Metasonix, the maker celebrating the mad science of tubes for making wonderfully-terrible noises, reveals to CDM that next week they’ll unveil a new Voltage Controlled Oscillator. Behold, videos! From top:

“A prototype R-55 thyratron VCO is controlled with a Makenoise Rene sequencer, with an R-54 VCO tuned to track along.”

“A prototype R-55 thyratron VCO tunes along with an R-54 VCO, both driven with the same CV.”

Analog: you can scare small children with it. In a good way.

And as if you needed another reason to visit their booth at NAMM – or follow along as we visit them virtually here on CDM – Metasonix will have this prototype at the Big City booth. Big City Music, a California treasure trove of boutique music hardware and analog goodies, is a place I’m always willing to evangelize. Metasonix writes CDM:

“This is a prototype, the finished ones will be slightly different.

If people want to see more, the R-55 will be on display at NAMM, at the
Big City Music booth (6735). I won’t be there but Josh can demo it.

They are expected to ship May 2012.
BCM is getting an exclusive distribution on these and the quantities will be limited. ”

http://www.metasonix.com/

Online retailer audioMIDI has begun a new sale I really love called the “No Brainer” series. They offer some carefully-selected instruments and effects for prices like $5, $15, or $20. These aren’t clearance bin deals, either; they’re some of the best plug-ins on the market, in either full versions or slightly stripped-down (but fully-functional) editions. audioMIDI has exclusively released details of the deals they’ll offer Monday to CDM, and among them is the wonderful XILS 3 – a virtual instrument with the matrix editing of the classic EMS synthesizers.

Expiring

First, you have until midnight 11/30 to grab AAS’ fantastic modeled virtual analog, Ultra Analog, for $15 (instead of around $200). Ableton has their own version of this instrument called Analog, but if you’re using other hosts (or you don’t have Live Suite and want to save some cash), this is a great option.

AAS Ultra Analog VA-1 for $15

Ongoing

The Overloud Breverb is a multi-function reverb plug, normally going for $369. The audioMIDI edition comes with room and plate reverbs – nicely matching the free TC Electronic hall reverb we got last week – for five bucks.

Breverb audioMIDI Edition

Rhetorical question: could a great Breverb inspire a profound Bromance?

Monday

It’s actually the upcoming deals that go live Monday that have me especially enthusiastic.

Blue Analog Trackbox from NOMAD Factory is a tube-emulating multi-effects unit with loads of timbral options and modules for gate/expander, compressor, and EQ. After a quick play-round, it seems to sound great. It’s normally US$189, but from Monday, it’ll be $15 through AudioMIDI. Expires December 6. 

Trackbox offer link (will go live Monday, won’t work any earlier)

XILS 3 is a virtual modular with matrix editing. The creators don’t mention it by name, but the hardware in question is the legendary VCS 3 – a brilliant analog synth from EMS. The EMS synths are overshadowed somewhat here in the States by the likes of Moog; if you don’t know the VCS 3, go look it up.

Matrices were a great idea back in the day on hardware, and they remain a great idea now. Lovers of the EMS or synth sounds in general won’t want to miss this, especially with sequencer and synth modules and the ability to use the XILS 3 as an audio processor on live input. You’ll get a slightly stripped-down version, but at a steep discount – US$20. Expires end of December.

XILS 3 offer link (will go live Monday, won’t work any earlier)

I’m playing around with all of these, so if I have tips to share, I will. Let us know if you bite on any of these offers.

Drum machines with tubes: from Wurlitzer’s classic SideMan to a new prototype, drum machines can make tubes rock even harder.

What happens when adept sonic inventor Eric Barbour of Metasonix makes a drum machine out of clever circuits and vacuum tubes? Well, in the creator’s words:

“It makes noise … a lot of noise.”

Yes, while MPC and LinnDrum creator Roger Linn works out for himself just what people want from a “workstation” drum machine, Eric is whipping up prototypes that make a racket.

Donald Bell aka Chachi Jones captured the Man of Metasonix at a RobotSpeak demo over the weekend. Eric was there to show off commercially-available products with raunchy names, like the AssBlaster and Wretch Machine. But he also brought along this unique tube-based prototype, which clearly stole the show. See the full Flickr set for more:

Robotspeak Metasonix demo [Chachi Jones @ Flickr]

Here’s another video – that’s Eric’s voice explaining a bit of how this works, with a beautiful view of those tubes.

Now, before you get too excited about this, there’s no word on whether this prototype will ever see the light of day. So, please don’t flood Eric’s email with requests asking for the thing. I have a huge amount of respect for his talent as a designer and, um, with the rest of the bloggers have basically made the guy hate me because we make you want stuff he doesn’t necessarily want to make.

