Saturday, 1 November 2014

The Devilfish & the Elektron (MachineDrum & Octatrack)

A bit of 303 acid meets an Elektron Machine Drum & Octatrack




The Herodium - "Herod's Tomb"

It's still a mystery today.
Where is King Herod buried?
These are picks I took of the Herodium (just outside Bethlehem).


The approach from Bethlehem.

In the distance that mountain with the flat top is the Herodian.  It's told that Herod forced his slaves to make two hills into this one huge mountain in order to display his power over God’s.


Herod the Great, the king of Judea ruled around the time of Jesus. He was the Jewish proxy ruler of the Holy Land under imperial Roman occupation from 37 B.C.  Credited in history for the "massacre of the innocents".

He lived from 74 BC to 4 BC building lavish building projects including the fortress of Masada and the second temple. He did so by burdening his people with heavy taxes. 
The Herodian

The Roman Jewish historian Josephus describes it thus:

"This fortress, which is some sixty stadia[6] distant from Jerusalem, is naturally strong and very suitable for such a structure, for reasonably nearby is a hill, raised to a (greater) height by the hand of man and rounded off in the shape of a breast. At intervals it has round towers, and it has a steep ascent formed of two hundred steps of hewn stone. Within it are costly royal apartments made for security and for ornament at the same time. At the base of the hill there are pleasure grounds built in such a way as to be worth seeing, among other things because of the way in which water, which is lacking in that place, is brought in from a distance and at great expense. The surrounding plain was built up as a city second to none, with the hill serving as an acropolis for the other dwellings." 

(The Wars of the Jews I, 21, 10; Antiquities of the Jews XIV, chapter 13.9).

Looking into the Herodian from the outer wall







Part of the underground water storage system.


 Here are some very large boulders apparently used by rebel Jews.

The Herodium was conquered and destroyed by the Romans in 71 CE. At the beginning of the Bar Kokhba revolt sixty years later, Simon bar Kokhba declared Herodium as his secondary headquarters.




Herodion excavations


Herod was considered one of the greatest builders of his time. The largest of the four towers was built on a stone base 18 meters in diameter.




Ampitheatre - part of the outer wall






Wiki info

For more travel links click here:
http://djjondent.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/travel-postcards-index-my-travel.html

ARP 2500 - Patch 3

This is a variation on patch 2. with a bit more emphasis on the sequencer.
Many thanks to Benge for his awesome ARP 2500 videos. In particular this one on the ARP Mix Sequencer module (the 1050).
http://youtu.be/UZeHU4IPItY

Here is a pic of the 1050 module.
Today this module should be pretty easy to build. This was however designed before CMOS logic & LEDs I think it's amazing considering when it was made. A credit to Pearlman. He was really pushing technology back in the 60's.


It's basically a 8 channel mixer. The channels can be divided into 2x4, 1x8, 1x7,1x6,etc
The cool thing is that they are gated to the sequencer so can be triggered on cue to the rhythm.
There are some eurorack modules (sort of like this) out there, but at the moment nothing as expressive (in my opinion). So there is a challenge to you budding analog engineers out there.



I'd like to thank Mini & all the staff from ToneTweakers in NYC
who lovingly restored this grand lady. Great job guys
http://www.tonetweakers.com

Thursday, 30 October 2014

ARP 2500 - Patch No 2

Really loving the Mix-sequencer module.
Its a very expressive tool.


Some pics of the patch:



  Left side

  Middle


I'd like to thank Mini & all the staff from ToneTweakers in NYC
who lovingly restored this grand lady. Great job guys
http://www.tonetweakers.com

ARP 2500 - first patch

This is a first experimental patch on the ARP 2500.
I'm still getting used to using the matrix rather than traditional cables. It takes a bit of
getting used to & is definitely less messy and easier to record patches.


I'll upload pics of the patches as I work through my experiments so if you wish to duplicate them on your own modular go right ahead.


If you are an owner of a 2500 please write.
I'd love to swap & share ideas, patches, etc.

Left side. Modules used are 1004 & 1023 oscillators, 1047 (filter resonator), 1006 Filter/Amp, 1046 Quad EG (envelope generator),

On the right we have a 10 stage sequencer (1027 - The Clocked Sequential Control Module)  & a mix sequencer (1050).

The 1050 mix sequencer is especially interesting. I have never come across anything like it.
It's a rather unusual 8 channel or two 4 channel mixer. More about this later.

I'd like to thank Mini & all the staff from ToneTweakers in NYC
who lovingly restored this grand lady. Great job guys
http://www.tonetweakers.com

Friday, 24 October 2014

OctaTrack & MachineDrum - End of time - Minimal

Experimenting with the Elektron Octatrack & Machine Drum.
Great combo.



FAIRLIGHT CMI Series III Synth Sampler System Stewart Copeland The Police

Wow, Stewart Copeland's Fairlight (series III) is going up for auction on Ebay.

For those who don't know, Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer best known as the drummer for the band the Police.

I'm tempted  though I already have a Series IIx.
But this is some serious piece of music history.
May it go to a good home.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FAIRLIGHT-CMI-Series-III-Synth-Sampler-System-Stewart-Copeland-The-Police-19220-/191369593059?pt=Keyboards_MIDI&hash=item2c8e8440e3

It's a steal at the price of $12K USD.

Item description:

INVENTORY # 19220
BRAND - FAIRLIGHT
MODEL - CMI Series III
FUNCTION - Computer Musical Instrument
DESCRIPTION - This listing is for a FAIRLIGHT CMI Series III Synth/ Sampler System. We are selling this system on behalf of our client, Stewart Copeland. This was a very personal Fairlight system of his as seen by the very cool artwork and coloring done on the pieces. Note that the road case for the mainframe says "The Police" stenciled on the side. This represents a very rare opportunity to own a complete Fairlight system, not to mention one that was part of the personal arsenal of a music legends!
Includes:
  • ACCU & DCCU System CPU & Interface (Loaded with cards & in road case with "The Police" stenciled)
  • VDU Series III Monitor (in road case)
  • MKB & ADK Series III Music Keyboard & Alpha-Numeric Keyboard with Data Pen (in road case)
  • Multi-Disk-Drive Rack Unit w/ SCSI CD-ROM Drive
  • 2x Q256 - 256k RAM Cards (in addition to one already installed)
  • Manuals and System Disk (in original box)
  • 3x Expression Pedals (for use with MKB Music Keyboard)
  • Large lot of various cables and snakes used for system wiring and interconnection
LINK - More information available from VintageSynth, SoundOnSound, and Wikipedia.
ACCESSORIES - Includes ONLY what is shown in the photos and listed above. NO additional accessories.
PHYSICAL CONDITION - Very Good
WORKING CONDITION - This system was recently pulled from storage and has not been fully tested by us as Fairlights remain an item that requires some dedicated expertise to get up and running. Admittedly we do not have the expertise on staff at the moment.  It may or may not need some restoration to bring to optimal condition for use. With that it is being sold under the assumption that it may need servicing, updating etc. 
TOTAL PRE-SHIP WEIGHT - 656 lbs
TOTAL PRE-SHIP DIMS- 70" x 35" x 32"

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