Walk-through featuring the Roland TR-909 and Moog Ring Modulator
Background video description below:
A walk through of our store front in Austin, TX to allow you (the viewer) to quickly glance at some of our inventory.
This week your hearing some in house recordings of a 909 and Moog Ring Mod at play!
If you see anything you would like to know more about please feel free to e-mail us at:
switchedonaustin@gmail.com
or Call us: (512) 782-8806 Noon-6pm (Central Standard Time)
Switched On buys, sells, repairs and restores all manners of musical electronics…new, used, and vintage.
Shop with us on our site:
www.switchedonaustin.com
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@SwitchedOnTX
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Deep House with Juno-60, M1, TR-909
A Deep House-inspired improvisation using Roland Juno-60, Korg M1, Roland TR-909
Building Techno and House rhythms on the Roland TR-909
“I bought my 909 in the ’90s when it was at the peak of its popularity in Techno, House and Rave music. This old faithful has been to many raves and house parties back in the day, yet, amazingly, still works and more importantly, grooves like a fox on rollerblades.”
The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer is a partially analog, partially sample-based, drum machine introduced by the Japanese Roland Corporation in 1983. The brainchild of Tadao Kikumoto, the engineer behind the Roland TB-303, it features a 16-step step sequencer and a drum kit that aimed for realism and cost-effectiveness. It is fully programmable, and like its predecessor, the TR-808, it can store entire songs with multiple sections, as opposed to simply storing patterns. It was the first MIDI-equipped drum machine. Around 10,000 units were produced.
A few Roland JD-990 pads, plucks, pianos, and strings
The Roland JD-990 is a classic module featuring great waveforms in ROM, and deep editing capabilities (it was known as a “programmer’s dream” when it came out). These are a few examples of its classy, beautiful, lush sounds.
The JD-990 is an enhanced version of the JD-800 and was the top o’ the line JD-synth. Its rack-mount design and impressive power and functionality within the studio paved way for the hugely successful JV-series rack modules which lead, ultimately, to the XV-series monster-modules! The JD-990 is a digital synth with 6MB of ROM sounds with “analog-like” edit parameters and features. These include lowpass filtering, ring modulation, osc. sync, frequency cross-mod, etc. The JD-990 is also compatible with JV80 and JD800 expansion boards.
The JD-990 has a large LCD display which makes editing very easy and intuitive, you can actually see the envelopes and LFO rates. There’s an on-board multi-effects processor with Delay, Reverb, Phaser, Distortion, Chorus, and EQ. For the studio, the JD-990 has MIDI IN/OUT/THRU and eight outputs in four stereo pairs. The JD-990 can hold one internal expansion board and the best choice is to put the Vintage expansion in it because that gives you about 512 patches (Only 255 from JV-series!) of which 256 are specially programmed for the JD-990.
Roland MC-202 Vintage Synthesizer Overview
This is an analog synthesizer/sequencer. It sounds very much like the TB-303 and SH-101 bass synths. Sometimes considered the “poor man’s 303”. It has a very evolved form of TB-303 like programming (more like the MC-4) and SH-101 like controls of the VCO, VCF, VCA, LFO, Envelope and Mixer sections. The LCD display is a great feature too.
The MC-202 was sort of a next-generation TB-303. So the idea was to program sequence/patterns into it internally which would give you those 303 basslines that we’ve come to love. But programming the MC-202 is a bit too intense and over done for the simple monophonic bass line. However you can control it externally by hooking up a MID-CV/Gate converter. Then you basically have yourself an SH-101!
The sequencer is actually a 2-channel CV/gate sequencer, with both channels being capable of driving a separate external synth. It’s a very useful unit, also, for its DINsync capabilities; it can receive on one port, and send over two, and also can ‘split’ DINsync to branch a sync signal out to multiple devices.
TB 303 How to program Da Funk
Daft Punk/Da Funk Program by Roland TB-303
Roland INTEGRA-7 SuperNATURAL Sound Module Demo with Scott Tibbs
Roland keyboard specialist Scott Tibbs demonstrates the Roland INTEGRA-7 SuperNATURAL sound module (and A-49 MIDI controller) at Kraft Music.
