Concept MIDI Controller from Monome

The Monome is a cool concept MIDI controller. It’s an 8×8 matrix of independent, illuminated on/off switches which can be programmed to do various different MIDI/OSC tasks, and/or follow a sequence pulse.

It can be used for many different tasks, such as toggle, hold and release, ramp, radio group, or virtual slider, controlling many different MIDI parameters or OSC.

There’s a cool little demo video available here that shows just a few of the possibilities, and more information is available at the Monome website.

Using the Moog synthesizer

University of California’s Division of the Arts has published a modestly-titled article Using the Moog Synthesizer.

In fact, it looks like a pretty comprehensive guide to the UCSC Modular Moog, that is ‘representative of most studio machines’.

It opens:

Moog synthesizers were custom assembled for each order. There were two types of case, a nice looking wooden console, and a portable box covered in black crinkly paper. There were some standard setups, but most studios chose their modules a la carte. Prices in 1969 ranged from $125 for an envelope generator through 395 for an oscillator to 1,225 for a sequencer. (At that time a hamburger cost fifteen cents.) The order form included a map so you could specify where you wanted your modules, but they could easily be moved around. Almost all of us bought only a few modules at a time, and many systems still have empty space.

and covers:

• 901 Voltage Controlled Oscillator
• 901A,901B VCO
• 902 Voltage Controlled Amplifier
• 911 Envelope Generator
• 904A Voltage Controlled Low Pass Filter
• 904B Voltage Controlled High Pass Filter
• 904C Filter Coupler 907
• 907 Fixed Filter Bank
• 960 Sequencer

Plenty of circuit diagrams, descriptions and information.

My favourite line?

GETTING AN OSCILLATOR TO PLAY IN TUNE WITH THE KEYBOARD

You can’t.

Actually, it goes on to say:

For best results (Funky but usable) set the fixed control voltage and control voltage vernier at 0 and the Frequency range at 8 or 4. Patch from the voltage out of the keyboard to the control input of the oscillator. Hit the lowest key repeatedly as you adjust the Range control of the keyboard so that the oscillator pitch is not changed. (Pull the patch cord to check.) Now play octaves and adjust the keyboard Scale knob until things sound right.

Into classic Moog? Well worth a read.

New music software: Dimension Pro / Acid Pro 6

• Cakewalk Announces Dimension Pro Update with Intel Mac Support
• Acid Pro 6 now available

Condoleezza Rice: the private pianist

The New York Times has profiled and interviewed Condoleezza Rice and her proficiency as an amateur classical pianist, including her weekly chamber music sessions with friends.

It’s an interesting private side.

Read the full article: Condoleezza Rice on Piano

Leon Fleisher can finally perform with both hands again

For nearly 40 years, Leon Fleisher has been unable to play piano with his right hand due to focal dystonia, a neurological disorder. Then about two years ago he found a successful treatment and began performing again with both hands.

The 77-year-old pianist does not play with the marksmanship or tonal consistency documented in the string of great recordings he made four decades ago. But, as he showed Wednesday night at the University of Richmond, Fleisher compensates for age and long disability by making every note and gesture count.

Read the full review: After recovery, pianist makes each note count

Vintage: Yamaha CS-01 - “The Mini Mono”

For the tiny-fingered, space-challenged mono-synth lover, the vintage Yamaha CS-01 might need to be in your collection.

SynthMuseum says

It was obviously marketed to the young, first synth buyer, market. However, dispite it’s mini-sized keys, it has been since adopted by many professionals for it’s simple design, active sliders, and great sound.

Vintage Synth Explorer says:

The CS-01 may look simple or toy-like but it is still able to create cool little analog bass blips, bass lines and bass bubbles that are just perfect for today’s electronic musicians.

It was the last full-analog monosynth that Yamaha made before going digital.

They came in two colour combinations - grey with light grey lettering (pictured) or red (yes, even then) with grey lettering.

