Electra EP-501 Sampler Delay demo
In this video:
Demo featuring the Electra EP-501 Sampler Delay. In Logic I’m using a preset beat from Ultrabeat. The EP-501 is being controlled by a MIDI-to-CV converter. Ultrabeat is being fed into the EP-501 which is sampling the beat. The pitch and gate of the EP-501 is coming from a MIDI track in Logic. The EP-501 takes a sample each time it receives a gate signal and loops it until the next gate signal.
Vintage synths: KORG MICRO-PRESET Synthesizer M-500 SP – 1977
The Korg Micro-Preset model M-500 is a simple monophonic synth with a single oscillator architecture which came out 1977. As a preset synth it’s not very flexible – but it has a special, typical sound and some weird fx sounds! Also some good basses. The basic sound is very similar to the Minikorg 700.
The Micro-Preset M-500 has presets like flute, recorder, string, brass, human voice, oboe… and so on. It also has the synth registers SYNTHE 1 and SYNTHE 2 – these are synth voices and they are tweakable with ATTACK, DECAY and filter . There are saw and pulse waveforms, white and pink noise.
Unlike other preset synths the Micro-Preset has no aftertouch – but it has an other great feature: the presets are mixable! You can press more than two presets at once and sometimes you will get interesting results, like heard in the video. A bit like Korg Sigma.
The Korg Micro-Preset you see in the video is a later model. They came in a green/black color scheme and had a built in speaker. They were called M-500 SP.
I played the Micro-Preset with a Yamaha Pro R3 reverb and Roland DEP-5 for delay.
OMD used the Korg Micro-Preset a lot.
I also used it a lot, because it was my very first synth in 1990! Back then I wanted a Korg M1 or a Wavestation, but I could not afford something like that. So I bought the “second hand” monophonic M-500, which I got very cheap from a music store (80 D-Marks, = 40 euros), because nobody wanted it… indeed, they were happy to get rid of it. It was the only one “professional” synth (not a Casio or Yamaha toy), that I could afford – and I was happy!
Being creative – Polycheesy GX-800
This guy knows how to save some bucks 
No normal man can afford to own the synth of all synths: the Yamaha GX-1. So I decided to get creative. This is what I came up with It’s a Yamaha CSY-1, Yamaha’s first organ with an integrated analog synth. It actually contains GX1 technology. I made the synth fully programmable and exchanged the lower keyboard for a Korg Poly 800 . So now this isntrument contains an organ,a fully programmable monosynth with aftertouch and a polyphonic synth! This is just an improvisation but it gives an impression of what the isntrument can do.
The Polycheesy name comes from the row of yellow modulation wheels on the programmer. Bad joke, I know.
The GX-1 on the other hand was Yamaha’s first big polyphonic analog synth, and it was a beast! Considered the predecessor to the CS-80 (another huge poly-synth), the GX-1 featured a triple-tiered keyboard, pedalboard, ribbon controller, eight polyphonic voices, chromed pedestals and a $50,000+ price tag! OK, so it wasn’t designed for your everyday musician – less than 10 were ever made and have been owned mostly by legendary synth/keyboard players including Keith Emmerson, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Rick Wright of Pink Floyd, George Fleury, Richard James of Aphex Twin, Benny Andersson of ABBA, and Hans Zimmer who bought Keith Emerson’s.
Although it may look like an organ at first glance, it’s all analog heaven inside! The two main keyboards have 61 (velocity sensitive!) keys each, and are supplemented by a smaller (3/4 scale, pressure sensitive) 37-note keyboard and a 25-note pedalboard at your feet – 184 keys total! Eight voices of polyphony plus an additional monophonic are available and can be shared and layered or split up among the different keyboards. There are also organ-style drawbars and a ribbon controller for tweaking the sounds. Additional programming buttons are hidden away under drawers and panels on the front-panel.
The GX-1 used two analog oscillators per voice which are pretty much the same one’s used later in the CS-80, along with a mild 2-pole VCF filter, standard LFO and some ADSR envelopes. The GX-1 also had two “swell” pedals and a spring-loaded knee controller. It was truly a lush synth for its time, and its frequent use by many rock-legends helped cement its place in history as well as pave the way for the legendary CS-80.
