small Update

Paul updates us on the latest:

"I am working on assembled modules all of this week. The upcoming weekend, I will make the MOTM-490 kits, finish the '830 kits and try to have the '310 kits ready to ship by the 31st. Analog Haven how has all the MOTM Frac models in stock. I am also kitting up the '730 parts to ship off to the SMT house so that these can ship by the Thanksgiving. Remember, they are 'in the cart' and if ordered by credit card, I won't charge it until the day of shipment.

The MOTM 2.0 orders are all shipped but 4, I will try to get those out Monday.

Lastly: if you are in the CA bay area, Robert Rich will be at the "AH California" gathering on Sat. the 25th. I *think* it's in Menlo Park, someone on the list help me out here :)
He will have VC Divider production prototype (I hand-built it, but it's all "correct").

Paul S."

There you go :-)

T J

MOTM on Video games

Perhaps some of the visitors of this blog, own a Playstation or XBox or play their games on another console/PC.
If you don't own or never heard an MOTM, here's an alternative:
Listen to the sound track of some big games, like World of Warcraft, Doom, and a few others by EA, and/or Blizzard.
One of the sound designers there is Russel Brower. Paul Schreiber writes:

"Russell Brower has done great MOTM work at Blizzard. If you play WoW, most of the wind/rain effects are all MOTM. His best MOTM work is the game soundtrack for "Black Hawk Down" (Hans Zimmer did the movie). Here is my favorite cut,
which is like a duduk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duduk).

favorite cut.

I hope StarCraft 2 is less 'orchestial' like Wow and more MOTM.

BTW: the first game soundtrack with MOTM was Ureal II, and there are probably 12 titles out there with some MOTM content (EA Canada has a mid-sized MOTM in their studio).

Paul S."

So go back to your games and have a listen :-)
Let the MOTM spotting commence, and if you discover more, be sure to share it!
T J

Motm 's on live performance

Richard Brewster recently took his modular on the road, and used them in a performance.
He writes:

"I took the portable cabinets out yesterday and they lived up to their promise. I've posted an entry on my website describing the outing, which includes for the first time a few pictures of the reclusive "artist" (me). I recorded the whole performance (two 10-minute pieces) and these are available for download. This old man's analog modular sound was well-received by the mostly twenty-somethings in the audience, which was comprised chiefly of the other performers on the bill. Some of the other acts were surprisingly good, I thought."

Click on this link To visit his site and listen to these performances.

T J

Updated update

Only a few days after the last update from Synthtech, Paul updates us on the status of among others, the 650.


a) Happy to say the new MOTM-650 MIDI-CV boards check out OK (by 'new', this is the second SMT run of the board set). I will add the module to the cart. For those of you waiting for back order: I can ship this month. For those wanting to buy one, I can also ship this month :) They are pretty quick to build up, I can do 5 a day no problem and I need the $$$.

b) Sad to say, about out of CEM ICs. I am hoping that at some later date I can get more to sell. A few folks here are waiting for ICs, I do have them and will send them out ASAP. Much MOTM R&D funding was paid for via these IC sales. I hope to sell some MOTM-650/730s to fund more stuff.

c) Once I ship the '650 backlog, I will finish up the kits. I originally planned to have all the kits shipped by Oct 1st, now it's going to be more like Dec 1st.

d) I am currently out of MOTM-940 front panels, but will order more soon.

e) I will finish up 10ea MOTM-1485s (all that is left is final testing/pack/ship) this week and ship to Analogue Haven.

Paul S.

T J

Latest update

Latest update from SynthTech

a) the MOTM-650 MIDI-CV boards arrived today from the assembly house. I have not tested any yet, will do so over the weekend. If they are built right, then I will have all the MIDI-CV modules on backorder shipped this month. I think there are 12 on order. They will still be V1.3 of the firmware.

b) I have been travelling all week, so not much has shipped. I have ~ 12 MOTM 2.0 orders to ship, and to finish up 10ea MOTM-1485s (they are 90% done). I am about out of CEM ICs so those orders will go away (sigh.....) and I will get back to kitting.

c) Shane the tech has built up 10ea MOTM-440 pc boards, next up the 2 of us have to build 22 (gulp!) MOTM-300 VCOs (10 are going to 1 customer).

So there is still much to do and to ship. I plan to have all the MOTM-730 parts kitted up and sent off to assembly by the end of the month.

Paul S.

All about screwing

Fellow MOTM'er John L Rice can't get enough of screwing, he reports on his quest for nice fitting screws to "mount "his modules (pun intended :-) ) He reports:
"I started looking around for alternatives and fell in love with socket head cap screws. They look more industrial/aggressive than the standard Philips screws to me.(and sort of like a cross between a little jack and a little knob) So at first I tried alternating black alloy and stainless steel and while that looked pretty cool, there wasn't a much of a visual difference between the two. Then I picked up some blue and red anodized aluminum screws and tried a setup where I alternated the colors every time a module changed. Really easy to see module separation but . . . it wasn't 'me'. I also tried same colored screws per module type which I liked a little better but still not what I wanted.
So finally I discovered CHROME PLATED screws and I'm a happy camper now!
If you want to do this too, I got the chrome screws from www.chromehardwaresupply.com (talk to Chris at extension 109). It cost $66 for 100 8-32 3/8" socket head cap screws. Compared to what the standard MOTM screws cost they are really expensive but, I think it's worth it! ;-)"

See picture of his new love :-)

T J

Travel

I'm currently traveling for work again, so I will probably not be able to update my blog as often as I'd like but I will try to do as much as I can.
I've been using the TC electronic interface a little while away (it's nice and compact and an ideal travel companion if you want to record while you're out) although I have not yet recorded with it. The nice thing is however that it does sound very good as a playback device too, using it as my output for iTunes etc instead of the build in headphone jack of my Powerbook, it sounds a lot better, the low end is more defined and punchy, the highs are lovely and transparent, and the whole mix just seems more dynamic and cleaner. Also previous recordings made in Logic, some using only the software synths, and others with recordings of my MOTM sound much nicer. Can't wait to use it as an input device for Logic etc too, then it should really pay off.

T J