Probably its most notable feature was its breath (well, spit) controller input, as Yamaha tried to branch into ‘alternative controllers’. I’m not sure how elegant it looks to be spitting into your keyboard, controlling its VCA and VCF, and you certainly can’t sing at the same time (do synthesists sing?) -still, an interesting if underused feature.

According to Synth Heaven and Vintage Synth Explorer, this synth was played by: Barry Blue, Andy Cheetham, Chick Corea, Steve Gray, Michael Law, Adrian Lee, John Medeski, Icelandic 80’s jazzfunk band Mezzoforte, OMD, Dust Brothers, Underworld, Tim Simenon, Patrick Swayze.

Errr, hang on… Patrick Swayze?

Anyway…

Specifications

Synthesis type: Analog subtractive
Monophonic
Oscillators per voice: 1
Waveforms: sine, square, triangle, PWM, narrow square, noise
Controllers: breath control jack, pitch/mod wheels, LFO
Keyboard: 32 mini-keys
Audio: 1 out
No MIDI

Links

• Sonic State
• Synth Museum
• MiniOrgan demo
• Some fun bizarreness of limited relation to the CS-01

The power of practice

The Age has published a useful article relevant to all musicians, particularly performing ones. Advice includes:

• Ensure you know the technical work, exercises and correct pieces to be performed, particularly for examinations.
• Check any special instructions and requirements for tests such as sight-reading, aural tests, transposition and general knowledge.
• Take time during a performance to check your instrument (not retune it!)
• Check you can play from memory without reference to a printed copy, if needed to.
• If you have the choice between a grand and an upright piano, play the one you are most used to practicing on.
• During practice, warm up with technical exercises, then work on any difficult passages in the pieces you are learning, slowly at first and then gradually up to performance speed.
• Perform in public when you can, as this helps to reduce nerves and build confidence playing in front of other people.
• Don’t neglect expression, rhythm and musical phrasing.
• Be confident!

Read the full article: The power of practice

Discuss: the end of useful synthesizers from Yamaha?

Whilst I was surfing I found a page about the Yamaha CS series in which ‘David’ makes a closing statement:

Right around this time [early 80s] the GS-1 & GS-2 came out which lead to the CE-20, DX-1 (nice machine!), the DX-7 and therefore the end of useful synthesizers from Yamaha.

The end of useful synthesizers from Yamaha?

What do you make of that? That implies that not only was the DX-7 not a useful synth, but that all subsequent offerings also.

Leaving aside home keyboards—which are a perfectly legitimate offering in their own right, but not really synths—are Yamaha now just making glorified digital pianos?

Did the art of Yamaha synth-making die after the CS-20?

What do you think?

Vintage: Yamaha CE-20 - “the one before the DX7″

So which of these are you most familiar with?

Yamaha CE-20
or
Yamaha DX7

Yep, thought so.

Not a huge commercial success, the CE-20 came before the legendary DX-7:

• Introduced in 1982
• Price: US$1395
• Synthesis: FM (Frequency Modulation)
• Voices: 20 (Piccolo, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Saxophone, Trumpet 1, Trumpet 2, Trombone, Violin, Contrabass 1, Contrabass 2, Electric Bass 1, and Electric Bass 2, Brass*, Horn*, Organ*, Electric Piano*, Harpsichord*, and Strings*.
• All voices are monophonic (high-note priority) except those marked * above which are 8-note polyphonic.
• Keyboard: 4 octave, full-size, velocity and aftertouch sensitive.
• Jacks: Sustain and expression pedals, audio line and headphone out. No MIDI.
• Not programmable, but some editing of presets including vibrato, ‘tone initial’ and ‘tone after’ (for velocity and aftertouch sensitivity) and ’slide’ for monophonic portamento timing.

Press Release

The original press release read:

The CE20 is another outstanding Yamaha keyboard that features FM tone generation technology. It offers 14 high-note-priority monophonic voices that are ideal for lead lines, and 6 8-note polyphonic voices for backing.

