If you’re hungry for some patch content, the download-rich PatchArena has you covered, with a massive library of free, user-created content:

PatchArena Downloads

There are particularly large sections for the all-in-one studios EnergyXT, FL Studio, and a number of others. (Correction: Intua BeatMaker for iPhone/iPod Touch is promised, as well, though I got my categories confused — no files there now, so we’ll check in if some get posted! But it could be a great place to upload BeatMaker presets; see the thread on PatchArena’s forum.)

Francesco Silvestri writes CDM to let us know about his latest addition, a huge set for Cakewalk’s awesome soft synth Rapture. He says:

I’ve released Muz3um, a free set of patches for Rapture the virtual synthesizer by Cakewalk.This collection is built on waveforms from vintage synthesizers.

It features:

• 661 presets organized in categories (Basses, Keys, Leads, Pads, Sequences)
• 573 waveforms
• 36 impulse responses, taken from amp sims, cabinets and lo-fi speakers, providing additional colors to the set

It’s great having those impulse responses alone – meaning even if you’d rather program your own sounds in Rapture, this could be a must-download.

Update: This also works just fine with Rapture LE, meaning lots of Cakewalk customers can use the pack. (Thanks, Chad!)

Have a go and let us know what you think, Rapture users!

Rapture Muz3um OS X

Rapture Muz3um Windows

A home-made synthesizer based off of an old function generator and a standard qwerty board. Three wave types–sin, square, sawtooth–and HI+LO outputs. It connects to the keyboard with a stereo 1/4″ cable (TRS) so new controllers can be made.

QWERTY Keyboard analog synth [Matrixsynth]

Funny: after all these years of talking about how great dedicated music controllers are as a way of getting away from your standard computer input, people just keep finding ways of reusing that input. Previous examples:

QWERTY Keyboard Instrument: Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee

Custom USB Keyboard for Controlling Ableton Live

Pimp my Ableton Controller: Custom Keyboards, Custom Paint Jobs

… and, for your feet:

Get loopy with the DIY $10 Ableton Footcontroller (no soldering required)

thing-a-day: matchbox synthesizer from ranjit on Vimeo.

Sure, it won’t win any audio fidelity awards, but it’s great fun. It gives me some other ideas for things that could be fit into a space that small, as well. See what the other daily Thingers are doing:

ranjit @ Thing-a-day.com

Yeah, this isn’t just marketing: the newest Moog Voyager is really old school — and it just makes us want it more. Moog Music has taken out twenty years of recent technology and kept the classic tech — all in a new case that’s fully wooden and entirely devoid of glowing mod wheels. In fact, the actual marketing side steps just how old school the Old School is:

“Priced between the Voyager and Little Phatty, this modern classic makes the coveted Voyager sound and design easier to own than ever!”

All of that is technically true (and we are coveting), but — reality check. The Moog Voyager Old School as a left-brained compromise? A value buy? I don’t think so. You’re shelling out US$2600 on the most beautifully anachronistic synth keyboard from Moog yet. You’re going to use nothing but control voltage because you think digital makes people’s souls weak.

We’d like to suggest an alternative slogan / t-shirt design: “Presets are for posers; MIDI is for pussies.”

I’m only half joking. Coming to an annual trade show could easily lull you into the idea that music technology is a simple, linear progression from one idea to another. (Now with 10% more this year of exactly what we had last year!) How boring would that be? Mercifully, Moog Music — and quite a bit of other stuff we’ve seen, great and awful — reminds us that design is about choice and personality. It’s not rocket science — it’s cooking.

We’ll have more of the latest Moog (among other things) as we finish off our NAMM videos.

Oh, and one last tip to Moog: we’re awaiting the Really Old School model. What’s with the keyboard being attached? And why is everything patched for you in advance?

Here are the episodes up so far:

Introduction to Synthesizer Programming
Part 2: Introduction to Synthesizer Programming
Some call it Analog: How subtractive synthesizers work

There are more in-depth guides out there (largely in print), but for a quick overview, this is good stuff. Let us know what you think.

