Retro Thing

eBay: Vintage Russian Monosynth

Although the auction calls the RITM-2 the "Russian Minimoog," this simple little analog monosynth has little in common with Robert Moog's classic instrument. Still, it looks cool. Despite having only a single oscillator, it offers a reasonable variety of waveforms (saw, sine, PWM, noise). To dirty things up a bit, the VCA can be internally overdriven with the gain knob, resulting in heavy distortion. Needless to say, there's no decadent MIDI interface or glittering capitalist LCD display.

The synth ships from Vienna and is apparently in good technical and physical condition, with no crackly potentiometers. The power supply and audio circuits have been professionally converted to Western European standards (220 sizzling volts of fun).

Ritm-2 Analog Synthesizer Beige Face [via Matrixsynth]

Vintage Synth Trump Cards

Just spotted on Matrixsynth: Vintage Synth trump cards, the perfect xmas gift for fanatic synthgeeks. £6.99 including postage.

"Can you use your skill and judgment to become the undisputed champion of vintage synth wisdom? Playing is easy. Simply divide the cards between the number of players before taking it in turns to read aloud a statistic from your card. The highest scoring instrument in that category wins that round. The person who gains all the cards wins."

GForce Vintage Synth Trumps

Stylophone Beatbox Demo Video

We had a great response to our post unveiling the new Stylophone Beatbox. There aren't any video demos out there yet that really explain what the Beatbox does in English, so here's ours.

Pick up a Stylophone Beatbox ($25.50), standard Stylophone ($19) or the sleek Stylophone Studio Black Limited Edition ($19.50) through one of our links and a portion of the sale will support Retro Thing.

Commodore PetSynth: Hardcore Chiptunes

Chiron writes, "I've written software that turns an old Commodore PET into a playable synth. I've created [a] website and have released it as GPL open-source software, so anyone can download it, use it, share it, and modify it if they're interested. The original PET didn't have a dedicated sound chip, so the vibrato, distortion, and drums sounds represent unique innovations."

Hands-On With The Stylophone Beatbox

The Stylophone Beatbox has just been released, 40 years after the original Stylophone took the world by storm. We were lucky enough to receive one of the first units in the US. I'll post a video shortly, but here are my initial thoughts:

• It's dirt cheap, retailing for only $25.50. I'm tempted to buy a pair - one for each hand.
  

• It plays sampled sounds rather than the simple weedy oscillator that made the original famous. That makes for some surprising audio coming out of tech that looks so 1960s from the outside. You can still slide around the control surface. The Beatbox is rigged so that several samples can be triggered at once.

• It has a built-in looping sequencer. You can tap out a beat on any of the three sound banks, and the Beatbox will keep looping until the 3 x AA batteries run flat. You can also play other sounds over the loop.

• It has a record scratching sound effect you can trigger from any of the sound banks, and it's rather cleverly camouflaged. Drop one any time you need a little turntablism, even without a turntable in sight. 

• There's a tempo control for the loop, so you can enter your beats at a slower speed, then rev it up when it's time to freestyle.

• Even though it uses a lot of modern sounds (including a few samples from champ beatboxer MC Zani), it retains that retro charm. Not just because of the overall look, but the quality of the sounds coming out of the thing.

• Go ahead and put headphones on. The built in speaker is fun, but the sounds really come to life when amplified.

• It's the perfect companion for an original $19 Stylophone, or as we see in this marvelous video by plastic keyboard heroes the Brett Domino Trio, a second Stylophone Beatbox.

I hope this is the first in a series of modern instruments based on the old Stylophone look and feel. With the circular control surface, I'd love to see some lo-fi sampling & scratching. Or how about some sort of stylo-theremin hybrid? Or bring back the 'pro' dual stylus version from the sixties? To think it all started with a buzzy little synth that resembles a cheese grater.

My advice? Pick one up now, because they're likely to sell out before Christmas.

Buy the Stylophone Beatbox ($25.50), standard Stylophone ($19) or the sleek Stylophone Studio Black Limited Edition ($19.50) through one of our links and a portion of the sale will support Retro Thing.

Tweed Champ Vacuum Tube Amp Kit

Tube Depot's Champ guitar amp kit ($499.95) is a nod to the early days of rock and roll. It's simple enough to build that even first timers shouldn't have trouble. It features an ultra efficient Jensen MOD 8-20 speaker, multi-tapped 100 - 240 V supply and a 3/4" solid pine cabinet. The chassis is a fully chromed reproduction of a vintage Fender Tweed 5F1 Champ. A detailed instruction manual with over 50 color photos is available for free download [pdf], and there's a great "how to" video guide on YouTube.

