Olive sits confidently in the command chair in front of an impressive array of tabletop modules. Next to her is a rugged JL Cooper fader fox (I had one of these on loan in the 1990s and wish I still had it). We also see a Studio Electronics BoomStar, and a Yamaha 1980s item below it; a JoMox Alpha Base, a Sequential Prophet ’08, sundry rhythm machines from Boss, and much more.
Submitted by Olive’s human Charles Whiley.
Mr. Maximillion returns to CatSynth, with some of his best studio poses to date. From our friend Charles Whiley via Facebook.
He certainly is a handsome fellow. And his synth collection grows more impressive all the time. We some Sequential (Dave Smith), Moog, JoMoX, Novation,
To see more of Mr. Maximillion’s appearances, please click here.
Our friend Merce joins us again, with the Jomox Resonator Neuronium along with the MicroKORG. He also shares this classic Fluxus piano piece by George Brecht.
When you can’t even get a Fluxus piece right. George Brecht, “3 Piano Pieces,” from Water Yam, 1962
Even we at CatSynth sometimes find it hard to Fluxus right in these anxious times.
Our pal from Arkansas Mr. Maximillion returns! We see him with a Novation Peak, JoMoX Alpha Base and Moonwind, Deluge by Synthstrom, Novation Impulse, and more. From Charles Whiley via Facebook.
A new video from our friends Charles Whiley and Mr. Maximillion.
“Look Out Noise”
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We espy quite a few of the usual suspects, including their Novation Peak, JoMoX Alpha Base, Source Audio Nemesis, and Oberheim Matrix 1000. This time I also notice a JoMoX Moonwind, a T.C. Electronics rackmount effects box, and more. What gear did you notice in the video?
A new video from our friends Mr. Maximillion and Charles Whiley, featuring a beat-based jam with sundry synthesizers.
Between the fast pans and cute shots of our feline friend, we at CatSynth were able to identify the following instruments:
What other synths can you find in the video? 😺
Mr. Maximillion returns, this time with his JoMoX Alpha Base and a Novation Peak synthesizers. Submitted by our friend Charles Whiley via Facebook.
Mr. Maximillion has quite the synth collection, and we always look forward to seeing more of it.
Puma the cat gets ready to lay down some beats with the JoMoX XBass 09 and microKORG. From Márcio Cunha via Facebook.
She prefers analog kick drums instead of that Ableton digital s#it (her words, not mine).
We pick up our post-NAMM coverage where we left off after the show. As stated in earlier articles, this was a great year for synthesizers, including analog modular synthesizers. For the first time, several manufacturers formed a super booth in Hall A in the main show floor.
Holding court in the center was Deiter Doepfer himself with a giant Doepfer modular system.
The new modules from Doepfer this year included an opto FET filter (an alternative to the popular vactrol filters), a quadrature thru-zero VCO, and a large trigger sequencer. The trigger sequencer has a nice appearance and provides a lot of outputs. It plays well with a new clock divider that Doepfer introduced as well. The FET filter has some interesting properties for doing FM filter effects as it can modulate much faster, though it apparently distorts at higher volumes.
JoMoX has been long known for its small tabletop instruments. This year, like several other manufacturers, they introduced Eurorack modular versions, including the T-rackonizer filter matrix along with some of their drum synths.
Black Market Modular collaborated with Foxtone Music to bring the Colour Pallete to the Eurorack modular format. It’s really a “modular inside a modular”, where one can mix and match up to three “colour palettes” (expansion cards) that operate as standalone modules, each with its own VCA. They hope to release more expansion cards over time, which will be compatible with their outboard system.
Another interesting collaboration featured WMD and Steady-State Fate (SSF). There are some basic modulesl, but also some specialized sound and control elements such as the Spectrum and Mini Slew modules. And all of them can put together in this neat little case complete with keyboard that supports MIDI and CV.
This is only the beginning of what was on display in the analog modular superbooth 6990. More will be presented in subsequent articles.
Once again, one of my main destinations at NAMM was the booth of Big City Music, where I can always find analog synthesizers and exotic electronic musical instruments that defy categorization. There certainly was no shortage of modular systems, including this scary looking yellow box full of Metasonix modules.
Because Metasonix modules, especially the R55 VCO, take a huge amount of current, this case can handle a ridiculous 7500mA. That is half of a standard home electrical line. Other manufacturers besides Metasonix were represented as well. Just to the left of the case one can see the new vactrol filter from Koma Electronic, a module I recently acquired.
On the more exotic end, Leon Dewan of Dewanatron was on hand again this year to demonstrate the Swarmatron (watch as our feline mascot nearly gets carted away on the nearby Mellotron):
I tried my hand at it as well. The ribbon controllers feel different from anything else I have tried playing, but once I got used to the feel I was able to start using the instrument expressively.
Perhaps the most visually intriguing but confounding instrument at the booth was this little geometric puzzle with lighted transparent tubes sticking out in all directions:
It turned out to be a prototype for the Akasha synthsizer from Jomox. Today, Jürgen Michaelis from Jomox demonstrated his new device:
In the corner behind the Jomox devices was an increasingly rare analog TV monotor, which was displaying audio from Critter and Guitari instruments rendered using an audio-to-video converter (also by Critter and Guitari).
The simple video converter caught my interest, especially if I decide to do more with video synthesis in the near future.
Thanks as always to the folks at Big City Music for being very hospitable and supportive of CatSynth!