Updated: Beau Sievers sends along his more nuts-and-bolts overview, also worth a read.
The Amateur Gentleman’s Introduction to the Principles of Music Synthesis

And, of course, I’m quite proud of the synthesis overview in my book Real World Digital Audio, partly because of the contributions made by my tech editor Jim Aikin, who has a fine Power Tools for Synthesizer Programming: The Ultimate Reference for Sound Design (Power Tools)synth programming book of his own.

To make matters worse, there’s a dark cloud looming on the horizon: Many electronic designs from the 1970s and 1980s don’t age well. If you’re not careful, your beloved vintage instrument can be seriously damaged by leakage from the battery that preserves its patch memory, or fall victim to chip or component failure. Here’s a quick look at some of the most common problems that can befall older instruments.

Backup batteries: Flash memory didn’t exist 25 years ago. Most instruments included a tiny battery whose sole purpose was to keep your precious patches alive when you turned off the power switch. They typically lasted a year or two before needing replacement. I suspect that many old synths (and drum machines) have been left unused for years and the batteries are long dead. The danger is that the battery will start to leak corrosive chemical goo onto the surrounding circuit board. This has the potential to kill an instrument without any warning. If you have an instrument from the early 1980s that hasn’t been used for a while, it’s worth getting the battery checked or replaced as soon as possible – just in case.

LCD backlights: Many older LCD backlights were only designed to give a few thousand hours of use. These EL (electro-luminescent) backlights also fade over time. Luckily, a dead backlight won’t cause any lasting damage and drop-in replacement parts are often relatively easy to find for many “off the shelf” 16×2 or 20×2 character displays.

Old capacitors: Most older synthesizers contain dozens or even hundreds of discrete capacitors. They do boring but vital things like power smoothing and decoupling. But capacitors don’t age gracefully. As an example, some electrolytic capacitors are made with oil-impregnated paper. As the device ages, the insulating plates dry out and its performance can change drastically. This has serious ramifications in power supplies, where the caps may no longer do an adequate job of smoothing the input voltage. It can also impact the musicality of discrete analog filters and the stability of analog oscillators. The solution is fairly simple but labor intensive: Get them replaced, especially if you have a valuable analog instrument from the early to mid 1970s.

Logic ICs: Many old CMOS chips had a life expectancy of less than two decades. This means that many of the logic ICs used in designs from the early days of digital control (the late 1970s through the mid-1980s) are on their last legs. The logic errors caused by marginal chips can be incredibly frustrating and time-consuming to diagnose. The good news is that common devices, like 4000-series logic chips, can often be replaced with modern equivalents, although this can be costly: there are dozens of 4000-series devices in a single Prophet-5 or Korg Polysix.

Custom ICs: I’ve saved the scariest problem for last. Many designs used custom or semi-custom ICs. These include single-chip filters, oscillators, envelope generators and so on. These custom manufactured devices have no modern equivalent; if they fail, you’ll need to replace them with an unused vintage chip. Replacement ICs are becoming incredibly hard to find – companies like Wine Country Productions, who specialize in the repair of Sequential Circuits instruments, have run out of vital components for some instruments, such as the Curtis CEM3389 VCF/VCA used in the Prophet VS. If an irreplaceable chip fails, your only option is to cannibalize another dead instrument.

I haven’t even touched on other common problems such as a lack of 5-1/4 and 8-inch floppy disks for instruments like the Fairlight CMI, E-mu Emulator or PPG Waveterm. Keyboards and sliders also see a lot of hard use – many instruments were abused early in their life, and sticky and corrosive drink spills can cause untold damage if not properly cleaned.

Hopefully, my brief overview has given you something to think about. If you own a vintage instrument, please have it maintained by a qualified technician on a regular basis. It might seem like an extravagant waste of money, but the alternative could be eternal silence.

Some Synth Repair Shops

Who says progress is bad? Synth designer Dave Smith’s Prophet ‘08 synth is a new instrument inspired by his legendary Prophet series, but there are a number of clues that indicate it’s not 1978. First, driven by Internet buzz, word-of-mouth preorders are already taking off. (DSI hasn’t yet added the Prophet ‘08 to their price list because they’re scrambling to fill the early orders.) That means, ironically, the Web generation is better able to support “boutique” synths now than even synth customers of a few years ago. Second, I expect a lot of these Prophet ’08s will happily become outboard analog gear complimenting computers. (It’s a good thing Dave Smith was a driving force behind MIDI.) Lastly, the Prophet ‘08 has some great features we take for granted now that were harder to come by in 1978.

