico Paso, which is in turn inspired by Forrest Mims’ classic stepped tone generator “Atari Punk Synth.” I love the new variations.

PAL198x @ Bleep Labs

Analog synths, meet spacey, abstract touch controls. And Konkreet Labs Performer – the futuristic iPad controller app – meet everything else, including, for those not lucky enough to own racks of modulars, MIDI.

Twisted KP is effectively a clever helper app, taking in messages (as OSC) from the brilliant Konkreet Labs Performer iPad app and translating them into things you can use with everything else — MIDI, analog control messages, or if you’re a Reaktor user, internal Reaktor IC messages. For Reaktor geeks and analog owners, it’s a godsend, but it’ll also work as a Reaktor standalone tool if you just want to make some MIDI control magic.

You do need to own a copy of Reaktor (cough, NI, please, please find some way for these guys to distribute their stuff). And for Control Voltage, you need a DC-coupled audio inter— actually, if you own analog, you can probably go figure that bit out. If you don’t, jut marvel at the sonic goodness.

It’s a very specific rig, but here’s what’s in the video above:

Doepfer Eurorack modules: Livewire AFG, Doepfer A-105 VCF and A-188BBD and A-180 Multi

CV audio interface: Control voltage output made possible by using MOTU 828MKII interface.

Here’s another video showing how it all works:

US$9, and so long as you’ve got a copy of Reaktor, you’re good to go. Reaktor geeks should have an especially good time with this.

Insert here my normal rant about the fact that the OSC protocol implementations in software should be flexible enough that you can do this with everything, and that OSC messages should be clear enough and have a degree of standardization such that this sort of thing is possible simply by taking in incoming messages, even if you haven’t seen them before. In the meantime, though, this works now.

http://twistedtools.com/shop/reaktor/twisted-kp/

http://konkreetlabs.com/

If this interests you, definitely don’t miss our extensive interview by Markus Schroeder, reprinted in English from the German version on AMAZONA.de:
Crafting New Twisted Tools: A Chat with Reaktor Patchers Making New Sonic Instruments

Chris Stack, maker of the Experimental Synth series (and formerly of Moog Music), is back with new ideas for what to do with some great gear. Analog and digital meet here: everything from Nanoloop running on an Android handheld to the mighty Moog Taurus 3 pedal make appearances. That means that you ought to be able to glean some ideas from Chris’ sounds whatever your tastes and whatever your gear collection. -PK

The Moog Taurus 3 springs from a very iconic lineage. Because of that rich history, it’s easy to type-cast it and not fully explore the full sonic potential it presents. The inclusion of volume, pitch, filter and gate control voltage inputs, coupled with a MIDI-syncable arpeggiator can take it far outside its usual low-end drone duties. This video just scratches the surface of what is possible. Its purpose is to encourage you to “step outside”.

The first example shows the Taurus 3 filter being modulated by a Make Noise René: a very fun analog step sequencer with some interesting Cartesian (X & Y clock) capabilities. The CV inputs on the Taurus 3 make it a great add-on for modular synthesis set-ups and there are an almost unlimited number of interesting things you can connect to them. The René is definitely at the exotic end of the spectrum but it is still extremely useful. It’s great to have that extra level of control available at hand level too. Ed.: See the René in action below. I was fortunate enough to see this at our little meet-up in Austin during South by Southwest.

Due to personal preference, I tend to use things like the René to control filter cutoff instead of pitch. I enjoy the ability to play the notes while synchronized filter events occur. It gives a pleasing (at least to me) mix of tight-sequenced and loose-live feel.

The second example takes things even farther afield. I first discovered the Android app Nanoloop in a recent CDM article. Its useful features and sleek user interface made it an instant favorite.

Here I used one of my favorite production tricks: processing the Droid audio through a Moog MF-101 (Moogerfooger) low pass filter. In addition to nicely warming up the Droid, it also created a control voltage (CV) proportional to the volume of the input audio. In other words, the CV mirrored the volume envelope of the beat Nanoloop created.

