Gizmodo: synth

Tiny Akai USB Keyboard and Drum Pads

Brian Lam — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:22:06 EDT

I do not play the piano. But it is delightful that synth keyboards are undergoing the same miniaturization renaissance as other gadgets. The LPK 25 is velocity sensitive and USB powered. And, there's a matching drum pad. [BBG]

Guy Mods Atari 400 Into Ugly Knob-and-Button-Covered Synth

Jason Chen — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:40:00 EST

This Atari 400 synth gets 10 points for effort, but minus 1 billion points for aesthetics. The buttons aren't even lined up correctly. Your 1970s dad would be ashamed. [Technabob via BBG]

Chimera BC16 Modular Synth is Cheap, Colorful, Cute

AddyDugdale — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:30:19 EST

Although it's not shipping until January 2008, Chimera Synthesis is taking orders for its BC16 mono synth. It's the first product from the UK-based company, and will be followed next year by its PH303 (any Chicago House fans out there will be feeling hot under the collar right now) and the SM16, a 16-step analog sequencer. Powered by two 9v batteries, the BC16 can be used either free-standing or linked to an external sequencer or MIDI-CV converter, and costs $229. [Chimera Synthesis via Music Thing]

ReacTable Synth Makes Touchy-Feely Music for your Eyes

AddyDugdale — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:30:13 EDT

If you caught Bjork on tour this year, then you might have seen the ReacTable, a tactile synth. Moving, flipping and rotating the blocks on the perspex surface creates the music, while a projector beneath the table provides the visuals. It's intuitive and thrilling stuff that can be used by both professional musicians and novices alike, as you could see in the video after the jump.

Developed by four PhD students in Spain, each block in ReacTable controls a component of sound (such as tempo or sound wave amplitude) and is marked by a unique hieroglyph. Players move, rotate and flip the blocks, run their fingertips over the tabletop's surface and alter the blocks' proximity to each other to change the music produced by the machine. A camera beneath the table constantly analyses the movements going on above, while the visuals on the surface represent the music that is being created.

Although it was invented two years ago by music technology researchers at Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University, it is only now that the ReacTable is getting public exposure, after the Icelandic singer decided she wanted to play with it on tour after seeing it on YouTube.

Synth player Damian Taylor, currently on tour with Bjork, is more than enamored of the ReacTable, seeing it as more than just a synth. "They designed it so you draw your finger across the board, but I just wound up picking stuff up and banging it on the table and playing it more like rock 'n' roll power chords. We had to replace the bottoms of each of the blocks because I was wearing away the patterns."
[Wired and Arun Productions' on Flickr]

Gallery: Pocket Calculator Show's Boombox Hall of Fame

Brian Lam — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 23:37:04 EDT

I like today's gadgets just fine, but there's definitely something missing from the squeeky clean lines and soon buttonless faces of iPods and the like. I don't know exactly what that missing thing is, but I know I see it when I look at the analog, knobbed squalor found in Pocket Calculator Show's Boombox Hall of Fame. My favorites include Sanyo's 20-pound MR-X20 "Big Ben" with the sub nestled between its driver cabs; Discolite, with its multi-hued lights that flash behind speaker grills; the Sharp VZ-2500 with a record player in its face. And best of all, the musician's friend, the Sharp MR-990 Melody Searcher, with its built in Synthesizer/Keyboard/Drum Machine.
I'll be happy once the minimalist trend ends and gadgets get gnarly again.
Check the gallery, but don't miss clicking through to Pocket Calc's site for history on each.
–Brian Lam

Boombox Hall of Fame [PocketCalculatorShow]

David "Fingers" Haynes: Virtuoso Button Pushing

Charlie White — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 10:08:32 EST

The minute you start thinking you're pretty fast and furious with the button pushing, take a look at David "Fingers" Haynes, wailing away on his old beat-up-looking Alesis HR-16B drum machine. He's using that box to trigger sounds from a Yamaha DTXTREME 2S electronic percussion system.

Great musicianship, showing us that the medium doesn't matter nearly as much as the talent. – Charlie White

Guy is pretty good at playing his drum machine [Music Thing]

Plexiglass Moog Modular

gizmodo.com — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 09:56:27 EDT

If you've ever wondered what would happen if you took a 1967 Moog Modular Series III and rehoused all the modules in backlit plexiglass, now you know! The groovy gentleman in the photo above is Don Preston, and his plexiglass Moog was previously owned and custom-built by Pat Gleeson. The Moog was used on the synth-heavy soundtrack of Apocalypse Now in 1979.

Synths used on the soundtrack to "Apocalypse Now" [Vintage Synth Explorer, via Music Thing]