The Prophet ‘08 is analog to the core: it boasts a 100%-analog signal path and a “sonic character” not surprisingly modeled on the classic Prophets. What’s new:

• Velocity and aftertouch: If this spoils the “vintage” experience for you, go see a doctor.)
• Mo Modulation: “Extensive modulation routing capabilities”, making the Prophet ‘08 essentially a semi-modular synth; it’ll be interesting to see what this lets programmers cook up.
• Splits and layers:Four-on-four splits and layers with separate stereo outputs for each layer.
  
• Arpeggiator and sequencer: Arpeggiator, gated 16 x 4 step sequencer, and LFOs. Everything is syncable, as well — thank you, MIDI.

There’s onboard MIDI (even with “Poly Chain”), and CV input, as well. On the analog side, you get 2 oscillators and 1 lovely filter per voice:

• 2 digitally controlled analog oscillators (DCOs) per voice with selectable sawtooth, triangle, saw/triangle mix, and pulse waves (with pulse-width modulation), and hard sync.
• White noise generator

I have heard some complaints about the new models: some would prefer the pitch and mod wheels next to the keyboard rather than above, though the payoff is a full five-octave keyboard in a compact space.

I have to say, I’m a sucker for the Dave Smith philosophy of “un-nostalgic” analog. But, really, who would expect anything else: Dave Smith’s earlier instruments all progressed with technology, and he continues to do so. There’s a clear resonance with the modern Moog synths, like Minimoog Voyager and Little Phatty, down to special editions with colored wheels. (Dave Smith has the much cooler red glowing wheels, which is great if you’re tired of blue.) But the Dave Smith Instruments are also unique takes on how to reinterpret analog.

Detailed specs and descriptions are on the mercifully redesigned Dave Smith site:
Dave Smith Prophet ‘08 Page

And via news you’ll find more on the limited edition, videos of Dave, and other news, as well as further reassurances that the BoomChik drum machine really is progressing:
Dave Smith Instruments News

So, who’s getting one? And anyone have smart money

More at Music thing, Die Monster, and an ongoing thread at Elektron Users. From that forum, here are some thoughtful words from member Toni:

Sad and shocking news indeed. The only comfort I can think of is that Daniel got to see his dream come alive while he was still living. Elektron made the music machines that emit the feeling of unconditional love for the true musical instruments, rather than be just a passing products for consumer markets. In this sense, SidStation, MD and MnM, were completed and continue to inspire musicians through out the world.

Indeed, condolences to Daniel’s family and friends, and the Elektron team and community.

Information on where to send notes and donations (the World Wildlife Foundation is suggested) at the Elektron site:
Elektron.se

Photos of Daniel

Daniel is someone who many in the music community did get to know face to face; I’m sorry I didn’t get that chance. Many more knew him through the instruments he created. Roger Linn sends along a couple of photos of his own (my apologies for incorrectly linking a different Daniel at Elektron via Flickr). Roger writes:

Daniel was a great guy, friendly and fun to talk to, passionate about getting the details right in a product, and a true lover of ideas. It’s a tragic loss to creative musicians everywhere.

A little bit of Buchla synth history via Peter Grenader of Plan b. That giant modular in the background is the Buchla 500, the rarest of the rare in the modular synth world. It is possible there were only three ever in existence. “The following flckr stream [link] was from CalArts studio B-304 taken in the fall of 1976 featuring Barry Schrader, Morton Subotnick and John Payne and a whole lotta Buchla 500. John as you may remember came up a couple of months ago on Matrixsynth in the posting regarding Mort’s use of the 300 at Ircam [link]. He went on in later years to become the Assistant Dean of the CIA School of Music and founder of it’s Music Tech department. Photo b_304.2 has a good view of the entire studio, save the three other JBL’s which are out of frame (it was a quad studio – there was one in each corner).

