Dave Smith Instruments

The new version boasts 60 potentiometers among its complement of 78 rotary controls.

“The response to the pot edition of the Prophet ’08 has been overwhelmingly positive,” said company founder Dave Smith, “so we decided to extend that functionality to the Poly Evolver, as well.”

Unlike endless rotary encoders, potentiometers allow the full range of a knob’s values to be accessed in a single turn of about 300 degrees. That simplifies filter sweeps and other more performance-oriented gestures. A kit with potentiometer-equipped panel boards is available to convert older Poly Evolvers.

There have also been some cosmetic changes. “We needed both lined and unlined knobs to distinguish between the pots and encoders, so we’re using Prophet-style knobs,” said DSI’s Andrew McGowan. “And we’ve updated the panel graphics a bit without changing them significantly.” The wood end panels are now made from bubinga.

First released in 2005, the Poly Evolver received multiple awards and has been used extensively by artists such as Nine Inch Nails, The Faint, Silversun Pickups, Van She, and Thursday. An analog/digital hybrid, the four-voice Poly Evolver features four oscillators—two analog and two digital—in a unique stereo voice architecture with a real Curtis analog low-pass filter per channel on each voice. The digital processing does not simply add effects at the end of the signal chain, but is tightly integrated with the analog electronics for tuned feedback, distortion, bit crushing, and synced delays. It can also process external audio and has separate stereo outputs for each voice.

The updated Poly Evolver Keyboard is available now with an MSRP of $2,899.00 and an MAP of $2,599.00. The conversion kit requires nothing more than a screwdriver for installation and is available directly from DSI for $399.00 or factory installed for $449.00.

Image: rolandmks7

Saturday Synth Porn: This 1982 ad featured a clear plexiglass Sequential Circuits Pro One analog synthesizer.

Anyone know if there are any clear plex Pro-Ones around anymore?

via the Synthtopia Flickr Group

This video pairs some vintage bizarro claymation with an electronic soundtrack featuring the Dave Smith Instruments Tetra.

via peterkeys88:

Your hearing the sounds of the new Dave Smith Tetra, plus a few things from a Moog Voyager, with some multitracking in Logic. This cartoon is rather frightening, i dont know what it was originally for but i suppose they’re trying to get the children to behave.

more music at Myspace.com/peterdyer

This India-inspired electronica jam features electronic tabla driving a DIY sequencer.

Details on the patching and performance controls below.

via behanger:

My electronic tabla (it says “proffessional”) controls my home built 32 step sequencer, of which 20 positions are used for this rhythm. The Sool rhythm has 10 beats per cycle.

The sequencer not only plays these voltages up or down, but it can also derive other patterns. I worked these out and implemented these in hardware. I would have to look up how I did this. I do not think of it anymore, as each of the patters is useful. So in a live situation, I just choose a different one at random.

The output of the sequencer is analog, and sends out 0-10 volt. This is then converted to midi by my new miduino, a circuit by Tom Scarff. The software was partley rewritten by me. to make it play in the key of my choice. Using a very secrative math trick called rounding, I made the sequencer play in a minor key, rather than in the 12 tone system. This allows for live tweaking of the knobs without ever being out of key. Freedom!

Then there’s my Arcade joystick, which has an home baked circuit that converts the 4 switches and the fire button to 15 different notes, and connects right onto the keyboard matrix of an old casio childrens keyboard which cooks midi note messages. I would do this in the miduino too if I needed to do it again. A series of if/else statements is much easier and more flexible than soldering and debugging a circuit with 8 logic IC’s and a over a meter of wire.

Then there’s the large joystick. It has a doepfer midiconvertor on board. The miduino has enough pins to do it all together, but I like the fact that it is a funtional unit on it’s own. It controls all the effects of the Arcade channel.

The pitch of the tabla can be controlled by the sequencer as well as by the Atari paddle. I made this input on the tabla when I replaced the tuning pot with a precise ten-turn pot. It works with two vactrols.

Sound sources are: cymbals, a Raagini shruti box, the tabla box, a Waldorf Blofeld running 2 patches amplified by a 40 year old Italian tube amp.

I recorded it with my photocamera, which has a rediculously low audio sampling rate. They all have. It’s just not a number the camera’s are sold by. I should have checked weather I was in the image myself. Now I am a pair of hands on youtube too, looking like the Lorax of Dr. Seuss. A well. It’s just a test drive to check if my work is getting somewhere.

Denkitribe’s “ER-1 + Evolver” techno jam.

via ghostradioshow

Here’s a video review of Dave Smith Instruments Tetra synthesizer, via djthomaswhite:

Here is my two part review of the new Tetra Synthesizer by Dave Smith Instruments.

