The Berlin School lives on, with Martin Peters’ hypnotic interlocking sequencers + symphonic electronica synth jam, Another Symphonic Theme.

Details on gear + patches below!

via attorks:

This theme is somewhat like the symphonic theme I uploaded in February of this year, yet it is also quite different

The 3 rows of the Doepfer MAQ16/3 sequencer drive 4 voices. The first voice you hear is one Q106 VCO through the CGS Steiner Synthacon VCF and the Oakley Equinoxe phaser. The second voice one Q106 VCO through the Q150 transistor ladder filter. These first 2 voices have the same 4 step sequence running on row 3. Then you hear the self build Modular running on row 2 and after that the Creamware Minimax ASB running on row 1. These 2 voices start each with a 4 step sequence which after a while is varied between 5 and 8 steps manually. Then the bass and the theme are played on the Waldorf Q keyboard with a PPG-like sound. The Mellotron-like strings are played on the Roland XP-80. The solo is performed on the Clavia Nord Lead 1.

I noticed the video is gradually getting out of sync with the sound; I don’t know what caused that and I also didn’t know how to fix that when editing the clip. So, sorry for that.

Sunday Synth Jam: Here’s a little something for the fans of Berlin School electronic music – a nice sequenced synth jam, via attorks:

This theme is inspired by an arpeggiator from the Waldorf Q keyboard which I programmed as sequence to be performed by the Q. At first you hear a bass-like sound from the Creamware MiniMax ASB. After that the Synthesizers.com Modular and the self built Modular are added. At last the sequence from the Waldorf Q Keyboard is added. By varying the decay on the Q the sound becomes more lively.

The accompaniment is played on the Clavia Nord Lead 1 and the Roland XP-80.

Synth guru Ken Elhardt demos his custom Moog Polymoog Resonator:

This is an unplanned demo I threw together today of a Polymoog 3 Band Resonator that I ripped out of my Polymoog and built into a stand-alone unit for processing sounds.

It consists of three filters in parallel which all be switched to lowpass, bandpass, or highpass modes. Each filter has three controls: frequency, resonance, and amplitude. It’s one of the unique things about the Polymoog synthesizer which you don’t find in any other polyphonic analog synth

What happened to the rest of my Polymoog? I used the Polymoog case to built a coffee table, of which you can see a few pictures at the end of the video. That was sold off.

The rest of my Polymoog was sold for parts to quite a few people. My Polymoog just had too many problems to bother putting in the time and effort to fix.

As always with Elhardt, there’s some deep synthesis going on.

via Elhardt

The Yamaha FS1R was a synthesizer manufactured by the Yamaha Corporation from 1998 to 2000, based on Formant synthesis. The FS1R also had FM synthesis capabilities similar to the DX range.

The editing capabilities were phenomenally powerful, offering 2,000+ parameters to control in any one ‘performance’ (made up of up to 4 parts or voices), which detracted from the programmability of the unit, often leaving users bewildered and overwhelmed.

This video, via Phil Anderson, is a demo of the Yamaha FS1r:

This is one of the coolest synthesizers ever made, and it’s a shame it seems to be not on the radar.

The FS1r was basically the ultimate FM synthesizer from Yamaha, makers of the original DX7, but it will do much more than that, much, much more. It has an incredible array of algorithms, 8 operators, a very impressive filter, and formant sequencing. Plus it works in performances, with the ability to stack four of these together to create some awesome sounds. The internal DP effects are also very nice and smooth.

In a 1998 review, SOS had this to say about the Yamaha FS1R:

The FS1R isn’t completely revolutionary — it features a development of 15-year-old technology, after all — but it does manage to offer a sound and method quite unlike any other synth on the market. Even for those who don’t want to do in-depth programming the FS1R has lots to offer; there are tons of quality presets, which can be easily layered into new Performances and then tweaked with the front-panel knobs, all with no real knowledge of FM needed. And though programming enthusiasts will probably find that the FS1R requires a bit of effort to come to grips with, the results should more than repay their time and trouble. Formant Shaping, in particular, is a serious, exciting achievement on the part of this synth’s designers and a breakthrough at any price, let alone at £699.

If you’ve used the FS1R synth, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Yamaha FS1R Specifications:

Synthesizer Section

• Tone Generator : Formant Shaping / FM Synthesis, LFO1/LFO2/Dynamic Filter/Pitch EG/Filter EG
• Maximum Polyphony : 32 (without Filter) / 16 (with Filter)
• Number of Multitimbral Parts : 4 parts (16 MIDI channels)
• Operators : 8 Voiced Operator + 8 Unvoiced Operator per Voice
• Algorithm : 88
• Effects : 15 (Reverb), 28 (Variation), 40 (Insertion)
• Performances : 384 (Preset 256/User 128) to be made up of up to 4 part of Voice programs as layer/split
• Voice number : 1536 (Preset 128 x 11 bank + User 128)

Others

• Display : LCD Custom (Character&Graphic) w/backlit LED 8
• Compatibility : Receive DX7 MIDI Bulk dump (1 voice format only)
• Connectors : Headphones, Stereo Output (L/ Mono, R), Individual Output (L/R), MIDI In/Out/Thru
• Controllers : Control Knob 4 Assignable / Fixed (Attack/Release/Formant/FM), Volume Knob
• Dimensions : 480(W) x 235(D) x 44(H) mm
• Weight : 2.6 kg

Yamaha FS1R Resources:

• Wikipedia entry
• SOS review
• Planet-Groove article

Exploring the Waldorf Q Keyboard

via attorks:

The Doepfer MAQ16/3 sequencer is driving the Synthesizers.com with a bass sound and the self-built Modular with the accompanying melody.

The internal sequencer of the Waldorf Q Keyboard is synchronized with the MAQ16/3 MIDI clock doing a 8 step sequence which I transpose with the keyboard (to make the music a little bit less boring .

Fiddling with various dials but mainly the pulse width dials on VCO 1 and 2 to scan through the wave tables of the Alt1 wave selection, with the cutoff, resonance and envelop amount for the 24dB lowpass filter and with the decay for the filter ADSR. At 09:35 I switch to the PPG filter but then the video almost ends.

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