analog

CatSynth Pic: Industrial Music Electronics fka The Harvestman Presentation at Modular8

Hertz Donut

Cat with the latest version of the Hertz Donut module from Industrial Music Electronics (formerly known as The Harvestman).  Seen on matrixsynth.

“Modular 8 presents Scott Jaeger, Saturday August 25, 1-5 PM! He will be showing off the brand new Hertz Donut Mk. III AND lecturing on Chiptune Synthesis.

Regarding the Hertz Donut MK3 demo 8/25 – @harvestman will also give a talk on chiptune history!

“I will lead off with a presentation about chip music ~30 minutes, then it gets into philosophy of square wave stuff, then probably seamlessly transitions into the HD3 demo.”

Sadly, this event is in the past, so we at CatSynth were not on hand.  Hopefully, we will make it back up to Portland again soon…

CatSynth TV: Benjolin!

Our latest video features the Benjolin, a module designed by Rob Hordijk and distributed by Epoch Modular.  From the official website:

The benjolin is a multifunction synthesizer designed by Rob Hordijk. The module consists of four separate function blocks: two VCOs, a state variable filter and an additional circuit, invented by Hordijk himself, called a rungler. This particular arrangement emerged from his efforts to design a synthesizer that was, as he puts it, “bent by design”. As such, the module functions according to principles of chaos theory, where short to long sputtering patterns spontaneously transform themselves, at times, gradually, at others, quite suddenly, morphing into new pattern doublings and bifurcations. ​

The rungler is what gives the module (and its predecessor the Blippo Box) its chaotic character.  It’s basically a shift register timed off the two oscillators which then fed as a control signal back to the oscillators, creating a nonlinear dynamic feedback system.  It’s a lot of fun to just play and explore, but I have also used it in both recordings and live performance.  It works particularly well with subtle control inputs, like the Theremini.

CatSynth Pic: Juno 60

Juno 60

Cat with a vintage Roland Juno 60.  Submitted by Steve Peglar via our Facebook page.

The Juno series of synths are still very sought after, especially the Juno 60 and Juno 6.  Unfortunately, these two models lack MIDI, which wasn’t available until the successor 106 model.  The 60 does allow external input, though pitch and gate are via a proprietary interface.  There is external CV input for filter control.  And there are kits to retrofit a Juno with external input options.