Very good video on history of FM synthesis. Everyone should see it.
Category Archives: Gear
Under the hood of a DDX 3216
I got one of these for free. I use it as a submixer for a bunch of small noisey boxes and keyboards wihtout MIDI or CV/Gate inputs. The software on this thing is not bad, effects are not that bad but the hardware.. oh my. Most of the time it works but there is for example a tiny, tiny fan on the right side of the unit making a whirring noise. Why not use a bit larger one? This unit heats up you know.
The hot glue used by Behringer for gluing flat cables into place is probably oatmeal. When the VU meters start to light up by themselves it is time to open the hood (it really opens up like the hood of a car) and nudge the flat cables back into their place and maybe apply some better hot glue. Second time I had to do this. Now everything works again, for a while at least.
Akai Tom Cat will not sync properly
A cheap drum machine, not at all bad sounding. Decent on board sequencer and synth toms that you can play chromatically on its own MIDI channel. Howl-knob adds overdrive and distortion to the signal and at maximum will start emitting extra terrestrial audio signals even when not playing. Connect it to a modern DAW and you will not be able to play loops it with though. This is because the Tom Cat will return to the beginning of its own sequencer only when receiving MIDI SONG POSITION POINTER = 0-message which is sent by DAWs (as far as i know) only when you return to the beginning of the song. The Tom Cat will adjust to the tempo of the DAW and start playing at the beginning of the song but if you create a loop in DAW where the Tom Cat should jump back in time it will lose its sync. Only way to get the sync back is by starting from beginning once more. Frustrating but not a deal breaker. Maybe.
Korg DW-6000 power cord
I was rearranging stuff at Laboratorio and thought about bringing some old synths back into my main setup when I found out I had lost the power cord of DW-6000. It is an uncommon 2-prong one usually associated with manufacturers Sony and Teac. Also works for old Revox tape recorders. Asked around and found out Thomann sells these. Noticed that the ill reviewed Akai Timbre Wolf was on sale so ordered one also. I will report later about how it really sounds.