The Analog Lab NYC – EMS VCS3 mkII
An EMS VCS mkII was recently in for service at The Analog Lab in NYC. The joystick was repaired, VCO2 was brought back into cal, and the unit had a general cleaning/tuneup.
The VCS3 (nicknamed the Putney) is an analog monosynth housed in a distinctive angled wooden case, a truly classic synth. EMS (Electronic Music Studios) was created in England back in 1969. The VCS3 was one of their first synths and it is still a great, unique, funky little unit! Pictured above is the Mark I model. Pictured is another unit with the small wood-cased DK2 voltage-control keyboard required to play the VCS3.
It has three oscillators, and a unique matrix-based patch system. Instead of patch wires, the VCS3 uses a patchbay grid in which the synth components are laid out, and signal routing is accomplished by placing small pins into the appropriate slots. The VCS3 was, in actuality, a modular type synthesizer reduced down to an extremely portable size.
It generates familiar sci-fi sounds (Dr. Who) and other truly analog sounds. Unfortunately, the oscillators tend to drift out of tune. There’s a Noise Generator, 2 Input Amplifiers, 1 Ring Modulator, 1 Voltage Controlled Low Pass Filter (VCF), 1 Trapezoid Envelope Generator, Joy-Stick Controller, Voltage Controlled Spring Reverb unit and 2 Stereo Output Amplifiers.
Additonally, the VCS3 was also sold in a plastic breif-case and called the Synthi A. The major Synthi 100 system was based on three VCS3’s strung together. Some ultra-rare commercially unavailable synths EMS made include the VCS4 in 1969 which was basically 2 VCS3’s plus a keyboard. And the Synthi Keyboard 1 of 1970 was just a VCS3 with a mini 29-note keyboard.
EINKLANG – the most intuitive synthesizer
EINKLANG details below:
After nine years of research and over three years of development, we at Eisenberg are very proud to present EINKLANG, our first software synthesizer. At the moment, we are working on its completion so EINKLANG will be available in stores in early December.
Discover what makes EINKLANG so special and pre-order here at a discount of up to 66% of the retail price:
indiegogo.com/einklang
Time machine: Vintage Synthesizers I Roland VP330
A voyage into the heart of the Roland VP330 Vocoder Plus from the year 1979.
Exploration by Marko Ettlich (RetroSound)
vocoder, human voice choir, analog strings
separate mix levels for all sections
stereo chorus effect
49 keys
used by Vangelis, Kitaro, Laurie Anderson, Mike Oldfield, Styx, Ultravox, Genesis and more
One of the coolest instruments out there. The vocoder shapes its envelope and filters by any sound source fed into it, your voice or even a drum loop can be used which is then applied to another sound source, typically a synth pad. This creates a very unique and famous robot-like sound.
Aside from the 10-band vocoder, the VP-330 added a string synth section, choir and a human-voice sound, both of which are quite excellent themselves. Its 3 sound sections offer a few different presets that can be slightly edited with de-tuning and vibrato. The VP-330 is one of the best Vocoder synths ever and although there are many other types of Vocoders, none sound as good as this!
Anushri kit now available at the MI store + new demo
New demo from Mutable Instruments featuring the Anushri, details below:
Another Anushri demo… Recording a pattern, tweaking the synth section, then playing with the drum section. My egg-laying, shrimp-eating, electro-sensitive friend typus keeps my fingers away from the dangerous filter mode and fuzz controls.
Mutable Instruments Anushri – a cheerful analog synth (that doesn’t suck at drums too)
Now available in Mutable Instruments online store.
Analog synthesis
- Analog VCO with saw and pulse waveforms, freely mixable.
- Optional automatic VCO calibration in software for those who don’t like messing with trimmers.
- -1 or -2 octaves sub-oscillator.
- Auxiliary square oscillator (DCO) with accurate digital tuning. Can be mixed in the audio path, used as a FM modulator or as a sync master for the VCO (yes, it means “ewwwwwwiowwww” and “wongwong”).
- 12dB/octave multimode filter, with smooth self-oscillation.
- Post-filter overdrive/fuzz circuit.
- Linear VCA.
Modulation sources
- 1 main ADSR envelope routable to pitch, pulse width, cutoff frequency.
- 1 simple 1-parameter envelope (morphing through various stages, including the shape of the main ADSR, and a rigid “GATE” style envelope) routed to VCA.
- Velocity routed to either cutoff frequency or VCA gain.
- 1 LFO routable to pitch, pulse-width and cutoff frequency ; with 8 waveforms (triangle, square, ascending and descending ramps, S&H, bernouilli process, piecewise linear random process aka “autodubstep”, noise).
- 1 triangle LFO for vibrato and/or growl.
Arpeggiator and sequencer
- Arpeggiator with 4 modes (up, down, up&down, random) ; 1 to 2 octaves ; 6 patterns.
- SH-101-style note sequencer with step by step recording, up to 128 notes. Easy recording of pauses, ties, and glides.
- Tempo set by internal clock with shuffle, external MIDI clock or external 6/12/24 ppqn trigger.
Drum machine
- Algorithmic drum pattern generator using an innovative “pattern sculpting” approach – allowing a large combination of drum patterns to be sculpted from 5 knobs.
- Digital sound generation of BD / SD / HH with tone control.