Please note that there are no built-in speaker in the GX-1 as with many other organs, they are external. See the speakers on each side on the photo.
Demo of the KORG VC-10 Analog Vocoder 1978
The Korg VC-10 vocoder came out 1978 together with the MS-synths. The VC-10 also contains a full polyphonic keyboard and a dynamic microphone. It has a switchable “ensemble” effect. Vibrato. It also have a (noisy) noise generator for reproducing consonants.
The VC-10 has the same casing as the Korg MS-10, the VC-10 is just heavier (and this is not because its microphone).
The VC-10 sounds quite good. It sounds typically analog. Digital vocoders sound different. Of course the VC-10 is not a Sennheiser or an EMS, but the Korg was also much cheaper. The pitch can also be controlled by an external voltage.
For some reason, the carrier signal is to be heard even without talking in the microphone – almost everytime I press the keys (as you can see in the video). If someone exactly knows the responsible trimpot inside, please let me know.
At the end of the video I played the VC-10 with a delay from Roland DEP-5.
The VC-10 was used by Jean-Michel Jarre.
Roland Jupiter 80 performed by S4K Team
Roland Jupiter 80 performed by S4K Team – Alex DD Space4keys. The JUPITER-80’s expressive, organic approach to synthesis makes a new world of sound design possible with multilayered SuperNATURAL textures under the control of a full-color touchscreen and creative hands-on controllers. Experience the metamorphosis of a legend with the all-new JUPITER-80!
- Powerful integrated SuperNATURAL synthesis engines designed for legendary vintage synth sounds to realistic organic acoustic sounds and more.
- Single Tone is equivalent to the performance of powerful single synthesizer—stack four of these to create a mind-blowing “Live Set”
- Tone Blender tweaks multiple parameters of tones in realtime for complex, emotive sonic movement during performance
- Fast, friendly operation with intuitive front panel and color touchscreen optimized for live performance
- 76-note semi-weighted synth keyboard, and 256 polyphonic voices (varies according to sound-generator load)
- USB-memory Song Player/Recorder for backing tracks or quick idea capture
- Easy integration with computers via built-in USB-MIDI/Audio interface
More info below:
http://www.space4keys.com
http://www.s4k.tv
Working the Oberheim Matrix-12
About the Oberheim:
Oberheim’s Matrix 12 is a legendary analog synthesizer from the mid-eighties that is still the king of analog sounds. One of the fattest, roundest, pleasantly analog synthesizers around! It’s long been known for creating some of the thickest and best analog pads, sweeps, buzzes, basses and textures. It features Matrix Modulation for extremely wild virtual patching for almost unlimited range of sounds and modulation capabilities!
The Matrix 12 is similar to the Xpander and the lighter Matrix 6. But the Matrix 12 is much fatter and more programmable than either. Every control can have an effect on some other parameter thanks to Oberheim’s flexible design. For example, there are 15 types of LFOs and VCAs per voice! And there’s plenty of diagrams drawn out on the front panel of the synth to help you figure out some signal routing.
In this video:
This is sound demo of the Oberheim Matrix-12 synthesizer. All but two of the patches are my original creation and hopefully shows some of the ridiculously flexible sound architecture that is possible with this board. I’m playing some riffs both of my own original music and from some of the bands that have influenced me. The last bit, Intro to Gunslinger, while it is short it DID take a couple of weeks practice to get it right and is backed by a Machinedrum.