This is an incredibly powerful tool. When that CV controls something interesting… say that filter on a Taurus 3, some very interesting synchronizations occur, all completely in the analog realm. When the Droid outputs a loud kick, the CV output on the Moogerfooger goes high and the Taurus 3 filter opens wide. As soon as the kick sound is over, the CV goes low and the filter shuts. Mid-volume sounds open the filter midway. These are not discrete steps. The CV hugs the volume contour of the input audio and outputs a nicely wiggly, but tightly synchronized analog control signal.

This is conceptually very similar to side-chaining and the great thing about it is that the filter modulations created will follow any changes in the rhythm. Sudden shift in tempo coupled with a time signature change to 11/8… no problem! I haven’t tested it but this should also work with a live drummer. Of course, there is no rule that says you have to connect the CV to a filter input. You could connect it to volume or if you’re feeling really avant-garde, to pitch.

This technique works best with when the beat is not too busy and has some definite dynamic peaks and valleys. A bit of gain adjusting and tweaking of the base filter cutoff frequency on the target synth (the Taurus 3 in this case) are sometimes needed, but the unique results more than make up for this little bit of work. Higher resonance settings on the target synth will make the filter modulations more noticeable. If you have a synth with CV inputs but without MIDI, this is a great way to get it dancing to your beat.

The last example shows a somewhat basic MIDI-synced arpeggiator application. By using your foot to transpose the arpeggiation, you can create quite a sophisticated soundscape while your hands are free for other musical mayhem.

All of these applications are fairly basic. Imagine doing any of them while using the Taurus 3’s USB connectivity to simultaneously control Ableton Live, or while it is part of a monster MIDI stack…

Lastly, remember to wear sensible shoes.

But wait — there’s more! Some more techniques from Chris show off similar ideas.

Continuing the sequencing ideas here, a look at what happens as you combine Theremins, step sequencers, and filters:

…or mix multiple control voltages for creating tempo-synced effects, via the Moog CP-251 control processor:

And, of course, if you do get some synths, you have to have a party:

Find Chris on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/experimentalsynth

…or Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/experimentalsynth

Lots going on, so if you’ve got questions, fire away here!

Chris Stack, now no longer with Moog Music, is instead spending his time putting out a terrific series of demo videos in which he combines a dream studio of Moog gear. In the last one, we saw him producing stereo ring modulation — and see comments, as someone did take up my challenge to do the same thing with Pd (Pure Data, the open source patching environment).

Now, he’s back with a fantastic set of control voltage demos. For the uninitiated, control voltage is analog voltage routed between modules or instruments not as sound signal, but as a means of modulating parameters. Here, the arpeggiator of the Moog Little Phatty synth, synchronized to MIDI clock so that everything is in time, modulates other synths, effects, and even a Moog Guitar.

The Moog Guitar example is really hauntingly lovely and expressive, meriting mention here. It’s a reminder of what a beautiful electronic instrument the guitar can be – amidst all the tortuous discussions of how to invent new instruments and interfaces, one might be staring you in the face.

I find a lot of my friends are turning to modular techniques and buying modular racks, which is fine, but it bears repeating that the strategy is applicable elsewhere. A couple of pieces of hardware with CV might be enough to get you started, as here, and the same kinds of routing techniques are just as relevant in the realm of the computer. (Let me say that again since some people missed it in comments, etc.: you can do this in the box in software.) That’s good to know in case your budget or physical space can’t accommodate the “real” analog gear. But that’s another reason to check out what people are doing with hardware; even if you do use software, it can be a source of inspiration and ideas. We’re fortunate to get to choose either working method.

But I digress – does this video give you any ideas for ways of working? Specific requests for Chris as he makes new videos? Or are you already off on eBay looking for a deal on a Slim Phatty? And for that matter, those of you who have been clamoring for a Create Analog Music, what would you want to see, given the galaxy of potential devices? (Ancient Buchla modulars? ElectroComps? DIY CV? Let us know.)

Updated: Chris sends over this audio of his friend Jake Wolf on fretless bass working with Chris and more Moog:
Jake Wolf – Chris Stack, fretless bass, Moog Guitar and electronics by chrisstack

Chris writes:

In this one the LP pitch CV is instead going to the oscillator frequency CV input of the ring mod the guitar is running through. You don’t hear it a lot. I fade the ring mod in from time to time with an expression pedal. It show up as some subtly shifting metalic overtones.