Tweed Champ Kit [Tube Depot]

Gakken Theremin: Ghostly Music Now Within Arm's Reach

Everyone should own at least one Gakken Otona no Kagaku adult electronic kit. Their amazingly affordable Theremin Premium was released late last year. Created by Russian inventor Leon Theremin in the 1920s, this graceful electronic instrument is played by waving your hands in the air beside its two antennae to control pitch and volume.

Gakken's little Theremin is sold exclusively in Japan, but there are usually a handful on eBay for less than $100. It weighs only 345g and operates on 4 x AA batteries. Although the manual is written in Japanese, the simple front panel controls are conveniently labeled in English and should only take a few moments to figure out. As icing on the cake, a built-in speaker and mic stand bracket open up a world of embarrassing public performance opportunities.

Check for Gakken Theremins on eBay
Gakken Theremin Premium microsite [Google translation]

related:
Star Trek Theme On Theremin [video]

Casiotone 202 Keyboard: Holy Woodgrain, Batman!

"A vintage flexidisc from Casio introducing the Casiotone 202 Electronic keyboard, their second ever." This thing probably won a Grammy for the most gratuitous use of woodgrain on a musical instrument. Ever.

Casio went on to introduced a successful range of cheap and cheery professional synthesizers, drum machines, samplers and sound modules in the mid-1980s. [via Matrixsynth]

Casiotone 202 Electronic Musical Instrument

related:
Casio Keyboard/Tape Copier/Shortwave Radio
The Bleeptastic Casio VL-Tone
Battery-Powered Hundred Dollar Synthesizers

Kraftwerk's Autobahn on Electro-Harmonix Effects Pedals

Bill Ruppert writes, "I have developed a video series for the effect pedal company Electro-Harmonix called Effectology. Every two weeks I present a new video on how to produce "impossible" sounds using just a regular guitar and EHX effect pedals.

This week I recreate the synthesizer classic 'Autobahn' by Kraftwerk. All sounds were created using just a regular guitar and effect pedals! No keyboards, samplers or midi pickups were used."

Autobahn was a surprise 1974 hit by German synthesizer pioneers Kraftwerk which soared up the charts in Europe and America, thanks in part to some brilliant work by German producer Conny Plank (Eurythmics, Ultravox). The pulsing piece propelled Kraftwerk to the forefront of European electronica and helped define the future of pop music.

"How to" info with settings can be found on the E-H forums.

A Surprisingly Affordable New Analog Synth

Dave Smith's Tetra analog synthesizer stands out in a world of me-too computer-based soft synths. The tabletop instrument retails for $799 (street price), while somehow cramming four analog voices into a surprisingly compact case.

The Tetra features the same Curtis analog low-pass filter chips used in many classic synths, along with four-part multi-timbral capability, four discrete outputs and the ability to chain with other Dave Smith instruments for expanded polyphony. A free patch editor is available for both Mac OS and Windows.

Each synth voice includes two DCOs, a resonant low-pass filter, three envelope generators, four low frequency oscillators and extensive modulation routing. If that's not enough for you, there's an arpeggiator and analog-style step sequencer for each voice, along with extensive feedback possibilities to dirty things up.

To keep costs down, the simplified front panel offers four assignable parameter controls, along with five dedicated controls for the most frequently used parameters. Nevertheless, Smith & Company managed to cram in a headphone output, standard MIDI in/out jacks and a USB connector.

Back in the early 1980s, the distinctive sound of the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 synthesizer graced nearly every pop album. It was the first programmable polyphonic synth, capable of playing a whopping five notes simultaneously. It was also unbelievably expensive, retailing for almost five thousand dollars. Sequential founder Dave Smith released a range of groundbreaking instruments throughout the 1980s before jumping successfully into the world of software synthesis. The software market quickly became overcrowded, and he opened Dave Smith Instruments a few years later.

Tetra Multi-timbral Analog Poly Synthesizer Module

Retro Synth Ads

Retro Synth Ads is a blog full of scanned synthesizer ads from the 1980s. I'm ashamed to admit how much I looked forward to seeing new ads for instruments I could only dream of owning as a teen.

Mr. RetroSynthAds writes, "Growing up, synthesizer advertisements were the only way for me to find out about new synths. Gear advertised in magazines such as Keyboard Magazine and Electronic Musician. Its not that my local music shop didn't have knowledgeable staff, I was just scared of them until I was in my late teens. Please join me in my infatuation with vintage synthesizers, drum machines and sampler advertising."

Retro Synth Ads [via Matrixsynth]

Tom Oberheim's New Synth Expander Module

Thirty-five years after releasing the original Synthesizer Expander Module, Tom Oberheim has announced an updated version of his first instrument. The new SEM includes a MIDI interface, while retaining its old analog charm. It includes the same versatile 12 dB/octave filter design as the original along with dual oscillators, triangle LFO and a couple of simple ADR envelope generators.

