Friday, October 26, 2007

Jim Gordon MOTM

Here's Jim Gordon's latest MOTM music . The MOTM 650 uses both arpeggiators at the same time, synced and all of course :-)


T J

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

MOTM of the Week


Hello again. It's been a while since I have updated this blog. My apologies, work and internet access issues have prevented me from doing so. However, we're up and running, so here is the next MOTM of the week. This one is from Jason Proctor. He writes:
just chiming in here with a picture and some details of the Red Fish modular synth. i thought i'd better get round to this quick before my dwindling finances force me to sell of some (more) pieces of it.

the system has been through various different phases, starting out being a 3-oscillator monosynth with 9 (!) filters, then it grew a bit to include some CGS control stuff and a Zeroscillator, then my financial situation forced a bit of a shrinkdown. i've all but abandoned most of the control stuff, it's now back to being a 3-oscillator (with Miniwave) monosynth again. the crazy control stuff i'm planning will now happen in software.

module list, top left to bottom right --

Oakley MIDI-DAC, issue 2
Blacet MIDI sync with CGS pulse divider
MOTM-320 LFO
Red Fish Chester 4-channel noise generator
MOTM-380 Quad LFO
CGS dual minimal (no shift register) gated comparator

Oakley EFG
Hendry JLH-822 interval selector
MOTM-490 ladder VCF (with mil-spec components, ask PaulS about this one)
Oakley dual sample & hold
MOTM-700 dual vc switch
CGS dual minimal (no shift register) gated comparator

Hendry 2U power supply / mult

MOTM-300 VCO
Oakley VCO issue 4
Oakley VCO issue 3
Blacet VC envelope
MOTM-800 envelope
MOTM-800 envelope

Blacet/Wiard Miniwave with Roberts/Proctor 32x64 wavetable hack
CGS 4-way bandpass filter bank
Tellun TLN-442 CEM3320 4-pole LPF
Tellun TLN-428 CEM3320 2-pole multimode
Oakley Multimix
Wilson dual log/lin VCA

MOTM-420 multimode
MOTM-440 SSM clone LPF
MOTM-440 SSM clone LPF
Oakley Superladder (Moog version)
Wilson dual log/lin VCA

Hendry 2U power supply / mult

other instruments in pic -

DSI MEK
SCI Prophet VS keyboard & rack
Yamaha DX7
Seventh Circle rack with Neve clone preamp

Ask if you want to know more.
Thanks for a great blog.

Thanks Jason!
If you want your modular featured here, please submit it by sending a message to motmsynth@mac.com .

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Update from Paul

a) I am almost done shipping the outstanding power supply kits. This will be done by this Friday. A few are going out Monday, the rest Friday.

b) If you have MOTM-700 pc boards on order: I just received these today, so they will ship later this week.

c) If you have MOTM-910s on order: I am making a slight pc board change with the prototypes, boards will be back on the 23rd. I have all the panels and all the jacks.

d) Note that many CEM ICs are getting to the end of my supply. I have just 11 CEM3310s left. I cannibalized a busted Roland synth for a few CEM3360s. If you have older gear with these ICs, may think about stocking while I have them. I have 2ea CEM5530s for the Prophet VS. Every now and then, I can get some more but as time goes on, this is getting more and more difficult.

e) For the next 2 weeks, I will have less MOTM time available. Also, my father is now in a out-patient recovery/rehab clinic trying to get his strenght back from the gall bladder removal a few weeks back. So this is stressing me out a bit along with taking my son in for X-rays after the last football game (complaining of swollen wrist). I don't think there is a break but won't know until Monday PM. I did manage to ship 17 orders last week, so it wan't too bad :) Teas lost, and Texas A&M won today. Again, things could be worse.

f) If you are owed a MOTM-310 *kit*, please let me know as I want to ship all of the remaining ones this coming week. Then, it's time for the MOTM-300 kits and assembled MOTM-510s (there are around 8 of those I have to make up).

Paul S.
T J

Saturday, October 06, 2007

MOTM system of the week Part 4


This week the modular of Michael Stein, he writes: My system is 1/2 .com & 1/2 MOTM w/ some Blacet and Encore. I chose these companies because of their large format (1/4" jacks, big knobs). Synthesizers.com got me started w/ the entry system plan as I acquired MOTM kits and second hand modules along the way. MOTM and .COM are both great companies. Very good build quality and performance. I will admit MOTM does out-do .com in quality a little bit but the price difference makes that apparent. I get a little noise from my .com filters and amps (some say it could be there position in my cabinet in relation to my power supply). The MOTM oscillator is a little more to my liking in sound. The triangle and square waves are a little more edgy I could say. But I still use the .com osc's more b/c of the handy range switch (w/ crs mod). I can quickly change octaves per osc. and they stay in tune as I am trying to create a new tonal patch. Everyone loves Oscs. and filters so lets cover filters. The .Com filters a very nice sounding and the multimode is great because of the individual outputs for LP, BP, N, & HP, I do have to complain about only having two inputs, if I want to run 3 osc. I have to use up my mixer, same goes for if I wanted to run a feedback loop of any kind when using 2 osc's. Motm filters....WOW......everyone says how much they love the 440(prophet 5 clone) which I do too but I just got the 480(cs-80 clone) recently and it goes from beautiful to harsh to extreme so easily. You can get so many different timbres out of it with the basic VCO>VCF>VCA set-up. Some people might not like how it does not self resonate but it sounds amazing. I probably wrote too much and did not cover that much.
Thanks,
-michael-

Thanks Michael for sharing your synth with us.

T J