There are two more 500’s that I know off – at Evergreen and another somewhere in Europe (pardon the senior moment, i don’t remember where exactly). This is not to say there aren’t others…I’m just not aware of any. The one in the photo here was the first – the development system Don constructed while on staff at CalArts. I do know the 500 was adondoned quickly and resurfaced as the 300 series which included direct routing of computer control the various modules (259 VCO and 292C Gate for example) -and- the digital VCOs.”

“The box screwed into the side of the main cabinet is a speaker selector which if I remember correctly wasn’t on line. Another bit of trivia – this was taken about the time of Mort’s Game Room project that Gary Chang, Jill Frazer, Darrell Johansen, Sue Harvey and I worked on. The room next to 304 (other side of the wall which is shown behind the Buchla) was 305. It had a large 100 system (three cabinets) and for the Game Room we cut a hole in the base of that wall to run audio cables out from the tape machines to play quad audio snippets into the game area. This also took signals directly from the game board in 305 where signals were decoded and sent to the various controllers (audio, film, Buchla-controlled OCR light dimmers, etc.).

Against the other wall – opposite the one behind the 500 – was studi oB-303, which was pretty much a duplicate of this one sans the computer control – so it was a 200 studio, not a 500 studio. It also had the huge JBL monitors which were hung form the ceiling on metal brackets made by Chas Smith (which are still in place today). There’s a photo of 303 at Barry’s Schrader’s website: link

Most people preferred working in 303, mainly because the 258’s were easier to get to. On the 500 system they were all on the top row, which was a pain for most. The upside – studio time was easy to book in 304 for this reason I spent a lot of the early mornings here – tarting usually at 4AM and going until classes began around 9.”

Click here for the rest of the shots. You can find more in the comments of this Matrixsynth post.

buchla 200e rock n roll

The above is a video of the new Buchla modular, the 200e.
The demo is by Alessandro Cortini of Nine Inch Nails.

ARP 2500 Noodle

Click here for an mp3 of the ARP 2500, another of the rarest of the rare in the modular synth world. A little bit of trivia: the ARP 2500 was the synth used to communicate with the aliens in Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was played in the movie by head ARP engineer Phillip Dodds.

The demo was sent my way via ben who had the following to say:

“I thought you might like to hear a little “ARP 2500 NOODLE” i did yesterday [actually its nearly 7 mins long]. It’s an arp going through an ibanez AD-80 delay pedal. It’s in mono. The arp is set up to play a simple sequence [notice it is 10 steps long] and I tweak the pitch etc as it goes. I also tweak the delay repeat/time/blend knobs. Note that this is an analog delay pedal from the 70s, using the amazing Panasonic MN3005 bucket brigade delay circuit”

ARP 2600 Repair

Ever wonder what it might look like at a techs office repairing a vintage analog synth? The above is a video of Fredrik Segerfalk’s ARP 2600 being repaired. “This is how a tech should do it. Fix the stuff and keep you amused. This is one of many videos I got from my tech when he fixed my ARP 2600″

Have a great weekend everyone!
For more daily synth-related content check out Matrixsynth.

Every year synth die-hards migrate East for AHNE. It is an amazing gathering filled with vintage gear as you will see in the links that follow. This year’s event looks like it did not disappoint. Unfortunately I was not able to make it due to having to make a trip out East just before the event due to unforeseen circumstances, but one year I will make it! The following are links to photo sets and some video of the event.

Stretta’s Flickr Set
AHNE 2007 via alt-mode
AHNE Collage on SonicState – features some great video coverage and words by Dave below.

Minimoog & Minimoog Voyager Side by Side via Dave

Here’s an example of some of what can be had at events like AHNE. This video was done by cartoonist and synthesist, Dave of umop and his synth toon classic The Packrat. BTW, check out Dave’s video for Weird Al Yankovic’s Virus Alert.

Custom Synth Madness

CustomSynth UK

What you are looking at is a Roland SH-09 monophonic analog synth. They are normally white font and details on black. Why is this one Orange? Before purists rank on the change in design, well, the original was in pretty bad shape. It was picked up by an outfit that goes by CustomSynth they do custom designs for a number of synths including a white Juno-106, JX-3P, Korg Polysix and more. Check out this JX-3P with the PG-200 knob box built in. They are very well done and surprisingly well received in the synth community.