Hmmm… actually, if it means that we might get to buy this drum machine, maybe that’d be worth it. So, you know what? Go ahead. Bug him. I can take some hate. I can always order mine under a pseudonym.

Tubes through History

Vintage vacuum tube drum machine from Donald Bell on Vimeo.

Another interesting twist of Eric’s presentation was the discussion of vintage, tube-based drum machine, as in the Wurtlizer SideMan. This early product, likely the first commercially-available drum machine, was a monster rotary mechanical sequencer, driven by a belt motor, with tube ringing filters to generate the sounds. See the video above, also by Donald, for Eric’s explanation of why it’s best to leave this dinosaur to extinction.

As impractical as these designs are as hardware, I think it’s actually easier to take them as inspiration for software – with no FCC to worry about, and something quite a lot more portable than a SideMan.

Other tube / mechanical drum machines to share, or historical notes on the SideMan? Share in comments…

“We use it as a preamp—a BAD preamp. The SCROTUM knob controls input volume badly. No, you can’t turn it fully down. This is intentional because it interacts with the DOUBLE SCROTUM switch. Turning down SCROTUM won’t silence the awful noise and oscillation. It just makes the TM-7 howl and scream at various pitches, intermodulating with your lovely sweet guitar tone. Ha ha ha. Scrotum.”

Two more vacuum tubes and a feedback loop later, well … it’s easier to hear than describe. Our friend, musician, bender, and experimentalist Chachi Jones, has launched a new video blog for the hip San Francisco music gear shop Robotspeak. He tests the TM-7 Scrotum Smasher in a new clip. Cross your legs before watching, gentleman readers:

More videos coming in the Robotspeak Magazine.

Sometimes it’s really hard to be rational and dispassionate about high-end audio gear. Some of it is just ridiculously pretty. And every time the AES show rolls around, you can be sure your right brain’s neurons are going to get all hot and bothered about Blue and Red Microphones and their lovely, vintage-style designs.

The RED Type A Tube Mic is one gorgeous microphone. It’s also a unique design: you can interchange different capsules for different recording situation, all without ever turning off the mic. (That’s right: you can actually hot-swap capsules.) There’s a serious tube inside: a “hand-selected” ECC88 vacuum tube.

This mic isn’t cheap at US$1345, but that’s nothing compared to what some similar mics can cost. Once you have the mic, the capsules are relatively affordable, starting at US$245. Now, I won’t make a recommendation on this kind of mic, but you have my permission to go seek out your local enabler — I mean, erm, audio expert — and ask him/her whether this is worth it. If you can afford a luxury mic like this, do send pictures and let us know how it treats you.

Pictured below: included accessories. Red says these are a “custom-built flight case, Red’s high-definition tube mic cable, a shock mount and the innovative PowerStream power supply, which not only insures ultra-stable performance but features a soft-start feature that maximizes tube life and minimizes startup time.” I see something that looks like a flask. (Yeah, I know, I know, it’s the power supply; maybe Red can introduce a specially-branded flask, which would be all I could afford.)

Vintagemicrophone.com

Say M-Audio and you probably think of plastic keyboards or USB audio interfaces, but M-Audio’s latest creation is a multi-pattern, large diaphragm studio condenser microphone, with a retro design and a military-grade vacuum tube.

The Sputnik is not M-Audio’s first microphone — they make a line of budget-minded condensers — but M-Audio is crowing about it in a big way. By budget, we’re talking US$699.95 list. But it’s the mics to which M-Audio is comparing the Sputnik that might get some interest. M-Audio claims that “top Los Angeles recording engineers . . . observed [in side-by-side comparisons] that Sputnik exhibited the coveted low and low-mid qualities of the Neumann U47 and the upper-mids and highs of the AKG C12.” Want more classic mic name-dropping? M-Audio compares the upside-down tube capsule to the Telefunken 251.

Now, warning: if you happen to run into someone in sales from M-Audio, they might try to stun you in your tracks by reciting phrases like, “Sputnik’s Class A amplifier circuit is an all-discrete transconductance design based on thermionic studies by researchers at Harvard and the American Institute of Physics.” But, mic rocket science aside, it’ll be interesting to see if this mic can live up to its claims. If it sounds anywhere near as good as they say it does, it could make a nice splurge for a home musician. With that in mind, the kit comes with a power supply, shockmount, and even a flight case.

Mic gurus? Already got a favorite condenser in the US$700 range? Let us know in comments.

Last month, we looked at an upcoming all-tube synth from the twisted minds at Metasonix, as shown at a tube expo. We heard 2006 for launch at US$2500 or thereabouts.

