The Quasimidi Polymorph is a virtual analog synthesizer, with sequencer, released in 1997.

The videos offer a tour through the 64 sequenced presets that come with the Quasimidi Polymorph. All can be changed or over-written. Each preset has 4 parts and each part its own FX. No external effects processor was used. This is the sound you get straight out of the box.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Quasimidi Polymorph

• Polyphony: 8 voices to 16 voices
• Oscillators: 3 per voice with 128 waves (sine, saw, square, pwm, tri), 30 sampled waves, noise, external
• Filter: 2 resonant 12dB high pass and 12/24dB lowpass
• Effects: 2 per part: 2-band EQ, delay, dist., chorus, flanger
• Sequencer: 16 step, 8 variations, 4 parts or instruments
• Memory: 128 patches, 64 performances
• Control: MIDI

Resources:

• Quasimidi Polymorph at VSE
• Retrosound’s Polymorph page
• Maussites
• Quasimidi forum

Fairlight co-founder Peter Vogel has put up a teaser about a 30th anniversary limited edition version of the Fairlight CMI, a pioneering polyphonic sampling instrument.

Vogel calls this image a pre-production mockup for the Fairlight CMI Series 30A.

If you’ve got more info or other thoughts on the Fairlight CMI Series 30a, leave a comment below!

More info, via Peter Vogel on the Fairlight Yahoo Group (registration required):

There have been discussions from time to time about replicating the CMI using a software emulation. These efforts will have limited success because the “Fairlight sound” relies on the peculiarities of the hardware used in the original design.

In the days when I was the designing CMI hardware, my greatest challenge was to minimise the distortions and artifacts that were inherent aspects of the hardware available at that time. In effect, we struggled to make the Fairlight sound less “Fairlight”. So the intimate details of what makes a Fairlight sound like a Fairlight are indelibly etched in my brain.

When Fairlight brought out the Crystal Core Engine last year, my imagination ran wild. Here was a tiny board with enormous capabilities that could be configured to faithfully reproduce the CMI hardware in its FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). Every bit of the 1980’s CMI hardware, the essence of its sound, could be reconstructed faithfully in digital hardware form.

To fully appreciate the astounding potential of the CC-1, download the brochure here:

CC-1 Brochure

I also recently discovered that ALL the IP relating to the original Fairlight CMI including all of the hardware and filter designs, sample libraries etc are still retained by Fairlight.au in Sydney.

So I have been wondering if it would be worthwhile to develop a faithful reproduction of the CMI on the “Virtual Hardware” of the CC-1?

This would perform identically to the original CMI series II or III, but run on a PC fitted with the Crystal Core card. The MIDI input would come directly into the CC-1 so there would be no problem of latency introduced by the PC.

At this stage I’d like to “feel out” the market to assess the level of interest in this project and whether the significant investment in R&D will be worthwhile.

The Fairlight Series IV (CC-1, I/O box and software) might be sold for approximately $US5,000.00.

So my question is, what do you think of this idea? How would a Fairlight CMI at this sort of price be received by the market? Who would the buyers be and how would I tap into them?

What do you think?

Peter Vogel

via failedmuso

This is a sneak preview video of the Radikal Spectralis 2 Hybrid Synthesizer.

See this previous post for more details on the Radikial Spectralis 2.

via SCHAAFJOERG

Casio Keyboard CZ-101 (1986)

Description:

This commercial, from 1986, introduced the Casio CZ-101 polyphonic digital synthesizer.

via XippVid

The Prophet VS is a synthesizer released in 1986 by Dave Smith’s Sequential Circuits. The Prophet VS introduced Vector Synthesis – two dimensional crossfading between waveforms.

Sequential folded shortly after the VS was introduced, but many of the ideas from the VS lived on in the Korg Wavestation. 

The video above, via Retrosound, demos some typical VS sounds. 

Features:

• 8-voice polyphony
• Multi-timbral (2 part)
• 96 preset waveforms + 32 user waveforms
• Two LFOs, each with own envelope generator
• Curtis analog (digitally controlled) 4-pole lowpass filter, with dedicated envelope generators
• 5 stage amp, filter and mix envelopes
• 61 note keyboarded with velocity & aftertouch
• 100 patch memory
• Twin chorus, stereo effects, panning of individual oscillators/individual voices
• Arpeggiator

Resources:

• Unofficial Prophet VS page
• VS info at Wine Country
• Info at Vintage Synth Explorer
• Prophet VS clone project
• Prophet VS Yahoo Group

Hack A Day has a nice DIY project tutorial on making a simple digital synthesizer.

The final result is not much of a synthesizer – but it’s cheap and it makes some noise:

This simple guide will show you how to build a digital synthesizer that generates and manipulates square waves. Your synthesizer will have one oscillator, which produces a variable pitch controlled by a potentiometer, as well as an LFO which modulates that pitch at a variable frequency. The part count for this project is quite low, and it can be built for under $20.

The project does a great job of letting you know where to get parts and how much they will cost. What’s cool about projects like this is that, once you figure out how they work, you can easily adapt them to create all sorts of bizarre musical devices.

The Quantix-8 module is a CV Quantizer / Wavetable Oscillator based on a 4Mbits Static RAM memory and a PIC microcontroler with a full MIDI implementation.