The monophonic voices are PICCOLO, FLUTE, OBOE, CLARINET, SAXOPHONE, TRUMPET 1 (classical trumpet voice), TRUMPET 2 (jazz tone), TROMBONE, VIOLIN, CONTRABASS 1 (bowed), CONTRABASS 2 (pizicato), ELEC TRIC BASS 1 (mellow), and ELECTRIC BASS 2 (funky).

The polyphonic voices feature BRASS, HORN, ORGAN, ELECTRIC PIANO, HARPSICHORD and STRINGS. All these voices are generated by the Yamaha FM tone generator system, and therefore have a remarkably “acoustic” feel. The CE20 has all the same touch response features as the CE25, so you have dynamic control with initial touch response, attack-dependent tonal variation with TONE INITIAL, and tonal varia tion according to key pressure with TONE AFTER. Vibrato can be applied via the after touch response function as well as independently with VIBRATO SPEED, DEPTH and DELAY controls. Also like the CE25 the CE20 has a PRESET selector which activates pre-programmed touch response sensitivity and vibrato parame ters for each individual voice. The CE20 additionally features a SLIDE CONTROL function that can be used with all the monophomic voices. With this function turned on, you first use a slide control wheel at the left of the keyboard to adjust the length of a portamento-like slide between each note played. The unique feature of this effect is that a slide occurs only when a second note is
played before releasing the first, thus allowing both pitch bend and portamento effects to be introduced through keyboard technique alone.

Overall, the CE20 offers tremendous versatility and expressive capability with surprising economy.

Vintage: Yamaha TG500 sound module

My first serious synth purchase was the Yamaha TG500 sound module. Although it cheated somewhat, it was heralded as the world’s first 64-note polyphonic synth, and used Yamaha’s Advanced Wave Modulation (AWM) sampling technology.

Of course, I already had a keyboard to control it - I think it was a Yamaha home keyboard. Hardly a master keyboard, and unable to control such deliciousness as aftertouch or modulation, but still enough to get me playing with the amazing on board sounds.

I particularly remember that it had the best acoustic pianos I’d ever heard on a synth, some great strings, and some really bizarre sound effects including a hyena on steroids, and some speaker-killing bass rumbles.

Programming it was a bit of a pain, with it only having twelve buttons to play with. I never did expand it with more memory or ROM cards, but even so it has served me well. It is still my primary piano and strings sound on the road, and I still have the desire to work out what extra things it can do - I am sure there are still things I haven’t done with it in its 15 years with me.

Main Specifications

• Synthesis type: AWM2
• Polyphony: 64 (2 x 32 poly sound generators, called (originally) A and B)
• Multi-timbral: 16 channels
• Effects: 2 units with 90 different effects
• Oscillators per voice: 1-4
• Drum kits: 6
• Sample ROM: 8Mb
• Patches: 384
• Performances (collections of patches): 252
• Audio Outs: 6
• Upgrade options: 2 slots for data cards, 2 for wave cards, up to 1Mb expansion RAM.

Many original and second-hand users have said that this is still a top-notch module - the AWM2 sound technology is still used by Yamaha today. Editing can be a pain (unless you can find a decent computer-based editor) but is definitely worth it.

Resources and Interesting Info

• Here are some useful user reviews at Harmony Central.
• Vintage Synth has written this article:
  

  The TG-500 is basically a box-o-sounds. It is based on Yamaha’s SY-85 (1992) and doubles the polyphony but loses the sequencer and most of the buttons and controls for real-time and patch editing. You can go with just the stock sounds, their sound quality is excellent, using AWM2 (Advanced Wave Memory), Yamaha’s synth-engine of choice since the days of FM-synthesis. You can also add external ROM cards for many more sounds in various styles. Despite the lack of controls, the TG-500 has edit capabilities as extensive as the SY-85, and is easiest to program using an external or software based editor.

  The TG-500 was a great and economical way to get Yamaha’s AWM2 style sounds, but may seem limited today.

• Kid Nepro has a list of sound patches for the SY-85 / TG500
• A small TG500 Discussion Group on Yahoo!Groups.
• SoundQuest’s SY85 and TG500 Editor/Librarian for Windows and Mac OS 9/X

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