CDM reader Michael Weeks is busy writing the user manual for the synth (aka the S-1000). Result? He’s got a prototype. Michael lets us in on the details of this peculiar beast:

A full multi-part demo, with all synths the S-1000, and all drums processed through the waveshaper and filter:

S-1000 Demo [MP3; click play icon for live playback via del.icio.us]

Also in the directory, there are several other demos of more extended tweaking, just single patterns, or pattern chains, from a future retro mobius with live knob tweaking. And there are some other demos of just the filter section, as it is the same circuit being used in the TM-6.

And, of course – mandatory synth pron – some nice close-up, arty photos of tubes!

Closeup 1
Closeup 2
Closeup 3

Thanks as always, Michael!

The demo certainly delivers on low-fi strangeness. Now I just want to try one out in person — maybe at the upcoming tube expo across the river in New Jersey this spring? I’m guessing this is one better tasted live.

Also on:
Matrixsynth — oh, sure, just because I’m on East Coast time and went to bed!

Related:
MIDI Optional, Glowing Green Bars Standard: First Look at the S-1000
Vacuum Tube Valley Expo: Where to Show Off a New Tube Synth
Analog Synth Porn with Butt Probe (their product name, not mine)
Metasonix TX-2 Butt Probe Effects Box
Gear Porn: “Spinal Rape” Makes Gear Music Video Star
Vintage Synths: Report from Analogue Heaven

I know what you were thinking during the silent news week as I was on vacation: “if only . . .”

If only someone would release a synth based entirely on vacuum and gas-filled tubes. No pretty sine waves, mind you: only saw, square, and square with suboctave. And a filter sweep controlled by a photoresistor. And a joystick that tunes, triggers, and modulates. And glowing green bars that show voltage levels.

And the name should involve vomiting, somehow.

If that hasn’t made you afraid (yet strangely intrigued), all this madness comes from Metasonix, who gave us the TX-2 Butt Probe effect, built with what they called “s*****y tubes.”

Ladies and germs, I give you the Wretch Machine from Metasonix. Currently in prototype form, but expected next year for US$2500. A MIDI-CV interface will be an optional add-on for $300. Now you can use your precious, new-fangled MIDI. Full specs after the break; more on this story as it hurls in. (Thanks, Michael!)

Here’s how Metasonix describe their new creation:

The Professional Solution.
The Ultimate Tube Synthesizer.

Pitch sources: two independent VCOs.
Made entirely of vacuum and gas-filled tubes.

Range >2 octaves using CV, octave switching allows range from
33 Hz (low C) to more than 2 kHz.
Three waveforms: thyratron sawtooth, square, and square with
suboctave.
VCO 2 may free-run or be soft-synced to VCO 1.
Numerous patch points allow enormous flexibility.

Waveshaper: unique circuit, with soft clipper and pulse adder
(shapes waveforms from VCOs by adding small pulses to top of
waveform at discontinuity).
Made entirely of vacuum tubes.
Settings: disable, soft-clip only, and soft-clip with pulses added to
signal. Latter circuit allows simulation of noise source.

Filter: unique multimode circuit, allows its use as a lowpass,
treble/midrange bandpass or bass bandpass filter.
Continuously variable control allows mixing of filter forms in any
proportion.
Made entirely of vacuum tubes.
Range of treble resonance switchable, 400-1700 Hz.
Bass resonance tunes from ~100-350 Hz.
VCA: unique circuit using a pentode tube.
Made entirely of a vacuum tube.
May be modulated with the AR generator only, or with the control
voltage generated on modulation bus 2.

Modulation: two envelope generators, A(S)R and AD.
Both triggered with input gate signal. Both may be combined on
either modulation bus to create ADSR.
Two independent LFOs, triangle waveform, range <0.3 Hz to more
than 5 Hz.
Two modulation buses allow combining the A(S)R, AD, and two
LFOs as needed to effect any CV input in the audio circuit (VCO
pitch, VCO squarer waveshape, waveshaper pulser, filter tuning).

Main CV input controls pitch of both VCOs (Hz/V response).
Gate input triggers envelope generators, accepts 0-5v or 0-10v
gate voltage.
6AL7 “eye” tube displays status of LFOs and A(S)R control voltages
on three separate glowing green bar graphs.

Miniature joystick performs multiple jobs: vertical motion affects
pitch of both VCOs, horizontal motion affects tuning of filter.
Press joystick in to trigger envelopes.

Size: 6U high standard EIA rack mount, 3″ depth below rack panel.
11 vacuum/gas tubes. Weight about 20 pounds with AC adapter.
Draws 12 volts AC ONLY at 3 amps.

Expected availability mid-2006, expected retail price $2500.
Optional internal MIDI-CV interface, add $300.

Thanks, Michael, for turning me on both to the new instrument and the show.