A summary of song riffs played:
G-Storm – Miranda (By The Sea)
Radiohead – All I Need
Depeche Mode – Enjoy The Silence
G-Storm – Cerulean Deraileur
Jimmy Van M ft. Terra Deva – bassline from Love Like Sleep
G-Storm – Spaced Out Beauty
New Order – Blue Monday
G-Storm – Aerial
808 State – breakdown from In Yer Face
Garbage – You Look So Fine
Sasha – Mr Tiddles
Go West – intro to Call Me
G-Storm – untitled track
G-Storm – Expectations (a really old unrecorded track of mine)
Spaced Out Beauty
M83 – You Appearing
Expectations
Immersion Domain – 1000 Images (I used the same Limuidz factory patch on the Xpander for that track)
Van Halen – I’ll Wait (Eddie used an OB-Xa, I believe)
G-Storm – Descendant
Vangelis – Blade Runner (Opening Titles)
G-Storm – Gunslinger
G-Storm – intro to Gunslinger
Recorded via Alesis Multimix-8 and into Macbook w/ only occasional additional effects from the Multimix added for select sounds.
Roland demonstrates the powerful Jupiter 80
Scott Tibbs from Roland demonstrates some of the amazingly expressive sounds of the Roland Jupiter 80. The Jupiter 80 takes synthesis to whole new levels, with an intuitive architecture and Roland’s SuperNatural sound playback technology. Enjoy the demo, then learn more here: http://bit.ly/sw_jupiter80
The JUPITER-80’s expressive, organic approach to synthesis makes a new world of sound design possible with multilayered SuperNATURAL textures under the control of a full-color touchscreen and creative hands-on controllers. Experience the metamorphosis of a legend with the all-new JUPITER-80!
- Powerful integrated SuperNATURAL synthesis engines designed for legendary vintage synth sounds to realistic organic acoustic sounds and more
- Single Tone is equivalent to the performance of powerful single synthesizer—stack four of these to create a mind-blowing “Live Set”
- Tone Blender tweaks multiple parameters of tones in realtime for complex, emotive sonic movement during performance
- Fast, friendly operation with intuitive front panel and color touchscreen optimized for live performance
- 76-note semi-weighted synth keyboard, and 256 polyphonic voices (varies according to sound-generator load)
- USB-memory Song Player/Recorder for backing tracks or quick idea capture
- Easy integration with computers via built-in USB-MIDI/Audio interface
Yamaha MOX Artist Movie
Exclusive Yamaha artists see the new MOX synth for the first time and offer their opinions!
That interest is set to soar as Yamaha announce a highly informative and entertaining Artist movie featuring some of the UK’s top players including Marcus Byrne (Annie Lennox), Take That’s musical director Mike Stevens, George Michael’s keyboard player Luke Smith, Sean Barry (Ollie Murs, Pixie Lott, Girls Aloud), Luke Juby of Mike & the Mechanics and Bob Geldof’s synthmeister Alan Dunn.
About the MOX:
For the past decade the MOTIF has been the de facto industry standard in music production synthesizers for both live performance and studio use. Combining MOTIF technology with new USB computer integration technology, the MOX series is the most powerful, mobile and affordable Yamaha music workstation ever. They are destined to bring MOTIF music production power to a whole new generation of players.
– 1,217 Voices and 355 MB of waveforms taken from the MOTIF XS
– XA (Expanded Articulation) tone generation system
– More than 256 Performances that spark your musical inspiration
– Virtual Circuitry Modeling (VCM) effects
– 6,720 arpeggiator patterns and the 4 part interactive arpeggio engine
– Direct Performance recording
– Performance Creator for quick setting of Splits, Layers, and Drum Parts
– Category Search provides instant access to the Voices you want
– Comprehensive sequencer including step recording
– New developed 61-key semi weighted keyboard for MOX6
– 88-key Graded Hammer Standard for MOX8
– Lightweight body
– Built-in 4-in 2-out USB Audio/MIDI interface
– Bundled with Cubase AI
– The YC-3B Organ Emulator soft synth and Prologue analog synth available
– Advanced Integration with PC
Using Korg SyncKontrol (iOS) as a modular clock
Here’s how to use the free iOS app SyncKontrol from Korg with your modular synth.
At the very least you will need to amplify the output and ideally use something like a Maths to control the pulsewidth of the clock, though it will work without one if amplified.
Getting Deep into SampleWiz
“Here is a cool technique i use to create some very unique sounds with SampleWiz!”
DATAMASKIN