The Harvey TR-808

Meet the Harvey TR-808, a rack mounted Roland TR-808 built by Studio Electronics. Before Studio Electronics began building their own synths, they used to rack and MIDIfy the old classics including a TR-909 rack, the original MIDIMini Minimoog rack, the Oberheim “Obie Eight” rack, and the Sequential Circuits “P Five” rack. If you look at the Studio Electronics News page you will see mention of the old school racks as of 5.20.05:

“5.20.05: OLD SCHOOL STUDIO ELECTRONICS RACKMOUNT CLASSICS RETURN!
“Harvey” 808s, P5s, a new TR-909 rack (minus its sequencer), OBIE RACKs, and even OB-8s (I think) are back in the fold!”

I have no idea if they are still taking orders. The Harvey pictured is currently up for auction.

Monster Drum Machine

In this case, literally. This beauty was actually up for auction for a whopping $5000.

The following are the details:

“Add a useful member to your band, an interesting piece to your collection or BOTH… is it Art? Is it an instrument? (Well, the debate is still open on whether or not a drum machine is actually an instrument, but I digress) IT’S BOTH! This fully functional artistic drum machine is perfect for the edgey musician or DJ who needs a pal, the collector of one of a kind art, or the lover of cool electronica… Measures 42″ tall, 21″ at base and 18″ at its widest on the top and has 3 cord jacks… don’t let this lil mutant guy (guys?!?!?) languish in artistic limbo, he needs to lay down some bomb beats with you today!”

Check out this link for the images if the auction is down. It is an interesting piece.

If you know anything about the construction of this one, please feel free to comment.

The Lyricon

The Lyricon is essentially an analog synth that can be played by flute [see update below]. You can find more images and info on MASA, a Japanese site on the instrument. You can find a Google translated version of the site here. The following is a translated excerpt from the site. Apologies for the poor translation. If you know more about this piece feel free to comment.

“‘performing in the orchestra, was the idea like the electric flute which is audible sufficiently in the hole’, so is. It has started from the place where it tries probably to reproduce the performance method of the wooden bobbin musical instrument and the constitution of the timbre electrically. Being afterwards, appeared, become constitution of the general analog synthesizer VCO, VCF and VCA…. whichWith there is no similar point yet, changes harmonic overtone constitution and on the other hand, it can call with the point which does the sound making that it has been similar to [dorouba] of the organ. At this point in time as for [ririkon] of the first generation [ririkon] II which it mentions later, formation differs from [doraivua] completely.”

Update via brian t in the comments: “Small correction re the Lyricon: it’s played saxophone-style, not like a flute. There’s a summary in English at 120 Years of Electronic Music. Probably the most high-profile Lyricon gig was with Steely Dan, tracks like “Hey Nineteen” have Lyricon solos by Tom Scott.”

Viva Commodore64!

And finally I leave you with a little C64 action.

Magnetron by Golgoth 13A

“”Magnetron”, funny Clay animation music video clip from french band “GOLGOTH 13″ and their album called “Bruce Lee died in Galway”. Official golgoth 13 website More of Seb’s work here too.”

“The Mighty MB-6582!”

“four channel stereo synth (8x 6582 SIDs) and the up-coming release of MB-SID V2 is going to blow away all other SID hardware.” via C64Music! You can find the full flickr set of images here. This is a custom version of the MidiBox SID. Via beaker in the comments of this Matrixsynth post: “Yes, this guy is from Australia and he made this version of the Midibox SID himself. It is still based on the Midibox design though. The 6582 was not used in the C64, but it is a 9V version of the SID much like the 8580. They are hard to find, but there was some new old stock floating around that has mostly been bought up. I doubt this will become a production synth (at least not is any real quantity) due to a shortage of 6582 SID’s, especially since he’s using 8 of them in one unit. But apparently he’ll be selling boards for those that have, or can find some SID’s. One thing for sure, it did a bloody nice job of it.”

For or daily synth-related posts check out Matrixsynth.