This is intended as an overview of the sounds and features of the synthesizer, with a small narrative about the over complex expectations of today’s synthesizer enthusiasts that sometimes push the fringe of synthesizer elitists. Treat it like an editorial, take it or leave it.

I love this powerful little synthesizer and have had more time to play with it since making this video footage last week. I hope you enjoy the sounds, and at $800 for a 4 voice true analog synth, you can’t go wrong.

Want more knobs? Use the editor and one of your multiple MIDI controllers.

Part 2 of the Dave Smith Instruments Tetra synthesizer review below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dave Smith put together this nice intro to the new Dave Smith Instruments Tetra synthesizer:

Tetra takes the award-winning sound and features of Mopho, multiplies them by four, and packs them in a box less than half an inch larger.

Tetra has multiple personalities. It is a four-voice, analog poly synth, a sort of mini Prophet. It’s a four-part, multitimbral synth with separate outputs, essentially four Mophos in one very compact box. And its a voice expander for other Tetras or the Prophet 08.

The DSI Tetra retails for $799. See our DSI Tetra synth coverage for details.

Image: Gtechture

Just “a Mopho keyboard speculation”…….but we can dream, can’t we?

via the Synthtopia Flickr Group

Dave Smith Instruments has introduced a new multitimbral synthesizer, the DSI Tetra.

Tetra’s four voices feature a 100% analog signal path and four-part multitimbral operation with individual outputs per voice.

Tetra takes the sound and features of the DSI Mopho, multiplies them by four, and packs them in a box less than half an inch larger.

“We’ve been getting the message loud and clear from our customers that ‘smaller is better,’” said company founder Dave Smith. “All our recent products pack a lot of power and functionality into a small package—even the Prophet ’08, which is relatively small for a full-sized keyboard. We’d also gotten a lot of requests for a poly version of Mopho, our analog mono synth, which has been very successful. By following Mopho’s lead and paring the interface down to the essentials, we can keep the price low and provide excellent value. Everybody wins.”

The DSI Tetra retails for $799.

If you’ve used the Dave Smith Instruments Tetra, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Dave Smith Tetra Synthesizer Details

Tetra is fully programmable via the front panel or with a free downloadable editor for Mac OS and Windows.

Tetra is basically four Mophos in a very compact (7.9″ L x 5″ W) enclosure, a sort of mini Prophet with a couple of extra tricks up its sleeve: specifically, a sub-octave generator for each oscillator and feedback. With a street price of approximately $799, that’s like four Mophos for the price of two. And it’s expandable. Tetra can be poly chained with additional Tetras or a Prophet ’08 for up to sixteen-voice polyphony.

Other features include Combo Mode, used to combine four programs into unison or poly “super patches.” Combos can also play four 16 x 4 step sequences—one per voice/program—
simultaneously. In Multi Mode, each of Tetra’s voices responds to a different MIDI channel, making it ideal for complex arrangements and sequencing analog drum sounds. Tetra is the first DSI product to feature USB.

USB is one of the most requested features across our entire product line,” said DSI’s Tracy Wadley, “so it’s great to be able to offer it.”

Features:

• Affordable, fully programmable poly synth with a 100% analog signal path.
• Classic, real analog sound—including legendary Curtis analog low-pass filter.
• Four-part multitimbral capability with four separate outputs.
• Combo Mode for huge unison patches, stacked sequences, and “modular-style” poly sounds.
• Expandable: poly chain with other Tetras, Prophet ‘08, and Mopho for expanded polyphony
• Just 7.9″ x 5″ (20.07 cm x 12.7 cm).
• Free editor for Mac OS and Windows.

Specifications:

• Multitimbral four-voice analog synthesizer
• 100% analog signal path
• Two oscillators per voice (sawtooth, triangle, saw/triangle, square with variable pulse width) with hard sync
• White noise generator
• One classic Curtis low-pass filter (switchable 2- or 4-pole) per voice, self-oscillating in 4-pole mode
• Analog VCAs
• Three envelope generators (ADSR plus delay) per voice
• Four LFOs per voice
• Two sub-octave generators (one octave down and two octaves down) per voice
• Feedback loop per voice with programmable level and gain
• Four assignable performance controls per program
• Gated 16 x 4 step sequencer (one sequence per program)
• Arpeggiator
• Fully programmable (free downloadable software editor for Mac OS and Windows)
• 512 programs organized into four banks of 128; 128 combos
• I/O: USB 2.0 (type B receptacle), MIDI In, MIDI Out/Thru, Poly Chain Out, Audio Outs 1/Left, 2/Right, 3, and 4 (1/4″ unbalanced), 1/4″ Headphone Out
• 7.9” L x 5” W x 2.7” H (20.07 cm x 12.7 cm x 6.86 cm)
• 1.8 lb. (0.81 kg)

The Roger Linn & Dave Smith LinnDrum II, formerly the BoomChick, appears to be officially on hold.