Tom Oberheim and the new SEM from stretta on Vimeo.

The Oberheim SEM [background in the photo] was introduced in 1974. The little monophonic synth was envisioned as a voice expander to fatten other instruments (or for use with a sequencer). It quickly gained popularity thanks to its simple front panel, reasonable price and decent sound. By combining multiple SEM modules into a single unit, Tom Oberheim created a series of 2-voice, 4-voice and 8-voice polyphonic keyboard instruments. There was even a little programmer module that could be used to store the knob settings. Oberheim went on to create some stunning polyphonic analog synthesizers and the DMX drum machine, which became a staple of early hip-hop.

The new SEM should be available later this year for under $1000.

The Sound Lab Ultimate Analog Synth

It takes a lot to get me excited about music gear these days, but Ray Wilson's Sound Lab Ultimate modular analog synthesizer kit is amazing. This instrument is the followup to his original Sound Lab mini-synth. It features three musically accurate oscillators, white noise generator, active mixer, a 12 dB/Octave lowpass filter, envelope generator, dual low frequency oscillators and more.

The $130 "Deal Clincher" kit includes the PC board, two faceplates, three axial compensators (to keep the oscillators in tune as the temperature changes) along with a Wall Wart power supply board. You can order nearly all of the other project components directly from Mouser for just over $225.

This definitely isn't a beginner's project, but anyone with a bit of kit building experience should be able to assemble this incredibly cool instrument in only a few evenings.

Music From Outer Space Sound Lab ULTIMATE synth kit [via Matrixsynth]

related:
PAiA: Affordable DIY Synthesizers
Build An Analog Synth With A Screwdriver
Join The "Synth Module Of The Month Club"

Rolf Harris Rocks The Stylophone

A very young Rolf Harris recorded this exuberant Stylophone demo record in the late sixties. It's amusing to hear him marvel over a virtually unplayable little instrument that sounds suspiciously like a tuned duck fart. Of course, kids love fart sounds, which ensured massive popularity throughout most of the known universe.

The Stylophone fad didn't last long after parents discovered the bloody thing didn't even have a volume control. Upon being woken by electrofarts several weekends in a row, fathers throughout Britain started a grassroots campaign to smash and hide the buzzy little boxes when their little darlings were otherwise occupied with matches and the neighbour's Persian kitty.

Luckily for us, a couple of dads gave their Stylos to the drug-addled musicians living in the squat across the street. These future pop stars managed to tease a few tuneful bleeps out of their newfound toys, ensuring an irrational cult following that lasted over three decades.

Things reached such a fever pitch that Ben Jarvis - son of one of the original inventors - released an updated version in 2007. He learned from his father's mistakes and incorporated a volume control, headphone jack and two additional tones which I affectionately call 'helium duck' and 'deep duck.'

I'm counting on one of you to incorporate the Stylophone into 2010's biggest hit single, ensuring that decades of future music lovers continue to covet this cheerful electrobleep machine.

1960s Stylophone Demo Record

Strap On A New Roland Keytar

Everyone besides Roland is calling their new AX-Synth a keytar. Roland is referring to their new baby as a "shoulder synthesizer". I've never liked the word keytar either. It invokes the idea that what we used to call "ghost" or "solo" keyboards are inherently dorky. I may be biased because as a keyboard player I've always thought they were pretty cool, even though there have only ever been a dozen or so commercial models - a clear indicator of the lack of popularity of the keytar form factor.

The new Roland updates 2002's AX-7 model (and 1991's AX-1 before that) by including a lot more controls, USB style MIDI, and - here's the biggie - onboard sounds. This is pretty unusual as most keytars are MIDI controllers only, relying on an attached sound source. It's cool to be able to pick up the AX-Synth and start playing right away, though it makes me wish they'd gone that extra Casio step and included an on-board speaker.

As a professed keytar fan (I've still got my Casio AZ-1 as proof!), why am I not running out to get one? I'll have to wait and see if they release anything a little less iPod. Seriously, does every advanced piece of electronics have to be toilet porcelain white? Roland's other keytars were a glorious red. When the keyboardist creeps out from behind his racks of gear, he's doing it to get noticed with a hot red red axe, people.

The main reason I really won't be adding the Roland to my arsenal is the exorbitant price. The AX-Synth looks like it'll command over a thousand dollars US which is a lot of money for a keytar or a shoulder synthesizer or whatever they want to call it. I guess that Roland isn't counting on selling too many, or they feel that anyone extraordinary enough to want to play the most modern keytar ever is also happy to pay an extraordinary price as well.

More info on the AX-Synth at musicradar.com
Pick up a keytar on Ebay

related:
Roland AX-7