Roland marcomm pitch:
With the development of SuperNATURAL sound and Behavior Modeling technology, Roland has blurred the boundary between acoustic and electronic instruments. Built upon these core technologies, the new INTEGRA-7 gives musicians a gold mine of the latest SuperNATURAL sounds in a fast-access, fully stocked 16-part module.
The powerhouse rack comprises a “greatest hits” collection of sounds from Roland’s flagship keyboards and V-Drums modules, plus a coveted lineup from the legacy SRX library. It also introduces a new technology called Motional Surround, a 17-part ambience engine that lets you graphically control the distance and position of each part within 360-degree sound field. With the immense power of the INTEGRA-7, you can create amazingly realistic and detailed orchestral arrangements, immersive, spatial sounds, and beyond.
TB303 programming with random tune tweaking
A quick demo of programming the TB303, then some random tune tweaking.
The Roland TB303 is a monophonic analog bass synthesizer married to a pattern-based step sequencer released in 1982. It features a single analog oscillator with two waveforms (ramp or square) and has a simple but excellent VCF (filter) with resonance, cut-off, and envelope controls. There are also knobs to adjust tuning, envelope decay, tempo and accent amount.
It’s not a performance synthesizer because you have to program a pattern of notes and timing info into it (sort of like a drum machine). Patterns can then be linked into songs. It was originally made to accompany a drum machine, the TR-606 specifically, and provide bass-line accompaniment to guitarists, keyboard players, etc. It was not a successful product in its time. As a result, creative DJs and aspiring electronic musicians found them for next to no money and began using them for techno and acid music. Usually a single pattern is continuously played while the performer tweaks the knobs creating an exciting and expressive musical event.
The TB-303 has become one of the most sought after vintage synths ever! It has helped develop and stylize many forms of electronic music including House, Acid, Trance and Ambient. If ever there was a need for a repetitive bassline/groove or an extremely resonant and bubbly sound, the 303 is KING. Truly a unique machine with a very identifiable sound! It has spun off several imitators as well: Novation Bass Station, ReBirth, Doepfer MS-404, MAM MB-33, Syntecno TeeBee, and more (see Related & Alternative Gear sidebar).
A short sequence showing how a TR606 sounds when distorted.
The 10 things we enjoyed the most at NAMM 2013 and major trends
Time to sum up this years Winter NAMM show with a gallery of the 10 things that made this year’s event so great. I guess there will be few surprises to those who regularly follow our web magazine or any other of our web mag colleagues in the msuic creation business either 
Overall trends for this year include:
a. More vendors takes the route of Arturia’s MiniBrute – analog, low price point, performance sized
b. Modular synths are hotter than ever, as well as the DIY micro synths
c. The controller / control surface segment is getting over crowded – who needs them all
d. Software retro clones of vintage classics has come to its peek
e. All analog synths are alive and kicking
f. All you can eat tablet instruments – iOS is all fed up, now vendors are looking to Android and other platforms
g. More innovation is needed in the DJ space
Here is Steelberry Clones’ top 10 list!
1. Moog Sub Phatty
2. KORG MS-20 Mini
3. KORG KingKORG
4. Arturia SparkLE
5. Dave Smith Instruments – Prophet 12
6. Roland V-Combo VR-09
7. AKAI MAX49
8. NORD Electro 4
9. NUMARK Orbit
10. KOMA Elektronik
That’s it for this year’s NAMM show, next up is MusikMesse in Frankfurt.
Please leave your comments if you agree or disagree with the listing or if anything ought to be added. We know that we probably should have included some software products as well, but we might come back to that later in the week.
V-Combo VR-09 Studio Performance with Looper
http://www.rolandconnect.com/product.php?p=vr-09
The Story:
In this video, Sergio Terranova Junior, one of the Brazilian musicians, is speaking with his musician friend that is living in California, USA. Sergio’s friend asked him if he will go to the NAMM show in Anaheim during their conversation. Sergio said to his friend that he will not go there this time because there will be nothing interesting to him to visit. After that, his friend asked about his setup, and he showed his home studio with the JP-80, INTEGRA-7 and the Roland’s legend, SH-1000 ! And, He asked his friend why he needed a new keyboard. His friend said that he must come because Roland will launch new cool instruments. And, in the end, his friend told him that he must review his concepts…
DATAMASKIN
