KVR recently did a great interview with Roger Linn. Very interesting story. Read it here

“it occurred to me I could store digital drum recordings in computer memory instead of tape because the sampling time requirement for all the drums added up to only about a second. I built a prototype and all of a sudden, recording artists who wouldn’t return my calls as a guitarist were calling me asking to buy one for $5,000″

A demo of the Neptune 2 from Swiss company Spectral Audio. “With the Neptune Mk2, Spectral Audio is again tickling out the best of the Analog Technique - three temperature stabilized Voltage Controlled Oscillators, the 24dB transistor cascade filter, the huge LFO range, its modulation flexibility, the envelopes and the transistor distorter section are speaking for itself.”

Originally discovered via matrixsynth.

Andy Summers explains the importance of dynamics in music, and specifically how they used dynamics with the Police. Bonus shot in this video: Andy playing guitar synth!

“The device plays compositions which are stored on microcontroller modules. The modules in this presentation are based on the Atmega family and are programmed in GCC (Arduino) and Bascom. In general, the synthesizer can work with any other TTL Microcontroller as PIC, Propeller or even ones which don’t exist yet, as the computation happens on the module and the Vektron itself only provides the peripherals.”

Vektron modular from Niklas Roy on Vimeo.

Originally discovered via Matrixsynth

Teenage Engineering was out in force at 2010 NAMM showing off some impressive new features of their OP-1 portable synth / multifunction device. They showed their new “tape” mode which acts as a virtual 4 track tape recorder. Their OLED graphics are beautiful … just beautiful. I chance to speak with their graphic designer and compliment him on the interface design.

from their site: “instantly let you record anything you do on the OP-1 to any track of the built-in Tape feature. Record your sound tweaks or beats in real-time. Change speed during recording, or record backwards. Split, lift and join. Make a loop or record a section with Tape Step Recording. You have twelve minutes recording time in normal tape speed and 4 tracks to put your magic on.”

Moog was showing off their newly unveiled update of the Taurus bass pedals. They looked great in person and it seems as if the design draws heavily from the Little Phatty line of synths. As an owner of the Little Phatty I can say that the bass sounds in the Taurus III are going to be astounding. Taurus II will be a limited quantity product with less than 1000 units produced.

From the moogmusic site: “Long requested by many of our very best customers and used by the likes of Rush, The Police, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Phil Collins, Asia, Weezer, and many more. This is a one time opportunity to own a new set with a new warranty but one absolutely faithful to the original Taurus I sound.“

Just had to re-post this. It’s too beautiful …

originally discovered via Matrixsynth

New Multitouch music user interface. Amazing! Great work from Christian Bannister at subcycle. Best explained by watching the video.

multi-touch the storm - interactive sound visuals - subcycle labs from christian bannister on Vimeo.

originally discovered via CDM

Wolfgang Palm of PPG fame has started a myspace page and posted many fascinating blog entries about the history of PPG and his career afterwards. Palm is highly regarded as a pioneer in digital wavetable synthesis.

Read his blog here.

discovered via matrixsynth