Hi Marvin and all,
Speaking of Metasonix, I just built his sheet beam modulator from the
schematics at
http://www.cgs.synth.net/The hardest parts were drilling a 3/4" hole for the tube socket, and
remembering to respect 150v! :)
It's a fun module, though it doesn't respond in much of any
predictable way that I can discern yet, as far as the controls go. It
responds differently to each signal I send through it, and to how hot
that signal is. It crushes drums, makes guitar sound nice and warm
and clear, and acts like a waveshaper or wavemangler on monosynths.
It can also make a horribly cheesy Elka Compac Piano sound like a
buzzy, envelope-followery harpsichord.
Next up are some tube oscillators...
Take care,
Scott
--- In oldsynths@yahoogroups.com, Marvin Jones <mjones@s...> wrote:
> Well, from an 'oldsynths' standpoint ... pretty boring this year.
Most
> of the modular analog companies were missing this year. Of course,
NAMM
> is more about 'newsynths' than 'oldsynths' anyway. ;-) And,
these
> days, it seems to be more about softsynths than hard synths, too.
>
> Nord was showing their new 2nd generation Modular. New ASIC
> architechtures allow more local RAM and processing speed for each
DSP, so
> the sounds are more rich and with lot's of ambience and effects
> processing. We need to get a report from Russ Brower, as he has
one on
> order, and it should be arriving any day now.
>
> Eric Barbour from Metasonix was showing his latest tube module,
which now
> gives him enough tube based modules (4) to have a complete simple
synth
> voice based on vacuum tube technology. Not for the faint-of-heart,
but
> very interesting concept, in my opinion. Now, if we could only get
them
> in "Pre-CBS blackface" format. ;-) ;-)
>
> My best of show: The AnadigmVortex FPAA (field programmable analog
> array) chipsets. This is a family of register driven analog
building
> blocks, including oscillators, switched cap filters, transistor
arrays,
> gain blocks, etc. Can be configured on-the-fly, and in real-time.
Very
> smooth sounding operation (1 mS update rate), with no zipper noise
or
> artifacting. My only complaint is 8-bit DAC functions. But, I
think
> there are a lot of possibilities for this type of chip set.
>
> I'm sure there was a lot more hidden around the show. Hard to see
it all
> in 2 days. And, this year, I spent more time in the guitar section
of
> the show than in electronics & keyboards. Kinda looking for other
things
> for the studio these days.
>
> Anyone else have some good findings from the show?
>
> mj
>
> > Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 12:14:17 -0700
> > From: Rory McDonald <rmcdonald@w...>
> >Subject: RE: Re: toronto repairs
> >
> >MARVIN:
> >Sorry I missed you at NAMM. I got stuck at work last minute, so I
didnt go.
> >How was it?
> >Rory
> >
> >ANYONE ELSE ON THE LIST HAVE ANY COMMENT ON THE NAMM SHOW??