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.“
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.
Monome has been around for a while now but I’m always impressed when I see demo videos such as the one below. Brian & Kelli are a small team working on what they love and they are also very conscious of the impact they have … from the monome.org site “we strive for economic and ecological sustainability. careful design practice allows us to contribute to culture and preserve the environment by choosing domestic, high-quality, and responsible providers and production facilities. we acknowledge that our future will depend on our ability to support and maintain a local, regenerative economy.”
Very interesting and informative lecture by Brian Kehew and Larry Fast filmed and streamed live on the web. This was done on opening weekend of the new Bob Moog exhibit we posted on earlier. The exhibit is at the museum of making music in Carlsbad, CA.
Doepfer recently released the Dark Energy single VCO monophonic analog synth. It looks like a very compelling product and the audio demo sounds great. Very fun little package and the inclusion of USB and MIDI is handy.
“Dark Energy is a monophonic stand-alone synthesizer with USB and Midi interface. The sound generation and all modulation sources are 100% analog, only the USB/Midi interface contains digital components. Dark Energy is built into a rugged black metal case with wooden side plates. High quality potentiometers with metal shafts are used and each potentiometer is fixed to the case (no wobbly shafts and knobs). The distance between the controls is a bit wider compared to A-100 modules and knobs with vintage look are used.”
Very very very very very well done animation featuring characters who are part synthesizer. Looks like it was done by a Brazilian team which is interesting since my wife and I know several excellent Brazilian artists in the VFX industry. Check it out … awesome sound design as well.
“The Museum of Making Music and The Bob Moog Foundation announce Waves of Inspiration: The Legacy of Moog a special exhibition to run from August 29, 2009 – April 30, 2010 at the Museum’s facilities in Carlsbad, California. The exhibit is the first of its kind, marking the first public display of the artifacts from Bob Moog’s archives.”
“The exhibition, which highlights the inventor’s career and the impact that it had on the world of music, will feature rare vintage synthesizers and other related Moog instruments and memorabilia from the Bob Moog Archives and from various private collections.” … “Tickets for the opening weekend events can be purchased on the Museum’s website beginning August 3, 2009″
Arturia recently announced their “10 Year Suite” which includes 8 of their software instruments. It’s seriously tempting me as I’ve always wanted a copy of their CS-80 emulation.
From their web site: “The 10 Year Suite brings you 8 software instruments Arturia has built over 10 years … The luxury box contains the highly awarded Minimoog V, Moog Modular V, CS-80V, ARP2600 V, Jupiter-8V ,Prophet V and Prophet VS. Also included are the innovative Brass and the powerful Analog Factory.”