- Drum sounds can be freely triggered from an external sequencer using MIDI channel 10.
Interface
- 10 pots and 4 switches for hands-on access to synthesis parameters.
- 10 “software-pots” for editing modulations / arpeggiator / drum machine settings.
- 3 dedicated navigation buttons (“modulations”, “arpeggiator / keyboard”, “drum machine”).
- 3 dedicated sequencer buttons (“record”, “play”, “hold / rest”).
In/out
- VCO CV in/out (Note: manual VCO calibration is required for accurate 1V/Oct I/O).
- VCF CV in.
- VCA CV in.
- PWM CV in.
- Gate signal in/out (5V level for output).
- 24, 12 or 6 ppqn clock signal in/out (5V level for output).
- Front panel external audio in.
- External Audio in.
- Drum machine individual out (inserting a jack there removes it from the main mix).
- Audio out.
- MIDI in/out (thru + arpeggiator and sequencer notes).
- CC control over modulations and some of the digitally controlled synthesis parameters. Some parameters like filter resonance cannot be CC-controlled.
“Eurorackable”
- Remove main audio in / out and solder corresponding minijacks on PCB
- Remove LT1054 and solder 2×5 power connector
- Route MIDI in/out to front panel (if you want…). And that’s it!
Availability
- DIY product (full kit)
- Price < 200€ / kit
- Available < November 4 2012
Giles Reaves: Space Music Improv on the Synapse Antidote Synthesizer
Giles Reaves: Space Music Improv on the Synapse Antidote Synthesizer.
“Testing my new Nikon D600, and the new Synthesizer from Synapse Audio: Antidote (for Reason 6.5). I created the patch from scratch in real time, as shown in the video. To keep in the “space music” theme, I used my night time time lapse footage from a recent trip through Southern Utah and Northern Arizona (including shots at Arcosanti, AZ).”
Mixtape Alpha – Synth Demo
Mixtape Alpha is the smallest synthesizer we could make without a prescription. It has a stylophone style input for continuous note generation, and 6 buttons for discrete notes. With 4 voices, 4 effects, and 5 note polyphony there is quite a range of expression. But, the best part is, you can record the songs you make, and trade mixtapes with your friends! Perhaps even better, it’s based on the ATmega328p, and can be hacked to make even crazier sounds than we came up with.
If you want to dig into the guts of this 8-bit synth, check out the wiki page. There you will find all the schematics and code, and we even have a Pure Data patch for making your own wavetables. Mixtape Alpha even comes in its own cassette case, with instructions! So check out the Mixtape Alpha store to own your very own.
Mixtape Alpha was done in collaboration with Jie Qi from the High-Low Tech group at the MIT Media Lab. It’s an attempt to break down the barriers between people and electronics: To get them comfortable touching PCBs, and change expectations about how electronics should look. To this end, there are resistive touch pads, and all the trace routing took aesthetics into consideration as well. These are ideas very familiar to circiut benders, and we’re hoping they catch on with other folks as well.
Three new Novation // MiniNova synth tutorials
This video takes you through the essentials of making animations with MiniNova.
MiniNova is a compact, super-cool performance synth with the same sound engine as its big brother: the UltraNova. It comes with 256 incredible onboard sounds which you can tweak with 5 knobs, or totally warp with 8 ‘animate’ buttons. MiniNova also has an onboard VocalTune™ effect as well as a classic vocoder so you can recreate iconic vocal sounds from Hip Hop, Urban and electronic music.
Novation MiniNova key features:
• Hugely powerful micro synthesizer with UltraNova’s sound engine
• Brand new VocalTune™ and classic vocoder effects
• Live synth: tweak and warp your sounds in realtime
• 256 awesome onboard sounds – instantly searchable
• Layer up to 5 effects per voice
• Comes with editing software and a software patch librarian
• Run guitars and other instruments through the vocoder, VocalTune™ and effects
• 37 key controller keyboard with MIDI I/O
The two ther videos can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/novationtv
3 System- Micromac-D/Touch Keyboard/Tape Delay Synthesizer
Here’s a quick video demo of a MacBeth Micromac-D being played via the prototype of the up and coming 3 Octave Touch Plate Keyboard…..and another thin that I’ve been working on- a ‘dual tape delay synthesizer’! Playing these things together is a lot of fun!….
MacBeth – tape delay synthesizer demo
Seen here- A Micromac- D Analogue Synthesizer being played via a MacBeth Touch Capacitataive Keyboard and being fed into something that they just knocked up! This is what MacBeth calls a ‘Tape Delay Synthesizer’!….it’s lo fi- mildly grungy- but mesmorizing to work with! Still to be refined- but I hear the potentiontial- it’s ‘breaky wakey’ at moments- but it seems to work well- this shall be partnered into my complimentary synth to the micromac. It’s a twin delay device- stereo in other words- but here we have delay 1 being fed into delay 2- so it’s mono…..but mad!
PIANA – Bristol Raspberry Pi Jam presentation
A quick talk-through of the slides the Pi Synth guys presented to the 2nd Bristol Raspberry Jam a week ago. Demo to follow once all recompile and plug all the kit back in!
Associated blog post – http://raspberrypisynthesizer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/video-bristol-raspberry-…
DATAMASKIN
