Yamaha AN200 & Sherman Filter Bank

Always a good combination

Circuit-Bent Stuff on eBay

I'm putting up a bunch of circuit-bent stuff on eBay. All auctions begin at $9.99, no reserve! They include a Yamaha VSS-30, a Casio SK-1, and a Speak & Read. Here are a few pics for posterity...and a link to the auctions.

RIP Joe Zawinul

Joe Zawinul died in a hospital in Vienna today. He was 75.

Godspeed, Joe. I thank the powers-that-be I got to shake your hand on that rainy night in Seattle so long ago and tell you what an impact your music had on me and my life...You will be sorely missed!

What terrible news!

If Joe touched your spirit in any way or if you have any stories you'd like to share, please comment below.

The DSI Prophet '08

Some quick impressions after spending some time with this synth.

Soundwise its very similar to the DSI Polyevolver Keyboard with the following exceptions, the louder settings tend toward warm saturation-style distortion rather than clipping and, to me, the filter has a little bit more of that "CS80" vibe...slightly buzzy (but not in a bad way at all)...

Many of the presets are dual-layer and sound wonderful, but in a real-world mix, I think I would mainly end up using single-layer patches to preserve some bandwidth. There is such a thing as "too fat"

Long soft evolving pads are easy to do as are 'stacked" 16-osc basses (wow - serious "punch"!). The sound is rich without being overbearing. Thinner sounds are possible too but not as easy as the PEK as there's no highpass filter...even so, ripping leads are possible - the filter FM is nice for adding animation and the Sync can be brutal depending on the depth of the sweep.

The keybed on the Prophet'08 is very nice! Its firm yet moderately weighted for a nice compromise between expression and speed. I prefer this key action over the PEK...but just by a bit, the PEK's is one of the better ones out there IMHO.

While I thought having the wheels "up there" was going to be a PITA, in practice it dosen't bother me at all, the heel of my hand rests nicely on the edge of the endcheek.

It dosen't show in any of the the photos I've seen, but all the panel lights are a very deep red...

Lovely, lovely synth.

TRY - experimental mailing list

there is a new mailing list called TRY for experimental electronics / art. its intended to be sort of an all encompassing mesh of new audio device announcements, idea exchange, bender Q and A, pedal / synth builder announcements, live show announcements, parts trading post...… you get the idea. experimental stuff mainly but anything worth talking about is cool. more then likely it will turn into an avenue for people to announce their new stuff more then anything else. so all the builders and benders that sell their ware's and need a way to get the word out or anyone having a show featuring noise or experimental work, installations, new music to share, cd release's big or small, that sort of thing... this is a way to let people know it exists

it will be a little slow at first while the member list grows ( hopefully grows ) so tell EVERYONE you know to sign up so we can get it breathing

you can find the subscribe page here