Here the official statement from Roger Linn:

We’re still hard at work but regrettably won’t be able to meet our earlier estimate of a 3rd-quarter 2009 ship date. The recent changes in the economy have caused us to rethink our design, which had become too expensive. One problem is that Dave’s customers and my customers had different views of what the product should be, so we had been working on a more elaborate design that we thought would please them both. Then the economy tanked. Oops. The other issue is that Dave and his team have been having such success with their analog synths that they’ve been spreading themselves pretty thin trying to work on both projects.

So given these circumstances, we’d prefer not to state another release date estimate at this time, but when we do we promise to post it here along with any other information we’re able to release. Also, given that Dave and his team have their hands pretty full and that a beat-oriented product is more of a Roger product anyway, we’ll probably be selling it through Roger Linn Design instead of from both companies as we had previously considered.

I’d personally love to tell everybody all the details of the product design, features and price as we did with our initial designs of the product, but there’s that pesky problem of keeping the information from our competitors. So we need to keep tight-lipped for now and regrettably can’t answer any questions. Thanks also to those who have kindly asked to place advance orders. However, we don’t feel it’s right to accept orders until we are able to release the price or more information about the product.

And now I must get back to work.

- Roger

This is sad to see.

The LinnDrum, especially in its early BoomChick incarnation, which we called the 2007 NAMM Show’s sexiest vaporware, looked like it was going to follow the example of Dave Smith’s current gear, combining the best of vintage instruments with modern technology.

It’s the weekend, so it’s time for a bit of Saturday Synth Porn, right?

This is a bit of unofficial, underground synth goodness, the first shot of Dave Smith Instruments’ #Tetr4 synthesizer.

There’s no announcement for the #Tetr4 at the DSI site yet, so we can’t vouch for the accuracy for this info, but the #Tetr4 is rumored to be like a 4-voice Mopho, and to be priced at $800.

Hot or Not? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

via Oliver Chesler, Sequencer.de, Keyboard Editor

Sunday Synth Jam: spunkytoofer’s circuit bent yamaha tg33 vector synth and akai ewi 4000s is a circuit-bent synth jam, featuring Akai EWI.

Synth & patch details below.

via spunkytoofers:

circuit bent tg33 vector synth with akai ewi. the dave smith evolver is used to filter and amplify the tg33 synthesizer only.

the vector synth features a db25 breakout box that connects to the tg33 unit. approximately half of the 300 or so waveforms are circuit bendable so it is possible to stack traditional synthesizer waveforms with voices that are circuit bendable allowing you to morph from the known to the aleatoric landscapes , weird tones, sounds, and patterns as well as the bizzare responses from a circuit bent synth.

i just got done bending it and this is my first run through after setting up a patch.. but once i get that vector remapped to pedal controllers, now we’re talking.

This is a demo of the Dave Smith Instruments Mopho Sound Editor LE.

via gearwire:

Normal-named dudes Dave and Bill combine forces to make abnormal-sounding synth madness in this video on the Dave Smith Mopho and its included MIDI patch editor.

Marielle Jakobsons (of DarwinsBitch, Myrmyr and Triometrik) demonstrates her unique performance setup which includes:

• Custom Violin and bow with MIDI controllers, built by Keith McMillen
• Computer with Max MSP & Ableton Live
• 2 hardware synths
• Hardware pedals

For more information about Marielle and her projects, visit www.mariplasma.com

via RibosomeMatt

Bill Holland demonstrates what the Dave Smith Instruments Mopho Push It button does.

via gearwire:

If you were wondering what that strange button that says “Push It” does, let Bill Holland test it out for you.

That way, if it sets off a bomb inside the unit or summons the four horsemen of the apocalypse, you won’t pay the price.

“Push the button!”

This image of the unreleased Dave Smith Instruments Mopho Keyboard comes via Jabberwalky on flickr.

Is it a real photo of an unrealeased synth or just some create Photoshop work? And would you buy a Mopho Keyboard?

You make the call – and leave your reasons!

via syntesen:

After having realized other Bach pieces on very diverse gear, I decided to try and do a full scale electronic realization of a movement of a Brandenburg concerto on the Dave Smith Instruments MoPho analog synthesizer, in the style of Wendy Carlos.

This is the result – the third movement of the fourth concerto.

The MoPho was controlled by a Novation ReMOTE 61SL, and everything was recorded straight into Ableton Live 7 as audio (24-bit, 48 KHz) – no MIDI sequencing. Effects (mild phasing on some sounds, reverb and delay), equalization and mastering was also applied in Live.

All the patches were programmed by me, and there is a lot more timbral variation to the individual instrument voices than in my earlier realizations.

Some pretty impressive switched on work!

