TX81Z, K5000S

Been programming the TX81Z a bit. About a dozen patches or so, very surprising sounds. So I'll probably share a demo this week.

FM synthesis has really got my digital mojo going lately, such that I picked up a Kawai K5000S in dire need of restoration. The K5000S is known for sounds using more pure Additive Synthesis methods. It is also capable of some nice choir sounds and has a superb multi-stage bandpass formant filter for doing just that! Known functional issues of my instrument:
- cracked LCD (queue the Ladytron music)
- previous owners spilled red bull or something on it resulting in multiple sticking buttons with goo inside them.
So I'm disassembling the entire unit, pulling the cards w/ button switches, meticulously cleaning the PCBs of sticky goo, and removing/cleaning/replacing the small momentary switches. I ordered a new LCD that should be here later this week, it's going to look spiffy gray graphics on a white CCFL backlight...can't wait to see how that all goes.

A6 Alesis Andromeda Synthesizer Intensity

All original programmed sounds are by G-Storm Electro.

You may begin to feel some side effects: sleep deprivation, sudden inexplicable loss of time and missing appointments, difficulty breathing, skipping meals, excitability and rapid heart-rate. I have the strong feeling these sounds are just scratching the surface of what the A6 is capable. The selected programs represent approximately a decade of programming this beauty. This demo runs through a full range of different sounds condensed into a short time span so please don't expect a full-on Grammy winning performance here.

Index of selected sounds, and my tracks that used them...
0:15 D-Fifths. Super-thick Analog Pad. RE: Aerial
0:22 Vintage Monster. Analog Pad.
0:33 Mega BassTrigger. RE: Spaced Out Beauty
0:40 MemoryBass. MemoryMoog Stacked Bass sound.
0:52 Cutter Bass. In your face bass.
0:58 Analog Retro. Arpeggio/Sequence.
1:13 Sweep Revenge. Ominous 6-Voice synth stack sweep.
1:20 LFO Sweepmatic. Sweep Pad w/ LFO. RE: Miranda By The Sea
1:35 Pearlite. Driving sequenced mod insanity.
1:59 Luscious. Analog Pad Stack. RE: Thermion.
2:12 Intensity. Detuned Lead synth w/ pitch rise. RE: Thermion.
2:30 Magic Of Light. Psychedelic synth texture.
2:54 MotionControl. Superb Arpeggio/Sequence. RE: Miranda By The Sea.
3:08 Choir Phaser Pad. Synthetic Choir w/ heavy reverb.
3:21 Brutal Fuzz. Hard Bass w/ delay. RE: Aerial
3:28 OB Stringtime. My variation from a Factory Patch.
3:35 Sawtooth. Bread-n-butter sawtooth synth patch.
3:41 SuperEnsemble. CS-80/Vangelis type delicate string synth lead.
3:56 Interstellar. Heavily modulated analog lead. RE: Aerial
4:10 Complicated. String/Choir Soundtrack Ensemble w/ heavy reverb.
4:20 Hall Strings. Dense string soundtrack set w/ heavy reverb.
4:35 Slow Pad. Smooth Jupiter-8 style pad.
4:46 Dark Strings. Hard bow strings. Sorry the clipping was coming from my mixer.
5:01 Watery Tart. Pad w/ sound FX.
5:24 Stellar Portions. Epic Pad drenched in reverb. RE: Descendant, Aerial

Venom Reactivator Synth Demo 4 M-Audio/Avid

Download these patches from this post..
Here are some new original Venom patches I've made recently.
- 73 Tines. A smoother EP like Rhodes, Wurlitzer with a digital character.
- SuperJuVee. Thick Roland JV-1080 Soundtrack strings with soft Venom grit.
- Tank!: A loosely Atari-2600 sound effect inspired by the tank game in 'combat' and 'Pole Position'.
- Novachord. Ancient Hammond synthesizer from the 1940's used in eerie old sci-fi movies.
- The Chills. A real spine-tingler that will be used in my upcoming track 'Polar'. (Unreleased patch.)
- Sex Object. Digital or FM-based bowed string inspired by a Kraftwerk track.
- Deep Sweep. Thick analog atmospheric pad.
- Dy$on. Venom does Hoover-style rave genre sounds. Mod Wheel controls suction.
- WoodblkRok. Highly addictive percussive hollow sound for dance music.
- FullChoir. There are a few little tricks to get some male/female formants going.
- SuperGate. Percussive 'thwonk' taking full advantage of the Venom's reverb gate. For dance and pop music."