Also, Other than Moogerfoogers, I’m running the guitar straight into the mixer. That nice warm distortion comes from overdriving Moogerfoogers.

Chris Stack (formerly of Moog) inaugurates a series of experimental synthesis sounds with a stereo modulation effect, using two of the terrific Moog MF-102 ring modulators as the canvas. It’s a dead-simple combination of cables – you connect the carrier output of the first MF-102 into the input of the second, and the LFO out to the frequency – but once interconnected, the double ring mod effect is capable of a wide range of sounds.

(“Double ring mod … oh my God.” Yeah, I know.)

In fact, for the impatient among you, you might here the experimental synthy sounds at the beginning and miss the subtler pads just before three minutes. This is a technique that really has a broad potential palette, beyond the conventional (and admittedly alien) sounds of the ring mod.

The Moogerfooger has a very recognizable sound, and it’s a wonderful unit. If you can’t afford two or more of these beauties, though, watch carefully – the routing here could easily be replicated in software, once you understand what’s going on. (Pd patch, anyone? Upload to comments and I’ll send you … some kind of prize.)

And if you have a computer and some Moog boxes, you can do this twice.

Chris, I look forward to what you do next! (Bonus, below – the answer to that question, and the question of what to do if you own a Little Phatty and a Slim Phatty. Or … perhaps what do if you’ve got one Phatty and your friend has another?)

Moog Music have been busy. Yes, they’re making an iPhone app, but for hardware lovers, there’s also the Slim Phatty, a rack-sized rendition of the Little Phatty announced last week. US$849 list, fourth quarter of this year; Synthtopia reports an $800 street.

What does the Slim Phatty get you? Like the Little Phatty, it’s basically a 2-oscillator analog monosynth with lots of onboard controls and connectivity.

• 2-oscillator Little Phatty sound engine, with the Moog Ladder Filter and Control Voltage input
• 17″ width, USB, MIDI, CV, external audio processing
• New Tuning Scale feature and editor for alternate scales, microtonal scales, etc.

Slim Phatty product page

I like that Tuning Scale feature; I hope to see that on the Little Phatty and not just this Littler Phatty.

The other addition – a bunch of new presets, all available on SoundCloud:
Slim Phatty Sound Samples by moogmusicinc

It’s not a bad deal by any means, though there’s a certainly appeal to the Little Phatty being an integrated instrument with a keyboard you can tote around.

This is about the time where we all do a comparison with, say, Dave Smith Instruments. DSI can get you a mono analog module for as little as US$399, and an entire keyboard for $799, in the Mopho range. Pluses for the DSI: their units are smaller, and you have the option (on the Evolver) of mixing digital and analog oscillators. What DSI doesn’t offer is control voltage input, however.

In other Moog news, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that you can now get the Filtatron on which we reported early last week. US$4.99 on the iTunes store. I could ask profound questions about what this means, but I’ll leave it at this — it’s a nicely-designed tool, a terrific mobile sampler and sound designer when you’re not in your studio, and shows its colors as a real collaboration between software developer (Christopher Wolfe) and the Moog team.

Moognify II from Combo Square on Vimeo.

Here’s an antidote to the trend toward virtual knobs, touchscreens, and mobility: a big-ass, tangible knob bigger than your head.

That may be a slightly impractical idea, but behind it is something absolutely practical: a simple, open source OpenSoundControl to Control Voltage interface. Unlike MIDI’s standard Control Change messages, OSC is capable of expressing quantities in a way that may be easily translated to the accuracy of CV. And once you’re in the realm of analog voltage, you can do all the things voltage does – including, as the creators do in their videos, interfacing with vintage gear.

The project, built by Eddy Depoorter and Charles Hannotte, is built largely on the Arduino project. Artists, engineers, and improvisers, the duo is based in Lille in the north of France, and they’re gradually making headway on this stuff. Check out progress on these two blogs, each written in both French and English:
http://chroniquesweb.typepad.fr/combosquare/
http://plusplus.alwaysdata.net/

Definitely looks like a project to watch. Who says digital and voltage can’t coexist?

Bonus video below: SH-101 plus singing.

Roland is singing from Combo Square on Vimeo.