Synthesizers

Fairlight synthesizer creator Peter Vogel has posted his private collection of MP3s, featuring Fairlight demos, radio interviews and CMI pieces from the 80’s.
There are even a couple of recordings from the Fairlight CMI’s predecessor, the Qasar M8, designed by Tony Furse. The M8 did not use sampling, the sounds were generated by additive Fourier synthesis.
He [...]

 

 CMI demo by Brian Gascoigne [14:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Jean Michel Jarre Interview (translated) [6:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Widgetfreak explains how he built a “ghetto talk box”, using a toilet plunger, an old speaker, some tube and a cheap-ass synth keyboard.
Here’s mootbooxie’s take on making a ghetto talk box:

What can you do with a ghetto talk box, once you’ve taped together all your old junk?
Well, you can make a talk box version of [...]

Electronic Peasant has posted a great series of photos detailing his very cool SynthCase synth DIY project:
This project is the first in a series of synthesizer “multi-modules” that will be built in heavy-duty equipment road cases. A friend had passed on to me a bunch of used cases from obsolete equipment that were being disposed [...]

A short film, by Martin Shoeneborn, about having an annoying roommate with a lot of synths.
Best line: “Dude! Fucking recording!”

Here are a set of video demos of the Starkey Hearing Science modular synthesizer:
Starkey Hearing Science modular synthesizer Pt 1

Here’s what poster scienceforce has to say about the system:
Starkey Hearing Science analog modular synthesizer laboratory. It is a scientific instrument, with many particular synthesis features… with this gear you can also process any external signal [...]

Cornell sophomore Cameron demos his muscle-controlled music synthesizer.
It’s kind of like a theremin, except for the part where you shave your arms and send electricity through your muscles.
Note that “it only burns a little”!

Remember Wireless Sound Objects?
We didn’t have too much to go on before, but Assault with Sugar has the details:
Wireless Sound Objects are like the modules of a modular synthesizer, exploded into individual physical objects that provide an engaging way to experience unique, collaborative, musical process. They exist as a variety of objects that either make [...]

This is a video demo of the Future Sound Systems Decade Counter DC1:
The module sequentially counts through ten outputs (this can be cut down by patching a step output to the reset input), which can then be used to trigger envelopes, etc. in a modular system. Here, the module is used to process audio coming [...]

This is a video demo of the Formant Synthesizer, a synth DIY project published in Elektor magazine between 1977-1979.
It was the first mini analogue synthesizer around with modular construction that could be built at home at an affordable price. A tribute article appears in Elektor, April 2008.
via Elektor

Livid has put together a couple of cool videos demoing AudioCube basics:
Percussa Cubes Basics

Impressions and demonstration of using the Percussa Audio cubes with the tutorial Ableton Live set. The center cube detects the faces of the other cubes to send MIDI notes to Live to change loops.
Percussa Cubes with Resonant Synth

Here’s the setup:
Using the distance [...]

Yamaha’s Tenori-On is getting a prominent introduction with Björk’s latest tour.
The new controller/synthesizer is part of the rig of Damian Taylor, above, who uses the Tenori-On on the track Who Is It?.
“Björk felt it would be cool to feature the gear,” says Taylor, “ to make it part of the stage set rather than using [...]

Speaker Synth is an interesting synth DIY project - a five-speaker array with no external audio input, created by Lesley Flanigan. The only components in the system are the instrument’s speakers, piezoelectric microphones, amplifying circuits, and the hands of the performer.
Speaker Synth is played by positioning individual piezo microphones with their corresponding speakers and manipulating [...]

A quicky video demonstrating the sonic mangling capacity of the Wiard Wogglebug.
The Wogglebug is an analog electronic instrument designed by Grant Richter, and inspired by Don Buchla. Grant has made the circuit available to the synth DIY community, and versions are showing up in all types of modular formats.

A little modular synth porn flic demonstrating the polyphonic “switch on time” feature of the Moon Modular M563:
People asking: “What is SWITCH ON TIME”? at the M563 trigger sequencer.
With SOT you can define and optimize the width of your trigger/gate output signal.There are more creative possibilities: e.g. the SOT function manipulates the envelope generator times, [...]

I actually like a little dialog or plot to go along with the synth action…..