Time machine – Korg Mono/Poly Analog Synthesizer (1981)
Time for a new vintage synth to be closer examined, this time it is the classic Korg Mono/Poly:
Arpeggiator, Poly-Mode, Chord-Memory. Unisono-Mode and different VCO, VCF, Envelope and Effect settings
The Korg Mono/Poly is one of the best monophonic classic analog synths but very underrated.
The sound of 4 real VCO`s , the great SSM filter, the Effect Sektion with Osc.-Sync and Crossmodulation is fantastic.
external fx. Dynacord VRS -23 delay/reverb
A cool analog monophonic/polyphonic from Korg. It has 4 VCO’s which can be shared in 4-voice Polyphonic mode, or linked in Unison for a versatile monophonic lead. Each VCO has its own level, tune, and waveform type control. Waveforms include triangle, sawtooth, variable pulse wave. It has a great VCF filter section as well as 2 envelope generators (one for the oscillators and one for the filter). There are also 2 individual LFO’s which can be used to modulate the Pulse Width, envelope and Arpeggiator independently.
A very flexible and fun synth. Other cool tricks up its sleeve include chord memory and an effects mode in which oscillators have a variety of ways to be synced. The built-in arpeggiator and sequencer can run all 4 VCO’s at a time or cycle through each voice per note! There’s also portamento, CV/Gate, VCF and VCO mod inputs, white noise generator, and the pitch/mod wheels can be assigned to control LFO, pitch or the filter. Its sound quality is nice and very Korg.
Checking out the Top Octave Synthesizer
Feature of the TOS or Top Octave Synthesizer. In most electronic organs – and some synthesizers – from the 1970’s the notes were generated by an integrated circuit that could make the top 12 notes from a single master frequency.
“In this video I make a version of the TOS using only standard components. I will use it for something later…
The music is something I made in 2003 using Yamaha HE-8 and Technics SX-C600 organs, Roland JX-8P synthesizer and CR-1000 drum machine.”
The First Laughing Synthesizer in the World
http://bit.ly/rTtL8P Laugh Synth 
for iPhone and iPad is the first dedicated laugh synthesizer in the world.
This ultimate weapon of sonic annoyance comes with 25 built-in laugh presets ranging from Almighty to Zombie, plus 4 effects and the ability to sample user voice.
This little machine can produce nearly all possible kinds of laughter. We spent a while crafting our ultimate laugh generation algorithm. It takes a sample of a laugh as an input, then divides it into phases and intelligently loops the most notable part, enriching it with the pitch modifications, subtle vowel alterations and crazy effects.
Laugh Synth is available for $0,99 or equivalent on the iTunes AppStore.
Link: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=481733124&a…
Zebralette – Free VST synth
Zebralette – http://www.vstplanet.com/News/11/Zebralette.htm
Developer: u-he.com/cms/zebralette
Official audio demo
Zebralette has finally gone ‘freeware’! The idea is to use Zebralette to demonstrate the virtues of Zebra2’s oscillators to everybody out there, and perhaps even convince some of them that upgrading to Zebra2 might be a good idea. đ
OK, Zebralette is just one of Zebra2’s oscillators packed into a simple, easy-to-learn framework â but you have everything you need to make some pretty amazing sounds. Sounds that can be directly loaded into Zebra2 later. And should you eventually decide to upgrade to Zebra2, you will already know everything there is to know about the oscillators â which is quite an advantage!
Zebralette has two LFOs (one per voice, one global), a multi-stage envelope and three on-board effects (chorus, EQ, delay). Not forgetting Zebra2’s famous dual spectral effects, which include several squelchy filter algorithms.”
The Most Valuable Moog Voyager: How it works, and how you can own it
The Bob Moog Foundation is raffling off this awesome Moog Voyager as a part of their Indiegogo campaign which is designed to help expand their hallmark educational program, Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool, nationwide. Please visit the Bob Moog Foundation Indiegogo campaign and help spread Bob Moog’s legacy through your contribution (and get the chance to win this incredible instrument)!
http://bit.ly/IndiegogoDBSS
This Moog Voyager was signed by many stellar Moogfest artists… Brian Eno, Moby, Edgar Froese (of Tangerine Dream), Chromeo, Amon Tobin, Suicide, STS9, Passion Pit, Beak, Ghostland Observatory, Holy Fuck, and TV on the Radio. Some of those signatures are challenging enough to get on their own, let alone in combination with all of these other artists… which makes this an incredibly rare collector’s item!
The Bob Moog Foundation would like to thank their friends at Moog Music for their gracious donation of this versatile and beautiful instrument.
Get involved in this worthy cause today, and get the chance to own the most valuable Voyager in the world!
Chromaphone – new creative percussion synthesizer
Applied Acoustics Systems is pleased to announce the release of Chromaphone, a new creative percussion synthesizer for Mac OS X and Windows.
âWe have designed a synthesizer that combines acoustic resonators to create drums, percussion, mallet, string, and synth-like instruments. At your fingertips are drum skins, bars, marimbas, plates, strings, and tubes that get sparked into life by a mallet and a flexible noise source.â
Chromaphone combines acoustic resonators to create drums, percussion, mallet, string, and synth-like instruments. Drum skins, bars, marimbas, plates, strings and tubes form pairs that are sparked to life by a configurable mallet and a flexible noise source. At the heart of Chromaphone lies a novel coupling technology that precisely models how vibrating objects interact and influence each other capturing key acoustic behaviours of musical instruments. This, combined with access to the resonatorsâ physical properties, results in a library of truly expressive instruments as well as a vast range of sonic colors.
