Sorry for the ad at the beginning.  I really dig this new Make Noise box.  Seems like it has a ton of functionality, especially with Brains and Pressure Points.  Looking forward to getting enough money to buy this.

An odd little synth, with some cool visuals.  I swear that is the ms2000 ‘ice’ preset, so cold sounding.  Anyway, I could see running it through some delay and getting a wicked scary tone.

Spunk 0.13 from strange agency on Vimeo.

A very helpful video.  This guy does a good job explaining what the hell this cool little unit does.  I really didn’t get all the functions of it until watching this!

I still love the little patch cables.  Maybe not the most use friendly but cool.

Total iPad envy. Korg released an ipad only app of the classic ms20.  (shown above w/a MS50, thanks synthvibrations).  Here is the block diagram (shown below) just cause I like looking at it!

The app looks quite good and adds all sorts of functionality to the synth.  Drum machine, kaoss pad, mixer, sequencer, effects….  Not sure how good the drum machine or effects are but the kaoss pad could be a very good addition to the already sweet synth. The reviews so far claim that this is a fantastic app. The sequencer looks to be the SQ10 also a cool little piece built to go along with the MS20.  Anyway, matrixsynth has a great run down of all the needed info. Touring with an ipad is much easier than a MS20 + Sq10 hooked into a Kaoss pad, although it really doesn’t have the same stage effect, does it?

Check out the new full featured synth from the harvestman and Alessandro Cortini.  Looks like the first order is sold out but pre-orders are coming soon.  The sound samples so far are not the greatest but based on what the harvestman has put out I imagine it sounds good and mean.  I am looking forward to seeing more and hearing more.  The mini patch cable idea is great.  Seems like they are leaving it open for future revisions ( see x08 below) and of course user mods, cases and the like.  Overall, it really is like a big (possibly) better, or at least different, version of the bugbrand boardweevil.

The site ‘primarily’ deals with reverb, with all sorts of cool dissections on reverb hardware/software, how Eno/Lanois used verb to produce that shimmer sound and general musical fun.  Anyway, the site is a great read… I highly recommend it.

So here is some u2 shimmer!

If you don’t know anything about Buchla you should.  Buchla made some sweet, highly sought after modular synths – namely the 200 series.  They have been  used by all sorts of people, most famously by Morton Subotnick.  They are not as well known as Moog, nor as straight forward, they are quite cool and just as old!  Much like Neve in the pro audio world, current modular makers are doing their best to remake, or restyle, Buchla 200 series panels.

In 2004, Don Buchla came out with an updated version of the classic, the 200e .  This is probably the greatest modular synth one could buy.  Famously used by Alessandro Cortini, of NIN.  Check out his -large- Buchla setup,

Anyway, if I could afford one …. well I can’t so. Enjoy!

Just stumbled upon a couple random synth sites with some fairly out of left field stuff, mainly diy-ish.  First off the Tetrazzi Organus.  I’m really not even sure what it is or how it works.  Cool though.  This along with a couple other odd ball creations are made in Baltimore Check them out!

2nd: Carrion Sound which seems to be mainly just cool DIY stuff.  Plenty of tubes, synths and interesting noise machines.  Check out the different pages on the site, plenty of random stuff. I personally liked this video,

They are clearly making some of the coolest looking, sweet sounding and most interesting synths & sound modules around.  I can’t even imagine the amount of time it takes to build some of these machines.    This page has more info on them and where to buy some of their creations.

This morning our friend Bill sent us Trent Reznor’s new promo video for his new band How To Destroy Angels. I can’t stop listening to the sounds coming out of this custom synth, and I hope the rest of the EP is just as dirty.

01 from How To Destroy Angels on Vimeo.

Here is a cool little video showing off Throbbing Gristle’s legendary effects unit, The Gristleizer.  Smashing guitars sells new pedal versions, eurorack for modular synths and diy kits.  The added CV controls really adds some good functionality to these cool units. Find out more regarding the kits here. Pretty cool all and all.  I want one.

This little contraption is quite cool and the live possibilities with it could be great.   The device in the video is from  Randall Jones’s thesis project, which you can read about here.  I recommend reading about it if you like the video.  He has some good comparison to similar products… Haken continum … and how and why this product could be different.  Overall, he leaves you with enough information to build one fairly cheap, but I would prefer to buy the finished product.

So, hopefully, his new company, madronalabs, will come out with an updated version of the  product.  I also hope that it will have CV control for modular synths added into the final version!