Roland Jupiter-6 Signature Sounds

A quick demonstration of the Roland Jupiter-6 vintage analog synthesizer. Showing some of the signature sounds that are its claim to fame, and some sounds that may be not so familiar.

Not since 1983 has Roland produced anything quite like it. What sorts of things set the Jupiter-6 apart from its peers?
- Its wild multimode filter capable of Lowpass, Highpass, and Bandpass
- Like a handful of other synths, compound waveform selections are possible for each of the oscillators.
- A feature called Cross Mod: it's like a third 'virtual oscillator' which is a frequency modulator for affecting OSC1. The beauty is that you still have OSC2 to do as you wish.
- Very stable oscillators, and the autotune routine takes about a second to execute! Memorymoog takes around 8 seconds.
- Envelopes: the attack transients are most unique. They aren't extremely fast, nor syrupy, but I haven't been able to get any other synth attack to sound the same.

What are these signature sounds the Jupiter-6 does well?
- Buzzy things
- Creamy Sawtooth, silky pad sounds
- Ambient Drones
- Gritty, Dirty, Raw, Nasty, Edgy sounds
- Blippy arpeggios
- Aggressive stabs/leads
- and very rude filter sweeps

New Track: Aerial

Going into Aerial it was conceived as merely an ambient synth pad excursion. But it was evolving into something else that generated structures and energies all its own. This would include some basic analog drum machine loops and a heavy bass synth: elements that would counter a soaring lead synth part. There HAD to be this super-sonic high soaring lead synth part unlike any other, but I didn't know what IT was yet and it would prove the most difficult element to realize. The lead almost always ends up being legato, as is my thing. Then suddenly it occurred the lead didn't have to be the typical single note affair, but rather like two parts in duet. And ever since then I haven't been able to get that sound out of my mind.

Equipment:
- Oberheim Matrix-12
- Alesis Andromdeda
- Korg Kaoss Quad
- Mr Ray electric piano plugin
- Boss RT-20 Rotary Ensemble
- Elektron Machinedrum SPS-1 MKII
- Lexicon MPX-550
- E-mu Emulator X2
- Cubase SX3
- iZotope Ozone 3

Venom Patches Availabe Again, For Now

There was an article in the paper the founder of Megaupload, Kim Dotcom, was arrested over the weekend in New Zealand and the website was shut down. Apparently authorities are cracking down on them for the content their users are uploading. This data seizure would include my original Venom synthesizer patches I was legally sharing with the general public. And just think about all legitimate uploads affected by others, too. It is a very sad day because this demonstrates the far reaching censorship powers authorities already possess, and without need of the SOPA bill. Freedom of speech, access to information, and integrity of legitimate artistic expression on the internet is in the process of going away forever. Previously I uploaded to yousendit.com but they have a 7-day upload limit which I wasn't very good at maintaining, and they may next in line to meet a similar doom as Megaupload.

UPDATE: The patches are uploaded on a different site now. The download is found on this post. Thanks for your patience. -g

New track 'Aerial' January 24th

Aerial sneaks its way into your subconscious. Opening with huge layers of spacious vintage pads, you will be escorted by a drum machine groove into analog synthesizer bliss. Off we go, into the wild blue yonder....

Korg MS-2000 Key Repair Project

I recently picked-up a Korg MS-2000 for a bargain. The bad news: it had not only a broken E key but a busted keybed retention prong. Armed with an exacto knife, 'Welder' brand professional contact adhesive, and some spare parts laying around I get to work bringing this beast of a synth back to fully operational condition.

Akai Miniak sounds

Here are some sounds made on the Akai MINIAK. Most of them are factory presets, a few sounds are original patches.
Akai MINIAK sounds by gstormelectro

Preview: MS-2000 key repair

Taking a break during recording 'Aerial' to work on a recently acquired Korg MS-2000 synthesizer. Got an exceptionally good deal since there were only a couple of issues. The major issue being a broken key AND the keybed key retention prong was busted off the key frame. I am documenting the reconstructive surgery with a video at this time.