Tupapupa mapped the functions of the Dave Smith Instruments Evolver onto a Behringer BCF 2000 in order to use the Evolver like a TB-303 – but with more options.

The Dave Smith Instruments Mopho is a $399 compact monophonic analog synthesizer, with a voice architecture identical to a single voice of the Prophet ‘08, but with a couple of unique twists.

Overview:

The Mopho offers two sub-octave generators—one per oscillator—for additional girth and crushing basses. It also has an audio input that lets you process external audio and mix Mopho’s own audio output back in pre-filter for feedback effects that can range from subtle distortion to extreme skronk.

The Push It button is a manual trigger that lets you play a specific note or latch notes and sequences on. It can also step through a sequence to play short melodic lines without a keyboard. Mopho can also be used with a MIDI controller or external sequencer.

Mopho is fully programmable and all the parameters can be tweaked from the front panel. The four Assignable Parameters controls are assignable per program for optimum performance control.

A free editor is available for Mac OS and Windows to facilitate programming. (And, if you already have a Prophet ‘08, most of Mopho’s parameters can be controlled from the Prophet’s front panel via MIDI!)

Mopho is perfect for people who want to learn the ins and outs of real analog synthesis without spending a bundle, DJs looking to add some old school sonic spice to their setups, and musicians who will appreciate a great-sounding, very portable mono synth.

• Affordable, fully programmable mono synth with a 100% analog signal path.
• Classic, real analog sound—including legendary Curtis analog low-pass filter.
• Process external audio through the filter and envelopes.
• Just 7.5″ x 5″ (19.05 cm x 12.7 cm).
• Free editor for Mac OS and Windows.

Specifications:

• 100% analog signal path
• Two oscillators
• One classic Curtis low-pass filter (switchable 2- or 4-pole)
• Analog VCAs
• Three envelope generators (ADSR plus delay)
• Two sub-octave generators (one octave down and two octaves down)
• External audio input with feedback
• Four assignable performance controls per program
• Gated 16 x 4 step sequencer (one sequence per program)
• Arpeggiator
• Fully programmable (includes free downloadable software editor for Mac OS and Windows)
• 384 programs
• I/O: MIDI In, MIDI Out/Thru, Audio In, Left and Right Audio Out, Headphone Out
• 7.5” L x 5” W x 1.4” H (19.05 cm x 12.7 cm x 3.56 cm)
• 1.5 lb. (0.7 kg)

Overview

The Sequential Circuits Studio 440 is a classic music production center from 1986 that combines the best features of drum machines and samplers, and has a crunchy 12-bit sound that people still respect:

If you combine a high quality digital sampler featuring individual outputs with a 50,000 note SMPTE/MIDI based sequencer, all you need to create a superior drum machine is velocity and pressure-sensitive pads. The 440 has eight, organizing its 32 sound samples into four kits and four banks over these eight sound pads. In addition, every sound has two sets of sound parameters that include sample play back direction, pitch-bend envelope, loop types, loop points, start point modulation, and the familiar VCA VCF controls.

The four programmable kits allow for infinite variations of the same sound by editing only the performance parameters. Performance parameters can be assigned to any pad and include sound number, pan, pitch, volume, and a choice of one of the two sound parameter sets. These performance parameters are easily edited in real-time, and settings for all eight pads can be stored and recalled instantaneously from any one of the kits. And since the alternate parameters can have individual start/end points for each sound, there are actually up to 64 “different sounds” available at one time.

Sequential’s factory library includes over 300 sounds, and is immediately available. In addition, any Prophet 2000 or 2002 sample can be loaded directly into the 440, so the actual number of sounds now available is too numerous to list. The STUDIO 440 is the ultimate drum machine. 

The highlights of the Studio 440 are probably the analog lowpass filter and the 8 track sequencer, which can be used to drive external MIDI instruments. The biggest limitation, on the other hand, is the 440’s paltry 520kb of sample memory! 

While these sold for 5K originally, these now sell for around $1,000. 

Specifications:

• 8 track sequencer
• LCD display
• 8 sound pads
• Selectable sampling rates of up to 41.667 kHz
• Computer assisted looping functions (including cross-fade looping)
• Multiple sample locations for storing up to 32 different samples in memory at one time.
• True stereo outputs (2) plus separate audio outputs per voice (8) for individual processing of each.
• 32 levels of programmable panning per voice.
• Separate analog and digital controls per voice, including fully sweepable filters and VCAs for modifying any sample.
• 768K bytes on board memory with access to hard disks or CD-ROMs via the built-in Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI).
• A 3 1/2 inch double sided disk drive
• Real-time sample monitoring. 

Resources:

• Wine Country offers Studio 440 sample disks, parts and repair
• The unofficial guide to the Studio 440
• Studio 440 information at VintageSynth