A key feature of Chromaphone is a brand-new coupling technology. The coupling refers to the exchange of acoustic energy which occurs in real life between interacting objects. Consider a string bridged to a wooden soundboard, both have their own behavior and characteristics, but when assembled together, they merge into a complex string instrument. In a similar way, a metal bar interacts with the air column from a tube in a vibraphone. Chromaphone is the first and only plug-in to provide control over the coupling of resonators. The result is vivid instruments with unmatched acoustic precision, sharpness and realism.
More information: http://www.applied-acoustics.com/chromaphone/overview/ .
Korg Polysix Factory Patches Demo!
At first glance the Polysix looks like a scaled-down Mono/Poly, but really it’s not! In fact it had a lot of great new features such as 32 memory patches, 6 voices of polyphony, cassette backup of memory, even programmable modulation effects and Chorus, Phase, Ensemble! The Polysix has warm-sounding real analog oscillators, softer and brassy-er sounding that the Juno. Engage the built-in Chorus on a simple single-oscillator sawtooth patch and you were pretty darned close to that expensive Prophet sound. But the big ace in the Polysix’s hand was the Ensemble effect. Instant Mellotron-like strings.
Watch the end! The end is the sound effects bank. Which is awesome. I have owned a few Polysix’s in my time and this one takes the cake by far. These patches are awesome. This polysix also has midi in installed AND I have the instructions on how to actually use it. It also has a new battery, most of the IC chips have been taken out, and put into a new board with IC sockets.
Opus8 – Free VST synth
Need an extra synth – well here goes
Opus8 – http://www.vstplanet.com/News/11/Opus_8_and_Jericho_4.htm
Developer: datura-instruments.de
Datura-Instruments has released Optimus 8 and Jericho 4, two free VST instruments for Windows. Opus 8 is more than a organ-sound-generator. Using unsyncronized LFOs on the amplitude of each channel it is possible to create complex soundscapes which appear endless.
Mutch parameters can be remoted by the VSTi port of your host software. Changing sound while playback your song will be no problem. For any advice check the manual that is found in the data-folder you get from the download.
– 8 channel sinusodial additive VSTi-syntehsizer
– 12 tone polyphony to any channel
– reverb, delay and flanger effect included
– separate VCA-LFO for each channel
– easy to use
– 32 factory presets included
Quick demo of the Solaris synth
John Bowen Synth Design started the process of developing the Soalris synth some 7 years ago:
The general concept behind the Solaris synthesizer is to implement something like a giant wall-sized modular system entirely in software where you can select among several completely different types of oscillators and filters, exquisitely modelled after the components culled from a variety of legendary vintage synthesizers of yesteryear and even some current virtual analog innovations of today. With up to four oscillators, four filters, four amplifiers, four four-input mixers, six envelope generators, one looping envelope generator, five LFOs, two vector mixers and still more of these software modules available in each program, the Solaris synthesizer becomes absolutely unrivalled in terms of versatility and programmability.
Solaris is a synthesizer designed to live up to the idea of âno compromisesâ:
- Flexible as a modular system, but easier to use â with five 2 x 40 character display sections, one 240 x 64 graphic display, and 40 knobs, the Solaris is capable of great depth in sound manipulation, but designed to be as easy to use as the vintage synths of the past for which John Bowen is known.
- Sound quality is paramount â newly created synthesis algorithms provide unparalleled quality; signal processing handled by SHARC floating-point processors. Internal processing is done at 96 kHz; audio rate modulation provided with sample-accurate precision.
- The Solaris is a purchase which will last for years, through new algorithm âexpansion packsâ and OS updates.
Closer look at the iPad Sylo Synthesiser
Background information: Demo of Sylo Synthesiser. I only scratched the surface of the possibilities for this app doing basic stuff. It’s worth digging in deeper and creating amazing sounds.
Sylo Synthesiser allows you to play music, or create sound effects, using sounds you can design yourself. Sylo Synth includes a collection of pre-designed sounds which you can use as they are, tweak them to your heart’s desire, or you can make new sounds from scratch.
Build sounds from basic waveforms, or capture them from the world around you using the iPad’s built-in microphone. Then, tinker with Sylo Synthesiser’s filters and other settings to make a sound all your own.
Sylo Synthesiser features live time-stretching technology based on granular synthesis and a suite of filters:
⢠Speed up or slow down a recorded sound to use as an instrument
⢠With a regular wavetable synthesiser, higher-pitched notes are also faster, like chipmunks, and lower-pitched notes are also slower, as though they are moving through treacle
⢠But enable Sylo’s “Sync Speed” feature, and lower or higher-pitched notes still play back at the same speed, keeping them in sync with each other
⢠Fiddle with the speed control even while you’re playing notes: Slow, stop or even rewind the sound in the middle of notes â without changing the pitch
⢠Granular synthesis allows you to create instruments or effects from a recording, that do not sound like the original, yet retain its realistic, natural sound
⢠FX units: Frequency modulation, ring modulation, echo/delay, distortion, and a low-pass filter with resonance control
Sylo Synthesiser also supports Core MIDI: play music from another device via MIDI.
Upgrade to Sylo Synthesiser Pro and you gain these additional features:
⢠Use existing audio files as the building-blocks of your instrument: import audio from wave, aiff, mp3 and aac/m4a files
⢠Save recordings to your iPad or to Dropbox* online storage
⢠Save your new instruments to the preset list for quick access
â˘Â Exchange audio with other apps via AudioCopy/AudioPaste or “Open in…” (where supported)
DATAMASKIN