The memory contain 2048 waveforms of 256bytes organized into a matrix of 32 Banks x 64 Waves.

The Quantix-8 is a very polyvalent 7 in 1 module

• CV-Quantizer
• Wavetable Oscillator
• Sample player LoFi 8bits
• CV-Sequencer
• MIDI to CV/GATE interface
• 128 Harmonics Additive Synthesis
• Fast Zero Crossing detector

Other features:

• Memory and parameters are fully editable in ‘real time’ by MIDI system exclusive messages
• Freeware Quantix-8 MIDI editor for PC Windows 98/ME/XP ( and soon for MAC OS …)

The Quantix-8 is controled by any combination of

• CV or analog modulations (lfo, vco, etc …)
• Gates/ pulsed clocks assigned to internal counters with multiples reset systems…
• MIDI messages of all kinds : notes, controlers, midi clock, sysex ..

The Quantix-8 is a DIY synth project made up of a PCB & firmware pic, for 48 euros.

Hack-a-day has published another synth DIY project – a tutorial on building a basic digital synthesizer:

This simple guide will show you how to build a digital synthesizer that generates and manipulates square waves. Your synthesizer will have one oscillator, which produces a variable pitch controlled by a potentiometer, as well as an LFO which modulates that pitch at a variable frequency. The part count for this project is quite low, and it can be built for under $20.

Looks like a fun project to learn about basic digital sound generation.

The Harvestman has introduced some of the most interesting and innovative new synth modules in recent memory, including the TymeSefari loop sampler/delay and the Malgorithm voltage-controlled bit-crusher.

Here are a few highlights:

BE: What got you interested in making modules?

Harvestman: I wanted a nice bitcrusher module for my modular system but there wasn’t one in active development when I first started playing with patchcords. Around this time I fortunately forgot most of what I knew about software development, starting over with a focus on embedded DSP. I’ve been writing exclusively in assembly for the last two years and my brain is ruined in the best way possible.

BE: What do you think separates you from the other boutique module manufacturers?

Harvestman: A focus on digital techniques and a healthy dose of iconoclasm? I think all of the designers have something resembling a common goal in that we work to bring new capabilities to a decades-old performance interface. And what awesome work it is. My modular setup that I use for composition and performance contains devices from a half-dozen designers and all those different design laws combine to form a really flexible instrument. There’s no better time to be a modular synthesist, I think.

BE: What void are you filling in with your products?

Harvestman: If there was ever a need for modular devices purpose-built for garbage audio manipulation, I guess I’ve got my slurry nozzle wedged in the void. I’m a discrete-time sleaze vendor

BE: What gave you the idea to turn digital strangeness into CV controllable Frankenstein monsters?

Harvestman: Two things: when I started incorporating gate inputs on some of my bent SK-1s, and also watching an engineer friend work on a project that turned a 2A03 chip into a MIDI sound module. While observing him I learned a bit about microprocessor programming, and how inexpensive ADCs can be used to give digital processors smooth, analog-like control behavior with the correct user interface. Once I acquired some engineering skills I was able to start designing modules that filled large functional holes in my personal system (bitcrusher, loop sampler, etc). Since going into business in fall 2007, my engineering chops have improved but my taste has not.

Read the full interview at VAC’s site.

From now until July 31, 2007, Korg USA is offering a $100 rebate on 61, 76 or 88-key TR Music Workstation purchased from authorized Korg dealers in the U.S.A.

Promotion details and downloadable rebate coupon can be found at www.korg.com/promo.

The Korg TR Music Workstation offers new samples and sounds, a sequencer, USB computer connectivity, an SD card for storage and optional sampling capabilities.

The Korg MS-20 is considered a classic analog monosynth. This two-oscillator beast competed with monophonic keyboards from Arp, Moog and Yamaha. It was unique in the way it the flexibility of a modular, patchable synthesizer, with a small keyboard.

In the late seventies and early eighties, Korg’s Poly line of polyphonic synthesizers were great-sounding analog synths. Many of these early polyphonic synths are hot collectables, because they still sound great.

The Korg Wavestation was an innovative early digital synthesizer. When Sequential Circuits went out of business, Korg picked up the technology of the Prophet VS. The Wavestation is built on this technology, which lets you combine and transform digital wafeforms. The Wavestation had a massive (for the time) 2mb of ROM. With its onboard effects and filters, the Wavestation had a unique sound.

More recently, Korg has been innovating with its line of “grooveboxes” or dance-oriented music workstations. These little boxes are inexpensive, but pack a lot of power into a tiny package. The line includes a virtual analog bassline synth, a VA drum machine, a sampler, and a sample-based mini-workstation. More recent additions to the line include tube-based distortion to liven up the sound.

The Korg Triton is their top of the line keyboard. It competes with other workstations, like Kurzweil’s 2600 line. The Triton has 62 voices of polyphony, and is very flexible for creating sounds. It has 32MB of sample ROM, letting you create realistic orchestral sounds, but also create new sounds with its synthesis tools. It has a built-in sampler, 102 effects, and multiple outputs. The internal sequencer supports 16 tracks, and can store up to 200 songs. Definitely drool-worthy!

Guide to Current Korg Products