The Humanthesizer. Calvin Harris is promoting his new single by using a type of skin-safe conductive ink to "play" his song with the assistance of, ah, several assistants. [more inside]
posted by Halloween Jack on Aug 12, 2009 - 29 comments

"The StringStation introduces a fresh and inventive playing surface allowing one musician to play in real time on an instrument that offers thunderous bass, compelling rhythm, 3-D orchestration and melody. It uses new ways to approach groups of strings that find amazing intertwined performance techniques. It opens and lays out new paths to evolve tactile music composition skills." It's the baby of engineer/inventor Jim Bartz, who is on a mission to bring his invention into the musical mainstream. Start your exploration of what the StringStation can do with this video of Bartz playing his prototype model (actual performance comes in at 2:25). [more inside]
posted by woodblock100 on May 8, 2009 - 28 comments

Play him off, keyboard cat. [more inside]
posted by Greg Nog on May 6, 2009 - 146 comments

Terry Riley celebrates the 45th anniversary of his groundbreaking composition, In C. A major work in the history of minimalist music, In C has an incredibly flexible score and performance guidelines, which have inspired many musicians to make their own versions, including a French guitar quintet, a traditional Chinese orchestra, a keyboard ensemble, an all-synthesizer group, CalArts Music students, French-Canadian hippies, a Danish vocal and percussion ensemble, another percussion ensemble, Japanese acidheads, a "laptop orchestra", the Bang on a Can Orchestra, and a rock "orchestration" by the Styrenes. No two versions can sound exactly the same, but it's still an open question how they will compare to the performance of In C at its Carnegie Hall debut next month. No recording of the original 1964 performance has ever been publicly released, but some eyewitness accounts can be found here.
posted by jonp72 on Mar 4, 2009 - 40 comments

The Hammond Novachord: Introduced in 1939, it was the world's first subtractive synthesis synthesizer and built with all the cutting edge technology of the time: 169 vacuum tubes, 12 oscillators, 60 frequency dividers, 60 band pass filters, 72 VCA's, and weighing in at 500 pounds. You've likely heard it in dozens of films and TV shows from the 1940's to 1960's. Crazy enough to restore one? If it sounds like this, why not?
posted by Paid In Full on Dec 12, 2008 - 19 comments

The Tone Generation is a radio series by Ian Helliwell 'looking at different themes or composers in the era of analogue tape and early synthesizer technology'. The original globe-trotting series: Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, USA, Canada, Rest of World. Bonus programmes: Expo 58, The RCA Synthesizer. All links are to MP3 files, except the first one. Alternatively, you can slurp down the lot in one go by subscribing to the podcast feed.
posted by jack_mo on Nov 21, 2008 - 4 comments

It seems almost incredible that Ursula Bogner's musical talents should have remained undiscovered until now.
posted by jack_mo on Nov 1, 2008 - 20 comments

In the wide world of synthesizer guitars, the Synthaxe may well be the choicest both in its aesthetics and its raw awesomeness could. John Hollis tells us what we're missing. Some guy demonstrates it. Allan Holdsworth whips it out in concert. Also, a music video from Lee Ritenour's Synthaxe-heavy Earth Run album.
posted by colinmarshall on Oct 18, 2008 - 25 comments

Charles Cohen improvises on the very rare Buchla Music Easel synthesizer.
posted by Blazecock Pileon on Jul 18, 2008 - 19 comments

Matmos provides a song-by-song exposition of their synth-only* album Supreme Balloon, including explicit pics of the gear they used. Highlights include the Electronic Valve Instrument, the Coupigny, & everything else.

*Mostly - all sound sources were synths, some software controllers were used.
posted by univac on Jul 6, 2008 - 14 comments

In 1975, armed with a big pile of 8-track car stereos and a whole lot of moxie, Dave Biro set out to change the sound of rock music. He failed spectacularly. This is the fascinating and tragic story of one of the rarest instruments in rock music- The Birotron. [more inside]
posted by 40 Watt on Oct 1, 2007 - 19 comments

Hear them all...... The most famous version of the early synthesizer hit "Popcorn" was played in 1972 by a studio group called Hot Butter, led by legendary session musician Stan Free. Few people know that the song was actually written by electronic music pioneer Gershon Kingsley. If you'd like to hear excerpts of Kingsley's original version, along with scores of cover versions, here ya go.
posted by metasonix on May 30, 2007 - 47 comments

Music Porn - Synthesizer sex.
posted by loquacious on Mar 4, 2007 - 16 comments

Listening to a machine made entirely of windows.
posted by Mach5 on Mar 2, 2007 - 11 comments

An old dog learns new tricks The venerable Atari 2600 may no longer be at the forefront of high-end gaming, but that won't keep it down for long. Its new career? Drum & Bass synthesizer(warning: ugly, ugly site), complete with MIDI.
posted by lekvar on Jan 30, 2007 - 15 comments

A new type of synth. Straight from Barcelona.
posted by pwedza on Nov 5, 2006 - 40 comments

Doktor Future's modular synthesizer has been set up to send a real audio stream, 24/7. The analog modular synthesizer will be running a quadraphonic aleatoric patch that will change from day to day. (via Matrixsynth)
posted by zonkout on Sep 19, 2006 - 10 comments

Have you ever seen a synth and said "Man, what this needs is cartoon eyes?" A bit similar to the Buchla Box or theremin in that they don't have a keyboard to control the sounds -- it's probably closest to the Booper, invented by The Weatherman from Negativland (or, well, Circuit Bending), the Thingamagoop is a photosynthesizer... which means it basically uses light sensors to generate sounds. The signal's run through a couple oscillators and, well, it comes out as somethin' that's pretty dang awesome. I'm on the fence on pickin' this one up. On one hand, it's a really neat toy that makes noise... on the other hand, um.... um.... I dunno. It's not made of candy?
posted by Rev. Syung Myung Me on Jul 8, 2006 - 18 comments

"The Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee is a [computer] keyboard MIDI controller of my own invention based on changes of pitch, rather than fixed pitches. This scheme gives the performer the ability to perform extremely quick, rhapsodical lines." Perfect for the music nerd on your Christmas list. Complete with "instructional" video (53MB .mov) and mp3s. I'm on a Mac so I can't try out the freeware version.
posted by Cryptical Envelopment on Dec 1, 2004 - 17 comments

Building a Better Way: Music from the 1974 Chevrolet Announcement Film • "An interesting look at some of the musical trends from the early 70s. A little Isaac Hayes, a little John Denver, some Allman Brothers and a few sounds from that new-fangled instrument, the synthesizer."
posted by dhoyt on Jun 21, 2004 - 7 comments

Museum of Soviet synthesizers.
posted by soundofsuburbia on Feb 20, 2003 - 16 comments

At&T New Text to Speech thingy - HAL I'm coming.
posted by kramer_101 on Sep 5, 2001 - 14 comments

Demo Design is neat. Lots of flash to entertain you. Try the sound section; I feel like I'm Ross from Friends wigging out on my ancient synthesizer, but with modern drum loops. And dig the clock if you click on the middle or right symbols that appear if you click on video.
posted by moz on Jul 19, 2001 - 4 comments

I received my nanoloop the other day and it is way cool. It's a techno tracker for gameboy. Another one you might find interesting is little sound dj.
posted by sonofsamiam on Apr 4, 2001 - 3 comments