You Will Now Witness The True Power Of... Err... wait...
From the original Analog Industries archive. Some links and images from that era no longer resolve.
Longtime readers will know that I occasionally pine about having a complete working alphaSyntauri synthesizer system. I even managed to collect all the parts via about 2 years of eBay searching a half decade ago, but I was never able to actually make the rig work, and eventually I pitched the whole thing in a fit of frustration.
My good friend Mike Fisher to the rescue. He happened to have a complete system that actually worked. (Interestingly, he acquired it at the same time I was hunting for mine, through the expedient of buying a complete working system. Wish I had thought of that.) When we were in Phoenix last week, Mike happened to mention that this ridiculous thing was sucking up space in his studio better suited for, e.g., dirty socks and pizza crusts, and entrusted it to me since I’d actually use it.
(Note: I was using poetic license regarding the socks and pizza. Mike is very neat.)
Anyhow, I’ve got it all hooked up and working, and am madly synthesizing in an additive way. (Oh, yeah, it’s additive. Didn’t mention that.) It is hideously complex to program, and I’m missing some of the fun software; I’ve found .DSK files of same, but I’m not entirely sure how to turn those in to 5.25” floppies, so I’ll have to spend some time working on that.
He also hooked me up with a Korg 770, which has to be one of the most ridiculous monosynths ever created. It can make some really cool sounds, but none of them are what you set out to create. I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with this little piglet. Which brings me to…
Bare Walls: I’m gonna take my office down to the paint tomorrow, as it is getting out of hand. I’ve got to let this K250 go because, as cool as it is, it’s just too fucking big for here. So if you want to buy one at a monumentally cheap price, and you’re in PDX or the surrounding area, feel free to drop me a line. If you’re even thinking of writing me about this elephant and including the word “shipping” or anything related to it in your missive, don’t bother. The only way this is leaving my house is if you come and get it.
Otherwise, a massive reorganization is in the offing. Not only is it fun to move the instruments around, but it can be very cleansing, artistically, don’t you find?
10 comments
Ah, that thing looks like it's 1) a total bastard to program and 2) really lovely, in the same way that fairlights and synclaviers are lovely.
What does it sound like? Is it going to be useful? Is the latter question irrelevant?
Well, it's a little buzzy, but I think the internal placement of the cards has something to do with that. Gonna work with shielding the power supply in the computer better for starters, and I may shield the cards as well.
As far as actual _sound_? It sounds like rudimentary additive synthesis. Some guy made an audio recording of MetaTrak doing its thing, which you can listen to on this Matrix post:
http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2007/12/apple-ii-alphasyntauri-music-system.html
That's pretty much what it sounds like in general. Obviously the dude that made it isn't god's gift to the recording sciences, and neither is he too musically inclined if that file is any indication, but it's a good smattering of the available sounds.
EDIT: I misspoke. In poking around Metatrak, that song is actually a demo. Yikes. I guess people were easily impressed in the early 80s.
-CR
would love to hear some audio clips of how they sound..
I tend to move stuff around when I am in creative shallows. Changing the allocation of equipment changes the focus on what I am doing and tends to show up right away in the music I make. That and I am an ergonomics junkie who will never be satisfied till i have matrix-like plug in the back of my skull that takes me into a virtual studio where the gear floats around me and rearranges itself at my whim. And even then Ill probably still move crap around.
have fun w/the new stuff. congrats on finding your white whale.
also, yes.. moving things around in the studio is great. i'm obsessed w/ergonomics so end up moving things around quite a bit... and some how things always seem simpler afterwards.
the 770 is very under-rated! prolly due to the lack of cv/gate. Korg made some very amazing filters in the '70's. I passed on a 770 as it was very overpriced for the time.. still it's a stretch today at what they were asking, but loved it. I finally found a DV800 and love it... also, have the Korg synthi pedal- same filters. And then Hoping I could sell the DV800 and replace it with some Oakley Journeyman modular filters..... got a pair of those. No dice, as far as synths go I kinda think this is my favorite right now. The filters are great, but there's a lot more going on here!
Holy hell. Are you about to become what is probably the singular example of a person with a quad-core machine with a 5.25" floppy drive in it? :)
I'd be like a pig n shit if I were in your shoes right about now.
I don't even know where to begin. That waveform pic is true synth Pron...happy accident in my pants type synth pr0n.
Yall gonna make an exception for the Alpha Syntauri in RT60?
darklordjames:
Just so Chris makes full use of his system, he should get a SATA 5.25" drive. You know - for bandwidth intensive stuff.
;)
When I first saw the pic of the monitor I thought it was rendered or something, like the lines around the outline of the monitor were too clean for a pic or something. Weird.
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